Law of Origin Integrator of Premodern - Modern Production Practices in Kankuamo Territory of Colombia

Lei de Origem integrando práticas produtivas, pré-modernas - modernas, no território Kankuamo da Colômbia

Abstract

The Kankuamo people from Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta [SNSM], Colombia, are undergoing a process of recovering their local knowledge and self-determination as an indigenous people; however, exogenous information affects their decisions and contributes to their acculturation. In this contr nnovative ones recommended by the Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation [AGROSAVIA]. This study seeks to contribute to the construction of a Hybrid Methodology that integrates the two positions by identifying emerging points of intersection in social, cultural, agro-environmental, political, and economic activities in its territory. It concludes on the need to align technological innovation strategies with the “Law of Origin” that governs the life of its people in the search for “good living”, to adopt them without detriment to their autonomy and cosmogony.

Keywords:
Good Living; Law of Origin; Ecological Paradigm; Productive Practices; Social Networks

Resumo

O povo Kankuamo da Serra Nevada de Santa Marta [SNSM], Colômbia, está experimentando um processo de recuperação de seu conhecimento local e autodeterminação como povo indígena; entretanto, informações exógenas afetam suas decisões e contribuem para sua aculturação. Nesse contraste, suas práticas produtivas ancestrais diferem das inovadoras recomendadas pela Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria [AGROSAVIA]. Este estudo busca contribuir para a construção de uma Metodologia Híbrida que integre os dois posicionamentos por meio da identificação de práticas produtivas, ancestrais e inovadoras, identificando pontos emergentes de intersecção nas atividades sociais, culturais, agroambientais, políticas e econômicas em seu território. Conclui sobre a necessidade de alinhar as estratégias de inovação tecnológica com a “Lei de Origem” que rege a vida de seu povo na busca do “bem viver”, para adotá-las sem prejuízo de sua autonomia e cosmogonia.

Palavras-chave:
Bem Viver; Lei de Origem; Paradigma Ecológico; Práticas Produtivas; Redes Sociais

Resumen

El pueblo Kankuamo de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta [SNSM], Colombia, vive un proceso de recuperación de su saber local y autodeterminación como pueblo autóctono; sin embargo, la información exógena afecta sus decisiones y contribuye a su aculturación. En este contraste, sus ancestrales prácticas productivas discrepan frente a las innovadoras recomendadas por la Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria [AGROSAVIA]. Este estudio busca contribuir a la construcción de una Metodología Híbrida que integre las dos posturas a través de la identificación de prácticas productivas, ancestrales e innovadoras, identificando puntos de intersección emergentes en las actividades sociales, culturales, agroambientales, políticas y económicas en su territorio. Se concluye en la necesidad de alinear las estrategias de innovación tecnológica con la “Ley de Origen” que rige la vida de su pueblo en la búsqueda del “buen vivir”, para adoptarlas sin menoscabo de su autonomía y cosmogonía.

Palavras clave:
Buen Vivir; Ley de Origen; Paradigma Ecológico; Prácticas Productivas; Redes Sociales

Introduction

This paper addresses the dichotomy between the ancestral practices of the Kankuamo people and the modern practices recommended by the scientific community in Colombia for the development of productive agricultural activities.

This section presents, sequentially: first, a tight synthesis of the problem represented in the resistance of the Kankuamo people, an ethnic community from Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta [SNSM], Colombia, regarding the technological innovation strategies proposed by the Colombian Corporation for Agricultural Research [AGROSAVIA, for the term in Spanish]. Second, the methodology used in the study through the follow up of four logical steps from the perspective with which is assumed the notion of “territory”: a) approaches to the study scenario where observations were made to identify divisions of its surface and daily agricultural practices; b) design and application of a survey of a representative sample of the Kankuamo people to establish its network of everyday relations in the search for “good living”; c) analysis of the metrics related to the social network analysis [SNA] and d) interpretation of the results of the prior steps described. Third, formulation of theoretical and conceptual referents of the study starting from the approaches of: “territory” as space appropriated by a given social group to ensure its construction, reproduction, and satisfaction of their vital needs (RAFFESTIN, 2011); “good living” or life in harmony and equilibrium with the nature of which it is part; “Law of Origin”, that which guides the daily actions of the Kankuamo people toward the continuous construction of what they consider good living;¬ and “ecological paradigm”, that which leads toward what greater society recognizes as sustainable development, understood as socially just and responsible with the nature that supports it.

