Gender and Coloniality: From Low-Intensity Communal Patriarchy to High-Intensity Colonial-Modern Patriarchy

Abstract

This essay collects four decades of my own reflections, as an anthropologist and feminist, on gender and coloniality across various contexts in Latin America. It also highlights the decolonial methodology and vocabulary that I have had to develop in my various roles as scholar, public intellectual, and expert witness over the years. Briefly, what I present here is a decolonial feminist perspective that argues for the existence of a patriarchal political order in communal societies before colonization. Yet, in my view, precolonial gender has a dual structure that is plural in essence and differs markedly from the binary gender structure of colonial-modern societies, which works in terms of a One and its marginalized others. As I argue, the capturing and transformation of precolonial dual gender structures by the modern gender system exacerbates inequality, increases violence against women, and disempowers them politically. For that reason, I speak of “low-intensity” and “high-intensity” patriarchal systems.

Dekolonialisierung des Wissens

“…• The Coloniality of Gender (Icaza & Vázquez, 2016;Lugones, 2008;Mendoza, 2016;Segato & Monque, 2021) • The Coloniality of Disability (Afeworki Abay & Soldatic, 2023a;Chataika & Goodley, 2023;Ineese-Nash, 2020;Meekosha, 2011;Pickens, 2019;Puar, 2017;Schalk, 2022) All diesen Arbeiten liegt die Annahme zugrunde, dass die Kontinuität und Wirkmächtigkeit post-und neokolonialer Verhältnisse sich mit einer herrschaftskritischen und intersektionalen Analyse hegemonialer Wissensproduktion erschließen und analysieren lassen, wie Grada Kilomba (2012) deutlich macht:…”

Editors’ Introduction: Hypatia's Feminism in Translation Initiative

“…The co-editors in chief of Hypatia are delighted to publicly launch our “Feminism in Translation” initiative with the publication of our first Feminism in Translation Feature Article. This translation by Pedro Monque of Rita Laura Segato's “Género y Colonialidad: del Patriarcado Comunitario de Baja Intensidad al Patriarcado Colonial Moderno de Alta Intensidad,” (2021) makes this groundbreaking essay by a prominent scholar of decolonial feminist philosophy in Latin America widely available to English-speaking scholars for the first time. We anticipate that it will appear on reading lists for courses in decolonial feminist thought and change the discussion of decolonial feminism in contexts where it has not previously been available.…”