Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons^™

Histomorphometry Of The Human Rib Cortex In Methamphetamine Users, Robert Chancey Karinen

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Studies have demonstrated lifestyle choices such as poor diet, insufficient exercise and substance abuse can negatively affect bone health. The purpose of this research is to determine if the tissue pathology associated with long term methamphetamine use is a localized response to poor dental hygiene or an indication of a more systemic response that is discernable in the bone microstructure. A comparison of the rib cortical bone microstructure between males that were known to be methamphetamine abusers (N=18) and individuals who did not abuse the drug was undertaken (N=19). Histomorphometric variables calculated in this analysis included mean osteon size, osteon …

Counting Girls In - Gender Issues In Science And Mathematics: An Examination Of The Research Concerning Innate And Socio-Cultural Gender Differences In The Fields Of Science And Mathematics In An Effort To Promote More Female Participation, Valerie R. Mackin

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

In today's world, there is an increasing demand for people in the technological fields. Fewer females than males pursue careers in physical sciences, engineering, and computer science in the United States presenting a loss of needed mathematicians and scientists. Gender differences related to mathematics and science is a complex arena of study, involving both innate biological differences combined with socially constructed ideas about gender in society. Through an in-depth investigation from educational, cognitive, and social psychology perspectives one will be able to determine how innate and socio-cultural factors contribute to the shortage of needed mathematicians and scientists in the United …

A Tri-Disciplinary Analysis Of Religion, Alicia Wallace

Social Sciences

This paper analyzes religion using a multi-disciplinary approach. Studying the Social Sciences exposes one to an opportunity not just to learn a single discipline, but three, and this unique learning experience can teach one to look at the world’s phenomena with a multi-perspective view. Using a tri-disciplinary approach when exploring topics can broaden ones outlook on how there are many ways to explore and investigate a topic in greater detail. By using Anthropological, Sociological and Geographical theoretical perspectives one can understand a topic more fully by using a multi-perspective approach when exploring this diverse world culturally, socially and physically.

The Importance Of Fallback Foods In Primate Ecology And Evolution, Paul J. Constantino, Barth W. Wright

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

The role of fallback foods in shaping primate ranging, socioecology, and morphology has recently become a topic of particular interest to biological anthropologists. Although the use of fallback resources has been noted in the ecological and primatological literature for a number of decades, few attempts have been made to define fallback foods or to explore the utility of this concept for primate evolutionary biologists and ecologists. As a preface to this special issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology devoted to the topic of fallback foods in primate ecology and evolution, we discuss the development and use of the …

Current Research In Andean Archaeology, Andean Past 9, Juan B. Leoni, Carolina Aguero, Mauricio Uribe, Carlos Carrasco, Leonor Adan, Cora Moragas, Flora Viches, Matthias Strecker, Freddy Taboada, Claudia Rivera, Sergio Calla, Patricia Alvarez, Robert Mark, Ian Wainwright, Mati Raudsepp, Matthew P. Sayre, Natali Luisa Lopez Aldave, J. Lee Hollowell

Andean Past

No abstract provided.

Strange Harvest: A Discussion Of Sacrifice And Missing Body Parts On The North Coast Of Peru, Catherine Gaither, Jonathan Bethard, Jonathan D. Kent, Victor Vasquez Sancbez, Teresa Rosales Tham, Richard Busch

Andean Past

No abstract provided.

Indentation As A Technique To Assess The Mechanical Properties Of Fallback Foods, Peter W. Lucas, Paul J. Constantino, Janine Chalk, Charles Ziscovici, Barth W. Wright, Dorothy M. Fragaszy, David A. Hill, James Jin-Wu Lee, Herzl Chai, Brian W. Darvell, Tony D.B. Yuen

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

A number of living primates feed partyear on seemingly hard food objects as a fallback. We ask here how hardness can be quantified and how this can help understand primate feeding ecology. We report a simple indentation methodology for quantifying hardness, elastic modulus, and toughness in the sense that materials scientists would define them. Suggested categories of fallback foods—nuts, seeds, and root vegetables— were tested, with accuracy checked on standard materials with known properties by the same means. Results were generally consistent, but the moduli of root vegetables were overestimated here. All these properties are important components of what fieldworkers …

Inflammation And Infection Do Not Promote Arterial Aging And Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Among Lean Horticulturalists, Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan, Jeffrey Winking, Daniel Eid Rodriguez, Sarinnapha Vasunilashorn, Jung Ki Kim, Caleb Finch, Eileen M. Crimmins

ESI Publications

Background: Arterial aging is well characterized in industrial populations, but scantly described in populations with little access to modern medicine. Here we characterize health and aging among the Tsimane, Amazonian forager-horticulturalists with short life expectancy, high infectious loads and inflammation, but low adiposity and robust physical fitness. Inflammation has been implicated in all stages of arterial aging, atherogenesis and hypertension, and so we test whether greater inflammation associates with atherosclerosis and CVD risk. In contrast, moderate to vigorous daily activity, minimal obesity, and low fat intake predict minimal CVD risk among older Tsimane.

