Hasil untuk "Physical anthropology. Somatology"

Ferry Fredy Karwur, Monica Hermina Sharon Otline Yocku, Debby Agustin Enoch et al.

Abstract Background Papuan people inhabiting the island of New Guinea are the most ancient population living outside Africa, having resided in the region for at least 50,000 years. The arrival of Austronesian speakers and other group from mainland Asia around 3000 years or so created a peculiar genetic mixture, particularly in lowland/coastal areas. We investigated the anthropometric and blood chemical differences alongside the population structure of the ABCG2 rs2231142 genetic variant of West Papuans from lowland/coastal and highland areas to understand metabolic risk differences between these two populations. Results We studied West Papuan students from lowland/coastal areas (n = 78, 45 males, 33 females) and from highland areas (n = 65, 40 males, 25 females). We found the following: (1) The lowland/coastal Papuans were taller, with lower BMI, central obesity, and triceps. Contrarily, highland Papuans have a more gynoid body shape, with higher WC, HC, WHR, and WHtR. The skinfolds were significantly thicker in women from the highlands. (2) There was actually a negative correlation between BMI and central adiposity with UA and FBG to those from the highlands. The lowland/coastal Papuans indicated an Asian-type metabolic traits, with higher fasting glucose levels at lower BMI and lower central adiposity. (3) UA concentration and DBP were strongly correlated with obesity of the Papuans from lowlands/coasts and not in the Papuans from highlands. (4) There was a striking difference in the ABCG2 rs2231142 > T allele frequency in those from the lowlands/coasts (22%) compared to those from the highlands of West Papua (7%). The T variant in the latter is all heterozygous. Conclusions The higher adiposity and thicker skinfolds observed in highland Papuans are thought to be adaptive responses to the high-altitude environment, enabling greater adipose tissue expandability and energy storage capacity while maintaining metabolic homeostasis. In contrast, the lowland/coastal Papuans exhibit an Asian metabolic phenotype, which is more prone to metabolic derangements at lower adiposity. Our findings on the population distribution of the ABCG2 rs2231142 > T variant support the idea that its presence in the Papuan highlands is through demic diffusion of the variant from ISEA, indicating that the two populations are separate entities displaying differences in metabolic risks.

Zlatozar Boev

For the first time, the numerous scattered data on birds (wild and domestic) have been collected based on their medieval bone remains discovered on the modern territory of the Republic of Bulgaria. The collected information is about a total of 37 medieval settlements from the time of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires. Among the settlements studied are both the two medieval Bulgarian capitals (Pliska and Veliki Preslav), as well as other cities, smaller settlements, military fortresses, monasteries, and inhabited caves. The data refer to a total of 48 species of wild birds and 6 forms of domestic birds of 11 avian orders: Accipitriformes, Anseriformes, Ciconiiformes, Columbiformes, Falconiformes, Galliformes, Gruiformes, Otidiformes, Passeriformes, Pelecaniformes, and Strigiformes. The established composition of wild birds amounts to over one tenth (to 11.5%) of the modern avifauna in the country. Five of the established species (10.4%) have disappeared from the modern nesting avifauna of the country—the bearded vulture, the great bustard, the little bustard, the gray crane, and the saker falcon (the latter two species have reappeared as nesters in the past few years). First Bulgarian Empire (681–1018): Investigated settlements—22. Period covered—five centuries (7th to 11th c.). Found in total: at least 44 species/forms of birds, of which 39 species of wild birds and 5 forms of poultry. Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396): Investigated settlements—15. Period covered—3 centuries (12th to 14th c.). Found in total: at least 39 species/forms of birds, of which 33 species of wild birds and 6 forms of poultry. The groups of raptors, water, woodland, openland, synanthropic and domestic birds were analyzed separately. The conclusion was made that during the two periods of the Middle Ages, birds had an important role in the material and spiritual life of the population of the Bulgarian lands. Birds were mainly used for food (domestic birds), although some were objects of hunting. No traces of processing were found on the bones. Birds were subjects of works of applied and monumental art. Their images decorated jewelry, tableware, walls of buildings and other structures.

Marta Navazo Ruiz, Alfonso Benito-Calvo, María Carmen Lozano-Francisco et al.

