From lines to places: Notes about Territory among indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombian Caribbean

Abstract

This paper focuses on the ways that thei´kupeople, an indigenous group from the Colombian Caribbean, envisage the territory. The main idea is to discuss the category of "Línea Negra", making it one of the main territorial axis. For doing so, the paper takes into consideration a basic issue described by other authors: the differences between governmental and indigenous perspectives about what territory is. The main argument seeks to unstabilize the common idea about the “Línea Negra” being a limit in the western sense, enlightening other relations in which the primordial places, also known as sacred places, are the protagonists.

Key words:
Territory; Caribbean Ethnology; Places; Shamanism