Epistemologies of the South, History of the Present Time and the Zapatist alter-native theory

Abstract

This article reflects on the historical bases that founded a hegemony in the epistemological field of the production of valid knowledge and, concomitantly, suppressed a vast universe of traditional knowledge, showing colonization as a historical event that, in addition to physical expropriations, also promoted a expropriation in the epistemological field of knowledge. Thus, one perceives the fragility of the said modern scientific paradigm to understand the complexities of the world, fostering discussions regarding a new insurgent scientific paradigm, linked to Southern Epistemologies and to Zapatist thinking, as paths to be followed in the search for an emerging paradigm, which comprehensively understands the relationships between men, between men and nature and with the very temporality in which it is inserted. Finally, it is concluded that this emergence of new scientific perceptions for knowledge raises new contributions to the construction and deconstruction of the frontiers of science and the scientist, in addition to questions about their practical role in the world.