Thursday, April 12, 2012

a footstep forward...

The Aymara Peoples of Peru, Bolivia and Chile have a unique manifestation of time. Where most European derivative time perception sees the flow of time as both forward and right-directed, the Aymara feel past as being directionally forward (nayra, which also means eye, front and sight). Backward then would represent the future (qhipa), something yet to be seen? This, of course, has not been passed down to the next generation (Nuñéz and Sweester 2006); something Steven Pinker probably could not account for with his rigid genetic determinism (Pinker 1994). It seems that temporal hegemony is not only limited to the rhythms and schedules of post-industrial socities (Bluedorn 2009), but also the temporal embodiment of acculturated indigenous of South America.


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