Stature estimation in a central Patagonian prehispanic population: development of new models considering specific body proportions

Stature estimation of individuals from extinct human populations is a classic topic in anthropology. The estimations, using regression formulae generated from different reference samples, display different results. This fact is related to inter‐populational differences in body proportions, which is a phenotypic trait mainly correlated with climatic parameters. The aim of this paper is to address the problem of stature estimation of an archaeological skeletal sample from Patagonia – a region for which there are no specific models available – using different methods and considering differences in body proportions between reference and target populations. The sample used in this analysis is composed of 35 Late Holocene adults of both sexes recovered in central Patagonia (Argentina). The stature of each individual was first reconstructed using the anatomical method [Fully G. 1956 . Une nouvelle me´thode de de´termination de la taille. Annales Medicine Legale 35 : 266–273], which has no assumptions on body proportions. The results were compared with estimations based on 32 different regression formulae [Trotter M, Gleser G. 1958. A re‐evaluation of estimation of stature based on measurements taken during life and the long bones after death. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 16 : 79–124. 10.1002/ajpa.1330160106] and three femur/stature ratios [Feldesman MR, Fountain RL. 1996. Race specificity and the femur/stature ratio. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 100 : 207–224. 10.1002/(SICI)1096‐8644(199606)]. The average reconstructed stature was 160.8 cm for females (95% confidence band = 155.6–166.2 cm), and 170.5 cm for males (95% confidence band = 168.8–172.2 cm). Most of the comparisons of the regression formulae and femur/stature ratios showed significant differences, which are explained by differences in body proportions between the Patagonian sample and the ones chosen as reference. Finally, a set of new equations was developed using simple regression techniques. It is suggested that whenever possible, population‐specific formulae should be used in archaeological studies. In any other situation, the choice of a reference population should be made by taking into account its geographic (latitudinal) provenance. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Population Affinities of the Jebel Sahaba Skeletal Sample: Limb Proportion Evidence

The Lower Nubian Epipaleolithic site of Jebel Sahaba (Sudan) was discovered in 1962. From 1962 to 1966, a total of 58 intentionally buried skeletons were uncovered at the site. Diagnostic microliths indicative of the Qadan industry as well as the site's geology suggest an age of 14–12 ka for these burials. In this study, the body proportions of the Jebel Sahaba sample are compared with those of a large (max N = 731) sample of recent human skeletons from Europe, Africa and circumpolar North America, as well as to terminal Pleistocene ‘Iberomaurusian’ skeletons from the Algerian sites of Afalou‐Bou‐Rhummel and the later Capsian‐associated Ain Dokhara specimen, as well as Natufian skeletons from the southern Levantine site of El Wad. Bivariate analyses distinguish Jebel Sahaba from European and circumpolar samples, but do not tend to segregate them from recent North or sub‐Saharan African samples. Multivariate analyses (principal components analysis, principal coordinates analysis with minimum spanning tree and neighbour‐joining cluster analyses) indicate that the body shape of the Jebel Sahaba humans is most similar to that of recent sub‐Saharan Africans and different from that of either the Levantine Natufians or the northwest African ‘Iberomaurusian’ samples. Importantly, these results corroborate those of both Irish and Franciscus, who, using dental, oral and nasal morphology, found that Jebel Sahaba was most similar to recent sub‐Saharan Africans and morphologically distinct from their penecontemporaries in other parts of North Africa or the groups that succeed them in Nubia. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Examining Activity Patterns and Biological Confounding Factors: Differences between Fibrocartilaginous and Fibrous Musculoskeletal Stress Markers

The present study examines a sample of 105 hunter–gatherer California Amerinds to determine whether fibrocartilaginous musculoskeletal stress markers (MSMs) are better for activity reconstructions than fibrous MSMs. Femoral and humeral head diameters were measured as proxies to body size. All data were analysed for statistical significance using non‐parametric tests. Fibrous MSMs of the left deltoideus, left and right hip adductors, and left and right tibial soleus correlate positively with body size proxies. For fibrocartilaginous MSMs, the right humeral teres minor insertion negatively correlates with humeral head diameter. Both types of MSMs correlate positively with age. More upper limb fibrocartilaginous MSMs display asymmetry than do upper limb fibrous MSMs. Lower limb sex differences were found at the same MSM sites that correlated with body size. Upper limb sex differences at the right teres major, a fibrous site, and the right triceps brachii, a fibrocartilaginous site, seem to reflect activity patterns. Results suggest that fibrocartilaginous MSMs are more useful in reconstructing activity patterns because they display more asymmetry in upper limbs and are less affected by body size than are fibrous MSMs. Yet, correlations with age and a lack of variability at fibrocartilaginous MSM sites may hinder their utility in activity reconstructions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Unstable Bodies: Science,Society, and Visual Work

In recent years increased attention has been paid to both modes and processes of seeing in anthropology. At the same time, the body as the locus of visual practice is increasingly problematized. The works reviewed here are all concerned with making people — and bodies — visible, but are aware of the methodological, moral, and political implications of this. Other common threads include the tension between reproduction and representation, the self-awareness of the seen and seeing body, and the roles of digital and other technologies in rendering bodies visible or, at least, present.     