The problematic resistance of the Kankuamo to technological innovation

The Kankuamo people, self-denominated “guardians of the global equilibrium”, is part of one of the four ancestral ethnic groups settled in the SNSM in Colombia - Kankuamo, Arhuaco, Cogui, and Wiwa peoples - a territory recognized by them as “The Heart of the World”. It is a people guided by its “Law of Origin”, characterized by the continuous search for what they denominate “good living” through the conservation of the way of life of their pre-Hispanic ancestors, the original peoples of America.

The Kankuamo territory, people also called Kankuaka or Kankuí, develops indigenous resistance processes against the acculturating influence of the greater society. In this sense, their own educational model and their impulse of ancestral agri-food production practices constitute processes that clash with technological innovation and transfer strategies recommended by AGROSAVIA, which are aimed at entrepreneurial, utilitarian, and functional production, and toward the mitigation of the effects of derived climate change and variability. In greater detail, it is necessary to consider that, in spite of the commitment of their authorities with recovering their ethnicity and with it the local knowledge, their ecosystem is highly degraded and vulnerable due to its geographic position and climate variability (HUERTAS et al., 2017). It is an ecosystem that has been imposed on them, initially through the persecution of the invading Spaniards and, later, through the prolonged harassment of settlers. This vulnerability, together with the Kankuamo people’s insisting on applying some of their production practices that generate negative environmental impacts, requires adopting innovation and transference strategies that, while promoting production surplus and conservation of production resources, impede altering their recognized autonomy and cosmogony.

Objective and methodology used

The study sought to identify the intersections between the Law of Origin aimed at the continuous search for good Kankuamo living and the ecological paradigm directed towards achieving sustainable development for the greater part of society. Its purpose was to explain how approaching a “hybrid methodology” in the implementation of production practices in Kankuamo territory may not only supply its own food in timely manner, but also produce food for exogenous consumption, without contravening its cosmogony or ethnic autonomy.

To fulfill this purpose, observation visits were made, and a survey was designed and applied to members of the Kankuamo family agricultural unit based on the notions of territory and territoriality, and of Actor-Network relationship. Its analysis and explanation transcend the strictly quantitative limitations of the network structure and metrics, to get involved in the interpretation of the resulting data (CASTRO, 2016; SAQUET, 2015). It addresses network analysis as recognized tool to identify the occurrence of intercepts of the territorial problematics posed and explain the complex social dynamics. In effect, network analysis, its scope and limitations (MICELI, 2008) has been used in characterizing the relationship of actors in the territory (CABRERA, 2011), in developing its endogenous production practices, like seed exchanges (ABIZAID et al., 2016), in state interventions to strengthen the social capital (MOTTA; TOSTES, 2016), in analyzing technological adoption (VILLARROEL et al., 2019), and in transmitting knowledge of textile production in indigenous communities (CASTRO, 2016).

The research methodological process covers four steps:

• 1) Observation visits made carried out to the research scenario comprised by the Kankuamo Reservation located in the township of Atanquez in the municipality of Valledupar, between 600 and 1,300 masl, (10°28´00,25” N, 73°15´04,53” O). The observations, ranging from non-participant to participant, evidence the division and use of surfaces, among others, places for meetings, religiosity, production parcels, and local technology used.

• 2) Design and application of a survey, which uses a non-probabilistic sampling through expert and referred selection, under the indigenous recommendation they exercise as Technicians of the Association of Kankuamo Indigenous Agroecological Producers [ASOPROKAN, for the term in Spanish]. This included the 19 homes that accepted to participate and is assumed as research unit for the quantitative analysis and the head of household, according to each case, as information source. The themes to consult in the network analysis are categorized by taking as base for its start the grouping of agro-ecological aspects related with “good living”, elaborated in prior research (FLORES; SARANDÓN, 2015), which facilitates determining sustainability indicators Sustainability indicators (Table 1).

• 3) Analysis of the metrics related to the social network analysis - SNA, with the quantitative results derived from the previous survey, through the answers to the following question: During the last year, with whom did you talk when you had to make a decision about …? To know the structure of actors that influence on the population’s decision making, a response matrix was constructed in Excel, and to analyze the data and obtain the graphic results, the Gephi software was used. This work considers that the weight of each link of the actors to transmit knowledge is determined by the product of two factors: frequency with which the producer consults, which is listed in a score scale from 6 to 10 according to such, and the perception of utility the producer has from said source on a scale from 1 to 5 with a weighting factor between 0 and 1 (MOTTA; TOSTES, 2016).

