Anthropology Commons^™

Solving The Puzzle Of The Archaeological Labyrinth: Time Perspectivism In Mediterranean Surface Archaeology, Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

This chapter critiques the currently embraced paradigm in Mediterranean surface archaeology of regional/settlement pattern studies – seated in flat-time functional metaphysic. As shown by Mediterranean archaeologists, that chronotype does not deal well with either complexity or history. And, attending methods, also as demonstrated by Mediterranean archaeologists, do not consistently accommodate or satisfactorily assign meaning to the varied archaeological landscape. But another formational metaphysic exists and seems better to comprehend the complex, historical world and to acknowledge landscape variation.This chapter argues for approaches to the Mediterranean landscape that accept and embrace a time perspectivism.

Mediterranean Landscape Archaeology Past And Present, Effie F. Athanassopoulos, Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Recent studies of Mediterranean landscapes have emphasized their diversity, their fragmentation, and the high degree of contact between their diverse areas, that is, their connectivity (Horden and Purcell 2000). Moreover, the Mediterranean landscape record is recognized for its length and richness and the opportunity it offers to study long-term interaction between humans and their landscape, however landscape is defined. At the same time, the particular histories of archaeological perspectives that have dominated fieldwork in the region make it difficult to compare with other areas, for example, the New World. Thus, with this volume, our intent is to address issues of …

Artifact, Landscape, And Temporality In Eastern Mediterranean Archaeological Landscape Studies, Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Intensive survey over the last several decades has detailed an archaeological surface record in the Mediterranean that Cherry (1983:395, emphasis in original) describes as "likely to consist of a virtually continuous spatial distribution of material over the landscape, but a distribution extremely variable in density." In addition, geoarchaeological work, often coupled with survey, has demonstrated just how dynamic Mediterranean surfaces have been. Both of these field practices, intensive survey and geoarchaeology, were carried out in part to enable regional settlement pattern studies, to collect accurate, reliable, and precise data about past settlements and their location with respect to each other …

Solving Meno’S Puzzle, Defeating Merlin’S Subterfuge: Bodies Of Reference Knowledge And Archaeological Inference, Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

THE MIND OF Lewis Binford is nimble and constantly evolving. In part, one can map Binford's prodigious intellectual growth by looking at the research trajectories of his students, who often continue on paths they began under his tutelage. In my case, certainly, this is very true. When I arrived at the University of New Mexico in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Binford was exploring the nature of the archaeological record: how to understand past human organization at a supra-ethnographic scale, what we might learn from bones and site structure, and how to reliably give meaning to the archaeological record. …

Poison Hunting Strategies And The Organization Of Technology In The Circumpolar Region, Alan J. Osborn

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

INUPIAT ESKIMO WHALERS are allowed to kill up to 50 bowhead whales every year in the arctic waters off Barrow, Alaska. Some of the older bowheads are more than 20 m in length and weigh more than 50 tons. Since 1981 the Inupiat have found at least six lance and harpoon end blades embedded within the thick blubber that insulates these magnificent mammals (Raloff 2(00). These archaeological weapon points included projectiles fashioned from chipped stone, ground slate, ivory, and iron. Wildlife biologists have suspected that whales may live to be quite old. One can only imagine their surprise, however, once …

Niche: A Productive Guide For Use In The Analysis Of Cultural Complexity, Lewis R. Binford

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

THIS CHAPTER EXPLORES some of the interpretative implications of a failure to consider the potential causes for organized variability among cultural systems. The niche concept is considered useful when exploring organizational similarities and differences among cultural systems and central to a productive discussion regarding the differences between living systems that are biologically as opposed to culturally organized. Some interesting issues regarding systems complexity are focused upon through a discussion of mutualism and what is implied by the term when students of cultural systems use the idea.

Women’S Work, Child Care, And Helpers-At-The-Nest In A Hunter-Gatherer Society, Raymond Hames, Patricia Draper

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Considerable research on helpers-at-the-nest demonstrates the positive effects of firstborn daughters on a mother’s reproductive success and the survival of her children compared with women who have firstborn sons. This research is largely restricted to agricultural settings. In the present study we ask: “Does ‘daughter first’ improve mothers’ reproductive success in a hunting and gathering context?” Through an analysis of 84 postreproductive women in this population we find that the sex of the first- or second-born child has no effect on a mother’s fertility or the survival of her offspring. We conclude that specific environmental and economic factors underlay the …

Coping With Hard Times In Nw Iceland: Zooarchaeology, History, And Landscape Archaeology At Finnbogastaðir In The 18th Century, Ragnar Edvarsson, Sophia Perdikaris, Thomas H. Mcgovern, Noah Zagor