SIGNS OF THE TIMES: THOMAS JACKSON AND THE CONTROVERSY OVER PRODIGIES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I

Abstract

This article focuses on Hobbes's use of metaphor, particularly the larger structural metaphor of the artificial man in Leviathan. Hobbes claims to draw his political animal according to the figurative outlines of the natural one, despite the significant differences between these two bodies. In Part I we see the scientifically-minded Hobbes reject the old dualistic imagery of body and soul, act and will; but in Part II the politically-minded Hobbes appeals to exactly these dualistic distinctions in order to lend his radical vision of the state the numinous appeal of the medieval and Tudor formulations. An understanding of Hobbes's rhetorical strategy, and what I call his strategic use of dualism, can show how the recent linguistic turn in Hobbes studies can in fact re-open the much older debate on the overall unity of his philosophical system.     

浙南木拱廊桥结构与起源探析

浙江南部山区庆元、景宁、泰顺、青田以及闽北寿宁等地遗存有较多数量历史悠久、结构独特、造型别致、地域特征明显的木拱廊桥。本详细阐述了浙南木拱廊桥的发展历史,对木拱廊桥的建筑结构、营建方式等进行了初步研究,重点探讨了浙南木拱廊桥与汴水虹桥在结构上的异同,认为浙南木拱廊桥有着独立的发展体系。     

商周长体刀及相关问题

长体卷锋刀是商末周初的一种兵器,本文对各地出土长体刀的分布、年代、演变及相互关系作了较系统的探析。     

论中国古代的广告传播媒介

中国古代广告媒介是古代广告信息传播的工具和载体。广告媒介的使用者往往也是信息的发布者和传播者;广告媒介使用范围基本没有超出原始族群活动区域和商人活动的狭隘“市场”范畴;从其社会功用看,古代广告媒介大致分为肢体语言、借代物和手工广告媒体三大类。中国古代广告媒介传递着中国古代社会丰富多彩的政治、经济、文化信息。     

How natural are natural woods from wetland sites? – a case study at two sites of the Jomon period in central Japan

To clarify the characteristics of natural woods from wetland sites, the taxonomic composition and diameter of natural woods were compared with those of wooden artifacts at two sites of the middle to latest Jomon periods (ca. 5300–2800 cal BP) in central Japan that have contrasting characters. The Oise-yama site in Saitama was a least used site only with a few pit dwellings and pits on the surrounding upland and no structures in the wetland. The Shimo-yakebe site in Tokyo was a heavily used site with wooden structures and rows of stakes in the wetland and many remains on the upland. Natural woods of the Oise-yama site had an exponential decrease along the diameter gradient, irrespective of taxa, but wooden artifacts of the Shimo-yakebe site had clear marks of human selection both in the taxonomic composition and diameter. Natural woods of the Shimo-yakebe site also had an exponential decrease along the diameter gradient similar to those of the Oise-yama site. Thus, the exponential decrease in the diameter distribution seemed to be intrinsic in naturally deposited, allochthonous woods found at wetland sites.     

A multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental investigation of the findspot of an Iron Age bog body from Oldcroghan,Co. Offaly,Ireland

In 2003, the remains of an Early Iron Age bog body, known as ‘Oldcroghan Man’, were recovered during the cutting of a drainage ditch in a bog in the Irish Midlands. Only some fingernails and a withe fragment remained undisturbed in situ in the drain face, providing the sole evidence for the original position of the body. A detailed reconstruction of the depositional context of the body has been undertaken through multi-proxy analyses of a peat monolith collected at the findspot. The palynological record shows that the surrounding area was the focus of intensive human activity during the Later Bronze Age, but was largely abandoned during the Bronze Age–Iron transition in the mid-first millennium BC. In the mid-4th century BC, a bog pool developed at the site, evidenced in the stratigraphic, plant macrofossil, testate amoebae and coleopteran records. Plant macrofossil and pollen analysis of peat samples associated with the fingernails suggests that the body was deposited in this pool most likely during the 3rd century BC. The absence of carrion beetle fauna points to complete submergence of the body within the pool. Deposition occurred shortly before or around the time that the surrounding area again became the focus of woodland clearance, as seen in the extended pollen record from the peat monolith. This period corresponds to the Early Iron Age in Ireland, during which renewed cultural connections with Britain and continental Europe can be seen in the archaeological record and widespread forest clearance is recorded in pollen records from across Ireland. The palaeoenvironmental results indicate, therefore, that the demise of Oldcroghan Man took place at a pivotal time of socio-economic and perhaps political change.