Nasa’s autonomy narratives: the role of the caciques and of the indigenous communitarianism in the colony

Abstract

In this article, there is a presentation of the results of an inquiry of the narratives about the roles developed by the caciques and by the Nasa’s political communitarianism during the colonial period. The objective of this inquiry is to trace and analyze the ways in which possible notions and semantic associations with the term indigenous autonomy have been constructed. It is a documentary analysis work centered on the study of historical, political, and investigative documents about the colonial period with a special attention on the analysis of documents written by Nasa intellectuals who have described the political history of their people. First, there is an examination of those narratives about the precolonial organization of Nasa people. Second, there is an examination of the conflictive dynamics of indigenous territorial defense during the conquering period that was before the Spaniard dominance. Third, there is an examination of the role of the colonial caciques and the communitarian dynamics as possible cohesive elements in the political and territorial fights and in the revindication for a proper concept of Nasa autonomy during the colony. In the relates of the historical disputes of the Nasa people of Colombia, the autonomy emerges as an identity claim that prevails along time. Despite the historical disputes of the Nasa people to be identified through autonomy, this concept has not had homogeneous developments in their history, nor inside the complexity of their political conceptions.