“Knowing how to communicate”: approaches to «indigenous communication» and good living from the Pijao people (Tolima, Colombia)

Abstract

The ecosophy of "good living" has had an important impact on Latin American social, political, cultural and environmental debates in recent decades. The field of communication has not been an exception, to the point that since the beginning of the 21st century, an analysis approach called “communication for good living” has been consolidated, which challenges other approaches, both hegemonic and alternative. This article analyzes the place that "indigenous communication" occupies in the contemporary debate, and its differential contributions compared to "Western communication", and communication "for development and social change." Through a documentary review and collaborative ethnographic work carried out with the group “Tejiendo Thought Pijao” (Tolima, Colombia), “indigenous communication [Pijao]” is characterized as an expression of “communication for good living.” For the empirical study of experience, an analysis matrix called “Knowing how to communicate” is applied, which examines four constitutive principles of the philosophy of good living applicable to the communicative field: knowing how to listen, knowing how to live in harmony and complementarity, knowing how to share and know how to dream. The study concludes that there is a direct relationship between "indigenous communication" and the cosmogonies that constitute the cultural identities of indigenous peoples. It is also established that "indigenous communication" is based on an alternative communicative ecology to "Western communication" and "communication for social change", contributing particular symbolic and interpretive elements to indigenous struggles against (neo)coloniality.