The freakishly large pages of the most recent NYRB have within them an essay discussing the publication of a study of what seems to be a spiritual/psychogeographical map painted in the 16th century by a Nahuatl-speaking resident of New Spain. This is just my kind of thing, given my truly insatiable appetite for real Understanding of the transformation and extermination of first peoples/first knowing cultures during the periods of their conquest by the long spears and guns of Imperial, technocratic societies. Something I found particularly interesting about the painting discussed was that it apparently is itself a document describing the “civilization” of certain pre-Columbian populations by another pre-Columbian society, the Toltecs. Seeking aid for their besieged city, Toltec shamans embark on a spiritual (and physical) journey, during which their spirit guides help them recruit tribes of hunter/gatherers, which are then folded into Toltec culture via a series of rituals performed during the return journey.
Ably incorporated into the essay is a broader discussion of “Indian-ness” and contemporary indigenous/technocratic relationships. An accompanying photograph stunned me, a picture taken last spring that somehow escaped my knowledge-trawling until now:
Taken from a helicopter above the Amazon, these are members of an “uncontacted” people who likely know of the existence of a culture beyond their borders but assiduously avoid it. Brazil’s Supreme Court last week upheld the establishment of an ecological/indigenous reserve , so perhaps these fellows won’t be forced to put on t-shirts and get work cutting down their homeland just yet.
Humans! WTF.
