The first record of Galea Meyen, 1832 (Rodentia,Hystricognathi, Caviidae) in the late Pleistocene of southern Brazil and its palaeobiogeographic implications

The first caviine rodent referable to Galea Meyen, 1832 is described from the late Pleistocene of southern Brazil based on a left dentary with the p4–m3 series. The specimen derives from the Ponte Velha I locality in the Touro Passo Creek (Touro Passo Formation, upper Pleistocene), western Rio Grande do Sul State. The main characters used to assign this specimen to Galea are: anterior area of horizontal crest at the level of prism I of p4; deep anterior area of masseteric fossa; incisor alveolus on the medial face of the dentary extended up to the level of prism II of m2; and presence of cement in the hypoflexid. Currently, the genus has a disjunct distribution, with a group in Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, and another in northern and northeastern Brazil. The presence of this taxon in Pleistocene deposits of Rio Grande do Sul State, Uruguay and the Argentine Mesopotamian, where there are no extant representatives of the genus, indicates its wider distribution during the late Pleistocene.     

New dinosaur remains from the Late Triassic of southern Brazil (Candelária Sequence,Hyperodapedon Assemblage Zone)

Pretto, F.A., Schultz, C.L., Langer, M.C. 4.02.2015. New dinosaur remains from the Late Triassic of southern Brazil (Candelária Sequence, Hyperodapedon Assemblage Zone). Alcheringa 39, xxx–xxx. ISSN 0311-5518

The oldest unequivocal dinosaurian records come from Upper Triassic strata, mostly from Argentina and Brazil. Recent fieldwork in the Brazilian deposits of Ischigualastian age (late Carnian–earliest Norian) have resulted in the collection of a new specimen (UFRGS-PV-1240-T) identified as dinosaurian by the presence of a concave emargination on the ventral surface of the femoral head and a well-developed deltopectoral crest on the humerus, which extends for ca 40% of its estimated proximodistal length. Although fragmentary, the material increases the dinosaurian record from the Late Triassic of Brazil, which is still modest when compared with coeval Argentine strata. Additionally, UFRGS-PV-1240-T augments the dinosaurian diversity at the ‘Sítio Janner’ site, which was until now restricted to the sauropodomorph Pampadromaeus barberenai. The new specimen is larger than most early dinosaurians (except for herrerasaurids), implying that members of the group were already occupying niches otherwise explored by other larger-bodied taxa in the ‘Sítio Janner’ palaeofauna, and Late Triassic palaeoenvironments in general.

Flávio A. Pretto [flavio_pretto@yahoo.com.br] and Cesar L. Schultz [cesar.schultz@ufrgs.br] Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Instituto de Geociências, Setor de Paleovertebrados, Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500—Bloco J, Prédio 43127, Campus do Vale, Agronomia?Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, CEP 91540-000; Max C. Langer [mclanger@ffclrp.usp.br] Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Departamento de Biologia, Av. Bandeirantes, 3900, CEP 14040-901, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.     

The First Record of a Pre‐Columbian Domestic Dog (Canis lupus familiaris) in Brazil

Archaeological excavations of the PSG‐07 earthen mound at Pontal da Barra in Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil have revealed the earliest known evidence for the presence of domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris ) in Brazil. This is the first reported pre‐Columbian example in the country. Analysis of morphology, morphometry, and dental enamel laminae identified a left maxillary molar 1, left maxillary molar 2 and attached fragments of the maxilla of C. l. familiaris . A direct radiocarbon date on a fragment of the maxilla provided an age range between 1701 and 1526 cal BP (2σ). This is within the range of other dates for the site, which indicate intermittent occupation between 2024 and 1027 cal BP (2σ). Data from carbon isotope analysis indicates a potential marine diet. However, nitrogen isotope analysis values are lower than expected for a marine diet. The sparse records of pre‐Columbian C. l. familiaris in the region emphasise the importance of the present work. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sacred landscapes of the southern Brazilian highlands: Understanding southern proto-Jê mound and enclosure complexes

