Aspects of the Madre Ñame dialogism in the wounaan-nonam indigenous culture

Abstract

This article reflects on modes of articulation in I-other-world relationships emerged in dialogues encompassing the mythical imagination of the wounaan-nonam, an indigenous community that lives in the tropical forest region of Colombia's pacific coast. From the perspective of the Semiotic-Cultural Constructivism, the I-other-world relationships is a symbolic interplay that happens in the preservation and transformation of personal culture and collective culture, in which the other is an opportunity for the I to question and be questioned by the traditional culture. The construction of personal culture - the basis for all human conduct - is a unique process according to each a person creates meaningful relations in a system of myths that emerges in a dynamics of oppositions, allowing openings and closings in the process of generation of new myths in the collective culture. In this article, the articulation of the I-other-world relationship emerges from the dialogical analysis of the Madre Ñame myth.