Collecting is a form of leisure, and even a passion, consisting of collecting, preserving and displaying objects. When we look for its origin in the literature, we are taken back to “the appearance of writing and the fixing of knowledge”, specifically with the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal (7th century BC, Mesopotamia), and his fondness for collecting books, which in his case were in the form of clay tablets. This is not, however, a true reflection, for we have evidence of much earlier collectors. The curiosity and interest in keeping stones or fossils of different colors and shapes, as manuports, is as old as we are. For decades we have had evidence of objects of no utilitarian value in Neanderthal homes. Several European sites have shown that these Neanderthal groups treasured objects that attracted their attention. On some occasions, these objects may have been modified to make a personal ornament and may even have been integrated into subsistence activities such as grinders or hammers. Normally, one or two such specimens are found but, to date, no Neanderthal cave or camp has yielded as many as the N4 level of Prado Vargas Cave. In the N4 Mousterian level of Prado Vargas, 15 specimens of Upper Cretaceous marine fossils belonging to the Gryphaeidae, Pectinidae, Cardiidae, Pholadomyidae, Pleurotomariidae, Tylostomatidae and Diplopodiidae families were found in the context of clay and autochthonous cave sediments. During MIS 3, a group of Neanderthals transported at least fifteen marine fossils, which were collected from various Cretaceous units located in the surrounding area, to the Prado Vargas cave. The fossils, with one exception, show no evidence of having been used as tools; thus, their presence in the cave could be attributed to collecting activities. These activities could have been motivated by numerous tangible and intangible causes, which suggest that collecting activities and the associated abstract thinking were present in Neanderthals before the arrival of modern humans.

Yikang Zhang, Pekka Santtila

With the rise of dating apps, people have access to a vast pool of potential partners at their fingertips. The present study examined how various factors would predict an individual's dating decisions in a dating app-analogue study. Participants (N = 269) first completed some trait measures and then a mock-dating task in which they judged the attractiveness of a series of targets and then decided whether to match with the target or not. Their memories for the targets were tested on the second day. People who were more (vs. less) short-term oriented were more likely to match with short-term-oriented targets. Moral disgust and sexual disgust negatively predicted the matching with short-term-oriented targets. Contrary to our hypothesis, we did not find support that people with higher (vs. lower) pathogen disgust sensitivity would selectively match with more attractive targets. Exploratory analyses showed that people who were more (vs. less) short-term oriented, more (vs. less) sexually attractive, or had higher (v. lower) mate value, were more likely to match with targets they considered as attractive. Finally, people have better memories of the faces they chose to match than to not match. Implications for mating research and limitations are discussed.

Marina L. Sardi, Mara Dettler, Lucía V. Arcidiácono

La antropología, durante su institucionalización en el siglo XIX, adoptó y desarrolló un variado corpus instrumental a fin de reemplazar las descripciones de las variantes físicas humanas por números. Nuestro propósito aquí es analizar los instrumentos de la División Antropología del Museo de La Plata (Argentina) adquirido entre fines del siglo XIX y la primera mitad del siglo XX. Identificamos 89 ítems (instrumentos completos, incompletos y accesorios). A partir del trabajo experiencial y del análisis de fuentes escritas discutimos los aspectos intelectuales, materiales, prácticos y comerciales que pudieron intervenir en su creación y adopción en laboratorios de todo el mundo. Además, analizamos cómo fueron incorporados al museo platense, quiénes fueron sus usuarios, qué dispositivos utilizaron y para qué. Detectamos instrumentos que no se incorporaron a ninguna práctica, ni fueron inventariados ni conservados, mientras que otros continúan utilizándose en laboratorios y cátedras. Concluimos, primeramente, que la composición del acervo es resultado de las trayectorias particulares de cada elemento. En segundo lugar, la antropología biológica, que supo cuestionar la perspectiva raciológica de la antropología física y adoptar una perspectiva evolutiva, nunca cuestionó la dimensión instrumental y se vuelve una disciplina cada vez más tecnológica.

Niall P. Cooke, Valeria Mattiangeli, Lara M. Cassidy et al.

A tripartite structure for the genetic origin of Japanese populations states that present-day populations are descended from three main ancestors: (1) the indigenous Jomon hunter–gatherers; (2) a Northeast Asian component that arrived during the agrarian Yayoi period; and (3) a major influx of East Asian ancestry in the imperial Kofun period. However, the genetic heterogeneity observed in different regions of the Japanese archipelago highlights the need to assess the applicability and suitability of this model. Here, we analyse historic genomes from the southern Ryukyu Islands, which have unique cultural and historical backgrounds compared with other parts of Japan. Our analysis supports the tripartite structure as the best fit in this region, with significantly higher estimated proportions of Jomon ancestry than mainland Japanese. Unlike the main islands, where each continental ancestor was directly brought by immigrants from the continent, those who already possessed the tripartite ancestor migrated to the southern Ryukyu Islands and admixed with the prehistoric people around the eleventh century AD, coinciding with the emergence of the Gusuku period. These results reaffirm the tripartite model in the southernmost extremes of the Japanese archipelago and show variability in how the structure emerged in diverse geographic regions.

