Social Transformation and Its Human Costs in the Prehispanic U.S. Southwest

ABSTRACT  Change is inevitable, but some changes and transformations are more dramatic and fraught with suffering than others. Resilience theory suggests the concept of a "rigidity trap" as an explanation for these differences. In rigidity traps, a high degree of connectivity and the suppression of innovation prolong an increasingly rigid state, with the result that the eventual transformation is harsh. Three archaeological cases from the U.S. Southwest (Mimbres, Mesa Verde, and Hohokam) and new methods for assessing transformations and rigidity are used to evaluate this concept. They reveal the expected association between the severity of transformation and degree of rigidity, suggesting that a rigidity trap contributed to the Hohokam decline, which included significant human suffering. Possible causes of rigidity, with implications for today's world, are explored.     

Reconstructing the population history of Nicaragua by means of mtDNA,Y‐chromosome STRs,and autosomal STR markers

Before the arrival of the Spaniards in Nicaragua, diverse Native American groups inhabited the territory. In colonial times, Native Nicaraguan populations interacted with Europeans and slaves from Africa. To ascertain the extent of this genetic admixture and provide genetic evidence about the origin of the Nicaraguan ancestors, we analyzed the mitochondrial control region (HVSI and HVSII), 17 Y chromosome STRs, and 15 autosomal STRs in 165 Mestizo individuals from Nicaragua. To carry out interpopulation comparisons, HVSI sequences from 29 American populations were compiled from the literature. The results reveal a close relationship between Oto‐manguean, Uto‐Aztecan, Mayan groups from Mexico, and a Chibchan group to Nicaraguan lineages. The Native American contribution to present‐day Nicaraguan Mestizos accounts for most of the maternal lineages, whereas the majority of Nicaraguan Y chromosome haplogroups can be traced back to a West Eurasian origin. Pairwise Fst distances based on Y‐STRs between Nicaragua and European, African and Native American populations show that Nicaragua is much closer to Europeans than the other populations. Additionally, admixture proportions based on autosomal STRs indicate a predominantly Spanish contribution. Our study reveals that the Nicaraguan Mestizo population harbors a high proportion of European male and Native American female substrate. Finally, the amount of African ancestry is also interesting, probably because of the contribution of Spanish conquerors with NorthAfrican genetic traces or that of West African slaves. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Estimation of stature and body mass from the skeleton among coastal and mid-altitude Andean populations

Adult stature and body mass represent fundamental biological characteristics of individuals and populations, as they are relevant to a range of problems from assessing nutrition and health to longer term evolutionary processes. Stature and body mass estimation from skeletal dimensions are therefore key to addressing biological and social questions about past populations. Anatomical reconstruction provides the most direct proxy for living stature but is only suitable for well-preserved remains. Regression equations for estimating stature from bone lengths are therefore extremely useful, though it is well recognized that differences in body proportions limit the cross-application of equations between samples. Here, we assess the accuracy of published stature estimation equations from worldwide and New World groups applied to archaeological samples from the central Andean coast and highlands of South America. As no existing equations are clearly appropriate, new sample-specific regression equations are presented. Anatomical stature reconstruction is further complicated by artificial cranial modification (ACM) influencing cranial height in Andean samples, so this problem is investigated in the current sample. Although ACM has minimal impact here, the possibility should be explored in other samples before anatomical stature estimation is attempted. Recommendations are also made for estimating body mass from femoral head diameter. The mean of three previously published equations is shown to offer minimal bias and the most reliable estimate of body mass in the study samples.     

Brief communication: Prehistoric dentistry in the American Southwest: A drilled canine from Sky Aerie,Colorado

A prehistoric Native American mandible from a Fremont site (circa AD 1025) in Colorado has a conical pit in the worn occlusal surface of the lower right canine. Natural causes for this modification are ruled out by the presence of internal striae, a finding confirmed by experimental replication. The canine was artificially drilled before the individual's death and is associated with a periapical abscess. This is one of a very few examples of prehistoric dentistry in the world, and the first from the American Southwest. Am J Phys Anthropol 103:409–414, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Mitochondrial DNA diversity in South America and the genetic history of Andean highlanders

We analyzed mtDNA sequence variation in 590 individuals from 18 south Amerindian populations. The spatial pattern of mtDNA diversity in these populations fits well the model proposed on the basis of Y-chromosome data. We found evidence of a differential action of genetic drift and gene flow in western and eastern populations, which has led to genetic divergence in the latter but not in the former. Although it is not possible to identify a pattern of genetic variation common to all South America, when western and eastern populations are analyzed separately, the mtDNA diversity in both regions fits the isolation-by-distance model, suggesting independent evolutionary dynamics. Maximum-likelihood estimates of divergence times between central and south Amerindian populations fall between 13,000 and 19,000 years, which is consistent with a Pleistocenic peopling of South America. Moreover, comparison of among-population variability of mtDNA and Y-chromosome DNA seems to indicate that South America is the only continent where the levels of differentiation are similar for maternal and paternal lineages.     

