In this dissertation I examine population history and structure in the Maya area during the Classic period (A.D. 250-900). Within the Maya area, archaeologists have identified regional variation in material culture between archaeological zones. These cultural differences may correspond to biological differences between Classic Maya populations. I test the hypothesis that Classic Maya population structure followed an isolation by distance model. I collected dental nonmetric and metric traits on 977 skeletons, from 18 Classic period sites, representing seven different archaeological zones. I corrected the data for intraobserver error. For the dental nonmetric data, I developed a Maya-specific trait dichotomization scheme and controlled for sex bias. I tested the dental metric data for normality and age affects. I imputed missing dental metric data for some traits and the remaining set of traits was Q-mode transformed to control for allometric factors. I analyzed the dental nonmetric and metric datasets with both univariate and multivariate tests. I found, with a log likelihood ratio, that 50% of the nonmetric traits exhibited statistically significant differences between Maya sites. I performed a Mean Measure of Divergence analysis of the dental nonmetric dataset and found that majority of the resulting pairwise distance values were significant. Using cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling, I found that the dental nonmetric data do not support an isolation by distance organization of Classic Maya population structure. In the ANOVA and MANOVA tests, I did not find major statistically significant differences in dental metrics between Maya sites. Using principal components analysis, a Mahalanobis Distance test, and R matrix analysis, I found a generally similar patterning of the dental metric data. The dental metric data to not support an isolation by distance model for Classic Maya population structure. However, the geographically outlying sites from Kaminaljuyu and the Pacific Coast repeatedly plotted as biological outliers. R matrix analysis indicates that gene flow, not genetic drift, dominated Classic Maya population structure. Based on the results of the dental nonmetric and metric analyses, I reject the hypothesis that isolation by distance is a valid model for Classic Maya population structure. From the multivariate analyses of the dental nonmetric and metric data, a few notable observations are made. The major sites of Tikal and Calakmul both demonstrate substantial intrasite biological heterogeneity, with some affinity to other sites but with little to one another. Piedras Negras demonstrates some evidence for genetic isolation from the other lowland Maya sites. In the Pasión Zone, Seibal and Altar de Sacrificios demonstrate some affinity to one another, though Dos Pilas is an outlier. The R matrix analysis found evidence of Classic period immigration into Seibal from outside the network of sites tested. The Belize Zone exhibited substantial heterogeneity among its sites, with the site of Colha showing some affinity to the Central Zone. Copan, despite being a geographic outlier, demonstrates genetic affinity with the rest of the Maya area. Kaminaljuyu and the Pacific Coast were both found to be outliers. These results indicate that dental nonmetric and metric data are a useful tool for investigating ancient biological variability in the Maya area and contribute to our expanding understanding of population history in that region.

TVA/WPA excavations in East Tennessee in the 1930s uncovered archaeological sites critical for shaping theories about the prehistory of the region. Based on the archaeology of three of these sites, Hixon (AD 1155-1285), Dallas (AD 1350-1450), and Rymer (AD 1400-1600) in the Chickamauga Basin, early researchers concluded that each settlement resulted from migrations of biologically unrelated people into the area (Lewis and Lewis, 1941, 1946). Testing of this supposition using biological distance analysis (Weston, 2005) suggested that the sites instead represented biological continuity in the Chickamauga Basin. In this study, cranial and postcranial non-metric traits are used to examine biological distance between the three Chickamauga Basin sites and an extra-regional site from the Watts Bar Basin, using Mahalanobis D2 with a tetrachoric correlation matrix. Results of this four-group study differed dramatically from the expected structure of biological relationships between the sites, suggesting that the Hixon population was completely unrelated biologically to the populations in both the Chickamauga and Watts Bar Basins. In fact, these results combined with ceramic decorative styles present at the Hixon site suggest the population may have immigrated from Etowah in Bartow County, Georgia, with a continued shared cultural identity with Etowah providing sufficient barrier to mate exchange with the other East Tennessee sites examined here. Results of both cranial and postcranial non-metric biological distance analyses indicate the strongest genetic affiliations for all four sites to be between Dallas in the Chickamauga Basin and DeArmond in Watts Bar, despite great geographical separation of the settlements. In addition, an introduction to the skeletal biology of Watts Bar is presented via osteological examination of pathology and trauma of the DeArmond site. Smith (2003) recorded low levels of interpersonal and high levels of intrapersonal violence during the Dallas phase in the Chickamauga Basin. Results from DeArmond demonstrate similar rates and patterns, most likely reflecting a temporal trend in the region. The DeArmond skeletal remains exhibit low levels of metabolic stress but remarkably high levels of infectious disease. It appears that while all of the DeArmond individuals had access to high protein food resources regardless of status, status had little effect on preventing the spread of infection at the site.