DE-GUANG JIAO, KUN-SHENG DU

A new small euarthropod Astutuscaris bispinifer gen. et sp. nov. is described from the early Cambrian Stage 4 Guanshan Biota in Yunnan, China. This new euarthropod possesses a wide head shield, a pair of possible eyes, paired frontalmost appendages located antero-medially, 11 imbricated tergites most of which have backward-directed tergopleura ending in almost posteriorly oriented spines, and two well-marked wide spines. The affinity of Astutuscaris among euarthropods is uncertain because of the undefined nature of its frontalmost appendages, the incomplete head shield, the anterior trunk tergites, and the limbs. There are about 24 species of non-trilobite euarthropods reported from the Guanshan Biota to date, the documentation of this new taxon expands the biological diversity of euarthropods from this important biota in Yunnan, China.

Maria I. Lopez Cabrera, Eduardo B. Olivero

The early Miocene marine deposits in Tierra del Fuego bear a group of struthiolariid gastropods that stand out for their high morphological variability. since the end of the 19th century this variability was interpreted as reflecting (1) a highly diversified rapidly evolving group of species or (2) a single, plastic species characterized by ample intraspecific variability. The morphological study of more than 100 specimens of the Fuegian struthiolariid genus Perissodonta Martens collected in the Carmen Silva, Viamonte, and Irigoyen formations indicate that significant parameters, such as shell shape, spire length and number of spiral and axial sculptures (cords, threads, tubercles) vary continuously within an ample range of values, favoring a single, plastic species. Topotype specimens of Perissodonta ameghinoi (Ihering), collected from the early Miocene Monte León Formation in Patagonia, show similar plasticity of characters. Furthermore, recent topotype material of Perissodonta georgiana Strebel from Islas Georgias del Sur, a species considered very close or junior synonym of the genotype species P. mirabilis (Smith), indicates a similar degree of plasticity. Accordingly, the Fuegian struthiolariids previously assigned to Perissodonta ameghinoi; P. fueguina (Ihering); or P. densestriata (Ihering) are here referred to P. ameghinoi, a struthiolariid gastropod restricted to the early Miocene in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia.

Dmytro Hlavatskyi, Vladimir Bakhmutov

We present new palaeomagnetic and rock magnetic results with a stratigraphic interpretation of the late Early–Middle Pleistocene deposits exposed on the left bank of the River Danube at Dolynske, southern Ukraine. A thick succession of water-lain facies is succeeded by reddish-brown clayey soils, topped by a high-resolution loess–palaeosol sequence. These constitute one of the most complete recently discovered palaeoclimate archives in the Lower Danube Basin. The suggested stratigraphy is based on the position of the Matuyama–Brunhes boundary, rock magnetic, palaeopedological and sedimentological proxies, and it is confidently correlated with other loess records in the region (Roksolany and Kurortne), as well as with the marine isotope stratigraphy. The magnetic susceptibility records and palaeosol characteristics at Dolynske show an outstanding pattern that is transitional between eastern and south-eastern European loess records. Our data confirm that the well-developed S4 soil unit in Ukraine, and S5 units in Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia, correlate with the warm MIS 11. Furthermore, we suggest the correlation of rubified S6 palaeosols in Romania and Bulgaria and the V-S7–V-S8 double palaeosol in Serbia with S6 in Ukraine, a strong Mediterranean-type palaeosol which corresponds to MIS 15. Our new results do not support the hypothesis of a large magnetic lock-in depth like that previously interpreted for the Danube loess, and they prove that the Matuyama–Brunhes boundary is located within the palaeosol unit corresponding to MIS 19. The proposed stratigraphic correlation scheme may serve as a potential basis for further regional and global Pleistocene climatic reconstructions.

Rodrigo A. Otero, Constanza Figueroa Bravo, Paula Soto-Huenchumán et al.

This study presents two specimens of Chimaeriformes from Upper Jurassic strata of central Chile. The material was recovered from Tithonian levels of the Baños del Flaco Formation and includes two different individuals, one preserving two articulated mandibular plates, and the second, a fragment of an isolated palatine plate. Morphologic traits allow us to refer the material to Ischyodus townsendi and Ischyodus sp., respectively. These are the oldest Chimaeriformes known to date in the Southern Hemisphere and the first Late Jurassic record from Gondwana. The presence of I. townsendi in the Tithonian of central Chile evidences this taxon as part of the proposed faunal interchange between the northern Tethys and the southeastern Pacific during the Late Jurassic.

