Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons^™

An Investigation Of The Phylogenetic Affinities Of Sivaladapidae Within Adapoidea, Kathleen Rust

Theses and Dissertations

This study presents a phylogenetic analysis incorporating 82 dental characters to clarify the evolutionary relationships of Sivaladapidae within the broader context of Adapoidea. Results suggest that sivaladapids share a close evolutionary relationship with European adapoids.

Handedness And The Oldowan Tool Industry: Is Preferential Right-Handedness A Relic From Our Evolutionary Past?, Jessica Dymon

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Although there is literature on psychological, anthropological, and biological reasons for global preferential right-handedness, there has yet to be literature studying the connection among these three disciplines. The goal of this pilot study is to shed light on the correlation of handedness and Oldowan tool manufacturing in order to provide direction for future study. By taking a cross-disciplinary perspective on evolutionary advantages, genetics, and brain lateralization, it is believed researchers may be able to understand why 90% of the human population is preferentially right-handed. This study concludes that there is a correlation between handedness and toolmaking efficiency, and that further …

Playing It Cool: Characterizing Social Play, Bout Termination, And Candidate Play Signals Of Juvenile And Infant Tibetan Macaques (Macaca Thibetana), Kaitlin R. Wright, Jessica A. Mayhew, Lori K. Sheeran, Jake A. Funkhouser, Ronald S. Wagner, Li-Xing Sun, Jin-Hua Li

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Play behaviors and signals during playful interactions with juvenile conspecifics are important for both the social and cognitive development of young animals. The social organization of a species can also influence juvenile social play. We examined the relationships among play behaviors, candidate play signals, and play bout termination in Tibetan macaques (Macaca

thibetana) during juvenile and infant social play to characterize the species play style. As Tibetan macaques are despotic and live in groups with strict linear dominance hierarchies and infrequent reconciliation, we predicted that play would be at risk of misinterpretation by both the individuals engaged in the play …

Missing The Point: Identifying Perishable Projectiles In The Archaeological Record From Bone Damage, Sara R. Wingert

Honors Student Research

For decades, archaeologists have used replicative studies to develop a better understanding of prehistoric technology. Many replicative studies have focused on the manufacture and use of stone projectiles, resulting in a detailed understanding of the design of hunting weapons in relation to various features of the environment and, in turn, elegant explanations for technological change over time. Yet if ethnographic accounts are any indication, lithic technology was only one (perhaps minor) part of many prehistoric technological systems. It is likely, then, that the technological changes archaeologists commonly document through their morphometric analysis of stone projectile points occurred against a backdrop …

The Structural Violence Of Maya Sacrifice: A Case Study Of Ritualized Human Sacrifice At Midnight Terror Cave, Belize, C. L. Kieffer Nail

Anthropology ETDs

The site of Midnight Terror Cave is located in the karstic Roaring Creek Valley near the village of Springfield in the Cayo District of Belize. The site was discovered in 2006 and fieldwork was conducted by the Western Belize Regional Cave Survey Project and California State University, Los Angeles, between 2008 and 2010. This dissertation focuses on the osteological analysis of the bones of 118 individuals recovered and recorded at the site. The osteological, contextual, and demographic evidence is framed within ritual and costly signaling theory of structural violence and viewed with the ethnohistoric and ethnographic literature of the ancient …

Laboratory Manual Ant 101: Introduction To Biological Anthropology, Susan L. Johnston

Anthropology & Sociology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reconstructing Landscape Use Patterns Using Strontium Isotope Ratios, Marian Irene Hamilton

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation uses modern habitats and fauna to model the variability and predictive power of strontium isotope ratios in identifying dispersal patterns in primates and habitat preference in primate and non-primate fauna. It concludes that there are significant isotopic differences between gallery forest and xeric grassland habitats in the same area and that these differences are reflected in fauna with habitat preferences for one or the other. It also identifies the most reliable methodological approaches for identifying the philopatric and dispersing sex in primate communities. Finally, it applies this methodological recommendation to strontium isotope data from South African hominins, concluding …

Interpersonal And Ideological Kindness: A Biocultural Approach, Sally Averitt-Hubbard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In accordance with Richard Dawkins’ materialist “selfish gene” theory of human behavior, altruism is a subject matter that is treated conservatively by biologists, whose understanding of the human version of altruism tends toward mutualistic and sometimes reputation-based explanations of charity, kindness, and helping. Trivers (1971) first stated that non-kin altruism could evolve if altruistic behavior is balanced between partners over time, implicating a strictly mutualistic domain for kindness. But kindness herein is defined, beyond mere mutualism or reciprocity, as “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.” Further, kindness tends to have an action-oriented dimension, as in Goetz et al.’s …

A Forensic Investigation Into The Possible Origins Of Three Human Skeletons, Jefferson P. Sinnott

