Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons^™

Understanding The Increased Prevalence Of Autism In The United States, Jenna Marie Mendes

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Striking Out And Digging In: A Bioarchaeological Perspective On The Impacts Of The Wari Expansion On Populations In The Peruvian Central Highlands., Christine M. Pink

Doctoral Dissertations

The Wari empire emerged near the present day city of Ayacucho, Peru around AD 600 and collapsed approximately 400 years later. There is no doubt that Wari influence was widespread in the Andes; however, the extent to which the empire successfully integrated regional territories is not as well understood. This study examined the impact of the rise and fall of the Wari empire on the structure of interaction between populations hypothesized to have been within its sphere of influence. The relative frequencies of cranial non-metric traits were used to explore biological affinities among 17 populations that lived during and after …

Paleodemography Of The Larson Site (39ww2) Cemetery: How Age-At-Death Methods Influence Model Estimation, Rebecca Taylor

Doctoral Dissertations

The Arikara are one of the last Native American tribes to have direct contact with Europeans. Prior to westward expansion of Euro-American settlers, the Arikara served as middlemen in a complex trade network that brought European goods to the Upper Plains in exchange for fur and food items. In the 18^th century with a growing European presence in the region, the Arikara experienced drastic bio-cultural and socio-political destabilization leading to population decline. However, these transitions are unclear because of limited written records prior to the early 19^th century. Several hypotheses have been proposed to account for the near …

Nonparametric Discriminant Analysis In Forensic Ancestry Estimation: An Assessment Of Utilized And Alternative Statistical Methods, David Anthony Mercer

Masters Theses

This thesis evaluates and compares the performances of four discriminant analysis techniques in forensic ancestry estimation using craniometric variables. Giles and Elliot (1962) were the first anthropologists to use discriminant analysis for ancestry estimation. They used Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) in an attempt to predict American White, American Black, and American Indian ancestry from craniometric variables. LDA has since been the dominant discriminant technique used for this purpose. It is the method that is exclusively used in FORDISC (Ousley and Jantz, 2005) and, until recently, was the only method applied to forensic craniometric ancestry estimation.

LDA, however, assumes the data …

Testing For The Effects Of Locomotion On Intraspecific Variability In The Prosimian Skeleton, Ethan Lucas Fulwood

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Chronologies Of Pain And Power: Violence, Inequality, And Social Control Among Ancestral Pueblo Populations (Ad 850-1300), Ryan Patrick Harrod

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Analysis of human remains in the Greater Southwest offers important insights into mechanisms underlying cultural processes, human adaptability as well as behavioral flexibility and resilience in the face of change. Data collected from human remains from several sites throughout the Four Corners region of the Greater Southwest provides information on the ways that violence and social inequality were used to maintain a regional complex between AD 850 to AD 1300. Human remains were used to provide empirical data on biological (age, sex, stature, and robusticity) and cultural (mortuary context, burial practice, and site layout) identity. Skeletal remains provided information on …

Morphometric Analysis Of Acetabular Rim Shape Among Ancient Mongolian Pastoralists, Jacqueline T. Eng, Andrew Baker, Pingbo Tang, Shannon Thompson, Jamie M. Gomez

Faculty Research and Creative Activities Award (FRACAA)

The adoption of nomadic pastoralism may have marked new physiological stresses to the hip for the bipedally-adapted human rider. Relatively few studies have examined differences in acetabular shape resulting from long-term equestrianism. Steppe populations of Mongolia began a nomadic pastoral lifestyle during the Late Bronze Age, which has persisted to the present day, with whole communities of men, women, and children riding horses as part of their lifeway.

Foreigners Among The Dead At Túcume, Peru: Assessing Residential Mobility Using Isotopic Tracers, Barbara R. Hewitt

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Inhabited from the Late Intermediate Period (A.D. 1000-1470) until the time of Spanish conquest, Túcume was a religious and ceremonial site that was transformed over time into a major urban centre. Archaeological excavations at Túcume have revealed that hundreds of individuals were victims of human sacrifice at the site, where their remains were interred in distinct groupings that are most likely defined by the motivation behind different sacrificial rites. This research employs biogeochemical, archaeological and ethnohistoric data to explore residential mobility related to human sacrifice in and around the site of Túcume, Peru.

This dissertation has two primary foci: one …

Dental Microwear Analysis Of Fossil Parapapio And Theropithecus From Makapansgat Cave, South Africa, Haley V. Sheehy

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Household Task Delegation Among High-Fertility Forager-Horticulturalists Of Lowland Bolivia, Jonathan Stieglitz, Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan, Paul L. Hooper

ESI Publications

Human kin cooperation is universal, leading researchers to label humans as “cooperative breeders.” Despite widespread interest in human cooperation, there has been no systematic study of how household economic decision making occurs. We document age and sex profiles of task delegation by parents to children ages 4–18 among Bolivian forager-horticulturalists. We test for sex differences in the probability of delegation and examine whether tasks are more likely delegated as household labor demand increases. We also test whether food acquisition tasks are more likely delegated to higher producers.We find mixed support for the prediction that girls are more likely delegated domestic …

Physical Activity And Modernization Among Bolivian Amerindians, Michael Gurven, Adrian V. Jaeggi, Hillard Kaplan, Daniel Cummings

ESI Publications

Background: Physical inactivity is a growing public health problem, and the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality. Conversely, indigenous populations living traditional lifestyles reportedly engage in vigorous daily activity that is protective against non-communicable diseases. Here we analyze physical activity patterns among the Tsimane, forager-horticulturalists of Amazonian Bolivia with minimal heart disease and diabetes. We assess age patterns of adult activity among men and women, test whether modernization affects activity levels, and examine whether nascent obesity is associated with reduced activity.

