The Qhapaq Ñan Project: A Critical View

The Qhapaq-Ñan Project promotes the integration of shared cultural values among six countries: Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. These countries are collaborating to nominate the Main Andean Road or “Qhapaq-Ñan” for inclusion on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Although the participants envision local and Indian communities as the true beneficiaries of the project, and the archaeological effort is already under way, communities associated with the road have not been involved. (At the very moment we are editing this article (March 2007) Argentina is holding the first meeting about a project that is already five years old, with some of the Indian communities of the territories where the project will be carried out. The participation, however, was far below what we expected.). Following the guidelines of the World Archaeological Congress and the current emphasis of many heritage professionals on community participation, we strongly advise that these dynamics must be changed and that the program must be developed jointly with affected communities from the beginning of the project and not in subsequent steps, or (even worse) once the project already taken shape.     

THE EFFECT OF ACCESSIBILITY ON PRODUCTIVITY IN SPANISH MANUFACTURING FIRMS

This paper evaluates the impact of accessibility on the productivity of Spanish manufacturing firms. We suggest the use of accessibility indicators of workers and commodities, integrating transport, land use, and individual components, computing real distances or traveling times using the Spanish full road network. Estimated firms’ total factor productivity is explained as a function of the accessibility indicators and additional control variables. Results evidence the crucial role on firms’ productivity to the accessibility of commodities and to a slightly lesser extent the workers.     

First record of a fossil selenariid bryozoan in South America

López-Gappa, J., Pérez, L.M. & Griffin, M. February 2017. First record of a fossil selenariid bryozoan in South America. Alcheringa XX, xxx-xxx. ISSN 0311-5518.

Selenariidae Busk 1854 (Bryozoa) is considered endemic to Australia and New Zealand. Here we describe a new species of Selenaria Busk 1854 from the lower Miocene Monte León Formation (Patagonia, Argentina). Selenaria lyrulata sp. nov. is characterized by autozooids with a lyrula-like, anvil-shaped cryptocystal denticle, opesiular indentations and lateral condyles, as well as avicularia with a shield of fused costae. This is the first record of a selenariid bryozoan in South America.

Juan López-Gappa [lgappa@macn.gov.ar] CONICET—Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales. Av. Ángel Gallardo 470, C1405DJR, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Leandro Martín Pérez [pilosaperez@gmail.com] and Miguel Griffin [patagonianoyster@gmail.com], CONICET—División Paleozoología Invertebrados, Museo de La Plata. Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900FWA, La Plata, Argentina.     

Las estrategias del juego áulico en las comedias mitológicas de Calderón de la Barca

This article studies the particular case of the mythological plays of Calderón that form a cohesive and recognizable set of works in certain circumstances. This kind of comedy is modulated by specific issues of reception, under the dominant global principle of playfulness, through the mechanisms of admiratio, and different strategies of courtly game that can be summarized in four basic areas: conventional comicity, the writing of a theater full of sensorismo, the importance of the intellect games, and finally, the strategies to point identity marks of a particular social group.     

Trade and Power in Ancient Egypt: Middle Egypt in the Late Third/Early Second Millennium BC

Middle Egypt provides a unique insight into the organization of power, politics, economy, and culture at the turn of the third millennium BC. The apparently easy integration of this region into the reunified monarchy of king Mentuhotep II (2055–2004 BC) was possible because the interests and the local lineages of potentates were preserved. Trade and access and/or control of international exchange networks were important sources of wealth and power then. And Middle Egypt appears as a crossroads of diverse populations, as a hub of political and economic power, as a crucial node of exchanges through the Nile Valley, and as a power center whose rulers provided support to the monarchy in exchange of local autonomy and considerable political influence at the Court. In the new conditions of early second millennium, potentates from Middle Egypt succeeded in occupying a unique advantageous position, not matched elsewhere in Egypt, because of the concentration of wealth, trade routes, new technologies, political power, and autonomy in the territories they ruled.     

Religious Transformations in the Middle Ages: Towards a New Archaeological Agenda

UNDERSTANDING RELIGIOUS CHANGE between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the Reformation forms one of the cornerstones of medieval archaeology, but has been riven by period, denominational, and geographical divisions. This paper lays the groundwork for a fundamental rethink of archaeological approaches to medieval religions, by adopting an holistic framework that places Christian, pagan, Islamic and Jewish case studies of religious transformation in a long-term, cross-cultural perspective. Focused around the analytical themes of ‘hybridity and resilience’ and ‘tempo and trajectories’, our approach shifts attention away from the singularities of national narratives of religious conversion, towards a deeper understanding of how religious beliefs, practices and identity were renegotiated by medieval people in their daily lives.     

Bayle’s political doctrine: a proposal to articulate tolerance and sovereignty

ABSTRACT

For most interpreters of the philosopher from Rotterdam, his political doctrine is solely a consequence of his religious and moral doctrines, and so an image of Bayle as a political philosopher is not usually presented. To my mind, however, only by analyzing his political doctrine can the extent of his religious proposal be understood. In this article, I intend to show that both the Baylean criticism of popular sovereignty and his rejection of the right of resistance are analyses that are indissociable from the Baylean doctrine of tolerance. The protection of individual freedom of conscience and the defense of a multi-confessional state model, tolerant regarding religious minorities, can only be articulated as historical reality if they rest on the political doctrine of indivisible sovereignty and on the strictest separation between political obedience and religious membership.     

社区居家养老服务条件与质量:基于成都市的调查数据

本文针对成都市的相关数据,建立评价指标体系,对成都市社区居家养老服务条件和质量问题进行了评价。分析表明,该市社区居家养老服务机构的政府资助力度在逐渐扩大,但经营成本、养老服务功能的健全程度、与老年人的精神文化生活的实际需求是否吻合等一些问题,依然是影响这类地区社区居家养老服务质量提高的重要因素。     

Processes of Formation and Alteration of Archaeological Fire Structures: Complexity Viewed in the Light of Experimental Approaches

The aim of this article is to present an experimental approach for studying the formation and transformation processes of archaeological fire structures. We present a synthetic review of our experimental project, which was developed in many different natural archaeological contexts. We report the results and problems associated with experimental fires lit on different kinds of soils and in different environments, followed by the observation of natural and anthropic transformations. Finally, we analyse the nature and significance of these results for the archaeological interpretation process, while describing some general trends and showing the complexity of the approach.