Bioanthropological Studies Research Articles

Biohistorical Narratives of Racial Difference in the American Negro

This paper examines the scientific construction of racial differences through the lens of early twentieth-century bioanthropological studies of American Negro skeletal and living population samples. These studies, as well as the scientists who conducted them, are generally distinguished from one another based on their adherence to quantitative and/or qualitative measures of racial difference. However, these binary distinctions tend to obscure the rather complex processes of racial formation in which scientists and research subjects were engaged. Both racialist and nonracialist scholarship positioned American Negroes as products of white, African, and, sometimes, Indian admixture. As the singular label used in these studies connotes, “the American Negro” was also classified as a distinct racial type based on elements of skeletal and physical morphology. Studies reveal that multiple definitions and meanings of race were operating and being generated in the process of situating American Negroes in these seem...

The end of slavery: Disease patterns and cultural behaviours of African Americans in Suriname

AbstractThere have been few bioanthropological studies related to African Americans, either slaves or free people. The results of an analysis of eight skeletons of African ancestry (five males and three females) acquired in Suriname at the end of the 19th century by Dr J. Spilzley and currently housed in the Duckworth Collection (University of Cambridge) are presented. Dental abrasion related to habitual pipe smoking was observed in four individuals, confirming the widespread use of pipe to smoke tobacco among slaves observed in other related sites. Our results indicate a very poor state of oral health for these individuals, with females presenting a higher frequency of dental carious lesions and antemortem tooth loss in comparison with males. The presence of cribra orbitalia in some individuals suggests, as observed in other diaspora skeletal series, individuals suffering from severe stress, caused by poor nutrition, infectious diseases, or both. Such appalling life conditions agree with many written records, which describe very harsh work conditions and very deprived diets. Our results, although based in a small sample, contribute to a better understanding of the cultural behaviours as well as the patterns of disease that afflicted the African Americans in Suriname in the 19th century. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Lethal thermal impact at periphery of pyroclastic surges: evidences at Pompeii.

BackgroundThe evaluation of mortality of pyroclastic surges and flows (PDCs) produced by explosive eruptions is a major goal in risk assessment and mitigation, particularly in distal reaches of flows that are often heavily urbanized. Pompeii and the nearby archaeological sites preserve the most complete set of evidence of the 79 AD catastrophic eruption recording its effects on structures and people.Methodology/Principal FindingsHere we investigate the causes of mortality in PDCs at Pompeii and surroundings on the bases of a multidisciplinary volcanological and bio-anthropological study. Field and laboratory study of the eruption products and victims merged with numerical simulations and experiments indicate that heat was the main cause of death of people, heretofore supposed to have died by ash suffocation. Our results show that exposure to at least 250°C hot surges at a distance of 10 kilometres from the vent was sufficient to cause instant death, even if people were sheltered within buildings. Despite the fact that impact force and exposure time to dusty gas declined toward PDCs periphery up to the survival conditions, lethal temperatures were maintained up to the PDCs extreme depositional limits.Conclusions/SignificanceThis evidence indicates that the risk in flow marginal zones could be underestimated by simply assuming that very thin distal deposits, resulting from PDCs with poor total particle load, correspond to negligible effects. Therefore our findings are essential for hazard plans development and for actions aimed to risk mitigation at Vesuvius and other explosive volcanoes.

Genetic composition of Brazilian population samples based on a set of twenty‐eight ancestry informative SNPs

Ancestry informative SNPs can be useful to estimate individual and population biogeographical ancestry. Brazilian population is characterized by a genetic background of three parental populations (European, African, and Brazilian Native Amerindians) with a wide degree and diverse patterns of admixture. In this work we analyzed the information content of 28 ancestry-informative SNPs into multiplexed panels using three parental population sources (African, Amerindian, and European) to infer the genetic admixture in an urban sample of the five Brazilian geopolitical regions. The SNPs assigned apart the parental populations from each other and thus can be applied for ancestry estimation in a three hybrid admixed population. Data was used to infer genetic ancestry in Brazilians with an admixture model. Pairwise estimates of F(st) among the five Brazilian geopolitical regions suggested little genetic differentiation only between the South and the remaining regions. Estimates of ancestry results are consistent with the heterogeneous genetic profile of Brazilian population, with a major contribution of European ancestry (0.771) followed by African (0.143) and Amerindian contributions (0.085). The described multiplexed SNP panels can be useful tool for bioanthropological studies but it can be mainly valuable to control for spurious results in genetic association studies in admixed populations.

