Recent anthropology_ucb_postprints items

Turning gold to stone: A case study in exchange value and cultural alloys

Wed, 6 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In 1933, monuments from the Classic Maya site of Piedras Negras, Guatemala, were loaned to the Penn Museum for a temporary period. Twelve years later, the agreement was revisited at the request of the Guatemalan government, which sought to incorporate the monuments into its National Museum. In order for the Penn Museum to retain two monuments for longer, the two parties agreed upon a deal: a longer loan extension for two Piedras Negras monuments in exchange for a disparate assemblage of Central and South American gold pieces from the Penn Museum’s storage collections. I argue that in facilitating this agreement, archaeologists, government officials, and museum professionals layered monetary value onto disparate archaeological cultures. In trying to create a fair exchange, this valuation process also involved a balancing act, in which objects of Maya heritage were weighed against objects united only by their material: gold. I refer to this skewing of objects from Panamá, Colombia,...

Low-cost seismic geophysical methods for the detection of karez: A case study on the Erbil Plain (Kurdistan Region of Iraq)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Underground gravity-flow channels (karez; also qanat) have been an important technology for accessing subterranean water resources and supplying the water needs of (esp. agricultural) communities throughout the Middle East and North Africa and elsewhere for many centuries, but in the past several decades have suffered the effects of groundwater mining and mechanized agriculture. Study and conservation of these hydraulic systems typically depends on the persistence of surface traces of the buried components (e.g., preserved maintenance shaft openings). These traces are easily erased by intensive agriculture, so that many of the regions where karez have been important but which are heavily cultivated today have a major barrier to detection, biasing archaeological research to karez landscapes under a narrow range of taphonomic conditions and limiting prospects for the revitalization of these hydraulic systems by local communities. We demonstrate here a user-friendly technique for...

Hěde oḱo hedem ḱaw ya-paǐ-to něs: this day this land/place/time we talk

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Catastrophic fire behavior in the Sierra Nevada range is increasing in tandem with worsening forest conditions related to non-Native approaches to fire ecology and climate change. Among the myriad negative human and community effects linked to thistrend, lesser understood are the relationships between differing forest management strategies and impacts to Ancestral Places or 'Esak 'Tima (Maidu and Nisenan for “places to learn”) which are living locations and traces of Ancestral practices that are integral to the health of Native Californian communities. Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, TEK specialists, and Tribal Leadership are on the front lines of government-to-government negotiations of sovereignty, especially with respect to their communities' living relationships with Ancestral Places. These are sometimes located in places managed by other institutions, agencies, and land occupiers and are most often far more than just dots on a map, but rather complex interconnected...

The genomics of the domestication syndrome in a songbird model species

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Many domesticated animals share a syndromic phenotype marked by a suite of traits that include more variable patterns of coloration, reduced stress, aggression, and altered risk-taking and exploratory behaviors relative to their wild counterparts. Roughly 150 years after Darwin’s pioneering insight into this phenomenon, reasonable progress has been made in understanding the evolutionary and biological basis of the so-called domesticated phenotype in mammals. However, the extent to which these processes are paralleled in non-mammalian domesticates is scant. Here, we address this knowledge gap by investigating the genetic basis of the domesticated phenotype in the Bengalese finch, a songbird frequently found in pet shops and a popular animal model in the study of learned vocal behaviors. Using whole-genome sequencing and population genomic approaches, we identify strain-specific selection signals in the Bengalee finch and its wild munia ancestor. Our findings suggest that, like...

Community Perceptions and Experiences of the South African Government's Response to the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Wed, 11 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments in low- and middle-income countries largely followed the strategy of national lockdowns adopted by high-income countries. The South African government imposed some the most restrictive policies in the world. In this article, we examine the perceptions and lived experiences of South Africans in Johannesburg in relation to this initial response to the pandemic. In-depth interviews were conducted with a diverse group of 38 South African adults in Johannesburg, South Africa. The analysis followed an inductive approach. The data revealed that the majority of participants had a positive view of the strong response to the first wave of the pandemic by the South African government, including the restrictive lockdown measures. However, concerns regarding the government's response included worries about the economy and livelihoods of poor people under lockdown, divisions in compliance between townships and wealthier communities, poor funding...

Coping mechanisms during the COVID‐19 pandemic and lockdown in metropolitan Johannesburg, South Africa: A qualitative study

Sat, 7 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused prolonged stress on numerous fronts. While the acute health impacts of psychosocial stress due to the pandemic are well-documented, less is known about the resources and mechanisms utilized to cope in response to stresses during the pandemic and lockdown. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify and describe the coping mechanisms adults utilized in response to the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020 South African lockdown. METHODS: This study included adults (n = 47: 32 female; 14 male; 1 non-binary) from the greater Johannesburg region in South Africa. Interviews with both closed and open-ended questions were administered to query topics regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were coded and thematically analyzed to identify coping mechanisms and experiences. RESULTS: Adults engaged in a variety of strategies to cope with the pandemic and the ensued lockdown. The ability to access or engage in multiple coping mechanisms...

Childhood adversity during the post‐apartheid transition and COVID‐19 stress independently predict adult PTSD risk in urban South Africa: A biocultural analysis of the stress sensitization hypothesis

Sat, 7 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa introduced new societal adversities and mental health threats in a country where one in three individuals are expected to develop a psychiatric condition sometime in their life. Scientists have suggested that psychosocial stress and trauma during childhood may increase one's vulnerability to the mental health consequences of future stressors-a process known as stress sensitization. This prospective analysis assessed whether childhood adversity experienced among South African children across the first 18 years of life, coinciding with the post-apartheid transition, exacerbates the mental health impacts of psychosocial stress experienced during the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (ca. 2020-2021). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data came from 88 adults who participated in a follow-up study of a longitudinal birth cohort study in Soweto, South Africa. Childhood adversity and COVID-19 psychosocial stress were assessed as primary predictors...

Maternal adverse childhood experiences, child mental health, and the mediating effect of maternal depression: A cross‐sectional, population‐based study in rural, southwestern Uganda

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the intergenerational effects of maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and child mental health outcomes in rural Uganda, as well as the potentially mediating role of maternal depression in this pathway. Additionally, we sought to test the extent to which maternal social group membership attenuated the mediating effect of maternal depression on child mental health. METHODS: Data come from a population-based cohort of families living in the Nyakabare Parish, a rural district in southwestern Uganda. Between 2016 and 2018, mothers completed surveys about childhood adversity, depressive symptoms, social group membership, and their children's mental health. Survey data were analyzed using causal mediation and moderated-mediation analysis. RESULTS: Among 218 mother-child pairs, 61 mothers (28%) and 47 children (22%) showed symptoms meeting cutoffs for clinically significant psychological distress. In multivariable linear regression models,...

