pre-Columbian Populations Research Articles

Pre-Columbian Fire Management Linked to Refractory Black Carbon Emissions in the Amazon

Anthropogenic climate change—combined with increased human-caused ignitions—is leading to increased wildfire frequency, carbon dioxide emissions, and refractory black carbon (rBC) aerosol emissions. This is particularly evident in the Amazon rainforest, where fire activity has been complicated by the synchronicity of natural and anthropogenic drivers of ecological change, coupled with spatial and temporal heterogeneity in past and present land use. One approach to elucidating these factors is through long-term regional fire histories. Using a novel method for rBC determinations, we measured an approximately 3500-year sediment core record from Lake Caranã in the eastern Amazon for rBC influx, a proxy of biomass burning and fossil fuel combustion. Through comparisons with previously published records from Lake Caranã and regional evidence, we distinguished between local and regional rBC emission sources demonstrating increased local emissions of rBC from ~1250 to 500 calendar years before present (cal yr BP), coinciding with increased local-scale fire management during the apex of pre-Columbian activity. This was followed by a regional decline in biomass burning coincident with European contact, pre-Columbian population decline, and regional fire suppression associated with the rubber boom (1850–1910 CE), supporting the minimal influence of climate on regional burning at this time. During the past century, rBC influx has rapidly increased. Our results can serve to validate rBC modeling results, aiding with future predictions of rBC emissions and associated impacts to the climate system.

Краниологическая характеристика населения Чили доколумбовой эпохи (на примере некрополя Чунчури): искусственная деформация и морфометрические особенности

Краниологическая характеристика населения Чили доколумбовой эпохи (на примере некрополя Чунчури): искусственная деформация и морфометрические особенности

Widespread population decline in South America correlates with mid-Holocene climate change

Quantifying the impacts of climate change on prehistoric demography is crucial for understanding the adaptive pathways taken by human populations. Archaeologists across South America have pointed to patterns of regional abandonment during the Middle Holocene (8200 to 4200 cal BP) as evidence of sensitivity to shifts in hydroclimate over this period. We develop a unified approach to investigate demography and climate in South America and aim to clarify the extent to which evidence of local anthropic responses can be generalised to large-scale trends. We achieve this by integrating archaeological radiocarbon data and palaeoclimatic time series to show that population decline occurred coeval with the transition to the initial mid-Holocene across South America. Through the analysis of radiocarbon dates with Monte Carlo methods, we find multiple, sustained phases of downturn associated to periods of high climatic variability. A likely driver of the duration and severity of demographic turnover is the frequency of exceptional climatic events, rather than the absolute magnitude of change. Unpredictable levels of tropical precipitation had sustained negative impacts on pre-Columbian populations lasting until at least 6000 cal BP, after which recovery is evident. Our results support the inference that a demographic regime shift in the second half of the Middle Holocene were coeval with cultural practices surrounding Neotropical plant management and early cultivation, possibly acting as buffers when the wild resource base was in flux.

Integrating zooarchaeology in the conservation of coastal-marine ecosystems in Brazil

Sambaquis are archaeological shell mounds and middens formed by pre-Columbian populations inhabiting the Atlantic Forest coast of Brazil between the Middle and Late Holocene. Beyond their recognized cultural values, sambaquis are valuable biological archives for tracking changes in past biodiversity and informing modern conservation studies and management. In this contribution we reviewed the published record of faunal remains from archaeological sites located in Babitonga Bay, in the state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil. Through a literature review covering 110 sites, we assembled a comprehensive survey of terrestrial and marine taxa exploited by human groups in this area between ca. 5500 and 370 years ago. A total of 244 species were recorded, of which 14 are currently endangered and 12 are no longer present in Babitonga Bay. This zooarchaeological synthesis provides snapshots of past biodiversity, adding a novel contribution to current debates around the conservation biology of one of the world's most threatened tropical biomes.

