article

Cultural change and environmental awareness: a case study of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia

Mountain research and development2 (3)Published In 1982 • Pages: 289-298

By: Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This article is a discussion of Kogi adaptation to living and farming on the slopes and foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in northern Colombia. The Kogi are descendents of refugees from a coastal chiefdom that was conquered by the Spaniards in 1600. In order to take advantage of the region's varying soils and climate, families live a nomadic existence travelling to as many as five different homes and fields that are situated at different altitudes and in different valleys. They grow a different mixture of crops at each location and harvest their crops on year-round basis. Priests play an important role in maintaining the carrying capacity of the environment by closely scrutinizing the moral conduct of the community through confessional. Appropriate moral behavior includes sexual abstinence, raising of small families, and keeping a subsistence ethic. The priests also designate open land as taboo, and only lift the taboo in times of impending food or nutritional shortage.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Population policy
Cultural goals
Tillage
Land use
Settlement patterns
Purification and atonement
Priesthood
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Kogi
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
1997
RegionThe area the document pertains to
South America
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Northwestern South America
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
article
Evaluation
Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Ethnologist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
Ian Skoggard ; 1996
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
not specified
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
not specified
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia
NotesAdditional notes
G. Reichel-Dolmatoff
Includes bibliographical references (p. 295-297)
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
82641140
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Kagaba Indians