Communication Beyond the Human: Conversing With Animals, the Dead and Deities Among the Yukpa in Colombia

The Yukpa from Sokorhpa in Northwestern Colombia converse with animals, the dead, and deities. Moving beyond influential theories on more-than-human relations from Amazonian anthropology, Anne Goletz introduces the concept of ›common ground‹ to examine a range of distinct communicative strategies. Drawing on detailed analysis of communication situations and narratives, she provides insights into present-day social dynamics in the Serranía del Perijá highlands, and relates the Cariban-speaking Yukpa to the emerging socio-cosmological framework of the Isthmo-Colombian Area. This ethnography thus offers an insightful conceptual perspective on communication beyond the human.