Abstract available in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology

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.

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.

Trace element analysis of skeletal remains and teeth is a common research technique in biological and forensic anthropology. In particular, LA-ICP-MS has become a widely-accepted tool for analyzing and mapping the distribution of trace elements in teeth. Investigation into the relative spectral intensities and spatial distribution of thirteen trace isotopes (13C, 24Mg, 27Al, 31P, 44Ca, 47Ti, 52Cr, 55Mn, 56Fe, 66Zn, 88Sr, 138Ba, 208Pb) within teeth was undertaken using LA-ICP-MS. The total archaeological sample of teeth (N=26) was comprised of four tooth types (UCI, ULI, UPM1, and UPM2) and 18 individuals from a Postclassic Lamanai site. In preparation for analysis, teeth sectioned down the center using a low-speed saw. Maps were created using the laser ablation system and MATLAB software. The frequency of each isotope detected at low, moderate, and high intensities at each of the six defined tooth locations was calculated. The inner dentine and the outer root border were the two areas that most commonly exhibited the highest intensities of isotopes. Detection of major structural isotopes (44Ca and 31P) was similar in both spatial locations and relative intensity across all teeth. In comparison, detection of more minor isotopes, while similar in spatial locations across all teeth, varied in relative intensity per individual sample. The frequency that each isotope was detected also varied by tooth type. These findings demonstrate the disparities between different types of dental tissue for retaining trace elements and serve to illuminate possible sources of external exposure and internal bioavailability influencing interindividual variation within the Lamanai sample population. Variation in isotope frequency based on tooth type may be due to developmental properties and/or changes in diet during early life. Ultimately, teeth act as storehouses of trace elements, and maps of isotopic distribution in teeth help reveal how individuals are influenced by both biological processes and cultural activities.

<p>Music is greatly underappreciated in the scope of cross-cultural analysis. This is due in part to methodological problems plaguing recent comparative approaches, and modern ethnomusicology’s stance against cross-cultural analysis. Language, on the other hand, has a long history of cross-cultural study and recent advances in quantitative techniques, borrowed mostly from biology, have put language at the forefront of studying population prehistory from a cultural perspective. Chapter 2 of this thesis presents a novel quantitative approach to studying cross-cultural musical diversity based on the AMOVA methodology borrowed from population genetics. This method allows researchers to quantify the amount of variability found between as well as within populations, and gives us a measure of population-level divergence that accounts for intra-population variability. Our major finding is that the vast majority of musical variability (~98%) is found within populations rather than between. This approach solves many of the quantitative issues with the original Cantometrics approach, and is widely applicable to the analysis of many domains of culture. Aside from methodological issues a major open question is whether music has the requisite time-depth to answer questions about recent human pre-history. Chapter 3 focuses on addressing this question generally, and more specifically investigating which musical features trace population history most effectively. Using a corpus of songs from 9 Taiwanese aboriginal tribes and quantitative methods from chapter 2, we show that features related to song structure are correlated with mitochondrial DNA data from the same populations, while features of singing style are not. Both the quantitative methods and provisional support for music’s time depth presented here will hopefully usher in a new era of comparative musicology and provide scholars of pre-history with an additional tool to answer unresolved questions.</p> / Master of Science (MSc)