Department Of Anthropology Research Articles

Honeycomb sterna: an unusual case of a developmental abnormality in the sternum

This report details an unusual case of a human sternal developmental abnormality of an anatomical specimen part of the skeletal collection curated by University College London, Anthropology Department skeletal collection. This rarely reported developmental abnormality is caused by the non-fusion of lateral ossification centres in the sternebrae, resulting in the mesosternum having a honeycomb-like appearance. Sternal defects are typically underreported in the clinical literature as many cases being asymptomatic that they are typically diagnosed incidentally, as such there is a dearth in our current understanding of the development and anatomical variants of the sternum. Although in recent years, large-scale CT studies have investigated the prevalence of sternal developmental abnormalities, these studies have not reported sternal defects similar to the individual presented in this report. While most sternal defects are clinically uneventful, the lack of awareness of these variants can result in misinterpretation of radiological and pathological findings as such an understanding of anatomical variants even when asymptomatic is vital.

The Every Day Work of Studying the Law in Everyday Life

Susan Silbey began her academic training in political science and in the course of her studies became a sociologist of law, the last two decades as a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's anthropology department and management school. The disciplinary transformations ground, in part, her attention to the ways in which the everyday life of scholarship has led her to study the everyday life of the law. In this article, she describes her scholarly life through seven chapters of relatively distinct challenges and themes. Across the arc of her life, she identifies the recurrent influence of both serendipity and theoretical inference acting within the immediate constraints of family and personal capacity. Reading across descriptions of her work on regulatory enforcement, dispute negotiation and mediation, and popular legal culture and consciousness, she points to the necessity of reconciling on-the-ground vicissitudes of doing legal work with the theories and narratives social scientists construct to make sense of institutions and history. She muses on theoretical attempts to align the particular and the general, the micro and macro forces working in legal cultures, and concludes by celebrating the ubiquity of social ordering whose own momentum both seduces and frustrates social scientists.

Fieldwork at sunset

Most institutional anthropology departments have a website, to tout credentials, attract students, and offer information. These websites also take up the visual task of disciplinary representation, but their images have skipped the scrutiny that is necessary and overdue. Th is article analyzes online images of sociocultural anthropology across one hundred high-ranking universities worldwide. We show how, online, a discipline defined by diversity becomes readily reducible to “exotic” geographies and objectified “others.” While the urban serves as an unattractive foil, frequent images of children recall charity campaigns. Such visual tropes—which comprise a significant, public interface for anthropology—are not just awkwardly dated but also do disservice to ambitions for public anthropology. Change, we suggest, must begin at (the) home(page).

Кафедре антропологии МГУ – 100 лет (этапы становления и развития профессионального образования)

Кафедре антропологии МГУ – 100 лет (этапы становления и развития профессионального образования)

The Published Archaeobotanical Data from the Indus Civilisation, South Asia, c.3200–1500BC

The collection of this dataset of published archaeobotanical data from the Indus Civilisation (c.3200–1500BC) was carried out by the author as part of her doctoral work, and has continued up to October 2017. The dataset represents a systematic collation of all primary published macrobotanical data, regardless of their designation as ‘crop’, ‘fully domesticated’ or ‘wild/weedy’ species. The dataset comprises 63 sites and 339 ‘taxa’ (including less confidently identified elements such as ‘charred seed’). Data is presented as presence/absence due to different sampling, quantification and data presentation practices. Funding statement: This paper developed out of research conducted while the author was a PhD student working as part of the Land, Water and Settlement project, which has been investigating human–environment relations in northwest India. It presents material gathered for a literature review that formed part of the author’s PhD dissertation, and expanded upon during her first post-doctoral position as Trevelyan research fellow at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge. The PhD research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), United Kingdom (Grant No. 1080510), and this paper has been written up while she has been a Post-doctoral Research Associate at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, and published while she is a post doctoral fellow at the Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania. The Land, Water and Settlement project ran from 2007 to 2014 and was primarily funded by a Standard Award from the UK India Education Research Initiative United Kingdom (UKIERI) under the title ‘From the collapse of Harappan urbanism to the rise of the great Early Historic cities: Investigating the cultural and geographical transformation of northwest India between 2000 and 300 BC’. Smaller grants were also awarded by the British Academy’s Stein Arnold Fund, United Kingdom, the Isaac Newton Trust, the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, United Kingdom, and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), United Kingdom.

