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Ceja de Montaña, “Eyebrow of the Jungle” - a Disappearing Landscape

Inge Schjellerup

South American highland peasants are presently invading the Ceja de Montaña, ”the eyebrow of the jungle”, in the Northeastern Andes and are destroying the original cultural and biological landscapes by practicing timber-extraction and bringing along cattle and crops that are foreign to the area. These landscapes have never been described, registered or analysed for suggesting use and conservation strategies on the important cultural and biological heritage.  

The earlier cultural traces are from three time periods:

The Chachapoya Culture < 1470

The Inca Culture 1470-1532

The Spanish Invasion >1532

The earlier cultures have affected and modified the cultural and biological landcapes considerably. Remains of impressive installations such as settlements, transportation, agricultural systems and plant relicts are found in the dense forests.

Due to the rapid deterioration of Ceja de Montaña thorough research and mapping of the region is urgently needed. The research could be very productive and useful at present, as the earlier cultures had developed special agricultural techniques in the forest.

The necessary expertise to undertake such a project exists. Inge Schjellerup has the experience and is the pioneer (and is an internationally known expert) in the region. She has earlier founded a Danish/Peruvian research team, with local national support, which is capable of carrying out the research. IS is team leader of the European Science Foundation program EARTH and member of COST A27 -- both programs on pre-industrial cultural landscapes.

Aim

The project will illustrate the acculturation processes in the cultural landscape on the eastern slopes of the Andes and analyse the change in culture and ecology between the Amazonía and the Andes caused by the clash of cultures. The cultural adaptation has developed several strategies to the different ecological zones in the Andes, where each culture made its specific choices concerning settlement and utilization. The focus is on the Chachapoyas, Huallaga and Rodriguez de Mendoza provinces in the San Martin and Amazonas departments in the northeastern Peru.

The project will give new insight and knowledge on:

1. human utilization through time in a diachronic analyse to understand the present development in this specific habitat (Project a)
2. the frontier of the expansion of the earlier cultures (Project a)
3. local cultural strategies as an  answer to environmental and cultural factors by analysing the background for the present migration into the region (Project a)
4. the vegetation cover through botanical collections and place the botanical information into a historical time perspective (Project b)
5. the dimension of logging and other important changes in the landcape between 1960 – 2005 documented by use of airphotographs, satellite images and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) (Project b)
6. adaptive and non adaptive cultural elements in the description of the acculturation processes in settlement patterns, agriculture and material culture in the cultural clash between the indigenous people and the European invasion in a long time perspective (Project a and b)
7. the project will forward the local community development and the cultural identity (Project a and b)

These eastern parts of the Andes, ”the eyebrow of the jungle” has been recognized as being of global interest for biological biopdiversity which is higher here thanin the low rainforest but were earlier only considered of interest for its biology. It is now recognized that the biologcal diversity is higher due to the human activities.

The region is one of the few areas between the Andes and the Amazonía where there has been passage and sporadical contact for centuries why an analysis of the cultural clashes between the different pre-Hispanic cultures, the Spanish colonial period and the indiginous groups will give new interesting knowledge and perspectives on settlement and utilization patterns in the landscape, and on the acculturation processes.

Most of this area is under severe pressure from contemporary peasants who invade the area and fell large parts of the forest. This is why our knowledge on the archaeological past, the botanical diversity and the anthropological background is fast disappearing without any possibility to recuperate this knowledge.

The project is a continuation of Inge Schjellerup’s many years of research in the neighboring areas (Schjellerup 1997, Schjellerup et al.  which will be able to give NEW KNOWLEDGE and a superior synthesis on the development of a region and can be considered a model for future development of similar areas.

The project is divided into four integrated and interdisciplinary modules which in two projects) under two field campaigns will work through the geographical region in two parts (covering ecozones from paramo to tropical climate) in a diagonal cross section.

The projects a and b will consist of:

a. The humanistic aspect: an archaeological, historical and anthropological section
b. The natural science aspect: a geographical, botanical section
 

Archaeology (Project a)
The archaeological module will use known archaeological methods to survey including GPS (Geographical Positioning System), measurements, mapping and excavations on special locations. C-14 dating, pollen- and pottery analyses will also be employed. The Pre-hispanic settlement pattern will be compared to the contemporary. We will focus on the changes in the utilization of the ecological zones in the agriculture. The cultural pressure should be seen in a long time perspective to understand the alterations in the settlements, the distribution and the socio-economical background.

Anthropology (Project a)
The anthropological module will focus on the local communities’ strategies and management of the spatial utilization of resources in the cultural landscape. Contemporary settlements and agriculture will be surveyed and mapped employing GPS and GIS (Geographical Information System). Participant observation combined with structured and semi-structured interviews will be carried out with special emphasis on investigating local perceptions and oral tradition. This module will also include historical research in national archives. The anthropologists will work together with the botanical module to obtain an ethnobotanical inventory.

Geography (Project b)
The geographical module will map the cultural and biogeographical landscape using satellite images aided by collection of field data from all modules of the project. Through the use of times series of satellite images it is possible to document changes in land cover classes (eg. forest types, crops, fallow) and relate the results to the finding of the anthropological and botanical modules. The analyses will be based on the most advanced methods such as object-oriented classification to ensure that knowledge from the other modules can be integrated to ensure a high accuracy.
The module will include plans for a monitoring centre based on existing Peruvian research institutions, with the aim of facilitating future monitoring of land cover change in the region.
All data from the four modules of the project will be organised in a Geographic Information System (GIS).

Botany (Project b)
The botanical module will encompass the collection of plants, vegetation analysis and ethnobotanical research. Collections of specimens for herbaria will take place in mature and secondary forest and in and around the selected local communities. The botanical analyses should yield insights that are of fundamental importance to the conservation of biological diversity in such habitats. Several new species are expected to be discovered and registred.
 

Time schedule and personnel

Extensive cooperation with other university departments will include GRAS, the Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen, which is specialized in remote sensing and analysis of satellite images; the Facultad de Sciencias Sociales, Universidad de Trujillo, Peru; Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Privada de Antenor Orrego, Peru; Department of Botany, Field Museum, Chicago.

Letters of support can be aquired from all the institutions.

The results will be presented in international congresses and published in one monograph.

Year 1.
Project a. The archaeological, historical and anthropological modul. Literature collection, archival research in Peru, survey. Participation in the 51th International Congress of Americanists.