Journal of Intercultural Communication | 2026
Authors: Oviedo A.; Escobedo L.; Diaz Y.A.S.; Martell H.F.; Rituay A.M.C.
DOI: 10.36923/jicc.v26i2.1448
Journal: Journal of Intercultural Communication
Year: 2026
Publisher: Immigrant Institutet
Document Type: Article
Open Access: All Open Access; Gold Open Access
Cited by: 0
This study aims at revising the onto-epistemological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic among the Awajún, an ethnolinguistic group inhabiting the Northern Peruvian Amazon, and how, in a context also fueled by historical marginalization and exclusion, this group experiences, confronts, and makes sense of public policy while developing agency, resistance, and knowledge production. For this purpose, we analyze the material, epistemological, and ontological aspects of the hierarchical relationships between the Peruvian state, its majority or core culture, and those categorized as ‘indigenous peoples’. In parallel, we collect and analyze the voices situated in the ethno-linguistic and socio-geographical discursive sphere of the Awajún to learn about their local interpretation of nation-wide political processes amid a global health crisis, the impact of such processes on their lives and experiences, and their own response mechanisms to such a crisis. As our findings indicate, while ontological insecurity and, more specifically, a fear of population control were present among the Awajún, they also implemented ontological translation and equivocation control, as well as identity politics by means of religious boundary blurring and self-reliance on formal and informal institutions. This allows us to conclude that, to them, COVID-19 meant both a health and an onto-epistemic crisis. The present article seeks to expand the rather limited research on the ontological and epistemological aspects that divide Peruvian society into ‘worthy’ and ‘unworthy’ in relation to the categories ‘non-indigenous’ and ‘indigenous,’ respectively. © 2026 by author(s).
Awajún People; COVID-19; Cultural Recognition; Epistemic Injustice; Identity Politics; Public Health; Structural Violence