But de l'étude: Nos connaissances anatomiques sur le rachis lombaire reposent sur des dissections cadavériques rares, comprenant peu de sujets, très agés. La précision du scanner fait référence pour la morphologie articulaire. Une base de données scannographique (Lombonice 2005) a été crée puis 400 patients ont été mesurés. L'objectif est d'élaborer un Atlas biométrique de référence. Nous chercherons également à décrire la forme afin de concevoir une prothèse anatomique. Enfin, nous espérons dégager un dimorphisme sexuel et ainsi prédire l'âge ou le sexe d'un sujet en se basant ses articulations lombaires. Patients et méthodes : Nous avons mesuré 217 hommes et 183 femmes d'âge moyen 59 ans. Les coupes natives font 1,25 mm d'épaisseur (de L1 à S1). Nous crérons chaque plan de coupe puis nous positionnons des points de repères sur ces plans. Les coordonnées de ces points nous permettront de calculer des distances, des angles et le rayon des cercles mécaniques. Nous comparons ensuite les mesures obtenues avec l'âge, le côté, le sexe ou le niveau étudié. Résultats : De L1 à S1, les articulaires se rapprochent du mur postérieur mais s'éloignent l'une de l'autre. L'angle d'étrave postérieure augmente vers la caudalité. Le rayon des cercles mécaniques droit et gauche ne sont symétriques que dans 50% des cas et se confondent dans moins de 10 % des cas. Les mesures réalisées ne permettent pas de déterminer le sexe ou l'âge du sujet. Les mesures centrées sur le corps vertébral semblent plus discriminantes. Conclusion: La forme en 3D des articulaires postérieures est plus complexe qu'un fragment de sphère.

Recent genetic studies have confirmed that there was admixture between African early modern humans and archaic populations throughout the Old World. In this dissertation, I examine European early modern human dental morphology to assess the evidence for Neandertal-human admixture. The focus of this study is not on the question of taxonomic designations of Late Pleistocene Homo, but rather on the interactions of these populations in Europe. This focus on gene flow itself redefines the Neandertal question. Rather than asking if Neandertals are a different species from H. sapiens, I focus on the nature of the interactions between archaic and modern populations, which is essential to understanding the history of modern H. sapiens regardless of species definitions. I recorded dental metric measurements and morphology observations on 85 fossil Neandertals and early modern humans and a recent modern human comparative sample of 330 Native Americans and Spaniards. I examined each trait distribution individually and through the use of Mahalanobis D2, mean measure of divergence, principle components analysis, discriminant function analysis, k-means cluster analysis, and a population genetics program, structure. Through these methods, I found evidence of admixture in the dental trait distributions of European early modern humans. However, it is not evident in traditional distance measures or cluster analyses. The earliest European modern humans do not follow the trend of dental reduction found throughout the Pleistocene and into the Holocene and do not uniformly classify with any fossil population in discriminant function analysis of metric traits. The non-metric trait sample size is too small to make any definitive conclusions, but a mosaic pattern of trait frequencies also suggests admixture. The recent modern human sample shows that while increased variation and a mosaic of non-metric traits persist through many generations after admixture has ceased, traditional methods of distance analysis cannot detect low levels of admixture within 200 years. The program structure is effective in finding patterns of variation within and among populations using morphological data. It will be useful for future analyses of dental traits and other fossil data, given the ability to use it with an incomplete data set.

