MAROON SUBVERSIVE AESTHETIC: BASTING OF METAPHORICAL AFFECTIVE MEMORY
National School of Anthropology and History, Mexico
Abstract
La capacidad metafórica como traductora de semiosferas, lenguajes alternativos, fronteras simbólicas, posibilita la emergencia de conocimientos y sabidurías, afectividades, representaciones, corporeidades, desde la plasticidad creativa del proceso de traducción intersemiótica, intercultural e intersubjetiva.
Desde las propuestas de la Escuela de Tartu y de Iuri Lotman en especial, la dimensión simbólica en el sistema cultural se articula una ruta de categorías que son entretejidas con las teorías de la Interculturalidad Crítica, y la Decolonialidad del Ser, desde las epistemologías del Sur, donde se ubica la propuesta de las sabidurías del “corazonar” un diálogo que incorpora a la emoción como hilo invisible-visible de la espiral de semióticas en “juego”.
Así las dimensiones de la memoria y el olvido, que nuestros cuerpos argumentan en el paso etario de la vida, en diálogo con el género, raza, etnicidad, clase, configuran una matriz compleja de tensiones, contrapuntos y coalescencias en este tipo de semiosis compleja.
La importancia del concepto de memoria como mecanismo inteligente desde la propuesta lotmaniana de traducción intercultural, encuentra en el símbolo como elemento cultural dinámico esa posibilidad de innovación por su dimensión creativa. Es en este sentido que consideramos que la configuración metafórica simbólica del continuum gracias a su capacidad dialógica, nómada y políglota es una política de representación que teje este proceso de semiosis compleja, que las epistemologías y saberes cotidianos nos ofrecen.
Araña del cosmos manigua cartografías de nostalgias Caderona zigzaguea memorias en el territorio del Encaje guarida de siglos cimarones a Raíz
Marisol Cárdenas O.
Introduction
The metaphorical capacity as translator of alternative languages, symbolic boundaries, enabling the emergence of knowledge and wisdom, affectivity, representations, corporeality, from the creative process intersemiotic plasticity, intercultural and inter-translation.
Since the proposed School of Tartu and Yuri Lotman in particular the symbolic dimension in the cultural system route categories which are interwoven with theories of Intercultural Criticism, and Decoloniality. So the dimensions of memory and forgetting, our bodies argue that in the age pace of life in dialogue with gender, race, ethnicity, class, form a complex array of tensions, counterpoints and coalescence in such complex semiosis .
The importance of the concept of memory as intelligent mechanism from Lotman's proposal intercultural translation in the symbol as a dynamic cultural element that possibility for creative innovation dimension. It is in this sense that we consider the symbolic metaphorical continuum configuration with its dialogic, nomad, multilingual capability is a politics of representation that weaves this complex process of semiosis, that epistemologies and everyday knowledge. Both provide access to other types of language: poetic life that transcends artistic practices.
Many black cloth cut
The skin is a map of life where memories are checked, re-encounters, ruts, footprints. It is a space where it is hidden and makes visible, dressed-undressed, clean, discarded, moisturizes dry cure. We adopted this policy body metaphor weaving perspectives of gender, class, race and ethnicity to baste an exercise in ritual aesthetics, as I propose to call the forms of symbolic shift key-colonial, feminist criticism and intercultural border in the gap, fold, and lace the possibility of an insurgent metaphorical diaspora. Thus, from every day-sacred, public, private practices, glocal, rurbanas and others you walk towards the emergence of creative dialogues critical senses hegemonic through the wisdom of the diverse community subjects with their own knowledge, rituals, styles, struggles, poetic.
Historically our peoples or diasporic have withstood the ravages of modes of production and colonialism, global capitalist reproduction, through its own logic and rhetoric, wisdoms “other” memories of being, doing, feeling. Thus this project to create maps is assumed as a performative ethnographic representation policy that aims to meet and exchange forms of bodily knowledge, ways of life and remember childhood between African creative women from different places in a comparative way. This explicit and visible rules, functions and values, memories and practices of life, daily work, from the body rather limited, symbolic territory has several dermis where it emerges desire, hope, spirituality, which brings creative energy and symbolic economy the object/subject material: “the doll”. This aesthetic ritual gesture walks to the complex sense of the signs, languages, visible and invisible, of various capacities, transmitted imaginary of Maroon women and Afro-Ecuadorian, Caribbean, African descent, among others, co-participating in the creation of a Community body map from various options of way, collective and personal movement, and always, at your own pace.
