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Apachita 17
If they want to be Inka…let them be PDF Print E-mail
Written by Josefina Vásquez Pazmiño   
Saturday, 11 September 2010 11:01

When archeology gets out of hand from conventional theories and becomes an avant-garde of ethnogenesis in the Americas, ethics, professional practice and the subject of study are confronted in a power struggle. How to look and use ancestors, to rebuild the indigenous history in the continent? Archaeological sites become spaces that respond to local policies in a post-colonial globalized world. Readings of post-processual criticism in archeology, of Andean literature interested in pre-columbian past, and of the indigenous movement in the Americas, may help to identify all the various ways for using the past. In Ecuador, both historical and prehispanic consciousness have changed little, since 1995, when Salazar presented the conclusion that the majority of highland (Sierra) indian groups pointed to the Inkas as their direct ancestors. Today, the inventory of archaeological sites registers a resounding minority of Inka sites and it cannot go, without questioning, the fact that current indigenous thought promotes a prehispanic past with an Inka background, which contradicts the physical evidence from the archaeological record. The selective use of archaeological data is becoming the norm, thus limiting the possibility for indigenous movements to challenge the reconstructions of colonial and western history. How far can we talk about ethics and liberties?

Last Updated on Saturday, 11 September 2010 11:23
 
Apachita`s Quote PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ernesto Salazar   
Saturday, 11 September 2010 11:18

Two cultures must carefully be recognized in Ecuadorian prehistory: the Inca culture, and the culture genuinely Ecuadorian. The first one was brought by the Inca to Ecuador, when they conquered Ecuadorian provinces; the second one was achieved by the aborigenes of Ecuador, by means of their own efforts.

Federicio Gonzalez Suárez, 1915, Notas Arqueológicas, p. 11.  Imprenta del Clero, Quito.

Last Updated on Saturday, 11 September 2010 11:25
 
The Banco Central Museum Mummy PDF Print E-mail
Written by Karen O. Bruhns, Nancy L. Kelker   
Saturday, 11 September 2010 11:26

There are fake mummies here and there. Actually, they mostly, like the Egyptian ones, are pastiches, bits from various bodies and objects from various burials all put together into one fraudulent whole. Such is the poor "Cañari lady" of the Museo del Banco Central in Quito. The Museo del Banco Central is, essentially, the national museum of that country. The museum was founded on private collections and selective buying from looters, so most of the pieces have little in the way of a reliable or detailed provenience. The alleged mummy, if actually Cañari, would have come from the southern highlands; this is especially problematic since the area is a generally damp place with few dry caves or other such mummy-preserving amenities.

Last Updated on Saturday, 11 September 2010 11:51
 
The Ushnu in the Andean way of thinking PDF Print E-mail
Written by Luis Rodolfo Monteverde Sotil*   
Saturday, 11 September 2010 11:32

The present Andean way of thinking is a strong cultural continuum of pre-Hispanic roots, which basically have come down to us through oral means. When we excavated in the mountains of Tacna (February 2010), Justino, a villager from Vilavilani, after explaining how the Tacora volcano had "appeared" (in the neighboring region of Arica-Chile) said that the story was told to him by his father and that he already had passed it to his son. The words or ways to tell a myth or a story can change, but its essence remains, and is transmitted through generations. Hereafter we will try a brief essay in which we will review, based on ethnographic work, the meanings that are handled in contemporary times about lightning, rain and rocks. As we shall see, these features are associated with the current concept of ushnu (1) as they probably were during the Tahuantinsuyo; not identically but in a similar manner.

Last Updated on Saturday, 11 September 2010 12:01
 
Mindaláes, Mindalas y Cachicaldos PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ernesto Salazar   
Saturday, 11 September 2010 12:01

In 1980, anthropologist Frank Salomon published a book (“Los señoríos étnicos de Quito en la época de los Incas”), which gave a tremendous boost to the emerging Ecuadorian ethnohistory. Basically, the book deals with the study of chiefdoms (llactakuna) in the region of Quito (the famous "township of the five leagues of Quito”, which corresponds roughly to the present-day province of Pichincha). Key to understanding the functioning of these political entities was the control, the lords had over the circulation of goods produced within the chiefdom and those obtained from other ecological zones, through regional exchange.

Last Updated on Saturday, 11 September 2010 12:18
 
De Coleccionista a Arqueólogo: Lecciones del Siglo XX PDF Print E-mail
Written by Florencio Delgado-Espinoza   
Saturday, 11 September 2010 12:18
There are no translations available for the moment. Thanks for you comprehension.

Es ya casi un cliché decir que, en el Ecuador de gran parte del siglo 20, el estudio del pasado estuvo en manos de coleccionistas conscientes de que sus adquisiciones representaban parte de la historia de las sociedades precolombinas. Luego de la importante contribución que hiciera a su estudio el Obispo Federico González Suárez, Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño, un ávido coleccionista de arte, incursiona en el tema, pero a diferencia del primero, decide construir su colección arqueológica, a partir de excavaciones que realiza de manera personal. Por lo general, elige para estos trabajos sus extensas propiedades, y en algunos casos, excava en zonas ajenas, como los sitios de la provincia de Manabí y el sitio peruano de Maranga. El trabajo de campo despierta en él la necesidad de dar explicación y contenido histórico al material recogido, recurriendo a informes y publicaciones arqueológicas de varias regiones del mundo. Jijón sufre entonces la metamorfosis de un mero acumulador de bienes (coleccionista) en un arqueólogo de tradición coleccionista explicativa. En aquellos tiempos, eso de deambular por el territorio buscando piezas arqueológicas era definitivamente un hobby aristócrata practicado por varios personajes; empero Jijón, a diferencia del resto, trató de explicar el proceso cultural a través de los objetos.

