Anthropology Commons^™

The Invisible Plant Technology Of Prehistoric Southeast Asia: Indirect Evidence For Basket And Rope Making At Tabon Cave, Philippines, 39-33,000 Years Ago., Hermine Xhauflaira, Sheldon Jago-On, Timothy James Vitales, Dante Manipon, Noel Amano, John Rey Callado, Danilo Tandang, Celine Kerfant, Omar Choa, Alfred Pawlik

Sociology & Anthropology Department Faculty Publications

A large part of our material culture is made of organic materials, and this was likely the case also during prehistory. Amongst this prehistoric organic material culture are textiles and cordages, taking advantage of the flexibility and resistance of plant fibres. While in very exceptional cases and under very favourable circumstances, fragments of baskets and cords have survived and were discovered in late Pleistocene and Holocene archaeological sites, these objects are generally not preserved, especially in tropical regions. We report here indirect evidence of basket/tying material making found on stone tools dating to 39–33,000 BP from Tabon Cave, Palawan Philippines. …

The Exploitation Of Toxic Fish From The Terminal Pleistocene In Maritime Southeast Asia: A Case Study From The Mindoro Archaeological Sites, Philippines, Clara Boulanger, Alfred Pawlik, Sue O'Connor, Anne-Marie Sémah, Marian C. Reyes, Thomas Ingicco

Sociology & Anthropology Department Faculty Publications

Representatives of the Diodontidae family (porcupinefish) are known to have been fished by prehistoric Indo-Pacific populations; however, the antiquity of the use of this family is thus far unknown. We report here on the presence of Diodontidae in the archaeological sites of Bubog I, II, and Bilat in Mindoro, Philippines, dating back to c. 13,000 BP (Before Present). This evidence demonstrates the early exploitation by islanders of poisonous fish. Every part of porcupinefish can be toxic, but the toxicity is mostly concentrated in some organs, while other parts are edible. The continuous presence of Diodontidae remains throughout the stratigraphic record …

Anth 103: Introduction To Archaeology, Timothy Pugh

Open Educational Resources

This course introduces the methods that archaeologists utilize to reconstruct cultural developments of the past and traces the origins of complex social organization in various locations throughout the world. Beginning with the earliest evidence of stone tool production (ca. 2 million years ago), we will examine the interrelationship of complex social organization, population growth, the development of agriculture, writing, social inequality, and cities.

Gendered Crafts In The Great Salt Lake Desert: A Comparative Analysis Of Late Holocene Cordage And Coiled Basketry, Marion Coe

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Research

Perishable artifacts are invaluable tools for reconstructing past lifeways of hunter-gatherers, and when preserved in arid settings, they can inform on dynamic interactions between communities and the environment. Many such materials were recovered from early archaeological surveys in Utah and Nevada but were largely excluded from contemporary analyses because of small sample sizes, their fragmentary nature, and insecure proveniences. This synchronic reanalysis of cordage and coiled basketry from 10 late Holocene sites in the Great Salt Lake Desert utilizes newer approaches to perishables analysis so as to collect data more conducive to statistical comparisons of subsistence and craft traditions absent …

Marginal To Whom? Reflections On Gow’S "Purús Song", Magnus Course

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This paper constitutes a personal exploration of the impact of the work of Peter Gow on my own attempts to think through specific ethnographic problems, both in the Mapuche communities of Southern Chile and the Gaelic communities of Western Scotland. I focus in particular on how Gow’s lesser-known essay “Purús Song” inverts received wisdom about the relationships between center and periphery, and between nation-state and Indigenous people. I see this as one iteration of Gow’s broader aim of letting ethnographic realities transform theoretical complacencies.

Indigenous Transformations In The Comunidad Nativa: Rethinking Kinship And Its Limitations In An Expanding Resource Frontier, Evan Killick, Juan Pablo Sarmiento Barletti

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In Of Mixed Blood, Peter Gow sets out an account of the transformations of kinship and the construction of social relations among Indigenous, mainly Yine (Piro), people of the Bajo Urubamba valley in the early 1980s, when Peru’s “Comunidades Nativas” (“Native Communities”) were receiving their new official titles. We revisit Peter’s proposition by comparing it our more recent ethnographic engagements with Indigenous Asháninka/Ashéninka communities in the region. While tracing continuities from his observations, we also show how social relations now play out in different ways, as certain important resources have become scarcer and the need for …

An Amazonianist And His History, Victor Cova, Juan Pablo Sarmiento

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

No abstract provided.

