A parasitological paradox: Why is ascarid infection so rare in the prehistoric Americas?

Ascaris lumbricoides (giant roundworm) and Trichuris trichiura (whipworm) are the most common intestinal parasites found in humans worldwide today and they almost always co-occur. However, we find two distinct patterns in archaeological material. In historical North American and Old World contexts, the association of A. lumbricoides and T. trichiura is similar to the modern epidemiological picture. In contrast, the co-occurrence of A. lumbricoides and T. trichiura eggs in prehistoric South America is rare. For prehistoric contexts, T. trichiura is the most common parasite found in archaeological material. Recently molecular biology techniques pointed to a subdiagnosis of roundworm infection in pre-Columbian South American populations. This is contrary to the modern epidemiological picture in which A. lumbricoides infection is predominant. This is a paradox, especially when one considers the number of eggs laid by female daily, 200,000 and 20,000 thousand per day, for A. lumbricoides and T. trichiura respectively. By reviewing the records of these parasites, this paradox is presented and explanations for the paradox are explored. Taphonomy, prehistoric behavior patterns and medicinal plant use seem to be most relevant to the explanation of the paradox. Nematophagous fungi is a less likely factor creating the near absence of A. lumbricoides eggs in the prehistoric New World.     

The Correspondence of Asturian Emigrants at the Turn of the Century: The Case of José Moldes (c. 1860–1921)

The private letter, one of the most representative expressions of mass literacy, was the product of improved postal services and epistolary manuals. In the nineteenth century, which also witnessed the new phenomenon of mass emigration, letter writing became one of the most common practices. This article discusses the correspondence of José Moldes, an Asturian who left Spain for Puerto Rico at the age of fourteen and settled shortly afterwards in Chile. He died in his native Asturias at the age of sixty-one. Throughout these fifty or so years, José wrote letters to keep in contact with members of his family, to control them when he became head of the household or to manage his businesses and investments. About 120 of his letters survived in the Moldes-Barreras family archive, through which we can reconstruct his experiences. The essential characteristics of this epistolary corpus emerge from an analysis of its material and graphic aspects, suggesting the profound influence of immigration on personal writing.     

Genealogies of Destruction: An Archaeology of the Contemporary Past in the Amazon Forest

In this article we look at the destruction of the Amazon forest through an archaeological lens. We describe the devastation brought about by illegal loggers and ranchers to the last remaining old-growth forests of Maranhão (NE Brazil), where the Awá hunter-gatherers live. We argue that archaeology can provide an alternative and more critical look at global consumerism by manifesting the crude materiality and abject violence that lurks behind the goods consumed in the West. We followed the tracks of a group of loggers deep inside the forest and report what we saw.     

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.     

Small Things Forgotten Now Included, or What Else Do Things Deserve?

We have turned to things, it is argued in different contexts by social and cultural scholars. The previously neglected stuff of life is back and now deserves to be embraced and included in our histories and democracies. This paper discusses our efforts to include these others and seeks to reflect on how some of our gestures of inclusion may not be as humble and tolerant as we like to argue. With reference to an ongoing archaeological research of a recently abandoned herring station in Iceland??s northwest the paper discusses how the archaeological remembering of this site, and its inclusion in historical narration, can in fact easily result in the active forgetting of things, their fragmented and discontinuous memory and their utter silence.     

Growth responses of Norway spruce (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Picea abies</Emphasis> (L.) Karst.) to the climate in the south-eastern part of the Českomoravská Upland (Czech Republic)

The research was conducted in selected 80- to 110-year-old spruce stands in the south-eastern part of the Českomoravská Upland at altitudes from 350 m a.s.l. to 465 m a.s.l. The regional standard tree-ring chronology shows very low increments for years 1974, 1976 and 1992. After 1992, there is a sharp rise in increments with a climax in 1997. Afterwards, increments gradually decrease, reaching minima in 2003 and 2008. The years with low increments were also confirmed by the analysis of negative pointer years when over 80% of the analysed trees responded by a sharp decrease in increment, mainly in years 1976 and 1992. We can usually find values of monthly precipitation or monthly temperature average which can explain or help explain these falls in the radial growth. The correlations of diameter increments with average monthly precipitation gain only positive statistically significant values, namely for the months of May, June, July and August of the particular year. The correlations of diameter increments with average monthly temperatures gain only negative statistically significant values, namely for the months of June, July and September of the previous year and January and August of the particular year. In the examined area there is a significant negative correlation between average temperatures and monthly precipitation in July, August and September. The results of the habitual diagnostics show that with respect to the climatic conditions the health condition of the monitored stands is relatively good. On average, the defoliation does not exceed the values ascertained in different territories of the Czech Republic.