Thread: Is there REALLY such thing as a Panamanian?

I use Iraq as an analogy. Similar to Panama, Iraq was arbitrarily drawn up in a foreign boardroom by persons alien to the history & culture. The peoples in Iraq consists of tribes. Most broadly catagorized as Sunis, Shiites, & Kurds. Theses people DO NOT identify themselves as one single group under the Iraqi flag. This is purely a Western concept forced upon them.
Isn't Panama similar?
Would be fascinated by accurate history & insights on this topic.

I think they're similar, except they don't want to kill one another!

But, for Panama and the U.S. and Mexico and most countries, it seems the dozens of indigenous ethnic groups native to the region are the closest to being "native Panamanians." Of course, there was no republic of Panama long ago just as there was no United States. As with the U.S., European immigrants dominated the population in a relatively short period of time.

An anthropologist could maybe tell us: At what point in time do "invaders" and conquerors of a region become native to it? 100 years? 500 years?

Interesting topic.
Panamanian as a race or Panamanian as a nationality.

Originally Posted by Liont

Interesting topic.
Panamanian as a race or Panamanian as a nationality.

it would have to be panama as a nationality , otherwise all americans would be classed as the new world people , as that is what it was called when they descovered it , as far as a race it would be indian and spanish and a mix of both , and in later yrs a mix of other people also .

Originally Posted by Liont

Interesting topic.
Panamanian as a race or Panamanian as a nationality.

I think Panamanian is a nationality more than a race. They have european, native and african blood lines all melded together. Much like my own people the Choctaw. Being originally in the southeast U.S. we had the french spanish and British blood lines introduced into our tribe. Later as runaway and freed slaves alike sought refuge amongst my tribes people african blood lines were also introduced. The interracial marriages is why we have quantum blood levels on our CDIB issued by the Dept of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs. I am holding my CDIB and tribal voting card as I type this. Imagine my confusion at being a minority and also according to MRWOOHOO a racist who hates black and brown people. The confusion oh the confusion LOL.

Explain that again????

It's a nationality... most are a mixture of native with spanish (mestizo), & then, more admixture, with african (mulato & mestizo) and other europeans.... Only 10% of panamanians considere themselves whites. There is also a large jewish, arab, hindustanis & blacks from the islands represented.

Not, that's not what it was called when it was first discovered.. It was Las Indias Occidentales.

Originally Posted by Rok Alwar

Not, that's not what it was called when it was first discovered.. It was Las Indias Occidentales.

Las Indias Occidentales referred to the Caribbean island of Antilles and Bahamas. According to Wikipedia:

Central Panama was home to some of the first pottery-making villages in the Americas, such as the Monagrillo culture dating to about 2500–1700 BC. These evolved into significant populations that are best known through the spectacular burials of the Conte site (dating to c. AD 500–900) and the beautiful polychrome pottery of the Cocle style. The monumental monolithic sculptures at the Barriles (Chiriqui) site were another important clue of the ancient isthmian cultures. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Panama was widely settled by Chibchain, Chocoan, and Cueva peoples, among whom the largest group were the Cueva

There are a couple smaller tribes still left(embara). The Spanish killed the rest, save for the Ngobe who put up a very decent fight. Kuna came in afterwards. So...any spanish descendant is basically as Panamanian as it gets, they've been here practically since day 1...due to having eliminated the rest. The Ngobe are the others, recently they forced a 2 day shutdown of the highway here and made the gov cave on a mining bill. I dunno about "panamanian" though, Chiriqui seems like a slightly different place to me.

Now it refers to the islands in the Caribbean...but going back a few hundred years, both: Spaniards & Englishmen referred to the new world as West Indies or Indias Occidentales.....It was a German who named the new world America..& the USA took the name America much earlier than any other country......later, the new world was named North & South America, to include Central & all islands in the Caribbean...wikipedia only give you half the truth......read deeper inside......ra