Tesis Oscar Forero

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CONTENT

CONTENT..................................................................................................................................................1

PREFACE...................................................................................................................................................5

Why Amazonia?...... ............. .............. ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ........... 5 Why Political Ecology?. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. .............. .... 6 Why Political Ecology of Northwest Amazonia?......... ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ........... 7

CHAPTER 1: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, INDIGENOUS MANAGEMENT ANDPOLITICAL ECOLOGY, AN INTRODUCTION........... .............. ............. .............. ............ .............. .... 8

1.1 The Making of Sustainable Development ............. .............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ......... 8 1.1.1 Science on, Religion off ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. .......... 1.1.2 Reductionism versus Holism............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .............. .. 1.1.3 The same old development is now sustainable ............. ............. ............ .............. ......... 1 1.1.4 Why bother about Sustainable Development?.............. ............. .............. ............ ............ 1

1.2 Indigenous Peoples and Sustainability......... .............. ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. ..... 16

1.3 Scope of the Research ...................................................................................................................... 19 1.4 Aims.................................................................................................................................................. 21

CHAPTER 2: GETTING THERE .................................................................................................. 22

2.1 The Beginnings. ............. .............. ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ......... 22 2.2 More on Territorialisation ...............................................................................................................23 2.3 Knowing the Rainforest People.. ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ......... 24 2.4 The House of the Shaman..... .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .............. .. 26 2.5 Healing Shaman ............................................................................................................................... 27 2.6 A year Later......... ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ....... 30 2.7 Territorialisation and Conflicts........... .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ . 31 2.8 A Functionary of the State....... ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ . 34 2.9 A Public Audience and the Same Old Political Business .............. ............. .............. ............ ............ 35 2.10 Getting to know the Indigenous Movement in the Amazon....... .............. ............. .............. ............ . 38 2.11 Tukanoan Territory ........................................................................................................................ 39 2.12 Conclusion of Chapter Two....... ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ......... 41

CHAPTER 3: TERRITORIALITY AND GOVERNANCE IN THE COLOMBIAN AMAZON 43

3.1 What this Chapter is About .............................................................................................................. 43 3.2 Territoriality... .............. ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ ............ 43

3.2.1 The case of informal workers in the garbage recycling process in Bogot ............ ............ 4 3.3 Territorial Ordering Process among Indigenous Amazonian Peoples.......... ............ .............. ......... 45 3.4 Indigenous Territoriality ............. ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ......... 47 3.5 Indigenous Governance and the Defence of the Territory ............ ............. .............. ............ ............ 49

3.5.1 Violation of a Sacred Place ................................................................................................ 5 3.5.2 Forcing an Administrative Procedure through an Accin de Tutela ................................53

3.6 From Territoriality to Governance .................................................................................................. 55 3.6.1 The conflict provoked by different perspectives on environmental management ........... 5 3.6.2 TheColono s Perspective......... ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ ............ 56


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3.7 State Reforms and the Indigenous Territorial Ordering Process.. ............. .............. ............ ............ 58 3.8 Radicalism and Conflict ................................................................................................................... 59 3.9 Conclusion: Amazon and the Complexities of the Territorial Ordering Process................ ............ . 62

CHAPTER 4: THE MARCH OF THE MANIKINS. AGROFORESTRY PRACTICES ANDSPIRITUAL DANCING.......................................................................................................................... 64

4.1 What this Chapter is About .............................................................................................................. 64 4.2 Indigenous Peoples and Sustainability......... .............. ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. ..... 64 4.3 Rituals and Myths: there and here ........... ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ......... 68 4.4 The Place and the Peoples ...............................................................................................................72 4.5 The Origins.......... ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ....... 74

4.5.1 The Lake of the Manikins .................................................................................................. 4.5.2 Who are these characters and what do they sing about?................... .............. ............. ....... 7

4.6 The Performance.............................................................................................................................. 77 4.7 Discussion ........................................................................................................................................ 81 4.8 Conclusions to Chapter Four .............. ............. .............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ . 83

CHAPTER 5: THE SEMANTICS OF HUMAN SECURITY IN NORTHWEST AMAZONIA:BETWEEN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES MANAGEMENT OF THE WORLD AND THE USASTATE SECURITY POLICY FOR LATIN AMERICA .............. ............. .............. ............ .............. .. 85

5.1 Human Security, Security for Whom?............... ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ ............ 85 5.2 The Nation State and Human Security ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ......... 88 5.3 Exploring the Local Perspective in NWA............ ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ ............ 90 5.4 The Management of the World and the Challenge of Extractive Economies ............ .............. ......... 92

5.4.1 White peoples ways of living compete with traditional indigenous ways of Managing theWorld 94

5.5 Diverging Discourses Surrounding Amazonian Territorial Ordering and Indigenous Peoples ...... 96 5.6 Is Indigenous Territorial Policy Plausible? ............ .............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ....... 98

5.7 The USA and Counter-Insurgence.................... .............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ........... 100 5.8 Conclusion: Plan Colombia or the Closing of a Vicious Cycle ............. .............. ............ .............. 103

CHAPTER 6: INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND THE SCIENTIFIC MIND: ACTIVISMOR COLONIALISM? ...........................................................................................................................106

6.1 Introduction..... ............. ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .......... 106 6.2 Part One: The Path to Ethnosciences ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .............. 109

6.2.1 The others and me....................................................................................................... 1 6.2.2 Behind economic motives ................................................................................................ 1 6.2.3 Reminiscences.................................................................................................................. 1 6.2.4 From exploration to economic botany ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. ....... 11 6.2.5 Ethnobotany: the other as equal? ............ ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. ... 11

6.3 Part two: The Path Towards a Political Ecology of Northwest Amazonia............ ............ .......... 125 6.3.1 Modern democracy in the Colombian Amazon ............ ............. .............. ............ .......... 12 6.3.2 Complexities and transformations............. .............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ..... 12 6.3.3 Getting the job done ......................................................................................................... 1 6.3.4 The specialists: the changing of power structure ............. ............. ............ .............. ....... 13 6.3.5 Varied outcomes...... .............. ............. .............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ........... 13

6.4 Conclusions to Chapter Six .......... .............. ............. .............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ..... 134


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CHAPTER 7: SKETCHES FROM INSIDE.......... .............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ..... 137

7.1 Introduction..... ............. ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .......... 137 7.2 On Technological Gadgets and Cultural Contact ........... .............. ............. .............. ............ .......... 137 7.3 Filming Project, my Framing .............. ............. .............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ........... 139 7.4 Sketches of the Use of a Video Camera in an Indigenous Settlement of NWA ............. ............. ..... 142

7.4.1 Sketch one ........................................................................................................................ 1 7.4.2 Sketch two........................................................................................................................ 1 7.4.3 Sketch three...................................................................................................................... 1 7.4.4 Sketch four ....................................................................................................................... 1

CHAPTER 8: TECHNOLOGY IN NORTHWEST AMAZONIA. VIEWS OF VIEWS:SUSTAINABILITY, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND TERRITORIAL ORDERING...

