Andean Wisdom and Consumerism

Beyond its knowledge and its highly celebrated “discoveries”, western society corrupts as it consumes. It also forgets and underestimates the wisdom of other cultures – a wisdom it never attempted to comprehend.

By Juan Rivera Tosi

Due to the fact that it is considered to have an eminently empirical nature and a lack of a solid scientific base, the scientific value of Andean thinking has been questioned many a time. This line of questioning is generally lead by intellectuals formed by western society, a society based on consumerism and, nowadays…globalization.

We listen to them when they criticize our way of thinking and seeing the world, opting to remain silent, and doing so many times, not because we have doubts about our wisdom, but rather, because we are certain that they would simply not grasp it. It would appear absurd to them, and this difference of opinions, instead of bringing us closer, would bring us further apart.

We pay attention to their arguments, as they speak of Hegelian dialectic and its contributions to scientific knowledge, idealism, positivism, dialectical materialism and many other terms that result strange to the way Andean thinking.

In the dialectical approach, one party or idea is contradictory to the other, and the two confront each other, each trying to eliminate the other. It is in this struggle that they evolve, advance, progress.

The vision of the andean man is totally different. One contributes to the other, supports the other, and through this support, they advance and progress. Our way of seeing the world does not allow us to imagine men in permanent confrontation, much less that this would result in progress, fundamentally because our knowledge and beliefs are based on brotherhood, solidarity, and reciprocity among all. The base of our culture is life. Yes….we create life, every day, all day.

That is why we can say that our way of thinking, our knowledge, comes from our lives, and that is why we know it. We have not read it in a book, its theory was not explained in a classroom. No…we have lived it!!!

From our knowledge we receive knowledge, which is not a theoretical speculation or something abstract, which has to be proven and demonstrated.

For the Andean man, the Indian, knowing and knowledge are not working hypotheses, subject to verification, which need to be proven in order to determine their value. No….not at all. Knowing and knowledge are what we know, because we have lived, and it is the confidence we have in our thinking that makes us humble and humble. The false pretending and vanity that come with knowledge is a practice completely alien to the Indian.

Our culture is different to the western man’s, our way of life, our logic, our thoughts, etc. They differ enormously.

So, which is better?…Which is right? …Which one should be imposed?, These are questions that do not perturb us.

We do not ask the western man to change his way of thinking and adopt ours. We would not be able to, since it is a product of his internal evolution, or involution, and we have nothing to say with regards to that; it is their business.

The only thing we ask is that they let us live with our culture, that they let us be who we are and not attempt to change us.

That they do not bombard our children and youth with their ideology, making them believe that their society is the ideal model of development, the path that we should all follow if we wish to progress when, in fact, it has done exactly the opposite; creating an idea of progress and development that is not natural, but fully fictitious and has only led to the destruction of life.

Part of their error lies in believing that man is the only intelligent, thinking, superior species, created by God in this way, to reign over the earth.

For the Andean man there exists a superior energy that is everywhere in nature, be it an animal, a vegetable, or a mineral, each one possessing their own intelligence and knowledge, by being part of the energy of the Great Maker of the Universe.

Wild animals, plants, rocks, each have an intelligent force that western man cannot comprehend because he believes he is the only one that possesses this energy. This is why he does not respect it and tries to manipulate it.

Each being has its way of life which should be respected. Each river has its own channel which should not be altered. It knows why it flows there, it has its own intelligence. It is the river’s, not ours. It is neither greater nor lesser, it is simply the intelligence it has and needs to have.

Animals have their own intelligence and they fully enjoy their state in the wild. When man captures them and domesticates them, after a few generations the animal’s race becomes weak, susceptible to diseases they had never before encountered, etc. It is because nature is wise, powerful, perfect, it is the Pachamama, supreme mother of the Andean man.

Everything that is born of the union between the Great Maker of the Universe and the Pachamama is perfect, and serves a specific function. Nothing is by chance or by accident. This is why we are surprised when we hear that some plant is a parasite or that it is called a “bad weed”, since, for us, everything is an expression of the Supreme Knowledge and she, in turn, bears only health and happiness in any form or situation.

When the western man intervenes in the development of any creature and shifts it from its natural course, the only thing he does is rob it, for as long as the interference lasts, of its joy and prosperity of the superior knowledge with which it was endowed.

Hogs, in their naturally wild state, are agile creatures with a symmetric figure, but, when domesticated by man, they become clumsy, fat-producing machines that cannot support the weight of their own enormous bodies.

