Carnival time. Coloniality of archeology and the snake semiopraxis

Este texto explota la historia ontológicamente intrincada de mi vinculación con un sitio arqueológico minero, el mismo sitio donde estalló uno de los primeros levantamientos anticoloniales durante el carnaval de 1775. Comenzando con la vinculación usual de un arqueólogo con la investigación antecedente, e identificando y expandiendo la inclusión de diversas agencias en la historia, se diversifica rápidamente para incluir no sólo mi consideración intelectual del fenómeno de la agencia, sino también mi ser agente político y criatura viviente. Ello significa que el mismo lugar desde el que se realiza arqueología se muda cuando sus propios cimientos se ponen en conversación, y la arqueología se transforma de empresa de busca de conocimiento en un escenario interculturalmente relacionado. Pero aún aceptando el impacto en mí mismo de ser habitante en los escenarios en los cuales soy conocedor, este último rol no queda excluido sino transformado. En este sentido, este texto explora la semiopraxis interrelacionada en el curso de la historia –en su doble sentido de lo sucedido y lo que se dice acerca de lo sucedido- que aquí narro. Ello sólo a veces incluye la escritura, y sólo a veces mi autoría, ya que devienen actores centrales en la conversación la actuación y la oralidad así como las subjetividades colectivas y heterogéneas. Tal como ocurre en tiempo de carnaval, lo que se dice, con o sin palabras, se dice en conversaciones a través de ontologías, en donde los lugares y los personajes pueden verse sorprendentemente invertidos. En este texto está implicado el lugar de la teoría dentro de una conversación más amplia, acerca de su propia mudanza y desde un lugar en mudanza.This piece mines the ontologically intricate history of my involvement with an archaeological mining site, where one of the earliest anti-colonial uprisings started during the Carnival of 1775. Starting with the usual involvement of an archaeologist with previous research, and identifying and expanding the inclusion of diverse agencies in history, it rapidly diversifies to include not just my intellectual consideration of agency, but also both my being as political agent and as living creature. This means that the very place from where archaeology is conducted is moved when its very foundations are put in conversation, as it is transformed from an enterprise of knowledge search to an interculturally related scenario. But even accepting the impact on me of being dweller in the scenarios where I am knower, the latter role is not ruled out but transformed. In this sense, this paper explores the interrelated semio-praxis in the course of the history here told. These only sometimes include writing down, and only sometimes my authorship, as performance and orality, and collective and heterogeneous subjectivities, as in carnival times, become actors in the conversation. As occurs in carnival times what is said, with words or without them, is said in conversations across ontologies, where places and characters can be surprisingly inverted. Implied in this piece of writing is the place of theory within a broader conversation, about and from a place on the move

El lado oscuro del patrimonio

The concept of archaeological heritage is included within a semantic network around the disciplinary definition of the ‘it’. In this text I examine both the things that are kept on each side of the demarcation of the archaeological ‘it’ within a disciplinary phase, and the ways in which that demarcation of objects is recapitulated in a postdisciplinary (or postmodern) phase. I describe, finally, some theoretical consequences towards an undisciplined (or decolonial) understanding of heritage.El concepto de patrimonio arqueológico está incluido en una red semántica que gira en torno a la definición disciplinaria de lo arqueológico. En este trabajo examino qué cosas quedan a uno y otro lado de la demarcación de lo en una etapa disciplinaria, así como las maneras en las cuales esa demarcación es recapitulada en una etapa diciplinada  (o posmoderna). Describo, finalmente, algunas consecuencias teóricas para una comprensión indisciplinada (o) del patrimonio

Arqueologia, Fronteira e Indisciplina

Resumo: os contextos pós-coloniais encontram a arqueologia diretamente comprometida com a expansão do capital global, de modo que a prática da arqueología deixou de ser destinada apenas a obtenção do conhecimento. Os processos de globalização disponibilizam à arqueologia suas narrativas e suas materialidades, as quais a arqueología parece ter pouco ou nenhum controle. Tenho a intenção de caracterizar a arqueologia, bem como as mudanças ocorridas em seus contextos pós-coloniais. A fronteira, território epistemológico e sócio-histórico onde se produzem os confrontos pós-coloniais, define tanto a imaginação moderna ocidental quanto sua criatividade; porém, longe de ser um espaço puramente objetivo, é um território contraditório e constitutivo da subjetividade colonial. Após descrever uma anatomia da fronteira, admito as implicações de pensar a arqueologia fronteiriça; neste sentido, sugiro os fundamentos e os procedimentos para indisciplinar a arqueologia. Palavras-chave: Arqueologia. Globalização. Contextos pós-coloniais. Fronteira. Indisciplina

CP Violation in Supersymmetric Theories: stop2->stop1 H H, stop2->stop1 Z Z, stop2->stop1 W+ W-, stop2->stop1 Z H

We study the decays stop2->stop1 H H, stop2->stop1 Z Z, stop2->stop1 W+ W- and stop2->stop1 Z H, with an eye towards measuring the CP-violating supersymmetric parameters contained in these processes. We find that stop2->stop1 H H tends to have the largest CP asymmetry and width, and is perhaps the most favourable experimentally. These decays are sensitive primarily to phi_At, the phase of the trilinear coupling A_t.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures. Comments added; figure changed. Analysis and conclusions unchange

Inward-Looking Policies, Institutions, Autocrats, and Economic Growth in Latin America: An Empirical Exploration

This paper explores the institutional determinants of economic growth in Latin America by taking advantage of recent empirical research that employs subjective and objective measures to test for a possible Northian explanation that links institutional quality and economic growth. I provide a framework that helps better understand the policymakers` choices and persistence regarding inward-looking policies that were pursued between the 1930s and the 1980s by arguing that in the Latin American case Olson`s (1982) idea of encompassing interest should be expanded to cover not only the economic stakes of power holders, but also, their political stakes, somewhat along the lines of work by Robinson (1997)

Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon¹⁻³. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses⁴⁻⁹. As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the world’s major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve ‘health’: about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.Keywords: Ecology, Environmental scienc