Repúblicas dentro de la República de Bolivia: los pueblos chiquitos en los primeros escenarios de un nuevo orden político.

Las diferentes parcialidades de las tierras bajas de Bolivia, denominados chiquitos, que se habían concentrado en las reducciones jesuíticas –posteriormente convertidas en parroquias bajo el clero secular– se enfrentaron con una nueva transformación política al producirse la ruptura final del régimen colonial y la instalación de juntas cantonales de gobierno a partir de 1825. Este artículo resumirá la evidencia documental en torno a la presencia de los cabildantes chiquitanos en las juntas cantonales y discutirá los enfoques de análisis acerca de la cultura política en la región durante este período histórico de transición.The different ethnic groups of the Bolivian lowlands, known as chiquitos, brought into the Jesuit missions of the region –which later were converted into parishes administered by the secular clergy– confronted yet another political transformation following the dissolution of the colonial regime and the installation of juntas or councils to govern the local cantons, beginning in 1825. This article will summarize the evidence available on the presence of chiquitano council members in the juntas and it will discuss the analytical frameworks for the political culture of the region during this period of transition

LAKH Conference in Albuquerque, International Cooperation for Digital Harvesting and Scientific Research

This three-day meeting brought together the four LAKH Latin American partner institutions and the UNM team for the first full meeting. The main objectives were to know the mission of each partner and the specific goals for their participation in the LAKH project; state the achievements and problems that each team has encountered; organize informational panels on specific themes that are central to the LAKH project; discuss in workshops the technical, administrative and budgetary issues of the project; establish goals for the fourth year of the TICFIA grants; establish guidelines for project evaluation and exchange ideas for new proposals and additional collaborators. Many of these goals were met, although specific strategies for 1) meeting our goals in Year Four, 2) implementing the evaluation plan and 3) establishing a framework for the new proposal await further discussion and additional information. Two important achievements of the LAKH conference are the signing of Memoranda of Cooperation between UNM and IBICT and Abya Yala, respectively

Four American women artists paint women

Graduate research paper for art history.AR 311, American art II.1978 Spring.Includes bibliographic references (pages 34-35)

“It’s Not Important for You to Speak:” The Perception of Purity and Its Power Over Women’s Reproductive and Sexual Health

There is a general silence in both society and academia surrounding women’s health and the social conception of purity. Purity myths and misconceptions have created stigmas that women of all backgrounds must navigate to manage and care for their reproductive and sexual health. This study investigates the importance of purity and how it is used to define, measure, and categorize women’s bodies and behaviors. Women’s perception of purity, specifically in regards to menstruation and pre-marital sex, were investigated using semi-structured interviews in Dehradun, Uttarkhand. This study analyzes how stigmatized conceptions of impurities manifest as silence in society. Data collected from interviews indicates that this silence inhibits women from discussing sexuality and menstruation openly, accessing contraceptives without fear of judgement, and obtaining proper health information. Education and religiousness influence women’s perceptions of pre-marital sex and menstruation, and therefore impact their ability to break this silence. The study finds that the conception of purity is pertinent in Indian society, and suggests that the value placed on virginity has greater health implications regarding the practice of early marriage as a way for family’s to safeguard girls’ sexuality and the family’s honor

UNM LAKH Participation in International Symposium on Research, Publication and Open Access to Scientific Production, Archiving, and Dissemination of Knowledge

Cynthia Radding and Johann van Reenen, co-PIs of the UNM Latin America Knowledge Harvester (LAKH) project, funded by the university and the U.S. Department of Education Title VI TICFIA program , traveled to Brasília August 21-25, in order to (1) consolidate a working agreement with IBICT as a full partner in the LAKH project and (2) to deliver two formal presentations at the IBICT Seminário and Simpósio on the work on UNM in the Open Archives Initiative for electronic publishing and access to knowledge, and specifically on the objectives and accomplishments to date of LAKH in the first funding year of its operation

Abstract expressionism, more than inspired madness

Graduate research paper for painting.1978 Spring.Includes bibliographic references (page 11)

Landscapes of Power and Identity. Comparative Histories in the Sonoran Desert and the Forests of Amazonia. Endnotes to the book.

Landscapes of Power and Identity presents three interrelated stories, starting with the authors personal journey over two decades of research and reflection about the relationships between human societies and the environments they create in North and South America. It links her experiences to the histories of conquest, native communities, and the colonial societies they helped to shape in two frontier regions of Spanish America: northwestern Mexico and eastern Bolivia. Beginning with the title, this book explores nuanced meanings of landscapes coming from art history, landscape architecture, history and anthropology. It makes special contributions as a comparative history grounded in extensive primary sources and fieldwork in both regions, and illustrates creative interdisciplinary methods of research, moving between landscapes and texts. Its theoretical matrix contributes to the conceptual frameworks of social and political ecology, addresses current debates in environmental history around the axis of nature and culture, and intersects the fields of environmental, cultural, and social history. The book\u27s interest stems from the contrasting geographies and histories it weaves together, from the deserts of northern Mexico to the tropical rain forests of the greater Amazonian and Paraguayan river basins. Landscapes of Power and Identity opens new approaches to ethnohistory and to discussions of postcoloniality and of borderlands in the early Latin American republics from the vantage point of space, environment, and the changing landscapes created by ethnically and culturally mixed societies. The dimensions of power and identity are woven through each chapter, addressing fundamental issues of territory, economy, governance and warfare, gender, and conflicting claims to spiritual power.\u2

What’s in a Name? How Toponyms Connect Language and Society through Place

This is a study of place, meaning, society, and language, all of which interact through names. Although names are an essential part of human language, they remain on the periphery of linguistic studies. This study situates names in linguistics through an analysis of the meaning in a toponym, or place name. According to lexical theory words are arbitrary. Yet we bestow names based on how they sound or what they have already come to represent; names are not arbitrary. Furthermore, a name becomes opaque when we can no longer see through its form to understand its meaning. Then it picks up new meanings based on the community it presently references. This paper builds on these two main theoretical differences between words and names. Scholars have studied toponyms from the angles of many different academic disciplines. Philosophical literature asks to what a name actually refers. Anthropological literature questions how toponyms function as integral parts of specific cultures. Political literature looks at how governments have changed toponyms to further their own political aims: to build community or break down enemies. Through this inquiry into toponymic literature, we see that scholars address toponyms through a variety of disciplines with a common link: a name’s significance is connected to a society. I support this discussion with an example of a specific toponym that exemplifies many of the themes that surface in the toponymic literature. Far from an arbitrary pairing of form and meaning, at the outset “New Orleans” denoted an image of European grandeur that the founders wanted to connect with their city. Over time the name took on a myriad of other meanings relating to the people and the culture of the place: Mardi Gras, jazz, Cajun culture, and theMississippi River. In the wake of hurricane Katrina the meaning of “New Orleans” changed yet again. “New Orleans” demonstrates concretely that far from being arbitrary, names reflect the experience of the people who use them. I argue that because the significance of names is in the society that uses them, linguistics can incorporate names through the sub-discipline of sociolinguistics, how language functions in society. Although linguistics has historically avoided the study of names because they add nothing to the genera of structural linguistics, names have meaning in relation to society that other words lack. While this meaning does not contribute to an understanding of the structure of language, it does contribute to an understanding of language, so there needs to be a place in linguistics for names. Names are language and society amalgamated. Their meaning comes from how they connect these two areas. Names therefore constitute a rarely studied type of sociolinguistics, where we see how society gives words meaning beyond their function as referents, and where language gives society an image of itself. This study looks at an aspect of language that has been sidelined by linguistics, and through the use of other disciplines, finds a way to study it as language