pre-Columbian Cultures Research Articles

Importance of glycoalkaloids analysis (α-solanine and α-chaconine) derived from potato consumption in pre-Hispanic inhabitants of the Americas

In the pre-Columbian societies of the Americas, a wide range of food practices was observed. However, several countries shared certain staple foods, such as the potato, which has held a significant place in the diet since ancient times. It is important to note that potatoes contain glycoalkaloids, a class of alkaloids with potential toxicity risks when consumed in high concentrations by both humans and animals. This study aims to offer guidance on the presence of glycoalkaloids in potatoes and proposes further research into these compounds in archaeological remains that were utilized as food across all American countries. This recommendation stems from the dearth of studies on this subject, particularly in cases where archaeological discoveries include potato starch granules. In this study, various databases were examined to discover historical insights into the potato and to elucidate the primary aspects of glycoalkaloid chemistry associated with this tuber. The findings underscore the crucial role played by the potato in pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas, particularly in the regions situated along the Andes mountain range. Furthermore, the analysis of its nutritional composition unveiled the prevalence of two key glycoalkaloids in the tuber: α-solanine and α-chaconine. In this research, a comprehensive review of the chemical properties, botanical functions, human metabolism, potential health effects, toxicity thresholds, and available analytical techniques for the detection and quantification of toxic compounds was conducted. The significance of identifying these molecules in archaeological contexts was highlighted, as their presence may prompt investigations into prevalent diseases among historical populations.

Bibliometric Analysis of Trends in Scientific Publication on Culture Chachapoyas

The bibliometric analysis sought to evaluate the scientific production related to the Chachapoyas culture and to provide a systematic and quantitative understanding of the current state of research in this field. Comprehensive searches were conducted in the Scopus database using the defined search criteria limiting the search to scientific articles published in scientific journals until September 2023. The results were exported in a format that allowed subsequent analysis. Relevant bibliographic data were extracted from the search results, including article title, authors, year of publication, abstract and citations. A number of bibliometric metrics were calculated, such as number of publications per year totaling 40, the number of citations per article totaling 354, and the most frequent keyword was Peru with 17 occurrences. The author with the highest number of publications was Toyne J.M. with 9 papers and the journal with the most publications was the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology with 4. The bibliometric analysis shows a constant production in the research of the Chachapoyas Culture, with international collaboration and influential studies. However, there is still much to study and discover about this important pre-Columbian culture.

A revisited history of cacao domestication in pre-Columbian times revealed by archaeogenomic approaches

Humans have a long history of transporting and trading plants, contributing to the evolution of domesticated plants. Theobroma cacao originated in the Neotropics from South America. However, little is known about its domestication and use in these regions. In this study, ceramic residues from a large sample of pre-Columbian cultures from South and Central America were analyzed using archaeogenomic and biochemical approaches. Here we show, for the first time, the widespread use of cacao in South America out of its native Amazonian area of origin, extending back 5000 years, likely supported by cultural interactions between the Amazon and the Pacific coast. We observed that strong genetic mixing between geographically distant cacao populations occurred as early as the middle Holocene, in South America, driven by humans, favoring the adaptation of T. cacao to new environments. This complex history of cacao domestication is the basis of today's cacao tree populations and its knowledge can help us better manage their genetic resources.

Edible flora in pre-Columbian Caribbean coprolites: Expected and unexpected data.

