Gerardo, quien su engaño repetido (Spanish Edition)

Companhia das Letras, Revista do Brasil, vol. JHU Press, outono de , pp. Emilio Pettoruti spent twenty-nine years of his adult life in Europe, yet he never relinquished his Argentine passport.

In his self-aggrandizing memoir entitled Un Pintor Ante el Espejo A Painter before the Mirror , which he published in while living in Paris, he states: I am not a dual citizen. It is even stranger considering that he was such a lover of Italian culture of the past and present: Pettoruti was a prolific writer.

In addition to numerous exhibition reviews and articles, he published an introspective, if self-serving, autobiography three years before he died, which is an invaluable record of his friendships with artists, experiences abroad, and sources of inspiration. This quote comes from the end of this personal memoir: This text has recently also been translated into English.

A Study in Italian Colonial Expansion, in which he argues that! Visiones y Revelaciones, Buenos Aires: Argentina became an attractive option since it had a surplus of land and not enough people to inhabit it. For more information see: Mark Choate, Emigrant Nation: Harvard University Press, Gabaccia cites this statistic in her excellent study: University of Washington Press, , 3. Incredibly, this figure million--surpassed the original population of the country when it was founded in , and it represents the largest exodus from a single country in world history.

It is important to note; however, that many of these individuals eventually returned to Italy or become seasonal migrants. This immigration law of encouraged foreign settlement by making travel easy and safe. It provided life insurance to immigrants will en route, and made it easy for them to send remittances back to their families in Italy. For more information, see: We are showing the world that Italy can create a more perfect and evolved type of colonization [which is] free and independent.

Throughout the s they acted as transatlantic conduits, bringing various artistic trends from Europe to Argentina. Euinadi is quoted in Choate, Solar was an inventive and significant artist in his own right. He was a prolific painter--working largely in watercolor--and after having his first solo show in Milan in , he exhibited in numerous galleries in Europe.

Possibly because his iconography is esoteric and difficult to interpret, he did not attract as much attention as Pettoruti upon their return to Argentina. In , the Academia was taken over by the Italian artist Atilio Boveri, who had recently returned from Florence and encouraged his students to train there as well. After obtaining a government-funded scholarship, Pettoruti left for Florence on August 7, By October, he had begun apprenticing with a mosaicist and a stained glass artisan.

He was especially captivated by Issue 18, published on September 15, , with an abstract drawing by! Choate discusses these developments on pp. Discussed in Pettoruti, He later wrote about the event with equal parts disgust and delight: Everyone was standing, hurling abuse from the balconies.

His central focus in which both linked him to the Futurists and distinguished him from them--was the depiction of light. Like the Futurists, who endeavored to show electric light as a symbol of modernity, Pettoruti struggled to show light that was appropriate to the artificiality of the picture plane: I did not feel Futurism fulfilled my aspirations. Pettoruti and Solar became friends the day that Solar arrived in Florence from Paris, and Solar used this pseudonym nearly exclusively by For more on the derivation of his name and his first interactions with Pettoruti, see: City University of New York, , pp.

The dancers are built from synthetic cubist splinters, making them appear flat; at the same time, the checkered pattern on the ballroom floor lends the painting the illusion of depth, but the perspective is skewed. Pettoruti has thus blended Renaissance, postimpressionist, and cubist techniques to depict a singularly Argentine subject. This work, inspired by watching Solar dance the tango in a Florentine mansion, demonstrates how both artists sought to bring a piece of their homeland to Italy. As Donna Gabaccia notes, many emigrants and their children only viewed themselves as Italian when living outside of Italy.

The two returned together, sailing from Hamburg to Buenos Aires in July, Evidently, both artists thought this homecoming was temporary. Pettoruti left many belongings in Paris, and Solar did the same in Munich. In the end, Solar never made it back to Europe, and Pettoruti only did so more than twenty years later. For more on the gallery, see: This sense of indignation was extreme, but unsurprising. The preface to the exhibition catalog, written by the critic and architect Alberto Prebisch, admits: His audience, comprised of Buenos Aires elites who deemed themselves culturally informed, suddenly realized they were out of touch.

According to Jacqueline Barnitz, this was initially meant to be a dual exhibition of work by both Pettoruti and Solar, but Pettoruti chose to organize it independently. It is unclear whether Solar was hurt by this turn of events, as he still went on to write an extremely favorable review. The translation is mine. As Pettoruti himself tells it: I spoke a language different from that of the rest of the people. For more on this group, see Barnitz. In a way, the homecoming of Pettoruti and Solar, and the artistic revolution they sparked, would both highlight and complicate this reality.

La grilla y el parque. Buenos Aires, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Buenos Aires y Reportaje a Adolfo Bellocq. Vida y obra de Adolfo Bellocq. Florida, Tiempo de Cultura, Calles de fango negro, con puentecitos que cruzan de casa a casa. Buenos Aires, Edhasa, Buenos Aires, Losada, Santiago Stagnaro Montevideo, - Buenos Aires, Un artista del novecientos boquense. Hay olor a comida y a cuero mojado. A aguardiente barato, a perfume violento. Buenos Aires, Ediciones Biblioteca Nacional, Evidencia de ello son 5 fotogramas del viaje Francia-Nueva York.

Los nuevos residentes de la ciudad representaron el 1.

¿Anomalías en el PREP y en el CD?

Francisco Caudet, El exilio republicano de , Madrid: Su objetivo estaba claro: El exilio republicano de Pan, trabajo y hogar. Universidad Veracruzana La imagen representa dos mujeres en rebozo. Enmarcando la esquina derecha se encuentra un nopal. Bajo la imagen se puede leer: Es clara la conciencia, tanto por parte de los editores como por parte de! Disolvencias , Coord. De los medios a las mediaciones, Barcelona: Una resumen documentado de esas polemicas se encuentra en: En una columna de la revista Semana, Traba se defiende !

Lo que hubo fue un mayor ingreso del capital privado, evidente en unas colaboraciones entre la OEA y la petrolera Esso, culminadas en ! Alternative Languages and Networks in the 70s and 80s! Postal or mail art is considered a neglected topic of art history, haunting both academia and the museum by its unacknowledged development in the late Cold War years. These questions call for the need to de-romanticize the notion of the network and situate antagonism in the practice of relational art.

For Kurtycz did not use mail art simply to connect or dialogue with other artists. He thus structured communication networks around the idea of a battlefield, registering multidirectional provocations, exercises in symbolic capture, and asymmetrical power flows. Kurtycz and the artefacto The artistic practice of Jean Kurtycz, later called Marcos or Marek, falls outside sharply defined national and aesthetic categories. Despite his friendship and common interests with some of the members of the Mexican avant-garde of the s, organized as art collectives and known as Los Grupos, Kurtycz always remained a solitary figure, difficult to situate geographically or historically, and often exoticized through labels such as ritualist, terrorist, and shaman.

To some extent, this responds to the challenges that his work poses to art history written from a national perspective. Indeed, national borders or national histories are weak prisms through which to approach him. His artistic practice was simultaneously in dialogue with artistic movements heavily committed to social protest in Mexico City and Tijuana, US performance art, and the Polish post-war avant-garde. Furthermore, a formalist reading of his work requires interdisciplinarity and bricolage, for he delved into cybernetics, collage, film, mail art, book printing, design and performance.

And he combined a hyper-modern poetics interconnecting transnational and intermedial networks with the ritual or sacrificial languages of archaic dance and iconography. It is neither depoliticized nor apolitical. Kurtycz and Los Grupos, however, share the fate of having received little recognition, as a result of their determination to remain aloof from art institutions, and often to sabotage them actively. Over recent years, however, they have gained visibility, as art historians begin to discuss the crisis of representation in s art and the singularities of the neo-avant-garde in Latin America.

For not only was he deeply involved with performance art and other ephemeral practices, but he openly embraced an aesthetic of destruction. However, he kept a record of most of his actions and built a personal archive throughout his life. The first one, openly militant, runs from to ; the second one from to c. With this definition Kurtycz situated his work in the non-objectualist avant-garde that gained currency in Mexico in the s see Bustamante []. For Juan Acha , who played a central role as theorist of the movement, during this decade non-objetualism searched to redefine the arts according to local and Latin American realities.

Nevertheless, he considers that the movement was superficial in its positions and, to a certain extent, failed: The artist, however, was referring to the use of the term in electronics, computing, and even cellular biology, where it describes an array of circuit elements forming a grid, a network or an amorphous fibrillar material supporting and interconnecting cells.

But I would like to emphasize that it also has a matricial or networking aspiration, realized by putting collages and printed materials in movement and drift between distant places, allowing information flows through non-established ! This approach points at the artificial distinction between objectual and non-objectual art. The eight-year long matrix Softwars c. Some of the bombs were almost classical handwritten or typed letters, but others were individually assembled collages or other sorts of !

Fue una carta muy amistosa donde se le preguntaba por la salud de sus artistas y se explicaba lo naif del proyecto: Although Kurtycz bombed people in positions of power, he often knew them personally and showed affection towards them. Therefore, he saw the bombs as a means to decry their institutional role while also establishing a dialogue, in order to persuade them to adopt a different approach to the promotion and circulation of artworks. The latter is a technique, invented by Kurtycz, which uses a typically Mexican metal hotplate for cooking called comal and brightly colored crayons melted together.

With the sole ironic requests of avoiding the use of dynamite unclassified document, Kurtycz Archive. Unclassified document from the Kurtycz Archive with the heading: Knowing that symbolic capital is the object of fierce ego-battles and is often obtained by means of disqualifying other cultural agents, Kurtycz endeavored to create a situation of conflict within the journal.

One of the bombs also tried to intimidate them, by stating that an attempt to send more harmful materials had failed, as they had been confiscated at the border, but new attacks would eventually come. Kurtycz was hoping for the journal editors to critically reflect on their hegemonic position in global art circuits. The journal, however, never acknowledged their reception. The effect is similar to a spoonerism.

