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Irigaray between God and the Indians : sexuate difference, decoloniality, and the politics of ontology
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Seely, Stephen D. (2017) Irigaray between God and the Indians : sexuate difference, decoloniality, and the politics of ontology. Australian Feminist Law Journal, 43 (1). pp. 41-65. doi:10.1080/13200968.2017.1322024
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WRAP-Irigaray-God-Indians-Seely-2017.pdf - Accepted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (691Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13200968.2017.1322024
Abstract
In this essay, I situate Irigaray’s philosophy of sexuate difference between the Heideggerian response to the collapse of the project of Western modernity (‘only a god can save us’) and that of decolonial theorist Oscar Guardiola-Riviera (‘only Indians can save our modern soul’). First, I return to Heidegger’s theorisation of ‘planetary technicity’ as the ontology of modernity, arguing, with Heidegger, that in order to respond to this problem we must return to the question of Being. From here, I link Heidegger’s theory of technicity with the work of decolonial theory on the ‘coloniality of Being’, suggesting that one reason for Heidegger’s pessimism is that he did not think technicity from beyond a Eurocentric perspective. The recent ‘ontological turn’ in decolonial anthropology that seeks to study Indigenous thought as ontology, however, shows that there are resources for thinking beyond the onto-logic of technicity. Yet, here, I return to Irigaray’s critique of Heidegger for his forgetting of sexuate difference in his analysis of technology to say that a move to a decolonial ontology beyond planetary technicity can only take place if we go through an ontology of sexual difference: because, as Irigaray shows, the onto-logic of technicity that underwrites coloniality and modernity begins in an ontological annihilation of life, sexuate difference, and the maternal debt, the only way to recover this is by thinking the question of sexuate difference. Finally, I conclude by examining the case of the Kogi peoples of Colombia who have warned Westerners that the destruction of the planet can only be stopped if we learn to recompense our common Mother. This case, I suggest, shows how and why the turn to non-Western ontologies as a way out of the death project of modern technicity must reckon with the work of Irigaray.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) F History United States, Canada, Latin America > F1201 Latin America (General) |
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| Divisions: | Other > Institute of Advanced Study | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Irigaray, Luce, Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976., Guardiola-Rivera, Óscar, Kagaba Indians | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Australian Feminist Law Journal | ||||||
| Publisher: | Taylor & Francis Australasia | ||||||
| ISSN: | 1320-0968 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 6 July 2017 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 43 | ||||||
| Number: | 1 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 41-65 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1080/13200968.2017.1322024 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Publisher Statement: | This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Australian Feminist Law Journal on 06 Jul 2017, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/13200968.2017.1322024 | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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