The history of the Diaspora between America and Africa, you have major about how they have developed on both continents maternity socio-affective dimension. On one hand, the conditions of poverty that have affected the African continent where women were the most disadvantaged in working conditions which has affected its economic and daily life, and secondly, the tearing of families from the slave era made these mothers could not raise their sons/daughters who were transferred to the new continent where they were sold, enslaved and later in servitude processes have continued to the present, with new faces. Recall that under that institution could not even raise their own children, were separated or adopted by other black women who helped raising the slave girls. Black women in America had to develop a series of tasks such as being maternazgo: lullabies mothers, surrogate mothers, nursing mothers, mother’s milk from a wide range of these practices which did not preclude exercise of violence, of all kinds.
Are multiple and complex socio-political conditions of production of these macro and micro-stories, over here I will refer mainly to the coloniality of being so far can be seen in some places of our continent where African descent. Women from different age their dimensions, develop unwanted maternity. In the Valle del Chota, we still see and adolescents taking very early motherhood and grandmothers exercise the role of mothers. Adult and reach an average of four or five children, assuming single parenting processes in economic poverty so many are dedicated to selling fruits and vegetables in markets, trucks, streets, difficult working conditions without warranties or institutional support.
This skin has long history and black “dolls” know. One way of representing the multifunctional work is “burden” they carry in their heads while behind “mark” carry, his little son which is tied with a shawl, practice corporal who was also represented in Stitches hands of women of this project and also the exercise of indigenous women. These are some of the circumstances still present policies of sexual and reproductive health still fall short of decolonize.
Little black doll, by Susana Pérez Bolaños (Colectivo Piel Canela, 2014).
In this vein, one of the symbolic dimensions from the circulation of this emotional logic that has emerged in this field work is the memory of lullabies, perhaps because the sound has been one of the voices of people of African descent alter-communication therefore requires no other accompaniment again, although sometimes it can be a rhythmic drum or a piece of orange. Recall also the beginning of the Diaspora, his vocal cords were the only thing that could not be stripped / as. In another province of Ecuador, Esmeraldas, for example, the art of lullabies, songs that way for different reasons and cycles of life, and in times like Christmas, they were singing in the streets and homes preserves all the “good night”.
In this context, we propose the hypothesis that working with cultural symbolic object from the metaphorical language and epistemology of intercultural translation interestética, intersemiotic and inter provides access to emotional argument otherwise since the metaphor speaks from the language of inconsciente_consciente, continuum that opens a gateway to other speak weaving the aesthetic link with the ritual from alternative production agencies, equitable, comprehensive, relational, referential sense.
Therefore the aim of this research is to propose a model of ethnographic study from what I have called ethnographic sculpture, a way of working life stories from everyday metaphorical space-time aesthetic and generate thread other type of stories life. Thus, we analyze the specific objectives main categories constituting an analytical path to apply to this type of research, in Ecuador, Latin America and worldwide, as well as illustrate and explain a couple of exercises to apply this type of object semiotic discourse as transdisciplinary practice, which activates the principles of ancient knowledge and the wisdom UBUNTU Community principle of good living from the existence in relationality, comprehensiveness, complementarity, correspondence, common principles of our ancestral cultures. From this wisdom of African peoples and Afro each individual there are only from the bond with others, present or absent, implicit or explicit, from different time-spaces, and always with permission from the ancestors.
It is therefore a way of exercising the right to one of the most important, the territory of creation, the imaginary, memory that allows the subject to create, think, act, forget, transform, discern, decide collective territories. So the main objective of this proposal is to show how discourses of emotion are survival strategies that have enabled our native or diasporic cultures resist, representing and represented, and above all, re-exist despite the current conditions complex as aforementioned.
Auto-ethnography Sculptures
Sculpting in cloth involves referring to time-space playful sensations, memories, emotions. Requires attention to the needle and thread, look to detail, gesture, rhythm generation, pause, respite. It is “seeing with new eyes”, a moving meditation, it involves each producer be in the present, attentive to the here and now of design, instruments, creating stitch precise production imaginal sketch of who you inspired, the other congener which is the mother, sister, grandmother, herself. It is also a way of exploring gender colored threads translating plastically the thickness and texture of his memoirs. This process of linking a body so with their ancestors, both as daughters, wives, saleswoman and other women in their daily work, and informal marketing.
