Society-CAGABA

The term "Cagaba" here refers to a group of four Chibchan-speaking
tribes located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a mountain massif
in northern Colombia, S.A., plus two linguistically-related lowland
tribes, the Chimila and the Tairona. The Tairona are extinct and known
only through the historical literature. Reportedly, there were only
a handful of Chimila speakers in 1920, but the language is still listed
as being spoken in the present (Arango Montoya 1977: 24; Park 1946:
866). The four Sierra tribes, often referred to collectively as the
"Arhuaco," are the Buntigwa, the Ica, the Kogi, and the Sanka. Although
all four have survived into the twentieth century, the Buntigwa and
Sanka are reported to be on the verge of linguistic extinction.

Population data for these four tribes are extremely poor and conflicting.
Estimates from the 1930s indicated a total population of 3,000. More
recent data from the Colombian government place the figure variously
around 9,000 or 23,000, although the latter figure is probably too
high (cf. Arango Montoya 1977: 14, 52; Colombia 1972: 1109, 1111;
Park 1946: 870-871).

Since many variant names have been used in the ethnographic literature
for these tribes, it may be helpful to list the main alternate names
that the researcher is likely to encounter. The Buntigwa are also
known as the Atanquez, Busintana, or Kankuama; the Ica as the Bintukua,
Businka, Busintana, Ijka, or Iku; and the Sanka as the Guamaca or
Sanha. The most important possible source of confusion in nomenclature,
however, concerns the Kogi. In the literature, the Kogi are generally
called the Cagaba (Kagaba), the term used here to refer to the entire
group of six tribes. Kogi is the preferred term, however, since it
is more specific and is the name used by the people themselves.

The following description of the Cagaba is drawn from sources that
predate 1950. To what extent the Cagaba have changed in the last 20-30
years is not known. What is known, however, is that they have been
subject to government programs aimed at education, commercialization
of artisan production, and credit extension. They have also been subject
to missionizing influences, from both Protestant (from the Summer
Institute of Linguistics) and Catholic missionaries. Finally, the
Cagaba have continued to be pushed into marginal lands as members
of the dominant society enroach upon the tribal lands of the Sierra
Nevada. (For a series of articles on programs affecting Colombian
Indians in general, see America Indigenia 1972; for a denunciation
of programs in the Sierra Nevada, see Viku 1976).

The Sierra Nevada is characterized by sharp contrasts in altitude,
temperature, and rainfall, with corresponding contrasts in plant and
animal communities. Much of the land is steep and not amendable to
cultivation. Further, agricultural productivity declines with increasing
altitude. Economic activities vary (both inter-tribally and intra-tribally)
according to the environmental zones to which a community has access.
The Cagaba's access to land has been seriously limited by Colombian
colonists. Slash-and-burn agriculture is the mainstay of the economy.
Major food crops include sweet manioc, potatoes, maize, bananas, plantains,
arracacha, sugarcane, and malanga. Secondary crops include onions,
beans, sweet potatoes, avocados, pineapples, and oranges.

Each family plants in several environmental zones, in order to produce
a diversity of crops. They maintain residences at each of their fields
and lead a semisedentary life as they shift frequently from field
to field. Raising of domestic animals, including oxen, pigs, sheep,
chickens, and turkeys, is a secondary activity, and the animals are
but infrequently eaten. Wild food collecting, hunting, and fishing
are very minor activities. Livestock and agricultural produce are
traded with neighboring Colombians. Such trade has increased in volume,
and it appears that their neighbors take advantage of the Cagaba in
these transactions. The Cagaba also engage in a number of craft activities,
but the division of labor follows lines of sex rather than specialization.
Both sexes share in agricultural production, while weaving, woodworking,
making cordage, clothing manufacture, and toolmaking are male activities.
Women are responsible for cooking, collecting wild foods, and manufacturing
nets and fans.

The nuclear family is the basic social and economic unit of Cagaba
society. It is the most common household type, and the household functions
as a property-owning, cooperative, economic unit. Kinship ties are
reckoned bilaterally, but ownership and inheritance mainly follow
male lines. Kinship terminology is of the Hawaiian type. For the Kogi,
Reichel-Dolmatoff reports the existence of parallel descent groups
called Tuxe (a group formed of a man and his sons) and Dake (a group
formed of a woman and her daughters). The functioning and importance
of these groups is not well understood: Tuxe and Dake organization
broke down at some time in the past, and Reichel-Dolmatoff's informants
give conflicting information on the subject 1949/50: 157-192).

Cagaba marriage ideals and practices are in conflict, if the Kogi
are indicative of the group as a whole. These contradictions appear
to be the result of demographic changes resulting from culture contact.
Ideally, marriages are prohibited between close relatives, including
cousins, and a man of a particular Tuxe should marry a woman of a
particular Dake. Further, Cagaba ideals stress fidelity and prohibit
divorce. In reality, however, there is a shortage of women, and demographic
changes have made it nearly impossible for a man to find a prescribed
marriage partner. The result is that free unions rather than marriages
are the norm. The majority of these unions break up, and there is
a high degree of infidelity. The shortage of women is further exacerbated
by the practice of polygyny among older reputable men. Marriage entails
a one-to-two-year period of bride service, following which the couple
set up their own household, usually in the village of the bride. Husbands
and wives are separated most of the time. The wife and children share
a dwelling, while the husband either lives in a separate dwelling
nearby or spends most of his time in the village "temple."

