Avaliação: Beyond writing and iconography: coding – Toward a reconstruction of the logics of tio-tio graphic communication among the Yukpa

A limited number of published sources refers to the so-called Yukpa (Venezuela) “picture writing” or tio-tio, which have been complemented by interviews and information available in personal and museum archives. A close inspection demonstrates a number of different forms of communication refered to as tio-tio and quite distinct used of tio-tio signs. Interestingly none of them actually encodes ritual texts, myths or memorizes historical events, aspects that have been stressed in recent accounts of neigbouring graphisms. Most of tio-tio communication obviously had a political function and I will attempt to analyze in more detail the formal transmission of news and official requests in ceremonial discourse based on the reading of encoded lists of painted signs among specific subgroups of the Venezuelan Yukpa. The presentation will focus on two central aspects first what currently may be said about the logic of the signs used and second, and maybe more important, this presentation will demonstrate how these graphic communication is embedded in, or transmutated to verbal and behavioural signs and how their interplay creates specific contexts of encounter.

• Amerindian communication systems
• grafic communication systems
• Yukpa
• Venezuela
• tio-tio writing