Four multicyclic complex calderas and smaller ignimbrite shields located within the Altiplano Puna Volcanic Complex of the Central Andes (APVC) erupted 13000 km�� of magma within the last 11 Ma. One of the largest and most complex of these is the Cerro Guacha Caldera. Ar-Ar age determinations and paleomagnetic directions suggest that the Cerro Guacha Caldera was formed by two major eruptions, caldera collapse, resurgence cycles and several smaller eruptions. Two major ignimbrites (> 600 km��) are found with ������Ar-�����Ar from biotites and sanidines of 5.65 �� 0.01Ma for the 1300 km�� (magma volume) Guacha ignimbrite and 3.49 �� 0.01Ma for the 800 km�� Tara Ignimbrite. The last major eruption occurred on the western flank producing the 1.72 �� 0.02 Ma Puripica Chico Ignimbrite with a volume of approximately 10 km��. Characteristic remanent magnetization data (ChRM) for these ignimbrites show that the Guacha has reverse polarity, while the Tara is normally polarized and the magnetic fingerprints have allowed their current full extents to be identified. A conspicuous lineament of volcanic structures in the eastern part of the caldera, bordering a caldera moat, filled out welded ignimbrites and sedimentary lacustrine sequences suggest an earlier 60x40 km outer collapse associated with the Guacha explosive episode. A central graben formed on the Guacha welded ignimbrite is related to a first episode of resurgence. Evidence of a second 30 x15 km inner collapse includes offset of welded Guacha ignimbrites and alignment of lava domes associated with the Tara ignimbrite. A second resurgence episode is suggested by the presence of an uplifted central block consisting primarily of welded Tara ignimbrite. As a whole the three ignimbrites (Guacha, Tara and Puripica Chico) share the same petrological and geochemical characteristics: high-K series, compositional ranges from dacite to rhyolite, with andesitic members present as lavas (for the Guacha and Puripica Chico Ignimbrites) and as pumices (for the Tara Ignimbrite). Highest silica content is found in the Chajnantor dome. Rayleigh modeling for Ba, Rb and Sr suggests at least 60% of crystal fractionation to account for the compositional variation between the Guacha andesite and the Chajnantor dome. Dy/Hb ratio increases with time from the Guacha andesite to the Negreal andesite suggesting stabilization of garnet owing to crustal thickening. Fe-Ti exchange geothermometry for the Tara Ignimbrite yielded log fO��� values ranging from -13.06 to -13.38 and temperatures of 714�� to 801��C. Amphibole geobarometry yielded pressures ranging from 150 to 180 MPa equivalent to 5.3 and 6.4 km depth respectively for the Tara Ignimbrite; the pressures range between 133 to 242 MPa, equivalent to 5.0 to 9.2 km depth for the Guacha Ignimbrite. The zircon saturation method yielded saturation temperatures of 716�� and 705��C for the Guacha and Chajnantor dome respectively and 784��C for the Tara Ignimbrite. The zircon crystallization range for the magmas of the Cerro Guacha Caldera is 1.25 Ma for the Guacha Ignimbrite; 1.09 Ma for the Puripica Chico Ignimbrite and 0.95 Ma for the Tara Ignimbrite. Recycling of antecrystic zircons within the caldera magmas is continuos through time. / Graduation date: 2012

Pensar que el altiplano es una tierra de pastores implica un cambio de perspectiva que pensamos nos puede ayudar a comprender muchas de las particularidades de la cultura andina y de su capacidad de insertarse y negociar con la sociedad colonial. Nuestra propuesta es pues, estudiar la cultura pastoril andina en la colonia temprana y su articulación a una sociedad de mercado. Tomando como referencia a autores como Khazanov que estudia a los pastores del mundo y a Núñez y Dillehay que se concentran en la propuesta de un modelo “giratorio caravanero” proponemos que la cultura pastoril es distinta a la agricultora y sedentaria. Por esto pensar en una cultura pastoril implica sobre todo pensar en la capacidad de los pastores de moverse por un territorio y circular entre culturas. Entonces la tesis lidia principalmente con esta propuesta y se aproxima a diversos momentos y circunstancias de la historia colonial temprana para entender las características de los pastores andinos en tiempos coloniales, pero particularmente los pastores de Oruro.

