Multi-epistemic and pluriversal hybrid contexts: Actors' narratives and discourses about the Brazilian Amazon Land and Forest

Abstract

The pluriversal thinking has gained attention in different areas of everyday life, between academics, activists, grassroots movements, indigenous and traditional communities, among many others. Pluriversal thinking comes from the cosmovision of Latin American groups and communities outside the academy, such as the Zapatistas, Andean campesines and Afro-Colombian groups. However, the term gained renown when Latin American academics from the global north brought it into discussion. Pluriverses lack a definition. However, it focuses primarily on two things: (1) to challenge the homogenizing tendencies of coloniality and modernity, and (2) to advocate for a world where diverse realities and ways of knowing coexist and thrive. Pluriversalists identify that, historically, some groups have been oppressed by Western views, which has meant that their voice and recognition have been marginalised. However, the pluriverse, which speaks of a World within many worlds, also presents certain criticisms. For instance, extreme relativism, the lack of dialogue and understanding between different cultural perspectives, creates barriers to effectively implementing the pluriverse. Also, the practicality of the pluriverse, which accompanies the extreme relativism idea, reflects on decision-making when agreements (from all pluriverse) should be taken on situations that affect the world (e.g. decisions regarding climate change). Romanticism, it has been pointed out that pluriverses can fall into the romanticisation of excluded groups, endangering the reproduction of dichotomies. Finally, this thesis points out the absence of inclusion of populations or groups not far from the universal modern world. This is the exploration of possible worlds within contexts growing closer to the universal or globalized world; this thesis names them “intersecting hybrid contexts.” Despite not being considered ‘traditional’ nor ‘indigenous’ in the conventional sense, intersecting hybrid contexts may still embody distinct worldviews and practices, and at the same time, they have practices that perpetuate the single story of one world. These contexts, characterized by mixed cultural and ethnic heritage, occupy a unique position between traditional and modern and local and global. By focusing on these intersecting hybrid contexts, the thesis expands the understanding of the pluriverse beyond the traditional/modern binary, suggesting that the pluriverse can exist in the interstices and hybridities of contexts navigating multiple cultural influences. To explore the intersecting hybrid contexts, this thesis focuses on the Brazilian Amazon, a place of entanglements and intersections within discourses and social dynamics. The thesis comprises three studies: a) a systematic literature review on academic discourses regarding land, forest and socio-environmental (in)justices in the Brazilian Amazon; b) a discourse analysis on traditional and social media regarding forest and agriculture in the state of Pará; c) a biographical study of rural producers’ narratives and intersection with colonial and developmental discourses in Novo Progresso, Pará. The study found that the pluriversal dimension/idea infiltrates all spaces (hybrid contexts), spheres, people, and lives (and intersects) in a more or less intense way, and as such, it challenges the idea of the totality of capitalism and the Western system (one-world view).