Domesticating Imperialism: Sexual Politics and the Archaeology of Empire

ABSTRACT  The archaeology of empire is permeated by sexual narratives. This has been especially true of archaeological research on the Spanish Americas, where the material remains of colonial settlements have often been interpreted as products of a literal and figurative marriage between two cultures. However, investigating colonization as a consensual domestic arrangement has masked the ways in which imperial projects relied on the exercise of power, including sexual regulations and sexual coercion. Recent archaeological and ethnohistoric research at the Spanish-colonial military settlement of El Presidio de San Francisco affords a different perspective, one in which the public and institutional exercise of sexual control was central to the imperial project.     

晋西南旧石器考古学研究现状及其展望

晋西南古称河东,位于汾渭地堑中部,包括临汾盆地、运城盆地以及中条山南麓黄河沿岸。这里自古就是中华民族文明重要发祥地,也是研究人类起源、发展、演化的重要地区。20世纪50年代以来,考古工作者在山西地堑发现了300余处旧石器时代遗址和地点。这些发现业已证明晋西南的临汾、运城以及中条山南麓黄河沿岸,从早更新世初期直到更新世结束一直有人类在这片土地上繁衍生息。其中西侯度遗址、匼河遗址群、丁村遗址群、下川遗址群、柿子滩遗址群,代表了东亚旧石器时代人类200万年以来从能人→直立人→早期智人→晚期智人各个不同发展阶段一个完整的演化历程。因此,这里成为中国大陆一个非常重要的远古人类演化场。本文试图通过对这一区域旧石器考古的回顾,找出我们工作中的不足以及需要努力的方向,并向本地区考古学研究的开拓者贾兰坡、王建、王择义等老一辈考古学家致敬。     

The Establishment and Defeat of Hierarchy: Inalienable Possessions and the History of Collective Prestige Structures in the Pueblo Southwest

The role of social valuables in establishing and defeating hierarchies in prestate societies is explored through the use of Annette Weiner's concept of "inalienable possessions." Inalienable possessions are objects made to be kept (not exchanged), have symbolic and economic power that cannot be transferred, and are often used to authenticate the ritual authority of corporate groups. Ethnographic examples from Zuni are used to understand the range of individually and collectively owned inalienable objects in Pueblo societies. I then use three classes of these objects from archaeological contexts to gain insight into the history of collective prestige structures in the Southwest. I argue that inalienable goods are more useful than shape prestige goods for understanding the role of social valuables in many nonstate societies, especially those in which inequalities are based on ritual knowledge.     

Social Identity and Culture Change on the Southern Northwest Coast

Driven by the participation of Native American people in the contemporary political, cultural, and academic landscape of North America, public and academic discussions have considered the nature of contemporary American Indian identity and the persistence, survival, and (to some) reinvention of Native American cultures and traditions. I use a case study—the historical anthropology of the Native American people of the Oregon coast—to examine the persistence of many American Indian people through the colonial period and the subsequent revitalization of "traditional" cultural practices. Drawing on archaeological data, ethnohistorical accounts, and oral traditions, I offer a reading of how, set against and through an ancestral landscape, traditional social identities and relationships of gender and authority were constructed and contested. I then consider how American Indian people negotiated the new sets of social relationships dictated by the dominant society.     

Sociopolitical Complexity and the Bow and Arrow in the American Southwest

The evolution of sociopolitical complexity, including heightened relations of cooperation and competition among large nonkin groups, has long been a central focus of anthropological research. 1 , 2 Anthropologists suggest any number of variables that affect the waxing and waning of complexity and define the precise trajectories that groups take, including population density, subsistence strategies, warfare, the distribution of resources, and trade relationships. 3 , 4 Changes in weaponry, here the introduction of the bow and arrow, can have profound implications for population aggregation and density, subsistence and settlement strategies, and access to resources, trade, and warfare. 5 Bingham and Souza provide a general conceptual model for the relationship between complexity and the bow and arrow, arguing that this compound weapon system, whereby smaller projectiles travel at higher speed and are capable of hitting targets more accurately and at greater distances than hand‐thrown darts, fundamentally favors the formation of larger groups because it allows for cost‐effective means of dealing with conflicts of interest through social coercion, thereby dramatically transforming kin‐based social relations. 6 Here we consider the impacts the introduction of the bow and arrow had on sociopolitical complexity in the North American Southwest.     

Historical links between settlement,ecology, and politics in the mountains of west Nepal

The paper presents a study of settlement processes in western Nepal. It emphasizes the linkages between settlement history, cultural ecology, and political economy as these relate to resources, marginality, and territory. Regional settlement trends are examined in accordance with land occupancy and tenure arrangements. Village settlement strategies are analyzed within a micro-processual framework that incorporates political economic perspectives on village land use and resource distributions. The past, present, and future roles of settlement in the human adaptation process of west Nepal's mountain populations is critically examined in the contexts of historical land policies and current rural political and environmental systems.     

