Decolonial Horizons

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Latest documents

• Más allá de Babel
• The Usmeka System of Thought

  The ontological turn in humanities and social sciences exposed how the power structures supporting scientific knowledge production exclude non-Western relational knowledges as epistemologically invalid. Thus, the responses to this exclusionary knowledge production infrastructure range from anti-scientific to using science to validate indigenous knowledges. However, those responses overlook subaltern spiritualities and how they decolonise science to open epistemic emancipatory spaces. Based on ethnographic research, this article describes the Usmeka community in Bogotá. While addressing scientific knowledge as a mid-level language to dialogue with nature, it mobilises epistemological emancipation possibilities. The analysis contributes to understanding how colonial subjects subvert scientific inquiry as a tool of epistemic control.

• Teologização da política

  This article addresses the relationship between Hindu traditions and the Queer community. First, I seek to understand some elements of Hinduism in the dimensions of gender and sexuality. Then, I present the consequences of colonialism in India and its influences on Hindu religious thought regarding gender issues and point out which elements of postcolonial theory help in this struggle. I address the gender, caste, and nationalism dimensions of Hindutva ideology that dominate India even today, as these neoliberal policies capture the subjectivities, rights, and freedom of the Queer community.

• Dirty Subjects

  In the early 1900s in the settler colonial states in Southern Africa, the nascent Jewish community institutions took actions to avoid the racialised accusation of dirtiness, thus shaping the community into adopting white colonialist subjectivities. Using Albert Memmi’s analytic framework of colonisers and colonialists, and Anne McClintock’s conceptualisation of the racial function of dirt, this article reassesses existing archival sources through the lens of dirty bodies, dirty sex, and dirty work to show how communal subjectivities were formed through close collusion with the colonial state and the internal enforcing of the social habits of Whiteness. This article argues that this colonial subject formation foreclosed the possibilities of a peruvnik: a potential South African anticolonial Jewish barbarism.

• Descolonizar la mente, sacralizar la existencia

  This article examines some of the central Buddhist teachings as a contribution to a postcolonial reading. It understands Buddhism not as a religion but as a cognitive theory. From that standpoint, its non-theistic outlook, its emphasis on introspection, and the practice of mindfulness make this discipline a powerful tool for individual transformation. Thus, Buddhism can redefine any social or political praxis from the most intimate and personal to the most external reality. A key to this is to take full responsibility for the actions, words, and thoughts that give rise to the world we all share.

• Una teología destituyente

  This article provides an overview of the Jehovah’s Witnesses denomination. After a brief development of their origins, it breaks down some of their central beliefs. Next, it seeks to unveil and disentangle what lies behind what they call «political neutrality» and how this involves them in dilemmas vis-à-vis national states. The article concludes by demonstrating the compelling incidence of the private sphere —such as the religious and theological elements— on the public sphere, which recognizes the blurring of the line separating the two registers.

• Horizontes Decoloniales / Decolonial Horizons
• Tabla de contenido
• «Hasta que cambien lo que hay en sus corazones»: Comunidad islámica chiita y justicia social en Colombia

  Este ensayo analiza los sentidos de la justicia social en Colombia desde la idea de los «chiismos locales», construida a partir de: 1) historias icónicas y contrahegemónicas de los primeros mártires del islam chiita; 2) trayectorias personales de militancia progresista de musulmanes/as colombianos/as; y 3) el reciente asesinato de exguerrilleros/as de las FARC. Se argumenta que la historia política del chiismo permite adoptar posturas encaminadas a la defensa de los derechos humanos por parte de chiitas colombianos/as. En ese sentido, se propone ampliar el análisis sobre el rol social de religiones no mayoritarias en Latinoamérica. Palavras-chave: derechos humanos, hermenéutica teológica, teología política, yihad, América LatinaEste ensaio analisa os significados de justiça social na Colômbia a partir da ideia de «xiismos locais», construída a partir de: 1) histórias icônicas e contra-hegemônicas dos primeiros mártires do islamismo xiita; 2) trajetórias pessoais de militância progressiva de muçulmanos colombianos; e 3) o recente assassinato de ex-guerrilheiros das FARC. Argumenta-se que a história política do xiismo permite que os xiitas colombianos adotem posições de defesa dos direitos humanos. Nesse sentido, propõe-se ampliar a análise sobre o papel social das religiões não majoritárias na América Latina. Palavras-chave: direitos humanos, hermenêutica teológica, teologia política, jihad, América LatinaThis essay analyzes the senses around the call for social justice in Colombia through the idea of “local Shi'isms”, hereby composed of: 1) iconic and counter-hegemonic stories depicting the first martyrs of Shi'a Islam; 2) personal trajectories of Colombian muslims within progressive militancy; and 3) recent selective murders of former FARC guerrilla members. The essay states that the political history of Shi'ism enables the adoption of actions directed to the defense of human rights by Colombian shi'ites. In that sense, this paper proposes the broadening of the analytical spectrum on the social role of non-majority religions in Latin America. Keywords: human rights, theological hermeneutics, political theology, jihad, Latin America

