scholarly journals Mining, Urban Growth, and Agrarian Changes in the Atacama Desert: The Case of the Calama Oasis in Northern Chile

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1262
Author(s):  
Matías Calderón-Seguel ◽  
Manuel Prieto ◽  
Oliver Meseguer-Ruiz ◽  
Freddy Viñales ◽  
Paulina Hidalgo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Urban Growth ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Atacama Desert ◽  
World Market ◽  
Copper Mining ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Historical Reconstruction ◽  
Rural Land ◽  
Political Conditions

Since the mid-twentieth century, Latin American rural territories have undergone significant transformations. One of the leading causes is the expansion of large-scale operations that exploit natural resources for world market exportation with low processing. In this paper, we study the changes in agricultural activities, livestock, and land use in the Calama oasis (the Atacama Desert, northern Chile) in relation to the growth of large-scale copper mining and other chained processes (urbanization and increased demand for water resources); based on a mixed methodology combining descriptive statistics, archival and bibliographic review, ethnography, and spatial analysis. We present the results through a historical reconstruction of the analyzed dimensions and their relationships, accounting for contradictory dynamics in time and space. We identify how mining and urban growth promote some agricultural and livestock activities under certain economic and political conditions, while in other contexts, these activities have been severely weakened, seeing increasing urbanization of rural land, rural-urban pluriactivity, and a growing deagrarianization.

scholarly journals Livelihood adaptation and life satisfaction among land-lost farmers: Critiquing China’s urbanisation-driven land appropriation

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (46) ◽  
pp. 149-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiming Tong ◽  
Liyuan Zhu ◽  
Kevin Lo
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Urban Growth ◽  
Northeast China ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Rural Land ◽  
Marginalised Groups ◽  
The City ◽  
Ways Of Life ◽  
Lower Life Satisfaction

AbstractLarge-scale rural land appropriation and displacement, driven by the unprecedented urban growth currently experienced in China, has created millions of land-lost peasants who live in the city but remain culturally, socially and institutionally rural. The situation has attracted growing attention in the literature because of its negative social impact, but relatively few studies have addressed how land-lost farmers adapt to urban ways of life and what factors influence their life satisfaction. In this paper, we investigate the predictors of livelihood adaptation and life satisfaction of land-lost farmers from a land appropriation case in the city of Changchun, Northeast China. The results show that, five years after the appropriation, livelihood adaptation remained very difficult and life satisfaction was poor among the resettlers. Furthermore, marginalised groups, such as those who were older, less educated and from smaller families, and those with lower pre-displacement income were less likely to have a higher income level after resettlement, resulting in a lower level of life satisfaction. Women also had lower life satisfaction than men. The study highlights an urgent need to improve China’s unjust land appropriation policy with a particular focus on attending to the needs of marginalised groups.

CONFOUNDINGLY COMPLEX EXPOSURE HISTORIES REVEALED BY 21NE AND 10BE ABUNDANCES IN ALLUVIAL DEPOSITS OF THE ATACAMA DESERT, NORTHERN CHILE

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Cross Jungers ◽  
◽  
Arjun M. Heimsath ◽  
Ronald Amundson ◽  
Greg Balco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Atacama Desert ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Alluvial Deposits

Potential of arsenic bioremediation by a cyanobacterium isolated from the Salado River in the Atacama Desert

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-160
Author(s):  
Pablo Pérez-Portilla ◽  
Juan Araya ◽  
Karem Gallardo ◽  
Adriana Aránguiz-Acuña
Keyword(s):  
Atacama Desert ◽  
Aquatic Systems ◽  
Arid Environments ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Alkaline Conditions ◽  
Ph Conditions ◽  
Removal Of Arsenic ◽  
Salado River ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Cyanobacteria and microalgae are recognized as excellent metal(loid)s-bioremediators of aquatic systems. We isolated a cyanobacterium from the Salado River in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile, which was identified as Cyanobium sp. Growth inhibition bioassays were conducted with arsenic and cadmium, and tolerance of Cyanobium to these metals was estimated. Removal of arsenic was assessed under different pH conditions and over time. We showed that the Cyanobium strain isolated from the Salado River has a greater tolerance to the arsenic and cadmium compounds than other species commonly used in metal(loid)s-bioremediation. Removal of up to 90% of arsenic was obtained in alkaline conditions, within the first 3 hours of exposure suggesting that Cyanobium sp. isolated from the Atacama Desert could be further studied with biotechnological purposes and to understand the evolutionary mechanisms of adaption to arid environments.

