Anthropology Commons^™

A Web-Based Interactive Tool For Multi-Resolution 3d Models Of A Maya Archaeological Site, G. Agugiaro, Fabio Remondino, Gabrio Girardi, Jennifer Von Schwerin, H. Richards-Rissetto, Raffaele De Amicis

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Continuous technological advances in surveying, computing and digital-content delivery are strongly contributing to a change in the way Cultural Heritage is “perceived”: new tools and methodologies for documentation, reconstruction and research are being created to assist not only scholars, but also to reach more potential users (e.g. students and tourists) willing to access more detailed information about art history and archaeology. 3D computer-simulated models, sometimes set in virtual landscapes, offer for example the chance to explore possible hypothetical reconstructions, while on-line GIS resources can help interactive analyses of relationships and change over space and time. While for some research purposes …

Tanning Predicts Bone Mass But Not Structure In Adolescent Females Living In Hawaii, Daniel L. Osborne, Connie M. Weaver, Linda D. Mccabe, George P. Mccabe, Rachel Novotny, Carol Boushey, Dennis A. Savaiano

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Objectives: To evaluate the relationship between facultative skin pigmentation, which predicts circulating levels of plasma 25-hydroxymitamin D, and several measures of bone mass and structure in a cross sectional sample of adolescent females living in Hawaii.

Methods: Our sample was composed of adolescent females (n = 94) living in Hawaii where seasonal sun exposure is minimal, and who self-identified as either white (n = 16) or Asian (n = 78). Bone mineral content (BMC) of the total body, the lumbar spine and the hip, and cross sectional area (CSA) and section modulus (Z) at the …

Hierarchy And Social Inequality In The American Southwest, A.D. 800-1200, Stephen Plog, Carrie Heitman

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico has been the focus of much recent archaeological research on Pueblo groups who lived during the 9th through 12th centuries in the American Southwest. Here, we examine variation in mortuary patterns in the canyon, focusing in particular on one mortuary crypt, to address questions of social differentiation and the chronology of important sociopolitical processes. Based on new radiocarbon dates as well as reanalysis of the stratigraphy and spatial distribution of materials in the mortuary crypt, we conclude that significant social differentiation began in Chaco ca. 150–200 y earlier than suggested by previous research. We …

Time Diary Versus Instantaneous Sampling: A Comparison Of Two Behavioral Research Methods, Michael Paolisso, Raymond B. Hames

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The accurate collection of unbiased behavioral data is an important component of theory building and ethnographic research. In this article, the authors review two approaches for the collection of behavioral data: time diary and instantaneous sampling. Time diary requires individuals to recall their behavior at specific time intervals; instantaneous sampling relies on researchers observing and recording the behavior of individuals. Each approach has specific strengths and weaknesses. The authors review recent methodological literature on both approaches, identify particular problems with both approaches, and contrast their respective methodological strengths and weaknesses.

Life In The Truck Lane: Urban Development In Western Rough Cilicia, Nicholas K. Rauh, Rhys F. Townsend, Michael C. Hoff, Matthew Dillon, Martin W. Doyle, Cheryl A. Ward, Richard M. Rothaus, Hülya Caner, Ünal Akkemik, Luann Wandsnider, F. Sancar Ozaner, Christopher D. Dore

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

What combination of forces precipitated urban development in the ancient Mediterranean world? Are the remnants of such forces identifiable in the archaeological record? Since the Mediterranean basin presented itself as an ethnically diverse region where goods and services were transported largely by water, to what degree was urban development at the local level stimulated by the expansion of overseas empires? More specifically, does a ›world system‹ theoretical construct adequately address the phenomenon of urban development in the ancient Mediterranean world? This construct has gained significant popularity with those attempting to explain the pace and scale of development in the pre-classical …

A Pilot Study Into The Effects Of X-Ray And Computed Tomography Exposure On The Amplification Of Dna From Bone, Britta M. Grieshaber, Daniel L. Osborne, Alison F. Doubleday, Frederika A. Kaestle

