Horticulturists and oxygen ecozones in the tropical and subtropical forests of Southeast South America

We analyse the isotopic values (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N) of the diet of pre-Columbian horticulturalist populations from tropical and subtropical areas of southeastern South America, belonging to the Guarani and Taquara archaeological units. The data indicate different trends in each one (T?=?4.21; P?=?0.0004), showing a mixed diet with maize consumption in the Guarani samples (δ¹³C_co?=??15.5?±?1.8‰; δ¹³C_ap ?10.4?±?0.8‰) and a depleted one in the Taquara ones (δ¹³C_co ?18.2?±?1.7‰; δ¹³C_ap ?11.9?±?0.9‰), with a significant internal dispersion in both populations. The first population has higher nitrogen values (δ¹⁵N 11.1?±?0.6‰) compared to the Taquara samples (δ¹⁵N 9.3?±?1‰), suggesting a more carnivorous diet. The recognition of these pre-Columbian mixed diets involves the identification of maize cultivation on the Atlantic side of the southernmost area of South America (Parana Delta, 34° SL). Through the analysis of δ¹⁸O we have identified two isotopic ecozones, the first along the Paraná River Valley, with an average value of δ¹⁸O ?3.7?±?0.5‰ (CV?=?13.5%; CI?=??3.83 / ?3.16), and the second one, located in the Planalto of southern Brazil (Araucaria Forest), with a mean value of δ¹⁸O ?1.5?±?0.3‰ (CV?=?16.5%; CI?=??1.69 / ?1.29). The isotopic data (δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N and δ¹⁸O) suggest human movements between these two ecozones.     

Altamira 1937: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Grotta Aperta—</Emphasis>Conflict Archaeology of a World Heritage Cave

This article addresses the dark and barely known side of one of the most iconic symbols of Spanish heritage: the Palaeolithic cave of Altamira (region of Cantabria). The cave is a benchmark of European rock art and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985. Access to the cave’s guestbook (inaugurated on 18 August 1928 with King Alfonso XIII’s signature) has granted us the opportunity to deconstruct the hegemonic discourse therein, and to approach a time, the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), which had been left almost without discussion in historical literature on the archaeological site. Conflict Archaeology can cast light on this unknown reality and raise controversial and contentious issues about the Altamira cave and its role as a wartime cultural asset during the war.     

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.     

Modern roads as UNESCO World Heritage sites: framework and proposals

There has been noticeable development in the protection of linear infrastructure by UNESCO, whether on its cultural, technological or historical merits. However, with the exception of other means of transport incorporated within the field of industrial archaeology or recognised by the CIIC under the category of cultural routes, little or no consideration has been given to roads built from the mid-eighteenth century to the early part of the twentieth century. In view of this situation, this paper has the following aims. Firstly, to define the concept of ‘modern road’ and provide a brief analysis of the historical development and current situation of the same. Secondly, to assess the main contributions made to date regarding the heritage dimension of modern roads. Thirdly, to reconstruct the process of defining linear cultural landscapes, historic transportation corridors, cultural routes and heritage canals, railways and roads, in accordance with the considerations raised by ICOMOS and UNESCO. Finally, to contribute to the debate on the definition, characterisation and assessment of modern roads as world heritage assets, both intrinsically and in relation to established heritage categories.     

Writing on the edge: the poet,the printer,and the colonial frontier in Ercilla’s La Araucana (1569–1590)

It took Alonso de Ercilla (1533–1594) thirty years to finish La Araucana, a first-person narrative epic poem about the brutal war of Arauco, in southern Chile, and one of the most canonical texts of colonial Latin America. By focusing on a crucial episode of Ercilla's eyewitness account, this essay revisits a number of scholarly discussions that have been central for our understanding of the text. First, it takes into consideration previous scholarship overlooked by specialists, as well as hitherto unstudied copies of the poem, in order to offer a thorough reevaluation of the textual and editorial history of the poem. Moreover, it explores the frontier as a chronotope and as a locus of enunciation for colonial epic, a space that is also crucial for Ercilla's carefully crafted authorial persona. Finally, it interrogates the ways in which the discursive representations of colonial frontier spaces were mediated by the material practices of early modern book production, arguing for a more fruitful relation between ecdotics and poetics, between material bibliography and theories of authorship and textuality in our approaches to colonial texts.     

Revuelta plebeya,conciencia criolla y reivindicación jesuita: política y gobernanza en la Historia del Reino de Quito,de Juan de Velasco

Este artículo propone una lectura de la Historia del Reino de Quito en la América Meridional (1789), de Juan de Velasco, a partir de las ideas políticas y jurídicas de su autor. Sugiere abordar el tomo tercero de la Historia no solamente como un relato del declive social y económico que aqueja a la Audiencia de Quito, sino como un comentario a la crisis de gobernanza que, según Velasco, inicia con el ascenso de los Borbones al trono. La incapacidad jurídica de controlar la mestización de la sociedad y las desacertadas políticas de las autoridades peninsulares, resultan en la Rebelión de los Barrios de Quito, episodio que representa el clímax de las penurias que atraviesa el Reino y que le permite a Velasco cuestionar el modelo de gobierno establecido por los reformistas ilustrados, abogar por la necesidad de un gobierno criollo y restaurar la desgastada imagen de la Compañía de Jesús.     

The voices of female pilgrims in medieval wills. The Jacobean devotion in Apulia (Italy)

The main topic of this study is to contribute to the study of female sacred mobility in the Middle Ages by proposing a new approach for the analysis of historical sources (wills and bequests), combining quantitative and qualitative methodology. We have set three aims: (1) Reinforcing the female presence within historical documents through their empirical analysis; (2) Reflecting upon female participation in the public sphere; (3) Investigating women’s agency in religious terms. Concerning the geographical context of the research, the historical sources have been retrieved from the Historical Archives of the Italian Region of Apulia (Italy); where we have studied the above mentioned topics in relation to the devotion to St. James (Spain). The first part of the article introduces female mobility to the city of Santiago de Compostela; then, it moves to the forms of devotion to the Apostle St. James the Greater and female pilgrims in Apulia. The present empirical study has the differential to propose a transversal interpretation of the selected historical texts according to the following criteria: (1) Devotion to the Apostle St. James the Greater (2) Female devotion. As well as reinforcing the use of these historical documents to investigate female social behaviour, the research contributes to the study of the female role within the geography of pilgrimage in the following terms: sacred mobility; territorial history and experiential and devotional value.     

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.     

Topoiesis del espacio textual

ABSTRACT

The concept of topoiesis of textual space addresses an analysis of the spatial elements that tend to provide a meaning to the literary text. Based on textual semiotics where there is an organized relational system of meanings, in this article we propose that it is possible to determine the function of space as a meaning issue from three different literary text instances (event or motive; character; and object). This distinction will permit a deeper interpretation of the sense of space in the literary text.