Subj: SCIENCE & ANDEAN WISDOM (Loka Alert 2:9) Loka Alert 2:9 (Dec. 11, 1995) Friends and Colleagues: This is one in an occasional series of electronic postings on democratic politics of science and technology, issued by the Loka Institute. You are welcome to re-post or publish it anywhere you feel is appropriate. (However, commercial republication requires prior permission.) To be added to, or removed from, the Loka list, please send an e-mail message to that effect to: loka@amherst.edu --Dick Sclove Executive Director, The Loka Institute, P.O. Box 355, Amherst, MA 01004-0355, USA Tel. 413 253-2828; Fax 413 253-4942 E-mail: resclove@amherst.edu World Wide Web http://www.amherst.edu/~loka ***************************************************************** SCIENCE, ANDEAN WISDOM & OTHER WAYS OF KNOWING [Editor's introductory note: Why strive to democratize science and technology? One major reason is to be able to evolve alternative systems of inquiry and technology, better adapted to people's needs and aspirations. Pretty abstract notions...unless you have some concrete examples demonstrating that alternatives are possible. Examples of alternative technologies and architecture are not that rare (I document quite a few in my recent book, _Democracy and Technology_). But what about examples of alternative ways of knowing--that is, alternative but compelling sciences, epistemologies, and cosmologies? Many of us may have some experience with alternative medical systems, such as acupuncture. Here is a contemporary agricultural example, drawn from the Andean region of South America. --Dick Sclove] Copyright 1995 by Marcie Abramson Sclove The following four pages describe a group of Western- trained agronomists, developers, and academics who have chosen to leave their mainstream positions of authority to support an indigenous group of farmers. Peasant farmers in the Andes Mountains have lived and flourished in some of the world's most arduous terrain and climatic conditions for 8,000 years. The way they experience their lives and approach farming reveals a vibrant, non-Western world view. These Andean farmers' knowledge is becoming available to a wider world through the efforts of a group of former development officials, government bureaucrats, and academics who have been working since 1987 under the name PRATEC (Proyecto Andino de Tecnologias Campesinas or, in English, Andean Peasant Technologies Project). PRATEC organized with the goal of teaching about Andean technologies, farming practices, and knowledge systems. Their targeted audience has been technocrats of rural development, with the intention to halt destructive development projects. But their impact has far exceeded their expectations. PRATEC courses are now accredited in the Universities of Ayacucho and Cajamarca in Peru, and PRATEC members have taught also in Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Paraguay. Last spring, PRATEC participants joined scholars, Native Americans, and others at a conference that I attended at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. The conference was entitled "Decolonizing Knowledge: Indigenous Voices From the Americas." (This was the 5th International Conference on Comparative Scientific Traditions). Andean peasant farmers' position vis-a-vis modern Western knowledge is non-confrontational and non-oppositional. They are neither fundamentalists nor purists, nor do they reject everything foreign. Rather, they see themselves relating to the West "dialogically,"--that is, interacting with the West and adopting from it what benefits their own world view. As Eduardo Grillo Fernandez, a core member of PRATEC puts it: "...Andean peasants `digest' foreign elements, incorporating what they can use and excreting what they do not need or want."[1] The farmers do not view the West as dominant; they approach Western ideas from an equal and self-assured position. They liken colonialism to the challenges of hail or pests in the fields. Again Grillo explains: When frost or hail falls in the fields of our peasant communities, it is because some of us have disturbed the harmony of the world with our incorrect conduct. Similarly, the arrival of the Spanish invaders is due to a perturbance in the harmony of our own world. To free ourselves from colonialization we have to recuperate our own harmony. Then it will be impossible to colonize us, just as a healthy and strong person, in whom life flows fully, illness cannot penetrate. It is not a question of acting directly against the invader, because while we remain perturbed another can always come and invade us." [2] This diological stance with respect to Western influences is identical to the Andeans' way of interacting with all other human cultures, as well as with all non-human beings. In their world view, relationships among people are not privileged over relationships between humans and the stars, rivers, plants, and animals. It is through nurturing and letting oneself be nurtured--through dialogue and reciprocity--that the world exists. In Andean cosmology, the universe is composed of three basic constituents: pacha, ayllu, and chacra. Pacha is the world. Ayllu are all those who live in the Pacha, including