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

This research investigates the intersection of radiography and aDNA, two commonly used methods in bioarchaeology. The goal of this project was to investigate the effects of radiation on the ability to amplify DNA from bone. Bones (n = 124) from domestic pig (Sus scrofa) feet were randomly sorted into a control group and four treatment groups: (1) single exposure X-ray; (2) single exposure CT; (3) multiple exposures X-ray; and (4) multiple exposures CT. Number of PCR cycles required to amplify DNA in 100 bp, 200 bp and 400 bp segments were used as a proxy for the …

The Role Of Basketry In Early Holocene Small Seed Exploitation: Implications Of A Ca. 9,000 Year-Old Basket From Cowboy Cave, Utah, Phil R. Geib, Edward A. Jolie

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Despite ranking at the low end of the continuum in net caloric benefit relative to other foods, small seeds assumed great dietary importance in many parts of the world, including western North America. In a series of publications, Adovasio (1970a, 1974, 1980, 1986) argued that coiled basketry technology was invented in the eastern Great Basin during the early Holocene as a specialized food-processing technique. Coiled baskets are indeed useful for collecting and processing seeds, but it does not necessarily follow that they were originally designed for this purpose. A whole basket recently discovered at Cowboy Cave in southeastern Utah returned …

Archaeoparasitology, Karl J. Reinhard, Adauto Araújo

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Parasites are the major cause of ill health and early death in the world today. Malaria, sleeping sickness, amoebic dysentery, and hookworm infection are examples of commonplace parasitic diseases that are endemic in most parts of the world (see Health, Healing, and Disease). They were significant threats in prehistory, especially in cultures whose social complexity outstripped the development of effective sanitation, hygiene, and germ theory awareness.

Burials: Dietary Sampling Methods, Karl J. Reinhard, Vaughn M. Bryant, Jr.

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The analysis of burials for botanical and zoological remains evidence of diet is a proven method of nondestructive analysis in the mortuary setting. The value of such analyses is directly dependent on sampling strategies that must include a number of control samples.

Time-Averaged Deposits And Multi-Temporal Processes In The Wyoming Basin, Intermontane North America: A Preliminary Consideration Of Land Tenure In Terms Of Occupation Frequency And Integration., Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Archaeological time perspectivism encompasses the notion that archaeological deposits are formed through the operation of processes occurring at a variety of tempos over the short, medium, and long term (Bailey 1981, 1983, 1987, 2007, this volume). The processes involved may be behavioral, social, formational, organizational, or evolutionary, to name a few. Through their operation, material consequences may be immediate, lagged, or follow after some threshold is breached. Moreover, interaction may occur among and between different processes, depending on whether they operate at approximately the same scale (Bailey 1983; Fletcher 1995).

A corollary of the first statement is that different archaeological …

Time In Archaeology: An Introduction, Simon J. Holdaway, Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Lifeway reconstruction is listed as one of the objectives of "World Prehistory," the ubiquitous course taught in universities and colleges the world over (e.g., Fagan 1995:8). It complements well the other subdisciplines of anthropology, at least for beginning anthropology students, offering them a familiar approach to foreign material: if cultural anthropologists study the behavior of present-day (or at least near-to-present-day) peoples, then archaeologists may be expected to deal with peoples' behavior from the past. Certainly, some archaeologists study the past aided by textual records, and some cultural anthropologists are interested in past historical experience. But this overlap only enhances the …

References For Time In Archaeology: Time Perspectivism Revisited, Simon J. Holdaway, Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

22 pages of reference bibliography for the 2008 anthology of articles on archeology, methodology, and time.

