Colombian Counterpoint: Transculturation in Sibundoy Valley Ethnohistory
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Date
2022-05
Authors
Glass, Rowan F. F.
Journal Title
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Anthropological and historical scholarship on cultural change in colonially subordinated
cultures has often stressed deculturation—cultural loss and degradation—as a consequence of
colonialism. This paper disputes that narrative by presenting the case of Indigenous cultural
change in the Sibundoy Valley of southwest Colombia from an ethnohistorical perspective.
Drawing on historical, ethnographic, and theoretical texts, and relying on the concept of
transculturation—understood as a complex process of partial loss, partial gain, and the
creation of new cultural phenomena from intercultural encounters—as a more nuanced
alternative to deculturation, I outline the history of cultural change in the valley from the
prehispanic period to the present. While recognizing that colonialism was experienced as a
catastrophe for the Indigenous communities of the valley, I suggest that the latter’s deep
historical experience of transculturation in the prehispanic era enabled the preservation and
rearticulation of core elements of their native cultures in the post-contact period. That
experience allowed for the incorporation of foreign, colonially imposed cultural elements into
the pre-existing cultural framework of the valley. The historical continuity of the transcultural
experience in the valley demonstrates that its Indigenous communities have not been passive
subjects of colonial power, but active agents in negotiating and mitigating its deculturating
effects. This approach emphasizes the historical agency of Sibundoy Valley natives and
positions them as the central protagonists of their own history, suggesting the applicability of
this perspective to other situations of cultural change in colonial contexts.
Description
Winner of the Libraries' Award for Undergraduate Research Excellence: (2022). 55 pages.