Shaping a Communitarian Ethos in an Era of Ecological Crisis

Abstract

In response to the deep social and ecological crisis for which the international community is proving incapable of attenuating, many Peasants and Indigenous peoples in Mexico, and in other parts of the Global South, are transforming their visions of their futures, shaping a new ethos of self-management and conviviality, consistent with a responsible relationship to their territories. From the vantage point of the Global South, these peoples constitute a social and economic force that is altering the social and productive dynamics in many countries, proposing models of organization and building alliances among themselves regionally and internationally to exchange information, develop common strategies, and provide political support. In Mexico, many continue to produce traditional crops, while modifying their techniques to incorporate agroecological experiences from other communities, diversifying output and protecting the environment. Recently, they are enriching local practices with a systematization of their inherited traditions and cosmologies, creating effective models of social, political and environmental organization that lend authority to their claims to be able to manage their territories autonomously. There is a growing body of scientific literature that substantiates this capacity, demonstrating that the collective knowledge of the global networks of local communities is more effective in protecting biodiversity and attending to their own basic needs while improving their quality of life than that of societies more fully integrated into the global economy. In conclusion, we describe how these visions are shaping international networks, defining new channels for collaboration, improving the quality of life for people in these communities, while protecting them from the continuing incursions of capital.

An Indigenous critique: Expanding sociology and recognizing unique Indigenous knowledge

“…Understanding that these works of thought were likely a culmination of many thinkers in a community and school of thought over generations, rather than attributable to a singular person is important. This ethic of shared social and intellectual constructions is representative in the overall philosophy of communalidad that scholars (Barkin, 2022 ; Sánchez-Antonio, 2022 ) identify as important aspects of Indigenous being, in the past and particularly in the present.…”

“…organisms such as trees and people are not independent things that occasionally act on others, they are rather constituted by their interactions and so are at once continuous with their environment" (Pratt, 2002:24;Martínez Luna, 2015). This is also reflected in the milpa metaphor that Barkin (2022) uses to illustrate Indigenous comunalidad. All parts of the milpa-an Indigenous agricultural innovation commonly used by Indigenous Americans and known in the US as The Three Sisters-serve to interact and nourish the others.…”

“…All parts of the milpa—an Indigenous agricultural innovation commonly used by Indigenous Americans and known in the US as The Three Sisters—serve to interact and nourish the others. A community is the same, all individual parts work toward benefitting the greater whole and all parts are intricately interconnected through roots (community/network/interactions) that supply the greater whole and the individual simultaneously (Barkin, 2022 ).…”

“…Through this plurisociety it is possible to develop a community that is based on the very intention of non-discrimination and non-oppression. What this would look like in reality would likely be difficult to predict, largely because Indigenous millennia-knowledge has not been widely implemented and is in a constant state of offense-defense against colonial attack, however communities in Chiapas (Zapatistas) and Michoacán (Chéran) have shown that governments and communities based on Indigenous thought and structure are possible, peaceful, and can thrive for all that live there (Barkin, 2022 ).…”

“…It is one addition to the larger body of knowledge that must be developed to resurrect and implement Indigenous millennia-knowledge (Sánchez-Antonio, 2022 ), through the contributions of the community this will be possible. Individual contributions in service to the larger community is a core aspect of the Global South tradition of comunalidad (Barkin, 2022 ). This paper recognizes, and refutes, the long-held elevation of Euro-Western knowledge and frameworks above that of Indigenous peoples and knowledge, which has occurred through an explicitly racialized lens and denunciation of Indigenous knowledge as “savage” (Williams, 2012 ; Mignolo and Walsh, 2018 ; Feagin, 2020 ; Mackay and Feagin, 2022 ; Sánchez-Antonio, 2022 ).…”