COVID-19 and the Awajún: An onto-epistemic crisis in the Northern Peruvian Amazon

Alondra Oviedo; Luis Escobedo; Yshoner Antonio Silva Diaz; Hugo Fujishima Martell; Angélica María Carrasco Rituay

doi:10.36923/jicc.v26i2.1448

Open Access Article Intercultural Communication

Alondra Oviedo ⁽¹⁾ , Luis Escobedo ⁽²⁾ , Yshoner Antonio Silva Diaz ⁽³⁾ , Hugo Fujishima Martell ⁽⁴⁾ , Angélica María Carrasco Rituay ⁽⁵⁾

1. Kuelap Institute of Archaeological and Anthropological Research, Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza National University of Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru

2. Romanian Society for Intercultural and Migration Studies (SoSIM), Bucharest, Romania

3. (a) Faculty of Health Sciences, Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza National University of Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru
(b) Institute of Intercultural Comprehensive Health Research, Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza National University of Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru

4. Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza National University of Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru

5. Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza National University of Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru

https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v26i2.1448

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Abstract

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.

Article Highlights:

COVID-19 created both a health and onto-epistemic crisis for the Awajún.
Historical marginalization shaped distrust of state-led pandemic responses.
Awajún narratives reveal insecurity and fears of population control.
Community responses combined medicinal plants, faith, and self-management.
Findings call for culturally grounded and epistemically just health policy.

Keywords

COVID-19 Awajún people public health structural violence epistemic injustice identity politics cultural recognition

Section

Articles

Issue

Vol. 26 No. 2 (2026)

Submitted

20 February 2026

Accepted

24 April 2026

Published

19 June 2026

Corresponding author

Luis Escobedo

DOI

https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v26i2.1448

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How to Cite

Oviedo, A., Escobedo, L., Silva Diaz, Y. A., Fujishima Martell, H., & Carrasco Rituay, A. M. (2026). COVID-19 and the Awajún: An onto-epistemic crisis in the Northern Peruvian Amazon. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 26(2), 143-154. https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v26i2.1448

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Authors

Alondra Oviedo

Kuelap Institute of Archaeological and Anthropological Research, Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza National University of Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8163-9188

Luis Escobedo

Romanian Society for Intercultural and Migration Studies (SoSIM), Bucharest, Romania

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6789-4297

luis.escobedo@sosim-institute.ro (Primary Contact)

Yshoner Antonio Silva Diaz

Faculty of Health Sciences, Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza National University of Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru
Institute of Intercultural Comprehensive Health Research, Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza National University of Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5665-5944

Hugo Fujishima Martell

Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza National University of Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru

Angélica María Carrasco Rituay

Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza National University of Amazonas, Chachapoyas, Peru

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2724-4684

Author Biographies

Alondra Oviedo

Alondra Oviedo holds an MA in Sociology from the University of Barcelona and a BA in Sociology from the National University of San Marcos (UNMSM), Lima, Peru. She currently works as a university lecturer and researcher at the Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza National University of Amazonas (UNTRM), in Chachapoyas, Peru, where she has also coordinated the Interdisciplinary Research Center on Culture and Society (CEIIN-CS). Her research focuses on gender studies, structural inequalities, and the politics around the indigenous peoples of the Peruvian Amazon.

Luis Escobedo

Luis Escobedo is a researcher and the co-founder of the Romanian Society for Intercultural and Migration Studies (SoSIM), based in Bucharest, Romania. He studies the historical-structural processes that have led Romania and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe and the Global South to reconsider ‘identity’ in relation to ethno-racial orders and new migrations, while analyzing their discourses, visuals, cultural artifacts, and collective memory. Since his doctorate at UW (Poland) and through lecturing and research appointments at ITESM (Mexico) and UFS (South Africa), Luis has aimed to contribute to human rights advocacy, social change, and epistemic justice. He has co-edited and co-authored the book Migrants, Thinkers, Storytellers (HSRC Press, 2021) and articles in journals such as Soccer & Society, Peace Review, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Intersections, and Earth Science, Systems and Society.

Yshoner Antonio Silva Diaz

Yshoner Antonio Silva Diaz is the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences (FACISA), and the Intercultural Integral Health Research Institute (ISI), at the National University Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza de Amazonas (UNTRM), Chachapoyas, Peru.

Hugo Fujishima Martell

Hugo Fujishima Martell is a lecturer at the National University Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza de Amazonas (UNTRM), Chachapoyas, Peru.

Angélica María Carrasco Rituay

Angélica María Carrasco Rituay is a graduate of Business Administration from the Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza de Amazonas (UNTRM), Chachapoyas, Peru. She has work experience in public investment projects and research in the fields of marketing, logistics, quality systems, and education.

How to Cite

Oviedo, A., Escobedo, L., Silva Diaz, Y. A., Fujishima Martell, H., & Carrasco Rituay, A. M. (2026). COVID-19 and the Awajún: An onto-epistemic crisis in the Northern Peruvian Amazon. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 26(2), 143-154. https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v26i2.1448

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COVID-19 and the Awajún: An onto-epistemic crisis in the Northern Peruvian Amazon

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