Representing the Other: A Case for Interdisciplinary Clinical Legal Education: Example of the Human Rights and Migration Law Clinic

From January 2018 until late July of the same year, I had an opportunity to participate in the Human Rights and Migration Law Clinic (hereafter HRMLC or ’the Clinic’) in Torino, where I got a chance to experience working with the asylum seekers, interviewing them, writing their Legal Memo as well as preparing them for the hearing in front of the Territorial Commission (Italian First Board Commissions). An important aspect of the Clinic in question is the fact that it is conducted in cooperation with the Department of Anthropology and it involves anthropology students in the work with the asylum seekers. From the very beginning, it was apparent to me why they have opted for the involvement of anthropologists. I was surprised to see how much anthropological training in recognizing and being aware of Eurocentric (or any other kind of) presuppositions can be useful in recognizing and understanding cultural misunderstandings that happen on a daily basis in the asylum claiming process, as it is now in Italy. Even so, the idea for this paper became clear to me only when I attended the first meeting anthropology students had with their supervisor, Professor Beneduce. The feedback students gave to their professor and in turn, his observations made me inspired to write the paper that is before you.

Research-driven approaches to improving archival discovery

The National Anthropological Archives (NAA), part of the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, holds some 18,000 cubic feet of materials of relevance to qualitative researchers. These archival collections—manuscripts, fieldnotes, audio recordings, drawings, maps, and still and moving images—are used by not only anthropologists, but increasingly scholars from a range of qualitative research fields. In 2016, the NAA received a grant to support a 3-year post-doctoral fellow to conduct research that would lead to the improved discovery and use of archival resources. This article discusses some of the practical ways the fellowship was designed to ask interdisciplinary research questions, and describes how that premise, as well as findings from a pilot study run in the first year, are helping to improve the research experience for our increasingly interdisciplinary users. Both the project’s preliminary findings and its overall design may provide valuable insights to qualitative researchers and their institutions.

Fetal age at death estimation on dry bone: testing the applicability of equations developed on a radiographic sample

The paucity of identified skeletal collections that include fetuses entails the need to pursue unconventional approaches and resources in order to investigate fetal anatomical variation. Radiographic analyses are being considered as a good alternative to data obtained in osteological collections. In a previous work, we developed equations to estimate gestational age (GA) at death by measuring fetal long bones on x-rays. This study aims to test the applicability of these equations in dry bones, and to assess its accuracy and bias. A test sample of 17 fetuses with known gestational age at death from the osteological collection of the Department of Legal Medicine, Toxicology and Physical Anthropology, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Granada (Spain) was employed. Examined bones comprised the femur, tibia, humerus and radius. The proposed models show high accuracy and low bias in the assessment of gestational age at death in a sample of fetal dry bones. The new equations, especially those obtained with classical calibration, are a valuable tool to estimate fetal gestational age at death in both forensic and archeological contexts.

3D data related to the publication: A new species of Palaeopython (Serpentes) and other extinct squamates from the Eocene of Dielsdorf (Zurich, Switzerland)

INTRODUCTION CT scanning was conducted in three different-sized snake vertebrae of Palaeopython helveticus sp. nov., including its holotype PIMUZ A/III 634, from Eocene fissure fills at Dielsdorf, near Zurich, Switzerland (e.g., Rosselet, 1991) in order to detect and evaluate ontogenetic variability in these fossils. In addition, a dentary of Palaeovaranus sp. was scanned to elucidate its internal histology and tooth implementation (Fig. 1 and Table METHODS The bones (snake vertebrae; dentary) from Dielsdorf were scanned with a Nikon XTH 225 ST CT Scanner housed at the Anthropological Department of the University of Zurich. The microcomputed tomography scan of the vertebrae was taken with a voltage of 91 kV and a current of 345 μA, yielding a voxel size of 0.03758 mm, with no filter used. The dentary was scanned with a voltage of 162 kV, a current of 102 μA, yielding a voxel size of 0.01654 mm, again with no filter used. Reconstruction of the digital stack for virtual 3D reconstruction was achieved using VG Studio Max 2.2. The 3D surface models are provided in .ply format and the datasets in DICOM format, and can therefore be opened with a wide range of freeware.