the deities (Huacas), the natural world, and the human community (runa). As relatives, they all join together at the chacra, which is the cultivated fields and the flocks of animals--a space where one converses and reciprocates with the Huacas to regenerate life. Julio Valladolid Rivera, an agronomist and PRATEC member, explains: The Pacha and all that makes part of it is alive...even the dead are "alive" and are present. The Ayllu live in the Pacha, which is the house for the Ayllu. The chacra is the piece of land where the peasant lovingly and respectfully nurtures plants, soil, water, micro-climates and animals. In a broad sense chacra is all that is nurtured. The Pachamama is part of Pacha but refers more specifically to the land that offers us its fruits, the land that nurtures us as a mother does with her children and in return she is loved and respected like a mother.... A peasant from Huanta [tells us], "I myself am the son of my parents, may they rest in peace, but I am also a son of the Pachamama...of the potato, the olluco, the corn...". Before beginning any agricultural labor, such as preparing the land...[a farmer] says: "...to open a chacra I must ask permission of the Pachamama so that she will allow me to work this soil..." [3] The Andean ecology is extremely diverse. The climate varies enormously, as does the altitude and the terrain. Through continuous conversation with the stars, plants, animals, meteors, and dreams, the farmers know what kind of growing season to expect, and therefore how to plant seeds. In dry years (which the farmers anticipate through information they get from the stars, plants, etc.), the farmers plant the higher chacras, digging furrows at a diagonal to the slope of the terrain. For a rainy season, the planting areas move down to the lower fields. Here the furrows follow the direction of the terrain; they are short and alternate, so as not to catch too much water. But most importantly, and what the Andean farmers are most known for, is the enormous diversity of plant types which they use and plant together in the same chacra. The farmers converse and reciprocate with the diversity and variability of climate by means of a diversity and variety of plants. For instance, when the farmers plant crops in the higher fields for a dry year, they know that within the chacra some plants are especially well adapted to the expected low rainfall. Thanks to these plants, the food harvest will be almost equal to that of a wetter season. But, because of the great diversity of crops planted in each chacra, the yield will be _adequate_ no matter what the actual weather turns out to be. That is, if the weather unexpectedly turns wet, other plants dispersed throughout the high-altitude chacra will thrive under those circumstances. Nurturing the plant heterogeneity is partly a means of working with the great natural diversity of plant types in the Andes, where the extreme variability of physiographic characteristics and climate promote plant species' diversity and natural hybridization. But there is more to it than that. Andean culture nurtures diversity with love and dedication, not only to _maintain_ this broad spectrum of plant species, but to _enrich_ the diversity each year. For example, one farmer in Sorochuco, Cajamarca has over one hundred different kinds potatoes growing in one chacra. In 1985, the Germplasm Bank of Peru identified 497 types of bitter potato, 2,596 types of quinua, and 3,379 types of a tarwi (quinua and tarwi are Andean grains). This unique way of cultivating the diversity of plant species regionally, and even within the same fields, has been the way of life for Andean farmers for over 8,000 years. Because of this, the Andes is known to be one of the world's richest regions of cultivated plant forms. But it is not only in nurturing the heterogeneity of plant types, or understanding where to plant which crops in order to optimize use of rainfall, that accounts for the peasant farmers' successful agricultural practices. According to PRATEC's Julio Valladolid Rivera: All activities in the Andes, especially those related to direct nurturing of the plants and animals, are ritual. [A farmer] tells us that "to begin the labors we make the pagapu [an offering] to the Pachamama...when we hill...also when we dig up the first test potatoes afterwards we give thanks for the harvest...". This attitude of profound love and respect...is very well reflected in the following peasant phrases "...opening the earth (barbechar) is like opening the heart of the Pachamama...it must be done very carefully and asking permission" or "upon opening the chacra first some coca leaves are placed in the `mouth' of the chacra [for Pachamama to ritually chew]." These are expressions that spring from the heart because one "feels that the Pachamama only lends one the soil so that the runas [humans], accompanied by the Huacas [deities] and nature, obtain food to share among all. The harvest is of and for all. [4] For us in the industrialized world, what is the significance of an indigenous group who have maintained their ways? Are there implications for Western high-tech agricultural or for our strict conceptual separation