Spanish South American Mainland

Author(s):  
Peter Blanchard

This article reviews scholarship on the history and historiography of slavery in the Spanish South American Mainland. The history of African slaves on the South American mainland began with the Spanish conquistadors in the early sixteenth century. Already present in the West Indies and Mexico following the Spanish conquest and settlement of those areas, slaves now became involved in the expansion of Spanish rule southward. Small numbers accompanied the conquistadors along the Pacific coast. While most of the African slaves and slaves of African descent who participated in the conquest were soon freed, thereby establishing the roots of a growing and important free coloured population, thousands more arrived in their footsteps. In the process, the role of the African slave changed significantly. Initially, the majority of the slaves had been retainers and servants of the conquistadors who used some of the looted wealth of the Incas to acquire what was essentially an expensive status symbol. And while the slave as status symbol remained a constant throughout the history of slavery in Spanish South America, the vast majority of the new imports were destined to occupy far more demanding and onerous positions as manual labourers and domestic servants.

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Argyrios Periferakis

The focus of this paper is the obsidian quarries of the Pacific coast of pre-Columbian South America, which were exploited by the indigenous populations since ca. 11000 BC. The importance of obsidian in geoarchaeology and palaeoanthropology has already been demonstrated in sites from all around the world. In this paper, the presence of obsidian in correlation to tectonic activity and volcanism of South America is presented, along with the main sources in their regional geological context. Obsidian artefacts were the mainstay of everyday life of indigenous populations and obsidian was also used in manufacturing weapons. Despite advances in metallurgy, which were comparable with those of contemporary European states, obsidian was never supplanted by metal implements and weapons, until the Spanish conquest. Obsidian is as useful today, as it was to these civilisations, albeit in the different role, of discerning interactions between local societies, elucidating aspects of everyday life, and tracing palaeomobility and trade networks.


2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 657-661
Author(s):  
Marcela Herrera ◽  
Tayler M. Clarke ◽  
Beatriz Naranjo-Elizondo ◽  
Mario Espinoza ◽  
Ingo S. Wehrtmann

The deep-water shrimp fishery is of great commercial importance along the Pacific coast of Latin America. In Costa Rica, shrimp resources have declined considerably over the last decade. Therefore, fisheries have shifted towards teleost species such as the Pacific bearded brotula Brotula clarkae. Little is known about the biology and life history of this species, which is becoming increasingly valuable to artisanal and semiindustrial fishers in Costa Rica. A sample of 348 B. clarkae was obtained along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica between March 2011 and July 2012 to obtain baseline information of this species. The results revealed that the size at sexual maturity of B. clarkae was 71.9 cm TL, considerably higher than previously reported for South American populations. Since the size at maturity may vary between populations in different geographic locations, detailed information of the reproductive biology of widely distributed species such as B. clarkae is critical for developing effective management approaches.


Lankesteriana ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Ossenbach ◽  
Rudolf Jenny

The fourth chapter of the series about Rudolf Schlechter’s South-American orchids again presents abridged biographical information about the botanists and orchid collectors that formed part of Schlechter’s South-American network and who traveled and worked in those countries on the continent’s northern and Caribbean coasts, through Venezuela and Colombia. In the case of Colombia, we cross the isthmus of Darien and arrive for the first time on the Pacific coast of South America. As in other chapters, brief geographical and historical introductory outlines are presented for each of these countries, followed by a narrative on those orchidologists who visited the area, chronologically by the dates of their botanical collections. Keywords/Palabras clave: biography, biografía, history of botany, historia de la botánica, Orchidaceae


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
KAARLO HAVU

Abstract The article analyses the emergence of decorum (appropriateness) as a central concept of rhetorical theory in the early sixteenth-century writings of Erasmus and Juan Luis Vives. In rhetorical theory, decorum shifted the emphasis from formulaic rules to their creative application in concrete cases. In doing so, it emphasized a close analysis of the rhetorical situation (above all the preferences of the audience) and underscored the persuasive possibilities of civil conversation as opposed to passionate, adversarial rhetoric. The article argues that the stress put on decorum in early sixteenth-century theory is not just an internal development in the history of rhetoric but linked to far wider questions concerning the role of rhetoric in religious and secular lives. Decorum appears as a solution both to the divisiveness of language in the context of the Reformation and dynastic warfare of the early sixteenth century and as an adaptation of the republican tradition of political rhetoric to a changed, monarchical context. Erasmus and Vives maintained that decorum not only suppressed destructive passions and discord, but that it was only through polite and civil rhetoric (or conversation) that a truly effective persuasion was possible in a vast array of contexts.


2012 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-403
Author(s):  
Denise Khor

In the 1930s and 1940s Filipino laborers, many of whom were en route to agricultural hubs on the Pacific Coast, packed into movie theaters owned by Japanese immigrants to view Hollywood and Philippine-produced films. These cultural encounters formed an urban public sphere that connected both sides of the Pacific. Filipino patrons remade their public identities and communities through their consumption of film and urban leisure in the western city. This article traces this localized history of spectatorship and exhibition in order to reconsider prevailing understandings of the history of the U.S. West and the rise of cinema and mass commercial culture in the early twentieth century.


Sederi ◽  
2014 ◽  
pp. 47-68
Author(s):  
Colm MacCrossan

This article examines the textual framing of a cluster of items in Richard Hakluyt’s The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (1598-1600) relating to the area on the Pacific coast of North America that Francis Drake named “Nova Albion.” Contextualised in relation to the colonial programmes of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir Walter Ralegh, it explores how a variety of editorial techniques combine to encourage a particular understanding of the history of exploration in this region that privileges English territorial claims over those of Spain. What is revealed is a delicate negotiation of the tensions raised by Hakluyt’s use of pre-existing, mainly non-English materials to attempt to legitimise Drake’s actions by aligning them with the Spanish conquistadorial tradition, while at the same time down-playing the extent and significance of previous Spanish activity in that region.


Author(s):  
Ying-shih Yü

This essay examines how the most notable Neo-Confucian scholar Wang Yangming (1472-1529) re-oriented his Confucian project in the context of Ming despotism. It argues that Confucianism took a decidedly new turn in the sixteenth century and that Wang Yangming was at the center of this development from the sixteenth century to the early decades of the eighteenth. Details how Wang shifted the earlier central role of Confucian intellectuals in implementing reforms under the imperial support to enlightening the ordinary Chinese people, specifically including the merchant class, that they could realize the Dao or the Moral Way in their daily lives. This shift not only led to a new era of social and political thinking in the history of Confucianism, but also to the rise of the merchant class to unprecedented social and cultural prominence in the 16th century.


1969 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas L. Wheeler

War and military institutions have played a crucial part in the history of Angola. Colonial wars, auxiliary armies, expeditions, and soldiergovernors fill the pages of this history, and it is no exaggeration to recall that military expenses have, except for some years during 1930–58, represented the major item in annual budgets since the sixteenth century, when the Portuguese began to conquer the Luanda hinterland. The character and role of the armed forces in Angola, however, have undergone changes: especially since 1961, new developments promise possibly important influences on future events in that territory, events which may not follow traditional patterns in history.


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