Methods and Findings: A factorial method based on a large sample of behavioral observations was employed …

Tree Climbing And Human Evolution, Vivek V. Venkataraman, Thomas S. Kraft, Nathaniel J. Dominy

Dartmouth Scholarship

Paleoanthropologists have long argued—often contentiously—about the climbing abilities of early hominins and whether a foot adapted to terrestrial bipedalism constrained regular access to trees. However, some modern humans climb tall trees routinely in pursuit of honey, fruit, and game, often without the aid of tools or support systems. Mortality and morbidity associated with facultative arboreality is expected to favor behaviors and anatomies that facilitate safe and efficient climbing. Here we show that Twa hunter–gatherers use extraordinary ankle dorsiflexion (>45°) during climbing, similar to the degree observed in wild chimpanzees. Although we did not detect a skeletal signature of dorsiflexion …

Fetal-Pelvic Disproportion And Pelvic Asymmetry As A Potential Cause For High Maternal Mortality In Archaeological Populations, Sarah Stansfield

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Females of childbearing age are overrepresented in the population of the Kellis 2 cemetery (100-450 AD) in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt (Wheeler 2009). The demographic overrepresentation found here may be the result of complications related to childbirth. Clinical literature demonstrates that fetal size is rarely an explanation for failed labor (Cunningham et al. 2001) and the fetuses buried in the Kellis 2 Cemetery at the Dakhleh Oasis were not larger than average (Tocheri et al. 2005), directing the focus to dimensions of the maternal pelvis for evidence of obstetrical issues, such as abnormally compressed pelvises. To formulate a test for …

Genetic Diversity Of North American Captive-Born Gorillas (Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla), Noah D. Simmons, Ronald S. Wagner, Joseph G. Lorenz

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are designated as critically endangered and wild populations are dramatically declining as a result of habitat destruction, fragmentation, diseases (e.g., Ebola) and the illegal bushmeat trade. As wild populations continue to decline, the genetic management of the North American captive western lowland gorilla population will be an important component of the long‐term conservation of the species. We genotyped 26 individuals from the North American captive gorilla collection at 11 autosomal microsatellite loci in order to compare levels of genetic diversity to wild populations, investigate genetic signatures of a population bottleneck and identify …

Advice, Influence, And Independence: Adolescent Nutritional Practices And Outcomes In Belfast, Northern Ireland, Jennifer L. Williams

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

The goal of this dissertation is to discuss relationships between the sociocultural environment and nutritional status outcomes in an urban industrialized city with high rates of poverty. The purpose is to highlight the complex web of factors shaping nutritional status outcomes and move beyond cause and effect approaches to nutrition in an environment where obesity is a central nutritional concern. To accomplish this goal, I examine a range of factors that relate to adolescent nutritional practices and nutritional status outcomes in a sample population of adolescents living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I discuss connections between social locations such as age, …

'Deviant' Burials In Archaeology, Jesslyn E. Hodgson

Anthropology Publications

The term ‘deviant’ is used to describe burials that deviate from the normative burial rites of a given society, at a given point in time. The problem with applying such a term to the archaeological record rests predominantly in the fact that the term ‘deviant’ has a negative connotation. This negative connotation insinuates that the individual in the burial context may have been viewed by their society in a negative light, however, through analysis of case studies it is shown that many ‘deviant’ burials are not in fact burials of people viewed as deviant, but ‘different’ burials given to people …

Socioeconomic Differences In Body Mass Index, Neighborhood Satisfaction, Stress, And Perceived Racism Among African Americans In Metropolitan Detroit, Corey Zolondek

Wayne State University Dissertations

This exploratory study tested the research hypothesis that among African Americans in Metropolitan Detroit, neighborhood satisfaction, stress and perception of racism influence obesity differently based on income. The three expected results for the data were as follows: income does not have a link to obesity; links between BMI and the study variables (neighborhood satisfaction, stress, and perceived racism) vary according to income category; and the study variables (neighborhood satisfaction, stress, and perceived racism) influence the variability of BMI differently according to income category. The results indicate that there are no income differences in how the study variables influence obesity. Therefore, …

Getting Your Bell Rung: Analyzing The Concussion Lawsuits Against The National Football League From Former Players, Joshua P. Monroe

Joshua P Monroe

There has been a great and divisive conflict between the National Football League and its former players about head injuries. Former players are claiming negligence by the league in the addressing the issues of head injuries. This paper investigates the argument by both sides in past, present, and possible future litigation, and further explores head injuries. This article explains that the current litigation, while useful, will not succeed because of its obscurity and the presumptions that it makes regarding concussions. This article proposes a new lawsuit that would combine aspects of the Major Tobacco Settlement Agreement of 1998 and the …

Concrete Shroud, Jake Reller, Mariah Tate Klemens

Occam's Razor

Concrete shroud is an exhibition originating from a dialogue between the two artists, culminating in a series of lectures written by Mariah Tate Klemens and Jake Reller.

Community, Culture And Identity In An Age Of Globalization, Katie Wiggins

Occam's Razor

As we move further into the age of globalization, we are seeing changes not only at a global level but at individual and communal levels; changes that we cannot wholly identify but that we recognize in ourselves. We are adapting to a global world, one that is affecting our identity and culture and, as we attempt to hold on to this identity and still converse with a larger world, we ultimately are forced to reshape our identities. Some may wonder what this will mean for the future and to what extent it affects us as individuals and communities. To answer …