Writing History into the Landscape: Space, Myth, and Ritual in Contemporary Amazonia

Abstract

Very early in the morning, during a bright September day in 1977,1 started what was going to be a three-day walk from the Yanesha community of Yorenaco to that of Muerrato, 1 passing through the communities of Huacsho and Yoncollmaso, all of them in the eastern slopes of the Peruvian Central Andes (see Figures 1 and 2). 2 My travel companion was Francisco, a middle-aged Yanesha who was going downriver to visit relatives and do some hunting and fishing. When we departed, I had no idea that this trip was also going to be a fascinating journey along the landscape of Yanesha history and myth. Shortly after leaving Yorenaco along the colonization road built in the 1970s we went by a gently sloping hill on top of which, Francisco told me, lay the foundations of an old Yanesha temple/forge. At its base, he claimed, one could still see rests of the furnace in which iron ore was melted. A few hours later, close to the colonist town of Enenas he singled out the site of the last fully functioning Yanesha temple, abandoned in the 1950s after the death of the officiating priest. Before arriving at the settlement of Huacsho, we went by a small lake in a site called Cacasano. Francisco told me that here the warrior-divinity Yato' Caresa (Our Grandfather Caresa) hid himself after being defeated by the Muellepen, ancient cannibals who used to travel upriver along the Palcazu River in order to attack the Yanesha settlements of the Cacazu Valley.We spent that night in Huacsho and the next day headed to Yoncollmaso, walking along the right bank of the Cacazu River. Soon we came to the end of the colonization road and entered an old trail. Some fifteen minutes later, Francisco informed me that right across the river lay the remains of the house in which his grandfather had died. He told me that in the old-house site one could still see his grandmother's large manioc beer pot-an object no longer manufactured by Yanesha women-as well as the peach palms and coca bushes sown by his grandfather. Before arriving in Yoncollmaso, Francisco showed me the trail to the old Yanesha settlement of Asopeso (nowadays inhabited mostly by Ashaninka), which he and his father had followed

Emergent Complexity, Changing Landscapes, and Spheres of Interaction in Southeastern South America During the Middle and Late Holocene

“…At the same time, aspects relating to the perception, memory, ideology, and underlying structural principles and meanings of Early Formative landscapes are taken into account (e.g., Ashmore and Knapp 1999;Barrett 1996;Bradley 1998;Dillehay 2007;De Boer 1997;Edmond 1999;Feinman 1999;Iriarte et al 2013;Thomas 1999;Tilley 1995); several authors have emphasized the importance of the landscape as a means of encapsulating and transmitting historical memory (e.g., Bender 1993Bender , 2002Criado Boado et al 2006;Santos-Granero 1998.…”

Los escritos de los objetos: hacía una textualidad material entre los yukpa

“…Las inscripciones ocurren a través del tejido (v. Guss 1989;van Velthem 1992;, la memoria pictográfica (Severi 2015), dibujos (Lagrou 2012), la construcción de una casa (Barandiarán 1966;Halbmayer 2010), la caza (Århem 1996) o mediante la apertura y la plantación de un jardín. Por lo tanto, el mito se inscribe en las prácticas, en lugares (Santos Granero 1998;Halbmayer 2004b), objetos y cuerpos (Uzendoski 2012;Fortis 2014). El mito contado, en contraste con otras formas de textualidad, no es entre los yukpa una práctica relacional vivida ni una interacción concreta con otros seres.…”

“…El argumento es que los signos o "escritos" de los objetos y también el escribir topográfico (Santos-Granero 1998; permiten una comunicación en ausencia del "autor". Estoy entonces aplicando aspectos de la semiología de Charles Peirce (1931), como lo hace Eduardo Kohn (2013), y aspectos de la teoría de comunicación de Niklas Luhmann (1993; para entender íconos e índices fabricados que son parte de una interacción poética con el medio ambiente que se dirige a entidades no-humanas.…”

Paisagens do médio-baixo Xingu: arqueologia, temporalidade e historicidade

“…Essa descrição etnográfica feita por Balée (1989) pode ser, em linhas gerais, estendida para outras populações Tupi-Guarani (e.g. VIVEIROS DE CASTRO, 1986;MÜLLER, 1993;NOELLI, 1993;NOGUEIRA, 2009;SILVA, 2010;SILVA e STUCHI, 2010;BALÉE, 2013;PEREIRA et al, 2016 (SANTOS-GRANERO, 1998;RIVAL, 1998;POLITIS, 2001;GREEN, GREEN e NEVES, 2003;WHITEHEAD, 2003;VIDAL, 2003;MEDINA, 2003;HECKENBERGER, 2007;SILVA, 2002SILVA, , 2013HILL, 2013;CABRAL, 2014). Na Amazônia, as mais diversas experiências antropológicas e arqueológicas de paisagem mostram que o que se classifica como sítio arqueológico passa, invariavelmente, pela memória e pela tradição oral das populações indígenas (cf.…”

“…Em outras palavras, não se trata de comparar histórias, mas de subscrever diferentes narrativas na interpretação arqueológica dos lugares e da paisagem. Essa perspectiva está intimamente ligada: 1) à descolonização do discurso e das práticas arqueológicas (LAYTON, 1989;SMITH e WOBST, 2005;LILLEY, 2006;COWELL-CHANTHAPHONH e FERGUSON, 2008;FAWCETT, HABU e MATSUNAGA, 2008;GNECCO e HERNÁNDEZ, 2010;SILVA, 2002SILVA, , 2012MACHADO, 2013MACHADO, , 2016; 2) à reflexão das diferentes narrativas e significados dos lugares, sítios arqueológicos (RAHARIJAONA, 1994;GREEN, GREEN e NEVES, 2003;HECKENBERGER, 2007;CASTAÑEDA e MATTHEWS, 2008;COWELL-CHANTHAPHONH, 2009;HAMILAKIS, 2009HAMILAKIS, , 2011HAMILAKIS, , 2016DAVID et al, 2012;SILVA, 2013CABRAL, 2014;MACHADO, 2016); 3) e às interpretações que dialogam com os regimes de conhecimento das populações indígenas na Amazônia (SANTOS-GRANERO, 1998; HILL e SANTOS-32 GRANERO, 2002;SILVA, 2002;WHITEHEAD, 2003;HORNBORG, 2005;FAUSTO e HECKENBERGER, 2007;HILL, 2013).…”