Clovis points and foreshafts under braced weapon compression: Modeling Pleistocene megafauna encounters with a lithic pike

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Historical and ethnographic sources depict use of portable braced shaft weapons, or pikes, in megafauna hunting and defense during Late Holocene millennia in North and South America, Africa, Eurasia and Southeast Asia. Given the predominance of megafauna in Late Pleistocene North America during the centuries when Clovis points appeared and spread across much of the continent (13,050-12,650 cal BP), braced weapons may have been used in hunting of megaherbivores and defense against megacarnivores. Drawing from historical examples of pike use against lions, jaguars, boars, grizzlies, carabao and warhorses we consider the possibility of a fluted lithic pike. Associated osseous rods have been problematic as Clovis foreshafts due to the bevel angle and the apparent weakness of the splint haft when great strength is needed for deep penetration in megafauna hunting. However our review of Late Holocene pike use in megafauna encounters indicates the sharp tip becomes less important after...

The bioethics of skeletal anatomy collections from India

Mon, 8 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Millions of skeletal remains from South Asia were exported in red markets (the underground economy of human tissues/organs) to educational institutions globally for over a century. It is time to recognize the personhood of the people who were systematically made into anatomical objects and acknowledge the scientific racism in creating and continuing to use them.

Coping strategies employed by public psychiatric healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in southern Gauteng, South Africa

Sat, 2 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Within the context of the novel coronavirus pandemic and new challenges to a resource-constrained public healthcare system, many healthcare workers in South Africa have faced numerous stressors that have compromised their mental health. While the current literature on COVID-19 in South Africa highlights the widespread psychosocial stress experienced by healthcare workers during the pandemic, little is known about the coping strategies utilized to continue service delivery and maintain one's mental health and well-being during this ongoing public health emergency. In this study, we sought to explore the coping strategies used by healthcare workers employed in the public psychiatric care system in southern Gauteng, South Africa during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Psychiatric healthcare workers (n = 55) employed in three tertiary public hospitals and two specialized psychiatric facilities participated in in-depth interviews between July 2020 and March 2021. We found...

CROWDING THE ELEMENTS

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

CROWDING THE ELEMENTS

From connection to contagion

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This essay proposes that we ‘think data’ with a complex legacy of work, once disavowed and now resurgent in social theory, on crowd formations. I propose this move because social media platforms’ mobilization of data – the extractions, ever-shifting reaggregations, and micro-targeting, on the one hand, and our engagements, re-tweets, acts of sharing, and production of virality, on the other – has fuelled such anxious concern about the very things that animated much crowd theory in the first place. Key among these concerns are the force of emotional contagion and the threat of social dissolution; the composition of ‘the social’ by elements that well exceed the human; and pressing questions about the media through which energetic forces travel, often with lightning speed. What questions might be enabled by attending to the resonance between crowd theory's ‘anti-liberal’ preoccupations and contemporary concerns over how social media platforms crowd us?.

A thermodynamic basis for teleological causality

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We show how distinct terminally disposed self-organizing processes can be linked together so that they collectively suppress each other's self-undermining tendency despite also potentiating it to occur in a restricted way. In this way, each process produces the supportive and limiting boundary conditions for the other. The production of boundary conditions requires dynamical processes that decrease local entropy and increase local constraints. Only the far-from-equilibrium dissipative dynamics of self-organized processes produce these effects. When two such complementary self-organizing processes are linked by a shared substrate-the waste product of one that is the necessary ingredient for the other-the co-dependent structure that results develops toward a self-sustaining target state that avoids the termination of the whole, and any of its component processes. The result is a perfectly naturalized model of teleological causation that both escapes the threat of backward influences...

Cognition is entangled with metabolism: relevance for resting-state EEG-fMRI

Sat, 15 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The brain is a living organ with distinct metabolic constraints. However, these constraints are typically considered as secondary or supportive of information processing which is primarily performed by neurons. The default operational definition of neural information processing is that (1) it is ultimately encoded as a change in individual neuronal firing rate as this correlates with the presentation of a peripheral stimulus, motor action or cognitive task. Two additional assumptions are associated with this default interpretation: (2) that the incessant background firing activity against which changes in activity are measured plays no role in assigning significance to the extrinsically evoked change in neural firing, and (3) that the metabolic energy that sustains this background activity and which correlates with differences in neuronal firing rate is merely a response to an evoked change in neuronal activity. These assumptions underlie the design, implementation, and interpretation...

Long-term trends in human body size track regional variation in subsistence transitions and growth acceleration linked to dairying

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Evidence for a reduction in stature between Mesolithic foragers and Neolithic farmers has been interpreted as reflective of declines in health, however, our current understanding of this trend fails to account for the complexity of cultural and dietary transitions or the possible causes of phenotypic change. The agricultural transition was extended in primary centers of domestication and abrupt in regions characterized by demic diffusion. In regions such as Northern Europe where foreign domesticates were difficult to establish, there is strong evidence for natural selection for lactase persistence in relation to dairying. We employ broad-scale analyses of diachronic variation in stature and body mass in the Levant, Europe, the Nile Valley, South Asia, and China, to test three hypotheses about the timing of subsistence shifts and human body size, that: 1) the adoption of agriculture led to a decrease in stature, 2) there were different trajectories in regions of in situ domestication...

Ecosystem impacts by the Ancestral Puebloans of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA

Fri, 7 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Ancestral Puebloans occupied Chaco Canyon, in what is now the southwestern USA, for more than a millennium and harvested useful timber and fuel from the trees of distant forests as well as local woodlands, especially juniper and pinyon pine. These pinyon juniper woodland products were an essential part of the resource base from Late Archaic times (3000-100 BC) to the Bonito phase (AD 800-1140) during the great florescence of Chacoan culture. During this vast expanse of time, the availability of portions of the woodland declined. We posit, based on pollen and macrobotanical remains, that the Chaco Canyon woodlands were substantially impacted during Late Archaic to Basketmaker II times (100 BC-AD 500) when agriculture became a major means of food production and the manufacture of pottery was introduced into the canyon. By the time of the Bonito phase, the local woodlands, especially the juniper component, had been decimated by centuries of continuous extraction of a slow-growing...

Quinoa, potatoes, and llamas fueled emergent social complexity in the Lake Titicaca Basin of the Andes

Mon, 3 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Lake Titicaca basin was one of the major centers for cultural development in the ancient world. This lacustrine environment is unique in the high, dry Andean altiplano, and its aquatic and terrestrial resources are thought to have contributed to the florescence of complex societies in this region. Nevertheless, it remains unclear to what extent local aquatic resources, particularly fish, and the introduced crop, maize, which can be grown in regions along the lakeshores, contributed to facilitating sustained food production and population growth, which underpinned increasing social political complexity starting in the Formative Period (1400 BCE to 500 CE) and culminating with the Tiwanaku state (500 to 1100 CE). Here, we present direct dietary evidence from stable isotope analysis of human skeletal remains spanning over two millennia, together with faunal and floral reference materials, to reconstruct foodways and ecological interactions in southern Lake Titicaca over...

Trees, shrubs, and forests at Joya de Cerén, a Late Classic Mesoamerican village

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Late Classic Maya village of Joya de Cerén's extraordinary preservation caused by the Loma Caldera volcanic eruption around 650 CE allows for a unique opportunity to understand what plant species ancient Mesoamerican farmers utilized in their daily lives for food consumption, medicinal applications, fuel, and construction purposes. While Cerén has unusually good preservation of earthen-made household structures, gardens, and extensive outfields growing maize, manioc, and numerous weedy species, this article will review the collection of anthracological remains recovered from excavations at the site since 1978. Wood charcoal recovered via flotation samples taken throughout the archaeological site reveal the surrounding ecosystems that Cerén villagers would have exploited to regularly obtain their wood resources. Additionally, various fruit trees were cultivated within the village center, as evidenced by limb, trunk and fruit impressions preserved as plaster casts. The data...

