Archaic Subsistence Research Articles

One Health Approach in Serosurvey of Toxoplasma gondii in Former Black Slave (Quilombola) Communities in Southern Brazil and Among Their Dogs.

Brazilian quilombos are rural semi-isolated remnant communities of former black slaves and their descendants who traditionally maintained themselves through archaic subsistence livestock and agriculture practices and historically lacked specific public health policies. Although such individuals and their dogs may be exposed to zoonotic pathogens such as Toxoplasma gondii, no study to date has assessed these human-animal populations together. Populations in four different Brazilian quilombos in southern Brazil were evaluated. Overall, 93/208 people (44.7%) and 63/100 dogs (63.0%) were seropositive for IgG anti-T. gondii antibodies by indirect immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT), 4/208 (1.9%) human samples seropositive for IgM anti-T. gondii antibodies, with a human-dog seropositivity ratio for IgG of 0.71. Quilombola individuals ingesting game meat were 2.43-fold more likely (95% CI: 1.05-5.9) to be seropositive. No risk factors were associated with seropositivity among dogs, thus suggesting that their exposure to T. gondii was random. Surprisingly, our research group had previously found an inverted human-dog ratio for T. gondii seropositivity of 2.54 in the urban area of a nearby major city. Because consumption of raw/undercooked game meat by quilombola individuals may have contributed to higher exposure, higher overall seroprevalence among dogs may have also indicated interaction with wildlife. Although these dogs may hunt wildlife without their owners' awareness, the higher dog seropositivity may also be related to feeding from discarded food in the community or backyard livestock animals and drinking surface water contaminated with oocysts. Thus, wildlife cannot be singled out as the reason, and future studies should consider sampling water, soil, wildlife, and livestock tissues, to fully establish the source of infection in dogs herein.

Preliminary Starch Grain Evidence of Ancient Stone Tool Use at the Early Archaic (9,000 B.P.) Site of Sandy Hill, Mashantucket, Connecticut

Early Archaic subsistence strategies of New England remain poorly understood despite their importance in helping researchers understand how people adapt to changing landscapes following the end of the last glacial maximum (21,000-14,000 B.P.). Excavations at the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation in Mashantucket, Connecticut during the 1990s revealed a large, semi-sedentary village nestled alongside a complex wetland ecosystem. In this paper, we present preliminary starch grain analysis of several stone tools recovered and curated from these excavations. The results of this study indicate that both transitory and reserve starch grains are preserved on these artifacts and that at least one of the artifacts may have been used for leaf or stem processing. The results of this study also demonstrate the potential for future research in which paired macrobotanical and residue analysis will allow for a better understanding of subsistence practices at the site and during the early Archaic in general.

Preliminary Starch Grain Evidence of Ancient Stone Tool Use at the Early Archaic (9,000 B.P.) Site of Sandy Hill, Mashantucket, Connecticut

Early Archaic subsistence strategies of New England remain poorly understood despite their importance in helping researchers understand how people adapt to changing landscapes following the end of the last glacial maximum (21,000-14,000 B.P.). Excavations at the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation in Mashantucket, Connecticut during the 1990s revealed a large, semi-sedentary village nestled alongside a complex wetland ecosystem. In this paper, we present preliminary starch grain analysis of several stone tools recovered and curated from these excavations. The results of this study indicate that both transitory and reserve starch grains are preserved on these artifacts and that at least one of the artifacts may have been used for leaf or stem processing. The results of this study also demonstrate the potential for future research in which paired macrobotanical and residue analysis will allow for a better understanding of subsistence practices at the site and during the early Archaic in general.

Assessing diet and seasonality in the Lower Pecos canyonlands: an evaluation of coprolite specimens as records of individual dietary decisions

This article presents an evaluation of coprolite specimens from the Lower Pecos canyonlands as records of individual dietary decisions. Prior studies of coprolites from this region have greatly expanded our knowledge of Archaic subsistence patterns, but have not taken full advantage of the record of individual dietary decisions recorded in each coprolite specimen. The menu, or dietary combinations, reflected in individual coprolite specimens are assessed through the identification of several congruent botanical components derived from the same food resource, phytoliths, fiber ultimates, and epidermal sheets. The data is analyzed with hierarchical cluster analysis, an exploratory statistical technique. The resultant menus reflected in these clusters are evaluated with reference to a diet-breadth model developed for the known staple resources of the canyonlands. Three main menus are apparent in the specimens. The first menu consists of prickly pear ( Opuntia sp.) cladodes, or nopales, and was principally, although not exclusively, consumed in the late spring. This menu is primarily consumed when other resources were not readily available and may be considered a dependable but undesirable meal. The second menu consists of pit-baked lechuguilla ( Agave lechuguilla) and sotol (Dasylirion sp.) caudices, or hearts, common throughout the cool season. This menu entails high processing costs, but would provide a reliable caloric return. The third menu exhibits a monolithic reliance on prickly pear fruits, or tunas, during the summer. The ease of harvest and consumption is reflected in the seasonal dominance of this resource, which was assuredly a highly desirable meal. The dietary patterns recorded in the coprolite specimens from the Lower Pecos canyonlands demonstrate a seasonally variable diet-breadth that incorporated low-ranked resources during times of seasonal scarcity as well as a monolithic dependence on high-ranked resources when they were available in the local landscape.

