Desde el Sur (ISSN print version: 2076-2674; ISSN online version: 2415-0959) is a peer-reviewed journal from the Innovation, Research and Development Directorate of the Scientific University of the South (Lima, Peru) founded in 2009 and currently appearing four times per year. It publishes new social sciences articles, essays, and reviews (hereinafter “articles”) written by researchers worldwide from the perspective of Latin America or with a focus on the region. The areas of particular focus are education, gender studies, political science, anthropology, sociology, critical cultural studies, creative and cultural industries, and communication and media studies. The electronic version of Desde el Sur is free of charge.
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«The world upside down»: resistance and cultural adaptation among the Indians of Lima in the early 17th century
The manifestations of resistance and cultural adaptation among the indigenous immigrant population in the city of Lima at the beginning of the 17th century are analyzed. For this purpose, historical and documentary information was reviewed, mainly the records of the Lima Indian Registry from 1613. It was found that among the Indian immigrants there were manifestations of cultural resistance at the level of identity, work activity, social organization, consumption habits, and the continuity of some cultural traditions. But there were also manifestations of adaptation of Christian-Hispanic names, practice of Spanish artisan trades, participation in Catholic traditions, ladinization, formation of artisan guilds and Indian brotherhoods. It was concluded that resistance as well as cultural adaptation developed in a complementary way, thus learning the Spanish language, the economic activity carried out and Christianization not only allowed them to integrate into society, but also to respond from a better position.
Copyright (c) 2025 José Javier Vega Loyola
Territory and decolonization carried out in praxis
Copyright (c) 2025 Marcos Aurelio Saquet, Cristina Maria Macêdo de Alencar
Sociocultural Representations and the Construction of Citizenship among San Cristóbal Students, Ayacucho
This research proposes a broadened understanding of citizenship as a situated and dynamic social practice, extending beyond formal legal frameworks. From an anthropological perspective, it examines how young people in Ayacucho experience and construct citizenship within contexts shaped by structural tensions, family ties, and relations with power. Adopting a sociocultural approach, the study incorporates symbolic, ethical, affective, and communicative dimensions. Through a questionnaire, it explores values such as solidarity, tolerance, and responsibility, and how these are expressed in everyday life. The research also highlights socially problematic practices such as bribery and nepotism, which are understood not merely as anti-values but as adaptive responses to a weak or corrupt institutional environment. Young people oscillate between normative discourses and informal practices, revealing a fragmented form of citizenship. The study concludes that citizenship education should be critical and reflective, taking into account material and symbolic conditions, and promoting situated ethical commitments, particularly in regions marked by exclusion and institutional mistrust.
Copyright (c) 2025 Juan Benigno Gutierrez Martinez, Juan Ramos Lopez
Silenced voices: Incorporating a gender perspective into History textbooks in Chile
This essay critically analyzes the incorporation of a gender perspective in Chilean history textbooks, highlighting the persistence of androcentric representations that render women invisible as historical agents. Based on a comprehensive review of specialized literature, it identifies mechanisms of symbolic exclusion and the assignment of subordinate roles that reinforce a hierarchical model of citizenship and restrict the development of a critical and plural historical consciousness. It also analyzes the tensions between the patriarchal canon that still dominates school narratives and the growing social demands for a more inclusive and equitable education. The essay concludes with pedagogical proposals aimed at transforming history teaching, such as the critical analysis of materials, the expansion of the historiographical repertoire, the redefinition of language, and teacher training with a gender perspective, in pursuit of a more democratic education that is representative of historical diversity.
Copyright (c) 2025 Humberto Álvarez Sepúlveda, Claudine Benoit Ríos
Social imaginaries of security and crime in Chilean digital written press
This article examines the social imaginaries regarding security and crime in two editorially contrasting Chilean online newspapers: El Mercurio Online (EMOL) and El Ciudadano. Through a qualitative comparative content analysis, the news coverage of both outlets during April 2023 is examined, addressing the differences and similarities in their approaches. These findings are also contrasted with previous research on the Social Outbreak and other previous social movements in Chile. Divergent approaches are identified: EMOL emphasizes punitive solutions and crisis narratives to insecurity, while El Ciudadano criticizes government management and highlights social inequalities. In this sense, both outlets highlight security as a central issue, but with differentiated mediatizations. The construction of media discourses that reinforce or challenge hegemonic social imaginaries regarding security and crime is evident, as well as the configuration of social perceptions and associated political decision-making.