Also so from the joint work between aesthetics and ethnography as creation, encased notion of art is discipline, to assume from the creative exercise that is transdisciplinary it empowers the wisdom of our people either from the apparent autonomy of institutional representation, or from practices inherited as folk art where these corporeality and corporalities in subversive stitch are located. That is why a practice of performance ethnography, which represents the symbolic body from its comprehensiveness, interrelatedness, complementarity, in partnership to be inter-being and inter-acting as subject and as a community. We therefore believe that taking into account the agreed proposals Post-Colonial of knowledge that is to be, do and feel (Walsh 2007) it is possible to decentralize the border classic ethnography nomadic place, dialogic and critical moment called Anthropology of the Senses by a horizontal approach that focuses on the construction of narrative data with other languages and alte-native registers as the ritual object, visualities waste, co-tales, or any of the semiotic in crossing, Complexity and transdisciplinary.
For these reasons, this auto-ethnographic soft sculpture possible, since the relationship between some production of material culture and senses that generates trace a semantic field of production of integrated complex sense and link with the various levels of the cosmos, generating a map relational path that open with this pre-text. Thus, the narration of own child or other women who speak through it of “ventricular” mode: grandmothers, aunts, mothers, while they are developing their “doll” is a narrative process of community co-creativity caused by a metonymic aesthetic object. The emergence of a sign gives the possibility to generate multiple senses and weaving analogies with other women who contribute to the texture different colors, particular nuances mingled with hands adult woman today ideas with their experience notes, remembers, orders. The body and is explored in its differentiated corporeality, phenotype, the variance of clothing and other identity codes relate different sewn corporality. Thus their worldview is expressed, ways of being, feeling, living, working, living community, and placed in this “other” border, the Rio Mira, river bathing the area of about seventeen villages that make up the Chota valley in the province of Imbabura and extending to Tulcan, bordering Colombia.
This type of symbolic interaction produces a knowledge dialogue between Maroon women today seeking equidistant despite the difference in declarative sites which are involved in AFROESTETICA. It is therefore a place of mutual exchange of knowledge, from partnerships that are generated from the insurgency of tenderness, women telling stories of her childhood, singing, reciting, by silence, laughter, gestures. Thus, from the attention to listening vice versa, counterpoint, interface, you arrive at conditions of affection, of co-participation in, complicity, learning, alternative technologies in the production of a sculpture in clay, in cloth, or any other narrative as in the rag “other” aesthetic materiality. Afro-descendant cultures have their own expressions of the sensible. The aesthesis sensitivity is caused astonishment, the kalos: the invention. The popular and everyday creativity of our ancestral and native peoples who have always known remember is a human right exercised ancestrally.
Grandmother Black doll, Susana Pérez (Colectivo Piel Canela, 2014).
Popular, feminist, maroon: The metaphorical aesthetic
More than a comparison figure from the relationship of similarity between the meanings, metaphor is a way of thinking and feeling a “corazonar” present in many of the everyday languages that insurgency dominant epistemologies and “can contribute to the construction not only of a different academic and epistemic proposal, but above all other senses of existence” (Guerrero 2012: 102). Popular culture makes use of poetic metaphors in proverbs, jokes, puns, and other discursive practices, which of course also evident discrimination, inequality, racism, too. However, its paradoxical key depends on the political place from which this creative right is exercised. The metaphor can be another way to subvert the myopia of the “patriarchal glasses” treated by feminist studies from various positions and schools. She can provoke and persuade the task of equity from working with the subtle senses as political gesture, the associative creativity, emotion transforms and provides individual and collective life energy and generates social conditions of partnership and community co-production acts of ethical, aesthetic and erotic transformation, in turn enabling the development of public policies alternative social representation as reproductive health, emotional health, and spiritual (Cárdenas 2010).
The metaphorical sense then involves bodily experience models and pre-conceptual structures of feeling, where the sociocultural codes involved. Metaphors have historicity and do not work the same for all cultures. Some manage to overcome these limits and become inter- and transcultural. The metaphor is a type of mental representation, contains an imaginary scheme, which involves different levels of expertise around which the meaning is organized and thus creates realities “a metaphor can be a guide for future action [....] this in turn gives more power to the power of metaphor giving coherence to the experience. Understand, grasp how different is both known and invent” (Lakoff & Johnson 1983: 56).
Thus, the metaphorical capacity enables the emergence of knowledge and wisdom, affectivity, representations, corporeality. Hence, we place contemporary metaphor from this rhetoric plasticity. The metaphor is also homeless. To Rosi Braidotti, “nomadic subject is a polyglot because the language is not only, or even the means of communication; It is a place of symbolic exchange that binds us all/as in a tenuous web of meanings according to the context of use and action” (2000: 44).
