A View on Puerto Gaitán’s Sikuani Indigenous Communities’ Territory from the Epistemology of the South

Una mirada desde la epistemología del sur del territorio de las comunidades indígenas sikuani de Puerto Gaitán

This article addresses theoretical concepts drawing on the epistemology of the South to examine the territorial issues faced by the Indigenous communities residing in the municipality of Puerto Gaitán. These issues were a result of emancipating production conditions versus social relationships with territory and the identity of specially protected subjects. The article links elements that have led to changes on property and dwelling, damaging Sikuani’s living conditions, by going from living to merely surviving. These territorial transformations are attributed to their own worldview—nomadic and seminomadic—as well as the impacts of Colombian armed conflict. The article also relates normative and jurisprudential elements that help set up protective measures for the territory to identify occupation and ancestral possession that challenge legal reality, since they call for institutional legitimacy versus social legitimacy.