Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T05:56:48.423Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Can nature align? The enigma of Moxos' Lagoons—astronomy and landscape in south-western Amazonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2011

Juan Antonio Belmonte
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain email: jba@iac.es
Josep Barba F.
Affiliation:
Centre d'Estudis Amazònics, Barcelona, Spain
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In this essay we present a tentative archaeoastronomical analysis of the Moxos' Lagoons, a controversial and huge geographical network in the landscape of the Bolivian Amazon. In the late 1990s, a preliminary analysis of the orientation of a comprehensive and statistically significant number of lagoons showed that only human action could explain the peculiarities of their geometry, and especially their orientation according to a main axis aligned to an azimuth of 50° and its complementary angle. Since then, there has been an open debate on how these orientations could have been determined in practice. The absence of distinctive geographical features on the horizon strongly suggests that this peculiar pattern must have an astronomical justification. This short report presents a first approximation to the problem, suggesting that the lagoons could have been deliberately orientated in accordance with certain stellar positions which may have marked selected moments in the local climatic or economic cycle, a fact that could be corroborated by ethnohistoric references. The implications for new ethnographical research in the region are self-evident.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

Barba, J. 2003, Terraplenes, lomas, canales y campos elevados. In Moxos: una Limnocultura. Cultura y Medio Natural en la Amazonia Boliviana, P. 1, Centre d'Estudis Amazònics, Barcelona, pp. 131 (http://www.CEAM-ong.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/parte-12.pdf).Google Scholar
Barba, J. 2009, Mojos y jesuitas, apuntes sobre el periodo reduccional. In Madueño, A. (ed.), Paisajes y Voces de Mojos, Plural, La Paz, pp. 193291.Google Scholar
Barba, J., Comín, F., Viñas, O. & Herrera, J. I. 1998, Indicators of old and recent land use cover changes in the territory of Moxos (Bolivian Amazonia). Paper delivered at the ‘GCTE–LUCC Open Science Conference’, Barcelona, March 14–18, 1998, unpublished.Google Scholar
Barba, J. & Miró, M. 2003, El aparato hídrico de Moxos. Las lagunas. In Moxos: una Limnocultura. Cultura y Medio Natural en la Amazonia Boliviana, P. 4, Centre d'Estudis Amazònics, Barcelona, pp. 139 (http://www.CEAM-ong.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/parte-11.pdf).Google Scholar
Barba, J. & Viñas, O. 2000, Mojos, el reino del agua. Stratos 57, 5255.Google Scholar
Bauer, B. S. & Dearborn, D. S. P. 1998, Astronomía e Imperio en los Andes, Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos ‘Bartolomé de Las Casas’, Cuzco.Google Scholar
Belmonte, J. A. 2009, The Egyptian calendar: keeping Ma'at on Earth. In Belmonte, J. A. & Shaltout, M. (eds), In Search of Cosmic Order: Selected Essays on Egyptian Archaeoastronomy, SCA Press, Cairo, pp. 75132.Google Scholar
Denevan, W. M. 1966, The Aboriginal Cultural Geography of the Lanos de Moxos in Bolivia, University of California Press, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Dougherty, B. & Calanda, H. 1984, Prehispanic human settlement in the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivia. Quaternary of South America and the Antarctic Peninsula 2, 163199.Google Scholar
Eder, F.J. 1985, Breve Descripción de las Misiones de Moxos, transl. and edited by Barnadas, Josep M., Historia Boliviana, Cochabamba.Google Scholar
Iskaenderian, A. E. A. 2009, Gentiles de Moxitania. Cuando las aguas eran amigas. In Madueño, A. (ed.), Paisajes y Voces de Mojos, Plural, La Paz, pp. 101192.Google Scholar
Pereira Quiroga, G. 2004, Persistencia y renovación: la Vía Láctea entre los guaraníes del Chaco boliviano. In Boccas, J. B. M., Broda, J. & Pereira, G. (eds), Etno y Arqueo-Astronomía en las Américas. Memorias del Simposio ARQ-13: Etno y Arqueoastronomía en las Américas, 51° Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Santiago de Chile, pp. 299314.Google Scholar
Plafker, G. 1964, Oriented lakes and lineaments of north-eastern Bolivia. Geological Society of America Bulletin 75, 503522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Staal, J. D. W. 1988, The New Patterns in the Sky: Myths and Legends of the Stars, Braun-Brumfield, Ann Harbor.Google Scholar