Archeological Survey Within The Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Murray County, Oklahoma, Alan J. Osborn, Ralph J. Hartley

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Introduction

The Midwest Archeological Center (MWAC), National Park Service in Lincoln, Nebraska was contacted by the staff of the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur, Oklahoma to request assistance in the completion of an archeological survey of areas that would be impacted by future renovations, rehabilitations, and upgrades of facilities within Chickasaw NRA. These projects include: 1) installation and/or replacement of twenty-two 18’ steel culverts along back country roads; 2) the installation of thirteen vault toilets; 3) rehabilitation of the comfort station near Buffalo Springs; 4) installation of a electrical conduit and solar panel at Antelope Springs; 5) upgrade of …

Dental Health At Oakwood Mound, Will County, Illinois, Daniel L. Osborne

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Human dentitions from Oakwood Mound were examined to ascertain dental health in this population. Attrition rate, carious lesions, and antemortem tooth loss were scored for each adult. No significant differences were present between the aforementioned variables by age or sex. The attrition rate supports the hypothesis that the individuals interred in Oakwood Mound shared similar subsistence strategies. The prevalence of carious lesions suggests a dependence on carbohydrates as a major dietary resource. High rates of antemortem tooth loss also may have resulted from reliance on this food source, although this connection is not as direct as the caries data. These …

Age Discrepancies With The Radiocarbon Dating Of Sagebrush (Artemisia Tridentata Nutt.)., Phil R. Geib

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

When ancient hearths at open archaeological sites do not yield carbonized annual plant remains or other highquality samples, wood charcoal is commonly used for radiocarbon dating. Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt.), a shrub frequently used for fuel across much of the western United States, seems a potentially better candidate for 14C dating than tree wood since the possibility for significant age discrepancy might be less. A comparison of multiple assays from single features reveals that sagebrush can overestimate age more than even tree wood charcoal. A plausible cause of this appears to be persistence of the shrub on the ground surface …

In-Law Conflict: Women’S Reproductive Lives And The Roles Of Their Mothers And Husbands Among The Matrilineal Khasi, Donna L. Leonetti, Dilip C. Nath, Natabar S. Hemam, Evelyn Blackwood (Comment By), Patricia Draper (Comment By), Harald A. Euler (Comment By), Mhairi A. Gibson (Comment By), Mark R. Jenike (Comment By), R. Khongsdier (Comment By), Karen L. Kramer (Comment By), B. T. Langstieh (Comment By), Kimber Haddix Mckay (Comment By), Gillian Ragsdale (Comment By), Eckart Voland (Comment By)

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Human behavioral ecologists have shown that the reproductive lives of women are affected by both their husbands and the grandmothers of their children. Study of the combined effect of the roles of the husbands and mothers of 650 Khasi women aged 16–50 years supports the ideas that the reproductive agendas of husbands may require more than women want to invest and that mothers provide support and protective services to their daughters and grandchildren. In the absence of the woman’s mother, the husband’s agenda appears to have more influence on her reproductive career. In a cooperative vein, women’s mothers may contribute …

Review Of The Archaeology Of Chaco Canyon: An Eleventh-Century Pueblo Regional Center, Edited By Stephen H. Lekson, Carrie Heitman

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The Archaeology of Chaco Canyon is one of two synthesis volumes resulting from the National Park Service Chaco Project (1971-1982) (see also Mathien 2005). As the capstone to that project, this volume has much to offer the student of Chaco and those interested in the intellectual history and trajectories of archaeological theory. From 1999 to 2004, Stephen Lekson (and many others) organized six working conferences to address different dimensions of Chacoan prehistory. Broadly called the Chaco Synthesis, the topics included ecology and economy, architecture, the organization of production, the Chaco world, and so- ciety and polity and concluded with a …

Re-Evaluating The “House” In Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, Carrie Heitman

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

IN RECENT YEARS, a growing number of archaeologists have explored the potential of Claude Lévi-Strauss’s concept of “house societies.” His and subsequent works describe ethnographic contexts where people are organized through houses ranked according to their age and connection to ancestors. Using Puebloan ethnographic literature and cross-cultural comparisons, the house model helps to draw out the symbolic meaning of Chaco-era architecture. Looking specifically at the classificatory distinction between “great houses” and “small houses” in Chaco Canyon (A.D. 850–1180), my research compares the evidence for house creation, manifestation, maintenance, and abandonment in both great and small house contexts. Using data generated …