This is a clear example of western thinking. Where it lays its hand it alters, corrupts. He is determined to correcting and perfecting the power and knowledge of nature, even though this has led to some grave errors. He does not understand that all plants and animals are truths in themselves, just as they are found in nature.

When Man tries to modify nature, either by changing its natural state, or by altering it genetically, what he actually does is separate it from its natural purpose and end, which can be no other than the happiness of itself and its surroundings. When Man alters nature, all it does is make false what was true, and what is false always bears pain and suffering.

The so called aviculture industry is the most false and anti-natural created by western consumerist thinking. It is justified, nevertheless, by the belief that it is done for a noble cause, like solving the problem of world hunger.

What is really happening in this industry?

Poultry is incubated by a machine. Technology decides when the eggshell will be broken. It is not when the chick feels that its cycle has culminated, they are induced to come out. They are later fed products that speed up their development and growth, they are fed day and night so that they fatten up. They are not allowed to sleep, and are forced to eat permanently so that they get fat quickly, become marketable and generate economic profit.

The Andean way of thinking would not allow the development of such an industry.

We cannot say for sure whether the reason that alpaca and llama meats are among the healthiest, with zero cholesterol and some of the healthiest tissue, is due to the way we raise them, our way of co- existing with them, but it would not be surprising if this was the reason. Itsis true that llamas are domesticated, but we do not take away their liberty. We let them graze where they like, eat what they like, and they feel good.

Even the way that the western man works the earth is incorrect and lacking in respect. His obsession for mono-cultivations is not natural, it is unhealthy. Each plant needs other plants for support, help, company, and to avoid the total exhaustion of the ground’s nutrients.

The globalization and consumerism model looks for greater volumes of production and the maximization of yields, forcing the earth to produce more. Then, they do not concern themselves with letting the earth get the rest it needs to regain its strength. They give the earth minimum time to recuperate, and then they plant their seeds again, without stopping to think of the damage that will result in the future from this.

The same is happening with our rivers, the atmosphere, etc.

It must be because in The Bible, their God sentenced them to win their bread with the sweat from their brow, for the sin committed, thus turning work into a punishment.

This is not the case for the Andean man. Work is a sport, a party, social relationships, interaction, brotherhood.

Finally, we see that all that western consumerism thinking has achieved is that life in their cities is becoming harder and more tense. Stress, anguish, depression, are all evils of this society, created by this way of thinking, and have placed man in a state of nervous tension that threatens to tear the thread of his physical life.

This is because his society and aspirations were sustained by lies about their development. And lies can only produce sickness and death.

Today we see that western society is ill. It has created desperate people, with a need to consume more and more, as a way of showing that their social status is greater than their neighbour’s, when if fact it benefits no one at all. Excess consumption becomes harmful, for our spiritual and physical health.

This is why an Indian never lies, and the reason lies are looked down on and heavily sanctioned in Andean communities. The Indian is surprised to see that western law and justice does not punish lies, but the reason is simple: their lives themselves are a lie.

We do not believe we should glorify ourselves for being wise scientists or great philosophers, nor consider ourselves inventors of some great truth we attempt to impose on everyone.

It is the contrary, we do not go out to search for the truth because it is already within us, all species have it, since we are all part of that great superior energy, and, when we talk with nature, our Mother Earth, she allows truth and knowledge to flow where it will, since our way of relating to her is vital, emotional, sensitive, through our terrains, rivers, sacred mountains, and all our surroundings.

The Aymara alpaca keepers tend to say that just as they raise the alpacas, the alpacas too raise them. In the Andean world we all create life, we raise each other and teach each other. Before deciding whether or not to plant our seeds in a certain place, we watch the birds, the insects, the frogs, etc., and they will tell us whether there will be drought or frost, which grain we should plant, or whether we should plant at all, or look for another ecologic ground to sow our seeds in.

Our wisdom is bestowed on us by nature, we do not take it from her. She makes it so that ideas and science flow over our spirit and rest in our minds. We do not need to demand that she prove to us that it is the truth, just as we do not force ourselves to believe her.

We simply believe, and observe that this is so. No Aymara or Quechua would ever think of asking his stomach to prove how it digests its food, or his lungs how they utilize the air that we breathe. This would not be of no interest to us, beyond mere curiosity.

What happens is that, when man has created a society based on lies and deceit, he needs to constantly prove that his wisdom, knowledge, science and laws are real not mere lies, though they are…….only apparently real.