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

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

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

Search for 14.4 keV solar axions from M1 transition of Fe-57 with CUORE crystals

We report the results of a search for axions from the 14.4 keV M1 transition from Fe-57 in the core of the sun using the axio-electric effect in TeO2 bolometers. The detectors are 5x5x5 cm3 crystals operated at about 10 mK in a facility used to test bolometers for the CUORE experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso in Italy. An analysis of 43.65 kg d of data was made using a newly developed low energy trigger which was optimized to reduce the detectors energy threshold. An upper limit of 0.63 c kg-1 d-1 was established at 95% C.L.. From this value, a lower bound at 95% C.L. was placed on the Peccei-Quinn energy scale of fa >= 0.76 10**6 GeV for a value of S=0.55 for the flavor-singlet axial vector matrix element. Bounds are given for the interval 0.15 < S < 0.55.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, submitted to JCA

The low energy spectrum of TeO2 bolometers: results and dark matter perspectives for the CUORE-0 and CUORE experiments

We collected 19.4 days of data from four 750 g TeO2 bolometers, and in three of them we were able to set the energy threshold around 3 keV using a new analysis technique. We found a background rate ranging from 25 cpd/keV/kg at 3 keV to 2 cpd/keV/kg at 25 keV, and a peak at 4.7 keV. The origin of this peak is presently unknown, but its presence is confirmed by a reanalysis of 62.7 kg.days of data from the finished CUORICINO experiment. Finally, we report the expected sensitivities of the CUORE0 (52 bolometers) and CUORE (988 bolometers) experiments to a WIMP annual modulation signal.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figure

Azimuthal anisotropy and correlations in the hard scattering regime at RHIC

Azimuthal anisotropy ($v_2$) and two-particle angular correlations of high $p_T$ charged hadrons have been measured in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=130 GeV for transverse momenta up to 6 GeV/c, where hard processes are expected to contribute significantly. The two-particle angular correlations exhibit elliptic flow and a structure suggestive of fragmentation of high $p_T$ partons. The monotonic rise of $v_2(p_T)$ for $p_T<2$ GeV/c is consistent with collective hydrodynamical flow calculations. At \pT>3 GeV/c a saturation of $v_2$ is observed which persists up to $p_T=6$ GeV/c.Comment: As publishe