Hans Renssen

Results of five climate model simulation studies on the Younger Dryas cold event (YD) are compared with a focus on temperature and precipitation. Relative to the Bølling-Allerød interstadial (BA), the simulations show consistent annual cooling in Europe, Greenland, Alaska, North Africa and over the North Atlantic Ocean and Nordic Seas with maximum reduction of temperatures being simulated over the oceans, ranging from −25 °C to −6 °C. Warmer conditions were simulated in the interior of North America. In two experiments, the mid-to-high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere were also warmer, associated with a strong bi-polar seesaw mechanism in response to a collapse of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). The modelled YD-BA temperature response was in general agreement with proxy-based evidence. The simulations reveal reduced YD-BA precipitation (up to 150 mm yr⁻¹) over all regions with major cooling, and over the northern equatorial region. South of the equator, modelled precipitation seemed to increase due to a southward shift of the InterTropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). The largest uncertainty in the YD is the high-latitude response, where the models show diverging results. This disagreement is partly related to uncertainties in the freshwater forcing. Most model studies assume an AMOC shutdown, but this is incompatible with proxy evidence.

Thomas Goetzelt

ships. This is illustrated in his study of avoidance and attendance, where he explores the role of his interlocutors’ emotives in gaining or maintaining the attention of activists, volunteers, and so on and, in contrast, avoiding encounters with authorities (chapter 6). In expanding on a theory of emotional economies, the author makes a further epistemological contribution in choosing to incorporate his own feelings and emotions into his analysis as scientific data. Stodulka has methodically documented his emotional reactions alongside his other data (as he discusses in detail in the appendix) and has treated them as analytical data alongside the recorded accounts of his interlocutors’ emotions. In a section of chapter 6 titled “Mutual Benefits of Empathy,” the author discusses how such analysis has led him to make sense both of his interlocutors’ ways of coping with scarce resources and of the motivations of activists, artists, researchers, and so on to remain involved with street children despite their complaints of being “exploited.” In describing his own emotional frustrations, revisited over time and in the light of his ongoing relations with his interlocutors, Stodulka discusses an interactive nexus of affective bonds in which actors benefit at both ends—even if, in the case of activists or researchers, this might occur in the long run (i.e., through the acquisition of “vocational expertise”). Following the introduction, which stresses the theoretical groundings of this work, the second chapter discusses extensively the methods employed in compiling this ethnography. Critical of “black box” ethnographic practices, Stodulka problematizes and actively responds to the mystification of data analysis by including an appendix in which he documents the analytical steps that he took in the process of producing this book. Chapter 3 comprises a historical and political discussion of Yogyakarta as well as an anthropological contextualization of local social norms and structures. In the rest of the book, we are following Monchi, the main interlocutor, through his life in the streets and street-related communities alongside stories of another four interlocutors. Chapter 4 discusses narratives of leaving home and arriving on the streets as well as encountering and coping with challenges there. In Chapter 5, Stodulka examines in detail life in street-related communities, analyzing in-group solidarities and group hierarchies. The theory of emotional economy is discussed in detail in chapter 6, through descriptions of the interlocutors emotive and social skills and their coping styles and strategies. Chapter 7 is dedicated to dreams, efforts, and strategies around interlocutors attempts to “exit the streets,” alongside a focus on HIV-related suffering, stigma, and death. This chapter describes the processes of adopting and transforming existing coping strategies tomatch the challenges of new life stages and social realities. The concluding chapter documents recent developments in the interlocutors’ lives alongside authoritarian and neoliberal shifts in public-discipline policies involving the control of social space. Monchi’s life history has analytical focus on emotional aspects of his and other interlocutors’ lifeworlds and provides a framework through which emotions are discussed as embedded in social life—as affected by and affecting the politics of everyday life. One important example of such analysis can be found in chapter 6, when, after he receives a diagnosis of HIV infection, Monchi tries to cope with beingmalu (shamed) and, in particular, with his in-laws. His father-in-law’s excessive machismo further complicates this situation, and Monchi realizes that the reasons why he is feeling furious, confused, and distressed are not very different from the reasons that made him leave his home in the first place. He realizes that these feelings connect to economic insecurity and exploitative family structures, characterized by seniority and patriarchy. Furthermore, in a subsection of chapter 7 titled “Chronology of Enduring Pain, Suffering and Death,” Stodulka presents a diary starting from the day that Jim, a young interlocutor, tells him that he is HIV positive. This section documents Jim’s concerns regarding whether and how he should share the news with his girlfriend (with whom a marriage was arranged) and goes on to document his physical decline, his quest for treatment, his coping strategies alongside (and assisted by) the author, and, ultimately, his death. This section provides an analysis of how shame, fear, and pain are experienced and of how stigmatization and structural violence interweave in the painful experience of Jim. It ultimately shows how a moralized public discourse, with nationalistic and religious connotations (HIV infection combines all that is non-Javanese and nonreligious), generates exclusion and segregation and how this is again experienced as fear and anxiety. It is my view that, through such analyses, this ethnography contributes significantly toward expanding our anthropological understanding of feelings and emotions, and in incorporating the author’s emotional reflexivity, it may inspire other ethnographers to rethink their own positionalities in emotional terms.