Fieldwork involving survey, detailed topographic mapping, and excavations in Pinhal da Serra, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, has revealed a highly-structured landscape revolving around funerary/ceremonial structures that began around A.D. 1000. This paper focuses on the results of detailed topographic survey of mound and enclosure complexes and their interpretation in light of southern Jê ethnohistorical and ethnographic data. We compare the architectural patterns of mortuary architecture from this study with fundamental spatial features of historic Kaingang’s social organisation, mortuary rituals and cosmogony myth. Our results suggest historical continuity in the organisation of space in cardinal directions (E–W), topography (low and high places), and in circular/concentric spatiality revealed in the southern proto-Jê mound and enclosure complexes. It is argued that small paired mound and enclosure complexes are associated with the material representation of a dual ranked opposition materialised in proto-Jê moiety cemeteries where important persona were buried.     

Globalization and Brazilian biosafety: the politics of scale over biotechnology governance

Monsanto’s request to commercialize its genetically-modified (GM) herbicide-resistant soybean technology in Brazil sparked heated debate and protest. This paper explores the conflict and illustrates how biosafety politics and policy outcomes are highly contested and situated, rather than controlled by external forces within the ever-expanding global economy. This paper argues that GM crops are not inherently artifacts of economic globalization and trade liberalization. What makes GM crops ‘global’ and part of a new iterative and uneven globalization process are the new and unanticipated sites of contradiction and contestation and the multi-scaled conflict over biotechnology governance. Political strategies taken by the state government in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazilian consumer protection activists, and Greenpeace exploit the new ‘nature’ of GM crops as a means to expand the debate, change the rules governing the genetic commons, and consequently, rescale biotechnology governance.     

An additional basal sauropodomorph specimen from the Upper Triassic Caturrita Formation,southern Brazil,with comments on the biogeography of plateosaurids

Bittencourt, J.S., Leal, L.A., Langer, M.C. & Azevedo, S.A.K., June 2012. An additional basal sauropodomorph specimen from theUpperTriassic Caturrita Formation, southern Brazil, with comments on the biogeography of plateosaurids. Alcheringa, 1–10. ISSN0311-5518.

We describe an additional saurischian specimen from the Caturrita Formation (Norian) of the Parana Basin, southern Brazil. This material was collected in the 1950s and remained unstudied due to its fragmentary condition. Detailed comparisons with other saurischians worldwide reveal that some characters of the ilium, including the low ventral projection of the medial wall of the acetabulum and its concave ventral margin, together with the short triangular shape of the pre-acetabular process and its mound-like dorsocaudal edge, resemble those of sauropodomorphs such as Plateosaurus and Riojasaurus. This set of traits suggests that MN 1326-V has affinities with basal Sauropodomorpha, probably closer to plateosaurians than to Saturnalia-like taxa. Previous records of this clade in the Caturrita Formation include Unaysaurus, which has been related to Plateosaurus within Plateosauridae. Alternative schemes suggest that plateosaurids include Plateosaurus plus the Argentinean ‘prosauropods’ Coloradisaurus and Riojasaurus. Both hypotheses raise biogeographic questions, as a close relationship between faunas from South America and Europe excluding Africa and North America is not supported by geological and biostratigraphical evidence. Additionally, the absence of plateosaurids in other continents suggests that the geographical distribution of thistaxon is inconsistent with the geological history of western Pangaea, and this demands further investigations of the phylogeny of sauropodomorphs or improved sampling.

J.S. Bittencourt* [sigmaorionis@yahoo.com.br] Laboratório de Paleontologia, Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Bandeirantes 3900, 1404901, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil. Fellow FAPESP; L.A. Leal, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da Bahia, Rua José Moreira Sobrinho, s/n, 45206-190, Jequié, BA, Brazil; M.C. Langer, Laboratório de Paleontologia, Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Bandeirantes 3900, 1404901, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil; S.A.K. Azevedo, Laboratório de Processamento de Imagem Digital, Departamento de Geologia e Paleontologia, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta da Boa Vista s/n, 20940-040, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. Received 29.7.2011; revised 10.10.2011; accepted 18.10.2011.     