Psychological legacies of intergenerational trauma under South African apartheid: Prenatal stress predicts greater vulnerability to the psychological impacts of future stress exposure during late adolescence and early adulthood in Soweto, South Africa

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: South Africa's rates of psychiatric morbidity are among the highest in sub-Saharan Africa and are foregrounded by the country's long history of political violence during apartheid. Growing evidence suggests that in utero stress exposure is a potent developmental risk factor for future mental illness risk, yet the extent to which the psychiatric effects of prenatal stress impact the next generation are unknown. We evaluate the intergenerational effects of prenatal stress experienced during apartheid on psychiatric morbidity among children at ages 17-18 and also assess the moderating effects of maternal age, social support, and past household adversity. METHODS: Participants come from Birth-to-Twenty, a longitudinal birth cohort study in Soweto-Johannesburg, South Africa's largest peri-urban township which was the epicentre of violent repression and resistance during the final years of the apartheid regime. Pregnant women were prospectively enrolled in 1990 and completed...

Landscape management and polyculture in the ancient gardens and fields at Joya de Cerén, El Salvador

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Landscape management and polyculture in the ancient gardens and fields at Joya de Cerén, El Salvador

Early life stress and HPA axis function independently predict adult depressive symptoms in metropolitan Cebu, Philippines

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

OBJECTIVES: Alterations in adult hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity have increasingly been linked with early life stress and adult depression, but a limited number of studies have used longitudinal data to explore HPA axis dysregulation as an underlying mechanism driving the long-term depressive impacts of early stressors. Here we address potential long-term impacts of early life, family-based stress on depressive symptoms among young adults in a longitudinal birth cohort study begun in 1983 in the Philippines. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We relate a composite measure of family-based stressors experienced between birth and adolescence to circadian dynamics in adult salivary cortisol and depressive risk measured at 21-22 years of age. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between early life stress levels and risk of adult depressive symptoms, as well as the role of adult diurnal cortisol activity in this relationship. RESULTS: Greater...

Parental incarceration and child physical health outcomes from infancy to adulthood: A critical review and multilevel model of potential pathways

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: There are currently 2.2 million people incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails, representing a 500% increase over the past 40 years. An emerging literature suggests the impact of mass incarceration extends beyond the prison, jail, or detention center to the families of incarcerated individuals. Less scholarship has considered consequences of parental incarceration for their children's physical health. METHODS: We conduct a critical review of the literature investigating an association between parental incarceration and children's physical health outcomes from infancy to adulthood. RESULTS: Studies varied substantially in study design, sample composition, and methodological approach. Most studies suggest an association between parental incarceration and adverse physical health outcomes. Evidence is more consistent for outcomes such as infant and child mortality, lower healthcare access, and negative health behaviors and more mixed for measures such as self-reported/general...

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Psychiatric Sequelae in South Africa: Anxiety and Beyond

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: The 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to the health sector nationwide and internationally. Across all disciplines, unique and novel modes of presentation with substantial morbidity and mortality are being encountered, and growing evidence suggests that psychiatric comorbidity is likely among COVID-19 patients. OBJECTIVE: This article aims to broaden the current discussion on the psychiatric sequalae of COVID-19, which has largely focused on anxiety, and examine the recently documented psychiatric sequelae of COVID-19 infection, the secondary effects of the pandemic on public mental health, and future psychiatric conditions that may arise due to COVID-19. METHODS: We conducted an in-depth review of the current global psychiatric literature and describe the wide range of psychopathological presentations reported among past COVID-19 patients worldwide and those that are expected to emerge. RESULTS: Current discussions in the psychiatric...

Advancing Indigenous futures with two-eyed seeing: Strategies for restoration and repair through collaborative research

Fri, 9 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This article builds on the Indigenous research concept of two-eyed seeing, that is, learning from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing. We do so by drawing on the authors’ multiple standpoints (Karuk Tribal Member, Karuk Enrolled Descendent, and non-Indigenous ally) and experiences building longstanding research collaborations that apply biophysical science, ethnographic methods, and Karuk oral traditions to tribal lands protection. Using Kovach’s conversational methodology, we discuss problems of health and well-being that arise from two-eyed seeing research collaborations affecting Indigenous lands, waters, and resources. We specifically examine interventions for advancing Indigenous leadership in research that intersect with the Karuk Tribe’s ecocultural revitalization initiatives through (1) stewardship of baskets alongside basket-weaving communities (human...

Getting back to that point of balance: Indigenous environmental justice and the California Indian Basketweavers’ Association

Fri, 9 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Getting back to that point of balance: Indigenous environmental justice and the California Indian Basketweavers’ Association

Idioms of resilience among cancer patients in urban South Africa: An anthropological heuristic for the study of culture and resilience

Tue, 30 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Despite the large body of research on idioms of distress in anthropology and transcultural psychiatry, few scholars have examined the concepts that people use to describe social and psychological resilience. The experience of social and psychological resilience is embedded in and shaped by social, political, and economic contexts-much like the factors that shape idioms of distress. As resilience literature more broadly has adopted a socio-ecological rather than trait-based approach, anthropology has much to contribute. This article investigates what idioms of resilience and cultural scripts emerge among low-income patients with cancer residing in Soweto, a peri-urban neighborhood in Johannesburg, South Africa. We conducted 80 life history interviews to better understand what social and psychological factors led some people to thrive more than others despite extraordinary adversity. We describe one idiom of resilience, acceptance (ukwamukela in isiZulu), and three broader...

Conscious evolution of the noösphere: hubris or necessity?

Wed, 24 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Conscious evolution of the noösphere: hubris or necessity?

Steps to a semiotic cognitive neuroscience

Wed, 24 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Steps to a semiotic cognitive neuroscience

Minimal Properties of a Natural Semiotic System: Response to Commentaries on “How Molecules Became Signs”

Wed, 24 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In the target article “How molecules became signs” I offer a molecular “thought experiment” that provides a paradigm for resolving the major incompatibilities between biosemiotic and natural science accounts of living processes. To resolve these apparent incompatibilities I outline a plausible empirically testable model system that exemplifies the emergence of chemical processes exhibiting semiotic causal properties from basic nonliving chemical processes. This model system is described as an autogenic virus because of its virus-like form, but its nonparasitic self-repair and reproductive dynamics. The 16 commentaries responding to this proposal recognize its material plausibility but are divided on its value in resolving this basic biosemiotic challenge. In response, I have addressed some of the most serious criticisms raised and have attempted to diagnose the major sources of incompatible assumptions that distinguish the autogenic paradigm from other major paradigms. In particular,...