It allowed Kurtycz, as an exiled artist, to situate his art in a larger context than the Mexican cultural scene and insist on the importance of creating art networks that are not fully dominated by US and European discourses. In this sense, he engineered a counter-hegemonic relational technology that combined affection and intimate communication with revolt and criticism. An Essay on General Economy. Translated by Robert Hurley. The Net as Artwork. Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship.

Translated by Simon Pleasance and Fronza Woods. The relational networks constituted through these insistent bombardments allowed them to discuss new ideas and organize collaborative projects. He also sent Kurtycz postal cards with poems and pictures of his performances unclassified documents, Kurtycz Archive. Thus, the different events of the matrix were weaved together by reusing the images, but each time an image was used anew it was resituated in its context by means of subtle modifications.

El Museo del Barrio. Conceptualism in Latin American Art: University of Texas Press. El ojo lleno de dientes. Accessed April 4, The End of History and the Last Man. Art and the Mail. Laclau, Ernesto, and Chantal Mouffe. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics.

Medio siglo sin lugar - Le partage du sensible. Aesthetics and Its Discontents. Translated by Steven Corcoran. University of Minnesota Press. Candidate The University of Texas at Austin! A dynamic culture of multimedia art emerged between the late s and the early s in Brazil, as artists appropriated newly available technologies of mass communication. Brazil had decidedly begun a new political phase, with the military regime drastically limiting freedoms of speech and of political mobilization. In turn, certain artists incisively began to utilize these commodities as the media for a radically new and subversive artistic language.

Mass print communication technologies impacted the artistic scenes of several cities in Brazil. Mail art also remained mostly a phenomenon of peripheral cities in Brazil: Companhia Editora de Pernambuco, , Coupled with the increased availability of photographic equipment, this altered technological panorama became the source for young artists to articulate a radically different mode of expression. By the beginning of the decade the military regime had greatly intensified its repressive measures; the exuberance of Nova Objetividade had dissipated, not least in the exile of some of its main proponents; the art market continued to expand and, with it, came a growing distrust of its value !

Art and Information in Brazil PhD diss. The works also show how these artists appropriated ! There were two issues of Qorpo Estranho published in , and a third, under the title Corpo Estranho, in However, the uniform format of On-Off and its binding together of different works for distribution makes it more akin to a magazine. However, the series contained no editorial text, only presenting the works themselves. A particular group of images in the series, made in , introduce the artist in a frontal portrait from the chest up, and in each subsequent individual photograph he faces the camera in the same position.

In the first image, a rectangular snapshot— a postcard—reproducing the Brazilian flag stands in for his face.

Elecciones presidenciales. ¿Anomalías en el PREP y en el CD?

Each photograph features a postcard of different stock pictures illustrating the construction of Brazilian official discourse on national identity and sovereignty: He further subverts it by circulating these again via airmail. Moreover, photography here does not act to document an ephemeral event—rather, it serves to replicate the composition and precision of!

I propose Postal Circulation as a more appropriate translation. Using offset lithography, Brasil-Correio simulates a sheet of postage stamps, quoting its systematized elements: Instead, he uses offset printing to identically replicate the imprint throughout the sheet. Whereas the fingerprint acts as a metonym for the body, thereby reiterating official cataloguing and archiving of individual identities, the artist confronts this imposed correspondence between biometry and identity by substituting his manual gesture for a mechanically made reproduction.

The indexical trace is also a central component of Carimbos Rubber Stamps , , by Carmela Gross, in which strokes and scratches appear to have been methodically applied onto! These seemingly hand-made imprints, however, are rubber stamps uniformly pressed onto the paper. The artist then exhibited rows of these sheets, or bound them into books for distribution. In doing so, all three works propose to redefine the artwork so that it has no original; it materializes, simultaneously, in multiples.

Points of Origin New York: Queens Museum of Art, , vii. A Critical Anthology, wherein he asserts that the negation of aesthetic content lies at the heart of conceptual practices. Yet the historiography on art of the s and s in Latin America insists on only seeing a binary in conceptual approaches to the object—either the object is completely dematerialized in favor of ephemeral actions or linguistic investigations, or the object exists in the form of the Duchampian readymade. In this myopic binary, there is no space left for the use of visuality, formal experimentation, or materiality as strategies for articulating artistic and political critique.

Points of Origin s—s, Conceptualism in Latin America, ', in Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, vii. Superficial Luxury in the Brazilian Backlands! They were moved to PESP, where they can be seen today. I thank professor Laura Malosetti Costa for her comments on my paper. I also thank Alex Miyoshi for generously sharing information and discussing his interpretation on the subject of the Museu Paulista collection with me. By the law n. With this purpose will serve its current Director [ Cesario Motta Junior explains the collections' educative role as a key instrument for public instruction: This purpose will not only be a document for the History of Civilization, but also a means to give an aesthetic education to our population, to protect our outstanding artists, and to propel all spheres of activities, that, in harmonious interaction, as Lastarria says, constitute the progress of a people.

He is surrounded by cornstalks, and typically holds one behind his left ear, waiting to be filled with the tobacco he is chopping with a knife. The painting vividly captures a very particular gesture that is immediately recognizable as a local habit, as well as a specific environment. He was sharpening his ax when someone identified with the spectator , is passing by and salutes him.

The painting technique, made of small strokes of warm, high-tone colors, as well as the strongly structured pyramidal composition of the figures, with very precise diagonals, also help draw attention to the gestures and objects. The intense light captures the suspension of time, holding the figures and landscape together.

The whole function for these paintings in the museum was that of historical and ethnographic documents. They were called to testify the practices that were disappearing with modernization. The Secretary Cesario Motta Junior justifies the purchase arguing that the countryman, the farmer, was a traditional type in process of disappearing: In proportion with the advances of the civilization in our cities and fields.

To fixate him in canvas was a necessity, as time will come that the intelligent enquirer, when willing to reproduce our past and totalize it, so to speak, there will find this legendary type, conserved by the powerful and talented observation of a fellow countryman that honors us. The Secretary also makes a statement to the Congress, saying that it should not hold funds for this purpose: The paintings done by our compatriot painters are easily sold in Rio de Janeiro; we have no excuse from absenting ourselves from buying at least the ones that make reference to our habits, to our race, to our history.

In , he wrote and staged a play called Caipirinha [Little Countrywoman], where he portrayed the adventures and misadventures of the countrymen and countrywomen surviving the menaces of the city and the Government. His lifestyle and his traditions are part of what constitutes its very core. It was also the period preferred to make the trip to Cuiaba. But the meaning of the museological operation of bringing the representation of the caipira into the Museum, by the purchase of those paintings, should not be understood as an effort to help to preserve in the present those habits and practices.

On the contrary, those same intellectuals were the first to support in public spheres of debate the necessity of erasing such habits from the regional and national culture, in order to build a civilized country. For instance, the caipira should go to school, change clothes and put on shoes. He should change his way of speaking. His house should be replaced by a new one, made of brick, the brook where he sharpens his ax should be channeled. His swamps drained, his waterfalls and rivers transformed into dams so to facilitate the navigation.

His horse replaced by the locomotive. What should be stressed, though, is what lies behind the specific operation of bringing the caipira to the Museum. His present was considered past. A past that should be remembered, but a reality - a present - that one should overcome. His existence can be perceived as a menace to progress. He belonged only in the memory and the identity constructed by the Museum. O Museu Paulista, Paulo, 12 de junho de , p. Revista do Instituto de Estudos Brasileiros, v. Anais do Museu Paulista. Presidente do Estado pelo Dr.

The colonization of Brazil privileged the more bountiful areas of the Atlantic coast for establishing settlements, which left these hinterlands almost abandoned by public institutions for most part of its history -- for four centuries, illiteracy was almost general. The MIT Press, , pp. Routledge, , pp. BrasilConnects and Fitzwilliam Museum, , The cangaceiro structured his life according to a series of superstitions and mystical beliefs, following an extensive list of!

But that did not stop them from celebrating their union in a festive wedding. Comments on this threat are abundant in the accounts of former members, and are frequently reproduced in the literature on the theme. On the cover of the newspaper, the full-! These limits had in fact never existed physically, since the cangaceiros did not build or inhabit any permanent protection structures.

Until the thirties, however, they used to live retired from the rest of society, leading an almost ascetic life, but after this period the population of nearby villages came to be invited to the frequent balls organized by the cangaceiros, who now adopted a totally different lifestyle; one dedicated to pleasure, enjoyment, and consumption. Pragmatically, we could say that the origin of the decoration was the newly acquired wealth and the less mobile habits of the group, which meant that members had more time on their hands.

Women, especially, had even more idle hours since they were relatively spared from domestic chores; men were actively engaged in activities such as cooking and cleaning, which left more time for women to sew and embroider. A different way to look at this profuse decoration is to consider it not as a frivolous pastime but as a practice with a powerful function. According to Mello, the symbols used by the cangaceiros, such as Stars of David, fleurs-de-lis, and eight-pointed stars, were probably remnants of motifs that came to Brazil via Iberia and were preserved by the local population, isolated for centuries.

For the historian, these symbols cannot be understood in separate as they do not correspond to defined concepts; rather, they should be seen as an assemblage whose meaning is the result of the combination of disparate emblems. But although they have no precise meaning, the motifs convey, in general, some degree of protection against undefined harmful forces.

Of course, neither women nor the local farmers posed a real danger to the cangaceiros, as they would never be able to defeat those heavily armed men. But the proximity with women and the humble population threatened their identity as a cohesive group; or, better, it indicated that they were no longer ascetic warriors their predecessors had been.