Methods and Findings: Peripheral arterial …

Arid Climate Decomposition And Decay: A Taphonomic Study Using Swine, James William Munkres

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The present project analyzes the taphonomic processes and variables involved in the decomposition and desiccation of animal remains in an arid/hyper-arid environment. The study and the derived data will assist in determining postmortem intervals for remains in modern contexts, inform judgments made regarding mortuary habits and techniques in archaeological contexts, and will improve our knowledge regarding taphonomic processes. Manner of deposition, the depositional surface/medium and arid-climate specific variables (temperature, water, insect activity, weathering, pH levels, and soil characteristics) were examined in this study. Reported observations are limited to the first ten months following death from early December through early October …

A Bioeconomic Approach To Marriage And The Sexual Division Of Labor, Michael Gurven, Jeffrey Winking, Hillard Kaplan, Christopher Von Rueden, Lisa Mcallister

ESI Publications

Children may be viewed as public goods whereby both parents receive equal genetic benefits yet one parent often invests more heavily than the other.We introduce a microeconomic framework for understanding household investment decisions to address questions concerning conflicts of interest over types and amount of work effort among married men and women. Although gains and costs of marriage may not be spread equally among marriage partners, marriage is still a favorable, efficient outcome under a wide range of conditions. This bioeconomic framework subsumes both cooperative and conflictive views on the sexual division of labor. We test hypotheses concerning marriage markets, …

A Bioarchaeological Study Of Coca Use And Coca Leaf Chewing At Puruchuco-Huaquerones, Peru, Melissa S. Murphy, Maria Fernanda Boza

Andean Past

No abstract provided.

A Biocultural Analysis Of Nubian Fetal Pot Burials From Askut, Sudan, Lauren Britton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The skeletal remains in this study were excavated from the Nubian archaeological island fortress site of Askut (ca. 1850 BC - 1070 BC, New Kingdom/Third Intermediate period), located at the 2nd Cataract of the Nile river in Sudan. These remains were recovered as part of an archaeological expedition from 1962-1964, which was an effort to learn as much as possible about this site before the building of the High Dam in Aswan. Seven fetal skeletons (dated ca. 1260-770 BC) were examined for their biocultural significance. Biological analysis of these individuals indicates a range in developmental age from 36 to 40 …

Historical Perspectives Of The African Burial Ground New York Blacks And The Diaspora, Edna G. Medford

Arts & Sciences Books

The unearthing of the colonial cemetery known historically as the “Negroes Burying Ground” in Lower Manhattan in 1991 has given both scholars and the general public the opportunity to study and comprehend the broad dimensions of the African American experience. The African Burial Ground and the human remains contained within it provide a unique vantage point from which to view New York City’s Africans and their descendants over two centuries. As the final resting place for thousands of enslaved and free black people who lived and labored in the city from roughly 1627 until the end of the eighteenth century, …

The Skeletal Biology Of The New York African Burial Ground (Pt. 1), Michael L. Blakey, Lesley M. Rankin-Hill

Arts & Sciences Books

The New York African Burial Ground was “rediscovered” in 1989 in the process of preparation for the construction of a proposed 34-story federal office building by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) at 290 Broadway in New York City (Ingle et al. 1990). The site for the proposed building was once part of the African Burial Ground that extended “from Chambers Street on the south to Duane Street on the north and from Centre Street on the east to Broadway on the west” (Yamin 2000:vii). A fullscale archaeological excavation was conducted by Historic Conservation and Interpretation (HCI) and John Milner …

The Archaeology Of The New York African Burial Ground (Pt. 1), Warren R. Perry, Jean Howson, Barbara A. Bianco

Arts & Sciences Books

This volume is one of three disciplinary volumes on the New York African Burial Ground Project. One volume focuses on the skeletal biological analysis of the remains recovered from the site (see Volume 1 of this series, Skeletal Biology of the New York African Burial Ground [Blakey and Rankin-Hill 2009a]). Another focuses on the documentary history, from a diasporic perspective, of Africans who lived and died in early New York (see Volume 3 of this series, Historical Perspectives of the African Burial Ground: New York Blacks and the Diaspora [Medford 2009]). The present volume, consisting of three parts, presents the …

