SEEDS THAT SUSTAIN LIFE: EXPERIENCES OF INSURGENT BIOPOLITICAL CONSTRUCTION IN THE DEFENSE OF TERRITORIES AND THE COMMONS

Abstract

The expansion of a large-scale agricultural development model and of an economic policy based on commodities, mainly neo-extractivism, evidences the interest of transnational capital in expansion, especially in Latin American territory. In this context, the defense of territories and common goods is intrinsic to the historical resistance of native peoples, peasants, quilombolas and traditional populations of the region who, in confronting this new pattern of accumulation, propose political projects based on a different biopolitics. Thus, in defense of their territories and ways of life, these different peoples constitute a biocultural heritage, based on a collective memory, which has led them to the preservation and circulation of native seeds, “seeds of life” or “seeds of culture”. By preserving their seeds and, with them, the knowledge and social relations that accompany them, the indigenous peoples of the countryside, forests and waters oppose the expanded logic of capital, which treats seeds as marketable, sterile commodities dependent on inputs and pesticides. In this article, we present experiences of insurgent biopolitical constructions based on an onto-epistemic “apprehension” or understanding of seeds as critical life support, and their centrality in the defense of territories and common goods.