Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons^™

Mount Pinatubo, Inflammatory Cytokines, And The Immunological Ecology Of Aeta Hunter-Gatherers, Robin M. Bernstein, Nathaniel J. Dominy

Human Biology

Early growth cessation and reproduction are predicted to maximize fitness under conditions of high adult mortality, factors that could explain the pygmy phenotype of many rainforest hunter-gatherers. This life-history hypothesis is elegant but contentious in part because it lacks a clear biological mechanism. One mechanism stems from the field of human immunological ecology and the concept of inflammation "memory" across the life cycle and into subsequent generations. Maternal exposures to disease can infl uence immunological cues present in breast milk; because maternal provisioning via lactation occurs during critical periods of development, it is plausible that these cues can also mediate …

Anthropology And Gis: Temporal And Spatial Distribution Of The Philippine Negrito Groups, Sabino G. Padilla Jr

Human Biology

The Philippine "negrito" groups comprise a diverse group of populations speaking over 30 different languages, who are spread all over the archipelago, mostly in marginal areas of Luzon Island in the north, the central Visayas islands, and Mindanao in the south. They exhibit physical characteristics that are different from more than 100 Philippine ethnolinguistic groups that are categorized as non-negritos. Given their numbers, it is not surprising that Philippine negritos make up a major category in a number of general ethnographic maps produced since the nineteenth century. Reports from various ethnological surveys during this period, however, have further enriched our …

Genetic Diversity Of Four Filipino Negrito Populations From Luzon: Comparison Of Male And Female Effective Population Sizes And Differential Integration Of Immigrants Into Aeta And Agta Communities, E Heyer, M Georges, M Pachner, P Endicott

Human Biology

Genetic data corresponding to four negrito populations (two Aeta and two Agta; n = 120) from the Luzon region of the Philippines have been analyzed. These data comprise mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) hypervariable segment 1 haplotypes and haplogroups, Y-chromosome haplogroups and short tandem repeats (STRs), autosomal STRs, and X-chromosome STRs. The genetic diversity and structure of the populations were investigated at a local, regional, and interregional level. We found a high level of autosomal differentiation, combined with no significant reduction in diversity, consistent with long-term settlement of the Luzon region by the ancestors of the Agta and Aeta followed by reduced …

Admixture Patterns And Genetic Differentiation In Negrito Groups From West Malaysia Estimated From Genome-Wide Snp Data, Timothy A. Jinam, Maude E. Phipps, Naruya Saitou, The Hugo Pan-Asian Snp Consortium

Human Biology

Southeast Asia houses various culturally and linguistically diverse ethnic groups. In Malaysia, where the Malay, Chinese, and Indian ethnic groups form the majority, there exist minority groups such as the "negritos" who are believed to be descendants of the earliest settlers of Southeast Asia. Here we report patterns of genetic substructure and admixture in two Malaysian negrito populations (Jehai and Kensiu), using ~50,000 genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data. We found traces of recent admixture in both the negrito populations, particularly in the Jehai, with the Malay through principal component analysis and STRUCTURE analysis software, which suggested that the admixture was …

The Andaman Islanders In A Regional Genetic Context: Reexamining The Evidence For An Early Peopling Of The Archipelago From South Asia, Gyaneshwer Chaubey, Phillip Endicott

Human Biology

The indigenous inhabitants of the Andaman Islands were considered by many early anthropologists to be pristine examples of a "negrito" substrate of humanity that existed throughout Southeast Asia. Despite over 150 years of research and study, questions over the extent of shared ancestry between Andaman Islanders and other small-bodied, gracile, dark-skinned populations throughout the region are still unresolved. This shared phenotype could be a product of shared history, evolutionary convergence, or a mixture of both. Recent population genetic studies have tended to emphasize long-term physical isolation of the Andaman Islanders and an affinity to ancestral populations of South Asia. We …

Craniodental Affinities Of Southeast Asia's "Negritos" And The Concordance With Their Genetic Affinities, David Bulbeck

Human Biology

Genetic research into Southeast Asia's "negritos" has revealed their deep-rooted ancestry, with time depth comparable to that of Southwest Pacific populations. This finding is often interpreted as evidence that negritos, in contrast to other Southeast Asians, can trace much of their ancestry directly back to the early dispersal of Homo sapiens in the order of 70 kya from Africa to Pleistocene New Guinea and Australia. One view on negritos is to lump them and Southwest Pacific peoples into an "Australoid" race whose geographic distribution had included Southeast Asia prior to the Neolithic incursion of "Mongoloid" farmers. Studies into Semang osteology …

The Skeletal Phenotype Of "Negritos" From The Andaman Islands And Philippines Relative To Global Variation Among Hunter-Gatherers, Jay T. Stock