• 4) From the primary information obtained in the territory by applying the survey, the secondary information derived from the documents generated by the Kankuamo in which they consign their Law of Origin and in their notion of “good living”, and their connections with the problematics described in the reservation, the study advances onto an interpretative-contextual analysis of the territory with plural or inter-transdisciplinary reticular approach (SAQUET, 2015; CASTRO, 2016).

Theoretical-conceptual referents: territory, ecological paradigm, and good living

The concept of “territory”, from the Human Geography, becomes a discussion theme not only theoretical conceptual of study, but also an important reference for its methodological approach. The territory is assumed a setting appropriated by a given social group to ensure their reproduction and satisfaction of their vital needs; in this sense, the setting appropriated becomes the raw matter through which the territory is constructed (RAFFESTIN, 2011). The strategic operations to construct territory answer sequentially to: 1) the division and use of surfaces that implies the notion of limits, which tends for optimal functioning of the set of activities of all kinds carried out by a population; 2) the implantation of nodes or centers of power that symbolize the position or degree of importance of the social authors in the territory, and 3) the construction of networks or frameworks of lines that link at least three nodes derived from the need to relate. The meshes, knots, and networks that make up the territorial system and that allow to ensure the control of the territory only occur in function of imperatives -economic, political, social, and cultural-, identified as “territorial systems” (Ibid). Thus, the appropriation of the setting can be predominantly utilitarian and functional or predominantly symbolic and cultural, depending on the way the social actors project their distinct conceptions of the World (ibid).

The Kankuamo people and good living, the Law of Origin, and the ecological paradigm

The roots of the indigenous peoples of America assume “good living” or “living well” or the “good life” as a permanent and continuous construction that guides all their actions in daily life and during their entire existence. It is thus transmitted from generation to generation, through their Law of Origin, to the ancestral peoples of America, among which there are those from SNSM.

“Good living” means for the Kechua, indigenous people from Ecuador and Bolivia, “Life in Fullness”, which is reached when one learns to live in harmony with nature, history, and the cosmos, ancestors and - in general - with all the beings and forces of the universe. In this sense, it implies knowing how to relate with oneself to have access to a good relationship with their own and with other beings and forces of the universe; that is, they must know well: to eat, drink, dance, sleep, work, meditate, think, love and be loved, listen, speak, dream, walk, give, and receive (HUANACUNI, 2005).

For the Aymará, indigenous people from the borders of Peru, Bolivia, and Chile “Living Well” is reached when living according with the principles that guide life in community, that is, with the community paradigm that guides all their actions in community daily life. These are the great guides of the passing of life with themselves and with the community, with others and with everything, in a balanced and harmonious coexistence that favors everyone and everything (HUANACUNI, 2010).

The “Good Life” for the Guarani people, indigenous people who inhabit Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia, means assuming “nature” as a being with soul and life, intelligent and self-regulated, of which human beings are part as a bio-spherical continuum, in which self-understanding governs. It recognizes an integration of the past and future with the present, which makes the dead to have permanent contact with the living, and life in harmony with the nature of which it is a part, requesting a license in case of need to satisfy urgent requirements (MEDINA, 2008).

In synthesis, the cosmovision of the indigenous people of America identifies comprehension of the way of relating with themselves, among them and their human collectivities and among them, the natural setting in which they live and coexist, and the cosmos. Hence, the human being, nature, mother Earth, to which retribution must be made, and the Universe make up the same whole (BARRIENTOS, 2011) for the ancestral people of America.

The Law of Origin identifies respect and love for biotic and abiotic nature in the consideration of nature as a living being with soul, without distinction with human beings, and to which, as with these, gratitude, respect, and reciprocity are owed in daily treatment. It is a Law that connects man, the collectivity, nature, their ancestors, the world and the universe as a continuum in search of balance (ORTIZ et al., 2015). This connection permits inferring a very possible harmonious relation with the Ecological paradigm, given that such, “is ultimately a spiritual or religious perception” (CAPRA, 2008, p. 29). In effect, if the “scientific paradigm” is assumed as those universally recognized scientific achievements that during a given time provide models of problems and solutions to a scientific community (KUHN, 2004), It can also be assumed by Ecological paradigm a specific way of explaining the phenomena and situations of a certain reality, like the Kankuamo community, according to the principles of ecology.

According to Capra (2008), these principles are synthesized in:

1. Interdependence among all the members of an ecological community, due to their interconnection within a broad and complex network of relations. In this sense, the Kankuamo people recognize interdependence among them, with their community and other communities from Sierra Nevada and with their environment, regarding the necessary interconnection for their endogenous and exogenous relations.

