Land and Self-Determination: A Comparative Analysis from the Cucapáh and Rabelados

GloPhi Fellows Dr. Fernando David Márquez Duarte and Dr. Rutte Faiza Andrade will present their joint research at the International Conference on Comparative Philosophy, held online on 14–15 August 2026 under the theme African Philosophy in Dialogue with Western and Eastern Philosophies. Their presentation forms part of the conference session on Environmental Ethics.

Under the title “Land and Self-determination: A Comparative Analysis of the Philosophies of the Cucapáh Indigenous group in Baja California, Mexico and the Rabelados in Cape Verde,” Márquez Duarte and Andrade examine philosophical understandings of land, self-determination, and the relation between them in two distinct communities: the Cucapáh Indigenous people of Baja California, Mexico, and the Rabelados of Cape Verde.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research, the presentation explores how both communities articulate conceptions of land that challenge its reduction to private property, commodity, or resource. Among the Rabelados, the idea of the earth (Tchon) constitutes a central foundation of struggles for self-determination. Land emerges as a living and spiritual reality, while practices such as the architecture of the funkus and dryland farming are interpreted as material expressions of autonomy and what the authors describe as a dissident ontology.

For the Cucapáh, land is inseparable from their relationship with the Colorado River and its tributaries. Fishing constitutes an important practice through which this relationality with the river is enacted. From this perspective, self-determination entails the possibility of living according to the community’s own ways of life and maintaining relations of reciprocity with the river. Land is thus understood not merely as something to be possessed or exploited, but as a living being with which human communities interact.

By bringing these two cases into comparative dialogue, the presentation highlights a shared connection between struggles for land and struggles for self-determination. In both contexts, the defense of land becomes inseparable from questions of autonomy, integrity, relationality, and the possibility of more just futures.

Event Details

International Conference on Comparative Philosophy
African Philosophy in Dialogue with Western and Eastern Philosophies
14–15 August 2026
Online via Zoom

Presentation: Saturday, 15 August 2026, 09:00–09:25 CEST / SAST (UTC+2)
Session V: Environmental Ethics

Join via Zoom:
https://wits-za.zoom.us/j/99586046962?pwd=hwBMij1RBWciUHE86FbiP8ndtbmANW.1

Meeting ID: 995 8604 6962
Passcode: 717167

About the Presenters

Dr. Fernando David Márquez Duarte is a Mexican scholar working at the intersection of decoloniality, Indigenous studies, and environmental justice, with a particular focus on Latin America and Abya Yala. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Riverside, and was a Short-Term Fellow at GloPhi from March to July 2026. For more than four years, he has collaborated with the Cucapáh Indigenous community in Baja California, Mexico, conducting research on Indigenous rights, political participation, language preservation, environmental justice, and self-determination. During his fellowship at GloPhi, his work focused on Cucapáh philosophical thought as articulated through language, cosmovision, oral traditions, and struggles for environmental justice and political autonomy.

Dr. Rutte Andrade is Professor at the University of International Integration of Afro-Brazilian Lusophony (UNILAB) and a Long-Term Fellow at GloPhi from January to September 2026. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in African Philosophy at the University of Ghana and holds a PhD in Social Sciences from the Federal University of Bahia, a master’s degree in Social Sciences from the University of Cape Verde, and a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the Higher Institute of Education in Cape Verde. Her research encompasses African philosophy, Afrocentric epistemologies, Pan-Africanism, African women and gender, ancestry, and the African diaspora. Her current work investigates Afro-diasporic philosophies and embodied epistemologies grounded in orality, memory, community, and cosmoperception, with particular attention to Cape Verde and Afro-Brazilian contexts.

Full Program of the Conference