Showing papers on "Biological anthropology published in 2013"

The original sin of cognitive science

Abstract: Classical cognitive science was launched on the premise that the architecture of human cognition is uniform and universal across the species. This premise is biologically impossible and is being actively undermined by, for example, imaging genomics. Anthropology (including archaeology, biological anthropology, linguistics, and cultural anthropology) is, in contrast, largely concerned with the diversification of human culture, language, and biology across time and space—it belongs fundamentally to the evolutionary sciences. The new cognitive sciences that will emerge from the interactions with the biological sciences will focus on variation and diversity, opening the door for rapprochement with anthropology.

Bioarchaeology of the everyday: Analysis of activity patterns and diet in the Nile Valley

Abstract: Schrader, Sarah A. Ph.D., Purdue University, August 2013. Bioarchaeology of the Everyday: Analysis of Activity Patterns and Diet in the Nile Valley. Major Professor: Michele Buzon. By employing a bioarchaeological perspective, this dissertation addresses how quotidian acts are altered during and as a consequence of sociopolitical change. Specifically, variation in day-to-day activities associated with the transition from the New Kingdom to the Napatan Periods in Ancient Nubia is explored. The focal site of the dissertation, Tombos, is located at the Third Cataract and was continuously inhabited throughout this instance of sociopolitical transition. An additional nine skeletal samples from Egypt and Nubia were also examined to investigate comparative variation in activity and diet throughout the Nile Valley. The methods of entheseal remodeling and osteoarthritis were used to broadly infer levels of manual labor. Stable isotope analysis of bone collagen and carbonate were examined to better understand dietary patterns. The theoretical perspectives of embodiment, structuration, and social identity were applied to illustrate the significance of quotidian action and further theoretical notions of the skeleton. A distinct increase in activity (entheseal remodeling, osteoarthritis) was found between the New Kingdom Tombos and Napatan Tombos populations. This suggests that despite having social, political, and economic authority during

Current Practices in Physical Anthropology for Sex Estimation in Unidentified, Adult Individuals

Abstract: Understanding the preferences and methods being employed for sex estimation, as well as how results are reported, is the first step towards standardization. The main themes and findings from this research are consistent with those found for adult age estimation (Garvin and Passalacqua 2012). There is considerable variation present; however, the results of the various methods used are likely still accurate for sex estimation. The next step is recognizing the choices being made and our preferences to promote further discussions and then work towards standardization within our field. Experience

Physical Anthropology, Race and Eugenics in Greece (1880s-1970s)

Abstract: This study explores the emergence and development of physical anthropology in the modern Greek state from the viewpoint of the proclaimed intention of its representatives to influence societal developments. This study is the first to subject racial and eugenic discourses in Greece to research.

Spanish Missionization and Maya Social Structure: Skeletal Evidence for Labor Distribution at Tipu, Belize

Abstract: Dean's Dissertation Fellowship, Office of Graduate Studies, University of New Mexico's Anthropology Department

Introduction to Skeletal Biology

Abstract: This chapter provides a brief introduction to the history of biological anthropology and human skeletal biology. The distinction is made between typology that characterized the discipline early on and modern research that rather uses a population-based approach. The biocultural perspective is discussed as being central to our understanding of how biology is affected by culture and environment. A historical overview of the race concept in anthropology is presented, as well as brief treatment of the contributions of three important scholars: Ales Hrdlicka, Franz Boas, and Earnest Hooton. The evolutionary perspective taken by modern biological anthropology is illustrated. Further, overviews of the goals and theory behind bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology are discussed, with ethical considerations being weighed. Finally, the format of the book is presented with a brief overview of each chapter.

