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Portable X‐ray fluorescence (pXRF) geochemical analysis on obsidian from five Formative period (1200 BCE to AC 100) sites from Tlaxcala, Mexico, has revealed that most of the material had similar values to those found in the closest obsidian source, named El Paredón, Puebla. Nevertheless, initial analyses did not resolve whether these materials came from the same caldera or from a specific obsidian deposit. Here we present a methodology that allows the identification of obsidian subsources. The results reveal that Tlaxcalan populations took advantage of a specific obsidian deposit called Tres Cabezas, Puebla, providing valuable new data to identify associated regional exchange networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Abd al‐Rahman Ibn Khaldun (1332‐1406), the founder of the science of society, became known to modern sociologists during the formative period of sociology, that is, the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. There was something of a reception of Ibn Khaldun in Europe at that time by sociologists and other scholars who were not necessarily involved with Islamic or West Asian studies. In fact, the reception of Ibn Khaldun by modern scholars in the West can be differentiated into Eurocentric or Orientalist as opposed to more disciplinary attitudes. While much has been said about the Eurocentric reception of Ibn Khaldun, less is discussed about the disciplinary approach to Ibn Khaldun among thinkers who wrote when the modern science of sociology was emerging in Europe. This special issue on Ibn Khaldun in the Formative Period of Sociology provides English translations of six articles originally written in Italian, French, German, Polish, Spanish and Turkish between 1896 and 1934. Not all of these articles were written by sociologists. Together, they provide some background as to how Ibn Khaldun was conceived of in non‐area studies circles, in the social sciences and humanities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In one of the most arid places on Earth, the Atacama Desert in northern Chile (18–21° S), pre‐Hispanic cultures developed different types of tillage and irrigation systems in the Guatacondo Ravine. Their agrarian production, based on a summer precipitation regime, enabled the formative villages of Ramaditas (2300–2600 years BP) and Guatacondo (2400–2800 years BP) to emerge, along with seasonal agriculture. Despite the insight gained into their agricultural technology, we know very little about how this type of soil management affected the soils' plant nutrient status. Thus, our main objective was to determine if the different tillage systems affected the soils' properties. We analyzed the soils and the pollen composition of different tillage systems and carried out direct radiocarbon dating (14C) of sediments. The soils' chemical properties (total nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic carbon contents) indicate greater nutrient retention in the square bed system, associated with a higher silt content and the use of organic fertilizers. Pollen analyses show the presence of crop, weed, and riparian species. In conclusion, the analysis of ancient soils gives us valuable information about the innovations and changes implemented in ancient times in the Guatacondo Ravine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Many researchers agree that a person's values are formed during the first two decades of one's life span. But little is known about the exact formation process and the typical development of values during youth. In this article, we investigate the question of intra-individual stability and changes in values during the so-called formative years.Method: We used the dataset of a German panel study that took place in seven waves, from 2002 to 2008 (t1 -t7 ), which contained responses obtained from 2,957 boys and girls ages 13-19. The interviews were repeated yearly and were held mainly in classrooms. An analysis of stability and change over the observed time period was done using the framework of latent state-trait theory.Results: The results showed a stable three-dimensional value structure, with strong growth in value stability that decreased slightly at the end of the adolescent period. The development of stability among youth seems to be dependent on the values themselves.Conclusions: These findings are consistent with the aging-stability hypothesis-that is, values become more and more stable parts of an individual's personality during the formative years. Moreover, our results would seem to substantiate hypotheses that assume value-specific courses of development and recurring periods of stability and change later in the life cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To characterize the paleodiet of individuals from Formative Period (1500 B.C.