Coprolites, or mummified feces, are valuable sources of information on ancient cultures as they contain ancient DNA (aDNA). In this study, we analyzed ancient plant DNA isolated from coprolites belonging to two pre-Columbian cultures (Huecoid and Saladoid) from Vieques, Puerto Rico, using shotgun metagenomic sequencing to reconstruct diet and lifestyles. We also analyzed DNA sequences of putative phytopathogenic fungi, likely ingested during food consumption, to further support dietary habits. Our findings show that pre-Columbian Caribbean cultures had a diverse diet consisting of maize (Zea mays), sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), chili peppers (Capsicum annuum), peanuts (Arachis spp.), papaya (Carica papaya), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and, very surprisingly cotton (Gossypium barbadense) and tobacco (Nicotiana sylvestris). Modelling of putative phytopathogenic fungi and plant interactions confirmed the potential consumption of these plants as well as edible fungi, particularly Ustilago spp., which suggest the consumption of maize and huitlacoche. These findings suggest that a variety of dietary, medicinal, and hallucinogenic plants likely played an important role in ancient human subsistence and societal customs. We compared our results with coprolites found in Mexico and the United States, as well as present-day faeces from Mexico, Peru, and the United States. The results suggest that the diet of pre-Columbian cultures resembled that of present-day hunter-gatherers, while agriculturalists exhibited a transitional state in dietary lifestyles between the pre-Columbian cultures and larger scale farmers and United States individuals. Our study highlights differences in dietary patterns related to human lifestyles and provides insight into the flora present in the pre-Columbian Caribbean area. Importantly, data from ancient fecal specimens demonstrate the importance of ancient DNA studies to better understand pre-Columbian populations.

The ampliatus species group of Ommatius Wiedemann, 1821 (Diptera, Asilidae, Ommatiinae) in Peru with the description of four new species.

In this work, four new species of Ommatius are described from Peru; Ommatius amaru sp. nov. from Cuzco, Ommatius kuntur sp. nov. from Ayacucho and Cuzco, Ommatius uturuncu sp. nov. from Ayacucho and Pasco, and Ommatius yanantin sp. nov. from Cajamarca. All belong to the ampliatus species group, which is part of the holosericeus complex. Illustrations of external morphology, as well as dissected terminalia, are provided. A taxonomic discussion is given for all new species. A distribution map for the Peruvian species in the ampliatus group and an updated key to all species in this group are also given. The new species are named as a tribute to the Andean cosmovision which is based on thousands of years of pre-Columbian culture.

Indigenous and Black Confraternities in Colonial Latin America: Negotiating Status through Religious Practices

Indigenous and Black Confraternities in Colonial Latin America: Negotiating Status through Religious Practices

Nuevas consideraciones sobre el muro de Arantzazu. Dos dibujos de Jorge Oteiza para su revisión (1954-1968)

The aim of this article is to add a specific analysis of the great portal of Arantzazu to the different studies carried out on this work to date. Two small drawings by Jorge Oteiza serve to review the two creative phases developed by the sculptor to arrive at the final solution we know. Two phases that are juxtaposed and integrated, forming a unit in which the different variables used by the sculptor in each of them make sense. A research process that starts with his trip to America where he begins to become aware of the importance of space in the new artistic solutions and where he encounters the primitive pre-Columbian culture, with its statues as spiritual artefacts, and ends in the Basque cromlech, empty and religiously receptive. The two drawings represent two visions or cuts along this process that provide a better understanding of Oteiza’s interests and design mechanisms. in relation to his work in Arantzazu in the discovery and definition of the religious space.

Deciphering Diets and Lifestyles of Prehistoric Humans through Paleoparasitology: A Review.

Parasites have affected and coevolved with humans and animals throughout history. Evidence of ancient parasitic infections, particularly, reside in archeological remains originating from different sources dating to various periods of times. The study of ancient parasites preserved in archaeological remains is known as paleoparasitology, and it initially intended to interpret migration, evolution, and dispersion patterns of ancient parasites, along with their hosts. Recently, paleoparasitology has been used to better understand dietary habits and lifestyles of ancient human societies. Paleoparasitology is increasingly being recognized as an interdisciplinary field within paleopathology that integrates areas such as palynology, archaeobotany, and zooarchaeology. Paleoparasitology also incorporates techniques such as microscopy, immunoassays, PCR, targeted sequencing, and more recently, high-throughput sequencing or shotgun metagenomics to understand ancient parasitic infections and thus interpret migration and evolution patterns, as well as dietary habits and lifestyles. The present review covers the original theories developed in the field of paleoparasitology, as well as the biology of some parasites identified in pre-Columbian cultures. Conclusions, as well as assumptions made during the discovery of the parasites in ancient samples, and how their identification may aid in better understanding part of human history, ancient diet, and lifestyles are discussed.

