Slack-water deposits are archives of paleoflood frequency, magnitude, and provenance. In the eastern Himalaya, deposits along the Siang River document Quaternary outburst megafloods originating from southeastern Tibet. Here we present new observations of slack-water deposits within aggradational terraces of the Siyom River, the Siang’s largest tributary. Terrace stratigraphy reveals distinct, regionally extensive sedimentary facies including laminated sands, clays, and detrital organic-rich deposits consistent with slack-water deposition from temporarily impounded waters. Radiocarbon dates from clay and organic horizons range from 34,020 to 10,630 cal yr BP, overlapping with age constraints for Tibetan paleolake deposits. Detrital zircon (U-Th)/Pb geochronology confirms a local source for the underlying fluvial facies, whereas event-deposit silts contain young zircons derived from Tibet, supporting their interpretation as megaflood deposits. This evidence, combined with the deposits’ temporal overlap with Tibetan paleolakes and distinctive slack-water sedimentology, demonstrates that event facies formed through megaflood backflooding sourced from southeastern Tibet. The results point to the likelihood of similar deposits in other tributaries, providing a framework for regional investigation. Our findings further show that megafloods in steep terrain can produce substantial deposition and terrace formation tens of kilometers upstream in tributaries—far beyond the main stem floodway—revealing an overlooked geomorphic imprint of extreme floods.

This study explores the impact of a development project, the Maya Train, on the lives of rural youth in Tenosique, Mexico, focusing on their cultural practices and territorial identities amid urban and rural dynamics. It highlights how traditional and modern elements blend in young people’s daily lives, affecting their identities and future aspirations in the face of socioeconomic and environmental changes. The need for public policies that recognize the diversity of rural youth is emphasized, suggesting a reevaluation of social science categories to better understand the complexity of youth and rurality in development contexts. This research underscores the importance of incorporating youth perspectives into sustainable development strategies.

This work analyzes Javier Milei’s radical right populism from the perspective of his supporters. Through focus groups, we explore the extent to which there is consensus among those who voted for him in the 2023 primaries regarding his antiestablishment discourse, libertarian economic proposals, and conservative positions on moral issues. We find two points of consensus across all the groups: the charismatic appeal of Milei and a widespread rejection of the political establishment. However, there are notable disagreements on issues like the role of the state in the economy and the legalization of abortion. The majority of participants, referred to as “the rejecters,” neither understand nor support Milei’s views, while a minority, labeled “the fans,” actively defend his ideas. In conclusion, we find that there is no unified identity among Milei’s voters, apart from their common rejection of the establishment that led them to support a political outsider.

This paper traces the history of Chinese migration to Venezuela from 1875 onward, leading to the Chinese expulsion orders of 1938 and 1941. It highlights the shifting phases of acceptance and discrimination by Venezuela’s state and society, emphasising the agency of the Chinese community in resisting exclusion through transnational networks and diplomatic advocacy. Additionally, it examines the unique characteristics of this migrant group, the discrepancies between legal frameworks and their enforcement, and the influence of racial and ethnic ideologies in shaping immigration policy and public sentiment. Ultimately, this paper demonstrates how international dynamics shaped the well-being of Chinese Venezuelans and advocates for a more transnational approach to understanding migration to Latin America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

We present isotopic data from mammalian megafauna from the Jirau Paleontological Site (Itapipoca, Ceará State, Brazil) and Rio Miranda (Mato Grosso do Sul State), both located in the Brazilian Intertropical Region, dating to the Mid–Late Holocene. The isotopic composition (δ13C) of eight tooth fragments was determined for the following taxa: E. laurillardi, N. platensis, T. platensis, S. populator, X. bahiense, and P. major. Results indicate that the herbivorous taxa had mixed diets, consistent with deciduous to semi deciduous forest and wooded savannah environments. S. populator likely preyed upon herbivores with mixed diets and inhabited wooded savannahs. E. laurillardi, N. platensis, and T. platensis exhibited generalist feeding behavior with a high proportion of C₃ plants in their diet, associated with the fragmentation and reduction of open environments (savannah and wooded savannah) and the concurrent expansion of forested areas during the Holocene Climatic Optimum. X. bahiense and P. major exhibited browser-type diets in Itapipoca, suggesting adaptation to the expansion of deciduous and semi deciduous forests during the Holocene Climatic Optimum. By comparing isotopic data with paleoecological, palynological, and paleobiogeographical evidence, we infer that the Intertropical Region represented one of the last environmental refuges for extinct meso- and megamammal faunas during the Holocene.

