Communities
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The area was inhabited by important indigenous cultures such as the enigmatic San Agustín culture, which left massive megalithic statues famous worldwide. Currently, mestizo and indigenous communities inhabit the zone. On the neighboring western slope, the ancestral territories of indigenous communities of the Kokonuco and Yanacona ethnicities are located. These indigenous peoples have been displaced from their production zones in the lower areas to the higher areas, which contain important ritual and ceremony sites. They have similar productive systems as those used by the mestizos and in the Puracé indigenous reserve there is also some sulfur mining. Peasant farmers also inhabit the neighboring zones, with rural subsistence economies such as agriculture, fishing and livestock farming.