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This paper contributes to the study of communication in Latin America through a theoretical proposal called communication for social re-existence. This concept emerges from the analysis of the community practices of the Nasa indigenous people in the Cauca region of Colombia in which communication and territorial defense are interrelated. Using the metaphor of weaving, this communicative approach is represented as comprising knots (the participating actors), gaps (spaces for reflection) and threads (the strategies). This research hopes to be the beginning of a communicative methodology that will be useful within the organizational proposals of subaltern movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop yield is an important factor for evaluating production processes and determining the profitability of growing coffee. Frequently, the total number of coffee beans per area unit is estimated manually by physically counting the coffee cherries, the branches, or the flowers. However, estimating yield requires an investment in time and work, so it is not usual for small producers. This paper studies a non-intrusive and attainable alternative to predicting coffee crop yield through multispectral aerial images. The proposal is designed for small low-tech producers monitored by capturing aerial photos with a MapIR camera on an unmanned aerial vehicle. This research shows how to predict yields in the early stages of the coffee tree productive cycle, such as at flowering by using aerial imagery. Physical and spectral descriptors were evaluated as predictors for yield prediction models. The results showed correlations between the selected predictors and 370 yield samples of a Colombian Arabica coffee crop. The coffee tree volume, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and the Coffee Ripeness Index (CRI) showed the highest values with 71%, 55%, and 63%, respectively. Further, these predictors were used as the inputs for regression models to analyze their precision in predicting coffee crop yield. The validation stage concluded that Linear Regression and Stochastic Descending Gradient Regression were better models with determination coefficient values of 56% and 55%, respectively, which are promising for predicting yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: The year 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC), the first organization established in Colombia to fight for territorial and identity rights of Indigenous Peoples. From a historical perspective and proposing an approach related to the concept of resistance, this paper focuses on how this latter has been expressed through this indigenous movement since its inception. Methodology: The information and reflections presented here are based on a corpus of bibliographical and documentary sources, as well as on a follow-up of the political mobilizations of indigenous peoples in situ, in the media, digital social networks, official minutes, and other statements. Conclusions: The analysis reveals the persistence of indigenous resistance and an expansion of the project that accompanies it, from a struggle for land and territory to efforts carried out along with other actors and social organizations to create a "better world." Originality: The originality of the article consists of an analysis of the political dimensions of the resistance of Indigenous Peoples, which are still little known. In addition, it offers a novel approach to stress the intersection of (sub) national and global dynamics in which the demands of Indigenous Peoples and issues related to Colombia's society and the whole world converge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the concept 'necropolitics of peacebuilding' to analyse how contemporary geographies of peace and post-war violence are shaped by the articulation of race, space, politics and the coloniality of power. We explore how post-conflict programmes, plans and policies shape the uneven distribution of life and death, focussing in particular on the elimination of indigenous leaders. Drawing on research conducted in northern Cauca, Colombia, where many indigenous leaders have been threatened and murdered despite the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2016, our analysis reveals four key factors: 1) The coloniality of power that treats their bodies as disposable and not fully human; 2) The juxtaposition of illicit economies and neoliberal extractivist enterprises in their territories; 3) Violent opposition to their autonomous political projects that aim to defend their land and forms of being; and 4) The disputed presence of peacebuilding programmes seeking to substitute illicit crops. Analysing the relationship between necropolitics, racism and spatial segregation is shown to be crucial to understanding the violence faced by indigenous leaders and communities in post-conflict situations. This paper thus makes an important contribution to understandings of the continuity of necropolitics within the context of peacebuilding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous movements in southwestern Colombia have shifted their focus from their original goals of asserting indigenous identities, reclaiming land, and uniting the country's diverse indigenous communities. The Autonomous Indigenous Intercultural University (UAIIN) reasserts indigenous identities by appropriating a western educational model but returning education to processes of cultural reproduction among peers, by requiring all students to engage in community investigation and popular education within their own communities. In this paper, I argue that the UAIIN strives to be a pluriversity that builds on the diversity of its participants in order to foster thinking-feeling students who engage Mother Earth through deep and spiritual connections. These efforts are contradicted, however, by the UAIIN's administration's desire to meet the Colombian Ministry of Education's requirements for universities and to gain official recognition for its degree programmes. In practice, the UAIIN is a pluriversity within a university. Through its pedagogy, the UAIIN seeks to build indigenous solidarity across cultural difference, connects students to Mother Earth through action-oriented education, and strategically universalizes a pan-indigenous national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper summarizes the results of on-going archaeological and palaeoecological research on the floodplain of the river Cauca and adjacent piedmont, with the aim of reconstructing an outline history of the human occupation of the region and its interaction with the environment, beginning in the Late Pleistocene. The difficulties of locating occupation sites in this landscape cannot be overestimated. Although valuable for its preservation of