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

During a cooperative archaeological project in NW Iceland (Strandasýsla) involving the Icelandic National Museum and Hunter College of the City University of New York.1990 season, a small rescue excavation at the site of Finnbogastaðir generated a quantifiable collection of animal bones dating to the early modern period, mainly to the 18th century. The 18th c was a period of hardship in much of Iceland, with widespread tenantry, adverse climate, and degradation of many terrestrial landscapes posing severe challenges to poor farmers- perhaps most intensely in the Vestfirðir. The animal bone collection from Finnbogastaðir reflects a multi-stranded subsistence economy involving seals, …

Extrinsic Factors That Effect The Preservation Of Bone, Kyle Baxter

Nebraska Anthropologist

This article provides an overview of bone composition and the taphonomic processes that affect the representation of skeletal elements in archaeological deposits. Soil chemistry and composition, bone size, and other variables affect these processes.

Evolutionary Theory In Anthropology: Providing Ultimate Explanations For Human Behavior, Kyle Gibson

Nebraska Anthropologist

This short essay will elucidate one of the main benefits of using an evolutionary approach when studying human behavior; the ability to answer questions ultimately.

Nebraska Anthropologist Volume 19: 2003-2004 Table Of Contents

Nebraska Anthropologist

ARTICLES

1 Evolutionary Theory in Anthropology: Providing Ultimate Explanations for Human Behavior (Kyle Gibson)

4 A Tri-Cultural Look at Legitimacy and Illegitimacy Using an Evolutionary Model (Mara Giles)

16 Comparison of the Traditional and Contemporary Extended Family Units of the Hopi and Lakota (Sioux): A Study ofthe Deterioration of Kinship Structures and
Functions (Benjamin Grant Purzycki)

32 Native American Survival in a Colonial United States (Charles Marr)

38 Extrinsic Factors That Effect The Preservation of Bone (Kyle Baxter)

46 Systemic Nesting Among the Anasazi: AD 900-1140 (Carl G. Drexler)

Sources Of Ancient Maize Found In Chacoan Great Houses, Larry Benson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Between the 9th and 12th centuries A.D., Chaco Canyon, located near the middle of the high-desert San Juan Basin of north-central New Mexico (fig. 1), was the focus of an unprecedented construction effort by pre-Columbian Native Americans. It has been estimated that from 2,000 to 6,000 people occupied Chaco Canyon during its heyday (Windes, 1984; Drager, 1976). One indication of Chaco’s regional importance is a network of roads that linked Chaco Canyon with other great houses and communities spread throughout a region covering at least 60,000 km2 (fig. 2). At the height of its cultural florescence in the 11th century, …

Mobility, Sedentism, And Intensification: Organizational Responses To Environmental And Social Change Among The San Of Southern Africa, Robert K. Hitchcock

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

HUNTER-GATHERER ADAPTATIONS included mobility strategies that were geared toward mapping people on to both resources and other people. There are factors that condition the ways in which people position themselves on the landscape and move over it. Mobility strategies are organizational responses to the structural properties of the natural and social environments (Binford 1980, 2001). The logistical component of a settlement system, in which task-specific groups range out from residential locations for purposes of obtaining food, raw materials, or information, is related to the organization of production of a society as well as to the distribution of critical resources in …

Department Of Anthropology And Geography Self-Study Report To The Academic Planning Committee, Department Of Anthropology And Geography

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

In January of 2001 the Department of Anthropology and the Department of Geography became the Department of Anthropology and Geography. This merger was not requested by members of either unit: it was imposed administratively. Under ideal circumstance, such mergers evolve organically through a history of collaborations from the bottom up. Nevertheless, faculty of each unit had collaborated in a variety of contexts so there was some basis for integration. As one may imagine, one of the first things we set out to accomplish as a newly formed unit was the establishment of a common set of by-laws. After about six …

Systemic Nesting Among The Anasazi: Ad 900-1140, Carl G. Drexler

Nebraska Anthropologist

Over the past 150 years, archaeologists have proposed a number of models and hypotheses to explain the growth andfluorescence of the Anasazi system based in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. This paper gives an overview of some of those models, then explores how World System Theory (WSJ) might be used to understand the social and economic processes at work during the pinnacle of settlement in Chaco Canyon.

