Description
Weaponry, and especially weapon systems, are traditionally defined in Military
Studies and International Security by their purpose instruments of violence. From
this perspective, weaponry is conceived as a technical element meant to optimize
and maximize the capacity for violence. The impact of this view on the field leads
to the assumption that technical artifacts are not subject to evaluative, theoretical,
or conceptual considerations, even though they are among the explanatory
elements of international security dynamics. This paper addresses this issue
through a critical conceptual framework drawn from Science and Technology
Studies (STS) and Critical Military Studies (CMS). Rejecting the notion of a single,
autonomous Technology, we seek to identify and discuss the characteristics of
what we call alternative military cosmotechnics. We argue that weaponry offers a
critical threshold for accessing a complex network of relationships that
encompass diverse actors, knowledges, interests, practices, and temporalities.
Drawing on secondary sources, we apply technography— an interdisciplinary
methodology for the detailed study of skills, tools, knowledges, and techniques in
everyday life—to analyze how weaponry is articulated within the warrior
cosmotechnics of certain South American Indigenous peoples. This approach
provides analytical tools to outline technopolitical perspectives that challenge
hegemonic technology, enabling the imagination of alternative technological
futures grounded in different cosmotechnical concepts. The findings aim to
contribute to broadening the research agenda within the fields of STS and CMS.