Chocolate: How a New World Commodity Conquered Spanish Literature by Erin Alice Cowling

Reviewed by: Chocolate: How a New World Commodity Conquered Spanish Literature by Erin Alice Cowling MaryAnne Vetterling Cowling, Erin Alice. Chocolate: How a New World Commodity Conquered Spanish Literature. U of Toronto P, 2021. Pp. 214. ISBN 978-1-4875-2720-4. Chocolate: How a New World Commodity Conquered Spanish Literature provides an excellent overview of the complex early history of chocolate and its significance within the context of Pre-Columbian culture and Early Modern Spanish literature. It is about chocolate in its earliest form, as a drink made from cacao beans. In addition to its six chapters with their respective [End Page 619] introduction and conclusion, the book contains endnotes, an index, a bibliography with useful links, plus two appendices and an epilogue about a recent Spanish play (Mestiza by Julieta Soria) in which cacao beans have a significant role. The typographical errors are few although in Appendix 2, p.171 the word toras should be otras as in the original document (available online). This affects the English translation which is penalty of Mosaic Law and should rather be “other punishments.” Professor Cowling begins her book with a chapter about the history of chocolate in Pre-Columbian times and cites evidence of the important role it played before the arrival of the Conquistadores. She notes the discovery of ceramic vessels containing cacao residue from 600 B.C. and recounts references to chocolate in various extant codices to establish the importance of cacao in Pre-Columbian cultures as a ceremonial and medicinal substance. Chapter two unfolds a selection of texts written by the earliest Spaniards to encounter the New World whose accounts of chocolate consist of reports on the various ways it was used. We find out that for many of the indigenous peoples, cacao beans were an important unit of currency exchange and were also used as gifts. In addition, there are accounts of how chocolate was processed and of its properties, both medicinal and harmful. Cowling details a possible reference to chocolate in Columbus’s writings and mentions Cortés’s sampling of the drink. She also includes selections from historical documents by Díaz del Castillo, Sahagún, Acosta, and others. In the next chapter we are introduced to a number of passages from seventeenth-century Spanish literature wherein chocolate as a drink appears mainly in comedias and entremeses by authors such as Calderón, Tirso de Molina, and Salas Barbadillo, thereby showing how chocolate evolved from a drink of the rich and the socially ambitious at the start of the seventeenth century to a common commodity by its end. Cowling also deals with the economic aspect of cacao in the Old-World market as a precious commodity. Chapter four focuses on the play Santa Rosa del Perú by the Spaniards Moreto and Lanini y Sagredo, written in honor of the beatification of Saint Rose of Lima. Cowling first examines the ecclesiastical debates about the permissibility of drinking chocolate while fasting. She then offers a detailed analysis of the play and comments on Rosa’s use of chocolate to cure her illnesses, both physical and spiritual, as well as her servant’s persistent hunger and desire for the beverage. This chapter is enhanced by two illustrations, a still life by Pereda containing the instruments typically used for preparing chocolate drinks in Spain and a photo of a sixteenth-century statue in Mexico City dedicated to the “Christ of the Cacao Bean.” The following chapter presents information about controversies in historical and medical documents concerning chocolate as either a medicine or a poison. Documents by Cortijo Herraiz, Valverde Turices, Colmenero de Ledesma, and others are quoted to illustrate medical opinions about chocolate and its consumption in Spain. A passage from a French travel diary (1677) about being served chocolate at the home of a Spanish princess is included in addition to a segment from Mata’s 1747 cookbook. Woven into the chapter are also various selections from literature, the most interesting being a “Décima” published in 1729 by Cortijo Herraiz about the virtues of chocolate. Excerpts from fictional writings by Marradón, Quiñones de Benavente, and Santos, among others, demonstrate, according to Cowling, a clear trajectory...

