In the context of spiritual aesthetics, aesthetic epistemicide can refer to the loss or destruction of spiritual knowledge and practices that are expressed through art and other forms of aesthetic expression. This can occur when certain forms of spiritual expression are suppressed or marginalized within a society or culture, resulting in the loss of valuable spiritual knowledge and cultural heritage.
Examples of spiritual aesthetic epistemicide include the suppression of indigenous spiritual practices by colonial powers, the destruction of sacred art and architecture during periods of political or religious conflict, and the marginalization of certain spiritual practices within mainstream religious institutions.
To prevent spiritual aesthetic epistemicide, it is important to recognize the value of diverse spiritual practices and the role that art and aesthetics play in expressing and preserving spiritual knowledge. This can involve supporting efforts to preserve and promote traditional spiritual practices and art forms, as well as exploring new and emerging forms of spiritual expression.
It is also important to recognize that spiritual aesthetic epistemicide is often linked to larger systems of power and oppression, such as colonialism, racism, and religious intolerance. To combat spiritual aesthetic epistemicide, it is necessary to work towards creating more equitable and inclusive societies that value and celebrate diverse spiritual practices and worldviews. This can involve supporting efforts to decolonize spiritual practices and knowledge, as well as promoting interfaith and intercultural dialogue and understanding.
Karen Bennett: English academic discourse, which emerged in the 17th century as a vehicle for the new rationalist/scientific paradigm, was initially a vehicle of liberation from the stifling feudal mindset. Spreading from the hard sciences to the social sciences and on to the humanities, it gradually became the prestige discourse of the Anglophone world, due no doubt to its associations with the power structures of modernity (technology, industry and capitalism); today, mastery of it is essential for anyone wishing to play a role on the international stage. The worldview that this discourse encodes is essentially positivist; it privileges the referential function of language at the expense of the interpersonal or textual and crystallizes the dynamic flux of experience into static, observable blocs, rendering the universe passive, inert and devoid of meaning. Despite its obvious limitations for dealing with a decentred, multi-faceted, post-modern reality, its hegemonic status in the world today is such that other knowledges are rendered invisible or are swallowed up in a process of ‘epistemicide’. This paper examines this process from the point of view of the translator, one of the primary gatekeepers of western academic culture. Drawing on surveys carried out in 2002 of Portuguese academics working in the humanities, it attempts to discover just what happens to the very different worldview encoded in traditional Portuguese academic discourse during the process of translation, and goes on to discuss the political and social consequences of the ideological imperialism manifest in editorial decisions about what counts as ‘knowledge’ in today’s world.
A spiritual Ishmaelite 