Abstract: Rauna Kuokkanen
Enabling the Gift Logic of Indigenous Philosophies
The dominant paradigm highlighting the importance of exchange has made
the gift of indigenous epistemes (i.e., worldviews or philosophies) impossible
in the academic world, among other places. In the current system, indigenous
epistemes are not regarded as gifts but something else such as intellectual
property. They are often appropriated and exploited for economic purposes
or to fulfill the spiritual needs of others. The basic premises of the
exchange paradigm are manifested in the one-sidedness and unilaterality
of academic discourses that are usually thoroughly self-oriented without
attention -- that is, 'responsibility' -- to the other. The failure or
refusal to receive the gift has led to serious deterioration and disruption
of relationships (of discourses, worldviews, for instance) that has made
the academy an untenably difficult place for many indigenous people. Without
a logic rooted in responsibility and reciprocity, it is easy to exploit
and misuse the gift, as is the case with indigenous epistemes that have
been increasingly commodified and appropriated by the global capitalism
that has developed new, powerful tools such as intellectual property regimes
for further increasing corporate monopolies and consolidation of profit.
The gift may also threaten the hegemony and hierarchy of epistemes which
serve certain interests. It continues posing a threat to the prevailing
modes of thinking and interaction that characterize the contemporary transnational
capitalism in the same way as potlatch (and countless other gift-practices)
posed earlier a threat to the civilization and the emerging nation-state
of Canada -- so serious that it had to be outlawed by the early colonial
authorities and later put under erasure by various, sometimes very ambiguous
and insidious forms of cultural imperialism. In other words, the gift
has the potential to interrupt and even subvert the agenda of "the new
imperialism of exploitation" (Spivak 1999).
Biographical Information
Rauna Kuokkanen is currently completing her PhD titled "Toward the
Hospitality of Academia: The (Im)Possible Gift of Indigenous Epistemes"
at the University of British Columbia, Canada. She has been actively involved
in Sami society for many years and is currently engaged in the protection
of a sacred Sami site in her home community. She has edited an anthology
on contemporary Sami literature (Juoga mii geasuha, 2001)and has published
several articles on Sami and other indigenous literatures, decolonization
and Sami research paradigms.
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