Spiritual significance and environmental effects of offerings amongst the indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Maria

The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is the highest coastal mountain range in the world and covers an area of 17,000 square kilometres. Its population includes some 32,000 members of the Kogi, Arhuaco, Wiwa and Kankuarno indigenous groups, descendants of the Tayronas and preservers of their ancient traditions. There are also approximately 150,000 peasants, and 1.5 million urban dwellers in the lowlands. Of these, the only stable populations are the indigenous groups and although each group has its own language, they all share a similar system of beliefs. Since pre-Hispanic times, the indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada have possessed a worldview, social organisation and living pattern which revolves around the management and conservation of this unique environment, the "heart of the world". As of their first contact with the western world, the indigenous communities have witnessed the incessant pillage and destruction of their territories, sacred sites, burial grounds, and customs of their ancestors. Of the four tribes that managed to survive the Conquista, one (the Kankuarnos) has been integrated into the general Colombian society, while the other three are undergoing various degrees of acculturation due to exogenous influences. The philosophical store of knowledge that the indigenous people hold for humanity through their understanding of nature, is currently appreciated by few people. Nevertheless, current recognition of the appropriateness of indigenous practices in natural resource management indicates that the negative attitudes commonly held about indigenous knowledge dating from the colonial era have begun to change.