2. Cycling of ecological processes, which leads to understanding how entire communities of organisms evolve over time by using and recycling relentlessly the same molecules of minerals, water, and air. For the Kankuamo people, it implies understanding the permanent and continuous cycling of their production practices so that they can evolve and recognize scientific knowledge, without undermining their ancestral cosmogony and autonomy.

3. Association, which shows how the flow and exchange of energy and resources in an ecosystem are sustained in continuous and permanent cooperation, through links that imply even some living within others and cooperate. These are flow and exchange of information indispensable to guarantee harmony in the relations between the Kankuamo people and institutions, like AGROSAVIA.

4. Flexibility, which suggests a corresponding strategy of conflict resolution that permits settling inevitable discrepancies in the entire ecological community, in this case, between the scientific community from AGROSAVIA and the Kankuamo community.

5. Diversity, whose role is intimately linked to its structure in the network. Thus, as in the ecosystems, the complexity of its network is a consequence of its biodiversity that makes them ecologically resistant; for the Kankuamo community and its relations with scientific communities, like AGROSAVIA, this is a clearly necessary principle.

The ecological paradigm permits, then, explaining the cultural practices, specifically the those of daily agricultural production of the Kankuamo people, as a community that develops complex relations in which a tangled mesh of elements and relations that configure and determine it is expressed. It is an integrating model that helps to comprehend community phenomena, facts, actions, and perceptions that give rise to them from the study of their reality, the demands of the environment to that reality and the responses and demands of the elements of that reality to their environment.

Both notions, premodern (Law of Origin) and modern (Ecological paradigm), a bio-spherical egalitarianism is proposed mediated by a pantheistic perception that exceeds the biotic limit because it connects both living beings and non-living or inanimate beings, like threads that are interwoven with patterns guided by universal dynamics (VALERA, 2017). Hence, this work shares the thesis by some authors that claim the importance of conserving for humanity the local knowledge of indigenous peoples as niches of confluence of the greatest linguistic and natural diversity on the planet (TOLEDO, 2013). It also shares with those who indicate the relevance of their ancestral production practices in mitigating the impact of climate variability on the vulnerable environments they inhabit (RAMOS et al., 2017; ULLOA, 2008; GONZÁLEZ et al., 2015).

Results

These gather the findings derived from the development of each of the aspects described in the study methodology, that is, from observing the division and use of the reservation’s surfaces, determining the structure of actors that influence on the decisions by the Kankuamo people, metric of the relations characteristic of the social network analysis (SNA), and final interpretation of all related findings.

On the division and use of surfaces in Kankuamo territory

The referents exposed, the secondary documentary exploration, principally that contained in the Law of Origin, and the observation visits in the study scenario permit affirming that the Kankuamo Reservation is a territory appropriated by these people to ensure their reproduction and satisfaction of their vital needs. The following are identified as strategic operations for said effect: 1) division of their surface, where we can find religious spaces to thank mother nature for goods and services granted and to offer their rituals, houses for dwelling, community meeting spaces, and spaces for their own food production in which production activities are carried out with ancestral techniques; 2) implantation of nodes made up by community authorities and representatives of organizations existing in the territory, and 3) construction of networks or frameworks of lines linked to each other by at least three nodes derived from the need to relate. The meshes, nodes and networks make up the Kankuamo territorial system that permits ensuring autonomous control of their territory.

Moreover, appropriation of their space in Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta is predominantly symbolic and cultural, given that it is the setting where they project their conception of the world according with the Law of Origin that governs their lives and guides their actions towards the continuous search for good living. It is contrary to the predominantly utilitarian and functional appropriation of space that guides the actions of the larger society toward obtaining economic development. This is based on practices that seek to increase productivity for exogenous commerce, through innovation and technological transference, and in mitigating and controlling the environmental impact derived from those practices.

The problematic described evidence the urgent need to have access to the premodern and the modern through identifying meeting or intersection points between both postures, a process herein denominated as “search for a hybrid methodology”. This study sought to establish the intersections that take place between the ancestral production practices aimed at the permanent search for “good living”, according with the Kankuamo’s “Law of Origin”, and the production practices derived from innovation and technological offer aimed at commercial production and prevention or mitigation of impacts derived from climate change and variability; especially in their basic food crops, like beans, whose production trend during the first semester is decreasing due to intensified drought, which affects the ethnic group’s food autonomy. The foregoing encourages obtaining improved varieties for the drought (CHAVES et al., 2018). In other words, the work seeks, from the ecological paradigm, the intersections between the notion of development by the ethnic groups (good living) and the indicators of technological innovation impact, pretending to achieve sustainable development, through the construction of an amalgamation between traditional and modern knowledge (ZANOTTI, 2014; GALVÁN et al., 2016).

