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AbstractABSTRACTHistorical Considerations and Contextualizations of Geoglyph Research in ChileThe study of rock art (petroglyphs and pictographs) and geoglyphs (ground drawings) in the Americas has been plagued by a lack of stratigraphie context within which to frame investigations of the relationships between these prévalent and essential expressions of material and social culture, and the peoples known to have inhabited and exploited the regions in which these depictions are found. In northern Chile, explanations for the purpose(s) of the thousands of geoglyphs of biomorphs and geometrie motifs that have been known since the mid-nineteenth century have changed over time, depending upon current prevailing theories. The geoglyphs are generally assumed to have been created during the time of agricultural and pastoral lifeways, and have been assumed traditionally to be for religious, hunting-magic, and trail-marker purposes. Parallel studies of rock art based on archaeological data, ethnographie data, and ethnographie analogies are evaluated in light of the contexts of Chilean geoglyphs to consider them as focal points of journeys, such as pilgrimage sites, and as locations imbued with extraordinary significance.Key words : Clarkson, geoglyphs, archaeology, pilgrimage, Chile

AbstractThe Good Mountain and the Evil Water. Toponymy and Environmental Practices of the Nahuas of the Lower Mountain (Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico)This article explores the relationships between the environmental practices of the Nahua (who live in the lower tropical mountain range of the Eastem Sierra Madre, in Mexico) and their toponymie definition of their territory. We hoped to bridge the gap between the two approaches which anthropologists have used to study the relationships between humans and their environments : the one focusing on representations (cosmology, knowledge Systems) the other on inputs-outputs of farming, cattle-herding of food-gathering. Our working hypothesis was that the rich toponymy of a Nahua community would reveal a close link with their economie practices, which we had already studied. This hypothesis was only partly verified : various catagories refering to location take indeed their signification from farming (the metaphor of the " body-mountain "). Another group of categories (the " body-river ") refers to the magie realm, while the countless references to the flora and fauna seem to have only a cognitive function, that of differentiating the universe of locus.Key words : Taller de Tradition oral, Beaucage, Nahua, Mexico, environment, territory, toponymy

This article proposes a new interpretation of a controversial and important figure of early Acadian history, Charles de Menou, on the basis of an analysis of historical documents relating to his parents and family. It shows that while Charles was certainly typical of the old nobility in his general outlook and attitudes, he broke with family expectations and became estranged from his father as a result of his career in Acadia. Although Charles helped lay the foundation for a permanent colony, he also left a legacy of financial ruin and damaged reputation for his widow and children. Despite his hope that he had established a new family estate in Acadia, none of his children stayed in the colony and, in fact, they all died without leaving children of their own.

ABSTRACTThis article deals with the impact of government under-financing upon the development of asylums in Québec between 1845 and 1918. From the outset, politicians preferred the system of sub-contracting because it kept the costs down; such a choice, however, had deleterious effects upon the level of care and the development of psychiatry. Already one of the lowest in North America, the financing of Québec asylums decreased after 1871 as more insane patients were interned and the needs became ever more crying. The 1885 law and the 1887 inquiry on asylums called into question the practice of sub-contracting and launched a gradual movement of modernization of asylums. The period 1890 to 1918 witnessed a transition from the concept of the asylum as prison to that of asylums as hospital: financial difficulties and space problems remained severe, but gradual improvement in care led to later progress of psychiatry.

ABSTRACTA reference section is exposed along the coast of the Bay St. Lawrence area. The late Pleistocene deposits are subdivided into 9 lithostratigraphic units, which lie on a marine erosional platform believed to date from the last interglacial. Two climatic episodes can be distinguished through palynology: 1) the first one, in the lower part of the section, is represented by a buried organic layer (> 38,300 BP; GSC-283), lying between beds of sandy silts. A complete climatic and vegetation cycle is inferred from pollen analysis. A progressive change is observed from a tundra-like open vegetation to a coniferous forest with some deciduous trees. Afterwards the forest elements became suddenly sparce, followed by a return to the tundra-like initial landscape. Even during the climatic optimum the conditions appeared cooler then the present. This episode is correlated with one of the cool intervals of the lower and middle Wisconsinan and is the continental equivalent of one of the oceanic isotopic stages 5c, 5a or the beginning of stage 3; 2) the second episode, in the upper part of the section is represented by a fossiliferous stratified sandy silt unit, and several beds of silty sand interstratified in ruditic sediments. Faunal and pollen (pollens and dinofla-gellates) assemblages are indicative of a reworking of glacio-marine deposits. The pollen analysis reflects a tundra or forest tundra. This second episode suggests severe cold conditions and is compatible with an ice cover on parts of Cape Breton Island.

ABSTRACTSix dives with the submersible PISCES IV have permitted a unique description of the benthic and pelagic environments of a large, deep Canadian estuary. The estuarine floor and continental slopes are divided into five depth-dependent benthic zones. In order of decreasing depth are the Bathyal Trough Zone, the lnfaunal Zone, the Ophiura Zone, the Ice Rafting Zone and the Wave Base Zone. The zonal boundaries are based on changes in the faunal community, sediment texture, current energy, level of bioturbation and suspended particulate loading. Biological resuspension appears important in the Bathyal Trough and lnfaunal Zones. Current resuspension dominates the Ophiura and Ice Rafting Zones with storm waves additionally reworking the Wave-Base sediments. Seston characteristics are strongly influenced by the source and dynamics of the host water mass. The Surface Layer, the entrained outflow from the St. Lawrence River, is the source of most suspended matter found beneath. Large particles, mostly organo-mineral aggregates, become even larger with depth and indicate a rapid downward transfer of suspended sediment. The upper Intermediate Layer is complicated by stratified zones of turbulence that temporarily reduce the floe size. With the absence of such fine water structure, the lower Intermediate Layer is characterized by long chains of marine "snow" joined by delicate filaments. The Bottom Layer, a zone of increased turbulence, had aggregates breaking up into a haze of fine particles.

AbstractThe Humber River in western Newfoundland flows through a large interior basin, that influenced Late Wisconsinan ice flow from major dispersal centres to the north, in the Long Range Mountains, and to the east in The Topsails. An early southward ice flow from a source to the north covered coastal areas in the western part of the basin. Subsequent regional ice flow was southwestward to northwestward from The Topsails, while south to southwestward flowing ice from the Long Range Mountains occupied the upper Humber River valley. This flow was confluent with ice from The Topsails and moved northwestward toward Bonne Bay. Regional deglaciation began about 13 ka from the inner coast. Ice occupying the Deer Lake valley dammed glacial Lake Howley in the adjacent Grand Lake and Sandy Lake basins to an elevation up to 85 m above present lake levels, which were controlled by drainage through a western outlet feeding into St. George's Bay. The lake was lowered by exposure of the South Brook valley outlet, and finally drained catastrophically through a spillway at Junction Brook. Marine limit at the coast was 60 m asl. Inland deltas at the head of Deer Lake and fine-grained sediment exposed in the Deer Lake valley show inundation below 45 m present elevation. This produced a narrow embayment extending at least 50 km inland from the modern coast and is named here as ‘Jukes Arm'. Dated marine macrofossils in the Humber Arm and lower Humber River valley, indicate the deltas at the head of Deer Lake formed about 12.5 ka.