The Páez people, also known as the Nasa, are a
Native American people who live in the southwestern highlands of
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
, especially in the
Cauca Department
Cauca Department (, es, Departamento del Cauca) is a Department of Southwestern Colombia. Located in the southwestern part of the country, facing the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Valle del Cauca Department to the north, Tolima Department t ...
, but also the
Caquetá Department lowlands and
Tierradentro
Tierra abajo (meaning "Underground" in Spanish for their well-known tombs) is one of the ancient Pre-Columbian cultures of Colombia. It started to flourish around 200 BC in the mountains of southwest Colombia, and continued into the 17th century. T ...
.
["Páez - Orientation."]
''Countries and Their Cultures.'' (retrieved 2 Dec 2011)
Religion
In the early 1900s,
Lazarists
, logo =
, image = Vincentians.png
, abbreviation = CM
, nickname = Vincentians, Paules, Lazarites, Lazarists, Lazarians
, established =
, founder = Vincent de Paul
, fou ...
built missions among the Paez and began the work to convert them to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
.
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
had originally tried to convert the Paez, but failed. However, the Lazarists met some success. The Paez developed a syncretic form of
Roman Catholicism
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
that absorbed their indigenous
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
. For example, the Paez have
shamans
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
but many have also become
Roman Catholic priest
The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...
s.
[
]
Climate adaptation
Since they live in the cold climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...
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
Punishment
Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a response and deterrent to a particular acti ...
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 Jesus Pinacue
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
, a Paez who defied the community by supporting a political candidate in a presidential vote.
Economy
Many Paez are agriculturists and common crops grown include potatoes, coffee, cassava, plantains, coca, and hemp.
Present day
The Paez people have been targeted by both rebels and paramilitary groups in the Colombian conflict
The Colombian conflict ( es, link=no, Conflicto armado interno de Colombia) began on May 27, 1964, and is a low-intensity asymmetric war between the government of Colombia, far-right paramilitary groups, crime syndicates, and far-left gue ...
. 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
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...
, due to an increase in violence in their territories.
See also
* Álvaro Ulcué Chocué
Álvaro Ulcué Chocué (July 16, 1943 – November 10, 1984) was a Colombian Catholic priest and a member of the Paez people that became an activist in the defense of the rights of his people, as well as ethnic minorities and poor people of his ...
(1943–1984)
* Coca Sek Coca Sek is a carbonated beverage that the Páez people of south-western Colombia began producing and selling in December 2005. The drink is based on coca leaves, which native Colombian peoples have been consuming for centuries to adapt to high alti ...
* Gaitana
{{confusing, date=May 2014
Gaitana, also known as Guaitipan, is referred to as La Gaitana and Cacica Gaitana, was a 16th-century Yalcon ''cacica'' from the region of Timaná, Huila, a leader who, in 1539–40, led the indigenous people of the U ...
* Kpish Kpish means "thunder" in the Páez language of indigenous Colombians that live in the Paez region of Cauca.
In the cosmology of these indigenous people, Kpish is an omnipresent deity held in high regard. The deity is manifested in many diverse w ...
, a pre-Columbian Páez deityIntroducción a la Colombia Amerindia, Páez
/ref>
* Páez, Cauca
Paéz () is a municipality in the Cauca Department, Colombia. The town of Belalcazar, is the main urban center of the Municipality. It was founded in 1905 by Valencia, Mosquera and Lemus. The town is located by the steps of the Nevado del Huila ...
* Paez language
References
Further reading
*
External links
A Portrait of a Páez
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paez People
Indigenous peoples in Colombia
Circum-Caribbean tribes
Indigenous peoples of the Andes