South from Alaska: a pilot aDNA study of genetic history on the Alaska Peninsula and the eastern Aleutians

The Aleutian Islands were colonized, perhaps several times, from the Alaskan mainland. Earlier work documented transitions in the relative frequencies of mtDNA haplogroups over time, but little is known about potential source populations for prehistoric Aleut migrants. As part of a pilot investigation, we sequenced the mtDNA first hypervariable region (HVRI) in samples from two archaeological sites on the Alaska Peninsula (the Hot Springs site near Port Moller, Alaska; and samples from a cluster of sites in the Brooks River area near Katmai National Park and Preserve) and one site from Prince William Sound (Mink Island). The sequences revealed not only the mtDNA haplogroups typically found in both ancient and modern Aleut populations (A2 and D2) but also haplogroups B2 and D1 in the Brooks River samples and haplogroup D3 in one Mink Islander. These preliminary results suggest greater mtDNA diversity in prehistoric populations than previously observed and facilitate reconstruction of migration scenarios from the peninsula into the Aleutian archipelago in the past.     

Craniometric variation in the Aleutians: integrating morphological, molecular, spatial, and temporal data

Several hypotheses have been put forward about the origins and evolution of the inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands. Both Hrdli?ka [The Aleutian and Commander Islands and Their Inhabitants (Philadelphia: Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, 1945)] and Laughlin ["The Alaska gateway viewed from the Aleutian Islands," in Papers on the Physical Anthropology of the American Indian, W. S. Laughlin, ed. (New York: Viking Fund, 1951), 98-126] analyzed cranial morphology and came to somewhat different conclusions using a typological approach and limited analytical methods. Subsequent investigations using morphological data have not significantly improved our understanding of Aleut prehistory. More recently, radiocarbon dating and mitochondrial DNA analyses have shed light on Aleut genetic variation and changes over time, but better morphological methods using multivariate statistical analysis have not yet been used. We analyzed craniometric data using multivariate procedures and found that Aleuts demonstrate significant changes in cranial morphology over time, and these changes correspond to Hrdli?ka's observations but may not necessarily reflect in-migration. The morphological changes were concentrated in the very aspects of morphology that are easily observable and that Hrdli?ka most often measured, namely, cranial length, breadth, and height, but they were obscured when craniometric variation as a whole was analyzed. Also, we found that the morphological changes over time were not related to the changes in haplogroup frequencies over time, suggesting that migration into the Aleutians did not play a significant role in producing the morphological changes. However, craniometric variability apparently increases over time, suggesting in-migration, localized selection, and/or greater environmental heterogeneity. Our results contradict Laughlin's observations but may be more in line with his hypothesis of in situ evolutionary changes absent gene flow. In addition to selection, gene flow, and gene drift, however, sociocultural changes must also be considered as a factor in why morphology changed over time.     

Origins of linguistic diversity in the Aleutian Islands

The Aleut language, currently spoken along the Aleutian chain and the Pribilof and Commander islands, is the only language in its branch of the Eskimo-Aleut language family, and traditional methods of linguistic reconstruction have neither satisfactorily explained its relationship with languages on the Asian continent nor its development from Proto-Eskimo-Aleut. Linguistic reconstruction has always been important in understanding the prehistory and history of the Aleuts, and new approaches in comparative linguistics, more comprehensive information on typological features of neighboring languages, and continuing language documentation allow us to propose a rich and continuous history of contact with various groups of people. I evaluate evidence that the Aleut language may have been shaped by contact with neighbors in Asia and Alaska, eventually giving rise to its differentiation from the Eskimo languages. I look at dialect differentiation along the Aleutian chain and what this differentiation reveals about the migration trends of the Aleut along the chain. I look at the colonial expansion of the Aleut-speaking area and resulting additional varieties of Aleut in the historical period. Finally, I review the effects of the Russian and American colonial periods on the Aleut language and the severe endangerment that the language faces today as a result. I conclude that there is evidence of possible Aleut contact with both neighboring peoples; however, much of this evidence has not yet been subjected to systematic comparative reconstructions. Linguistic evidence supports theories of at least two westward expansions of Aleuts along the island chain, but it is not yet clear what motivated the dialect differentiations. Finally, I offer some thoughts on directions for future dialect studies and the continuing documentation of Aleut.     

