The Decline of Figurative Representations of Mental Pathology in Caravaggio: A Comparative Analysis in Light of Social Determinants, Biological Anthropology

This paper serves as a commentary on the special issue entitled "Towards a Biocultural Synthesis of the Peopling of the Americas". This special issue grew from an invited symposium organized for the 90th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists, held virtually in April 2021. The special issue is aimed at bringing together a collection of articles that exemplify and advance biocultural perspectives on the origins and diversity of Indigenous populations in the Americas. I comment on the types of research (uni-disciplinarity, multi-disciplinarity, inter-disciplinarity, and trans-disciplinarity) that can be found in this special issue, and on the necessity of reinforcing co-led and co-managed research from the initial steps of the project in collaboration with the Indigenous communities involved. Finally, I argue that these efforts should not rely solely on researchers at the individual level, but need to be supported mainly by institutions.

Proceedings of the 93rd Annual Business Meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists

Abstract There are disparities in academic outcomes of Pasifika and New Zealand European (NZE) students in anatomy courses. Many factors may influence their academic performance, including socio-economic background. In New Zealand, the equity index (EQI) has been developed to distribute equity funding and resources to schools and kura. A school with a high EQI means that the school has a higher proportion of students who face socio-economic barriers. We aim to: (1) compare the academic performance and high school background of Pasifika and NZE anatomy students at the University of Otago, and (2) determine if high school EQI is associated with their performance in anatomy courses. Demographic and student academic performance data in ten anatomy courses (four second-year and six third-year undergraduate courses) were collected from the University of Otago internal database. Students’ high school names were matched with their EQI from the Ministry of Education website. In all ten anatomy courses, Pasifika students received, on average, lower final marks than NZE students. The average high school EQI was higher for Pasifika students than in NZE students in five anatomy courses. Univariate regression analyses indicated that higher school EQI was associated with lower academic performance in all four second-year anatomy courses, and one third-year biological anthropology course. After controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, and anatomy major, higher school EQI was associated with lower marks in one second-year anatomy course. Our findings highlight that the association between high school EQI and academic performance in tertiary education is sustained beyond first-year undergraduate studies.

With a focus on variability, biological anthropology has nominally centered the population as a key unit of analysis and node of evolutionary change. In this paper, we examine constructions of the population concept in contemporary research, with particular attention to the challenges they present in typology, the conflation of place and organism, and tractability. We carry out a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the use of "population" as a term within the AJBA from 2013 to 2022. We identify 739 publications, or approximately one-third of AJBA publications during that time period, that use the term within their abstract. For each of these publications, we categorize the subfield, time period of interest, sample size, and the use of population within the article. The use of the term population within contemporary biological anthropology is highly variable, with large variation in sample sizes, time range, and the biological characteristics used to identify a population. Although populations are widely employed across subfields, there is no consistency in how that term is used, the variability it represents, or how it might operate as an evolutionary category. The lack of theoretical and practical coherence is a problem for the discipline. While there is no singular and correct definition of the term, from an evolutionary perspective, populations should be clearly presented and reflective of a hypothesis of evolutionary action.

The African diaspora, or the mass displacement of Africans and their descendants as a result of colonial slave trading, continues to be a topic of methodological and theoretical interest in biological anthropology and bioarchaeology. However, the legacies of racist and exploitative research that are inherent to diasporic burial contexts have prompted questions about the futures of diasporic bioarchaeological practice. This paper presents a biosocial integrative framework as an intervention toward interdisciplinary study of African diasporic biosocial variation. Framing the sea as a site of rupture, possibility, and interconnectivity serves as a theoretical foundation for this framework to outline both the diversity and complications in analyzing enslavement contexts. In operationalizing biosocial integrative approaches, the framework emphasizes critical interrogation and deconstruction of traditional modes of measurement. These considerations are applied to two diasporic island case studies in 19th century Barbados and St. Helena, sites comprising enslaved and "Liberated African" groups, respectively. The case studies reflect the ways that notions of birthplace can profoundly shape modes of racialization and agency. In Barbados, this emerged in the disparity between creole and African birthplace, while in St. Helena this was demonstrated in biosocial stratification and prominent Southeastern African origins. The case studies reveal ways that shifting 19th century coercive labor systems corresponded with changes to migration flows and Afro-descendants' origins. More broadly, the framework and case studies demonstrate how biosocial integrative approaches may glean a more holistic understanding of historic Afro-descendant variation.

The American Association of Anthropological Genetics (AAAG) paired with the American Association of Biological Anthropology (AABA) to put on a symposium at the 94th Annual AAABA meeting entitled, "Beyond the genome: Intergenerational inheritance through epigenetics and other pathways." The symposium was held at the Marriott Waterfront in Baltimore, Maryland, on 14 March 2025, and was organized by Dr. Amy Non. The symposium's 13 speakers covered topics including the value of unique study designs and rare ecological settings, contributions of animal models, mechanisms beyond traditional epigenetics, such as microchimerism, microbiomes, and bioactive molecules in milk. Speakers also addressed ethical considerations of studies of intergenerational inheritance, including misconceptions and overhype. The discussed approaches help address ongoing challenges in the field of epigenetics, including how to demonstrate lasting effects across generations, identify causal associations with early life exposures, and ensure accurate interpretation of findings.

