Anthropology Commons^™

From Mind To Matter: Patterns Of Innovation In The Archaeological Record And The Ecology Of Social Learning, Kathryn Demps, Nicole M. Herzog, Matt Clark

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Archaeology and cultural evolution theory both predict that environmental variation and population size drive the likelihood of inventions (via individual learning) and their conversion to population-wide innovations (via social uptake). We use the case study of the adoption of the bow and arrow in the Great Basin to infer how patterns of cultural variation, invention, and innovation affect investment in new technologies over time and the conditions under which we could predict cultural innovation to occur. Using an agent-based simulation to investigate the conditions that manifest in the innovation of technology, we find the following: (1) increasing ecological variation results …

Large-Scale, Collaborative Imagery Survey In Archaeology: The Geospatial Platform For Andean Culture, History And Archaeology (Geopacha), Steven A. Wernke, Parker Van Valkenburgh, James Zimmer-Dauphinee, Bethany Whitlock, Giles Spence Morrow, Ryan Smith, Douglas Smit, Daniel Plekhov, Multiple Additional Authors

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Imagery-based survey is capable of producing archaeological datasets that complement those collected through field-based survey methods, widening the scope of analysis beyond regions. The Geospatial Platform for Andean Culture, History and Archaeology (GeoPACHA) enables systematic registry of imagery survey data through a ‘federated’ approach. Using GeoPACHA, teams pursue problem-specific research questions through a common data schema and interface that allows for inter-project comparisons, analyses and syntheses. The authors present an overview of the platform's rationale and functionality, as well as a summary of results from the first survey campaign, which was carried out by six projects distributed across the central …

Identificación Mediante Histología De Implementos De Madera De Dos Sitios Prehistóricos Costeros En El Valle De Casma, Perú [Identification By Histology Of Wooden Implements From Two Coastal Prehistoric Sites In The Casma Valley, Peru], Shelia Pozorski, Teresa E. Rosales Tham, Thomas Pozorski, Víctor F. Vásquez Sánchez

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Una muestra de implementos de madera que provienen de dos sitios prehispánicos del valle de Casma (Bahía Seca y Huaynuná), dentro de los que destacan iniciadores de fuego fueron fabricados a partir de madera, que los análisis histológicos de la anatomía vascular indicaron el uso de madera de Prosopis sp. “algarrobo”, utilizando ramas secundarias gruesas y delgadas. Estos hallazgos indican que la generación del fuego en tiempos prehispánicos se realizó utilizando conocimientos tecnológicos y del uso de las maderas, en este caso de utilizar una especie que tiene como característica tener madera resinosa, favorable para la generación y obtención de …

Inheritance And Inequality Among Nomads Of South Siberia, Paul L. Hooper, Adam Z. Reynolds, Bayarsaikhan Jamsranjav, Julia K. Clark, John P. Ziker, Stefani A. Crabtree

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

At the headwaters of the Yenisei River in Tuva and northern Mongolia, nomadic pastoralists move between camps in a seasonal rotation that facilitates their animals' access to high-quality grasses and shelter. The use and informal ownership of these camps depending on season helps illustrate evolutionary and ecological principles underlying variation in property relations. Given relatively stable patterns of precipitation and returns to capital improvement, families generally benefit from reusing the same camps year after year. We show that locations with higher economic defensibility and capital investment—winter camps and camps located in mountain/river valleys—are claimed and inherited more frequently than summer …

Human-Modified Landscapes Driving The Global Primate Extinction Crisis, Erik Joaquín Torres-Romero, Vincent Nijman, David Fernández, Timothy M. Eppley

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The world's primates have been severely impacted in diverse and profound ways by anthropogenic pressures. Here, we evaluate the impact of various infrastructures and human-modified landscapes on spatial patterns of primate species richness, at both global and regional scales. We overlaid the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) range maps of 520 primate species and applied a global 100 km2 grid. We used structural equation modeling and simultaneous autoregressive models to evaluate direct and indirect effects of six human-altered landscapes variables (i.e., human footprint [HFP], croplands [CROP], road density [ROAD], pasture lands [PAST], protected areas [PAs], and Indigenous …

Social Networks And Instructional Reform In Stem: The Teaching-Research Nexus, Katherine Kappelman, John P. Ziker, Karl Mertens, Brittnee Earl, Susan E. Shadle