They became closer to local society, but not so much. A question that comes to mind when we think about the cangaceiros is why they did not invest their wealth on more durable property, such as real estate, in a social context that saw the possession of land as a precondition for respectability.

Also, with houses they would have been able to gather even more extravagant objects. They employed a variety of ways for keeping things in place and close to the body, such as buttons, buckles, straps, chains and gold elements. Sets of two or four colorful satchels called bornais were worn diagonally to carry food, clothes, money, and other small items. The preference for investing money and time on small things instead of permanent structures implies that, for the cangaceiros, symbolic protection -- of their identity as a cohesive group -- was more important than physical protection against any real threat.

Livraria Francisco Alves, Bradi, Anita and Tony Schirato. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Cenas populares, 2nd ed. Architecture from the Outside: Essays on Virtual and Real Space. The MIT Press, The Meaning of Style. Identity, Style, and Subculture. Matza, Davis and Gresham M. Mello, Frederico Pernambucano de. Popular Art and the Brazilian Imagination. BrasilConnects and Fitzwillian Museum, , Queiroz, Maria Isaura Pereira de. University of Illinois Press, , pp.

From two-dimensional ones to installations, cinema and video, the artist has a broad work that is difficult to be grasped at once. The result reaches a poetic expression of great voltage; it is accomplished in narratives that fragment reality, fictionalize the world and denote a lived experience. His visual world is constructed by elements apparently loose in space and time, and that - however — when processed in a weird narrative they approach us with a reality that we can recognize, but it frightens us. The installations and the variations of supports are not the ones that necessarily cause this experience!

In the two-dimensional format and the linear concept of the montage a different syntax that denotes a crucial relevance in his work is observed: With that he experiments, in a singular way, the sense of displacements that a photograph can take on when associated with other images. Rio Branco documents objects and fragments, which then promote a symbolic disorder when he deprives them from their factual meanings. However, it is important to realize that this deprival is not entirely held.

The object returning as an images does not exclude its referentiality; it emerges as part of a poetic reordination. The object is then returned to the beholder with an enigmatic dimension of a referent that has no history but it indexicalizes — in its becoming - a drama densified by its symbolic potency. Why does the image of the dirty dog and nearly furless, lying on the sidewalk cause such a direct impact on us?

There is no way to take production and perception apart - between artist and beholder. Rio Branco creates a sort! The image of the fish in the aquarium — when associated to the dancer on the stage with mirrors — does not only pursue a formal relation. There is something like an interchange of qualities between the fish and the dancer — between their environments. Ruled by red, both of the mirrors stay where the woman moves just like the aquarium that imprisons and protects the fish is built in an engaging seduction.

A picture of a boxing room with mirrors and the bodies sort of agitated passes on an idea that it does not represent the referent completely and, somehow, it is an attempt of changing it, have the person to perceive through another regard. There they are the ghosts, for beyond the bodies. Subjective photography, as I can see it, reveals itself more subtly. One starts from well-determined, but the lived moment builds the definitive work. For Rudolf Arnheim intuition is an indispensable part in the relation that we have with world images. Miguel Rio Branco habla com Tereza Siza. Self-illusion easily emerges in the twilight of such ambiguous conditions.

It is about a subversion in the representation system of the documental aesthetics. The poem does not mingle with the images, trying to explain them throughout the book. Each language has its space reserved on the books support and the intensity of exchange and dialog! The comprehension possibility between photographic narrative and poem will be held in the experience of a more sensorial character, initial, abstract.

Such elements are densified in a strong plasticity marked by saturated colors, a low level of luminosity, and by a colorful darkness that — many times — does not allow one to see objectively. I was a portraitist, used to take pictures of women, children and some men.

But the work really consisted in scars, nudes, ruins and the force that banged underneath those. The theme has absorbed me and was the reason of a marriage break up. Under the delicate light, the frowned wrinkles of his forehead are so heavy, but his look seems lonely. The ambiguity created in this single image unfolds in dialog with the previous page — the dog lying on the sidewalk. Man and animal in the same tension line. The iconic and indexical dimensions are interchangeable in the narrative drama.

The photographed dog from aerial and frontal view builds itself up in a direct image, objective in his documental capture. Man and animal living in the same space and place, existing with the same intensity in their wonder and abandon. There is abandonment and strength in this dialog; the limit between exclusion and survival. Rio Branco is always in the limit between life and death, strength and resistance. It is about an artist that establishes a new condition for the object.

In this sense we will be closer to the time distension of each captured object. Nicaragua at the Turn of the 80s! Nicaragua at the Turn of the 80s Ileana Selejan Ph. Candidate Institute of Fine Arts! Chamorro had been one of the most highly-regarded and most visible critics of the repressive regime of the Somoza family, who had first risen to power with the backing of the United States, following a military coup in Despite the victory, the heavy weight of the war lingered: El desgrasante se presenta con una densidad de El acabado de superficie es burdo, pero en algunos tiestos se puede observar alisado por una o ambas caras.

El desgrasante se presenta con una densidad de Parte 4. El acabado de superficie es burdo y en algunos tiestos se puede observar que fueron alisados por una o ambas caras. En algunos casos la superficie se encuentra muy erosionada. En algunos casos la superficie se 68 Parte 4. El grosor va de 0. Las formas que se encuentran son cajetes de base plana con labio recto. Tipo 3 Mica Laminar Figura Luego desaparece en la capa V y reaparece en la capa VI.

No obstante, es en la capa VII donde se presenta su mayor frecuencia, decreciendo en la siguiente capa y finalmente en la capa IX desaparece. El acabado de superficie es fino y pulido. Tipo 5a Gris Fino. Presenta desgrasante de calcita de grano fino. No obstante, las formas que se reportan no son parecidas a las de Contlalco. Las formas que se reportan en Contlalco son cajetes de paredes recto divergentes borde redondeado y cajetes de paredes curvo divergentes y borde aplanado. Las formas que se tienen en Contlalco son ollas. Presenta desgrasante de mica y cuarzo de grano fino.

Algunos tiestos presentan el color 2. Tipo 6 Gris Burdo. El acabado de superficie es burdo aunque se observa que estuvo alisado en ambas caras. Tipo 6a Gris Burdo con Gravilla. Presenta desgrasante de calcita y algunos de gravilla de grano medio y grueso, la pasta no se observa bien cocida. El grosor de este tipo va de 0. Presenta desgrasante de calcita de grano medio y grueso. El desgrasante se presenta con una 74 Parte 4. Presenta desgrasante de calcita de grano muy fino.

En el acabado de superficie se puede observar que fueron piezas bien pulidas por ambas caras con un engobe color rojo 2. Presenta un grosor de 0. Este tipo lo encontramos en las colecciones de superficie del Valle de Tlapa y Huamuxtitlan. Presenta un desgrasante de mica de grano fino y feldespatos que se observan en superficie en ambas caras. El acabado de superficie es alisado al interior y exterior con un color de 7. Presenta un desgrasante de cuarzo de grano fino que se observa en ambas caras.

El acabado de su- perficie es alisado al interior y exterior con un color de 7. Temporalmente se ubica en la fase Minizundo a. Se observa un desgrasante de mica y calcita de grano muy fino. Los colores que se observan en superficie son los mismos que los de las pastas. Tipo 13 Pasta Negra. El acabado de superficie es alisado al interior y exterior aunque en algunas ocasiones se presenta con un pulido al exterior.

El acabado de su- perficie es alisado, aunque generalmente se encuentra en estados muy erosionados. Tipo 17 Burdo Texmelincan Figura El acabado de superficie es alisado por ambas caras y tiene una apariencia burda, el color es el mismo que el de la pasta. Tipo 20 Rojo Pulido. El espesor de este tipo va de 0. El acabado de superficie es alisado por ambas caras y presenta un engobe al interior de color 7.

Tipo 22 Naranja sobre Gris. El acabado de superficie es alisado por ambas caras. El color de superficie es el mismo que el de la pasta, pero algunas veces el interior presenta engobe negro. Presenta un engobe blanco tanto en el interior como el exterior. Se en- cuentra decorado con bandas horizontales de color guinda. El acabado de superficie es alisado y pulido por am- bas caras, del mismo color que el de la pasta. Tipo 25 Mica Fino. El acabado de la superficie es pulido en ambas caras.

El acabado de la superfi- cie es pulido en ambas caras. Tipo 27 Crema Alcozauca. Su des- grasante es de arena color rojo con grosor de grano de 1. El color de superficie es el mis- mo de la pasta y su acabado es alisado. Pre- senta un desgrasante de cuarzo y mica que se observa en la superficie en ambas caras. Tipo 29, Pasta Gris. El acabado de superficie es alisado por ambas caras de color 2. Lo interesante que lo hizo en un pozo menos profundo.

Tipo 1a Burdo Grano Blanco de Cuarzo. Tipo 5a1 Gris Fino Inciso. Al igual que en Contlalco, se observa que el tipo 6 Gris Burdo presenta en todas las capas constructivas de Cerro Quemado. Se observa que el tipo 9 Bayo se distribuye en todas las capas de Cerro Quemado, lo cual coincide bien con su comportamiento en el pozo 1 de Contlalco. Se observa que el tipo 9a Bayo Inciso presenta su mayor dominancia en la capa III, entre y a.

Tipos 11 y 12 Moderno. Tipo 17 Burdo Texmelincan. Tipo 18 Negro Pulido. Se reportaron seis tiestos del tipo 24 Crema en la capa I, muy cerca de la superficie. Esto nos permite distinguir los aspectos de presencia, ausencia o continuidad de los tipos a lo largo de su secuencia constructiva. En primer lugar proponemos que durante el periodo Formativo Medio a. Es la evidencia ar- Parte 4. Cicco, Gabriel de y Donald Brockington.

