The Nature of Ethics of indigenous peoples of Colombia

Abstract

This work aims to show the ancestral thinking, specifically what has been called by the West an “Environmental”, or “Natural” ethic, from the integrity and concern of natural forces and gods to the biocentric conception of life and reality, and cyclical representations of time and space. In ancestral communities such as the Pastos, Arhuacos and Nukak Maku we can find ontological conceptions which are related to the cultural modalities and ways of life underlining highs ethics for all living beings of the Planet. This legacy, which is still a living heritage in many places of our America, have social and cultural functions, and should not only be treated as antique objects, but also as systems of values (moral) that open an intercultural dialogue and illustrate different lifestyles, ways of being, and alternative paths through the decolonization process. These kinds of ethics belongs to a matrix which accepts diversity and differences as basic constituents of reality. Life, in its amplitude (not just human life), as a central articulator of the social, cultural and political dimensions of the community of origin is one of the primary proposals of Natural Ethics. In spite of the differences among the native communities considered in this article, the results of the research have found shared significant themes that result from the research which constitute the central elements of that ethic: life, death, space, time, responsibility, nature and ancestrally.