Technodiversité: entre l'ordre magique sacré et le contrôle technico-scientifique

Abstract

Here we will explore the symbolic imaginary that underlies the technical-productive activities of ancient Mexico, the metamorphoses, abandonment or persistence of this imaginary through indigenous resistance in the light of the contemporary ecological crisis. Our exploration focuses on two fundamental technical-productive activities: the cultivation of maize and mining. We propose bringing together the instrumental knowledge of the pre-Columbian world with modern scientific-technical knowledge. This meeting, on the one hand, will allow us to overcome the typical split between magic -superstition- and science, and on the other hand, to discover more than the differences, the common symbolic imaginary on which the instrumentation of techné is based. In the same way, we will be able to differentiate the qualitative ethics that articulate each of these imaginaries. In the first case, a kind of ethical aesthetic a priori about the efficacy and regulation of the social system of needs and the ecological environment; in the second case, in contrast, the authoritarian affirmation of a single principle of hyper-technical domination based on the exploitation of nature and oriented towards human obsolescence.