The Paleoepidemiology of American Trypasonomiasis (Chagas disease)

1970 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilmar Salo ◽  
William C. Auferheide ◽  
Michael Madden ◽  
John Streitz ◽  
Jane Buikstra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soft Tissue ◽  
Ancient Dna ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Atacama Desert ◽  
Geographic Area ◽  
Northern Chile ◽  
Kinetoplast Dna ◽  
Testing Hypotheses ◽  
The Past ◽  
Tissue Specimens

Ancient DNA methodology was applied to extract and amplify a segment of kinetoplast DNA of Trypanosoma cruzi in soft tissue specimens from about 300 spontaneously mummified human bodies from the Atacama Desert in northern Chile and southern Peru. A DNA probe was then employed to hybridize with the amplicon. Results indicate that about 41% of the population in that geographic area were infected with the trypanosome over the past 9000 years. The epidemiological implications of these findings are discussed. It is also emphasized that this and several other paleoepidemiological studies in progress have established that population-study cohorts of mummies now can generate statistically valid paleoepidemiological investigations capable of testing hypotheses. These reflect the maturation of the academic discipline of the scientific study of mummies.

Latin American Women Workers in Transition: Sexual Division of the Labor Force in Mexico and Colombia in the Textile Industry

1984 ◽  
Vol 40 (04) ◽  
pp. 491-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawn Keremitsis
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Labor Force ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Transition Element ◽  
Work Force ◽  
World Market ◽  
Sexual Roles ◽  
Urban Labor

When the cottage textile industries in 18th century England were moved to urban factories, women and children also left their private existence and moved into public work in the mills. The situation was similar in Mexico and Colombia when their factories started to produce cloth, but after an urban labor force developed, men replaced women in the plants. In developed nations, women still dominate the textile work force, especially when products compete on a world market. Few studies have attempted to analyze the difference historically as the labor force divides into sexual roles, either in advanced or underdeveloped nations. Although Ester Boserup's study of third world women indicates that this transition occurs (in one direction) when mechanization advances to replace manual or simple tasks, lately her conclusions have been questioned as technologically advanced industries such as computers have hired women rather than men to assemble instruments. The textile industry has often been viewed as a force in the beginning of industrialization and can illustrate how women are used as a transition element as they first move from private home activities into public roles in the factories and then as plants become more capitalintensive, they are again returned to their private space. At first their willingness to accept low wages in the mills left the men performing agricultural labor. As promotion of industrialization brought an urban labor force into existence, a variety of social and economic pressures removed them from participation in production of goods. Their reserve labor remained available for other functions as the need arose.

Agriculture and Urban Growth: A Study of the Competition of Rural Land

1960 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 306
Author(s):  
Hugh R. Wooten ◽  
G. P. Wibberly
Keyword(s):  
Urban Growth ◽  
Rural Land

Natural Resources and Problems of Development

1974 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 179-184
Author(s):  
Per Antonsen
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Third World ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
World Market ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Industrial Enterprises ◽  
The Third World

The author focuses on problems in the economy of the developing countries likely to arise as a consequence of mineral exploitation in the new territories. A general shortage of mineral resources, although predicted, should not uncritically be adopted as a sufficient explanation of the demonstrated interest of industrial enterprises in undertaking heavy investments in the new territories. The economic security claimed by institutions financing large-scale investments, may just as likely force the companies to seek options for long-term supplies from these areas, unhampered by the politically caused instabilities perceived in the Third World. This development may tend to push the developing countries into the role of subsidiary suppliers in the world market. The committees preparing the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea have so far taken no realistic measures to counteract this possibility, which may prove detrimental to the economies of several developing countries. The Conference will, in the opinion of the author, provide little but a settlement of disputed interests among the coastal states.

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