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Despite the existence of several studies of cassava in Africa, the long-term history of the crop and of the relationships that it engendered between producers and successive state administrations remains underexplored. Based on oral interviews and a close reading of nineteenth-century travelogues and archival material, this article is an attempt at contributing to the historiography of cassava in Zambia. The article examines the role of cassava in food security in two regions of present-day Zambia, Luapula and North Western, where the crop has long served as a fundamental staple food. Further, it explores how the role of cassava in food security intersected with changing government policies, from the pre-colonial period to the late twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the early modern nexus between feather-work and textiles with a focus on Spanish Peru. Whilst Peruvian feather-work has been defined as pre-Columbian, this article presents new textual, visual, and material evidence that shows its significance in the material culture of colonial Peru, which serves to initiate a broader debate on the dynamics of cultural encounters in the Ibero-American world. I chart the development of craft cultures beyond the moment of the Spanish conquest of the Americas by discussing Peruvian practices of feather manufacturing in relation to the production and usage of textiles in early modern Spain. This approach, I argue, will enable a reconsideration of the dynamics of the Spanish Empire, whose centres and peripheries were linked through circulating objects that constituted a shared material world. In the particular case of feather-work, this was a world that jointly valued the aesthetics of knots and the intricacy of knotting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of IBEROAMERICANA. América Latina - España - Portugal is the property of Vervuert Verlag and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

ABSTRACT: The impact of pre‐Columbian indigenous communities on forest cover in Amazonia is highly contentious, particularly for the wettest forests. To contribute to this debate, we studied the vegetation and fire history of a site, Quistococha, which lies within the aseasonal forests of the northern Peruvian Amazon and is associated with independently dated pre‐Columbian and recent human occupation. Paired cores from swamp and lake environments were used to distinguish landscape‐scale changes in vegetation from local‐scale succession. An increased abundance of disturbance‐adapted taxa in the pollen record from the lake, but not swamp, since c. AD 1860 probably reflects extensive deforestation related to the expansion of the nearby city of Iquitos. However, previous persistent occupation of the site by pre‐Columbian indigenous communities, indicated by the charcoal record from the lake site, is not associated with evidence for similarly extensive disturbance of the landscape. The unique features of this site therefore demonstrate that occupation by indigenous communities over thousands of years was not associated with large‐scale deforestation. These results support an emerging model of persistent but localized impacts by pre‐Columbian indigenous communities on aseasonal Amazonian forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo discurre sobre la historia del pulque, una bebida alcohólica derivada del maguey (agave) de la civilización prehispánica.