Restructuring of nutrient flows in island ecosystems following human colonization evidenced by isotopic analysis of commensal rats

Sat, 20 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The role of humans in shaping local ecosystems is an increasing focus of archaeological research, yet researchers often lack an appropriate means of measuring past anthropogenic effects on local food webs and nutrient cycling. Stable isotope analysis of commensal animals provides an effective proxy for local human environments because these species are closely associated with human activities without being under direct human management. Such species are thus central to nutrient flows across a range of socionatural environments and can provide insight into how they intersected and transformed over time. Here we measure and compare stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data from Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) skeletal remains across three Polynesian island systems [Mangareva, Ua Huka (Marquesas), and the Polynesian Outlier of Tikopia] during one of the most significant cases of human migration and commensal introduction in prehistory. The results demonstrate widespread δ¹⁵N...

Cook Island artifact geochemistry demonstrates spatial and temporal extent of pre-European interarchipelago voyaging in East Polynesia

Thu, 4 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The Cook Islands are considered the "gateway" for human colonization of East Polynesia, the final chapter of Oceanic settlement and the last major region occupied on Earth. Indeed, East Polynesia witnessed the culmination of the greatest maritime migration in human history. Perennial debates have critiqued whether Oceanic settlement was purposeful or accidental, the timing and pathways of colonization, and the nature and extent of postcolonization voyaging-essential for small founding groups securing a lifeline between parent and daughter communities. Centering on the well-dated Tangatatau rockshelter, Mangaia, Southern Cook Islands, we charted the temporal duration and geographic spread of exotic stone adze materials-essential woodworking tools found throughout Polynesia- imported for more than 300 y beginning in the early AD 1300s. Using a technique requiring only 200 mg of sample for the geochemical analysis of trace elements and isotopes of fine-grained basalt adzes, we assigned...

Dynamics of change in multiethnic societies: An archaeological perspective from colonial North America

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This Perspective presents an overview of the archaeology of pluralistic colonies (approximately late 1500s-1800s) in North America. It complements the other special feature papers in this issue on ancient societies in Mesoamerica, the Near East, the Armenian Highlands, Peru, and China by presenting another body of literature for examining the dynamics of change in multiethnic societies from a different time and place. In synthesizing archaeological investigations of mercantile, plantation, and missionary colonies, this Perspective shows how this research is relevant to the study of pluralism in both historic and ancient societies in three ways. (i) It enhances our understanding of interethnic relationships that took place in complex societies with imposing political hierarchies and labor structures. (ii) It helps us to refine the methods used by archaeologists to define and analyze multiethnic communities that were spatially delimited by ethnic neighborhoods. Finally, (iii) it...

DIDO AND THE BASKET FRAGMENTS TOWARDS A NONLINEAR HISTORY

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

DIDO AND THE BASKET FRAGMENTS TOWARDS A NONLINEAR HISTORY

Doing sensory archaeology The challenges

Thu, 9 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Doing sensory archaeology The challenges

A degenerative process underlying hierarchic transitions in evolution

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This paper describes an evolutionary process likely involved in hierarchic transitions in biological evolution at many levels, from genetics to social organization. It is related to the evolutionary process described as contingent neutral evolution (CNE). It involves a sequence of stages initiated by the spontaneous appearance of functional redundancy. This redundancy can be the result of gene duplication, symbiosis, cell-cell interactions, environmental supports, etc. The availability of redundant sources of biological functionality relaxes purifying selection and allows degenerative changes to accumulate in one or more of the duplicates, potentially degrading or otherwise fractionating its function. This degeneration will be effectively neutral so long as another maintains functional integrity. Sexual recombination can potentially sample different combinations of these sub functional alternatives, with the result that favorable synergistic interactions between independently...

How Molecules Became Signs

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

To explore how molecules became signs I will ask: “What sort of process is necessary and sufficient to treat a molecule as a sign?” This requires focusing on the interpreting system and its interpretive competence. To avoid assuming any properties that need to be explained I develop what I consider to be a simplest possible molecular model system which only assumes known physics and chemistry but nevertheless exemplifies the interpretive properties of interest. Three progressively more complex variants of this model of interpretive competence are developed that roughly parallel an icon-index-symbol hierarchic scaffolding logic. The implication of this analysis is a reversal of the current dogma of molecular and evolutionary biology which treats molecules like DNA and RNA as the original sources of biological information. Instead I argue that the structural characteristics of these molecules have provided semiotic affordances that the interpretive dynamics of viruses and cells...

SOURCE PROVENANCE OF OBSIDIAN ARTIFACTS FROM PIEDRAS MARCADAS PUEBLO RUIN (LA 290), MIDDLE RIO GRANDE VALLEY, NEW MEXICO

Sat, 1 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The analysis here of 195 obsidian artifacts from the surface and subsurface of Piedras Marcadas Pueblo ruin (LA 290) in the middle Rio Grande River valley indicates a source provenance similar to previous analyses of surface and subsurface contexts dominated by sources from the Jemez Mountains, both pre-and-post caldera. Most unique and important for the history of the site, and indeed the Coronado presence in the Middle Rio Grande valley is the occurrence of two polyhedral blade fragments produced from the Zinapecuaro obsidian source near the town of the same name in northeastern Michoacan state of west central Mexico

Hybrid Cultures: the Visibility of the European Invasion of Caribbean Honduras in the Sixteenth Century

Fri, 2 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In this chapter, we emphasize the novel construction of defensive walls at Ticamaya, a precolumbian settlement in Caribbean Honduras that continued to be occupied into the nineteenth century, and at allied sites along the coast of the Gulf of Honduras, as likely material traces of innovations mediated by Spanish knowledge mobilized for indigenous resistance to Spanish colonization. Archaeological excavations at Ticamaya, described in 16th century Spanish documents as the seat of a leader of indigenous resistance, identified confirmed deposits from the period covering initial conflict with the Spanish, roughly 1520-1536. Yet these excavations produced no use of European goods until the late 18th c. Contemporary with Ticamaya, the site of Naco to the west hosted troops sent by Cortes, and at least one majolica vessel was discarded there. The contrast could lead to the conclusion that Ticamaya was unaffected by the Spanish encounter until it was incorporated into the colony. By considering...

Archaeological Investigations in the Western Colorado Desert: A Socioecological Approach (Volume 1)

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Report describes the data recovery procedures and results for the Mountain Springs to Sand Hills segment of the Southwest Powerlink Project (APS/SDG&E) 500kV transmission line. The segment extends from the southeastern corner of San Diego County to the western edge of the Sand Hills in Imperial County, California. Data recovery included mapping, artifact collection, and testing/excavation of 12 sites or site groups in San Diego and Imperial Counties, field and laboratory work directed by M. Steven Shackley

Interpreting ancient food practices: stable isotope and molecular analyses of visible and absorbed residues from a year-long cooking experiment

Mon, 8 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Chemical analyses of carbonized and absorbed organic residues from archaeological ceramic cooking vessels can provide a unique window into the culinary cultures of ancient people, resource use, and environmental effects by identifying ingredients used in ancient meals. However, it remains uncertain whether recovered organic residues represent only the final foodstuffs prepared or are the accumulation of various cooking events within the same vessel. To assess this, we cooked seven mixtures of C3 and C4 foodstuffs in unglazed pots once per week for one year, then changed recipes between pots for the final cooking events. We conducted bulk stable-isotope analysis and lipid residue analysis on the charred food macro-remains, carbonized thin layer organic patina residues and absorbed lipids over the course of the experiment. Our results indicate that: (1) the composition of charred macro-remains represent the final foodstuffs cooked within vessels, (2) thin-layer patina residues represent...