Landscapes Of Settlement In Northern Iceland: Historical Ecology Of Human Impact And Climate Fluctuation On The Millennial Scale, Thomas H. Mcgovern, Orri Vesteinsson, Adolf Fridriksson, Mike Church, Ian Lawson, Ian A. Simpson, Arni Einarsson, Andy Dugmore, Gordon Cook, Sophia Perdikaris

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Early settlement in the North Atlantic produced complex interactions of culture and nature. The sustained program of interdisciplinary collaboration is intended to focus on ninth- to 13th-century sites and landscapes in the highland interior lake basin of M´yvatn in Iceland and to contribute a long-term perspective to larger issues of sustainable resource use, soil erosion, and the historical ecology of global change.

Conducting Cross-Cultural Research In Teams And The Search For The “Culture-Proof” Variable, Patricia Draper

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Objective: Cross-cultural research must always deal with the problem that meaning systems and behaviors cannot be readily compared from one culture to the next because the sociocultural context can vary so widely.
Design: The organizers of Project AGE: Age, Generation, and Experience, a multicultural study of aging, recognized this problem and devised instruments for studying age that allowed for cultural variation as well as comparability at higher levels of abstraction. The principal investigators of Project AGE and the individual researchers made every effort to gain an emic understanding (understanding based on categories recognized by the local respondents) of people’s attitudes …

Paleo-Indians, Alan J. Osborn

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

First paragraph:

Paleo-Indians were the earliest people to inhabit the Americas. Between thirty and eleven thousand years ago, small, highly mobile groups of huntergatherers extended their hunting areas throughout Beringia (the landmass that joined Siberia and Alaska) and into the Western Hemisphere. This “bridging landmass” emerged slowly from beneath the Bering Sea as more than nine million cubic miles of glacial ice accumulated over southern Alaska, Canada, Labrador, and Greenland. About twenty to eighteen thousand years ago an immense “ice dome” (the Laurentide glacier) towered more than one mile over present-day Hudson Bay. Two lobes of ice spread southward over …

The Ecologically Noble Savage Debate, Raymond Hames

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Debate around the ecologically noble savage represents two markedly different research threads. The first addresses the issue of conservation among native peoples and narrowly focuses on case studies of resource use of ethnographic, archaeological, or historic sources. The second thread is broader and more humanistic and political in orientation and considers the concept of ecological nobility in terms of identity, ecological knowledge, ideology, and the deployment of ecological nobility as a political tool by native peoples and conservation groups.

Human Modifications To The Landscape Of Hunt And Sheep Mountains, Wyoming: Exploring Socially Constructed Space, Ralph J. Hartley

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Abstract The cultural topography of two adjacent mountain tops in the northern Bighorn mountain range of the state of Wyoming, USA, is examined through several field and computer aided techniques. Socially constructed space, as reflected in cumulative architectural features through time, was initially revealed by high resolution aerial photography of the mountain tops. Features observed included clusters of stone circles, solitary rock structures commonly known as vision quests, and various sized rock cairns. Field mapping of all features with high resolution GPS allowed exploratory analysis of spatial relationships of stone circles using categorical data and tessellation models in GIS. The …

Houses Great And Small: Reevaluating The 'House' In Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, Carrie Heitman

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

In recent years, a growing number of archaeologists have explored the potential of expanding Lévi-Strauss’ concept of house societies to better understand specific archaeological contexts. Looking specifically at the classificatory distinction between “great houses” and “small houses” within Chaco Canyon (A.D. 850–1180), I suggest this theoretical model might yield new insights with regard to four symbolic dimensions of house construction: the use of wood, directional offerings, resurfacing practices, and the bones of ancestors. Using Puebloan ethnographic literature and cross-cultural comparisons, I suggest a house model analysis may serve to integrate anomalous “ceremonial” dimensions of house construction in an effort to …

Review Of Indigenous Use And Management Of Marine Resources By Nobuhiro Kishigami And James M. Savelle, Editors. Osaka: National Museum Of Ethnology, 2005, 455 Pp., Alan J. Osborn

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Book review of Indigenous Use and Management of Marine Resources, by Nobuhiro Kishigami and James M. Savelle, editors. Published in Osaka, Japan by the National Museum of Ethnology in 2005, 455 pages.