Peripheral creativity: temporary cultural uses as alternatives to inefficient policies?

ABSTRACT

The article focuses on temporary and improvised cultural spaces in marginalized neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They are presented here as alternatives to current urban and cultural policies, often based on international ‘best practices’ models with exclusionary and segregating consequences. It begins with a brief overview into North American and Western European cultural planning policies. It then analyses the instability of cultural policies in Brazil, highlighting that, after a period of State recognition of bottom-up actions, administrators have turned to a contradictory planning scheme that mixes outdated and recent international trends, leading lower-income inhabitants to self-build their own cultural spaces. Unlike many products of today’s global strand of ‘tactic urbanism’, Rio’s temporary spaces are politically charged territories of resistance. An example is ‘Cine Taquara’ – an improvised cinema and debate forum that illustrates how, in an unequal city, such initiatives can do more towards social inclusion than ready-made models.     

Exploring Geographic Origins at Cahuachi using Stable Isotopic Analysis of Archaeological Human Tissues and Modern Environmental Waters

In this study, we used oxygen‐ and hydrogen‐isotope data from human bone (δ¹⁸O) and modern environmental water samples (δ¹⁸O and δD) to investigate geographic origins of individuals buried at Cahuachi, a ceremonial centre in the Nasca region of Peru (c.AD1‐1000). Our objective was to characterise the natural variation in water stable isotopic composition in the Rio Grande de Nasca drainage, and then to use these data to better infer place of origin for 30 adults interred at Cahuachi. Using the δ¹⁸O and δD values of 63 modern environmental water samples, it was possible to differentiate among the northern and southern river middle valleys, and to infer the isotopic composition of drinking water at higher elevations. Over half of the individuals included in this study had drinking water oxygen‐isotope compositions consistent with places of origin away from Cahuachi during the last 10 to 25 years of life, perhaps in the northern river middle valleys or in the upper valleys/sierra. The environmental water stable isotopic baseline developed in this study enabled a better understanding of the natural variation of waters in the Rio Grande de Nasca drainage. As a result, it was possible to assess the geographic range of place of origin for these individuals with greater certainty. Taken together, these data support the idea of Cahuachi as a place of both local and regional significance, with individuals from distant parts of the Rio Grande de Nasca drainage travelling to and/or transporting the dead to the site for death or burial. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Morphology,palaeoecology and taphonomy of the Devonian mitrate Placocystella langei from Paraná Basin,Brazil

Sandro Marcelo Scheffler, Rodrigo Scalise, Horodyski & Elvio Pinto, Bosetti, 2018. Morphology, palaeoecology and taphonomy of the Devonian mitrate Placocystella langei from Paraná Basin, Brazil. Alcheringa 43, 228–240. ISSN 0311-5518.

The original holotype and paratypes of the stylophoran mitrate Placocystella langei (Echinodermata) are definitively lost. A neotype is designated here, based on new material collected in the marine Devonian strata of the Apucarana Sub-basin, Paraná, Brazil. Placocystella langei was the first species of Stylophora to be identified in Devonian basins from Brazil. Its range extends from the late Emsian to early Givetian. Taphonomic data indicate that P. langei specimens were preserved in a storm-influenced, transitional offshore environment, and that skeletal remains were few exposed at the water–sediment surface. Considering that the specimens do not exhibit evidence of reworking, it is possible that their final burial was rapid and definitive, which facilitated their almost complete preservation. Finally, taphonomic, diagenetic and sedimentologic data all suggest a shallow infaunal habit for Placocystella langei.