A mixed-methods, population-based study of a syndemic in Soweto, South Africa

Fri, 22 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A syndemic has been theorized as a cluster of epidemics driven by harmful social and structural conditions wherein the interactions between the constitutive epidemics drive excess morbidity and mortality. We conducted a mixed-methods study to investigate a syndemic in Soweto, South Africa, consisting of a population-based quantitative survey (N = 783) and in-depth, qualitative interviews (N = 88). We used ethnographic methods to design a locally relevant measure of stress. Here we show that multimorbidity and stress interacted with each other to reduce quality of life. The paired qualitative analysis further explored how the quality-of-life impacts of multimorbidity were conditioned by study participants’ illness experiences. Together, these findings underscore the importance of recognizing the social and structural drivers of stress and how they affect the experience of chronic illness and well-being.

K'ayra's story Living at Chiripa Becoming a Knower

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Formative times, Andes, Graphic Novel

K'ayran Sarnaqawxata Chiripan Markan Jakaña

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Formative, Andes, Graphic novel

La historia de Kyra. Vivir en Chiripa hacerce sabia

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

La historia de Kyra. Vivir en Chiripa hacerce sabia

K'ayran Sarnaqawxata Chiripan markan jakańa yatitit tukuńa

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

K'ayran Sarnaqawxata Chiripan markan jakańa yatitit tukuńa

Perceptions, risk and understandings of the COVID-19 pandemic in urban South Africa

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: How people perceive the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and understand their risk can influence their health, behaviours and overall livelihood. The disease's novelty and severity have elicited a range of attitudes and perspectives countrywide, which consequently influence the public's adherence to public health prevention and treatment guidelines. AIM: To investigate perceptions, experiences and knowledge on COVID-19 in a community-based cohort study. SETTING: Adults living in Soweto in South Africa's Gauteng province during the first six weeks of the national lockdown regulations (i.e. Alert Level 5 lockdown from end of March to beginning of May 2020). METHODS: Participants completed a series of surveys and answered open-ended questions through telephonic interviews (n = 391). We queried their perceptions of the origins of COVID-19, understandings of the disease, personal and communal risks and its relations with the existing disease burden. RESULTS:...

Pulse wave velocity in South African women and children: comparison between the Mobil-O-Graph and SphygmoCor XCEL devices

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) is the gold-standard noninvasive measure of arterial stiffness. Data comparing tonometry-based devices such as the SphygmoCor XCEL to simpler brachial-cuff-based estimates of PWV, such as from the Mobil-O-Graph in African populations are sparse. We therefore aimed to compare PWV measured by the Mobil-O-Graph and the SphygmoCor XCEL device in a sample of South African women and children. METHODS: Women (n = 85) 29 years [interquartile range (IQR): 29-69] and their children/grandchildren (n = 27) 7 years (IQR: 4-11) were recruited for PWV measurement with Mobil-O-Graph and SphygmoCor XCEL on the same day. Wilcoxon signed-rank test, regression analysis, spearman correlation and Bland-Altman plots were used for PWV comparison between devices. RESULTS: For adults, the SphygmoCor XCEL device had a significantly higher PWV (7.3 m/s, IQR: 6.4-8.5) compared with the Mobil-O-Graph (5.9 m/s, IQR: 5.0-8.1, P = 0.001) with a correlation...

Impact of prenatal stress on offspring glucocorticoid levels: A phylogenetic meta-analysis across 14 vertebrate species

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Prenatal exposure to maternal stress is commonly associated with variation in Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal (HPA)-axis functioning in offspring. However, the strength or consistency of this response has never been empirically evaluated across vertebrate species. Here we meta-analyzed 114 results from 39 studies across 14 vertebrate species using Bayesian phylogenetic mixed-effects models. We found a positive overall effect of prenatal stress on offspring glucocorticoids (d’ = 0.43) though the 95% Highest Posterior Density Interval overlapped with 0 (−0.16–0.95). Meta-regressions of potential moderators highlighted that phylogeny and life history variables predicted relatively little variation in effect size. Experimental studies (d’ = 0.64) produced stronger effects than observational ones (d’ = −0.01), while prenatal stress affected glucocorticoid recovery following offspring stress exposure more strongly (d’ = 0.75) than baseline levels (d’ = 0.48) or glucocorticoid peak response...

Evaluating the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic: perceived risk of COVID-19 infection and childhood trauma predict adult depressive symptoms in urban South Africa

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: South Africa's national lockdown introduced serious threats to public mental health in a society where one in three individuals develops a psychiatric disorder during their life. We aimed to evaluate the mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic using a mixed-methods design. METHODS: This longitudinal study drew from a preexisting sample of 957 adults living in Soweto, a major township near Johannesburg. Psychological assessments were administered across two waves between August 2019 and March 2020 and during the first 6 weeks of the lockdown (late March-early May 2020). Interviews on COVID-19 experiences were administered in the second wave. Multiple regression models examined relationships between perceived COVID-19 risk and depression. RESULTS: Full data on perceived COVID-19 risk, depression, and covariates were available in 221 adults. In total, 14.5% of adults were at risk for depression. Higher perceived COVID-19 risk predicted greater depressive symptoms...

Adverse childhood experiences and adult cardiometabolic risk factors and disease outcomes: Cross-sectional, population-based study of adults in rural Uganda

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) pose a major threat to public health in sub-Saharan African communities, where the burden of these classes of illnesses is expected to double by 2030. Growing research suggests that past developmental experiences and early life conditions may also elevate CVD risk throughout the life course. Greater childhood stress and adversity are consistently associated with a range of adult CVDs and associated risk factors, yet little research exists on the long-term effects of early life stress on adult physical health outcomes, especially CVD risk, in sub-Saharan African contexts. This study aims to evaluate the associations between adverse childhood experiences and adult cardiometabolic risk factors and health outcomes in a population-based study of adults living in Mbarara, a rural region of southwestern Uganda. METHODS: Data come from an ongoing, whole-population social network cohort study of adults living in the eight villages of Nyakabare...

Social vulnerability, parity and food insecurity in urban South African young women: the healthy life trajectories initiative (HeLTI) study

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Social vulnerability indices (SVI) can predict communities’ vulnerability and resilience to public health threats such as drought, food insecurity or infectious diseases. Parity has yet to be investigated as an indicator of social vulnerability in young women. We adapted an SVI score, previously used by the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC), and calculated SVI for young urban South African women (n = 1584; median age 21.6, IQR 3.6 years). Social vulnerability was more frequently observed in women with children and increased as parity increased. Furthermore, young women classified as socially vulnerable were 2.84 times (95% CI 2.10–3.70; p < 0.001) more likely to report household food insecurity. We collected this information in 2018–2019, prior to the current global COVID-19 pandemic. With South Africa having declared a National State of Disaster in March 2020, early indicators suggest that this group of women have indeed been disproportionally affected, supporting the utility...

