The language of tocapu to rewrite history

Letteratura testimoniale e Costruzione della storia 40° Convegno Internazionale di Americanistica Salerno 9-11 maggio 2018 1 Cinzia Florio tocapu figuras de Chladni “Il linguaggio dei tocapukuna per riscrivere la storia” di Cinzia Florio The language of tocapu to rewrite history Cinzia Florio “Amerindian Circle” of Salerno Tocapukuna (term of the language quechua, plural of tocapu) are symbols of the Andean cultures and they represent geometric forms, animals and characters. They are mainly delimited by a quadrilateral and can be found in petroglyphs, pottery and textiles. 2 Incan suit with tocapukuna Many scholars have been interested in the tocapukuna in order to understand their meaning. There have been several hypotheses, among them those of an ideographic writing, of heraldic symbols or of stylized forms belonging to the nature. However, without certain evidences, they have not reached a shared interpretation yet. Unfortunately, the Spanish chronicles do not mention the meaning of tocapukuna and this may us to think that these symbols were represented during the Inca age without knowing their meaning, as if they were inherited from a remote past. In fact, tocapukuna have been found also in artifacts of the ancient pre-Inca cultures. This piece of work opens a new line of investigation, which can also be proved as incorrect in the future, as a result of a reasonable number, even if only casual, of coincidences. Nevertheless, I think this new theory deserves at least to be analyzed. Let us move for a while to the Physics field and analyze german physicist lived the work of a between1700 and 1800. Ernst Chladni studied the phenomenon of vibration of a rigid surface subjected to strain, carrying out a very simple but of great visual impact experiment. He used smooth plates of different shapes and thickness, supported in the center; he covered the surface with a fine dust and then he ran a violin bow along the edge of the plate. Vibration and sound were generated causing the sand to move but, following with the stimulation, the dust grains did not fall off the plate as we can imagine. The powder, however, accumulates progressively in points of the surface forming patterns which changed depending on the sound frequency, on the geometric shape and depth of the plate. What happens is that in the points of the plate where the dust grains move there are sound and vibration propagation, while where they do not move forming a pattern of lines, there are no sound and vibration propagation. We can easily understand the great interest caused by the “Chladni figures” since in this way we could “visualize a sound” (a definitely unusual concept) and, moreover, we can say that it is possible to “visualize a sound in negative”, since the nodal lines are visible where there is no sound. 3 Phenomenon occurs obv bviously not only by rubbing a violin bow along ng the edge of a plate, but also with any otherr sound, so including the human voice, duly cana nalized in order to make a smooth surface sparkle kled with a fine dust vibrate. 4 There are many videos o on-line showing the experiment, therefore we can an’t suggest anyone in special, but only to lower the e volume because the sounds produced are very sooth othing. Some Chladni figures below: 5 Chladni figures Returning to the tocapukuna, I have noticed by cha hance a remarkable resemblance bet etween a tocapu and one of Chladni figure res. At the beginning, I have thought to be a simple coincidence, but then, curi urious about it, I have compared some e Chladni figures and tocapukuna finding seve everal correspondences reported below. w. (The tocapukuna here represented are from the website tocapu.org of Ch Christiane Clados and from “Nueva Crónica a y BuenGobierno” by Poma de Ayala,, w while the petroglyph is from Sechin temple). On the left, in different versions, ve it is represented the tocapu called “diamond “d structure with chakana”. It is formed by a chakana in the center, which is an Ande dean cross set up by a square and a crossed overlapped. ov The chakana is framed in a rho hombus and in the four corners there are four trapezoidal tra or triangular elements or with the e sshape of a right-angle triangle on whose hypote tenuse are “caved” three steps. The six varia riations show a different attention to detail. For ex example, the first tocapu meticulously represen sents the elements in the corners, where we can clearly cl see the three steps, but they do not have ha the rhombus 6 surrounding the chakana. Meanwhile, the penultimate tocapu has the rhombus but very stylized corners’ elements. Let us have a look now at the Chladni figure on the side: if we force making more squared the round parts, in favor of a simpler graphic reproduction and of an even more easy reproduction of the pattern on a textile, we can see the considerable resemblance between the two objects. In addition, the Chladni figure has at the same time all the features: the central chakana, the rhombus and the four elements with three steps. It is like the Chladni figure represents the original, the source, and the tocapukuna are some imprecise or stylized versions of the original. TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE This tocapu called at “X” is formed by four longitudinal sections of step pyramids, which enter from the four sides of the square so that the four summits almost touch each other creating in this way a X separating the four figures. On its side, a Chladni figure where, always imaging the round lines as squared, we can see a pattern that follows the same logic of construction. 7 We continue with the sequence: 8 TOCAPU TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE CHLADNI FIGURES TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURES 9 TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE 10 TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURES 11 TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE 12 TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE 13 TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE 14 TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE 15 TOCAPU CHLADNI FIGURE In summary: Cinzia Florio tocapu figure di Chladni 16 I am not able to say I have achieved the solution as well as I can’t be sure that they are only accidental coincidences. I only think that the number of correspondences and their quality deserve an in depth analysis. It is possible and reasonable to believe that an ancient pre-Inca culture had achieved this technological knowledge and, during its period of decay, the survivors had preserved these symbols, maybe without understanding their nature, giving them a religious meaning. They have been handed down generation after generation until the Incas with inevitable syncretism and suffering transformations, colorations and the addition of further images, obviously not derived from the Chladni figures. I am aware that comparing Chladni figures and the tocapukuna may sound risky, being objects from worlds far in time and space, but the strong resemblance of the patterns seems to lead in this direction. At this point, it is inevitable to recall the words of Heisenberg: « It is probably true quite generally that in the history of human thinking the most fruitful developments frequently take place at those points where two different lines of thought meet. These lines may have their roots in quite different parts of human nature, in different times or different cultural environments or different religious traditions: hence if they actually meet, that is, if they are at least so much related to each other that a real interaction can take place, then one may hope that new and interesting developments may follow. WERNER HEISENBERG» 17