The Hunger of the Bunachi: Climate Change and Extractivist Development from the Iku Onto-Epistemology

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5209/reaa.101360
Keywords: indigenous territoriality, climate change, development, indigenous ontology, iku

Abstract

Based on conversations with Arhuaco leaders and employing an ontological analysis, this article explores the balance of the Indigenous universe, and climate change and development as a threat to the continuity of life—an acceleration toward the state of chaos and darkness from which the universe originates. According to the leaders interviewed, the development of the bunachi, non-indigenous, is sustained by the darkness of ignorance regarding the order that regulates what is and is not food. The insatiable hunger of the bunachi, their impulse to appropriate and consume everything without considering the reciprocity between opposing pairs that sustain life, strengthens negative energy and generates a’kinkumana—the consequences of failing to respect the law of origin, manifested as disease and misfortune.

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Author Biography

Ana Milena Horta Prieto, Investigadora independiente

PhD and Master’s degree in Social Anthropology from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. She is an independent consultant and researcher. She serves as an associate professor in the Master's Programme in Anthropology at the Universidad del Magdalena (Colombia) and has been a visiting professor at CIESAS-Mexico City, within the Power and Justice research line. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Biological Resources Research (Colombia), where she examined the contributions of Arhuaco women's care practices to studies on territorial and environmental governance.

Her work bridges academic research and the implementation of projects within non-governmental organisations, focusing on the environment, Indigenous territorialities, governance, and the role of women in these processes from an ontological perspective.

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Published
2025-12-01
How to Cite
Horta Prieto A. M. (2025). The Hunger of the Bunachi: Climate Change and Extractivist Development from the Iku Onto-Epistemology. Revista Española de Antropología Americana, 55(2), 277-290. https://doi.org/10.5209/reaa.101360
Issue
Vol. 55 No. 2 (2025): Cataclismos y transformaciones planetarias en las sociedades indígenas istmo-colombianas
Section
Articles

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