Radiocarbon age estimates from a micro-regional survey of Eastern Dominica provide a chronological framework for Ceramic Age (ca. 400 BC to AD 1492) settlements and population movements in relation to inter-island communities of the Windward Islands. This report covers the design of the survey, the recovery context of the radiocarbon samples, and the implications for the future of research involving Dominica. Although only a small number of radiocarbon age estimates are reported, these are among the first published from systematically excavated pre-Columbian contexts in Dominica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review explores the past two decades of research on ancient Maya skeletons. The focus is on how this work has contributed to our understanding of health, diet, social change, inequality, migration and mobility, war, violence, and ritual practice, with special attention given to recent methodological developments and debates in the bioarchaeology of the Maya. This review essay highlights the most recent findings in the bioarchaeology of the Maya and how those results were achieved. The essay concludes with suggestions for future research and highlights areas of potential collaboration that have been underutilized to address broader anthropological questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 450 pre-Columbian (pre-AD 1492) geometric ditched enclosures ("geoglyphs") occupy ~13,000 km2 of Acre state, Brazil, representing a key discovery of Amazonian archaeology. These huge earthworks were concealed for centuries under terra firme (upland interfluvial) rainforest, directly challenging the "pristine" status of this ecosystem and its perceived vulnerability to human impacts. We reconstruct the environmental context of geoglyph construction and the nature, extent, and legacy of associated human impacts. We show that bamboo forest dominated the region for =6,000 y and that only small, temporary clearings were made to build the geoglyphs; however, construction occurred within anthropogenic forest that had been actively managed for millennia. In the absence of widespread deforestation, exploitation of forest products shaped a largely forested landscape that survived intact until the late 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of Niche Construction Theory in archaeological research demands that we establish empirically how human-constructed niches acted as legacies that shaped the selection pressures affecting past human populations. One potential approach is to examine whether human demography changed as a result of the continued use of landscapes enduringly transformed by past societies. This paper presents proxies for Amazonian population growth during the late Holocene and discusses their significance within the broader context of landscape legacies resulting from cumulative anthropic environmental alteration during pre-Columbian times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent efforts to reconstruct the anthropogenic paleozoogeography of introduced Neotropical mammals in the West Indies provide new analytical foundations for evaluating island and continental human interaction, exchange, colonization, and animal management. Key questions in these investigations concern the timing, source, population viability, and environmental impact of continental faunal translocations in the pre-Columbian insular Caribbean. To investigate these issues we analyzed 87 Sr/ 86 Sr, 206 Pb/ 204 Pb, 207 Pb/ 204 Pb, and 208 Pb/ 204 Pb isotope ratios from environmental samples and agouti ( Dasyprocta sp.) and opossum ( Didelphis cf. marsupialis ) remains from Ceramic Age (500 BC – AD 1500) archaeological deposits on the islands of Nevis, Carriacou, and Mustique in the Lesser Antilles. This study was undertaken to assess the suitability of agouti and opossum tooth enamel for isotopic analysis, characterize local bioavailable Sr and Pb isotope ratios, and distinguish possible local and non-local agouti and opossum individuals. We demonstrate large intra-island variability in bioavailable Sr across multiple islands giving rise to potential equifinality in identifying taxa of non-local origin. We argue, consequently, for the necessity of comprehensive environmental sampling at the island scale to better define the range and mean of bioavailable Sr for a given locale. Our results further show that Pb isotope analysis of sampled taxa is problematized to varying degrees by modern anthropogenic lead contamination, even for well-preserved ‘clean’ tooth enamel from intact archaeological specimens and raise questions about the utility of this method for evaluating past animal translocations and the use of small mammals for establishing local bioavailable Pb. Despite these results, Sr data are sound and, in combination with vetted Pb ratios, indicate that agouti and opossum were established as living populations on Carriacou and Nevis as early as ca. AD 600/800, and possibly earlier. These results establish baseline data for evaluating exchange networks involving living animals or their parts, potential captive management of agouti and opossum, and the ecological impact of exotic species during the Pre-Columbian era in the West Indies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite evidence for the protracted presence of humans in the Amazon Basin, its vast interfluvial habitats are frequently depicted as having survived until recently as ‘wild’ landscapes with neither human settlement nor substantial human land use. Related research interests of paleoecology and archaeology share parallel histories in the development of explanatory paradigms for understanding processes contributing to neotropical ecology, as both emerged from earlier periods dominated by models based on stability and equilibrium to a contemporary advocacy of dynamic stability and change. Recent paradigms accommodate humans as keystone species and implicate their role in past and present landscape management. This is particularly important in the neotropics where it is argued that an extensive and ancient indigenous agroforestry employed intermediate disturbance in the management of interfluvial landscapes. This is contrasted with a critical discussion of recent paleoecological research in central and western Amazonia, which argues that interfluvial landscapes were devoid of pre-Columbian populations and survived as relatively pristine relic landscapes throughout most of the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent archaeological research suggests that some parts of the Amazon Basin were significantly modified by pre-Columbian populations. One of the most impressive examples of such transformations is the raised fields of south-western Amazonia, in the Llanos de Moxos in the Bolivian Lowlands. Despite a growing interest in raised field agriculture, due to the important role it seems to have played in the development of pre-Columbian complex societies, very few field-based investigations have been performed in the Amazon Basin. As a result, there is limited knowledge of how these fields were constructed, managed and within which time-frame they were in use. This study provides a new interpretation of how pre-Columbian raised fields were managed and a chronological sequence of their utilisation and eventual abandonment. Fieldwork was carried out in the indigenous community of Bermeo, in the vicinity of San Ignacio de Moxos, where some of the best preserved fields in the Llanos Moxos are found. Magnetic susceptibility and the geochemistry of the sediments, combined with radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence dating, show that the raised fields were in intermittent use since as early as AD 570–770. The original surface on which the fields were built and distinct periods of construction and use have been identified. The data suggests that raised fields were built during a few separate construction events, probably linked to periods of more frequent and severe floods. The study challenges the most widely accepted theory that suggests that pre-Columbians were able to cultivate these fields on a continuous basis by transferring nutrient-rich sediments from the canals to the fields. We conclude that pre-Columbians built raised fields to overcome periods of increased flooding, with the main objective of improving drainage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous farmers in pre-Columbian North America have frequently been characterized as shifting cultivators whose agricultural productivity was marginal and unstable, and whose actions were damaging to the environment. In this article I challenge this assessment. The presence of large tracts of highly productive soils in eastern and central North America suggests that farmers here would not have engaged in shifting cultivation, but, rather, practiced permanent, intensive cropping. The lack of plows, often cited as an impediment for Native American farmers, was in fact an advantage. Agricultural systems using hand tools cause less destruction of soil organic matter and reduce soil erosion; they enable sustained crop yields over longer periods compared to plow-based systems. Indigenous farmers in North America also grew a highly productive cereal grain, maize, uniquely suited to no-plow conditions because of its large seed size. Maize yields of twenty-five to fifty bushels per acre were both realistic and stable, which allowed indigenous farmers to support modest populations for extended periods. This combination of access to fertile soils, a cropping system that preserved soils, and a high-yielding grain crop enabled an agricultural system that was largely productive and stable and had limited negative effects on the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactions with the bodies of hunted animals often follow prescriptions pertaining to social relationships among human and non-human persons. Despite this, deposits of archaeological food remains are seldom considered in terms of deliberate placement, instead serving primarily as reflections of preparation and consumption activities. The residues of feasts, in particular, are often highlighted as indexes of special consumption events, although such salient occasions might also be expected to highlight ritualized depositional practices as well. This study reconsiders the archaeological residues of feasts through the vantage of a fauna-filled pit in late Pre-Columbian Florida. Most of the contents of the feature correlate with a large feast, but the structure of the deposit and inclusion of specific elements reflects scrupulous emplacement. Drawing on North American relational ontologies, we explore the idea that this pit feature was created as a deliberate bundle, the result of an intentional act of interment that was concerned with positioning its contents in ways that manifested and shaped various relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The temporality of bodies has featured prominently in bioarchaeologists’ studies of embodiment, lifecycle, plasticity and ancestor veneration, amongst other topics. We focus here on the temporality of violence, as evidenced by peri-mortem marks on and post-mortem treatments of bodies. Such evidence can signal violence that is either interpersonal or symbolic, though we realize the distinction may be a materially subtle one. To this end, we look to archaeologists’ recent theoretical forays into temporality. More specifically, we deliberate about relationality, which invites reflective comparison between past and present bodies. Relationality allows bioarchaeologists to examine bodies qua bodies, as well as demands that they contextualize their ancient (or historic) case studies and present-day research in time and place. To explore these ideas, we draw upon a variety of sources, not all of which are traditional (i.e. impersonal) academic discussions. The latter can obfuscate or overlook the more emotional or politicized dimensions of violated bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the depiction of Mayan stelae in art created by Hudson River School painter Frederic Edwin Church and displayed by lawyer John Church Cruger, focusing on the meaning behind the juxtaposition of pre-Columbian art and Western style architecture. Other topics include the Spanish influence from the San Francisco church in Quito, Ecuador on Church's landscape painting "Cayambe," the inclusion of Mayan sculptures in Cruger's artificial ruins, and the possible influence of Cruger's display on Church's art.

