Indigenous Peoples and Companies: some tensions and paradoxes between Economy and Culture in Colombia

Abstract

The article proposes a code reading of the relations economy/culture, that looks to identify the tensions and paradoxes in which the different indigenous people and communities of Colombia have to relate with the interests and economic projects of companies foreign in their territories. The text realizes a doble synthetic route that recognizes the struggles and vindications of indigenous people in Colombia and questions some of the normative instruments that regulate the relationship between state, companies and populations, giving examples of how now adays, state and companies become proprietors. Experiences in some institutions as well as registers of field work of the authors are included, looking from the connections and breakups in the struggle of the community to survive collectively, construct their autonomy and gard their territorial relations and the economic pressures at different scales and magnitudes that participate in their vital dynamics within the framework of growing extractivism that poses challenges to communities and companies.