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8.1 Aims................................................................................................................................................ 145 8.2 Deconstruction of an Internet Generated Discourse...... ............ .............. ............. .............. ........... 146 8.3 Views of Indigenous Environmental Management ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ....... 147 8.4 The Contrasting Discourses Obtained from the Questionnaires... ............. .............. ............ .......... 149 8.5 Website Evaluation........ .............. ............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ....... 150 8.6 Q1 Are Development and Sustainability Compatible?............ .............. ............. .............. ........... 151

8.6.1 Development first............................................................................................................. 1 8.6.2 SD: human - environmental security ............ ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. ... 15 8.6.3 Sustainability is an aim......... ............. ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. .............. 1 8.6.4 The need for local definitions..... ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ....... 15 8.6.5 Semantics and the economic imperative ........... .............. ............. .............. ............ .......... 15 8.6.6 SD inconsistent with the present ......................................................................................15 8.6.7 Greening politics ..............................................................................................................1

8.7 Non-conclusive comment on Q1. ............ ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .......... 156 8.8 Q2 - Is there a relationship between Indigenous Reserves (IR) and Protected Areas (PA)?.... 159

8.8.1 Harmony or the need for it ............................................................................................... 1 8.8.2 Utopia............................................................................................................................... 1 8.8.3 Contamination and cultural imposition ............................................................................16 8.8.4 Analytical responses................. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .......... 1 8.8.5 The politics involved........................................................................................................ 1

8.9 Non-conclusive comment on Q2. ............ ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .......... 163 8.10 Q3 Do you think that the concepts of Protected Areas, Indigenous Reserves (IR) and Sustainable Development are useful for Environmental Management today?........... ............ .......... 166

8.10.1 Environmental indians and contamination risk ............ .............. ............. .............. ........... 16 8.10.2 Principles as instruments .............. ............. .............. ............ ............. .............. .............. .... 1 8.10.3 Risk and protection......... .............. ............. .............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ..... 1 8.10.4 The need for integration and its impediments ............. ............. .............. ............ .............. 16 8.10.5 Dynamism ........................................................................................................................ 1 8.10.6 The need for new concepts Q3 ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ....... 17

8.11 Non-conclusive comment on Q3............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ....... 170 8.12 Q4 - Should Environmental Managers get Involved in the Territorial Ordering Process (TOP) of

Amazonia?........ ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .............. 173 8.12.1 EMs are the ones: .............................................................................................................1 8.12.2 EMs and scientists figure out the solutions and take the decisions: ............ .............. ....... 17 8.12.3 Indigenous peoples direct EMs ........................................................................................ 17 8.12.4 EMs have equal rights to participate as other stakeholders ............. ............ .............. ....... 17 8.12.5 The apolitical EM:................. .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ........... 1 8.12.6 The political participation of EMs......... ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .......... 17 8.12.7 EMs as facilitators of the dialog between IK and WS:............. .............. ............ .............. 17


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8.12.8 Capacity, ability and quality of EMs:................ .............. ............. .............. ............ .......... 17 8.12.9 Political risks, EMs have a tough job: ........... .............. ............. .............. ............ .............. 17

8.13 Summarising Q4.. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. ... 175 8.14 Non-conclusive comment on Q4............. ............. ............. .............. ............. ............ .............. ....... 178 8.15 Discussion ....................................................................................................................................178 8.16 Conclussions to Chapter Eight... .............. ............. .............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ..... 186

CHAPTER 9: ACIYA IN THE 21 st CENTURY...........................................................................187 9.1 Introduction..... ............. ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .......... 187 9.2 Getting There: an Environment of Political Conflict ............ ............ ............. .............. ............. ..... 187 9.3 Indigenous Peoples Resistance to War ............ ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ........... 189 9.4 Indigenous Development? ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ ............. .............. ............. ..... 192 9.5 External Help and Sustainability ................................................................................................... 196 9.6 COAMA: a Bigger Picture .............................................................................................................205 9.7 A Way Forward .............................................................................................................................. 206

CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................................................208

Adaptation and Shamanism........ .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .............. 208 Indigenous Peoples Rights ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ............ .......... 209 The USA and Amazonians ............. ............ .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ........... 212

Research and Activism ......................................................................................................................... 214 The role of ICT..................................................................................................................................... 216

Narratives and Counter-Narratives .......... .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ........... 217 Challenges to the Social Movement .......... .............. ............. ............ .............. ............. .............. ........... 218

REFERENCES.......................................................................................................................................220

Figures:Figure 1: Map of the Yaigoj Resguardo.Figure 2: Drawing of the Amazon Basin...2

Tables:Table 1: Q1- Do you think that 'development' and 'sustainability' are compatible?..1Table 2: Q2- Do you think there is any relation between 'indigenous reserves' (IR) and 'protected areas'(PS)?...16Table 3: Q3- Do you think that the concepts of PA, IR and SD are useful for Env. Management today?17Table 4: Q4- Should or should not environmental managers (EM) get involved in territorial orderingprocess in Amazon?...1

Annexes:Annex 1: Northwest Amazonian Boundaries2Annex 2: Survey Form..23Annex 3: Summary of the Technical work of www.kumoro.com23


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PREFACE

Why Amazonia?

There have been calls to preserve biodiversity, conserve tropical rainforests anmaintain cultural diversity in the Amazon basin; all of which are seen as imperatives fplanetary survival (Hirsch 2002). During the last thirty years, the importance of thAmazon basin has been emphasised in the media. It has been claimed that Amazonrepresents one of the Worlds largest reserves of biological diversity and an invaluabgenetic reserve. That it is a regulator of planetary climate and a vitally important sinfor carbon dioxide and thus significant in terms of countering the effects of increasinconcentrations of so-called greenhouse gasses in the upper atmosphere (EMBRAP2002). However, I did not get involved in the environmental politics of Amazonia fany of these reasons.

Initially I went to Amazonia looking for a place to rest. At that time, a friend of minwith whom I used to go mountain climbing had recently lost her mother; she had bebrutally murdered in Bogot by a criminal gang. Someone suggested that my frienmight find comfort if treated by an Amazonian shaman he knew. Thus, I went tAmazonia to accompany my friend on a trip that was to transform my life. Whahappened on that trip, the questions that puzzled me and how I got involved witIndigenous Amazonian Peoples provides one of the narratives of this dissertatio(Chapter Two).

My first journey to Amazonia took place in 1991. The next trip I made was tColombian Northwest Amazonia (NWA), since when (1992) Bogot has become place to visit while Amazonia has become my home. Eight years later, while workinwith NWA indigenous peoples organisations, I would be forced to leave the regiofollowing a guerrilla eviction rule (Chapter Three). These experiences forced me

think about what had happened to me and to the social movements of Amazonia durinthe 1990s. I needed to understand the events I was involved in and this was the mareason to start the process of deconstruction of political speeches referring tosustainable development and the environmental politics of NWA.


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Why Political Ecology?

I was used to working with indigenous peoples in their own projects, which involvelong periods of fieldwork. This was no longer possible due to the eviction imposed bguerrillas, and to a restriction of one of the scholarships I was awarded. Therefore,needed to transform the methodology I had been using and adapt to the circumstanceIn 1999 although unable to travel to Northwest Amazonia (NWA) I decided it waworth to go to Colombia and visit the people of COAMA (Consolidation of Amazonia network of non-governmental organisations (NGO) I used to work with. I talked to ecolleagues and realised that I was reflecting on their words from a distance, a distanccreated by an absence of one year (1998-1999). This was an important realisation, I wdetached, the NGOs discourses were no longer mine; from then on I could reflect othem from an outsiders perspective. Nevertheless, I still wondered how I mighcontinue to do PAR (Participatory Action Research)1, whilst maintaining my distance?

I thought that I could attempt a monograph of the discourses of the indigenous peoplegovernment agencies and NGOs of NWA. I wanted to understand what was essential these discourses, and to assay the main political contradictions and conjunctions derivfrom them in the context of Northwest Amazonian environmental policy. This approais not novel, (although it was for me) Escobar suggests that cultural variations ibiological and historical discourses are constituents of reality, which we can deconstruin order to interrogate their essential elements (Escobar 1999a).

I decided to take such an approach. The first difficulty was that even while I wadetached from the NGOs discourses, I remained very much attached to indigenoupeoples causes. I was and I remain indebted to the Indigenous Peoples I worked wiuntil 1998, while working as an advisor for COAMA. One of the aims of the indigenoorganisations COAMA helped to establish and continued supporting was, and is, enhance indigenous peoples political autonomy. Thus, what I needed to do and what

have been developing over the last three years is a way to locate fieldwork, to connethe narratives I had constructed with the wider context. I had the tendency to generanarratives as if there were placed in a core, and that core for me was no other than thperspectives of the indigenous peoples I lived with. One of the tasks ahead of me

1 See Action and Knowledge. Breaking the monopoly with Participatory Action Research; Fals Bordand Rahman 1991.


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1999 was the de-construction of my own work as an advisor of NWA indigenouorganisations.