Nevertheless, the process toward approaching a hybrid methodology must bear in mind a sort of social traps with respect to the possible articulation of the indigenous territories with the national and international guidelines and policies in relation with their ethnic autonomy, traps reflected in: a) disputes regarding access to land and management of natural resources (CARVAJALINO, 2017) and b) dichotomy between the governmental production approach and its agencies of rural development and research, regarding the posture of “good living” (FERNÁNDES, 2012) or, which is the same, facing the collective realization of the human being with life in harmony with nature, under a differential concept of development (PINILLA, 2013; MOLINA, 2015; GALVÁN et al., 2016).

Structure of actors that influence upon the decisions by the Kankuamo people

The Kankuamo Reservation, although experiencing a process of self-organization aimed at recovering its local knowledge and its self-determination as indigenous people (CABILDO KANKUAMO, 2016), evidences resistance to their ethnic self-recognition. Receiving information from exogenous sources to make decisions alters their continuous search for “good living” and contributes to their acculturation process. It is the case of the availability of electric power or of excellent roadways that communicate with the capital and, through them, of communication media and tourism, respectively, these influence on carrying out cultural practices foreign to their Law of Origin and to the search for “good living” (Figure 1).

To counteract this situation, the Commission for Good Living, body articulated to the indigenous council, promotes, among others, the theme of organic production through training that advance in identifying the most adequate products for their production, according to the bioclimatic offer in the Reservation. In this regard, ASOPROKAN has commercial initiatives of organic products in headings, like panela, honey, essential oils, cocoa, and coffee, although only this last obtains binding organic certifications with Japan and the European Community. These, that are processed with international funding, lack renovation after the end of the project (MINISTERIO DE AGRICULTURA and DESARROLLO RURAL [MADR], 2016), evidencing weakness in the commercial ties of the community as in the commercialization management and reaffirming the need for institutional companionship respectful of the legislatively recognized autonomy.

The results suggest, in production terms, conservation of ancestral practices, like programming tasks from the lunar cycles, payments, conservation of hydric sources and burnings, although not reporting ethno-veterinary treatments in animal production. Likewise, incongruence is evidenced between the management practices identified and the sustainability indicators adapted to the study context (Table 1), like own crops versus industrial crops or products of self-consumption versus products of exogenous commercialization. The results also identify exchanges that consider “reciprocity” and not the commercial value of that exchanged.

Table 1
Sustainability indicators related with “good living”

Social Component	Cultural Component	Political Component	Environmental, Agricultural, and Livestock Component	Economic Component
Organization of work and tasks in the farm. Social security and self-care. Food supply. Own education: vocational guidance and training Free time: leisure, recreation or entertainment activities.	Application of ancestral knowledge: in production, transformation, or conservation. Characteristic practices of the community: rituals, ceremonies, celebrations. Conceptions on nature and man.	Participation in citizen oversight or municipal councils. Community participation: recognized groups, boards, guilds or associations. Political participation: choose, promote or run for public office or popular election.	Agricultural: Management and conservation of water and soil: organic or chemical fertilization, rest and rotation of land, poly-crops. Pest and disease management: Plant biodiversity, use of commercial products. Solid-waste management: final disposal, recycling and reuse. Livestock: Animal management: facilities, nutrition, health, biodiversity.	Profitability: transformation of products, commercial and production alliances. Product exchange. Incentives to production: Financial management. Use and management of administration and planning instruments: creation of jobs, credits. registries, traceability, planning.

• Source: Adaptation to the context of the Kankuamo territory of agroecological aspects related with “good living”. The proposed purification of the sustainability tracers from the referred survey, applied in this exploratory study, has as base an academic exercise developed by Fabio Luis Jaramillo Vallejo, PhD student in Agroecology from Universidad de Antioquia [UDEA] Colombia from Flóres and Sarandón (2015); Nicholls and Altieri (2002). July 12, 2020.

The highest percentage of information was obtained from sources external to the reservation (50.79%), with respect to internal sources (49.21%); nonetheless, the endogenous information has greater reputation and relevance with respect to the outside information (Figure 1). Economic decisions were consulted within the family with occasional advice from the neighbors, and financial and credit information with bank consultants. The foregoing is derived from the plurality in family support, given that 80% of the homes do not depend exclusively on the father, with growing contribution from both parents to the family economy (58%). Homes with mothers heads of household constitute 10% and in 11% of the homes all the members contribute to sustaining the family. In this regard, the fact that in the households evaluated 58% have at least one member with university education is relevant, which reflects availing of access and funding of public education granted to the ethnic communities (AGROSAVIA, 2019; VALDERRAMA, 2016). Likewise, in homes with higher level of schooling of those in charge of the parcel, greater diversity is shown of practices of local knowledge congruent with the agroecological practices, with respect to homes with lesser schooling; a situation already evidenced by AGROSAVIA (2019) and Flóres LÓRES and SARANDÓN (2015).

