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Lands Cartography : a Mesoamerican Heritage

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Lands Cartography : a Mesoamerican Heritage Ra Ximhai Revista de Sociedad, Cultura y Desarrollo Sustentable Ra Ximhai Universidad Autónoma Indígena de México ISSN: 1665-0441 México 2010 LA CARTOGRAFÍA DE TIERRAS: UNA HERENCIA MESOAMERICANA David Pájaro Huertas Ra Ximhai, mayo-agosto, año/Vol. 6, Número 2 Universidad Autónoma Indígena de México Mochicahui, El Fuerte, Sinaloa. pp. 153-167. Ra Ximhai Vol. 6. Número 2, mayo - agosto 2010. LA CARTOGRAFÍA DE TIERRAS: UNA HERENCIA MESOAMERICANA LANDS CARTOGRAPHY: A MESOAMERICAN HERITAGE David Pájaro Huertas Programa de Edafología, Colegio de Postgraduados, Campus Motecillo, 56230. Montecillo, Estado de México. [email protected] RESUMEN still have some characteristic features of pre- Hispanic maps such as: a circular format, a Los mapas de tierras, como los mapas prehispánicos non-conventional cardinal orientation, the mesoamericanos, no usan proyecciones Euclideanas, naming of specific places, and the subjective están basados en una proyección humanística o social. La realidad espacial en estos mapas es definida y perception of the landscape. The most estructurada por las relaciones sociales. Así, un mapa de outstanding feature, however, is that they are tierras representa a una comunidad que muestra su true cartographic histories, which gives them territorio e historia, y no solo a un área, como en los specific characteristics, and differentiates them mapas técnicos convencionales. Un mapa de tierras es from conventional technical maps. As a una “proyección comunicéntrica”, de la “percepción egocentrica” del campesino; por lo que puede definirse consequence of this, it is evident that there are como la proyección en forma de símbolos gráficos, de las two visions of spatial reality, stated in different relaciones espaciales abstraídas a partir del conocimiento types of maps, that of the peasant and that of disponible en mapas cognitivos de los ambientes que el the cartographer-academic. Both categories campesino conoce, antes que ser el resultado de técnicas sofisticadas, como las usadas en los levantamientos de overlap, are quite immeasurable, and are suelos o de percepción remota. forced to coexist. Peasants talk about land Palabras clave: mapa mental, tierras, topología, maps while academicals talk about soil maps. yuxtaposición. Nevertheless, it is through the land map that we can achieve a vision closer to the peasant’s SUMMARY perception of the environment. Land maps, like prehispanic mesoamerican maps, do not use Euclidean projections, which are based on a An attractive hypothesis humanistic or social projection. The spatial reality in The ethnographic and cartographic description these maps is defined and structured by social of ejido lands (Figure 1), as established by relationships. Thus, a land map represents a community Ortiz, Pájaro, and Ordaz (1990) in the last showing its territory and history, and not only an area like in conventional technical maps. A land map is a twenty years in more than forty ejidos in “communicentric projection” of the “egocentric fifteen states of the country (Ortiz, 1999, 115, perception” of the peasant, and can be defined as the and recent unpublished information), projection in graphic symbols of the spatial relationships supported by other areas of knowledge, such as abstracted from the knowledge available in cognitive art, anthropology, archaeology, cartography, maps of the environments known by the peasant, rather than the result of sophisticated techniques, such as those cognitive psychology, and topology, allow to used in soil surveys or remote perception. contrast the following hypothesis: “Land maps Index words: juxtaposition, lands, mental map, topology are a Mesoamerican cartographic heritage which transmits environmental knowledge of INTRODUCTION the peasants and takes shape through a cognitive map”. The Mesoamericans had no procedure equivalent to cartography, but they did create Western heritage drawings or representations which can be Civilization is the result of an evolutionary considered as maps from the perspective of process that leads to a more complex western science. The goal of this work is to economical, political and social organization make known that in Mexico there is a sort of with new ways like art, urban life, a calendar, cartography, alternative to the official one, and writing. These, in turn, open up new which derives in the elaboration of land maps possibilities for evolution (Memorial, 1975, 8). based on the knowledge generated by In each of the originating civilizations Mesoamericans more than two thousand years (Egyptian, Sumerian, Minoan, Chinese, ago, and inherited by modern day peasants. Mesoamerican, and Andean), this creative response to a challenge that broke the static Land maps made by peasants, as inheritors of balance at the moment caused a unique the Mesoamerican cartographic knowledge, Recibido: 16 de febrero de 2010. Aceptado: 14 de abril de 2010. 