Approaches to Some Cartographies of Emotions in Bajo Atrato, Colombia

Abstract

There is an inescapable relationship between emotion, the body, and territory; between the one who inhabits and that which is inhabited. In a context such as Colombia’s—marked by systematic violence that has transformed territories into wounded bodies in need of healing, and amidst the partial implementation of the Peace Agreement signed in 2016—a highly sensitive scenario emerges for examining the role of emotions in the new spatial and affective relationships being established with the territories. This article explores the relationship between emotions, bodies, and territories in four locations in the Bajo Atrato region: Carmen del Darién, Marriaga, Triganá, and Santa María de la Antigua del Darién, using travel as a method of approach. Through workshops, semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, and participant observation, the resulting cartographic exercises reveal that emotions are performative—they constitute a system of events and actions intrinsically linked to the inhabited space.