This Women’s History Month, we are publishing an interview with Colombian anthropologist Alejandra Osejo-Varona (Rice University). Her ethnographic work is influenced by Latin American feminist epistemologies and Science and Technology Studies (STS), so we thought it would be valuable to share her perspective on multimodal ethnographic research. Nicolás Gaitán-Albarracín and I conducted this interview via videoconference. In this conversation, Osejo-Varona tells us how she collaborates with different scientific communities to explore new ways of listening to the beings that live underwater. Technologies such as microphones, hydrophones, algorithms, model maps, and spectrograms allow us to imagine other ways of relating with the species living in rivers, especially those cataloged as “invasive” in socio-ecosystems of Colombia. These new methodological approaches open forms of collaborative and interdisciplinary work to construct new sensitivities and empathies capable of envisioning other human and non-human worlds.
Nápoles, Puerto Triunfo (Colombia). Image by the author
Karina Aranda-Escalante: Hello, Alejandra. Thank you for accepting our invitation. Please tell us about yourself and your current interests.
Alejandra Osejo-Varona: Hi, Karina and Nicolás, of course. I am a Colombian woman who speaks from the southwestern part of Colombia. I was born in the mountains of Cauca and grew up there, in a department that is very south of the country, almost on the border with Ecuador. These are territories near moorlands (páramos), espeletia (frailejones) and mountains, very magical places where water is born and runs through Colombia. I grew up amazed by the diversity of beings, animals, and plants, which, woven into the life of human beings, create a beautiful and powerful territory. These places have also suffered greatly from the consequences of the violence and war that have structured Colombia’s history, especially the history of this region. I am a woman situated in this time and space, trying to understand a different way of framing these complexities and creating alternative ways of imagining the present and the future. This has led to my interest in anthropology and ethnography as a way of being in the world.
Nicolás Gaitán-Albarracín: Alejandra. How do you understand traditional anthropology and ethnography? What would be the contribution of Latin American feminist perspectives?
Alejandra Osejo-Varona: For me, anthropology is a way of exploring what it is to be human. It starts with very specific questions about differences, such as biological diversity and the role of culture and language. In this sense, it plays a role in making totalizing perspectives uncomfortable. On the other hand, ethnography allows us to pay attention to details. It helps us to be very careful and to see differences where other methods cannot see them. Ethnographers converse with others to access other ways of seeing, living, and being. For this reason, anthropology has traditionally focused on dialogue and words. This explains why rationality and textuality have played such an important role.
More recently, Latin American feminist anthropology has deconstructed colonial assumptions and values. More contemporary approaches try to think outside the Eurocentric gaze, which sees white males as the ideal of humanity. It has also led us to rethink how we have established boundaries and relations between humans and other animals, machines, artifacts, and infrastructures. Feminist critiques and environmental anthropology explore the human and the non-human as something in constant production in relation to other beings. This has helped to relativize the centrality of word and vision. It has made it possible to draw on other senses to produce ethnographic knowledge and has given rise to new, more experimental methods.
Karina Aranda-Escalante: How do these concerns inform the materiality and the media you chose to conduct your ethnographic investigations?
Alejandra Osejo-Varona: Learning from others has been crucial in my project and current research interests. I reached out to interdisciplinary scientific communities that study sound and listen to the beings that live underwater using hydrophones, algorithms, models, maps, and spectrograms. They have very similar questions to the ones I ask in anthropology: What does a hippopotamus hear? How does a fish communicate? When I meet communities of scientists who ask how other beings listen and feel, exciting possibilities for collective work emerge. These communities empower my imagination to ask questions about species considered “invasive.” How would it be possible to build collective and shared futures with these beings? My work is about learning to listen to the present with the tools that result from those dialogues.
I am currently conceptualizing what I call ‘infrastructures for coexistence’ (infraestructuras para la convivencia). These are technologies that facilitate less violent coexistence with other species. For example, my research on hippos in Colombia shows how locals have developed a specific type of infrastructure that marks their path and keeps them away from crops and land used for livestock, where their presence can be destructive. This approach fosters the development of alternative perspectives on coexistence, creating new forms of empathy and sensitivity. It also generates novel inquiries for both ethnography and science.