‘One Piro Man I Knew Well’: A Brief Commentary On An Amazonian Myth And Its History, Leif Grunewald

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This is a book review for An Amazonian myth and History, to the special volume to honor Peter Gow.

Civilized Elders And Isolated Ancestors: The Multiple Histories Of Contemporary Amazonia, Casey High

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In this article I consider the impact of Peter Gow’s writing on indigenous histories as a key area of research on Amazonia. Building on his study of kinship as history on the Bajo Urubamba (1991) he presented a regional perspective on the dynamic social categories by which Amazonian people understand their relations with various “others.” Focusing on indigenous agency and modes of thought, Gow challenged certain lines of historical thinking that dominated anthropology at the time. I explore how his ethnographic approach to history has influenced a generation of regional scholarship, including my own work on memory and social transformation …

Desire, Difference, And Productivity: Reflections On “The Perverse Child” And Its Continued Relevance, Christopher Hewlett

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article is concerned with the relationships through which children have been born, raised, and made into Amahuaca people over the past 75 years, and within contemporary Native Communities on the Inuya River since their formation beginning in the 1980s. The process of making children into kin among Amahuaca people is similar to that described throughout much of lowland South America. The production, preparation, and sharing of proper food (manioc, plantains, fish, and game) as well as manioc beer are central aspects of sociality and the formation of specific kinds of bodies. While the processes of sharing substances, demonstrating care, …

Review: Of Mixed Blood, Luis Felipe Torres

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

The review revises the most inportant concepts of the book Of Mixed Blood.

Between Cocama And Modernity In The Ucamara (Peruvian Amazon), Marta Krokoszyńska

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Combining a contemporary ethnographic perspective with a review of historical records, the article extends Peter Gow’s re-reading of the ex-Cocama phenomenon in the Western Amazon. It argues that the foundation of the Amazonian Peruvian town of Requena at the beginning of the 20th century took place during an important historical moment in the region. Within the post-rubber boom context, schools became a particularly important idiom that enabled Requena’s growth as the centre of education and modernity. The paper investigates relations between the widespread desire for education in the Ucamara region, and Cocama descendants’ and other “ribereño” ex-Mainas peoples’ specific notions …

Archaeological Investigations At The Cruz Bay Public Cemetery In St. John, Us Virgin Islands, Kate A. Crossan, A. Brooke Persons, Mary Davis, Megan Kleeschulte, Giovanna Vidoli

Jeffrey L. Brown Institute of Archaeology Reports

The Jeffrey L. Brown Institute of Archaeology (JBIA) of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) in partnership with the Forensic Anthropology Center (FAC) of the University of Tennessee Knox-ville (UTK) performed archaeological monitoring and data recovery to remove and relocate burial features near the Cruz Bay Public Cemetery within the Cruz Bay Historic District in Cruz Bay, St. John, US Virgin Islands. The current Area of Potential Effect (APE) for the cemetery excavations targets the portion of the historic Cruz Bay Public Cemetery impacted by the Cruz Bay Underground project, encompassing 132 m (433 ft) of conduit excavations within …

Estimating The Minimum Number Of Individuals (Mni) For Skeletal Collections With Consideration To The Introduction Of Procurement Bias, M. Elizabeth Dyess, T. Heil

2023 Symposium

Of the competing methods for the estimation of the number of individuals represented within a skeletal assemblage, variations of the calculation of MNI (Minimum Number of Individuals) are most often employed. This presentation provides the preliminary results of an exhaustive study designed to determine the minimum number of individuals represented within a collection of 1,065 skeletal elements and fragments, belonging to the Eastern Washington University Anthropology Program. Results produced by established methods of computation were reinterpreted to account for the introduction of Procurement Bias in the calculation of MNI.

The Silent Grave: A Geophysical Investigation Of The Brush Arbor Cemetery In Starkville, Mississippi, Kathryn Cassidy Jean Rayburn

Theses and Dissertations

The Brush Arbor Cemetery is an early-to-late 19th century Black cemetery that was also the meeting place of one of the first Black church congregations in Starkville, Mississippi. The cemetery has suffered greatly from structural violence and degradation. Utilizing Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), this research has revealed important information about the Brush Arbor Cemetery. The results of the GPR survey suggest there are 54 potential unmarked burials in addition to 35 marked burials. The Viewshed analysis suggests that the likely meeting place of the church congregation is in complete view of the white Odd Fellows Cemetery directly across the street. …

