Showing papers on "Biological anthropology published in 2011"

Body Size, Skeletal Biomechanics, Mobility and Habitual Activity from the Late Palaeolithic to the Mid-Dynastic Nile Valley

Abstract: 1 Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1QH, UK 2 Centre for Functional Anatomy and Evolution, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA 3 Department of Behavioural Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fort Smith 4 Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA 5 Department of Anthropology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

Forensic anthropology in Europe: an assessment of current status and application.

Abstract: Forensic anthropology is the discipline that traditionally deals with the examination of human remains for legal purposes and it derives from the fields of anatomy, physical anthropology and forensic medicine. For more than a century, forensic anthropologists in the United States have been offering their services in the court of law complementing the medico-legal investigation of other forensic professionals. The current status in European countries is presented here. The development of forensic anthropology varies significantly among the countries of Europe. Whereas some countries show a long history of research activity in the forensic sciences, including forensic anthropology (i.e. France, Germany and Spain), others are exhibiting a recent, rapid development (i.e. United Kingdom). In some cases, forensic anthropologists are employed within the academic realm (i.e. U.K., Denmark, Portugal, Turkey), forensic institutions (Netherlands) or government organizations (Spain, Hungary), although the vast majority of them remain limited to freelance activities on a sporadic basis. Often, European scientists that deal with skeletal remains come from nonphysical anthropology disciplines such as archaeology, forensic medicine and biology. In many cases they do not have adequate training equivalent to the forensic anthropologists in the USA. Naturally, without common training and a common legal system, an accreditation system for Europe will be difficult to implement.

Towards Engagement: Exploring the Prospects for an Integrated Anthropology of Disability

Abstract: Impairment and disability are fundamental human experiences across cultures, yet disability remains curiously under-studied and under-theorized within anthropology, particularly within physical anthropology and archaeology. Why is this the case and how might this change? This paper critically examines anthropology’s varying detachment from and engagement with disability studies up to the present. It is suggested that a holistic approach which integrates data and insights from archaeology, physical anthropology, and sociocultural anthropology would offer the means for an important and distinctly anthropological contribution to the study of disability in the past and present. Lessons are taken from previous anthropological work on women/gender and Indigenous peoples. It is argued that a focus on theoretically-situated bodies, increased inclusion of people with disabilities, and a demonstrated relevance to current disability issues will be essential aspects of an integrated ‘anthropology of disability’.

Variability in Long Bone Growth Patterns and Limb Proportions within and Amongst Mesolithic and Neolithic Populations from Southeast Europe

Abstract: 1 Department of Archaeology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland 2 Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Cika Ljubina 18-20, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro 3 Ephorate of Paleoanthropology and Speleology, Greek Ministry of Culture,11636 Athens, Greece 4 Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QH, UK

Centralizing fieldwork : critical perspectives from primatology, biological and social anthropology

Abstract: 1. Centralizing Fieldwork Jeremy MacClancy and Agustin Fuentes 2. The Do's and Don'ts of Fieldwork Geoffrey A. Harrison 3. The Anthropologist as a Primatologist: Mental Journeys of a Fieldworker Volker Sommer 4. Primate Fieldwork and its Human Contexts in Southern Madagascar Robert W. Sussman 5. Problem Animals or Problem People? Ethics, Politics and Practice or Conflict between Community Perspectives and Fieldwork on Conservation Phyllis C. Lee 6. Ecological Anthropology and Primatology: Fieldwork Practices and Mutual Benefits Juichi Yamagiwa 7. Lost in Translation: Field Primatology, Culture, and Interdisciplinary Approaches Nobuyuki Kutsukake 8. Measuring Meaning and Understanding in Primatological and Biological Anthropology Fieldwork: Context and Practice Agustin Fuentes 9. Fieldwork as Research Process and Community Engagement Mark Eggerman and Catherine Panter-Brick 10. Framing the Quantitative within the Qualitative: Why Biological Anthropologists do Fieldwork Lyliane Rosetta 11. Considerations on Field Methods used to assess Non-human Primate Feeding Behaviours and Human Food Intake in terms of nutritional requirements Claude Marcel Hladik 12. Anthropobiological Surveys in the Field: A reflection on the Bioethics of Human Medical and DNA Surveys Alain Froment 13. Field Schools in Central America: playing a pivotal role in the formation of modern field primatologists Katherine C. MacKinnon 14. The Narrator's Stance: Story-telling and Science at Berenty Reserve Alison Jolly 15. Natural Homes: Primate Fieldwork and the Anthropological Method Pamela J. Asquith 16. Popularizing Fieldwork: Examples from Primatology and Biological Anthropology Jeremy MacClancy Index

Kant and the Human Sciences: Biology, Anthropology, and History

Abstract: By Alix Cohen Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Pp. xv + 200. ISBN 978–0–230–22432–2. £52.00 (hbk). In his recent book Kantian Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2008), Allen Wood very correctly remarks t...

