Emerald Freedom: “With Pride in the Face of the Sun”

Esmeraldas, Ecuador, became home to free African and Afro-Hispanic people in the mid 1500s. It is the only region in the Americas where self liberation— cimarronaje—of Afro-descendant people preceded slavery. It is also the region that soon gave birth to zambaje, the emergence of an African-Indigenous population. This article sets forth salient dimensions of historical and contemporary blackness before sketching the enduring and transforming cultural dynamics of this rain-forest littoral region of the neotropics by reference to cosmovision, the marimba dance, arrullos, chigualos, alabados, la tumba, and la tropa. Following this sketch I turn to political economy, cultural ecology, and globalization. Esmeraldas, Ecuador, deviene un santuario para africanos libres y gente afro­hispana a mediados del siglo 1600. Es la única región en las Américas donde la autoliberación —cimarronaje—de personas afrodecendientes precede la esclavitud. Es también donde surge el zambaje, el desarrollo de una población africana­indígena. Este artículo expone dimensiones sobresalientes de la negritud histórica y contemporánea. Explica dinámicas culturales persistentes y en transformación en este bosque lluvioso litoral neotrópico haciendo referencia a la cosmovisión, la danza de la marimba, los arrullos, los chigualos, los alabados, la tumba, y la tropa. Luego enfoca economía política, ecología cultural, y globalización

Interculturality and the Indigenization of Modernity: A View from Amazonian Ecuador

After introducing the history and topography of the forest of Canelos, I turn to the central theme of this essay, the indigenization of modernity. I next illustrate pervasive mythic cosmology to orient the reader to Canelos Quichua Amazonian perspectives on cultural topography. The relationships that obtain in language, history and ecology between the lowlands and the \u27highlands address the subject of ethnogenesis in indigenous thought and in written historical portrayal. Bulding toward an indigenous structure of conjuncture, I treat epistemic distortion in various academic sectors and attept to counter or deflect what I take to be such distortions. In so doing I draw especially on published research of Marshall Sahlins and Michael Uzendoski. Indigenization of modernity has clear millennial proclivities. The intertwining of millennial and modernn processes, within which ethongenesis and emerging culture become manifest, is present in a myriad of intercultural systems wherein people seek to appropriate modern accoutrements of life through counterhegemonic and profound transformative systems of indigenous meaning. A continuación de na introducción a la historia y la topografía del bosque de los Canelos, enfoco el tema principal de este ensayo, la indigenización de la modernidad. Luego presento un retrato de la cosmología mítica domoinante para orientar al elctor en cuanto a perspectivas que mantienen los Canelos Quichua de la Amazonía sobre una topografía cultural. En las relaciones que surgen en el idioma, la historia, y la ecología entre las tierras bajas y la sierra impera el tema de la etnogénesis en el pensamiento indígena y en el relato histórico. Apuntando hacia una coyuntura estructural indígena evalúo la distorsión epistémica en varios sectores académicos e intento corregir o contrarrestar lo que considero ser distorsiones de esta índole. Utilizo investigaciones publicadas por Marshall Sahlins y Michael Uzendoski para sustentar mi argumento. La indigenización de la modernidad tiene proclividades milenarias claras. El entrelace de procesos milenarios y modernos, dentro de los cuales se manifiesta la etnogénesis y el surgimiento cultural, está presente en un sinnúmero de sistemas interculturales por medio de los cuales la gente busca apropriarse de elementos de la vida moderna usando sistemas de significación antihegemónicos y de transformación profunda

Trekking Through History: The Huaorani of Amazonia

Book review of, Trekking Through History: The Huaorani of Amazonia. Laura M. Rival. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. xx + 246 pp., plates, maps, tables, figures, notes, references, index. ISBN 0-231-11844-9

Validation of techniques to mitigate copper surface contamination in CUORE

In this article we describe the background challenges for the CUORE experiment posed by surface contamination of inert detector materials such as copper, and present three techniques explored to mitigate these backgrounds. Using data from a dedicated test apparatus constructed to validate and compare these techniques we demonstrate that copper surface contamination levels better than 10E-07 - 10E-08 Bq/cm2 are achieved for 238U and 232Th. If these levels are reproduced in the final CUORE apparatus the projected 90% C.L. upper limit on the number of background counts in the region of interest is 0.02-0.03 counts/keV/kg/y depending on the adopted mitigation technique.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 6 table

Demonstration of the temporal matter-wave Talbot effect for trapped matter waves

We demonstrate the temporal Talbot effect for trapped matter waves using ultracold atoms in an optical lattice. We investigate the phase evolution of an array of essentially non-interacting matter waves and observe matter-wave collapse and revival in the form of a Talbot interference pattern. By using long expansion times, we image momentum space with sub-recoil resolution, allowing us to observe fractional Talbot fringes up to 10th order.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Photon and neutral pion production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 130 GeV

We report the first inclusive photon measurements about mid-rapidity (|y|<0.5) from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 130 GeV at RHIC. Photon pair conversions were reconstructed from electron and positron tracks measured with the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) of the STAR experiment. With this method, an energy resolution of Delta(E)/E = 2% at 0.5 GeV has been achieved. Reconstructed photons have also been used to measure the transverse momentum (pt) spectra of pi0 mesons about mid-rapidity (|y| photon photon decay channel. The fractional contribution of the pi0 -> photon photon decay to the inclusive photon spectrum decreases by 20% +/- 5% between pt = 1.65 GeV/c and pt = 2.4 GeV/c in the most central events, indicating that relative to pi0 -> photon photon decay the contribution of other photon sources is substantially increasing.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Azimuthal anisotropy and correlations in p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV

We present the first measurement of directed flow ($v_1$) at RHIC. $v_1$ is found to be consistent with zero at pseudorapidities $\eta$ from -1.2 to 1.2, then rises to the level of a couple of percent over the range $2.4 < |\eta| < 4$. The latter observation is similar to data from NA49 if the SPS rapidities are shifted by the difference in beam rapidity between RHIC and SPS. Back-to-back jets emitted out-of-plane are found to be suppressed more if compared to those emitted in-plane, which is consistent with {\it jet quenching}. Using the scalar product method, we systematically compared azimuthal correlations from p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions. Flow and non-flow from these three different collision systems are discussed.Comment: Quark Matter 2004 proceeding, 4 pages, 3 figure