Gondwana and the Politics of Deep Past*
2018; Oxford University Press; Volume: 242; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/pastj/gty016
ISSN1477-464X
Autores Tópico(s)African history and culture studies
ResumoGondwana presents the overlapping narratives of antiquity.A densely forested region in central India, it was named after the Gonds living there, whom British explorers believed to be the aboriginal tribes of India.In these dense forests British geologists believed they had found the oldest rock systems of India.These primitive forests and rocks became the foundation for theories of the existence of a prehistoric southern supercontinent.The Austrian geologist Eduard Suess named it Gondwanaland after this region. 1The imagined supercontinent has led to real landscapes.There is a game reserve called Gondwana in South Africa and a rainforest by the same name in Australia, both having derived their identity from the ancient geological land mass.In addition, according to Michael Witzel's categorization of world mythologies, its geological denominations have lent it racial and cultural significance and the term Gondwana is used to describe Afro-Asian cultures. 2Gondwana today exists in geological imaginations as a prehistoric land mass and in the political and cultural assertions of a mythical country of the Gonds, where they had once ruled. 3 Early historical texts refer to Gondwana as a densely forested region. 4Although never recognized as a political entity, it
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