Copyright (c) 2025 Oscar Basulto Gallegos, Gabriela Tenorio Villalobos, Agustín Parra López
Floodplain cocoa as an expression of amazonian socio-biodiversity: The experience of the Tocantins Integration Region, Pará
This article looks at cocoa as an expression of socio-diversity and cultural heritage in the Tocantins Integration Region, in the state of Pará, and aims to analyze how the production of floodplain cocoa articulates ancestral knowledge, territoriality and market insertion. The research adopts a qualitative and quantitative approach, based on bibliographical and documentary analysis and fieldwork carried out with leaders of cooperatives and community associations on the islands of Angapijó (Mocajuba), Tamanduá Costa (Cametá), and Arauaia (Barcarena), located in the area's floodplain. The results indicate that floodplain cacao plays a significant role in generating income, environmental conservation, and preserving cultural identity. The conclusion is that the ancestral cocoa of the Tocantins region is an important asset, a vector for socio-territorial development, and a symbol of the resistance of the peoples of the forest, requiring public policies aimed at protecting and adding value to the product.
Copyright (c) 2025 Shirlene Cardoso Gaia, Benedito Ely Valente da Cruz
Decolonial Feminist Agency: Resistance of Landless Women at the Intersection of Gender and Nature
The agroecological experiences of Landless Women emerge from the valorization of productive backyards. Agroecological education occurs through the appreciation of empirical knowledge mediated by modern ecological knowledge, constructed in the dialogue of knowledge. Including these women in public procurement programs enabled gains in economic autonomy, greater agency, and the expansion of active subjectivity. Consequently, they developed new markets and skills. Challenges identified include the need for childcare spaces, confronting gender-based violence, work overload, and lack of funding. These demands are supported by popular peasant feminism. In their actions, they reflect on food, agriculture, gender, and agrarian reform, stimulate the construction of a critical socio-environmental praxis, advance in the decolonization of gender and nature, and advocate for the establishment of a democratic ethics of care for the multiple forms of life on Earth.
Copyright (c) 2025 Cristiane Coradin, Sonia Fátima Schwendler, Alfio Brandenburg
Territory and coloniality: Contemporary onto-epistemological gentrifications
The current processes of re-territorialization in Abya Yala expose colonial marks which remain alive in the ways of meaning, inhabiting and managing territories. This article socializes current doctoral research work about the meanings of education that trigger certain agencies in university extension projects. We originally defined the relationships between the academic and broader communities in terms of inter-territoriality, which enabled the recognition of the (de) colonial tension legacy-resistance in the treatment of otherness, as well as the concomitant epistemic gentrification. As the literary review and the fieldwork developed, however, we felt the need to explore neomaterialisms, neovitalisms and posthumanisms, as well as autoethnography, in methodological terms, to fulfil the promise of the ontological turn that (de)colonial perspectives have been announcing for decades now. Based on new definitions of territory, we hereby advance the value of Abya Yala and re-existence as powerful agencies to create new attention regimes to address contemporary educational relationships in university extension in intra and trans-territorial terms.
Copyright (c) 2025 Maria Marta Yedaide, Paula Gambino
Unveiling authoritarian repression of insurgency in José Ricardo Morales’ play Los culpables
This article offers a critical analysis and discussion of José Ricardo Morales’ play Los culpables (1964), which may encourage critical reflection on Chile’s political reality concerning the repression of anti-authoritarian movements. The study aims to demonstrate the relevance of Morales’ play in contemporary Chile. This play serves as a case study to explore the playwright’s ideas regarding the repressive and authoritarian practices employed by a military government against citizens labeled insurgents, ultimately aiding in the examination of the Chilean context. Since this play represents various historical events linked to authoritarianism, particularly World War II and Francoism, we argue that it foreshadows the implementation of authoritarian practices by the state in Chilean society, including the state’s criminalization of protesters, insurgents, and anti-authoritarian movements in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the criminalization of social movements during the recent 2019 Social Outbreak civil protests.
Copyright (c) 2025 Juan Del Valle Rojas, Pablo Valdivia Martin, Konstantin Mierau
Indigenous Thought and Curricula in Public Policies: Is Epistemic Decolonization Possible from Mexican Universities?
In Latin America, various voices have questioned the role of universities in reproducing hegemonic epistemic structures. This article analyzes how five undergraduate programs in public policy, offered by Mexican public universities, incorporate—and to what extent—elements of Indigenous thought into their curricula as part of a possible curricular transformation that challenges the coloniality of knowledge. An analytical matrix based on four dimensions (epistemic, ontological, organizational, and political-ethical) was applied to evaluate the curricular designs through document analysis. The findings reveal limited incorporation, generally superficial or fragmented, with only one program showing significant progress in the organizational dimension. The study concludes that, although there are incipient efforts, most programs have yet to structurally integrate Indigenous epistemological and ontological frameworks that foster a dialogue of knowledges and challenge modern-colonial knowledge systems.
