Anthropology Commons^™

A Comparative Ontogenetic Study Of Biomechanical Adaptations In The Long Bones Of South African Khoisan And Sadlermiut Inuit, Kaye-Lynn Boucher

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research examines and compares the biomechanical adaptations of juveniles from two different climate-adapted populations: Khoisan foragers from South Africa and Sadlermiut Inuit from Nunavut, Canada. Cortical bone measurements were recorded at three diaphyseal locations on the Sadlermiut and Khoisan humeri, tibiae and femora using biplanar radiographs. Biomechanical strength properties were calculated using the Eccentric Ellipse Method (EEM). EEM calculations were interpreted with consideration to the known behavioural patterns of the two groups. Humeral AP and torsional bending strength were greater in the Sadlermiut compared to the Khoisan – most likely caused by kayak paddling among the Sadlermiut. Few differences …

Investigations Of The Biological Consequences And Cultural Motivations Of Artificial Cranial Modification Among Northern Chilean Populations, Christine E. Boston

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this study is to build on existing normative models of craniofacial growth and previous craniofacial studies of artificial cranial modification (ACM) in order to deepen the cultural and biological understanding of the this practice. Areas of concentration include a study of the biological changes to cranial epigenetic traits and facial metrics related to ACM, an examination of the biological effects of ACM in order to assess their implications on morbidity and mortality, and an investigation into the cultural motivations for ACM. Three hypotheses were tested: 1) ACM did not affect epigenetic trait incidence or facial metrics; 2) …

Hearts And Minds: Examining The Evolution Of The Egyptian Excerebration And Evisceration Traditions Through The Impact Mummy Database, Andrew D. Wade

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Egyptian mummification and funerary rituals were a transformative process, making the deceased a pure being; free of disease, injury, and disfigurements, as well as ethical and moral impurities. Consequently, the features of mummification available to specific categories of individuals hold social and ideological significance. This study refutes long-held classical stereotypes, particularly dogmatic class associations; demonstrates the apocryphal nature of universal heart retention; and expands on the purposes of excerebration and evisceration implied by synthetic and radiological analyses.

Features of the embalming traditions, specifically the variable excerebration and evisceration traditions, represented the Egyptian view of death. Fine-grain analyses, through primary imaging …

Aboriginal Fractions: Enumerating Identity In Taiwan, Jennifer A. Liu

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Notions of identity in Taiwan are configured in relation to numbers. I examine the polyvalent capacities of enumerative technologies in both the production of ethnic identities and claims to polit- ical representation and justice. By critically historicizing the manner in which Aborigines in Taiwan have been, and continue to be, constructed as objects and subjects of scientific knowledge production through technologies of measuring, I examine the genetic claim made by some Taiwanese to be ‘‘fractionally’’ Aboriginal. Numbers and techniques of measuring are used ostensibly to know the Aborigines, but they are also used to construct a genetically unique Taiwanese identity …