The political construction of desertification: the creeping desert

A partir de una serie de estudios etnohistóricos sobre la Guerra de los Chichimecas y del establecimiento de analogías con otros procesos que han tenido desiertos como escenarios, el artículo plantea que la noción de desierto es más una categoría de acción política que un concepto geográfico. Tras mostrar cómo acontece el proceso de invención de los desiertos, el artículo analiza el modo en que algunos de los componentes que caracterizaron a dicha invención están siendo trasladados analógicamente a los discursos dominantes acerca de problemas ambientales contemporáneos como la desertificación. Drawing from a series of studies on ethnohistorical Chichimeca’s War and through the establishment of analogies with other processes that have deserts as scenarios, this article argues that the notion of wilderness is more a category of political action than a geographical concept. After showing how the process of the social invention of ‘deserts’ takes place, the paper analyzes the way in which some of the components that have characterized this invention are being analogically transferred to dominant discourses about contemporary environmental problems such as desertification

Una experiencia comparada de trabajo etnográfico entre España y México, o la ecología cultural revisitada

Contrary to frequent statements in the literature since the 19th century, the use of the comparative method in anthropology has been more apparent, or programmatic, than real. Worth mentioning exceptions in both Spanish anthropology and the anthropology of the Americas are studies by J. M. Arguedas, G. Foster, M. Gutierrez Estevez and C. Gimenez. Exceptions such as these confirm the rule. The author came across this methodological paradox while doing research with Mexican anthropologist Andres Fabregas Puig for a project of comparative cultural ecology in the Jalisco highlands of Mexico and the Avila mountain range of Spain. The comparison between the two areas, as well as the reciprocal reflections of both ethnographers while carrying out the project, revealed unexpected findings and differences —and other surprises— in what otherwise seemed two similar cultural ecologies.Contrariamente a lo que se suele leer en la bibliografía desde el siglo XIX, el recurso al método comparativo en antropología ha sido más aparente, o programático, que real. Notables excepciones en la antropología española y americana han sido estudios de J. M. Arguedas, G. Foster, M. Gutiérrez Estévez y C. Giménez. Pero excepciones como éstas confirman la regla. El autor descubrió esta paradoja metodológica mientras realizaba, junto con el mexicano Andrés Fábregas Puig, un estudio de ecología cultural comparada entre los Altos de Jalisco, en México, y la Sierra de Ávila, en España. La comparación, acompañada de reflexión recíproca entre los dos etnógrafos, reveló novedades y diferencias imprevistas —y otras sorpresas— entre ambas regiones, en principio muy parecidas

Nuevos tiempos, nuevas familias: Aproximaciones etnográficas en el estudio de configuraciones familiares contemporáneas

“Nuevos tiempos, nuevas familias” es un esfuerzo académico por visibilizar las configuraciones familiares contemporáneas como consecuencia de los actuales procesos de globalización. Los estudios etnográficos realizados con familias en México, El Salvador y España, que sirven de soporte para la discusión, revelan movimientos en las estructuras y relaciones familiares. En una primera parte, el artículo presenta la forma como la antropología social se ocupó de los modelos de familia co-residenciales y las reglas de herencias; documenta cómo la jefatura del hogar en Los Altos de Jalisco en México y la Sierra de Ávila en España, no depende tanto de una posición inamovible dentro de una estructura genealógica como del contexto social en que tal relación opera. En un segundo apartado, el artículo se ocupa de los efectos que la migración tiene sobre la familia y la constitución de familias “transnacionales”. La maternidad transnacional se ha convertido en un fenómeno de ajuste que muchas mujeres inmigrantes tienen que realizar para poder adaptarse a la separación espacial y temporal de la unidad familiar. La familia transnacional intenta maximizar sus recursos en la economía global y permanecer a pesar de las restrictivas políticas migratorias de los países receptores

Mobilized memories: deployments of the past in the present and the future

Coordinators: Francisco Ferrándiz Martín, (ILLA, CSIC), Reyes Mate Rupérez (IFS, CSIC).Memory processes —as selective displays of the past in the present— are an essential component of the configuration and development of all human societies and affect areas that range from everyday gestures to high-level politics. The unfolding of memory is especially important in the constitution of individual and collective identities, and its enormous potential for cohesion is only comparable to its great capacity to generate exclusion, difference, and dispute. It is impossible to understand historical or contemporary conflicts in depth without analyzing the memory processes in which they are or have been immersed. Hence the strategic importance of this challenge for an institution such as CSIC. The approach to memory and memory processes is necessarily interdisciplinary, as it can be analyzed through the scientific fields of neurobiology, philosophy, sociology, political science, psychology, literary studies, religious studies, cultural studies, historiography, social anthropology, archeology, or cultural geography, among others. By reviewing the main historical, theoretical and thematic anchors of memory studies –with a special emphasis on CSIC-based research–, as well as their prospects for the future, this challenge proposes to proactively foster this interdisciplinarity to build a common analytical language substantially richer and more sophisticated than each of its individual parts

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30 to 80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components. The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy -- corrected for geometrical effects -- is used as a cosmic-ray energy estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five radio stations with signal.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Measurement of the Radiation Energy in the Radio Signal of Extensive Air Showers as a Universal Estimator of Cosmic-Ray Energy

We measure the energy emitted by extensive air showers in the form of radio emission in the frequency range from 30 to 80 MHz. Exploiting the accurate energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory, we obtain a radiation energy of 15.8 \pm 0.7 (stat) \pm 6.7 (sys) MeV for cosmic rays with an energy of 1 EeV arriving perpendicularly to a geomagnetic field of 0.24 G, scaling quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy. A comparison with predictions from state-of-the-art first-principle calculations shows agreement with our measurement. The radiation energy provides direct access to the calorimetric energy in the electromagnetic cascade of extensive air showers. Comparison with our result thus allows the direct calibration of any cosmic-ray radio detector against the well-established energy scale of the Pierre Auger Observatory.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Supplemental material in the ancillary file

Digital Humanities

Digital relations are deeply transforming our lives : from the nature of political participation to the relationship between digital and non-digital environments ; from the reorganization of the public sphere to the ethics of responsibility, transparency or inclusiveness. We are witnessing fundamental changes in the infrastructures of democracy and the emergence of new forms of digital citizenship.Peer reviewe