Historiografía y nación : Una polémica entre Francisco Berra y Carlos María Ramírez

La vertiente polémica fue una modalidad historiográfica recurrente en el Río de la Plata durante el siglo XIX. Su naturaleza controversial permite la contraposición de ideas y posiciones en torno a temas concretos, o, lo que es más importante, a metodologías y concepciones sobre el pretérito. La oposición de pareceres es instancia fermental en la evolución de la disciplina; su análisis, un compromiso ineludible para contextualizar un panorama historiográfico amplio y completo de la misma en el siglo XIX. El objetivo de este artículo es analizar uno de los debates más trascendentes de su época, el sostenido en Uruguay por Francisco Berra y Carlos María Ramírez -contemporáneo al de Vicente Fidel López y Bartolomé Mitre en Argentina- para rescatar su significación discursiva y sus implicancias teórico-metodológicas. Proponemos un estudio de la dimensión dialógica de la construcción nacionalista del pretérito uruguayo: de la exposición de ideas e intereses enfrentados surgen "verdades patrióticas", es decir axiomas históricos o dogmas nacionalistas. Circunscriptos a los mismos se desarrolló la producción y docencia histórica.

De la teoría social a la experiencia histórica moderna : Comunidad, nación, masas en la Sociología de Francisco Ayala

Las definiciones teóricas y las descripciones y observaciones empíricas de Comunidad(es) y Nación(es) -y con ellas, sus pares opuestos o complementarios, Sociedad(es) y Estado(s)- en la modernidad "primera", "industrial" o "sólida", constituyeron desafíos medulares en la institucionalización de la Sociología como disciplina académica. A dichos desafíos se sumó, en la etapa decimonónica y en la formación de las sociedades de bienestar del siglo XX, el fenómeno -sociológicamente significativo- de las "las masas" modernas. El mismo puede considerarse de medular trascendencia no sólo para las sociologías europeas, sino también las incipientemente creadas en América Latina. La ponencia que se presenta a continuación se dirige entonces a analizar, en este contexto, cómo, con qué condimentos singulares y novedosos la Sociología de Francisco Ayala abordó aquellas ?cuestiones? -en parte sociales, en parte sociológicas- analizando críticamente, al mismo tiempo, el plano histórico-social y la construcción teorética-analítica

La influencia argentina en la configuración de la historiografía uruguaya. Estudio de caso: Francisco Bauzá

En la segunda mitad del siglo XIX se crearon en el Río de la Plata las condiciones necesarias para el surgimiento y desarrollo de las historiografías nacionales, humus primordial del cual emergieron proposiciones fácticas y axiomas historiográficos de cuño patriótico. La historiografía argentina, por diversidad de motivos -disponibilidad de insumos heurísticos y repertorios bibliográficos, número de intelectuales (historiadores, poetas, novelistas, ensayistas) consagrados al estudio y exaltación del pasado nacional, instituciones dedicadas al desarrollo de la investigación, recursos aportados por el Estado- tuvo un temprano e importante desarrollo e influyó de forma determinante en la historiografía uruguaya. El objeto de este artículo es conocer las modalidades, el carácter y significación de esta influencia en un autor concreto, Francisco Bauzá, a efectos de dilucidar los cimientos sobre los cuales se definieron las estructuras teóricas y la preceptivas técnico-metodológicas fundantes de la disciplina en Uruguay.

Sr-Nd isotopic analyses of sand-sized sediment from the San Francisco Bay coastal system