In addition, the impact of implementing the “Makú Jogúki” Educational Ordering Plan, which links components from the Law of Origin with the organizational and pedagogical and with community interaction, on the transmission of the ancestral Kankuamo tradition becomes evident. This plan conducted a consultation through the Zhatukwa or communication with the creative spiritual parents of the world, Mamus or spiritual leaders and elders, which allows designing and applying the Kankuamo educational model, KEM (BUELVAS et al., 2015; SÁNCHEZ et al., 2015; VALDERRAMA, 2016).

Figure 1
Actors, networks and meshes in obtaining information on good living in the Kankuamo Reservation of Atanquez

In reference to other axes of consultation immersed in “good living”, social groups are identified, such as Evangelical churches, some community group, like Kankuamo government committees and associations of producers, as well as some political group, like that supporting their party of preference, principally the Alternative Indigenous and Social Movement [MAIS, for the term in Spanish]. In spite of evident tensions between the national government and reservation authorities, no discrepancies arise regarding their ethnic self-recognition or their role as protectors from Sierra Nevada governed by the Law of Origin.

SNA Metric

The analysis of the global network suggests that people of trust constitute the principal referent of the representatives of the agricultural units surveyed (33%), with flow of information restricted to the extended family group. Their authorities are considered the most important sources of information, over those of the sister towns of La Sierra (19%). Radio and television are the third referent (15%), above all on political themes and possible generators of conflict with respect to political decisions of the reservation. Medical consultations (11%) and Christian churches (8%) are found with less impact.

Themes of greater consultation include the social order (44%), political (22%), agricultural (10%), cultural-tradition-ancestry (9%), economic (8%) and livestock (7%). Data obtained through the Gephi software yield a centrality of intermediation that identifies three producers, members of the most numerous families, as disseminators of information among groups isolated in specific networks. This modularity shows that only one of the producers and his group of referents is disconnected from the global network (Figure 2). In greater detail, it is possible to observe a subgroup of five actors completely isolated from the global network (green), without a bridge that permits their connection. In contrast, the rest of the subgroups evidence three bridges that yield as result two subgroups (purple and orange) (Figure 2) (Table 2). Information Flow in the network requires increasing the intermediation and generating a bridge with the isolated group.

Leadership alludes to the amount of input connections to each actor measured through the inDegree variable which reflects that to make decisions, first go to the family; second to the neighbors; third to institutions belonging to the indigenous peoples -ASOPROKAN and the Council of Elders; and lastly, the set of mass communication media (Table 2).

Figure 2
Modularity network in information communication related with “good living” in the Kankuamo Reservation

Analysis of the agricultural information network shows how each producer has few referents (2 or 3) not connected to each other; 32% of them do not involve technical information to make decisions and are only based on their experience, advice from relatives and/or the information network. The livestock theme, in turn, shows that producers manage one or two referents; the first tends to be some close person or any of the elders to seek advice, and the second is a technician or veterinarian available.

Table 2
Leadership of actors according to frequency and consultation environment on “good living”

Category	Social	Political	Agricultural	Cultural	Economic	Livestock	TOTAL
Family	12%	1%	2%	2%	5%	2%	23%
Medical centers	11%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	11%
Neighbors or Friends	4%	1%	2%	1%	1%	2%	10%
Kankuamo authorities	3%	1%	1%	4%	0%	0%	9%
Television	1%	8%	0%	0%	0%	0%	9%
ASOPROKAN	1%	0%	3%	1%	2%	2%	8%
Evangelical church	7%	1%	0%	1%	0%	0%	8%
Radio	1%	5%	0%	0%	0%	0%	6%
Technical committee	2%	0%	2%	0%	0%	0%	4%
OIKA	1%	0%	1%	0%	0%	0%	2%
Governor’s office	1%	1%	0%	0%	0%	0%	2%
Educational institutions	2%	0%	1%	0%	0%	0%	2%
SENA	2%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	2%
Veterinarian	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	2%	2%
Banking advisor	0%	0%	0%	0%	2%	0%	2%
Newspaper or printed material	0%	2%	0%	0%	0%	0%	2%
Training and meetings	0%	2%	1%	0%	0%	0%	2%
Information systems	1%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	1%
Digital media	0%	1%	0%	0%	0%	0%	1%
TOTAL	44%	22%	10%	9%	8%	7%	100%

• Note: does not bear in mind the perception of importance of the information source. Source: elaborated by the study authors.