Health system experiences of breast cancer survivors in urban South Africa

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most common cancer globally and among South African women. Women from socioeconomically disadvantaged South African communities more often present later and receive total mastectomy compared to those from more affluent communities who have more breast conserving surgery (which is less invasive but requires mandatory radiation treatment post-operatively). Standard chemotherapy and total mastectomy treatments are known to cause traumatizing side effects and emotional suffering among South African women; moreover, many women face limited communication with physicians and psychological support. OBJECTIVE: This article investigates the experiences of women seeking breast cancer treatment at the largest public hospital in South Africa. METHODS: We interviewed 50 Black women enrolled in the South African Breast Cancer Study to learn more about their health system experiences with detection, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up care for breast cancer. Each...

Metropolitan rebellions and the politics of commoning the city

Thu, 7 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This article analyzes the remarkable wave of metropolitan rebellions that inaugurated the 21st century around the world (2000–2016). It argues that they fuel an emergent politics of city-making in which residents consider the city as a collective social and material product that they produce; in effect, a commons. It investigates this politics at the intersection of processes of city-making, city-occupying, and rights-claiming that generate movements for insurgent urban citizenships. It develops a critique of the so-called post-political in anthropological theory, analyzes recent urban uprisings in Brazil and Turkey, distinguishes between protest and insurgent movements, evaluates digital communication technologies as a new means to common the city, and suggests what urban citizenship brings to politics that the national does not.

Art practice and citizenship at Park Lek, Sundbyberg

Thu, 7 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Art practice and citizenship at Park Lek, Sundbyberg

The Problem of the Present in Anthropology and Urban Planning AFTERWORD

Thu, 7 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The Problem of the Present in Anthropology and Urban Planning AFTERWORD

Homes for Hunters? Exploring the Concept of Home at Hunter-Gatherer Sites in Upper Paleolithic Europe and Epipaleolithic Southwest Asia

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In both Southwest Asia and Europe, only a handful of known Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic sites attest to aggregation or gatherings of hunter-gatherer groups, sometimes including evidence of hut structures and highly structured use of space. Interpretation of these structures ranges greatly, from mere ephemeral shelters to places “built” into a landscape with meanings beyond refuge from the elements. One might argue that this ambiguity stems from a largely functional interpretation of shelters that is embodied in the very terminology we use to describe them in comparison to the homes of later farming communities: mobile hunter-gatherers build and occupy huts that can form campsites, whereas sedentary farmers occupy houses or homes that form communities. Here we examine some of the evidence for Upper Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic structures in Europe and Southwest Asia, offering insights into their complex “functions” and examining perceptions of space among hunter-gatherer...

Persistent Place-Making in Prehistory: the Creation, Maintenance, and Transformation of an Epipalaeolithic Landscape

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Most archaeological projects today integrate, at least to some degree, how past people engaged with their surroundings, including both how they strategized resource use, organized technological production, or scheduled movements within a physical environment, as well as how they constructed cosmologies around or created symbolic connections to places in the landscape. However, there are a multitude of ways in which archaeologists approach the creation, maintenance, and transformation of human-landscape interrelationships. This paper explores some of these approaches for reconstructing the Epipalaeolithic (ca. 23,000–11,500 years BP) landscape of Southwest Asia, using macro- and microscale geoarchaeological approaches to examine how everyday practices leave traces of human-landscape interactions in northern and eastern Jordan. The case studies presented here demonstrate that these Epipalaeolithic groups engaged in complex and far-reaching social landscapes. Examination of...

Sheltered by reeds and settled on sedges: Construction and use of a twenty thousand-year-old hut according to phytolith analysis from Kharaneh IV, Jordan

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This paper employs new phytolith evidence to consider how Early Epipaleolithic people at the site of Kharaneh IV (Azraq Basin, Jordan) used local plant resources to construct their huts, and furnish their indoor space. Forty-five sediment samples from Structure 1 were compared to previously published results (10 sediment samples) from the well-preserved site of Ohalo II (Hut 1) (adjacent to Sea of Galilee, Israel). Our results demonstrate that similar plant resources were employed in both sites’ hut constructions, including the heavy use of wetland sedge and reed resources. Interpreting the extensive use of wetland resources in hut construction at Kharaneh IV required the use of new ethnographic analogs focused on wetland-based adaptations, such as Northern Paiute ‘tule technology’ from the American Great Basin. The phytolith evidence shows that woody and shrubby dicots were employed, likely to construct the hut frame. Phragmites culm may also have been used to frame the structure....

Technological Change and Economy in the Epipalaeolithic: Assessing the Shift from Early to Middle Epipalaeolithic at Kharaneh IV

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities in the Southern Levant exhibit numerous complex trends that suggest that the transition to the Neolithic was patchy and protracted. This paper explores the changing nature of occupation at the Epipalaeolithic site Kharaneh IV, Jordan, through an in-depth analysis of the lithic and faunal assemblages. Focusing on the analysis of a single deep sounding (unit AS42), we address how Kharaneh IV occupations link to the local landscape and environmental changes. As an aggregation site, Kharaneh IV represents an interesting locale to explore the changing nature of aggregation and social cohesion prior to the origins of agriculture, as well as changes in technology and subsistence between the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic. We explore the tempo and nature of transition from one archaeological culture to the next through changes in technology and how this reflects the people making and using tools, to understand how foragers adapted to a changing...

Meat outside the freezer: Drying, smoking, salting and sealing meat in fat at an Epipalaeolithic megasite in eastern Jordan

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Even though pivotal for understanding many aspects of human behaviour, preservation and storage of animal resources has not received great attention from archaeologists. One could argue that the main problem lies in the difficulties of demonstrating meat storage archaeologically due to the lack of direct evidence. This paper represents an attempt to refine zooarchaeological methods for the recognition of meat preservation and storage at prehistoric sites. Drawing on the faunal assemblage from Kharaneh IV, an Early/Middle Epipalaeolithic aggregation site in eastern Jordan, this study demonstrates that a combination of taphonomic and contextual analyses alongside ethnographic information may indeed lead archaeologists to insights not directly available from the archaeological record. The empirical evidence presented here contributes to the archaeological visibility of meat preservation and storage, providing a clearer concept of the nature of these practices in pre-agricultural...

20,000 years of societal vulnerability and adaptation to climate change in southwest Asia

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The Fertile Crescent, its hilly flanks and surrounding drylands has been a critical region for studying how climate has influenced societal change, and this review focuses on the region over the last 20,000 years. The complex social, economic, and environmental landscapes in the region today are not new phenomena and understanding their interactions requires a nuanced, multidisciplinary understanding of the past. This review builds on a history of collaboration between the social and natural palaeoscience disciplines. We provide a multidisciplinary, multiscalar perspective on the relevance of past climate, environmental, and archaeological research in assessing present day vulnerabilities and risks for the populations of southwest Asia. We discuss the complexity of palaeoclimatic data interpretation, particularly in relation to hydrology, and provide an overview of key time periods of palaeoclimatic interest. We discuss the critical role that vegetation plays in the human-climate-environment...