Households are organized into communities. The more permanent community
settlements are probably the result of Spanish attempts to settle
the population, but most of the Cagaba remain semisedentary, shifting
between dwellings in their fields, and visiting the main community
for short periods during the week. Community authority is vested in
the Comisario, or local secular headman, and the Mama, or priest.
Both receive weekly tribute from their subjects. The Comisario holds
office for one or two years and is the authority recognized by the
Colombian government. The duties and authority of the Comisario vary
from town to town, but include settlement of minor disputes, overseeing
communal labor, and mediating between the village and outsiders. In
actuality, though, most community authority resides in the Mama, and
the Comisario usually consults with the Mama before taking any action.

The Mama combines the roles of priest, diviner, curer, village administrator,
and judicial authority. Each village has one or more Mamas, the oldest
and most reputable of whom has the most influence in village decisions.
Both communal and personal decisions require divinations by the Mama.
The outcome of such divinations affects everything from choice of
marriage partner or timing of agricultural activities and ceremonials
to communal work projects. All Cagaba must confess regularly to the
Mama. On the basis of these confessions, the Mama not only exercises
judicial authority by meting out penances but also gains an intimate
knowledge of the community members and events that are important to
his exercise of power.

The status of Mama is open only to males selected by a Mama through
divination and can be achieved only after a lengthy period of apprenticeship.
Apprenticeship usually begins as soon as a child is weaned and lasts
19 years, during which time the boy is secluded from contact with
anyone but the Mama and his fellow apprentices and spends his time
learning ritual and esoteric knowledge. There is a tendency for this
office to be passed from father to son, but this is not a strict rule.

In addition to the Comisario and the Mama, Cagaba villages have Cabos
and Mayores. Cabo is the title given to both an assistant of a Mama
and an assistant to the Comisario. They have little real authority
and act under the directions of their superior. Mayores is a term
given to older reputable men. This title gives them some slight power
over their kinsmen and the younger members of the community. The Mayores
may also meet together as a deliberative advisory body at the behest
of the Mama. Cagaba villages are somewhat stratified in terms of the
wealth and prestige that are gained by age and knowledge. These levels
have not solidified into classes, however.

The village level is the highest level of indigenous political authority.
Although the members of each tribe share a common language and a belief
in having been descended from the same ancestors, there is no tribal
authority, and the tribe does not act as a unified whole. But the
Cagaba do form a part of the Colombian nation, and the literature
would seem to indicate that culture contact has had disturbing effects
on the traditional culture. Demographic disturbances, breakdowns in
traditional social organization, and increasing economic marginalization
are all indicated trends. Reichel-Dolmatoff portrays Kogi culture
as oriented around two main themes, food and sex (or fertility) (1949/50
and 1951). Reading between the lines, these themes may be interpreted
as reflecting very real disturbances in population and resource relationships.
In summary, then, the Cagaba emerge as a highly distinctive and fascinating
people, who appear to be maladapted to the changing conditions in
which they find themselves.

The Cagaba file focuses on the Kogi, the largest and least acculturated
of the mountain tribes. There is also a substantial amount of information
on the Ica. Very little data are available on the Sanka or Buntigwa.

Unfortunately, the Cagaba have not been well studied (Reichel-Dolmatoff's
monograph on the Kogi being the only exception). Whether traits reported
by one author but not by another are indicative of unreliability or
processes of change is a question the researcher must keep in mind.

Culture summary by Eleanor C. Swanson



America Indigena, vol.
 32, no.
 4 (1972).
 Arango Montoya, Francisco.
 Colombia: Atlas indigenista.
 [Colombia: Atlas of Native peoples] Bogota, Colombia, Litografia Arco, 1977.
 Colombia, Ministerio de Gobierno.
 Poblacion indigena de Colombia segun datos de la Division de Asuntos Indigenas del Ministerio de Gobierno (1964).
 [Indigenous population of Colombia according to data of the Division of Indian Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior (1964)] America Indigena, 32 (1972): 1108-1123.
 Park, Willard Z. Tribes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.
 In Julian H. Steward, ed.
 Handbook of South American Indians.
 v. 2.
 Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1946: 865-886.
 Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo.
 Los Kogi: una tribu de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.
 Tomo I [The Kogi: a tribe of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.
 v. 1].
 Instituto Etnologico Nacional, Revista, 4 (1949/1950): 1-319.
 Reichel-Dolmatoff, Gerardo.
 Los Kogi: una tribu de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia.
 Tomo II [The Kogi: a tribe of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, v. 2].
 Bogota, Editorial Iqueima, 1951.
 319 p. Viku, Acua.
 Mensaje de las comunidades indigenas de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
 [Message from the indigenous communities of the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta] Katxa-ta, no.
 2 (Oct.-Dec.
 1976): 16-20.


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