K. Theidon

collective action emerges in large-scale societies. The second part of How Humans Cooperate consists of six chapters, some coauthored with Fargher, that rely on an analysis of a cross-cultural sample of 30 societies for which adequate data exist for identifying the contexts of collective action.While some societies in the sample are well known from archaeological research, all have a documentary record from which to identify details that Blanton and Fargher need for their analyses. Drawing from this cross-cultural sample, the chapters consider how robust evidence for collective action articulates with other sociocultural components, such as commercial transactions, especially in market settings; fiscal strategies that support public works; territorial integrity and coordination; urban development; and aesthetic representations and religious formations. These chapters are rich in illustrative detail, so much so that I sometimes struggled to see the forest for the trees, and I would have appreciated at least some of the comparative methods and statistical analyses that Blanton and Fargher relegate to appendixes more prominently highlighted in these core chapters. In the final two chapters, and especially chapter 12, Blanton pulls together all the components that he and Fargher have identified as important for any anthropologically informed model of collective action and proposes a “coactive causal process” through which these interact within a framework of material conditions to spur the changes, leading to increasingly larger scales of collective action. Acknowledging the challenge of identifying causality in complex sociocultural processes, Blanton suggests that flexible (“elastic”) systems of production, the presence of inequities in wealth, the “biosocial challenges” of increasing urbanism, and the need for economic exchange, especially throughmarketplaces, together promote the need for increasingly elaborate forms of collective action to prevent society from dissolving. While these variables are seen as shaped by the physical environment and demographic change, Blanton argues against a simple determinism, instead emphasizing the complex dynamic relationships between context and sociocultural factors that, together, are seen as ultimately generating state-level institutions of collective action. How Humans Cooperate is an impressive effort, and there is much to admire and learn from the efforts of Blanton and Fargher to pull together so much information that contributes to an understanding of how complex sociocultural, and especially governmental, institutions form. Many of their conclusions as to which components are most impactful on collective action rely on discussions and analyses that are detailed in the bibliographic essays and analytical appendixes at the end of the book, as well as data coding available only in a separate volume published by the authors in 2008 (Blanton and Fargher 2008). The narrative of How Humans Cooperate therefore did not always convince me, and although I am an expert in none of the ancient and historic societies in their comparative analysis, I found myself skeptical of some of the anecdotes pulled from the cross-cultural sample. For example, fourth-century BCE Athens is repeatedly stood up as a paragon of cooperative dynamics, and yet most of the data used by Blanton is characteristic of only the 10% to 20% of Athenian society classified as the (free and male-only) “citizenry.” This observation leads me to one final comment. As anticipated by the book’s title, How Humans Cooperate, Blanton seems to equate cooperation with collective action, even as so many of his and Fargher’s cross-cultural examples underscore the coercive elements necessary to deploy collective action at scale. I suspect that Blanton is using literary license to make his points, or hemay be driven to this rhetorical strategy by a desire to align evolutionary psychology (arguably inaccurately) both with assumptions of an evolved, generalized human altruism and with mathematical modeling characteristic of game theory and evolutionary biology. In fact, cooperation operates outside of collective action, just as both competition and coercion— voluntary and involuntary—are essential to collective action; these points, tome at least, are obscured by the book’s dismissal of evolutionary cooperation theory as useful for understanding human behavior in complex sociocultural settings. Despite these concerns, there is much that How Humans Cooperate contributes to the discussion on the evolution of cooperation and the formation of complex human societies. Blanton, along with Fargher, is able to weave together a multitude of diverse and often opposing theoretical perspectives and a rich anthropological literature to present a comprehensive and empirically testable model of how complex sociocultural institutions emerge.