This dissertation used osteometrics to assess the level of congruence between biological distance and long-distance material exchange in three Middle and Late Archaic groups living in the mid-South United States. Dental and cranial data support greater biological affinity between groups in southern Illinois (represented by individuals from the Black Earth site) and central Tennessee (individuals from Eva and surrounding sites) while groups in the Green River region of western Kentucky (Shell Mound Archaic) were somewhat more removed or perhaps more isolated. Females were more biologically variable than males for the majority of metrics used. This finding is suggestive of a patrilocal residence pattern, if only loosely followed.

abstract: This dissertation research employs biological distance and mortuary analyses in tandem with historical sources to investigate the degree to which conversion, as opposed to migration, contributed to the spread of Islam in southern Iberia. The dynamics of the 8th century conquest of Iberia by Muslim Arab and Berber forces from North Africa, and the subsequent 800-year period of religious, political, and social change, remain contested and poorly understood. Migration of Islamic peoples to the peninsula once was invoked as the primary vehicle of Islamic influence, but religious conversion, whether true or nominal, increasingly is regarded as a key component of those changes. This dissertation proposes that conversion, whether a prelude to or a component of Islamization, altered social group affiliations and interactions among those living in southern Iberia. Such changes in social relations and the resultant patterns of mate exchange will be recognizable by means of altered biological patterns of phenotypic variation. Through the examination of ~900 individuals from both Iberian and North African skeletal collections, this study concludes that conquest resulted in a great increase in phenotypic variability in the peninsula from the 8th-11th centuries. The data further indicate that males contributed this phenotypic variability to the samples in the Early Conquest period. Females, most frequently from Hispano-Roman Christian groups, appear to have ‘intermarried’ with these early conquerors and with the Muwallads, male Islamic converts, and are included in the early Muslim burial programs. From the 11th to the 14th centuries, the data presented here demonstrate a stasis and even a slight decrease in phenotypic variability in southern Iberia, which may be explained by endogamy among religious groups in this region. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Anthropology 2017

No description available.

This study couples biological data with aspects of material culture and mortuary ritual for several sites within the proposed Coosa chiefdom described by sixteenth-century Spanish accounts to explore how cultural identities were actively constructed and maintained within the region. The primary goal is to examine regional interactions between these communities and their constructions of social identity and sociopolitical dynamics vis à vis their biological affinities. Questions regarding regional interactions between these groups have been a stimulus for archaeological debate. These interactions may have played a crucial role in the construction of separate cultural identities. What is not clear is to what extent differences in cultural identity reflect or are related to differences in biological relationships. The skeletal samples used in this study represent six Late Mississippian archaeological sites assigned to three archaeological phases: the Dallas Phase, Fains Island (40JE1), Cox (40AN19), and David Davis (40HA301) sites; the Mouse Creek Phase, Ledford Island (40BY13) site; and the Barnett Phase, King (9FL5) and Little Egypt (9MU102) sites. Twenty-seven dental and 22 cranial nonmetric traits were recorded for 923 individuals. Biological affinities were calculated using the Mahalanobis D2 statistic for the cranial and dental non-metric traits. Biological Distance measures were compared to a geographic matrix to examine isolation by distance between the sites. Further analysis was conducted by constructing an R matrix to examine levels of heterogeneity. Comparisons between biological distance and geographical distances suggest that the samples used in this analysis do not conform to the expected isolation-by-distance model. Furthermore, East Tennessee groups appear distinct from their North Georgia neighbors suggesting little biological interaction between these groups. The results of the biological distance analysis conforms to differences in material culture and mortuary ritual between these groups. The results suggests that if there was a political alliance within the region for this period it is not associated with biological relatedness nor did it act as a unifying force for individual communities’ cultural identity.

No description available.