Lake Records of Northern Plains Paleoindian and Early Archaic Environments: The “Park Oasis” Hypothesis

Fossil pollen and other proxies from lake sediments are used to reconstruct past dynamics in vegetation, climate and local availability of potable water for the northeastern Plains, thereby providing a landscape context to re-assess local Paleoindian and Early Archaic subsistence strategies and settlement patterns. Presented are pollen and plant macrofossil data from two lakes in North Dakota and discussion of these results in the context of published paleoenvironmental and archaeological data for the region. Aridity has characterized the regional climate since deglaciation. From 12,000 to 10,000 14C yr B.P., this aridity was counter-balanced by glacial meltwater saturating much of the landscape, which supported a vegetation of white spruce parkland. The regional water table lowered after 10,000 14C yr B.P As some lakes went dry or became saline others received ground-water input, thereby creating scattered “oases” in a deciduous parkland, which would have attracted prehistoric people and game alike. Grassland became widespread by 9000 14C yr B.P. Alternating arid and moist intervals characterized the mid-Holocene Altithermal, but some oases existed in the region. This paper supports the hypothesis proposed by some archaeologists for the persistence of human occupation of the northern Plains during the Altithermal except, perhaps, during the severest droughts.

Fatty acid analysis of prehistoric burned rocks: a case study from central California

Although lipid analysis of archaeological residues has been utilized for almost three decades, it has rarely been applied to archaeological materials other than pottery. A 2001 study used lipid analysis of burned rocks (sandstone) and ground stone tools to interpret subsistence change at a south Texas site (M.J. Quigg, M.E. Malainey, R. Przybylski, G. Monks, No bones about it: using lipid analysis of burned rock and groundstone residues to examine Late Archaic subsistence practices in South Texas, Plains Anthropologist 46 (2001) 283–303). If such applications are reliable, insight into past subsistence practices could be greatly enhanced. The following study tested whether measurable amounts of lipids could be extracted from burned rocks (andesite) from a central California site and the ability of fatty acid analysis to reliably interpret those extracts. While results indicate that some of the burned rocks may contain lipids absorbed from cooking activities, lipids were also recovered from off-site rocks. Before reliable interpretations of culturally introduced lipids can be made, more thorough study of the types and amounts of lipids present in rocks due to natural processes is necessary.

An inter-site comparison of enamel hypoplasia in bison: implications for paleoecology and modeling Late Plains Archaic subsistence

Bison bison mandibular molars from the Late Plains Archaic kill/butchery sites of Buffalo Creek (Wyoming) and Kaplan-Hoover (Colorado) exhibit significant frequencies of dental enamel hypoplasia (DEH), a defect believed to reflect information about physiological status of individual animals. This study provides a methodology to estimate the ontogenetic and seasonal timing of DEH formation in bison dentition. Integration of these estimates with data from bison life history and grassland ecology allows inferences on age- and season-specific factors exacerbating periodic physiological declines that were recorded in the form of enamel hypoplasias. Differences between assemblages indicate regional variability in grassland conditions, with data from Buffalo Creek pointing to recurrent drought that reduced forage capacity and contributed to physiological stress in bison over two consecutive years. Seasons of physiological stress reflected in the DEH correspond to each of the three kill events at the locality, suggesting that predictability of bison behavior in this location was a critical factor in influencing the seasonal timing and location of repeated hunting episodes. Unlike Buffalo Creek, timings of stress episodes are not consistent with season of death in the Kaplan-Hoover bison assemblage, suggesting that favorable grassland conditions were the primary factor influencing timing of this large single-kill event in order to provision for the upcoming winter. DEH analysis represents a developing approach in the construction of models addressing key aspects of local grassland and bison ecology as well as offers unique insights into the hunting strategies and subsistence decisions of Late Plains Archaic foragers.

