{"id":45025,"date":"2021-07-06T10:13:23","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T14:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/?p=45025"},"modified":"2021-07-13T16:13:20","modified_gmt":"2021-07-13T20:13:20","slug":"landazuri-helps-translate-the-first-recorded-accounts-of-el-nino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/2021\/07\/06\/landazuri-helps-translate-the-first-recorded-accounts-of-el-nino\/","title":{"rendered":"Landazuri helps translate the first recorded accounts of El Ni\u00f1o"},"content":{"rendered":"

Examining history can reveal some of the same problems faced today, along with how to cope with them. On the northern coast of Peru, a hot spot for El Ni\u00f1o events, Andean indigenous groups adapted for thousands of years through methods like cycling farming to higher ground. Some of these agricultural methods were previously revealed by translating part of a survey conducted by Francsico de Alcocer, an inspector sent by the Spanish (who were colonizing the area at the time) to record eye-witness accounts after a devastating El Ni\u00f1o event in 1578.<\/p>\n

Only half of the document is preserved but there still remains much to be translated and analyzed. This July, the project will resume with new life, in the hands of climate science graduate student Heather Landazuri, who is tasked with translating the entire document from 16th century Spanish to English.<\/p>\n

\"Dan
Courtesy Alberto Lopez<\/span>Dan Sandweiss, professor of anthropology and Quaternary and climate studies, recently received support through a McGillicuddy Humanities Center faculty grant and is collaborating with Landazuri on his project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dan Sandweiss, professor of anthropology and Quaternary and climate studies, recently received support through a McGillicuddy Humanities Center grant to build on his earlier research into the Alcocer’s documents which took place in the early 1990s with then anthropology student, Wendy Copson. Sandweiss and Landazuri are now collaborating on the project.<\/p>\n

The approximately 300-page document is a complex social and cultural record of the divide between the Spanish and native populations. \u201cAt the time the indigenous population was relocated to what I would consider kind of like a reservation, they’re called \u2018reducciones,\u2019 centralized settlements where they lived and worked to pay tribute to their Spanish lords,\u201d explains Landazuri.<\/p>\n

In 1580, two years after the El Ni\u00f1o event, the native population asked for relief from tribute payment to recover from the disaster. But the Spanish wanted to rebuild infrastructure that would benefit the production of crops like cotton and corn, which were valuable for the Spanish. \u201cIt almost plays out like a struggle between a labor union and a big corporation,\u201d says Landazuri.<\/p>\n

Alcocer conducted two questionnaires, one for Spanish lords, the \u2018encomenderos,\u2019 and one for native lords, the \u2018caciques,\u2019 resulting in biased survey results. \u201cThey ask essentially the same questions, but they ask them very differently,\u201d describes Sandweiss. \u201cFor the native lords, the questions are fairly neutral: \u2018What did you lose? How did you respond? What got washed away? They were straightforward questions. The questions for the Spanish lords were things like: ‘Is it not true that these natives are just lazy and don’t want to rebuild, that they don’t want to do the work?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"highlands
View to the north across a typical irrigated middle valley on the Peruvian coast. 4,000 year old archaeological mounds appear in the foreground and on the terrace in the background.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spanish failure to learn from the indigenous population prevented them from adapting to their environment during an El Ni\u00f1o event. The native population knew that living in the path of the floods was a bad idea and they understood that continuing to grow in floodways would be fruitless until the event was over. They would rather rebuild their local communities to recover from the disaster and possibly plant above the floodplain. \u201cA priest who was a witness for one of the native Lords, recounts how natives told him that the fields had rotted away from the rain, they replanted and the fields rotted again. They replanted again and there was a plague of mice that were as big as medium-sized rabbits,\u201d says Sandweiss. \u201cHe didn’t believe it, so he went out in the fields and saw piles of hundreds of dead giant mice in the fields.\u201d<\/p>\n

The document reveals migration patterns and even relocation, as indigenous populations moved as far north as Quito, Ecuador and as far south as Lima, as well as into the Peruvian highlands. People also changed their diets, a topic of specific interest to Landazuri who is also studying changes to marine bird populations during El Ni\u00f1o events. \u201cWe expect to see an abundance of rainfall, flooding, landslides, those kinds of big changes [in the document]. I hope that there\u2019s some sort of allusion to what it looks like out on the beach,\u201d says Landazuri. \u201cAre there tons of birds or are the birds mysteriously gone? Is there any kind of discussion about the fishing being poor at this time?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"peruvian
Looking west to the Pacific Ocean across a typical irrigated Peruvian coastal valley. A late prehispanic mound is located under the large cross.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During periods of famine, people were forced to eat lizards, grasses, and foraged foods to survive. \u201cMuscovy duck is an important indigenous domestic bird that was also eaten. Are there more of those being eaten than marine birds?\u201d asks Landazuri. \u201cIs there more reliance on European import than on what\u2019s locally around?\u201d Interpreting the responses is a balancing act between determining what was colonialism and what was a loss of resources due to the El Ni\u00f1o event.<\/p>\n

