The structure of guarnan poma's mapamundi

Abstract

In the last decade, alternatives have been proposed to the “Darwinian” paradigm in cartography, which has concentrated its attention on the chorometric and planimetric accuracy of maps. This article examines structural and iconographical analysis in map studies, which can be of great help in understanding the indigenous structure of geographical knowledge. The Mapamundi of Guarnan Poma, inserted in his “Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno”, has a title that would imply necessity of both traditional and alternative approaches. The title “Mapamundi de las Indias” shows that it depicted the extent of the Viceroyalty of Peru in the early seventeenth century. But the marginal notes of the Mapamundi tell us that the territory of Tawantinsuyo, or the so-called Inca Empire, is also depicted. In the third chapter, the Mapamundi is examined as an Andean regional map in the traditional scheme. The identification of 17 ports and 25 towns shows that their distribution on the Mapamundi does not coincide with that of the modern scaled map. A river that flows leftward in the Mapamundi is designated as Mara[formula omitted]ón or the Amazon, the Orinoco and the Magdalena. The “caminos reals” which had connected primary colonial towns from Bogoté to Santiago de Chile connect only eight towns on the Mapamundi, although all the towns depicted in the Mapamundi were situated on the” caminos reals”. Therefore Poma's Mapamundi completely lacks the minimum criteria of accuracy that a contemporary regional map should have. In fourth chapter, the Mapamundi is examined according to an alternative scheme to extract the cognitive structure of Andean space. In spite of its resemblance to the format of European medieval mapamundi, Poma's Mapamundi reveals the indigenous structure of Andean space. Two diagonal lines divide the Mapamundi into four quarters. Each of them corresponds to the four suyos or quarters of the Inca Empire, that is, Chinchay-suyo, Colla-suyo, Ande-suyo and Conde-suyo. The quadripartitional structure of space corresponds to the Andean vertical dichotomy, hanan (above) vs. hurin (below). This vertical dualism is based on the socio-political structure as well as spatial structure of Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire. Needless to say, Cuzco (the center) and the four suyos constituted the quintipartitional structue of Andean space. These structures of Andean space were applied to Poma's recognitional model for the mundial monarchy that was under the reign of the Spanish king. In his scheme, the kingdom of the Indias is located in the lower half of the world, although it is depicted in the upper half of the “Pontificial Mundo”. The former location was indicated by the Spaniard invasion in Tawantinsuyo. The multidimensional structure of Andean space, which consists of vertical dualism (hanan vs. hurin), center-peripheral structure, and quadri and quintipartitional systems, is extracted by structural analysis of Poma's literary and visual text. The Mapamundi is divided into two sections by the river system. The upper half beyond the river system is filled with non-Andean icons, for example griffins, sirens, or unicorns. Indias would be classfied into three spheres, that is, the Andes, the selva or montana, and the other imaginary mountainous land along the Mar del Norte or the Atlantic Coast. Figure 11 shows the classification of the Indias in Poma's Mapamundi and its iconographic structure. Poma's geographical knowledge beyond his native land is so vague that Guinea, the land of black people or Africa, is located next to Panama in his chronicle. © 1984, The Human Geographical Society of Japan. All rights reserved.