Compromised Health: Examining Growth And Health In A Late Antique Roman Infant And Child Cemetery, Sierra Malis

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the relationship between growth, growth disruption, and skeletal indicators stress amongst juveniles (n=60) interred at the Late Antique infant and child cemetery at Poggio Gramignano (PG) (ca. 5th century CE), associated with a rural agricultural community. Growth disruption – evidenced by decreased long bone length compared to dental age – and stress experience – evidenced by skeletal stress indicators – were compared to those within juveniles from two urban Roman-era cemeteries (n=66), Villa Rustica (VR) (0-400 CE) and Tragurium City Necropolis (TCN) (400-700 CE). Results indicate that the PG juveniles had significantly smaller femoral lengths-for-age than VR …

Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers In The Philippines—Subsistence Strategies, Adaptation, And Behaviour In Maritime Environments, Alfred Pawlik, Riczar Fuentes

Sociology & Anthropology Department Faculty Publications

Archaeological research in the Philippines has produced a timeline of currently over 700,000 years of human occupation. However; while an initial presence of early hominins has been securely established through several radiometric dates between 700 ka to 1ma from Luzon Island; there is currently little evidence for the presence of hominins after those episodes until c. 67 to 50 ka for Luzon or any of the other Philippine islands. At approximately 40 ka; anatomically modern humans had arrived in the Philippines. Early sites with fossil and/or artifactual evidence are Tabon Cave in Palawan and Bubog 1 in Occidental Mindoro; the …

Excavating The Strata Of (Some) Of Archaeology's Problems And Applying Feminist Solutions, Kristin M. Dew

Honors College Theses

Over the past thirty years, feminist scholars in archaeology have gained a foothold in the discipline. Conkey and Spector's “Archaeology and the Study of Gender” (1984) is often credited with being the turning point for the topic of gender in archaeology. Still, there is more ground to gain. I argue for a fully engendered archaeology by understanding that achieving this will be difficult due to the past and current sociopolitics of American archaeology. Historically, mainstream archaeology has viewed feminist epistemologies, like those on which gender archaeology is based, as simply a standpoint, creating a disconnect identifying their importance. Despite these …

Using Digitally-Based Recording Techniques To Manage Large Datasets In Real Time, Jessica Kowalski

TFSC Publications and Presentations

Second Annual University of Arkansas Teaching and Learning Symposium: Sharing Teaching Ideas

Managing digital data is a critical part of any archeological investigation or research project. Students in the 2023 University of Arkansas Archeological Field School learned how to record digital data in real-time using iPads in conjunction with an inventorying database designed for the Arkansas Archeological Survey.

Dental Microwear Of Miocene Primates From The Turkana Basin Of Northern Kenya, Leah K. Myerholtz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Comprehending the dietary patterns of Turkana Basin primates from the late Paleogene and early Neogene can contextualize the role of food choice in the evolution of higher primates in Africa. Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA) quantifies wear on the enamel of a tooth and can be used as a proxy to infer aspects of a taxon’s diet in the past. DMTA can provide insight into what specific animals in the past ate, rather than what they were capable of eating, and by extension, reflect food availability related to habitat preferences or environmental fluctuation. Here, primates from six Oligocene through Pliocene …

The Process And Me: Creating A Film About Archaeology, Jack Woods '23

Honor Scholar Theses

The film I created is entitled “The Bomb: The 2022 Trasimeno Regional Archaeological Project.” It documents the research methods used to ethically excavate an archaeological site and presents Professor Rebecca Schindler and Pedar Foss’s research from Castiglione del Lago, Italy. The stakes of the project are as follows: I wanted to create an entertaining documentary about the process of ethically excavating an archaeological dig site through the 2022 Trasimeno Regional Archaeology Project (TRAP) in Castiglione del Lago, Italy. This thesis contains three parts: Analysis of Archaeology in the Media, where I analyze two TV shows about archaeology as the main …

Geophysical, Archaeological, And Geospatial Investigations At Presidio Los Adaes, 18th Century Capital Of Spanish Texas, Robert Linam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Presidio Los Adaes (16NA16), located in present day northwest Louisiana, served as the capital of Spanish Texas for much of the 18th century. Maps and historical documents provide architectural plans for the fort and other buildings on the site but differ in the size and location of several buildings. In 2009, a geophysical survey of the site with ground penetrating radar, magnetometry, electrical resistance, and electromagnetic induction showed good preservation of architectural foundations. Visual assessment of the maps and geophysical data, information from archaeological excavations, and spatial statistics suggests that the fort was originally built as specified by the architect, …