En, Handbook of Middle American Indians. Austin, University of Texas Press. Montes de Oca, Miguel. Niederberger, Christine, Rosa Ma. Stanford University Press, California, usa. Schmidt Schoenberg, Paul y Jaime Litvak. Carmen y Carlos Navarrete C. American Antropological Association, Vol. Maryland, Macbeth Division of Kollmorgen Corporaton. Weitlaner, Roberto y R.

De acuerdo con las entradas en el vocabulario de Molina De la misma manera el verbo naualteca hace referencia a esconder a al- guien en un lugar seguro y de forma secreta. Alguien que expresa las cosas habilidosamente, cautelosamente, que conversa con disimulo con el fin de enlabiar o embaucar a otros, se dice que habla la lengua del nahual: Por su parte, Brinton De igual manera, Gossen De esta forma, los primeros grandes transformistas son los mismos dioses Mesoamericanos, por ejemplo, Quetzacoatl se transforma en jaguar para devorar a los gigantes y dar paso al dominio de los hombres Garibay Igualmente a Tezcatlipoca le fascinaba Parte 5.

Acostumbraba aparecerse en forma de coyote para advertir a los viajeros que les esperaba un peligro en el camino y que era mejor regresar. Igualmente en forma de zorrillo, Tezcatlipoca les avisaba de malos sucesos que iban a ocurrir en sus casas De la Serna Se nos dice que el dios del inframundo, Mictlantecutli, gustaba de utilizar la forma de lechuza para anunciar la muerte De la Serna Un punto intermedio en estos extremos se encuentra en las fuentes coloniales, las cuales establecen que la capacidad nahual se heredaba de los ancestros, sin em- Parte 5.

No obstante, sus poderes reales se manifestaban plenamente hasta la adolescencia cuando revelaba ser conocedor de los secretos del inframundo y de los cielos Garibay De la misma forma dicha trecena no era buena para viajar, por lo que los mercaderes cesaban sus actividades comerciales. Algunas confrontaciones famosas entre nahuales y evangelizadores son narradas por el padre Mendieta Luego vienen las codornices, tordos, urracas y palomas. En el grupo de los reptiles predominan la iguana y el renacuajo, llamado axolotl. En su papel de teciuhtlazque, conjurador de granizos y heladas, el nahual jaguar echaba mano de todo su poder sobre los vientos.

Cuando el obispo Parte 5. Fuera del estudio de Daniel G. Es en este ambiente Parte 5. Las dos formas animales que predo- minan en esta franja de tierra son el jaguar y el lagarto. De acuerdo con Grove Con esta referencia nos dirigimos a ese pueblo para conversar con dicha familia. En efecto, la figurilla de San Pedro Aytec presenta, en la parte in- ferior de su lado reverso, otro rostro con rasgos supernaturales. Vista lateral y rostro posterior de la estatuilla Figura 4. Finalmente, el sencillo broche y el cuero que cubre los hombros del personaje frontal, se transforman admirablemente en los antebrazos y manos con dedos entrecru- zados del personaje del reverso.

Dicha roca tiene una dureza al rayado de 5. Lo cual satisface parcialmente las condiciones para ser un nahual poderoso: En este lugar tenemos dos monumentos: Los triglifos han sido interpretados como corazo- nes sangrantes De La Fuente En una segunda escultura, el monumento 13 de Piedra Labrada Figura 7 , el mismo gobernante 10 Nudo Figura 6. Cooper Square Publishers, Inc. Dumbarton Oaks, Washigton D. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. American Antiquity 41 1 , pp. De La Fuente, Beatriz Tetitla. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC. A Once nad Future History of Souls.

American Anthropologist 96 3 , pp. Cantor divino en Jantetelco. In The Native Community and its Records: Historical Transformations in Southern Mexico Maarten. Sus problemas e interacciones. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. Redescubriendo el estado de Guerrero. Moscoso Pastrana, Prudencio Las cabezas rodantes del mal: Brigham Young University, Provo.

Francisco Paso y Troncoso ed. Iconographic Connections between Guatemala and Guerrero. Papers in Honor of Gareth W. Lowe and Mary E. University of Texas Press, Austin. El reino de Tlachinollan. American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. El Pueblo del Jaguar. Urcid, Javier Zapotec Hieroglyphic Writing. Lee y Navarrete ; Hirth , es muy probable que las primeras rutas de intercambio se hayan establecido y consolidado durante el periodo Arcaico a.

Nelson y Voorhies Se tienen dos problemas adicionales: Conexiones entre la Costa de Soconusco y el Oriente de Guerrero: Formativo Medio a. Comencemos por mencionar ejemplos obvios que ya otros autores han reconocido. Esto es particularmente cierto en los murales de Juxtlahuaca y de Cauadzidziqui Figura 3. Este mismo glifo se repite en el monumento 31 de Chalcatzingo Grove Nuevamente hay coincidencias de estilo y temas a lo largo de toda la costa Pacifico; se observa un ejemplo claro en las esculturas de personajes cruzados de brazos, al parecer representaciones de ancestros Urcid Uno de los personajes tlaloc lleva en el pecho el glifo 4 Movimiento, en el mismo estilo que se utiliza en Xochicalco.

Antequera, Tomos Segunda y Tercero. The Maya and Teotihuacan editado por G. Essays in Honor of Edwin M. Shook editado por M. University Press, Lanham, MD. Rosensweig , University of Colorado, Boulder. Studies in the History of Art De la Fuente, Beatriz Tetitla.

Papers of the New World Archaeological Foundation, no. Selected Readings editado por J. American Antiquity 36 1 , pp. Tesis de doctorado, Depto. En The Native Community and its Records: Historical Transformations in Southern Mexico editado por M. En Ancient Oaxaca editado por J. Stanford University Press, Stanford. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. Papers of the New World Arqueological Foundation, no. En El Preclasico o Formativo, editado por M. Notes of the New World Archaeological Foundation, no.

American Antiquity 45, pp. Reyna Robles , pp. Norman, Garth Izapa Sculpture, Part 1: Paddock, John Oaxaca in Ancient Mesoamerica. Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Guatemala. Spores, Ronald Tutupec: Ancient Mesoamerica 4 1 , pp. Bureau of American Ethnology, bull. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. The Westernmost Extent of Zapotec Script. University of Oklahoma, Norman y London. Iconography of the Ballgame Cult in Coastal Oaxaca.

Entre estos, destacaban dos figuras antropomorfas ejecutadas en estilo olmeca. El abrigo cubre una superficie de metros cuadrados figura 9. En un caso, un grupo de tres figuras levantan los brazos hacia un elemento que parece un sol. La pintura 1 de Cauadzidziqui figura 10A no tiene rasgos bien definidos y se observa su silueta de perfil. Desde nuestro punto de vista, el tema de esta cueva rememora aquel visto en las pinturas de Juxtlahuaca, Guerrero Figura En Ancient Chalcatzingo, editado por David Grove, pp.

Natural History 76 4 , pp. Studies in Pre-Columbian Art and Archaeology, no. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington D. Villela, Samuel Nuevo testimonio rupestre olmeca en el oriente de Guerrero. Evidence of Olmec style murals in this area, in which standardized codes were developed in consonance with Olmec ideology of the Gulf Coast of Mexico and Chalcatzingo, indicate the integration of Eastern Guerrero into the broader pan-Mesoamerican iconographic tradition.

In the Postclassic and early Colonial periods, a well preserved and developed system is observed, one with a closer relationship to the writing tradition of Central Mexico than to the neighboring Mixteca Alta region of Oaxaca. The development of communication systems in Eastern Guerrero will be examined from a broad cultural perspective, evaluating the ability of communication media to fulfill social goals and the needs of emerging, and later, well-developed ruling lineages.

Thus, it is the channel itself, and not the message, that transcends time. The Information Transmission Model Archaeologists who study Mesoamerican writing systems have typically done so by borrowing methodologies created by linguists specialized in Old World writing Marcus ; Prem ; Prem and Riese ; Whittaker Such approaches are based on the basic assumption that writ- 6 AD At present, it is difficult to better define Classic period chronology in Eastern Guerrero. Regardless of their usefulness as classificatory devices, these categorical approaches have proven inadequate for capturing the complexity of Mesoamerican writing systems see Boone Evaluating communication systems based on rigid categories prioritizing phoneticism over other criteria disregards the majority of Mesoamerican inscriptions, carvings, and paintings.

Here, I approach native graphicacy11 using communication theory, as I am more in- terested in the general process of how ancient people transmitted cultural information graphically and not in the usage of a particular type of writing. Perhaps the best known communication model was first proposed by electrical engineer Claude Shannon in , and subsequently reworked by Warren Weaver Shannon ; Shannon and Weav- er The goal of any communication system is to transmit data to a particular destination.

In its simplest form, the Information Transmission Model consists of a source, a channel that conveys the message, and a recipient who receives the message. Practically speaking, this system will also include an encoder between the source and signal, and a decoder between the signal and the recipi- ent see Figure 1. A distracting, but apparently inevitable, part of every communication system is noise.

Noise is any unwanted attribute in the signal-channel portion of the system that interferes with transmission efficiency. Graphicacy consists of a variety of techniques, ranging from pictures to graphs and diagrams. All graphics employ two-dimensional space to represent concepts and ideas. In graphicacy, the meaning is related to the spatial relation of symbols Balchin Such ad- vantages drew serious academic attention to human communication and information theory, leading to further research. Nonetheless, the model has been criticized for its oversimplification of the human communication process and its disregard for meaning construction Carey ; Ellis and McClin- tock Considering the pros and cons of the original model, I believe it can be effectively adapted and applied to the study of Mesoamerican communication systems.

