Abstract available in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology

The placement of the dead is important for considering social memory, a source of collective knowledge and experiences that shapes social group identity. Mortuary placement is one form of ritual action that communities undertake to remember the dead. This allows anthropologists to ask questions about how humans engaged socially with each other and the landscape. This thesis utilizes an innovative methodological approach combining geographic information systems (GIS) and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to investigate mortuary variation and social identity within the Late Intermediate Period site (A.D. 800 – 1535) Kuelap in the northern Peruvian Andes. Spatial, demographic, and isotopic data are both examined to better understand mortuary behavior. Researchers utilizing these methods typically examine environmental variation or human mobility on a large scale. This project's case study involves examining 440 individuals by grouping burials by mortuary types, age-at-death, and osteological sex. Spatial autocorrelation results indicate significant spatial clustering for age-at-death, mortuary types, and carbon stable isotopes. Hotspot analyses suggests significant clustering for all variables. Statistical tests indicate significant differences in carbon stable isotopes and no significant differences for nitrogen stable isotopes. The results suggest that the mortuary landscape at Kuelap is primarily shaped by social memory practices regarding the deceased and was likely not attached to specific ideas regarding age and sex identities. This research successfully utilizes a novel methodological approach to provide a deeper understanding of Chachapoya mortuary practices.

Sharp force trauma (SFT) is a mechanism of traumatic injury in which a tool with a pointed or slanted edge impacts the skin and/or bone, producing a penetrating cut mark. Current assessment of forensic and bioarchaeological contexts typically focuses on evaluating and interpreting traumatic injuries to bone due to cutting and stabbing using small, bladed tools, primarily knives and saws. Minimal research focuses on the damage inflicted by a larger class of chopping/hacking tools. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to experimentally evaluate and analyze macroscopic characteristics of chopping/hacking trauma inflicted on pig bones (Sus scrofa domesticus) to determine if differentiation of chopping/hacking tool type can be made based on the characteristics that occur on bone. Trauma was inflicted to 20 partially fleshed pig limbs utilizing four chopping/hacking tools (i.e., axe, hatchet, machete, and cleaver) as well as a carving knife for comparison. The limbs were macerated and cleaned, then macroscopic evaluation and data analysis of 16 sharp force cut mark characteristics was conducted to assess statistical significance. Interobserver error data was also collected and evaluated. Utilizing a chi-square analysis, three of the 16 sharp force cut mark characteristics demonstrated statistically significant differences in relation to the tool utilized, though Cramer's V correlations indicate weak effect sizes. For interobserver error, the kappa value for the overall measure of agreement concerning characteristics for each tool type and characteristics regardless of tool type indicated substantial agreement for both categories. While similar trends in wall regularity, kerf bisection, and edge chattering have been demonstrated in the current experimental literature, the results relating to the macroscopic differentiation of chopping/hacking tool mark characteristics on bone were not strongly confirmed. Future analysis utilizing both macroscopic and microscopic methods is planned as previous research has noted tool class characteristics may be differentiated microscopically.

This research uses GIS methods to contextualize a Florida Cracker community in the Ocala National Forest. My case study is drawn from two seasons of fieldwork and supporting desktop surveys associated with Pat's Island, the home of multiple Cracker families. Cracker culture is historically categorized by its efforts to avoid modernization and prevent the commercialization of traditional lifeways in the quickly shifting society of late-19th and early 20th-century Florida. The geospatial expressions of these Cracker values are an emphasis on semi-remote living, adaptations to a unique environmental context, and the development of a semi-self-sufficient community. This research evaluates how GIS can be used in conjunction with limited datasets to draw meaningful conclusions. In other words, how can geospatial approaches to sparse historical datasets reveal useful insights about the past? Specifically, how the combination of General Land Office patents, census records, and Florida Master Site records combine with archaeological data to conduct better understand community formation, development, and dissolution. The resultant study shows the efficacy with which these datasets, when combined and analyzed using GIS can add clarity to otherwise disparate and scarce data. Furthermore, Pat's Island has received relatively little attention. This research thus hopes to begin the process of creating a foundation by which the history of Florida homesteaders can be contextualized and understood. Using a spatial approach, the space which homesteaders inhabited, altered, and experienced can be understood. Furthermore, this research will explore the efficacy of a digital anthropological approach to analyzing and exploring anthropological questions.