The New York African Burial Ground Project: Past Biases, Current Dilemmas, and Future Research Opportunities

The recent excavation of skeletal remains from the African Burial Ground in New York City and their current bioanthropological study and analysis at Howard University is contributing to our understanding of the conditions faced by Africans and their descendants in colonial North America. The complex nature of African enslavement points to the need for interdisciplinary and comparative research on African origins, as well as the biocultural interaction of members of the African Diaspora in the context of European enslavement practices. Research on variation in the biological health status of African-descent communities in the Americas is shown to contribute to knowledge of their social and cultural histories. Through public approval and support, our research team has been able to pursue a more sophisticated and extensive research plan than is usually allowed. The identities thus constructed are complex and compel novel questions. Additionally, our methodological approach empowers the descendant community to engage in its own cultural and historical construction.

Les structures funéraires à crémation de l'Âge du Bronze au Semirech'e, Kazakhstan (nécropoles de Kul'Saj, de Kyzyl-Bulak et d'Oj-Dzhajljau)

This article presents a bio-anthropological study of an assemblage of cremations found in various sites of the Late and Final Bronze Ages of the Semirich'e area (southeast Kazakhstan). The results indicate that burning took place once or twice and concerned not only adults of both sexes but also immature individuals. In the case of vety young individuals, it seems that there was a specific process at the time of deposition in the pit. Double burials could contain either two cremated individuals, or one cremated and one buried individual, especially among the immature examples. The simultaneity of these two funeral practices is not demonstrated, and in certain cases it could well be related to secondary "inhumation ". A radiocarbon date shows that these features, even though they are dated to the Final Bronze Age by their discoverers, a radiocarbon date shows that these features could be older, Early or Late Bronze Age (1 700-1 500 ВС). Thus, this region could have been inhabited Andronovo populations well before the date advanced a researchers.

Contribución de la bioantropología a la reconstrucción de los procesos productivos prehistóricos. Exostosis en el canal auditivo en la población prehispánica de Gran Canaria

The aim of this paper is an approach to the role of bioanthropological studies in the reconstruction of the productive processes of past societies. This objective is obtained starting from the survey and valuation of the prevalence of bone exostoses in the auditory canal among the prehistoric inhabitants of Gran Canaria. The auditory exostose is a bone wound well documented through clinical and experimental studies, closely related to the exposure of the auditory canal to cold water. The estimation of this bone anomaly among the analysed population, leads to the definition of outstanding territorial variations in the economic strategies of these human groups.

Materials and Methods of Bioanthropological Study

Materials and Methods of Bioanthropological Study

Coping with Change in Native Amazonia: A Bioanthropological Study of the Gavião, Suruí, and Zoró, Tupí-Mondé Speaking Societies From Brazil

Coping with Change in Native Amazonia: A Bioanthropological Study of the Gavião, Suruí, and Zoró, Tupí-Mondé Speaking Societies From Brazil

A bio-anthropological study on the Bakakas of Cameroon.

Bakakas are native Bantus belonging to the Mbo-Bakossi group, peopling the Cameroon's Littoral region. In the context of a wide bio-anthropological study project focused on the bio-historical processes involved in the areas, 278 adults of both sexes from the villages of Ebone and Bakwat (Bakaka Canton) were investigated for 14 erythrocyte and serum genetic polymorphisms (ACP1, ADA, EsD, GLO, Hb beta, GPX1, CAII, PGM1, SAHH, 6-PGD, Hp, Pi, Gc and Tf). With only a few exceptions (Hp and GLO systems), the genetic frequencies of the polymorphisms considered tend to fall within the range of variation known for the subsaharan populations. With reference to the malaria endemicity characterizing the Littoral environment, high frequencies for Hb beta*S allele and absence of the ACP1*R 'Negro allele' were recorded. The genetic distances among Bakakas and 14 other Central African populations were also calculated from six genetic loci.