The tlacuilo, Nahuatl term for scribe, painter and sculptor12 plays two roles in this model: The Mesoameri- can tlacuilo possesses a basic corpus of conventionalized symbols with which the oral language and daily life experiences are converted into graphic language. Mesoamerican graphicacy has a variety of codes, ranging from petroglyphs, Olmec symbology, Epi-Olmec, Zapotec and Maya glyphs, and Mix- tec and Central Mexican picture writing Prem and Riese Even though these codes share many common and standardized features, they also have temporal, regional, cultural and language specific variations that we, as modern interpreters, have not yet understood nor accounted for.

Mesoamerican languages do not have separate words for writing, sculpting, or painting Urcid Applying the Informational Model Figure 2 , a message consisted of a text with a meaning, which the tlacuilo intended to codify and transmit through the spatial arrangement of two-dimen- sional, and sometimes three-dimensional, graphic symbols on a specific channel.

The channel is the physical media on which the message is depicted: The recipient played two roles: It would be necessary for the decoder to have some understanding of the specific oral language and cultural codes used by the tlacuilo; this is especially true for understanding combinations of semasiographies and glottogra- phies. Graphic symbols may change meaning depending on the context in which they are presented. Context can change the meaning of specific symbols by the special combination of other accompany- ing elements or by a modified use of the spatial arrangement of the symbols.

Similar to this latter process, the living experience of the individuals [making reference here to the philosophic concept of erlebnis Gadamer For example, it is well known that the Maya made use of a secret language called Zuyua, which was used to test the noble background of aspirants to administration offices; it is likely that such esoteric languages were widespread throughout Mesoamerica and perhaps reflected in many ancient inscriptions. In Aztec society, for example, there were pilli noble or macehual commoner and each had been trained accordingly to perform specific roles. For a message intended to be seen by multiple receivers, it is likely that individuals from different social hierarchies would assign different meanings to such text.

In addition, receivers were not necessarily living people. In fact, the receiver and the sender may have been the same per- son. In this case, the codes may be individualized and only understood by the sender. As mentioned above, the weak point of the original Information Transmission Model is in se- mantics. Shannon and Weaver were only interested in how accurately a message could be transmitted and not in how meaning is conveyed or how it affects behavior. Critics of the model suggest there is no information or meaning in a graphic message per se.

Information and meaning arise only in the process by which readers actively make sense of what they see, therefore meaning is a construction Chandler The sender also actively makes sense of the real world and actively tries to record it on a specific channel, using a code that makes sense to the intended readers. Thus, on the one hand, the first meaning construction is made by the person who is performing the sender-en- coder segment of the model.

On the other hand, the person who is performing the decoder-recipient Parte 5. The same applies in situations in which there is more than one recipient. A message will not perform its function unless it is prepared in a legible and comprehensible way for the receiver for whom it is intended. So it is likely that the Mesoamerican tlacuilo had in mind the possible recipients at the moment in which the message was codified. Although archaeologists and epigraphers have invested great efforts in recording, describing, and interpreting Mesoamerican graphicacy systems, unfortunately, the ancient senders did not codify their messages with us in mind.

This last point is perhaps the least advanced line of research. Did our hypothetical sender expect reverence from the receiver, a body action, a verbal reply, no action at all? Perhaps we will never know it. If feedback is produced, however, it may be addressed either to the tlacuilo or directly to the altepetl sociopolitical system within which the tlacuilo functions. In the original Information Transmission Model for telecommunications, the noise element only affected the channel-signal segment, causing distortion in the efficiency to convey the message.

None- theless, in adapting the model to Mesoamerican graphicacy, it is possible that noise, as an altering element, may be present in every segment of the communication process. Figure 2 displays a diagram adapting the original Information Transmission Model to Me- soamerican graphicacy systems, specifically to those found in Eastern Guerrero. Ancient Communication Systems of Eastern Guerrero Here I address the development of graphicacy in Eastern Guerrero as an effort by indigenous groups who inhabited this area to communicate their ideas and interests.

Subsequent scholars have continued using this term to highlight the multi-ethnic complexity of Parte 5. Key site survey over more than sq km has brought to light unknown monuments carved with semasiographies, as well as providing me the opportunity to revisit other graphic evidence published decades ago in journals that are difficult to find. Pre-Olmec Graphicacy14 From to BC, Mesoamerican peoples began experimenting with plant reproductive cycles and domesticated the basic triad of crops: Although the archaeological record in Guerrero is poorly known for this period, regional explora- tion has uncovered fragments of Late Archaic human occupation, including possible campsites in the Huamuxtitlan Valley Figure 3 , as represented by the presence of triangular chert points and flakes and a lack of ceramics and obsidian.

Several sites with rock carvings and paintings were also located that may date to the Late Archaic or Early Formative, such as several petroglyphs with geometric designs found at the sites of Zacualpan and Zapotitlan Tablas and the important site of Piedra Pinta- Totomixtlahuaca. Piedra Pinta consists of a rock outcrop along the Omitlan River, with a boulder 8 m long, 3. Its surface is completely covered by some petroglyphs, with designs varying from a simple holes or clusters of hole to more complex geometric designs, including a double cross motif, which occurs in several places on the rock.

The other relevant example of early graphicacy in Eastern Guerrero can be seen in the Cauadz- idziqui15 rock shelter in Ocoapa Figure 3 , where more than paintings were executed on a single rock face. Although the Cauadzidziqui paintings are framed in an area 25 m long by 5 m high, the majority are clustered together in a smaller section of some 21 sq m, where the wall has a large, flat, smooth surface Figure 5.

The author took the photos and rendered the drawings in Autocad, unless otherwise specified. The first layer of the mural consists of geometric motifs in red paint. Common depictions in- clude squares and ovals with parallel interior lines. Also frequent, particularly in the upper half of the mural, are crosses and double cross designs—which are two parallel lines crossing the vertical at a perpendicular angle. All of the crosses are framed by a curved line that encloses the primary axes.

At various points in the mural, there are complex scenes in which simple human figures raise their arms; in one case a group of three figures raise their arms toward an element that looks like a sun. Other interesting ele- ments in red include plant designs that appear to emerge from circles, perhaps depicting plants grow- ing from seeds, although it is unclear which plant species is being depicted. How do we know that these graphic representations are Late Archaic or Early Formative?

It is speculative to propose a specific date for petroglyphs and paintings, since such activities are a long- standing tradition in Mesoamerica and North America, particularly geometric forms. However, these designs are different from the better known Classic and Postclassic iconography found in Eastern Guerrero. The strongest evidence suggesting that at least some of the petroglyphs and paintings are pre-Olmec in date comes from the Cauadzidziqui rock shelter itself. Olmec Graphicacy In , ethnographer Samuel Villela published a brief article reporting an Olmec mural painting in the Mixtec town of Ocoapa, Guerrero.

Villela recorded a complex mural of motifs painted in red, white, and yellow. Since two of the largest, most elaborate motifs were executed in Olmec style, he believed the entire mural was Olmec in date Villela When I and my team visited the mural of the Cauadzidziqui rock shelter in , we realized that the pictorial stratigraphy was more complex than Villela had realized.

Two Olmec anthropomorphic characters painted in white and yellow actually overlay the red graphic symbols described above. We developed a topographic map of the rock shelter and catalogued the images. Ultraviolet, red, and infrared lights were used to better identify hidden designs and to determine whether some images overlay others. In this case, the Olmec paintings in white and yellow cover images of geometrics painted in red, what Parte 5.

Previously, Olmec specialists have suggested that red-painted motifs in Morelos and Guerrero were likely from the Classic period or later Grove a, b. This was especially evident in: Figure 7A presents the secondary Olmec-style figure; it does not have well-defined features and is portrayed in silhouette. It consists of a human torso from head to midsection. The right arm is raised and bent 90 degrees at the elbow, reaching up, perhaps toward the L-shaped element above his head or as if protecting his face.

The left arm seems to be doubled in an anatomically anomalous position, and the elbow seems to be leaning on some kind of rectangular block. The figure wears a helmet or headdress, with what appears to be a single tassel coming off the back; this headgear is reminiscent of those seen on the colossal heads of the Gulf Coast. Finally, atop the head of this individual is an inverted L-shape, formed by two rectangles.

Figure 7B depicts the primary Olmec-style character, an individual of larger proportions: The entire silhouette, 16 Th e next phase of research should include a comparison and evaluation of the known corpus of symbols from the caves of Guerrero and Morelos. While some of the red-painted symbols documented at the Oxtotitlan cave and Chalcatzingo may be Classic period in date, others are probably not. Within the headdress are a series of symbols: His fingers are curved down and appear to emit three lines of white paint.

There may also be another small human figure emerging from his hand; this image is not very clear. The left arm is doubled and appears to be holding something, although one cannot tell what it is. There appears to be a series of orange-painted circles that might be a chest adornment; however, the use of orange paint is rare in this mural and may not be related to the yellow and white image.

Given the shape of the headdress, the head of the individual appears to exhibit cranial deformation. The almond-shaped eye is formed by a lack of paint, as is the small design in the shape of the mathematical sign—a sigma—located between the eye and headdress. Overall the pre-Olmec paintings at Cauadzidziqui include depictions of naturalistic elements: As the Late Archaic people were seem- ingly interested in the phenomenon of plant development, the rock shelter was perhaps the site of cultivation rituals. In contrast, the Olmec style paintings focus on two particular personages, with a social hierarchy implied by the different scales used to represent them.

The headdress of the smaller personage is plain, while the larger one has an elaborate and abstract representation from the Olmec pantheon. The smaller character also has three small white bands on its cheek, perhaps an ethnic identification, while the larger personage has a curvilinear sigma decorating its eye and cranial defor- mation in the Olmec style. The theme of the Cauadzidziqui cave recalls paintings documented from the Juxtlahuaca Cave in the Muchitlan Valley Gay ; Grove a, b. For, example, one scene depicts the domination Parte 5.