Sandro Marcelo Scheffler [schefflersm@mn.ufrj.br] Departamento de Geologia e Paleontologia, Laborat orio de Paleoinvertebrados (LAPIN), Museu Nacional—UFRJ, Parque Quinta da Boa Vista, s/n, São Cristóvão 20940040, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil; Rodrigo Scalise Horodyski* [rhorodyski@unisinos.br] Graduate Program in Geology, Vale do Rio dos Sinos University, Av. Unisinos, 950, Cristo Rei, 93022-000 São Leopoldo, RS, Brasil; Elvio Pinto Bosetti [elviobosetti@gmail.com] Departamento de Geociências, Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa, Av. Carlos Cavalcanti 9.500, Uvaranas, 84010-919, Ponta Grossa, Paran a, Brazil.     

Tewa Place Names for Early Habitation Sites in the Northern Rio Grande Valley,New Mexico

Place names have the potential to aid in the investigation of regional settlement histories because they reflect the importance of specific locations in the social or cultural memories of indigenous groups. Unique place names for ancient habitation sites such as villages or hamlets, i.e., those names for which there are no cognates in other languages, suggest that those ancient villages or hamlets still retain the names given to them by their original inhabitants. Here, we present Tewa place names for habitation sites identified archaeologically in the northern Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. The results of our study strongly suggest that the Tewa language was spoken in the northern Rio Grande Valley, specifically, within the southern Tewa Basin, as early as the Late Developmental period (a.d. 900–1200), thus challenging the currently well-accepted model postulating a Mesa Verde origin for the Tewa language and culture.     

The first fossil avian egg from Brazil

Marsola, J.C.A., Grellet-Tinner, G., Montefeltro, F.C., Sayão, J.M., Hsiou, A.S. & Langer, M.C., 2014. The first fossil avian egg from Brazil. Alcheringa 38, 563–567. ISSN 0311-5518.

In contrast to the rich record of eggs from non-avian dinosaurs, complete eggs attributable to Mesozoic birds are relatively scarce. Nevertheless, several well-preserved specimens have been discovered over the last three decades revealing functional and phylogenetic characters that shed light on the breeding strategies of extinct birds. Here we report the first fossil avian egg from Brazil, which was discovered in Upper Cretaceous strata of São Paulo in the southeastern part of the country. The taxonomic identity and structural features of the biomineralized tissues were determined using a combination of Scanning Electron Microscopy, Wave Dispersion Energy analyses and Computed Tomography. These show that the 125.5-μm-thick shell of the 31.4?×?19.5?mm egg incorporates three structural layers of similar thickness with both prismatic and aprismatic boundaries. Close similarity between the Brazilian bird egg and those of enantiornithines from the Upper Cretaceous Bajo de la Carpa Formation (Río Colorado Subgroup) of Argentina advocates affinity with basal Ornithothoraces. Furthermore, coherency of their depositional contexts might imply a compatible preference for breeding and nesting environments.

Júlio Cesar de A. Marsola [juliomarsola@gmail.com], Annie Schmaltz Hsiou [anniehsiou@ffclrp.usp.br] and Max C. Langer [mclanger@ffclrp.usp.br], Laboratório de Paleontologia de Ribeirão Preto, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Bandeirantes 3900, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo state, 14040-901, Brazil. Gerald Grellet-Tinner [locarnolugano@gmail.com], Centro Regional de Investigaciones La Rioja—Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Entre Ríos y Mendoza s/n, 5301 Anillaco, Argentina; Orcas Island Museum, PO Box 134, 181 North Beach Road, Eastsound, WA 98245. Felipe C. Montefeltro [felipecmontefeltro@gmail.com], Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Avenida 24A 1515, Rio Claro, São Paulo State, 13506-900, Brazil. Juliana M. Sayão [jmsayao@gmail.com], Laboratório de Diversidade do Nordeste, Núcleo de Biologia, Centro Acadêmico de Vitória, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Rua do Alto do Reservatório s/n, Bela Vista, Vitória de Santo Antão, Pernambuco state, 52050-480, Brazil. Received 18.12.2013; revised 30.4.2014; accepted 18.5.2014.     

