Scielo RSS http://www.scielo.org.co/rss.php?pid=2011-032420080002&lang=es vol. num. 2 lang. es http://www.scielo.org.co/img/en/fbpelogp.gif http://www.scielo.org.co http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242008000200002&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es The dualism in social science between practice and discourse has begun to be questioned, amongst others, by perspectives that are trying to overcome the division between culture and politics. This questioning can be supported by an examination of the tension between culture as a human activity of presence in the world, in which there is a unification of the material and symbolic, and culture as a manufactured object in the context of hegemonic constructions of culture. This article analyzes this tension in relation to the activities of black youths in Aguablanca, Cali, who use rap to create a cultural identity as a way of life and at the same time create their culture as an object designed to facilitate their presence in the market, the state and the NGOs. The local state and the voluntary sector also work on culture as more limited set of expressions, seeking to depoliticize it. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242008000200003&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es In the Constitution of 1991, Colombia is defined as an ethnically plural and multicultural nation. This has implied the recognition of special rights and statutes of different populations and their territories, including, amongst others, the native population of the San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina Islands. This recognition has caused the re-elaboration and reinvention of identity discourses by the native population. At the same time it has fostered conflicts between some sectors of this population and the Colombian State. This essay analyzes the discourses and other elements in the self-representation of the population, which construct the native identity, in order to explore the values that form that identity in the inter-cultural daily life of the Caribbean region. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242008000200004&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es For decades, academic interest in the Colombian black population was held back because of the epistemological racism towards afro-descendants. Despite the presence of some prior investigations of the subject, this situation changed dramatically with the Constitution of 1991, when the black population acquired an ethnic/racial status and the discipline of afro-Colombian studies was created. This article presents a general view of the ample intellectual production, epistemological paradigms and diverse lines of research that have been developed by professionals of the social sciences and other disciplines in the construction of knowledge that, from the point of view of black people, can be described as ''one's own'' at the beginning of this century. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242008000200005&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es Since Said and Foucault, texts are not seen as mediation anymore, but as reality-construction devices. Those who represent cannot escape representation. The archeology of alterity takes us away from spectacles of representation and makes us part of them. This essay is a contribution to an archeology of ethnic alterity through an analysis of the systems that have (auto)represented it. For this purpose the author analyses the construction of the relationship between the self and the other through the discourses and representations of colonialism, which enables us to observe the power relationships and exclusions that they developed. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242008000200006&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es Despite of the image that some readers could have as a result of recent reports in mass media, the contemporary conflict in the Caucasus has long history and a complex nature. This is a conflict which is fought along ethnic lines and the origins of this rivalry can be traced in the Soviet history of the region. In this paper, considering as a departure point the mainstream discussions in the area of studies of nations and nationalism, the author attempts to clarify the grassroots of the modern troubles in the Caucasus. It is a three-fold exercise: firstly, the paper explores the relations between historiography debates, the production of official history and the Soviet ethnic policies; secondly, the author discusses a new framework of ethnic enclosure, and, finally, a case study is offered. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242008000200007&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es One of the most distinct characteristics of the contemporary world is the complex and often troubled relationship between identity and citizenship. In this article the author presents a framework of analysis, following four authors, in which citizenship could be understood in a double aspect: on the one hand, tied to the belonging to a certain territory from birth, and on the other hand, constructed from the recognition of laws and of rights that are imposed and internalized. In order to come to a conclusion, the article traces the notions of identity and citizenship from the most exclusive notion: from that of the foreigner, which today contains an infinity of theoretical, political and social difficulties. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242008000200008&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es The traditional discrimination against non-heterosexual orientations and expressions has been losing its legitimacy during the last decades. This fact does not imply, however, that there is unanimity about which theoretical and discursive basis is more pertinent for the demand of rights for gays, lesbians and transsexuals, amongst others. This article critically revises three political paradigms that are incumbent in this debate: the politics of liberalism, the politics of difference and the politics of cultural transformation. Thereafter, it discusses the theoretical proposal of Nancy Fraser to see the lack of recognition as a status subordination problem, which is complemented by Chantal Mouffe's proposal for the construction of radical democracy. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242008000200009&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es The social pressure to develop an identity according to a biological referent has historical origins, and has been used as a tool for social control and domination. This article discusses the current state of the identity concept, focusing on the subject of sexuality. It makes use of Judith Butler's theses, who, from a de-constructivist and post-structuralist perspective, proposes a new definition of identity in terms of performative iteration. Identity is then understood as a demand for intelligibility from society, which limits the possibilities of sexual expression. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242008000200010&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es Horror films have approached the idea of the ''other'' through the figure of the monster, something or somebody that comes from unknown realms in order to generate fears and anxieties that ''otherness'' produces in the established order. In this article, the author explores the changes that this cinematographic recreation of ''otherness'' has experienced though time, and explains how in the past it usually came from unknown dimensions and now it shows aspects of our ''normal'' world. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242008000200011&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es Science fiction shows the most extreme forms of otherness that can be imagined. Those other beings and other worlds open the door to new ontologies and to the de-naturalization of opposed categories like organic/inorganic, natural/artificial. As a result we obtain new ways of thinking about identity and the definition of human being. This article explores this process by analyzing representations of technical advancement and its mediation between identity and alteration in some stories of this genre. With this in mind, the author takes the figure of the robot or cyborg as an example, as it appears in recent films, which show how it becomes humanized. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242008000200012&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es This article traces some histories of applied and development anthropology raising questions about the implications of redefining the role of anthropology as an ''expert knowledge'' for social intervention. http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2011-03242008000200013&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es This article traces some histories of applied and development anthropology raising questions about the implications of redefining the role of anthropology as an ''expert knowledge'' for social intervention.