Simple technologies and diverse food strategies of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene at Huaca Prieta, Coastal Peru

Fri, 15 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Simple pebble tools, ephemeral cultural features, and the remains of maritime and terrestrial foods are present in undisturbed Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene deposits underneath a large human-made mound at Huaca Prieta and nearby sites on the Pacific coast of northern Peru. Radiocarbon ages indicate an intermittent human presence dated between ~15,000 and 8000 calendar years ago before the mound was built. The absence of fishhooks, harpoons, and bifacial stone tools suggests that technologies of gathering, trapping, clubbing, and exchange were used primarily to procure food resources along the shoreline and in estuarine wetlands and distant mountains. The stone artifacts are minimally worked unifacial stone tools characteristic of several areas of South America. Remains of avocado, bean, and possibly cultivated squash and chile pepper are also present, suggesting human transport and consumption. Our new findings emphasize an early coastal lifeway of diverse food procurement...

Social Pathways for Ebola Virus Disease in Rural Sierra Leone, and Some Implications for Containment

Fri, 15 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The current outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease in Upper West Africa is the largest ever recorded. Molecular evidence suggests spread has been almost exclusively through human-to-human contact. Social factors are thus clearly important to understand the epidemic and ways in which it might be stopped, but these factors have so far been little analyzed. The present paper focuses on Sierra Leone, and provides cross sectional data on the least understood part of the epidemic-the largely undocumented spread of Ebola in rural areas. Various forms of social networking in rural communities and their relevance for understanding pathways of transmission are described. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between marriage, funerals and land tenure. Funerals are known to be a high-risk factor for infection. It is suggested that more than a shift in awareness of risks will be needed to change local patterns of behavior, especially in regard to funerals, since these are central to the...

Summed Probability Distribution of 14C Dates Suggests Regional Divergences in the Population Dynamics of the Jomon Period in Eastern Japan

Fri, 15 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Recent advances in the use of summed probability distribution (SPD) of calibrated 14C dates have opened new possibilities for studying prehistoric demography. The degree of correlation between climate change and population dynamics can now be accurately quantified, and divergences in the demographic history of distinct geographic areas can be statistically assessed. Here we contribute to this research agenda by reconstructing the prehistoric population change of Jomon hunter-gatherers between 7,000 and 3,000 cal BP. We collected 1,433 14C dates from three different regions in Eastern Japan (Kanto, Aomori and Hokkaido) and established that the observed fluctuations in the SPDs were statistically significant. We also introduced a new non-parametric permutation test for comparing multiple sets of SPDs that highlights point of divergences in the population history of different geographic regions. Our analyses indicate a general rise-and-fall pattern shared by the three regions but...

Investigating the Global Dispersal of Chickens in Prehistory Using Ancient Mitochondrial DNA Signatures

Fri, 15 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Data from morphology, linguistics, history, and archaeology have all been used to trace the dispersal of chickens from Asian domestication centers to their current global distribution. Each provides a unique perspective which can aid in the reconstruction of prehistory. This study expands on previous investigations by adding a temporal component from ancient DNA and, in some cases, direct dating of bones of individual chickens from a variety of sites in Europe, the Pacific, and the Americas. The results from the ancient DNA analyses of forty-eight archaeologically derived chicken bones provide support for archaeological hypotheses about the prehistoric human transport of chickens. Haplogroup E mtDNA signatures have been amplified from directly dated samples originating in Europe at 1000 B.P. and in the Pacific at 3000 B.P. indicating multiple prehistoric dispersals from a single Asian centre. These two dispersal pathways converged in the Americas where chickens were introduced...

Twenty Thousand-Year-Old Huts at a Hunter-Gatherer Settlement in Eastern Jordan

Fri, 15 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Ten thousand years before Neolithic farmers settled in permanent villages, hunter-gatherer groups of the Epipalaeolithic period (c. 22-11,600 cal BP) inhabited much of southwest Asia. The latest Epipalaeolithic phase (Natufian) is well-known for the appearance of stone-built houses, complex site organization, a sedentary lifestyle and social complexity--precursors for a Neolithic way of life. In contrast, pre-Natufian sites are much less well known and generally considered as campsites for small groups of seasonally-mobile hunter-gatherers. Work at the Early and Middle Epipalaeolithic aggregation site of Kharaneh IV in eastern Jordan highlights that some of these earlier sites were large aggregation base camps not unlike those of the Natufian and contributes to ongoing debates on their duration of occupation. Here we discuss the excavation of two 20,000-year-old hut structures at Kharaneh IV that pre-date the renowned stone houses of the Natufian. Exceptionally dense and extensive...

Prayer Machine: An Introduction

Wed, 13 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Prayer Machine: An Introduction

New Media, New Publics?

Wed, 13 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In this special issue, we examine how publics are brought into being through historically specific media practices. We treat the question of new media as an invitation to explore changing conditions of communication across a number of ethnographic locations. We argue that these changing conditions have challenged our capacity to understand the nature of publics. It is important to emphasize that none of the contributors perceives new media as a coherent object of attention that can easily be isolated as an entity; nor do the contributors locate its novelty in its digital format. Instead, they examine modes of mediation that entail the technological but are not reducible to it. This approach allows anthropologists to keep the referent of new media open and remain attentive to emerging forms of public life that are working outside of or adjacent to the logics of both the digital and the technological. Our hope is that this collection of essays contributes to an anthropological understanding...

Granadan Reflections

Wed, 13 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This paper explores a practice of historical reflection grounded in the city of Granada’s aesthetic and architectural heritage. From the publication of Washington Irving’s Tales of Alhambra, in 1823, up through today, Granada has been a highly celebrated destination for travelers and tourists, drawn by the sublimity of its romantic oriental splendor. Yet, although the city is well known for the Orientalist fantasy it puts on display for touristic consumption, here I consider a form of reflection that cannot be encompassed within the protocols of discourse and experience mobilized by the tourist industry, and that indeed, may challenge those protocols and the assumptions about history and geography they entail. Specifically, drawing on the work of the late-nineteenth-century Spanish writer, Angel Ganivet, I trace a tradition of reflection that engages the city’s unique sensory and architectural configuration as the basis from which to reassess Spain’s relation to both Islam and...

Material deceptions and the qualities of time

Tue, 12 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Material deceptions and the qualities of time

Elemental, isotopic, and geochronological variability in Mogollon‐Datil volcanic province archaeological obsidian, southwestern USA: Solving issues of intersource discrimination

Tue, 12 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Solving issues of intersource discrimination in archaeological obsidian is a recurring problem in geoarchaeological investigation, particularly since the number of known sources of archaeological obsidian worldwide has grown nearly exponentially in the last few decades, and the complexity of archaeological questions asked has grown equally so. These two parallel aspects of archaeological investigation have required more exacting understanding of the geological relationship between sources and the more accurate analysis of these sources of archaeological obsidian. This is particularly the case in the North American Southwest where the frequency of archaeological investigation is some of the highest in the world, and the theory and method used to interpret that record has become increasingly nuanced. Here, we attempt to unravel the elemental similarity of archaeological obsidian in the Mogollon-Datil volcanic province of southwestern New Mexico where some of the most important and...

