Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons^™

Exploring The Relationship Between Nutrition And Cribra Orbitalia: The Comparison Of Dietary Stable Isotope Comparisons Of Juveniles From Kuelap, Peru, Lissette S. Osorio

Honors Undergraduate Theses

A juvenile’s dependency on their caregiver is significant to the overall development of nutritionally related pathological lesions. However, not all skeletal pathology is caused by nutritional stress; despite anemia being the usual inferred cause, the origin of Cribra Orbitalia (CO) – lesions on the orbital roofs of the cranium– is undetermined. The purpose of this research is to compare the reconstructed diets of juveniles with and without CO and explore connections to dietary patterns (inferred from stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen). Rib bone samples of 79 juveniles with and without CO were sampled from the Kuelap archaeological site …

Biocultural Evidence Of Precise Manual Activities In An Early Holocene Individual Of The High-Altitude Peruvian Andes, Fotios Alexandros Karakostis, Hugo Reyes-Centeno, Michael Franken, Gerhard Hotz, Kurt Rademaker, Katerina Harvati

Anthropology Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVES: Cuncaicha, a rockshelter site in the southern Peruvian Andes, has yielded archaeological evidence for human occupation at high elevation (4,480 masl) during the Terminal Pleistocene (12,500–11,200 cal BP), Early Holocene (9,500–9,000 cal BP), and later periods. One of the excavated human burials (Feature 15‐06), corresponding to a middle‐aged female dated to ~8,500 cal BP, exhibits skeletal osteoarthritic lesions previously proposed to reflect habitual loading and specialized crafting labor. Three small tools found in association with this burial are hypothesized to be associated with precise manual dexterity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Here, we tested this functional hypothesis through the application of …

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 …

Food And Diet In The Andes: Changing Markets And Lives In Nuñoa, James A. Fisher

Masters Theses

The town of Nuñoa, located in the southern Peruvian Andes, has been the ongoing focus of anthropological research. Household surveys of diet and food security (n=69) administered during 2012 are analyzed here and compared to past studies from previous decades. Study results show clearly that the amount and diversity of new foods available in the area has increased dramatically, but also gives evidence for continued disparate access to certain types of food along class lines. Socioeconomic status had a significant negative correlation with food insecurity and poor households more frequently consumed both potatoes and other cheap, high carbohydrate foods such …

Dental Fluctuating Asymmetry As A Measure Of Environmental Stress In Nasca, Shawna L. Follis

Open Access Theses

This thesis evaluates how environmental stressors affected three groups (Nasca, Loro, and Chakipampa) that lived in Nasca during the Early Intermediate Period (ca. A.D. 1-750) and the Middle Horizon (ca. A.D. 750-1000). Using fluctuating asymmetry analysis as a proxy for developmental instability, biological evidence is assessed for differential stress levels incurred by groups occupying the Peruvian south coast. This study found high levels of stress in the Middle Horizon, supporting the hypothesis that populations living in Nasca were unfavorably affected by Wari colonizers. However, stress was found to be highest among the Chakipampa. This is attributed to Wari imperialistic occupation …

Emerging From The Shadows: Civil War, Human Rights, And Peacebuilding Among Peasants And Indigenous Peoples In Colombia And Peru In The Late 20th And Early 21st Centuries, Charles A. Flowerday

Anthropology Department: Theses

Peacebuilding in Colombia and Peru following their late-20^th and early 21^st century civil wars is a challenging proposition. In this study, it becomes necessary as indigenous peoples and peasants resist domination by extractive industries and governments in their thrall. Whether they protest nonviolently or rebel in arms, they are targeted for human-rights violations, especially murder, disappearance and displacement. The armed actors, state, insurgency, paramilitaries or drug traffickers, destroy civic institutions (local or regional government) and the civil (nonprofit) sector and replace them with their own authoritarian versions. Therefore, peacebuilding has emphasized rebuilding civic institutions, civil society and local …

Striking Out And Digging In: A Bioarchaeological Perspective On The Impacts Of The Wari Expansion On Populations In The Peruvian Central Highlands., Christine M. Pink

Doctoral Dissertations

The Wari empire emerged near the present day city of Ayacucho, Peru around AD 600 and collapsed approximately 400 years later. There is no doubt that Wari influence was widespread in the Andes; however, the extent to which the empire successfully integrated regional territories is not as well understood. This study examined the impact of the rise and fall of the Wari empire on the structure of interaction between populations hypothesized to have been within its sphere of influence. The relative frequencies of cranial non-metric traits were used to explore biological affinities among 17 populations that lived during and after …

Foreigners Among The Dead At Túcume, Peru: Assessing Residential Mobility Using Isotopic Tracers, Barbara R. Hewitt

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Inhabited from the Late Intermediate Period (A.D. 1000-1470) until the time of Spanish conquest, Túcume was a religious and ceremonial site that was transformed over time into a major urban centre. Archaeological excavations at Túcume have revealed that hundreds of individuals were victims of human sacrifice at the site, where their remains were interred in distinct groupings that are most likely defined by the motivation behind different sacrificial rites. This research employs biogeochemical, archaeological and ethnohistoric data to explore residential mobility related to human sacrifice in and around the site of Túcume, Peru.

This dissertation has two primary foci: one …

Bilateral Variation In Man: Handedness, Handclasping, Armfolding And Mid-Phalangeal Hair, Carol J. Loveland

Masters Theses

A study of bilateral variation among individuals from three populations was conducted. One sample consisted of 174 Cashinahua Indians who reside along the Curanja River in the Peruvian rain forest. A second group was composed of 286 students from anthropology classes at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Eighty-six families, including 372 individuals, constituted the third sample.

Four laterality traits - handedness, armfolding, handclasping, and mid-phalangeal hair - were analyzed by population and by individual family.

The most interesting variation occurred in the frequency of right and left handclasping and in the presence or absence of mid-phalangeal hair. The percentage of …