Buscando lo nuestro, The search for an educational culture among the Curripaco of the Colombian Guainia, Upper Rio Negro. (original) (raw)
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Patrimonio Cultural y Espacio Náutico: Nuevas Perspectivas Interpretativas en el Caribe Colombiano
Abstract Book. 4ta Conferencia Regional APOYOnline: “Conectar, empoderar, transformar: la conferencia virtual para estudiantes y profesionales emergentes en patrimonio cultural”, 2021
El Caribe colombiano ha sido espectador de una gran cantidad de fenómenos históricos y recientes que han producido profundos impactos en la trayectoria sociohistórica del país en su plano territorial, costero y marítimo. Los procesos pasados y presentes han tenido la capacidad de constituir distintas manifestaciones del Patrimonio Cultural, expresado en términos tangibles e intangibles. Como se puede observar en múltiples espacios y tiempos, el Patrimonio Cultural es dinámico, pues no está sujeto a condiciones estáticas que limitan su reconocimiento e interpretación. En el ámbito colombiano caribeño, una de las tendencias que se han aplicado para entender las dinámicas socioculturales que involucran el Patrimonio Cultural han sido las aproximaciones teóricas del Paisaje Cultural Marítimo. De la mano con esta visión, una nueva corriente interpretativa ha sido propuesta en los últimos años interesada por el Espacio Náutico, entendido como la agrupación de relaciones que existen entre las embarcaciones de distintos tipos (que han permitido la interrelación sociohistórica en el Caribe) con un escenario físico en el que interactúan y funcionan. Allí se conjugan los contextos terrestres y marinos, donde es igual de relevante el elemento de navegación que el conocimiento con el cuál se lleva a cabo esta acción. En este orden de ideas, el objetivo de la presente ponencia consiste en exponer el intrínseco vínculo que existe en el Caribe colombiano entre el Patrimonio Cultural y la noción de Espacio Náutico, el cual permite interpretar y entender en mejor media este escenario integrador, conector y dinámico con gran relevancia en los itinerarios locales. Como tal, se puede observar la manifestación creciente de una nueva visión y tendencia interpretativa del Patrimonio Cultural, el cual puede actuar como un eje de transformador para las comunidades locales. Lo anterior, considerando que Colombia es un país marítimo en el que la presencia de sus dos océanos a norte y oeste configura un espacio con múltiples manifestaciones materiales e inmateriales de los Patrimonios Culturales Marítimos, Costeros y Náuticos. Para todo esto, en la ponencia se abordarán dos aproximaciones particulares que se han venido generando desde el Grupo de Estudios “Territorios Líquidos” de la Facultad de Estudios del Patrimonio Cultural de la Universidad Externado de Colombia, al puerto de Cartagena de Indias y a la Península de La Guajira. En estas dos áreas, se han llevado a cabo aproximaciones interdisciplinarias vinculando las herramientas analíticas de la antropología, arqueología, historia, etnografía, geografía y demás disciplinas afines al mar, identificando desde un enfoque diacrónico prácticas, conocimientos, saberes y materialidades del Patrimonio Cultural Marítimo. Esta aproximación integradora permite considerar, por ende, el marco de acción del Patrimonio Cultural como medio de empoderamiento al actuar como instrumento analítico, divulgativo y pedagógico. En este caso puntual, el Espacio Náutico enriquece dichas perspectivas de cambio, enmarcadas en estas nuevas visiones y tendencias, puesto que en él se enmarcan los Patrimonios Culturales en sus múltiples escalas espaciotemporales, dinámicas y cambiantes con el pasar del tiempo.
Indigenous Struggles for Land and Culture in Cauca, Colombia
The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2005
This article examines the multiple and interrelated struggles of the indigenous population-composed in the main of smallholding peasants-of Cauca in Colombia. The article discusses not only their struggles against economic exploitation, political and cultural oppression, and military violence, therefore, but their role in a revolutionary process that seeks to build a society based on social justice and respect for human rights. Through a peaceful and persistent collective action, they have recovered a large part of their ancestral territories, elevated the level of literacy and conscientization, and revived many aspects of indigenous culture. However, the intensification in militarization and repression that has accompanied neo-liberal economic policies imposed 'from above' has in effect undermined the formal recognition by the Colombian Constitution of their territorial and cultural rights. It is argued here that current mobilization undertaken by indigenous communities is characterized by two interrelated challenges: resistance that is peaceful, plus a failure to transcend locality and to ally with other non-rural anti-systemic movements. INTRODUCT ION The indigenous people of Cauca in Colombia share many of the problems encountered by the rest of the indigenous populations throughout Latin America. However, they are also confronted with an additional difficulty less evident in other Latin American countries: namely, the repressive apparatus of the Colombian state-its armed forces assisted by right-wing paramilitary groups-that has a well-deserved reputation for being among the worst human rights violators in the hemisphere. This level of physical violence directed against rural communities is linked in turn to the current attempt by a Colombian government sympathetic to corporate interests to restructure agriculture along neo-liberal lines, a process that impoverishes peasant livelihoods and aggravates the misery of those already living in poverty.
