The territory of the Wayuu indigenous people comprises a small, low mountain range surrounded by a large desert that extends from Colombia to Venezuela in the Guajira peninsula. In pre-Columbian times, Wayuu livelihoods relied mainly on fishing and hunting in the littoral zone. Following the Spanish conquest, in their fight to maintain their territorial integrity they turned to rearing cattle, goats, and sheep they captured from colonists. They maintained their struggle against colonisation post-independence. In Colombia they have only recently obtained political devolution through legal recognition of their indigenous territories. Their economy now relies on animal husbandry to combat food insecurity. Our ethnographic study of Wayuu pastoralism confirmed our hypothesis that rearing goats and sheep has become integral to maintaining their cultural traditions, and revealed that the role of both male and female herders has become instrumental in their rituals, and integral to maintaining their longstanding patterns of reciprocity.

瓦尤族原住民的领土由一座小而低的山脉组成，周围环绕着大片沙漠，从哥伦比亚延伸到委内瑞拉的瓜希拉半岛。在前哥伦布时代，瓦尤人的生计主要依靠沿海地区的捕鱼和狩猎。西班牙征服之后，为了维护领土完整，他们转而饲养从殖民者手中夺来的牛、山羊和绵羊。独立后，他们继续进行反对殖民主义的斗争。在哥伦比亚，他们最近才通过法律承认其土著领土获得政治权力下放。他们的经济现在依靠畜牧业来应对粮食不安全问题。