John Shary,Charles Pease,and contested irrigation landscapes in early-twentieth-century South Texas

The paper contributes to notions of ‘hybrid’ historical geographies of irrigation by focusing on contested visions for irrigation in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Adding to geographical work using biography, notions of performance, and racialized landscapes, the paper analyzes debates between John Shary and Charles Pease. Shary and Pease were protagonists, respectively, of pumping water from the Rio Grande and a gravity scheme reliant on action by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The pumping system survived; the gravity system was never constructed. However, the debate between Shary and Pease illustrates tensions within the Anglo elite. The analysis focuses on three early-twentieth-century moments. The first is a 1918 crisis in Shary’s irrigation company, followed by a 1927 debate between Shary and Pease over the flaws of the pumping system and benefits of gravity irrigation. Finally, the paper focuses on Shary and Pease’s constructions of racialized landscapes that subordinated Hispanics as voters to be utilized for Shary’s accumulation strategy, or as ‘non-water users’ that should be excluded from water politics. The paper argues that Shary and Pease projected similarly exclusionary social visions onto the irrigated landscape in spite of their differences on irrigation systems.     

Sources of archaeological dacite in northern New Mexico

For years archaeologists in New Mexico, particularly in the northern Rio Grande region have noticed a very fine-grained what appeared to be mafic or basalt raw material source in late Paleoindian and Archaic contexts in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Indeed, a number of Folsom, Cody, Plainview, and Archaic bifaces are produced from this material. It appeared that there were at least two possible very fine-grained volcanics that could be the sources for these raw materials – San Antonio Mountain in far northern New Mexico, in the Taos Plateau Volcanic Field, and Cerros del Rio, on the east side of Bandelier National Monument right above the Rio Grande. After reconnaissance collections at the two probable sources, the short story is that the vast majority of “basalt” artifacts were indeed produced from one of these sources, but they are petrologically dacite and silicic volcanic rocks. An additional dacite source, called here the “Newman Dome”, also in the Taos Plateau Volcanic Field was discovered in the 1980s, but remained mainly discussed in the gray literature by CRM archaeologists. Examination of various Paleoindian and Archaic collections from the northern and middle Rio Grande indicates a strong preference for this silicic rock for the production of chipped stone tools, and in concert with obsidian source provenance studies has increased our ability to reconstruct procurement and range in these preceramic periods. These high-alkali dacite sources are easily discriminated with their trace element compositions, and based on this study, procurement seems to be dominantly restricted to these three sources in the region. Here I discuss the petrology, geochemistry, and some of the archaeological issues of these sources and their utility in the Southwest archaeological endeavor in an effort to bring these important prehistoric raw materials into the published realm.     

The Emergence of Kwahe’e Black-on-white pottery in the Tewa Basin,New Mexico

Despite the importance of ceramic typologies for defining archaeological cultures and making chronological inferences, the ceramic types comprising these typologies are not always well dated. Here, we present an analysis of radiocarbon dates generated from Accelerator Mass Spectrometry of corn remains found in association with Kwahe’e Black-on-white (Kwahe’e B/w) ceramics from the Tewa Basin of the Northern Rio Grande region of New Mexico in the American Southwest. This autochthonous ceramic type is the first in a cohesive lineage of decorated white wares known as the Rio Grande ceramic series. A Bayesian analysis of these dates yielded a 95% probability range of a.d. 975–1023 for the beginning temporal boundary marking the emergence of Kwahe’e B/w. This estimate for the chronological emergence of Kwahe’e B/w is at least 27 years earlier than previously demonstrated and appears to coincide with the initial population increase in the Tewa Basin during the Late Developmental period (a.d. 900–1200), and with the emergence of the Tewa language that is still spoken in the region.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: M. G. Wiltshire : Ascetic Figures Before and in Early Buddhism: The Emergence of Gautama the Buddha (Religion and Reason 30, gen. ed. J. Waardenburg) P. G. Griffiths , N. Hakamaya , J. P. Keenan and P. L. Swanson (eds and trans): The Realm of A wakening: A Translation of and Study of the Tenth Chapter of Asan̊ga's Mahay anasan̊graha. Graeme Clarke , Brian Croke , Alanna Emmett Nobbs and Raoul Mortley (eds): Reading the Past in Late Antiquity. Alister E. Mc Grath : Luther's Theology of the Cross: Martin Luther's Theological Breakthrough. Ian Tyrrell : Woman's World, Woman's Empire: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880–1930. Patricia Grimshaw : Paths of Duty. American Missionary Wives in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii Mary Zwiep : Pilgrim Path. The First Company of Women Missionaries to Hawaii John P. Maguire : Prologue: A History of the Catholic Church as Seen from Townsville 1863–1983. W. J. Lawton : The Better Time to Be: Utopian Attitudes to Society among Sydney Anglicans, 1885 to 1914. Madeleine Sophie Mc Grath : These Women? Women Religious in the History of Australia: The Sisters of Mercy Parramatta 1888–1988.     