Amazonian dark earths in the fertile floodplains of the Amazon River, Brazil: an example of non-intentional formation of anthropic soils in the Central Amazon region

ABSTRACT Amazonian dark earths (ADEs) are fertile soils created by pre-Columbian Amerindian societies of the Amazon Basin. However, it is still not clear whether these soils were produced intentionally to improve infertile Amazonian upland soils or if they resulted from the accumulation of organic matter from sedentary settlements. This study characterizes the ADEs found in the naturally fertile alluvial floodplains of the Amazon River in the Central Brazilian Amazon according to total, exchangeable, and available contents of elements and organic carbon in soil profiles. ADEs contained higher levels of available elements and total P, Ca, Zn, and Cu. High total Cr, Ni, Co, and V content in these soils indicate that mafic minerals contributed to their composition, while higher contents of P, Zn, Ba, and Sr indicate anthropic enrichment. The presence of ADEs in floodplain areas strongly indicates non-intentional anthropic fertilization of the alluvial soils, which naturally contain levels of P, Ca, Zn, and Cu higher than those needed to cultivate common plants. The presence of archaeological sites in the floodplains also shows that pre-Columbian populations lived in these regions as well as on bluffs above the Amazon River.

Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492

Human impacts prior to the Industrial Revolution are not well constrained. We investigate whether the decline in global atmospheric CO2 concentration by 7–10 ppm in the late 1500s and early 1600s which globally lowered surface air temperatures by 0.15∘C, were generated by natural forcing or were a result of the large-scale depopulation of the Americas after European arrival, subsequent land use change and secondary succession. We quantitatively review the evidence for (i) the pre-Columbian population size, (ii) their per capita land use, (iii) the post-1492 population loss, (iv) the resulting carbon uptake of the abandoned anthropogenic landscapes, and then compare these to potential natural drivers of global carbon declines of 7–10 ppm. From 119 published regional population estimates we calculate a pre-1492 CE population of 60.5 million (interquartile range, IQR 44.8–78.2 million), utilizing 1.04 ha land per capita (IQR 0.98–1.11). European epidemics removed 90% (IQR 87–92%) of the indigenous population over the next century. This resulted in secondary succession of 55.8 Mha (IQR 39.0–78.4 Mha) of abandoned land, sequestering 7.4 Pg C (IQR 4.9–10.8 Pg C), equivalent to a decline in atmospheric CO2 of 3.5 ppm (IQR 2.3–5.1 ppm CO2). Accounting for carbon cycle feedbacks plus LUC outside the Americas gives a total 5 ppm CO2 additional uptake into the land surface in the 1500s compared to the 1400s, 47–67% of the atmospheric CO2 decline. Furthermore, we show that the global carbon budget of the 1500s cannot be balanced until large-scale vegetation regeneration in the Americas is included. The Great Dying of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas resulted in a human-driven global impact on the Earth System in the two centuries prior to the Industrial Revolution.

Ceramic production and consumption in an in-between place: Instrumental neutron activation analysis of ceramics from the Manialtepec Basin of Oaxaca, Mexico

This paper reports the results of instrumental neutron activation analysis of 66 pottery samples from seven archaeological sites in the Manialtepec Basin of Oaxaca, Mexico. Located on the central Pacific coast, the Manialtepec Basin is a 60 km2 pocket surrounded by mountains and dominated by a 1200-ha lagoon. Settlement survey of the basin has identified 21 archaeological sites spanning the Late Formative (400–150 BCE) to the Late Postclassic (1100-1522CE) periods. Although the basin's small size and circumscribed agricultural terrain likely limited precolumbian populations, its geographic position would have placed it interstitially between several significant regional political centers, notably the lower Río Verde valley (57 km to the west), the Valley of Oaxaca (130 km to the north), and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (300 km to the east). Recent research has focused on understanding how inhabitants of the Manialtepec Basin engaged with other regions of Oaxaca and Mesoamerica. INAA results confirm the existence of a local ceramic industry, with pottery production and intra-basin exchange continuing for nearly 2000 years. The evidence also indicates that the basin's inhabitants were aware of, and actively involved in, broader regional trends in ceramic manufacture. They nonetheless maintained an independent and distinct local ceramic industry despite major geopolitical shifts like the collapse of Oaxacan metropoles and the conquest of the basin by the Mixtec Tututepec Empire in the Late Postclassic period. Our results highlight the agency and dynamism of potters in an in-between place.

Jacob S. Eder. Holocaust Angst: The Federal Republic of Germany and American Holocaust Memory since the 1970s.

Jacob S. Eder. Holocaust Angst: The Federal Republic of Germany and American Holocaust Memory since the 1970s.

