EMBERA: INDIGENOUS

COMMUNITY
NATALIA ARBOLEDA
Embera
 Their location

 Embera community are located in Colombia, Panama and Ecuador.

 In Colombia they are in Chocó, Antioquia, Risaralda, Quindío, Caldas, Valle, Cauca,
Córdoba, Putumayo, Caquetá and Nariño.
 They are cattered throughout other departments of Colombia,
different than those make up their traditional territory, because they are victims
of forced displacement.
Language

 The Embera language is divided into two emerging languages: the Embera del Sur that is
used in Panama and Antioquia and the Embera del Norte that is used in the southeast of
Panama, Antioquia and Serranía del Darien in Colombia
culture

They are divided in two groups:

 DOBIDA: the life of this group of people revolves around the river, they live near the river, and
fishing is a daily activity

 EYABIDA: Due to the facts of their history, they adapted a culture with the ecosystems of the rain
forest.
Culture

 In the Embera worldview, there are three worlds: the upper one (bajía), where there are Karagabí (the moon
and father of Jinopotabar) and Ba (thunder); that of humans, which is the land (egoró), where the Embera
live; and the one below (aremuko or chiapera), which is reached by water and is where the Dojura, Tutruica,
Jinopotabar and the ancestors live and the jaibaná (traditional sages) originate. The balance between these
worlds and the orders that are between them generate daily life. What belongs to the world above must go
down and what belongs to the world below must go up, an ascent that represents a coming out from the earth.
Water is the mediating element between the two worlds, since the movement of falling and leaving unites,
from here the importance of the rivers and the location of the Chamí communities near them are also born. It
is reported that upstream, at the source of the water, is the jungle in full force, with dangerous and feared
sites, and downstream is the place of men in which one can live.
History

 In pre-Hispanic times they shared a common space and similar cultural characteristics
such as language, worldview, jaibanismo, territorial mobility, decentralized government,
jungle life, and their forms of organization and representation. In what was formerly
organized in a wide territory and united through social relations of a different order, the
colonization process began which gradually divided and segmented the Emberá territory.
Currently, at the end of the 20th century, the Emberá have a divided territory due to the
processes of conquest, colonization and contact with other cultures (indigenous, black,
white)
Embera
Sources

 https://www.mincultura.gov.co › APP-de-lenguas-nativas
 https://www.onic.org.co/pueblos/1096-embera-katio