For a historiography of the "absences". The lived experience and the historical present as fundamental categories for the study of Latin American peasant subalternity

Abstract

During long passages in the history of Latin American historiography, a rather narrow conception of historical time has remained intact, whose attributes of linearity, homogeneity and monoculturality are a direct derivation of the European Philosophy of History. With the exception of reflections from other fields of research (mainly sociology, philosophy and anthropology), historiography has eluded a positioning —from its own epistemic and methodological needs— that could virtually contribute to the recovery of the experiential diversity of the subalternized sectors (peasants): experiences that the gordian knot of the modern creole time has permanently condemned the dark room of the traditional, the aftertaste and historical burden. In this article we propose to outline an alternative historical and methodological framework that, from a foundation of phenomenological, anthropological and present time, allows a re-reading of the "historical event" and the "defiant anomaly" as central categories for overcoming this inheritance.