Time Reinvented: Awareness On Love-Oriented Human Coexistence Representations In Chile And South America, 19th And 20th Centuries

Abstract

The nineteenth century witnessed the establishment of hitherto unprecedented ways of conceiving and measuring time: linear-time as imagined by the nation State. Such form of measuring time was imposed upon every indigenous and mestizo society in Chile and South America. This concept of time became in the twentieth century a techno-economic conception of history, abstract and extrinsic to life. So, in what way can the life timeline, time-life be recomposed?

Twentieth century Latin American literature opened the door of an awareness that led to questioning this linear-time as given by the official polis. This crisis of linear-time allowed for recognizing life in its historical context. Moreover, it led to experiencing caring for life through love. Both indigenous and mestizo cultures and mysticism in Chile and South America are understood as life-caring, thus emerging a concept of long-lasting timelines, based on an own language, coexistence, and connection with the sacred, as well as perceiving the absence of love as the extinction of this time-life. The historiography of these cultures has a particular need for a dialogue with art and mysticism, these being the forms of knowledge that bear life care and reverence.

Keywords: Time - Mysticism - Life - Love - South America – 19 th and 20 th Centuries