Characterization of Glass,Shell, and Fishbone Beads on Ibo Island (Northern Mozambique) in the Context of the Indian Ocean Trade

African Archaeological Review - A set of beads made of glass, gastropod mollusk shell, and fishbone from a Swahili occupation level on Ibo Island (northern Mozambique) is dated to the eleventh and...     

Gastrointestinal parasites in ancient South American camelid feces from the Atacama Desert (Pampa del Tamarugal,Tarapacá, northern Chile)

Faunal remains from archeological sites worldwide, especially feces and regurgitated pellets, are usually subjected to paleoparasitological examination, allowing the identification of past animal parasites. In this study, we analyzed 10 samples of South American camelid dung, which played an important role for the ancient human groups in the South-Central Andes, dated between 341 and 1635 calCE, from the Iluga Túmulos site (Pampa del Tamarugal, Tarapacá region, Atacama Desert, Chile). Microscopy examination revealed parasite remains in seven samples, in which oocysts of Eimeria macusaniensis and eggs of Lamanema chavezi/Nematodirus lamae, Trichuris sp., Moniezia sp., capillariids, strongylids, and unidentified nematodes were found. Although some of these species pose a potential health risk to camelids, most are not considered to be of major zoonotic importance, which could explain the absence of these parasites on human coprolites from this site analyzed previously. This first paleoparasitological study on camelid fecal remains from northern Chile sheds light on the occurrence of gastrointestinal parasites and its relationship with Andean ancient human populations and the environment.     

Indagaciones sobre alteridad e identidad: Puntos de contacto y puntos de partida en los estudios coloniales

Implicit Understandings. Observing, reporting, and Reflecting on the Encounters Between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Early Modern Era. Edición de STUART SCHWARTZ. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. xv, 637.

Coded Encounters. Writing, Gender, and Ethnicity in Colonial Latin America. Edición de FRANCISCO JAVIER CEVALLOS‐CANDAU, JEFFREY A. COLE, NINA M. SCOTT, and NICOMEDES SUAREZ‐ARAUZ. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1994. Pp. 298.

Literatura fundacional americana: El Espejo de paciencia. Por JUANA GOERGEN. Madrid: Editorial Pliegos, 1993. Pp. 142.

Cartas de relación. Por HERNAN CORTES. Edición de ANGEL DELGADO GOMEZ. Madrid: Editorial Castalia, 1993. Pp. 687.

Vitier, Cintio. 1970. Lo cubano en la poesía. La Habana: Instituto del Libro.     

Missionary hydrography and the invention of early modern Amazonia

Amazonia became an important laboratory of inquiry and evangelization for Franciscans and Jesuits in the early modern Spanish Empire. The missionary endeavours depended upon knowledge friars acquired and produced about the rivers, landscapes, and societies of their new home in the tropical lowlands of South America. Friars were particularly interested in finding and naming the axis of this new territory. ‘Amazonas,’ however, became an untameable fluvial entity that defied unitary conceptualization. Whereas the sixteenth-century concept of the river revolved around the dimensions of its estuary, seventeenth-century missionaries focused on length, volume, and headwaters to define Amazonia. The attempts to define the river produced a dispute between the two religious orders and indeed within each group, as Franciscans and Jesuits sought to make their ‘Amazonas’ normative. The present study explores this debate and asserts that hydrography became a language of authority and contention among early modern missionaries of Amazonia.     

Restoration of paintings on domes with non-developable geometry (Los Santos Juanes Church in Valencia)

The restoration of paintings on elements in cultural heritage buildings (fundamentally, churches) involves two structural problems: capturing the geometry of the construction element and its development. In many cases, the geometries are regular (e.g., cylinders, spheres, elliptical domes). However, there are cases in which the elements cannot be adapted to any known geometry, much less one that can be mathematically developed. The development of surfaces becomes essential for the restoration of paintings over “flat elements” (over which work is performed on the ground) that are subsequently transferred to the real surface (ceilings). The mathematical transformations that allow regular geometries to be developed are widely known (cartographic projections). However, when the geometry is irregular, there is no development. This study presents a new methodology based on differential rectification and its application for the development of oculi in the Los Santos Juanes Church (Valencia), whose geometry is completely irregular both in shape and as a result of construction defects (and damage caused by fire). The present study focuses on the restoration of paintings damaged by fire.     

Cruel and unusual

From early April to late June 2018, the nearly 2,600 immigrant children – mostly refugees fleeing violence and poverty in Central America – were forcibly taken from their parents at the United States’ southern border following implementation of the Trump administration's ‘zero tolerance’ policy. The policy took effect when the US Justice Department began aggressively prosecuting undocumented immigrants crossing the US‐Mexico border. Following a public outcry and growing protests, President Trump issued an executive order declaring an end to family separations on 20 June. Several days later, a federal court mandated that the government reunite those immigrant families affected by the ‘zero tolerance’ policy. In mid‐August, more than 550 children who had been detained following the implementation of the policy remained in federal custody. Thousands more ‘unaccompanied minors’ – typically teenagers who were caught crossing the border without adults –remain in indefinite detention. This editorial analyzes this situation from an anthropological perspective by reviewing relevant ethnographic literature on undocumented Latin American immigrants in the US.     

Characterization of concrete from Roman buildings for public spectacles in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Emerita Augusta</Emphasis> (Mérida,Spain)

The aim of this work is to characterize the original concrete from Roman buildings for public spectacles, theatre and amphitheatre, from Emerita Augusta, Mérida, Spain. An advanced knowledge of the Roman concrete composition is required for a reliable restoration and preservation of these ancient monuments. The concrete was studied through mineralogical (optical polarized microscopy and X-ray diffraction) and petrophysical (bulk and real density, open porosity to water and Hg, mechanical strength and ultrasonic velocity) analyses. With this work, it is possible to fill the gap that exists in this field and the characterization of the materials used in the Roman concrete from these two buildings, never previously studied, despite the significance of this archaeological ensemble, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1993. The results allowed us to determine the composition of the Roman concrete and to infer the provenance of the aggregates used in these monuments.     

La virtud sospechosa: Teresa de Jesús y su condición femenina

ABSTRACT

Teresa de Jesús (1515–1582) lives in a patriarchal society opposed to the intellectual and spiritual development of women, something that she will not only not accept but also fight against, claiming a series of rights (the right to life, to expression, to autonomy, to the free development of her abilities, to have an active role in the Church, to relate to God through prayer, etc.) in spite of the restrictions of censorship and the cloud of suspicion that hung over her for being a mystic, the founder of convents, and the daughter and granddaughter of a converso. Furthermore, Teresa, with her reforms, would present an alternative life for women, as her convents would be spaces for freedom and women's solidarity.     

Urban size and KIBS vertical disintegration: the case of Milan

The literature shows that market size favours firms’ vertical disintegration because it reduces transaction and knowledge coordination costs. The existing evidence is based primarily on cross-sectional data and on the manufacturing sector, with little or no attention is given to longitudinal data and services. This paper estimates the effect of urban size on the purchase of service inputs by knowledge-intensive business service firms located in the metropolitan region of Milan. Relying on a rich panel dataset, and adopting different econometric techniques to overcome endogeneity, we find a positive and statistically significant effect of increased urban population on the degree of KIBS vertical disintegration only when urban size is measured at the province level. We also find that this effect holds particularly in the case of traditional professional- rather than technology-related activities.