fusion of horizons and territorial memory: the zenú heritage as a means of effecting

Abstract

The article analyzes elements of the architectural and cultural heritage of the Zenú people from the philosophical hermeneutics of Hans-Georg Gadamer. The objective is to understand how the notion of effective historicity allows us to interpret Zenú heritage not only as an object of conservation, but as a living process of meaning between past and present. The methodology is qualitative, based on a hermeneutic-interpretative approach that combines documentary review, conceptual analysis of Gadamerian thought, and case studies on the material and symbolic expressions of the Zenú territory, particularly its system of architectural, archaeological, and artistic traditions. Among the results, it is noteworthy that Zenú territorial memory embodies a fusion of horizons where architectural practice reflects the continuity of an ecological and aesthetic rationality that re-signifies the relationship between community and landscape. The conclusions maintain that Zenú heritage is a manifestation of historical understanding in action, in which tradition is not opposed to modernity, but is updated as an effective experience of being in the act of inhabiting. This hermeneutic approach suggests a critical way of thinking about heritage conservation from the perspective of lived history and not only from the monumentalization of the past.