I Still Hate New Year’s Day

Research Article| June 01 2019 I Still Hate New Year’s Day Ryan Conrad Ryan Conrad Ryan Conrad is postdoctoral fellow at the AIDS Activist History Project housed in the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Carleton University in Ottawa. He holds a PhD from the Centre for the Interdisciplinary Study of Society and Culture at Concordia University and an MFA in interdisciplinary studio arts from the Maine College of Art. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking (2019) 6 (2): 104–108. https://doi.org/10.14321/qed.6.2.0104 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Ryan Conrad; I Still Hate New Year’s Day. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking 1 June 2019; 6 (2): 104–108. doi: https://doi.org/10.14321/qed.6.2.0104 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveMichigan State University PressQED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. © 2019 Michigan State University2019 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Jane H. Hill: (27 October 1939–2 November 2018)

Previous articleNext article No AccessObituaryJane H. Hill: (27 October 1939–2 November 2018)Paul V. KroskrityPaul V. KroskrityDepartment of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles Search for more articles by this author Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los AngelesPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Anthropological Research Volume 75, Number 2Summer 2019 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/702795 Views: 89Total views on this site HistorySubmitted January 25, 2019Accepted January 25, 2019 © 2019 by The University of New Mexico. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Concept of Mania in Traditional Andean Culture.

The Concept of Mania in Traditional Andean Culture.

First person – Susan M. Motch Perrine and Meng Wu

ABSTRACTFirst Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Disease Models & Mechanisms (DMM), helping early-career researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Susan M. Motch Perrine and Meng Wu are co-first authors on ‘Mandibular dysmorphology due to abnormal embryonic osteogenesis in FGFR2-related craniosynostosis mice’, published in DMM. Susan is an Assistant Research Professor of Anthropology in the lab of Joan T. Richtsmeier at the Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, USA, with a current focus on craniofacial variation using an interdisciplinary approach which combines high-resolution imaging, geometric morphometrics and wet lab techniques. Meng is an Instructor (tenure-track) in the lab of Ethylin Wang Jabs at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA, investigating the developmental mechanisms of birth defects, currently focusing on modelling and elucidating human malformation disorders using mice, organoids, pluripotent stem cells and bioinformatics.

“Savages at the End of the World”

One of the first research interests of the German anthropologist and ethnologist Robert Lehmann-Nitsche (1872-1938), upon assuming the position as head of the Department of Anthropology at the La Plata Museum in Argentina (Sección de Antropologia del Museo de La Plata), concerned the indigenous peoples of Patagonia. This article explores Lehmann-Nitsche’s anthropological, ethnological, and linguistic studies among the indigenous peoples of Patagonia (Selk'nam, Gennakenk, Mapuche, Aónikenk, Kawésqar, and Yaghan) conducted between 1898 and 1919. These studies included research into pathology, craniology, anthropometry, archaeology, ethnology, linguistics, and mythology. He aimed at contributing to contemporary theories of German scholars on the development and characterization of “natural peoples” (Naturvölker), as opposed to “cultural peoples” (Kulturvölker), asserting a basic division of humanity.

