ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the layered inequalities concept and analyzes the historical configuration of inequalities, including colonialism and processes up to the beginning of the twentieth century. It discusses the processes affecting this region and its populations since the mid-twentieth century. It presents the interplay of two main processes since the 1990s: the expansion of the oil palm agribusiness and the adoption of multicultural policies that aimed at determining the structure of collective property rights and land uses. The Uraba and Lower Atrato regions have been transformed by the introduction of agribusiness ventures, mainly of banana and oil palm. In the 1960s a banana economy enclave was introduced in the Uraba region, nearby Choco, giving form to the so-called Eje Bananero. The Darien, including the Lower Atrato region and the neighboring territories of Uraba, has been affected by several historical and contemporary global processes. The chapter concludes the relation between the approaches to layers of inequalities and the analyses on intersectionality.
