Cosmovisión

Another night of half-sleep, but it was all right today. Not listless but really awake for everything we were doing in class. Profesora Liliana said of my 10-minute presentation on the parable of the prodigal son, Qué conmovedora (how moving).

Tomorrow is the conference on the two cosmological visions, that of the West and that of the Andean people. Both of my teachers have prepared me well for the conference. Just a brief rundown, at the risk of oversimplifying things.

How do the Quechua and Aymara peoples see and make sense of the world? They have an image that is predominantly integral and relational, while the cultures of the West, descended from European civilization, have an image that is linear. The peoples of indigenous cultures find it natural to conceive of a relationship of mutual care with the cosmos and in the cosmos because they perceive that all beings are an integral part of it. On the other hand, it is more natural for peoples with a linear conception of time and space to divide the cosmos into components and perceive each part as independent and isolated.

These images of reality have met, and collided, throughout history. The first Christian evangelizers in present-day Bolivia viewed the world and universe through the categories of heaven, earth, and hell, each realm a discrete reality carrying with it the value judgment of good or evil. Time is an arrow leading us forward; we are caught in the present; the past is past and the future lies ahead. Eternity is beyond; it is not here. In contrast, the people of the Andes conceived of the universe as one house with three levels: hanaj pacha, the world above or beyond, of ancestors, gods, and spirits; kay pacha, the visible, material world, from which we draw all our sustenance; and uqhu pacha, the world below, which contains our dreams and hopes. All these realms play an active part in the present. All these realms are good; all these realms support our life and our becoming. As for time, it moves in cycles and advances in spirals. The past, the present, the future, and eternity are all found in the present moment. Step into eternity by living here in today. These different forms of seeing and being in the world shaped the context of the first Christian evangelization.

From this relational context, we are invited to ask ourselves, was there an encounter between these two visions? What was communicated between and among the Spanish colonizers and evangelizers and the indigenous peoples? What consequences have come from this encounter or lack of encounter?

Thanks ahead of time to Tania Avila Meneses of the Maryknoll mission formation program for leading Wednesday’s presentation. We are being reminded constantly that we need to learn and see deeply the vision of other peoples in order to construct fruitful intercultural relations. I hope to offer another update tomorrow.