Copyright (c) 2025 Edgar Andrés De la Cruz Rojas, Manuel Lara Caballero
Critical intercultural didactic proposal: the analysis of intertextuality in epew
In response to the processes of colonization and assimilationist practices of educational institutions, progress is being made towards intercultural educational policies for the recognition and revitalization of indigenous languages and knowledge. This is the case of Mapuche cultural knowledge and its expressions present in the daily life of children and youth. One of these forms of knowledge is the epew (Mapuche story), which represents a traditional cultural resource that can be incorporated into educational institutions through a pedagogy with an intercultural perspective. It is expected to strengthen cultural identity by means of a dialogue of knowledge through the critical understanding of texts that favor coexistence in an intercultural society. This work proposes a didactic approach to intertextuality from an intercultural perspective. The epew and the fable are used as resources for a critical intercultural didactic response to the colonization of knowledge and epistemic injustice in school contexts.
Copyright (c) 2025 Daniel San Martín Cantero, Miguel Ángel Noriega Nahuelpan, Kevin Riquelme Jara
The mediation of the textbook in Geography classes at Tekoha Ocoy in São Miguel do Iguaçu/Paraná/Brazil
Indigenous schools in Brazil use textbooks produced by authors who do not consider indigenous knowledge and the mother tongue. The aim of this study is to discuss the role of the teacher in mediating the textbook used in 6th grade classes at the Teko Ñemoingo Indigenous School, based on the Avá-Guarani culture. This is a qualitative and participatory research study, with surveys from primary and secondary sources of information. It was found that concepts in the Geography textbook are difficult to understand when there is no teaching intervention, in the sense of starting from the knowledge produced by indigenous ancestors and using the mother tongue (written and spoken) during the class. It is concluded that it is essential that indigenous teachers work in indigenous schools, with the intention of mediating learning based on indigenous and non-indigenous knowledge, respecting the ancestry and mother tongue of the Avá-Guarani people.
Copyright (c) 2025 Gilmar Tupã Re Sapy Chamorro, Léia Aparecida Veiga
The professional identity of teachers in the era of artificial intelligence: Challenges and redefinitions in the Latin American context
The digital transformation—accelerated by the intensive use of new social interaction platforms (social media) and the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) as a catalyst for productive and knowledge processes—is profoundly reshaping the experience of formal learning and, consequently, the role of the professional educator within it. This introduction to the dossier "The Professional Identity of Educators in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" critically examines these contemporary changes and proposes an updated set of guiding principles that are increasingly defining our educational practices. Specifically, it addresses: the necessarily reflective role of educators in the ongoing development of their students; critical reading as a key investigative competence; the paradigm of collaborative learning in everyday teaching practice; technological mediation as a regular and constitutive ecosystem of the current educational experience; and the imperative of diversity and inclusion within educational contexts shaped by contingent counter-processes driven by political powers. Accordingly, from an interpretive and multidisciplinary perspective, the contributions gathered in this special issue outline an underlying narrative in which the 21st-century educator must not only adopt emerging technological tools to construct today’s educational experience, but, above all, strengthen their role as a critical, ethical, and cultural mediator of knowledge.
This Is How We Dream Chile! Voices of Early Childhood for the New Constitution
Copyright (c) 2025 Claudia Carillo-Sánchez, María Loreto Mora-Olate
The notion of experience in bourdieusian sociology: with and beyond Bourdieu
Amid debates on Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory and the criticism that its consolidation restricts sociology to the study of such spaces, this article aims to: (a) demonstrate that this theoretical framework and its investigative program do not prevent Bourdieu from exploring alternative research approaches; and (b) show that agents’ experiences constitute a relevant object for him. Through an interpretative reading that articulates the conceptual foundations of habitus with the books The Weight of the World and The Inheritors, the empirical potential of the notion of experience is emphasized. From this perspective, the discussion fosters an approach focused on examining this dimension of practice, proposing it as a Bourdieusian sociology of experience. The article’s main contribution lies in exploring the analytical possibilities of this notion, an aspect that remains largely underexplored in studies on Bourdieu’s work.
