The challenge of the intercultural dialogue of knowledge and beliefs in a field experience: From anthropological object to philosophical subject

Abstract

My experience with the Sistema Indígena Intercultural de Aprendizaje y Estudios (SIIDAE) gave rise to a dialogue on two levels: intercultural and interdisciplinary. Dialogue is an act that produces a crisis among speakers, their languages, protocols and interpretations, forcing them to redefine themselves. This article reports the decolonial challenge raised by SIIDAE during our dialogue and responds to it by proposing, on the one hand, an intercultural reflection on anthropological practice and on its geohistorical context; and on the other hand, the study of “philosophical subjects” instead of “anthropological objects”. This project follows intercultural philosophy. It means that it is not looking for “indigenous philosophies”–as ethnographic objects–, but instead other ways of practicing and living it –as philosophical subjects.