–A.D. 400) Atacama Desert sites of Ancachi and Quillagua as a means of understanding the dietary and cultural impacts of regional systems of exchange. Materials and methods: Thirty‐one bone samples recovered from the cemetery of Ancachi (02QU175) and in/around the nearby town of Quillagua were the subject of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of bone collagen and hydroxyapatite and multisource mixture modeling (FRUITS, food reconstruction using isotopic transferred signals) of paleodiet. These individuals were compared with nearly 200 other Formative Period individuals from throughout the region to identify differences in dietary behaviors. Results: 80.6% (25/31) of the samples yielded sufficient well‐preserved collagen and were included in the multisource mixture model. The FRUITS model, which compared individuals with a robust database of available foods from the region, identified a wide diversity of diets in the Ancachi/Quillagua area (including both coastal and interior individuals), and, most notably, thirteen individuals who consumed an average of 11.2 ± 1.9% terrestrial animals, 19.8 ± 1.9% legumes, and 22.5 ± 3.1% marine fauna, a balanced pattern of protein consumption distinct from both the coastal and inland individuals in our larger regional sample. Conclusions: The combination of stable isotope analysis and multisource mixture modeling permitted the characterization of dietary behavior of 25 individuals from nodal sites in the Atacama Desert, thus enhancing our understanding of the economic and social relationships that bound together Formative Period sites, populations, and individuals in this hyperarid region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The goal of this research is to understand the relevance of diet diversity during the transition to agriculture, in ancient populations from northern Chile, especially considering the significance of marine resources and crops in a lesser degree. Methods: A total of 14 human individuals were sampled from the Tarapacá 40 cemetery. Both bone and tooth samples were collected. Samples were studied from bone/dentine collagen for carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis; and bone/enamel apatite for carbon isotope analysis. Inferential statistical analyses were performed in order to compare Tarapacá 40 stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values with other Formative and Late Intermediate Period groups. A nonparametrical hypothesis Kruskal--Wallis test was used. Results: The results show that the individuals from Tarapacá 40 are intermediate to the values observed for terrestrial and marine fauna as well as C3 and C4 plants. Conclusions: A gradual transition to crop consumption, especially maize, is suggested. This complemented the earlier hunter-gatherer tradition of marine resources and wild fruit consumption. Contrarily to the predictions made by some archaeologists, the results obtained for northern Chile contrast with the classical perspective of a "Neolithic Revolution" in which transition to agriculture occurred more abruptly and linearly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-distance networks for the transport of exotic goods and the beginnings of specialized craft production first appear in Mesoamerica during the Formative Period. The results of portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis of 456 obsidian artefacts imported to the Pacific coast site of La Zanja (Guerrero, Mexico) indicate that long-distance exchange of finished obsidian blades along the coast began during the Early Formative (c.1400-1000 cal BC) and remained constant into the Middle Formative Period (c.800-550 cal BC). Comparisons with sourcing studies from elsewhere in Mesoamerica indicate the development of a major Pacific coast trade network during the Formative Period that linked coastal Guerrero to the central Mexican highlands and the Valley of Oaxaca. Weaker connections existed with Gulf coast obsidian trade networks that traversed the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. As the first obsidian sourcing study from coastal Guerrero, these data contribute to a greater understanding of the development of exchange networks in Mesoamerica during the Formative Period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Occlusal surface wear scores were examined in a sample of 200 Formative period (1500 bc-ad 500) skeletons from the lower Azapa Valley in northwest Chile. Wear rate and plane (angle) were additionally evaluated using a subsample of paired first and second mandibular molars. The Formative period represents the transition from marine foraging to agro-pastoral dependence in the region, and differences in oral pathology indicate that diet varied by site location (coast vs valley interior) but not by archaeological phase (early vs late). We predicted that occlusal wear would demonstrate similar patterns, resulting from differences in food consistency, and therefore hypothesised that in coastal groups consuming greater quantities of foraged foods, occlusal surfaces should wear faster and exhibit flat molar wear, whereas among valley interior groups consuming greater quantities of agro-pastoral products, these should wear slower but exhibit more angled molar wear. Heavier posterior tooth wear was identified among coastal residents, but rate and angle of molar occlusal attrition did not differ significantly by location. Heavier overall wear and a steeper molar wear plane were identified during the early phase indicating that food consistency varied somewhat over the course of the Formative period. Overall, the results indicate that, although limited differences in tooth wear exist by site location, wear varied more over time likely reflecting a gradual transition from foraging to agro-pastoral dependence in the lower Azapa Valley. Although oral health indicators point to differences in dietary investment by location, maintenance of a mixed subsistence economy likely sustained a comparative consistency of foodstuffs. