Comparando Mesoamérica y los Andes a través de la etnografía: hacia la construcción de un modelo para trabajar sobre el terreno

The aim of this article is not to present a finished model but to suggest different approaches for carrying out comparative ethnographic investigations between Mesoamerica and the Andean regions. It begins with theories that some Mesoamericanistas and Andeanists have developed based on their use of historical sources and adds what can be learned from ethnographic field investigations to make empirical comparisons between both regions. This article explores the validity of using native concepts which can be useful analytical categories to make such comparisons.Antes que ofrecer un modelo acabado, este artículo despeja algunas vías para establecer comparaciones etnográficas entre Mesoamérica y los Andes. Para ello, parte de las propuestas de ciertos mesoamericanistas y andinistas que han teorizado sobre dichas comparaciones basándose principalmente en materiales históricos, pero también recurre a estudios etnográficos realizados por investigadores de campo en ambas áreas con el objeto de ajustar la propuesta a procedimientos empíricos. El artículo explora la validez de utilizar conceptos nativos como categorías analíticas de utilidad para emprender trabajos comparativos

The financial implications of the resource-based strategy: specificity, opacity and financial structure

In this work we develop an analytical framework to examine the effects of strategic investments on the financial policy of the firm. From the resource-based approach of the firm, non-tradeable and difficult-to-copy assets are the basis of a sustainable competitive advantage. However, imperfections in the resource markets can also be interpreted as sources of costs and/or restrictions from a finnacial point of view. Specificity and opacity are the features of strategic resources that enable us to identify the financial implications of the resource-based strategy. We have tested our theoretical framework using a sample of Spanish non-financial firms. Our results show that highly specific and opaque resources limit the borrowing capacity of the firm while other transparent strategic assets positive1y affect financial leverage. Our findings suggest two main implications for strategy formulation and implementation: (1) there are unobservable -financial- costs that must be considered for a correct evaluation of a sustainable competitive advantage based on strategic resources and (2) the financial policy of a "resource-driven" firm is partially determined by the features of its strategic resource bundle

Trayectoria metodológica de una investigación etnográfica en México

La etnografía como método constitutivo de la disciplina etnológica ha centrado los debates contemporaneous de la antropología mesoamericanista. El problema de cómo afrontar con recursos renovados las transformaciones de las modernas poblaciones de tradición indígena y la propia revisión epistemológica de la disciplina han conducido a un examen atento de la manera en que se lleva a cabo la etnografía. El presente artículo representa una pequeña contribución a este debate al plantear, mediante la descripción del desarrollo de una experiencia de campo específica, una suerte de pauta de trabajo etnográfico. Ésta surge de la realidad empírica y muestra cómo el objeto de estudio y el itinerario metodológico van indisolublemente unidos y se nutren recíproca y creativamente. Narrado desde la experiencia personal sobre el terreno, el ensayo describe técnicas etnográficas de valor quizá más general para investigaciones efectuadas en otras áreas.Etnography as a method of ethnology has been a key topic of contemporary debate in Mesoamericanist anthropologist. The problem of how to address with renewed resources the transformations of modern populations of indigenous tradition and the epistemological shift in the discipline have led to a careful examination of the way ethnography should be exercised. Based on a description of a specific field experience, this article provides a small contribution to that debate by proposing a type of model for ethnographic work. This is drawn from experience and shows how the object of study and the methodological itinerary are inextricably linked and reinforce each other reciprocally and creatively. Narrated from a personal experience in the field, the essay describes ethnographic techniques that could be of a more general value for research carried out in other areas

Nezahualcóyotl is Tlaloc in the Texcoco Sierra: The Symbolic Recreation of Nahuan History

