This study investigates the isotopic signatures of human skeletal remains that were recovered from several sites along the coast and inland in the north-central Patagonian region of Argentina. Human skeletal remains, dating from 2500 BP through the early historic period, are examined to determine the relative significance of terrestrial and aquatic food resources and subsequently, the extent to which coastal food resources were exploited by indigenous Argentinians. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes contained within human bone collagen and apatite are measured quantitatively to determine the relative significance of marine and terrestrial foods. This study, one of the first isotopic studies of indigenous diet on the Atlantic coast of Argentina, is significant because it provides initial results to be used for the reconstruction of aboriginal subsistence patterns prior to and after European contact.

No description available.

This dissertation explores the uses for data collected at broadband seismic stations to investigate upper mantle structures. In the Barents Sea region, we use seismic waveform modeling on data collected from arrays in Norway and Finland to investigate the nature of the Hales discontinuity in this area. We find that the unusually high velocities required by the move-out of the diffracted first arrival requires a discontinuity below the Moho, which we believe is probably caused by a phase transition from spinel to garnet peridotite. In Chile and Argentina, we use data collected during the Chile Argentina Geophysical Experiment to perform a regional travel time tomography in order to investigate the nature of the mantle above this unusual subduction zone. The northern half of the study area (between 30° and 33°S) is characterized by the central Chilean flat slab segment, where the descending Nazca slab dives to 100 km depth and then flattens, traveling horizontally for hundreds of kilometers before resuming its descent into the mantle. The Nazca plate in the southern half of the study area has a relatively constant dip of about 30°. The southern half exhibits normal arc volcanism roughly above the 100 - 125 km contours of the downgoing slab. The northern half has had no active volcanism in the past 2 Ma, and underwent an eastward displacement of arc volcanism beginning ~10 Ma. The northern half is also remarkable for the basement-cored uplifts of the Sierras Pampeanas. Our study of the upper mantle above the southern half indicates low P wave velocities, low S wave velocities, and high Vp/Vs ratios below the arc, consistent with partial melt. Above the flat slab segment we find low Vp, high Vs, and low Vp/Vs ratios. While the nature of the material responsible for these velocities cannot be uniquely determined, the velocities indicate it must be dry, cold, and depleted. In the transition from flat to normal subduction geometries, we find velocities consistent with frozen asthenosphere, which may have been displaced by the advancing flat slab during the Miocene.

No description available.

This study was an attempt to investigate the self-concept of one-hundred and two American adolescents who have lived in South American countries for a period of time and were currently enrolled in an American school in Caracas, Venezuela. The subjects were asked to complete the Tennessee Self Concept Scale and a personal data sheet. All subjects were categorized into classifications including sex, age, and time spent in South American countries.The findings suggested that for all students in this study, measures of intrinsic self-esteem were higher than measures of extrinsic self-evaluations. It was found that males had a lower self-concept than females. Also, students who had spent less time in South American countries tended to be more defensive and self critical than those who had been exposed to this foriegn culture for longer periods of time.

This thesis is concerned with the Spanish conquest of those Carib groups who, at the time of the first contact, occupied the eastern llanos of Venezuela, the north and south banks of the lower Orinoco and the region between the Sierra Imataca and Essequibo River. An historical analysis of Carib resistance to the Conquistadors and missionaries, during the years 1498-1771 is presented. Alongside this general theme certain specific issues in Carib history and ethnography are also discussed, as follows: 1) Carib Demography and Population: problems of historical demography are discussed and an estimate of Carib population levels at the time of contact presented: subsistence practices, trading and warfare, leadership, the village and kin group are also discussed: detailed archival evidence is offered to demonstrate the effect of European diseases among Carib groups during the eighteenth century. 2) Carib Cannibalism: the evidence for this practice is examined in detail and the role that accusations concerning this practice played in the Spanish conquest explained. 3) Carib Slaving: the role of the Europeans in encouraging this practice is examined with a view to showing that, while it was indeed widespread in its effects, it was not as exclusively a Carib practice, as was suggested by the Spanish chroniclers. 4) The Carib/Dutch Alliance: the origin, operation and effect of this alliance in the success of the Dutch colony of Essequibo, in enhancing Carib influence among other Indian groups and in aiding Carib resistance to the Spanish, is examined in detail. It is argued that this alliance proved to be of greater significance than that of Carib and French, English or Swedish and that the impor-tance of the Amerindians, to all colonial projects in this area, has been systematically underrated.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington. / Vita.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 189-201).

Univ., Magisterarbeit u.d.T.: Cristianización del imaginario y religiosidad de los indios de Puerto Viejo durante la colonia--Quito, 2001. / Die Mag.-Arb. erschien zuerst u.d.T.: Hidrovo Quiñónez de Briones: Cristianización del imaginario y religiosidad de los indios de Puerto Viejo durante la colonia.

Tesis--Universidad Central del Ecuador.