between human life--the only life really valued--and the rest of the world? Consider the life-choices of PRATEC's members. In 1987, Grimaldo Rengifo Vasquez resigned his job as a prominent director of Peruvian development projects. He had grown disillusioned over the course of three years, during which he saw that the project was not working. He realized that the Andean people--the intended beneficiaries--had a vibrant culture and agricultural system that didn't need "developing." He dropped out of the mainstream and invited two other colleagues to join him in forming PRATEC. Eduardo Grillo, another original member, quit his post as the director general of the Government's Agricultural Statistics and Research Bureau. A third PRATEC founder, Julio Valladolid, previously held a professorial chair in the school of agronomy at the university in Ayacucho. All of these men made conscious decisions that entailed relinquishing status, financial security, and their colleagues' approval. However, they did not appropriate the peasant farmers' methods and fit them into a Western scientific model--a strategy not entirely uncommon among promoters of development (including "sustainable development"). These three men were born within indigenous Andean communities and later received conventional Western education. They established PRATEC because they could no longer morally support the traditional Western development model. In so doing, they have affirmed a commitment to be part of, understand, and explain Andean indigenous culture from within that own culture's terms, not through the prisms of Western academic disciplines. Another PRATEC member, Marcela Machaca, grew up in the indigenous peasant community of Quispillacta in the district of Ayacucho. She told her story during the May 1995 Smith College conference. Her father had wished her and her sister to have university educations as a way of decolonizing and uplifting themselves. They adopted Western dress, spoke Spanish, and Marcel studied agronomy at the university to better understand the developers in her region, including their perceived animosity toward the peasants and their way of life. Marcela excelled academically, becoming the most outstanding student in her class. But she also found that the Western science she was mastering had no place for the practices of her people, namely conversing with nature. Gradually she became disillusioned, feeling that the university was a waste of time. Then she heard a lecture by Julio Valladolid Rivera (his last lecture, upon resigning). For the first time since arriving at the university, she heard someone discussing Andean agriculture and suddenly felt relieved. Rivera was speaking about a world that she knew firsthand. From him, Marcela was introduced to PRATEC, and she went on to use PRATEC's books as the only sources in her university thesis. Her original professors were outraged, fearing the prestige of the university would suffer. They called her a traitor and ostracized her. But Marcela had the support of PRATEC and her own friends and culture. She managed to obtain her degree as an Engineer in Agronomy and then returned to "the sweet life of the Andes" where she works with the farmers to support their work. She and her sister sponsor seed fairs at which peasants display and share the plant varieties from their chacras, and they document the seasonal agricultural rituals on videos. The courses that PRATEC members teach are influencing a new generation of would-be agronomists. Like Marcela, other graduates go back into the villages to support the Andean practices and live the "sweet life" themselves. Perhaps we all have something to learn about democratizing science and technology from the peasants' "old ways" and the PRATEC experience. ***************************************************************** NOTES 1. Frederique Apffel-Marglin, "Development or Decolonization in the Andes?" _Interculture_, vol. 28, no. 1 (Winter 1995), p. 6. Professor Marglin was co-organizer (with John Mohawk of SUNY-Buffalo) of the Smith College conference at which PRATEC members spoke. This Loka Alert draws extensively on Frederique's work. You can contact Frederique directly via e-mail or write to her at Dept. of Anthropology, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063, USA. 2. Ibid. 3. Julio Valladolid Rivera, "Andean Peasant Agriculture: Nurturing a Diversity of Life in the Chacra" _Interculture_, vol. 28, no. 1 (Winter, 1995), pp. 23-26. 4. Ibid., p.42. Note: For some other examples of contemporary indigenous agriculture, see two special issues of _Agriculture and Human Values_: vol. 6, no. 3 (Summer 1989) and vol. 8, nos. 1 and 2 (Winter-Spring 1991). ***************************************************************** TO FIND OUT MORE about the Loka Institute or to help, visit our Web page (http://www.amherst.edu/~loka) or contact us via e- mail at loka@amherst.edu Traffic on the LOKA INSTITUTE E-MAIL LIST (Loka-L)--which distributes Loka Alerts as a one-way news-and-opinion distribution service--is intentionally kept low (an average of one message per month), to protect overbusy people from unwanted clutter. 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