Paul M. Barrett, Joane Pouech, Jean-Michel Mazin et al.

The Cherves-de-Cognac site (Charente, France) has yielded a diverse continental microvertebrate fauna of Berriasian (earliest Cretaceous) age. Dinosaur remains are rare, but include three teeth that are referrable to an indeterminate sauropod, which might represent either a titanosauriform, a non-titanosauriform macronarian or a non-neosauropod. The small size of these teeth (with a maximum length of 3 mm, as preserved) and the almost complete absence of emanel wrinkling suggests that they pertained to embryonic or hatchling individuals. The Cherves-de-Cognac sauropod represents a rare occurrence of sauropod embryos/hatchlings, a new sauropod record from the poorly-known terrestrial Berriasian and another possible instance of the persistence of non-diplodocoid, non-titanosauriform sauropods into the Cretaceous.

Florencia Rizzo, Darío Cardozo, Alicia Tapia

En este trabajo presentamos la información osteológica, cronológica, isotópica y de ADN antiguo (ADNa) obtenida a partir del análisis de los restos óseos humanos fragmentados correspondientes a un individuo prehispánico recuperado en el sitio Rancho José. Dicho sitio está ubicado en la margen derecha del río Baradero, donde la acción del agua expuso y removió diferentes tipos de materiales arqueológicos. De acuerdo con la excavación realizada en seis perfiles ubicados en el borde de la barranca, se pudo determinar que los hallazgos fueron depositados en un evento de ocupación. En el perfil 5 se recuperaron los restos óseos de un individuo datado 1900±20 años AP, representado solo por la porción superior del esqueleto. En primer lugar, se consideraron los agentes tafonómicos que podrían haber actuado modificando las condiciones de hallazgo y los materiales asociados. Se realizó la determinación del sexo y la estimación de la edad del individuo y se examinaron las diferentes patologías óseas y dentales. Esta información se complementó con datos obtenidos a partir del análisis de ADN mitocondrial (ADNmt) antiguo, de isótopos estables (13C, 15N) y el relevamiento de micro-restos vegetales en el tártaro dental. Si bien se trata de un individuo altamente fragmentado, conserva su aparato masticatorio completo y su estudio resulta de interés para comparar con otros individuos, tanto de sitios coetáneos como de tiempos posthispánicos. Con ese fin, también se presentan datos isotópicos de dos individuos del sitio posthispánico Cementerio Indígena. Palabras clave: bajíos septentrionales; bioarqueología; tafonomía; ADN mitocondrial; isótopos estables We present osteological, chronological, isotopic, and ancient DNA (aDNA) information obtained from the analysis of the fragmented human remains of a prehispanic individual recovered at Rancho José site. The site is situated on the right bank of the Baradero River, where water action exposed and removed various types of archaeological materials. The excavation carried out on six profiles located on the edge of the rift made it possible to determine that the finds were deposited during a single occupation event. In profile 5 the skeletal remains representing the upper portion of the skeleton of an adult individual dated in 1900±20 years BP were recovered. The taphonomic agents that could have altered the finding conditions and its associated materials were considered first. Bones sex determination and age estimation was performed and various bone and dental pathologies were examined. This information was supplemented with data from ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), stable isotopes (13C and 15N), and the identification of plant microremains in dental tartar. Although these are highly fragmented remains, the individual has retained its whole masticatory system and its analysis from different research perspectives is of interest for comparison with other individuals, both from contemporaneous sites in the surrounding area of discovery and from post-hispanic times. To that end, isotopic data from two individuals from the Cementerio Indigena site are also presented. Keywords: somatotype septentrional lowlands; bioarchaeology; taphonomy; mtDNA; stable isotopes

