Maxillary first premolar angular differences between North American Indians and non-North American Indians

A quantitative technique for obtaining angular data on human maxillary first premolar teeth is presented. Measurement indicates that North American Indian buccal cusps are either buccolingually compressed mesially, or expanded distally, or both, when compared with non-Indian teeth. Surprisingly, data on Chinese and Eskimo samples are similar to non-Indian teeth rather than Indian teeth. Similar techniques may be applied to the more complex multicusped molar teeth in order to extract quantitative data from them.     

Esterase D in South American Indians.

Significant variation in the frequency of Esterase D isoenzymes was found in 1,070 individuals belonging to eight South American Indian tribes. The Es D1 allele shows frequencies varying from .36 to 1. A region of low prevalence of this allele seems to exist in northern Brazil, involving the Parakanan, Gorotire, and Krahó. The intratribal variation observed in eight Yanomama villages located in Brazil was not exceptional.     

Assessing Accuracy of Genotype Imputation in American Indians

Background

Genotype imputation is commonly used in genetic association studies to test untyped variants using information on linkage disequilibrium (LD) with typed markers. Imputing genotypes requires a suitable reference population in which the LD pattern is known, most often one selected from HapMap. However, some populations, such as American Indians, are not represented in HapMap. In the present study, we assessed accuracy of imputation using HapMap reference populations in a genome-wide association study in Pima Indians.

Results

Data from six randomly selected chromosomes were used. Genotypes in the study population were masked (either 1% or 20% of SNPs available for a given chromosome). The masked genotypes were then imputed using the software Markov Chain Haplotyping Algorithm. Using four HapMap reference populations, average genotype error rates ranged from 7.86% for Mexican Americans to 22.30% for Yoruba. In contrast, use of the original Pima Indian data as a reference resulted in an average error rate of 1.73%.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that the use of HapMap reference populations results in substantial inaccuracy in the imputation of genotypes in American Indians. A possible solution would be to densely genotype or sequence a reference American Indian population.     

Lesions of the frontal bone in American Indians

Over 1,400 adult skulls from archeological sites along the Atlantic Seaboard, in the Midwest and in the Southwest were examined for frontal lesions. A late prehistoric site in Delaware yielded the highest frequency. Next was a late prehistoric site in Illinois, but here the high frequency may reflect in part the collector's special interest in bone pathology. By contrast, the historic and early prehistoric sites yielded the lowest frequencies. Like Hooton and Snow, the only previous American investigators who have recorded frontal lesions in detail, the present authors agree that most of the occurrences in skulls from Archaic and early Pueblo sites are due to trauma. However, in the other groups studied most of the lesions appear to be inflammatory and to have a rather constant location on the frontal. Some are accompanied by lesions on the parietals and on certain long bones. After healing bone remodelling gradually eliminates much of the original disfigurement. Examples of lesions in different stages are illustrated. The appearance of some of the inflammatory lesions suggests syphilis, but satisfactory proof of this is not yet forthcoming. Hopefully, these findings will rekindle interest in the problem and stimulate further efforts to reach correct diagnoses.     

Quality of 1980 census data for American Indians

Abstract

The count of American Indians in the 1980 census was over 70 per cent larger than the 1970 census count. An assessment of the demographic basis for this change shows that the cohorts from ages 10 to 74 in 1980 increased by substantial amounts, reaching 35 per cent for many ages. Increases of this nature in the absence of immigration are demographically impossible—an indication that the changes in response patterns identified by Passel (1976) between the 1970 and 1960 censuses persisted in 1980, possibly at even greater levels.

In addition to presenting demographic analyses of the American Indian data at the national level, this paper includes an analysis of geographic variation of implied birth, death, and migration rates at the state level. States which historically have had large American Indian populations in general had high birth and death rates with reasonable migration rates. Many other states, however, had anomalously low birth and death rates with extraordinarily high implied migration rates. This pattern suggests that the changes in response may have occurred primarily in the latter areas.

Several other anomalies in the American Indian data are reported here. The sample figure for American Indians from the 1980 census exceeds the complete count by more than 8 per cent at the national level. Increases occurred in most states, but the amount of increase varied substantially. Also, the increases tend to occur outside American Indian areas (reservations, tribal trust lands, etc.). Such differences are, for the most part, outside of expected sample variability. Furthermore, differences in the number of persons reporting American Indian race and American Indian ancestry were substantial. Some of the causes of these differences are investigated here. The paper concludes with an overall assessment of the quality and utility of these census data for various types of analysis.     

Twelve Thousand Years: American Indians in Maine

Twelve Thousand Years: American Indians in Maine. Bruce J. Bourque. with Steven L. Cox and Ruth H. Whitehead. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.368 pp.     

A Companion to the Anthropology of American Indians

A Companion to the Anthropology of American Indians . Thomas Biolsi, ed. Williston, VT: Blackwell Publishers, 2004. 567 pp.     

Early American Stoves

The curricula for preparing music specialists has remained largely unchanged for decades. In this time, most professions have moved toward preparing specialists while the music education profession has moved toward preparing generalists. The author examines how this is unrealistic and out of touch with the times and the future. Furthermore, the author argues that it is demeaning to our art form, teaching profession, and most important, future students. He proposes a plan for change to update music teacher training.     

Warm Springs,Early Lay Dates,and Double Brooding in a North American Migratory Songbird,the Black-Throated Blue Warbler

Numerous studies have correlated the advancement of lay date in birds with warming climate trends, yet the fitness effects associated with this phenological response have been examined in only a small number of species. Most of these species–primarily insectivorous cavity nesters in Europe–exhibit fitness declines associated with increasing asynchrony with prey. Here, we use 25 years of demographic data, collected from 1986 to 2010, to examine the effects of spring temperature on breeding initiation date, double brooding, and annual fecundity in a Nearctic - Neotropical migratory songbird, the black-throated blue warbler (Setophaga caerulescens). Data were collected from birds breeding at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, USA, where long-term trends toward warmer springs have been recorded. We found that black-throated blue warblers initiated breeding earlier in warmer springs, that early breeders were more likely to attempt a second brood than those starting later in the season, and that double brooding and lay date were linked to higher annual fecundity. Accordingly, we found selection favored earlier breeding in most years. However, in contrast to studies of several other long-distance migratory species in Europe, this selection pressure was not stronger in warmer springs, indicating that these warblers were able to adjust mean lay date appropriately to substantial inter-annual variation in spring temperature. Our results suggest that this North American migratory songbird might not experience the same fecundity declines as songbirds that are unable to adjust their timing of breeding in pace with spring temperatures.