Mythologies of the Páez (Nasa) Tribe

The Páez tribe, also known as the Nasa, are a Native American people who live in the southwestern highlands of Colombia, especially in the Cauca Department, but also the Caquetá Department lowlands and Tierradentro. In the early 1900s, Lazarists built missions among the Paez and began the work to convert them to Christianity. Jesuits had originally tried to convert the Paez, but failed. However, the Lazarists met some success. The Paez developed a syncretic form of Roman Catholicism that absorbed their indigenous religion. For example, the Paez have shamans but many have also become Roman Catholic priests. Since they live in the cold climate of the Andes, the Paez build their homes using brick, metal, cement, and wood. The Paez women raise and shear sheep for wool. They clean the wool, spin yarn from it, dye it and knit clothes and blankets for their families. Punishment for wrongs is strict in the Paez culture. In June 2000, the Paez whipped an adulterous tribal leader and his mistress 17 strokes with a knotted leather whip. "As a Paez Indian", the flogged tribal leader said, "I'm proud to have received this punishment because it is glorifying my race." Stripping the one being punished of his clothing and dunking him in a cold mountain lake is another form of punishment—this was done to Senator Jesús Pinacue, a Paez who defied the community by supporting a political candidate in a presidential vote. The Paez people have been targeted by both rebels and paramilitary groups in the Colombian conflict. In 2019, alone 36 members of the tribe were murdered, and in July 2019 there were a reported 57 attacks on the Paez and other indigenous groups in Colombia. In October 2020, they rallied in the Colombian capital, Bogotá, due to an increase in violence in their territories. Many Paez are agriculturists and common crops grown include potatoes, coffee, cassava, plantains, coca, and hemp.

Páez, Indians of the southern highlands of Colombia. The Páez speak a Chibchan language very closely related to that of the now-extinct Pijao and Coconuco (see Chibchan languages).

The Páez inhabit the high mountains and plateaus. Their chief crop is potatoes, and many also grow such nontraditional crops as wheat and coffee. Each family farms its own land, but the lands of the church are cultivated by communal labour. Most planting is done with digging sticks. Settlements are dispersed, each family living on its own land. Houses are made of poles and sometimes are double-walled, with mud and stones between.

The modern crafts of the Páez include pottery, weaving, and basketry. Before Spanish rule, stone and gold and copper were worked. Polygyny was also common, but Roman Catholicism has enforced monogamy. Traditional puberty rites and menstrual taboos continued to be observed well into the 20th century. The Páez were estimated to number about 60,000 in the late 20th century.

Páez is an Amerindian language spoken in the central Andes range of Colombia near the city of Popayan in the department of Cauca. The Páez people call their language Nasa Yuwe, which means ‘language of the people’ in Páez. According to the Ethnologue, there are roughly 77,400 speakers of Páez, among them some 35-41,000 monolinguals. There is considerable controversy within the academic community surrounding the language’s classification. The most popular hypothesis suggests that Páez is a language isolate, and that any similarities to Guambiano (a Barbacoan language) or Macro-Chibchan languages are a result of language contact, and thus do not suggest that these languages belong to the same linguistic family (Fabre 2005). The two principal dialects of Páez are Paniquita (Panikita) and Pitayo. The Ethnologue defines Páez as a “threatened” language, meaning that intergenerational transmission is declining, but that the child-bearing generation can still use the language for face to face interaction. This suggests that revitalization efforts could restore transmission of the language in the home. Páez culture has traditionally valued orality above written literacy. It has been said that orality within the Páez community is a “basis for asserting a distinct ethnic identity” from Spanish (Rappaport 1987, p.45). The Páez people use written literacy in specific social junctures, such as the legal and political domains, but they reject literacy in other internal affairs, which helps them “maintain a degree of ideological autonomy”. Páez orthography uses a latin script.