IDF21-0422 Two Anniversaries, Two Pandemics, Two Histories

Background: As we remember the therapeutic development of insulin one hundred years ago, in Tulsa, Oklahoma we remember a race massacre in the same year. Are these connected? How? Elbert Huang, University of Chicago’s Center for Chronic Disease Research and Policy, writes that diabetes has been called a “slow moving pandemic.” As U.S. outbreaks surge, a study finds 40% of people who have died with COVID-19 had diabetes (Terhune et al, 7/24/2020 Reuters). The Center for Disease Control (2020) shows the prevalence of diabetes is highest among American Indians/Alaska Natives (14.7%) Hispanics (12.5%), non-Hispanic Blacks (11.7%), and non-Hispanic whites (7.5%). American Indians, Latinos and Blacks are suffering from COVID-19 in the same disproportionate numbers. COVID-19 can grow vigorously in a high blood sugar environment and may cause new cases of diabetes. A woman with diabetes loses a longtime relationship when her friend refuses to wear a mask around her. There are complex interactions between previously adaptive survival mechanisms, pre-Columbian culture and diet. Conquest by Europeans resulted in genocide, great poverty and oppression of indigenous peoples across the Americas. It brought slavery to the Americas when large numbers were needed to grow tobacco and sugar cane from new demands. During high or chronic levels of stress, the adaptive mechanism known as fight or flight allows people to protect themselves in emergency conditions, becomes destructive when people are not allowed to fight or flee. Cortisol, produced during these times, becomes toxic to the body and the brain, impairs immune systems, increases heart and vascular diseases, and lowers resistance to diabetes. In the extreme situation of genocide and slavery, stress becomes chronic and the levels of cortisol remain elevated. In times of famine, the ability of the individual to “store” fat in the abdomen was critical. In times of feast, the survival mechanism is no longer adaptive and can result in obesity, diabetics and death. What then are the factors that make these populations vulnerable to obesity, diabetes and Covid? Violence, poverty and racism remain for peoples whose once adaptive survival responses now contribute to disease and death. Many in the Hispanic community have the same story of conquest. The majority are poor. To the extent that they are considered to be “undocumented aliens,” their lives are precarious. “Black Lives Matter” is the response not only to poverty and racism but violence, especially the killing of innocent blacks by law enforcement. The legitimate fear of driving while black and brown is part of daily life. Native Americans have the highest numbers of violence of any group. It is statistically Caucasian male against Native male and female. Present examples are the large numbers of trafficking and murder of Native American women. These concerns are important to understand in our Native American organization with minority clients. Their concerns are about obesity, genetics, intergenerational/ongoing trauma, medication side effects, racism, community mistrust, lack of education, blame, confusion about diets, surgical intervention, family/friend support, and possibility of remission.

Mycobiome-Host Coevolution? The Mycobiome of Ancestral Human Populations Seems to Be Different and Less Diverse Than Those of Extant Native and Urban-Industrialized Populations.

Few data exist on the human gut mycobiome in relation to lifestyle, ethnicity, and dietary habits. To understand the effect of these factors on the structure of the human gut mycobiome, we analyzed sequences belonging to two extinct pre-Columbian cultures inhabiting Puerto Rico (the Huecoid and Saladoid) and compared them to coprolite samples found in Mexico and Ötzi, the Iceman’s large intestine. Stool mycobiome samples from extant populations in Peru and urban cultures from the United States were also included. The ancient Puerto Rican cultures exhibited a lower fungal diversity in comparison to the extant populations. Dissimilarity distances showed that the Huecoid gut mycobiome resembled that from ancient Mexico. Fungal genera including Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp., Rasamsonia spp., Byssochlamys spp., Talaromyces spp., Blastomyces spp., Monascus spp., and Penicilliopsis spp. were differentially abundant in the ancient and extant populations. Despite cultural differences, certain fungal taxa were present in all samples. These results suggest that culture and diet may impact the gut mycobiome and emphasize that modern lifestyles could be associated with the alteration of gut mycobiome diversity. The present study presents data on ancient and extant human gut mycobiomes in terms of lifestyle, ethnicity, and diet in the Americas.

Paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental changes in Amazonian lowlands over the last three millennia

The paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental history of the Amazon basin over the last millennia and the behavior of the South American Monsoon System (SAMS) throughout the lowlands have not yet been thoroughly examined due to a lack of records from more central portions of the basin. Here we discuss these past changes based on new high-resolution δ18O and δ13C records from speleothems collected in the southwestern Amazon Basin, at the core region of the convective activity of the SAMS. We demonstrate that the δ18O from these new records is representative of SAMS variations and that this convective system provides distinct precipitation patterns over the basin. The SAMS was in a neutral phase with homogeneous precipitation between 1000 BCE and 300 CE, whereas drier conditions prevailed over the western side of the basin between 700 and 1200 CE and an east-west climatic dipole was established over the Amazon Basin after 1450 CE when wetter conditions prevailed over our study site. The speleothem δ13C record indicates an overall tendency toward a more humid tropical forest during the studied period, except for a drier period which correlates with the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA). The dynamics of pre-Columbian cultures from southwestern Amazonia seem to have been related to paleoclimatic and environmental changes reported for the region.