The contribution of modern biological anthropology to player development and selection in elite soccer.

A tale of two disciplines: Differential approaches to teaching and recording pathology in human osteology and zooarchaeology.

We have historicized Physical and Biological Anthropology, and Bioanthropology at the Faculties of Philosophy and Humanities (FFyH) and of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences (FCEFyN) of the National University of Córdoba (UNC). This subdiscipline began at the Institute of Anthropology of the FFyH in 1965, and later branched off into the FCEFyN in 1967. Both spaces were led by Alberto Marcellino (1938-2021). In the 1950s and 1960s, Córdoba held a central place in the field of anthropological studies, with the UNC organizing and hosting academic meetings. In addition, research projects were carried out in Córdoba and Catamarca, mainly, but also in Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and Salta, promoting the studies of Cultural Anthropology, Folklore, Archaeology and Physical Anthropology. Through the stories of their main figures, we show that, although smaller in number compared to archaeologists and cultural anthropologists, those who devoted themselves to physical, biological and/or bioanthropology during the second half of the 20th century, were part of the development of Anthropology, generating innovative lines of research and training researchers who would later join other national universities of the province and the country. Through a mapping of interinstitutional and interpersonal relationships, we reconstruct Marcellino's trajectory, and that of those trained by him in classrooms and laboratories.

Virtual anthropology databases provide substantial benefits for research, offering large-scale, diverse samples that facilitate methodological advancements in research and allow for testing of theoretical models that may otherwise not be possible. As technology evolves, it is crucial to develop methods that can effectively be utilized in new forms of imaging and visualization. Here, we introduce a craniometric data collection module within the medical imaging software, Amira, developed to enhance, improve, and expedite large-scale data collection in virtual anthropology. This module's capabilities include 3D visualization of computed tomography (CT) scans and AI-driven assistance in landmark plotting. An output file contains x, y, and z coordinate data of all plotted landmarks and interlandmark distances. Additionally, researchers can plot floating and endocranial landmarks, enhancing the flexibility and comprehensiveness of data collection. A key advantage of this module is its complete customizability. Researchers can tailor the module to fit their objectives. The module's efficiency represents a marked improvement over previous virtual craniometrics data collection methods. In its current form, the module allows researchers to load input files, register the sample skull, and plot 104 cranial landmarks (both ectocranial and endocranial) in approximately 40 min. This is considerably faster than prior approaches. The module demonstrates the potential of leveraging AI and CT scans for the advancement of biological and forensic anthropology. Its integration with Amira's powerful tools provides researchers with a new and valuable resource that sets a new standard for data collection in virtual anthropology.

This paper serves as the introduction to the special issue with the same title. This special issue grew from a symposium held at the annual scientific meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists in 2023 in Reno, Nevada. The conference aimed to highlight the various issues of qualifications, standards, and ethics as relevant to the praxis of forensic anthropology. The resulting papers focus on these three main themes, exploring the main topics of discussion within the discipline. We broadly summarize the papers of the special issue and discuss their relevance to these three main themes. We conclude with our thoughts on ethics, standards, and qualifications, namely that we envision a field in which qualifications can be demonstrated through certification and eventually licensure. Additionally, we see standard development as being critically important to the professionalization of the field and encourage participation in this development via the review process. Finally, we advocate for an ethical discipline that not only considers data and skeletal analysis but also how we interact with each other as colleagues to create a discipline that is supportive of diversity and fosters creative thought.

Since we published "Field and Laboratory Methods in Human Milk Research" in 2013, human milk research has increased dramatically in both number and diversity of studies. Anthropological human biologists and biological anthropologists have played key roles in the realization of this research, arguing that evolutionary, developmental, and biocultural perspectives as essential for understanding variation in human milk. The purpose of this review is to highlight human biologists' and biological anthropologists' contributions to our understanding of human milk, often made in broadly collaborative research, as part of the 50th anniversary of the Human Biology Association. In this review, we identify three areas where human biologists have made major contributions: (1) understanding milk as a phenotype, (2) sex-differentiated milk synthesis, and (3) the cultural ecology of milk. We end this review by discussing future research directions and the applied and translational potentials of milk research, calling on human biologists to continue our leadership in the field in the decades to come.

