DeepSummary
The episode features an interview with Daniel Ruiz Serna, an anthropologist and ethnographer who studies war, rural worlds, and human-animal relationships. He discusses his work in the Choco region of Colombia, a biodiverse area where Black and Indigenous communities have attained high levels of autonomy due to the forests and rivers that sustain their ways of life.
Ruiz Serna introduces the concept of 'ecological violence' to describe how the violence of war extends beyond effects on the environment to impact the relationships that beings (human and non-human) have with the territory they inhabit. He highlights how legal frameworks and transitional justice systems struggle to adequately address the harms experienced by these communities when violence is framed solely as 'environmental damage' or 'damage to culture/worldviews'.
The conversation explores how Indigenous philosophies challenge modern Western premises by recognizing territories as living entities with intrinsic value beyond just resources for human use. Ruiz Serna argues that truly addressing the legacies of war requires rethinking concepts of justice, reparation, and what constitutes violence and victimhood to encompass more-than-human realms.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The concept of 'ecological violence' refers to how war impacts the living relationships and worlds between human and non-human beings in a territory, not just the physical environment.
- Indigenous philosophies challenge modern Western premises by recognizing territories as living entities with intrinsic value beyond just resources for human use.
- Legal frameworks around transitional justice, human rights, and environmental damage are inadequate for addressing violence against living territories from an Indigenous perspective.
- Multicultural states often fail to genuinely consider Indigenous ontologies and ways of relating to land, life and justice when addressing violence against communities.
- Addressing the legacies of war requires rethinking core modern concepts around justice, reparations, violence, victimhood and means of repair to be more holistic.
- The autonomy and cultural traditions of Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities in Bajo Atrato were enabled by their deep relationships with the living forests and rivers of the territory.
- Storytelling and invoking the voices/experiences of more-than-human realms are vital for expanding transitional justice models to be more inclusive.
- Personal practices of listening, wonder and relating to lands/waters can help deepen understandings of living territories and ecological philosophies.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “So ecological violence is not just about what happens to the environment, but as you know, ecology is about relationships. So ecological violence is about how the relations that help sustain life in the territory are hindered.“ by Daniel Ruiz Serna
- “Essentially, like the concepts, the institutions created to deal with the damage of war should be transformed in order to address the concerns of victimized communities, but also in order to redress the legacies of war.“ by Daniel Ruiz Serna
- “So the thing is, like, from my own perspective, the way I understand is the multicultural state try to make room for the respect of these peoples. But it doesn't take seriously into consideration the ways indigenous peoples conceptualize life, conceptualize territory, conceptualize land, and conceptualize justice.“ by Daniel Ruiz Serna
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Episode Information
Green Dreamer: Seeding change towards collective healing, sustainability, regeneration
Kamea Chayne
7/27/23
In this episode, we welcome anthropologist Daniel Ruiz-Serna, whose work, situated in the Choco region of Colombia, aims to expose the entanglement of political and ecological violence whereby echoes of conflict/healing reverberate through place. In light of the enmeshment between war and land, Daniel welcomes a framework of living territories, as traced by his life/work with the diversity of human and more-than-human communities of Bajo Atrato, Choco.
Tune in as Daniel invokes questions around: What stories do the land and its respective guardians cry out in the face of ongoing damage—that which exceeds designated categories of violence, and thus, so-called systems of repair? Accordingly, when it comes to human and more-than-human rights, what are the shortcomings of legal justice systems insofar as they fail to consider the life and spirit of territory, as well as those who are inextricably tied to the life of such territory? How might the legal language of “justice” and “repair” be limited by, even tethered to, the roots of oppression? And what kinds of schisms, shifts, and stories are needed to reframe these concepts?
The musical offering featured in this episode When You Carried Me by Oropendola.
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