Context and contents: Distinguishing variation in archaeobotanical assemblage formation processes at Early Halaf Fistıklı Höyük, Turkey

Meaningful interpretation of archaeobotanical assemblages in the Near East often includes determination of whether dung fuel is the source of some or all of the recovered plant remains. In the years since Miller (Economy and Environment of Malyan, a Third Millennium B.C. Urban Center in Southern Iran. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1982; Paleorient 10:71–79, 1984) and Miller and Smart (J Ethnobiol 4:15–28, 1984) first identified archaeological plant remains from Malyan (Iran) as those of burned dung, subsequent archaeobotanical, experimental, and ethnographic research has been undertaken to test and expand her criteria for its recognition. A key criterion of Miller’s was a high ratio of weed seeds to wood charcoal (or a low ratio of charcoal to weed seeds). When used together with other quantitative measures based on standardizing ratios, this measure can help to illuminate variability in the sources of the recovered carbonized plant remains and some of the taphonomic processes that contributed to the resulting assemblage. Using the Late Early Halaf dataset from Fistikli Hoyuk, Turkey, as a case study, non-parametric statistical analysis was applied to eight such measures, including a new Fragmentation Index (FI), density measures (per litre of sediment) for charcoal, cereal grains, weed seeds, chaff, non-wood items, and cereal-type indeterminate non-wood items, and a relative density measure of charcoal to weed seeds. Each measure was calculated on the basis of 35 samples (n = 8,532). The results of this analysis indicate that these measures, when used in combination with Miller’s weed seed to charcoal ratio, implemented here as the relative density of charcoal to weed seeds, can reveal recovery context-related variations in formation processes that help to clarify both the role of dung fuel in assemblage formation and to differentiate the remains of cereal processing from those of burned fuel.

REVIEW OF GOVERNING HABITS: TREATING ALCOHOLISM IN THE POST‐SOVIET CLINIC, EugeneRaikhelCornell University Press, 2016, $26.97 (paperback)

Journal of the History of the Behavioral SciencesVolume 55, Issue 2 p. 166-166 BOOK REVIEW REVIEW OF GOVERNING HABITS: TREATING ALCOHOLISM IN THE POST-SOVIET CLINIC, Eugene Raikhel Cornell University Press, 2016, $26.97 (paperback) Irene Glasser Ph.D., Irene Glasser Ph.D. Adjunct Lecturer in the Anthropology Department, and Research Associate at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown UniversitySearch for more papers by this author Irene Glasser Ph.D., Irene Glasser Ph.D. Adjunct Lecturer in the Anthropology Department, and Research Associate at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: 14 April 2019 https://doi.org/10.1002/jhbs.21967Citations: 1Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume55, Issue2SPRING 2019Pages 166-166 RelatedInformation

Disappearing Enamel and Molars: The Evolution of a Dietary Niche Focused on Gums

Gummivory, a diet focused primarily on gums, is a relatively rare dietary niche among mammals, but is found in several species of strepsirrhine primates. Getting gums requires either gouging a wound in tree bark to stimulate gum flow or scraping at a semi‐dried gum plug. Both of these acquisition activities focus on the anterior dentition, and the processing of the gums requires minimal mastication with molars. Primate diets focused on leaves and fruits are associated with specific dental signatures, morphological features that can also be used when examining the fossil record. Does gummivory, a relatively low‐quality diet based on foods that are readily available, have a consistent dental signature among primates? How did the evolutionary process of gummivory in primates shape the dentition, if at all? The present study was designed to evaluate these questions. Linear measurements were collected via calipers from select anterior teeth and the last lower molar from lorisid primates that feed primarily on gums and their closely‐related, non‐gummivorous relatives: Loris spp. (n=19), Nycticebus coucang (n=61), Arctocebus spp. (n=8), and Perodicticus spp. (n=40). Mean scaled differences were compared among the four groups using Bonferroni corrected one‐way ANOVA's (alpha <0.05). For some of these taxa, differential enamel thickness in the lower canine, used to represent the toothcomb, was examined via Micro‐CT scans. We found consistent reduction (p<0.05) of the lower last molar in gummivorous taxa relative to the non‐gummivorous taxa. We also found differential distribution of enamel thickness in the anterior teeth (specifically, the toothcomb) with reduced enamel on the lingual surface relative to the labial surface of the toothcomb teeth. This feature is consistent with the findings from previous studies of other gouging mammals, and gummivorous primates. Together, these dental findings suggest a potential dental signature of gummivory in primates: reduction of the lower last molar and differential distribution of enamel thickness in the anterior teeth.Support or Funding InformationNSERC Discovery Grant and Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Gestational route to healthy birth (GaRBH): protocol for an Indian prospective cohort study

IntroductionPregnancy is characterised by a high rate of metabolic shifts from early to late phases of gestation in order to meet the raised physiological and metabolic needs. This change in...

