Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons^™

Experiences Of Violence And Captivity: Labor Divisions At La Plata (Ad 600-1250), Kathleen D. Stansbury

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The La Plata Population represents a series of Ancestral Puebloan sites along the La Plata River outside Farmington, New Mexico dating from 600-1200 CE. Past research has argued that several captive females in this population experienced impairment due to illness or trauma. Entheseal changes can reflect experiences of hard labor, and so provide insight into adaptations to mobility impairments as well as the physical impacts of captive labor on the body (Henderson et al 2013). Measurement of entheseal changes utilizing the Coimbra method has demonstrated that sexual and class divisions of labor existed in the La Plata community, with captive …

“Nails Done, Hair Done, Everything Did!”: Consumption And The Creation Of Black Feminine Selves, Simone Reid

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how race and gender shape the meaning that Black women associate with their beauty consumption practices and spending. Much of the existing feminist scholarship on beauty has been postfeminist, privileging the concept of agency and empowerment over structural realities. However, the materialist feminist frame has more utility to address how beauty operates within the lives of Black women as a form of distinct gendered racial oppression. The concept of aesthetic capital emerges from the materialist feminist perspective and suggests that beauty demands the investment of considerable economic resources and can deliver economic returns. Despite this, aesthetic capital …

“... I Thought You Were Black .” An Autoethnographic Exploration Of The Fragmentation Of Identity And Culture., Sherley Arias-Pimentel

Honors Theses

"If anthropology doesn't break your heart, then you're not doing it right." - Ruth Behar Writing this thesis has been a trying experience. Within these pages, you will find the therapeutic expedition of a caramel-colored, Spanish-speaking, second-generation black Dominican woman from Newark, NJ who took advantage of this research opportunity to better understand the racial and ethnic parts of her identity which have caused her much turmoil and low self-esteem. Centering myself, my identity, and my story in this research and grappling with the complexities of the subject matter has been an exhausting yet liberating experience. I have contemplated many …

Osteobiography Of An Adolescent From Bronze Age (3146-3130 Bp) Non Nok Tha, Thailand, Thomas Monticello

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Osteobiography is suited to investigating the individual experiences of the Agricultural Transition. Non Nok Tha is an early agricultural site in Southeast Asia. Previous research argued that domestication of rice led to better health outcomes; however, this may not have been the case for all individuals.

Does The Genome Of A Putatively Specialist Moth (Schinia Gracilenta) Contain A Signal Of The Indigenous Cultivation Of Its Host Plant (Iva Annua), Wren Renquist

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

When one species depends on one another for survival, they may have shared demographic histories. Further, when symbionts have shorter life spans, their rate of evolution may be quicker than that of their hosts. For this reason, detecting a recent demographic signal in a symbiont’s genome may often be easier than directly studying the host.

Here I study the slender flower moth (Schinia gracilenta) and its host plant, sumpweed (Iva annua). Sumpweed is thought to have been cultivated in North American ca. 5000 BC - AD 1700 and its range may have been expanded during this time. I collected S. …

Anthropogenic Influences Of Play In The Green Monkeys Of Barbados, Rose Amrhein

2023 Midwest Ecology & Evolution Conference

There are multiple theories behind the evolutionary origins and functions of play behavior in the animal kingdom, all with varying levels of support. Some argue play originated as a byproduct of individuals having excess energy in a resource-rich environment while others argue it arose as a way for young individuals to enhance the physical and mental skills needed to survive into adulthood. Many believe that both these theories are coexisting and applicable to some degree. However, previous play studies usually focused on one group of organisms, failing to consider how animals’ environment directly impacts the structure of their play and …

Error Rates In Sex Determination Of Human Skeletal Remains, Vanessa Slone

Anthropology

The possible fallibility of forensic methods has been under scrutiny for over a decade. Left out of the initial reviews were methods within forensic anthropology. A literature review was conducted to examine modern methods in determining the biological sex of human skeleton remains and their associated error rates in making a correct determination. Results showed no significant correlation between the number of traits being considered the subsequent error rate in determining sex. The skull was shown to be the least accurate in determining biological sex with the pelvis showing the lowest rate of error. Finally, between regression line-based methods and …

The Camden Burial Project, Part I: Background And Preliminary Results, James B. Legg

Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Humanity's Fate: An Analysis Of Speculative Human Evolution In Literary Fiction, Celeste T. Johnson

Senior Theses

Speculative human evolution is a literature subgenre of science fiction that explores the potential future of humanity and descendant species. Little academic research has been done to evaluate the scientific accuracy of works of this genre or assess the relationship between the themes presented in the works and our current world. Future human species and their evolutionary journeys were assessed for scientific possibility through comparison with current research in fields such as anthropology, evolutionary biology, and sociology. It was found that the species depicted in works of speculative human evolution were largely based in scientific accuracy and could possibly exist …

Atherosclerosis In Indigenous Tsimane: A Contemporary Perspective, Randall C. Thompson, Gregory S. Thomas, Angela D. Neuneubel, Ashna Mahadev, Benjamin Trumble, Edmond Seabright, Daniel K. Cummings, Jonathan Stieglitz, Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan

ESI Publications

The Horus and other research teams have found that atherosclerosis is not uncommon in ancient people through the study of their mummified remains (Murphy et al., 2003; Allam et al., 2009, 2011; Thompson et al., 2013, 2014). However, some have postulated that traditional hunter-gatherers are in some ways healthier than modern people and that they had very little atherosclerotic disease (O’Keefe et al., 2010). The aim of this study was to evaluate the burden of atherosclerosis in a population alive today but living a traditional lifestyle similar to that experienced by past populations. This led to the Tsimane Health and …

Environmental Drivers Of Dispersal In Black-And-White Ruffed Lemurs (Varecia Variegata), Amanda Mancini

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Dispersal is a fundamental aspect of primates’ lives, influencing population connectivity through gene flow, driving community structure and assembly, and having important consequences for adaptation and speciation. Primates disperse within an environmental context, with both intervening and local environmental factors affecting the motivation, capacity, timing, and success of dispersal at all phases. Direct evaluations of primate dispersal are challenging given the rarity of dispersal events and the large distances that animals often settle from their departure site, therefore indirect measures– such as the use of population genetic data– are more common.

The field of landscape genetics enables researchers to combine …

Behavioral Strategies Of Social Relationship Formation And Competition Among Adolescent And Adult Male Chimpanzees At Kanyawara, Kibale National Park, Uganda, Drew K. Enigk

Anthropology ETDs

Adolescence is a unique life stage in which individuals are reproductively mature but have not yet attained their full adult body size. In chimpanzees, which live in multimale-multifemale groups, this age period presents a challenge for males. Namely, adolescent males lack the physical strength to compete effectively with adult males for mating opportunities. In the following chapters, we seek to answer whether adolescent male chimpanzees exhibit behavior typical of highly competitive adults but with less success, or whether they pursue alternative behavioral tactics to largely avoid competition until they are fully grown. We utilize both long-term data spanning over two …

U2.38.70_Ta3 06.17.21 Femora.Ta3, Alyssa Bolster, Hannah Jeanlouis

Bolster et al. 2024 AJBA

Objectives We estimate adult age distributions from Unar 1 and Unar 2, two late Umm an-Nar (2400-2100 BCE) tombs in the modern-day Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. These collective tombseach contained hundreds of skeletons in commingled, fragmented, and variably cremated states. Previous studies placed the vast majority of this mortuary community in a generalized “adult” category, as have most analyses of similar tombs from this period. We sought to test how adult age estimation methods compare in identifying young, middle, and old age individuals in commingled assemblages.

Materials and Methods We employed Transition Analysis 3 (TA3) and traditional …

U2.31.1038_Ta3 06.14.21 Prox. Humerus.Ta3, Alyssa Bolster, Hannah Jeanlouis

Bolster et al. 2024 AJBA

Objectives We estimate adult age distributions from Unar 1 and Unar 2, two late Umm an-Nar (2400-2100 BCE) tombs in the modern-day Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. These collective tombseach contained hundreds of skeletons in commingled, fragmented, and variably cremated states. Previous studies placed the vast majority of this mortuary community in a generalized “adult” category, as have most analyses of similar tombs from this period. We sought to test how adult age estimation methods compare in identifying young, middle, and old age individuals in commingled assemblages.

