From the island’s point of view. Warfare and transformation in an Andean vertical archipelago

From the island’s point of view. Warfare and transformation in an Andean vertical archipelago. The article combines John V. Murra’s theory of the « vertical archipelago » – a dynamic model of the changing historical relations between Andean societies, the complementary ecologies they inhabit, and em...

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Main Author: Tristan Platt
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Société des américanistes 2009-12-01
Series:Journal de la Société des Américanistes
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/12817
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author Tristan Platt
author_facet Tristan Platt
author_sort Tristan Platt
collection DOAJ
description From the island’s point of view. Warfare and transformation in an Andean vertical archipelago. The article combines John V. Murra’s theory of the « vertical archipelago » – a dynamic model of the changing historical relations between Andean societies, the complementary ecologies they inhabit, and emergent « State »-formations – with transformationalist theories developed among Amazonian peoples. Drawing on field-work with a longlived « archipelago » in the valleys of the Macha ayllu (Northern Potosí, Bolivia), the author shows the conflictive experience of valley « islands », which must invert their moiety affiliations to survive pressures from the larger groups in which they are implanted. The confusion of levels of segmentation and the « island » formation produces different valley alliances from those sought on the puna, while presupposing a shared horizon of ideas concerning violence. Andean warfare is characterized by the same « ontological instability » at the blurred frontier between humans and animals that is found among other Amerindian groups, and elsewhere in the world. Different kinds of shapeshifting during fiestas and warfare, and the reformulation of animal-human frontiers, are seen to be related to different social and historical contexts.
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1957-7842
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spelling doaj-art-2b4075b1e001470dbe3d85b915ab2f492025-02-05T15:54:25ZengSociété des américanistesJournal de la Société des Américanistes0037-91741957-78422009-12-01952337010.4000/jsa.12817From the island’s point of view. Warfare and transformation in an Andean vertical archipelagoTristan PlattFrom the island’s point of view. Warfare and transformation in an Andean vertical archipelago. The article combines John V. Murra’s theory of the « vertical archipelago » – a dynamic model of the changing historical relations between Andean societies, the complementary ecologies they inhabit, and emergent « State »-formations – with transformationalist theories developed among Amazonian peoples. Drawing on field-work with a longlived « archipelago » in the valleys of the Macha ayllu (Northern Potosí, Bolivia), the author shows the conflictive experience of valley « islands », which must invert their moiety affiliations to survive pressures from the larger groups in which they are implanted. The confusion of levels of segmentation and the « island » formation produces different valley alliances from those sought on the puna, while presupposing a shared horizon of ideas concerning violence. Andean warfare is characterized by the same « ontological instability » at the blurred frontier between humans and animals that is found among other Amerindian groups, and elsewhere in the world. Different kinds of shapeshifting during fiestas and warfare, and the reformulation of animal-human frontiers, are seen to be related to different social and historical contexts.https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/12817warfarevertical archipelagoshapeshiftingsocio-ontological frontiers
spellingShingle Tristan Platt
From the island’s point of view. Warfare and transformation in an Andean vertical archipelago
Journal de la Société des Américanistes
warfare
vertical archipelago
shapeshifting
socio-ontological frontiers
title From the island’s point of view. Warfare and transformation in an Andean vertical archipelago
title_full From the island’s point of view. Warfare and transformation in an Andean vertical archipelago
title_fullStr From the island’s point of view. Warfare and transformation in an Andean vertical archipelago
title_full_unstemmed From the island’s point of view. Warfare and transformation in an Andean vertical archipelago
title_short From the island’s point of view. Warfare and transformation in an Andean vertical archipelago
title_sort from the island s point of view warfare and transformation in an andean vertical archipelago
topic warfare
vertical archipelago
shapeshifting
socio-ontological frontiers
url https://journals.openedition.org/jsa/12817
work_keys_str_mv AT tristanplatt fromtheislandspointofviewwarfareandtransformationinanandeanverticalarchipelago