The Amazon as abyss: An approach from intellectual history
This article reviews the colonial and republican history of discursive representations of the Amazon shared by Ecuador and Peru, examining how and when meanings are displaced. It seeks to contribute to the historiographic understanding of the region as an abysmal event in constant transformation, su...
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| Formato: | article |
| Idioma: | spa |
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2025
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| Acceso en liña: | https://iconos.flacsoandes.edu.ec/index.php/iconos/article/view/6283 |
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Engadir etiqueta | Summary: | This article reviews the colonial and republican history of discursive representations of the Amazon shared by Ecuador and Peru, examining how and when meanings are displaced. It seeks to contribute to the historiographic understanding of the region as an abysmal event in constant transformation, subject to the pressures of human ambition and natural and cultural limitations. The following questions are posed: When were concepts and narratives about the Amazon transformed and how are these changes related to moments of invention and crisis of the political and economic projects that sought to give meaning to this space? Applying frameworks of conceptual and intellectual history, we address the pendulum of utopian and dystopian narratives about the region that originated in the sixteenth century and that persist in their long-lasting aporetic condition in both nations. Among the findings, we identify how failed utopian narratives transformed into dystopias, which shaped discourses on Amazonia. To support this argument, a series of historical documents ranging from colonial chronicles and missionary texts to twentieth-century political works were analyzed. It is concluded that these processes formed an “abysmal frontier” of meaning in constant crisis, where utopias and their languages are projected and collapse. |
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