The Amazon

[lapsedmodernist]

Santa Monica is a Quichua community in the lower Napo region. There are about 200 people and about 60 families in total.

Photos behind the cut

Comments

Nerdy questions

[twotoedsloth.livejournal.com]

So... I thought that Quichua was the northern pronounciation/spelling of Quechua (i.e. Runa or Runashimi, no?). So... are they highlanders who emigrated, or is this a whole different kettle of people, or what?

Re: Nerdy questions

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

In Ecuador at least both highland and lowland peoples are Quichua (albeit with different dialects and pronunciations). Runashimi, I believe, refers to people of the forest, i.e. lowlands Quichua. I think in Bolivia the diasporic groups are called Quechua, and there is the larger language group of Kechwa.

Re: Nerdy questions

[twotoedsloth.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... in every goddam ethnography of the Andes I've read, Runashimi refers specifically to Quechua, the language of the ethnic group of the Inca and their near neighbors. In other words, I understood it to refer specifically to highland groups that had been involved in all that fancy statecraft back in the day. Weird. Should I ask my local Andeanist, or do we not care?

P.S.

[twotoedsloth.livejournal.com]

so, who are those people?

[saintpeg.livejournal.com]

These are amazing.

Re: Nerdy questions

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Quichua may just be a dialectical thing in Ecuador. I think Quichua and Quechua are used interchangelably...and there is a movement for a unified language that is, from what I understand, phonetically based, so then it would be Kichwa...

the people are...the man is the shaman of the community, and the kids are mostly his grandchildren.

Um, did I mention I took ayahuasco? With an alcoholic shaman drunk out of his mind on sugar cane alcohol?

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

thank you.

Did you take any pics in India you can post?

Re: Nerdy questions

[twotoedsloth.livejournal.com]

Oh my god! Ayahuasco? How the hell was it? Tell all!

I just can't do interesting drugs anymore. When I did shrooms in Mexico last year, I just got sick as a dog. Then this year... an allergy to pulque of all things. PULQUE. Does that not suck?

Alas, I missed out on smoking opium with the schizophrenic zen calligraphy master. What's the point of being an anthropologist, I ask?

[saintpeg.livejournal.com]

I only shot with my Pentax, Zubin had the digital camera. He just ordered an external hard drive so that he can download them, then we'll be able to post.

Re: Nerdy questions

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

As I just said in the AIM to apropos

LafemmNica: the shaman was totally drunk and not processing that we were, like, not in a mode to converse
LafemmNica: and just kept talking
LafemmNica: there was complete chaos in my brain
pasapropos: in spanish or quechua?
LafemmNica: spanish
LafemmNica: unlike anything I have had with any other hallucinogenic
LafemmNica: different type of chaos
pasapropos: did you throw up?
LafemmNica: yes...I made myself
LafemmNica: A. kept throwing up compulsively
LafemmNica: It was hard, though, b/c by the time I decided I should throw up I literally could barely walk
pasapropos: yikes.
LafemmNica: like, my legs weren't obeying me
LafemmNica: and it was night
LafemmNica: so I needed a flashlight
pasapropos: scary shit
LafemmNica: but the light gave me completely insane hallucinations
LafemmNica: we were like, we are in the middle of nowhere, jungle, no electricity with a totally drunk shaman, what the hell did we get ourselves into?
pasapropos: yeah so much for macho gonzo anthropology
LafemmNica: haha, well, I am at least glad I didn't do it alone, I would have totally freaked out
LafemmNica: I mean, there was a MESS in my brain
LafemmNica: and I could not control it at all
LafemmNica: it wasn't like acid or mushrooms
LafemmNica: where I would have Epiphanies or interesting patterns of thoughts,
pasapropos: just pure chaos
LafemmNica: it was like uncontrollable free-association where every minute or so I would find myself contemplating intenseley something completely surreal and random and then have a meta-consciousness of "how the fuck did I start thinking about this?"
LafemmNica: like I would realize that I was concentrating very hard on thinking about the physics and buyoancy of mattresses floating in a river
pasapropos: that's awesome!!!
LafemmNica: or how thick a broom must be so that it cannot be broken
LafemmNica: but, like, in a boring way
pasapropos: haha
LafemmNica: "11 reeds it can be broken...12 it cannot...what is a half-reed?"

[mjmj.livejournal.com]

kids shouldn't be that sad.

Re: Nerdy questions

[mjmj.livejournal.com]

those accursed ethnographies! love of money is the root of all evil? i think not. there is a special circle of hell reserved for those ethographies. or should be.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

they are not sad...if you want cloying babies look to Anne Geddes or her ilk...

Re: Nerdy questions

[twotoedsloth.livejournal.com]

YES! Death to the ethnographies! Burn them! BURN THEM!

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

They have " saudade" !

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

hm.

not to say that they don't, but how do you get "saudade" from those pictures?

[boobirdsfly.livejournal.com]

Mostly from the look in their eyes , which I have seen in pretty much most *non western* children when I have travelled.