Native American Survival In A Colonial United States, Charles Marr

Nebraska Anthropologist

The persecution of Native Americans in the United States has not yet come to an end. There are many policies still in place that lead to the reduction of the unique culture of the Native Americans. This can have disastrous impacts for their own survival and well being. These policies reduce their language, culture, selfdetermination, their knowledge of the environment, and increases their poverty. The United States government can help to solve these problems by eliminating the Bureau of Indian Affairs and forming a think-tank that would be composed of Tribal leaders, lawyers who specialize in Native American Law, and …

Report Of Animal Bones From Selhagi, Mývatn District, Northern Iceland, Thomas H. Mcgovern, Sophia Perdikaris

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

In 2001 the FSl / NABO project Landscapes of Settlement in Northern Iceland collected animal bones from a stratified midden deposit associated with the abandoned site Selhagi on the property of the modern farm Haganes. Selhagi is located in the lushly vegetated lakeshore zone and its environmental setting presents a strong contrast with the eroded uplands to the S of the lake where the early sites at Sveigakot and Hrísheimur are under excavation. Close to both major migratory waterfowl nesting areas and some of the best trout fishing in Iceland, the site would appear to be optimally located for exploitation …

Enterobius Vermicularis: Ancient Dna From North And South American Human Coprolites, Alena M. Iñiguez, Karl J. Reinhard, Adauto Araújo, Luiz F. Ferreira, Ana Carolina P. Vicente

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

A molecular paleoparasitological diagnostic approach was developed for Enterobius vermicularis. Ancient DNA was extracted from 27 coprolites from archaeological sites in Chile and USA. Enzymatic amplification of human mtDNA sequences confirmed the human origin. We designed primers specific to the E. vermicularis 5S ribosomal RNA spacer region and they allowed reproducible polymerase chain reaction identification of ancient material. We suggested that the paleoparasitological microscopic identification could accompany molecular diagnosis, which also opens the possibility of sequence analysis to understand parasite-host evolution.

Socialization Of Boys And Girls In Natural Contexts, Carolyn P. Edwards, Lisa Knoche, Asiye Kumru

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Socialization is the general process by which the members of a cultural community or society pass on their language, rules, roles, and customary ways of thinking and behaving to the next generation. Sex role socialization is one important aspect of this general process. The goals of earlier work were to understand how, why, and at what age girls and boys begin to vary behaviorally along such dimensions as "nurturance," "aggression," and "dependency," including determination of how sex-typical dispositions are influenced by cultural factors. This chapter presents a new approach seeking to answer such questions as the following. How are different …

Preliminary Report Of Animal Bones From Hrísheimur, Mývatn District, Northern Iceland, Sophia Perdikaris, Thomas H. Mcgovern

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

In 2000 and 2001 the FSl / NABO project Landscapes of Settlement in Northern Iceland collected animal bones from the heavily eroded site of Hrísheimur south of lake Mývatn. The 2001 season produced a substantial archaeofauna from a 2 x 2 meter test excavation of a midden deposit that apparently fills a small sunken-feature structure. While further excavations are planned to collect more material and to better understand the deposit and site as a whole, it may be useful to provide an interim overview of the bone materials recovered from the largest context (003) of the midden deposit tested in …

Report Of Animal Bones From Tjarnargata 3c, Reykjavík, Iceland, Sophia Perdikaris, Colin Amundsen, Thomas H. Mcgovern

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

Executive Summary

During rescue excavations in downtown Reykjavík in 1999 nearly 100 kg of well-preserved animal bone was recovered in investigations at Tjarnargata 3 C by Fornleifastofnun Islands (FSÍ) directed by Mjöll Snaesdóttir. This bone collection (or archaeofauna) was largely sieved (4 mm and 1 mm mesh wet screen) and represents one of the largest archaeofauna recovered from Iceland to date. Analysis was carried out at City University of New York’s Northern Science & Education Center’s two zooarchaeology laboratories at Brooklyn College and Hunter College in 2000-01. The analyzed bone materials were returned for long term curation at the National …

Introduction To Endangered Peoples Of Africa And The Middle East : Struggles To Survive And Thrive, Robert K. Hitchcock, Alan J. Osborn

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Endangered Peoples of Africa and the Middle East: Struggles to Survive and Thrive is about human populations residing in Africa and the Middle East, a diverse region that is connected geographically, culturally, and historically. The African continent is vast and covers 11.7 million square miles, or an area slightly larger than the combined area of the United States and South America (Table 1). Today, the African continent is home to some 771 million people distributed within fifty-four separate countries. Of the world's continents, Africa is by far the most diverse culturally. In Sudan, for example, there are over 200 ethnic …

