The Archaeology of the Gaucho <Emphasis Type="Italic">“Vago y Mal</Emphasis><Emphasis Type="Italic">Entretenido”</Emphasis>

The purpose of this article is to explain and discuss the essential operational characteristics of the technology of power (sensu Foucault) perpetrated on the internal frontiers with the Indians in nineteenth-century Argentina. The conquest and colonization of the Pampas took shape in the establishment of military camp structures placed to create a defensive cordon, known as “the Indian frontier line.” These constructions were fortlets defended by gaucho cavalry squadrons (know as Blandengues during the Spanish period, and then Guardias Nacionales after Argentinean Independence). This process is known in Argentinean historiography as “the conquest of the desert.” This particular technology of power existed in this historical context and operated at every social level, impacting strongly on the lower classes that inhabited the incorrectly named “desert.” Its implementation in the military field enabled the existence of an array of micro-powers that surrounded the gaucho, called vago y malentretenido—“a vagrant and lingerer”—and their women's lives. The army as institution was the locus of various forms of coercion and old forms of punishment (such as the stakes, whipping, and public executions) most of which affected peasants, nonresidents, itinerant workers, and the rural youth. This schema was adopted in different areas: in the enrolment and discipline of the gaucho soldiers, in life in the fortlet-prisons, and in the ritualism of power. The alternative chosen by soldiers to evade this technology of power and the fortlet-panopticons was escape through desertion. The utility of those observations is demonstrated, because an important part of the area of research of historical archaeology that has developed with the greatest impetus in Argentina has taken fortlets as its subject of study.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Corrales de Indios</Emphasis> (Lithic Structures) in Tandilia,Argentina: A Global Study

In the central-southeastern area of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, lies a mountainous area of low height in Tandilia that contains important outcrops of quartzite and granite. A large number of buildings are made of massive blocks of rock, some of them with a surface of over 1 ha. In addition to these completely artificial constructions are other structures that are semi-natural, having been made in places with special topographical characteristics and complemented with dry-stone walls. Scanty written documents allow us to attribute some of the constructions to an age before the permanent settlement of the Creole population. In the Tandilia Sierras these structures are commonly known as “corrales de indios” (Indian corrals). This designation involves a double prejudice with regard to function and cultural affiliation. Out of a total of 22 structures, we analyze a group of 4 that were excavated to use to review the written documents.     

The Spatial Distribution of the Internet in the European Union: Does Geographical Proximity Matter?

This paper examines the spatial distribution of the Internet in the European regions. To achieve this aim, our analysis combines a set of non-parametric techniques proposed in the context of the economic growth literature, with various spatial econometric instruments. The results reveal that regional disparities in Internet adoption are greater than territorial inequalities in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. In addition, our findings show that the distribution under consideration is characterized by the presence of positive spatial dependence, which implies that physically adjacent regions register a similar degree of Internet adoption. Finally, the analysis carried out allows us to assess the role played by variables such as GDP per capita, unemployment rate, stock of human capital and population density, in explaining the spatial distribution of the Internet in the European Union.     

External Ties and the Reduction of Knowledge Asymmetries among Clusters within Global Value Chains: The Case of the Ceramic Tile District of Castellon

Classical industrial districts' literature is not focused on the role played by external ties but gives more importance to the local districts' endogenous development. Global value chains connect clusters to other external agents through external linkages and constitute a framework to analyse the complex inter-linkages between clusters and other external agents. In the field of the external ties and the global value chain approach Academia is primarily focused on the ties which link clusters in developing nations to global markets, although global value chains also consider connections between clusters in similar activities and even when both are located in developed nations. Thus, external linkages are mainly performed by multinational enterprise (MNE) affiliates which play fundamental role of knowledge diffusers and absorbers in the process of knowledge exchange throughout global value chains. The work examines the process of knowledge exchange between clusters through external ties using the global value chain approach. For this purpose, empirical work is conducted with 22 face-to-face interviews to provide a case study about a leading cluster in the global ceramic tile industry. Results show that the basic knowledge to successfully compete is locally originated, although it can be complemented with global knowledge learnt or generated in other territories. MNE affiliates bridge structural holes through external ties and reduce knowledge asymmetries within global value chains. External ties on network-based governance chains exist, matter and affect clusters allowing upgrading even between developed nations.     