In the case of Cauadzidziqui, the smaller personage is perhaps leaning on a bench, sprawled, and in a helpless position. Perhaps the L-shaped object on top of his head is a type of club, like that represented on Mon. Piedra Labrada is a large site covering at least 49 ha. It lies m above the valley of the Santa Catarina River, atop a ridge projecting from an escarpment of the Sierra Madre del Sur. Nineteen carved stelae and monuments are scattered throughout the site Leal Some were carved from sedimentary rock, others from granite. Piedra Labrada sculptures de- pict diverse themes, with an abundance of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic representations.

Large serpent heads, turtles, and felines are common. Anthropomorphic sculptures include hunchbacks Figure 8N , porters bearing calendar glyphs Figures 8J and 8O , characters wearing jaguar masks Figure 8A , and ball court markers in the form of a man bent backward Figure 9R. There is also also a slab depicting a Mesoamerican deity with goggle eyes, perhaps a Tlaloc representation Figure 9O. Unfortunately, most of these monuments have been and still are exposed to the elements and rapidly eroding, making it difficult to see their designs.

At least six stelae have calendrical symbols. The most frequent is what Urcid The Knot glyph clearly appears on three different monuments: In another case, the glyph appears with the number 12 Monument It depicts a feline with a shell necklace and body decorated with elements resembling raindrops similar to those seen in Postclassic codices. Ottoman colonies were established in several areas in Greece, and held on until Greek independence was declared in During the 12th and 13th centuries, the city-states of Italy developed trading and banking institutions.

They established a wealth of trading relationships with the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic powers, all around the Mediterranean. The escalation in trade leads to a resurgence of financial power in Italy, allowing it to create Italian colonies as far away as the Black Sea. After the 2nd century B. The Greeks were the first to develop an alphabet with vowels and it has been used to write the Greek language since B. An inscription showing the Greek alphabet Europe West: The Europe West region is a broad expanse stretching from Amsterdam's sea-level metropolis to the majestic peaks of the Alps.

Geographically dominated by France in the west and Germany in the east, it includes several nations with distinct cultural identities. From the boisterous beer gardens of Munich to the sun-soaked vineyards of Bordeaux and the alpine dairy farms of Switzerland, it is a region of charming cultural diversity. Genetic Diversity in the Europe West Region: The people living in the Europe West region are among the most admixed of all our regions, which means that when creating genetic ethnicity estimates for people native to this area, we often see similarities to DNA profiles from other nearby regions.

Finland, Northwest and Russia: We have used our reference panel to build a genetic profile for Europe West. This is most likely due to the fact that this area has not experienced any long-term periods of isolation.

Population History Prehistoric Western Europe: Due to its location and geography, Western Europe has seen many successive waves of immigrants throughout its history. Both peaceful intermingling and violent invasions of newcomers have resulted in a greater diversity in the genetics of the population, compared with neighboring regions.

The first major migration into Western Europe is arguably the Neolithic expansion of farmers who came from the Middle East. From about 8, to 6, years ago these farmers filtered in through Turkey and brought with them wheat, cows and pigs. It is possible; too, that these people could have been the megalithic cultures who erected enormous stone monuments like the famous menhirs of Stonehenge. There were dozens, if not hundreds, of monuments scattered throughout prehistoric Europe, some serving as tombs, others possibly having astronomical significance.

Owned by Tamsin Titcomb Celtic and Germanic tribes: The Celts either conquered or assimilated the previous inhabitants of the area, and almost all languages and cultural and religious customs were replaced. The only exception, most scholars believe, is the Basque language, which managed to persist in the Pyrenees of southern France and northern Spain.

In the early 4th century B. In the 5th century B. It is unclear what prompted their movement, but it may have been climate related, as they sought warmer weather and more fertile farmland. This map shows the expansion of Celtic tribes by A. Dark green areas show regions where Celtic languages are still spoken today.

It began turning its attention northwest toward the Celtic-dominated region known as Gaul, which more or less covered the area of modern-day France. Julius Caesar led the campaign to conquer Gaul. A Celtic chieftain, Vercingetorix, assembled a confederation of tribes and mounted a resistance, but was defeated at the Battle of Alesia in 52 B. The battle effectively ended Celtic resistance. Many generals and even emperors were born in Gaul or came from Gallic families.

Celtic culture and influence still held sway in parts of the British Isles, and the Basque language continued to survive in the Pyrenees. It is interesting to note that the Basque share genetic similarities to the Celts of Ireland and Scotland, despite being culturally and linguistically dissimilar and geographically separated.

While the exact relationship of the groups is difficult to determine, this does highlight the interesting interplay between genetic origin and ethno-linguistic identity. Rome was no longer the heart of the Empire, as the seat of power had been moved to Byzantium in the east. The Romans had begun to adopt Greek customs and language as well as Christianity, which had become the official state religion.

Control of the provinces in the west had waned, and Rome itself was militarily weakened. Many of the groups involved were Germanic tribes, whose expansion had previously been held in check by the Romans. To some degree, the earlier Germanic tribes of the Migration Period, notably the Goths and Vandals, were being pushed west and south by invasions from the Middle East and Central Asia. These successive attacks may have been a factor in several waves of population displacement and resettlement.

The western part of the Roman Empire was rapidly overrun as the invaders swept in, eventually dividing the remainder of the Roman provinces into new, Germanic kingdoms. An anachronistic 15th-century miniature depicting the sack of The Franks conquered northern Gaul in A. Over the course of almost four centuries, a succession of Frankish kings, including Clovis, Clothar, Pepin and Charlemagne, led campaigns that greatly expanded Frankish control over Western Europe.

Charlemagne's kingdom covered almost all of France, most of today's Germany, Austria and northern Italy. In , Charlemagne's grandsons divided the Frankish empire into three parts—one for each of them. Charles the Bald received the western portion, which later became France. Lothair received the central portion of the empire, called Middle Francia, which stretched from the North Sea to northern Italy. It included parts of eastern France, western Germany and the Low Countries.

Louis the German received the eastern portion, which eventually became the high medieval Kingdom of Germany, the largest component of the Holy Roman Empire. By Agostino Cornacchini - Located at St. In addition to the Basque in the area of the Pyrenees in southern France, there are a number of other cultures with unique ethnic or linguistic identities in Western Europe. Among them are the Normans of northern France.

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Descended from Viking settlers who arrived sometime during the rule of the Frankish kings, the Normans controlled a powerful region known as Normandy. Their territories were subject to the French crown, which countenanced them in exchange for protecting the northern coast against other Viking raids. Just to the west of Normandy was Brittany, named after the Celtic Britons who arrived there from the British Isles in the 5th century. Some scholars believe that the migration may have been due to the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

Brittany resisted the Frankish kings and remained independent until It is one of the few places where Celtic languages are still spoken. Many people think that Henry Ford invented the modern automobile, but it was two German engineers, Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, who each independently came up with the concept around the same time. The history of Great Britain is often told in terms of the invasions with different groups of invaders displacing the native population.

However, the story of Great Britain is far more complex than the traditional view of invaders displacing existing populations. In fact modern studies of British people tend to suggest the earliest populations continued to exist and adapt and absorb the new arrivals. We have used our reference panel to build a genetic profile for Great Britain. Population History Prehistoric Britain: At the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, 12, years ago, the sea levels around northern Europe were low enough for Stone Age hunter-gatherers to cross, on foot, into what are now the islands of Great Britain.

Farming spread to the islands by about B. Beginning in about B. The Celts were not a nation in any sense, but a widespread group of tribes that shared a common cultural and linguistic background. Originating in central Europe, they spread to dominate most of western Europe, the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula. They even settled as far away as Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey.

Their dominance could not withstand the rise of the Roman Empire, however. Most of southern Britain was conquered and occupied over the course of a few decades and became the Roman province of Britannia. Those tribes who were not assimilated into the Roman Empire were forced to retreat to other areas that remained Celtic, such as Wales, Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and Brittany.

The Roman presence largely wiped out most traces of pre-existing culture in England—even replacing the language with Latin. The extent of Roman "Britannia" shortly before the Roman withdrawal Germanic tribes invade: As the Romans left, tribes from northern Germany and Denmark seized the opportunity to step in. The Germanic Angles and Saxons soon controlled much of the territory that had been under Roman rule, while the Jutes from Denmark occupied some smaller areas in the south.

The new settlers imposed their language and customs on the local inhabitants in much the same way that the Romans had. The Germanic language spoken by the Angles would eventually develop into English. Invasion of Germanic tribes after A. The region was divided into several kingdoms, with the more powerful kings sometimes exerting influence or control over smaller bordering kingdoms.

There was nothing like a single, unified English kingdom, however, until the early 10th century and the rise of the House of Wessex. Viking invasions and the Danelaw: During the 8th century, seafaring Scandinavian adventurers began raiding coastal areas in Europe. Known as the Vikings, they were not just warriors and pillagers. They also established numerous trade ports and settlements throughout the Western world, including the British Isles, Russia, Iceland and the Iberian Peninsula. A group of Vikings that settled in northern France became known as the Normans and, by the early 11th century, ruled a great and powerful region, sanctioned by the French crown.

Viking long ships Danish Vikings began to invade northern and eastern England in and eventually came to control a third of the country, defeating several smaller Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The rulers of the Danelaw, as the Viking area became known, struggled for nearly 80 years with the remaining English kings over the region.

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The balance of power swung back and forth a number of times, with an English king, Edward the Elder, gaining the upper hand in the early s and a Danish king, Cnut the Great, ruling England, Norway and Denmark from to The Normans of France, led by William the Conqueror, sailed across the English Channel and claimed the throne of England, defeating the only other rival, Harold Godwinson, at the Battle of Hastings in In , William extended his control to Scotland and Wales.