153 Publicado como ARTÍCULO CIENTÍFICO en Ra Ximhai 6(2): 153-167. La cartografía de tierras: una herencia mesoamericana mutation: the leap from a primitive stage to a and in the Old World leaves a series of historical stage named Civilization. Nowadays peculiarities, sometimes paradoxical, which there are five living civilizations: Western, prove radical differences…” Christian-Orthodox, Islamic, Hindu, and Far East (Toynbee, 1985, 19). For example, evidence shows that around the year 1000 B.C. there was a writing system in The academic Institutions in Mexico are direct Mesoamerica independent from any others inheritors of western civilization, three being existing worldwide, and which was used to the fundamental bases: schooling, tradition, register several events according to a complex and method (Fregoso, 1988, 414-438). Within calendar system (Schmandt-Besserat, 1978, the scientific activity, we are currently 50). From the four writing systems developed followers of the Positivist paradigm (Trabulse, in Mesoamerica (Zapotec, Mayan, Mixtec, and 1997), despite the grave consequences that this Aztec), the Zapotec writing system is the entails (Zea, 2002). Soil science in Mexico is oldest, apparently dating from 600 B.C. not the exception, since from its very (Marcus, 1980, 46). However, the fatal impact beginnings it was directly influenced by three of the Spanish conquest completely severed western schools of thought (Russian, that entire splendor, interrupting a whole European, and American), which in turn creative process. Mann’s reflections (2006, generated different approaches for soil 173-174) are very eloquent, “Broken by the classification and cartography (Macias, 1960, appearance of Cortes, the philosophy of the 51). Currently, soil science activities in Mexico Mexica, inheritors of Mesoamerican are directly influenced by two international civilization, had no opportunity to reach the policies concerning agricultural development: height of Greek or Chinese philosophy, 1. increasing agricultural areas for irrigation, although surviving testimonies indicate that and 2. intensive use of inputs (Ortiz, 1993, 25- they were not far from either of them…” 27). Taking this background into consideration, the following proposition, which Despite the suffered collapse, there is could be considered as an axiom and which sufficient evidence testifying that knowledge represents western heritage, can be made: “The from millennia is currently kept in basic elaboration of maps in Mexico follows western aspects such as mapmaking, which is the main cartographic tradition, which is based on topic of this paper. Therefore, we can state a Euclidean precepts”. second proposal which, like in the case of western knowledge, can reach the category of Mesoamerican heritage axiom: “Environmental knowledge The term Mesoamerica was coined by Paul accumulated through millennia is kept among Kirchhoff (1943) to define a geographical- indigenous people and peasants, thus land cultural area, which includes a great part of maps made with that information are a Mexico down to Central America where, ever Mesoamerican heritage”. since pre-Christian times up to the present day, there have been indigenous groups in which Mesoamerican cartography there are perceivable cultural affinities. Within Mundy (2000, 183-247) states that among their the Mesoamerican world, the diverse groups many achievements, Mesoamerican cultures share a common trait: Civilization. This made and used maps at an unparalleled degree cultural stage was not, and has not been, in the New World. Mesoamerican cartography reached autonomously except for a few human was a purely American achievement, evolved nuclei, as the pinnacle of a high culture process independently from European, Asian, or (Memoria, 1975, 8). Leon-Portilla (1986, 26- African traditions. This implies that many 27) states, “Indigenous man of ancient Mexico, ideas about the degree of geographical through his isolation of millennia, developed consciousness and representation of these his own forms of high culture and true cultures must be revised (Harley, 1992, 526). civilization. If there was any contact with the Kirchhoff (1943, 100) cites as an exclusively outside world, it was transitory and accidental, Mesoamerican cultural element since it left no important vestiges that can be “…hieroglyphic writing, symbols for numbers proven. This is why a comparison, however and a positional value of them, screen style brief, between the processes happening here folded books, historic annals, and maps…” 154 Ra Ximhai Vol. 6. Número 2, mayo - agosto 2010. The singularity and sophistication
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