Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Functional Model For Masticatory-Related Mandibular, Dental, And Craniofacial Microevolutionary Change Derived From A Selected Southeastern Indian Skeletal Temporal Series, Donna Catherine Markland Boyd

Doctoral Dissertations

In the present study, 66 metric as well as numerous morphological observations are utilized from 299 individuals representing a skeletal temporal series (Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian) from West, Middle, and East Tennessee. These groups reflect a documented subsistence shift from a relatively hard-textured, hunting and gathering Archaic to a soft-textured, Mississippian agricultural diet. Mandibular, craniofacial, and mandibular anterior dental dimensions are compared within and between these groups in order to evaluate a model of masticatory-related diachronic change in the mandibular complex.

This model proposes strong correlations between mandibular, craniofacial, and mandibular anterior dental measurements within each group. Cumulative age-related functional stress …

Infant/Weanling Mortality In Tennessee's Prehistory: A Comparative Approach, Rick R. Richardson

Masters Theses

Although there is general agreement among many researchers concerning the decline in health and nutrition which accompanied the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture, few studies have directly addressed the differences in infant\weanling mortality between these two distinct cultural adaptational strategies. This research focuses on infant mortality as an indicator of general health and nutritional status. Results from the present study, which utilizes more than 1,200 skeletal samples from eight sites, indicate a significant difference in infant mortality between prehistoric hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists in Tennessee.

Demographic comparisons were made between six Archaic sites and two Mississippian sites using the …

An Experimental Study Of Small Animal Remains In Archaeological Pit Features, Thomas R. Whyte

Doctoral Dissertations

Shells of terrestrial snails and bones of small vertebrates such as toads, frogs, shrews, and mice are often recovered from pit features on archaeological sites in eastern North America. Attempts by archaeologists to reconstruct human subsistence behavior are impeded by an inability to determine whether these small animal remains represent cultural refuse or natural entrapment. An exploratory experimental program aimed at mitigating this dilemma was conducted along the Tennessee River near Knoxville, Tennessee from May 1985 to June 1986. The goals of this experimental program were to determine (1) the causes of natural entrapment of animals in pits, (2) the …

Lithic Analysis And The Discovery Of Prehistoric Man-Land Relationships In The Uplands Of The Big South Fork Of The Tennessee Cumberland Plateau, Terry Andrew Ferguson

Doctoral Dissertations

Prehistoric man-land relationships within the uplands of the Big South Fork River valley in east-central Tennessee were studied by lithic based settlement analysis. Lithic artifact assemblages from 45 sites located within three study areas in contrasting biophysical environments were investigated. Investigations were designed to identify culturally meaningful patterning in the information content of the archaeological record and to draw inferences concerning adaptive behavior. Patterns were evaluated for the study areas, viewed holistically and synchronically, and for individual sites viewed diachronically. The analytical investigations focused on the assemblage variability present within and between the study areas and concerned variation in patterns …

Precolumbian Flaked Stone Assemblages In The West Indies, Agamemnon Gus Pantel

Doctoral Dissertations

The present work examines the history of the development of West Indian lithic research and proposes a new classificatory mechanism for West Indian flaked stone tool analysis based on technological process. Precolumbian flaked stone assemblages in the Caribbean have been classified in the past using continental models of hunting and gathering societies and stylistic variation in the artifacts has been used to explain cultural variation among early precolumbian periods. Samples of lithic assemblages from Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are the materials used in the present research. The effect of raw material on …