Burke ANTH 1210 Winter 2025 Week 3 UMLearn PDF

Reconstructing the Past: How Did People Live? Human Remains and Past Diets Past Environments and Settlement Patterns Social Systems and Cultural Change ‘Provenience’ is of great concern to: A.Microevolution B.Macroevolution C.Primatologists D.Archaeologists E.Medical anthropologists ...

Reconstructing the Past: How Did People Live? Human Remains and Past Diets Past Environments and Settlement Patterns Social Systems and Cultural Change ‘Provenience’ is of great concern to: A.Microevolution B.Macroevolution C.Primatologists D.Archaeologists E.Medical anthropologists ‘Provenience’ is of great concern to: A.Microevolution B.Macroevolution C.Primatologists D.Archaeologists E.Medical anthropologists The archaeological record is incomplete because of: A.Climate change B.Preservation bias C.Floods and natural disasters D.Small population sizes E.The small number of sites left to excavate The archaeological record is incomplete because of: A.Climate change B.Preservation bias C.Floods and natural disasters D.Small population sizes E.The small number of sites left to excavate “Palaeopathology” Study of diseases & disorders in past populations, e.g.: Trauma (e.g., fractures) Infectious Disease (e.g., leprosy) Degenerative Disease (e.g., osteoarthritis) Metabolic Disease (e.g., rickets) Dental Pathology (e.g., caries)  Approaches to Pathology Interpretation: Macroscopic (the eye) Microscopic (thin section bone) Radiographic analysis Chemical analysis ** Need a good DESCRIPTION for a good DIAGNOSIS Sword Wound - No evidence of healing – likely Trauma cause of death  Evidence of Healing Trephination – Trauma  Metabolic Disease: Rickets Disturbance in bone formation in the growing skeleton (children) Failure to deposit calcium and phosphorus What causes rickets?... Vitamin D deficiency results in inadequate absorption of calcium in the intestine Vitamin D is synthesized by the body when skin is exposed to UV rays (also: fatty fish)  Metabolic Disease: Rickets Increased frequency: Industrial Revolution of the 18th & 19th centuries Labourers & families = poor diets and insufficient sunlight (activity patterns, industrial smog) Other risks: Environmental: Low UV exposure in northern latitudes Social customs (e.g., clothing & UV exposure) Metabolic Disease Rickets Characteristic Bowing of the Long Bones of the Legs  So, overall, why is bone useful in telling the story of health and disease?.... Bone Qualities Bone is a living tissue and that can respond to / change with environmental conditions (e.g., stressors) over lifetime BUT - Bone change – usually more likely to result with chronic (not acute) conditions  Bone Use Limitations Can’t get at symptoms (to aid the differential diagnosis) Not all diseases/pathologies affect bone… Even those that do – only a small portion will leave visible evidence Same disease may be expressed differently in different people Limited to modern clinical information – but – some diseases (e.g., infectious) evolve Bone tissue is limited in response – different diseases may show same changes.... The Case of: Harris Lines Visible on radiographs of long bones, especially distal tibia The Case of: Harris Lines Phenomenon of the growing child – areas of increased density indicate the resumption of growth (after growth stopped)....  The Case of: Harris Lines BUT they are non-specific stress indicators: *could be*: nutritional, illness, psychological/emotional A permanent record of childhood stress & recovery (and ‘life’) Another Complication: “Pseudopathology” Result from mechanical forces: Weight of earth (skull deformation, long bones bowed) Chemical erosion – of outer surface of bone eaten away by soil elements Living agents – root impressions from plants Animal agents – mix bones up, gnawing Excavation hazards – picks & trowels  Another Complication: Cultural Modifications China Americas Myanmar (Burma) “Palaeodemography” Cemetery = a quantity of burials Palaeodemography Study of population dynamics Through an examination of a population’s age and sex structure: Population Growth Fertility Mortality ‘Cause-specific mortality’ furthered by palaeopathology  An example of a demographic perspective of living populations… Canadian census data…  “Palaeodemography” Look at age-of-death distribution in skeletal populations (who died, at what age) Mean (average) age-at-death = life expectancy at birth Problems: Biases: in-migration & out-migration (demographic non- stationarity) Sample representativeness (how/where buried; environmental factors – winter freeze-up) Preservation – soil drainage/pH – infants susceptible “Palaeonutrition” Reconstructing Past Diets  Evidence: Ancient Subsistence Environmental Data: Provides the ‘background’/ possibilities Flora/fauna distributions, soil conditions Artifacts: Killing & butchering tools Plow blades Experimental Archaeology; also: Taphonomic Studies Evidence: Ancient Subsistence Artwork (e.g., cave art): Food gathering, hunting, fishing scenes Plant Remains Seed identification & residues (middens, cooking vessels, cooking hearths) Evidence: Ancient Subsistence Faunal Remains A) horse, B) bovid, C) cervid (animal bones) N different species (variety) N within species (preference) Age of animals (e.g., with domesticates – find: more young male animals killed, not needed for breeding) Bovid scapulae Subsistence vs. Diet/Nutrition Types of Questions: What proportion of the diet was meat? Diversity of dietary sources? Does diet change seasonally? SUBSISTENCE = process of obtaining food resources DIET = what is eaten NUTRITION = ability of diet to maintain the body Other information sources... Coprolites Stable Isotopes & Trace Elements Applies to a direct analysis of human bone Isotope = same element, but different atomic mass Trace element = elements found in extremely small quantities in the human body Bone Analysis Based on the Premise: “You Are What You Eat ” Stable Isotope Analysis Bone & hair samples – ‘isotopic profile’ Examples of isotopes of interest: carbon-12 / carbon-13 (p.58) nitrogen-15 (p.59) Provides information on relative quantities of different type of food items consumed  Carbon Isotopes 2 photosynthetic pathways for plants: Tropical/subtropical plants (e.g., millet, maize/corn) – C4 pathway Temperate plants (e.g., rice) – C3 pathway C4 plants C3 plants More readily accept… Carbon-13 Carbon-12 Implications for Diet If eat more / less C4 or C3 plants – will have different ratios expressed in bone analysis E.g., Can gauge the relative importance of maize in the diet: High levels of Carbon-13 in bone? May signal the adoption of maize agriculture – shift in subsistence Nitrogen Isotopes Ratios of Nitrogen isotopes may indicate breast milk consumption The higher up the food chain (herbivores – carnivores), the higher the nitrogen-15 concentrations The tissues of babies consuming breast milk more enriched in 15N than tissues of their mothers Can infer breast-feeding patterns and weaning-through related decline in 15N And… Trace Elements Strontium Herbivore Highest Omnivore Interm Carnivore Lowest One example: explore infant weaning – from breast-milk to cereal-based diet (high in strontium) History of Evolutionary Theory Pre-Darwinian views Darwin Neo-Darwinian thinking Evolution Systematic change through time Organisms - Biological change ; Social systems - cultural change Modern life forms originated from other species in the past (versus the idea that each modern species was independently created as they exist in form today) Evolution allows for the idea of change Evolution Great awareness of human (...plant, animal...) diversity emerged with the rise of exploration E.g., Italian Christopher Columbus arrives in American ‘New World’ in 1492; 1500s and 1600s exploration intensifies Attempts to understand diversity in relation to existing belief systems.... How could such diversity exist? (needed to explain)  Eventually... Darwinian Thinking The population (not the individual) is the unit of evolution (populations change over time) Variation is the norm Four Evolutionary Forces: Natural selection Random Genetic Drift Gene Flow Mutation  Pre-Darwin The world was static & unchanging The world was the product of grand design Typological thinking was the norm Pre-Darwinian Views of the Natural World Perceptions on VARIATION and CHANGE in the natural world: Essentialism Great Chain of Being Catastrophism & Uniformitarianism Transformational Evolution  Essentialism Traced to Plato Fixed forms exist perfect and unchanging in eternity Differences perceived as ‘accidents’ – does not affect their unchanging essence Elaborated by Aristotle – used similarities and differences to arrange all life in a single line… Great Chain of Being Framework for interpreting the world All organisms linked in an enormous single line/chain (no gaps, no flexibility, no extinction) Steps: organisms above or below arranged by least possible difference Ranking of organisms … including humans (‘divine ideal’: angels highest, then humans) Believed different human ‘varieties’ could not occupy the same developmental level (e.g., gender, ‘race’, etc.) Reorganized by… Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) Modern biological taxonomy (classification)