Desafíos en la Diversidad

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HUMBOLDT KOLLEG 2023

Quito, Ecuador | Septiembre 12-15
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador
Fujita Mamoru
Fujita, Mamoru

Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus 

 

He has a background in Latin American studies and anthropology, a specialization in literature (oralitura) and Aymara oral history. Since 2003 he has collaborated with the Andean Oral History Workshop (La Paz, Bolivia). He is also involved in efforts to revitalize Ainu, an indigenous language of northern Japan.

 

Lecture

Aymara oral history as a philosophy of life

 

In this presentation, I will reflect on the narratives I have been collecting since 2009 from an Aymara old lady in Bolivia, from a community who lives in the Murillo province, in La Paz Department. Looking into the different narratives, one can find the relationship between the different aspects of life. In that sense, the oral story or a life’s story becomes a story about living the day-to-day. Here, I reference the debates about the suma gamaña (buen vivir or “good living”) in Aymara, and how the concept of “living” is expressed through an interrelation of different verbs in the Aymara language, making up an Aymara philosophy about living. So, combining the lexical analysis with the narrative analysis, I try to rethink the oral history notion from the narratives in the Aymara language and Andean Spanish.