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

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

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

Footprints of the Newly-Discovered Vela Supernova in Antarctic Ice Cores?

The recently-discovered, nearby young supernova remnant in the southeast corner of the older Vela supernova remnant may have been seen in measurements of nitrate abundances in Antarctic ice cores. Such an interpretation of this twenty-year-old ice-core data would provide a more accurate dating of this supernova than is possible purely using astrophysical techniques. It permits an inference of the supernova4s ${}^{44}$Ti yield purely on an observational basis, without reference to supernova modelling. The resulting estimates of the supernova distance and light-arrival time are 200 pc and 700 years ago, implying an expansion speed of 5,000 km/s for the supernova remnant. Such an expansion speed has been argued elsewhere to imply the explosion to have been a 15 $M_\odot$ Type II supernova. This interpretation also adds new evidence to the debate as to whether nearby supernovae can measurably affect nitrate abundances in polar ice cores.Comment: 12 pages, TeX, 2 enclosed figures. Updated references, and more detailed discussion of how inferences are made of supernova propertie

Difference Revised: Gender and Transformation among the Amazonian Runa

In this paper, I will explore how knowledge practices among the Runa of the Ecuadorian Amazon are informed by the specificity of local gender constructions. I will argue that while men learn to be ‘proper’ persons primarily through the ingestion of substances which penetrate inside their bodies and change them from the interior, women learn to become ‘proper’ Runa through imitating and reproducing specific movements. This difference in learning regimes, I argue, is based upon a priori conceptualisation of men and women as distinct kinds of beings. I argue that the Runa conceptualise as gender difference the way in which exteriority and interiority are played out in male and female persons. Unlike other Amazonian cases, women are understood by the Runa as ‘naturally’ predisposed to exteriority. This has important repercussions in the way cultural change is thought to affect women and men, especially in contrast to other Amazonian people

Evidence for Baseline Retinal Pigment Epithelium Pathology in the Trp1-Cre Mouse

The increasing popularity of the Cre/loxP recombination system has led to the generation of numerous transgenic mouse lines in which Cre recombinase is expressed under the control of organ- or cell-specific promoters. Alterations in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a multifunctional cell monolayer that separates the retinal photoreceptors from the choroid, are prevalent in the pathogenesis of a number of ocular disorders, including age-related macular degeneration. To date, six transgenic mouse lines have been developed that target Cre to the RPE under the control of various gene promoters. However, multiple lines of evidence indicate that high levels of Cre expression can be toxic to mammalian cells. In this study, we report that in the Trp1-Cre mouse, a commonly used transgenic Cre strain for RPE gene function studies, Cre recombinase expression alone leads to RPE dysfunction and concomitant disorganization of RPE layer morphology, large areas of RPE atrophy, retinal photoreceptor dysfunction, and microglial cell activation in the affected areas. The phenotype described herein is similar to previously published reports of conditional gene knockouts that used the Trp1-Cre mouse, suggesting that Cre toxicity alone could account for some of the reported phenotypes and highlighting the importance of the inclusion of Cre-expressing mice as controls in conditional gene targeting studies