Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons^™

Out Of Africa: The Ecological Context And Constraints On Early Homo Migration, Kathryn Gwen Sokolowski

2020 Award Winners

No abstract provided.

Drawing The Line: Ancient Hominins And The Species Question, Erin Hurley, Carolyn Dillian

Honors Theses

he present paper asserts that groups such as Neandertals and Denisovans should be considered subspecies of H. sapiens. This contention is based upon the biological species concept and the fact that these groups interbred to create viable offspring. It is also stated that introgression from these groups made several positive contributions to the evolution of H. sapiens and their genome that may have served to promote the persistence of H. sapiens in Eurasia.

The Endurance Of Tell Qarqur: Settlement Resilience In Northwestern Syria During The Late Bronze And Iron Ages (Ca. 1200 – 700 Bc), Eric Robert Jensen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the material culture, paleobotanical, and faunal remains excavated at the site of Tell Qarqur, Syria, recovered from occupational levels dating from the end of the Late Bronze Age to the Iron II period (from approximately 1200 to 700 BC). Based on archaeological evidence and ancient textual sources, many ancient Near Eastern kingdoms and polities endured social and political turmoil during the late 13th and early 12th centuries BC. Most likely caused by an unknown hostile group or groups, the destruction of monumental scale architecture and the disruption to the people of Qarqur’s agricultural and animal husbandry practices …

Fat Bias And Culture Shock: Psychosocial Adjustments In Post-Obesity Life, Scott Thomas Macpherson

Masters Theses

Obesity in the United States is unprecedented levels, affecting adults and children as well. As our society has become for sedentary since industrialization, the nation has become fatter. The escalating rate of obesity has had a negative effect on the health of millions of Americans. Health problems such as metabolic disorders and other comorbidities, for instance, hypertension, Type II diabetes, heart disease, weight related cancers etc., (Mozaffarian and Benjamin 2013). The collective cost of obesity is to the nation is staggering, weighing in at $270 billion a year, childhood obesity costs nearly $15 billion alone (Hammond and Levine 2010). This …

Rack1 Facilitates Efficient Translation Of Viral And Cellular Iress, Natasha Permaul

Anthropology

Ribosomes, the cellular machinery that translates mRNA sequences into protein sequences, are surprisingly heterogeneous molecules. More and more ribosomal proteins have been shown to facilitate translation of mRNA subsets. These mRNA subsets include mRNAs that can initiate translation using non-canonical pathways, for example using an internal ribosome entry site (IRES). IRESs are RNA structures that facilitate translation with fewer translation initiation factors than are required for canonical cap-dependent translation initiation. The ribosomal protein Receptor for Activated C Kinase 1 (RACK1) has been previously shown to be required for translation of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) IRES, but not required for …

New Approaches To Juvenile Age Estimation In Forensics: Application Of Transition Analysis Via The Shackelford Et Al. Method To A Diverse Modern Subadult Sample, Kelly R. Kamnikar, Nicholas P. Herrmann, Amber M. Plemons

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

Dental development is one of the most widely utilized and accurate methods available for estimating age in subadult skeletal remains. The timing of tooth growth and development is regulated by genetics and less affected by external factors, allowing reliable estimates of chronological age. Traditional methodology focuses on comparing tooth developmental scores to corresponding age charts. Using the Moorrees, Fanning, and Hunt (MFH) developmental scores, Shackelford and colleagues embed the dental development method in a statistical framework based on transition analysis. They generated numerical parameters underlining each “stage” and age-at-death distribution and applied them to fossil hominins and Neanderthals with limited …

Thinking Computationally About Forensics: Anthropological Perspectives On Advancements In Technologies, Data, And Algorithms, Bridget F.B. Algee-Hewitt, Jieun Kim, Cris E. Hughes

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

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Who Needs Data? I’Ve Got Experience!, Dawnie Wolfe Steadman

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

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Odontogenic Abscesses In Rhesus Macaques (Macaca Mulatta) Of Cayo Santiago, Hong Li, Wenjing Luo, Anna Feng, Michelle L. Tang, Terry B. Kensler, Elizabeth Maldonado, Octavio A. Gonzalez, Matthew J. Kessler, Paul C. Dechow, Jeffrey L. Ebersole, Qian Wang

Center for Oral Health Research Faculty Publications

Objectives
Odontogenic abscesses are one of the most common dental diseases causing maxillofacial skeletal lesions. They affect the individual's ability to maintain the dental structures necessary to obtain adequate nutrition for survival and reproduction. In this study, the prevalence and pattern of odontogenic abscesses in relation to age, sex, matriline, and living periods were investigated in adult rhesus macaque skeletons of the free-ranging colony on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico.

