Pilgrimages and quipus: knots and traces on the skin of the earth

Abstract

In this work, through a critique of the Anthropocene –understood as the geological era marked by man's power over the planet– we propose to think of a minimum unit, the knot, as a possibility/becoming and alternative of new fabrics, relationships and kinships between humans and non-humans. Using an ethnographic methodology that seeks to decenter the anthropos –we call it deanthropic ethnography– we describe two cases of cultural and artistic practices –the pilgrimages in an Amerindian town, the chichimeca otomís of the Queretaro semi-desert and the quipus of Cecilia Vicuña– as efforts that maintain and restore the tissues that connect individuals, transcending the biased prerogative of being in the empire of a single species. It is about thinking about deanthropic knots that manage networks of life, alternate meaning networks and cosmic systems to find a differentiated way of dealing with the crisis of the planet.

Keywords

• antropoceno
• nudos desantrópicos
• peregrinaciones
• quipus