Territorios indígenas, formas otras de vida, resistencia y derecho. Los nasa: una conversa conversada y por conversar

Abstract

Conversation is the ancestral method through which the Nasa people of southern Colombia transmit their knowledge and worldview. Around the Tulpa (fireplace), where they have historically shared their way of life, a fictional literary narrative is recreated. In this narrative, various characters—representing the diverse voices of the Nasa people—tell their history from pre-Hispanic times to the present. This narrative constructs a historical account of their imaginaries, forms of resistance, relationship with the territory, and autonomy as a people.

The literary narrative is complemented by an academic analysis that critically and analytically supports the reader throughout most of the document. This is not intended as an explanation of one by the other but as the coexistence of two perspectives for understanding and interpreting realities, always placing the Nasa conception of life at the center of the analysis.

Both documents (the narrative and the analysis) explore discussions on the asymmetrical coexistences of legal systems, where the dominated are subject to a legacy of colonialism and a weak legal pluralism. This opens up possibilities for understanding the relationship with the territory and the resistance against a hegemonic and oppressive social and legal system. Thus, in a disruptive manner, the trajectory of the conversation—both the discussed and the yet-to-be-discussed—is developed intertextually.