Who Taught the Inca Stonemasons Their Skills? A Comparison of Tiahuanaco and Inca Cut-Stone Masonry

1997 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 146-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Protzen ◽  
Stella Nair

At Tiahuanaco, on the southern rim of Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, visitors encounter enormous stone slabs and carved building blocks dressed with astonishing skill. The stones are the visible remains of a culture that flourished there about a thousand years ago. Some six hundred kilometers to the northwest, in Cuzco (Peru), one finds the different yet equally remarkable masonry of the Incas, who dominated the Andean world from the middle of the fifteenth century to the Spanish conquest in 1532. Did the Inca stonemasons learn their skills from their predecessors at Tiahuanaco? A comparative study of Inca and Tiahuanaco construction techniques reveals fundamental differences between the architecture of the two cultures. In this article, we compare masonry bonds, design details, stone-cutting techniques, and the methods of fitting, laying, and handling of stones used by both cultures. The results of this comparison suggest that the ingenuity of Inca masonry originated with the Incas, and not with their predecessors.

1975 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 272-288
Author(s):  
Howard F. Cline ◽  
Mary W. Cline

In 1966 José Alcina Franch published preliminary descriptions of a remarkable group of 29 Zapotec colonial calendars in the Archives of the Indies. As colonial material on Zapotec calendars has been nearly non-existent, this find is very important. Alcina Franch illustrated some folios and discussed the solar tropical year which Calendar 21 provides. He noted the provisional nature of his findings, and indicated that fuller publication would follow after further study. So far as the writer is aware this more definitive publication has not appeared.Using techniques and approaches he developed in the course of a long and detailed comparative study of ancient and colonial Mesoamerican chronologies and calendars now nearly completed, the writer will extract further information from the material partially published by Alcina Franch.3 His data, even in their incomplete form, can be made to yield several significant results under such analysis, especially when the Zapotec is related to what is known about Mixtec calendrics. In the early stages the two cultures were nearly undifferentiated, and in ancient and colonial days shared a common tonalpohualli.


2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Włodzimierz Oniszczenko ◽  
Bogdan Zawadzki ◽  
Jan Strelau ◽  
Rainer Riemann ◽  
Alois Angleitner ◽  
...  

This study of 1555 adult mono‐ and dizygotic twins reared together estimates the heritability of temperament traits in a Polish and a German sample. We test whether the etiology of temperament traits differs between the two cultures and between different temperament traits. We assessed temperament traits with the Formal Characteristics of Behaviour–Temperament Inventory (FCB‐TI), the Pavlovian Temperament Survey (PTS), the Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS‐R), and the Emotionality–Activity–Sociability Temperament Survey (EAS‐TS). Taking error of measurement into account, genetic sources of variance explained about 50% of the variance of temperament traits. We found neither reliable cultural differences nor robust differences in the etiology of the traits. However, the four questionnaires differed systematically with respect to the proportion of genetic and environmental influences on their scales. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
Illene Noppe Cupit ◽  
Paolo Sapelli ◽  
Ines Testoni

As an innovative way to express grief, social media posts about the deceased have become fairly common. However, few studies have examined commonly posted grief photos. The purpose of the present study was to examine such pictures, as well as the motivations and reactions of those who posted them, among Italians and Americans. Surveys were sent to both Italian and US participants. The US group yielded 262 responses (mean age = 22 years; 81% female), and the Italian group yielded 51 (mean age = 32 years; 82% female). Several key issues emerged, such as the need for social media users to receive empathic support from other users, the desire to maintain continuing bonds, the wish to remember the deceased, and the desire to share beauty and symbolic pictures. The images were analyzed using content analysis. Both samples posted photos to remember, and to enhance their posts. A strong preference for pictures with a positive emotional connotation appeared, depicting the deceased in a conjoint appearance with the participant. The results suggest that the imagery used for the expression of grief in social media sites, an “iconography of grief”, is a popular means of expression for grievers across the two cultures.


Author(s):  
Anupriya Ankolekar ◽  
Markus Krozsch ◽  
Denny Vrandecic

2021 ◽  
pp. 097133362199045
Author(s):  
Dharm P. S. Bhawuk

Employing one of the established theories from cross-cultural psychology and sociology, first it is shown that both China and India are collectivist cultures. Then the Chinese and Indian worldviews are compared to highlight fundamental similarities between the two cultures. Finally, it is shown how self-cultivation is emphasised in both China and India. Effort is made to show how ideas presented by Confucius and Lao Tsu are captured in the Indian culture and social behaviours. A number of issues are raised for the development of indigenous knowledge from multiple perspectives using various paradigms and methodology. It is hoped that the special issue and this article will stimulate researchers to bridge Chinese and Indian psychologies which may pave the path towards peaceful prosperity.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 478
Author(s):  
Verónica Roldán

The present study on the religious experience of the Peruvian community in Rome belongs to the area of studies on immigration, multiculturalism, and religion in Italy. In this article, I analyze the devotion of the Peruvian community in Rome to “the Lord of Miracles”. This pious tradition, which venerates the image of Christ crucified—painted by an Angolan slave—began in 1651 in Lima, during the Viceroyalty of Peru. Today, the sacred image is venerated in countries all over the world that host Peruvian immigrant communities that have set up branches of the Confraternity of the Lord of Miracles. I examine, in particular, the cult of el Señor de los Milagros in Rome in terms of Peruvian popular religiosity and national identity experienced within a transnational context. This essay serves two purposes: The first is to analyze the significance that this religious experience acquires in a foreign environment while maintaining links with its country of origin and its cultural traditions in a multilocal environment. The second aim is to examine the integration of the Peruvian community into Italian society, beginning with religious practice, in this case Roman Catholicism. This kind of religiosity seems not only to favor the encounter between the two cultures but also to render Italian Roman Catholicism multicultural.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 79-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gunwoo Yoon ◽  
Patrick T. Vargas

In the present research we argue that avatars, as identity containers, can mirror people’s self-concepts. Research in cultural psychology suggests that East Asians tend to be more tolerant of contradictions and that they more easily adjust their self-concepts in accordance with changing contexts compared to North Americans (see Heine 2001). We therefore assume that preferred forms of avatars among East Asians and North Americans are different because of this self-concept variability across cultures. We conducted a quasi-experiment to explore how people in the two cultures differently evaluate two forms of avatars, human-like and cartoon-like avatars, in terms of likeability and preference. We found that East Asians rated cartoon-like avatars more favourably than North Americans. Moreover, compared to North Americans, East Asians preferred cartoon-like avatars to human-like avatars for their hypothetical avatars to play games. We conclude by discussing implications for future research.


2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 378-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor Cui ◽  
Ilan Vertinsky ◽  
Sandra Robinson ◽  
Oana Branzei

Extending the literature on social capital development in the community, this article examines the impact of diverse social interactions (in the community and the workplace) on the development of social trust in the workplace, and investigates whether their effects differ in individualistic and collectivistic cultures. Using survey data collected in Canada and China, the authors find that the diversity of one’s social interactions in the community is positively associated with one’s social trust in the workplace, and this relationship is not significantly different between the two cultures. Diversity of one’s social interactions in the workplace is also positively associated with one’s social trust in the workplace, though only in collectivistic cultures.


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