Materials and Methods
The skulls used for this study were from the skeletons of 752 adult rhesus macaques, aged 8–31 years, and born between 1951 and 2000. They came from 66 …

Variation Among Populations In The Immune Protein Composition Of Mother's Milk Reflects Subsistence Pattern, Laura D. Klein, Jincui Huang, Elizabeth A. Quinn, Melanie A. Martin, Alicia A. Breakey, Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan, Claudia Valeggia, Grazyna Jasienska, Brooke Scelza, Carlito B. Lebrilla, Katie Hinde

ESI Publications

Lay Summary: Adaptive immune proteins in mothers’ milk are more variable than innate immune proteins across populations and subsistence strategies. These results suggest that the immune defenses in milk are shaped by a mother’s environment throughout her life.

Background and objectives: Mother’s milk contains immune proteins that play critical roles in protecting the infant from infection and priming the infant’s developing immune system during early life. The composition of these molecules in milk, particularly the acquired immune proteins, is thought to reflect a mother’s immunological exposures throughout her life. In this study, we examine the composition of innate …

Cremation And Secondary Burial Practices Among Umm An-Nar Communities In Bronze Age Arabia, Antonia Carter

Anthropology Undergraduate Senior Theses

Understanding the ways in which the living processed their dead is a vital component to the field of bioarchaeology, so the purpose of this research is to provide insight into funerary practices for a Bronze Age community in southeastern Arabia and demonstrate a possible difference in mortuary treatment between one generation and the next. By using the Munsell color chart to assign color codes to five areas of testable distal humeri from two Bronze Age Umm an-Nar tombs (Unar 1 and Unar 2) located in the Shimal necropolis in the United Arab Emirates, a statistically significant difference between the articular …

Keep Calm And Carry On: Infant Carrying Practices And Motor Development, Mariah Clanton, Alyssa Crittenden

AANAPISI Poster Presentations

Increasingly, infants in the post-industrialized west are being diagnosed with conditions such as plagiocephaly or torticollis – which are postural deformities that can be corrected with positioning behavior. While a handful of studies have cursorily explored infant carrying practices, here I provide the first comprehensive cross-cultural literature review that aims to make connections between infant transport style and the timing of infant development in the emergence of sitting, crawling, and walking .Such a synthesis is important, not only in terms of contributing to cross-cultural research, but also for parents in the cultural west to aid in the better understanding of …

Influence Of The Silk Road Trade On The Craniofacial Morphology Of Populations In Central Asia, Ayesha Yasmeen Hinedi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Large-scale human migrations over long periods of time are known to affect population composition. In the second century B.C the demand for silk threads in the West opened trade opportunities between China and the Europe. This allowed for new pathways to be established and old ones reinforced across the vast region of Central Asia; a network of overland and sea routes linking East with West for sixteen hundred years that became collectively known as the Silk Road. Populations living along these routes were affected by a constant influx of traders, merchants, and invading armies attempting to control the region. Although …

The Upright Battle: Morphological Trends Of The Bipedal Pelvis, Nicole M. Webb

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The shift to bipedal locomotion is a distinguishing feature of the human lineage that required substantial remodeling of the postcranium in hominins. The pelvis, due to its important functional role as a stabilizing and weight-bearing structure, has undergone one of the most drastic transformations in the skeleton to accommodate obligate bipedalism, thus making it a valuable region for studying locomotor behavior within the fossil record. Although bipedalism occurs in several mammalian groups, it is rare within primates and the ability to utilize a striding gait with an erect, or orthograde, posture remains unique to hominins. Orthograde posture in this context …

Palynological Investigations Of Agropastoralism And Ecological Change At La 20,000, New Mexico, Anya Gruber

