Paisaje e identidad Yabarana en el contexto del proceso de demarcación territorial indígena venezolano

the yabarana indigenous group (manapiare municipality, amazonas state, venezuela) is currently involved in a process of defining its territorial limits. after a struggle for recognition of its rights in the eighties, prompted by the increasing presence of alien land holders and small-scale miners, they have taken up the cause again, within the context of those rights established in the 1999 constitution. at the same time, there has been a process of strengthening of its identity in relation to those ethnic groups with which they are most closely in touch - panare, piaros and joti. the discourse over their identity is naturally rooted in the land they inhabit and its particular topographical and biocultural characteristics. in order to further the recognition of their rights, they have resorted to a translation of their territorial biography into the images of western cartography.