The subject of this dissertation is the political ecology of NWA but all of the chapterefer somehow to the struggle to accomplish the fulfilment of indigenous peoples righ

experienced by the inhabitants of the Yaigoj Resguardo Indigenous Reserve. acknowledge, and think it could be no other way, that the narratives developed herhave a personal framing, but I hope the reader would concede at the end that I havmanaged to de-construct my own work. How successful I have been at presentinthese narratives within a wider context must be for the reader to decide.

Many of the chapters of this dissertation provide narratives based in ethnographifieldwork and the revision of secondary historical and ethnographic informationWhatever else these chapters may portray, they all present an individual reflexivunderstanding of events and texts. In contrast to those chapters, Chapter Eighincorporates other peoples framing. An on-line survey was designed to gather thinformation. The chapter includes the analysis of discourses on indigenous reserveenvironmental management, sustainability, development, protected areas anthe politics derived from them.

Political Ecology of Northwest Amazonia

What I mean for a political ecology of NWA is the process of identification andanalysis of discourses of territorial ordering and environmental managementStakeholders in NWA such as churches, indigenous organisations, governmental annon-governmental organisations, and armed groups produce different discourses; thediscourses will be analysed in terms of meaning, narrative structure and political aimIt will be shown, along the various chapters of this dissertation, how the fabric odiscourses entangles the conflicting reality of NWA.

Why?

Because this is the way I have found to reconstruct my life while contributing to thpeace and territorial ordering processes of Northwest Amazonia. Because in this wayhope the time and effort I use while being outside Amazonia will be of some use to iinhabitants.


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CHAPTER 1: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, INDIGENOUS

MANAGEMENT AND POLITICAL ECOLOGY, AN

INTRODUCTION

Vandana Shiva 2000

1.1 The Making of Sustainable Development

Thirty years ago Georgescu-Roegen pointed out the development contradiction. Theconomic process requires the use of energy and therefore it has an entropic cost: theconomic process is actually more efficient than automatic shuffling in producin

higher entropy, i.e. waste. (Georgescu-Roegen 1971: 282). Following the two laws thermodynamics he stated that the matter we use today could not be used in the samway in future. Therefore future life forms, including our own species, will not have hiquality energy to use in the same quantities as we do today. By using the resources nowe are reducing options for future generations: There can be no doubt about it: any uof natural resources for the satisfaction of non-vital needs means a smaller quantity life in the future. (Georgescu-Roegen 1971: 21)

Thus, if development implies a reduction of possibilities for future generations, thesustainable development: a development that meets the needs of the present withocompromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED 1988), is a contradictory statement. This contradiction was evident since it was proposed.was deliberately vague and inherently self-contradictory to promote debate amonacademics and to provoke development oriented politicians (O'Riordan 1993: 37).

Despite its vagueness the concept of sustainability had made its way onto th

international political agenda. Today sustainability is a moral principle and sustainabdevelopment is the alternative utopia to the dominant paradigm of development economic growth. Defining the fundamentals of an alternative paradigm fosustainable development is now in vogue and in Chapter Eight we will present aanalysis of different perspectives. For now, we will do with a quick revision of thconstruction of the term development with, and without, the sustainable qualifier.


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1.1.1 Science on, Religion off Positivism and the enlightenment movement inspired generations of scientists in thedesire to dominate nature, understand its laws and, make the most out of the resourcavailable for the benefit of human development. From this perspective, resources, nonly knowledge were unlimited. In fact science was there to provide solutions to an

problem that mankind was to face in respect of progress. The development of positivsciences had immense repercussions in every aspect of human life.

While sciences were able to abolish superstition in religion and produce rational usefresponses for concrete problems, it also created its own sacredness2. Even thoughtechnological development has increased life expectancy and the realms ocommunication, it has failed to eliminate poverty and the risk of biological destructioOn the contrary, positive science facilitated the development of the technology of wa

colonisation and, prized the continuity of a paradigm that perpetuates the primacy owestern systems of knowledge over any other, and that of development as materiawealth.

Economics is arguably the most politically influential discipline in the shaping of ththird world. In order to maintain the paradigm, in the light of the sustainability debathe science of economics had not only to provide instrumental tools for the expansion corporations and international regulatory bodies, (such as the International MonetaFund - IMF, the World Bank IBRD, the General Agreeemant on Tariffs and Trade GATT and, the World Trade Organization- WTO), but also to reform its ownperspective on development. The primacy of economics in development comes froone of the fundamentals of conservative thought, that of poverty as lack of materiawealth:

A common confusion is the assumption that development means overall continuous materigrowth. To dissociate growth from development is difficult, because of the almost universacommitment among the political and economic leadership in advanced, developed economies largely undifferentiated perpetual growth (Caldwell 1994: 193)

Therefore economic development was the unidirectional answer to the problem poverty:

2 In order to gain access to the scientific establishment it is necessary to follow the institutional rules anto qualify, apprentices have to follow a ritual and make commitments to the paradigm in vogue and theschool that provides him/her with support to develop a scientific career. Once positioned with a title, thnew scientist has to publicly reject any (other) religious belief.Theres been 2000 years of marketingthat if you want to be a scientific person youve got to keep your mind free of the fetters of religion(Stark quoted by Larson and Witham 1991: 81).


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There is hardly a mention of the idea that poverty might also result from oppression and thudemand liberation. Or that sufficiency might represent a strategy of risk minimisation, which essential for long-term survival. Or even less that a culture might be directing its energietowards spheres others than economic (Sachs 1992: 162).

The imposition of western knowledge systems is another of the fundamentals of thtraditional paradigm of development and, therefore other alternative developmenthave to be supplanted, silenced or replaced. The coming into dominance of modeeconomics meant that many other existing conversations or models were appropriatesuppressed or overlooked (Escobar 1995: 62). The economic discipline, in order cope with the premise of neutrality in science, claims to achieve objectivity. Howeveeconomic science, like no other sciences, had been involved with modelling not only fthe production of goods and services, but also for the reproduction of power institutioand the shaping of societies. The economy is not only, or even principally, a materientity. It is above all cultural production, a way of producing human subjects and sociorders of a certain kind (Escobar 1995:59).

During the 1970s some analysts started to assess the work of development economisThere was evidence that the premise of capital over people had implications. Thindices of GNP of countries in transition were rising, development was under way, bso was the increase of poverty and unemployment (Escobar 1995: 80). Economisreferred to developing countries as embraced in a cycle in which limited

industrialisation and lack of capital meant low productivity and limited markets. Iorder to become efficient countries would have to attract capital, and turn into efficiesocieties. In Latin America,the Comisin Econmica para Amrica Latina- CEPAL(Economic Commission for Latin America) challenged orthodox internationaeconomics by pointing out that lack of capital was related to the deterioration in termof trade.

But CEPAL did not challenge the basic assumptions of the paradigm, instead the

postulated, through dependency theory, that to gain capital, which was accumulated the industrialised centre, developing countries, of the periphery, would have to followprocess of industrialisation by import substitution. Other schemes such asdiversification of exports were also aimed at the accumulation of capital. In othewords, development became economic growth, which did not account for peoplelife projects or their relation with the natural environment and social context. On thcontrary, this cultural background and different social aesthetics of multicultural Lat


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America was usually pictured as marginal and economists and politicians refer to thneed to convert these societies. The political project of development was to inseindividual material wealth into the cultures and minds of the people that did not fwithin the model.

The CEPAL theoretical framework of the 1970s and 1980s can also be criticised in much as it appears to view Latin American societies as mere subjects of developmenas if they were offering no resistance to these developmental models. Societies appearas malleable objects of planning and implementation agreements formulated by thpolitical economic elite. Dependency theory did not take account of the process ocultural transformation needed to accommodate tradition and modernity.

