Between political emancipation and creole hegemony: Viscardo’s Letter to the Spanish Americans (c. 1791)

Viscardo’s Letter to the Spanish Americans inaugurates a tradition of nonconformist political writing against Spanish colonial rule during the second half of the eighteenth century, a period characterized by the Crown’s attempt to reorganize several aspects of the colonial administration. As an ex-Jesuit living in exile after the expulsion of the Society of Jesus from all Spanish territories in 1767, Viscardo had a political as much as a personal motive in designing a project that would cut the colonial ties between Spain and the New World. His plans for emancipation included the instauration of a monarchical form of government, but his design was out of touch with reality and would have hardly been taken seriously by the inhabitants had a British-backed expeditionary force reached the coasts of Chile and Peru, as he had planned. While Viscardo’s Letter may have stirred a sense of creole patriotism some years after his death, the political scruples of the ancien regime based on social privileges and racial distinctions were too strong to be dismantled by mere ideals of freedom, justice and equality. Thus, effective political participation was restricted to the creole elite, whom Viscardo saw as the legitimate guarantor of social order and economic prosperity.     

Skeleton decay of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Cervus elaphus hispanicus</Emphasis> carcasses in Mediterranean ecosystems: biostratinomy at Sierra Norte of Seville natural park (SW Spain)

Taphonomic studies of faunal assemblages from archaeological and palaeontological sites need biostratinomy research to endorse their results. Many papers have studied the relationship between the differential conservation of anatomical parts and the animal responsible for the deposits. In this paper, we present the biostratinomy results from 18 Cervus elaphus hispanicus carcasses (Hilzheimer 1909) in a Mediterranean ecosystem (the Sierra Norte Mountains in Seville Natural Park). We also describe the skeleton decay related to scavenger community, where Sus scrofa (Linnaeus, 1758) is maybe the most important bone scavenger in our study area. These results of this research were compared to those obtained from a similar study carried out in Doñana National Park (Huelva) and confirmed that post-mortem tendencies are similar in both ecosystems.     

The chert from the Castelltallat Formation (south-central Pyrenees): archaeometric characterisation and archaeological implications

Chert from the limestones and marly limestones of Castelltallat Formation (Ebro Basin) was widely used throughout prehistoric times in north-eastern Iberia to produce stone tools due to its properties and accessibility. A rough estimate indicates that this rock—either as raw material or as lithic products—was distributed mainly to the north of the outcrops, over an area of 6000–8000 km². However, other rocks in the area have similar characteristics which can lead to confusion in the interpretation of its prehistoric use and distribution. In order to establish useful archaeometric criteria for differentiating this chert from other similar, the Castelltallat chert is characterised in petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical terms. The chert nodules are found to be homogenous at the macroscopic and microscopic level, with a significant presence of bioclasts, thus indicating they might be formed in a freshwater lake environment by the early diagenetic replacement of carbonates in shallow waters. The mineralogical composition is homogeneously uniform and of a flint type, characterised by an almost exclusive predominance of quartz, without any opaline phases, and a variable proportion of moganite. The iron oxide content is very low, whereas its chemical composition is unusually high in uranium which correlates positively with carbonate content and negatively with silica. Archaeometrical parameters are provided to reach a proper identification of tools knapped with this chert. This way, chert from Castelltallat Formation turns out to be a valuable lithological marker to evaluate the range of mobility of the human groups who lived in the north-eastern Iberia and their contacts with neighbouring areas.     

The Servilia tomb: an architecturally and pictorially important Roman building

One hundred and eleven samples from the important Servilia Roman tomb have been analysed for the first time by Raman spectroscopy, resulting in a complete characterisation of the pigment palette used for its remarkable wall paintings: 73 different pigment mixtures have been identified for the composition of its 11 colours and their tonalities. Dyer’s weld, an ancient organic yellow pigment, which was described by Vitruvius, has been identified and characterised for the first time in Roman wall paintings. Distinctive Raman spectroscopic signals which differentiate between haematite and caput mortuum (a violet colour from haematite which has been subjected to thermal treatment) are also reported. The use of the very expensive lazurite for a balance relates the importance of this otherwise ordinary instrument with psychostasia (the human soul weighing process) and is not found elsewhere in the tomb. The distribution of white minerals alone or in admixture is not related to any particular colouring pigment or figure; this possibly indicates that there was no specific use for each white mineral and that several craftsmen worked on the paintings, perhaps in different periods, or that the frescoes have been subjected to unrecorded restoration. We conclude that Raman spectroscopy is a valuable analytical technique for the unambiguous identification of mixtures of both organic and inorganic compounds, to study the degree of mineral crystallinity and for identifying treatment. These data are relevant for the holistic interpretation of the artwork in its historical, economical and social context.     

Gender and Sexuality in Latina/o Miami: Documenting Latina Transsexual Activists

This article examines the borderlands between transgender MTF (male‐to‐female) and gay male communities in Latina/o Miami through an analysis of the participation of Latinas in the Transsexual Action Organization (TAO). Previous research suggests that Cuban and Cuban American gay male culture have historically been associated with gender transgressive behaviour and identity. Because of this, it is often unclear how to distinguish between what is gay male/homosexual expression and transgender expression. If outward gender manifestations that we now call ‘transgender’ were understood in other historical and cultural contexts as ‘homosexual’, how do we label those manifestations today? By labelling them as homosexual are we simply reinscribing the marginalisation of transgender individuals? On the other hand, by labelling them as transgender are we imposing a contemporary category and therefore performing another kind of intellectual violence? In order to address these questions, I analyse a Latino/a organisation that explicitly labelled itself ‘transsexual’. TAO was an early transsexual rights organisation founded in 1970 by Angela Douglas in Los Angeles which moved to Miami Beach, Florida in 1972. Drawing on the organisation's publications, Moonshadow and Mirage Magazine (1972–75), and Douglas's self‐published autobiographical texts, Triple Jeopardy: The Autobiography of Angela Lynn Douglas (1983) and Hollywood's Obsession (1992), I analyse the rarely discussed participation of Latinas in the organisation.     

Small preys and plant exploitation by late pleistocene hunter–gatherers. A case study from the Northeast of the Iberian Peninsula

The aim of this paper is to explain the subsistence strategies of late hunter–gatherers from the Northeast of the Iberian Peninsula on the basis of zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical records. The study is based on the Molí del Salt archaeological site which has yielded an Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sequence. Each of the disciplines shows us a various type of assemblage to approach the same problem. Archaeobotanical materials, including charcoal and seeds provide data on the strategies related to firewood gathering and vegetal food supply, which was a basic subsistence resource for these groups. The archaeobotanical assemblage is mainly formed by conifers, but other species related to edible plants are also important. Bone assemblage, mainly formed by Oryctolagus cuniculus, show how hunting and meat processing is highly related. The environmental constraints as well as mobility are discussed in order to achieve an ampler knowledge on human activities.     

Interdisciplinary studies of spring mire deposits from Radzików (South Podlasie Lowland,East Poland) and their significance for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions

The paper presents the results of interdisciplinary (multiproxy) palaeoenvironmental studies of peat — calcareous tufa depositional sequences of spring mire from Radzików site (east Poland). Analyses of three biotic proxies (plant macrofossils, pollen, molluscs) were supplemented with sedimentological, geochemical, oxygen and carbon stable isotopes analyses and radiocarbon dating and used for reconstruction of environmental changes in Late Glacial and Holocene. The obtained results enable us to (1) reconstruct main phases of mire development and (2) determine environmental factors influencing changes of water supply.