Grazing to Gravy: Faunal Remains and Indications of Genízaro Foodways on the Spanish Colonial Frontier of New Mexico

Mon, 4 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Understanding identity aspects of those labeled Genízaro during the late Spanish Colonial period of New Mexico benefits from finer-grained perspectives on what ranges and mixtures of practices persons bearing this casta designation may have performed while preparing cuisine. Materials from the northern frontier site of Casitas Viejas (LA 917) suggest that the closely related households of this fortified plaza may have departed from the less expansive culinary practices of colonial elites while drawing from their multiple social relationships at the various stages of production and consumption of foods. In other words, at different temporal and spatial scales, behaviors reflected in the material record refute historical notions about a creolized community that tried to diminish identity difference within the village. The goal of this work is to explore through the study of faunal remains some of the relationships between foodways and cultural identity in a manner that might assist...

A Horse-Travel Approach to Landscape Archaeology

Mon, 4 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Archaeological studies of movement between communities that had horses should use empirical evidence about horse travel over terrain types analogous to those traversed between historical archaeological sites. The experiences of equestrians are of interest to archaeologists because they reflect past processes of creating landscapes of warfare, communication, transportation, and trade. Late Spanish colonial New Mexico provides an example of how the potential of an equine perspective on landscape-scale choices might change archaeological interpretations of place and space. This article introduces an experimental approach and calls for modeling that accounts for different kinds of observed horse travel that can better articulate archaeological landscape studies with more realistic travel factors encountered by those who populated a dynamic and horse-connected frontier. Datasets generated by such a method will be well-positioned to aid in the interpretation of lived experiences on...

THE COLOR OF TRANSFORMATION: INVESTIGATIONS INTO HEAT TREATMENT OF NATUFIAN ARTIFACTS FROM HAYONIM TERRACE (ISRAEL)

Mon, 4 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

In the Natufian lithic component at Hayonim, both in the cave and the terrace, numerous artifacts of pink/red color may be recognized. Cherts with similar appearance are not present in the geological environment surrounding the site in Northern Israel. Pink chert available in Jordan is shown to be of different nature. Thus this leaves us with the hypothesis of intentional heat treatment of locally available iron-rich yellow chert, of Cenomanian age. Based on experimental replication of chert firing and SEM analysis, we argue that a well-mastered and controlled use of fire was practiced by some skilled craftsmen at Hayonim throughtout the Late Epipalaeolithic.

Site Interiography and Geophysical Scanning: Interpreting the Texture and Form of Archaeological Deposits with Ground-Penetrating Radar

Mon, 4 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The remarkable potential of geophysical scanning—to assess the internal variability of sites in new ways, to highlight important phenomena in the field, to exercise co-creation of interpretation and commitment to minimal destruction of community partners’ resources, and to aid in the practice of due diligence in avoiding desecration of the sacred—continues to be underutilized in archaeology. While archaeological artifacts, features, and strata remain primary foci of archaeological geophysics, these phenomena are perceived quite differently in scans than in visual or tactile exposures. In turn, new registers of site exploration afforded by geophysical prospection may be constrained by the language of site excavation and visual observation, requiring adjustments in the ways of thinking about and describing what the instruments are measuring. The texture and form of site deposits as rendered in ground-penetrating radar scans can be examined in detail prior to making interpretations...

Prelude to the Anthropocene: Two new North American Land Mammal Ages (NALMAs)

Mon, 4 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Human impacts have left and are leaving distinctive imprints in the geological record. Here we show that in North America, the human-caused changes evident in the mammalian fossil record since c. 14,000 years ago are as pronounced as earlier faunal changes that subdivide Cenozoic epochs into the North American Land Mammal Ages (NALMAs). Accordingly, we define two new North American Land Mammal Ages, the Santarosean and the Saintagustinean, which subdivide Holocene time and complete a biochronologic system that has proven extremely useful in dating terrestrial deposits and in revealing major features of faunal change through the past 66 million years. The new NALMAs highlight human-induced changes to the Earth system, and inform the debate on whether or not defining an Anthropocene epoch is justified, and if so, when it began.

My Algorithms Have Determined You're Not Human

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

My Algorithms Have Determined You're Not Human

Citizenship Rights

Tue, 20 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Mutations in citizenship are crystallized in an ever-shifting landscape shaped by the flows of markets, technologies, and populations. We are moving beyond the citizenship-versus-statelessness model. First, the elements of citizenship (rights, entitlements, etc.) are becoming disarticulated from each other, and becoming re-articulated with universalizing criteria of neoliberalism and human rights. Such 'global assemblages' define zones of political entitlements and claims. Second, the space of the 'assemblage', rather than the national terrain, becomes the site for political mobilizations by diverse groups in motion. Three contrasting configurations are presented. In the EU zone, unregulated markets and migrant flows challenge liberal citizenship. In Asian zones, foreigners who display self-enterprising savoire faire gain rights and benefits of citizenship. In camps of the disenfranchised or displaced, sheer survival becomes the ground for political claims. Thus, particular constellations...

Conceptual Histories of Tourism: A Transcultural Dialog

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Abstract

Today’s world, characterized by networked agencies, global flows, cultural hybridity, andmovements of people within and across borders, contextualizes tourism in many ways. Paying close attention to the multiple translations and circulations of the concept of “tourism” across the globe, this symposium endeavors to elaborate both the spatial and temporal dimensions of the conceptual history of tourism. With this theme in mind, the symposium will deal with the following questions: How has the western concept of tourism (primarily Anglophone and French) traveled to non-Western contexts in Asia (including the Middle East), Africa, or South America, thereby imposing a discursive hegemony of a conceptual lexicon? Which native/local concepts of hospitality have been displaced by this conceptual globalization or have transformedit? Do newly emerging forms of tourism across the globe contribute to the intellectual discussion of the...

Landscapes of (un)knowability

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Landscapes of (un)knowability

Modernity: Anthropological Aspects

Tue, 19 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Anthropology is a modern study of human existence in which the anthropos becomes an object of knowledge and also a technique of modern power. The field readily acknowledges that it is both a product, and an interrogator, of modernity. This relationship has given anthropology its existential doubling, as an extension, and as an undoing, of the taken for granted aspects of Western modernity. For much of the twentieth century, anthropologists have used ethnographic findings to question the assumed aspects of the historical framing of modernity and its others. Another feature of anthropology"s approach to modernity is through the notion of plural modernisms, which seeks to capture the particularistic experiences of others in encounters with modern Western forms. The most promising approach has been to treat modernity as a specific ethnographic project, one that tracks the spread of political and social rationalities, and their production of new techniques, social forms, and subjects...

Taller Litico de Chiu-Chiu, Provincia de Antofagasta

Wed, 17 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This is a Spanish-language master's thesis in the archaeology of hunter-gatherers from 7500 BCE in the desert of Atacama, Chiu Chiu province of Antofagasta in Chile.

The site is comprised of lthic implements of different use, size and formats, including volcanic rock, basalt, obsidian, and shell. Implements are described in 16 typologies by use, in a tachymeter system of 30 squared shapes. 2000 items are currently kept in the Archaeology Department of the Museum of Natural History in Santiago, Chile.

This work was completed by UC Berkeley graduate Ines Gomez Monreal at the University of Chile, Santiago, in 1963 and is uploaded with her permission.

Rorotoko, Cover Interview Aihwa Ong