Tiempo profundo ✿ Deep time

 

“In the circle of life, we are present because we are the past, and for this reason, the future. It is impossible to escape this, and it cannot be forgotten. To forget is to lose the memory of the future.”

Elicura Chihuailaf, Mapuche poet

Our final issue of the five-year journey arrives in South America, where we consider the way objects can connect us with deep time. This can include the deep time of the earth on which we live, such as the time of volcanoes. It is interpreted through the cosmovision of first nations, such Mapuche, Quechua and Mbya. According to the Inca concept of pachakuti, the world runs on a 500 year cycle of chaos and order. The current cycle began 500 years ago with the arrival of the Spanish. There is the promise now of a restoration of order.

Many thanks to the culture-makers across the wider world who shared their representations of deep time.

We pause, look at the stars, and contemplate the next stage in the journey. Walking we ask questions.

Quarterly essay

Kultrún

Pachakuti

At the end of the world

Tiempo profundo

A long life

You can find a recording of the launch, here, where writers introduce their stories.