Early Archaic Subsistence in the Central Plains: The Spring Creek (25FT31) Fauna

The Spring Creek site (25FT31) in southwestern Nebraska has been an important part of understanding Early Archaic adaptations to the central Plains since its excavation in 1961. A reanalysis of faunal remains from these excavations suggests that the Spring Creek site is a task-oriented bison processing site occupied for a limited duration in the late summer or early fall. Traditional zooarchaeological methods combined with stable isotope data indicate an archaeofauna dominated by bison from a single herd suggesting a subsistence system where bison hunting is not an unfamiliar activity. These ideas contradict many extant models of Early Archaic subsistence in the central Plains which de-emphasize bison resources in favor of a broad-spectrum foraging strategy. Finally, it is suggested that subsistence models developed for Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers in other areas of North America are not necessarily appropriate for coeval groups on the central Plains.

No Bones About It: Using Lipid Analysis of Burned Rock and Groundstone Residues to Examine Late Archaic Subsistence Practices in South Texas

The·stratified, multicomponent Lino site spans a 1400-year interval during the Late Archaic period in s-outh Texas. The site yielded roughly 18,000 cultural items, including some 12,000 scattered and clustered burned rocks. Vertebrate faunal remains were absent; evidence for a broad-based subsistence pattern was obtained from fatty acid analysis of residues extracted from 43 burned rocks and five ground stones. The compositions of the archaeological residues were compared with experimental burned rock residues produced by cooking plants now found in south Texas. The archaeological organic residues indicate that a variety of plants, large herbivores, and possibly fish were processed at the Lino site. The residues do not appear to vary significantly over time at the Lino site even though the local region experienced a change from dry to more moist conditions.

Gender and the Early Cultivation of Gourds in Eastern North America

Discovery and AMS dating of mid-Holocene Cucurbita pepo fragments from central Maine and north-central Pennsylvania necessitate the reevaluation of the status of the earliest gourds in noncoastal areas of the Eastern Woodlands and the role of women in their cultivation. Gourds may have been spread initially in conjunction with improvements in fishing techniques, with small gourds used primarily as net floats. In this scenario, people passed temperate, Eastern (ovifera-type) gourds northward from the coastal plains of the Southeast into river valleys of the Midwest and Northeast as fishing became more significant in Archaic subsistence systems. The growing of gourds was fully compatible with a fisher-gatherer-hunter lifeway, and it did not necessarily trigger a transition to farming. Women may have grown gourds, but the possible role of women in fishing activities is more ambiguous than is their role in gathering and eventually domesticating the food plants of the Eastern North American agricultural complex.

New Evidence for Late Paleoindian-Early Archaic Subsistence Behavior in the Western Great Lakes

Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic subsistence behavior in the Western Great Lakes is an important research issue that has been hindered by a lack of zooarchaeological remains, as well as disagreements over the nature of the paleoenvironmental record and human foraging behavior. Prior reconstructions of early subsistence behavior have centered on a focused, big-game hunting strategy, despite very little solid evidence. Recently, two archaeological sites in northern Wisconsin containing Late Paleoindian faunal material have been excavated, the Deadman Slough site (47PR46) and the Sucices site (47DG11). The data from these sites, and similar recently discovered sites in northeastern North America, suggest that Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic peoples employed a generalized foraging strategy, utilizing a broad range of animal species from a wide array of environmental settings. This new archaeological evidence is utilized in conjunction with detailed paleoenvironmental data and information from cultural ecological studies to develop a model of Late Paleoindian-Early Archaic subsistence behavior for the Western Great Lakes.