"Inclusion" in the broad sense of access to, and participation in, public policy and services has been lacking in the majority of developing countries---whether authoritarian or democratic---due to highly skewed political, social and economic power structures. To understand why this tends to be the case, the dissertation provides a political economy model for understanding civil society, arguing that the evolution of civil society and its potential as a vehicle for inclusion are conditioned by the economic imperatives in place and the state prerogatives. More specifically, I question the extent to which the neoliberal model allows civil society to fulfill this role, by examining the impact of Social Funds (SFs), a key social policy institution created and promoted solely under the neoliberal model, on civil society in Egypt and Bolivia. / I argue that neoliberalism severely limits the possibility of: citizenship construction, achieving development synergy between the state and civil society, or strengthening the latter. These limitations are structural, inherent to the neoliberal development model and the changes it has brought about economically and politically. The research shows how these changes have manifestations within the state, the economy and civil society and more specifically social policy. Just as important, there are limitations intrinsically grounded in the structures found in many developing countries, pre-neoliberal changes. Such structures, I argue, do not allow new institutions like SFs to push forward such an ideal three-way relationship among the economy, state and civil society. Rather than strengthening civil society and creating development synergy, SFs are shown to be just an attempt to give neoliberal policies a human face and subdue any potential for structural changes. / More generally, by contrasting the dynamics of civil society under neoliberalism in a developing country with a democratic regime (Bolivia) with those of a soft authoritarian regime (Egypt). I argue that a dichotomous framework, which sees democracy as antithetically opposed to authoritarianism is not necessarily appropriate to the analysis of developing countries. The cases illustrate that the state and civil society, under two-different regime types, continue to share a number of similarities.

Tesis para optar al grado de Magíster en Estudios Latinoamericanos / Esta tesis analiza la constitución de los movimientos indígenas en Ecuador y Bolivia a partir de la construcción de los Estados nacionales en el siglo XIX. Para ello se coloca énfasis en la idea de que la constitución de sujetos políticos corresponde a una articulación entre, por un lado, un poder estructurante que busca distribuir a los sujetos en determinados lugares y funciones en la estructura social y, por otro lado, la capacidad de interpelación que pueden tener los sujetos para poder cuestionar esa distribución dada por diversas lógicas y estrategias de sujeción. A esta capacidad de enunciación que busca transformar los lugares y funciones instituidas en un orden histórico determinado, se le denomina como un proceso de subjetivación política. Para los efectos de esta investigación, se propone entender la irrupción de los actuales movimientos indígenas como un emergente proceso de subjetivación política indígena, el cual se ha enfocado en generar diversos proyectos políticos desde la propia base del movimiento social, tales como la autonomía, la plurinacionalidad, la interculturalidad y la descolonización de la sociedad nacional.

This thesis examines the construction of ethnic identity, autonomy and indigenous citizenship in plurinational Bolivia. In 2009, the Kallawayas, an Andean indigenous nation, took advantage of legislation in Bolivia's new constitution to begin a process of legally constituting themselves as autonomous from the state. The objective of Indigenous Autonomy in the constitution is to allow indigenous nations and peoples to govern themselves according to their conceptions of ‘Living Well'. Living well, for the Kallawayas is understood in terms of what it means to be runa, a person living in the ayllu (the traditional Andean community). The Kallawayas are noted as healers, and sickness and health is understood as related to the maintenance of a ritual relationship of reciprocity with others in the ayllu, both living humans and ancestors, remembered in the landscape. Joint ritual relations with the landscape play an important role in joining disparate Kallawaya ayllus with distinct traditions and languages (Aymara, Quechua and the Kallawaya language Macha Jujay are spoken) together as an ethnic group. However, Kallawaya politics has followed the trajectory of national peasant politics in recent decades of splitting into federations divided along class and ethnic lines. The joint ritual practices which traditionally connected the Kallawaya ayllus adapted to reflect this new situation of division between three sections of Kallawaya society. This has meant that the Kallawayas are attempting political autonomy as an ethnic group when they have never been more fractured. This thesis then examines the meaning of autonomy and the Good Life for a politically divided and ethnically diverse indigenous people.