Human Biology

The "negrito hypothesis" suggests that populations of small-bodied foragers in South and Southeast Asia who share common phenotypic characteristics may also share a common, ancient origin. The key defining characteristics of the "negrito" phenotype, small body size, dark skin, and tightly curled hair, have been interpreted as linking these populations to sub-Saharan Africans. The underlying assumption of this interpretation is that the observed phenotypic similarities likely reflect shared ancestry rather than phenotypic convergence. Current genetic evidence is inconclusive, as it both demonstrates that negrito populations have genetic affinities with neighboring populations but also rare and ancient variation that suggests considerable …

"Small Size" In The Philippine Human Fossil Record: Is It Meaningful For A Better Understanding Of The Evolutionary History Of The Negritos?, Florent Détroit, Julien Corny, Eusebio Z. Dizon, Armand S. Mijares

Human Biology

"Pygmy populations" are recognized in several places over the world, especially in Western Africa and in Southeast Asia (Philippine "negritos," for instance). Broadly defined as "small-bodied Homo sapiens" (compared with neighboring populations), their origins and the nature of the processes involved in the maintenance of their phenotype over time are highly debated. Major results have been recently obtained from population genetics on present-day negrito populations, but their evolutionary history remains largely unresolved. We present and discuss the Upper Pleistocene human remains recovered from Tabon Cave and Callao Cave in the Philippines, which are potentially highly relevant to these research …

Hunter-Gatherers In Southeast Asia: From Prehistory To The Present, Charles Higham

Human Biology

Anatomically modern hunter-gatherers expanded from Africa into Southeast Asia at least 50,000 years ago, where they probably encountered and interacted with populations of Homo erectus and Homo floresiensis and the recently discovered Denisovans. Simulation studies suggest that these hunter-gatherers may well have followed a coastal route that ultimately led to the settlement of Sahul, while archaeology confirms that they also crossed significant seas and explored well into the interior. They also adapted to marked environmental changes that alternated between relatively cool and dry conditions and warmer, wetter interludes. During the former, the sea fell by up to 120 m below …

Introduction: Revisiting The "Negrito" Hypothesis: A Transdisciplinary Approach To Human Prehistory In Southeast Asia, Phillip Endicott

Human Biology

The "negrito" hypothesis predicts that a shared phenotype among various contemporary groups of hunter-gatherers in Southeast Asia - dark skin, short stature, tight curly hair - is due to common descent from a region-wide, pre-Neolithic substrate of humanity. The alternative is that their distinctive phenotype results from convergent evolution. The core issues of the negrito hypothesis are today more relevant than ever to studies of human evolution, including the out-of-Africa migration, admixture with Denisovans, and the effects of environment and ecology on life-history traits. Understanding the current distribution of the negrito phenotype dictates a wide-ranging remit for study, including the …

A Piece Of Nigromante In Boyle Heights, Javier Espinoza Barajas

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

My project conveys the role that individuals' faith in their cultural healing practices plays on their knowledge of the illness and on the actual healing process. More specifically, on how indigenous immigrant communities from Mexico are prone to utilize medical pluralism practices and experience culture-bound syndromes. When individuals migrate they take with them their understanding of disease, their ways to express it, and their ways of finding treatment according to their cultural medical practices. Based on this, I developed a project to explore the medical healing practices of twenty-three year old Claudia Velmontes during her pregnancy. Ms. Velmontes migrated to …

Dynamical Structure Of A Traditional Amazonian Social Network, Paul L. Hooper, Simon Dedeo, Ann E. Caldwell Hooper, Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan

ESI Publications

Reciprocity is a vital feature of social networks, but relatively little is known about its temporal structure or the mechanisms underlying its persistence in real world behavior. In pursuit of these two questions, we study the stationary and dynamical signals of reciprocity in a network of manioc beer (Spanish: chicha; Tsimane’: shocdye’) drinking events in a Tsimane’ village in lowland Bolivia. At the stationary level, our analysis reveals that social exchange within the community is heterogeneously patterned according to kinship and spatial proximity. A positive relationship between the frequencies at which two families host each other, controlling for kinship and …

Ancestry Informative Markers Clarify The Regional Admixture Variation In The Costa Rican Population, Rebeca Campos-Sánchez, Henriette Raventós, Ramiro Barrantes

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

The genetic structure of Costa Rica’s population is complex, both by region and by individual, due to the admixture process that started during the 15th century and historical events thereafter. Previous studies have been done mostly on Amerindian populations and the Central Valley inhabitants using various microsatellites and mtDNA markers. Here, we study for the first time a random sample from all regions of the country with AIMS (Ancestry Informative Markers) to address the individual and regional admixture proportions. A sample of 160 male individuals was screened for 78 AIMs customized in a GoldenGate platform from Illumina. We observed that …

Analysis Of Uniparental Lineages In Two Villages Of Santiago Del Estero, Argentina, Seat Of “Pueblos De Indios” In Colonial Times, Maia Pauro, Angelina García, Rodrigo Nores, Darío A. Demarchi

