ABSTRACT

This article critiques decoloniality theory, including its use of the notion of epistemic colonisation, from an animal perspective. It has two main parts. Part one is an internal critique of decoloniality theory. It introduces and comments on core decoloniality theory concepts and argues that, according to its assumptions, animals are illegitimately omitted from decoloniality theory. By excluding animals, decoloniality theory has not been consistently applied and is in that way anthropocentric. Part two is a reflexive critique of decoloniality theory. It starts by arguing that animals such as cattle are experiencers and knowers, with their own sensory and emotional experiences, and their own memories and ways of learning and knowing. Adopting decoloniality theory concepts such as the colonial matrix of power (CMP) and epistemic colonisation for the sake of argument, part two invokes historical examples of pre-colonial cattle’s ways of knowing, how coloniality repudiated cattle as experiential knowers, and how the CMP affected cattle by subjugating them into colonial economic and governance structures. This article concludes that by not recognising animals as experiential knowers impacted by epistemic colonisation, decoloniality theory is, with respect to animals, complicit in the coloniality of knowledge to which it seeks to respond.

摘要

本文从动物的角度批评非殖民性理论，包括其对认知殖民化概念的使用。它有两个主要部分。第一部分是对非殖民性理论的内部批判。它介绍并评论了非殖民性理论的核心概念，并认为根据其假设，动物被非法地排除在非殖民性理论之外。由于排除了动物，非殖民性理论并没有得到一致的应用，因此是以人类为中心的。第二部分是对非殖民性理论的反思性批判。它首先认为牛等动物是体验者和认识者，拥有自己的感官和情感体验，以及自己的记忆和学习和认识的方式。为了便于论证，第二部分采用非殖民性理论概念，例如殖民权力矩阵（CMP）和认知殖民化，引用了前殖民时期牛的认知方式的历史例子，殖民性如何否认牛作为经验知识者，以及 CMP 如何影响通过将牛纳入殖民经济和治理结构来消灭它们。本文的结论是，由于不承认动物是受认知殖民影响的经验知识者，非殖民性理论就动物而言，是它试图回应的知识殖民性的同谋。以及 CMP 如何通过将牛纳入殖民经济和治理结构来影响它们。本文的结论是，由于不承认动物是受认知殖民影响的经验知识者，非殖民性理论就动物而言，是它试图回应的知识殖民性的同谋。以及 CMP 如何通过将牛纳入殖民经济和治理结构来影响它们。本文的结论是，由于不承认动物是受认知殖民影响的经验知识者，非殖民性理论就动物而言，是它试图回应的知识殖民性的同谋。