This article explores the relationship between urban violence in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s economic capital, and two works of contemporary Ecuadorian literature. I introduce the term mangrove gothic to analyze how María Fernanda Ampuero’s short-story collection Pelea de gallos (2018) and Mónica Ojeda’s novel Mandíbula (2018) appropriate gothic tropes to depict the violent realities of twenty-first-century Guayaquil. The mangrove gothic encompasses the narrative strategies through which these authors inscribe fear into the experience of living in—or having lived in—Guayaquil, where oppressive humidity and heat, social hierarchies, and violence haunt the urban space. At the same time, the term offers geographic, social, and cultural specificity to the broader category of the “new Latin American female gothic.” In doing so, it counters the risk of homogenizing Latin American literature under a single transnational trend tailored for global consumption.

This study investigates the significant presence and function of nonhuman elements, specifically flora and fauna, in Aluísio Azevedo’s seminal Brazilian naturalist novel, O Cortiço (1890). Drawing on the increasing academic interest in plant and animal studies in literary criticism, this analysis catalogs and categorizes the numerous references to plants and animals, as well as instances of animalization, to illuminate Azevedo’s naturalistic portrayal of the urban environment of Rio de Janeiro. The research demonstrates how, in line with naturalist principles, Azevedo employs these nonhuman comparisons to characterize his human figures, often reducing them to their physical or instinctual traits under the deterministic influence of the milieu. The study investigates patterns in the use of flora and fauna where both are frequently used to evoke sensuality, purity, the physical states of characters—often reinforcing social hierarchies, reflecting racist and patriarchal views. Ultimately, this study argues that Azevedo’s extensive use of flora and fauna in O Cortiço is crucial to conveying to naturalist ideas, characterized by degeneration, decay, and the leveling of distinctions. The constant interplay of the characters and their environment, mediated through plant and animal allegories, underscores the deterministic forces at play, where individuals are subject to the relentless and often brutal influence of heredity and their surroundings. This analysis contributes to a deeper understanding of Brazilian naturalism and the sophisticated ways nonhuman elements can shape and influence narrative meaning.

This article tests claims from the comparative extractive literature by examining how state-company linkages shape civil society mobilization against extractive projects. We focus on convenios de cooperación (CCs)—contracts through which extractive companies finance branches of the Colombian armed forces or judiciary to provide security for company operations. We employ a mixed-methods design. First, we analyze a panel dataset of nearly six hundred contracts signed between 2002 and 2020, assessing their relationship to threats, assassinations of social leaders, arbitrary detentions, and other security indicators across municipalities. We then pair this statistical analysis with fieldwork in two case study sites: Jericó, Antioquia, and the Ariari region of Meta. Our analysis asks two central questions. How do CCs fit into extractive companies’ broader repertoires of community control? And what do they mean for civil society mobilization—how are they lived and felt on the ground? Findings reveal sectoral variation and differences in how CCs are activated and experienced over time. By introducing the first systematic dataset on CCs, we make visible a widespread but understudied mechanism through which firms embed repressive capacity in state security apparatuses, thereby advancing debates on corporate counterinsurgency, protest criminalization, and security governance in Latin America.

Indian banyan trees, with their complex network of secondary trunks, support entire ecosystems and are often favored for large rural gatherings due to their vast canopy. However, dating these heritage trees in South Asia has traditionally relied on written records and local lore, resulting in imprecise age estimates that limit our understanding of their historical significance. This study establishes a precise minimum age for a monumental banyan tree located on the Indian Tobacco Company campus, founded in 1901 CE in Munger, Bihar, India. According to local lore, the tree has long been a gathering place for both rulers and commoners. Radiocarbon dating of the pith from an exposed secondary trunk and a primary branch of the Munger Banyan were 276 ± 36 and 652 ± 37 years BP, respectively, indicating when each sample of wood stopped exchanging carbon with the atmosphere. These findings suggest a minimum radiocarbon age of ca. 700 years, making it the oldest accurately dated Ficus benghalensis in the world. The study refines radiocarbon dating approaches for tropical hardwoods by emphasizing precise pith targeting, a method rarely applied due to indistinct growth-ring boundaries. By integrating advanced calibration techniques, the study enhances chronological accuracy and improves understanding of the longevity and significance of heritage trees and tropical forest ecosystems.

This article explores the interplay between business elites and the Argentine state in shaping social policy from the late nineteenth century until 1943, focusing on the sugar industry in Jujuy. It asks why sugar industrialists introduced welfare measures in their mills during the 1930s and what social conditions shaped their choices. We argue that limited assistance initiatives, introduced following the Great Depression, allowed mill owners to justify tariff protection while reinforcing their dominance over workers and curbing union influence. These measures, rooted in the sugar elites’ control of provincial politics and sustained intervention in the state apparatus, exemplify early forms of private–public cooperation in welfare provision. By tracing the evolution of state–business interaction in social provision, the article demonstrates how local industries shaped welfare regimes before the rise of Peronism, offering new insights into the diversity of policy responses and social realities in Argentina and Latin America.