The standard view has been that once the Americas were settled via Beringia, the human denizens of the Western Hemisphere were essentially cut off from interaction with peoples of the Old World. Here, I present multidisciplinary evidence that the hemispheres were, instead, interconnected by repeated voyages over millennia, resulting in profound influences on both sides of the oceans. I first examine arbitrary cultural traits (cosmology, calendrics, and art) and complex technologies (barkcloth/ papermaking, the blowgun, metallurgy, weaving and dyeing, ceramics), then comment on likely relationships between certain Old and New World languages. A large number of cultivated plants and one or two species of domestic fowl, which could not have crossed oceans without human carriage, were shared between the hemispheres before--in most cases, long before--1492. Several tropical Old World human intestinal parasites that could not have entered the Americas via Beringia were also shared, some remarkably early. The geographical distributions of certain distinct human genetic markers imply important inputs to Mesoamerican and Andean populations from more than one overseas source. Studies of climatology, oceanography, and traditional watercraft and navigation show that early vessels were capable of ocean crossings via certain routes. These converging, essentially independent lines of evidence imply that we can no longer assume that the cultures of the two hemispheres evolved in parallel fashion in isolation from one another and according to "laws" discoverable through comparative studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo discute las técnicas de extracción de sal al sur de Puebla, México, durante la época prehispánica, con énfasis en la técnica de creación de bloques o panes de sal. Los temas discutidos incluyen usos de la sal en México prehispánico, posible uso de cambio de los panes de sal y exploraciones arqueológicas.