More recent political conflicts of the 1990s between states and minorities in LatAmerica could always be related, at least partially, to the confrontation between thgovernmental elite addressing neo-liberal policies and the minorities searching foprotection of their community rights. The economic neo-liberalism, democracy antransparency in electoral processes seems to be the paradigmatic model for democrattransition in the configuration of the new international order (Left 1992: 47 translated by the author). We have to study with care the changes operating in thsymbolic world (semiotics) and political world (governance) among Latin Americasocieties when they encounter the neo-liberal project.

Amerindians have played a special chapter in this scenario: The Zapatista revolution Mexican Chiapas, The Bolivian insurrection (April-2000) against privatisation of watservices, the two-year conflict for the exploitation of oil in the Uwas lands oColombia, the indigenous insurrection of Brazilian indigenous peoples that claimed tright over the lands lost at Portuguese hands 500 years ago, and that later joined the thmovement of peasants without land (April-2000); all of them are indicators of suchconflict.

1.1.2 Reductionism versus HolismCriticism of development, with or without the sustainability qualifier expandeduring the 1990s. The cultural defoliation of developmental education was denounc(Ke-Zerbo, Kane et al. 1997). Education reflects the major forces of the paradigm. Teducational process has been designed to transmit the expertise required in the compl


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modern world, placing little emphasis on the implications of our present treatment people and the planet (Reid 1995: 148).

This criticism is related to reductionism within science. If we have learned somethinfrom modern cosmology, this is, the modern view of the world that comes from

quantum physics, molecular biology, from the new anthropology or, from ecologicreflections, is that everything is always and everywhere interrelated (Boff 1996: 94translated by the author). The criticism revived the holistic versus reductionist dualismHuman development, now in the hands of specialists, proceeds independently ocultural experience and, is unaware of many non-western systems of knowledge.

This call is, perhaps, the principal modification to the conventional developmenparadigm aimed at by a substantial group from the scientific establishment itself. Thacceptance of quantum theory, implying that the world does not exist in a definite stawithout being observed, challenges the division subject object, which is thfundamental base for experimentation in positive sciences. For studies aiming tdevelop a political ecology, this means that human populations whose systems oknowledge had been objectified or silenced have had much to contribute to thformation of a new paradigm of development.

As models are simplifications of reality, they become precarious or insufficient whedealing with global environmental problems. And models have been the instrumenttools of developing expertise. Therefore, instead of assuming neutrality from scienclike developmental economists did, scientists will have to make new agreements wiother social groups, to incorporatethe others perspectives into political action and, toaccept the involvement of other systems of knowledge.

In Latin America by initiative of Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef a new paradigwithin development was proposed. It was named Human Scale Economics and thgroup of people that promoted it referred to themselves as barefoot economists. Thstressed that development policy had proved to be biased and that the debatesurrounding development were made by technocrats far away from the realities ancultures of the people involved in development (Max-Neef 1986). The postulation thdevelopment was about peoples wellbeing and not about material wealth wa


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fundamental for the reform of the paradigm, but other fundamentals of this approacwere going to have an impact.

1.1.3 The same old development is now sustainableDuring the 1990s environmental economics (EE) developed new ways of valuation natural resources as a tool for achieving sustainability. The problem, as EE framed iwas that of considering natural resources unlimited because they were unvalued. Tmake the correct allocation of resources it was imperative for economists to establivaluation of the environment. Different aspects of this problem were addressed. Someconomists began including environmental costs in the national indices. The argumewent, that developmental policy would gain accuracy if the growth indices such aGross National Product GNP could reflect the costs involved for the environment. Tproblem is that this premise hides the assumption that value is always and everywhe

monetary value.

The willingness to pay (WTP) technique to establish the monetary value oenvironmental assets was established. In this way, participation by consultation waincorporated into economics. By asking people how much they would pay to preveenvironmental damage or to preserve the environment, economists estimateenvironmental value and compare it with the value gained by society when damaging developing and, in this way, they use cost-benefit analysis to facilitate the decisio

making process.

Other economists developed models to measure the social costs of environmentdamage caused by a particular business, population sector or enterprise. Thenvironmental costs that were not being taken into account by the polluters, calleexternalities, had to be internalised. EE persevered at estimating the marginal cost pollution and providing firms with cost analyses to facilitate the decision-makinprocess to decide if they should convert to a more environmental-friendly technology

proceed with pollution and pay taxes and/or fines. The most refined analyses take inaccount the bureaucratic gain from environmental measures including probabilistic risk assessments prefiguring the response from public sector willingness to imposmeasures that will imply income reduction from tax, fines and bribes.

Finally, the new school of EE has dedicated itself vigorously to valuation per se . If consuming now is better than in the future, (the basic, unchanged utility function), the


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has to be some way of measuring the interest rate which the current generations whave to pay in order to use future generations resources. The question they address how much marginal utility is lost by postponing development. The tool for achievinthis is discounting. Refined techniques for establishing discounting rates anachieving the internalisation of externalities had been established.3

All these efforts are important in the sense that they try to address the moral principal intergenerational equity that was key to the WCED definition of sustainabldevelopment (WCED 1987: 8). However, these methods of internalisation oexternalities are incapable of confronting the matter of intergenerational allocatiobecause the majority of externalities have future, uncertain, irreversible effects, not onimmediate effects. Hotellings solution is to allocate exhaustible resources equally ovtime, minimising future regrets (Guha and Martinez-Allier 1997:177). Thus, exactly topposite to the premise of discounting, where the individual maximisation of utility the base of the model. And, in any case, we will be ethically forced to question howfuture generations might discuss the discount rate applied by present generations.

1.1.4 Why bother about Sustainable Development?Throughout the history of development economics the statements of economists becamsacred, they were accorded high status in development hierarchies, while the voices

minorities from the third world were unheard. And we should notice that the terthird world comes from first world academia. The scientific discourse was neveimpartial but, following the premises of positive science, objectivity was claimed.

These dominant discourses encompass corporate strategies. In the World TradOrganisation WTO, the proposal making role of industrialised countriesrepresentatives contrasts with the approval-rejection role of the third world countrieThe WTO rules over environmental measures, public health, unemployment an

protection of cultural diversity. It does so through the direct and indirect imposition economic and political sanctions on governments that try to protect their environmentbiodiversity, population health or cultural diversity, all of which are defined as threats the free trade4.

3 See Economics of Natural Resources and the Environmen, Pearce and Turner 1990.4 WTO works in agreement with The International Monetary Fund IMF and the World Bank IBRD.


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This hidden global government of corporations was challenged in Seattle in 1999 whmore than 200 NGOs and 40,000 demonstrators manifested opposition to WTOinitiatives (Retallack 2000: 30-34). The fact that local people all around the world hadecided to denounce the currant paradigm and that their voices are making a differendrives civil society, and academics within it, to transform the traditional paradigm.

Through the above summary some of the problems of the traditional developmenparadigm have already been identified. So what should be the bases for a new paradigof sustainable development?

- Holism: If everything is related to everything, then in finding solutions toenvironmental problems we have to take into account possible effects, which meanfinding solutions, figuring out the consequences and, if these were impossible tforesee, then taking the precautionary principle. Models are partial views of realiand objectivity cannot be claimed when based upon them.

- Aesthetics: The relations between species (including humans) and the environmehave an aesthetic component which is defined outside economics. Value does nosimply mean monetary value. The life projects of people are not relegated teconomics and even less to monetary value.

- Integrity: If there is some kind of sustainability to achieve, it is through thcontinuous effort to maintain high quality energy. At the universal scale allresources are limited therefore everything that we do use should be indispensable flife. Needs are limited too5. The model of unlimited needs and life directed by utilityfunctions is partial and unreliable. Without a principle of sufficiency it would not bpossible to preserve ecosystems, otherwise habitats and species will be driven textinction.