Forensic Science Theses

The Anthropology Department at Buffalo State has three human skeletons that have been part of the department’s collection for several years. The origin of the skeletons is currently unknown. Modern DNA techniques coupled with forensic anthropological techniques may now allow us to determine with some certainty the geographic origin of the skeletons. Ancestry, sex, age, and stature were assessed using current anthropological techniques. Afterwards, one tooth from each of the three skeletons was extracted, pulverized and DNA was isolated. Y-STR fragment size analysis of the DNA samples can provide information about the patrilineage of male individuals. Mitochondrial DNA sequencing analysis …

Sociality And Stress In Female Chacma Baboons (Papio Ursinus) In The Cape Peninsula Of South Africa: Behavioral Flexibility And Coping Mechanisms, Shahrina Chowdhury

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The physiological stress responses that animals exhibit to the myriad stressors in their environment can be used to assess the state of their health and well-being, and even survival capability. Although the stress response is adaptive in many cases, chronic stress responses may be maladaptive in some situations when it leads to dysfunction of the physiological system involved in the stress response itself, and can also cause deleterious effects on health, reproduction and survival. The stress response includes physiological responses to both environmental perturbations and psychosocial stress and anxiety associated with social perturbations. The latter factor is particularly important for …

A Comparison Of Craniofacial Asymmetry In Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla And Pan Troglodytes Troglodytes, Ashly Noel Romero

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) – random deviations from bilateral symmetry in an organism’s paired features – is a good candidate for investigating developmental stability. This easily accessible measurement can be used to understand the relationship between stress and development across organisms, and growth rate plays a vital role in developmental processes. Few studies have investigated craniofacial FA in non-human primates, and those that have suggest that levels of FA are higher in slower growing species. This study examines craniofacial FA in two primate species (Pan troglodytes troglodytes and Gorilla gorilla gorilla; n=81) to elucidate the effect of growth rate on FA …

Digital Palace Of Nestor: Assessing Mycenaean Palatial Complex Construction Of Socio-Political Status And Navigation Through Architecture, Caleb Ward

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Because architecture necessitates the conscious planning of space, its consequences for navigation and socio-political status are equally deliberate and have indirect effects. This research combines experiential and spatial syntax techniques to gain a deeper understanding of how Mycenaeans shaped space to construct status and navigation in the Palace of Nestor at Pylos. Using a digital reconstruction of the palace ensured the most accurate experiential data by utilizing a whole, albeit virtual, version of the site. Without employing a digital reconstruction, the only experiences with the site would occur in the ruinous, actual site preventing complete experiences with how the site’s …

Examination Of Shape Variation Of The Calcaneus, Navicular, And Talus In Homo Sapiens, Gorilla Gorilla, And Pan Troglodytes, Nicole Lynn Robinson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Analyses of morphological integration among primates commonly focus on relationships between the face, braincase and base of the skull, as well as the upper and lower dentition, and the within portions of the post-cranial skeleton. Despite the prominence of these studies, the associations between the bones of the foot and their articular surfaces have largely been ignored among primates, even though the foot demonstrates high degrees of variation and modification. This variation offers an ideal opportunity to study the relationship between morphology and locomotion. Because the talus, calcaneus and navicular act together to stabilize the foot in locomotion and form …

Sacral Morphology Of Prehensile-Tailed Primates In Relation To Biomechanical Loading, Hannah Grace Showalter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The few available comparative studies of prehensile tail anatomy in primates have established that several features of the caudal vertebrae are associated with adaptation to the increased loading of the tail during prehension. Given that the caudal vertebrae are anchored to the sacrum, it stands to reason that sacral morphology should also covary with tail prehensility. Convergent evolution of prehension in ateline and cebine primates and clear variation in the use of tails among taxa raises questions not only of how sacral morphology differs between prehensile and non-prehensile taxa, but whether different prehensile-tailed taxa evolved the same solutions to the …

Gender And Religion In A Shifting Social Landscape: Anglo-Saxon Mortuary Practices, Ad 600-700, Caroline Palmer

Undergraduate Honors Theses

My thesis examines seventh-century East Anglian mortuary practices and cross-correlates grave goods and human remains to determine whether there was an expression of the sexual division of labor during this period of social and religious change. I argue that gender roles changed as a result of adopting kingdoms and Christianity. Prior to this time period, Anglo-Saxons were primarily pagan and were buried with extensive burial goods. In addition to changes in religious and burial practices, during the Final Phase (600-700 AD) there appears to have been a division of labor that was not as dichotomous in the Migration Phase (450-600 …

Metacarpal Ratio And Its Relation To Sexual Dimorphism In Primates With Different Mating Strategies, Emilee Hart

