Machu Research Articles

Cytologists battle cruel killer in Peru

Cytologists battle cruel killer in Peru

Tourism in poor regions and social inclusion: the porters of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

In this paper, tourism's role as an agent of social exclusion/inclusion is examined in the context of the integration of Peruvian Southern Andean communities into the global tourism industry as porters on the Inca Trail. This is an arduous four-day hike leading to the archaeological complex of Machu Picchu. After years of mistreatment following the development of the Trail in the 1980s, these highly marginalised peasants living in high mountain villages mobilised themselves in a struggle for better working conditions. This paper explores the workers’ pathway to socio-economic mobility, a discussion based on qualitative data and guided by indicators of social exclusion as they relate to economic integration, employment, access to services, political representation, participation in civil society and social capital. It is argued that an increase in income generated by their involvement in tourist service provision cannot justify the porters’ mistreatment, and that an understanding of structural local inequalities is crucial to appraise poverty reduction. Despite some material benefits from this new, sporadic, employment opportunity, the assault on porters’ dignity, their enduring poor health and a widespread awareness of being exploited by the industry, raise fundamental problems relating to endemic inequalities and injustice.

In memoriam: Eric Alston Christenson (1956-2011)

Dr Eric Christenson was a well-known research taxonomist with a strong interest in orchids, f lor is t ics , nomencla ture , conservat ion and horticultural taxonomy. He was a leading orchid expert who published numerous research papers in which he described hundreds of new species. His death is a great loss to the field of botany, which has lost one of its foremost experts on orchids. Eric died in April 2011 in his home in Bradenton, Florida. Eric Christenson’s monographic works focused mainly on Asian orchids, and he is probably best known for his monograph on the commonly cultivated genus Phalaenopsis (Christenson 2001). He travelled to numerous herbaria around the world to study original orchid collections, and he frequented South America, where his floristic works on orchids were focused. For instance, he authored the orchid treatment in the Vascular Flora of Central French Guiana (Mori et al. 1997) following fieldwork in the Guianas. His long term collaboration with the late David Bennett in Peru resulted in the impressive 600 plates of the Icones Orchidacearum Peruvianum (Bennett & Christenson 1993–2001), in which numerous species were illustrated, many new records for Peru were listed and for which a great number of species new to science were published. He additionally wrote a bilingual flora to the orchids of Machu Picchu (Christenson 2003). Eric’s research articles often bridged the gap between taxonomy and horticulture. He applied his extensive knowledge of horticultural and taxonomic literature to provide stable names for orchid enthusiasts. He worked closely together with orchid growers to establish ex-situ propagation programmes for conservation of rare species, working actively with commercial growers and botanical gardens to that end. His studies often focused on widespread species complexes and species thought to be highly variable, to come to a more detailed definition of taxa and their distribution. This aided in many cases the identification of rare species and resulted in the redefining of conservation strategies in Latin America.

Beyond Verticality: Fuelscape Politics and Practices in the Andes

This paper analyzes the material, discursive, and biophysical dimensions of fuelscapes, or energy landscapes. Ethnographic and ecological fieldwork was conducted in the Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary, Peru. Andean land use studies have focused on agricultural patterns such as vertical production zones. Fuelscapes are an important, energy-based means of producing and representing landscape. They show how uncultivated lands fit into livelihood strategies and reflect historic sedimentation of landscape. Fuelscapes are shaped by ecological characteristics, historic settlement patterns and property rights, gendered and intergenerational divisions in household labor, and state conservation policies. Conservation policies delimit fuelscapes to privilege live trees, but the resultant denudation of dead wood may carry implications for ecosystem health. This study elucidates how official policies intersect with household and communal resource use strategies to produce Andean fuelscapes. It provides insight into how uncultivated ecosystems fit into land use politics, practices, and representation.

Managing Change and Master Plans: Machu Picchu Between Conservation and Exploitation

Machu Picchu is among the world’s most controversial heritage sites. It represents a case where raising money through ticket sales and other activities, rather than an opportunity to fund site preservation, in fact constitutes a major threat to the survival of the site through overexploitation. Unesco has been very critical in recent decades about the management of Machu Picchu. International pressure resulted in the establishment of two master plans, in 1998 and in 2005. In this paper we investigate in depth the contents and rhetoric of the two plans, comparing changes in the two different versions, and linking the change in planning attitude to actual changes taking place in the site. This is also an opportunity to open a discussion on the interdisciplinarity of master plans in heritage sites.

