Política y etnicidad en sociedades en transición en la zona sur de Costa Rica: Boruca y Talamanca siglos XVI al XIX

Ibarra R., Eugenia (Ibarra Rojas)

article

Política y etnicidad en sociedades en transición en la zona sur de Costa Rica: Boruca y Talamanca siglos XVI al XIX

Vínculos : revista de antropología del Museo Nacional de Costa Rica • 24 (1-2) • Published In 1999 • Pages: 121-151 ill., map

By: Ibarra R., Eugenia (Ibarra Rojas).

Abstract
[Para español, véase la primera página del documento.] This ethnohistorical study maps the contrast in the development of cultural identity between the Boruca of the Pacific lowlands and the “Talamancans” (Cabécar and Bribri) of the central cordillera, among the many other indigenous groups diminished by European conquest and colonization from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. The concepts of “gateway communities” straddling ecozones, of power conferred by goods obtained from distant, conceptually supernatural realms, and a consequent network of trade routes and shifting alliances manipulated by ruling elites—all in evidence prior to the Conquest—provide the framework for an analysis of the negotiation of identity and survival between the various cultures under pressure of colonialism. The Boruca suffered a stronger and almost immediate impact to their identity, due to the presence of an entrepôt at the intersection of major trade routes that attracted the immigration of the remains of other tribes, not to mention potent Spanish influence. The Cabécar-Bribri occupied a territory with a more diffuse network of trade routes and surrounded by a diversity of tribes that could serve as buffers in a game of shifting conflict and alliance (the Térraba of the Atlantic coast being notable among them), allowing paramount chiefs who doubled as religious leaders to access goods critical to maintaining power (especially iron tools and weapons) while keeping other cultural influences at bay, particularly the Spanish government and church. Intrigue within the ruling elite finally opened the door to the corrosive influences of missionaries and schools during the tumult of the early republic in the nineteenth century.

Acculturation and culture contact

Sociocultural trends

Cultural identity and pride

Chief executive

External relations

Inter-ethnic relations

Cultural revitalization and ethnogenesis

Talamancans