Y-chromosome STR haplotypes in three different population groups from Ecuador (South America)

POPULATIONS: Over 102 unrelated Mestizos, 102 Native Amerindian (Kichwas), and 102 African Americans who represent the three largest communities of the country Ecuador (South America).     

Mitochondrial DNA study in the Shuar ethnic group from Ecuador

This study presents mitochondrial data from 55 unrelated individuals from two Ecuadorian Shuar communities: Kumbatza and Yukateis. Maternal linage was determined by analyzing the two mtDNA hypervariable regions: HRVI and HRVII. It was shown that the Shuar population exhibited the haplogroup B. This demonstrates that Shuar group is a conserved population with no mixing with the European and African diaspora populations.     

Molecular variants associated with flavor perceptions and ancestral proportions of Ecuadorian populations

The perception of taste is determined by several factors, including genetics, which at the same time is related with the diet and diseases in different populations. We aimed to identify the frequency of six single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs307355, rs35744813, rs713598, rs1726866, rs10246939 and rs11091046) involved in the perception of sweet, bitter and salty flavor in Ecuadorian mestizo population. It was found that the presence of the T allele of rs307355 and rs35744813 is associated with decreased ability of subjects to carry out specific discrimination of sweetness, this is particularly interesting given the correlation found (p = 0.0022) between sucrose perception and family history of cancer and diabetes. Furthermore, rs713598, rs1726866 and rs10246939 do not influence the ability to perceive the bitter taste. Concerning the perception of the salty taste, rs11091046 does influence the capacity of detecting it more easily. This theoretical knowledge of the genetic influence on taste perception can contribute to the understanding of eating habits and their impact on human health.     

Allele frequency data for 15 autosomal strs and ancestral proportions using aims-indels in the shuar ethnic group from Ecuador

The ethnic group Shuar is located in Ecuador. To identify their genetic composition, 46 ancestry-informative insertion deletion markers (AIM-INDELs) were used. Also, characterization of 15 tandem repeats (STRs) in the AmpFISTR Identifiler Kit were applied. Forensic parameters showed a matching probability of 0.1535, a power of discrimination of 0.8465, a polymorphism information content of 0.6584, probability of exclusion of 0.415 and a typical paternity index of 1.78. The Shuar are not influenced by admixture population events, being a Native American group 98.7%, along with a genetic diversity of 0.699346+/-0.356964.     

'Dirty Indians', Radical Indígenas, and the Political Economy of Social Difference in Modern Ecuador1

Abstract — This article examines alternative conceptions of social difference in Otavalo, Ecuador. On the one hand, in the northern Andes, the language of ethnicity has become a potent force, connected to an indigenous political movement and the profits of handicraft dealing. On the other, 'race' and an 'hygienic racism' preoccupied with pernicious stereotypes about 'dirty Indians' continue to define the social and political landscape. Contrasting these notions of social difference, I show how the indigenous movement in Ecuador receives less support from native peasants who see the world in polarised 'racial' terms.     

Cocoa, Finance and the State in Ecuador, 1895–1925

Abstract— In 1895 liberal forces, dedicated to the modernisation of their country's economic, social and political structures, came to power in Ecuador. The transformation was to be brought about on the basis of income from the profitable cocoa trade. Closely linked to the agro-mercantile élite of Guayaquil, the liberals embarked upon an ambitious programme of reform. By the early 1920s, however, their hopes had been shattered by the decline of the cocoa trade and the impact of the First World War. Heavily indebted to Guayaquil banks and facing mounting domestic opposition, the liberals were overthrown by the military in July 1925.     

Genetic analysis of the Amerindian Kichwas and Afroamerican descendents populations from Ecuador characterised by 15 STR-PCR polymorphisms

Allele frequency data for the 15 STR systems and Amelogenine were determined in a population sample of healthy Amerinidian Kichwas and Blacks individuals. All loci met Hardy–Weinberg expectations and the high discrimination power of combined system showed the forensic efficiency of these genetic markers.     

Selling the Public on Sustainable Watershed Conservation

Abstract:  The city of Quito, Ecuador, began working in 2000 to protect the ecologically fragile watershed area for its drinking water. In order to protect the Papallacta watershed, the independent Fund for the Conservation of Watersheds (FONAG) was launched to finance and manage economically sound sustainability projects in the area. FONAG is funded in part through start up grants from several organisations and a 1 per cent fee on all Quito water bills, but it has been unable to build an endowment sizeable enough to begin implementing conservation projects. We measure perceptions of the fund among Quito's university–based residents in two settings and evaluate the quality of the fund's proposed communication campaign based on existing communication theory. Further, we propose an adapted environmental education model based on a synthesis of existing theory and the empirical findings from our examination of the FONAG example. The Papallacta case study illuminates the potential strengths and weaknesses of the cultural ecology and political will of this type of collaborative sustainability project for addressing water problems in a developing country in a mountainous setting, centred around the themes of water conservation and sustainable development.     

Populist polarization and the slow death of democracy in Ecuador

This article analyses how the interactions between a strong populist government in Ecuador and a weak, divided, and inefficient internal opposition in a context of weak liberal institutions could lead to what Guillermo O'Donnell termed “the slow death of democracy”. Rafael Correa was elected with a substantive project of democratization understood as economic redistribution and social justice. His administration got rid of neoliberal policies and decaying traditional political parties, while simultaneously co-opting social movements, regulating civil society, and colonizing the public sphere. Because the judiciary was subordinated to Correa, social movement activists, journalists, and media owners could not use the legal system to resist Correa's crack down of civil society and regulation of the privately owned media. They took their grievances to supranational organizations like the Organization of American States. When these organizations stepped in to challenge Correa, his government denounced imperialist intervention in his nation's internal affairs, and advocated for the creation of new supranational institutions without US presence.     

‘New’ nations: resource-based development imaginaries in Ghana and Ecuador

Recently there have been increasing instances of the return of the state as the central agent of development in resource-rich nations globally. Characterised by both a rhetorical and substantive commitment to increasing control over national resource revenues, this so-called new/neo-extractivism has attracted a debate concerning the extent to which it offers a viable alternative to the imperatives of neoliberal resource extraction. Using two examples, this paper analyses the ways in which the Ghanaian and Ecuadorean states discursively imagine such structural transformations. It highlights the value in analysing the politics of language for strengthening studies of neo-extractivism.