Propiedades métricas de la versión española del Cuestionario de Mal de Altura del Lago Louise

Objectives To assess the metric properties of the Lake Louise Acute Mountain Sickness (LLAMSQ) five-item questionnaire. Methods At the end of the course “Neuroscience in pre-Columbian Andean cultures” (Peru, 2009), the participants answered the self-reported version of the LLAMSQ. The following psychometric attributes were explored: acceptability (observed versus possible scores; floor and ceiling effects), scaling assumptions (item-total correlation > 0.30), internal consistency (Cronbach́s alpha), precision (standard error of measurement), and convergent and discriminative validity. Differences in mean score of LLAMSQ between symptomatic acute mountain sickness subjects and asymptomatic ones were calculated. Results The participants stayed for days at Cuzco (3,400 meters above sea level, MASL), Sacred valley (2,850 MASL) and Machu Picchu (2,450 MASL). Seventy people (60% males; mean age 50 ± 8 years; 88.6% neurologists) were included in the study. LLAMSQ mean score was 3.36 ± 2.02 (median 3; skewness 0.61). Ceiling and floor effects were 7.3% and 1.4%, respectively. Cronbach́s alpha was 0.61, and standard error of measurement 1.26. LLAMSQ mean score significantly correlated (r = 0.41, P = .002) with physical items (ataxia, dyspnoea, tremor, mental symptoms). LLAMSQ mean scores were significantly higher (worse) in those subjects who presented with acute sickness mountain (5.8 vs 3.0; Mann-Whitney, P < .0001). Conclusions Metric properties of the LLASMQ Spanish version are adequate. This questionnaire seems to be useful in the early detection of high-altitude illness.

Around the World

In science news around the world this week, the U.S. president and House of Representatives presented very different budget proposals, an Indian court ignored an appeal to release a physician-activist, seeds of more than 1500 types of Andean potato will be sent to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Nipah virus has struck again in Bangladesh, and Yale has agreed to return Machu Picchu artifacts to Peru.

Managing Machu Picchu: Institutional Settings, Business Model and Master Plans - A Virtual Appendix

The authors have studied the site of the Historical Sanctuary of Machu Picchu (HSM) over the last decade from an organizational/managerial point of view, based on field research and documents analysis.What follows is a sort of a virtual appendix of the article “Managing Machu Picchu: Institutional Settings, Business Model and Master Plans.” The paper offers an in-depth understanding of the economics of Machu Picchu and related change processes. At the macro level, in the recent past Peru has gone through a process of modernization of the State, moving to more transparent and accountable forms of public management that deeply restructured the public sector. In parallel, the international community (particularly, Unesco) has urged the adoption of a comprehensive strategic management plan for the HSM. Common to these pressures for change is a logic of efficiency, of rationalization and control of public expenditures and of more effective public services. At the micro level, these two pressures for change are shaping both the transformation of the accounting representation system and the managerial and planning practices in Machu Picchu. Based on a field study and of both qualitative and quantitative data, the paper will try to reconstruct changes in accounting and planning processes and discourses.. Some important details could not be inserted in the paper for space constraints. What we propose here is a sort of virtual appendix, offering some additional information that could help the reader better understanding the context and process involved at Machu Picchu. The reader interested in the story is suggested to read the article first, to position the research, the background, the methods, and the whole narrative, and then come back to this appendix for some additional details (as appendixes are normally used). Four boxes are provided: Box 1 – Peru - The political/administrative context; Box 2 – The functioning of the National System of Public Investments (SNIP); Box 3 – Machu Picchu Plan Maestro 1998, a summary; Box 4 – Machu Picchu Plan Maestro 2005, a summary.

Yale Agrees to Return Machu Picchu Artifacts to Peru: Ethics-Based Repatriation Efforts Gain Steam

This short article discusses the apparent resolution between Yale and Peru over the disputed artifacts removed from Machu Picchu by Hiram Bingham in 1911. The article considers how Peru has, in recent years, asserted itself on an international level in the movement to repatriate cultural property to source nations. The article concludes that the ethics-based repatriation movement is still a viable means for source nations to reclaim extant cultural property.