Estimation of the biological profile from as many skeletal elements as possible is a necessity in both forensic and bioarchaeological contexts; this includes non-standard aspects of the biological profile, such as body mass index (BMI). BMI is a measure that allows for understanding of the composition of an individual and is traditionally divided into four groups: underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese. BMI estimation incorporates both estimation of stature and body mass. The estimation of stature from skeletal elements is commonly included into the standard biological profile but the estimation of body mass needs to be further statistically validated to be consistently included. The bones of the foot, specifically the first metatarsal, may have the ability to estimate BMI given an allometric relationship to stature and the mechanical relationship to body mass. There are two commonly used methods for stature estimation, the anatomical method and the regression method. The anatomical method takes into account all of the skeletal elements that contribute to stature while the regression method relies on the allometric relationship between a skeletal element and living stature. A correlation between the metrics of the first metatarsal and living stature has been observed, and proposed as a method for valid stature estimation from the boney foot (Byers et al., 1989). Body mass estimation from skeletal elements relies on two theoretical frameworks: the morphometric and the mechanical approaches. The morphometric approach relies on the size relationship of the individual to body mass; the basic relationship between volume, density, and weight allows for body mass estimation. The body is thought of as a cylinder, and in order to understand the volume of this cylinder the diameter is needed. A commonly used proxy for this in the human body is skeletal bi-iliac breadth from rearticulated pelvic girdle. The mechanical method of body mass estimation relies on the ideas of biomechanical bone remodeling; the elements of the skeleton that are under higher forces, including weight, will remodel to minimize stress. A commonly used metric for the mechanical method of body mass estimation is the diameter of the head of the femur. The foot experiences nearly the entire weight force of the individual at any point in the gait cycle and is subject to the biomechanical remodeling that this force would induce. Therefore, the application of the mechanical framework for body mass estimation could stand true for the elements of the foot. The morphometric and mechanical approaches have been validated against one another on a large, geographically disparate population (Auerbach and Ruff, 2004), but have yet to be validated on a sample of known body mass. DeGroote and Humphrey (2011) test the ability of the first metatarsal to estimate femoral head diameter, body mass, and femoral length. The estimated femoral head diameter from the first metatarsal is used to estimate body mass via the morphometric approach and the femoral length is used to estimate living stature. The authors find that body mass and stature estimation methods from more commonly used skeletal elements compared well with the methods developed from the first metatarsal. This study examines 388 `White' individuals from the William M. Bass donated skeletal collection to test the reliability of the body mass estimates from femoral head diameter and bi-iliac breadth, stature from maximum femoral length, and body mass and stature from the metrics of the first metatarsal. This sample included individuals from all four of the BMI classes. This study finds that all of the skeletal indicators compare well with one another; there is no statistical difference in the stature estimates from the first metatarsal and the maximum length of the femur, and there is no statistical between all three of the body mass estimation methods. When compared to the forensic estimates of stature neither of the tested methods had statistical difference. Conversely, when the body mass estimates are compared to forensic body mass there was a statistical difference and when further investigated the most difference in the body mass estimates was in the extremes of body mass (the underweight and obese categories). These findings indicate that the estimation of stature from both the maximum femoral length and the metrics of the metatarsal are accurate methods. Furthermore, the estimation of body mass is accurate when the individual is in the middle range of the BMI spectrum while these methods for outlying individuals are inaccurate. These findings have implications for the application of stature and body mass estimation in the fields of bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, and paleoanthropology.

abstract: Arguments of human uniqueness emphasize our complex sociality, unusual cognitive capacities, and language skills, but the timing of the origin of these abilities and their evolutionary causes remain unsolved. Though not unique to primates, kin-biased sociality was key to the success of the primate order. In contrast to ancestral solitary mammals, the earliest primates are thought to have maintained dispersed (non-group living) social networks, communicating over distances via vocalizations and scent marks. If such ancestral primates recognized kin, those networks may have facilitated the evolution of kin-biased sociality in the primate order and created selection for increased cognitive and communicative abilities. I used the gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) to model whether vocalizations could have facilitated matrilineal and patrilineal kin recognition in ancestral primates. Much like mouse lemurs today, ancestral primates are thought to have been small-bodied, nocturnal creatures that captured insects and foraged for fruit in the thin, terminal ends of tree branches. Thus, the mouse lemur is an excellent model species because its ecological niche is likely to be similar to that of ancestral primates 55-90 million years ago. I conducted playback experiments in Ankarafantsika National Park, Madagascar testing whether mouse lemur agonistic calls contain matrilineal kin signatures and whether the lemurs recognize matrilineal kin. In contrast to large-brained, socially complex monkeys with frequent coalitionary behavior, mouse lemurs did not react differently to the agonistic calls of matrilineal kin and nonkin, though moderate signatures were present in the calls. I tested for patrilineal signatures and patrilineal kin recognition via mating and alarm calls in a colony with known pedigree relationships. The results are the first to demonstrate that a nocturnal, solitary foraging mammal gives mating calls with patrilineal signatures and recognizes patrilineal kin. Interestingly, alarm calls did not have signatures and did not facilitate kin recognition, suggesting that selection for kin recognition is stronger in some call types than others. As this dissertation is the first investigation of vocal kin recognition in a dispersed-living, nocturnal strepsirrhine primate, it greatly advances our knowledge of the role of vocal communication in the evolution of primate social complexity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Anthropology 2014