El artículo discute las representaciones de perros asociadas con tradiciones funerarias en figurillas pertenecientes a la tradición de las tumbas de tiro del Occidente de México, una cultura precolombina del periodo comprendido entre 250 a.C. a 450 d.C. Los temas discutidos incluyen ritos funerarios en esta tradición, la relación entre el perro y el hombre en las culturas mesoamericanas y el perro en los mitos de la creación nahua.

El artículo discute la existencia del perro en América precolombina, con énfasis en estudios arqueológicos sobre sus orígenes. Los temas mencionados incluyen investigaciones sobre el ADN del perro realizadas en la década de 1990, tanto de ejemplares modernos como de restos arqueológicos, el origen del perro xoloitzcuintli de la ciudad de Tula, México, y relación del perro con el hombre en la civilización mesoamericana.

This article discusses the history and social conditions experienced by the indigenous group known as the tepehuans of Mexico. The authors comment on the forced displacement of the tepehuans throughout their history, with a particular focus on the pre-Hispanic period prior to 1519. They attempt to determine the cause of their displacement, which saw them migrate from the southern regions of Nayarit and Durango to the coastal zones of Sinaloa and Nayarit. The current status of the tepehuans in the early 21st century is also explored.

La complejidad social mesoamericana dependía del flujo de bienes desde la base hasta la cúspide del sistema tributario. Aunque el tributo externo desempeñaba el papel más notable en muchas de las sociedades -tal como se registra en cierto número de códices, como la Matrícula de Tributos y las partes referidas al tributo del Códice Mendoza-, la economía de todos los pueblos y ciudades en la época de la conquista se basaba en el tributo interno. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented which describes over 11,000 years of human conversion of space to place in the southern High Plains of the U.S. The author discusses the concept of Possibilism among settler societies, the fundamental elements of geology, topography, and climate in the southern High Plains, and Archaic peoples of the southern High Plains. It also discusses a drought known as the Altithermal, native horses and bison, and the Comanche Empire.