Materials and Methods We employed Transition Analysis 3 (TA3) and traditional …

U2.31.106_Ta3 06.22.21 Dist. Humerus.Ta3, Alyssa Bolster, Hannah Jeanlouis

Bolster et al. 2024 AJBA

Objectives We estimate adult age distributions from Unar 1 and Unar 2, two late Umm an-Nar (2400-2100 BCE) tombs in the modern-day Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. These collective tombseach contained hundreds of skeletons in commingled, fragmented, and variably cremated states. Previous studies placed the vast majority of this mortuary community in a generalized “adult” category, as have most analyses of similar tombs from this period. We sought to test how adult age estimation methods compare in identifying young, middle, and old age individuals in commingled assemblages.

Materials and Methods We employed Transition Analysis 3 (TA3) and traditional …

U2.38.60_Ta3 06.18.21 Femora.Ta3, Alyssa Bolster, Hannah Jeanlouis

Bolster et al. 2024 AJBA

Objectives We estimate adult age distributions from Unar 1 and Unar 2, two late Umm an-Nar (2400-2100 BCE) tombs in the modern-day Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. These collective tombseach contained hundreds of skeletons in commingled, fragmented, and variably cremated states. Previous studies placed the vast majority of this mortuary community in a generalized “adult” category, as have most analyses of similar tombs from this period. We sought to test how adult age estimation methods compare in identifying young, middle, and old age individuals in commingled assemblages.

Materials and Methods We employed Transition Analysis 3 (TA3) and traditional …

U2.38.740_Ta3 06.18.21 Femora.Ta3, Alyssa Bolster, Hannah Jeanlouis

Bolster et al. 2024 AJBA

Objectives We estimate adult age distributions from Unar 1 and Unar 2, two late Umm an-Nar (2400-2100 BCE) tombs in the modern-day Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. These collective tombseach contained hundreds of skeletons in commingled, fragmented, and variably cremated states. Previous studies placed the vast majority of this mortuary community in a generalized “adult” category, as have most analyses of similar tombs from this period. We sought to test how adult age estimation methods compare in identifying young, middle, and old age individuals in commingled assemblages.

Materials and Methods We employed Transition Analysis 3 (TA3) and traditional …

U2.31.338_Ta3 06.22.21 Dist. Humerus.Ta3, Alyssa Bolster, Hannah Jeanlouis

Bolster et al. 2024 AJBA

Objectives We estimate adult age distributions from Unar 1 and Unar 2, two late Umm an-Nar (2400-2100 BCE) tombs in the modern-day Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. These collective tombseach contained hundreds of skeletons in commingled, fragmented, and variably cremated states. Previous studies placed the vast majority of this mortuary community in a generalized “adult” category, as have most analyses of similar tombs from this period. We sought to test how adult age estimation methods compare in identifying young, middle, and old age individuals in commingled assemblages.

Materials and Methods We employed Transition Analysis 3 (TA3) and traditional …

U2.38.54_Ta3 06.18.21 Femora.Ta3, Alyssa Bolster, Hannah Jeanlouis

Bolster et al. 2024 AJBA

Objectives We estimate adult age distributions from Unar 1 and Unar 2, two late Umm an-Nar (2400-2100 BCE) tombs in the modern-day Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. These collective tombseach contained hundreds of skeletons in commingled, fragmented, and variably cremated states. Previous studies placed the vast majority of this mortuary community in a generalized “adult” category, as have most analyses of similar tombs from this period. We sought to test how adult age estimation methods compare in identifying young, middle, and old age individuals in commingled assemblages.

Materials and Methods We employed Transition Analysis 3 (TA3) and traditional …

U2.38.133_Ta3 06.17.21 Femora.Ta3, Alyssa Bolster, Hannah Jeanlouis

Bolster et al. 2024 AJBA

Objectives We estimate adult age distributions from Unar 1 and Unar 2, two late Umm an-Nar (2400-2100 BCE) tombs in the modern-day Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. These collective tombseach contained hundreds of skeletons in commingled, fragmented, and variably cremated states. Previous studies placed the vast majority of this mortuary community in a generalized “adult” category, as have most analyses of similar tombs from this period. We sought to test how adult age estimation methods compare in identifying young, middle, and old age individuals in commingled assemblages.

Materials and Methods We employed Transition Analysis 3 (TA3) and traditional …