Figurative aspects suggestive of infectious diseases in the ceramic pots of the pre-Columbian Moche culture. Analysis of the ceramics collection in the Larco Museum of Lima, Peru.

The historical-medical and anthropological studies, regarding Mesoamerica and South America, have been mainly focused on the great empires (Inca, Atzec, Maya), while other civilizations have been less investigated and only recently are gaining interest. In general, the paleopathological research provides interesting data to know the type of nutrition and the general environmental conditions as well as to point out some ritual mutilation practices, which were relatively frequent in the pre-Columbian cultures. A lot of civilizations flourished in the South America before the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores in the new world. In the last years it is progressively increasing the interest for the study of the Moche culture as well as for a deeper knowledge of pathocenosis of infectious diseases in the Moche society. Human infectious diseases are known to have a frequent animal origin, in particular from domesticated species, although the species domesticated in the pre-Columbian era were a small number. The purpose of our paper has been to examine the archeological findings suggestive of infectious diseases in artistic ceramic pots, dating back to the Moche period. We examined the iconography of ceramic pots belonging to the collection of the Larco Museum in Lima and reproducing body signs suggestive of infectious diseases. We identified 8 handworks with very interesting features by a medical point of view. In these handworks there are signs and lesions possibly associated with infectious diseases: risus sardonicus, orbital edema, facial nerve palsy, dorsal kyphosis, face and skin lesions. These features are compatible with some infectious diseases, including: syphilis, Bartonella bacilliformis, leishmaniasis, Pott's disease and Chagas disease. A wide discussion about these handworks is provided.

Ancient genomes reveal long-range influence of the pre-Columbian culture and site of Tiwanaku.

Tiwanaku civilization flourished in the Lake Titicaca basin between 500 and 1000 CE and at its apogee influenced wide areas across the southern Andes. Despite a considerable amount of archaeological data, little is known about the Tiwanaku population. We analyzed 17 low-coverage genomes from individuals dated between 300 and 1500 CE and demonstrated genetic continuity in the Lake Titicaca basin throughout this period, which indicates that the substantial cultural and political changes in the region were not accompanied by large-scale population movements. Conversely, the ritual center of Tiwanaku revealed high diversity, including individuals with primarily local genetic ancestry and those with foreign admixture or provenance from as far as the Amazon. Nonetheless, most human offerings associated with the Akapana platform exhibited pure Titicaca basin ancestry and dated to ca. 950 CE—the onset of Tiwanaku’s decline as a sociopolitical center. Our results strengthen the view of Tiwanaku as a complex and far-reaching polity.

Integrated mineralogical and typological study of Axe-God pendants from the Jade and pre-Columbian Culture Museum in Costa Rica

The mineralogical composition and typological classification of a group of 226 Axe-God pendants from the Jade and pre-Columbian Culture Museum (from the Instituto Nacional de Seguros) in San José (Costa Rica) was studied, using a non-invasive characterization technique and a novel stylistic classification scheme. Possible composition-design correlations were examined through descriptive and functional statistical analysis. This study constitutes an initial step towards the comprehensive analysis of this distinctive pendant design.
 

Severe Little Ice Age drought in the midcontinental United States during the Mississippian abandonment of Cahokia

Drought has long been suspected as playing an important role in the abandonment of pre-Columbian Native American settlements across the midcontinental United States between 1350 and 1450 CE. However, high-resolution paleoclimatic reconstructions reflecting local effective moisture (the ratio of precipitation to evaporation) that are located in proximity to Mississippi period (1050–1450 CE) population centers are lacking. Here, we present a 1600-year-long decadally resolved oxygen isotope (δ18O) record from Horseshoe Lake (Collinsville, IL), an evaporatively influenced oxbow lake that is centrally located within the largest and mostly densely populated series of Mississippian settlements known as Greater Cahokia. A shift to higher δ18O in the Horseshoe Lake sediment record from 1200 to 1400 CE indicates that strongly evaporative conditions (i.e., low effective moisture) were persistent during the leadup to Cahokia’s abandonment. These results support the hypothesis that climate, and drought specifically, strongly impacted agriculturally based pre-Columbian Native American cultures in the midcontinental US and highlights the susceptibility of this region, presently a global food production center, to hydroclimate extremes.

