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The paper presents the location of 10 translucent agate quarries discovered in the Catalanes Nacientes Arapey Archaeological Region (RACNA), which defines a procurement zone of agate in northern Uruguay. This raw material is the second-most used lithic resource in early stratigraphic contexts dated by 14C in northwestern Uruguay, following silicified sandstone. The frequency distribution of translucent agate is analyzed in two early residential hunter-gatherer sites, Pay Paso I (11,000 to 8,500 B.P.), and site K87 (10,420 B.P.), and at Catalan Seco 1 (CS-), which is a quarry-workshop site. A strong chronological basis is presented for the Pay Paso 1 site, which includes 32 radiocarbon dates that allow recognition of three early cultural components and a blade lithic technology for the initial occupation of the I site (10,930-10,880 B.P.). The paper discusses the main ways of distributing the translucent agate during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, which are related to accessibility of the resource, lithic technology, territory, and mobility of early hunter-gatherers in the region. Movements were recorded between 140 and 170 km from residential sites to the procurement area of the agate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the paper is to analyze the determinants of social policies in Brazilian states. More specifically, it examines public spending in the areas of health and education and explores the possible causes of observed changes in the long run. The theoretical motivation for the paper is based on a literature review that affirms that, at the state level, the executive is unchecked within the political system and that, in addition, the rationale for the creation of public policies is, above all, linked to the individual objectives of the governor. Meanwhile, based on our findings, we discarded invalid hypotheses regarding the non-existence of any positive effect of the ideology of the governor on the level of social spending and regarding the absence of any negative impact of the number of commissions, even in governments controlled by the left, on this spending. [TRANSLATION]

This paper analyzes the political and ideological influence that the group of disciples of Alejandro Bunge exerted over the definition of the economic policies during the first Peronist administration. It argues that the group's support for industrialization during the interwar period as well as the pressure exerted by social Catholicism upon its members allowed the group to manipulate the 1943 military government. Moreover, this article examines the role of the group in the Industry Secretariat, the formation of the first program of industrial promotion, and the economic discussions held during the post war period. It argues that the Bunge group played a decisive role in the orientation of Peronist industrial policies, shaping its basic characteristics, and justifying the policies. In this sense, this paper questions the argument that overly emphasizes the importance of political and social factors that oriented Peronist industrial policies, such as Peron's confrontation with the United States and the demands of the labor movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the diversification of plant resource management practices in the lowlands of southeastern Uruguay starting in the fourth millennium B.P. Our approach includes (a) a reexamination of ethnohistorical sources; (b) a review of lithic and ceramic materials; (c) the presentation of new ethnoarchaeological information; and (d) the analysis of starch grains from grinding stones. The results highlight the importance of the palm Butia odorata as a source of food and useful materials for much of the year. Furthermore, the analysis of both macro- and micro-residues has enabled us to identify the presence of Datura ferox seeds and starch grains from edible plants. While many of these identifications confirm the use of a number of previously reported species, others are new, as is the case with Phaseolus sp., Arachis sp., and Typha domingensis. Continuity in the management of certain plant species and in environmental conditioning is interpreted as an important investment in the long-term cycles of human-environment interactions [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human burial and base camps at sites located on elevated parts of the landscape represent a characteristic feature of the pre-hispanic occupation pattern of the Rio Negro Basin. The study of some of these sites, and, specifically, of the human burials found in them, has been used by several scholars to explore the different ways in which hunter gatherers interacted with death and to discuss issues of a social nature, such as ritual and religious practices, mobility patterns, and processes of social complexity. This paper provides chronological and contextual information for several sites where domestic activities and mortuary practices coincide spatially and discusses the contextual relationships among them. On the basis of previous information and new data, the issue concerning the interpretation and conceptualization of these sites is newly analyzed, and the notions of cemetery and formal disposal area are revised. Finally, we propose that these sites, occupied recurrently during the Late Holocene, are persistent places (sensu Schlanger 1992) and their present configuration is the result of a complex confluence of religious, social, and environmental constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims to reconstruct lifestyle and health parameters of three populations from Puétnape site on the Peruvian north coast, Central Andes, active during the Formative Period (2500-1 B.C.). Since the factors that led to social complexity and its relation to crop-based subsistence are still being discussed, this analysis of 85 well-preserved individuals using 12 osteological markers for nutritional and functional stress, infectious diseases, and interpersonal violence offers the opportunity to understand the biological dimension of this process. Although we observe auditory exostosis in all samples, indicating the continuing importance of marine resources, other paleopathological findings, in accordance with archaeological data, support the idea of profound changes in lifestyle related to the rise of social complexity in the