LSU Master's Theses

The digit ratio (2D:4D) is a sexually dimorphic trait in mammalian hands that is a result of levels of prenatal androgen exposure (PNAE) during limb development. Previous studies have shown that females have a higher ratio than males and that sexual dimorphism in the ratio is greater in species with polygynous mating strategies and high levels of intermale aggression compared to monogamous species with low intermale aggression. This study used metacarpals instead of phalanges to test the hypotheses that the metacarpal ratio (2Mc:4Mc) will be higher in females than males within a species and that the ratio would be more …

Mortuary Patterns In West-Central Tennessee: Contextualizing Historic Field Data From Nine Mississippian Period Sites, Brooke Adele Wamsley

Theses and Dissertations

Middle Mississippian is a both a cultural and temporal (1200 CE – 1400 CE) archaeological context of Midwestern North America. This cultural tradition is associated with mound building, specific art motifs, arguably stratified societies, intensive agriculture, and specific ritual/mortuary practices. Burial sites can be very valuable to archaeologists because of the purposeful interaction between the living and the deceased and reconstruct cultural elements such as social identity and group membership. While American archaeology continues to be fieldwork-focused, there are a considerable amount of cultural resources housed in museum collections that could provide data for research into pre-Columbian lifeways in North …

Who Is Cheddar Man And What Does He Teach Us?, Meredith Bennett

D.U.Quark

No abstract provided.

Sex Differences In Political Leadership In An Egalitarian Society, Christopher Von Rueden, Sarah Alami, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

We test the contribution of sex differences in physical formidability, education, and cooperation to the acquisition of political leadership in a small-scale society. Among forager-farmers from the Bolivian Amazon, we find that men are more likely to exercise different forms of political leadership, including verbal influence during community meetings, coordination of community projects, and dispute resolution. We show that these differences in leadership are not due to gender per se but are associated with men’s greater number of cooperation partners, greater access to schooling, and greater body size and physical strength. Men’s advantage in cooperation partner number is tied to …

Low Perceived Control Over Health Is Associated With Lower Treatment Uptake In A High Mortality Population Of Bolivian Forager-Farmers, Sarah Alami, Jonathan Stieglitz, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

Indigenous people worldwide suffer from higher rates of morbidity and mortality than neighboring populations. In addition to having limited access to public health infrastructure, indigenous people may also have priorities and health perceptions that deter them from seeking adequate modern healthcare. Here we propose that living in a harsh and unpredictable environment reduces motivation to pursue deliberate, costly action to improve health outcomes. We assess whether variation in Health Locus of Control (HLC), a psychological construct designed to capture self-efficacy with respect to health, explains variation in treatment uptake behavior among Tsimane Amerindians (N=690; age range: 40–89 years; 55.8% female; …

Worldwide Distribution Of The Human Apolipoprotein E Gene - The Association Between Apoe, Subsistence, And Latitude, Tiffany S. Ho

Theses and Dissertations

The human apolipoprotein E gene (APOE) plays an important role in metabolizing lipids, regulating plasma cholesterol, and maintaining biological function. Structural differences in APOE variants impact cholesterol absorption and health risk, so that alleles serve as biomarkers for numerous cardiovascular and neurological diseases (Lai 2015). Variant differences are determined by changes in two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), rs429358 and rs7412. Distribution of alleles varies across populations. Allele frequencies in populations have been shown to be associated with cultural and environmental factors, including subsistence strategy and latitude (Eisenberg 2010).

This study aims to provide a cross-population, genetic association study …

Overweight And Obesity: Correlates And Temporal Trends In Global Context, Rajesh Gautam, Amir H. Golnabi, D K. Adak, P Bharati

Department of Mathematics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This work attempts to highlight the global magnitude of the obesity and examining the evolutionary perspective with focus on the correlates and temporal trend. It is based on a wide literature survey following PRISMA. The data on country wise prevalence was obtained after systematic review of over 500 articles and websites on the prevalence of obesity. A total of 301 entries/data points were found for 84 countries. Regression analysis was computed for 177 countries based on prediction made by WHO to identify the correlates. To find out the regional variation, data on height and weight of two different national surveys …

An Engineer Cantonment Bestiary: The Art Of Titian Ramsay Peale, Hugh H. Genoways, Thomas E. Labedz

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Includes an overview of the work of American nature artist Titian Ramsay Peale as part of the Stephen H. Long Expedition, 1819-1820, at Engineer Cantonment in eastern Nebraska, USA.

