Indigenous peoples in Abia Yala and their forms of otherness: approaches from an european-intercultural hermeneutic perspective

Abstract

Can indigenous peoples in Abia Yala – Latin America in our time be understood in a different way? To give an answer to this question a process of understanding based on an intercultural approach to their political and religious otherness is described. First it is examined how non-indigenous intelectuals understood the indigenous peoples since 1492. By listening how indigenous women and men understand themselves it becomes evident then what the struggle for recognition of the indigenous rights and nature’s rights mean concretely in Mexico, Ecuador and Bolivia. After that indigenous theologies are discussed as an egine for the recognition of indigenous religions. The article concludes that the misunderstanding that all indigenous are communitarians who think and act in a cyclical way while all europeans are indivualists who think and act in a linear way has to be overcome by other encounters.