A similar finding emerged from my flash ethnography on turtles. Conventional conservation practices require the removal of turtle eggs from their nesting sites. Women scientists now ask new questions with a distinctly caring and empathetic approach, such as: “Are we cutting off a relationship between the mother turtle and her offspring by removing them from their original environment?” These researchers propose that we attend to the sounds produced by these creatures. By doing so, we can acquire knowledge and cultivate relationships of care towards other species.
Turtle Farm in Cocorná, Puerto Triunfo (Colombia). Image by the author.
Nicolás Gaitán-Albarracín: What are the differences between doing ethnographies with beings that live on land and those that live underwater?
Alejandra Osejo-Varona: Humans can’t talk, hear, or see underwater. My research project specifically studies aquatic animals because they are far from human perception. It is complex to study aquatic animals because they are in constant motion, and not all waters are the same. Also, Colombia’s freshwaters are particularly dark. For this reason, I rely on the knowledge of local people who live near these ecosystems. Fisherfolks and river dwellers know the river’s flows and changes. I also use maps made by scientists, which employ sensor technologies to identify underwater life. In collaboration with biologists and engineers, I’m currently using recording devices to learn to listen to hippos and other aquatic animals and the landscapes themselves. Each element is part of a whole aquatic and terrestrial ecology. This ecology is not unrelated to the history of violence and armed conflict in Colombia. The river has seen dismembered bodies pass through its waters and has seen its banks affected by palm plantations and oil extraction. It is a river that is not detached from these events.
Karina Aranda-Escalante: In your text “Chocolate Nápoles: Another Story to Tell about Hippos, Drug Trafficking and Violence in Colombia,” you capture the methodological and ethnographic complexity you just mentioned. I was very excited to learn about this work, because it seems to me that it opens up new avenues for research on Latin America. I wonder how you understand your positionality within global STS?
Alejandra Osejo-Varona: My research questions emerge, firstly, from collaborations, conversations, and interactions with Latin American scientists who study biodiversity and, secondly, from communities of women who rethink their scientific practices from a feminist perspective. Let me give you a brief example. Some biologists today wonder why the existing records of birds are mainly of male birds. Ornithology has always assumed that males are the ones who sing because they sing to announce their presence and to seek mates. But these feminist ornithologists say: “Females sing too, and not just in response to males. The problem is that we are not trained to listen to those sounds”. It is not because we don’t have the technical devices but because we haven’t yet asked ourselves those questions. Feminist researchers aim to expand questions in bioacoustics, ornithology, and other fields. I am curious to see what we can learn about birds and other animals departing from these approaches. This is where I position myself, from empathy for these communities of women scientists.
The way we ask questions reflects a feminist position about territories and beings. A beautiful example is the work of a women’s collective called Viaje Sonoro, founded by a biologist, an ecologist, and an artist. They explore soundscapes from science and art, contrasting different ways of listening to nature, landscapes, and sound environments in different regions. This exercise allows us to learn to listen to the sounds of the sea and water from new parameters influenced by feminist and decolonial reflections.
Nicolás Gaitán-Albarracín: Thank you for that recommendation and this conversation; I enjoyed it so much.
Karina Aranda-Escalante: Thank you for accepting our invitation.
This post was curated by Multimodal Contributing Editor Karina Aranda-Escalante.
Listen to the Viaje Sonoro bio-eco-acoustic project.
References
Osejo-Varona, A. (2023, October 18). Chocolate Nápoles: Another Story to Tell about Hippos, Drug Trafficking and Violence in Colombia. Rice University. https://graduate.rice.edu/news/current-news/chocolate-napoles-another-story-tell-about-hippos-drug-trafficking-and-violence#:~:text=The%20unusual%20presence%20of%20hippos,Diego%20and%20Marcela%20live%20today.
Osejo-Varona, A. (2024, February 22). Audio Ethnographies of Water from Latin America: Aquatic, Attractions. Platypus. https://blog.castac.org/2024/02/audio-ethnographies-of-water-from-latin-america-aquatic-attractions/
