The nasa yat: Territory and worldview. An interdisciplinary approach to the problem of change and adaptation among the Nasa

Abstract

In 1994, various populations at the northeast of Cauca province (southwest of Colombia) underwent the devastating effects of an earthquake that at the same time produced a mud avalanche that caused a human tragedy of great proportions. This case was documented by different anthropologists and sociologists who tried to get an approach to the interpretations and explanations of these facts from the Nasa social and cultural view —one of the most affected in the subregión— and the planning of development and change (Gómez y Ruíz, 1997; Gow, 2010). Some aspects, however, associated with the observed changes developing into the new territory, after the avalanche, and its relation to the Nasa worldview, the territory and its adaptive process reflected in the nasa yat (Nasa house), have not been  sufficiently treated. This paper seeks to present a significant case study of the Nasa regarding the processes that led them to reestablish a new territory after the avalanche, and highlight the implications that these processes had from their worldview to restart a new life cycle.