Knowledge as Collective Inheritance

Sor Juana's vast learning encompassed theological, scientific, literary, and philosophical traditions—knowledge she treated as rightfully hers despite her social position. This concept challenges the commodification of knowledge under capitalism, where education becomes privatized, monetized, and gatekept according to class. Structural disadvantage is perpetuated partly through knowledge inequality: certain populations are denied access to information, history, and frameworks necessary for understanding and resisting their conditions. Framing knowledge as collective inheritance asserts that intellectual traditions belong to humanity, not class-privileged gatekeepers. This framework supports open access to learning, validates folk knowledge and oral traditions as legitimate, and recognizes that liberation requires widespread intellectual capacity. For communities experiencing disadvantage, this concept justifies claiming knowledge as right rather than privilege, and sharing learning as solidarity.