Local recipes or distant commodities? Lead isotope and chemical compositional analysis of glaze paints from the Salinas pueblos,New Mexico

For nearly four hundred years, Pueblo potters in the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico produced technologically innovative glaze-decorated bowls and exchanged them widely among different villages. While potential sources of lead ores used to make glaze paints are found throughout the Rio Grande Valley region, researchers have only recently begun to identify which ore sources potters exploited and to understand the social and economic factors underlying patterns of ore resource use. In this paper we use stable lead isotope and electron microprobe analysis of glaze paints on Rio Grande Glaze Ware made at two Salinas pueblos to identify ore sources and glaze recipes used by their potters. Despite some isotopic overlap of ore sources, the lead isotope data point to regular exploitation of ores from the Socorro area of the southern Rio Grande. Salinas potters apparently used other sources as well, and likely mixed ores from different sources. We also identify four local glaze recipes that appear to incorporate multiple ore sources, suggesting that Salinas potters obtained raw ores rather than finished glaze paints.     

A new species of Scirrotherium Edmund & Theodor, 1997 (Xenarthra,Cingulata, Pampatheriidae) from the late Miocene of South America

Góis, F., Scillato-Yané, G.J., Carlini, A.A. & Guilherme, E. 2013. A new species of Scirrotherium Edmund & Theodor, 1997 (Xenarthra, Cingulata, Pampatheriidae) from the late Miocene of South America. Alcheringa 37, 175–186. ISSN 0311-5518.

A new species of Scirrotherium Edmund & Theodor (Pampatheriidae) is described: S. carinatum. This genus was previously represented by a single species, S. hondaensis Edmund & Theodor, 1997, recorded from the middle Miocene (Laventan) of Colombia. Pampathere remains are common in the ‘Conglomerado osífero’ (late Miocene) of the Ituzaingó Formation in the Paraná River cliffs of Entre Ríos, Chubut (Argentina) and Acre (Brazil). All of them were referred to Kraglievichia paranense, and they are mostly osteoderms. However, only a few of these specimens are strictly consistent with that species. The new species described herein differs from S. hondaensis in having very thin osteoderms with more elaborate ornamentation. The movable band (or imbricate) osteoderms have a sculptured exposed surface and a single transverse row of anterior foramina; the lateral margins are wider and also bear foramina, and the longitudinal central elevation is long and proximally wide, and forms a posteriorly raised crest. This elevation is delimited by a fairly broad and shallow depression on each side, separating the marginal elevation from the longitudinal central one. The exposed surfaces of fixed (or fused) osteoderms bear large and deep anterior foramina, the longitudinal central elevation and delimiting depressions are very pronounced. This new species increases the known diversity of the pampatheres from the ‘Conglomerado osífero’. Additionally, a new nomenclatural scheme for Pampatheriidae osteoderms is proposed.

Flávio Góis [goisf@fcnym]unlp.edu.ar], Gustavo Juan Scillato-Yané [scillato@fcnym.unlp.edu.ar], Alfredo Armando Carlini [acarlini@fcnym.unlp.edu.ar], Departamento Científico Paleontología Vertebrados, Museo de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque, s/n, 1900, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina and CONICET; Edson Guilherme [guilherme@ufac.br], Universidade Federal do Acre, Laboratório de Pesquisas Paleontológicas (LPP), BR 364, Km 04, 69.915-900. Rio Branco, AC, Brazil. Received 11.5.2012; revised 31.7.2012; accepted 4.9.2012 .     