• Devenires decoloniales: Complejizando identidades e interseccionalidades en el sistema-mundo moderno capitalista

Featured documents

• The Usmeka System of Thought

  The ontological turn in humanities and social sciences exposed how the power structures supporting scientific knowledge production exclude non-Western relational knowledges as epistemologically invalid. Thus, the responses to this exclusionary knowledge production infrastructure range from anti-scie...

• Una teología destituyente

  This article provides an overview of the Jehovah’s Witnesses denomination. After a brief development of their origins, it breaks down some of their central beliefs. Next, it seeks to unveil and disentangle what lies behind what they call «political neutrality» and how this involves them in dilemmas ...

• «Hasta que cambien lo que hay en sus corazones»: Comunidad islámica chiita y justicia social en Colombia

  Este ensayo analiza los sentidos de la justicia social en Colombia desde la idea de los «chiismos locales», construida a partir de: 1) historias icónicas y contrahegemónicas de los primeros mártires del islam chiita; 2) trayectorias personales de militancia progresista de musulmanes/as colombianos/a...

• Roman Catholicism and Confucianism on Homosexuality in Hong Kong Before and After 1997: A Postcolonial, Queer, Feminist Perspective and Implications for Chinese Roman Catholic Ethics

  Contemporary official sexual teaching of the Roman Catholic Church has not addressed the issue of colonialism regarding homosexuality. Heterosexism calcified by a more complex «mutual malformation» of Roman Catholicism and Confucianism has led to invisibility and silence of queer Catholics within...

• The Neoliberal Co-Optation of Identity Politics: Geo-Political Situatedness as a Decolonial Discussion Partner

  Responding to the 2016 United States Presidential election, this piece contests that the popularly deployed phrase “identity politics” is not Identity Politics as articulated by Black feminists of the Combahee River Collective but is rather a neoliberal co-optation of Identity Politics. By...

• Dios y Marx los conceptos eurocentristas que no permiten la filosofía en África y Latinoamérica

  El marxismo latinoamericano, como respuesta al teocentrismo medieval inoculado por la universidad como claustro del conocimiento, actúa como concepto enquistado en la filosofía política, vendría a ser como el opio de los intelectuales contemporáneos, bajo estas categorías eurocéntricas, de Dios y...

• Budismo Funerário Nikkei no Brasil: Interculturalidade versus Etnicidade

  O artigo focaliza o Budismo praticado pelos nipo-brasileiros (nikkei). Seu foco principal são os ritos funerários e o culto aos antepassados. Os grupos fruto das missões japonesas enfrentam o dilema de adaptação ou extinção, com a progressiva integração cultural dos descendentes e o desaparecimento ...

• Queer(N)Asian Im/Migrants’ Connectedness: An Inter-Contextual Decolonial Reading of Wong Kar-Wai's Happy Together

  This article addresses the dilemmas and complex consequences of queer-sojourners as the locus where sexual, bodily, and colonial discourses transect each other in an inter-contextual movement. Queer(N)Asian im/migrants move through the interplay of identity negotiations entailing personal/societal...

• Retrospectivas etnográficas El Centro Umbandista Reino Da Mata de Montevideo desde la decolonialidad

  Este artículo problematiza —desde una perspectiva descolonial— la construcción de saberes y prácticas manifestadas en el marco del trabajo de campo etnográfico realizado entre 2015 y 2017 en el Centro Umbandista Reino Da Mata de la ciudad de Montevideo, Uruguay. La necesidad de salir de la cárcel...

• Fear, Flight, and Freedom: On Anti-colonial Countermasteries and Ontological Insecurities

  In Unthinking Mastery Julietta Singh argues that anticolonial discourse hinges on the contradiction of both repudiating the “mastery” of colonialism and at the same time reproducing and advocating mastery towards anticolonial liberation. Through a close reading of Fanon, Singh demonstrates the ways ...