Mapping colonial Quechua through trial interpretations in 17th-century Cajamarca

Andean linguistics has not determined the geographic extent in which Quechua was spoken in Peru's Cajamarca region during the colonial period. The debate centers on whether it ranged beyond where it is currently found in the ‘enclaves’ of Porcón and Chetilla. No previous systematic efforts have attempted to clarify this problem. Here, we seek to reconstruct 17th-century Quechua distribution using data from trial interpretations (oral language translations carried out during the testimonies) in the document series ‘Protector de Naturales' (‘Advocate of the Indians’), held in the Regional Archive of Cajamarca. We represent this data cartographically using the dot density map technique, a visualization method that allows us to conclude that in the 17th century Quechua covered a wider territory than that which is currently observed. We suggest that this method could be applied in other contexts, to increase knowledge of the historical distribution of indigenous languages in South America.     

Re-placing plainware: Production and distribution of domestic pottery,and the narration of the pre-colonial past in the Peruvian Andes

The location of domestic pottery production is central to archaeological narratives. Yet too often, unfounded assumptions are made about place of production, especially in relation to place(s) of distribution and use. Only rarely is this geography of production and distribution explored in detail and with perspective. Here, we investigate this problem in the context of the Peruvian Andes. We present the results of extensive ethnoarchaeological research on the manufacture of domestic vessels in over thirty villages with potters in Northern Peru. Drawing on the ethnographic concept of technical style, we identify three tendencies on the relationships between toolkits, manufacturing techniques, geographic units, and exchange. From these tendencies we develop two models of domestic pottery production and distribution: the local production model and the non-local production model, which are applied in analysis of archaeological materials. While this distinction is apparently simple, we demonstrate how the explicit or implicit use of each of these models has shaped some of the most important debates and issues in Andean archaeology. In sum, we explain how understandings of the manufacture, exchange, and use of plainware impacts narratives about the pre-colonial past.     

Does Patronage Still Drive Politics for the Rural Poor in the Developing World? A Comparative Perspective from the Livestock Sector

Is the analysis of patron–client networks still important to the understanding of developing country politics or has it now been overtaken by a focus on ‘social capital’? Drawing on seventeen country studies of the political environment for livestock policy in poor countries, this article concludes that although the nature of patronage has changed significantly, it remains highly relevant to the ways peasant interests are treated. Peasant populations were found either to have no clear connection to their political leaders or to be controlled by political clientage. Furthermore, communities ‘free’ of patron–client ties to the centre generally are not better represented by political associations but instead receive fewer benefits from the state. Nonetheless, patterns of clientage are different from what they were forty years ago. First, patronage chains today often have a global reach, through trade, bilateral donor governments and international NGOs. Second, the resources that fuel political clientage today are less monopolistic and less adequate to the task of purchasing peasant political loyalty. Thus the bonds of patronage are less tight than they were historically. Third, it follows from the preceding point and the greater diversity of patrons operating today that elite conflicts are much more likely to create spaces in which peasant interests can eventually be aggregated into autonomous associations with independent political significance in the national polity. NGOs are playing an important role in opening up this political space although at the moment, they most often act like a new type of patron.     

Landscape and Social Relations at Charleston Townhouse Sites (1770–1850)

Restoration projects at Charleston townhouse properties, both public and private, have provided opportunities for archaeological exploration on a variety of scales. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, these properties were the homes of wealthy planters and merchants and enslaved African Americans, who lived and worked in the service buildings and work yard. The inter-dependence of these diverse occupants, their daily affairs, and the landscape elements under their purview has been revealed in the research of scholars from a host of disciplines, including archaeology. Townhouse compounds included support structures and activity areas required to meet the range of daily life affairs, from the necessary to the luxurious. While the front of the house, and the formal garden, presented a well-ordered façade, the work yard housed the facilities for the necessities of daily life, in an often dirty, noisy, and unordered space. The deliberate separation of space and placement of specialized service buildings and their occupants created an urban landscape suitable to the social values, as well as physical needs, of the townhouse owners. Thus, owner and slave lived in a compound that was physically close, but socially distinct. Archaeological case studies are used here to explore the racial power dynamics embodied in the urban townhouse landscape. The archaeological mixing of material from master and slave is, however, a material reflection of the racial power dynamics played out in constricted urban spaces.     

REVIEW

Colonialism's Culture: Anthropology, Travel and Government. By Nicholas Thomas. Polity Press (Allen & Unwin Australia), 1994. Pp. Xi+238. Au$29.95     

A palaeotemperature record for the Finnish Lakeland based on microdensitometric variations in tree rings

X-ray based tree-ring data of maximum latewood densities (MXD) was combined for south-eastern Finland. This data originated from subfossil and modern pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) materials comprising a continuous dendroclimatic record over the past millennium. Calibrating and verifying the MXD chronologies against the instrumental temperature data showed a promising opportunity to reconstruct warm-season (May through September) temperature variability. A new palaeotemperature record correlated statistically significantly with the long instrumental temperature records in the region and adjacent areas since the 1740s. Comparisons with tree-ring based (MXD and tree-ring width) reconstructions from northern Fennoscandia and northern Finland exhibited consistent summer temperature variations through the Medieval Climate Anomaly, Little Ice Age, and the 20^th century warmth. A culmination of the LIA cooling during the early 18^th century appeared consistently with the Maunder Minimum, when the solar activity was drastically reduced. A number of coolest reconstructed events between AD 1407 and 1902 were coeval to years of crop failure and famine as documented in the agro-historical chronicles. Results indicate an encouraging possibility of warm-season temperature reconstructions using middle/south boreal tree-ring archives to detail and enhance the understanding of past interactions between humans, ecosystems and the earth.     

The International Affairs interview

In this the first of a regular series of interviews to appear in International Affairs , Peter Hain, Leader of the House of Commons, talks to Martha Kearney, Political Editor of BBC television's Newsnight about Britain's role in the Convention on the Future of Europe. He talks of the vision Europe can offer to the world, describing it as one of 'progressive internationalism … regulated by multilateral agreements', and the idea of Europe as a union of nation-states rather than a Brussels-based superstate. Key issues facing Europe such as enlargement, qualified majority voting and security and defence are also included in this incisive discussion.