5 In the barefoot economics proposal, there is distinction between needs and satisfiers. For traditionaldevelopmental economics, things such as food, housing, clothes and, health and security services, arebasic needs susceptible of infinite expansion, (so they can become luxury needs). Under the barefooteconomics paradigm these goods and services could provide satisfiers for needs. The needs of health,recognition, esteem and others can be synthesized as the basic need of being (Max-Neef 1986). Thechallenge is to find multi-satisfiers, which could satisfy multiple needs without wasting resources. Inother words the use of resources has to be restricted to low entropy action but accomplishing satisfactioof limited needs.


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- Education: Bateson referred to the attitude of finding solutions without figurinconsequences as the traditional paradigm (in Sale 1980: 27 and in Reid 1995: 6)6.We need to transform education by prompting scholars to challenge and debate theconomic order, life styles, and ways of producing and validating knowledgeWithout this training, it is difficult to create a plural society willing to transform

ideologies and establish better bases for the scientific paradigm. There is a bettechance that the people educated on this basis would aim to elaborate the sociacontracts for a moresustainable society, one that meets limited needs at minimumentropy cost.

1.2 Indigenous Peoples and Sustainability

The current debate in sustainable development places indigenous peoples in the middof ideological confrontations. With increasing concern about global climate change, trainforest is seen as an atmospheric and climate regulator and, Amazonian indigenopeoples have gained new importance as keepers of the rainforest. From archaeologand ethnohistory we know there has been a long period of domestication of plants anfruit trees in the Amazon Basin, which indicates millennial management (Andrad1986; Cavalier, I. , Mora et al. 1990; Cavalier, I., Mora et al. 1992; Denevan 19961998). Ethnographers and ethno-scientists in general have pointed out the importance studying indigenous Amazonian rainforest management systems.

Northwest Amazonia (NWA)7 in particular received special attention, maybe because of the impact of accounts from early explorers8, that inspired naturalists and ethnologists.But also because of the interesting findings on sustainable indigenous managememodels or the academic controversy about how researchers categorise, incorporate select discourses of indigenous sustainability.

Schultes, a North American botanist that visited Northwest Amazonia as early as 194while working for the Rubber Development Corporation (Schultes 1953), goinvolved in a long-lived ethnosciences project with the aim of unifying indigenou

6 In the introduction of Mind and Nature Bateson calls attention to the fact that education is offered insuch a way that students have no idea of the fundamental concepts of the social and biological sciencesWhen trying to write about evolution he realized another book every scholar knows should be writtento explain concepts such as entropy, homology, description, metaphor, topology, etc. that adults whoeducate their children were(are) not able to explain (Bateson 1979).7 SeeAnnex1: Northwest Amazonian Boundaries8 E.g. Koch-Grnberg 1995; Wallace 1889; Whiffen 1915.


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knowledge and biotechnology. He advocated in favour of preserving indigenous cultuand rainforest as biotechnology reserves:

The perspicacity of the Amazonian Indian is unbelievable. He is literally master of his ambievegetation. His knowledge of the properties of the plants of his environment isdeepUnfortunately, it is in great danger today of being lostMuch of this precious knowledgis disappearing faster even than the trees in many regions where forest devastation is rife. Its lowill be disastrous for the progress of humanity as a whole (Schultes 1991:264).

During the 1960s, Reichel-Dolmatoff proposed a framework for the ecological analysof the rain forest. The study of shamanistic practises and cosmology of the Tukano9 indigenous peoples from the Pir-Paran caught the attention of the ethnographer. Inset of works he proposed Shamanism as a tool of ecological adaptation: Tukanconcepts of cosmology represent a blueprint for ecological adaptation and the indianacute awareness of the need for adaptive norms can be compared with modern systeanalysis (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1976: 307).

After Reichel-Dolmatoffs call for long term research on Northwest Amazonia number of ethnographers visited the area. Following Reichels approach, his daughtstudied the Yukuna, the Matap and the Tanimuka of the Mirit. She confirmed thaaccess to natural resources implies knowledge of ecosystem dynamics, and thainteractions between humans and supernatural and spiritual owners is tantamount tclaiming rights over these resources (Reichel-Dusan 1987, 1997). Von Hildebranstudied the Tanimuka in Guakay, a tributary of the Mirit 10, confirmed a series of propositions about the shamanistic management of the rainforest environmenTanimuka shamans, called jaguar-men, impose diets and sexual abstinence as a way restrict the use of resources and keep an energetic balance with animal-people anplant-people. Tanimuka Shamans are mediators of indigenous people who negotiatenergy compensations with spiritual owners of game, fish or plant peoples (Forer1999; von_Hildebrand 1983). These approximations echo Rappaports theoreticaproposal of religious conceptions and practices as tools for human adaptation. They aconcerned with finding out how the cognitive models of indigenous people ar

9 The term Tukano or Tukanoan is used in this dissertation when referring to any of the nearly 20 ethnicgroups which speak languages belonging to the Eastern Tukano linguistic family. The author workedmainly with the Makuna, Letuama, Yahuna, Barasana and Tanimuka from the Apaporis area.Additionally, the reader will find references to the Yukuna and Cabiyar, speakers of the Arawaklinguistic family; and to the Yujup, speakers of Mak Puinave linguistic family.10 Von-Hildebrand refers to the Tanimuka as Ufaina, the name given to them by the Letuama. Someinformants contacted in La Playa Apaporis in 1994, claimed that the term Ufaina meant ash people, athat it was given to them because they were supposed to act as keepers of the ash left to them by the laswarriors (mythical heroes) (Forero 1999).


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appropriate to the biological well-being of the actors and ecosystems in which theparticipate (Rappaport 1999: 364).

Ethnographers also directed their attention to the ways of life of gatherers anagroforesters. The materialistic, traditional approach had relegated indigenous gathere

and agricultural societies to the lowest level of development. They were pictured as vepoor people unable to cope with minimum civilised standards. Sahlins challengethese thoughts and showed that gatherers life was nothing like poor, having plentifmeans for scarce wants. The poor indigenous societies were a bourgeois constructioPoverty, he made clear, has to do with hegemonic characterisations, the same as thconcept of civilisation (Sahlins 1986).

Some ethnoscientists that were witnessing the developmental processes in Amazoniwere impressed by the apparent rate of destruction and, embarked on projects tunderstand indigenous ecological systems and to integrate their practices with modetechnological know-how (Posey 1983: 225). Posey was to describe how Kayapclassified and managed plants on a long-term basis, manipulating forest areastransplanting and domesticating numerous species of plants and also of animalsKayap were shown to have knowledge of the concepts of microclimate and habitaand a refined management to improve productivity of the ecological systems (Pose1985: 139-158). The same was shown for the Kaapor speakers of Tup-Guaran (Baland Gly 1989).

Studies in the management of forest succession were carried out at Western-Amazonamong the Yukuna and Matap. It was demonstrated that Yukuna-Matap believe ththere is a limited amount of energy to share between all living forms, an almosidentical conception to that of the Tukano. They conceive of plants and animals acategories of people, just a different type of people. Seeking the optimal use of thegardens required agreement on the use of energy and the relations with other types people. Yukuna have different kinds of gardens, which are classified in relation to foresuccession but also to rituals aimed to regulate relations between these different types people and the Yukuna group. (Rodriguez and Van der Hammen 1996b: 257-269)

In the Pira-Paran the Barasano have similar agroforestry techniques and also the samconception of animal-people and fish-people (Hugh-Jones, C. 1979; Hugh-Jones,


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1979; Hugh-Jones 1999). The same has been documented for the Makuna from the PirParan and Apaporis (rhem 1976, 1981, 1990).

One common characteristic of these conceptions of the world is that although thereflect indigenous society they are not human-centred conceptions. It is a perspectiv

vision of the world, by perspectival vision of the world I mean that it appreciates tworld under different perspectives and from different seers point of view (rhem1990: 119 translated by the author). Humans, animals and plants are involved in thsame system with equal importance. This characteristic is not exclusive to Amazoniindians, other vernacular societies also have this integrity principle that makes theinclined to preserve the undifferentiated environment through the unified managemeof social and ecological systems.