Genetic architecture of a small, recently aggregated Aleut population: Bering Island, Russia

The fishing community of Bering Island, located in the Russian Commander Islands off the Kamchatka Peninsula, was originally founded by a small number of Russian soldiers and merchants, along with Aleuts forcibly relocated from the western region of the Aleutian archipelago. The purpose of this study is to characterize the genetic variation of Bering Island inhabitants for autosomal, mitochondrial, and Y-chromosome DNA and classic genetic markers and to investigate the genetic impact of the 19th-century founding and subsequent demographic events on this heterogeneous community. Our results show a loss of diversity among maternal lineages in the Bering Aleut population, with fixation of mtDNA haplogroup D, as revealed by median-joining network analysis and mismatch differences. Conversely, paternal haplotypes exhibit an increase in diversity and the presence of a substantial number of non-Native lineages. Admixture results, based on autosomal STR data, indicate that parental contributions to the mixed Aleut population of Bering are approximately 60% Aleut and 40% Russian. Classic genetic markers show affinities between the Bering Island Aleuts and the other historically founded Aleut communities of St. Paul and St. George in the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. This study demonstrates that the opposing evolutionary forces of genetic drift and gene flow acted on the maternal and paternal lineages, respectively, to shape the genetic structure of the present-day inhabitants of Bering Island.     

Sociocultural stress and the american native in Alaska: An analysis of changing patterns of psychiatric illness and alcohol abuse among Alaska natives

This paper presents selected morbidity and mortality statistics to outline developing trends and the current status of psychiatric illness and alcohol abuse among the Aleut, Athabascan, Yupik, Inupiat, Tlingit, Haida and Tsimpshian people of Alaska. Analysis of the records of the Indian Health Service, the Community Mental Health Centers and the Alaska Psychiatric Institute, the providers of care for Alaska Natives, shows that the number of individuals treated as inpatients and outpatients for psychiatric illness and alcohol abuse has been rising steadily. Accidental injury and suicidal behavior are common. The treated prevalence rates for these diagnoses exceed recorded rates for other American Native and non-Native groups. For each category of violent death, suicide, homicide, accidents and alcohol, rates for Alaska Natives are higher than rates for Alaska non-Natives, American Indians and the U.S. (all races) and are rising. The data suggest a public health problem in which the primary elements are behavioral disturbance and violent death.     

A burial cave in the western Aleutian Islands, Alaska

During the 1998 field season, the Western Aleutians Archaeological and Paleobiological Project (WAAPP) team located a cave in the Near Islands, Alaska. Near the entrance of the cave, the team identified work areas and sleeping/sitting areas surrounded by cultural debris and animal bones. Human burials were found in the cave interior. In 2000, with permission from The Aleut Corporation, archaeologists revisited the site. Current research suggests three distinct occupations or uses for this cave. Aleuts buried their dead in shallow graves at the rear of the cave circa 1,200 to 800 years ago. Aleuts used the front of the cave as a temporary hunting camp as early as 390 years ago. Finally, Japanese and American military debris and graffiti reveal that the cave was visited during and after World War II. Russian trappers may have also taken shelter there 150 to 200 years ago. This is the first report of Aleut cave burials west of the Delarof Islands in the central Aleutians.     

Cultural remains in local and regional context on the central Alaska Peninsula: housepits, language, and cultural affinities at Marraatuq after 1000 B.P

Professor Dumond's research on the Alaska Peninsula provided information that prior to 1,000 years ago people of both sides of the Alaska Peninsula shared material culture and exhibited subsistence interests that persisted into historic times, During the Late Precontact Era (ca. 1100 A.D. to mid-1700s) these Alutiiq societies shared cultural traits including language, house styles, and material culture with their relatives and neighbors on Kodiak Island. Until recently, few data were available regarding potential variability in house construction techniques, or styles and functions of Alutiiq semi-subterranean houses of this era found on the Alaska Peninsula, This paper provides examples of a few known prehistoric and historic Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Alutiiq houses and presents previously unreported data from archaeological tests at Marraatuq on the Central Alaska Peninsula, Taken together with Dumond's 1998-1999 field work at Leader Creek and archaeological research on Kodiak Island, the work provides further evidence that interregional interaction was strong during the Late Precontact Era. However, large population centers and ranked political hierarchies probably were not hallmarks of central Alaska Peninsula communities during the Late Precontact Era and historic times as they were on the Kodiak and Aleutian islands.     