Climate, Plant Ecology, and Central Mexican Archaic Subsistence

Previous articleNext article No AccessClimate, Plant Ecology, and Central Mexican Archaic Subsistence1Edward S. Buckler IV Deborah M. Pearsall Timothy P. Holtsiord Edward S. Buckler IVProgram in Statistical Genetics, Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. 27695–8203, U.S.A. Search for more articles by this author Deborah M. PearsallDepartment of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. 65211, U.S.A. Search for more articles by this author Timothy P. HoltsiordDepartment of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. 65211, U.S.A. Search for more articles by this author Program in Statistical Genetics, Department of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. 27695–8203, U.S.A.Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. 65211, U.S.A.Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. 65211, U.S.A.PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 39, Number 1February 1998 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/204705 Views: 31Total views on this site Citations: 23Citations are reported from Crossref © 1998 by The Wenner‐Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reservedPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Ajay Kumar, Sushil Kumar, Thattantavide Anju, Nirala Ramchiary Genetic, Epigenetic, and Hormonal Regulation of Fruit Development and Ripening in Capsicum L. Species, (Jun 2021): 295–356.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119312994.apr0782Robert M. Rosenswig Mesoamerica’s Archaic Period, (Oct 2020): 7053–7066.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30018-0_1848Robert M. Rosenswig Mesoamerica’s Archaic Period, (May 2019): 1–14.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_1848-2Elisa Helena da Costa Morais, Carol Hollingworth Collins, Isabel Cristina Sales Fontes Jardim Pesticide determination in sweet peppers using QuEChERS and LC–MS/MS, Food Chemistry 249 (May 2018): 77–83.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2017.12.092Daniel G. Debouck Your Beans of the Last Harvest and the Possible Adoption of Bright Ideas, (Apr 2016): 367–387.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6669-7_14Barbara Pickersgill Domestication of Plants in Mesoamerica: An Archaeological Review with Some Ethnobotanical Interpretations, (Apr 2016): 207–231.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6669-7_9Fabiola Parra, Alejandro Casas, Víctor Rocha, Antonio González-Rodríguez, Salvador Arias-Montes, Hernando Rodríguez-Correa, Janet Tovar Spatial distribution of genetic variation of Stenocereus pruinosus (Otto) Buxb. in Mexico: analysing evidence on the origins of its domestication, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 62, no.66 (Dec 2014): 893–912.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-014-0199-xRobert M. 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Pike Tepexpan Palaeoindian site, Basin of Mexico: multi-proxy evidence for environmental change during the late Pleistocene–late Holocene, Quaternary Science Reviews 28, no.19-2019-20 (Sep 2009): 2000–2016.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.04.001Myounghai Kwak, James A. Kami, Paul Gepts The Putative Mesoamerican Domestication Center of Phaseolus vulgaris Is Located in the Lerma–Santiago Basin of Mexico, Crop Science 49, no.22 (Mar 2009): 554–563.https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2008.07.0421María Elena Galindo-Tovar, Nisao Ogata-Aguilar, Amaury M. Arzate-Fernández Some aspects of avocado (Persea americana Mill.) diversity and domestication in Mesoamerica, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 55, no.33 (Jun 2007): 441–450.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-007-9250-5María Elena Galindo-Tovar, Amaury M. 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INFORMAL RURAL FINANCE An Aladdin's lamp of information

Sociologia RuralisVolume 30, Issue 2 p. 155-173 INFORMAL RURAL FINANCE An Aladdin's lamp of information FRITS J. A. BOUMAN, FRITS J. A. BOUMAN *Department of Agrarian Law, Wageningen Agricultural University, The NetherlandsSearch for more papers by this author FRITS J. A. BOUMAN, FRITS J. A. BOUMAN *Department of Agrarian Law, Wageningen Agricultural University, The NetherlandsSearch for more papers by this author First published: August 1990 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9523.1990.tb00407.xCitations: 8 AboutPDF 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 onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume30, Issue2August 1990Pages 155-173 RelatedInformation

Archaic Hunting Practices Depicted In A Northwestern Plains Rock Art Style

A collection of about 75 panels ofpecked rock art from the southern Black Hills, South Dakota and Wyoming, includes detailed depictions of Archaic period communal game hunts. The rock art illustrates use of artificial enclosures, atlatls, and other hunting paraphernalia. Humans in costumes or disguises are also included in the scenes. The communal hunting techniques detailed in the rock art imply a so cial organization capable of maintaining a high degree of cooperation and careful indoctrination in hunt ing skills. Both the quality and the content of the rock art suggest the prehistoric presence of part-time artistic and ritual specialists. The overwhelming preponderance of deer (ca. 64 percent of fauna depicted) is inconsistent with current views on Northwestern Plains Archaic subsistence that assume a bison-based economy.

Late Archaic subsistence in the Midwestern United States

Analysis of the strontium content of bone samples from three Late Archaic period cemeteries in the Midwestern United States is used to reconstruct prehistoric human diets. Deer bone is used as a baseline for the comparison of spatially-disparate locations in Wisconsin and Ohio. Results from the analyses provide objective estimates of the composition of human diet in the Late Archaic and a perspective on regional variation.

Factors Influencing the Archaic Pattern of Animal Exploitation

ABSTRACTThe origins of the Archaic subsistence pattern in North America are examined by focusing only on the terrestrial faunal procurement system. A model is presented and predictions derived which are then tested on faunal material from Russell Cave (Alabama), Rodgers Shelter (Missouri), and Hogup Cave (Utah). It is argued that the relative abundance of small animals in the prehistoric diet is an index to the natural availability of large species. It is concluded that the economic implications of a decline in the number of large species (post-Pleistocene extinctions) would be a shift towards greater dependence on the smaller animals.