Authorship out of Turmoil: The Case of a Cacica from Pomata

Authorship out of Turmoil: The Case of a Cacica from Pomata

This presentation will examine an archival document composed by an indigenous actor in relation to the construction of authorship, responsibility, audience, and narration. I analyze the practices of writing involved in indigenous people’s legal complaints. Recent research on the formation of archival documents has shown that written documents are a space where different actors other than indigenous protagonists performed a crucial role in the elaboration of writing itself (Burns: 2014). In my analysis I present the case of a cacica from Pomata who presented a legal complaint to restore her rights for using land and denounce social turmoil in her town. This case exemplified how the tension between individual and communal social events unfolded in the space of a written document, as its production involved actions at distinct levels. In this sense I propose that documents which resulted from scribal practices and that were composed for the audience of a notary or judge produced a substantial transformation in the way this historical event unfolded. Such documents whose complexity shifts between religious and political identification requires a close reflection on the processes of composition and writing. Moreover, it requires an exploration of categories such as author and scribe and their roles as actors in historical processes alongside the protagonists responsible for commissioning the production of documents.