Transformaciones culturales e identidad en conversaciones e historias de vida con los afros descendientes del cantón Lago Agrio en la provincia de Sucumbíos

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to understand and interpret the cultural transformations experienced by the afro-ecuadorian people, Cantón Lago Agrio, province of Sucumbíos, and how these transformations express their identity, understood as the self-recognition of being part of a historical collective despite and in the midst of the changes. The research is based on the ethnographic method characterized by participant observation and life stories that have allowed us to identify, through conversations the features of our identity over time. That I am a participant in this research does not mean that I assume the roles of a community that is not strange to me, because those conversations are with relatives and friends of my own people: the afro-ecuadorian community. This form of participation is related to peer anthropology, where the researcher is part of the community that wants to understand. The people with whom I talked and shared these life stories are those who are called "heritage person" because they have the ability to keep and keep alive the identity of our African ancestors. The research showed that, through conversations and life stories, the Afro-Ecuadorian people recognize themselves as a community linked to the African ancestors, and, at the same time, through them they evaluate the changes and transformations suffered, sometimes as a threatens because they weaken the mechanisms of self-recognition and collective decision-making; other times these changes are seen as positive because they make possible the differentiated existence. Palabras