Last Updated on Saturday, 11 September 2010 12:31
 
Noticias Frescas PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ernesto Salazar   
Saturday, 11 September 2010 12:34
There are no translations available for the moment. Thanks for you comprehension.

La nariz de la esfinge de Gizeh

La esfinge no tiene nariz y la lacra que tiene en la cara sugiere que fue destruida. La historia más famosa es que fue arruinada por las tropas de Napoléon (1798), en pruebas de tiro al blanco. Pero sabiendo del tropel de científicos que el gran corso llevó a Egipto, es muy dificil de tragarse el cuento. El viajero Richard Pococke publicó en 1743 un relato de su viaje, cinco años antes, en el que incluye un dibujo de la esfinge con nariz, pero en un libro que publicó 24 años después se quejaba de que la misma haya sido desfigurada. Por tanto, no hubo erosión, sino mano humana, accidental o a propósito. Otro dibujo, de Frederic Louis Norden (1755), muestra a la esfinge también sin nariz, o sea que talvez Napoleón no la rompió, después de todo. Sin embargo se ha encontrado otro dibujo más antiguo, el de Cornelius de Brujin (1698), que muestra una nariz medio fea pero intacta. ¿Hechos reales o “licencias” artísticas? Otra revelación está circulando. Según Ann Macy Roth, la nariz fue dañada en 1378 “por un religioso musulmán que temía que la esfinge era objeto de veneración inapropiada”. Da fuentes académicas para esta afirmación. El “naricida” se habría llamado Mohammad Sa’im al-Dahr. Ahora bien, iconoclastas han habido en toda la historia, y si los talibanes fueron capaces de hacer explotar en 2001 los budas gigantes de Bamiyan, cualquier cosa pudo haber ocurrido en el pasado más remoto. Vea otras tribulaciones de la esfinge en Apachita 14:3-6 (Prad, heritage-key.com, agosto 2, 2010).

Last Updated on Saturday, 11 September 2010 13:04
 
Circulando… PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ernesto Salazar   
Saturday, 11 September 2010 12:59
There are no translations available for the moment. Thanks for you comprehension.

Andrefsky, William, 2005, Lithics: macroscopic approaches to analysis. Cambridge University Press.

Arellano López, Jorge, 2009, Culturas prehispánicas del Napo y el Aguarico, amazonía ecuatoriana (transecta Yuturi-Lago Agrio). Centro Cultural José Pío, Lima.

Ashurst, John, 2006, Conservation of ruins, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford

Benavides, O. Hugo, 2004, Making Ecuadorian histories: four centuries of defining power, University of Texas Press, Austin.

Bourget, Steve; Kimberly L. Jones, 2008, The art and archaeology of the Moche. An ancient Andean society of the Peruvian North Coast, University of Texas Press, Austin.

Last Updated on Saturday, 11 September 2010 13:24
 
Transitions: David M. Stemper (1951-2010) PDF Print E-mail
Written by Ernesto Salazar   
Saturday, 11 September 2010 13:25

David M. Stemper died on July 3rd while playing basketball. David earned his PhD in 1989 at the University of Wisconsin, with a thesis on pre-hispanic chiefdoms in the Daule River, as the culmination of a long association with the project of risen fields directed by W. Denevan for the Andean region. Initially taught at the Universidad del Valle in Colombia, and was associated with the Instituto Vallecaucano de Investigaciones Cientificas Vallecaucano (INCIVA). There, with Hector Salgado he did some archaeological investigations at the Bocana, one of the northernmost Tolita sites (350 km from La Tolita) and Palestina (San Juan River), both localities of the Colombian Pacific coast. Also he started there, with Carlos A. Rodriguez, a long-term project on the dominions of the Valle del Cauca. Later he taught at several American universities, like the University of Texas (El Paso), Maryland (Baltimore), Georgetown, and lately, the American University. As a consultant, he conducted research and educational projects in Cuba, Peru and Colombia. Among his publications includes: 1987, Raised fields and agricultural production, AD 1400-1600, Rio Duale, Guayas, Ecuador. In Pre-Hispanic Agricultural Fields in the Andean Region, W. Denevan, K. Mathewson, and G. Knapp, eds., Pp. 297-319. BAR International Series, vol. 359 (ii). Oxford; and 1993, The persistence of prehistoric chiefdoms on the Rio Duale, Coastal Ecuador. La persistencia de los cacicazgos prehispánicos en el rio Daule, Costa de Ecuador, Edición bilingüe español-inglés. Memoirs in Latin American Archaeology, vol 7. University of Pittsburgh.

 


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