Creativity configured to turn a post-visual critical subject, a visual polyglot or who knows how also rely symbols, signs, icons abductive way and resist boxed set in a vision, hegemonic, patriarchal. The identity of/the nomad is an emotional-rational map of the places in which he/she has already been or may be to experiment; and you can always reconstruct a posteriori, as a series of steps in a journey that may have their own analytical routes, so they can be works of rhetorical palimpsest, paradox, ellipsis between some of the most evidenced in this work with the matérico object. Therefore the imagineras dolls are nomads who return to the territory of childhood for destejer-weaving-off its symbolic stitches. The metaphor is well translator, polyglot nomadic memories from the most complex and sensitive languages. For some, this practice is a beautiful way to feel the skin, your skin, remember their relatives, thereby leaving talk to the bodies of women who shaped his childhood in different and own local aesthetic in link with its history and heritage.
This nomadic poetic or metaphorical policy generated wandering among the wristbands creative strategies displacement of signs and meanings, which will be useful for their purposes and according to the soul and body of the time of this meeting to work state. Only then emerges that constant and insurgent ability to desire, dream, imagine, which maintains the flow nomadic negotiation processes between them in this mobile bridge a sameness (subject) and otherness (society) creating affective-cognitive links. Creativity is thus an event without borders, where we use all forms of knowledge and wisdom.
In this context, we propose to nomadic metaphor as the main operation of this process of aesthetic maroon we have been outlining, by drawing on her, shifting meanings, practices, imaginary expressed in the visual field as a border constantly moving and exchange, symbolism generated empowering voice in their own nuances, shades, directories, his “musical patterns” nodal lines, knots, networks, their own writing.
Another dialogic sense axes could say they are the implicit and explicit relationship, memory and forgetting, what is said and say that our bodies argue in the age pace of life and form a complex matrix of tensions, counterpoints and coalescence in this type of crossing semiosis between aesthetics and genre whose reflection opens the way to work in the future projection of this type of mapping methodological proposal.
An example of this proposal is applied to the collective “Piel Canela” group of three adult women afro-ecuadorian, about of fourth and fifth decade of life, which are circumstantially joined other women, young or old, same who took the idea of “embrace his memoirs”, and other words braiding black women, color that is steeped in history of diasporic cultures, and now turns into aesthetic power to subvert the canons of beauty imposed by hegemonic models, heteronormative male white.
Susana Perez, Jobita Lara and Delgado Jenny Espinoza are three neighboring del Juncal, one of the many villages that configures the Chota Valley in the province of Imbabura, located in the north of Ecuador. Women are mothers engaged in household work and also strive to improve their economic situation through creative activities manual production, choice they share with other women of Afro-Ecuadorian people. This was a space from the colony, where he worked in the mining and agricultural production. Latter, an activity still devoted his people now becoming less profitable. For these conditions of exploitation, marginalization and poverty, Chota has a long history of migration to the east and Ecuadorian coast and abroad. Currently, he is known for being one of the places where the men's national soccer players exported, generating another stereotype to it. Of course, now, children play with the ball.
Under these conditions, these women accepted the invitation to conduct the idea of developing black rag dolls, maintained by the sculptor Alice Trepp who offered some models made by Guatemalan and proposed to make their own version of afrochoteñas dolls express in their clothes the traditional way of taste women before, one that young and not always preserved to remember this ancient heritage. To this was added a gift of “Abayomi” project working with Afro-Brazilian women, the Mexican specialist and founding feminist folk art of this line of research at the university, Eli Bartra, shared with me in my education. The last bit is personal, my own experience of making wool dolls that Rogelia Montenegro, great aunt taught me in my childhood, and who dedicated the poem that introduces this text.
The first production was bought by the sculptor and then sites that may be interested in supporting this economy, work on which we all performing members was handled. Thus, this project lace weaves a double adjustment: in the words of women basting and the pursuit of moving these memories into other hands, other women (and men), age and ethnic diversity encountered in this Cultural metaphorical symbol pretext of identity, re-known to themselves and other women, healing stories, giving, play with feelings we left hidden in the sewing of children.
