Orinoquia: The Archaeology of the Orinoco River Basin

Orinoquia is one of the most important riverine ecosystems complexes of the world. However, it has been seldom recognized as an ecological or historical entity in general accounts of South American archaeology. This essay reviews systematically and comparatively the archaeology of Orinoquia, by discussing research done from the 1940s onwards in all the areas of the Orinoco Basin: the Andes, the plains or llanos, the Orinoco river proper, the highlands of Guayana, and the Delta. It is proposed that, in the last 20 years, there has been a sustained movement away from a traditional archaeology, concerned mostly with environmental determinism and cultural history, to new and pluralistic models that share, in spite of their diversity, a regional, long-term, and multidisciplinary approach.     

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.     

The Alliance for Progress and President João Goulart’s Three-Year Plan: the deterioration of U.S.-Brazilian Relations in Cold War Brazil (1962)

This paper analyses U.S.-Brazilian relations during the elaboration of João Goulart’s Three-Year Plan in late 1962, which sought to tackle Brazil’s severe economic imbalances without compromising growth and through the implementation of distributive reforms. Although the plan followed the principles of John F. Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress, Washington did not offer adequate assistance because of Goulart’s threats to increase links with the Soviet bloc. The United States hardened its position, seeking to change the orientation of the Brazilian government. This led to the abandonment of the Three-Year Plan, and contributed to social and political destabilisation that resulted in Brazil’s March 1964 military coup.     

We will be known by the tracks we leave behind: Exotic lithic raw materials,mobility and social networking among the Côa Valley foragers (Portugal)

The aim of this study is to establish different socio-cultural models based on lithic raw material sourcing integrated with regional rock art distributions to infer social behaviours within the context of central Iberian Upper Palaeolithic societies. Specifically, we focus on Upper Palaeolithic hunter–gatherer mobility and social interaction in the Côa Valley. This study relies on a knowledge of regional geology and field work to identify the sources of the lithic raw material found at Côa Valley Upper Palaeolithic sites. We expose the context of use and discard of flint, which is naturally absent from the region, and other local materials. From this, we present a GIS based analysis concerning space, time and least-cost paths travelled. This analysis, along with the environmental data available, forms a baseline to evaluate different anthropological models on hunter–gatherer lithic use, mobility, and social networks. We conclude with a three-level model for social interaction, in the context of aggregation activities between different social meta-groups, which involves embedded procurement, long-distance raw material exchange, and symbolic community, reflected in the largest known open-air Upper Palaeolithic rock art concentration.     

THE EVOLUTION OF U.S. CITY SIZE DISTRIBUTION FROM A LONG‐TERM PERSPECTIVE (1900–2000)*

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the evolution of city size distribution in the United States throughout the twentieth century. It tests the validity of two empirical regularities studied in urban economics: Zipf's law (the rank‐size rule), and Gibrat's law, or the law of proportionate growth. The main contribution of this work is the use of a new database with information on all the cities (understood as incorporated places), without size restrictions. Our results enable us to confirm that Gibrat's law holds (weakly), and that Zipf's law holds only if the sample is sufficiently restricted at the top, not for a larger sample.     

Don Juan antes que Tenorio: El aprendizaje teatral de José Zorrilla en Juan Dandolo

In 1839 José Zorrilla premiered his first play, Juan Dandolo, written in collaboration with Antonio García Gutiérrez. This article analyzes aspects of this drama that prelude those in his best-known work,Don Juan Tenorio: playwriting, dramatic conception of the work, and the characterization of one of its leading men, Jacobo Dagolino.     

El rito bautismal y las imágenes pintadas en la iglesia de Curahuara de Carangas

In the baptistery of the church of Santiago de Curahuara de Carangas, built at the end of the 16th century, a complex mural painting program was executed in the last quarter of the 18th century. The present text intends to establish the links between the scenes painted and the rite of baptism. We do not see a direct or evident relationship in a didactical or performative sense. The images are there to be potentially activated during the liturgical ceremony in order to reveal the efficacy of the sacrament. We have the advantage of working with a set of images that remain in their original location. Therefore, this essay proposes a potential relationship among gesture, words and paintings, as they could have been related in the 18th century. In the analysis, we put into dialogue the resonances intended by the Church and the reception by the indigenous community.     

Urban Regeneration in the Brazilian urban policy agenda

This article aims to highlight the main arguments that sought to justify the incorporation and legitimization of Urban Regeneration in the urban policy agenda in Brazil. It shows how the convergence between different and even conflicting propositions related to urban development provided ideological support to the construction of discourses in which urban regeneration is portrayed as beneficial to society as a whole, and how recent international ideas on urban development were incorporated in urban policies of contemporary Brazil, considering our local socio-economic and political environment, planning tradition and regulatory frameworks. The focus will be on Rio de Janeiro and particularly São Paulo given the key role these two cities play in defining urban policy paradigms, guiding government agendas and exporting regulatory models to other parts of Brazil.