A Decolonial Philosophy of Indigenous Colombia

Time, Beauty, and Spirit in Kamëntšá Culture

Juan Alejandro Chindoy Chindoy

Philosophically addressing three fundamental aspects of the Kamëntšá, an indigenous culture located in the southwest of Colombia, this book is an investigation of how a native culture creates meaning. Time, beauty and spirit are key philosophical experiences within the Kamëntšá culture which should be interpreted both as constituting and as constituted symbols because of their historicity and actuality and their potential power of transformation. The book addresses these living symbols that take hold of the past but whose significance goes beyond their antiquity through the traditions of storytelling and dance, ritual, healing and ceremony as well as the fraught political histories of colonialism and the ownership of the land.

The author, raised within Kamëntšá culture, weaves personal experience with philosophical insights and significance of the Kamentsa culture, presented through its own frameworks and narratives. The philosophical dimensions of Kamentsa culture are articulated and contextualized within a legacy of colonial domination by long-term Spanish and Catholic rule that enacts the necessary separation of Kamentsa ideas from their representations through Catholic hermeneutic approaches. However, the book also embraces intercultural philosophical engagement, as the methodological approach is formed partly through some modern and contemporary Western thinkers as well as indigenous writers and figures like Carlos Tamabioy and N. Scott Momaday.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International

Pages: 122 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-78661-629-6 • Hardback • September 2020 • $133.00 • (£102.00)

978-1-78661-630-2 • eBook • September 2020 • $43.99 • (£35.00)

Series: Global Critical Caribbean Thought

Subjects: Social Science / Indigenous Studies, Philosophy / Comparative Philosophy, Social Science / Traditional Cultures, Philosophy / Philosophy of Race

A Decolonial Philosophy of Indigenous Colombia

Time, Beauty, and Spirit in Kamëntšá Culture

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Philosophically addressing three fundamental aspects of the Kamëntšá, an indigenous culture located in the southwest of Colombia, this book is an investigation of how a native culture creates meaning. Time, beauty and spirit are key philosophical experiences within the Kamëntšá culture which should be interpreted both as constituting and as constituted symbols because of their historicity and actuality and their potential power of transformation. The book addresses these living symbols that take hold of the past but whose significance goes beyond their antiquity through the traditions of storytelling and dance, ritual, healing and ceremony as well as the fraught political histories of colonialism and the ownership of the land.

The author, raised within Kamëntšá culture, weaves personal experience with philosophical insights and significance of the Kamentsa culture, presented through its own frameworks and narratives. The philosophical dimensions of Kamentsa culture are articulated and contextualized within a legacy of colonial domination by long-term Spanish and Catholic rule that enacts the necessary separation of Kamentsa ideas from their representations through Catholic hermeneutic approaches. However, the book also embraces intercultural philosophical engagement, as the methodological approach is formed partly through some modern and contemporary Western thinkers as well as indigenous writers and figures like Carlos Tamabioy and N. Scott Momaday.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International

Pages: 122 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-78661-629-6 • Hardback • September 2020 • $133.00 • (£102.00)

978-1-78661-630-2 • eBook • September 2020 • $43.99 • (£35.00)

Series: Global Critical Caribbean Thought

Subjects: Social Science / Indigenous Studies, Philosophy / Comparative Philosophy, Social Science / Traditional Cultures, Philosophy / Philosophy of Race

Author

Juan Alejandro Chindoy Chindoy is Lecturer in Moral and Political Philosophy at Caldas University, Manizales, Colombia, and Lecturer in Philosophy of Law and Hermeneutics at Universidad Católica Luis Amigó, Manizales, Colombia.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Generalities of Kamëntšá Culture
2. A Philosophical Approach to Kamëntšá Culture
Chapter 1 – Time in Kamëntšá Culture
1. Two Conceptions of Time
2. Time as History
1. Time as Primary Experience
1. Conclusion
Chapter 2 – Beauty in Kamëntšá Culture
1. Bëtskanté as Constituted Symbol
2. From Bëtsknaté to Clestrinӱë
3. Bëtsknaté as a Constituting Symbol: An Experience of Dancing
4. The Philosophical Significance of Kamëntšá Dancing
5. Conclusion
Chapter 3 – Spirit in Kamëntšá Culture
1. Native Doctors and Rituals of Healing: The Constituted Nature of Rituals
2. Scholarly Descriptions of Yajé
3. Yajé ceremonies in Sibundoy: The Constituting Aspects of Yajé
4. Conclusion
Conclusion
Bibliography

Reviews

With a decidedly didactic tone and in dialogue with the American philosophical tradition, Chindoy articulates communal history and personal experience to introduce the Western reader to Time, Beauty, and Spirit as living forces in the Kamëntšá culture. It is in the transformative effects of its reading that this concise volume becomes, in the author’s words, a beautiful and meaningful conversation.
— Enrique Alejandro Basabe, lecturer in foreign languages, Universidad Nacional de La Pampa

This book offers a vivid investigation into the South American symbolic representations (Time, Beauty, Spirit) as well as decolonial practices of Sibundoy tribes. The Author fruitfully applies William James’s radical empiricism in his veracious analyzes of tribal storytelling, dance and rituals of healing, fittingly illustrating them with his personal ritual experiences as a member of Kamëntšá tribe.
— Anna Kawalec, associate professor of philosophy, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin

A Decolonial Philosophy of Indigenous Colombia

Time, Beauty, and Spirit in Kamëntšá Culture

Juan Alejandro Chindoy Chindoy

A Decolonial Philosophy of Indigenous Colombia

Time, Beauty, and Spirit in Kamëntšá Culture

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