Contrasting patterns of naturalized plant richness in the Americas: Numbers are higher in the North but expected to rise sharply in the South

With increasing availability of plant distribution data, the information about global plant diversity is improving rapidly. Recently, Ulloa Ulloa et al. (2017) presented the first comprehensive overview of the native vascular flora of the Americas, yielding a total count of 124,993 native species. Of these, 51,241 occur in North America and 82,052 in South America. By combining these data with the information in the Global Naturalized Alien Flora (GloNAF) database of naturalized alien floras, we point out that for a complete picture of the regional and continental plant richness, the naturalized alien species need to be considered. Ignoring this novel component of regional floras can lead to an inaccurate picture of overall change in biodiversity in the Anthropocene. We show that North and South America might face contrasting challenges in terms of potential threats to biodiversity posed by alien plant species, because of the different past and present dynamics of invasions and predictions of future development. In total, there are 7,042 naturalized alien plants occurring in the Americas, with 6,122 recorded in North America and 2,677 in South America; if only introductions from other continents are considered additions to the native continental flora make up 6.9 and 1.4 %, respectively. Nevertheless, predictions of naturalized plant trajectories based on global trade dynamics and climate change suggest that considerable increases in naturalized plant numbers are expected in the next 20 years for emerging South American economies, which could reverse the present state.     

山西晋中小南庄墓地人骨的C、N稳定同位素:试析小麦在山西的推广

小麦何时何地对中国北方传统的粟黍农业产生影响是近些年学术界研究的焦点问题之一。相关研究表明,小麦对中国北方不同地区粟黍农业的影响存在时间上的差异。古文献及考古研究表明,小麦在龙山时期就开始在中国北方地区出现,但直到东周及其后才逐步对粟黍农业产生显著的影响。为了探索小麦在东周时期在山西地区推广的程度和其对先民食物结构和生业经济的影响程度及其背后的内在动因等,本文选取晋中小南庄墓地东周时期人骨进行了C、N稳定同位素分析,结果显示先民的δ~(13)C值和δ~(15)N值都比较集中(δ~(13)C值的范围为-9.0‰～-7.5‰,均值为-8.0‰±0.4‰,n=16;δ~(15)N值的范围为9.0‰-11.7‰,均值为10.5‰±0.9‰;n=16),说明他们以C_4类食物为主,也有少量C_3类食物,但动物蛋白消费有所区分。据他们对动物蛋白占有的不同,晋中小南庄墓地东周时期人至少可以划分为两个经济群体,第一个群体可能从事农耕经济,第二群体可能从事畜牧经济。从事农耕经济人群的食物中的C_3食物应该主要来源于小麦,这说明小麦在东周时期开始在晋中地区有所推广。小麦在山西地区的推广、种植和使用,对传统的粟黍农业产生了相应的影响,使得先民种植农作物的种类有所增加,这应该加快了秦汉时期农业高峰期的形成。然而,山西地区小麦的推广相对缓慢,这可能与当地根深蒂固的粟黍经济和饮食习惯密切相关。     

Scientific motherhood,responsibility, and hope: umbilical cord blood banking in South Korea

This paper explores how concepts of hope, motherhood, responsibility, and science are mobilized and transformed in the marketing strategies of private cord blood banks in South Korea. Cord blood banking provides a useful case study of the “political economy of hope,” which emphasizes future expectations over current utility. In particular, appeals to hope are rendered natural as being applied in relation to various concepts of motherhood (e.g. “scientific motherhood” and “consumer motherhood”), thereby refiguring ideas of a mother's responsibility to her child. In South Korea, cord blood banks rely heavily on the discourse of “scientific motherhood,” which is based on certain gender norms and ideas about science, modernity, and “advanced society.” By exploring the discourse of scientific motherhood, this study reexamines the “political economy of hope” through the lenses of gender and transnationalism.     

喀斯特断陷盆地石漠化演变及治理技术与示范

岩溶断陷盆地区是国家石漠化综合治理工程、生态安全屏障、连片特困区,同时也是石漠化治理科技投入薄弱。针对断陷盆地盆-山共存的环境地质结构分异,及水土资源不匹配和石漠化严重等问题,在滇东蒙自、建水、泸西为重点区,开展"喀斯特断陷盆地石漠化演变及综合治理技术与示范(2016YFC0502500)"项目的国家重点研发活动,阐明流域尺度石漠化演变机理,以水土资源高效利用为基础、生态服务功能提升为核心,研发石漠化综合治理技术,形成生态治理-生态产业协同发展模式,为生态富民和生态文明建设提供技术与示范。形成喀斯特断陷盆地石漠化机理识别-治理技术研发-生态产业模式构建-综合效益评估-国土资源空间高效利用对策等系列成果,培养一支高水平创新团队。     

鄂西南山区重楼属植物资源调查与鉴定研究

目的：进行鄂西南山区重楼属植物资源的调查、引种和资源鉴定,为重楼属植物资源开发提供依据。方法：采取文献调研与野外调查相结合的方法,初步明确该地区的资源现状;引种于适生环境后,参照《重楼属植物》的分类方法,以田间活体标本鉴定为主,以彩色图片鉴定为辅进行品种鉴定。结果：本区重楼属植物分属于中轴亚属和侧膜亚属2个亚属,5个种,7个变种,3个变型,共有15个变异类型,其中白花重楼的2个变型是《重楼属植物》中没有的;以往认为本区有分布的狭叶重楼变种的两个变型中狭叶变型没有收集到。