La soberanía cañari: un abordaje intercultural crítico para descolonizar el conocimiento runa, en la comunidad Pichacay

Abstract

This thesis consists of a reflection on the notion of sovereignty of knowledge based on a reconstruction of the main cultural contents and collective trajectory of the Cañari people. The relationship between sovereignty and the social-historical path that makes it possible to develop the Rune Knowledge concept. Based on the statement indicated in the title of this thesis, we can define and justify the pertinence and relevance of the study topic. Likewise, it allows establishing some terms and aspects of analysis such as: coloniality, hegemony, decolonization, de-indigenousization, sovereignty of knowledge, Andean knowledge, “Runa” knowledge and critical interculturality. We give special emphasis to what concerns sovereignty from the Cañari people, understanding that sovereignty refers to the internal capacity of a people to make collective decisions and the generation of their own thought based on their real conditions of existence. At the same time, our thesis considers the historical, cultural, and social process, starting from the present with a revaluation of the myth of origin and placing its relevance in the possibility of generating a level of knowledge like Runa Cañari. Specifically, we take as a point of reference the social and cultural reality configured in the Pichacay community, Santa Ana parish, Cuenca canton, which is characterized by having Cañaris social roots in demand and resistance. The research problem is oriented from the Cañari sovereignty towards an intercultural approach to decolonize Runa knowledge in a rural-urban relationship based on a qualitative research. The study relied on an analytical and synthetic method to solve conceptual problems that come from the colonial load and claim the process of "Runa" knowledge from deindigenization, decolonization and interculturality. Specifically, we have relied on methodological tools such as systematic observation and interviews from ethnographic research parameters. Finally, this research thesis contributes to a construction from the practice of theory articulated with concepts such as sovereignty of knowledge and the Tikramuy paradigm that arises from the conception and millenary experience of the Cañari “Runa”.