The Páez live in southwestern highland Colombia and speak the Páez language. They call themselves "Nasa" to distinguish themselves from neighboring ethnic groups, including the Guambiano, the Guanacas, and the townspeople of mixed Spanish and indigenous or African descent. The Páez heartland of Tierradentro in Colombia is comprised of some 1,300 square kilometers, located on the eastern slopes of Cordillera Central, at 2°30′ N and 76° W. Páez settlements can also be found on the western slopes of the cordillera, and some Páez colonists have recently settled in the Caquetá lowlands to the southeast. Over 80 percent of Tierradentro lies above 2,000 meters in elevation, with one-third of the territory in the páramo, the high northern Andean swampy plateau that begins at 3,000 meters. This cold, mountainous country is crosscut by deep valleys, most notably those of the Páez, Moras, and Ullucos rivers, confining settlements to the mountain slopes overlooking these waterways. In Tierradentro, the rainy season extends from May to November, with the heaviest rains in May to June and October to November; on the western slopes of the Cordillera seasons are reversed. There is no agreement among scholars on the affiliation of the Páez language. Although it has been traditionally associated with the Chibchan Family, some linguists hesitate to classify Páez as a Chibchan language; it has been suggested that it is a linguistic isolate, together with neighboring Guambiano. According to some estimates, 75 percent of the Páez are bilingual in Páez and in Spanish, and 25 percent are monolingual Páez speakers. But in many communities more than half the population is composed of monolingual Spanish speakers. Páez is an unwritten language, and native linguists are beginning to develop an alphabet for purposes of bilingual education.

The Nasa (also known as Paéz) people are one of Colombia’s largest indigenous peoples, who predominantly inhabit the western department of Cauca, a region central to the country’s civil war. The region is characterised by plains dominated by sugar plantations, which are flanked on each side by the country’s two great cordilleras. The high mountains are largely controlled by the FARC guerrillas, and the narrowness of the plains in Cauca makes the region a strategic corridor for the trafficking of drugs between the two cordillera and onward to the Pacific coast, attracting the presence of both guerrillas and paramilitaries. The Nasa claim that the plains were taken from them by force in 1915, and that many were then forced up into the poorer land of the mountains to make way for the sugar industry. Others remained but had to work individual lots and pay rent in the form of “terraje” — the provision of free labour on the large haciendas. The last forty years have seen a transformation, as the Nasa organized themselves through the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) which campaigned for the restitution of their ancestral lands. They occupied sugar-plantations and blocked the Pan-American Highway that passes through Cauca. Their opponents have responded with massacres and assassinations, many involving the security forces, forcing the government to promise to transfer land to the Nasa as recompense for past abuses.

Páez (also Paez, Paes; or the autonym Nasa Yuwe 'Nasa language') is a language of Colombia, spoken by the Páez people. Crevels (2011) estimates 60,000 speakers out of an ethnic population of 140,000. The language is spoken by the second largest Colombian indigenous community, the Páez, in the north of the Cauca Department, in southwestern Colombia. However, the people had to move to other departments of Colombia like Huila, Tolima and Valle del Cauca. Páez is generally considered to be a language isolate, or at least the only surviving member of its family (Adelaar & Muysken 2004). Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Chibcha, Barbakoa, Choko, Tukano, Andaki, and Kofan language families due to contact. Although dozens of indigenous languages have been extinguished at the hand of the Spanish (and later Colombian) Empire, there remain more than 60 languages within the boundaries of what is now known as Colombia. Most of these languages are classified into 10 linguistic families: Chibcha, Arawak, Carib, Quechua, Tukano, Guahibo, Makú-Puinave, Bora-Witoto, Piaroa-Sáliba, and Chocó. During the 1900s, initial research suggested that Nasa Yuwe was part of the Chibcha language family, which includes Arwako, Kogi, Wiwa, Tunebo, Motilone, Chimila, and Cuna. However, Nasa Yuwe is now considered to constitute a small language family of its own—the Paezan languages. Today, many Misak live in some primarily Nasa settlements creating a situation of language contact and in some cases bilingualism.