Understanding Chaco: A Digital, Archival Approach, Stephen Plog, Carrie Heitman

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

MANY ASPECTS OF Chacoan prehistory remain unclear due to the inaccessibility of unpublished excavation records and photographs for the earliest excavations and explorations. As a result, key unanswered questions about the nature of Chaco itself and individual Chaco villages and towns—small- rather than large-scale issues—have become more, rather than less, significant over time. Despite the magnitude of the excavations at Pueblo Bonito and Pueblo del Arroyo and the amount and range of materials recovered, our knowledge of why these sites were built and how they were used remains remarkably uncertain or, at best, highly contested. To explore some of these …

Changes In Co-Survivorship Of Adult Children And Parents: Ju/'Hoansi Of Botswana In 1968 And 1988, Patricia Draper, Nancy Howell

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Our study addresses these issues in a sociological microcosm that makes questions about population aging particularly interesting. The group on whom we report are the Ju|'hoansi (!Kung) of western Ngamiland, part of the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. They constitute a noteworthy case for several reasons. Discussion of modernization and its impact on the lives of elderly in traditional society has focused most often on agricultural and peasant societies, rather than on economically simpler groups such as hunter gatherers1). Ju|'hoansi, though now living in permanent settlements, have a recent past of mobile hunting and gathering. Over the past sixty years, Ju|'hoansi …

Modeling For Management In A Compliance World, Christopher D. Dore, Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

In practice, compliance-driven cultural resource “management” and its requirements for resource location, evaluation, impact assessment, and mitigation manifests a fundamentally different use of geospatial predictive modeling than do research-oriented investigations. This difference primarily results from the lack of an iterative research design. In research-oriented modeling, iterations of model building and model testing gradually build a more robust model and lead to an increased understanding of the variables that condition human spatial behavior in the past. In a compliance environment, spatial models are rarely built and evaluated; rather, once built, they are applied in a single iteration. An assumption is made …

Pollen Concentration Analysis Of Ancestral Pueblo Dietary Variation, Karl J. Reinhard, Sherrian Edwards, Teyona R. Damon, Debra K. Meier

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Previous coprolite research on the Colorado Plateau has shown that macrofossils are a useful way of statistically demonstrating prehistoric dietary variation of Ancestral Pueblos (Anasazi). Up until now, pollen concentration from human coprolites has not been used for comparative, statistical study. We present here the statistical analysis of pollen concentration values of coprolites from two Ancestral Pueblo sites, Salmon Ruin and Antelope House. The data show that although most pollen types do not show statistically significant variation, there are some types that show how different Ancestral Pueblo populations adapted to plant resources in different environments. The analysis indicates that future …

Success In Identification Of Experimentally Fragmented Limb Bone Shafts: Implications For Estimates Of Skeletal Element Abundance In Archaeofaunas, Travis Rayne Pickering, Charles P. Egeland, Amy G. Schnell, Daniel L. Osborne, Jake Enk

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

A strong pattern of high hindlimb representation (especially tibiae) was recognized in our survey of zooarchaeological analyses that included limb bone shafts in estimates of element abundance in assemblages from the Old and New Worlds, from widely spread time periods and with various hominid species that acted as bone accumulators. Inter-element differences in bone mineral density and carcass transport behavior by hominids do not explain the pattern satisfactorily. We hypothesized that shaft fragments of hindlimb elements (especially tibiae) might be more “intrinsically identifiable” than are fragments from other limb bones, and constructed an experiment to test this idea. Whole limb …