page_title: Kogi people
section_title: Traditions
hierarchical_section_title: Kogi people / Traditions
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Kogisiedlung/-indianer
context_page_description: The Kogi, or Cogui, or Kágaba, meaning "jaguar" in the Kogi language, are an indigenous ethnic group that live in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains in northern Colombia. Their civilization has continued since the Pre-Columbian era.
context_section_description: The Kogi have many characteristics that define their culture. For example, all Kogi men receive a "poporo" when they come of age. The "poporo" is a small, hollow gourd that is filled with "lima," a type of powder that is made by heating and crushing shells to produce lime. The men also continuously chew coca leaves, a tradition followed by many indigenous tribes to connect them to the natural world. As they chew the coca leaves, they suck on the lime powder in their poporos, which they extract with a stick, and rub the mixture on the gourd with the stick to form a hardened layer or crust. The size of this layer depends on the maturity and the age of the Kogi man.
  Kogi men and women all carry traditional bags across their shoulders. Only women are allowed to weave the bags. Many of the things carried inside a bag are secret and known only to the owner. Bags carried by Mamas contain sacred traditional objects. When two Kogi men meet, they use the customary greeting, which is to exchange handfuls of coca.
caption: Kogi huts (2004)
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