Historically the Paez/Nasa were one of the largest, strongest, most traditional, and most resistant to outside influence and exploitation, of all indigenous tribes in Colombia. They developed a reputation amongst the Spanish conquistadors as warriors and were always very vocal and activist during Colombia’s various constitutional permutations and civil wars. The Páez/Nasa of southwestern highland Colombia maintains a historical memory of their passage from an independent nation to a tribe subjugated by Spaniards and Colombians. The Páez/Nasa community speaks their own Páez language and calls themselves Nasa to distinguish themselves from neighboring ethnic groups, including the Guambiano and Guanacas.Páez heartland of Tierradentro comprises some 1,300 square kilometers, located on the eastern slopes of Cordillera Central. Páez settlements can also be found on the western slopes of the cordillera, and some Páez colonists have recently settled in the Caquetá lowlands to the southeast. Over 80 percent of Tierradentro lies above 2,000m/6,562’ in elevation, with one-third of the territory in the páramo, the high northern Andean swampy plateau that begins at 3,000m/9,843’. This cold, mountainous country is crosscut by deep valleys, most notably those of the Páez, Moras, and Ullucos rivers, confining settlements to the mountain slopes overlooking these waterways.

The Nasa or Paéz are an indigenous tribe that lives in the Cauca Valley in southwestern Colombia. The Nasa are known for their vibrant weaving and traditional dress, as well as for their strong sense of community and social organization. In conclusion, Colombia is home to a rich variety of indigenous tribes that have survived for thousands of years despite the many challenges they have faced. From the Amazon Basin to the Andean highlands, these tribes have developed unique cultures, languages, and traditions that continue to inspire and fascinate people around the world. India is a land of diverse cultures and traditions. Colombia, on the other hand, is known for its rich biodiversity and varied landscapes. However, very few people know that there were indigenous Indian tribes living in Colombia. An indigenous family of the Nasa Paez tribe walks peacefully at the National Reservation of Huellas, 18 April, 2007 in Caloto, Department of Cauca, Colombia. Colombian Departments of Huila, Cauca, and Valle are under maximum alert after the Nevado del Huila volcano erupted causing major landslides, destroying bridges, homes and fields and forcing some 8,000 people to flee their homes. "There's a strong smell of sulphur and we know the avalanche swept away several pedestrian bridges and one vehicular bridge," said Daisy Jimena Medina, an official at the municipal offices of Popayan, the regional capital. "We are cut off from land access," she said.

The Nasa, also known as the Paéz, are a large indigenous group distributed throughout the southern Colombian Andes, concentrated principally in the department of Cauca. Their officially recognized territory is vast, ranging from the “cordillera occidental” that runs into the department of Valle de Cauca, east to Tierradentro on the slopes of the “cordillera central,” and down into the departments of Caqueta and Putumayo. The Nasa territory of Tierradentro alone encompases more than 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles, 130,000 hectares or 321,000 acres). It is not well established just how many ethnic Nasa still exist, with estimates ranging from 60,000 – 80,000 individuals, all the way up to more than 185,000 in a 2005 Colombian census. Historically the Nasa were one of the largest, strongest, most traditional and most resistant to outside influence and exploitation, of all indigenous tribes in Colombia. They developed a reputation amongst the Spanish conquistadors as warriors, and were always very vocal and activist during Colombia’s various constitutional permutations and civil wars. They carry these attitudes of activism into the present, and maintain local traditional government structures within their five main “cabildos,” or municipalities, and elect dozens of new male and female leaders every January in each cabildo. These traditions remain despite the fact that the last 30-40 years have brought extreme conflict, uncertainty and institutionalized degradation of their traditional culture by government, corporate and religious entities. The Nasa traditionally worked in agricultural collectives, called “mingas,” and had a diet that revolved around “maiz,” or corn, and various tuberous crops like potatoes, and beans. They remain a principally agricultural society, but this sector and its collective nature and role for local consumption and subsistence, is threatened by climate change, changing dietary patterns, deforestation and various forms of exploitation to their territory.