Articulating worlds otherwise: decolonial geolinguistic praxis, multi-epistemic co-existence, and intercultural education and development programing in the Peruvian Andes

Abstract

Focusing on key mediators of knowledge-exchange in the Andes – known as kamayoq – we explore a recursive politics of translation (historicized, power-laden processes of hierarchically ordering language and meaning). Focusing on intercultural and bilingual education and development programs in the Peruvian Andes, and connecting cultural geographical, anthropological, and critical socio-linguistic scholarship, we uncover how equivocations of Indigenous concepts reproduce a coloniality of knowledge and being. We explore how kamayoq re-purpose equivocations by reworking translations through Andean concepts and praxis, such as iskay yachay – a reciprocal dialogue among knowledges, which stresses epistemic multiplicity and diversity. We explore kamayoq praxis and iskay yachay as a decolonial geolinguistic praxis of articulating worlds (or ontologies) otherwise, in pursuit of multi-epistemic co-existence. Our findings raise questions about geographies of decolonial knowledges and praxis, particularly where potential decolonial praxis intersects with the formalized institutions of adult bilingual education and intercultural development programing.