From a world history perspective, the most noticeable trend in the history of the late 19th century was the domination of Europeans over Non­Europeans. This domination took many forms ranging from economic penetration to outright annexation. No area of the globe, however remote from Europe, was free of European merchants, adventurers, explorers or western missionaries. Was colonialism good for either the imperialist or the peoples of the globe who found themselves subjects of one empire or another? A few decades ago, the answer would have been a resounding no. Now, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the more or less widespread discrediting of Marxist and Leninist analysis, and the end of the Cold War, political scientists and historians seem willing to take a more positive look at Nineteenth Century Imperialism. One noted current historian, Niall Ferguson has argued that the British Empire probably accomplished more positive good for the world than the last generation of historians, poisoned by Marxism, could or would concede. Ferguson has argued that the British Empire was a \" liberal \" empire that upheld international law, kept the seas open and free, and ultimately benefited everyone by ensuring the free flow of trade. In other words, Ferguson would find little reason to contradict the young Winston Churchill's assertion that the aim of British imperialism was to: give peace to warring tribes, to administer justice where all was violence, to strike the chains off the slave, to draw the richness from the soil, to place the earliest seeds of commerce and learning, to increase in whole peoples their capacities for pleasure and diminish their chances of pain. It should come as no surprise that Ferguson regards the United States current position in the world as the natural successor to the British Empire and that the greatest danger the U.S. represents is that the world will not get enough American Imperialism because U.S. leaders often have short attention spans and tend to pull back troops when intervention becomes unpopular. It will be very interesting to check back into the debate on Imperialism about ten years from now and see how Niall Ferguson's point of view has fared! The other great school of thought about Imperialism is, of course, Marxist. For example, Marxist historians like E.J. Hobsbawm argue that if we look at the l9th century as a great competition for the world's wealth and …

The New Imperialism

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Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions

Overview of the geography of the Monte Desert biome (Argentina)

In arid regions throughout the world, shallow phreatic aquifers feed natural oases of much higher productivity than would be expected solely from local rainfall. In South America, the presence of well-developed Prosopis flexuosa woodlands in the Monte Desert region east of the Andes has puzzled scientists for decades. Today these woodlands provide crucial subsistence to local populations, including descendants of the indigenous Huarpes. We explore the vulnerability and importance of phreatic groundwater for the productivity of the region, comparing the contributions of local rainfall to that of remote mountain recharge that is increasingly being diverted for irrigated agriculture before it reaches the desert. We combined deep soil coring, plant measurements, direct water-table observations, and stable-isotopic analyses (2H and 18O) of meteoric, surface, and ground waters at three study sites across the region, comparing woodland stands, bare dunes, and surrounding shrublands. The isotopic composition of p...

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Water subsidies from mountains to deserts: their role in sustaining groundwater-fed oases in a sandy landscape

Human ecology, ethnobotany and traditional practices in rural populations inhabiting the Monte region: Resilience and ecological knowledge

The paper explores and discusses theoretical and instrumental tools associated with the production of Latin American landscapes from the perspective of networking. The analysis emphases on stressing current international instruments with arguments focused on elements and dimensions that explain and make sense on them. From a glaze that emphasizes social relations as territorializing agent, the document describes the theoretical perspectives that support the design of the instruments to apprehend and recognize the social production of landscapes. Rather than a finished work itself, is explored some of the converging work lines within a research group in training, the Inter-University Network of Latin American Landscapes (RIPLA) In the first part, the paper presents the analysis of the of instruments construction process in the Latin American context. Then, three research lines that converge in the RIPLA landscapes approach are exposed. Finally, it addresses the agreements, discrepancies, challenges and opportunities for the knowledge production in the framework of cooperative work in net

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Miradas e instrumentos para la catalogación de paisajes latinoamericanos. Perspectivas emergentes

Se aborda la produccion de paisajes desde una concepcion que sostiene que las marcas territoriales con las que los actores imprimen su huella en la territorializacion del espacio, articulan paisajes y procesos que, con mayor o menor vehemencia y visibilidad, expresan las modalidades de los modelos de desarrollo seguidos en relacion con el uso de los recursos territoriales. El trabajo persigue el triple proposito de reconocer las marcas que dan cuenta de esos procesos, identificar las modalidades de aprovechamiento de los recursos territoriales, para luego caracterizar los paisajes construidos. Para ello, la investigacion en base a un estudio de caso, el valle de Tafi (Tucuman, Argentina) hace uso de metodologias cuantitativas, cualitativas en aproximaciones sucesivas y multiescalares.

Huellas de procesos y actores en la producción de paisajes culturales

/pdf/las-motos-son-unos-diablos-usos-tensiones-y-conflictos-para-3sg255ag.pdf

¡Las motos son unos diablos! Usos, tensiones y conflictos para la producción pastoril en los bordes de la ciudad

Fil: Torres, Laura Maria del Rosario. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Aridas. Provincia de Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Aridas. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Argentino de Investigaciones de las Zonas Aridas; Argentina

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Tiempos de sequía, tiempos de escasez: las dimensiones materiales, simbólicas y rituales en el aprovisionamiento y uso del agua en tierras secas (Mendoza, Argentina)

El artículo propone una lectura de las intersecciones extractivismo y fronteras. Explora los efectos que ejerce la progresiva instalación de emprendimientos de turismo enológico de lujo y áreas protegidas sobre pequeños productores ganaderos asociados a sistemas pastoriles. Indaga un territorio argentino situado al pie de la cordillera de los Andes (Valle de Uco) y, en su interior, propone una mirada de detalle sobre el paraje Manzano Histórico. La combinación de diferentes técnicas de investigación (análisis de datos secundarios y documentos, entrevistas en profundidad, observación directa y producción de cartografía) permite reconocer que estos territorios, espacio de vida de productores ganaderos, han sido progresivamente incorporados al capital y a la conservación, especialmente a partir del siglo xxi. En la actualidad, expresan situaciones de compresión múltiple y multiforme sobre los productores directos que remodelan las actividades ganaderas al compás del turismo de alta gama. El trabajo muestra que turismo de lujo y conservación de la naturaleza no son actividades contrapuestas, al contrario, se refuerzan mutuamente. También que los productores directos no constituyen víctimas carentes de agencia y remodelan sus perfiles productivos para participar en el mercado turístico profundizando sus particularidades.

Gabriela Claudia Pastor

Papers

Miradas e instrumentos para la catalogación de paisajes latinoamericanos. Perspectivas emergentes

Huellas de procesos y actores en la producción de paisajes culturales

¡Las motos son unos diablos! Usos, tensiones y conflictos para la producción pastoril en los bordes de la ciudad

Tiempos de sequía, tiempos de escasez: las dimensiones materiales, simbólicas y rituales en el aprovisionamiento y uso del agua en tierras secas (Mendoza, Argentina)

Fronteras del lujo, fronteras de la conservación: caras de un prisma llamado extractivismo