Uncovering Indigenous Cartographies of the Peruvian Amazon: The Role of Native Knowledge in Antonio Raimondi’s 1880 Map
Cameron L. Johnson
UC Davis
Antonio Raimondi, an Italian born geographer and natural historian employed by the Peruvian State to survey the Amazon region in the 1870s,
published a 1880 map with an unprecedented amount of ethnographic detail. This cartographic accomplishment silenced the collaborative reality of the map-making process, as the attribution of individual authorship covered up the role of native knowledge in the project. Inspired by Raymond Craib’s Cartographic Mexico, in which mapmakers are understood as intermediaries in a complex process of intellectual and geographical mediation with native populations, this paper will examine how an abstract Cartesian product came out of a dialectical process that brought European methods and knowledges into conversation with indigenous ones. Maps, often overlooked as a visual embodiment of geographical, cultural, and ethnographic information, can be a useful source for understanding the intellectual realities of the European- Latin American exchange.
This paper draws inspiration from contemporary counter-mapping projects taking place throughout Latin America that aim to capture native geographies through GIS and extensive ethnographic research. Unlike maps created by outsiders, the move to create maps that reflect native historicities and geographical imaginaries promises a more nuanced understanding of how historical narratives are attached to inhabited landscapes, and the centrality of maps in this process. In the case of the Peruvian Amazon, the production of an ethnographically detailed map had the effect of reinforcing ethnic differences seen in increasingly geographical terms. A critical look at Raimondi’s writings from the 1870s will reveal not only how native informants shaped his work, but how the attempt to create abstract knowledge was in fact socially mediated.
published a 1880 map with an unprecedented amount of ethnographic detail. This cartographic accomplishment silenced the collaborative reality of the map-making process, as the attribution of individual authorship covered up the role of native knowledge in the project. Inspired by Raymond Craib’s Cartographic Mexico, in which mapmakers are understood as intermediaries in a complex process of intellectual and geographical mediation with native populations, this paper will examine how an abstract Cartesian product came out of a dialectical process that brought European methods and knowledges into conversation with indigenous ones. Maps, often overlooked as a visual embodiment of geographical, cultural, and ethnographic information, can be a useful source for understanding the intellectual realities of the European- Latin American exchange.
This paper draws inspiration from contemporary counter-mapping projects taking place throughout Latin America that aim to capture native geographies through GIS and extensive ethnographic research. Unlike maps created by outsiders, the move to create maps that reflect native historicities and geographical imaginaries promises a more nuanced understanding of how historical narratives are attached to inhabited landscapes, and the centrality of maps in this process. In the case of the Peruvian Amazon, the production of an ethnographically detailed map had the effect of reinforcing ethnic differences seen in increasingly geographical terms. A critical look at Raimondi’s writings from the 1870s will reveal not only how native informants shaped his work, but how the attempt to create abstract knowledge was in fact socially mediated.
THE STUDY OF MESOAMERICA-AMERICAN SOUTHWEST RELATIONS DURING PRE-COLUMBIAN TIMES. A NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES’ PERSPECTIVE
Rodolfo Cruz
UC Davis
This presentation will address the topic of relations between Mesoamerica and the American Southwest during Pre-Columbian times. Since the early stages of modern anthropological research on the two macro-areas, archaeologists, ethnologists and other researchers have identified a variety of affinities that indicate a certain cultural continuum. For example there are very interesting similarities in religious beliefs in regard to such aspects as agriculture and fertility, cults and concepts about the dead, as well as in some mythical tales. Still, many of these traces of familiarity do not always appear to be derived from direct stylistic (iconography) or ideological borrowings. Rather, they seem to point to the existence of profound and ancient common ideological structures or, in other words, a similar cosmovision or worldview.
I will begin this presentation by briefly describing some of the theories developed by scholars to explain the cultural affinities between the two macro-areas. I will then address the importance of applying an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to this topic, which should take into consideration oral histories along with other sources of information. Finally, I will comment on the research I am beginning to carry on, which deals with the comparative study of mythical narratives and structures.
I will begin this presentation by briefly describing some of the theories developed by scholars to explain the cultural affinities between the two macro-areas. I will then address the importance of applying an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to this topic, which should take into consideration oral histories along with other sources of information. Finally, I will comment on the research I am beginning to carry on, which deals with the comparative study of mythical narratives and structures.
Olivia Chilcote (Luiseño)
UC Berkeley
The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley is in possession of the largest and most comprehensive collection of Native Californian artifacts in the world. The Native Californian Cultures exhibit, viewable in person at the museum and virtually through an online exhibition, provides a key example of the institution of the museum as a space of classification and racialization of Native Californians. Moreover, the Native Californian Cultures exhibit is exemplary of the role of museums to foster a nationalistic self-understanding and identity in visitors who are taking part in a legacy of power relationships by viewing artifacts of “vanishing” Indians. In addition, Luiseño artist James Luna’s renowned performance installation The Artifact Piece is paired with my analysis of the museum. Synthesizing these elements, my paper seeks to answer the questions: How does the racialization of Native Californians occur within the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum? How is the Native Californian Cultures exhibit part of a broader history of museums and universities as establishments integral to forming a national identity? How does the contemporary Native artist James Luna resist static notions of culture and comment on the spatial divisions of the museum in The Artifact Piece? And, what is my position, as a Native Californian woman and student at UC Berkeley, in looking at artifacts from my own tribal ancestry and others throughout the state?