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Instructional reform in STEM aims for the widespread adoption of evidence based instructional practices (EBIPS), practices that implement active learning. Research recognizes that faculty social networks regarding discussion or advice about teaching may matter to such efforts. But teaching is not the only priority for university faculty – meeting research expectations is at least as important and, often, more consequential for tenure and promotion decisions. We see value in understanding how research networks, based on discussion and advice about research matters, relate to teaching networks to see if and how such networks could advance instructional reform efforts. Our research examines …

A Content Analysis Of Social Media Discussions On Thc-Oacetate, Daniel J. Kruger, Amila Karahmet, Sydney M. Kaplan, Taylor Stacy, John Redfield, Vitush Agarwal, Mutaz Faqqouseh, Carlton Cb. Bone

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Novel cannabinoids require systematic research to inform policies and practices. There is a growing interest in semi-synthetic cannabinoids by consumers, manufacturers, and regulators. However, there is a scarcity of research on these substances. Online discussion forums can provide guidance for research questions when current knowledge is scarce. The current project investigates the topics and issues covered in a social media forum devoted to THC-O-acetate (THCO), a semi-synthetic cannabinoid with rapidly rising popularity. Reddit comments posted on the THCO subreddit from June 2021 through November 2021 were coded for major and minor themes by a team of five coders and a …

The Association Of Sex Ratio On Suicide Rates In United States Counties: An Exploration Of Mechanisms, Kristin Snopkowski, Hallie Turner

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Researchers have long puzzled over suicidal behavior. In this paper, we posit that when people are unable to attract mates given unfavorable sex ratios, suicide rates increase. Sex ratio, the proportion of males in a population, is linked to a variety of behaviors, including marriage stability, violence, depression, and infidelity. We test whether suicide rates are associated with county-level sex ratios utilizing data from 1999 to 2018, controlling for a variety of factors known to be associated with suicide risk. We find that sex ratio is associated with suicide rates, where a greater proportion of males in a county (age …

Umm Huwaiwitat: A Neolithic Site Near Petra, Jordan, Daniel Plekhov, Cristiano Nicosia, Luiza Osorio G. Silva, Sarah Newman, Felipe Rojas

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Studies of the rural landscapes around the Nabataean/Roman city of Petra in Jordan have tended to assume a developmental trajectory based on that of the urban centre. Recent archaeological investigations at the site of Umm Huwaiwitat, however, shed light on the longer-term histories of human occupation and land use in the region north of Petra. Excavation has revealed Late Neolithic deposits formed by the burning of animal dung and the disposal of ash. These deposits underlie walls, today serving as agricultural terraces, which date to at least the Early Bronze Age. Umm Huwaiwitat therefore provides a microcosm of the long-lived …

The Lingering Ache: Temporalities Of Oral Health Suffering In United States-Mexico Border Communities, William A. Lucas, Heide Castañeda, Milena A. Melo

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recent scholarship theorizes temporalities as an important part of the migration experience, with temporal insecurity being a crucial element of (im)mobility and inequality via the phenomenon of waiting. In this article, we examine how temporalities and experiences of waiting influence health status and access to care, using ethnographic data to articulate how temporalities impact resources and how a doxa of waiting is enacted, placing some groups at heightened risk of illness and pain compared to others. Drawing upon a sample of 100 immigrant families with mixed legal status living in United States-Mexico border communities, we focus on an understudied area …

Reproductive Inequality In Humans And Other Mammals, John Ziker, Karl J. Mertens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

To address claims of human exceptionalism, we determine where humans fit within the greater mammalian distribution of reproductive inequality. We show that humans exhibit lower reproductive skew (i.e., inequality in the number of surviving offspring) among males and smaller sex differences in reproductive skew than most other mammals, while nevertheless falling within the mammalian range. Additionally, female reproductive skew is higher in polygynous human populations than in polygynous nonhumans mammals on average. This patterning of skew can be attributed in part to the prevalence of monogamy in humans compared to the predominance of polygyny in nonhuman mammals, to the limited …

Investigación Arqueológica: Sitio Buen Suceso, Comuna Dos Mangas, Provincia De Santa Elena. Informe Preliminar. Temporada 2022., Sarah M. Rowe, Guy S. Duke, Sara L. Juengst, Daniela Balanzátegui

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Preliminary report on the 2022 excavation season at Bun Suceso, a Valdivia site located on the coast of Ecuador. Report submitted to the Region 5 Office of the Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural, Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Centring Individual Animals To Improve Research And Citation Practices, Shelly Volsche, Holly Root-Gutteridge, Anna T. Korzeniowska, Alexandra Horowitz