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

Based on the analysis of the mitochondrial control region and seven biallelic markers of the Y Chromosome, we investigated the genetic composition of two rural populations of southern Santiago del Estero, Argentina, that were seats in colonial times of “pueblos de indios”, a colonial practice that consisted of concentrating the indigenous populations in organized and accessible settlements, to facilitate Christianizing and policing. We found the Native American Y chromosome haplogroup Q1a3a in only 11% (3/27) of the males. Haplogroup R, common in European populations, is the most frequent haplogroup in Santiago del Estero (55%). In contrast, the persistence of Native …

Exploring The Relative Importance Of Spatial And Environmental Variation On The Craniometrics Of The Modern Portuguese, Katherine E. Weisensee

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

Previous research on the causes of craniometric variation within and among human populations has invoked both genetic and environmental explanations. Recent studies of modern populations in the United States and Portugal, among other populations, suggest that changes in environmental conditions have resulted in significant changes in cranial morphology. While similar changes in cranial morphology have been observed in genetically diverse populations, these populations do not appear to be converging on a common form. This study seeks to understand the role that population history and environmental variation play in explaining craniometric variation in the modern Portuguese. Using three-­‐dimensional craniometric data collected …

Comparative Morphology Of The Hominin And African Ape Hyoid Bone, A Possible Marker Of The Evolution Of Speech, James Steele, Margaret Clegg, Sandra Martelli

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

This study examines the morphology of the hyoid in three closely related species, Homo sapiens, Pan troglodytes and Gorilla gorilla. Differences and similarities between the hyoids of these species are characterised, and used to interpret the morphology and affinities of the Dikika A. afarensis, Kebara 2 Neanderthal, and other fossil hominin hyoid bones.

Humans and African apes are found to have distinct hyoid morphologies. In humans the maximum width across the distal tips of the articulated greater horns is usually slightly greater than the maximum length (distal greater horn tip to most anterior point of the hyoid body …

Genetic Variation Of X-Strs In The Wichí Population From Chaco Province, Argentina, Laura Angela Glesmann, Pablo Francisco Martina, Cecilia Inés Catanesi

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

The Wichí people from Chaco province inhabit the region called Impenetrable Chaqueño, where the climatic conditions are extreme. Besides the scarce communication with the main urban centers, the cultural patterns of the Wichí cause these communities to live in certain degree of isolation. The effect of this situation is an increased genetic differentiation from other populations, as it was observed through autosomal and Y chromosome markers. However, the genetic variation of X chromosome has not been fully analyzed yet. The patterns of allele distribution of different markers of X chromosome can be highly informative in comparative studies, because its special …

Patterns Of Senescence In Human Cardiovascular Fitness: Vo2 Max In Subsistence And Industrialized Populations, Anne C. Pisor, Michael Gurven, Aaron D. Blackwell, Hillard Kaplan, Gandhi Yetish

ESI Publications

Objectives—This study explores whether cardiovascular fitness levels and senescent decline are similar in the Tsimane of Bolivia and Canadians, as well as other subsistence and industrialized populations. Among Tsimane, we examine whether morbidity predicts lower levels and faster decline of cardiovascular fitness, or whether their lifestyle (e.g., high physical activity) promotes high levels and slow decline. Alternatively, high activity levels and morbidity might counterbalance such that Tsimane fitness levels and decline are similar to those in industrialized populations.

Methods—Maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) was estimated using a step test heart rate method for 701 participants. We compared these estimates …

Age-Independent Increases In Male Salivary Testosterone During Horticultural Activity Among Tsimane Forager-Farmers, Benjamin C. Trumble, Daniel K. Cummings, Kathleen A. O'Connor, Darryl J. Holman, Eric A. Smith, Hillard Kaplan, Michael D. Gurven

ESI Publications

Testosterone plays an important role in mediating male reproductive trade-offs in many vertebrate species, augmenting muscle and influencing behavior necessary for male-male competition and mating-effort. Among humans, testosterone may also play a key role in facilitating male provisioning of offspring as muscular and neuromuscular performance are deeply influenced by acute changes in testosterone. This study examines acute changes in salivary testosterone among 63 Tsimane men ranging in age from 16–80 (mean 38.2) years during one-hour bouts of treechopping while clearing horticultural plots. The Tsimane forager-horticulturalists living in the Bolivian Amazon experience high energy expenditure associated with food production, have high …

Colour And Odour Drive Fruit Selection And Seed Dispersal By Mouse Lemurs, Kim Valenta, Ryan J. Burke, Sarah A. Styler, Derek A. Jackson, Amanda D. Melin, Shawn M. Lehman

Dartmouth Scholarship

Animals and fruiting plants are involved in a complex set of interactions, with animals relying on fruiting trees as food resources, and fruiting trees relying on animals for seed dispersal. This interdependence shapes fruit signals such as colour and odour, to increase fruit detectability, and animal sensory systems, such as colour vision and olfaction to facilitate food identification and selection. Despite the ecological and evolutionary importance of plant-animal interactions for shaping animal sensory adaptations and plant characteristics, the details of the relationship are poorly understood. Here we examine the role of fruit chromaticity, luminance and odour on seed dispersal by …