Although cranial growth has been extensively explored, forensic and biological anthropology lack a formal incorporation of how cranial growth processes impact the adult phenotype and downstream biological profile estimations. Objectives: This research uses an ontogenetic framework to identify when interlandmark distances (ILDs) stabilize during growth to reach adult levels of variation and to evaluate patterns of cranial sexual size dimorphism. Methods: Multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) were conducted on standardized cranial ILDs for 595 individuals from the Subadult Virtual Anthropology Database (SVAD) and the Forensic Data Bank (FDB) aged between birth and 25 years. Cross-Validated R-squared (CVRSq) values evaluated ILD variation explained by age while knot placements identified meaningful changes in ILD growth trajectories. Results: Results reveal the ages at which males and females reach craniometric maturity across splanchnocranium, neurocranium, basicranium and cross-regional ILDs. Changes in growth patterns observed here largely align with growth milestones of integrated soft tissue and skeletal structures as well as developmental milestones like puberty. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the variability in growth by sex and cranial region and move forensic anthropologists towards recognizing cranial growth as a mosaic, continuous process with overlap between subadults and adults rather than consistently approaching subadult and adult research separately.

Despite the destruction it inevitably engenders and the opposition it often elicits, war remains a near-human universal. There is almost no society, across time or place, that has not experienced some form of violent conflict, whether internally or against its neighbors or adversaries. The most common explanations for the causes of war and conflict tend to center around social and material factors, such as conflicts over resources, territory, or regime type. Certainly, these factors play a role in many conflicts, but they cannot alone explain every war. Other arguments, however, drawn from evolutionary psychology and biological anthropology, based on fundamental aspects of human nature with regard to male coalitionary psychology, do posit specific sources for conflict that provide an underlying platform for its emergence and can help explain its wide variety across time and space. A comprehensive and accurate understanding of the nature of war must include these considerations.

As the field of health and medicine in space develops alongside the spaceflight research paradigm, there are methodologic opportunities to integrate data collection for research with providing precision and personalized healthcare. Specifically, existing field methods in biological anthropology developed and practiced in austere settings can be translated to spaceflight research and the development of healthcare infrastructure with implications for space medical practice. In our era of expanding spaceflight, data-collection methodologies should be flexible, agile, and accessible, paralleling innovative strategies by biological anthropology field researchers assessing human health, behavior, and well-being in austere terrestrial settings. Here we offer an introduction to the methodologic approaches and theoretical frameworks from biological anthropology, including operational insights from investigators working in the field, highlighting flexible mixed methods, low-tech solutions, dialectic engagement with participants, and iterative research protocols. These tools, when performed together with standardized approaches, can be beneficial and augment the advancement of spaceflight health and medicine.

Body height is a basic unit for assessing growth and nutrition, but measuring body height can be hindered by muscle weakness, joint problems, or spinal deformities. Estimating a person's height is an important parameter in forensic examinations. An alternative method for measuring a person's height in forensic cases, as well as when human body parts are found at mass disaster sites, is to calculate height according to identification perspectives. Furthermore, estimating stature from skeletal fragments is also of great interest in forensic science. Anthropometry is a systematic measurement method that expresses human body and skeletal dimensions quantitatively. Anthropometry is often viewed as a traditional tool and may be a basic tool in biological anthropology. This is due to the increasing number of disaster events causing mass deaths that require victim identification from fragmented human remains. Footprint analysis helps in estimating an individual's stature because of the strong positive correlation between stature and foot size; footprints are also considered indicators of a person's skeletal and body structure. Method: This research is an analytical study with a cross-sectional design aimed at examining the relationship between foot length and body height in the North Sumatran community, aged 21-25 years, of Batak Karo ethnicity. Results: Foot length and body height in males and females have a significant relationship with a p-value < 0.05 (P = 0.001), with a very strong correlation level; r > 0.8 (0.800-1.000). Foot length has a strong correlation with body height, making foot length a good predictor of body height.

ABSTRACTThis article explores the persistence of race in biological anthropology, particularly in the context of ancestry estimation using the Fordisc software. Despite efforts to move away from race‐based typologies since the mid‐20th century, historical notions of race continue to shape scientific methods and technologies in anthropology. By tracing the “data journey” of a skeletal collection within Fordisc's database, we reveal how early 20th‐century race science shaped statistical methods used in contemporary anthropology and how typological notions of race persist today. Our interdisciplinary approach, combining history of science and science and technology studies, highlights the need to historicize and critically examine the methods and technologies that underpin anthropological practices. This analysis demonstrates that issues of race in science are deeply rooted in the material practices of data collection, analysis, and statistical methods. Recognizing and dismantling these legacies is central to creating more ethical scientific practices. We argue that addressing the trouble with race in anthropology requires a comprehensive reevaluation of scientific practices, its methods and technologies, and would benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration within anthropology and beyond.

Fostering Inclusive Practices of Citation and Teamwork in Biological Anthropology

Love defines the human experience but often defies scientific study. Biological anthropologists flirt with the topic of love by studying monogamy and affiliative relationships. The interest in monogamy, I argue, is misplaced. But the interest in affiliative relationships is productive and deserves greater theoretical and methodological innovation. Social bonds have been carefully described for decades by primatologists, but I suggest that we still lack conceptual clarity and the crucial data needed to distinguish them from other types of relationships. A deeper understanding of social bonds, and pair bonds in particular, will be possible through the application of new methods to study affective states, or "emotions," in wild primates and other animals. By studying the emotions that underly various relationships, we will make progress toward answering prevailing questions about the origins and future of love, romance, and friendship.