Indigenous Knowledges and Technologies - II

Abstract

Indigenous knowledges and technologies, i.e. knowledge and artifacts produced by native people from around the world, such as Amerindians, Native Americans, Aboriginal Australians and so on, are still a marginal topic in STS in spite of the array of experiences and approaches from other fields such as media studies, anthropology, telecommunications, human rights, to mention a few. STS appears to still be in need of a process of decolonisation as to a large extent it is still insensible to knowledges, technologies, practices and epistemologies that have arisen from indigenous people around the globe. Nonetheless, we recognize two main bodies of literature on indigenous knowledges and technologies in current STS. Firstly, work by scholars such as Helen Verran, John Law, Mario Blaser, and Marisol de la Cadena, which is at the intersection between the ontological turn in STS and decolonial or postcolonial studies. Secondly, work by indigenous scholars, such as Kyle Whyte and Kim TallBear, which have been particularly important in terms of bringing indigenous standpoints to STS. This panel seeks to bring together researchers interested in addressing topics related to indigenous knowledges, technologies and practices in dialogue with the above mentioned literature and other relevant STS theories. We are interested in works that address (although not exclusively) a) Indigenous knowledges and technologies from a decolonial or postcolonial perspective, b) the circulation of Indigenous knowledges inside and outside the indigenous world, c) the intersection of Indigenous and Western knowledges and technologies, d) the (re)appropriation of Western technologies by Indigenous peoples, d) Indigenous knowledges and technological policymaking, e) the indigeneisation of STS.

Chair

• Tiago Ribeiro Duarte, University of Brasília

Individual Presentations

• Community Networks, Actor-Networks: The Politics of Internet Interconnection Infrastructure in Indigenous Connectivity Projects - Fernanda R. Rosa, American University

• The (Plastic) Bird’s-Eve View: Indigenous Critiques of Drone Mapping Technologies in Merauke, West Papua - Sophie Marie Helene Chao, The University of Sydney

• Thinking about the Integration of Indigenous Science and Western Science Knowledge Systems - Cheri Johnson, Virginia Tech

Session Organizer

• Claudia Magallanes-Blanco, UNIVERSIDAD IBEROAMERICANA PUEBLA