Four new Pleistocene track-bearing aeolianite surfaces have been identified on South Africa’s Cape south coast, each portraying evidence of tortoise tracks. Together, they add to and buttress previous reports of tortoise tracks and trackways from the region. Globally, this remains the only area from which fossilized tortoise tracks have been recorded, and for the first time we illustrate the preservation of typical tortoise trackway morphology (involving a ‘tramline’ pattern with a wide straddle and closely spaced tracks), as observed in the trackways of extant tortoises. One site provides further evidence for the inferred presence of a very large tortoise trackmaker from the region during the Pleistocene. This tortoise was substantially larger than the largest extant tortoises in southern Africa, which bolsters the inference of either an extinct very large tortoise or a large chrono-subspecies of the extant leopard tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis). The mismatch between the body fossil record and trace fossil record with respect to the presence of large tortoises in the southern Cape persists. One trackway was probably registered by a smaller leopard tortoise, and the other trackways may have been registered by an angulate tortoise (Chersina angulata).

Stable carbon isotopes in Holocene soils provide key insights into past climate and ecosystems. This study presents high-resolution isotope analyses of pedogenic carbonates and organic carbon from modern loess-derived soils in northern Iran across a strong precipitation gradient (150–850 mm mean annual precipitation [MAP]). Eight soil profiles span five soil orders: Alfisols, Mollisols, Inceptisols, Aridisols, and Entisols. The mean δ13Cpc values show strong linear relationships with MAP (δ13Cpc = −0.0093 × MAP + 1.8878; R2 = 0.98) and with the ratio of precipitation to potential evapotranspiration, P/PET (δ13Cpc = −8.6842 × P/PET + 1.608; R2 = 0.99), indicating that δ13Cpc reliably reflects moisture availability during carbonate formation. Values range from −6.2‰ in wetter sites to −0.1‰ in dry areas, reflecting changes in soil respiration and CO₂ flux. δ13Coc values (−25.6‰ to −23.3‰) indicate dominant C₃ vegetation and exhibit a bimodal response to precipitation, increasing from arid to semiarid zones and decreasing in wetter forests. Oxygen isotopes in carbonate (δ1⁸Opc = −7.9‰ to −6.6‰) show limited climate sensitivity, reflecting precipitation mainly from the Caspian Sea with minimal evaporative enrichment. Overall, δ13Cpc, δ13Coc, and δ1⁸Opc provide robust proxies for soil moisture, vegetation structure, and water sources, supporting paleoenvironmental reconstruction in loess systems.

New cosmogenic 10Be exposure ages and a proglacial lake sediment archive provide the first record of local ice cover following the deglaciation of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet (CIS) in southeast Alaska. Exposure ages from Necker Bay corroborate existing evidence for a CIS deglaciation age of ∼15–14 ka from the outer coast of Baranof Island. We date retreat farther inland on the western and eastern flanks of the island to the Early Holocene, providing evidence for an ice cap persisting on Baranof Island ∼3 ka after CIS retreat. Baranof Lake sediment cores document continued local ice cover until ∼10.4 ka, after which glaciers receded to their Holocene minima until ∼8 ka. Glaciers grew through the remainder of the Holocene, reaching their maxima during the last millennium before retreating rapidly during the last century. Remote sensing analysis of glacial change around Baranof Lake from 1948 to 2023 CE shows that the rate of glacier area loss increased by an order of magnitude after 1986 CE, from −0.03 km2/yr to −0.29 km2/yr. This trend in glacier area loss is reflected across Alaska and western Canada, highlighting the sensitivity of Beringian glaciers to climate changes and the significant contribution they will make to sea-level rise this century.

The Kovrizhka sites are some of the most studied and highly informative for the entire northern Cis-Baikal region of Siberia and illustrate the history and development of ancient cultures in the Vitim area during the Late Upper Paleolithic to Early Neolithic. To better understand human settlement practices during this time, we constructed a model of Late Quaternary landscape formation and human occupation in the Vitim River valley based on a geomorphological study and radiocarbon dating of archaeological sites Kovrizhka I–VI in the Baikal-Pathom Highlands. The model reconstructs human habitation of the valley from 19.9 to 6.7 ka and connects settlement patterns to general landscape features, stone (mineral) and food resources, the flood regime of the Vitim River, and dynamics of landscape formation. A secondary focus of this study is to assess the timing and geomorphological remnants of megafloods originating from breakthroughs of the Muya (Vitim) glacial paleolake in Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 3 and 2, and their impact on human settlement. The last megaflood could not have been later than the earliest settlement on Kovrizhka II (19.9 ka). However, erosive flood activity is observed at all stages, especially a shift in floods at the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary.