Word: columbian
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...fate and mankind's shifting perceptions of art and politics. His latest book, La Tête d'Obsi-dienne, is a bestseller in France, even though it is heavily philosophical. In it, he reflects on art and civilization-Eastern, Western, African, pre-Columbian, prehistoric. TIME Correspondent Paul Ress visited the author in the Paris suburb of Verrières-le-Buisson, where he lives in a villa surrounded by sweeping lawns and old cedars. Ress's report...
...somehow with an annual festival held on the site by Indians who gather from hundreds of miles around for several days of drinking and debauchery. Yet no one, including the Indians, could offer any explanation for this yearly orgy, which seemed to have its roots in the dim pre-Columbian past...
...takes long solitary hikes and prefers conversing with old farmers, trappers and woodsmen "rather than those my own age, saddled with mortgages and emphatic politics." In 1969, the method resulted in the beautiful and melancholy pastoral Notes from the Century Before, a journal of his travels in the British Columbian bush...
...large, the poorer and more primitive the country, the worse the thievery. Says Clemency Coggins, an authority on pre-Columbian art and archaeology: "Not since the 16th century has Latin America been so ruthlessly plundered." Teams descend (sometimes literally, from helicopters) on any of the hundreds of Mayan ceremonial sites that lie scattered throughout Mexico and Guatemala...
...more useful potential deterrent to illicit trade is a U.S. law passed by Congress last fall prohibiting the import of pre-Columbian monumental sculpture and murals without the approval of the country of origin. This is a start, but not an end; it does not apply to smaller pieces like pottery and goldwork, and thieves in Latin America will destroy a whole site to find one Mayan gold ornament. One thing is clear: as long as astronomical prices are offered by rich countries, no local laws will keep robbers from plundering...