Abstract

FANGMANN, Cristina I.. An Andean vantage point to being in the world: theory and praxis of ch’ixi according to social theorist and activist Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui. CELEHIS [online]. 2021, n.42, pp.41-50. ISSN 2313-9463.

This essay provides a critical overview of the innovative work by the paceña sociologist, social activist and cultural and artistic performer Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui (SRC). The focus is on some of SRC’s influential conceptual clusters: inner colonialism, variegated social formations (abigarramiento social) and the aymara coinage of ch’ixi, which conceptualize the juxtaposition of different elements and forces working simultaneously but unblended in the configuration of a given stage offered to action and intervention. SRC developed personal research methodology: theory and practice are united through a creative montage. Also, the diverse ways in which she conveys the results of her outcomings belong to an avant-garde aesthetics. This diversity, though, is sustained in a firm ethical and political frame. Moreover, a situated micropolitical position. From this locus, she uncovers violent, colonialist practices, in the environment as well as in the patriarchal imposed ordering of gender authority. Her Sociology of the Image is a new academic discipline, a methodology, and also, an exemplary pedagogy. This paper argues that far from being limited to Andean past and present, SRC’s intellectual, artistic and political contribution constitutes a much-needed fresh approach in both social and literary studies as a whole.

Keywords : Bolivian Social Theory; Bolivian Literary Historiography and Criticism; Sociology of the image; Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui; Ch'ixi Interventions.

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