Chapter II. The Song of Yoi: Science, knowledge, and know-how in the ancestral wisdom of the Ticuna people

Knowledge is said in many ways, and since we do things with words, knowledge is a set of practices. Knowledge, therefore, is a know-how, and science is a set of cultural practices that allow us to solve problems and agendas that arise from the lifeworld of diverse communities at specific moments in history and in specific spaces. Thus, this chapter, in a literary and philosophical tone, an epistemology of ancestral knowledge, as knowledge justified by the intersubjective validation that arises from a dialogue of knowledge and its adaptation to practices. Through an analysis of the ancestral knowledge of the Ticuna people, it proposes a pragmatic epistemology of ancestral knowledge that helps us avoid the excessiveness of classic perspectives of Western epistemology, in order to consider solutions to global problems and agendas of our time, such as global warming, water use, rainforest protection, intercultural recognition and dialogue, energy sustainability, equity, and social justice.