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Modern behavioural scientists have come to acknowledge that individual animals may respond differently to the same stimuli and that the quality of welfare and lived experience can affect behavioural responses. However, much of the foundational research in behavioural science lacked awareness of the effect of both welfare and individuality on data, bringing their results into question. This oversight is rarely addressed when citing seminal works as their findings are considered crucial to our understanding of animal behaviour. Furthermore, more recent research may reflect this lack of awareness by replication of earlier methods – exacerbating the problem. The purpose of this …

A Habitat Stronghold On The Precipice: A Call‐To‐Action For Supporting Lemur Conservation In Northeast Madagascar, Timothy M. Eppley, Cortni Borgerson, Natalie Vasey, Multiple Additional Authors

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The northeast of Madagascar is as diverse as it is threatened. The area bordering the Analanjirofo and SAVA regions contains six protected areas and at least 22 lemur species. Many applied research and conservation programs have been established in the region with the aim of ensuring both wildlife and people thrive in the long term. While most of the remaining humid evergreen forest of northeast Madagascar is formally protected, the local human population depends heavily on the land, and unsustainable natural resource use threatens this biodiversity hotspot. Drawing from our collective experiences managing conservation activities and research programs in northeast …

Contextualizing Patterns In Short-Term Disaster Recoveries From The 2015 Nepal Earthquakes: Household Vulnerabilities, Adaptive Capacities, And Change, Jeremy Spoon, Drew Gerkey, Alisa Rai

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Disaster recovery is multidimensional and requires theoretical and methodological approaches from the interdisciplinary social sciences to illustrate short- and long-term recovery dynamics that can guide more informed and equitable policy and interventions. The 2015 Nepal earthquakes have had catastrophic impacts on historically marginalized ethnic groups and Indigenous households in rural locations, arising in the immediate aftermath and unfolding for years afterward. Analyzing factors that shape household recovery patterns can help identify vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities in addition to signaling potential future changes. We pursue this goal using survey data from 400 randomly selected households in 4 communities over 2 10-week …

Parental Status Influences Human-To-Pet Caregiving Behaviors, Attachment, And Attitudes In A Finnish Sample, Shelly Volsche, Sydney Schultz, Sara Alsaifi, Marika Melamies, Jari Pulkkinen

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

A growing body of literature suggests people are choosing to forego parenthood, bringing companion animals into the home as a focus for people’s attachment and caretaking behavior instead. This emergent “pet parenting” can be defined as the parent-like investment in companion animals and has been linked to countries that are experiencing or have experienced the Second Demographic Transition (SDT) marked by subreplacement fertility, changing marriage norms, increased educational attainment, and a flexible life orientation no longer focused solely on reproduction. In this research, we sought to determine if Finland, a country where the SDT has already been evidenced, is also …

Uncomfortable Yet Necessary: The Impact Of Ppe On Communication In Emergency Medicine, Jennifer Aengst, Grace A. Walker-Stevenson, Tabria Harrod, Jonathan Ivankovic, Jacob Neilson, Jeanne-Marie Guise

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: The efficacy of pre-hospital emergency services is heavily dependent on the effective communication of care providers. This effective communication occurs between providers as part of a team, but also among providers interacting with family members and patients. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a number of communication challenges to emergency care, which are primarily linked to the increased use of PPE.

Methods: We sought to analyze the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on Emergency Medical Service (EMS) workers and pre-hospital care delivery. We conducted focus groups and one-on-one interviews with fire-EMS first responders between Sept 2021 and 2022. Interviews …

Mobility Interrupted: A New Framework For Understanding Anti-Left Sentiment Among Brazil’S “Once-Rising Poor”, Benjamin Junge, Sean T. Mitchell, Charles H. Klein, Matthew Spearly

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

How do sequences of upward and downward socioeconomic mobility influence political views among those who have “risen” or “fallen” during periods of leftist governance? While existing studies identify a range of factors, long-term mobility trajectories have been largely unexplored. The question has particular salience in contemporary Brazil, where, after a decade of extraordinary poverty reduction on the watch of the leftist Workers’ Party (PT), a subsequent period of economic and political crises intensified anti-PT sentiment. This article uses original data from the 2016 Brazil’s Once-Rising Poor (BORP) Survey, using a 3-city sample of 822 poor and working-class Brazilians to analyze …

