a general question: how can i create so-called "named destinations" in a
pdf document without loading hyperref ?
The underlying primitive in pdftex is \pdfdest, as in
\pdfdest name{yourname} xyz%
(The xyz says to use the current location for the marker.)
See the pdftex manual (links on http://tug.org/applications/pdftex/) for
the details.
HTH,
karl