Graduate Masters Theses

How did Spanish colonialism alter the landscape of north-central New Mexico? Agropastoral practices imported by Spanish colonists made indelible impacts on an anthropogenic landscape already shaped by hundreds of years of Pueblo agriculture. However, the precise nature of these changes is poorly understood. This project uses two sets of archaeological pollen data from LA 20,000, a Spanish rancho in New Mexico, to demonstrate how 17th century agriculture and animal husbandry made geographically specific, multifaceted changes to the environment. First, patterns analyzed from a pollen column illuminates fluctuations in plant communities over time, indicating localized ecological shifts. Second, sediments collected from …

Comparison Of Two Ancient Dna Extraction Protocols For Skeletal Remains From Tropical Environments, Maria A. Nieves-Colon, Andrew T. Ozga, William J. Pestle, Andrea Cucina, Vera Tiesler, Travis W. Stanton, Anne C. Stone

Biology Faculty Articles

Objectives

The tropics harbor a large part of the world's biodiversity and have a long history of human habitation. However, paleogenomics research in these climates has been constrained so far by poor ancient DNA yields. Here we compare the performance of two DNA extraction methods on ancient samples of teeth and petrous portions excavated from tropical and semi‐tropical sites in Tanzania, Mexico, and Puerto Rico (N = 12).

Materials and Methods

All samples were extracted twice, built into double‐stranded sequencing libraries, and shotgun sequenced on the Illumina HiSeq 2500. The first extraction protocol, Method D, was previously designed for …

Allomaternal Care By Conspecifics Impacts Activity Budgets Of Colobus Guereza Mothers, Dominique L. Raboin

Theses and Dissertations

In primate societies, caring for infants involves nursing, protection, provisioning, and carrying - all energetically taxing states for mothers. The cost of holding and carrying clinging infants often constrains mothers from moving and traveling, potentially reducing their food and energy intake. Alternatively, when an infant is physically separated from their mother they are at risk of predation from birds of prey or other large mammals. This requires a high level of vigilance from mothers, often further deterring them from acquiring the food and energy that they need. Allomaternal care (AMC) is hypothesized to provide mothers with a way to safely …

Marital Violence And Fertility In A Relatively Egalitarian High-Fertility Population, Jonathan Stieglitz, Benjamin C. Trumble, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

Ultimate and proximate explanations of men’s physical intimate partner violence (IPV) against women have been proposed. An ultimate explanation posits that IPV is used to achieve a selfish fitness-relevant outcome, and predicts that IPV is associated with greater marital fertility. Proximate IPV explanations contain either complementary strategic components (for example, men’s desire for partner control), non-strategic components (for example, men’s self-regulatory failure), or both strategic and non-strategic components involving social learning. Consistent with an expectation from an ultimate IPV explanation, we find that IPV predicts greater marital fertility among Tsimané forager-horticulturalists of Bolivia (n = 133 marriages, 105 women). This …

An Analysis Of The Impact Of Birthing Practices On Long-Term Health And Reproductive Outcomes From The 1970 British Cohort Study: Insights From Evolutionary Theory, Elizabeth Turner

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

A wealth of research has been amassed and continues to grow through efforts to understand the complex nature of the relationship between the colonization and development of the human gut microbiota, its influence on the development of the immune system, and its role in both health and disease. Since previous research has demonstrated early life conditions can influence the colonization and development of the human gut microbiota, it is critical to understand how circumstances around the birthing process affect long-term outcomes beginning at this crucial stage in our development. Using the 1970 British Cohort Study, this thesis examines the relationship …

Growing Up In Tell El-Amarna: An Examination Of Growth And Non-Specific Stress Indicators In New Kingdom Children., Ashley Elizabeth Shidner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The health status of the subadult skeletal remains from the South Tombs Cemetery at Tell el-Amarna were assessed by examining fluctuations in childhood growth and rates of skeletal indicators of physiological stress within a biocultural framework. The long bone standardization method outlined by Goode et al. (1993) was used to compare the South Tombs cemetery’s cross-sectional growth data to subadult samples from other cemeteries during which major social, political, and economic changes were taking place. The comparative subadult samples included the HK43 cemetery from Hierakonpolis (Egypt), the African American Cemetery from Cedar Grove (Arkansas), and the St. Martin’s Churchyard from …