The Danelaw in A. The Norman kings, ruling primarily from France, gave rise to the House of Plantagenet, a line of kings that began to consolidate and modernize the kingdom of England. Beginning in , Edward I put down a revolt in Wales and led a full-scale invasion, bringing Wales under control of the English crown. He then seized political control of Scotland during a succession dispute, leading to a rebellion there. The House of Plantagenet continued to reign until the 15th century. Towards the latter half of the 15th century the houses of York and the Lancaster, the most powerful Plantagenet branches fought a series of wars for control of the throne.

Those wars ended with the Battle of Bosworth Field on the 22nd August After the defeat of the Spanish Armada in , England established itself as a major naval power. As European nations began founding colonies around the world, England was well positioned to compete for control of the largely untapped resources of the New World. Religious and political upheavals in England in the 17th and 18th centuries played critical roles in establishing and defining early American history, as dissidents left England seeking religious freedom.

Subsequent emigrations from England to the Americas ensured a primarily English-derived culture and social structure. English ships and the Spanish Armada This led to the American War of Independence with and the Thirteen Colonies gaining independence and forming a new nation, the United States of America. In the Americas, Britain shifted its attention north to Canada where many of the defeated loyalists from the revolution had migrated to. And to make up for lost wealth in America, Britain now paid greater attention to Asia, the Pacific and later Africa.

Shortly after Britain set up penal colonies in Australia transporting large number of convicts to Australia. Over 80 years over , convicts were sent to Australia. By the end of the 19th Century it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire, since it stretched around the world. At lunchtime on the 28th February an American and British scientist, James Watson and Francis Crick, walked into the Eagle pub in Cambridge and announced that they had "discovered the secret of life".

Crucial to their discovery was the work of another British scientist, Rosalind Franklin, whose X-Ray photographs of DNA gave vital clues to its structure. The European Jewish region is not geographically defined in the same way as most other ethnic regions. The historic dispersal of the Jewish population from its origin in the Levant on the east coast of the Mediterranean resulted in insular communities scattered throughout Europe, North Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East. Although some Jewish communities enjoyed positions of relative peace and prosperity, many more were segregated from mainstream society by law, custom and prejudice, experiencing sustained persecution and discrimination.

Genetic Diversity in the European Jewish Region: The people living in the European Jewish region are much less admixed than most other regions which means that when creating ethnicity estimates for people native to this area, we rarely see similarities to DNA profiles from other nearby regions. We have used our reference panel to build a European Jewish genetic profile.

See chart above, in green. Population History Origin of the Jews: Much of what is known about the early history of the Jews is taken from the Hebrew Bible. While there is some archaeological evidence to support certain details of the Biblical account, often it remains the only source and is given varying amounts of credence by different scholars.

According to this source, the Jews are descended from Abraham, a Sumerian who traveled west from Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan, which lay along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. The Kingdom of Israel in B. The Assyrians conquered and deported many of the inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom in the 7th century B. In about B. A large number of Jews were expelled from their former kingdom and forced to resettle in Babylon. Many historians mark this event as the beginning of the Jewish diaspora, which refers to the scattering of the population.

When Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in B. The former Kingdom of Judah, renamed Judea, was made a province of the Persian Empire—although its size was significantly reduced. Many Jews returned to Jerusalem, but many more stayed in Babylon, where Talmudic scholarship study of the central text of Judaism was founded. Over time, prominent Jewish communities were established in Alexandria, Rome and Greece. When his territories were divided after his death, Judea became part of the Seleucid Empire.

The Judeans were commanded to accept Greek polytheism, leading to rebellion. Fighting for years under Judas Maccabee, the Judeans won the right to rededicate the Temple, an event commemorated by the holiday of Hanukkah. The collapse of the Seleucid Empire led to a second period of self-rule for the Jews, from B. When King Herod assumed power with the help of the Romans, however, Judea became a client state of the Roman Republic.

There were three major Jewish revolts against the Romans in Judaea, the first of which began in 66 A. It was quelled in the year 70 when Titus sacked Jerusalem. The city was burned and most of the Jews were killed or sold into slavery throughout the Roman Empire. The second revolt, called the Kitos War, lasted from to At the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt , the Romans completely razed Jerusalem.

Once again, they sold the majority of the survivors into slavery, this time placing severe restrictions on those who remained. By the 2nd century, Jews were located throughout the Roman Empire. By the 5th century, there were scattered communities from Spain in the west to the Byzantine Empire in the east. Because Jews were usually restricted by law from owning land, they turned toward occupations in commerce, education and medicine.

Over the centuries, the Jews settled where they could throughout western Europe, enduring frequent discrimination and periodic expulsions from various countries. Facing increasing persecution in the west during the 11th and 12th centuries, many of the Ashkenazi Jews moved from England, France and Germany to eastern Europe, where Poland and Lithuania encouraged Jewish settlement.

Historically, Ashkenazi Jews lived in separate towns known at shtetls. In , approximately , Jews lived in Poland. By the middle of the 17th century, there were more than 1 million. During the late 19th century, government-condoned persecution of the Jews in Russia, called pogroms, forced many to move to the United States and to Palestine. In Theodor Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian journalist, established the Zionist Organization and became the charismatic figurehead of the growing modern Zionist movement.

He and his supporters continually lobbied foreign governments for help in the establishment of a Jewish state. After the Ottoman Empire was defeated in World War I, its territories, including Palestine, were divided into mandates administered by the British and French. The British government, with its Balfour Declaration in , announced its support of establishing Palestine as a national home for the Jews.

A small number of Jews have lived in this region for generations, tracing their ancestors back thousands of years, with the majority returning in the last century. It is the only remaining part of the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 A. Your genetic ethnicity estimate indicates that you have ancestry from the region that is home to the indigenous people of the Americas.

This vast region stretches over two continents to include the rugged territory of Alaska and Canada, mountains and plains of the United States, dry valleys of Mexico, tropical jungles of Central America and South America, and the Patagonian steppes of southern Argentina and Chile. Genetic Diversity in the Native American Region: Individuals from the Native American region are much less admixed than individuals from most other regions.

This means that when creating genetic ethnicity estimates for people native to this area, we rarely see similarities to DNA profiles from other regions. The blue chart above shows examples of ethnicity estimates for people native to the area. For this region, we see a very narrow range: See green chart above.

North and South America were the last inhabited continents to be populated by humans. Much of the native population remained nomadic hunter-gatherers, but a number of more advanced cultures developed as well. Many places had rich soils, warm temperatures and plenty of rain. The Mississippian culture, centered in the region later named for it, farmed maize and had a complex, stratified society. The Mayans of Central America were highly advanced, known for their writing, astronomy, art, mathematics and highly developed religious institutions that built enormous stone pyramids.

Possible land route from Asia across the Bering Strait The first contact with Europeans likely came when Leif Erickson and his Icelandic Vikings established a temporary settlement in Canada. Early Spanish explorers like Hernando Cortes, Juan Ponce de Leon and Hernando de Soto brought things the indigenous population had never seen before, such as horses, guns and smallpox. As settlers continued moving westward, many tribes were relocated. However, there are still many Native American groups throughout North America that retain their indigenous languages and traditions, particularly in northern Canada and in Mexico.

A few, like the Pima, who live along the Gila and Salt Rivers in modern-day Arizona, were able to keep at least parts of their traditional territory. In South America there are some indigenous peoples in the Amazon area who have had little or no contact with people outside their tribes. New diseases and weapons took their toll there as well, and local populations and cultures often waned or disappeared as European colonization spread. Today some of those same cultures, and the indigenous people who did survive, are recognized for contributions to fields as varied as art, agriculture and medicine.

Migrations into this region: North and South America were settled by at least three waves of migrants from Asia, who occupied the Americas from Canada to the southern tip of Chile. North America was initially occupied by people who came from Siberia and coastal North Asia.

Probably fewer than 1, individuals crossed the Bering land bridge; they were likely tracking animal herds and discovered an expansive new territory. Native Americans appear to derive from this initial wave of migration. Mounting evidence suggests they dispersed rapidly along the western coast of the Americas, perhaps by sea, within a period of only about a thousand years. Then they migrated inland. As settlers, these groups were dramatically successful: In only a few thousand years they had occupied virtually the entire landmass. A Chipewyan woman - Photograph by Edward S.

Current research has shown that there were also two other migrations. The Chipewyan live in Canada. Migrations within the region: The native people of the Americas are divided into several cultural regions. Cultures developed opportunistically as the first migration moved quickly down the Pacific coastline of the Americas and then inland. The Arctic area is cold, flat and treeless; a frozen desert nears the Arctic Circle. It includes Greenland and parts of present-day Alaska and Canada. Climate and terrain made this region difficult to settle, and the population was scattered and small.

The Arctic peoples lived in dome-shaped houses made of sod, timber or ice blocks. They used seal and otter skins to make waterproof clothes and traveled by dogsleds and kayak. The Subarctic cultures lived among the swampy, piney forests and waterlogged tundra that stretches across much of inland Alaska and Canada. Travel was difficult, and toboggans, snowshoes and lightweight canoes were the primary means of transportation. Indigenous groups included Athabaskan and Algonquian speakers, and the people were primarily nomadic hunters and gatherers. Iroquoian and Algonquian speakers lived here in small farming and fishing villages along the ocean, growing crops such as corn, beans and vegetables.

The Iroquoians were warriors. When the Europeans colonized the area and pressed westward, they displaced the indigenous people living here. The area of the Southeast cultures lay north of the Gulf of Mexico and south of the Northeast. It was a humid, fertile region, and its people became expert farmers, growing crops like maize, beans, squash, tobacco and sunflowers. The European settlers called the inhabitants the Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole. They all spoke Muskogean languages. The Southeast culture area lost many of its native people to disease and displacement by the time of the American Revolution.

