Amazon modernities? Sexuality and the core-periphery divide (key-note lecture by Manuela Lavinas Picq)
Gay prides and same-sex marriage tend to be perceived as symbols of western modernity. Their opposite, the non-modern, is imagined in places like Amazonia and Indigenous peoples living in natures untouched by global forces. Yet there are gay prides and same-sex marriages in Amazonia too. There are drag queen contests in old rubber towns along forgotten rivers. There are Tikuna women defending homo-affective relationships as part of ancestral clan rules. Does that mean that Amazonia is modern and that Indigenous peoples are western? Stories of Amazon sexualities not only challenge assumptions about ‘modernity’ but also disrupt the core-periphery divide that organizes world politics. This talk engages peripheral knowledges for thinking global modernity, exploring the possibility to decolonize queer studies and queer decolonial studies.
Gay prides and same-sex marriage tend to be perceived as symbols of western modernity. Their opposite, the non-modern, is imagined in places like Amazonia and Indigenous peoples living in natures untouched by global forces. Yet there are gay prides and same-sex marriages in Amazonia too. There are drag queen contests in old rubber towns along forgotten rivers. There are Tikuna women defending homo-affective relationships as part of ancestral clan rules. Does that mean that Amazonia is modern and that Indigenous peoples are western? Stories of Amazon sexualities not only challenge assumptions about ‘modernity’ but also disrupt the core-periphery divide that organizes world politics. This talk engages peripheral knowledges for thinking global modernity, exploring the possibility to decolonize queer studies and queer decolonial studies.