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Título del libro: Marking The Land: Hunter-Gatherer Creation Of Meaning In Their Environment
Título del capítulo: Physical and linguistic marking of the seri landscape: Are they connected?

Autores UNAM:
CAROLYN KRISTEN O'MEARA;
Autores externos:

Idioma:

Año de publicación:
2016
Palabras clave:

Place names; Place-worlds; Seri culture; Seri language; Sonoran desert


Resumen:

One way humans mark or delimit the landscape they inhabit is through the naming of places. While there are numerous studies of the place names of the cultures of the world, it is not clear what kinds of places get named cross-culturally (see e.g., Burenhult and Levinson 2008). Humans also leave physical markers in their landscape, not just in the form of evidence of a camp site, for instance, but also markers with informational content. This work looks at place names in Seri (using data from Marlett and Moser 2000 and the author), a hunter-gatherer group living in northwestern Mexico, to see if there is an overlap between the types of geographic entities that receive toponyms in Seri and the places that are the result of various forms of physical modification, intentional or unintentional. In particular, I look at intentional landscape marking in the Seri context, including the common practice of burying their child's placenta in the desert near to its birthplace, sometimes accompanied by the planting of a cactus or the placement of stones. The analysis shows that areas that are intentionally marked do not appear to correspond with named places. © 2016 W. Lovis and R. Whallon. All rights reserved.


Entidades citadas de la UNAM: