"Unser kühles Territorium”: Das indioamerikanische Konzept der "Territorialhygiene” am Beispiel des Ressourcen­krisenmanagements der Nasa (Páez) des kolumbianischen Tierradentro

Abstract

According to "traditional” Amerindian cosmological thought, "territory” is not just a provider of natural resources but also constitutes a space for political and medical-religious practices. Confronted with natural catastrophes like the Páez-River-Mudslide of June 1994 and the population growth with its resulting pressure on the already strained environment, the Nasa of the Tierradentro region had to "create” new strategies for their "resource crisis management”. For the Nasa their rituals of traditional medi­cine offer a control-mechanism for the ecological crisis, the cosmic disorder and the accumulation of "socio-cosmic filth” (pta’z). "The ice of the dead” caused by the ongoing violent Columbian civil war forms a considerable part of this pta’z, which threatens to "burn” their territory. Thus, this "ill” and "hot” social cosmos has to be "cleaned” and "cooled down” periodically by means of "cool medicine”. The foregoing illustrates the Nasa’s concept of interpretation and agency aiming at cultivating a "cool territory” (kwe’sx kiwe fxizenxi), a territory in the state of harmony and equilibrium. To achieve a "cool territory” the Nasa perform multiple rituals: e.g. "cooling water”, "sowing” (reviving) water and even shamanistic expulsion of violence. With this "body-centered philosophy of practice” the Nasa try to create moments of joy, the health of their social cosmos. These discursive and non-discursive practices "sow power” by constructing, reconstructing and reinventing the Nasa’s "spiritual” and cultural assets. Thus the Nasa project a neotraditional­ist ecosophical ethics.