In Bolivia we have three very valuable Andean grains: amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus), quinoa (Chenopodium quinua), and canihua (Chenopodium pallidicaule), which combined with cereals and legumes can become a complete and balanced food in order to combat the malnutrition that is so widespread in our region. In this study, various nutritional mixes were formulated, based on amaranth and other Andean crops, and the three best were chosen according to nutrition, palatability, and cost. They were: Andean Baby Food, Mixicereal, and Amaranth Cookie, which have an amino acid complement between 79% and 100% and give satisfactory amounts of protein, energy, and minerals for school-aged children. Afterward, the biological quality of the three foods was determined through biological evaluation studies, determining weight gain to be between 64.26 and 87.28, digestibility between 60% and 78%, and PER between 1.75 and 2.36. The cost of the three final products was less than 0.08 cents of an American dollar for every 100 grams of mix. Finally, sensory analyses were performed on the three products with 90 children, from 5 to 9 years old, from two rural schools in Quillacollo province, Cochabamba, and a preference for Mixicereal was observed. Based on these results, we conclude that the three mixes studied are excellent nutritional complements, with high biological value, sensory acceptability, and within the means of a population with scarce economic resources.

Los cholets son edificaciones cuya colorida estética y diseño arquitectónico se distinguen dentro del espacio urbano de la ciudad de El Alto, Bolivia. En términos de división funcional, los “cholets” se caracterizan por contar con un salón de eventos y espacios comerciales en los primeros pisos, departamentos de vivienda para alquiler en los pisos medios y, en la parte alta del edificio, se ubica la vivienda de los propietarios. Esta investigación se aproxima a este tipo de edificaciones como un objeto cultural con el objetivo de dar luces sobre cuáles son los valores y el uso –construidos tanto discursivamente como en la práctica– asociados a estas formas arquitectónicas. Para ello, se analizan múltiples espacios y contextos sociales- a modo de regímenes de valor- como también a actores diversos, tales como usuarios, arquitectos y críticos especializados. El foco apuesta por considerar ''cholets'' como un producto cultural implicado en complejos procesos identitarios y de distinción social de un sector económico emergente de la sociedad boliviana que procura consolidar su capital simbólico. La metodología utilizada es de corte cualitativo. Se realizará un mapeo de la circulación del cholet y los distintos discursos e imaginarios construidos sobre este tanto en redes sociales y medios de comunicación, como en espacios físicos. Sobre la identificación de espacios, se recurre a entrevistas a propietarios de las edificaciones, arquitectos e ingenieros que los han edificado, a vecinos y a críticos, tales como académicos de las escuelas de arquitectura de La Paz y curadores de muestras arquitectónicas; en líneas generales a los actores que se encuentren involucrados en los regímenes de valor donde circule el cholet.

This Bachelor thesis is an interpretive study, where the material has mainly been gathered through ethnographic methods, with thematically opened interviews and observations providing the primary data. A field study was conducted in Bolivia during the months of November and December of 2009; in La Paz in the Western highlands, including some interviews in the fast growing suburb El Alto, as well as in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in the Eastern lowlands. Bolivia is one of the poorest and most unequal countries in Latin America and the world, and the purpose of the study is to re-contextualise and re-interpret how inequality is created and maintained in the Bolivian society by doing a case study on gender inequality. In addition, an intersectional analysis is used that takes into account the diversity of the Bolivian society in terms of ethnicity and class. The study aims at exploring the mechanisms that create and maintain inequality in a Bolivian context as well as looking at the prospects for potential change in the unequal relations between groups of people within the new context of indigenous president Evo Morales and a new inclusive constitution. Using an abductive method, the empirical material has been re-interpreted with the help of American sociologist Charles Tilly’s framework of durable inequality. He identifies two mechanisms that create inequality, exploitation and opportunity hoarding, and two mechanisms that reinforce inequality; emulation and adaptation. Together with the concept of intersectionality, recognising women’s different experiences depending on, for instance, ethnic background or social class, these two frameworks are framing the study. Jointly they generate a new analytical tool that can deepen the understanding inequality mechanisms: the Intersecting Inequality Framework. The content of the interviews when analysed show that inequalities in Bolivia have long historical roots, and that the processes of exploitation, opportunity hoarding, emulation and adaptation that Tilly describes all take place in creating and maintaining an unequal position for Bolivian women. The Intersecting Inequality Framework reveals that the inequality mechanisms in the three dimensions of gender, ethnicity and class sometimes work autonomously and other times intersectionally. Changing durable inequality is a slow process; nevertheless there are signs of changed relations between categorical bounded groups in the Bolivian society. Although, in the context of Morales the main political focus at the time lays not on attaining gender equality, but rather to continue the empowerment of the indigenous populations.

