The Kuna People from Panama: Facing Extinction

In September of 2007 I traveled to Peru’s popular Macchu Picchu.

Although fascinating, the high note of my trip was far away from there; in Panama to be precise.

No, the Canal wasn’t that transcendental place I found (went there too, though).

In a 365 island archipelago I spent a week living among their inhabitants, the Kuna Yala or Kuna people, sharing their food, huts and vessels.

When I came back I wrote an article for Taking It Global and for some reason I never posted in PsiXP (former blog) nor here. So, amending that, here’s the original article.

I have recently come home (to Buenos Aires, Argentina) from Panama. During my stay I had the opportunity to live among the Kunas for a week.

The Kuna Shire, or kuna yala (Land of the Kuna people) is an independent region, comprised of over 370 islands. Some were as small as five meters (20ft) wide. Others were big enough to hold seventy huts (seventy families). It is paradise on earth. I have never seen anything like it -and I’ve travelled plenty around the world-.

The smaller islands are also inhabited by some members of the family that owns that particular island and family members rotate every three months. When they are not on the small island they go back to their tribe’s main island.

After years of isolation, the Kuna people are opening themselves to the world, offering cheap and rudimentary accommodation (which is the special thing about visiting them: you actually merge for some time with their culture) to anyone who wants to visit them.

You live in one of their huts, sleep in a hammock or, if you are unlucky, a bed (don’t expect luxury mattresses). The “bathrooms” have a “direct connection with the sea” (basically, a hole on the floor).

While men dress in a “western way” and the great majority speaks Spanish and sometimes English, women dress the Kuna way and seldom speak fluent Spanish. Women spend their days knitting and sewing “molas”, decorative fabrics that they also use in their clothes.

Men, spend their days fishing until the sun sets. These reason why men speak the extra/s language is due to the fact that they often go outside Kuna Yala for business (and more frequently now, because of tourism).

One of the things that dazzled me the most was the fact that Kunas start person to person relationships in the exact opposite way that Westerners (like me) do.

Imagine when you first approach a person. What are the first topics that usually come up first? Most probably: occupation/work, family or the weather.

The first thing a Kuna will talk to you about will be either sex or food… if you get more intimate with them, then they would start talking about their families, work, etc.

The Kunas have an amazing and almost virgin culture, unstained by outside influences.

Unfortunately, very strong foreign capitals want to take their luxury resorts to Kuna Yala. I was there during one of the council meetings regarding this issue. The answer was “NO” to corporations, but regrettably this “NO” will not be permanent.

In the last few years the youngest Kunas have been absorbing more and more western culture and leaving their own culture behind, sometimes feeling ashamed of it.

Today they say “NO” to foreign investments for two reasons: first, the elders are still alive and stick to their traditions. No money in the world will make them change their minds. They don’t care about money.

Secondly, the adults have great respect for the elders and abide by their decisions.

But what will happen once the elders are gone? The “new adults” are not as strongly bonded to their traditions as the elders are.

The moment a Kuna gets bedazzled by millions of dollars on a table and takes them, their “shy -and respectful to their culture- tourism industry” and their whole culture will be lost… even worse, their culture and civilization will turn into a theme park.

This is not what I think, it is what all of them know will happen, it is what they have told me.

Only one question remains: Is there anything we could do?

Have you been there lately? I’d like to know your thoughts.

Image credit Shiran Maor or Zohar Levin (the guy in the picture is me)

Article by Fernando

This is my blog - I write about careers, talent management and organizational development. I've been featured at Monster.com, Alltop, WeBlogBetter and BloggingPro among others. I hope you leave this blog with more than you arrived and I look forward to discussing your ideas and projects with you. See you in the comments section.

Fernando has written 230 awesome articles for us at Fernando Tarnogol – Careers Blog

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