The cosmopolitics of the living forest: an approach to Sarayaku's proposal

Abstract

The objective of this research is to analyze cosmopolitical problems and proposals engendered by the community of Sarayaku, Kichwa people from the Ecuadorian Amazon, through their proposal Kawsak Sacha/Living Forest. The living forest is a call for juridical-political recognition of the existence of beings (runas) "other than humans", as well as a demand for alternatives to extractivism and the roots of the Anthropocene. It will be realized an ethnography that focuses on what we will call "cosmopolitical diplomatic events," place-moments in which human and non-human agencies, indigenous and non-indigenous are set in motion, making and breaking alliances and turning visible different ontologies. With special attention to the Sarayaku women's political movement and the feminine entities made seen by the living forest, the problem is about how to think politics in a world where many and different beings share agencies with what we call "humans" and invite the modern world to reflect on their own conceptions of what is or can be what we call politics and nature. (AU)