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For over a decade, the use of consumer decision seeking the accomplishment of political or ethical goals has been extensively debated by international social sciences. Confronting social capital decline and political demobilization theories, the acknowledgement of political consumerism as a novel and rising mode of non-conventional individual participation in politics has helped to redefine the terms of discussion on civic engagement while also bridging the gap between citizenship and the traditional public sphere of politics, on one side, and consumption and the private sphere of market agents, on the other. Yet, such debate has hardly begun for Latin America, not to speak of pursuing an empirical discussion. This article reviews empirical evidence about the politicization of the relationships between consumers and business substantiated upon the adoption of politically motivated purchases or boycotts of brands and products based on social and environmental values or policy preferences. Research is grounded on representative sample surveys conducted in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Results indicate that political consumerism is a fairly stable phenomenon and it enlarges (rather than redefines) the repertoires of political action in Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses -through a comparative analysis of the reception and circulation of psychoanalytic thought in Argentina and Brazil-, the conditions for the transformation of a system of ideas into a system of beliefs. Particular emphasis is placed in the manner in which what Norbert Elias has characterized as "national hábitus" generates conditions for the reception and circulation of systems of thought. The analysis focuses on the reception and circulation of psychoanalytic ideas as they took place outside of, and independently from, the establishment of "psychoanalytic orthodoxies". Therefore, the article does not discuss the development of psychoanalytic institutions. Although the reception of psychoanalysis (or of any other system of ideas) is a multidimensional phenomenon, the article concentrates on three spaces of reception: medical circles, cultural avant garde and the social sciences. The article shows that interpretive grids of the social reality established in the 19th century, as well as intellectual and academic traditions, generated the conditions for specific lines of reception and forms appropriation of the Freudian system, thus questioning normative interpretations of the diffusion of systems of thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"This paper describes the historical evolution of five populations and analyzes the circumstances under which data on maternal and paternal orphanhood of couples at the moment of marriage were collected and compiled." The data, which concern historical populations in Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina, are used to construct life tables for male and female adults. Consideration is given to mortality differentials by sex. (summary in ENG), (excerpt)

This report concerns a seminar on adult mortality and orphanhood in the past in Latin America that was held in San Jose, Costa Rica, December 12-14, 1984. The first part describes five historical studies presented at the seminar concerning Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil, and Argentina. "The second part of this article is an explanation of the calculation involved in a life table derived from information on the incidence of orphanhood according to the age of newly married couples on their marriage.", (excerpt)