Catalan Region Research Articles

TOURISM AND QUALITY AGRO-FOOD PRODUCTS: AN OPPORTUNITY FOR THE SPANISH COUNTRYSIDE

This paper describes the relationships between tourism and the agricultural production of traditional products, the latter having achieved new levels of appreciation in recent years as a result of quality designations. In this context, agro-food products can be considered as gastronomic tourism resources that enable tourism both to be developed and itself become a tool for promoting and commercialising quality agro-food products. These two circumstances merge around a single aim: the local development of areas traditionally regarded as marginal within the regional context. These facts are showed in the Catalan region of Priorat (Spain) where wines support the local development.

Ecrire et lire en Catalogne (IXe-XIIe siecle) (review)

Ecrire et lire en Catalogne (IX^sup e^-XII^sup e^ siecle). By Michel Zimmermann. 2 vols. [Bibliotheque de la Casa de Velazquez, Volume 23.] (Madrid: Casa de Velazquez. 2003. Pp. xxii, 613; 614-1403. euro64.) About 7,000 records of the ninth and tenth centuries survive in Catalan archives, and something on the order of twice that number are extant from the eleventh century. These quantities are impressive although not unique. As Pierre Toubert points out in his introduction to this massive study, Bavaria, Sabina, and the Vendomois also produced thousands of documents in this period collected in cartularies and other later compilations. There are three unusual features of the early documents from the Catalan regions: the diversity of transactions, their survival in single-sheet original form, and the preponderance of agreements between laymen. These factors are crucial for understanding the importance of Michel Zimmermann's exploration of written communication from the incorporation of the Spanish March into the Carolingian Empire until the formalization of notarial practice in the early thirteenth century. The archival wealth of Catalonia is accompanied by an almost total absence of narrative texts such as chronicles or hagiographies, so that the problems and opportunities for studying the world of the Pyrenean counties of the ninth to twelfth centuries are peculiar. An exhaustive analysis of the different scribes, writing styles, and transaction types (wills, sales, leases, feudal agreements, donations) makes it possible to come to some remarkable conclusions about Catalan society in its formative period, an accomplishment achieved here through rigorous disquisitions on how and why these documents were drawn up. Zimmermann's ambition is not the utilitarian one of describing a social system through its records, but rather to focus on the act of writing and its implications, from the expense of producing documents to the unacknowledged but ubiquitous influence of Isidore of Seville's Sententiae and Etymologiae. Zimmermann's findings reveal sharply and vividly (if in brief flashes) the lives behind the mass of routine transactions. Anyone who has worked with Catalan archival material will have wondered about such things as why the Latin is so oddly defective, why oaths of fealty are undated, or -why autograph signatures (sometimes accompanied by poetic tags) abound in certain kinds of records. Why are so many topographical features listed in land sales and donations? When and why is Judas singled out in closing maledictions as an exemplary transgressor as opposed to Datan and Abiron (from Numbers 16:1-33)? Beginning with the tools of writing, Zimmermann then describes who requested and who composed records and in the process answers these and every other conceivable question concerning the format, language, appearance, and typology of documents. From this carefully constructed foundation he then elaborates the literary atmosphere of this era, the writing and collecting of books, the structure of education, and the reciprocal cultural influence of Catalonia and the rest of Europe. …

Ethnobotany of Sambucus nigra L. in Catalonia (Iberian Peninsula): The Integral Exploitation of a Natural Resource in Mountain Regions

We present in this paper data about the popular uses of elder (Sambucus nigra) obtained in two ethnobotanical studies carried out in the districts (comarques) of Pallars Jussa and Pallars Sobira (Pyrenees) and in the Montseny Massif (Catalan Prelittoral Range), complemented with others from different Catalan regions (also investigated by our group) and compared with those from other Iberian and Mediterranean territories. This bush or small tree belonging to the family Caprifoliaceae is one of the plants that have been most reported and used (for medicinal and other purposes) by the informants, not only in the two regions studied but in all Catalonia and in many Mediterranean areas as well. It is one of the most versatile of plants, being used for food, medicine, crafts and games, as well as for ornamental purposes. In addition, almost every part of the plant, including the bark, roots, leaves, flowers, and fruit, has some uses.

Incidence of fragile X in 5,000 consecutive newborn males.

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the commonest cause of inherited mental retardation in males. Even though this affirmation is repeated in virtually all papers referring to FXS, the precise frequency of this syndrome in the general population is unknown. We present a general population screening analyzing an anonymous series of 5,000 consecutive newborn males from the neonatal screening program of the population of Catalonia in Spain. The aim of the study is to determine the incidence of FXS via a simple and economical methodology based on the nonamplification of the fragment containing the CGG repeats of the FRAXA locus in the samples carrying alleles over 52 repeats. From the initial 5,000 samples, 4,920 were in the normal range, 15 gave rise to bands with more than 52 repeats (11 corresponded to intermediate alleles and four premutated alleles). After further studies, two samples were considered to be carriers of full mutations. According to these results, the incidence of FXS affected newborn males is 1 in 2,466, and 1 in 1,233 males is a carrier of the premutation. We can deduce that 1 in 8,333 is an affected female with clinical manifestations and 1 in 411 will be a premutation carrier woman. Upon reviewing the literature, there seems to be variability in the frequencies found by the different groups. Therefore, given that our study is limited to the Catalan population in Spain, these results should be taken as valid for the Catalan region and should only be extrapolated to other populations with caution.

Preliminary study on an “Infra‐annual” rhythm in the hazel‐nut production in the Catalan region of valles

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeAbstracting keywords: Hazel‐nut production cycles

Francisco Cambo and the Modernization of Spain: The Technocratic Possibilities of Fascism

Spain entered the twentieth century as a relatively underdeveloped nation still deeply rooted in her traditional past. Spanish life had barely begun to experience the stresses of social and economic transformation that recent scholars have identified with the modernization process. Toward the end of the last century, Spanish industry grew at a rapid pace, particularly in the Basque and Catalan regions, but the nation as a whole continued to lag behind the rest of Western Europe in the years before 1914. Although the recently formed trade union movements expanded in response to the new complex of urban-industrial problems, their organizational and political strength remained ineffective until World War I. In the other regions of Spain an agrarian economy, replete with strong anarchist movements, dominated and determined a social order in which provincialism, widespread subsistence living standards, and extensive illiteracy persisted.

Chinese statement of May 24

This paper studies why British tourists decide to travel to a particular destination in a Catalan region. The analysis is based on a survey that includes open-ended questions. First, we propose the operationalization of the concepts of motivation and meaning as push–pull factors when choosing a destination. Second, an ontology-based clustering method is presented, which makes it possible to analyse these qualitative factors from a semantic perspective to obtain tourist segments. A benchmark confirms that the segmentation obtained is better than that generated using classic clustering methods The results show that different meanings can be associated with any single place.