Interpretation of the SNA

Results of the sociocultural components are congruent with postures regarding the manifestation of ethnicity in Colombia interpreted as a social construction that responds to different interests; among them, electoral and of possible social perks. According to Raffestin (2011), with respect to the representation of the territory through the Euclidean syntax (plane, lines, and points), production practices are synthesized into three types of operations from the structures of power: a) creation of meshes that allow the proper functioning of the social activities of the ancestral people and their control; b) implantation of nodes as centers of power that symbolize the structures of power within the Kankuamo territory: lower councils, higher councils, the elders, and Evangelical churches, and c) the layout of networks that alludes to the link the actors have with each other, to influence and control each other, to move closer or to move away; in this case, Kankuamo people - civil society - state governance (GIMÉNEZ, 2016).

The aforementioned suggests, based on the influence of the aspects involved in “good living”, that the Evangelical church shares the power with the authorities, a situation explained by the lack of endogenous strategies to avail of free time, especially by the youth. Non-existence of bridges between both sectors could trigger tensions within the reservation, as stated in other research (SARRAZÍN; REDONDO, 2018). Elements were also observed related with the notion of “new rurality” within the sample. In effect, a high percentage (70%) of the family income in the homes evaluated is derived from non-agricultural or livestock activities, as also evidenced in previous studies (PÉREZ, 2016).

Regarding articulation among nodes, networks, and meshes, the Kankuamo community is guided from information about “good living” principally from the Reservation, but not so from the other ethnic groups from Sierra Nevada or from AGROSAVIA. This information flow is consequential with the generation of meshes that transcend the areolar visions of the political-administrative division, given that they overlap in a single ancestral territory with multiple territorialities and territorial production processes. Even for the indigenous peoples, territorialization implies constructing relations for the social production of the space according with the norms, the environmental offer, techniques and technologies propitiated by work, social tensions and circulation and communication networks that express the identities that coevolve and nurture each other (SAQUET, 2015).

Conclusions

The enormous limitation for interaction between the Kankuamo people and the adjacent territory in terms of technological tools and know-how is evident. This consists in the poor knowledge of the ecological environment of the autochthonous crops and gallery forests that remain, which challenges the depth of the knowledge and the tools of agroecology. Likewise, it the resistance of the ancestral peoples to adopting technological innovation during the development of their production practices against the fear of losing autonomy in their territory and of sharpening the acculturation processes of which they have long been victims. The foregoing requires the development of knowledge in the scale of human ecology and consensual, continuous and permanent action of the chains of actors in the Kankuamo territory and in the State institutions in the medium and long term. Within this context, an amalgamation becomes feasible and desirable between traditional knowledge and practices of the Kankuamo people, of agricultural, environmental, social, and economic benefits, and knowledge and innovative production practices, derived from rigorous institutional research processes with similar benefits, given that they converge in respect for nature and the biophysical order. Therefore, integration of techniques is required to optimize the circularity of the biotic recycling of the planet, giving scope to the precepts of the Law of Origin.

- A hybrid methodology to manage the knowledge resulting from that amalgamation is invigorated only by involving actors of high reputation in the reservation. Active adoption of technological innovation strategies and technological products, like improved varieties of biofortified beans for drought by the Kankuamo people requires, then, the participatory and consensual elaboration of guidelines for a hybrid methodology, which should include representative members from the largest families on the reservation, authorities, ASOPROKAN technical staff, professors from agricultural and livestock schools, personnel assigned to the Tairona Records Ethnic Radio Chain, sociologists and nutritionists from Kankuamo and Dusakawi IPSI, and leaders of the churches established in the reservation, as main references identified in the consultations. In addition, once the elements to be included in the innovation strategy for their adequate adoption by the Kankuamo people have been defined, they must be assessed by their spiritual authorities who must recognize their confluence with the Law of Origin and endorse their relevance in the Kankuamo Educational Project [KEP], taught since the first grade of primary school until the last grade of secondary education. In effect, the KEP recognizes that the agricultural and livestock activity stems from their own economic model and basic way of life, in which is promoted the useful biodiversity for the Kankuamo people, as well as their own foods from endogenous seeds and in situ banks. The strength of this study in the contribution of knowledge lies in the detailed description, analysis, discussion, and interpretation of its results, fundamental elements of the hybrid methodology. In it, the characteristics of association and flexibility are highlighted, represented in the fact that the Kankuamo people accept the evolution of their ancestral practices without altering the Law of Origin that governs their lives and daily behaviors.