palaeosols, the accumulation of sediment deposited by the river Cauca and its tributaries during periods of flooding can be extremely rapid and the earlier archaeological sites (1000 B.C. to 500 A.D.) are generally buried beneath several metres of alluvium. Under these circumstances, traditional site survey has limited potential and the most promising strategy is the location of palaeosols with evidence of human activity based on soil analysis and palaeobotanical studies. Sedimentology from a dozen deep cores is providing invaluable information on the environments that early human populations in the area would have enjoyed or coped with. The cores testify to a highly dynamic river Cauca and its tributaries resulting in a series of rapid local environmental changes. Besides extensive periodic flooding, past populations were probably affected by tectonic events since numerous faults cross the region. Volcanic ash is a component of many of the soil cores but much was redeposited material from earlier falls, probably during the Pleistocene. Direct archaeological evidence of human activity during the Early and Middle Holocene is limited to a mastodon skeleton with butchering marks on its ribs, and to a surface find of a stone tool (azada) characteristic of this period. Of the numerous fertile palaeosols detected in cores, some have agricultural characteristics and there is evidence of fires, possibly for clearing fields, from the late seventh millennium B.C. while by the third millennium B.C. a site provides evidence of burning in combination with the cultivation of maize (Zea mays) and arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea). While a relatively large number of archaeological sites testify to human activity over much of southwestern Colombia during the Early and Middle Holocene, research has drawn attention to a period of archaeological silence between 2500 and 1000 B.C. when Formative societies were developing in other regions of South America. An important focus of this project is the search for traces of human activity during this period. The palaeosols have important potential for acquiring information on this question since stratigraphical evidence suggests that many lie within this time range. By the Late Holocene (c. 500 B.C.) the Ilama population was established in that region of the alluvial valley centred on Lake Sonso and the town of Palmira, followed by Yotoco and, further south, Malagana; in contrast, in the northern sector of the valley evidence for this sequence remains tentative. Here the only settlement site located so far with very late Formative characteristics produced an entirely new style of pottery. This site (first century B.C.) was in wooded marshland where houses must have been built on stilts, contrasting with Late Period sites (c. AD 500–1500), occupied by a sequence of different cultural groups of the Sonsoide tradition and located on slightly higher ground within the flood plain or in the piedmont. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intent of this article is to present, from a specific case, the multiplicity of intentions and discussions between indigenous organizations from Cauca, Colombia. I go back to the concept of ethnicity in order to understand indigenous organizations as arenas where ethnic processes are reconstructed, relationships are redefined and the way diversity is recognized is questioned. However, this paper focuses exclusively on the different expressions and relationships that exist within indigenous organizations, especially those created after the Constitution of 1991. For this purpose I present how the Education Program of the Eastern Cauca Territorial Council of Indigenous Authorities (COTAINDOC) and their main proposals emerged.I conclude that this program redefines its way of recognizing cultural diversity and relationships with other organizations and institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the low production of high quality fodder and environmental issue related to livestock at the regional level, this paper presents the results o research conducted in livestock production systems of tropical high Cauca Department, among the municipalities Silvia, Totoro, and Sotará Puracé. The study aimed to establish a baseline of tree and shrub species with fitness forage utilization in beef production systems for cold climates department dropping a line resulted in 17 families are currently being used by different arrangements livestock. La research systems developed from the recognition and primary data collection with the help of local producers, followed by th systematization and analysis for the identification of those species with highe occurrence and use. Although there were a significant number of species further study is necessary in some of these, since information about thei phenological development and behavior in cattle production systems is still unknown. Thus, the findings constitute a source of information for the design of livestock production systems more efficient in cold climates, while the basis for the formulation of future research proposals related to the field of agroforestry regional ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some theoretical reflections on the political reality created by the Nasa movement on northern Cauca in Colombia, in order to posit new conceptualizations to understand ethnic movements in Latin America. The discussion begins with a brief review of some gaps found in studies about those social phenomena, to continue to analyse particularities and experiences of this community process starting from the following questions: how is the nature of the Colombian Nasa movement's indigenous politics expressed?; how could we understand its political reach in light of social movement theories?; how to analyse the dynamics of their collective actions along the last decades? These questions are answered through a theoretical approach that firstly focuses on understanding social movement political practices, to proceed with the proposal for a new typology of collective actions for these movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows how local radio stations that foster citizen participation and public opinion can develop into agents of social mobilization, as long they hold a broad notion of democracy. The article gives an account of the involvement that the ECCO research group (Universidad del Cauca, Colombia) has had in the project "Citizen radio: Room for democracy", where researchers have given support to local radio stations and have sought to understand how these media conceive, assume and work towards ideas of local democracy, public opinion and citizen participation. On addition to this, the text describes the transformations in the process of production of local radio. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]