The Kogi

The Kogi is an extraordinary group of indigenous people that live in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Mountains of northern Colombia, in South America.   Unlike all other indigenous tribes, the Kogi culture was not totally decimated by the Spaniards.   The Kogi were a very technically and culturally advanced tribe who were able to withdraw into the Rainforest and up into the mountains, where the Spanish Conquistadors had great difficulty in pursuing them.  
The Kogi quickly assessed their situation and proposed commerce with the Spanish Conquistadors.   Having moved back from the lowlands and ocean, the kogi needed salt to survive in the Rainforest.   The Kogi traded the gold they used in their rituals for salt and fish.  
The Spanish Conquistadors steadily increased the Kogi's payments of salt and fish until the Kogi's had no gold left.   Nevertheless, the Kogi were able to keep their culture alive to the present day, however it is much smaller.
` What is amazing about these people is the technology that they had.   In the middle of the Rainforest their ruins have remained perfectly intact for over a thousand years.   These people were able to get into such a perfect alignment with nature that the Rainforest didn't erode any of their construction.
I think that we need to look at how the Kogi achieved this.   All of the knowledge and culture of these people is controlled by the priests.   The initiation of a priest involves being kept in a large hut in with other initiates, for nine years.   For nine years the initiates are kept apart from the world, in the dark, with only the elder priests coming in to teach them about the Rainforest and the world outside.
The imagination of the initiates is sensitized to an incredible degree, by the longing to be part of the world and the stories of the experiences of the priests.
Finally they are placed back into the world; the beautiful colors in the flourishing Rainforest, to see birds, clouds, animals, fruits and flowers.   What...