Sharing Life. the Ecopolitics of Reciprocity

This assemblage of 12 stories, poetry, song, artwork and academic writings, speaks about alternative worldviews and traditional knowledge systems of the people of Northeast India and beyond. Based on the recognition of co-existence of different ways of knowing, practicing or being, the assemblage highlights a felt need to inquire and experience the affinities, divergences, complementarities and contradictions between them.  Evolving around the main essay “Sharing life. The Ecopolitics of Reciprocity” and based on a common understanding of the importance of indigenous knowledge systems and practices, the contributors to this assemblage visualize a wealth of indigenous epistemologies and encourage us to un-learn, de-theorize and re-assemble ourselves and our
present thinking and methodologies. The contributions reflect on these suggestions, while providing us with a look into traditional, cultural and spiritual practices, mainly stemming from indigenous knowledge systems far beyond the region into a larger eco-geographical space. All contributions reflect a common understanding that ecology and biodiversity needs to reclaimed – and constantly generated – as a process of lived and living realities in a system of reciprocal relationships between human and other than human beings. The work should be understood as a production in flux and as an invitation to a dialogue about an alternative thinking of alternatives.