Sunstone Films is the film production company set up by Alan Ereira since leaving the BBC. There are reports of his visits to the Kogi at this site.
Gonavindua Tairona is the organisation that represents the Mamas of the indigeous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. This is their official website.
A page of cultural information on the Kogi.
TribaLink ‘aims to preserve our past and provide a link between modern media and the diverse traditional cultures, lands and teachings of tribal people and their environment.’ Based in the USA, this site contains a link describing a visit to the Kogi by American tribal elders.
‘Universo Arhuaco’ is a series of articles and interviews with Arhuaco Mamas - their thoughts on religion, history, ecology and the world situation. An excellent read.
The Stendal family are Christian missionaries in the Sierra. This site describes their work.
Museo del Oro in Bogota. Some images of Tairona work can be seen here.
This is a site dedicated to the U’wa of Colombia whose land is threatened by the oil exploration of Occidental Oil and Shell. There are some similarities with the Kogi situation.
An official Colombian government site that gives general information about the country.
Abya Yala Net presents information on indigenous peoples in Mexico, and Central and Southern America.
IKDM is the Indigenous Knowledge and Development Monitor which ‘promotes the exchange of information on indigenous knowledge as it relates to sustainable development.’ Based in the Netherlands.
Another site based in the Netherlands is ETC International. Following the newsletters link finds the COMPAS - Comparing and Supporting Endogenous Development - newsletter. COMPAS is a ‘ is a small but exciting effort to come to a closer understanding of indigenous cosmovisions.’
Native Web - ‘resources for indigenous peoples around the world’.
Centre for World Indigenous Studies - ‘Access to indigenous peoples knowledge and ideas, Conflict resolution based on mutual consent, Protecting the rights of indigenous peoples’
SAIIC isThe South and Meso American Indian Rights Center - ‘to ensure that the struggles of Latin America’s Indigenous peoples for self- determination and respect are heard in the US and internationally, and to support Indigenous peoples’ organizing.’
Survival International is ‘a worldwide organisation supporting tribal peoples. It stands for their right to decide their own future and helps them protect their lives, lands and human rights.’
Cultural Survival - ‘a non-profit organization founded in 1972 to defend the human rights and cultural autonomy of indigenous peoples and oppressed ethnic minorities.’ USA.
Amnesty International publishes many reports on the contemporary Colombian situation.
LANIC is the Latin American Network Information Center based in Austin, Texas.
The definitive ethnographies of the Kogi are still those of Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, a prolific writer who published most of his work through the University of California, Los Angeles. The following are key articles:-
‘Funerary Customs and Religious Symbolism Among the Kogi’ in Lyon 1974: 290.
Cosmology as ecological analysis: a view from the rain forest’. Man (N.S.) 11, (3), 307-318. 1976.
‘Training for the Priesthood among the Kogi of Colombia’ in Wilbert J. (ed.) Enculturation in Latin America - an anthology. UCLA.1976.
‘The Loom of Life: a Kogi Principle of Integration.’ UCLA 1978.
‘The Great Mother and the Kogi Universe: a concise overview.’ UCLA. 1987.
‘Some Kogi Models of the Beyond.’ UCLA.1982.
‘The Sacred Mountain of Colombian Kogi Indians.’ State University of Groningen, Leiden. 1990.
‘Los Kogi. Una tribu d la Sierra Nevada, en Colombia.’ Revista del Instituto Etnologogico Nacional. Vol. IV, parts 1 & 2. Bogota. 1949-51.
There is also a beautiful book, Indios de Colombia (Villegas editores. 1991) available in either English or Spanish text and illustrated with Reichel-Dolmatoff’s own black and white photographs.
Alan Ereira’s The Heart of the World (J. Cape. 1990) is an account of the making of the film which contains much ethnographic material. It was published in the USA under the title of ‘The Elder Brothers’ and translated into French, German, Italian and Japanese, but is now unfortunately out of print in Britain.
