“El plato ma´s sabroso”: Eucaristı´a,plagio diabo´lico,y la traduccio´n criolla del canı´bal

Canibalia El canibalismo ha sido un concepto fundamental en la definicio´n de la identidad cultural latinoamericana desde las primeras visiones europeas del “Nuevo Mundo” como monstruoso y salvaje, hasta las narrativas y produccio´n cultural del siglo XX en las que el can?´bal se ha re-definido de diversas maneras en relacio´n con la construccio´n de identidades (pos)coloniales y “posmodernas” y ha ocupado numerosos debates acade´micos. La presencia constante y a la vez mutante del canibalismo, as?´ como su centralidad en discursos de alteridad/identidad lo hace un tropo axial de la representacio´n e imaginacio´n de la identidad cultural latinoamericana. El can?´bal es—pudiera decirse—un signo o cifra de la anomal?´a y alteridad de Ame´rica al mismo tiempo que de su adscripcio´n perife´rica a Occidente. El presente ensayo se refiere a diferentes escenarios histo´ricos y articulaciones discursivas en las que dicha adscripcio´n ano´mala ocurre durante los siglos XVI y XVII, y en los que el canibalismo no so´lo fue un dispositivo generador de alteridad, sino tambie´n un tropo cultural de reconocimiento.     

Reduction of topography effect in inductive electromagnetic profiles: application on coastal sambaqui (shell mound) archaeological site in Santa Catarina state, Brazil

We present results of electrical conductivity profiles obtained with inductive electromagnetic geophysical method in Santa Marta archaeological site, Santa Catarina State, southern Brazil. This site is a sambaqui (shell mound), in which several human occupation remains are found during pre-colonial period such as buried lithic and bone artifacts, fire-place, etc. Most of these mounds include as well many human burials, which, in many cases, point to funerary ritual as a main agency for mound building. A set of profiles of apparent electrical conductivity and magnetic susceptibility was acquired in two sites aiming the identification of geophysical anomalies with potential interest for excavation. To enhance conductivity data, we applied an effective procedure to remove topographical effects in the apparent conductivity measurements, which are rather conditioned by the presence of a variable water table depth or conductive sediment layer. A linear dependence among conductivity values and the site elevation provided a simple linear model to remove the influence of topography. Corrected electric conductivity maps substantially improved the definition of anomalies, many of them rather subtle in raw data images. Corrected maps also show a better adherence with magnetic susceptibility maps, both of them identifying archaeological structures of interest: a well-structured fire-place and a concentration of ceramic fragments.     

Vices Are Not What They Used To Be: The Archaeological Importance of the Term “Vices” in Argentinean Historical Military Documents of the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

This article characterizes the sense and use of the word vicios (vices) in historical documents in nineteenth-century Argentina. The term was frequently used among soldiers, indigenous people, and criollos who occupied the border. The “vices” consisted of a range of highly appreciated edible goods (including tobacco, yerba mate [Ilex paraguariensis], and sugar). Documentary sources do not agree what products fall under the term vicios. We propose some archaeological expectations with regard to each of these products.     

Reaction to Fire of Existing Timber Elements Protected With Fire Retardant Treatments: Experimental Assessment

Fire safety is an important issue of building safety, especially when the building’s fire load contents enhance the risks of fire deflagration. When existing timber structures are involved, the most usual way to improve its reaction to fire is to treat wood with fire retardants. This study focuses on the surface protection of existing timber roof structures against fire, through the use of fire retardant (FR) treatments applied on site. An experimental investigation was carried out to study the effect of FR treatments on timber reaction to fire, with a special emphasis on timber members with biological deterioration and previously treated with preservative products. The behaviour and effectiveness of intumescent and non-intumescent treatments was also investigated. The study showed that the application of FR treatments improved the reaction to fire of timber, even in the presence of previous preservative treatments. However, the choice of the specific FR treatment should take into account the substrate conditions. In addition, test results suggest that protection systems involving multi layers (intumescent and non-intumescent) with different functioning modes each are likely to have a good global performance on the protection of timber elements against fire.     

Cultural networks between Portugal and Brazil: a postcolonial review

This paper aims to study notable examples of transatlantic transmissions of norms, beliefs and values that have revised the sense of a Luso-Brazilian community in a global world. The so-called Atlantic Civilization understood before as essentially Anglo-Saxon, takes a new shape when seen by the South Atlantic. If the historical relationship between Portugal and Brazil was one of colonial containment, since the nineteenth century those bilateral relations have passed through a process of reconciliation and networking – first through a mutual acceptance, then through the establishment of common international goals. On the one hand, this networking between Portugal and Brazil has occurred through public symbolic demonstration and the commemoration of a common culture; on the other hand, this networking has evolved through cultural connections – music, literature, and cinema, – all of which serve to validate a postcolonial review. Cultural connections that have survived the proverbial test of time have proven to be valuable in assessing the evolving relationship between Portugal and Brazil. Therefore, the Brazilian conscientiousness of its importance in the regional and world sphere involved the preparation of a Brazilian cultural diplomacy that recognized the political desire of diplomacy between Portugal and Brazil – a diplomacy that is largely demonstrative of the importance of soft power in a world of global networks.     

«Une mission glorieuse et profitable» réforme missionnaire et économie sucrière dans la province jésuite du Brésil au début du XVIIe siècle

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Jesuit province of Brazil is affected by tensions which reveal the complexity of its relation both with the colonial society and with the Roman center of the order. The paper is focused on an exceptional and original document about which nothing is clearly identified (author, date), theAdvertências para a província do Brasil. It allows a precise analysis of the missionary enterprise, as an economico-political experience (the Jesuits become one of the most important sugar producers of the country), and as a spiritual experience (through the salvation of the missionaries and the conversion of the Indians). This document is centered on thealdeia which is described as the main structure for the action of the Jesuits in Brazil. In that way, it reveals a global vision of the mission, geopolitical, economical and religious, which has systematically been overshadowed by the traditional historiography, whose approach of the missionary phenomenon was exclusively spiritual.     

An Ancient and Common Tradition: Funerary Rituals and Society in Equatorial Guinea (First–Twelfth Centuries ad)

In this article, we present the results of the 2011 field season at the Iron Age burial site of Nandá, on the Island of Corisco, located between Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. The excavations followed a survey conducted in 2009, which evinced the extraordinary interest of the site and suggested its funerary nature. The excavations documented three levels of occupation belonging to two different phases, which are known in the region as Oveng (ad 1–600) and Group II (ad 600–1100). The first phase was characterized by secondary burials with rich metallic offerings, which were sealed by a settlement at the end of the period; the second phase witnessed the establishment of a large burial site with primary interments. Similar burials are known from Cameroon and Gabon, but the number of features identified at Nandá and the funerary sequence are quite unique in the region. Here, the evidence will be interpreted in light of Jan Vansina’s theories, where he postulates a common political tradition in Equatorial Africa from which later developments stem.     

Cajal's Views on the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine (October 1904)

In this report we present and discuss an unpublished letter written by Santiago Ramón y Cajal in October 1904 in relation to his possible nomination for the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. This letter shows that Cajal was aware of his previous nominations for the Prize. He was convinced that these nominations had not been successful because neither anatomy nor histology were among the sciences included in the Nobel Statutes' definition of Physiology or Medicine. He gives a list of the merits he thought might be used for a new nomination, which included only works concluded during the previous five years.