ORAL HISTORY AND ANCESTRAL MEMORY TO RE-THINK THE WORLD FROM THE ANDES

Abstract

In this paper, I want to show that from ancestral memory and oral history, we can construct symbolic explicative theories based on Andean worldview. For this purpose, one has to identify, clarify and establish the paradigms of the ayllu community as a civilizing matrix within the process of autonomy, self-determination and self government for the indigenous peoples. Above all, what is needed is the gnoseological substratum upon which our value system, our thought and our wisdom are built; so as to conceive social realities and civilizing matrixes, based on indigenous identity. This way of life may be universalized to rethink the world from the Andes, as an alternative to neoliberal capitalism. This experience of transformation and emancipation crosscuts the construction of the Bolivian Plurinational State.