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No description available.

The primary goal of a forensic archaeologist is to reconstruct the context of scenes involving skeletal remains using recording and mapping methods. However, the outdoor locations of most forensic archaeology scenes can result in difficulties when recording and mapping scenes. While close-range photogrammetry (CRP) has been considered for documenting context of forensic sciences, this method lacks a sufficient procedural basis to guide data recording when encountering problematic environmental conditions. The purpose of this research is to test how light correction tools, a sheet and artificial lights, could improve harsh lighting conditions. Photographs were taken of controlled scenes with skeletal remains in open, dappled, and shaded lighting environments, and the models were processed using Agisoft® Metashape® Professional. Phase 1 tested three different scenarios with four different iterations while varying the light correction tools: (1) no artificial lighting tool; (2) only a sheet over the scene; (3) artificial lights placed around the scene; and (4) a combination of lights and sheet. The accuracy was assessed quantitatively, using the root-mean square (RMS) reprojection error and total scale bar error, and qualitatively. The results indicated that no significant quantitative accuracy of the model changed between iterations. However, the visual accuracy of the scene did improve with the sheet by decreasing shadows across the scene. Phase 2 tested two larger scenarios using the same four iterations. While the models were all highly accurate quantitatively, the iterations that included the sheet appeared to have fewer qualitative errors. Guidelines are provided to successfully use light correction tools to improve harsh lighting conditions of outdoor scenes.

No description available.

This dissertation reports on the research related to childhood growth and sex ratios of the children from the Eighteenth century New York African Burial Ground (NYABG) cemetery population. NYABG is the largest archaeological cemetery population of enslaved Africans in North America. A total of 349 individuals comprise the baseline sample for the construction of stationary paleodemographic tables. One hundred ninety-six individuals under 25 years of age comprise the sub-sample for which analyses related to questions regarding childhood sex ratio, growth status, and childhood labor are undertaken. A morphological technique for sexing immature skeletons is tested for the first time in this project. The results of this test are then utilized in the construction of the sex ratio composition for this segment of the NYABG. Growth is assessed by examining stature estimates and standardized long bone lengths for individuals in relation to skeletal indicators of biomechanical stress, generalized pathologies, and major indicators of nutritional status. Research questions related to the life experiences of these children in a colonial slave regime are explored by incorporating historical information and the results of the analysis of growth and development and sex ratio structure within a biocultural framework. This framework integrates modes of production, as put forth by Wolf (1982), to increase the explanatory dimensions of the biocultural theoretical model.

Breastfeeding women experience changes to their bone mineral density over the course of lactation. The exact nature of the relationship between breastfeeding and lactation-induced change in bone density is not well understood but it is known that bone density decreases during lactational amenorrhea and increases after menses resumes. In studies that have explored the relationship between breastfeeding and bone density, variation in breastfeeding behaviors is considered 'noise' to be eliminated. This study explores this relationship by focusing on the role of breastfeeding variation on the rate of bone density change, both before and after menses resumes. To date, most research on breastfeeding and bone density has been conducted by clinical researchers. This study differs from these studies because of an anthropological approach that puts at the forefront of the analysis behavioral variation. Using a biocultural framework, the study design draws from the methods and theories from both biological and cultural anthropology. The theoretical lens, the methodologies, and the theories combine to reveal the complexities in the topic of breastfeeding and bone density. A total of 35 women participated in a six-month longitudinal assessment of bone density change during breastfeeding. They recorded all breastfeeding activity over a 24-hours period each time that their bone mineral density was measured. Results of the study showed that greater intensity of breastfeeding in the amenorrheic months significantly attenuated bone density loss in this population of U.S. women. Amenorrheic women who breastfed with less intensity showed greater decline in their bone mineral density. Similar benefits to the maternal skeleton were not demonstrated in high intensity breastfeeders after menses resumed. Furthermore, the evaluation of the breastfeeding styles of the women in this population showed them to conform to AAP breastfeeding guidelines despite their own assertions that they do not adhere to such recommendations.