Territorialization in the configuration of rural landscapes at Rio Verde de los Montes, Colombia, 1950-2016

Abstract

This article outlines the territorialization processes that shaped four rural landscapes between 1950 and 2016 at Rio Verde de los Montes (Antioquia, Colombia), We adopted the perspective of post-human geography based on the experiences of peasants, materialized as territorialization, de-territorialization, and re-territorialization dynamics that led to the emergence of diverse and changing landscapes. These processes foster the co-production of landscapes where both human beings and nature undergo mutual transformations under the conception that social and natural processes are hybridization processes. The methodology used allowed identifying the landscape configuration processes ranging from landscape experience and observation, using ethnographic and geographic tools such as field diary, photographs, reading, review and elaboration of cartography, interpretation of aerial and satellite images, elaboration of educational graphs, and tours. This methodology supported the description of landscapes from their profiles and textures emerged from the interactions between human, biological and feature elements. In this way, this article reflects on the experiences herein understood as nodes that cluster the interactions between peasants, resulting in material assets resulting from the activities of humans and other living organisms; to this end, we developed descriptions and analyses considering four landscapes. The first was built around forest-related activities and agriculture for self-consumption between the 1950s and 1970s through maize crops, hunting and mule-driving. As regards the experience on maize, we reflected on the actions and knowledge involved; as regards hunting, we explain the dynamics between the territorialities of peasants and animals fighting for their territory and life form, and on mule-driving, we outline the relationship of transiting landscapes by roads connecting farmland areas with other landscapes and territories. The second landscape, identified between the decades of 1980s and 1990s, was developed from coffee cultivation and the emergence of guerrilla (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo, FARC-EP [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army]). In this new landscape, coffee cultivation drives the timing and transit of peasants according to culture altitude; regarding the guerrilla, Rio Verde de los Montes was territorialized for recruitment, hiding and healing place, favored by the abundant forests and remoteness. The war and peasant-displacement landscape was driven by territorial disputes through military actions by FARC-EP, the Magdalena Medio Peasant's Self-Defense group (ACMM), and the National Army. The military territorialization and fear-inducing practices prevailed in this landscape, resulting in the de-territorialization of multiple peasant families that abandoned their land; as a result, the typical rural spaces including households and cropland were altered, as well as the interactions with non-human elements. The last landscape, which was recorded from the year 2000 to 2016, is characterized by re-territorialization from the return and new interactions fostered by access to electricity services and sale of environmental services. This return is marked by a re-encounter with households and land, as well as with wild areas that invaded these spaces under the absence of peasants. The supply of household electricity allow new practices as well as the reconfiguration of others resulting from the use of electric appliances and machinery. Finally, the sale of ecosystemic services defines the forest as a conservation area and the peasant as a supplier of environmental services. We conclude that from the various interactions with other actors, materials and living organisms, the peasant builds territorializations through time and creates new landscapes from the overlap with other human and non-human territorialities. This analysis was achieved through post-human geography, for which the use of ethnography was right, as this approach allowed to gain experience in the territory and come closer to the perspective of rural families. Finally, we believe this article sets the basis of a different approach to analyze the processes leading to and shaping landscapes within the rural context in Colombia.