Factors Influencing Terrestriality In Primates Of The Americas And Madagascar, Timothy M. Eppley, Selwyn Hoeks, Colin A. Chapman, Joerg U. Ganzhorn, Katie Hall, Megan A. Owen, Dara B. Adams, Néstor Allgas, Multiple Additional Authors

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Among mammals, the order Primates is exceptional in having a high taxonomic richness in which the taxa are arboreal, semiterrestrial, or terrestrial. Although habitual terrestriality is pervasive among the apes and African and Asian monkeys (catarrhines), it is largely absent among monkeys of the Americas (platyrrhines), as well as galagos, lemurs, and lorises (strepsirrhines), which are mostly arboreal. Numerous ecological drivers and species-specific factors are suggested to set the conditions for an evolutionary shift from arboreality to terrestriality, and current environmental conditions may provide analogous scenarios to those transitional periods. Therefore, we investigated predominantly arboreal, diurnal primate genera from the …

Development Of The Cooperative Adoption Factors Instrument To Measure Factors Associated With Instructional Practice In The Context Of Institutional Change, John P. Ziker, Brittnee Earl, Karl Mertens, Susan E. Shadle

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Many institutional and departmentally focused change efforts have sought to improve teaching in STEM through the promotion of evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs). Even with these efforts, EBIPs have not become the predominant mode of teaching in many STEM departments. To better understand institutional change efforts and the barriers to EBIP implementation, we developed the Cooperative Adoption Factors Instrument (CAFI) to probe faculty member characteristics beyond demographic attributes at the individual level. The CAFI probes multiple constructs related to institutional change including perceptions of the degree of mutual advantage of taking an action (strategic complements), trust and interconnectedness among colleagues …

What Happened To The “New Middle Class”? The 2016 Borp (Brazil’S Once-Rising Poor) Survey, Benjamin Junge, Sean T. Mitchell, Charles H. Klein, David De Micheli

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research note provides a detailed account of the development and implementation of a household survey conducted in 2016 as part of a larger investigation into the lifeways and political subjectivities of Brazil’s “once-rising poor,” the demographic sector comprising poor and working-class people who experienced various forms of socioeconomic mobility in the early twenty-first century. After reflecting on the challenges of maintaining a critical perspective on class labels and relations that were intensely contested at the time, the article introduces the survey sample (n = 1,204), highlighting variables captured. It then establishes the demographic profile, mobility experiences, political values, attitudes, …

Investigación Arqueológica: Sitio Buen Suceso, Comuna Dos Mangas, Provincia De Santa Elena. Informe Preliminar. Temporada 2019, Sarah M. Rowe, Guy S. Duke, Daniela Balanzátegui

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Preliminary report on the 2019 excavation season at Bun Suceso, a Valdivia site located on the coast of Ecuador. Report submitted to the Region 5 Office of the Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural, Guayaquil, Ecuador.

“From The Beginning Of Time”: The Colonial Reconfiguration Of Native Habitats And Indigenous Resource Practices On The British Columbia Coast, Chief Adam Dick (Kwaxsistalla Wathl’Thla), Daisy Sewid-Smith (Mayanilth), Kim Recalma-Clutesi, Douglas Deur, N.J. Turner (Galitsimġa)

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Indigenous Peoples’ lives, cultures, and values are defined largely by their long-term relationships with the lands, waters, and lifeforms of their territories. Their stories, names, ceremonies, and connections with the plants and animals on which they have depended over countless generations are cornerstones of their knowledge systems, systems of governance and decision-making, traditions of intergenerational knowledge transmission, and values and responsibilities associated with natural and human domains alike. For First Nations of North America’s Northwest Coast, as for many other Indigenous Peoples, the arrival of European newcomers disrupted both the natural world and associated cultural practices in interconnected ways. The …

Connecting Palaeopathology And Evolutionary Medicine To Cancer Research: Past And Present, Carina Marques, Zachary Compton, Amy M. Boddy

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Cancer has a significant impact on morbidity and mortality worldwide, with estimates reaching 18.1 million cases in 2018 alone. This chapter reviews the contributions of evolutionary medicine and palaeopathology to oncological research and addresses how these disciplines can conjointly develop models that evaluate how biological, ecological and sociocultural dynamics have prompted the development of cancer across deep time. It highlights that cancer has a long history affecting species across the tree of life, as well as being particularly pervasive in human populations today. While addressing recent advances in comparative oncology and palaeopathology, it discusses how novel environments may contribute to …

Direct Evidence For Geophyte Exploitation In The Wyoming Basin, Kaley Joyce, Lisbeth A. Louderback, Erick Robinson

