Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons^™

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, …

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.

Out Of Africa: Origins Of The Taenia Tapeworms In Humans, Eric P. Hoberg, Nancy L. Alkire, Alan De Queiroz, Arlene Jones

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Phylogenetic and divergence date analyses indicate that the occurrence of Taenia tapeworms in humans pre-dates the development of agriculture, animal husbandry and domestication of cattle (Bos spp.) or swine (Sus scrofa) Taeniid tapeworms in Africa twice independently colonized hominids and the genus Homo prior to the origin of modern humans. Dietary and behavioural shifts, from herbivory to scavenging and carnivory, as early Homo entered the carnivore guild in the Pliocene/Pleistocene, were drivers for host switching by tapeworms to hominids from carnivores including hyaenids and felids. Parasitological data provide a unique means of elucidating the historical ecology, foraging behavior …

Review Of The Prehistoric Pueblo World A.D. 1150-1350, Edited By Michael A. Adler. Tucson: The University Of Arizona Press, 1996. 279 Pages, Alan J. Osborn

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Excerpt:

This volume provides the reader with very useful summaries and overviews of the archaeological record for the prehistoric Pueblo III period. It also introduces the reader to a broad range of research topics-models of demographic change, population aggregation, local and regional “abandonment,” architectural variation, settlement layout(s), living space, aspects of community integration, ceramic assemblages, land-use practices, carrying capacity, conflict, exchange, and macro regional interaction-that have been addressed recently in this area. In addition, this volume contains data about settlement numbers, sizes, and distributions for seventy-the districts within twelve regions. Districts were delineated on the basis of archeological patterns, established …

Costs And Benefits Of Monogamy And Polygyny For Yanomamö Women, Raymond B. Hames

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

In this paper I analyze some of the economic costs and benefits of monogamy and polygyny for Yanomamö women. The evolutionary ecological model of resource defense polygyny predicts that when female choice is operative females will choose those males who control resources that will maximize a female’s reproductive success. A female will choose a polygynous strategy (i.e., become a co-wife) if a currently married male has more resources to offer than other unmarried males or monogamous males. This model has been successfully used to predict polygynous mating in tribal societies where males are stratified in terms of their ownership or …

Review Of Skeletal Biology In The Great Plains: Migration, Warfare, Health, And Subsistence, Edited By Douglas W. Owsley And Richard L. Jantz. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. 415 Pages., Alan J. Osborn

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

First paragraph:

The editors and contributors to this large, impressive volume present thirty-two chapters that deal with Great Plains skeletal biology. The goal of these diverse investigations was to derive critical information from human skeletal remains about past inhabitants of the Plains, including prehistoric and historic Indians, as well as Euro-Americans. These contributions are organized topically into five parts: (1) archaeology; (2) demography and paleopathology; (3) biological distance measures and skeletal morphology; (4) diet and subsistence strategies; and (5) warfare. The studies represent the collaborative efforts of archaeologists, physical anthropologists, ethnologists, ethnohistorians, and physical scientists. A major impetus for these …

Bioarchaeology And Cod Fisheries: A New Source Of Evidence, Thomas Amorosi, Thomas H. Mcgovern, Sophia Perdikaris

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

Archaeological excavations in the North Atlantic basin over the past two decades have recovered large amounts of fishbones from datable deposits extending back over 8000 years in some areas. Coverage of the last 1000 years (with particular emphasis on the climatic cooling of the “Little Ice Age”) is increasingly complete. Recent research makes it possible to reconstruct live lengths from commonly recovered fishbone elements. Preliminary findings indicate that cod of 1 to 1.5 m were being regularly taken in the eleventh to nineteenth centuries throughout the North Atlantic. Changes in fish size and mix of species taken probably reflect technological …

Temporal And Spatial Dietary Variability In The Prehistoric Lower And Middle Osmore Drainage: The Carbon And Nitrogen Isotope Evidence, Karin L. Sandness