Copyright (c) 2025 Weslley Daniel Bueno Moraes
Reproducing colonial imaginaries: the festival and the social representation of the «tacneño» and the Andean «migrant» in the local press of Tacna (Peru)
Based on the analysis of local newspaper reports (from 1980 to 2010) regarding three popular festivals associated with the cultural practices of Andean migrants in Tacna (Peru), this article identifies and characterizes the social representation of this social actor in the discourse disseminated by the local press during that period regarding the festivals of Las Cruces, the Virgin of Copacabana, and Carnival. A process of stigmatization is observed around religiosity, hygiene, and urbanity that collide with the hegemonic representation of the cultural practices of the «Tacneño» (inhabitant of Tacna), and a discourse of control over religious and festive practices, thereby constructing identity differentiation and promoting physical and symbolic exclusion from the cultural practices of Andean migrants. The article argues that the press in Tacna has contributed to the configuration of a social imaginary of the «Tacneño» and the «migrant» based on the dichotomy of modernity/barbarism, giving rise to two divergent social representations.
Copyright (c) 2025 Marly Mahly Pastor Seperak, Mariel Cynthia Chávez Vargas
Peasant territorialities from the perspective of radical geography. Experience of the Pato-Balsillas Peasant Reserve Zone
The objective of this article is to present some results of the territorial analysis of the Pato-Balsillas Peasant Reserve Zone, based on the category «Territory Production.» The methodology is initially conceived with the theoretical construction of the category, followed by the design of instruments, and finally, fieldwork based on open-ended interviews and participant observation in the reserve. The results seek to interweave the theoretical arguments of the conceptual category «Territory Production» with secondary information and information on the praxis of the peasants in the territory. The results highlight the complex and relational nature of peasant territoriality, and also highlight the importance of social relations in the construction of territorialities. Finally, the conclusions invite us to reflect on the category and its analytical perspectives, highlighting the importance of social movements as drivers of territorial transformation.
Visual Representations of the Loreto Landscape: From Authenticity to the Sense of Place
There is a significant visual tradition that, through painting and photography, has represented the Amazonian region of Loreto and the city of Iquitos. By discussing the concepts of landscape, authenticity, and sense of place, this article aims to analyze this tradition and new emerging forms of representation. To this end, canonical images have been analyzed and more than fifteen contemporary artists have been interviewed. It is argued that: i) this tradition is anchored in landscape painting, ii) that the authenticity of these images is achieved through their ability to mimic the landscape depicted, and iii) that artists have emerged who deconstruct previous landscapes, explicitly destabilizing hegemonic visual regimes. The article concludes with the need to shift from an emphasis on authenticity to an understanding of the embodied senses of place from which visual representations emerge.
Copyright (c) 2025 Gerardo Castillo Guzmán
Women in Science: Analysis of the Scientific Productivity of Renacyt Female Researchers in Peru
Introduction: Women remain underrepresented in science despite global initiatives, necessitating context-specific analyses. Objective: To examine the scientific productivity of Peruvian female researchers in the National Register of Science, Technology and Technological Innovation (RENACYT), identifying publication levels, research fields, and factors associated with high output through a critical gender lens. Methodology: Quantitative cross-sectional study combining documentary analysis and multivariate regression of 341 researchers. Results: Only 22.3% achieved high productivity, concentrated in Medical (34%), Natural (29%), and Social Sciences (22%). Four factors showed significant association (p<0.05): ≥3 years in RENACYT (aPR=5.97), H-index≥5 (aPR=2.28), RENACYT score≥35 (aPR=2.24), and thesis supervision (aPR=1.58). Conclusion: Findings reveal structural inequalities and highlight how accumulated experience and institutional incentives shape productivity patterns, demanding gender-responsive policies to promote equitable scientific careers.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sandra Elena Pajares Centeno, Rodrigo Jesús Flores Palacios
Human nature from the perspective of science: a transhumanist response to Elena Postigo
In the article «Bioethics and transhumanism from the perspective of human nature», bioethicist Elena Postigo Solana presented an objection to the vision of human nature proposed by transhumanist philosophy. This objection was based on personalism, a philosophical framework according to which human nature is considered as dual, both physical and non-corporeal. This paper offers a response to Postigo's objection from a scientific philosophical framework, that is, from a perspective in continuous communication with the available scientific evidence. It is concluded that the idea of human nature developed by Postigo lacks empirical support, making the concept of human nature an empty one and typical of pseudosecular argumentation. Therefore, it is recommended to avoid the use of the concept of human nature in the bioethical discussion.