Analysis of mitochondrial DNA diversity in the aleuts of the commander islands and its implications for the genetic history of beringia

The Aleuts are aboriginal inhabitants of the Aleutian archipelago, including Bering and Copper (Medny) Islands of the Commanders, and seem to be the survivors of the inhabitants of the southern belt of the Bering Land Bridge that connected Chukotka/Kamchatka and Alaska during the end of the Ice Age. Thirty mtDNA samples collected in the Commanders, as well as seven mtDNA samples from Sireniki Eskimos in Chukotka who belong to the Beringian-specific subhaplogroup D2, were studied through complete sequencing. This analysis has provided evidence that all 37 of these mtDNAs are closely related, since they share the founding haplotype for subhaplogroup D2. We also demonstrated that, unlike the Eskimos and Na-Dene, the Aleuts of the Commanders were founded by a single lineage of haplogroup D2, which had acquired the novel transversion mutation 8910A. The phylogeny of haplogroup D complete sequences showed that (1) the D2 root sequence type originated among the latest inhabitants of Beringia and (2) the Aleut 8910A sublineage of D2 is a part of larger radiation of rooted D2, which gave rise to D2a (Na-Dene), D2b (Aleut), and D2c (Eskimo) sublineages. The geographic specificity and remarkable intrinsic diversity of D2 lineages support the refugial hypothesis, which assumes that the founding population of Eskimo-Aleut originated in Beringan/southwestern Alaskan refugia during the early postglacial period, rather than having reached the shores of Alaska as the result of recent wave of migration from interior Siberia.     

Multi-millennial occupation in northwestern Laos: Preliminary results of excavations at the Ngeubhinh Mouxeu rock-shelter

With over half a century of political instability, resulting from armed conflicts, decolonisation and the Cold War, archaeological investigations in Laos have been rare, leaving little more than a blank page in the chapter of Southeast Asia's prehistory. Recent research has shown that Laos holds a rich prehistoric heritage. In conjunction with the research initiated by J. White who conducted the first professional archaeological survey of northern Laos since decades, we have extended the investigations to the Luang Namtha province. This work allowed us to gather important data about Hoabinhian stone tool assemblages and former cultures. In particular, the archaeological remains and dating from the Ngeubhinh Mouxeu rock-shelter indicate that this mountainous region of Laos has been inhabited over a long period of time that possibly spans as far back as 56,000 ± 3000 BP.     

Neandertal Archaeology—Implications for Our Origins

This article identifies key aspects of the metaphysical paradigms under which European Paleolithic archaeological research is conducted and contrasts the anthropological approaches typical of anglophone New World workers with those of the "his- tory-like" natural science-based traditions of Latin Europe. Because the Middle–Upper Paleolithic transition in Europe is thought by many to correspond to the biological replacement of Neandertals by modern humans over the ten millennia bracketing 40 kyr B.P., generalizations about the archaeological transition invoked in support of biological replacement are examined and are found to lack empirical support. Patterns in lithic technology, typology, raw material variability, reduction strategies, blank frequencies, bone and antler technologies, Paleolithic art, subsistence strategies, and settlement patterns all indicate a temporal-spatial mosaic of changing monitors of human adaptation over the transition interval that cannot be reconciled with any construal of a relatively abrupt and complete biological replacement. [Key words: conceptual frameworks, research traditions, archaeological systematic, Middle–Upper Paleolithic transition, Neandertals, adaptation]     

Figurines du Paléolithique supérieur en matière minérale plastique cuite d’Afalou Bou Rhummel (Babors, Algérie). Premières analyses par spectroscopie d’absorption Infrarouge