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper examines the role of caches, burials, and mortuary offerings as forms of inalienable wealth in the lower Río Verde valley of Pacific coastal Oaxaca, Mexico. Interred in socially meaningful places, bodies and objects were removed from circulation but remained integral to interactions among the living, acquiring 'situational' inalienability. Tracing the history of caching and burial practices over the course of the later Formative period (400 B.C.E.-C.E. 250), we argue that these buried inalienable possessions were important elements of identity creation and also served both to establish and to undermine hierarchical social relations during the process of political centralization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Bioarchaeology and biogeochemistry can elucidate aspects of individual life histories that are often lost in the archaeological record. Here, we use stable and radiogenic isotope analyses of enamel, bone and hair to reconstruct paleodiet and paleomobility in an adult male interred along a pre-Columbian route connecting the northern Chilean coast to the inland Loa River Valley. Although this well-preserved burial included mortuary goods typical of coastal cultures, it was discovered in a vast, uninhabited part of northern Chile's hyper-arid Atacama Desert. Variation in carbon and nitrogen isotopes reflects dietary differences, while strontium and oxygen isotopes vary geologically and geographically. We use these data to examine paleodiet and paleomobility and to assess whether this was a coastal traveller seeking provisions from the interior or vice versa. Enamel stable isotope analysis is consistent with the consumption of a mixture of terrestrial and marine resources during the first years of life. Bone stable isotope analyses indicate habitual consumption of marine foodstuffs over the last 10-30 years of this individual's life. Interestingly, stable isotope analysis of hair samples provides more fine-grained information on this individual, suggesting movements between the coast and highlands in the months before his death. Radiogenic strontium isotope data are consistent with residence on the coast or in the Atacama Desert, but are lower than strontium isotope values from higher altitudes. These dietary and geological patterns are reconcilable with coastal residency; the isotopic data are consistent with foodstuffs and textiles found with the burial. Therefore, we argue that this individual was regularly moving from the coast to inland areas, crossing the hyper-arid Atacama Desert by following strategic interzonal routes that provided access to particular resources. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the study which examined the pottery making as an augmentation of household economy in the Valley of Puebla during the Formative Period. It states that ceramics are associated with the beginning of the Formative Period in the central highlands of Mexico which was also the beginning of agriculture and village life. The study found that ceramic production like pottery-making was an activity in which local households were engaged for centuries.

Petrographic analysis and geochemical characterization studies were carried out on vitreous dacite and/or rhyodacite artefacts from Formative period archaeological sites in the upper Salado River Basin in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. These were compared with samples taken from two source areas located within the subregion, named Linzor and Paniri. Source samples and archaeological specimens were analysed by inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (ICP–MS) combined with optical emission plasma – mass spectrometry (ICP–OES) and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). Results from the limited number of samples analysed indicate that the Linzor source seems to have been the primary source exploited during the Early and Late Formative periods in the Salado River Basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The goal of this research is to understand the relevance of diet diversity during the transition to agriculture, in ancient populations from northern Chile, especially considering the significance of marine resources and crops in a lesser degree., Methods: A total of 14 human individuals were sampled from the Tarapacá 40 cemetery. Both bone and tooth samples were collected. Samples were studied from bone/dentine collagen for carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis; and bone/enamel apatite for carbon isotope analysis. Inferential statistical analyses were performed in order to compare Tarapacá 40 stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values with other Formative and Late Intermediate Period groups. A nonparametrical hypothesis Kruskal-Wallis test was used., Results: The results show that the individuals from Tarapacá 40 are intermediate to the values observed for terrestrial and marine fauna as well as C3 and C4 plants., Conclusions: A gradual transition to crop consumption, especially maize, is suggested. This complemented the earlier hunter-gatherer tradition of marine resources and wild fruit consumption. Contrarily to the predictions made by some archaeologists, the results obtained for northern Chile contrast with the classical perspective of a "Neolithic Revolution" in which transition to agriculture occurred more abruptly and linearly., (© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)