Este sitio presenta el retrato del antiguo Pueblo Escultor que emerge de los estudios de David Dellenback en el valle de San Agustín y el Macizo Colombiano. Durante los primeros siete...
The Jaguar Shamans of San Agustín
Hector Llanos
A journey through the bibliography of the Pueblo Escultor finds an apex
in this book written by Hector Llanos, practitioner and university professor of
anthropology and archaeology in Ibague, Cali and Bogotá, who dedicated a
good portion of his life to deciphering the labyrinthine puzzle of the history of
human habitation in the Macizo Colombiano. The Pueblo Escultor constitutes
only a portion of that story, but it is a phase of our historical narrative which
Llanos has studied profoundly.
Llanos stands out within his field of studies, in my opinion, for the humanity he shows in the face of his scientific discipline. His body of work represents a beating heart tucked into a shelf of books that is extremely dry and abstract, a collection that above all presents us with a dialogue among specialists, dissociated from the interests of the local inhabitants, and from those of people in general.
Professor Llanos is also the author of numerous pieces in that concert
for the deaf: he authored many of the books in the ‘Arqueologías Nacionales’
series published by the Banco de la República during the 1970’s-’80’s-’90’s,
in which he lists infinite data from his excavations in quantities of sites
throughout the Macizo. But he is also the author of much more important and
immediate writings, in which he ‘excavates’ in a far deeper sense, digging
beneath the data, searching for the essential history, that of the people, their
beliefs, their ways of thinking and acting.
It’s not surprising, then, to find that Hector Llanos from early on in his life formed and developed lasting links with the valley of San Agustín and Isnos and with its inhabitants, and invested himself in their lives. Many people here appreciate his contributions and consider themselves his friends.
It’s not surprising, then, to find that Hector Llanos from early on in his life formed and developed lasting links with the valley of San Agustín and Isnos and with its inhabitants, and invested himself in their lives. Many people here appreciate his contributions and consider themselves his friends.
His most relevant book, published in 1995, is titled ‘Los Chamanes Jaguares of San Agustín’ [The Jaguar Shamans of San Agustín], and communicates new analytical currents in proposing that the Pueblo Escultor developed a shamanic form of organization in their social lives as well as in their spiritual world. This vision emphasizes the importance of territory in the creation of cosmology, and of searching for clues and weaving interrelationships via the study of the ethnology of other neighboring populations.
The ‘approximation to the mythopoetic thinking’ of the ancient sculptors
envisioned by the author in this book constitutes one of the finest
investigations into the prehistoric cosmos of the Upper Magdalena yet
published, and continues to be a preeminent guide for a new generation of
involved readers and students.
Llanos, as do we all, has his paradoxical side. In spite of having
spearheaded the failed attempt in 2013 to carry away 20 important Pueblo
Escultor sculptures from their authentic local sites and take them to a
museum in Bogotá, in 2014 he would write the following:
There is a great difference between a trip to an archaeological
museum and seeing a reconstructed architectonic ruins complex
from times past. In museums we see a representation or a staging of
that past, with recourse to related objects and audiovisual means,
while a visit to an archaeological site involves a direct experience of
nature and of culture, bringing one into contact with the customs of
the inhabitants and the local manifestations of the natural world:
radiant sunshine, winds, persistent rainfall, dense fogs, forests,
mountains, lakes, waterfalls and deeply-cut rivers whose impetuous
currents…flow sinuously between the andean ranges.”
Even the wisest and most experienced archaeologist can still continue
to learn, in turn to continue teaching the rest of us.
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Conozca las imágenes de las centenares de esculturas en piedra elaboradas
por el antiguo Pueblo Escultor del Macizo Colombiano, organizadas
geográficamente y presentadas individualmente, con lujo de detalles...
Un vistazo a las publicaciones sobre el Pueblo Escultor—antiguos escultores
en piedra del Macizo Colombiano— elaboradas por los investigadores David
Dellenback y Martha Gil...
En diciembre de 1913 el etnólogo alemán Konrad Preuss, quien al momento era el Director del Museo Etnológico de
Berlín, llegó a San Agustín con los dos propósitos ...
Descubra el mundo del Pueblo Escultor a través de un paseo por los
diversos estudios llevados a cabo durante los últimos dos siglos.
Periódicamente se presenta otro de los libros esenciales que indagan en el
cosmos de los antiguos escultores...
Encuentre noticias del Pueblo Escultor, diferentes causas de repatriación y documentación que consideramos importante compartir con nuestros lectores y visitantes.