From 1983 to 1993, S. Hachi’s last excavations at the Afalou Bou Rhummel (Algeria) Babors coastal shelter have contextually produced numerous anthropological and zoological, clay figurines, all hand made and cooked, among Iberomaurusian Late Upper Palaeolithic remains. Regarding Maghrebian territories (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya), these so peculiar documents are strictly related to 15?000-11?000 BP levels, although deeper archaeological levels are 18?000 BP. Twenty eight small samples (less 1mg) were analysed through infrared absorption spectroscopy (IR) so as to precise, through typical transformation of the major mineral involved: kaolinite, smectites, and amorphous silicates, the final degree of temperature reached after cooking. These documents were all intentionally cooked between 500 and 800 °C. Local clay was obviously picked up for figurine elaboration.     

HLA genes in populations of the Aleutian islands

We typed a subset of the Aleut population for HLA loci (HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-DRB1, HLA-DQB1) to obtain an HLA profile, which was compared to other Eurasian and Amerindian populations for studying Aleut origin and its significance on the peopling of the Americas. Allele frequencies at the four loci were identified in an Aleut sample using standard indirect DNA sequencing methods. Genetic distances with Amerindians and Eurasians were obtained by comparing Aleut allele frequencies with a worldwide population database (13,164 chromosomes). The most frequently extended HLA haplotypes were also calculated. We also generated Aleut relatedness dendrograms and calculated correspondence relatedness in a multidimensional scale. Both neighbor-joining dendrograms and correspondence analysis separated Aleuts from Eskimos and Amerindians. Aleuts are closer genetically to Europeans, including Scandinavians and English. Our results are concordant with those obtained by Y-chromosome analysis, suggesting that most male Aleut ancestors of our sample came mainly from Europe.     

Where did all the Aleut men go? Aleut male attrition and related patterns in Aleutian historical demography and social organization

Historical, economic, and political influences on Aleut demography and social organization are considered in relation to an apparent deficit of Aleut males in the early 20th century. Ethnohistoric records detail persistent waves of explorers, fur hunters, missionaries, bureaucrats, and foreign fishermen coming to the Aleutian region for economic exploitation, with some making it their home. The first major wave consisted of Russian and Siberian crews in pursuit of sea otters and fur seals. These entrepreneurs moved Aleut men to hunting grounds and replaced a large portion of them in the villages. The second wave consisted of Scandinavian and other European immigrants who followed cod, halibut, and herring fisheries and who married into eastern Aleut villages. These movements resulted in two genealogical deficits of Aleut men with concomitant shifts in social organization and economic emphases that contribute to the modern diversity of Aleut society. Aleut evacuation during World War II exacerbated these sex imbalances in the villages of the western Aleutian and Pribilof islands.     

Les occupations humaines du Nord du Maroc,du Paléolithique Moyen et du Paléolithique Supérieur. Nouvelles données sur la base des recherches archéologiques des projets de 2005 à 2020

In this work, we present a synthetic panorama of the human occupations of northern Morocco, with an emphasis on the association of anthropological with cultural records, within the framework of the Middle Palaeolithic (MSA) and the Upper Palaeolithic. We also present the projects developed over the past 15 years and the most interesting results we have obtained. And we conclude bay providing some reflections on the cultural and historical evaluation of the archaeological records from the Tetouan region in the Middle and the Upper Palaeolithic phases.     

A unique course in anthropology

The course in forensic anthropology presented at Florida State University is designed to train criminal investigators in the application of physical anthropological and archaeological techniques to the investigation of buried bodies. Modification of archaeological field techniques by experimentation using artificial graves allows the recovery of fragile and easy to overlook evidence and ensures the recovery of all possible material for analysis by the physical anthropologist. An introduction to physical anthropology enables the criminal investigator to effectively communicate his needs and understand the type of information required for adequate identification of remains by a physical anthropologist.     