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Skeletal material from six sites representing human occupation in the Osmore drainage of southern Peru, circa A.D. 50 to 1400, was analyzed for carbon and nitrogen isotopes. The δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values observed in the study indicate-spatial and temporal variability in diet. Specimens from the lower valley are, in general, more positive in both carbon and nitrogen than those of the middle valley, with the most positive values being present in specimens from the coastal Chiribaya site, San Geronimo. The data suggest, however, that all populations in the drainage experienced shifts in diet through time. Samples …

An Isolated Storage Vessel At Site 42sa20779 In Glen Canyon National Recreation Area: Adaptive Storage And Caching Behavior In The Prehistoric Southwest, Anne M. Wolley, Alan J. Osborn

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

This report documents the excavation and analysis of a large, isolated ceramic vessel discovered in the spring of 1988 in the Hite Marina area of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah Project #89-NA-051N. Several college students from Western State College in Colorado (Dean Brian, Matt How, Cathy Arvey, and Mike Donaldson) were hiking in the area when Dean Brian discovered the pot. Aware of the possible significance of such a find, Matt How immediately contacted Park Archaeologist Kris Kincaid and informed her of the vessel's location. Matt later returned with his family, Micky and JoNell How, when archaeologists Kincaid and …

Helminth Parasites Of Coprolites, Scott Lyell Gardner, Karen H. Clary

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Parasites from Bighorn Sheep Cave coprolites were examined for the presence of parasites using standard methods. Both Toxascaris and Enterobius were identified from coprolites recovered from the cave. Both human and non-human coprolites were identified.

An Attribute Analysis Of Sandy Lake Ware From Norman County And North Central Minnesota, Lynelle A. Peterson

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Sandy Lake Ware, is a Late Woodland-Early Historic ceramic ware, found throughout northern Minnesota and parts of North Dakota, Wisconsin, Ontario, and Manitoba. No formal analysis of this ware has occurred since its definition by Cooper and Johnson in 1964. As a result, the basic information regarding the attributes, the interrelationship between attributes, and factors leading to variation within Sandy Lake Ware are poorly understood.

This thesis analyses the relationship between between attributes from 1459 vessels collected in Norman county, and north central Minnesota, using the chi square statistical method of analysis. This thesis also tests the implicit assumption of …

Sex Differences In The Recognition Of Infant Facial Expressions Of Emotion: The Primary Caretaker Hypothesis, Raymond B. Hames, Wayne A. Babchuk

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Although much research has been devoted to studying sex differences In functioning (e.g., Maccoby and Jacklin 1974), most efforts have been directed toward documenting or elucidating the proximate causes of sex differences. Few attempts have been made, however, to explain the ultimate causes of these differences or the selective pressures that have led to the development or psychological differences between males and females [for exception see Symons (1979) and Daly and Wilson (1983)]. Toward this end of blending psychology with evolutionary theory we develop what we call the " primary caretaker hypothesis," which predicts that the sex that through evolutionary …

Osborn's Response To Yesner (Maritime Hunter-Gatherers: Ecology And Prehistory), Alan J. Osborn

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

First two paragraphs:

Yesner's paper reiterates a major concern of the symposium "Man the Hunter" (Lee and DeVore 1968a)-the need to develop generalizations which accommodate the behavioral variability exhibited by hunter-gatherers, past and present. Much of the literature, Yesner reemphasizes, fails to deal adequately with groups characterized by "atypical" variations in energy flow, technological complexity, population density, sociopolitical organization, and so forth. He focuses on a subset of foragers and collectors (Binford 1980) that appears to be among the most aberrant- "maritime" hunter-gatherers.

While Yesner provides insight into the recent literature on exploitation of marine environments and expresses ephemeral concern …

Early Ceramic Period Sites In Northeastern Nebraska, Raymond S. Price

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

The Central Plains has become an increasingly important  area of archeological research during the last half century.  The major culture complexes have been identified, the chronological sequences of these cultures have been determined, and  the general framework or Central Plains prehistory has been  outlined. Three main time periods are recognized for the Central Plains on the basis of a combined stratigraphic and  dendrochronological study (Ohampe, 1946). These three general  time divisions are, identified as beginning with the oldest: the Lithic, the Ceramic, and the Historic Periods. The Ceramic Period is further divided into the Early, Middle, and  Late divisions. The …