Climate change is one of the major contributing factors to degradation of ecological services, and these in turn are harming many people and causing poverty mainly in rural areas. The information available and the gain of knowledge on how climate change is affecting livelihood resources in the Bolivian Andes are very limited. This research aims to advance in the understanding of adaptive capacity to social and climate change in rural communities whose livelihoods are dependent upon agriculture and local resources. The proposed framework of this research focuses on the vulnerability assessment of the socio-ecological system, which targets on the identification of adaptation strategies in the context of their contribution to the overall adaptive capacity of the system. Following an exploratory design, two representative communities from different agro-ecological regions are selected as case studies: Santiago de Okola (Municipality of Puerto Carabuco, highlands) and Sita-Chorocana (Municipality of Inquisivy, inter-Andean valley). The research is conducted using a participatory rural appraisal approach and combines indicators encompassing natural, physical, human, financial, and socio-cultural variables. Data collection is based on community discussion (n=6), key informant interviews (n=31), household interviews (n=125), and local observations. Data analysis is conducted for quantitative and qualitative information. The results are presented in four main sections: 1) Integral diagnosis of the current situation in each case study considering general characteristics of the population, agriculture activities and forest resources; followed by a complete description of impacts and strategies to cope with extreme weather events and socio-economic conflicts at household level. 2) The assessment of strategies based on cultural knowledge describes the existing traditional ecological knowledge and local customs. Moreover, a mathematical model has been developed to evaluate the current knowledge needed to cope with and adapt to climate change. The outcomes point out that for the highlands the diversification of knowledge, and for the inter-Andean valley the social—pooling are strategies that contributed the most to secure crop production under extreme weather event scenario. 3) The assessment of socio-economic strategies identifies households under the category of poor as the most vulnerable group to climate change; this group is dominated by old women living alone in the communities and in charge of the farm. Based on the redundancy analysis poverty indicators have been identified: In the highlands, off-farm activities represent a potential strategy whenever the crop production is reduced or limited; these activities are related to the labor availability in the household, health conditions and level of education. In the inter-Andean valley, out-farm and eucalyptus plantations represent a potential strategy to secure crop production when households have access to land and markets and they participate in social networks. 4) The assessment of social networks identifies the relationship between the households, stakeholders, and the municipality to cope with socio-economic conflicts and the impacts of extreme weather events. Independently of each case study, the outcomes point out the existing social networks under socio-economic scenario contributed to the implementation of a wide number of coping strategies to secure in the long-term the well-being of the household including economic development, food production, education, social organization, infrastructure, and health. The existing social networks under the extreme weather events scenarios contributed mainly to secure food production of the households by providing immediate access to labor. This research presents evidence on how social and climate changes are the major contributing factors to increasing vulnerability of the socio-ecological system. It is the first explorative research in which cultural knowledge, socio-economic and social networks strategies are integrated to understand the adaptive capacity of rural communities in the selected case studies. The livelihood adaptation strategies identified independently of each of the two case study eco-regions showed particular characteristics related to the lifestyle, the knowledge and the socio-economic resources available in the communities; and highlights the potentialities and limitations of the households to reduce their vulnerability. Finally, the proposed model towards adaptive capacity is a tool that can be used to guide new policies and programs that target poverty reduction and minimize the adverse impacts of climate change.

This thesis explores Tsimane understandings and creations of varying forms of sociality. Each chapter addresses different but related issues concerning sociality. Fieldwork was carried out in three riverine settlements over the period from December 1991 to August 1994. The thesis shows that sociality is created and perpetuated by individuals as a processual endeavour, and does not amount to a tangible structure predicated upon fixed social relationships. Community in a physically bound sense is not found amongst the Tsimanes. Given forms of sociality are shown to rest more upon an appropriateness or inappropriateness of mood or affectivity. These are created and effected by subtle details of each individual’s presence amongst others. Social presence is understood by the Tsimanes as both potentially nurturant and predatory. Tsimanes are explicit about their ideas of preferred and abhorred social presence and behaviour of human and non-human others. This thesis explores ways in which such ideas are articulated to create a discourse on social ethics. A Tsimane aesthetics of social living carries with it practical implications for creating and perpetuating forms of sociality. An underlying theme of the thesis is one of mobility and the oscillating nature of Tsimane movements between different groups of kin and affines, and between moods and forms of sociality. I demonstrate that the high value placed by the Tsimanes upon movement, and the enjoyment they experience from it, most efficiently enable the achievement of correct social existence. A lack of knowledge and intention, ultimately resulting in illness and death, are principally deemed to occur as a result of immobility.