Participation in Multiple Decision Making Water Governance Forums in Brazil Enhances Actors’ Perceived Level of Influence

The Ecology of Games Framework (EGF) draws attention to the intertwined nature of different forums in a given policy setting and how this affects governance outcomes. In this article, we associate the EGF with the literature on power asymmetries, in order to investigate hypotheses of actors’ perceived level of influence in a forum. Focusing on the Paraíba do Sul river basin committee in Brazil, we specifically explore actors’ participation in multiple forums, time spent participating in the basin committee, and actors’ degree of involvement in the committee as factors that might explain actors’ level of perceived influence in the forum. The findings suggest participation in multiple forums is a key driver of perceived influence and thus highlight a way to challenge traditional power asymmetries. More research, however, is needed to determine to what extent perceived influence is affecting decision‐making processes and governance outcomes in the Paraíba do Sul river basin committee.     

Taphonomy of Corumbella werneri from the Ediacaran of Brazil: sinotubulitid tube or conulariid test?

Walde, D.H.-G., Weber, B., Erdtmann, B.-D. & Steiner, M. 20 June 2019. Taphonomy of Corumbella werneri from the Ediacaran of Brazil: sinotubulitid tube or conulariid test? Alcheringa 43, 335–350. ISSN 0311-5518

The problematic late Ediacaran tubular fossil Corumbella werneri is revised based on two-dimensional compressions, and new three-dimensionally preserved specimens from the Tamengo Formation of the Corumbá Region in Mato Grosso do Sul, west-central Brazil. These fossils represent some of the oldest skeletonized metazoans and were originally described from diagenetically compacted tubes that prompted conflicting interpretations as either Ediacaran coronate scyphozoan exoskeletons, or conulariid tests. Our new material from Corumbá permits a morphological and taphonomic revision of C. werneri, which we suggest was probably a calcareous sinotubulitid. Corumbella werneri closely resembles the late Ediacaran Sinotubulites from South China, as well as the Silurian worm tube Eoalvinellodes, which has similar exterior ornamentation. Ultrastructurally, the tubes of C. werneri exhibit a coarse sparitic microtexture, which we attribute to diagenetic alteration. Partial flexibility also supports interpretation as an originally weakly calcified, or entirely organic exoskeleton. We therefore reject placement of C. werneri as a conulariid scyphozoan, and instead, advocate possible relationships with marine annelids.

Detlef Hans-Gert Walde [walde.detlef@gmail.com], University of Brasília, Institute of Geosciences, Brasília-DF, Brazil; Bernd Weber [bweber@zedat.fu-berlin.de], Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften, Malteserstr. 74–100, D-12249 Berlin, Germany; Bernd-D. Erdtmann [berni1739@gmail.com], 1165 N Mountain View Road, Apache Junction, AZ 85119, USA; *Michael Steiner [Michael.Steiner@FU-Berlin.de], Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften (Haus D), Malteserstr. 74–100, D-12249 Berlin, Germany.     

Between banality and effervescence?: a study of Japanese youth nationalism

The study of taken‐for‐granted nationalism has been bourgeoning in the last two decades. With Michael Billig's seminal thesis of banal nationalism, it is now more common to see those studies that focus on day‐to‐day unconscious flagging of national symbols in established (as opposed to new) nations. There are also studies that re‐emphasize Durkheimian moments of collective effervescence through ecstatic events (such as the Olympics and the Soccer World Cup) that concretize national identities. By critically engaging with these concepts, this exploratory study delves into the nature of Japanese youth nationalism. What are the sources of their national pride? How proud are they? Or, not? How do the Japanese youth perceive the national symbols such as the national flag and how is it related to the sense of nation?