Silvia C. Grill, Ana L. Fernández

Abstract. Two fossil sections (Late Quaternary), and a group of modern samples analyzed through pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs, enabled the reconstruction of the palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental conditions of the lower basin of the Quequén Salado River (Buenos Aires Province). The study was complemented with analysis of sedimentology, malacofauna, ostracods, diatoms, and mammal and archaeological remains. For the Late Pleistocene, the scarce presence of microfossils, associated with eolian palaeoenvironments, allowed inferring arid/extremely arid climate conditions. In the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary, evidence of a pedogenetic event suggests a brief lapse of climatic stability. Pollen indicates the development of a halophyte steppe, which remained in the area until the Middle Holocene. During the Early Holocene (8,173 cal. yr B.P.) the sedimentology, malacofauna and microfossils evidenced a sea level rise. This event ended with the establishment of a brackish lacustrine body towards the Middle Holocene. After that, a pulse characterized by high humidity levels, indicate the replacement of the halophyte steppe by a gramineous steppe. Following that pulse during the 6,799 cal. yr BP‑ 5,603 cal. yr BP lapse, the microfossils showed considerable variability, thus reflecting an alternation between relatively more humid and dry pulses. Evidence indicates that during the Late Holocene (~ 1,000 yr. BP) modern ecosystems began to settle in the lower basin of the Quequén Salado River. Two global climate changes, the Medieval Climate Optimum (823 cal. yr B.P.‑ 690 cal. yr B.P.) and the Little Ice Age (389 cal. yr B.P.) were inferred through pollen and faunistic remains at QS1 Archaeological Site.  KEY WORDS. Palaeoenvironmental-palaeoclimatic changes. Late Quaternary. Quequén Salado River. Argentina. Resumen. ANÁLISIS MULTI-PROXY DE SEDIMENTOS DEL CUATERNARIO TARDÍO EN LA CUENCA INFERIOR DEL RÍO QUEQUÉN SALADO (PROVINCIA DE BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA). UNA ACTUALIZACIÓN. El análisis de microfósiles polínicos y no polínicos de dos secciones fósiles de edad Cuaternario tardío y de un conjunto de muestras actuales, permitió evaluar las fluctuaciones paleoambientales y paleoclimáticas en la cuenca inferior del río Quequén Salado (provincia de Buenos Aires). El aporte de la sedimentología, malacofauna, ostrácodos, diatomeas, restos de mamíferos y arqueológicos, complementó el estudio efectuado. Para el Pleistoceno Tardío los escasos microfósiles hallados, asociados a paleoambientes eólicos permitieron inferir condiciones climáticas áridas / extremadamente áridas. En el límite Pleistoceno/Holoceno, evidencias pedogenéticas se asociaron a un breve episodio de estabilidad climática, el polen reflejó el desarrollo de comunidades halófitas las cuales permanecieron en el área hasta el Holoceno Medio. Durante el Holoceno Temprano (8,173 cal. años AP), el ascenso del nivel marino manifestado a través de la sedimentología, malacofauna y microfósiles, culminó con la instalación de un cuerpo lagunar salobre hacia el Holoceno Medio. Con posterioridad, un pulso más húmedo inferido a partir del reemplazo de la estepa halófita por graminosa, fue seguido de un lapso (6,799 cal. años AP−5,603 cal. años AP) con alternancia de períodos húmedos y secos evidenciados a partir de una importante variabilidad en las asociaciones polínicas, los NPPs, ostrácodos y diatomeas. Para el Holoceno Tardío se habrían establecido en el área los ecosistemas actuales, registrándose, en el Sitio Arqueológico QS1, dos cambios climáticos globales: Óptimo climático Medieval (823 cal. años AP−690 cal. años AP) y La Pequeña Edad de Hielo (389 cal. años AP). PALABRAS CLAVE. Cambios paleoambientales-paleoclimáticos. Cuaternario Tardío. Río Quequén Salado. Argentina.

Alicia B. Orden, Lorena Zonta, Evelia E. Oyhenart

El objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar las prevalencias de sobrepeso y obesidad y patrón de adiposidad en niños y adultos Mbyá-Guaraní. Estatura, peso, perímetro braquial y pliegues subcutáneos tricipital y subescapular fueron medidos en 197 individuos de 2 a 60 años de edad, residentes en las comunidades de Kaaguy Poty e Yvy Pytá, Aristóbulo del Valle (provincia de Misiones). Se calcularon el índice de masa corporal (IMC), las áreas muscular y adiposa y el índice subescapular/tricipital. Los datos fueron estandarizados a puntaje z empleando NHANES I & II. El sobrepeso y la obesidad fueron definidos por los valores de IMC comprendidos entre los percentiles 85 y 95 ó los superiores al percentil 95, respectivamente. Comparados con la referencia, los Mbyá tuvieron menor peso y talla, y mayor IMC. No hubo diferencias marcadas en la masa adiposa y muscular. Las prevalencias de sobrepeso y obesidad fueron de 16.2 y 14.7% respectivamente y no difirieron entre sexos. El 60% de los individuos con sobrepeso y obesidad mostraron distribución centralizada de la adiposidad y 49% de ellos tuvieron alto riesgo de adiposidad abdominal. Los presentes resultados aportan nuevas evidencias sobre el incremento de la obesidad en Amerindios, como parte del proceso de transición nutricional. Los cambios en el estilo de vida pueden explicar parte de la tendencia observada.