To date, most scholarly perspectives on ancient economies have been mischaracterized in part through a reliance on dichotomous frameworks (e.g., prirnitivist/modern, embedded/free) that draw false qualitative distinctions between past and more contemporary economic systems. This discussion challenges the metrics used in such frames and therefore the antimarket presumption prevalent in extant models of economic practices associated with ancient states. Shifting views of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican economies are highlighted in part to illustrate how past theoretical frames helped deflect mounting evidence for markets drawn from archaeological and textual research. Implications for similar reenvisioning of the ancient economies of Bronze Age Greece are proposed, including a potentially greater role for marketplace exchanges and less direct palatial control over all facets of exchange and production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A walled portion of the extensive Precolumbian civic-ceremonial precinct of East St. Louis, near present day St. Louis, Missouri, enclosed a cluster of as many as 100 small buildings or huts. The huts were associated with a walled ritual-residential zone or elite compound dating to the late Stirling phase (A.D. 1150-1200) and, importantly, were burned in a single conflagration. The burning of East St. Louis may have resulted from a ritual commemoration, an act of aggression, or an accidental fire; circumstantial evidence primarily supports the first scenario. With strongly diminished mound and architectural construction at the site in subsequent decades, and with the coeval disappearance of key ritual-residential buildings from the regional landscape after the burning, the ancient East St. Louis fire was part of a larger pattern of historical events that mark a downward turning point in the social and political history of Greater Cahokia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a report from a December 14, 2012 conference in Berlin, Germany on the digitization of research concerning German cartographer and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. Topics of presentations included the use of the Humboldt Digital Library at http://www.avhumboldt.net, the digitization of an archive of Humboldt's writings, and the role of Humboldt in the public opinion of pre-Columbian societies in the Americas.

Abstract: The first inhabitants of Jamaica are now generally referred to as Taínos. It is likely that they arrived in the island after about 650 AD and were extinct by the end of the 16th century. In 1968, during the exploration of a small cave in Bull Savannah, St. Elizabeth parish, Dr. James Lee found two skulls, teeth, bones, and pottery. The aim of this work is to interpret in a biocultural perspective the one cranium with pathological lesions, such as caries sicca. This adult individual had an artificially modified cranium, a cultural practice common among Taínos, which was studied macroscopically and by radiological and computerized tomography. The radiocarbon dates, obtained by AMS, point to the 10th–11th centuries AD and the stable isotopes analysis revealed either the ingestion of a mixed C3/C4 plant diet or an extensive intake of marine resources, the former being more likely. This is the first cranium to be found in Jamaica with evidence of Pre-Columbian treponematosis, most probably syphilis, which has also been demonstrated in a few cases elsewhere in the Caribbean region. This finding agrees with the ethnohistorical narrative, according to which syphilis existed among the native population, who used plant extracts to treat the disease. This paper contributes to our knowledge about the Taínos and the history of treponematosis in the Americas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copyright of Revista Espanola de Antropologia Americana is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Resonancias is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Author-supplied Abstracts.)

Se presenta una cronología de la ciudad histórica de Xochimilco, México que cubre la época prehispánica, desde 25000 a.C. hasta 1521.