Same island, different diet: Cultural evolution of food practice on Öland, Sweden, from the Mesolithic to the Roman Period

The Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in north-west Europe has been described as rapid and uniform, entailing a swift shift from the use of marine and other wild resources to domesticated terrestrial resources. Here, we approach the when, what and how of this transition on a regional level, using empirical data from Öland, an island in the Baltic Sea off the Swedish east coast, and also monitor changes that occurred after the shift. Radiocarbon dating and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of bones and teeth from 123 human individuals, along with faunal isotope data from 27 species, applying to nine sites on Öland and covering a time span from the Mesolithic to the Roman Period, demonstrate a great diversity in food practices, mainly governed by culture and independent of climatic changes. There was a marked dietary shift during the second half of the third millennium from a mixed marine diet to the use of exclusively terrestrial resources, interpreted as marking the large-scale introduction of farming. Contrary to previous claims, this took place at the end of the Neolithic and not at the onset. Our data also show that culturally induced dietary transitions occurred continuously throughout prehistory. The availability of high-resolution data on various levels, from intra-individual to inter-population, makes stable isotope analysis a powerful tool for studying the evolution of food practices.     

Morphological taphonomic transformations of fossil bones in continental environments,and repercussions on their chemical composition

The aim of this paper is to provide a summary of structural or surface modifications of vertebrate bone remains in continental palaeoenvironments that may have repercussions on their chemical composition. Both before and after burial, a different set of physical, chemical and biological agencies may produce modifications of the bone morphological structure and/or bone chemical composition. Several of these morphological modifications are diagnostic of particular agents, which otherwise may not be noticed or identified in a fossil association. In order to understand diagenesis, those events that occurred before final burial have to be considered, as they may strongly modify the bone morphological structure and influence post–burial changes.     

A new synthesis: Resituating approaches to the evolution of human behaviour

Most anthropologists would agree that humans are simultaneously historical, biological, behavioral, and social. However, many researchers retain a relatively dualistic paradigm dividing anthropological questions into biological and/or social aspects. Many practitioners of Neo-Darwinian perspectives prioritize natural selection in all explanations of human evolution. Many other anthropologists refuse to acknowledge a significant role for biological features and biological histories in human action, sensation, and engagement. Both perspectives are misplaced. Incorporating emerging perspectives in evolutionary theory into the broader anthropological discourse may help discard simplistic dualisms and resituate our assessments of the evolution of human behavior. In this essay I review three major emergent themes in evolutionary theory; Multi-Inheritance Systems Theory, Developmental Systems Theory, and Niche Construction. I suggest, with one brief example, that placing these elements in transaction with other perspectives in anthropology might enhance the possibilities of assessing human evolution and behavior.     

Three-dimensional cranial shape analyses and gene flow in North Africa during the Middle to Late Holocene

Archaeological evidence shows that populations used to transverse the Sahara Desert throughout the Holocene despite the extreme temperatures and the rough physical terrain. The current paper examines whether the desert inhibited extended gene flow among populations by means of cranial morphology as captured by geometric morphometrics. The examined populations include the Garamantes, a group centered in Southwest Libya and largely controlling trans-Saharan trade, and various Egyptian, Tunisian and Sudanese groups dating to the Middle and Late Holocene. The results showed that most inter-population comparisons were statistically significant and therefore all populations appear more or less distant to each other. The Mahalanobis biodistance measure identified four clusters. The first consists of the Garamantes alone, the second includes the populations from Kerma and Gizeh, the third includes the Badari and Naqada, while the fourth consists of the samples from Algeria, Carthago, Soleb and Alexandria. Moreover, the distance of the Garamantes to their neighbors was significantly high and the population appeared to be an outlier. This is attributed to the location of the Garamantes at the core of the desert, indicating that, despite the archaeological evidence, the Sahara Desert posed important limitations to gene flow between the Garamantes and other North African populations.