Choquequirao, Topa Inca's Machu Picchu: a royal estate and ceremonial center

AbstractWe provide a history and description of the Inca archaeological complex of Choquequirao, located high on a narrow ridge above the Apurimac River in a remote region of the Vilcabamba of Peru. We suggest that Choquequirao was built as a royal estate during the late 15th century by the Inca ruler, Topa Inca Yupanki, modeled after Machu Picchu. It was built in part by workers imported from Cachapoyas in Northern Peru. The site has alignments with the June and December solstices suggesting a strong solar focus and year-round ceremonial activities. A large truncated hill served as a ceremonial platform or ushnu. The platform was accessed through a double-jamb entranceway, indicating that passage was probably limited to those of high status. We suspect Choquequirao functioned as a ceremonial center. It shares with Machu Picchu the remoteness, ‘other worldliness’, and liminality that are found in many pilgrimage centers of the world. Though Choquequirao, high above the Apurimac River, has a location that is equally as dramatic as Machu Picchu, it lacks the formable geological material required to create imperial-style monumental structures and shaped stone huacas. Choquequirao was occupied during the early colonial years by the Neo-Inca, and was abandoned sometime after the death of the last Inca in 1572. It is a fascinating puzzle that Spanish travelers of the time apparently never reached or described this major Inca complex, which was the most impressive in the Vilcabamba. Somehow, the Inca managed to keep it secret although relatives and others journeyed back and forth to colonial Cusco.

Where are the edges of a protected area? Political dispossession in Machu Picchu, Peru

This report draws on fieldwork done in Machu Picchu, Peru in order to critique the Wittemyer et al . (2008) study on population growth around protected areas. I disagree with the study's emphasis on reducing people's motives to economic drives alone. The study separates the political from the economic by attempting to fix motives as economic calculations. I argue that a homogenous social process does not drive the population of the protected area. The approach used by Wittemyer et al . (2008) risks constructing a dichotomy that frames inhabitants of protected areas as either 'needy' or 'greedy', and fails to recognise that protected areas can form different kinds of political spaces for locals. In Machu Picchu the failure to recognise political space leads to many misunderstandings between locals and conservationists. The paper is a reminder that even for locals, protected areas involve discursive and political relations and the construction of a public sphere that has its own drive and momentum.

Metric properties of the Spanish version of the Lake Louise Acute Mountain Sickness Questionnaire

Objectives To assess the metric properties of the Lake Louise Acute Mountain Sickness (LLAMSQ) five-item questionnaire. Methods At the end of the course “Neuroscience in pre-Columbian Andean cultures” (Peru, 2009), the participants answered the self-reported version of the LLAMSQ. The following psychometric attributes were explored: acceptability (observed versus possible scores; floor and ceiling effects), scaling assumptions (item-total correlation >0.30), internal consistency (Cronbach¿s alpha), precision (standard error of measurement), and convergent and discriminative validity. Differences in mean score of LLAMSQ between symptomatic acute mountain sickness subjects and asymptomatic ones were calculated. Results The participants stayed for days at Cuzco (3,400 meters above sea level, MASL), Sacred valley (2,850 MASL) and Machu Picchu (2,450 MASL). Seventy people (60% males; mean age 50±8 years; 88.6% neurologists) were included in the study. LLAMSQ mean score was 3.36±2.02 (median 3; skewness 0.61). Ceiling and floor effects were 7.3% and 1.4%, respectively. Cronbach¿s alpha was 0.61, and standard error of measurement 1.26. LLAMSQ mean score significantly correlated (r=0.41, P=.002) with physical items (ataxia, dyspnoea, tremor, mental symptoms). LLAMSQ mean scores were significantly higher (worse) in those subjects who presented with acute sickness mountain (5.8 vs 3.0; Mann-Whitney, P<.0001). Conclusions Metric properties of the LLASMQ Spanish version are adequate. This questionnaire seems to be useful in the early detection of high-altitude illness.