The Tadpole Of Hypsiboas Atlanticus (Anura, Hylidae) From Northeastern Brazil, Filipe A. C. Do Nascimento, Marcelo G. De Lima, Gabriel O. Skuk, Rafael O. De Sá

Biology Faculty Publications

The tadpole of Hypsiboas atlanticus (Caramaschi & Velosa, 1996) is described from the municipality of Maceió, State of Alagoas, Brazil. At stage 36 the larvae have an overall elliptical body in lateral and dorsal views, oral disc anteroventral, spiracular tube sinistral, and labial tooth row formula 2(1,2)/3(1). The oral disc is surrounded, almost completely (anterior medial gap present) by a single row of marginal papillae. Described tadpoles of the H. punctatus species group can be differentiated by a combined disc oral features. Additional descriptions of H. punctatus (Schneider, 1799) tadpoles from populations throughout South America may be helpful in determining …

Male Aggression Towards Females In Hamadryas Baboons: Conditioning, Coercion And Control, Larissa Swedell, Amy Schreier

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Fourth Level Of Social Structure In A Multi-Level Society: Ecological & Social Functions Of Clans In Hamadryas Baboons, Amy Schreier, Larissa Swedell

Publications and Research

Hamadryas baboons are known for their complex, multi-level social structure consisting of troops, bands, and one-male units (OMUs) [Kummer, 1968]. Abegglen [1984] observed a 4^th level of social structure comprising several OMUs that rested near one another on sleeping cliffs, traveled most closely together during daily foraging, and sometimes traveled as subgroups independently from the rest of the band. Abegglen called these associations “clans” and suggested that they consisted of related males. Here we confirm the existence of clans in a second wild hamadryas population, a band of about 200 baboons at the Filoha site in lowland Ethiopia. During …

The Influence Of Fallback Foods On Great Ape Tooth Enamel, Paul J. Constantino, Peter W. Lucas, James J.-W. Lee, Brian R. Lawn

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

Lucas and colleagues recently proposed a model based on fracture and deformation concepts to describe how mammalian tooth enamel may be adapted to the mechanical demands of diet (Lucas et al.: Bioessays 30[2008] 374-385). Here we review the applicability of that model by examining existing data on the food mechanical properties and enamel morphology of great apes (Pan, Pongo, and Gorilla). Particular attention is paid to whether the consumption of fallback foods is likely to play a key role in influencing great ape enamel morphology. Our results suggest that this is indeed the case. We also consider the implications of …

The Archaeology Of The New York African Burial Ground (Pt. 2): Descriptions Of Burials, Warren R. Perry, Jean Howson, Barbara A. Bianco

Arts & Sciences Books

No abstract provided.

The Archaeology Of The New York African Burial Ground (Pt. 3): Appendices, Warren R. Perry, Jean Howson, Barbara A. Bianco

Arts & Sciences Books

No abstract provided.

Glossolalia Influences On Stress Response Among Apostolic Pentecostals, Christopher Dana Lynn

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study tests the hypothesis that long–term experience of Apostolic Pentecostal glossolalia or “speaking in tongues” reduces the reactivity of biological stress response to normal or "daily" stressors. Glossolalia is a form of religious dissociation. Dissociation is a universal capacity often conflated with “trance.” It refers to the partitioning of awareness associated with a variety of cross–cultural forms, from daydreaming and denial to possession trance, shamanic spirit journeys, and dissociative identity disorder. Dissociation is believed to reduce or filter stress by mediating evaluation of potential stressors and reactivity of the mechanisms of biological stress response. Previous studies have examined these …

Messengers From The Past, Anastasia Tsaliki

Anastasia Tsaliki

Participation in this documentary directed by Gianni Minelli and produced by Zeeva Production in English and in Italian.

"On September 26th, 1997, a violent earthquake shook central Italy. The effects were devastating. Television stations from all over the world broadcasted images of the incomparable artistic heritage that risked being destroyed forever. In Monsanpolo del Tronto, a small town in the Marches, the earthquake damaged the beautiful church Maria Santissima Assunta. A few years later, during the restoration of the church, a sensational discovery was made: twenty perfectly preserved mummies from the middle of the sixteenth century wearing their original clothes. …

The New York African Burial Ground: Unearthing The African Presence In Colonial New York: Vol 1, Skeletal Biology Of The New York African Burial Ground, Michael Blakey

Michael Blakey

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Bacvarov K. (Ed.) 2008. Babies Reborn: Infant/Child Burials In Pre- And Protohistory. Proceedings Of The Xv World Congress Uispp (Lisbon, 4-9 September 2006) 24, Bar S1832., Anastasia Tsaliki

Dr Anastasia Tsaliki, PhD

No abstract provided.