1.3 Scope of the Research

One can notice similarities between indigenous systems of knowledge and moderecological thinking. Or at least the similarity of the language used by researchers wheexplaining indigenous systems of knowledge. It has been suggested that there arcommon bases of models for interpretation of the origin of life, and even similar imagfor interpretation or variants of discourses with semantic parity (Narby 1999). Aalternative proposition is that cultural hybridisation implies that at the same time thresearchers translate indigenous idioms, their ethnographic research becomes a medinstrument through which indigenous knowledge reaches non-indigenous people.

The above proposition must be developed11. For the time being we can begin with someexamples that seem to illustrate these processes. Schultes made a description of thApaporis River (Schultes 1953) dividing it in bio-geographical areas, which coincidwith territorial divisions made by indigenous peoples. In fact the river changes its namto an Arawak word Pare when reaching the Cabiyars territory at Jiri-jirimo waterfall,which corresponds to Schultes division between the Middle and Lower Apaporis. Thdivision was then taken by Domnguez and is the one currently used in bio-geograph(Domnguez-Ossa 1975b).

11 Chapter six, Indigenous Knowledge and the Scientific Mind: Activism or Colonialism, was written an attempt to do just that.


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Another example of this Western Sciences (WS) - Indigenous Knowledge (IKhybridisation is Reichel-Dolmatoffs ecological footprint, based on the Desanexplanations of ritual trade of vital energy (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971, 1976). Similarlrhem uses a myth to illustrate how the spiritual essence cycles among different lifeforms within the Makuna cosmos, inter-link all living things within a single

categorisation: mas (peoples) (rhem 1990).

Anthropologists have an old question in this respect: Are there similar cognitive devic

behind the different cultural models of nature and if so how can we access and

conceptualise them (Descola and Plsson 1996)? There have been two main

approximations to explain the common basis of models or structures. From cultur

ecology, sociobiology and some brands of Marxist anthropology, human behaviousocial institutions and specific cultural features were seen as adaptive responses t

environmental constraints (Descola and Plsson 1996: 3). Thus, cognitive devices a

seen as the by-product of the adaptation process of human kind. Further more

culturalist perspectives tended to treat individuals largely as creations of th

sociocultural orders they inhabited (Watanabe and Smuts 1999:99). From the secon

perspective, that of structuralism, the social order is independent despite its ties with tenvironment (Murphy 1970: 165). Culture conforms to certain material constrains b

according to a definite symbolic scheme which is one of many possible (Sahlins 197

p.viii).

We second the idea that both perspectives are valid, plausible and equally incomplete12.With the development of a methodology that incorporates evidence from both

perspectives in NWA, the intention here is to advance in the proposal of the newparadigm13.

12 It has been suggested that the two approaches emphasise a particular aspect of a polar opposition. Inone the emphasis is made around the constraints that nature impose on culture, in the other the emphasiis made in the need of culture for making any sense of nature (Descola and Plsson 1996:3).


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1.4 Aims

The context where indigenous knowledge meets post-modern ecological thought is oof global markets and cultural hybridisation. We must open channels to connecindigenous knowledge systems and post-modern ecological thought. In order for this be possible both, the semantics and the formal structure derived from mythologic

corpus and shamanistic practices must be outlined. Therefore, it is aimed to advance this direction14.

Translation however is always interpretation. The indigenous management of thworld practised by Northwest Amazonian indians is almost impossible to translate inwestern knowledge semantics without reference to the spheres of nature-technologspirituality-health, society-governance, even as mere starting points for de- and rconstruction15. And it has been suggested that after such ontological separations aremade there might be no way out (Plsson 1996: 63-5), other than to acknowledge thproblem and proceed with the analysis.

Following the development of the proposition outlined, an aim of the current researchto advance in documenting the transformation of indigenous peoples management Northwest Amazonian environments. Another aim is to uncover the ideologies behinthe transformation of the concepts of development, conservation, sustainability aterritoriality in Amazonia, and how these ideologies are contested by the systems knowledge of indigenous peoples. In order to do that, a critique of the discourses anpractices of different stakeholders must be presented. A Political Ecology of NWA muinform us of the arrival of new paradigms and their effects on development practicespolicy making and social transformation.

13 Other authors have already shown the dialectical relation between human acts and acts of nature, whiis encrypted in the landscape. See Historical Ecology: Cultural Knowledge and Changing LandscapesCrumley 1994.14 In Chapter Four, The March of the Manikins, a narrative will be presented to illustrate how among tTukano, rite re-creates myth, and myth prescribes ritual performance. One of the arguments developed that chapter is that these complementary parts are inherent to Tukanoan territorialisation.15 Chapters Four and Five, this dissertation.


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CHAPTER 2: GETTING THERE

2.1 The Beginnings

In 1990 I was still an undergraduate student interested in urban anthropology. Th

Anti-Oedipus had been translated and the concept of territorialization presented the book caught my attention. Territorialisation was treated as a dynamic proces(Deleuze and Guattari 1985) and, this suggested possibilities for studying thtransformation of the concepts of territorialisation themselves. The concept woulinfluence my perspective of urbanisation conflicts.

The most impressive transformations of Bogot were related to migration processes. 1984 the city had nearly 4 million inhabitants, in 2000 it had almost 7 millionMigration was the product of many factors, mainly related to the expulsion of peopfrom rural areas due to economic depression and violence. The new urban populationwere changing their aspirations, livelihood strategies and lifestyles. People fromdifferent cultural backgrounds were forced to live together in depressedneighbourhoods. Many people went to the city in search of alternatives to the traditionrural ways of living. Once in the city all these people had to adapt to new ways oliving.

I had the opportunity to work in the Proyecto Interdisciplinario de Accion ComunitarPRIAC (Interdisciplinary Project for Community Action), developed by the NationUniversity of Colombia. Specifically, my work was related to the socialisation proceamong children from a very depressed area of Southeast Bogota. I asked childreattending a State School in the area to draw their neighbourhood. What came out wemaps of territories. Children knew perfectly well where the drug dealers and robbehung out, they knew which places would be safe to visit and at which times, they knethe places were the drinking water fountains were placed and the distances to themThey also included drawings of special places with religious significance (Forero 1990

The information I collected showed me that there were competingforms of territorialisation , and that the children were learning this information as part of theirsocialisation process. Without it they would be unable to cope with the toughenvironment they were being brought up in. It seemed clear to me that new conceptio


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of territory were developed by people from different backgrounds when faced with neenvironments. As a consequence the urban territories were reshaped. As Deleuze anGuattary proposed there was a possibilityof re-territorialasing and I felt I waswitnessing the processes.

2.2 More on Territorialisation

The dissertation I presented for the degree of Anthropology was about the conflicts tharose among different uses of land and water in the area surrounding the river that flowout of Siecha Lake. The Municipality of Guasca, in charge of the environmentamanagement of the area, had no means to regulate the practices of the new trout, flowand stone crushing industries.

In the valley where stone crushing industries were located, the river was used for thdisposal of residues, which then got into the underground waters. Peasants complaineabout contaminated water affecting the production of the farms and their health. Up thmountain, following the river path, environmental threats increased. The export flowindustry changed the scenery of la Trinidad town affecting not only the water witresidues of pesticides and fertilisers, but also creating visual contamination. Finally, the highest part of the mountain, the pools constructed for trout industry operations hno filters to retain residues and no treatment was carried out of the water leaving thepools. The water and the river itself were considered free resources. The Municipality Guasca did not even bother to plan inspections. Environmental impact assessments wenever done before locating these industries and the effects of their activities were nmeasured.

As a social response, peasants, and the few people living in the area that were interestin preserving their environment, created an association to start discussing these issueswas trying to understand how peasants and rural workers reacted to the environmentchanges and I got involved with locals, carried out interviews and also went to thpublic school to repeat the experiment I had undertaken in Bogot.

