Braiding the Identity of the Zenú People: Territory and Nature-Culture Relationships in the Crafting of the Vueltiao Hat

Abstract

The traditional manufacture of the vueltiao hat is a symbol of identity in the Colombian Caribbean. In recent decades, it has become a symbol and primary source of income for numerous indigenous Zenú families in Tuchín (Córdoba-Colombia). In this study, through qualitative methods, we document narratives around the vueltiao hat supply chain. As a result, we describe the current practices surrounding the cultivation, transformation and braiding of cañaflecha, related with the dynamics of commercialization of this handcrafted object, considering the different sociocultural dynamics of its crafting.

Keywords:

• economic botany
• Gynerium sagittatum
• handicrafts
• material culture
• weaving

Acknowledgements

We thank the artisans and farmers of Tuchín who kindly hosted us for the development of this study. We specially thank to Linoberto Atencia for his support in field work and his generosity. We also thank Daniel Salas Hoyos for his support in editing the last modifications of the manuscript. We thank the Asociación Colombiana de Geógrafos and the Academia de Historia del Sinú, el San Jorge y las Sabanas, for the discussions to clarify doubts and for providing bibliographic material. We also thank to anonymous reviewers who provided valuable inputs to the paper. DP was supported by MOPGA doctoral fellowship and by Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación of Colombia (Convocatoria 885-2020).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We conducted this research in the rural area of the municipality of Tuchín, Córdoba, in two different stages: February 2020 and April 2021. We conducted 16 open interviews with at least two people involved in each of the links in the vueltiao hat supply chain, from the harvesting of cañaflecha to its manufacture and sale, based on a "snowball" sampling (Martínez-Salgado 2012). Through this technique, one interviewee gave us the contact of the next interviewee, based on his knowledge of the cañaflecha and hat supply chain. The interview questions were related to each of the links in the supply chain and were asked directly in the field, as they went about their daily activities. With their authorization, we recorded the information in field diaries, audio recordings and photographs. These recordings were transcribed and analyzed, making a triangulation with secondary sources, in order to identify notions of culture and identity expressed by the inhabitants of the community through the management of plant species used as raw material, community and family relationships in the supply chain, traditions and innovations in weaving, institutional intervention, and socioeconomic dynamics around its elaboration.

Additional information

Funding

MOPGA doctoral fellowship;Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación of Colombia (Convocatoria 885-2020)

Notes on contributors

Sandra Milena Babativa Chirivi

Sandra is an Anthropologist, PhD candidate at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia in Mexico City. She is a researcher on issues related to traditional textiles in Mexico and Colombia. She is also an artisan and weaver, participating with collectives that weave, sew and embroider to reconstruct historical memory in contexts of political violence in Latin America.

Rosa Inés Babilonia Ballesteros

Rosa is a Geographer, PhD candidate in the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. She is a Geography teacher at the Universidad de Córdoba in the Colombian Caribbean. Her research fields are territorial development, sustainability of agri-food production and new rurality. She has also researched the transformation of rural space from the modernization of agriculture in Latin America. She is a member of the Asociación Colombiana de Geógrafos (ACOGE) and the Association of American Geographers (AAG).

Darío Pérez

Darío is a Biologist, PhD from the Université de Montpellier. He is a researcher on issues related to Economic Botany, Ethnobotany and Food Security. Together with farmers living in the Colombian Caribbean and high Andean mountains, he has worked in community and participatory research processes, to determine the impact of territorial conflicts on local agrobiodiversity, and socio-cultural aspects associated with the use, management and conservation of plant diversity.