Welfare and health

Welfare services date to the 1930s. Social security programs include health and maternity benefits, workers’ compensation, and allowances for those unable to work. As in most Latin American countries, housing is in short supply, a problem that is especially serious in large cities, which attract a large migrant class that settles in slums. The Housing Institute addresses the problem, directing the construction of housing for the low-income rural and urban population.

The Ministry of Public Health seeks to arouse the interest of individual communities in seeking solutions to health problems through independent efforts. Projects include the construction of systems to supply drinking water; public education in the matters of basic sanitation, home maintenance, balanced diet, and personal cleanliness; and the control of industries and organizations whose operations might be hazardous to health. Malaria and dysentery are common health problems in the rural areas, particularly in the poorly drained lowlands, and there are occasional cholera epidemics. Hookworm is troublesome in the damp environments of the shaded cafetales, or coffee plantations. Yellow fever, once of serious concern in the port cities, has been eradicated. Although health conditions have improved, serious problems still exist, especially among the poor and in remote areas, including problems caused by malnutrition.

Cultural origins

Geography has played a critical role in shaping Colombian culture, particularly in regard to regional isolation. Prior to the arrival of the first Europeans in the 16th century, the aboriginal populations of the area that was to become Colombia had achieved a high level of cultural development. Because they built largely of wood and occupied a tropical area of generally moderate to high rainfall, they left little evidence of their achievements. All groups had some form of social organization, but, except for the Chibcha of the Cordillera Oriental, they were organized in small chiefdoms (cacigazcos) under chiefs (caciques) whose authority was sharply limited geographically. Agriculture, pottery making, and weaving were all but universal. Some groups—for example, the Chibcha, Quimbaya, Tairona, Sinú, and Calima—had developed great skills in metalworking (especially goldsmithing), sculpture, and ceramics. The San Agustín culture, centred in the headwaters area of the Magdalena River, left giant anthropomorphic figures carved of stone that have been an enigma for archaeologists. While groups of Caribbean origin were warlike and practiced ritual cannibalism, others from the interior possessed a rich mythology and a religion that upheld ethical standards and norms on questions of private ownership and the prevention of crime.

Until the mid-1970s it was thought that no indigenous group had left any large architectural monuments such as those erected by the Aztecs, Mayas, or Incas. The excavation, beginning in 1976, of a 1,500-acre (600-hectare) city apparently built about 900 ce by the Tairona in the Santa Marta massif, however, marked a turning point in the study of Colombia’s prehistory.

The Andean indigenous people, particularly the Chibcha, practiced sedentary agriculture and were able to offer but small resistance to the Spanish invaders. They became the great biological and cultural contributors to the process of racial amalgamation, or mestizaje. The low demographic density of the pre-Hispanic population and its swift destruction during the colonial period led to the formation of a rather open society and to the substitution of Hispanic forms of culture for the indigenous ones. The most widely used native language, Chibcha, virtually disappeared in the 18th century.

From colonial times, Bogotá—the “Athens of South America”—has been the nation’s cultural centre, and most cultural institutions are located within the metropolitan area. Other cities of cultural prominence include Cali, Medellín, Manizales, Tunja, and Cartagena.