Starting in the majority of these people were forced to relocate to Oklahoma in a migration called the Trail of Tears. Populations here consisted of relatively settled hunters and farmers. After Europeans made contact, bringing horses, this group became more nomadic, following great herds of buffalo across the prairie. Their dwellings were cone-shaped teepees, which could be folded up and carried anywhere. The Plains cultures were eventually forced onto U. The Southwest cultures—which inhabited a huge desert region in Arizona and New Mexico, as well as parts of Colorado, Utah, Texas and Mexico—developed two different ways of life.

Sedentary farmers lived in permanent settlements, growing crops like corn, beans and squash. They were Hopis, Zunis, Yaquis and Yumas. They lived in multistory pueblos built from stone and adobe. The other group was nomadic and survived by hunting, gathering and raiding the sedentary farmers. They included the Navajo and Apache. This area became part of the United States after the Mexican War, and the Southwest cultures were resettled on reservations. Photograph by Ansel Adams.

The boundaries for the Great Basin cultures were the Rocky Mountains to the east, the Sierra Nevada to the west, the Columbia Plateau to the north and the Colorado Plateau to the south. It was a barren wasteland of deserts, salt flats and brackish lakes. They foraged for roots, seeds and nuts, as well as hunting snakes, lizards and small mammals. They were nomadic and lived in easily built wickiups made of willow poles or saplings, leaves and brush. After Europeans made contact, bringing horses to the region, the Great Basin tribes formed equestrian hunting and raiding bands.

Most of these people lost their lands—and many lost their lives—as settlers pushed farther west. Apache wickiup in Arizona, California: The region was temperate and hospitable, and the California peoples included approximately different tribes and spoke at least dialects of the Penutian, Hokan, Uto-Aztecan and Athapaskan languages. Using systems of trade and common rights, they were peaceful people. The area had a mild climate and an abundance of natural resources. Inhabitants built permanent villages that housed hundreds of people and had a sophisticated, stratified social structure.

Social status depended on possessions and how close a person was to the village chief. The Plateau cultures were found in the Columbia and Fraser River Basins, where many cultures intersected: Most of the Plateau peoples lived in small, peaceful villages along streams and riverbanks. They were fishers, hunters and gatherers. The majority spoke languages derived from Penutian. When other native groups brought horses to the area, the Plateau peoples quickly integrated them into their culture and economy, and trading became a part of their lives.

Most of these people were resettled on reservations. This group is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits that were developed and shared by its indigenous cultures. When they domesticated turkeys and dogs and learned to cultivate maize, beans, squash and chilies, the Mesoamerican cultures evolved from Paleo-Indian, hunter-gatherer, tribal living into settled agricultural villages.

The Mesoamerican peoples include many cultures, among which the Aztecs and the Mayans rose to prominence in their day. Their civilizations featured large ceremonial centers, and they traded gems and commodities. The Aztecs spoke Nahuatl and are best known for their mathematical expertise and accurate calendars.

The Mayans had a written language and are known for their astronomy, art and architecture—as well as their calendar. The Aztecs were subjugated by the Spanish conquistadors by Some of the Mayans remained independent until the late 17th century. However, many aspects of Mesoamerican cultures, including languages, still survive to this day.

Piedra Azteca del Sol. The Caribbean cultures stem from nomadic foragers who migrated from Central America and later developed into well-organized agricultural communities with great social and political cohesion. The islands have significant cultural diversity within and among them. The cultures had extensive trade networks, knowledge of astronomy and navigation, strong spiritual traditions and high levels of artistic and craft expertise.

Today, however, many individuals and groups with indigenous Caribbean ancestry are reclaiming their cultural identity. The Andean cultural area spans mountainous, tropical and desert environments in and around the Andes mountain range. However, the most famous is the Incan civilization. The Incan Empire was enormous, flourishing from through The Incan language, Quechua, is still in use today. The Andean region has seen 10, years of cultural growth.

Along with cultures in the Amazon Basin region, Andean cultures typically promote agriculture and knowledge of nature. A wide variety of domesticated species have come out of the region, and these cultures also use thousands of medicinal plants. The best-known tribe among Amazon Basin cultures is the Yanomami, which still survives today. The Amazon still has several small tribes that have never seen the outside world.

More are being discovered through the use of satellites. Current practice is to leave these groups undisturbed, using aerial observations to learn more about them. Prior to European conquest, the Southern Cone of South America was inhabited by numerous cultures that were shaped by their environments. Tribes in the Andes farmed the region's mineral-rich soil. The southern archipelago was suitable for fishing. Hunter-gatherers found an abundance of game in the Pampas, Littoral and Chaco regions.

Please note that genetic ethnicity estimates are based on individuals living in this region today. While a prediction of genetic ethnicity from this region suggests a connection to the groups occupying this location, it is not conclusive evidence of membership to any particular tribe or ethnic group. More than 3, varieties of potato have been raised by people in Andean cultures. Because they lie near or on the equator, these nations typically include tropical rainforest and humid savanna.

While the Congo takes its name from the old African kingdom of Kongo, Cameroon gets its name from the first Europeans to arrive in the area in Other regions commonly seen in people native to the Cameroon and Congo region - From a collection of people. The blue chart above shows examples of ethnicity estimates for people native to the region.

The other regions most commonly found are the neighboring Nigeria and Africa Southeastern Bantu regions. The Congo River Basin has been home to human populations for at least 30, years. This small group some 40, is actually more closely related to groups found in the deserts of the Africa South-Central Hunter-Gatherers region.

Two Baka men in the dense forests of Cameroon Baka Pygmy collecting honey in the rainforest, Cameroon In north-central Cameroon, a high range of rugged mountains stretches across the country from west to east. To the far south and east, in the vast Congo River Basin, the environment consists of dense rainforest and wide waterways. These features have created a degree of isolation and served as a barrier to frequent or large-scale migrations or conquests. The populous Bamileke tend to be Christian and live in small fons, or chiefdoms, in highly organized villages led by local chiefs.

The less populous Bamum tend to be Muslim and have a more centralized social structure under a high king. The Bantu peoples began migrating from Cameroon in about B. Some went east across Africa and then south; some settled the Congo River Basin; and some went south along the coast to Angola. These Bantu groups have a genetic ethnicity better represented by the Southeastern Bantu region profile. Bantu Cradle The slave trade: The threat of malaria prevented any significant settlement or conquest of the interior prior to the s—when an effective malaria drug quinine became available.

So the Europeans initially focused on coastal trade and acquiring slaves. Most slaves were captured by African middlemen from the interior and taken to port cities to be sold, and the flow of human traffic from many ethnic groups was constant. Slaves being transported, 19th-century engraving The 19th and 20th centuries: Cameroon escaped colonial rule until , when treaties with tribal chiefs brought the area under German domination.

Independence was achieved in for French Cameroon and in for British Cameroon. DNA indicates that John Punch, the first African man documented to have been enslaved for life in the early American Colonies, likely came from the Cameroon region. Ivory Coast and Ghana: Ivory Coast and Ghana. Benin, Togo, Mali, Nigeria and Senegal. Neighboring Ghana was known as the Gold Coast until it won independence from colonial rule in and renamed itself after a medieval West African empire.

Today, more than 46 million people live in the two countries, which depend less on gold and ivory than they do chocolate: Genetic Diversity in the Africa South-Central Hunter-Gatherers Region Individuals from the Africa South-Central Hunter-Gatherers region are admixed, which means that when creating genetic ethnicity estimates for people native to this area, we frequently see similarities to DNA profiles from other nearby regions.

Other regions commonly seen in people native to the Africa South-Central Hunter-Gatherers region From a collection of 35 people: We have used our reference panel to build a genetic profile for the Africa South-Central Hunter-Gatherers region.

For this region we see a substantial range: See the green chart above. Population History Geography as destiny: Individuals with this genetic ethnicity may also be found in Angola, Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya. First is the Kalahari Desert, the second-largest desert in the world, which spans a large part of five countries. Despite having no water source beyond seasonal rainfall, the Kalahari is home to a rich variety of plants and animals that have made life possible for the Khoe-San peoples spread across it.

The second important feature is the Congo River Basin; the river drainage and massive rainforests provide a home to the Baka and Mbuti and other Pygmy groups. Life in the Kalahari Desert and Congo forests was fraught with risks and dangers that could only be overcome by cooperation.

Harmony in the group was the highest cultural goal for people native to these regions. The southern portion of this region has been home to the nomadic Khoe-San peoples for thousands of years. Both groups comprise many smaller groups and clans. Though distinct culturally and linguistically, the Khoe and San have a common genetic origin. A San tribesman in Namibia - Photo by Ian Beatty Though the Khoe tend to have hierarchical cultures based on livestock wealth, the San have no hierarchy, share all things and make all decisions by consensus, even if reaching agreement takes a long time.

Both cultures are oral in nature—they have no written language—but have distinctive art forms and language. The Khoisan languages are known for their distinctive clicks; however, their languages are unrelated to nearby Bantu languages such as Zulu and Xhosa, which have adopted some Khoisan click consonants. Because the Khoe-San groups have no written language, their history is based on archaeological findings, oral tradition and DNA studies.

The great Bantu migrations from eastern Africa brought successful ironworking, animal husbandry and farming to southern Africa, creating fast-growing populations that displaced the Khoe-San peoples. From the 16th through the 18th centuries, Bantu groups pushed the Khoe-San farther south and west toward modern-day Botswana and South Africa, while Dutch and French settlers of the Cape region pressured Khoe groups to move farther north. Although they had been spread thinly across southern Africa for thousands of years, the Khoe-San population ultimately concentrated in the arid Kalahari and areas they occupy today.

The Baka and Mbuti: The rainforests of the Congo River Basin, especially those of the north and east, are home to Pygmy groups such as the Baka and Mbuti. They live in small, nomadic groups, eating fish, bushmeat and foraged fruits and plants. The Baka and Mbuti groups are also communal, egalitarian and make decisions by consensus.