The Gepiden of Viminacium during population migration. An anthropological contribution

The archaeological excavations at the cemetry Vise Grobalja on Viminacium were finished in the year 1985. Altogether 94 skeletons which were attributed to the Gepiden were examined anthropologically. The graveyard was dated about the middle of the 6th century. Of special importance were the 31 artificial deformed skulls. The deformation was done with a circular bandaging which is graphically illustrated. Farkas (1973), Winkler (1979) and Schr?ter (1988) identified the same type of bandaging on skulls of the ethnic migration period. The anthropological examination identified 46 as male and 27 as female skeletons: 16 were determined as infants and juveniles. About 5 skeletons were indeterminable because of their bad state of preservation. There was a deficit of women and infants. The average lifespan was less than 33 years. The influence or the presence of other anthropological types was not identified. But there should be further proof why, for example these groups of Gepiden from Viminacium have disappeared relatively rapidly from the historical stage and the Balkan.     

Origins of Aleuts and the genetic structure of populations of the archipelago: molecular and archaeological perspectives

We summarize the results of a field and laboratory research program (1999-2006) in the Aleutian Islands on the origins of the inhabitants of the archipelago and the genetic structure of these populations. The Aleuts show closest genetic affinity to the contemporary Siberian Eskimos and Chukchi of Chukotka and differ significantly from the populations of Kamchatka (the terminus of the archipelago) and Alaskan Eskimos. Our findings support the hypothesis that the ancestors of the Aleuts crossed Beringia and expanded westerly into the islands approximately 9,000 years ago. The Monmonier algorithm indicates genetic discontinuity between contemporary Kamchatkan populations and western Aleut populations, suggesting that island hopping from Kamchatka into the western Aleutian Islands was highly unlikely. The primary determinant of the distribution of genes throughout the archipelago is geography. The most intimate relationship exists between the genetics (based on mtDNA sequences and intermatch/mismatch distances) and geographic distances (measured in kilometers). However, the Y-chromosome haplogroup frequencies are not significantly correlated with the geography of the Aleutian Islands. The underlying patterns of precontact genetic structure based on Y-chromosome markers of the Aleut populations is obscured because of the gene flow from Russian male colonizers and Scandinavian and English fishermen. We consider alternative theories about the peopling of the Americas from Siberia. In addition, we attempt a synthesis between archaeological and genetic data for the Aleutian Islands.     

Anthropology at Home in Australia

This introductory essay takes ‘anthropology at home’ to refer to the conduct of fieldwork and other kinds of anthropological research in or about communities which Australian anthropologists regard as culturally familiar. In that sense, anthropology at home raises two interrelated questions: 1) ‘What is an appropriate anthropological object?’ and 2) ‘What are the appropriate methods for studying that object?’ I argue that anthropology remains overdetermined by its colonial heritage and that it is still overly concerned with the study of ‘the other’ through long-term fieldwork. My feeling is that we should displace the idea of ‘the other’ in favour of an anthropological object construed in terms of self-other relationships. This not only implies that anthropology at home should cease to appear as an oxymoron, but also suggests that a more comprehensive employment of various study methods should displace long-term fieldwork as metonymic of the discipline.     

To what extent did Neanderthals and modern humans interact?

Neanderthals represent an extinct hominid lineage that existed in Europe and Asia for nearly 400,000 years. They thrived in these regions for much of this time, but declined in numbers and went extinct around 30,000 years ago. Interestingly, their disappearance occurred subsequent to the arrival of modern humans into these areas, which has prompted some to argue that Neanderthals were displaced by better suited and more adaptable modern humans. Still others have postulated that Neanderthals were assimilated into the gene pool of modern humans by admixture. Until relatively recently, conclusions about the relationships between Neanderthals and contemporary humans were based solely upon evidence left behind in the fossil and archaeological records. However, in the last decade, we have witnessed the introduction of metagenomic analyses, which have provided novel tools with which to study the levels of genetic interactions between this fascinating Homo lineage and modern humans. Were Neanderthals replaced by contemporary humans through dramatic extinction resulting from competition and/or hostility or through admixture? Were Neanderthals and modern humans two independent, genetically unique species or were they a single species, capable of producing fertile offspring? Here, we review the current anthropological, archaeological and genetic data, which shed some light on these questions and provide insight into the exact nature of the relationships between these two groups of humans.