Cultural Integration of the Kwayker Indians, Colombia: A Geographical Analysis

Aragón, Luis Eduardo (1974) Cultural Integration of the Kwayker Indians, Colombia: A Geographical Analysis. Masters thesis, Michigan State University.

Text 15883.pdf Restricted to Repository staff only Download (38MB)

Resumen

Economic, social and demographic pressures are forcing Colombians to explore remote areas of their national territory. Such lands are covered largely by heavy forest. The two major forested regions in the nation are the Amazonia in the southeast and the Pacific coast in the west. People moving to these areas are called colonos. $^1$ They are essentially mestizos, Spanish-speaking people and with a high degree of Spanish-based culture. Although the largest number of colonos come from the highlands, some of them migrate from the plains and valleys as well.The remote areas are not totally unpopulated, as there have been native Indians living there since time immemorial. The colonos, or outsiders, represent a markedly distinct culture in comparison with the local aboriginal groups in terms of economy, language and religion.The Kwaykeres are a group of Indians living in southwestern Colombia and are suffering the continuing effects of one of the earliest colonization penetrations in Colombia. They speak a Chibcha dialect and have been considered by anthropologists as "full-blood Indians" closely related to Eastern Asians.$^2$The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to delimit and calculate the present population of the Kwayker Indians and, second, to explain how the colonization process, by reducing the Kwayker geographical space, forces Indians to abandon their own cultural patterns in order to integrate with those of the new and dominant colonists.A historical review and statistical analysis of data collected during the field work, in Colombia and Ecuador, show that as colonization increases, the cultural integration of Kwaykeres into the national life likewise increases. Because endogamy is a typical characteristic among the Kwaykeres, they were classified operationally by their surnames. Numerical taxonomy was used to differentiate the Kwayker names from non-Kwayker names. The surnames, Bisbicús (BI), Canticús (CA), Cuasalusán (CU), Gwanga (GW), Nastacuás (NA), Paí (PA), Paskal (PS), and Taicús (TA), were taken as belonging to Kwaykeres. Other surnames, except Garcia (GA), were taken as belonging to colonos. People with the surname Garcia or with one Kwayker and another colono surname, were taken as cholo.$^3$ Relationships through marriage, baptism, and land transactions were analyzed in relation to the surnames. The Kwayker cultural area was delimited on the basis of five factors: 1) existing maps and descriptions of the Kwayker area, 2) the Kwayker surnames, 3) the Kwayker language, 4) land elevation above sea level, and 5) places visited by the author, other writers, and missionaries in the Kwayker area. After a century of glory, the Kwaykeres began their decline as a cultural entity around 1630. Today, they are reduced to no more than 6,500 people in an area of 10,000 square kilometers. The colonization by non-Kwaykeres, a geographical-space-reduction process, has increased sporadically and strongly since 1960. It has disintegrated the Kwaykeres as a culturally homogeneous group within a contiguous territory. The Kwaykeres manifest a different material culture, social structure and way of thought as they settle sites farther from the frontier of colonization. The main activity of the Kwaykeres, today, is the clearing of forest to sell the cleared land to colonos. Colonos and Kwaykeres together are deforesting the land at an increasing pace. Therefore, within a few years the Kwaykeres will have no forested area remaining. They are changing their primitive subsistence agriculture for an economy based essentially on wage earnings and before long will be completely absorbed by the colonizer's culture.

Tipo de Elemento:	Tesis (Masters)
Palabras Clave:	Colonization,Culture,Religion.Demography,Kwayker
Asunto:	Geografía. Antropología. Recreación > Geografía (General) Geografía. Antropología. Recreación > Folclore Ciencias Sociales > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Division:	Facultad de Ciencias Humanas > Programa de Geografía > Trabajos de grado
Depósito de Usuario:	Monitor Biblioteca 3 Quijano Guerrero
Fecha Deposito:	27 Abr 2026 14:20
Ultima Modificación:	27 Abr 2026 14:20
URI:	http://sired.udenar.edu.co/id/eprint/18178

Ver Elemento