Terence S. Turner (1935-2015)

U. S. anthropologist Terence S. Turner died in November, 2015, after a long and intense life devoted to studying the indigenous peoples of Brazil and Amazonia, especially the Kayapó. He was as keen to reconstruct their culture prior to contact with the Portuguese and later Brazilian frontier, as he was to monitor the transformation process that such contact stimulated. In the early 2000s, he was actively involved in the controversy triggered by Patrick Tierney’s Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon, which dealt with the negative impact on the Yanomami of certain forms of scientific research conducted in the West.El antropólogo estadounidense Terence S. Turner falleció en noviembre de 2015, dejando tras de sí una larga e intensa vida dedicada a la investigación sobre los pueblos originarios del Brasil y la Amazonía, en particular sobre los Cayapó. Le interesó tanto la reconstrucción de su cultura anterior al contacto con la frontera portuguesa y luego brasileña como el proceso de transformación que este contacto estimuló. En los primeros años de la década de 2000 participó activamente en la controversia desencadenada por la publicación del libro Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon, de Patrick Tierney, acerca del impacto negativo sobre los Yanomami de ciertas formas de investigación científica practicadas en Occidente

La antropología americanista española y la identidad nacional: el debate entre Juan Comas y José Pérez de Barradas (1949-1953)

Between 1949 and 1953, two Spanish americanists affected by the civil war debated on the conquest of America and its consequences. The discussion was also on Spain's national identity, since it concerned a basic historical tenet on which such identity was to be constructed. With the anthropological idiom of the times, Juan Comas and José Pérez de Barradas helped to maintain a controversy that had originated in the 19th century, and has been rekindled in recent years by the Spanish government's celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Columbus' first voyage to the Americas. Like the nationalistic histories of Catalonia and the Basque Country, the controversial subject of the Conquest still precludes the consensus needed behind the idea that Spain is a nation.Entre 1949 y 1953, dos antropólogos americanistas españoles afectados por la guerra civil debatieron acerca de la conquista de América y sus consecuencias. La discusión era también sobre la identidad nacional de España, al versar sobre uno de los fundamentos históricos sobre los que esta identidad quería sustentarse. Con el lenguaje de la antropología de la época, Juan Comas y José Pérez de Barradas contribuyeron a un debate que había empezado en el siglo XIX, y que ha reverdecido en los últimos años con motivo de la conmemoración del V Centenario del descubrimiento colombino. Como las historias nacionalistas del País Vasco y Cataluña, el controvertido tema de la conquista de América dificulta la construcción de la identidad de España como nación

El encomendero Polo de Ondegardo y los mitimaes del valle de Cochabamba: los interrogatorios contra los indios de Paria y Tapacarí

Not available.Los autores ofrecen una nueva transcripción de dos interrogatorios judiciales relacionados con Polo de Ondegardo (ca. 1520-1575) y la situación en el valle de Cochabamba (Bolivia) en el siglo XVI. Los dos documentos ayudan a entender el concepto que tenía Polo de Ondegardo sobre los mitimaes en el imperio inca. También ilustran sobre el importante papel económico que podía llegar a tener esta categoría social en el orden incaico. Los mitimaes no perdían por ello necesariamente la vinculación con sus grupos étnicos de origen, contrariamente a la idea más extendida sobre los llamados “mitimaes del Inca” que se encuentra en la bibliografía

Geomorphological record of extreme wave events during Roman times in the Guadalquivir estuary (gulf of cadiz, SW Spain): An archaeological and paleogeographical approach

Analysis of the geological record has made it possible to delimit for theGuadalquivir estuary the traces of extreme wave events (EWEs) during the Roman period in the Iberian Peninsula (218 BCE to 476 CE). The largest event occurred in the 2nd-3rd century CE. It generated clearly visible erosive effects in the coastal barriers, including washover fans and erosional scarps. In the inner estuary, however, the effects were minor: crevasse splays that broke levees and cheniers, as well as a residual sedimentary lag. The significant development of the spits protected the inner estuary from the marine incursion, which only caused a water level rise with low-regime waves. Correlation of the geomorphological and sedimentary marks left by this event with the archaeological and geological evidence of other events recognized elsewhere in the Gulf of Cadiz effectively argues for a tsunami as to the nature of the 2nd-3rd century CE event. Yet this and the other identified EWEs in the Guadalquivir estuary during the pre-Roman and the Roman period all fit a model of paleogeographic evolution dominated by processes of coastal progradation and estuarine infilling. Radiocarbon dating, geomorphological analysis, and historical references fail to warrant the so-called '218-209 BCE' Atlantic tsunami, as hypothesized in the received scientific literature. In pre-Roman and Roman times, human occupation at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River was strongly influenced by various geodynamic processes, the location of the settlements being contingent upon dependable, fast communication with the sea and, above all, upon adequate protection from EWEs, on the leeward side of spits. Progressive progradation of these coastal barriers combined with the gradual infilling of the estuary to make navigation to open sea increasingly difficult and, eventually, to result in the abandonment of settlements

The role of neo-tectonics in the sedimentary infilling and geomorphological evolution of the Guadalquivir estuary (Gulf of Cadiz, SW Spain) during the Holocene.

Spain) has yielded new evidence regarding the sedimentary infilling and geomorphological evolution of the Guadalquivir estuary during the Holocene. The sedimentation and geomorphological disposition have been strongly conditioned by neotectonic activity along a set of SW-NE alignments, interrupted by other alignments that follow E-W and NW-SE directions. The most conspicuous of the SW-NE alignments is the Torre Carbonero-Marilópez Fault (TCMF). South of this fault, the estuary experienced a marked subsidence from about 4000 to 2000 cal. yr BP through a series of sedimentary sequences of retrogradation and aggradationwithin the context of relative sea-level rise. From c. 2000 cal. yr BP to the present the subsidence has remained relatively dormant, with progradation of the littoral systems and infilling of the marshland progressing within a context of sea-level stability. Our results reveal that neotectonic activity is a critical factor thatmust also be reckonedwith in any attempt to understand the Holocene geomorphological evolution in the Guadalquivir estuary