Over the years, I’ve observed a striking contrast in how different cultures relate to nature. While the world is filled with beauty and extraordinary people, there is often a deep disconnect between humans and the natural world.
In my experience, Indigenous communities have long cared for territories with thriving forests and clean waters, guided by a deep sense of reciprocity and respect. In contrast, Western societies often approach nature as a resource to be managed or exploited.
From the perspective of a storyteller, I’ve come to see that the core of this difference lies in the narratives that shape each worldview. Indigenous stories consistently portray the territory as a living being that sustains life and requires care. By understanding themselves as part of that living story, Indigenous peoples engage with the land not as separate from it, but as participants who enhance the well-being of their territory. In contrast, the Western view of territory often reduces it to a physical entity, resources to be exploited for individual gain, and integrated into systems of capitalism.
To "read the territory", or to "listen to the land" requires a specific kind of relationship—one that does not treat it as an object. For example, the Camsá people of Colombia understand Territory as a living unity: a home where the natural and vital cycles of life are continually recreated. (L. Barnett & Vilchez, 2021)
Many Indigenous communities distinguish between Territory and land. For the Yanaconas, Territory represents the interconnection between the world and the environment, while land is the medium for labor and sustenance. The Nasa people express this distinction poetically: territory serves for thinking, while land serves for doing—the place where one physically lives. (Nates Cruz, 2011).
There are many perspectives from which one can observe and explain concepts. For the BeNative project, we have explored multiple viewpoints before arriving at one we find most relevant. The concept of "Territory" can be understood through these four interconnected dimensions:
First Territory: The Body Where One Inhabits
This perspective defines the human body as our most immediate territory, the physical vessel through which we experience the world. It is the most intimate space we inhabit, containing our thoughts, emotions, and sensory perceptions. This territory is both biological and personal, mental, emotional, and in some cases, spiritual. It represents our first boundary between self and world.
Taita Ángel Pasuy Miticanoy emphasizes that territory sustains life. If it is not well preserved, protecting and maintaining life in the future will become challenging. A healthy territory allows for the growth of nutritious plants that nourish and strengthen both the body and the community, reinforcing the connection between people and their land. (L. Barnett & Vilchez, 2021)
The Kamëntšá, whose territory is in the gateway to the Colombian Amazon, have a similar perspective on territory than other communities. From the Misak in the Andes of the southeast to the Arhuacos in the high Sierra Nevada range of the north, the human body is its own territory, but one whose health is inextricably linked to that of the land it inhabits. (L. Barnett & Vilchez, 2021)
For Taita Angel Pasuy, it is a reciprocal and synergistic relationship that operates in both directions: by healing the human body, the territory is also healed — and by knowing, caring for, and organizing the environment, well-being is also provided to the individuals and communities who live there. (L. Barnett & Vilchez, 2021)
Mé’phàà Community (Mexico): In the Mé’phàà indigenous community, the term for territory translates to "skin of the earth," emphasizing a profound connection between the human body and the land. This word has same root as other words related to caring items like blanket, clothes, skin of water, womb. This linguistic relationship underscores their view of the body as an extension of the territory, highlighting the importance of care and defense of life. Moreover, it also refers to the acts of care needed in order to preserve their territory but also their livelihoods.
This encounter between skin and earth within the Mè’phàà language, which is simultaneously a reflection of their experience and way of thinking, invites us to contemplate and perceive the body as the first territory, one that extends in multiple directions, that both protects and delineates, while also allowing itself to be permeated by the surroundings and what lies outside. A body that is, in turn, a territory, and a territory whose skin is a sensitive and ever-changing network of relations. (Salgado, 2024)
Second Territory: The Place Where One Lives
This refers to our current physical environment and community - the geographic space we inhabit day-to-day. This can include our home, neighborhood, city, or wider region that shapes our current experiences. This territory influences our routines, relationships, and immediate cultural context.
Third Territory: Where One's Heritage, Culture, and Language Come From
This territory transcends physical space, encompassing the cultural lineage, traditions, and linguistic foundations that shape our identity. It represents our connection to ancestral knowledge systems, collective stories, and shared values that may come from places we've never physically inhabited. This dimension acknowledges how cultural belonging forms a territory of meaning and identity.
Fourth Territory: Place Where One Was Born
This represents our point of origin - the specific location of our birth that may hold significance in our personal narrative. This territory can shape legal status (citizenship), cultural identification, and personal history. It's distinct from where one currently lives or where one's heritage comes from, representing a fixed point in both geography and personal timeline.
These four concepts of territory offer a holistic framework for understanding how physical space, cultural heritage, origins, and embodiment all contribute to human identity and experience.
At times, a person may find themselves in a situation that will require them to reassess their territory, either because something in them has changed (bodily, ideologically, geographically)
INTERACTING WITH TERRITORY:
For the Muysca and Kogui people from Colombia, every being has a role in the cosmic order established by the Ley de Origen (Law of Origin), which defines how to live in alignment with the natural and spiritual worlds.
Territory is the manifestation of that blueprint, it is alive and relational.
By Reading Territory we may understand and align with that blueprint in real time. We hear from the land where is the area for the trees? or where a path should go? Reading Territory will hint to actions that will help the territory to be in balance and harmony, those actions are the rituals (more on this latter).
To read territory is an exceptional skill and form of connection—one that is not taken lightly. In many traditions, it is cultivated through deep, intentional training. But for those not actively rooted in a specific tradition, it is still possible—and important—to begin somewhere.
Consider this as part of a technological tool of communication with life, nature, and our surroundings. In life, communication is constant. Territory continuously informs the flow of energy and life. It is dynamic—like the breeze that carries the scent of spring flowers, or the subtle shifts in temperature, fragrance, wind, and the flight of birds just before rain. Each moment is communicating something: the unfolding of events.
To read and listen to Territory is to belong. It is the capacity to tune in to the Story carried by this flow of interactions—the message, the meaning, the information, the data—and oneself as part of it all.
In both Kogui and Muisca traditions, rituals are not just ceremonial acts—they are living technologies that sustain the balance of life, territory, and spirit. Performing rituals, vital actions of reciprocity acknowledge the territory as alive.
Without ritual, life becomes unbalanced, and this can manifest as illness, ecological crisis, or social disruption.
I am grateful to the many communities that have preserved these technologies throughout the times.
REFERENCES:
Nates Cruz, B. (2011). Soportes teóricos y etnográficos sobre conceptos de territorio. Co-herencia, 8(14), 209–229.
L. Barnett, T., & Vilchez, H. (2021, November 11). The Body as territory: The Kamëntšá Biyá: Land use planning in defense of the Sacred. Resilience. Retrieved April 2, from, https://www.resilience.org/stories/2021-11-11/the-body-as-territory-the-kamentsa-biya-land-use-planning-in-defense-of-the-sacred/
Amira I. Ramírez Salgado (2024) The body as territory: a movement perspective, Studies in Theatre and Performance, 44:1, 201-217, DOI: 10.1080/14682761.2024.2342716