Sonia Colantonio, María del Carmen Ferreyra, Dora E. Celton

En épocas coloniales y a principios del período independentista, la ciudad de Córdoba albergó una considerable población esclava, fundamentalmente mujeres provenientes de diferentes grupos etno-sociales que servían la mayoría de las veces en hogares de blancos. Contando con una amplia base de bautismos de hijos de esclavas realizados en la iglesia Catedral, nuestro objetivo fue estimar y analizar a la luz de su condición jurídica distintos indicadores de su ciclo reproductivo. Comparando las mujeres casadas con las solteras, dada la elevada ilegitimidad en los nacimientos, se estimaron la edad media al primer matrimonio, al primer hijo y al último, el número medio de hijos nacidos vivos, el intervalo protogenésico y el intergenésico según la paridad. Los resultados muestran que las esclavas se reproducían tanto casadas como solteras aunque comenzando predominantemente fuera del matrimonio, en edades similares a la población blanca, el número medio de hijos nacidos vivos era de alrededor de 5, con intervalos proto e intergenésicos largos. Estas características habrían respondido fuertemente a las condiciones particulares en que vivían y a la importancia económica que tenía durante el período la posesión de esclavos. Palabras clave: esclavas; características reproductivas; Córdoba; Argentina   During the colonial and early post-Colonial period, Córdoba city was home to a considerable slave population mainly women from different ethno-social groups serving in white people’s households. From a database consisting of registers of slave baptisms at the Cathedral church, indicators of slave women’s reproductive cycles were analyzed considering their marital status. Given the high number of extramarital births, single and married women were compared. The mean age at first marriage, at first birth and at the last one, the mean number of live children, and the protogenesic and intergenesic intervals by parity were calculated. The results show that slave women bore children both when married and single, but starting mainly when single, at similar ages to those of the white population. The average of live births was about 5, and proto and intergenesic intervals were long. These characteristics might have been strongly influenced by their particular life conditions and by the economic importance of having slaves during the period. Keywords: slave women; reproductive characteristics; Córdoba; Argentina

M. Goodrum

Carolina Paschetta, Rolando González-José

RESUMEN La expresión fenotípica es el resultado de una compleja red de interacciones entre el genotipo y el ambiente. De entre los factores que contribuyen a establecer el fenotipo adulto, los procesos de desarrollo son de particular importancia como determinantes de los patrones de variación en distintos niveles de organización dentro del individuo. En este trabajo, dos resultados del actuar de dichos procesos, la canalización y la integración morfológica son evaluados en diferentes regiones del cráneo ó módulos en seis poblaciones humanas modernas que contrastan en sus estrategias económicas y sus orígenes geográficos. La canalización puede definirse como la resistencia de una población a responder a diferencias ambientales o genéticas mediante un aumento en la variación de sus fenotipos. La integración morfológica puede definirse como el grado de interrelación en la expresión de diferentes caracteres. Los resultados sugieren altos grados de canalización para el neuro y basicráneo y menos canalización en las restantes estructuras, más vinculadas con la masticación. Por otro lado, la integración morfológica es más evidente en la fosa temporal y la articulación temporo-mandibular. En general, los resultados indican que existen efectos diferenciales de la canalización e integración morfológica en los diferentes módulos craneales, y que probablemente estas diferencias respondan a los efectos de variaciones en los estilos de vida. ABSTRACT The adult phenotype is the result of a complex network of interactions between the genotype and the environment. Among the factors that contribute to establish the adult phenotype, developmental processes are particularly important in determining patterns of variation at different organization levels within the individual. In this work, two products of such developmental processes, canalization and morphological integration, are evaluated at different skull regions or modules in six modern human populations differing in their life-style and geographic origins. Canalization is defined as the resistance of a population to respond to environmental or genetic differences by increasing the variation in their phenotypes. Morphological integration is defined as the interrelationship degree in the expression of different characters. Results indicate that the neurocranium and the base are the most canalized of the studied structures, whereas structures related to mastication tend to show differing levels of canalization. Morphological integration is most evident in the temporal fossa and the temporo mandibular joint. In general, these results indicate that variable levels of canalization and morphological integration can arise as a response to different environmental stimuli like life strategy and/or diet hardness.  Publicado on-line: 22/08/2012