I found a particularly interesting form of social resistance, which I called incomplemigration. Individuals within an age range from 18 to 30 that were not able to find join the new industries and who could not make a living from their smallholdings weforced to leave town in search of work. They found jobs in Bogot. They worke


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delivering documents in offices, as cleaners, cooks, waitresses, etc. They did not havuniversity training, which prevented them from getting better jobs. They were forced live in Bogot but went to visit their relatives at weekends. However, they did noconsider themselves inhabitants of Bogota but of Guasca. When I asked them whethey lived they always answered in Guasca or We areGuasqueos . Sometimes they

stayed in Guasca with grandparents or spouses that had managed to get jobs in the locindustries.

The seeds of the peasants organisation resided in this identity recognised in the selclaimed noun of Guasqueos. In order to maintain family ties, rural traditions and thattachment to land, people from Guasca assigned another meaning to migration. Thmigration was not related to physical movement but cultural movement. To resist thpressure coming from changing land use and transformation of the rural environmethey reacted by revitalising community ties through the recognition of identity anmobilising themselves towards the defence of the environment. This was an example competing forms of territorialisation.

2.3 Knowing the Rainforest People

In 1991 a lawyer and friend of mine spoke to me about an indigenous shaman, HilarLopez, who lived in the Guayuyaco Resguardo reserve in Putumayo. My friend was ninvolved in social research, but had met Hilario by chance. My friend had taken Yag( Banisteropsis caapi ), the hallucinogenic vine under the shamans supervision. As hewould explain to me latter, his visions seemed very real and offered him explanatioto personal questions. Hilario was not dedicated to giving hallucinogens to tourists anvisitors, -an activity that was starting to take place even in Bogot. No, Mauriciexplained to me, this was a real honest man who offered advice to his people anopened his house to people with health problems.

Shamanism was a very important subject of study for anthropology and I had read thliterature like any other student. I had also been captivated by anthropological studies mythology, rituals and shamanism among the rainforest peoples of Colombia. Bubesides the revision of literature, I had little idea about indigenous people at the timenever had lived close to them, never heard their languages (except for one class iWitoto I took), and I had not visited their territories. I was suspicious of the


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anthropology of indigenous people and wondered if it was not a form of colonialism16.Why didnt we study the anthropology of the wealthy? It seemed to me that we alrealived in a transcultural world and that the study of indigenous peoples was not the keto stopping the cultural homogenisation process that takes place when attempting thproduction of goods and services at the global scale. I was convinced that only b

acknowledging thisde facto process would it be possible to respond to theenvironmental problems associated with the loss of cultural diversity.

When knowing that one of my best friends was passing through a depression period dto the murder of his mother, my friend the lawyer suggested that Hilario might be abto help. I talked to my friend; after all, if he, being a graduate in psychology thoughtwas in his interest to go, I might also find the trip interesting. I was not going to play tanthropologist looking for an object of study, that was clear to me. My friend agreethat whatever shamanistic performance occurred, it would not harm him and he thougit could be pleasant to travel to Amazonia and meet indigenous people before headingthe Pacific cost of Ecuador where he would like to stay for a while.

When we arrived to Puerto Guzmn we had being travelling in an old bus for twelvhours along a rough track. My friend Mauricio had instructed me to look for a younNorth-American missionary woman that could give us instructions on how to get touch with Hilario. She informed us that she had just seen Hilario in town and he wgetting ready to leave. We found him in the streets. He told us he was going to be absefor a couple of days as he was travelling to Puerto Asis. However, he told us, if wwished we could go to his house located at the mouth of the Guayuyaco river. Wwould have to find someone who could take us to his place by boat and should tell hwife we were going to wait for him.

He perceived our concern. We just had two days of travelling and it would be Christmin five days time. This meant we might get stuck, who knows where, for several dayHilario could not guarantee when he would return to his house. Then he looked at udirectly in our eyes, something he had avoided before. I noticed something blue-grey the retina of his eyes as if he had cataracts. He laughed at our amazement and wenaway. We decided to wait for him anyway.

16 I was thinking in this same question when writing Chapter 6: Indigenous Knowledge and the Scientifmind: Activism or Colonialism?


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2.4 The House of the Shaman

Hilario was about 80 years old and his wife, who never spoke to us in Spanish and thalways told us a different name when we asked hers, seemed older. She was a fine ladabout 1.40 m. tall and could have weighed no more than forty kilograms. She manag

the house alone, despite the many people who went there expecting a cure for thepains and illness. By the time we arrived there was a black man with a fracture in hleft foot and, a woman with pain in her kidneys. There were indigenous people cominall the time looking for some remedy. And then there was us, looking for a conversatiwith the shaman and wondering if we could also take the Yag and how would it affeus.

The daughter of Hilario, a woman in her late twenties, who was the governor oGuayuyaco Resguardo, came to us enquiring about the motive of our visit. Wmentioned Mauricio and his experience and she was happy to speak to us. When mentioned that I was studying anthropology I noticed she got suspicious. I told herwas not there in search of information and that this was my first visit to the rainforesShe invited me to go further inside the rainforest to her house. I said I was happy to dso, but the occasion never arose.

Three days passed before Hilario arrived home one evening. He saw his patients, btold us we would have to speak later as he was going to his rainforest house and to seesome herbs he needed. Next day, when we woke up, at about seven, Hilario had alreadgone for wood, herbs, eaten something, visited and given medicine to his patients anwas ready to go to Puerto Guzmn again, telling us to wait for him once more.

I spent the next few days walking in the forest, bathing in the river and observing antalking to the visitors. I was amazed by the fishermen I saw. For a boat they used small, scarcely hollowed out tree trunk they called a potrillo (colt). They could not sitin it, but had to stand up, carrying the spear they used to fish with. It seemedimpossible; I wouldnt have dared try it. How could they navigate through the currentlook for fish and throw the spear with sufficient force? It was inconceivable to me.

I had an inflatable mattress. I used it as a boat and managed to go almost six kilometrup the river on it. Sometimes I felt myself being observed and once I saw a pair of bla


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eyes peering out from behind a bush. When I called, someone ran away. The river wclear and it was excellent to be in contact with the cold waters, as the ambientemperature was about 35 C in the shade. However, I had not noticing the thousands of small mosquitoes that were biting me.

That same day at noon we had new arrivals. There was a man of about twenty-seven, hmother, a large, concerned woman in her forties, and a young woman of twenty-twheld close by the man. The older woman explained to me they were her son andaughter. They sat her at the table behind our hammocks. The mother said they hatravelled from Ibagu, a city more than 800 km away in search of a cure to the madneof the daughter. She said the young woman had been in a mental hospital but haescaped twice. The drugs were not effective and they were desperate for her to get weAs she seemed calm and they wanted to feed her, her brother released her. In thainstant, she started running away, jumping around and laughing in a very noisy wayHer mother was calling her, her brother running after her. She went to the creek anafter an hour or so of chasing her, the brother finally managed to catch her again.

2.5 Healing Shaman

Hilario promised to attend his new patient. I asked him if I could accompany him on h journey next day. What for? he asked. I wanted to know what he did and it might bechance to get to know each other better. He agreed. Next day at four oclock I was uwith him, we took a cold bath in the river, drank some coffee and went. We walkeabout two miles. He pointed out where their neighbours lived; he named many planand started to talk to me about yagecito. He told me that his knowledge was revealto him through yag. He started his training before he was seven. His padrino (godfather), I understood his tutor in shamanism, had given him tobacco and yag ttest him. When he took the plant, it talked to him. He recounted all he had seen to h

padrino and the latter decided that he was particularly suited to yag. He was in trainin

continuously for twelve years, receiving larger doses of the plant beverage every time.

