Artifacts made from Quispisisa obsidian are widely disseminated in the Peruvian Andes, but the geological source of the Quispisisa geochemical type was only recently located in southern Ayacucho. Following the positive identification of the source in 1999 by Richard Burger and colleagues, we found evidence of broad quarrying activities in unexplored portions of the source area. We describe 34 quarry pits, some as large as 80 m across, together with evidence of early- stage lithic reduction at the source. We encountered high concentrations of reduction debris associated with more extensive knapping in two localities, but our preliminary evaluation of surface evidence suggests that much of the material quarried was removed from the area as intact nodules or after minimal reduction at the source area.

Los estudios geoquímicos de la obsidiana en los Andes Centrales han demostrado que la gran mayoría de los artefactos prehispánicos hechos de obsidiana se produjeron utilizando materia prima de ocho fuentes, cada una de las cuales es distinta en términos de composición geoquímica. De las ocho fuentes, material de Alca, Chivay, y Quispisisa predomina en las colecciones de todas las épocas prehispánicas. El tipo geoquímico de obsidiana llamado Quispisisa ocupa una posición importante en la historia del Perú prehispánico, pues herramientas hechas de este material se han encontrado en muchos sitios de la costa y sierra de la parte norcentral del país. Esos sitios se caracterizan por encontrarse dispersos en un amplio marco espacial y temporal, pues algunos se ubican en lugares distantes de la fuente y corresponden a épocas diversas, inclusive, algunas de ellas tan antiguas como el Precerámico Temprano. A pesar de esa importancia evidente, hasta la fecha solo se había ubicado la fuente, y faltaba cualquier exploración y registro detallado de los afloramientos de obsidiana y de los rasgos de explotación humana de la zona. A partir del año 2007 Tripcevich y Contreras visitaron la fuente ubicada por Richard Burger y sus colegas en la zona de Huanca Sancos, Ayacucho; posteriormente en el año 2009 los autores, con el apoyo de unas colegas, ampliaban las investigaciones y como producto de ello han revelado que el área geográfica que abarca la fuente de obsidiana tipo Quispisisa es mucho más extensa de lo que se había pensado. Asimismo, han logrado documentar la existencia de varios rasgos de explotación de la fuente tales como: pozos de cantera, lascas de reducción inicial de material, y caminos, los mismos que evidencian la presencia de la actividad de la cantería de obsidiana a una escala única en los Andes.

This dissertation presents work on components and actuators for silicon-based walking

centimeter-scale robots. The focus on this work was on the actuators used to drive these

robots and the linkages that make the basic structure of the robot leg.

Pin-joints are used as the basic unit of the leg linkages. The pin-joints were tested in terms

of robustness and demonstrated high maximum tensile loads of over 5mN and compressive

loads in excess of 100mN.

Electrostatic inchworm motors were the actuator of choice for these robots. These motors

demonstrated over 1mN of output force and shuttle speeds up to 0.4m/s. Newer high force

motors have demonstrated 5mN output force at 100V, the highest from an electrostatic

inchworm motor to date.

These components were combined for a single-legged walker which demonstrated walking

under power and support from external wires. After the single legged walker a hexapod robot

using multichip assembly was designed, fabricated, assembled, and tested. The robot used

three separate chips to route signals from planar legs to a central hub chip that is tethered

to an external control circuit by 9 wires. The robot demonstrated taking steps.

This work also presents a future vision for robots based on this same silicon technology.

Using these components a new generation of walking robots can be developed, pushing the

path forward toward autonomous operation.

This dissertation explores cultural production about autism—from film, television, literature, and video games to United States legal documents—in order to define and analyze assumptions about white masculinity within the ideologies of neoliberal capitalism. In popular culture, characters with autism are generally limited to operating as either apathetic harbingers of dehumanizing presents and futures (as in science fiction with autistic characters) or as dependents who have a difficult time functioning in modern economies and who must ultimately “overcome” through personal initiative. In both models, autism presents problems of productivity, independence, and finances. In these ways, representations of autism are often intimately connected to neoliberal goals and expose how neoliberal subjects are made to perform. These texts present, then, a means of tracing the evolution of how neoliberalism has impacted culture, identity, and disability. Further, such representations of (primarily men) with autism were produced simultaneously to the idea that a “crisis of masculinity” has resulted from modern social and economic policies. Connecting David Savran’s concept of the “white male as victim” under late capitalism and Sally Robinson’s concept of the “marked man” to Stuart Murray’s notion of the “Hollywood logic of autism,” this dissertation argues that cultural definitions of autism have had key roles in furthering the privatized, enraged affects that sustain neoliberalism. Through this methodology, the dissertation seeks to further define the intersections of masculinity and disability as a potentially hegemonic coalition through which notions of self-financialization, rational self-interest, and rugged individualism are supported. By noting the relationship between autism and neoliberal subjectivity, the dissertation disentangles the mythologies through which disabilities and masculinities are made productive for regimes that create immense amounts of social, political, and economic suffering. It also furthers research on how affective and cognitive disabilities (as opposed to physical, the focus of most disability studies) are constructed through cultural discourse and, specifically, expands understandings of autism by putting different media in conversation with each other.