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Etnogeometrías: Patrones Geométricos Y Cultura

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Etnogeometrías: Patrones Geométricos Y Cultura Etnogeometrías: Patrones geométricos y cultura Carlos Reynoso UNIVERSIDAD DE BUENOS AIRES1 http://carlosreynoso.com.ar [email protected] Versión 10.16 – Octubre de 2019 1 - Las etnogeometrías como compromisos antropológicos Sin duda no está lejos la época en que las coleccio- nes precedentes de esta parte del mundo abandona- rán los museos etnográficos para ocupar un lugar, en los museos de bellas artes, entre Egipto o Persia antiguos y la Edad Media europea. Pues este arte no desmerece junto a los más grandes y, durante el si- glo y medio que conocemos de su historia, han ates- tiguado una diversidad superior a la de aquéllos y ha desplegado dones aparentemente inagotables de re- novación. Claude Lévi-Strauss, La vía de las máscaras Lo primero que corresponde hacer en un trabajo que aspira a ser visceralmente antro- pológico es destacar no sólo la necesidad de imprimir un carácter transdisciplinario a cualquier emprendimiento dedicado al estudio de la geometría en la cultura sino admitir de plano que en el pasado esa iniciativa (de relevancia intelectual mayor a la que se sospecha) estuvo poquísimas veces en manos de la antropología, por más que el prefijo ‘etno-’ sugiera otra cosa. Debido al fluctuante estado de la teoría antropológica en va- rios momentos críticos de su historia y dado que las corrientes teóricas que se encuen- tran posicionadas más alto en el podio de las modas del día son de las que tienden a arrojar más calor que luz, esa ausencia no implica necesariamente una mala noticia. Pe- ro está claro que el estudio etnogeométrico en el seno de la academia podría y debería estar bastante mejor configurado disciplinariamente de lo que estuvo hasta ahora. Amén de admitir la falta de compromiso por parte de nuestra disciplina y antes de co- menzar el examen de las teorías y las prácticas geométricas existentes cabe asentar que el propósito primordial de este trabajo es dar los primeros pasos para que nuestro aná- lisis de las geometrías de otros contextos culturales abandone de aquí en más el hábito de las imputaciones de minorización, de no-proposicionalidad, de condescendencia, de 1 Los aspectos técnicos de este trabajo se desarrollaron con recursos del proyecto “Redes dinámicas y mo- delización en antropología – Nuevas vislumbres teóricas y su impacto en las prácticas”, UBACYT 20020130100662 (Programación Científica 2014-2017/2018). 1 exotismo, de “pensamiento lento”, de esteticismo y de diferenciación compulsiva, clau- suras en las cuales, con diversas excusas y eufemismos, el posestructuralismo deleu- ziano y el giro ontológico (las tendencias dominantes de la antropología contemporá- nea) pretenden recluirlas todavía hoy (Reynoso 2019b: 5, 71, 228). En el momento en que se iniciaba el declive de la antropología interpretativa (y dos décadas antes de declarar insultantemente que en la cultura no existen cosas tales como “sistemas”) Clifford Geertz ni siquiera se refirió con detenimiento a la geometría en su artículo so- bre “El arte como sistema cultural” (1994 [1983]), que es, en mi opinión, y solamente a la zaga de la entrevista titulada –precisamente– “I don’t do systems” (2002), el más desempoderador, snob y alejado del nivel de excelencia que jamás publicó. Figura 1.1 – František Kupka – Izq.: Organization of graphic motives (ca. 1912) – Der.: Localisation des mobiles graphiques (1917) – Pinturas del expresionismo geométrico anticipatorias de los fractales bifurcacionales de Lyapunov [ver]. Contrástese con las imágenes tridimensionales de Tom Gidden (2017). El suyo no es un caso aislado. A lo largo de una trayectoria más que centenaria y con apenas un puñado de excepciones (Haddon 1902; Boas 1927; Lévi-Strauss 1968; por momentos Gell 1998: 200 y cap. 5) la propia sub-disciplina de la antropología del arte ha mantenido una concepción técnicamente inarticulada y esquemática sobre la geome- tría en la cultura, indigna de la riqueza, variedad y complejidad que se encuentra en los materiales sobre los que debería haber trabajado. Por un lado hay quienes están exultan- tes ante la existencia de una antropología del arte (y de una etno-estética) de las que alegan que prosperan en márgenes poco frecuentadas pero que gozan de buena salud; por el otro hay multitud de disconformes enfrascados con el mismo entusiasmo en sus respectivas deconstrucciones, demasiado fáciles y apiñadas en modas volátiles para me- recer reverencia; pero en éstas y en otras varias disciplinas centradas en tópicos del arte en la cultura no han sido muchos los que han sabido desentrañar geometrías (emic o etic) de manera técnica, científica y artísticamente solvente sin caer en los estereotipos 2 contrapuestos de la subvalorización de lo distinto o de la exaltación de sabidurías ocul- tas. Así y todo en la antropología del arte ha habido infinidad de observaciones de varia- do calibre a propósito de las geometrías emic o etic cuya lectura