Orality and Aesthetics among the Colombian Huitotos

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between orality and aesthetics in the culture of the Colombian Huitotos, highlighting how oral tradition forms the basis of their daily life and artistic expression. Through an ethnographic analysis, it explores how the Huitotos’ practices and worldviews are intertwined with their orality, reflecting an aesthetic that integrates life and art into a coherent whole. The study reveals how orality preserves and transmits fundamental knowledge and values, challenging the Western notion of aesthetics as something exclusively written and fixed. The research also illustrates the importance of understanding orality from the perspective of the cultures that practice it.