Colombian Counterpoint: Transculturation in Sibundoy Valley Ethnohistory

Abstract

Anthropological and historical scholarship on cultural change in colonially subordinated cultures has often stressed deculturation—cultural loss and degradation—as a consequence of colonialism. This paper disputes that narrative by presenting the case of Indigenous cultural change in the Sibundoy Valley of southwest Colombia from an ethnohistorical perspective. Drawing on historical, ethnographic, and theoretical texts and relying on the concept of transculturation—understood as a complex process of partial loss, partial gain, and the creation of new cultural phenomena from intercultural encounters—as a more nuanced alternative to deculturation, I outline the history of cultural change in the valley from the prehispanic period to the present. While recognizing that colonialism had catastrophic effects on the Indigenous communities of the valley, I also suggest that these communities’ deep historical experiences with transculturation in the prehispanic era enabled the preservation and rearticulation of core elements of Indigenous cultures in the post-contact period. That transcultural experience allowed for the incorporation of foreign, colonially imposed cultural elements into the pre-existing cultural framework of the valley. The historical continuity of the transcultural experience in the valley demonstrates that its Indigenous communities have not been passive subjects of colonial power, but rather active agents in negotiating and mitigating its deculturating effects. This approach emphasizes the historical agency of the Indigenous peoples of the Sibundoy Valley as the central protagonists and makers of their own history. I conclude by suggesting the broader applicability of this perspective to other situations of cultural change in colonial and postcolonial contexts.