Trees and monoxylous canoes: results of a transdisciplinary study in the lower basin of Magdalena River (Colombia)

This article presents a synthesis of the results of five years of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research on traditional navigation in the Magdalena River water system and its adjacent swamps. Over the course multiple fieldwork campaigns, it was possible to fully record and ethnographically analyse the use of monoxylous canoes used in rivers and swamps; the location of their construction and wood supply areas; and the regional differences in the historical, common, and scientific names of the tree species traditionally used in their construction. This involved deploying an interdisciplinary methodology that combines history, ethnography, ethnoarchaeology, and botany, to move between methodological perspectives and optimize the use of documentary, material, and oral sources on the historical relationship between the amphibious cultures in the region and the largely aquatic environment that surrounds them.