Análisis de ADN mitocondrial en una muestra de restos óseos precolombinos de Norte de Santander, Colombia (Área Cultural Chitarera)

Los análisis de ADN antiguo (ADNa) han incrementado en los últimos años permitiendo conocer la diversidad genética de las poblaciones precolombinas. En Colombia, existen pocos registros arqueológicos de la población prehispánica del Norte de Santander habitada en el siglo XVI por el grupo Chitarero. Por este motivo, nos propusimos analizar la diversidad genética a partir de secuencias de la región HVRI del ADNmt y determinar sus posibles relaciones con otras comunidades tanto antiguas como contemporáneas. Se analizaron siete individuos precolombinos asociados a este grupo prehispánico, recuperados en los municipios de Cácota y Silos en el departamento de Norte de Santander de los Andes Orientales colombianos, siguiendo criterios estrictos de autenticidad para el ADNa. En todos los individuos se logró identificar el haplogrupo B caracterizado por el polimorfismo en la posición 16217C, siendo éste uno de los más frecuentes en comunidades precolombinas y contemporáneas de los Andes Suramericanos. Este hallazgo indica que este grupo poblacional se encuentra estrechamente emparentado por línea materna, con posibles índices de endogamia, con una probable densidad demográfica baja y una baja diversidad genética, similares a lo observado en comunidades pertenecientes a periodos anteriores como el Formativo. Este grupo precolombino exhibe una de las diversidades genéticas más bajas reportadas en las poblaciones pertenecientes a la familia lingüistica Chibcha. Estos resultados genéticos coinciden con los planteamientos sobre el grupo Chitarero de pertenecer a comunidades pequeñas independientes, con asentamientos dispersos, apartados unos de otros.

Wetland Raised-Field Agriculture and Its Contribution to Sustainability: Ethnoecology of a Present-Day African System and Questions about Pre-Columbian Systems in the American Tropics

One adaptation for farming wetlands is constructing raised fields (RF), i.e., elevated earth structures. Studies of RF agriculture have focused mostly on the vestiges of RF that were cultivated by pre-Columbian populations in the Americas. Ironically, whereas RF agriculture is still practiced nowadays in many parts of the world, including the Congo Basin, these actively farmed RF have received scant attention. Yet, studying how RF function today can shed new light on ongoing debates about pre-Columbian RF agriculture. Also, in a context of climate change and widespread degradation of wetlands, the study of RF agriculture can help us evaluate its potential as part of an environmentally sustainable use of wetlands. We carried out an ethnoecological study of RF agriculture combining qualitative and quantitative methods over a total of eight months’ fieldwork in the Congo Basin. We found that RF show great diversity in size and shape and perform several functions. Incorporation of grasses such as green manure, allows RF to produce high yields, and RF agriculture decreases flooding risk. However, it is labor-intensive and is likely always only one component of a multi-activity subsistence system, in which fishing plays a great role, that is both resilient and sustainable.

Native Americans in the Movies: Portrayals from Silent Films to the Present by Michael Hilger (review)