no tengo más remedio que dar aquí por ya consumada (cf. Balfour 1893: 66, 75, 117, 120, 124; Wingert 1962: 21, 38, 48, 69-70; Jopling 1971: 93; Otten 1971; Shiner 1971; Forge 1973; Flores Fratto 1978; 1985; Anderson 1989 [1979]; Mead 1979; Silver (1979); Guillon 1984; Hatcher 1985; Layton 1991; Gell 1988; Coote y Shelton 1992: 26, 141, 145; Dissanayake 1995; Van Damme 1996; 2003; Layton 2003; Bowden 2004; Coleman 2005; Morphy y Perkins 2006; Morphy 2009; Leuthold 2011: 6, 16, 128, 129). Como se verá en este estudio, no hay nada de rudimentario ni en la geometría en com- paración con la aritmética ni en las geometrías de otras culturas en relación con las nuestras; aquéllas no son supervivencias exangües de saberes tempranos ni preanuncios de conocimientos que recién llegarían a su plenitud en otros lugares, en otros tiempos y en manos de Euclides, de los no-euclideanos o de los geómetras de carrera. Son, por el contrario, manifestaciones culminantes de competencias comunicativas y de destrezas que (a caballo de la globalización) han llegado a constituirse en patrimonios inalienable- mente universales en paridad o por encima de cualesquiera otros, pero que en ese mis- mo plano global todavía no han sido objeto ni de una descripción a la altura de los tiempos, ni de una teorización explicativa satisfactoria, ni de una comparación soste- nible, ni de una gestión capaz de revivir, perpetuar y hacer conocer las prácticas. Figura 1.2 – Izq.: Leonardo da Vinci – Remolinos de agua – Der.: Fractal en el plano complejo: Conjunto de Julia (detalle). No es en absoluto verdad que los diseños mayormente geométricos de las otras culturas ocupen los jalones iniciales en el camino de una historia universal del arte cuyas instan- cias culminantes (sus obras maestras) son las que nosotros hemos hecho o las que esta- mos destinados a hacer en un campo en el que lo geométrico no puede sino estar al ser- vicio de (o subordinado a) la figuración. Si ese camino lineal y acumulativo existe (si hay o no progreso en la geometría – una discusión en la que no quisiera complicarme y que depende de cómo se articule el grano fino de la idea) creo que cabe pensar que en lo que a la práctica geométrica respecta los occidentales llevamos un sensible atraso en su recorrido y que en materia reflexiva estamos bochornosamente fuera de forma. Nuestro 3 punto de vista impensadamente etnocéntrico dista de haber sido –como antes se decía– un vantage point necesario o un regard éloignée suficiente para comprender el trabajo de los otros o el de nosotros mismos en ese rubro. No estamos (y dudosamente hayamos estado alguna vez) a la vanguardia de los otros en materia de geometría. Esta debería ser entonces la primera y más imperiosa constatación que se nos impone. Figura 1.3 – Izq.: Máscara Fang – Museo del Louvre MH 65-104.1.jpg – Dominio público. Centro: Pablo Picasso – Cabeza de mujer durmiendo (1907) – Metropolitan Museum, N.Y. – Idem. Der.: Silla “africana” Bauhaus por Marcel Breuer y Gunta Stölzl – Según Ahmed (2014: fig.. 22). En la perspectiva de unos cuantos círculos de especialistas, la teoría geométrica occi- dental no ha alcanzado tampoco el mismo prestigio que la alta matemática, por más que haya sido en aquélla donde se manifestó por primera vez la axiomatización, el método teoremático y el desarrollo de la lógica formal (lo que no es poco) y por más que haya sido en las aritméticas (y no en las geometrías) donde el proyecto de axiomatización de las matemáticas estuvo a punto de desbarrancarse. Baruch Spinoza sabía que la geome- tría proporcionaba un modelo del razonar cercano a lo perfecto, pero (aparte de las be- llas y pocas incursiones geométicas de André Weil) los talibanes del grupo Bourbaki la excluyen junto con cualquier atisbo de grafismo del panteón de la matemática más exquisita, mientras que los cantabrigianos alineados en torno de Principia Mathematica, aferrados a números y cálculos, simplemense te han dado el luejo de ignorarla (Viljanen 2011; Osserman 1981; Whitehead y Russell 1910: 27; 1927a; 1927b). Branko Grün- baum y Geoffrey Colin Shephard, autores de uno de los libros más respetados sobre teselaciones y patrones, se vieron compelidos a repudiar la moda contemporánea que es- tablece que la geometría debe ser abstracta y conceptual (es decir, puramente argumen- tativa) si ha de ser considerada matemática avanzada y que debe por ello renunciar a to- do despliegue de dibujos o diagramas. Promover la geometría sin dibujos (como abogan autores que se proclaman "sofisticados") –dicen Grünbaum y Shephard– es como ensal- zar las virtudes de la música sin sonido, alegando que leerla en silencio directamente de las partituras es un signo de madurez analítica (1987: vii-viii). 4 Benoît Mandelbrot, el padre de la geometría fractal, lo dijo con todas la letras: hasta el día en que que llegó la temporada de los fractales las matemáticas eran iconoclastas: aborrecían las imágenes y hasta la geometría más ligada a formas, coordenadas y posi- ciones buscaba razonar sin apoyarse en ellas (cf.
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