Language and knowledge: reflections from the indigenous vision

Abstract

This article is about language and indigenous knowledge reflection, particulary from the perspective of the ikoots culture and the ombeayiüts language. Speaking in the native language and about the indigenous knowledge shows the epistemological diversity on how we see and conceive the world. Language and culture are two inseparable entities that strengthen and size how we are and connect with the cosmos shaping our visions and ways of learning, teaching, doing and coexisting in social and cultural life. The words in the native language are usually “polisynthetic”, therefore, we can only get close to the meaning of that word by making an interpretation. That is why, in the classroom there are differences in the interpretation and meaning of the indigenous knowledge and the school knowledge making it complex to study the first one in the classroom.