Black Dolls: a laboratory of metaphorical ellipsis child
The black leather wrist is the only isotope element of this metaphorical body, all other aspects vary according to the style of each creator, fabrics you have on hand, his creative desire and multiple factors. The conversation structure this way as subversive to questions about their experiences stitches tacked against the topic they embroider or sew from their own stories, comment sayings, proverbs, quotes to other subjects, including in-bending strategies discursive. That is why this is a process of emotional relationships that are built into complicity and confidence. This means penetrates in the production of memories and regain the rights of the people of shared experience that creates wisdom.
Susy came to Juncal year old so she is considered “one more, an African woman” and no matter what your complexion is white-mestizo, knowing that culture takes more than skin deep. She is a mother and wife. She has very careful with their “dolls” with detail, bending, placing intense detail of every artifice of costume “everything in its place”. The hairstyle is perhaps one of their specialties. Remember how emotion and has previously kept women in their “chimbas” money from the commercial slaughter, one of the hairstyles types of African descent, others are “comb”, “the hair comb,” among others related in the video “Embracing memory.” Most dolls offer gesture work load on the head, stove, dishes, pottery where the goods transported, tomato boxes, the bus.
Little black dolls by Susana Pérez (Colectivo Piel Canela, 2014).
Jobita is a wife and mother and still have small children, so always walks between stitches rising to address them in turn to her elderly mother living with her. Is your home which has sheltered work is this group in the evenings. The room is a place where they meet between cardboard, cloth to engage and disengage these discourses of childhood. Her dolls are less retailers but its simplicity in drawing makes a special tenderness charge although occasionally bearing expressiveness of discomfort, perhaps because of the proximity to the children's drawing, because with few stitches brings up a face, hands, afro hair. She prefers fabric scraps that remind fabrics worn by women in their daily work are at least dressed for the celebration, dancing or mass. Of course, this does not prevent carry jewelry and brightly colored necklaces, as we look at older women in the porches of their homes or those of their neighbors, daughters, or corner spend time watching the blue sky Valle.
Jenny is the youngest of the three members of the Piel Canela and is in charge of group economy. Have teenage daughters so sometimes they help you in this task. She represents twisted much looser, as young women now use it. Much he remembers his aunt, and pays tribute to their buses rag, dressing them like I used to see it in its infancy. Thus, through material culture representation of childhood is evoked and a dialogue between adult woman now the girl before about the experience of femininities that were significant for the construction of identity today is generated. The doll is so discursive pretext of sociocultural and personal representation. We must also say that every large doll has a tape which is generally placed on the dress, where the name of each producer is expressed as a way of distinction authoring and creative recognition and also helps to make your accounts.
Thus, from this place of dialogic continuum, are woven stories of life, embracing good memories and forgetting pains to transform into a numinous object and well produced what we might call a “metaphorical cure” cathartic action that emerge to explain the word before silenced taboo subject, dusted deep desire that as the currencies in braids had been kept in his memoirs. Is already the translation is made from a place in the area of awareness of the adult woman yet this playful exercise that triggers the emotion and invisible-visible wire spiral senses “game” is allowed. After, each doll walks to traffic conditions through the sale of the same. That is why we speak of an object metaphorical aesthetic where explicit travels implied, listening to intuition, the pose to pose, the void to form, zigzag and again.
Up doll by Jenny Espinoza & down doll by Jobita Lara (Colectivo Piel Canela, 2014).
Conclusions
The development of ragdolls, especially afros, is a common tradition in many cultures and has also been usurped by capitalism to make them souvenirs, however, possibly because of its homemade, in most cases, even is an object that challenges arguments emotion. Faced with the choice of the wrist, data creation, creative exercises partnership with signs that evoke many passions.
There is a history of the development of black dolls in Quito, for example, groups such as Sugar have developed this production and sale of wood and cloth dolls, we also found some workshops of this kind in Belize where dolls are characters of legends, without But from the link with the ethnographic account, we believe constitutes a “new look” to explore as we focus on the emergence and study of a micro-life story of this very important stage in the life of every human being and of course where women build gender patterns. Hence we place this proposal in the current discussion of transdisciplinary epistemologies from the dialogue continuum of community arts and visual anthropology open fields studying how out of focus to verbal language and incorporate other “talk” in contemporary ethnography narratives that address emotional argument.
We believe this method aims to make the objects of aesthetic culture everyday of our cultures originating a pre-text of dialogical participant observation, an alternative mode of subjective knowledge exchange community and thus open a debate about alternative modes of argumentation polyphonic including all directions and semiotic not only visible, but especially the “invisible” semiotic as inflectional, internally and subjective of actual cultural discourses.
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