Feminism and Decolonizing Decoloniality: Decolonizing the Coloniality of Power in Aymara Cosmology

Abstract

This article demonstrates the import of feminist reflexivity for the decolonial project. At its best, the decolonial project reveals the form and extent to which contemporary ideas and power structures are imbued with generations of power structures whose foundations were laid during colonialism. However, some power dynamics can be lost in reified forms of decolonial critique. Feminist methodologies, especially reflexivity, remind us to revisit the particulars of the constructions of power within dominant power structures and, as importantly, within resistant power structures. We revisit the decolonial stance within an Indigenous cosmology, Aymaridad, ‘the’ Aymara worldview as constructed for the second largest Indigenous population in Bolivia. Aymaridad is an important site for feminists to revisit the relationship between feminism and decoloniality because over a decade ago, María Lugones charted a course for decolonial feminism that drew on an Aymaran approach to decolonizing gender. By revisiting the coloniality embedded in the construction of Aymara (in academe and in politics), we reveal that feminism’s persistent reflexive methodology, even more than its attention to gender specifically, makes it an essential part of the decolonial theory.