Abstract

HERRERA ANGEL, Marta. CULTURE AND WAR: THE SINDAGUA OF LAKE PIUSBÍ (THUNDER) AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. hist.crit. [online]. 2009, n.39, suppl.1, pp.68-79. ISSN 0121-1617.

In the first decades of the seventeenth century, a war to exterminate the Sindagua indigenous group was carried out. A few documents from this military campaign survive. Although limited in number and short on information, these documents, written in 1634 and 1635, are one of the few available sources through which we can develop a sense of this group. This article analyzes these documents to try and understand the cultural practices of the Sindagua. The analysis rests on the idea that culture -understood (in Geertzian terms) as the structure of meanings through which the phenomena of daily life are interpreted- is somewhat organic. This implies that the practices of warfare within a particular group of people exhibit an underlying structure that is congruous with its other cultural practices. Thus, practices related to warfare can shed light on cultural elements beyond war. In this manner, the article offers a methodology that expands the utility of existing archival documents.

Keywords : Barbacoas; Awa; Sindagua; Culture; Patía; Pacifc-coast Region; Colonial Period; War; Seventeenth Century; Methodology.

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