Design and installation of a Prototype Geohazard Monitoring System near Machu Picchu, Peru

Abstract. The town of Machu Picchu, Peru, serves the &gt;700 000 tourists visiting Machu Picchu annually. It has grown threefold in population in the past two decades. Due to the limited low-lying ground, construction is occurring on the unstable valley slopes. Slopes range from &lt;10° on the valley floor to &gt;70° in the surrounding mountains. The town has grown on a delta formed at the confluence of the Alcamayo, Aguas Calientes and Vilcanota Rivers. Geohazards in and around the town of particular concern are 1) large rocks falling onto the town and/or the rail line, 2) flash flooding by any one of its three rivers, and 3) mudflows and landslides. A prototype early warning system that could monitor weather, river flow and slope stability was installed along the Aguas Calientes River in 2009. This has a distributed modular construction allowing components to be installed, maintained, salvaged, and repaired by local technicians. A diverse set of candidate power, communication and sensor technologies was evaluated. Most of the technologies had never been deployed in similar terrain, altitude or weather. The successful deployment of the prototype proved that it is technically feasible to develop early warning capacity in the town.

THE STEPS (Dissertations the fruit growing troll)

The Steps (Dissertations the fruit growing troll) on front-page of volume are visible ruins and stairway of the famous Machu Picchu. Five selfdetermined head stands the volume, essentially the author yet career one - one station, which the plant sexuality, the fruit cropping and sure environmental and plant health problems searching is comprising reached results engaged on 310 page, with 130 tables and 79 figures. The volume is brandnew notification shape in Hungarian and international scientific literature.

Choquequirao to Machu Picchu at the speed of light: visual signaling among the Incas

<p>A single reference in the chronicle of Garcilaso de la Vega describes a visual signaling system he says the Incas employed to broadcast warnings of insurrection or revolt by means of smoke by day and fire at night. The stations were staffed by the same class of young men assigned as "chasqui" runners along the road corridors. By perpetual vigilance, they were able to very rapidly relay an alarm over great distances. This paper supports the existence of such a system on the ground by documenting a chain of inter-visible stations linking the royal estates at Choquequirao and Machu Picchu. It is suggested that this is just a small thread in an empire-wide web, as implied by Garcilaso.</p><p>Una sola referencia en la crónica de Garcilaso de la Vega describe un sistema de señalización visual que, según el cronista, los Incas emplearon para transmitir alertas de insurrección o invasión, utilizando humo durante el día y fuego durante la noche. Las estaciones eran ocupadas por la misma clase de hombres jóvenes asignados como "chasquis" a lo largo de los caminos. Estableciendo una vigilancia perpetua, ellos podían transmitir una alarma rápidamente a grandes distancias. Este artículo apoya la existencia de este sistema sobre el terreno a través del registro de una cadena de estaciones visibles entre sí que unían las propiedades reales de Choquequirao y Machu Picchu. Se propone además que ésta es solo una pequeña parte dentro de una red que cubría todo el imperio, tal como lo sugiere Garcilaso.</p>

At the Other End of the Sun’s Path: A New Interpretation of Machu Picchu

The Inca citadel of Machu Picchu is usually interpreted as a “royal estate” of the Inca ruler Pachacuti. This idea is challenged here by a critical reappraisal of existing sources and a re-analysis of existing evidence. It is shown that such evidence actually point at a quite different interpretation suggested, on one hand, by several clues coming from the urban layout (the interior arrangement of the town, the ancient access ways, the position with respect to the landscape and the cycles of the celestial bodies in Inca times), and, on the other hand, by a comparison with known information about the Inca pilgrimage center on the Island of the Sun of Lake Titicaca. Altogether, these clues lead us to propose that Machu Picchu was intentionally planned and built as a pilgrimage center connected with the Inca “cosmovision”.

Interrogating the equity principle: the rhetoric and reality of management planning for sustainable archaeological heritage tourism

International archaeological heritage management in developing countries frequently entails planning for the development of sustainable tourism. A central tenet of sustainable tourism development is the equitable distribution of tourism benefits, a goal reflected in stakeholder consultations and management plan provisions for capacity-building among community members. The lack of longitudinal data demonstrating the meaningful participation of target populations in tourism development dividends, however, calls into question the efficacy of such measures. A review of tourism development outcomes at Machu Picchu, Angkor, Lijiang, Copan, Borobudur and Cape Coast Castle supports the contention that sustainable management planning has not produced equity. The problem lies not in specific planning provisions but in the lack of correspondence between developed country assumptions and developing country reality, which is characterized by structural and systemic power imbalances. The cases inform the creation of a generalizable model of tourism development inequality, the implications of which present philosophical, professional, methodological and conceptual challenges that must be overcome if the heritage management discipline is to deliver on the promise of sustainability.