Race and ancestry

Abstract: Throughout its history, the subject of race has been one of the most sensitive and passionately debated topics in the fields of social and biological anthropology. At its heart, the topic is concerned with how anthropologists describe and interpret variation within human populations, specifically whether this variation can be used to classify human population groups. The debate is ongoing and acrimonious and shows no sign of diminishing; often, the mere process of debating the “race” issue in anthropology is seen as implicitly “racist” in itself. Recently, this has culminated in a special edition of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology (“Race Reconciled?” 2009), which reported the findings of a special symposium held in 2007 at the University of New Mexico, the aim of which was to find common ground in the debate among biological anthropologists; this symposium provides a 5

A Molecular Anthropological Study of Altaian Histories Utilizing Population Genetics and Phylogeography

Abstract: This dissertation explores the genetic histories of several populations living in the Altai Republic of Russia. It employs an approach combining methods from population genetics and phylogeography to characterize genetic diversity in these populations, and places the results in a molecular anthropological context. Previously, researchers used anthropological, historical, ethnographic and linguistic evidence to categorize the indigenous inhabitants of the Altai into two groups – northern and southern Altaians. Genetic data obtained in this study were therefore used to determine whether these anthropological groupings resulted from historical processes involving different source populations, and if the observed geographical and anthropological separation between northern and southern Altaians also represented a genetic boundary between them. These comparisons were made by examining mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) coding region single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), control region sequences (including HVS1), and several complete mitochondrial genomes. Variation in the non-recombining portion of the Y-chromosome (NRY) was characterized with biallelic markers and short tandem repeat (STR) haplotypes. Overall, this work provided a high-resolution data set for both unipaternally inherited genetic marker systems. The resulting data were analyzed using both population genetic and phylogeographic methods. Northern Altaians (Chelkan, Kumandin and Tubalar) were distinctive from the southern Altaians (Altai-kizhi) with both genetic systems, yet the Tubalar consistently showed evidence of admixture with southern Altaians, reflecting differences in the origin and population history of northern and southern groups as well as between ethnic northern Altaian populations. These results complement the observation of cultural differences as noted by anthropological/ ethnographic research on Altaian populations. These differences likely reinforced and maintained the genetic differences between ethnic groups (i.e., a cultural barrier to genetic exchange). Therefore, biological and cultural lines of evidence suggest separate origins for northern and southern Altaians. Phylogeographic analysis of mtDNA and NRY haplotypes examined the impact of different historical events on genetic diversity in Altaians, including Neolithic expansions, the introduction of Kurgan cultures, the spread of Altaicspeakers, and the intrusion of the Mongol Empire. These insights also allowed for a greater understanding of the peopling of Siberia itself. The cultures of Altaian peoples ultimately helped to shape their current genetic variation. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Anthropology First Advisor Theodore G. Schurr This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1545

Population structure and demographic history of human Arctic populations using quantitative cranial traits

Abstract: ................................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................................. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES AND MAPS ...................................................................................................... x CHAPTER

Tracing the Paths of the First Americans

Abstract: In a special issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology published online last week, six research teams used the genetics of living and ancient people to probe the peopling of the Americas. The findings support earlier indications that the Paleoindians, the ancestors of today9s Native Americans, stem from a single Asian source population. But the data also suggest that this population may have become genetically quite diverse during thousands of years of Beringian occupation.

Intelectualmente “impuros e maculados”: reflexões sobre a formação em antropologia biológica no diálogo com outros campos da antropologia

Abstract: This article is a revised lecture delivered at the opening of the Graduate Program in Anthropology - PPGA / UFPA on August 19, 2010. In this text, the author reflects on the time depth of physical/ biological anthropology in Brazil, initially considerating his own career as a researcher and professor, and later examining the historical development of the discipline in Brazil. He argues that a focus on history can facilitate the dialogue between the biological anthropology and other fields of anthropology, social anthropology in particular, with important implications in the process of graduate students’ training. A historical perspective can also help biological anthropology to better understand the challenges of the contemporary practice of the discipline. Keywords: physical anthropology, biological anthropology, history of science.

Paleopatoloji̇: hastaliklara arkeoloji̇k yaklaşim

Abstract: Paleopathology is an holistic science that shares methods and concepts with biological anthropology and biomedical sciences and that belongs to archaeology by its approach (study of diseases in the past). Fol­lowing the development of archaeology, paleopathology moved its research interest from isolated cases to reconstruction of life conditions of past populations in their environment. We illustrate here, by taking some examples in the field of human infections, this archaeological approach of diseases.

Current status and perspectives of the development of dental research in biological anthropology of Argentina: introduction and conclusions of the symposium.

Abstract: This paper describes and discusses the research in the field of dental anthropology in Argentina. It has been presented at the symposium entitled “The development of dental research in Argentine Biological Anthropology: current status and perspectives”, coordinated by the authors at the IX National Meeting of Biological Anthropology of Argentina, Puerto Madryn, 20th–23rd October 2009. The aim of the symposium was to present new results and future prospects of this discipline in the country and to create a forum for discussion of current research within this field. Six contributions that focused on the study of teeth from different perspectives and analysed bioarchaeological samples from different areas of Argentina (Central Highlands, Pampa and Patagonia) were presented. After the presentations, a discussion about the state of the art of dental research in the country was generated, in which the need for the generation of methodological consensus on the criteria for the evaluation of the variables considered was stated, so that research conducted in different areas can be compared. In short, the contributions of this symposium provide insights into the diversity of dental anthropology in contemporary Argentina and the potential of these types of studies to gain important information about biological and cultural aspects of the native populations in the country.

Creation of an Aural Map: Convergence of Music and Biological Anthropology Methodologies

Abstract: [commentary, Music and Sound, Biological Anthropology, research methods, quantitative mapping]