- Notwithstanding socioenvironmental research identifying positive pre-Hispanic practices, such as terrace cultivation, which is recycled in the current agroecological approach (BOCCO; NAPOLETANO, 2017), not every production practice immersed in local knowledge implies, in itself, low environmental impact. This situation becomes more delicate when considering that the resilience capacity of the territories of ancestral communities decreases in the face of current climatic dynamics and, with it, the natural attenuation capacity in the face of anthropic exploitation, even under pre-modern technology (ULLOA, 2008). Hence, perpetuation of ancestral agricultural practices, with negative effects on the ecosystem and, particularly, on the soil quality, can affect the survival of the community, limit its autonomy and food in the medium term and promote the cutting down of gallery forest pockets, by increasing the agricultural frontier by searching for soils with greater productive capacity. This implies making all possible institutional efforts to obviate the dilemma of considering that the development of innovation and agricultural technology transfer strategies, which facilitate the mitigation of climate change and variability in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta, constitutes a countercurrent to the process of recovery of the Kankuamo ethnicity.

- While the management of innovation and technological transfer is carried out institutionally by AGROSAVIA in Colombia, in the Reservation, the Good Living Commission is in charge of monitoring its educational, production, environmental, cultural, and public health aspects (MINISTERIO DE CULTURA, 2017). Given that both state agencies and their sectoral entities adhere to specific mission objectives regarding the productive, environmental, economic and sociocultural field, it is necessary to identify and structure chains of stakeholders that mediate the processes of agricultural technological involvement. This allows reaching the impact of food production on the other areas involved in the notion of “good living” of the Kankuamo people. Thus, there would be a common paradigm that, through a hybrid methodology, permeates technological innovation in keeping with the cosmogony of this ancestral people.

- The Kankuamo people are not an extinct people, rather reconstituted and aware of their miscegenation derived from the effects of the historical acculturating influence and the challenges to face high rates of forced displacement and the “current Colombian reality”. The change in their vision of territory, from areolar to reticular, presents a transformation towards reticular and discontinuous territories against the reality of the territorialization of the ethnic group outside the Reservation. This envisions the possibility that, despite the fact that the Law of Origin is considered immanent, its reinterpretation by spiritual authorities may mutate, expand, or evolve to favor the recovery of ethnicity, survival, and community cohesion. Any change that permeates the way of life and collective thought must reaffirm the Law of Origin and be supported by the spiritual authorities and the guidelines of the Kankuamo Congress. This requirement facilitates external support in the processes and avoids violations of the legal principles contemplated in the document that protects self-determination and conservation of local knowledge (MINISTERIO DE CULTURA, 2017).

- Although the educational model itself emphasizes the valuation of ancestral crops for their own food, tensions are evident between their management and that of agro-industrial crops, a situation that reflects the existence of territorialities. Some producers focus on what the larger society recognizes as “subsistence farming” in which self-consumption prevails, others generate products for self-consumption and commercialization of surpluses, and third parties are biased to agro-industrial products, like sugarcane, cocoa, and coffee. This mosaic of territorialities determines the importance of the hybrid methodology sought in the processes of the Kankuamo people. In effect, the confluence of multiple territorialities is visible, such as those also related to the concept of “new rurality”, given that 70% of the families opts for it by depending on non-agricultural activities against the ancestral forms of agricultural or artisan production. Although all, to a greater or lesser extent, produce food, some members of the Reservation migrate to wage labor in other rural settings as a strategy to get out of hunger and poverty, given the belief that family agriculture leads to marginalization of social processes in territorial meshes. The strategy to promote access to technology by the ancestral ethnicities must be sufficiently flexible to include those multiple territorialities and include replacement of measurement indicators, with linking of the notion of “indigenous community sustainability”. This, according to Pinton and Congretel (2016) and (GALVÁN et al., 2016), understood as the dissemination of the innovation and the community perception regarding its balance between conservation and rational use.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank the Cooperation Initiative for Food and Agriculture between Korea and Latin America (KolFACI) project Obtaining tolerant bean varieties KOLFACI ID 1001513, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture-CIAT and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia-MADR, project Biofortified Beans OT Linkage Plan ID 1000509.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  03 Nov 2021
• Date of issue
  2021

History

• Received
  25 June 2020
• Accepted
  04 July 2021