Reviewed by: Native Americans in the Movies: Portrayals from Silent Films to the Present by Michael Hilger Mª Elena Serrano Moya Native Americans in the Movies: Portrayals from Silent Films to the Present Michael Hilger Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015, 464 pages, ISBN 978-1-4422-4001-8 When Michael Hilger published From Savage to Nobleman: Images of Native Americans in Film in 1995, the United States of America was still recovering from the post-celebration blues of the quincentenary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the American continent. The first years of the decade witnessed a resurgence of Native protests about the American Holocaust, as some Native scholars have called it, and its problematic celebration. The film industry, which is always a measure of the social temperature, released several key Indian-themed movies with huge success. Thus, at that time, Hilger's book was a necessary shout-out to those who had suddenly discovered Native Americans in movies. Twenty years later it was necessary to continue with that work, as the portrayal of Native Americans in movies has not ended and the participation of Native American actors and directors in the movie industry has increased. Therefore, not only does Hilger add more titles from last decade of the 20th century and from the first two decades of 21st but he has also updated some of the information from the first edition, reorganized the book, corrected and changed some information and added a valuable index of movies. This update has made it a 'must' for scholars concerned with depictions of Native Americans in films or film history. The book is composed of three main chapters: a filmography chapter in which movies are organized in alphabetical order, and several appendixes organizing the titles according to the nation the native characters belong to; a chapter on the portrayal of Native Americans; and a classification of TV movies with a useful presentation of movies in chronological order. Hilger begins by presenting and explaining the two traditional stereotypes of Native Americans in movies, the Noble Red Man and the Savage, and how they have become tools for the white establishment to reflect and address the issues of their times. Thus, films with Native Americans characters have generally been concerned with white issues and have failed to fully represent or develop their native characters. In this introductory chapter, Hilger also comments briefly on Native American females and ends with some comments about the importance of editing and how it shapes our perceptions of these characters. Thus, a close-up of a Native American character with the appropriate lighting and low-angle shot will make him threatening, such as the first time Scar or Geronimo appears in The Searchers. The following chapter takes us on a visual tour from the Silent Period to the Present. In this edition, instead of writing individual chapters for each decade finishing with a comprehensive list of films from that decade as the author did in his previous edition, he has now opted to gather all the information in a unique chapter. I find this grouping more clear and effective as readers are offered a visual account of how the films and the depictions of Native Americans were embedded in social and historical events in those decades. For instance, the celebration of the arrival of Columbus not only brought a renewed interest in and image of Native Americans but it also brought attention to Native Americans directors like Chris Eyre or Sterlin Harjo, who are constructing a new visual portrayal of Native Americans with their own voices and words. The titles from the late 1990s and early 21st century are welcome, for there aren't many books that cover more current films. (An exception is M. Elise Marubbio's Killing the Indian Maiden (2006), with its analysis of images of Native American women in movies, which takes us to 2005). It is true that we encounter individual articles about specific movies but I believe that researchers, students [End Page 68] and historians need more comprehensive and thorough works like Hilger's. Even more, Hilger's book comments on some movies that rarely appear in the analysis of...

Negotiation of ethnoracial configurations among Puerto Rican Taíno activists

ABSTRACTIn Puerto Rico, scholarly histories and common knowledge have presumed that the Taíno – the pre-Columbian population of the island – became extinct at some time between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. However, various people on the island challenge this assumption by claiming to be Taíno. The public reemergence of Taíno groups in Puerto Rico is highly disputed by scholars, governmental institutions and non-Taíno populations of the region, often on the basis of Puerto Rico’s long-documented history of creolization and state-sponsored ideology of racial blending. Within this context, the case of Taíno indigenous activism in Puerto Rico offers a critical lens through which to consider interactional challenges involved in claiming belonging to a presumably “extinct” ethnoracial category.

Holocaust Angst: The Federal Republic of Germany and American Holocaust Memory since the 1970sJacob S. Eder

Holocaust Angst: The Federal Republic of Germany and American Holocaust Memory since the 1970sJacob S. Eder

Pre-Columbian earth-builders settled along the entire southern rim of the Amazon

The discovery of large geometrical earthworks in interfluvial settings of southern Amazonia has challenged the idea that Pre-Columbian populations were concentrated along the major floodplains. However, a spatial gap in the archaeological record of the Amazon has limited the assessment of the territorial extent of earth-builders. Here, we report the discovery of Pre-Columbian ditched enclosures in the Tapajós headwaters. The results show that an 1800 km stretch of southern Amazonia was occupied by earth-building cultures living in fortified villages ~Cal AD 1250–1500. We model earthwork distribution in this broad region using recorded sites, with environmental and terrain variables as predictors, estimating that earthworks will be found over ~400,000 km2 of southern Amazonia. We conclude that the interfluves and minor tributaries of southern Amazonia sustained high population densities, calling for a re-evaluation of the role of this region for Pre-Columbian cultural developments and environmental impact.

Drawing Vladek, staging Shylock: Art Spiegelman’s Maus in American Holocaust discourse

ABSTRACTThis essay explores the parallels between the character of Vladek in Art Spiegelman’s Maus and certain stage incarnations of Shylock from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Spiegelman’s Maus, I contend, invokes Shakespeare’s famous Jewish moneylender to challenge dominant American Holocaust memory. Invoking the theatrical tradition of representing Shylock as a credibly complex character, Maus specifically generates a counter-discourse to the paradigmatic representation of the Holocaust survivor as the flat character of hero-saint.

