Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
T W O
The Lost Center
of the World
And the Lord said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries
to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the earth, which has
opened her mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. . . . And
Cain said to the Lord, . . . Behold, you have driven me out this day from the face
of the earth; and from your face I shall be hidden; and I shall be a fugitive and a
vagabond in the earth.
G e n e s i s 4 : 8 — 1 4
What has been lost is the continuity of the past. . . . What you are then left
with is still the past, but a fragmented past which has lost its certainty of
evaluation.
H a n n a H a r e n d t
The place once called Echoi, or Salt, was located just north of
the present-day Bolivia/Paraguay border, in the geographic
center of ancestral Ayoreo territories. This place contained
two large saline lakes. In most years, the water evaporated
from these lakes by the end of the dry season, leaving be-
hind a mile-long expanse of white or pink salt, ready to eat
and there for the taking. The salt pans begin twenty-five
kilometers west of the flattop mountain called Gososo and
some thirty-five kilometers northwest of a vast freshwater
lake called Nakaje. The rough triangle formed by these three
points, with its fertile soils and abundance of water, game,
and minerals, is one of the most beautiful and hospitable
areas in the entire Gran Chaco.
Outsiders have long noted annual migrations to this wel-
coming area by various groups of Ayoreo-speaking people.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search