This article explores intervening factors in the construction of landscapes in the departments of Potosi and Chuquisaca (Bolivia). Landscapes are perceived and experienced in these regions as narratives, continuously woven together by signifying landmarks. More than simply serving a stated purpose, journeys become key moments during which humans discover and reproduce their ontological explanations of the world, confront non-human entities, and recall the pasts that define their identities and those of others. Andean landscapes, at once ambiguous, diffuse, and permeable, are places which express historical relations of power and domination. They are also places that manifest both the limits of the realm of saqra and the intrinsically subversive nature of the practices that construct social memory in physical space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies on the Andean knotted threads, called khipu, consider their use not only as records of quantity, but also as more general recording and documenting devices, with integral planning aspects. This possibility has been explored in relation to khipus as inished artifacts and as composite objects under construction. However, until now, studies of Andean textiles have tended to restrict their analysis to the semiotically constituted construction of already completed artifacts, with less attention to their relation to this wider administrative domain. Here we consider textiles as part of wider productive networks, in their totalities and their constituent parts. We reconsider some archaeological and historical weaving instruments, called waraña in Aymara, from this point of view, using ethnographic analogies to suggest ways in which these instruments might have been used in the past in these wider planning and administrative systems overseeing textile production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many American cultivated species have been domesticated in the Neotropical Lowlands. While the southern limit of some cultivars (e.g. maize) is relatively well known for the Andean Region, the south-western limit of lowland horticulture has been poorly established in South America. Sixteenth-century European accounts mentioned the presence of cultivated plants in the Delta of the Paraná River, but until now this had not been confirmed by direct archaeobotanical data. This paper presents and discusses the results of starch grains analysis from six archaeological sites of the Paraná Delta (Argentina), ranging from 1302 to 1492 years cal. ad, which confirm the pre-Hispanic presence of cultivars in the area. Wild (algarrobo; South American mesquite) and domesticated (maize and beans) plant remains were found in ceramic containers and on grinding tools from those sites. Our research contributes new data on the late dispersion of cultivated species in the Paraná Delta, an area so far excluded from continental models for the dispersal of cultivars in the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Temas de Historia Argentina y Americana is the property of Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The mystic worldview of prehispanic societies did not lead to a philosophical vision, as was the case in Greek society. Is it currently feasible to philosophize from a Pre-Colombian myth? The apparent naivety of this query hides a set of questions that are necessary to distinguish. In the pejorative sense, a myth is a tale or story. What deserves to become matter of a philosophical consideration today? Since Heidegger, some philosophers think that the big "myth" of science and technology, understood as unilateral truth, is one that should be unmasked. However, the myth in another sense intends to reveal the sacred, the origin. This is evident in prehispanic myths, where they provide meaning to the realm of life. According to Gadamer, the reasoning of the Age of Enlightenment does not surpass myth; it is merely our secular "myth", with its own benefits and problems. Maybe, more than overcoming the myth it may be possible to think of it as an experience that will never exclude a type of rationality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pre-Columbian societies that inhabited the Eastern Andean slopes have been subject to a range of interpretations related to their location 'between Andes and Amazon'. In particular, certain economic models have been applied, which are assumed to be compatible with this kind of location. These models, generally derived from ethnohistory, are discussed in this article through the case of the Quijos chiefdoms, providing an archaeological perspective about their economy. More generally, the reach of interpretations about exchange in the northern Andes is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a marked difference between archaeological research conducted at the Ecuadorian Amazon basin and research done at the coast and in the highlands. This article synthesizes the archaeological history of the region, which can be divided into three moments: one of pioneer and sporadic incursions with an emphasis on the achievement of chronological sequences of horizons by means of a historical-cultural approach and a diffusionist interpretative model; a second moment, characterized by projects of archaeological rescue, being part of the oil exploitation, which brought a limited contribution to the understanding of the prehispanic past of the region; and a third moment with punctual investigations, which begin to shed some light on the many outstanding questions, although few of these works take into account the theoretical advances of the archaeological discipline in their interpretative frames. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores to what extent arsenic poisoning affected pre-Columbian northern Chile populations living between Arica and Iquique cities. We hypothesize, the pre-Columbian inhabitants of this region, will show arseniasis according to modern geographic endemic levels. Continuous exposure to high levels of arsenic causes serious health problems. Today, in the Camarones valley, where many Chinchorro people lived, arsenic levels are 100 times above the 10 μg/L recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) we determined arsenic levels in a single strand of hair of 45 Arica mummies coming from ten sites (Morro 1, Morro 1/5, Yungay 372, Camarones 8, 9, 15D, and 17 and Azapa 140, Sermenia and Patillos), ranging from Chinchorro (ca. 5000–2000 years B.C.) to the Late Intermediate Period (1000–1400 years A.D.). Each hair was cleaned using distilled ionized water and placed on double sided mounting tape and ablated using a 266 nm Nd-YAG UV laser. Hair samples were also investigated for potential diagenesis. Results indicate minimal diagenesis. Arsenic hair (AsH) concentrations in the mummies ranged from <0.8 to 262.2 μg/g. We noted AsH variability within burial sites as well as regional variation. The Morro mummies have the highest mean group value (58 ± 103.8 mg/g). Contrary to hypothetical expectations, some Arica Chinchorro mummies have high values, perhaps indicating inter site mobility related to exogamous marriage and mummification rites. Our study shows that ancient people of northern Chile were significantly affected by arsenic poisoning throughout generations. Finally, this study calls attention to naturally occurring eco-toxic contaminants and its impact on ancient Andean people. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copyright of Revista Espanola de Antropologia Americana is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Summary: In the literature, there are reports about the presence of cocaine, nicotine and cannabinoids in the hair of ancient mummies from South America or Egypt. Most of the results have been criticised because of the use of improper analytical techniques or contamination of the sample material. Recently an exhibition of 70 mummies from around the globe was organized at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen in Mannheim, Germany. It shows exhibits assembled by one of the worldfamous mummy projects, involving various specialists for anthropology, pathology, radiology, molecular biology and toxicology. Within this project, hair samples of eight pre-Columbian mummies were analyzed for drugs using modern routine gas chromatographic–mass spectrometric techniques. The tests revealed negative results, except for nicotine in the hair of three mummies. Nicotine was measured in concentrations of 57.5ng/mg in the hair of a woman, 14.1ng/mg in the hair of a child and 11.4ng/mg in the hair of a further female mummy, but all cases revealed negative results for cotinine. The target analysis was performed with limits of detection of 0.04ng/mg for nicotine and 0.033ng/mg for cotinine. The washing solutions yielded negative results for both analytes, nicotine as well as cotinine. In our opinion, even with respect to negative results in the washing solutions, the present results cannot definitely confirm an active consumption with body passage in the life time of the analyzed mummies: An external contamination cannot be excluded, e.g. by transfer from smoking visitors or employees during the early collection history of the objects in the 19th century, as well as in their respective lifetime. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