A região do Deserto de Atacama, norte do Chile, possui condições propícias para a conservação arqueológica. Uma grande quantidade de esqueletos ali bem preservados vem permitindo um intercâmbio rico entre estudos bioantropológicos e arqueológicos. Dentro desse contexto, o presente estudo concentra-se nos esqueletos humanos subadultos de San Pedro de Atacama. O universo amostral é de 90 esqueletos subadultos (menores de vinte anos) de três cemitérios diferentes: Solcor-3, Coyo-3 e Quitor-6; a datação desses cemitérios varia de 250 até 1240 A.D. A inferencia da qualidade de vida biológica foi feita através de oito marcadores osteólogicos. Duas abordagens foram realizadas neste estudo: a comparação do estilo e da qualidade de vida biológica entre períodos da pré-história atacamenha e a análise mundial. A primeira delas comparou quatro períodos distintos da pré-história atacamenha: anterior à influência do Império Tiwanaku, auge da influência Tiwanaku, fase final da influência Tiwanaku e posterior à influência Tiwanaku. A hipótese central a ser testada nesta abordagem é a de que houve uma melhoria significativa na qualidade de vida biológica na região de San Pedro de Atacama durante o auge da influência Tiwanaku. A segunda abordagem consistiu na junção dos quatro períodos em uma amostra única. Estes dados caracterizaram a qualidade de vida biológica dos subadultos atacamenhos, e foram comparados com populações do restante do mundo. Objetivou-se testar se a qualidade de vida biológica em San Pedro enquadrava-se na estratégia de subsistência agricultora. Os resultados da comparação entre os períodos corroboraram a hipótese inicial apenas para o marcador cáries, uma vez que os demais marcadores apresentaram um padrão bastante variado. Os resultados da análise mundial, por sua vez, mostraram que San Pedro de Atacama se encontra dentro da amplitude de variação da categoria \"agricultores\". No entanto, foi constatado que, com exceção de cáries, os marcadores osteológicos apresentaram alta variação nas diferentes populações mundiais de uma mesma estratégia de subsistência. Os marcadores cáries, abcessos e hipoplasias em San Pedro ficaram acima da média agricultora enquanto hiperostose porótica, infecções e traumas ficaram abaixo. Em suma, encontrou-se um padrão complexo, no qual cada marcador osteológico é sensível a um conjunto de condições culturais e naturais próprias da história da população atacamenha / Desert of Atacama region, northern Chile, shows excellent conditions to preserve archaeological remains. A high number of skeletons exumated allows a rich interchange between archaeology and biological anthropology. This study analyzed subadult skeletons from San Pedro de Atacama. The sample is composed by 90 subadult skeletons (less than twenty years) from three burial sites: Solcor-3, Coyo-3 e Quitor-6; they are dated from between 250 to 1240 A.D. Style and biological quality of life were infered throught eight osteological markers. Two approaches were carried out in this study: comparison of style and biological quality of life between Atacameneans prehistoric periods and world-wide groups. The first compared four prehistoric periods of San Pedro: before the influence of Tiwanaku Empire, peak of Tiwanaku influence, final period of Tiwanaku influence and after Tiwanaku influence. The main hypothesis tested in this approach is the significative improvement of biological quality of life in San Pedro de Atacama during the peak of Tiwanaku influence. The second approach joined the skeletons from the four periods in a single sample. These data caracterized the biological quality of life of Atacameneans subadults. The aim was testing if the biological quality of life in San Pedro de Atacama would be within the variation found in agricultural subsistence strategy. The results of the periods\' comparison show that only caries frequencies corroborated the main hypothesis, while the other markers presented a variable pattern. Results of the world-wide analysis showed that San Pedro is within the range of agriculture category. However, it was found out that, except for caries, the osteological markers showed high variation in different world-wide populations within the same subsistence strategy. Caries, abscess and hypoplasias in San Pedro de Atacama were above the world-wide agricultural mean, while porotic hyperostosis, infections and traumas were below. In brief, it was found a complex pattern, in which each osteological marker responds to a particular group of natural and cultural characteristics of the prehistory of Atacamenean population.

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Historic-archaeological research on the Alamanni, an early medieval population in the periphery of the Frankish Empire, primarily focuses on themes such as their military character or issues of ethnicity, while the actual functioning of Alamannic societies remains conjectural. Aiming at presenting an integrated approach to the concepts of social organisation and social identities in Alamannic populations, this study examines and defines Alamannic identity and society by creating a dialogue between the disciplines of archaeology, biological anthropology and socio-cultural sciences. A bioarchaeology of identity explores the Alamanni of Pleidelsheim and Neresheim via their funerary and skeletal evidence, allowing for the factor of different environments that influence the interactions of a community. A key theme is the investigation of indicators for biological and social "status" by direct association of bioanthropological with funerary archaeological data, as well as by evaluation of present interpretations made from material culture in the light of bioanthropological analysis as a paramount focus. The results are interpreted in terms of social status and the perception of certain social parameters, exploring interrelations between factors such as sex and gender, age, status and activity for the entirety of a society. This research offers new perspectives on Alamannic societies and helps to comprehend Alamannic social organisation as a multi-layered phenomenon, emphasizing the importance of a biocultural approach. Beyond common perceptions, this study forms the basis for a new understanding of the Alamanni, as the results reveal a society that was complex and diverse, displaying its own characteristics in the Merovingian world. / AHRC. British Archaeological Association

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