region. These include a 10 cm height decrease, changes in nutritional stress markers, and an increase in degenerative joint diseases in vertebra but not in the appendicular skeleton, whereas infectious diseases and violent trauma became more frequent. Thus, in Puémape we witness considerable changes in the way of life across the Formative period, associated with changes in diet, division of labor, and social stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper consists of the analysis of the archaeological evidence of the Central Ranges of Argentina corresponding to the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition (11,000-9000 B.P.) and Early Holocene (9000-6000 B.P.) and its implications for the knowledge of the initial peopling process of this area of Argentina. We propose that the human presence during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition is scarce and that the intensity of this occupation increases remarkably after ca. 8000 B.P. The evidence suggests that from the arrival of the first groups to the Central Ranges ca. 11,000 B.P. until the effective colonization of the area (sensu Borrero 1989-1990), after ca. 8000 B.P., a process of exploration, characterized by very low densities of population that could well include failed colonizations, took place. These conclusions alert us to the use of peopling models that assume biological-cultural continuity throughout the entire Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents and analyzes the archaeological data recovered in Guasapampa Valley (province of Cordoba, Argentina), which consists mainly of engraved and painted rock art panels. The forested mountain landscape has numerous species of trees and shrubs with edible fruits, but it is distinguished by a scarcity of water resources. During the late Prehispanic period (ca. 1400-400 B.P.) the Guasapampa Valley was occupied seasonally by groups established most of the year in the fertile valleys of the east, in agricultural oases up to 20 and 40 km away. The data recovered are significant because they allow us to understand the role of rock art as an active medium for the establishment, negotiation, and reproduction of certain social ties between producers and observers. In this regard, we assume a comparative perspective that allows us to identify particularities of the occupations of southern and northern sections of the valley, especially the features that define the contexts of production and meaning of the art. The differences identified in each section of the valley refer to contrasts and oppositions in the social practices surrounding and produced by this materiality. Thus, we consider the elements that support its definition on the one hand as a means to convey the significance of particular places among minimal affiliational groups who build an open, shared social landscape in the case of the southern section, and on the other hand as territorial markers in the north related to the existence of limits and restrictions on movement and access to resources, including seasonal water wells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines, from an ethnohistorical perspective, the economic and social interactions of the Manché Chol, and the Cholan-speaking Lacandon and Acala of the Southern Maya Lowlands with the K'ekchi' of Ahxoy and Verapaz. The exchange between these two regions was based on the production of the triad cacao- annatto-vanilla along the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The trade of these products for quetzal feathers, cotton, copal, salt and iron tools, such as axes and machetes of European origin, shaped a complex exchange system between the Chol and the K'ekchi'. Different types of localities were established, such as ports of trade and gateway settlements, that are important for understanding pre-Hispanic exchange systems. The Chol and Lacandon populations (Choltí Speakers) were reduced and relocated from their territories between 1685 and 1695, which brought about their annihilation. The ancient knowledge of the mixed cultivation of cacao, annatto and vanilla was thought to have been lost with the extinction of these people. Nevertheless, in this article, it is demonstrated that the K'ekchi' became the depositories of this knowledge. In this paper, we analyze the survival of the ancient agrosystem of cacao-vanilla-annatto in specialized home-gardens of the present-day K'ekchi' of northern Aha Verapaz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the archaeofaunal analysis from the archaeological site Agua de la Cueva (south sector), between ca. 11,000 and 5000 BP. The results show scant taxonomic diversity with a strong predominance of Lama guanicoe in every analyzed component. The main differences between the human occupations belonging to the Terminal Pleistocene-Early Holocene and those from the Mid Holocene are related to the significant diminution of the deposition rate of bone specimens trough lime and the absence of Vicugna vicugna from ca.9000 B.P. With respect to this last point, the morphometric analysis argues strongly against the possibility that the bone specimens belong to the extinct sub species Lama(Vicugna) gracilis. On the contrary, these specimens appear to correspond to the extant Vicugna vicugna, whose modern southern distribution is located about 600 km. north of the site under study, finally, the data presented allow us to discuss aspects of human subsistence in the west-central portion of the south American continent during the first stages of human occupation in the region and how humans reacted to the main environmental changes that occurred during the first half of the Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the appendix of his recent paper, Bracco (2006:511-540) made several comments and misinterpretations regarding the interdisciplinary scientific evidence produced by our team at the Los Ajos site in southeastern Uruguay. Among other things, he claims that we: (a) pushed back the archaeological agenda in Uruguay by twenty years; (b) failed to recognize the previous work of our colleagues in the region; (c) forced our paleoenvironmental data to fit the cultural sequence; and (d) claimed, without evidence, the domestic nature of mounds during the Preceramic Mound Period at the Los Ajos site. In this comment, we respond to Bracco's allegations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]