Holocaust Angst: The Federal Republic of Germany and American Holocaust Memory since the 1970s

Holocaust Angst: The Federal Republic of Germany and American Holocaust Memory since the 1970s

Remembering the Holocaust in American superhero comics

ABSTRACTThis article considers the representation of Holocaust memory in Uncanny: X-Men and Superman. I argue that these comics may be read in relation to what I call ‘mythologised’ Holocaust memory, by which I mean a reduction of the complexity of the genocide so that it may be used as a basic, paradigmatic symbol of good versus evil. Such reduction allows the Holocaust to be employed as an archetype for other acts of violence and atrocity, undermining its historical specificity and complexity. Just as important as this mythologised memory is the appropriation of the Holocaust as a fundamentally American concern, and as viewed through a fundamentally American perspective. As I aim to show, the X-Men franchise is more successful in confronting the ways in which Holocaust memory has been appropriated, especially in the American context. However, it ultimately fails to add sufficient nuance when dealing with the atrocity. Similarly, Superman – one of the most explicit ‘All-American’ heroes, second perhaps only to Captain America – shows, but fails to acknowledge or criticise, this American appropriation and is thus complicit in the construction and simplification of American Holocaust memory.

Six teaching orientations of Holocaust educators as reflections of teaching perspectives and meaning making processes

This study explored processes of curricular reinterpretation made by teachers who teach about the Holocaust. We conducted holistic narrative analyses of in-depth interviews with 31 American Holocaust educators. Six teaching orientations were identified: passionate historical, mythologizing-transforming, social-contemporizing, empathic-personalizing, riveting-shocking, and pragmatic-socializing. We offer vignettes for each orientation and compare them to other teaching perspective typologies, highlighting the novelty and utility of the presented typology. The findings demonstrate how narrative identity, meaning-making processes and teaching perspectives interconnect and lead teachers to reinterpret the Holocaust in their teaching. These findings have implications for teaching complex and value-laden topics.

Arqueografía del sitio arqueológico Vista al Cerro (A-516 VC) La Fortuna de San Carlos (Centro-Norte de Costa Rica), esbozos de un contexto funerario en la fase Arenal (500 a.C-500 d. C) = Archeographia of the Archaeological Site Vista del Cerro...

El presente artículo plantea como objetivo la caracterización del sitio arqueológico Vista del Cerro (A-516VC), con base en los resultados obtenidos de diversas excavaciones como análisis de evidencia precolombina, se presentara un acercamiento al entendimiento de las poblaciones precolombinas que ocuparon dicha zona, como de sus expresiones funerarias de la región Centro-Norte de Costa Rica en 500 a.C-500 d. C.This article presents as objective the characterization of the archeological site Vista del Cerro (A-516VC), based on the results obtained from different excavations as an analysis of pre-Columbian evidence, it presents an approach to the understanding of the pre-Columbian populations that occupied the zone, as well as the funerary expressions of the Central-North region of Costa Rica in 500 BC-500 AD. C.

The role of fertile anthropogenic soils in the conservation of native and exotic agrobiodiversity in Amazonian homegardens

Amazonian dark earths (ADE) are anthropogenic soils mostly created between 500 and 2500 years ago by pre-Columbian populations. ADE are currently used by local people for different agricultural and agroforestry systems. Because of their high fertility they may play an important role in the conservation of non-native agrobiodiversity. This study aimed to investigate the variation in richness and abundance of exotic and native species in homegardens along the ADE-background soil continuum. We conducted floristic inventories in 70 homegardens located in 7 riverside communities along the lower and middle Madeira River, Central Amazonia. Each species sampled was classified according to its origin: native Amazonian, American (from outside Amazonia) and non-American, and each individual was classified according to its form of establishment: cultivated or spontaneous. The floristic diversity was significantly related to soil fertility, texture and homegarden size. We found a positive relationship between soil fertility and richness of species and landraces. Homegardens on more fertile soils tended to have a higher richness and abundance of cultivated non-American species, as well as a higher richness and abundance of spontaneously established American species. Homegardens at the fertile end of the fertility gradient provided conditions for the establishment and growth of many species, especially exotic species, that are generally more nutrient-demanding than Amazonian species. Our results show that homegarden agroecosystems on ADE favour experimentation with the introduction of a wide range of species from various regions of the globe.