The Performative Forum: Women, Body and Memory in the Foro de Escritores Chile

This article examines the contributions of three contemporary Chilean women poets, Cecilia Vicuña, Anamaría Briede and Luna Montenegro to the UK Writers Forum and its Chilean counterpart, El Foro de Escritores. In the early 2000s, these groups produced two ongoing workshops that focused on poetic experimentation and performance and valued the oral over the written word. Entering into dialogue with Charles Bernstein’s analysis of the poetry reading, Erika Fischer-Lichte’s performative turn in the arts, and Joseph Roach theorization of performance and memory, this article unravels Chilean women’s poetics within a transnational context. It proposes that the value these women poets placed on aurality facilitated new engagement with Pre-Columbian cultures and languages as well as reconsiderations of the intimacy of the body and its linguistic representation.

Vertical Archaeology: Safety in the Use of Ropes for Scientific Research of Pre-Columbian Andean Cultures.

Scientific research is sometimes subjected to go through field study in places that are difficult to access. Where man has not managed to reach through traditional techniques, work at height systems offer new possibilities, provide safety in exploration and represent an excellent tool that allows a new insight of spaces object of scientific research. For more than 20 years, the Ukhupacha team has been studying, analyzing and selecting the teams, techniques and rope progression systems that best adapt to archaeological works in vertical environments. The projects studied are developed in Pre-Columbian cultures of the Andean mountain range, the high Amazon jungle and its surroundings. As a result, a new working methodology called Vertical Archaeology has been developed. It prioritizes user’s safety by means of ropes when accessing archaeological research areas. The recommended and safest systems, techniques and personal protective equipment (PPE) are presented for each of the phases in which it is proposed to divide archaeological investigations: exploration, training and expedition. Using rope access techniques has allowed the safe study of new artistic and heritage aspects in ancient civilizations, as well as the approach of the scientific community to places that until now had remained hidden.

Przemoc w przedhiszpańskim Peru

Violence in pre-H ispanic Peru Violence as a bio-cultural phenomenon is closely linked to the history of humanity. This phenomenon in the past is reconstructed by archaeologists as well as bioarchaeologists, who study the material remnants of old cultures and their creators. These remnants include burials, characteristic archaeological sites of defensive nature or works of art. An analysis of archaeological finds from the Peruvian Andes — especially the finds associated with the rituals of human sacrifice or warfare — leads to the conclusion that an important characteristic element of many pre-Columbian cultures was a specific kind of violence: ritualised violence. A cross-analysis of bioarchaeological, archaeological and iconographic data makes it possible to provide a more complete interpretation of violent behaviours of societies in the past, societies for which there are no extant historical sources.

Amaranth as a Source of Antihypertensive Peptides.

Amaranth is an ancestral crop used by pre-Columbian cultures for 6000 to 8000 years. Its grains have a relevant chemical composition not only from a nutritional point of view but also due to the contribution of components with good techno-functional properties and important potential as bioactive compounds. Numerous studies have shown that amaranth storage proteins possess encrypted sequences that, once released, exhibit different physiological activities. One of the most studied is antihypertensive activity. This review summarizes the progress made over the last years (2008–2020) related to this topic. Studies related to inhibition of different enzymes of the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone system, in particular Angiotensin Converting Enzyme (ACE) and Renin, as well as those referring to potential modulation mechanisms of tissue or local Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone system, are analyzed, including in silico, in vitro, in vivo, and ex vivo assays. Furthermore, the potential use of these bioactive peptides or products containing them, in the elaboration of functional food matrices is discussed. Finally, the most relevant conclusions and future requirements in research and development of food products are presented.