Nezahualcóyotl, el tlatoani del Imperio Texcocano, fue el monarca que diseñó el sistema regional de regadíos y dictó las ordenanzas para regular la distribución y gestión del agua. Tláloc, el dios pluvial de los mexicas, se identificaba con una montaña y otorgaba las lluvias regionales. Hoy, en la Sierra de Texcoco, ambos son una misma y única figura: Tláloc-Nezahualcóyotl, simbólico Rey del Mar al que se le pide la lluvia y del que depende el flujo del agua. ¿Cómo ha tenido lugar este proceso? El examen de las fuentes documentales, prehispánicas y coloniales, y de los mitos proporcionados por la etnografía permite rastrear las claves subyacentes. Más allá de la categoría de sincretismo, inservible en este contexto, la cuestión radica en analizar el motivo y la forma en que los nahuas han releído y actualizado su propia historia.Nezahualcóyotl, the Tlatoani of the Texcocan Empire, was the monarch who designed a regional irrigation system and announced rules to regulate the distribution and administration of water. Tlaloc, the Mexicas’ god of rain, was identified with a mountain and provided rain in the region. In the Sierra of Texcoco today, both the monarch and the god are the one and only figure: Tlaloc-Nezahualcóyotl, King of the Sea, to whom the natives pray for rain on which their water supply depends. How did this transformation occur? A revision of the pre-Hispanic and colonial documentary sources and the ethnological myths allows the clues to be traced. Syncretism is irrelevant in this context: the problem is why and how the Nahuas have reread and updated their own history

Nociones de etnometeorología nahua: el complejo ahuaques-granicero en la Sierra de Texcoco, México

The link between the ahuaques, or rain spirits of deified dead, and the testífero or ritual specialist in the magical control of the weather shapes an ancient and elaborate mythical system in the Texcoco Sierra. For the local Nahuas, the ahuaques send lightning bolts and hail from their place of dwelling to gain control of the anima of earthly beings and objects and, inversely, shower the earth with fecund supplies of rain to ensure prosperity. The testíferos are chosen to be intercessors between the level of the ahuaques and the human level: they perform rituals to drive off hail and bring rain and preside over curing ceremonies to recover spirits stolen by the ahuaques. As a form of atmospheric cycle, the complex is connected to a widely generalized conception of Mesoamerican cosmovision that makes the orderly functioning and reproduction of the cosmos dialectically possible.El vínculo entre los ahuaques, espíritus pluviales de difuntos deificados, y el tesiftero o especialista ritual en el control mágico de la meteorología configura un elaborado sistema mítico de larga duración en la Sierra de Texcoco. Para los nahuas locales, los ahuaques habitan un ámbito carencial desde el que envían los rayos y el granizo para apoderarse de los principios anímicos de objetos y seres terrenales e inversamente envían a la tierra donaciones fecundantes de lluvia para lograr su prosperidad. Los tesifteros actúan como intercesores gestionando los intercambios entre el plano de los ahuaques y el de los seres humanos: efectúan rituales destinados a conjurar el granizo o pedir la lluvia y dirigen ceremonias terapéuticas para obtener los espíritus humanos apresados por dichos seres. A manera de circuito atmosférico, el complejo remite a una conceptualización más generalizada de la cosmovisión mesoamericana que posibilita en su fluir dialéctico el funcionamiento ordenado y la reproducción del cosmos

Beatriz Caiuby Labate and Clancy Cavnar (Eds.) (2016). Peyote. History, Tradition, Politics, and Conservation (foreword by James A. Bauml and Stacy B. Schaefer). Santa Barbara, Praeger (280 pp.)

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Student teachers' understanding and application of assessment for learning during a physical education teacher education course

There is widespread consensus on the need for Assessment for Learning (AfL) in both university courses and school programs. Given the prevalence of traditional practices in school physical education where assessment is basic or non-existent we might ask whether AfL is present in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) courses. Where it is, we may wonder whether the student teachers’ concept of AfL is consistent with the concept advocated for and developed in the literature and in policy. This paper draws on a qualitative study that was conducted on a core unit within a PETE course delivered by a university in England. Despite the fact that the students lacked a voice in framing their understanding and uses of AfL, we could say that most students appeared to have grasped the concept, not just as a theoretical framework but also in terms of applying different strategies during their practice in schools. They reported that they found this knowledge relevant and useful, they recognised the need to learn more about it, and they also had the intention to incorporate this knowledge in their future professional practice. Given these findings, we conclude this paper with a brief discussion of why traditional approaches to assessment in school physical education appear to persist