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In the Wyoming Basin, archaeological sites dating from the Early Archaic to Late Prehistoric are often found associated with or adjacent to dense populations of Cymopterus bulbosus (springparsley), a nutritious geophyte that would have been an important food source for prehistoric humans living in the region. Experimental data have shown that the caloric return rates of C. bulbosus were enough to support seasonal exploitation by foragers, yet there has been no direct evidence for the use of this geophyte from the archaeological record. In this study, we examine starch granules from 10 ground stone tools excavated from two stratified, multicomponent …

Field Research In The Era Of The Islamic State And Trump, William Yaworsky, Dawid Wladyka, Katarzyna Sepielak

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

We survey anthropologists who work in Arab League countries to ascertain their perceptions of fieldwork security conditions. Based on the responses of forty-seven specialists reporting on conditions in 127 field sites, we find the security environment in the Arab League to be diverse. Scholars working in nations such as Morocco, Oman, and Qatar report overwhelmingly favorable research conditions, while their colleagues working in Lebanon and Syria report a largely dismal situation. The paper also queries respondents on their perceptions of the impact that Trump administration policies and rhetoric have on their ongoing field research. Here, we find Arab League specialists …

Madagascar Terrestrial Camera Survey Database 2021: A Collation Of Protected Forest Camera Surveys From 2007–2021, Erin M. Wampole, Brian D. Gerber, Jean Claude Razafimahaimodison, Mahandry Hugues Andrianarisoa, Claude Jacquot Ralazampirenena, Patricia C. Wright, C. Delaid Rasamisoa, Dean Gibson, Natalie Vasey, Multiple Additional Authors

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Madagascar is a threatened global biodiversity hotspot and conservation priority, yet we lack broad-scale surveys to assess biodiversity across space and time. To fill this gap, we collated camera trap surveys, capturing species occurrences within Madagascar into a single standardized database. This data set includes nine distinct protected areas of Madagascar and encompasses 13 subprojects, 38 camera arrays, and 1156 sampling units (independent camera site per survey) within two important biodiversity eco-regions: western dry deciduous forest and eastern humid rainforest. Camera surveys were conducted from June 2007 to January 2021. The final data set includes 17 unique families of mammals …

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Resilience And Persistence In A Klamath Tribal Community, Thomas J. Connolly, Christopher L. Ruiz, Douglas Deur, Perry Chocktoot Jr., Jaime L. Kennedy, Dennis L. Jenkins, Julia A. Knowles

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The process of human culture entails a perpetual negotiation between the familiar and the new. In the Americas, this process was much accelerated and amplified within Native communities by the historical processes of colonization. We use the record of the Beatty Curve archaeological site in south-central Oregon to examine how members of the Klamath Tribes and their ancestors selectively adopted, adapted, or repurposed introduced materials and practices most compatible with traditional lifeways and values while also maintaining many traditional practices, both overtly and covertly. Transformations from pre-contact to reservation life, and through Termination and Restoration in the 20th century, are …

P3k14c, A Synthetic Global Database Of Archaeological Radiocarbon Dates, Erick Robinson

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Archaeologists increasingly use large radiocarbon databases to model prehistoric human demography (also termed paleo-demography). Numerous independent projects, funded over the past decade, have assembled such databases from multiple regions of the world. These data provide unprecedented potential for comparative research on human population ecology and the evolution of social-ecological systems across the Earth. However, these databases have been developed using different sample selection criteria, which has resulted in interoperability issues for global-scale, comparative paleo-demographic research and integration with paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental data. We present a synthetic, global-scale archaeological radiocarbon database composed of 180,070 radiocarbon dates that have been cleaned according …

Dogs Produce Distinctive Play Pants: Confirming Simonet Et Al. (2001), Shelly Volsche, Hannah Gunnip, Cameron Brown, Makayla Kiperash, Holly Root-Gutteridge, Alexandra Horowitz

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Identifying meaningful vocalizations in nonhuman animals can help explain the evolution of human communications. However, non-speech-like sounds, including laughter equivalents, are not well studied, although they may be meaningful. In this pilot study we investigate whether dogs perform a domain-specific pant during play by capturing vocalizations and behaviors during three interactions: training, play, and rest. Sixteen human and dog dyads participated in a session that included all three interactions in the same order: training, play, rest. During these sessions, each partner wore wireless microphones that transmitted to a receiver and digital recorder, while a standalone digital camera captured video of …