Donald Tayler’s The Coming of the Sun - A Prologue to Ika Sacred Narrative (Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford. Monograph No. 7. 1997) concerns itself with the Arhuaco or Ika. The book divides into three sections: 1/ ‘A Mountain People’ gives a short history of the Ika, followed by a longer account of the priesthood and its traditions; 2/ ‘Myths and Laws’ recounts and discusses a number of myths concerning the Creation, loss of innocence etc; and 3/ ‘Patterns and Systems’ is a discussion of the theory of these myths and their value to society. Available from Pitt Rivers Museum, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PP. Price £16.95.
Dr. David J. Wilson, of the Southern Methodist University, has recently published Indigenous South Americans of the Past and Present : An Ecological Perspective (Westview 1999) ‘in which Soto Holguín’s data on Buritaca site and Reichel-Dolmatoff’s on the Kogi are dealt with among many other recent and prehispanic indigenous South American groups.’ This is a comprehensive and exhaustive re-appraisal of South American indigenous cultures. Available from Amazon UK.
Soto Holguin, Alvaro. La ciudad perdida de los Tayrona: Historia de su hallazgo y descubrimiento. Centro de Estudios del Neotropico. 1988. Alvaro Soto headed the Colombian archaeological team that excavated the Lost City.
Preuss, K.T. Forschungsreise zu den Kagaba. 2 vols. Wien. 1926-7.
Julian Steward’s article ‘American Culture History in the Light of South America’ can be found in Patricia Lyon’s Native South Americans - Ethnology of the Least Known Continent (Little, Brown and Co.. Boston/Toronto. 1974).
Peter Bunyard’s article ‘Indigenous Rights - Colombia’s policy for the Amazon’ appears in A Future for the Land (Philip Conford (ed.) Green Books 1992. Ch. 12.).
Victims of Progress (Bodley, John. Mayfield. 1990) is an account, as its title suggests, of the effect of globalisation and modernisation on indigenous societies. Phillip Wearne’s Return of the Indian - Conquest and Revival in the Americas (Cassell.1996) is a more recent publication detailing indigenous response to these effects.
If still available, The Gold of Eldorado (Bray, Warwick. Royal Academy exhibition catalogue. 1978) is informative, well-written and beautifully illustrated.
The Atlas of Ancient America (Coe, M. Snow D. & Benson, E. Facts on File. 1990) comprises maps, text and pictures and has substantial sections on Meso-American and South American cultures at the time of the Spanish Conquest.
A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomé de las Casas has been translated and edited by Nigel Griffin and is available as a Penguin.
Drysdale, Honor (ed.). Guardians of the Sacred Land. Survival International. 1994. Compares the world views of the Arhuaco and the Hopi.
Indians of the Americas. Survival International. 1992. A general account.
Gray, Andrew. The Amerindians of South America. Minority Rights Group Report no. 15.1987. An excellent and detailed account of South American indigenous history since the Conquest.
Wilkie, Dr. Tom. The Gene Hunters. Broadcasting Support Services. 1995. Accompanied the Channel 4 film about the Human Genome Project. DNA samples were taken from the Arhuacos.
Wilson, Richard. Before Columbus. Central TV booklet. Accompanied the TV programme.
Colombia. Political Violence - Myth and Reality. Amnesty International Publications. 1994. An account of the recent Colombian political situation.
Legast, Anne. ‘The Bat in Tairona Art: an under-recognised species’ in Morphy, Howard (ed.). Animals into Art. Unwin Hyman. 1989. The article shows a detailed knowledge of Tairona mythology, placing the bat as represented in pre-Invasion Tairona gold jewellery, ceramics and stone work within that mythology.
The journal Visual Anthropology (vol 6. Harwood Academic Publishers. 1993) contains both Donald Tayler’s review of Alan Ereira’s film ‘From the Heart of the World’ (pp. 219-221) and Graham Townsley’s reply ‘Lost Worlds Found: Advocacy and Film Rhetoric’ (pp. 223-226).