Violence in the University Environment and the Everyday Lives of UNAM Students: Theoretical and Methodological Explorations in the Face of Mexico’s State Crisis
Starting from the theoretical difficulties in defining the concept of violence, this article aims to outline a minimal theoretical/methodological strategy that allows structuring —under an interdisciplinary research exercise— studies and opening lines of research aimed at apprehending the meaning and the behavior of violence(s) in the university habitat of a macro-organization such as UNAM. To do this, it is necessary to review the notion of violence in the social sciences, as well as contemporary research that approaches the study of violence in Mexican universities. This with the aim of aiming at the creation of a minimal notion of the concept of violence in the university habitat, which is operative for the investigations that may be derived from this theoretical/methodological proposal. From this notion, it will be possible to construct the categories of analysis to identify the different forms of violence in the university. Beyond the simulation, invisibility and silencing that prevails in the university communities around the violence(s) experienced in these organizations, the thesis that an entity such as UNAM is not alien to social conflict and that This, although it arises in its confines, is exacerbated with the intensification of the state crisis that characterizes Mexico in recent decades.
Copyright (c) 2025 Isaac Enríquez Pérez
Between Extermination and Struggle: The «Body-Territory» as a Target of Repression and a Tool of Indigenous Resistance in the Southern Cone Dictatorships
This article examines how state repression during the Southern Cone dictatorships targeted Indigenous bodies as a means of breaking their relationship with territory. Based on the concept of body-territory and a theoretical framework that brings together the National Security Doctrine, state terrorism, biopolitics, necropolitics, and the coloniality of power, the study applies a qualitative case-based approach focusing on the experiences of different Indigenous peoples in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil. Drawing on historical documents, official reports, and academic literature, the analysis identifies systematic forms of violence and the diverse modes of resistance developed by Indigenous communities. The study concludes that the body-territory functioned not only as a target of repression but also as a symbolic and political space of reexistence, memory, and resistance. The struggle for territory continues in the present, showing that Indigenous bodies remain sites of autonomy and political assertion.
Copyright (c) 2025 Amanda Gabriela Rocha Oliveira
Soundscapes of venezuelan migration: the voices of street vending in the urban space of lima
This article explores the construction of a sense of place among a group of Venezuelan street vendors in the city of Lima, based on the soundscape they produce in their work environment. The aim is to understand how migratory experiences shape their relationship with urban space through voice, noise, and other auditory manifestations. The research employs a sound ethnographic methodology that combines audio recordings, interviews and participant observation. The results show that acoustic dynamics not only communicate discourses but also express affects, tensions and forms of inclusion or exclusion in public space. The study proposes a sensory and situated reading of the migratory experience, highlighting the value of the soundscape in understanding the spatial practices of migrants.
Employability strategies and the search for Decent Work in peruvian archaeology
In Peru, education in archaeology marginally addresses the labor market and working conditions. Given this situation, a diagnosis of the national labor scenario was carried out with the objectives of identifying strategies adopted by professionals between 23 and 40 years of age to guarantee their employment, and recognizing the factors that undermine Decent Work. Consequently, a self-administered survey was issued to the population of actively working archaeologists. Additionally, six professionals from the same population segment were interviewed. The results show that professional licensing, volunteer work, development of soft skills and professional networks, as well as a solid academic education favor insertion and job performance, while bad professional practices, restricted job offers, discrimination and violence, the precarious nature of employment contracts, infringement of the work schedule, and the absence of an influential labor union or association are the factors that hinder Decent Work in archaeology.
Copyright (c) 2025 Miguel A. Palacios Arce, Daniela R. Silva Pardavé
Implementation of the integrity model at the municipal level: a study in three local governments in Peru
The implementation of the integrity model has in Peru components and actions that local governments should implement to fight corruption. It is proposed that the level of implementation, despite the existence of guides and manuals, has been minimal, mainly due to the lack of political will on the part of the authorities and the lack of technical capacity of the officials. Three local governments within Peru of different political importance have been taken as the object of study. Through a qualitative methodology it has been confirmed that there is no level of implementation as such, but that some components are available in an unarticulated manner, and that the factors of political will and technical capacity are not present, but also a certain way of assuming citizen surveillance also makes a possible implementation of this model difficult.
