Ancestral Biocentrism: Ecology can be more profound from Latin America

Abstract

This article proposes the concept of Ancestral Biocentrism, rooted in
indigenous worldviews, as a popular-based approach that challenges and
attempts to overcome the hegemony of capitalism, modern anthropocentrism,
and the Coloniality of Power in relation to the "ecological" practices limited to
the nature-humanity dilemma that have been practiced and spread in Latin
America and the Caribbean. The discussion is based on the framework of New
Latin American Constitutionalism, with emphasis on the recognition of the Rights of Nature or Pachamama. The argument of this text delineates that
Ancestral Biocentrism is a perspective rooted in the popular praxis of struggle
for life, mainly of indigenous people and peasants, demarcating the limits and
differences in relation to other anthropocentric and Eurocentric perspectives
known to Modernity. Ancestral Biocentrism configures a politicalepistemological possibility of going further in the discussion initiated by Deep
Ecology and present in article 71 of the Ecuadorian Constitution, opening space
to find a Knowledge Dialogues and a South-South Integration grounded in the
lived experiences of indigenous peoples and movements.