Social representations of the armed conflict and peace of the Sikuani Community of Puerto Gaitan

Within the framework of the colombian armed conflict, it has been necessary to approach other perspectives on conflict and peace that enriches the understanding of the phenomenon and that makes it possible to visualize new possible paths for the construction of peace. In this sense, this article synthesizes the results of a research whose objective is to analyze the social representations (RS) that the Sikuani indigenous community of Puerto Gaitan has about the armed conflict and the peace. It was approached from the perspective of Abric's social representation, as well as from a historical-political conception of the colombian armed conflict and the vision of peace developed by Munoz (2001, 2004). The study was qualitative with a ethnographic approach based on phenomenology and it used two techniques: interviews and item hierarchy. Based on a content analysis the research shows that the social representation of the armed conflict was the impossibility of being terminated, the representation of any actor and the power of the armed groups. On the other hand, in relation to peace, it is represented as an international reality and expressed socially but unattainable by the limitation of expressing cultural traditions.