Ethno-education (etnoeducación) – formal education for ethnic minorities – is one of the key features defining Colombia as a multicultural nation. For the state and mainstream Colombian, it means the materialization of the push for modernity and inclusion, as ‘other,’ of indigenous peoples into a neoliberal multicultural nation. While for indigenous peoples, it is a pivotal mechanism of resistance, based on their struggle to maintain their ethnic identity, seek self-determination, and gain the necessary knowledge to successfully adapt to an intercultural context. As the Wayuu of Siapana, La Guajira, conceptualize it, etnoeducación is the instrument that allows them to ‘salir adelante’ (get ahead) and ‘ser alguien en la vida’ (to become someone in life), that can help them take control over their present and future, while redeeming the failures of the past. Etnoeducación – and thus the subjectivities it fosters – results from the convergence of many different processes and interests. Drawing from my ethnographic research in a Colombian Wayuu Internado (boarding school) and its surrounding community, this paper elucidates how these forces constitute the subjectivities of Wayuu students, shaping their desires, decisions, meanings, and possibilities, while placing contradictions and challenges in the Wayuu struggle for self-determination happening under a context of unequal power relations.
Ethnomathematics: A Political Tool For Latin America (Translation: Molly Tun)
We analyze how the political dimension of ethnomathematics can be an effective tool for eurocentrism. Our thesis is that ethnomathematics is a useful tool for defending the mathematical knowledge of the communities in Latin America that are facing globalization, the specialization of the sciences, colonization, official histories, and the existence of a single truth, and can be used to develop a more inclusive, pertinent, and meaningful mathematics education. To support this thesis, we present three experiences where ethnomathematics played a main role in creating awareness of and revaluing this knowledge. In addition we present a work proposal to be used in the classroom that shows how to go from using ethnomathematics like a motivating element to an element of cultural valorization. We conclude by showing how ethnomathematics, and its political dimension in particular, contributes to the search for a better education, in line with the educational goals established by the Organization of Iberoamerican States (OEI). RESUMO Analisamos como a dimensão política da Etnomatemática pode ser uma ferramenta eficaz para enfrentar o eurocentrismo. A nossa tese é que a Etnomatemática é uma ferramenta útil para a defesa dos conhecimentos matemáticos das comunidades da América Latina frente à globalização, à especialização das ciências, à colonização, às histórias oficiais, bem como à existência de uma única verdade, que podem ser utilizados para desenvolver uma educação matemática mais abrangente, pertinente e significativa. Para apoiarmos essa tese, apresentamos três experiências em que a etnomatemática desempenhou um papel importante para a conscientização e para a reavaliação desse conhecimento. Além disso, apresentamos uma proposta de trabalho
In an analysis of the novel “José Tombé”, by Colombian anthropologist Diego Castrillón Arboleda, this paper explains why, in the heads of colombian intellectuals, indigenous leaders face the same tragic fate as the hero in the novel: capable of taking power away from the hands of the “white men” who exploited him, but incapable of dealing with power once it is in his hands. The article underlines the contradictions present in the main character of the novel “José Tombé”, his similarities with real indigenous leaders of the Colombian indigenous movements, and the author's real life actions and contradictions with the message of his novel. The novel “José Tombé” was written in the early 1930s and published in 1942. This tragic novel narrates the adventures of an indigenous leader who rose against exploitation and injustice imposed upon his family by white landowners, to build an indigenous movement that tore off white local power. The novel reveals a certain representation of indigenous organizations and leaders that prevails in the heads of academics and other intellectuals dealing with indigenous rights. This representation implies that indigenous peoples are both heroic for having stood the domination and exploitation of the national society but, at the same time, are incapable of dealing with the responsibilities of national political life, and they lack capacity to make their own political decisions. En un análisis de la novela colombiana "José Tombé" del antropólogo colombiano diego Castrillón Arboleda, este artçiulo sugiere que, en elpensamiento social y entre los intelectuales colombianos, los líderes indígenas enfrentan el mismo destino trágico del héroe de la novela: capaz de arrebatarle el poder a los blancos, pero incapaz de lidiar con el poder una vez en sus manos. El artículo analiza las contradicciones del pensamiento del autor con el mensaje de su novela. En último término, se trata de una reflexión sobre el llamado "indigenismo" en Colombia.