Paleoanthropology and Race

Abstract: As the study of human variation over space and time, biological anthropology has been deeply affected by the race concept It was a science that errantly validated the existence of biological race and also justified social inequality It was a science that defined races (the number of racial types, their constituents, and their attributes), and the history of the racial groups so defined The history of biological anthropology is replete with studies designed to demonstrate the intrinsic inequality of races; since races are “biologized” social categories, social inequalities have long been justified as the result of biological differences From the use of polygenism to justify slavery, to the use of eugenics to justify unfair immigration laws, sterilization of the poor, and even genocide, biological anthropology has had a sordid history Cognizant of this history, modern anthropologists are among the first to discredit scientific racism when it appears today (Edgar and Hunley 2009) The role of anthropological science in the history of race and racism has been well described (eg, Montagu 1942 ; Marks 1995 ; Blakey 1999 ; Jackson 2001 ; Lieberman 2001 ; Caspari 2003 ; Kaszycka and Strzalko 2003 ; Brace 2005 ), and it is beyond the scope of this paper to recount it here Less attention, however, has been paid to the relationship between the race concept and paleoanthropology specifically In this chapter, we focus on this relationship At its core lies polygenism, the idea that links the race concept to the study of human evolution through the phylogenetic treatment of human variation

An epidemiological transition in the Chinese northern zone

Abstract: .............................................................................................................................................. ii LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................................... v

Modern anthropology and the problem of the racial type: the photographs of Franz Boas:

Abstract: Franz Boas is best known for his pioneering work in the area of cultural anthropology. However in the 1890s, Boas created hundreds of anthropometric photographs as part of a vast study aimed at documenting the physical characteristics of Native Americans. The primary purpose of the Jesup Expedition, as the study was called, was to discover the racial origins of America’s Native peoples, but the data collected and the knowledge gained were also later used by Boas to report on the physical changes occurring to migrant children in the USA, and to mount an attack on the scientific credibility of the racial theories being used to hound and discriminate against Jewish and other racial minorities in Germany and Europe.

Geographies of Difference: Dutch Physical Anthropology in the Colonies and the Netherlands, ca. 1900-1940

Abstract: This article analyses how physical anthropologists created scientific circuits between the Netherlands and their colonies in the East Indies. It shows that national and imperial anthropology were not two separate spheres and that the movement of anthropologists and their objects was important both for the making of anthropology as a scientific discipline and for making anthropological ideas. Trying to define the physical features of people in Dutch fishing villages and in East Indies inland regions, anthropologists formed geographies of imaginary difference. Anthropological data from the Indies however was valued more highly than that from the Netherlands, which means that distance continued to matter. New Imperial Historians would therefore do better to sharpen their perception of these uneven geographies.

Biological and Biocultural Anthropology

Abstract: Biological anthropology deals with human evolution and the material that natural selection acts on, human biological variation. Human biological variation and the establishment of physiological norms are important in defining pathological patterns as well as in establishing disease patterns. Therefore there is an overlap between biological anthropology and biomedicine. In documenting and explaining biological variability, biological anthropology has drawn on the central concept of human adaptability, or the ability of populations to adjust, biologically and behaviorally, to environmental conditions. Humans do not live in a social vacuum; however, and much physiological adaptation is a response to environmental stressors that are constructed by them. A major challenge to the understanding of human adaptation has therefore been the incorporation of the social and the societal into the understanding of human adaptability. In recognition of this, a biocultural anthropology of disease has emerged in recent decades that examines how sociocultural and politico-economic processes affect health and disease as well as structuring human populations. As many of the world’s populations are undergoing unprecedented social and economic change, bioculturalism is an approach that integrates biological and social processes in the understanding of disease patterns.

Twenty years of the centre for physical anthropology

Abstract: The article provides an overview of the activities of the Centre for Physical Anthropology at the University of Tartu from its foundation in 1993 to the present.