Assessment of the Utility of a Pedagogy Interest Workgroup for Graduate Teaching Assistants

Nearly 95% of doctoral students teach or mentor undergraduate students during their graduate programs. However, institutional emphasis remains squarely on research development and productivity, often at the expense of pedagogical training. While a graduate student's research skills are developed and evaluated through lab rotations, field‐specific course work, and thesis or dissertation projects, there are rarely any requirements for instructor or graduate teaching assistant (GTA) training, evaluation, or supervisory feedback. This trend is particularly concerning as GTAs are commonly used in large introductory and lower‐level classes to teach the smaller laboratory and recitation sections, as it often gives GTAs more direct contact with students than the professor. To address this deficit, graduate students from the Cell Biology and Anatomy and Anthropology Departments of Augusta University and Pennsylvania State University, respectively, have created a Pedagogy Interest Workgroup (PIW) to create an opportunity for students to come together and discuss educational topics, such as developing a teaching philosophy, student motivation, and types of teaching methods. Participation in the PIW is voluntary, with meetings occurring every other week. The purpose of this study is to assess perceptions and benefits of participation in the PIW. Graduate students and faculty at Augusta University, Pennsylvania State University, and Augustana College who have participated in the PIW will be included in the study (n = ~30). Perceptions and potential benefits of participation in the PIW will be evaluated through pre‐ and post‐participation surveys, semi‐structured focus groups, and interviews with PIW participants, covering teaching experience, self‐evaluations of teaching efficacy and self‐confidence, and opinions and recommendations for future PIW curricula. Pre‐PIW survey data has already been collected. Post‐PIW surveys, focus groups, and interviews will be completed after the first semester of the PIW concludes in late November 2018. Data are being acquired and analyzed under IRB protocols approved at Augusta University (IRB No. 1302688‐1). A comparison of means will be used to assess the relationships between variables for survey questions answered via a Likert‐type scale. Thematic analyses will be utilized for narrative responses from surveys, focus groups, and interviews. Data analysis will directly reflect which aspects of the PIW provide beneficial pedagogical training to graduate students. The data gathered will further be utilized to refine the curriculum for future cohorts in order to better provide pedagogical education and training for GTAs and future career academics.Support or Funding InformationN/AThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Title Discoveries from the Forensic Anthropology Data Base: Modern American Skeletal Change & the Case of Amelia Earhart

In the mid‐1980s the University of Tennessee (UT) Anthropology Department began accumulating data from forensic cases that came into our laboratory and others around the country providing the first insight into skeletal changes occurring in the past 150 years. Also in the 1980s the UT Forensic Anthropology Center founded a willed body program to study human decomposition. The donated body program formed the basis for an unprecedented collection of modern American skeletons for skeletal biology research. Thus began the Forensic Anthropology Data base (FDB), which now contains osteometric data from over 4000 individuals, most of them of known age, sex, and ancestry, as well as height, weight, place of birth, place of death, and other premortem biological characteristics of interest (e.g. handedness, pathologies, occupation).The FDB data base has resulted in a number of major developments and discoveries, three of which will be summarized in this presentation: Documentation of remarkable change in cranial and postcranial morphology in the past 150 years. The cranium has become higher, longer and narrower during this time interval. The skeleton has also become more gracile, and limb bone proportions have changed. Development of a software package, Fordisc 3.1, that uses the FDB and sophisticated statistical algorithms to estimate sex, ancestry and height from bone measurements. The Fordisc software program has changed the face of forensic anthropology casework since its inception in 1993. Probable identification of Amelia Earhart by comparing estimates of her bone lengths based on photographs to lengths of bones found on Nikumaroro Island in 1940. Support or Funding InformationNational Institute of Justice 85‐IJ‐CX‐0021This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.