The Antlers of a Trilemma: Rediscovering Andean Sacred Sites - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 49

“ mallki, wak'a, apukuna, pakarina, machay, ushnu, tumi, waman, waylaka, yanantin, tinku,
takanakuy, masintin, warachikuy, raymi, chakana, wiphala, tupak.
Too much to say, to few words to use. I rather vow to silence and meditate…”
Don Segundo, Utawalu runa yachak ( 2013 )

5.1 Introduction

Much has been said about Andean identity linked to the mixture of Native and non-
Native members inhabiting one of the longest stretch of mountainous landscapes in
the world, as if the appropriation of space warrants a homogenization of their many
cultural manifestations through a plethora of linguistic, artistic, social, economic,
ecological, and belief systems (Bordsdorf and Stadel 2014 ). There is, of course,
primacy in linking environmental ethics with biodiversity conservation in indige-
nous societies as a way to reverse planetary degradation (Chapin et al. 2011 ; Rozzi
et al. 2012 ). Indeed, many of the original people of the Americas have been por-
trayed as custodians of one of the richest hotspots of life in the planet. This requires
a long-term commitment to Earth Stewardship grafted onto the mountain landscapes
of South America (Rozzi 2012 ). I posit that Andean identities should be constructed,
represented, claimed, and contested with care, using different lenses. One way to
aid in building identity discourses is offered by the incorporation of traditional eco-
logical knowledge (TEK) in the understanding of landscape dynamics, focusing on
the intersection of nature, science, politics, and religion (Gudynas 2011 ). This
approach makes explicit the sacred geographies of Andean peoples, and both will
inform and contest argumentation towards the application of a bodily metaphor
(Bastien 1978 ). This metaphor uses a shamanic symbol, the 'venado' or whitetail
deer of the Andes ( Odocoyleus virginianus tropicalis ), one of forty subspecies listed
for the Virginia deer, that is often found in mountain landscapes of Colombian,
Ecuadorian, and Peruvian tropandean ecoregions. Just like the 'tarugo'
( Hippocamelus antisensis ) of the Central Andes or the 'huemul' ( Hippocamelus
bisulcus ) of the Southern Andes, whose bucks or stags exhibit pointed horns that, on
a yearly basis, bifurcate or trifurcate according to age, the 'venado' provides the
analogy of its antlers as representing dendritic patterns borne of rhizomic processes
of yearly renewal and constancy. The metaphor of deer antlers helps to understand
how one unit of entity—such as the Andes—could encapsulate the notion of three
variant components—such as Andeanity, Andeaness and Andeanitude, in the
renewal cycle of the trilogy that explain 'the Andean' based on body, mind, and
spirit (Sarmiento 2013a ). The so-called Sarmiento's trilemma fusses three streams
of identity in one (Fig. 5.1 ). It is used to accentuate the incorporation of the sacred
into the realization of knowledge and practices of biocultural heritage worth pro-
tecting for sustainability scenarios (Sarmiento 2012 ). In this chapter I seek to engage
coupled dynamics of socio-ecological systems (SES) methods with reifi ed variants
of fl uid ethnic identities ( sensu Cánepa 2008 ) that collectively represent the sacred
geographies of the Andes, with special emphasis on the revival of Amerindian