ABSTRACT
The Guambianos are indigenous peoples who dwell in the highlands of the Cordillera Central in southwestern Colombia. A few Guambianos work as teachers, government clerks, carpenters, shoemakers, or have transportation vehicles. Some old production processes are still retained, especially those regarding cloth making. Women weave wool on four-log vertical looms of pre-Columbian origin, making their skirt-like anacos and the ponchos used by their men. The Guambianos summoned archaeologists Martha Urdaneta and Sofa Botero, with whom they shared their problems. Guambianos know by oral tradition that they belong there, that these lands have been their own forever although they were invaded for centuries by white landlords. During the two field seasons completed so far, there have been obvious difficulties with the Guambianos accompanying excavations because the levelings of the ancients have too much force and can make us sick. The Guambianos say that their territory, the nupirau, is a large house where a single and large family dwells, the Guambiano family.
