Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Assessing The Role Of The Domestic Dog As A Native American Food Resource In The Middle Missouri Subarea Ad 1000 - 1840, Lynn M. Snyder

Doctoral Dissertations

The journals of early European explorers and fur traders, as well as ethnographic records, document the integral part domestic dogs played in the village life and economy of the Plains Villagers in the Middle Missouri Subarea. Early travelers on the plains also remarked on the consumption of dog meat in association with certain rituals and ceremonies, and noted the use of dogs as an emergency food resource.

This study focuses on nearly 7000 large canid skeletal elements from six Plains Village sites in the Middle Missouri Subarea dating from approximately A.D. 1000 to 1840. Two indicators of the continued importance …

Patterns Of Sexual Dimorphism In North American Indian Groups, Cathi Lee Sullivan

Masters Theses

This study examines patterns of sexual dimorphism in 26 North American Indian and Siberian groups. Past research on sexual dimorphism has looked into possible causative factors such as nutritional status, settlement type, marriage systems, sexual division of labor, and climate. No one explanation can be universally applied to all populations. Three measurements of height; standing height, sitting height, and sub-ischial height were examined for variation in sexual dimorphism. Univariate and multivariate statistical tests were performed to determine which component of stature contributes more to the variability in sexual dimorphism.

Results of this study indicate that the groups of the Northwest …

Caliber Estimation From Cranial Entrance Defect Measurements, Ann H. Ross

Masters Theses

Estimation of caliber from entrance defects has long been rejected by forensic scientists. However, previous studies have been from the viewpoint of the forensic pathologist, and because their focus is usually upon soft tissue, therefore this is a role for the forensic anthropologist to pursue. Consequently, this study examined the relation between caliber and cranial entrance defects and maximum cranial thickness.

The calibers considered in this inquiry were .22, .25, .32, and .38. The sample consists of 73 specimens obtained at autopsy (thirty-seven of .22 caliber, five of .25, six of .32, and twenty-five of .38). The strength of the …

Morphometric Discriminant Function Sexing Of The Adult Human Greater Sciatic Notch, Tom Edward Bodkin

Masters Theses

Morphometry is a subfield of biometry that combines biology, geometry, and statistics for the purpose of describing biological shape and shape change to facilitate explanations of ontological and phylogenetic development. Recently morphometry has become a tool in human osteological studies to describe skeletal shapes, both in physical anthropology and in the broader areas of biomedicine. This thesis is an application of two-dimensional morphometric methods and discriminant function analysis to determine the sex of skeletal remains using the greater sciatic notch, a structure on the posterior border of the os coxa (hip bone). The sample in this study consists of 254 …

Hunter-Gatherers, Mobility, And Technological Organization: The Early Archaic Of East Tennessee, Philip James Carr

Doctoral Dissertations

Behavioral variability exists in past hunter-gatherer lifeways but there is no simple means to study this variability and gain an understanding of past hunter-gatherer lifeways and culture change. Previously, archaeologists have depended, in large part, on ethnographic accounts to make inferences concerning past hunter-gatherer behavior. However, the revisionist debate and evaluations of the role of hunter-gatherer ethnography for archaeological interpretation point to the problems caused by an overemphasis on ethnographic data.

One solution is that archaeologists begin to examine prehistoric hunter-gatherer settlement-mobility patterns. Mobility is a behavior that is related to both social and economic strategies so it provides an …

A Dental Analysis Of The South Dakota Arikara Including A Comparative Analysis Of C. G. Turner's 1967 The Dentition Of Arctic Peoples, Michele Grant

Masters Theses

A metric and non-metric dental trait analysis was performed on the South Dakota Arikara population housed at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Fifty-one male, female, and sex indeterminable individual skeletons from the Larson, Leavenworth, Mobridge, and Sully excavations were examined for standard metric and non-metric dental traits. These data were subjected to standard chi-square analyses in order to test for statistically significant sexual dimorphism. Significant sexual dimorphism was found on the basis of many of the metric dental traits. Several non-metric dental traits also exhibited significant sexual dimorphism. This analysis was then compared to C.G. Turner's Arctic populations data and …