Feb
7
Prosperous Chile’s Troubling Indigenous Uprising
Dec. 12, 2009
Time Magazine
Compared to high-profile groups like the Quechua of Peru and the Yanomami of the Amazon rain forest, Chile’s Mapuche are a relatively obscure indigenous cohort in South America. But that has changed dramatically in recent months as a growing number of armed and masked Mapuche activists, pursuing a centuries-old claim to land they say was taken from them by the Spaniards and then the Chilean government, have engaged in a wave of arson attacks… Read more
Jan
7
New Fossil Find Points to South American Origin of Dinosaurs
Filed Under South American Dinosaurs, Recent Discoveries
Tawa hallae, a meat-eating Theropod dinosaur discovered in New Mexico
New Meat-Eating Dinosaur Alters Evolutionary Tree
December 10, 2009
Esciencenews.com
Paleontologists, aided by amateur volunteers, have unearthed a previously unknown meat-eating dinosaur from a fossil bone bed in northern New Mexico, settling a debate about early dinosaur evolution, revealing a period of explosive diversification and hinting at how dinosaurs spread across the supercontinent Pangaea.
Dec
24
Brazil Creates 20,000 Square Miles of New Indigenous Reserves
Filed Under Indigenous Rights, Brazil, Amazon Jungle, Uncontacted Tribes
December 23, 2009
On Monday, Brazil decreed nine new indigenous reserves covering 51,000 square kilometers (19,700 square miles) of the Amazon rainforest, an areas larger than Denmark or Switzerland, reports the AFP…
Nov
8
Ancient Nazca Civilization Committed Fatal Ecological Error
Filed Under Nazca Lines and Culture, Recent Discoveries
Logging Caused Nazca Collapse
BBC News
November 2, 2009
The ancient Nazca people of Peru are famous for the lines they drew in the desert depicting strange animal forms.
A further mystery is what happened to this once great civilization, which suddenly vanished 1,500 years ago….
Oct
21
Spanish-Peruvian Explorers Reach Cliff With Image of Incan Rebel King
Filed Under Incas, Recent Discoveries
Ukupacha Project Investigators Study Portrait of the Rebel Incan Emperor Manco Inca
Spanish-Peruvian Team Succeed in Reaching Rock Art Wall of [Emperor] Manco Inca II
The painting was completed over 400 years ago on a cliff in the Sacred Valley of the Incas
August 9, 2009
(ANDINA)
(Translation: K. MacQuarrie)
(Note: in 1536, a 19-year-old Incan emperor named Manco Inca rose up against the Spaniards and led a massive rebellion that almost succeeded in wiping Francisco Pizarro and his conquistadors out. The young Inca king later retreated to the rugged area of Vilcabamba, about 90 miles from Cusco, a region from where the Incas carried out guerrilla warfare against the Spaniards for the next 36 years. The last Incan emperor, Tupac Amaru, was beheaded in Cusco in 1572, ending the Inca Empire: KM).
Sep
19
Peruvian Journalist Suggests Napalming Amazonian Natives
Filed Under Indigenous Rights, Amazon Jungle, Uncontacted Tribes
Survival International: Call for Napalm Bombing of ‘Savages’ in Peru’s Amazon Wins “Most Racist Article of the Year Award”
Peruvian Times
September 2, 2009
An article implying that Peruvian natives should be bombed with napalm has been named by London-based Survival International as the ‘most racist article’ published in the last year by the mainstream media.
Aug
11
Did Hiram Bingham Discover Machu Picchu Artifacts–Or Buy Them?
Filed Under Did a German Discover Machu Picchu?, Recent Discoveries, Machu Picchu
Hiram Bingham at Machu Picchu in 1912
Bingham Didn’t Dig Up The Yale Huacos –He Just Bought Them
August 6, 2009
Caretas
By Nicholas Asheshov
Here in Urubamba Hiram Bingham’s reputation has taken a knock in the run-up to the centennial of the discovery in 1911 of Machu Picchu.
The revisionists are saying that Bingham was not just a persistent explorer but also, frankly, a humbug.
Bingham’s economical use of the truth has been compounded by the poorly-advised refusal of Yale University and its Peabody Museum of Natural History to return, as promised, what Bingham’s Yale expeditions dug up in the Vilcabamba 1912-15.
The Peruvian government is taking Yale to court but they’re not pushing it.
Here’s why. None of the good pieces in the Yale Machu Picchu collection were actually dug up by Yale archaeologists.
Jul
14
Indigenous People Fight Against Peru’s “Law of the Jungle”
Filed Under Indigenous Rights, Amazon Jungle
Native Protestors at the entrance of Yurimagua, in the northern Peruvian Amazon
Blood at the Blockade: Peru’s Indigenous Uprising
NACLA (May-June 2009)
Gerardo Rénique
On June 6, near a stretch of highway known as the Devil’s Curve in the northern Peruvian Amazon, police began firing live rounds into a multitude of indigenous protestors – many wearing feathered crowns and carrying spears. In the nearby towns of Bagua Grande, Bagua Chica, and Utcubamba, shots also came from police snipers on rooftops, and from a helicopter that hovered above the mass of people. Both natives and mestizos took to the streets protesting the bloody repression.
Jul
1
Ancient Inca Sun Pillars Still Mark June Solstice
Filed Under Incas, Recent Discoveries, Machu Picchu
(Above: The Torreón at Machu Picchu is a tower built around a stone that still has a carved groove in it. Once a year, the groove is illuminated as the rising sun shines through one window each June solstice. The window also frames the Pleiades constellation, which was used by the Incas to decide when to plant potatoes. At its height in the early 16th century, the Incas’ 2,500-mile-long empire was littered with celestial observatories, which aided the Incas in the precise sowing and reaping of various crops–KM).
When the Sun Hits the White Granite Boulder, it’s the Solstice
By Nicholas Asheshov
Caretas
On June 21, just over a week from now, the winter solstice, easily the most important day in the ancient Andes, falls due and brilliant rays of sun will be flooding just after dawn through carefully-designed Inca windows onto sharp once-a-year marker stones…
May
29
1,500-Year-Old Moche Indian Lord’s Tomb Discovered in Peru
Filed Under Northern Kingdoms of Peru, Recent Discoveries
“King of Bling” Tomb Sheds Light on Ancient Peru
National Geographic News
April 10, 2009
Packed with treasure in the styles of two ancient orders, the 1,500-year-old tomb of the Moche Indian “king of bling” is like no other, according to archaeologist Steve Bourget.
Discovered in Peru at the base of an eroded mud-brick pyramid, the tomb gradually yielded its contents last summer.
Among the finds: 19 golden headdresses, various pieces of jewelry, and two funerary masks, as well as skeletons of two other men and a pregnant woman.
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