Abstract
In this article, I discuss how sky mapping was carried out among the Pa Ipai peoples from Baja California in Mexico. This mapping was elaborated through an interdisciplinary study that combined cybercartography, ethnography, cultural astronomy, semiotics, and collaborative work. The central argument of the article focuses on how the cybercartographic sky atlas of the Pa Ipai people responded to the situation and social problems of these communities. Some of these problems are extreme poverty, violence, and conflicts with the Mexican state and the academic world. In this context, the atlas and the collaborative work became tools that created links with indigenous families, especially with the young people. The mapping process also helped to resolve the tensions mentioned above. The article also addresses how the economic and political situation in Mexico has an effect on the preservation of the atlas. Some of the results of this work are that the Pai Ipai atlas allows, conserves, and renews songs, stories, and experiences around heaven. Another remarkable result is that the teenagers have positively received the atlas and the collaborative experience derived from it.
Highlights
When I was in the middle of my degree in archeology, around 2003–2004, a book entitled Relatos Pai pai [1] came to my hands
The objective was to carry out interdisciplinary research that combined semiotics (Semiotics consists on the study of signs and meanings in culture), anthropology, astronomy, cultural astronomy (Cultural astronomy studies how the sky is part of a cultural construction), and cybercartography
In this first section, which is in the lower part, Baja California can be seen as well first section of the atlas summarizes and illustrates the Pa Ipai territory that I proceed to as the sites in the territory that were and still are important for the indigenous families explain and describe it
Summary
When I was in the middle of my degree in archeology, around 2003–2004, a book entitled Relatos Pai pai [1] came to my hands. (I spell here the word Pai Pai as it appears in the original title of the book In this text, I will write the word as Paipai since the indigenous communities asked me to do it in that way). The objective was to carry out interdisciplinary research that combined semiotics (Semiotics consists on the study of signs and meanings in culture), anthropology, astronomy, cultural astronomy (Cultural astronomy studies how the sky is part of a cultural construction), and cybercartography. From these lines of research, I sought to create a cybercartographic atlas of the Pa Ipai sky. In the discussion, I interpret and explain the process, as well as the way in which contemporary historical situations shaped it
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