Sample-specific (universal) metric approaches for determining the sex of immature human skeletal remains using permanent tooth dimensions

In this paper, three approaches for developing sample-specific sex determination methods of immature skeletal remains based on permanent tooth dimensions are proposed and tested using a sample of identified skeletons. The sample comprises adult and subadult individuals selected from the Lisbon documented skeletal collection, housed at the National Museum of Natural History in Lisbon, Portugal. Faciolingual and mesiodistal diameters were the tooth dimensions utilized. In the first approach, sex-specific logistic regression formulae based on adult tooth dimensions are developed and then used to determine the sex of the subadult sample. The second and third approaches are based on the sectioning point procedure, which uses the overall mean of a measurement (tooth diameter) collected from the sample as the discriminant criteria for determining the sex of the individuals in that sample. While in the second approach the adult overall mean of each dimension is used as the discriminant criteria for determining the sex of the subadults, in the third approach it is the subadult overall mean of each dimension that comprises the discriminant criteria that is applied back to the subadults for determining sex. Results show that the canines are the teeth with the highest sexual dimorphism and methods of sex determination based on canine dimensions provide correct allocation accuracies between 58.8% and 100% depending on the diameter and the approach that is being used. Canine faciolingual dimensions provide the best overall results. Combinations of measurements from the same and different teeth do not increase significantly the accuracy of the methods and approaches. Some of the problems of subadult sex determination methods based on adult tooth dimensions result from differing levels of sexual dimorphism between the adult and subadult segment of the sample. Mortality or cultural bias may increase or decrease the sexual dimorphism of the subadults compared to the adults. Small subadult samples utilized in this study may also raise questions regarding the accuracy of the three different sample-specific approaches. However, high consistency of results using the canine and different approaches, suggests that adult and subadult canine dimensions can be reliable sex discriminators of immature skeletal remains in archaeological samples. The major advantage of the approaches presented here is that they can be used to derive sample-specific methods and, therefore, eliminate the problem of applying morphological or metric methods to individuals originating from a population that differs from the one that contributed to the development of the method.     

Aegean Prehistory as World Archaeology: Recent Trends in the Archaeology of Bronze Age Greece

This article surveys archaeological work of the last decade on the Greek Bronze Age, part of the broader discipline known as Aegean prehistory. Naturally, the literature is vast, so I focus on a set of topics that may be of general interest to non-Aegeanists: chronology, regional studies, the emergence and organization of archaic states, ritual and religion, and archaeological science. Greek Bronze Age archaeology rarely appears in the comparative archaeological literature; accordingly, in this article I place this work in the context of world archaeology, arguing for a reconsideration of the potential of Aegean archaeology to provide enlightening comparative material.     

Negotiations with the Animate Forest: Hunting Shrines in the Guatemalan Highlands

Ethnoarchaeological research at highland Maya hunting shrines documents the material remains of interactions between two types of animate beings: humans and the forest. When either active agent enters the others’ domain there are accompanying ceremonial activities to assuage the inherent danger, often leaving physical traces in the material record. These traces, if found in the archaeological record, might reveal similar ancient interactions. Using the material correlates of modern hunting rituals, we explore the utility of ethnoarchaeological research in identifying negotiations with non-human agents associated with the animate forest – an active agent in many societies.     

To Devolve or Not To Devolve? Welfare Reform in the States

This article analyzes variation in the degree to which states have responded to the devolution of welfare at the federal level by devolving authority over welfare policy to local government. I find that to the extent that states have devolved authority to lower levels of government, they tend to be states that already had a high degree of involvement of local government in welfare provision. In states without this record of local government involvement, the devolution that has occurred has not generated greater involvement of local government, but rather responsibility has been devolved to regional entities with ties to workforce development and with a substantial degree of business involvement. As states gain increasing authority over a redistributive policy, they may begin to treat it as a subset of a larger developmental policy—workforce development.     

An experimental study of nitrogen flux in llamas: is N preferentially excreted?

Nitrogen isotope analysis is now commonly used to investigate the diets, and to a lesser extent, the environments of ancient populations. These studies assume that mammals are predictably enriched in ¹⁵N over their food, and concomitantly, that ¹⁵N becomes increasingly concentrated as one moves up the food chain. The literature commonly states that this ¹⁵N-enrichment of mammalian tissues is due to preferential excretion of light nitrogen (¹⁴N), but there are few data to support this assertion. To address the gap, we conducted two nitrogen flux trials in which four llamas (Lama glama) were fed high- and low-protein diets. The ratios of fecal nitrogen loss to urinary nitrogen loss were 0.30 and 0.88 on the high- and low-protein diets respectively. Feces were enriched in ¹⁵N by approximately +3‰ on both diets, whereas urinary nitrogen was depleted in ¹⁵N (−2.1‰) on the low-protein diet, but not significantly different from intake δ¹⁵N on the high-protein diet. Most importantly, there was no statistically significant difference between dietary and total excreta δ¹⁵N on either diet. Given these data and theoretical considerations, we argue that the nitrogen influx and efflux of adult mammals at steady state should be isotopically commensurate. However, during growth, diet change, thermal or nutritional stress, animals may not be at steady state and fractionation between intake and excreta δ¹⁵N may occur.     

Land Ownership Risk and Urban Development

Under certainty, unlimited duration of private ownership of land provides landowners with efficient development incentives. However, in cases of ownership risk arising from title mistakes, fraud, boundary encroachment, or adverse possession, the statute of limitations sets a limit on how long agents have to establish or defend an ownership claim. This paper demonstrates that such restrictions speed the pace of land development and systematically affect the development density according to site location in the urban land market. It also offers an explanation of why land owners prefer a time limit on the ability to defend their ownership. It shows that the value–maximizing statute varies across sites in the spatial market.     

Causality,Chaos Theory,and the End of the Weimar Republic: A Commentary On Henry Turner’s Hitler’s Thirty Days to Power

This article seeks to integrate the roles of structure and human agency in a theory of historical causation, using the fall of the Weimar Republic and in particular Henry Turner's book Hitler's Thirty Days to Power as a case study. Drawing on analogies from chaos theory, it argues that crisis situations in history exhibit sensitive dependence on local conditions, which are always changing. This undermines the distinction between causes and conditions (including counterfactual conditions). It urges instead a distinction between empowering and constraining causes of specific human actions as a more fruitful model. The paper also discusses more briefly two other analogies to chaos theory: 1) similarity across differences in scale as applicable to different levels of individual (psychological) and collective events, which are seen as homologous; 2) a model of branching as applicable to the totality of causes of a given event.