El artículo se centra en la música y su rol en los ritos y cultura prehispánica. Empieza con la historia de la música en Mesoamérica que comenzó con la imitación de sonidos naturales. El artículo sigue con los fuentes documentales sobre las distinciones entre varios tipos de música y su rol en la mitología de la cultura mexica.

The Maya of Central America constitute the only truly literate pre-Columbian civilization. Analysis of ancient Maya hieroglyphic texts and accompanying images dating from the Classic period (A.D. 200-900) documents the presence of a central and pervasive institution of governance: ahaw. The material symbol systems of the Lowland Maya of the protoliterate Late Preclassic period (350 B. C.-A.D. 100), as evinced in monumental decorated buildings and in portable art, suggest that these Maya innovated ahaw, the institution of kingship. The authority of ahaw rested upon direct descent and spiritual communion with the ancestors of all Maya, the Ancestral Heroes. Along with noble lineage, ahaw claimed charismatic power through the performance of shamanistic ritual. The Late Preclassic antecedents of the shamanistic parameters of ahaw are discussed in light of Classic and Postclassic ritual expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the art forms of the people of pre-Columbian America. It is stated that the pre-Columbian people were noted not only for their discovery and instantaneous disappearance but also for their eccentric behaviors, specially Mexico and Peru. It is reported that Cuzco, Peru, the capital city of the Inca empire, which lay on a plateau at the foot of an acropolis, was a city that was considered to be one of the most thoroughly administered states, with a history of valiant conquests of a considerable part of South America including Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. The art forms of the period have been described as quite brilliantly developed. Mayan Art receives special mention. It is stated that the works of the then artists elucidate the tradition of violence amongst the race.