Between Resilience and the Erosion of Identity: Yam Production in Rural Colombia

Abstract

It is currently relevant to clarify the connections between yam production and cultural identity in rural Colombia. Taking a critical approach, this paper aims to analyze how rural and indigenous communities are redefining yams as an element of their cultural identity, without ignoring the turbulent environment in which the commodification of land and the presence of foreign companies are seeking to homogenize crops and displace any alternative practices that are not aligned with the interests of globalization. To achieve this end, a qualitative methodology of documentary exploration was used. Among the main results, it was highlighted that the concentration of land ownership in the hands of a small sector of the population, as well as the export-oriented logic, erode identity and ancestral knowledge, undermining the sense of community. However, territorialization and processes of cultural resistance give new meaning to the cultivation of yams, presenting it as a tool for struggle and for connecting man with the land. It was concluded that yam production transcends agronomic and economic aspects, becoming a contested arena where colonialism is opposed by alternative knowledge systems that seek collective, harmonious, and culturally diverse ways of life.