(Dis)covering the Nukaks. Cartographies of Journalistic Accounts of Alterity in Colombia, 1988-2003

https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n53.05

Álvaro Andrés Santoyo
Fundación Erigaie, Colombia

Abstract:

This article analyzes the role played by mass media in reproducing alterity regimes in Colombia, through a discourse analysis of the journalistic account on Nukak people, an Amazonian Indigenous people when they were initially contacted between 1988 and 2003. This period corresponds to a transition time in Colombia, marked by the acknowledgement of cultural and ethnic rights linked to the official adoption of multiculturalism. This article suggests approaching media representations as an account, which allows for taking a procedural look at its product, as well as identifying the representation vectors of the matrix of alterity. In this line of thought, three vectors are analyzed: the issue of identification, nationalizing processes, and the trope of extinction. For each of them, an evolution is evidenced throughout time in their nuances, continuities, fractures, and interests as discussed in journalistic accounts.

Keywords: alterity regimes, peoples in initial contact, discourse analysis, media representations, Nukak people, Colombia.