Includes textual descriptions and/or reproductions of watercolors and lined drawings by Peale of banded killifish (Fundulus diaphanous), American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrothynchos), Wood Duck (Aix sponsa), Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus/Falco lagopus), Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis tabida), Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos), Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea), American Tree Sparrow (Spizella arborea), Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus …

Psychotropic Medications And Children: Perceptions Of Mental Health Professionals, Elinor Jane Brereton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explores mental health professionals' perspectives on the prescription of psychotropic medications to children. It emphasizes the placement of biomedicine within its larger social, economic, and political context, and the influence these structures have on the way mental illness is conceptualized and treated in children. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted in Denver, Colorado with psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and a pharmaceutical board member to capture multiple perspectives from different positionalities within the field. Participants discussed factors that they believe influence prescribing practices including: professional role changes, issues of access, limited evidence, cost, and institutional pressures to practice within a …

Mitochondrial Dna Analysis Of Mazahua And Otomi Indigenous Populations From Estado De Mexico Suggests A Distant Common Ancestry, Angelica GonzáLez-Oliver, Ernesto Garfias-Morales, D G. Smith, Mirsha Quinto-Sánchez

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

The indigenous Mazahua and Otomi have inhabited the same localities in Estado de Mexico since pre-Columbian times. Their languages, Mazahua and Otomi, belong to the Otomanguean linguistic family, and, while they share cultural traditions and a regional history that suggest close genetic relationships and common ancestry, the historical records concerning their origin are confusing. To understand the biological relationships between Mazahua and Otomi we analyzed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genetic variation. We identified the mtDNA haplogroups by restriction fragment length polymorphism typing and sequenced the hypervariable region I of the mtDNA control region in 141 Mazahua and 100 Otomi. These …

From Icon Of Empire To National Emblem: New Evidence For The Fallow Deer Of Barbuda, Sophia Perdikaris, Allison Bain, Sandrine Grouard, Karis Baker, Edith Gonzalez, A. Rus Hoelzel, Holly Miller, Reaksha Persaud, Naomi Sykes

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

Barbuda and Antigua’s national animal is the fallow deer, Dama dama dama, a species native to the eastern Mediterranean that has been transported around the world by people during the last 8000 years. The timing and circumstances by which fallow deer came to be established on Barbuda are currently uncertain but, by examining documentary, osteological and genetic evidence, this paper will consider the validity of existing theories. It will review the dynamics of human–Dama relationships from the 1500s AD to the present day and consider how the meaning attached to this species has changed through time: from a …

Historical Observations And Identifications Of Plants And Animals In The Vicinity Of Engineer Cantonment In 1819-1820, Hugh H. Genoways, Brett C. Ratcliffe, Carl R. Falk, John R. Bozell

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Historical observations and identifications of plants and animals in the vicinity of Engineer Cantonment in 1819–1820 (James 1822) are shown below in Roman and Roman italic print. Specimens identified through phytoarcheological and zooarcheological analysis of materials and believed to be reasonably associated or contemporaneous with the Long Expedition use of the site (AU4) are shown in boldface. Species present in both the historical and archeological data are marked by an asterisk (*). References used in this compilation include Benedict (1996), Brewer (1970 [1840]), Conant and Collins (1991), Ducey (2000), Evans (1997), Falk et al. (this volume), Genoways et al. (2008), …

Feeding The Children: A Paleodietary Reconstruction Of Juveniles From Kuelap, Peru, Marley Denierio

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Before reaching adulthood, every individual experiences a period of dependency, the juvenile period, during which they rely on the older, more experienced members of their society for their security, subsistence and care. This juvenile period is an important stage of life for human physical and physiological development. In bioarchaeology, there has been limited research conducted on juveniles, particularly, the development of their own social identity and influences. The research method of stable carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) isotope analysis is used to reconstruct the paleodiet of juveniles to determine their dietary composition. Specifically, this research is focused on Kuelap, located …

"Back" To The Future: An Evaluation Of Morphological Integration In Kyphosis, Kristyna L. Ceuninck

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Morphological integration refers to the interdependence of two or more phenotypic structures. The morphological integration concept is based on the fact that parts of complex organisms do not vary randomly and instead display degrees of non-independence that are thought to occur from shared genetic or developmental origins, and/or functional demands. Integrated traits may develop, evolve, and be inherited together. One instance of morphological integration can be found between the vertebral column and the skull. Due to the position of the skull resting atop of the vertebral column, posture may influence skull development and overall craniofacial morphology. Morphological integration within or …

The Effects Of Common Methods Of Soft Tissue Removal On Skeletal Remains: A Comparative Analysis, Emily Silverman

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The removal of soft tissue from skeletal remains is a process familiar to a wide array of scientific fields and the methods used to perform it are likewise numerous yet inconsistent. In forensic investigations and crime labs across the country, there lacks a standardization for this process. This lack of standardization pairs with a distinct lack of literature on the potential benefits and risks associated with each method as well as basic information on the proper amount of additives, temperatures, or time estimations. In a forensic context, human remains may be the only evidence available, which makes any damage or …