Jungle, settler, border: A critical review of hegemonic representations of the Caqueteño Amazon

Abstract

This article presents a critical review of narrative and anthropological discourses on the Caquetá Amazon produced between 1845 and 2025, aiming to characterize the representations that, for nearly two centuries, have constructed this region of southern Colombia as an object of knowledge and intervention. The review corresponds to a cualitative hermeneutic-critical approach. The analysis is organized into three interrelated scenarios: the discursive representations of the jungle, the indigenous people, and the settler (colono); the material and symbolic mechanisms that have sustained them; and the situated voices from which the regime of representations has been articulated or questioned. The findings show that these representations have not followed a linear sequence but instead operate in ways that accumulate and reactivate according to economic cycles. The article systematizes interpretive tensions among the works reviewed and proposes four categories that contribute to a critical socio-environmental interpretive framework for the region, with a view to strengthening environmental education approaches in the territory.