La Tierra Habla
Space-time: Epistemological Relativism
The Maya Tz'utujil mathematician Domingo Yojcom described to me the association between color and smell. The Tz'utujil use the phrase Chuquuq q’aq to refer to “burntblack color.” In their language, color is associated with smell because it is related to the process by which the color is made. This process is also related to the materials they use to produce the color, which is, at the same time, connected to how they produce those materials in their community. So, this color itself implies the community’s political and economic structures, based on a specific understanding of time, space, money, and community living. Yojcom calls these differences “epistemological relativism.”
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To explain the concept of epistemological relativism, Yojcom recounts a story about an experience he had in northern Guatemala with the Maya K’iche’ community:
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Tiempo-espacio: El relativismo epistemológico
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The Soil Speaks
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When we had just started working in the area, we were given another partner and appointed to visit a rural community called Laguna Chiquita. This small town, with approximately thirty families, was not registered in the national land registry—as many other communities in Guatemala are not—a fact that makes its geographical location very difficult to find. That morning we traveled to the place. The only clue we had was another community called Las Conchas (located on the roadside), where we started walking from in order to get to Laguna Chiquita. Upon arriving at Las Conchas, we asked a man who was working in a cardamom field: “Sir, could you tell us where Laguna Chiquita is?” The man, pointing with his finger, said: “The Laguna Chiquita community is three rooster crows away,”