How to decolonize knowledge? The problem of the concept of interculturality. Deliberations about the Mapuche case

Abstract

The word “interculturality” is used in contexts of contact between two or more cultures whose values/beliefs/knowledges are considered to be different. Nevertheless, from a critical point of view, it is also considered as a diplomatic expression of intervention in the indigenous world, wich does not answer or solves the violation of right’s. For this and other reasons, it is required to overcome the bounderies of a category that generates an illusion as being validational. With the recovery of oral narrations by mapuche people –in their own language– a variety of ideas referred to the dialogue, respect and the learning between two or more cultures-languages can be obtained, e.g.:azümngepeyüm ta epu rume zungun / when to languages and knowledge can understand each other. The purpose of this article is to propound the mapuche knowledge which refer to this encounters and missunderstandings with the dominant society, promoting thus a levelling in the balance that throughout history has been tipped in favor of the occidental conceptions.