After picking some leaves and roots and inspecting other plants he decided we shoureturn. I have to say that I could hardy follow him. He appeared to make slow, delicamovements, but it was as much as I could do to keep up with him, I was sweating anbreathless. We went to pick up wood for the next two days. This was completelabsurd. I had no idea how to use the machete, I struggled to put a few branches on m


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shoulder and, after much effort, I managed to get some of them home. Hilario laugheMy pile of wood was one-fifth of his and he had returned with it half an hour beforBesides that, the wood I had picked up apparently was not the most suitable, as his wiexplained through a series of gestures of disgust and laughs. Hilario had already madthe first visit to his patients and prepared two beverages with the plans he had pick

up. Comparing myself with him I did not feel useless, I was.

It was half past eight I needed to bath again and to rest. I could not eat a thing; I fedizzy and went to the hammock. My day of following Hilario had ended before it realstarted. Hilario was going to take some medicines for the patient he had in GuzmaBefore leaving he gave Henry and I acuya 17with a black liquid inside instructing us togive it to his new patient. It was bitter, he said, and the patient could take some bites sugar cane after drinking it, just to get rid of the taste.

When she awoke I offered her the beverage. She refused. This was not going to be easShe stood up, walked towards me and said: you are my husband. No but you are gointo marry me. You heard mother, he is going to marry me.Yes dear he is your man and he is giving something nice to you, the mother repliedsmiled as I said this is good for you. Again I was rejected. Two hours passed bwithout success. She was getting exited, talking faster, huddling, jumping, runnincoming to my hammock, lying with me touching my chest. By midday we had made nprogress. But worse still, the girl was getting anxious and her mother was gettinworried, her brother under the shadow of a tree seemed numb.

My friend Henry, the psychologist, took up the challenge. He had some sweet candy the shape of teddy bears. He took a tranquilliser pill he carried and put it in one of thcandies. She will rest for a while, he assured me. What he was actually meaning wwe will rest. Bad trick, she did not take the bait. Hilario came back between three anfour oclock in the afternoon. We are so sorry I said, we did everything to try tmake her drink it but she refused. The mother assented with her head, excusing uHilario took thecuya and went to the woman. He talked to her warmly: My daughterthis is to cure you. You must drink it. She drank it all. Hilario stroked her hair tenderand looked at her in a kindly way. The woman rested for the rest of the day.

17 Guard container, which is used largely among indigenous peoples of Amazon rainforest.


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We spent the afternoon looking at Hilarios drawings. These are the paths I take whendrink yag. The drawings were made with coloured pencils. I could see a palm andvine standing out from the rest. These are the worlds I have visited. So far I have bein twelve worlds, all of them are populated by spirits of different power. The drawinshowed small people floating in the clouds, a ladder hanging. This is the path, this

yag. In the third world I went to lives your god, the god of white people. I know hiI took these drawings to a Congress in Bolivia, the anthropologists invited me.

Before we went to rest in the hammocks Hilario announced that we were going to taYag the next day, which was the 25th December. We had not eaten much that day andhe advised us not to eat the next day. Since we had arrived he had told us not to eagarlic, onions or greasy food. He said Yag does not like garlic. We spent Christmaday with one of his grand children who loved to stand on my shoulders and was realeasy going. We wanted to avoid staying in the house as sometimes the girl would comout of a dream and become hysterical again, and, we really didnt know what to do.

In the night Hilario told us to bring the hammock, cigarettes and a flashlight. He madus walk to a house further into the jungle where he said it was better to receive yagecito .He prepared himself, using some necklaces, smoking cigars and singing for hours. Thhe gave us the yag .

It made us throw up at first, and then, at least for me, it began to have an effect. Yagshowed me some pictures, these pictures used to be called pintas (painted visions). Iwill not go into detail about what I saw, as many people have described the yag visionsand they seemed to vary little from person to person18.

Next day we came from our sleep as if to a new life. I had a peace within me that is nodifficult to describe. I felt clean. Henry had not seen anything. It might be that he dnot take more Yag after feeling sick. He just submerged into a dream he could noremember. Hilario looked at me saying that he had seen what I had, because he guidethe dreamer. He now knew my life and from then on he called meamiguito (dearfriend).

18 See "The cosmic serpent. DNA and the origins of knowledge", Narby 1999. Additional information also available on-line at: www.biopark.org/Ayaharmadine.html


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Later that day he explained to me how he could see inside the person, look for sickneand, help the patient to recuperate. He explained to me, the goodyasha 19 could go toall the worlds above and over us, but sadly, he said, he had nobody to teach what hknew. In fact, his only apprentice had been a young white man from the interior of thcountry who had died during the land slides caused by the eruption of the Ruiz volcan

I felt sorry and said it.

My skin had worsened as the mosquito bites were infected and I got a fever. Hilariknew we had to go because we wanted to continue our journey to Ecuador. He insisteon giving melejia 20 to heal my skin. I said good bye to my friend. Henry noticed thepeaceful state of the previously hysterical woman and wondered how the treatmewould end.

What followed on the way to Ecuador was unpleasant. I was delirious with the fevebut this time the pintas I had seen after taken the Yag became clear and once the feverhad passed I came to a determination. I told my friend that until then I did nounderstand what otherness meant and it was imperative for me to return to thrainforest.

2.6 A Year Later

Many questions arose from my time in the rainforest. What was the relation between tshaman and the rest of the community? Why, if he had so much power and helped awas he not the governor? And, why did they have governors? I understood indigenopeople from the interior of the country were forced to adopt certain political structurduring colonial times and they had since been maintained. But people from thrainforest also have different political institutions. What was the relation betweeshamanism and territorialisation? Could the territories and forms of territorialisatiowithin the rainforest be compared to the kind of territories peasants and urban grouwere establishing? What was my role as anthropologist, as environmentalists Colombia at that time? What were the links between the two? What could I have said Hilario when he told me that none of his sons or grandsons was learning what he knewHow could I really help?

19 Another word for shaman used in some areas of Amazonia.20 A liquid concentration of dark color obtained by filtering ashes through a piece of cloth.


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Nearly a year had passed when I received a call from a friend who told me studenfrom the University of the Andes and The National University had gone to differenplaces to offer help as assistants to governmental agencies. He had gone to Macarenand spent six months there. One of the people running this initiative was a commofriend: May be this is the chance for you to go back to the rainforest and have a brea

from that dissertation of yours, he said. I gave A. Sarmiento a buzz and he connectme with an anthropologist of the Plan Nacional de Rehabilitacion PNR (NationRehabilitation Plan)21 who, after listening to me, connected me with Martha L. Lotero,the delegate of PNR in Puerto Leguizamo Putumayo. She needed help at the officespecially with indigenous people and I could visit the National Park La Paya and thifor myself about the problems related to the management of Natural Reserves. Thewould pay for the ticket and give me something to live on during the six months I wgoing to stay.

2.7 Territorialisation and Conflicts

I spent six months in Putumayo. I wrote a chronicle as my report to PNR and gave copy to the Director of National Parks as I thought it was in the interest of the Paauthorities to know about other perspectives on the management of conservation areas

In Putumayo I went to visit several indigenous communities, some of them were livinin small Resguardos (Legalised Indigenous Reserves), others lived in lands withotitles, and some others lived within the Park (Conservation Area) boundaries. I had learn the procedures and jargon used in the public sector when dealing withdevelopmental projects. Indigenous peoples wanted to use the resources available ftheir own purposes but were always denied access by functionaries assuring them thwere unable to follow the procedures or, not eligible for such support.

Martha Lucia was an indefatigable promoter of development, truly interested in thwellbeing of the peoples from Putumayo. Her house was a meeting point wher

21 This was an initiative designed by the Presidency of the Republic. It was made with the intention of facilitating the process through which communities in marginal areas of the Country will get help fromgovernmental institutions to design and implement development projects. Its purpose was also to facilitthe dialogue between civil society and governmental authorities with the intention of contributing to thepeace process. Years later it became the Red de Solidaridad Social (Social Solidarity Network).


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biologists, social workers, community leaders, etc, debated and planned actions to mapossible the improvement of the quality of life in Putumayo. A hard task to achieve inconflict torn area with such diverse but in many ways fragile environments.

I went to advise indigenous people

Documents

Tesis Oscar Forero