A diverse suite of geochemical tracers, including 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd isotope ratios, the rare earth elements (REEs), and select trace elements were used to determine sand-sized sediment provenance and transport pathways within the San Francisco Bay coastal system. This study complements a large interdisciplinary effort (Barnard et al., 2012) that seeks to better understand recent geomorphic change in a highly urbanized and dynamic estuarine-coastal setting. Sand-sized sediment provenance in this geologically complex system is important to estuarine resource managers and was assessed by examining the geographic distribution of this suite of geochemical tracers from the primary sources (fluvial and rock) throughout the bay, adjacent coast, and beaches. Due to their intrinsic geochemical nature, 143Nd/144Nd isotopic ratios provide the most resolved picture of where sediment in this system is likely sourced and how it moves through this estuarine system into the Pacific Ocean. For example, Nd isotopes confirm that the predominant source of sand-sized sediment to Suisun Bay, San Pablo Bay, and Central Bay is the Sierra Nevada Batholith via the Sacramento River, with lesser contributions from the Napa and San Joaquin Rivers. Isotopic ratios also reveal hot-spots of local sediment accumulation, such as the basalt and chert deposits around the Golden Gate Bridge and the high magnetite deposits of Ocean Beach. Sand-sized sediment that exits San Francisco Bay accumulates on the ebb-tidal delta and is in part conveyed southward by long-shore currents. Broadly, the geochemical tracers reveal a complex story of multiple sediment sources, dynamic intra-bay sediment mixing and reworking, and eventual dilution and transport by energetic marine processes. Combined geochemical results provide information on sediment movement into and through San Francisco Bay and further our understanding of how sustained anthropogenic activities which limit sediment inputs to the system (e.g., dike and dam construction) as well as those which directly remove sediments from within the Bay, such as aggregate mining and dredging, can have long-lasting effects.

Bedform measurements from the San Francisco Bay Coastal System

The morphology of ~45,000 bedforms from 13 multibeam bathymetry surveys was used as a proxy for identifying net bedload sediment transport directions and pathways throughout the San Francisco Bay estuary and adjacent outer coast. The spatially-averaged shape asymmetry of the bedforms reveals distinct pathways of ebb and flood transport. Additionally, the region-wide, ebb-oriented asymmetry of 5% suggests net seaward-directed transport within the estuarine-coastal system, with significant seaward asymmetry at the mouth of San Francisco Bay (11%), through the northern reaches of the Bay (7-8%), and among the largest bedforms (21% for lambda > 50 m). This general indication for the net transport of sand to the open coast strongly suggests that anthropogenic removal of sediment from the estuary, particularly along clearly defined seaward transport pathways, will limit the supply of sand to chronically eroding, open-coast beaches. The bedform asymmetry measurements significantly agree (up to ~ 76%) with modeled annual residual transport directions derived from a hydrodynamically-calibrated numerical model, and the orientation of adjacent, flow-sculpted seafloor features such as mega-flute structures, providing a comprehensive validation of the technique. The methods described in this paper to determine well-defined, cross-validated sediment transport pathways can be applied to estuarine-coastal systems globally where bedforms are present. The results can inform and improve regional sediment management practices to more efficiently utilize often limited sediment resources and mitigate current and future sediment supply-related impacts.

Distribution of biological, anthropogenic, and volcanic constituents in the San Francisco Bay Coastal System

Although conventional sediment parameters (mean grain size, sorting, and skewness) and provenance have typically been used to infer sediment transport pathways, most freshwater, brackish, and marine environments are also characterized by abundant sediment constituents of biological, and possibly anthropogenic and volcanic, origin that can provide additional insight into local sedimentary processes. The biota will be spatially distributed according to its response to environmental parameters such as water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, organic carbon content, grain size, and intensity of currents and tidal flow, whereas the presence of anthropogenic and volcanic constituents will reflect proximity to source areas and whether they are fluvially- or aerially-transported. Because each of these constituents have a unique environmental signature, they are a more precise proxy for that source area than the conventional sedimentary process indicators. This San Francisco Bay Coastal System study demonstrates that by applying a multi-proxy approach, the primary sites of sediment transport can be identified. Many of these sites are far from where the constituents originated, showing that sediment transport is widespread in the region. Although not often used, identifying and interpreting the distribution of naturally-occurring and allochthonous biologic, anthropogenic, and volcanic sediment constituents is a powerful tool to aid in the investigation of sediment transport pathways in other coastal systems.