Nebraska Anthropologist Volume 17: 2001-2002 Table Of Contents

Nebraska Anthropologist

1 Battlefield Oddities: Explaining Two Minie Balls from Pea Ridge National Military
Park (156) (DonArp, Jr.)

7 Reliability Assessment of Surface Archaeological Survey Results from Western
Rough Cilicia, Turkey (Melissa Kruse)

18 An Exploration of Possible Causes of High Dropout Rates in Native American
Reservation Schools (Mary Cornelius)

24 Analyzing Anthropogenic Landscapes with GIS and Remote Sensing: A Literature Review (Andi O. Kraft)

29 The Nazis' Archeology (Megan Young)

36 Qumran: Archaeology and Theories of Identification (Ann Putz)

47 A Study of Sign Language in Chimpanzees (Kelli Bacon)

57 The Mythological Role of Gender Ideologies: A Cross-Cultural Sample of
Traditional …

The Ogoni Of Nigeria, A. Olu Oyinlade, Jeffery M. Vincent

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The Ogoni are a minority ethnic people who live in the Western Niger Delta Region of southern Nigeria. During the 1970s, Ogoniland, or the Ogoni Nation, became part of the Rivers State of Nigeria. There are approximately 500,000 Ogoni who represent less than 0.05 percent of Nigeria's 100 to 120 million people. The population density of this region equals 1,233 people per square mile, making it one of the most densely populated areas of Nigeria. Reliable information about the origin of the Ogoni is limited. Archaeological and oral historical evidence suggests that the Ogoni have inhabited the area for over …

Evolving Questions And Comparative Perspectives In Cultural/Historical Perspective: Lessons From Research In Ngecha, Kenya, Carolyn Pope Edwards

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

In studying human development in cultural-historical context, we must integrate multiple levels of analysis and strive to identify culture’s imprint inside the contexts of socialization. Issues of methodology are complex. This paper argues that both comparative and historical-interpretive studies are valuable and indeed generative for each other, using as an example an international, collaborative research project focused on East African women and changing childrearing values. The site was Ngecha, a Gikuyu-speaking community in the Central Province of Kenya, during a period of rapid social change from an agrarian to a wage earning economy shortly after national independence (1968-1973). The experiences …

A Study Of Sign Language In Clump Anzees, Kelli Bacon

Nebraska Anthropologist

One of the hot topics in anthropology concerns the debate over chimpanzee communicative and lingual abilities. This paper will offer evidence gatheredfrom studies by Allen and Beatrice Gardner, Roger Fouts, Maury and Jane Temerlin, Herbert S. Terrace, T G. Bever, and Sheri Roush who all used American Sign Language (Ameslan) to teach their students Washoe, Lucy, Bruno, Booee, Cindy, Thelma, Nim, Moja, Pili, Tatu, Dar, Loulis, and Ally. Each of the studies lfas tailored differently, but many of the results were the same. This, in itself, might be evidence for some level of lingual ability, but some scholars such as …

An Exploration Of Possible Causes Of High Dropout Rates In Native American Reservation Schools, Mary Cornelius

Nebraska Anthropologist

Native American reservation schools have significantly higher dropout rates and lower graduation rates than the national average. Significant problems behind high dropout rates on Native American reservations in the United States include poverty, lack of support from elders and differing expectations and ways of communicating between teachers and students in the classroom. The history of Native American education includes many efforts at assimilation and the destruction of native cultural practices and languages. This still impedes today 's youth in that many elders still see schooling as a tool of assimilation and do not encourage or support success in what they …

Analyzing Anthropogenic Landscapes With Gis And Remote Sensing: A Literature Review, Andi O. Kraft

Nebraska Anthropologist

Anthropogenic landscapes are those that have been modified, to varying degrees, by human. Their development is affected by the over-use of natural landscapes in the past such as overgrazing, frequent fires, or excessive depletion of forests. Anthropologists analyzing land-use intensification are now realizing the promise of geographical information systems (GIS) and remote sensingfor their research. A literature review of case studies done on varying anthropogenic landscapes will highlight how GIS can give practical integration of geographic spatial structures (habitation, soils, river drainage) to past and current relationships between the environment and human systems when combined with local-level knowledge. Research of …

Battlefield Oddities: Explaining Two Minié Balls From Pea Ridge National Military Park, Don Arp Jr.

Nebraska Anthropologist

Two minié ball bullets, each with a different caliber and similar longitudinal lines were recovered at Pea Ridge National Military Park during the fieldwork conducted there in March 2001. Thefunction of these lines was unknown. Several hypotheses were advanced to explain the Irfarkings. However, through detailed mathematic and microscope analysis, it has been determined that the lines were made by the same process and machine and may have served as a point of attachment for an experimental cartridge made of either metal, cloth, or paper. The bullets may have been part of a pre-Civil War experiment and found action in …

The Nazis' Archeology, Megan Young

Nebraska Anthropologist

The Nazi Party found that archeology is a very useful tool in propaganda. The Nazis used it to justify their nationalistic interests, from the conquest of Europe to create the Third Reich to genocidal racial cleansing. They glorified their past to unite the German people and gain their support. However, the people could not have been misled without the cooperation or apathy of German archeologists in general.