Introduction: Environmental Anthropology of Today and Tomorrow

Abstract: Anthropology is traditionally broken into several subfields, physical/biological anthropology, social/cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, archaeology, and sometimes also applied anthropology. Anthropology of the environment, or environmental anthropology, is a specialization within the field of anthropology that studies current and historic human-environment interactions. Although the terms environmental anthropology and ecological anthropology are often used interchangeably, environmental anthropology is considered by some to be the applied dimension of ecological anthropology, which encompasses the broad topics of primate ecology, paleoecology, cultural ecology, ethnoecology, historical ecology, political ecology, spiritual ecology, and human behavioral and evolutionary ecology. However, according to Townsend (2009: 104), “ecological anthropology will refer to one particular type of research in environmental anthropology—field studies that describe a single ecosystem including a human population and frequently deal with a small population of only a few hundred people such as a village or neighborhood.” Kottak states that the new ecological anthropology mirrors more general changes in the discipline: the shift from research focusing on a single community or unique culture “to recognizing pervasive linkages and concomitant flows of people, technology, images, and information, and to acknowledging the impact of differential power and status in the postmodern world on local entities. In the new ecological anthropology, everything is on a larger scale” (Kottak 1999:25). Environmental anthropology, like all other anthropological subdisciplines, addresses both the similarities and differences between human cultures; but unlike other subdisciplines (or more in line with applied anthropology), it has an end goal—it seeks to find solutions to environmental damage. While in our first volume (Shoreman-Ouimet and Kopnina 2011) we criticized Kottak’s anthropocentric bias prioritizing environmental anthropology's role as a supporter of primarily people's (and particularly indigenous) interests rather than ecological evidence. In his newer 2 publication, Kottak (2010:579) states: “Today’s ecological anthropology, aka environmental anthropology, attempts not only to understand but also to find solutions to environmental problems.” And because this is a global cause with all cultures, peoples, creeds, and nationalities at stake, the contributors to this volume demonstrate that the future of environmental anthropology may be more focused on finding the universals that underlie human differences and understanding how these universals can best be put to use to end environmental damage. This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge/CRC Press in "Environmental Anthropology: Future Directions" on 7/18/13 available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203403341 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/

The Transgressive Allure of White Gold in Peruvian Amazonia: Towards a Genealogy of Coca Capitalisms and Social Dread

Abstract: (Oxford M.Phil., Harvard Ph.D.) is associate professor of anthropology, University of Kansas and research associate of KU's Laboratory of Biological Anthropology. Dean is research affiliate at the Universidad Nacional de San Martin (Tarapoto, Peru), where he directs the Anthropology Section of the Regional Museum. He is a contributing editor for the Ethnology of Lowland South America, U.S. Library of Congress. Dean’s research interests include the ethnology of Amazonia, health, human rights, political anthropology, social theory and ethics. His publications include

Croatian biological anthropology in the socialist period

Abstract: Development of biological anthropology in the socialist period in Croatia is problematized in this chapter. A particular attention is devoted to the 1970s and 1980s, which is the period of a full maturation of biological anthropology as the new discipline in socialist Croatia, linked to the work of Pavao Rudan and his colleagues. Apart from discussing the institutionalization of anthropology, the author also describes the major characteristics of the Croatian anthropological school and Rudan’s national and international engagement in de-legitimating the concept of “race”.

Teaching programs and the educational effectiveness of physical anthropology in high schools

Abstract: 2006年以降,日本人類学会は初等中等教育課程におけ る人類学教育の導入例や実践例を紹介している。とりわ け,人類学教育普及委員会の活動はホームページ上に詳 しく紹介されており,学校現場で働く教員の授業づくり において指導的役割を果たしている。本誌 vol. 115, 116 のシンポジウム特集には,2012年に先行実施された理科 の学習指導要領の改訂に向けて,人類学教育について活 発に議論が行われた様子が記されている。例えば,平田 (2007, 2008)は中学生・高校生に対して形質人類学的な テーマの学習プログラムを実施することにより,生徒の 知的好奇心を満たしたり,探究心を芽生えさせたりする ことができることを認めている。理科離れの問題が指摘 されている今日,人類学の話題を生物学の授業の中に織 り込むことの教育的効果は,理科教育における優れた テーマになり得ると期待されている。しかし,授業時間 の限られた学校現場に学習プログラムを導入するには, 標本の確保や教員の知識不足を補うなどのハード・ソフ ト両面において課題が残されている。他方,広谷(2010, 2012)は博物館教育の視点から教材・標本・学習方法の 解説をセットとした「人類進化学習キット」の整備を提 案し,実際に小学生に対して出張授業を行っている。こ うした理由などから,今後は初等中等教育課程において 人類学の基礎的素養を育成するための学習環境(使用教 材,学習形式,人材など)を整備する段階にあると考え