Abstract

SARRAZIN, Jean Paul. Structure, anti-structure and the world-system in an alternative Community. The case of the "hippies-koguis" at the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Hallazgos [online]. 2016, vol.13, n.25, pp.157-175. ISSN 1794-3841.  https://doi.org/10.15332/s1794-3841.2016.0025.07.

Using the concepts of structure, antistructure, liminality and world-system, this paper analyzes some representations related to the "hippie-koguis", a name that has been attributed to a hippie community in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (Colombia), founded in the early 1970s near a Kogi indigenous settlement. These communities are imagined as projects "outside the structure", "anti-systemic", or "alternative", representations which should be questioned, since the people who enact this type of projects are clearly identified through some of the roles and identities established by the social structure. On the other hand, in their search for changes and admiration for a certain difference, these projects pretend to be inspired by "other cultures"-in this case the indigenous-, mistakenly assuming that indigenous peoples are radically separated from the Western system. It also becomes evident that the discourses and intentions of individuals who wish to get out of the modern capitalist system cannot be understood without considering that very system itself. Finally, it is argued that communities which are said to oppose social structure, tend to structure themselves as time goes by, usually for economic and political reasons.

Keywords : Liminality; world-system; social structure; anti-structure; alterity.

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