Copyright (c) 2025 Edwin Cohaila, Lorena Elías Ayay
Spirituality and sense of life: Implications for the psychological wellbeing in Chilean university students
Faced with the increase in mental health disorders in post-pandemic society, this study sought to understand the implications of spirituality and meaning in life on the mental health of emerging adults in university settings. Methodologically, a non-experimental, cross-sectional, and exploratory qualitative approach was adopted. The convenience, non-probabilistic sample included 16 students with an average age of 21 years, from a private university in Temuco, Chile. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the stories were interpreted through content analysis assisted by ATLAS.ti. The results show that spirituality acts as a protective resource in the face of crisis processes, while meaning in life guides decision-making in contexts of uncertainty. The relevance of spirituality and meaning in life as key constructs for positively addressing the socio-personal and academic challenges that emerge in higher education is discussed.
Copyright (c) 2025 Enrique Sandoval-Obando, Edith Madelaine Curiqueo Fuentes, Gabriela Belén Rivas Moreno, Paula Javiera Salazar Santander, Francisca Valentina Zúñiga Gallardo, Luis Mario Castellanos-Alvarenga
Why is Chile multicultural and not intercultural? An analysis from governance and participation
In Chile, there are small advances in terms of participation and recognition, but not with the necessary strength for indigenous citizens to be considered subjects of law and Chile as an intercultural State. The reality is close to an institutional multiculturalism, where the possibility of participation is mediated by power structures. In a little known scenario, indigenous communities in Chile continue to pre-exist with their own organizational logics, where the objectives of internal governance are modified according to neoliberal and extractivist times. Through an analytical methodology, reflections are presented on the Chilean situation and its historical and identity particularities; such as the relationship with extractivism in indigenous territories and the continuity of colonial logics, which configure a nation-state far from indigenous participation, bringing it closer to a multiculturalism that ignores and makes invisible the true history of Chile.
Copyright (c) 2025 Andrea Ibacache-Corante
Career choices and gender dynamics: Exploring factors associated with the decision to study feminized careers in Chile
In recent years, Chile has increased women’s access to higher education, particularly in education and health programs traditionally linked to gender roles. This study examines the career choices of 672 secondary students, assessing internal factors (ambivalent sexism, self-efficacy, and educational motivation) using a multigroup structural equation model and enrollment data from the Ministry of Education. Model reliability was confirmed with CFI, TLI, SRMR, and RMSEA. Results reveal gender differences: ambivalent sexism shapes male students’ decisions, whereas self-efficacy influences those of female students. These findings underscore the need to strengthen career guidance by enhancing women’s self-efficacy and reducing male stereotypes to diversify professional aspirations.
Copyright (c) 2025 Maria Cecilia Fernández-Darraz, Claudio Andrés Briceño-Olivera, Miguel Francisco Galván-Cabello, Ronald Castillo-Blanco
Knowledge and practices of specialists in the Andean medical system in intercultural contexts of 21st-century Peru
In a context of health and climate challenges up to 2025, specialists in the Andean medical system have combined ancestral knowledge with contemporary approaches. This study analysed the relevance of their responses to Andean diseases in Quinua. The qualitative, non-experimental, and exploratory methodology included observation and semi-structured interviews, collecting 120 responses to 20 questions from six participants. Discourses and meanings related to health in the community were interpreted. The findings highlighted the significance of Andean specialists, who complement Western medicine with ancestral practices and the use of natural resources for diagnosis, treatment, and healing. Furthermore, the community integrates traditional knowledge with conventional medical practices, valuing a holistic and humanised approach to healthcare. Finally, all members actively participate in traditional medicine, reinforcing the collective nature of medical knowledge and practice in Quinua.
Copyright (c) 2025 Juan Ramos Lopez, Lucio Alberto Sosa Bitulas, Félix Rojas Orellana, Pavel Antonio Alarcón Vila
Tree of Life: Ancestral Knowledge in the Hands of Ceramicists ShapingThrough Traditional Craftsmanship
The object of the study presented here is a piece from the collection of the Casa da Cultura da América Latina (University of Brasília): Tree of Life, of unknown authorship, but of tradition referenced to the municipality of Metepec, a ceramics center in the state of Mexico. It is a handcrafted ceramic piece, shaped like a tree, with symbols representing biblical history used as an instrument to bring local culture closer. The methodology developed is based on bibliographic and documentary analysis to recognize its origin, representation and raw material, in addition to the analysis of the composition and iconography of ceramics in Metepec, to identify similarities with traditional techniques from the colonial era, as well as address the interference from Spanish colonization in the reinterpretation and replacement of native cultural objects that were symbols of identity and tradition of the original people in this region. Thus establishing values of cultural memory in a multi-ethnic country located in North America.
Copyright (c) 2025 Cristiane Alves de Oliveira