Maria del Carmen Suescun Pozas

Aurality: Listening and Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Colombia, by Ana Maria Ochoa Gautier. Series: Sign, Storage, Transmission. Durham & London, Duke University Press, 2014. xiii, 266 pp. $89.95 US (cloth), $24.95 US (paper). Ethnomusicologists and historians reveal a rich repository of sounds and silences in their examination of how voicing, hearing, and listening as interpretive acts are used politically to promote belonging and recognition, and in so doing, in conflicting ways, create unequal modem power dynamics. Building on extensive experience working in the creation of cultural policy in Colombia and knowledge of music and transculturation in Latin America and the Caribbean, Ochoa examines the interpretation and meaning of the aural in nineteenth-century Colombia. Her work is a much-awaited contribution to the cultural history of Colombia, and to the body of literature on how sound links humanity to environment. The junction of Europe and the Americas provides the backdrop for Ochoa's examination of the ways nineteenth century scientists, intellectuals, and politicians lent an ear, transcribed into writing, and policed the sounds of a geographically fragmented and racially divided colonial society, built by a Catholic Conservative elite, which crystalized linguistically at the century's end. Ochoa describes the different ways in which sound united Europeans, peoples of European descent, and the Conservative elite with indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants, and mestizos, or mixed-raced peoples, in unexpected ways, and the intellectual authority, beliefs, and values the former drew from in order to set themselves apart from and above the others. Ochoa's analysis of the works of prominent scientists, intellectuals, and politicians published during the nineteenth century, in Europe, the US, and Colombia, sheds light on the constitution of political subjects and their relation to the natural environment. In chapter one, the travel accounts of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), amongst others, on the Magdalena river offer a glimpse into the sounds made by the bogas, mixed-raced oarsmen, which were likened to the lowly sounds of animals, defying description as either speech or song. Chapter two turns to fiction, histories of literature and songbooks, and renowned men of letters such as Jose Maria Vergara y Vergara (1831-1872), Candelario Obeso (1849-1884), and Jorge Isaacs (1837-1895) in order to discuss the gap between popular song and what is heard (or misheard), what is felt, and what is recorded in writing (or misspelled). These two chapters address the problem of the inscription of the Afro-descendant voice and the normalization of speech utterances. The works of Ezequiel Uricoechea (1834-1880), Isaacs, and Miguel Antonio Caro (1843-1909) relate the inscription of indigenous languages, between the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries, by use of the Spanish alphabet by Catholic missionaries to its place in the national project. …

Abstract This article is based on the contributions to an online forum in which Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) extractive industry corporate social responsibility (EI-CSR) professionals and others contributed to extended discussions on CSR over several weeks in May 2012. This article presents highlights from those discussions, adding a set of grounded perspectives on the emerging and ongoing issues related to the surge in CSR and extractive industry activities (primarily mineral exploration and mining) throughout the LAC region. Analysis by the authors of this article identified four broad themes running throughout the discussions: 1) Current CSR practice in the LAC region is evolving, uneven, and/or limited; 2) LAC CSR models are influenced by global trends and standards but adapted to local context; 3) that in order to be effective, CSR must take into account local histories of the LAC region, particularly with regards to consultation mechanisms and Indigenous peoples; 4) that EI-CSR is generally seen as positive trend, but with many caveats.

Modern femininity, shattered masculinity : the scandal of the female nude during political crisis in Colombia, 1930-1948. Modern femininity, shattered masculinity : the scandal of the female nude during political crisis in Colombia, 1930-1948. Suescun Pozas, María del Carmen. ...

This article is based on the contributions to an online forum in which Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) extractive industry corporate social responsibility (EI-CSR) professionals and others contributed to extended discussions on CSR over several weeks in May 2012. This article presents highlights from those discussions, adding a set of grounded perspectives on the emerging and ongoing issues related to the surge in CSR and extractive industry activities (primarily mineral exploration and mining) throughout the LAC region. Analysis by the authors of this article identified four broad themes running throughout the discussions: 1) Current CSR practice in the LAC region is evolving, uneven, and/or limited; 2) LAC CSR models are influenced by global trends and standards but adapted to local context; 3) that in order to be effective, CSR must take into account local histories of the LAC region, particularly with regards to consultation mechanisms and Indigenous peoples; 4) that EI-CSR is generally seen as positive trend, but with many caveats.