Local expert Oswaldo Chozo Capu\u00f1ay has worked with Sandweiss in the Lambayeque Valley of T\u00facume, where the most number of the eye-witness accounts are recorded, and has lived through three major El Ni\u00f1os in that valley. He will ask traditional farmers in Peru how they have responded to these events. What he observes about their responses today, will help trace methods back in time. \u201cHeather’s going to be translating the whole thing. And then together we’ll be working on what these coping strategies are, how they fit in, which ones we can see archeologically from pre-Colombian times to make the link stronger,\u201d said Sandweiss. The team is truly interdisciplinary, combining Climate Science and Anthropology to uncover and analyze what witnesses might have to say in the document.<\/p>\n

\"image
Courtesy Alberto Lopez<\/span>Survey by Francisco Alcocer, the “Ecologia e historia” provides an early eyewitness account of El Nin\u0303o events.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because Alcocer\u2019s survey was ultimately meant for the Spanish Crown, the indigenous perspective is not given justice through them. \u201cIt\u2019s primarily one-sided, it\u2019s not as expansive as one would hope, but in between, you can find something,\u201d says Landazuri. Sandweiss concurs, Alcocer\u2019s survey is, among other things, \u201ca document of the failure of Spanish colonial policy. And the failure is built around not listening to indigenous knowledge. That’s clear,\u201d says Sandweiss. \u201cIf [the Spanish] had talked to people and taken them seriously, they would not have placed the \u2018reducci\u00f3n\u2019 settlements where they did. Clearly, they would not have had to send somebody up there to find out what went on if they had paid attention. It would not have been as devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the social and cultural divide between the Spanish and native populations, observations can be read about ecological and environmental aspects at the time. \u201cArchival documents can be a powerful way to learn about past weather patterns,\u201d says Landazuri. \u201cIt reminds everyone that these are extremely important sources for more than just the one thing, or more than just telling one story about a labor uprising and requests for aid, imperialism and colonialism\u2014there’s more to it than that. We can look at resilience. We can look at environmental change. We can look at coping.\u201d The team hopes to publish some of their new findings by next year.<\/p>\n

Contact: research@maine.edu<\/a><\/p>\n

Written by Clarisa Diaz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Examining history can reveal some of the same problems faced today, along with how to cope with them. On the northern coast of Peru, a hot spot for El Ni\u00f1o events, Andean indigenous groups adapted for thousands of years through methods like cycling farming to higher ground. Some of these agricultural methods were previously revealed 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Examining history can reveal some of the same problems faced today, along with how to cope with them. On the northern coast of Peru, a hot spot for El Ni\u00f1o events, Andean indigenous groups adapted for thousands of years through methods like cycling farming to higher ground. Some of these agricultural methods were previously revealed by translating part of a survey conducted by Francsico de Alcocer, an inspector sent by the Spanish (who were colonizing the area at the time) to record eye-witness accounts after a devastating El Ni\u00f1o event in 1578. Only half of the document is preserved but…<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"Faculty Spotlight<\/a>, Grad Student Spotlight<\/a>, Research News<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"","url":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/author\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":572,"label":"Faculty Spotlight"},{"value":571,"label":"Grad Student Spotlight"},{"value":65,"label":"Research News"}],"post_tag":[{"value":400,"label":"anthropology"},{"value":543,"label":"Climate Change"},{"value":640,"label":"El Ni\u00f1o"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2021\/07\/HeatherDan-4-landscape_web-1024x576.jpg",1024,576,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/author\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":572,"name":"Faculty Spotlight","slug":"faculty-spotlight","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":572,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":36,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":572,"category_count":36,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Faculty Spotlight","category_nicename":"faculty-spotlight","category_parent":0},{"term_id":571,"name":"Grad Student Spotlight","slug":"grad-student-spotlight","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":571,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":553,"count":23,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":571,"category_count":23,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Grad Student Spotlight","category_nicename":"grad-student-spotlight","category_parent":553},{"term_id":65,"name":"Research News","slug":"research-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":65,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":226,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":65,"category_count":226,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Research News","category_nicename":"research-news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":400,"name":"anthropology","slug":"anthropology","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":400,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":543,"name":"Climate Change","slug":"climate-change","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":543,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":640,"name":"El Ni\u00f1o","slug":"el-nino","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":640,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/478"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45025"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48292,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45025\/revisions\/48292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}