The Variability Of Age Between Townhouse And Residential Burials For Cherokee Of The Southern Appalachian Region, Madeline Lopez-Elwell

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper explores how age relates to the burial practices of the Cherokee people and the structures that are significant to this aspect of their culture. It supports the assertion that, at a certain age Cherokee males gain enough prestige to be buried with structures that reflect that. In this specific capstone, I will analyze at what age males gain social status within the Southern Appalachian Cherokee. To do this analysis, I will examine various variables such as sex and non-perishable grave goods and the relationship with burial places. Using the Symbolic Interactionism theory to emphasize the significance of Cherokee …

Spirits And Spirituality: Temperance And Racial Uplift In Nineteenth-Century Nantucket, Ma, John T. Crawmer

Graduate Masters Theses

Studies of alcohol consumption have shown alcohol’s role in defining social boundaries based on class and ethnicity, but few have interrogated alcohol in the context of race. During the early-19th century, free black communities were encouraged to refrain from alcohol as part of a larger project of racial uplift. Black societies and churches perceived intemperance as not only immoral but a threat to community survival. Excavations of the Nantucket African Meeting House noted a considerable lack of alcohol bottles, but it was unclear whether temperance was equally observed at the neighboring Boston-Higginbotham House. This research uses a minimum number of …

Sisters And Stewards: Women And Community-Building At The African Meeting House On Nantucket, Ma, Sean A. Fairweather

Graduate Masters Theses

Despite the underrepresentation of the achievements of Black women in the historical record, scholars have recognized the centrality of their participation in social institutions such as the church. This thesis uses a documentary archaeology approach to highlight the tactics employed by Black and other women of color on Nantucket Island to foster community through the Black Baptist church housed in the African Meeting House during the nineteenth century. In the free but racially marginalized neighborhood of New Guinea, the African Meeting House was one of two churches that facilitated dignity and uplift for its members. The maintenance of the church …

The Role Of Sharks In The Human Ecological Systems Of Isla Cedros, Baja California, Alyssa Canoff

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Remains of sharks are found worldwide in various archaeological contexts, but generally, the relationships between humans and sharks have been rare research topics. This thesis will present and discuss the shark remains found during the archaeological investigations at Isla Cedros, an island off the Pacific coast of the Baja California peninsula. I will discuss the distinct species of sharks in the assemblage, the types of remains, the contexts they were found in, and incorporate what is known about each species to interpret the diverse types of relationships humans have with sharks at Cedros. By incorporating human-behavioral ecology and symbolic behavior …

Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis For Archaeological Site Detection: A Case Study For The Chicama Valley, Peru, Cesca Craig

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study represents a first attempt at applying geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) for the detection of extant archaeological sites in the Chicama River Valley located in northern coastal Peru. This region is characterized by the presence of mound-like archaeological sites dispersed throughout large-scale agricultural fields. High-resolution multispectral imagery from Planet Labs was used in this study because of its high spatial and temporal resolution and availability at no cost through Planet’s Education and Research Program. The main goal for this study was to explore GEOBIA as an approach to archaeological site detection and assess the feasibility of developing exportable …

Experimental Methodologies In Assessing Ceramic Shrinkage In Residual Fingerprints For Archaeological Application, Luke Aaron Burnor

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This research evaluates the extent of ceramic shrinkage using a natural clay source that was locally available and known to be used by native populations in the American Southwest. The experiment took into account variables of temper mixture and firing temperature to assess the extent and potential need for shrinkage calibration in archaeological biometric research (specifically fingerprints). An experimental design was employed to test shrinkage rates while accounting for natural temper materials found frequently in the archaeological record including sand, grog, and quartz. The experiment evaluated whether shrinkage rates may have skewed data collected in previous studies regarding sex and …

San Pasqual Valley; Reexamination Of An Archaeological Collection Using Non-Invasive And Invasive Techniques, Ariana Yanez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This thesis will focus on re-evaluating the CA-SDI-09674 collection at San Pasqual Battlefield State Historic Park. The purpose of the research is to provide more evidence that supports the preservation of the archaeological and indigenous record within archaeological sites. Research with noninvasive techniques will include macro botanical analysis, re-examination of archaeological collections, and if permitted, invasive techniques such as radiocarbon c-14 dating. The purpose of analyzing charcoal samples is to comprehend a chronology of occupation within SPB-SHP. The macro botanical analysis would provide insight into the natural resources that were available within the area during the precontact habitation of the …

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

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.