Communication Beyond the Human: Conversing with Animals, Dead and Deities among Yukpa in Colombia

An exploration of more-than-human communication in Sokorhpa, Colombia, relating the Yukpa to Amazonian as well as Isthmo-Colombian sociocosmology. The Yukpa from Sokorhpa in Northwestern Colombia converse with animals, the dead, and deities. Moving beyond influential theories on more-than-human relations from Amazonian anthropology, Anne Goletz introduces the concept of ›common ground‹ to examine a range of distinct communicative strategies. Drawing on detailed analysis of communication situations and narratives, she provides insights into present-day social dynamics in the Serranía del Perijá highlands, and relates the Cariban-speaking Yukpa to the emerging socio-cosmological framework of the Isthmo-Colombian Area. This ethnography thus offers an insightful conceptual perspective on communication beyond the human.