The original Yukpa are an indigenous community who have inhabited the lands of the
Sierra de Perij a (mountain range of Perij a) in Venezuela since prehistoric times. The
sovereignty of the Yukpa on their ancestral territories was protected from non-indigenous
people until the arrival of Spanish Capuchin missionaries during the seventeenth century.
The presence of the Capuchin missionaries furthered the entrance of non-indigenous
people, who explored the area and discovered the fertility of the soil and a rich variety
of natural resources. In the 1930s, ranch owners started the progressive occupation of
Yukpas' ancestral lands, taking advantage of the Venezuelan government's indi erence to
indigenous communities. The Yukpa started to resist the ranch owners. In retaliation,
ranch owners responded with violence to intimidate and expel the Yukpa from what
they claimed to be their property. The Yukpa have also been harassed by insurgent
Colombian groups and drug dealers, who nd the Sierra de Perij a an ideal place to
cultivate marijuana and opium poppy
owers. To avoid the violence in the Sierra de
Perij a, a signi cant number of Yukpa moved during the eighties to the city of Maracaibo
in northwestern Venezuela. These displaced Yukpa have settled in lots located in the
vicinities of the Hospital General del Sur, in Maracaibo, where they continue to live.
For many indigenous communities, land and culture are interdependent. Land
represents for many indigenous people their origin and continuity. Some authors claim
that the forced displacement to areas distinct from their place of origin may disrupt
the continuity of traditions which are the essence of their culture (Maybury-Lewis
2001:31; UNESCO 2009:207). This study examines ethnographically the Yukpa settled
in Maracaibo in order to identify the extent to which the involuntary displacement
from their ancestral territories has a ected their autochthonous land-based culture.
Furthermore, this study provides a biographic pro le of the Yukpa settled in
Maracaibo along with a discussion of their current needs, and some recommendations
for further studies / Anthropology and Archaeology / M.A. (Anthropology)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/19628 |
| Date | 26 October 2015 |
| Creators | González, Luis J. |
| Contributors | Herselman, Stephné, Watts, Linda K. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | 1 online resource (viii, 133 leaves) ; color illustrations; color maps |
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