Arsenic content in five sediment profiles from Admiralty Bay, King George Island, Antarctica

Admiralty Bay is the largest bay on King George Island, Antarctica, with a total area of around 131 km2 and maximum depth of 530 m. This region is of utmost importance for studies of environmental quality assessment because of the presence of scientific research stations in this region. Since the early 80’s scientific research has been focused on the Brazilian Antarctic Station “Comandante Ferraz”. In addition, the Polish Station Henry Arctowiski (Ezcurra Inlet) and the Peruvian Machu Picchu Station are also based in the bay. All activities require the consumption of fossil fuel for their operation. Fossil fuel is recognized as an important input of major pollutants (organic compounds) and trace elements (As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn). Among trace elements, arsenic is highly toxic even in low concentration in the environment. Accordingly, this work presents the results of arsenic in 92 samples, representing five sediment profiles from different sites (Comandante Ferraz Station, Botany Point, Ulmann Point, Arctowski Station and Barrel Point) in Admiralty Bay. The highest As content was observed for Barrel Point profile (ranging from 7 to 11 mg.kg-1). Otherwise, by using the enrichment factor and the geochronology analysis, the Brazilian Antarctic Station presented the most relevant enrichment for this metalloid, suggesting its increase due to the human activities in the bay. Studies on contamination of aquatic systems have been focused on sediments, because this layer acts as a reservoir for many chemical substances, such as metals and metalloids. The depositional feature of the elements in the sediment gives a fingerprint of the contamination, providing information on the history of the contamination (Dinescu et al, 1998; Banin et al, 1998; Ribeiro et al, 2005). However, tracing the origin of the contaminants is not an easy task since the determination of background concentrations of chemical elements (in a range of environmental matrices, including sediments) are based on degree of temporal and spatial variability of a small number of samples. Sampling might not be representative of the whole studied area, in which local variance can exceed the analytical uncertainty, thereby increasing the complexity of geochemical fingerprint studies (Gasparon and Matschullat, 2006). A large number of studies have certainly reported the impact of human activities on the Antarctic environment. However, studies for determining baseline levels of metals and metalloids are still scarce. Furthermore, information from available data sets of the impacted sites is often applied to estimate the elemental levels at a regional scale. As a result, the elemental Antarctic baseline values may have exceeded the natural content in the region. Therefore, the development of studies to distinguish anthropogenic and natural sources from metals and metalloids in the Antarctic environment has become a concern and an important issue for the international scientific community (Gasparon and Matschullat, 2006). The Admiralty Bay located in King George Island is the largest embayment in the South Shetland Islands, which 5

Seeking the Proper Tense

Seeking the Proper Tense

‘Diffuse faulting’ in the Machu Picchu granitoid pluton, Eastern Cordillera, Peru

A series of batholiths, forming part of the ‘roots’ of a Permo-Liassic rift system, are exposed in the high Eastern Cordillera of central Peru as a result of tectonic inversion. Shortening of the Machu Picchu granitoid pluton was accommodated by widespread shear reactivation of primary joints, by a process termed here ‘diffuse faulting’. Fault-like reactivation of precursor joint surfaces, marked by chlorite, epidote and quartz shear fibres, is locally evidenced by few centimetres offsets within apparently undeformed granite. Analysis of fault slip data indicates that shear reactivation of different joint sets was kinematically consistent with ENE oriented shortening. Less frequent mylonitic shear zones appear to have evolved from the common brittle precursors. Apart from rare phyllonitic shear zones, fluid–rock interaction along the brittle precursors was generally limited, and pluton deformation appears to be mainly controlled by the geometry and distribution of primary joints. Three main sets of reactivated joints can be recognized, characterized by oblique-slip kinematics with variable reverse and strike–slip components of motion. Theoretical modelling based on quantitative fracture analysis (scan-line data) and different displacement–length relationships applied to the main reactivated joint sets yield first-order estimates of pluton finite strain. The results suggest that bulk finite strain is oblate and essentially coaxial, and is characterized by horizontal shortening not exceeding 10%. Relatively small finite strains, integrated over the size of the pluton, still result in a few kilometres of crustal shortening.