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    4 views21 pages

    History - Into - Landscape S Granero - W - PDF

    Uploaded by

    Vinit Gupta

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 21
    writing history into the landscape: space, myth, and ritual in contemporary Amazonia FERNANDO SANTOS-GRANERO— Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute ‘Very eal in the marning, ding a bright September day in 1877 | staned what was going tobe a thee day walk fom the Yanesha community of Yornato to that of Mueralpasing through the communities Huacsho and Yoncolioso alot them inthe ester slopes of the Peruvian Cental Andes (Ge Figures 1 and 2 My tavel companion was Fanclc, a middle-aged Yanesha who was gong downriver to vst eltives apd do some hurting aed (hing, When we departed, had no idea that hsp was aso going tbe a asain jovmey along the andscapeofYanesha history and myth, Shortly afer leaving Yorenao alon the colonization roa bul in the 1970s we went by a gently sloping hil ontop of which, Francisco tld me, ly te foundations of an old Yanesha templefoge. At ts base, he claimed, one cul sil see rests ofthe furnace in which ron oe was meted, A few hour later, clase othe coloist own of Enetas he singled out these of the last fll functioning Yanesha temple, abandoned In the 1950s after the death of the officiating pest Beloeariving atthe setlement of uacsho, we went by asmal ake ina site Called Cacasafo Francisco old me that ere th warirdvnty Yao Caresa (Our Grandlther Cares id himself afer beng defeated bythe Muellepen ancien cawibls who wsedtotave priv along the Paleaz River inorder to atacktheYanesha setlements ofthe Caca Valley ‘We spent that right in Hunesh and the next day headed to Yoncalmaso, walking along the ‘ight banc of the Cacaz River, Soon we came tothe end ofthe colonization road ad entered aol al Some teen inte ltr, Francisco informed me that ight across the ive ly the temains ofthe house in which hs grander had died. He tld me that inthe ol house ste One couldsl seis ganciothd's age maniac beer pot—an objec no longer manufactured by Yanesha vemen os wel athe peach palms and coca bushes sown by hs grandtther. Eeoreartiving in Yoncolimaso, Hancisco showed me te alo the od Yaneshstlement of Asopes nowadays inhabited mol by Ashainka, which he and his father had followed Like members of most nonliterate societies, the Yanesha preserve historical mem- ‘ory through narrative and performative practices such as myths, traditions, remi- riscences, rituals, and body practices. Among the Yanesha, however, these coalesce into a major inscribing practice, that of “writing” history into the land- scape. l contend that “topographic writing” constitutes a protowritng system based (on “topograms’—individual elements of the landscape imbued with historical significance through myth and ritual. When combined in sequential or nonsequen- tial ways, these elements behave as “topographs” (units of a longer narrative). Through this mnemonic device the Yanesha have preserved not only the memory Cf the mythical consecration of their traditional territory, but also that of its

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