Abstract

MORRIS, Meghan L.. The Question of Land: Dispossession and Possession in Ethnographic Inquiry. Rev. colomb. antropol. [online]. 2017, vol.53, n.1, pp.27-57. ISSN 0486-6525.

The concept of dispossession has taken on new force in Colombia, across social, bureaucratic, and academic spaces. In this article, I follow Gillian Hart's (2006) call for an engagement with dispossession that considers its disparate meanings and material facts together, in order to build concepts that help understand complexity through ethnography. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Urabá, a site often considered to be “emblematic” of dispossession, I consider the possibilities and limits of dispossession as a conceptual tool for understanding the complexities of the conflict in the region. I suggest that complementing dispossession with other conceptual tools, such as possession, could allow for a deeper understanding of the question of land in a region like Urabá, and the construction of more lasting political outcomes.

Keywords : dispossession; possession; land; Colombia.

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