Abstract

Traditional history in Venezuela held that during the sixteenth century all traces of the aboriginal societies were erased, particularly in regions where no indigenous societies have survived. In this article I explore the changes observed in the use of the space by the population that has settled, since the fifth century B.C. until the present, in the Quíbor Valley in northwestern Venezuela. I provide an analysis of sociocultural change over a long time period, with special emphasis on the cultural transformations that were set in motion after the colonial encounter of the sixteenth century. Also explored are the responses of the indigenous societies in their process of change into what are now known as criollo peasant communities. The article’s conclusion is that this cultural transformation has not yet ended.

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