VIOLENCIA DE GÉNERO EN UNA COMUNIDAD INDÍGENA NGÖBE DE COSTA RICA.

In this article I examine the responses of Ngöbe indigenous women to experiences of gender violence, aided by concepts from Mesoamerican cosmology and the concept of agency as a practice of belonging (Weir, 2013). Emphasis is placed on responses to gender violence that rely on the connection to the Ngöbe identity and the renegotiation of relationships within the community and with external institutions. I also highlight the aspirations of indigenous Ngöbe women to ensure a full experience of their culture and their beliefs for themselves and for future generations. The empirical data comes from the ethnographic fieldwork in a Ngöbe indigenous community in southern Costa Rica undertaken during 2015 and 2016. In this article I conclude that women's substantive connection with their identity can reinforce their status in the community and expand the scope of their actions and as a result impact on the possibility of generating safe spaces for themselves and for other women in the community. Likewise, women have managed to establish and maintain supportive networks that offer spaces of protection. In the context of these networks, they have begun to renegotiate and reconfigure prevalent forms of relationship in the community and with external institutions. By setting these processes in motion, they promote respect for women's dignity and improve the well-being of the whole community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]