Alex de Voogt

Indian ocean crossroads: Human genetic origin and population structure in the maldives

The Maldives are an 850 km-long string of atolls located centrally in the northern Indian Ocean basin. Because of this geographic situation, the present-day Maldivian population has potential for uncovering genetic signatures of historic migration events in the region. We therefore studied autosomal DNA-, mitochondrial DNA-, and Y-chromosomal DNA markers in a representative sample of 141 unrelated Maldivians, with 119 from six major settlements. We found a total of 63 different mtDNA haplotypes that could be allocated to 29 mtDNA haplogroups, mostly within the M, R, and U clades. We found 66 different Y-STR haplotypes in 10 Y-chromosome haplogroups, predominantly H1, J2, L, R1a1a, and R2. Parental admixture analysis for mtDNA- and Y-haplogroup data indicates a strong genetic link between the Maldive Islands and mainland South Asia, and excludes significant gene flow from Southeast Asia. Paternal admixture from West Asia is detected, but cannot be distinguished from admixture from South Asia. Maternal admixture from West Asia is excluded. Within the Maldives, we find a subtle genetic substructure in all marker systems that is not directly related to geographic distance or linguistic dialect. We found reduced Y-STR diversity and reduced male-mediated gene flow between atolls, suggesting independent male founder effects for each atoll. Detected reduced female-mediated gene flow between atolls confirms a Maldives-specific history of matrilocality. In conclusion, our new genetic data agree with the commonly reported Maldivian ancestry in South Asia, but furthermore suggest multiple, independent immigration events and asymmetrical migration of females and males across the archipelago. Am J Phys Anthropol 151:58–67, 2013.

Mancala players at Palmyra

Playing mancala-type games was an addictive pastime of antiquity and leaves its archaeological imprint on steps and ledges in the form of rows of little scoops. Here the author examines the traces of the game at Palmyra and shows that the Roman game of the third century (with five holes a side) was superseded when Palmyras Temple of Baal was refashioned as a fort in the seventh century or later. The new Syrian game, with seven holes a side, was played obsessively by the soldiers of an Arab or Ottoman garrison on the steps and precinct wall of the old temple.Playing mancala-type games was an addictive pastime of antiquity and leaves its archaeological imprint on steps and ledges in the form of rows of little scoops. Here the author examines the traces of the game at Palmyra and shows that the Roman game of the third century (with five holes a side) was superseded when Palmyras Temple of Baal was refashioned as a fort in the seventh century or later. The new Syrian game, with seven holes a side, was played obsessively by the soldiers of an Arab or Ottoman garrison on the steps and precinct wall of the old temple.

Fatalities in General Aviation: From Balloons to Helicopters

General Aviation (GA) has shown the highest proportion of accidents and fatalities in aviation. The countries with the highest number of GA flights (USA, UK, and Australia) all show high accident rates for this category. The developments in the approaches to aviation safety, in particular in relation to GA, show an increasing understanding of the determining factors of fatalities and the most promising strategies to prevent them.Occurrences in aviation that involve fatalities are universally classified as accidents. Accidents are in contrast with incidents, which only feature minor injury and minor damage to the aircraft. Accident statistics have dominated the study of aviation safety and have benefitted from new approaches from organizational psychology. The relevance of these approaches to GA accident investigations is limited due to the highly diversified operations and the limited organizational structure of this industry.

Opening a grave in Antiquity: formation and interpretation in the Kingdom of Meroe

During Late Antiquity in the Middle Nile Valley, the cemeteries of the Kingdom of Meroe had their graves visited many times after the first burial took place. Even if robbers left a burial chamber open, it could still be reused soon after for another individual accompanied by a regular funerary ceremony. The term “grave activity” is introduced here to describe any human intervention likely to modify the environment of a tomb. It includes any (re-)opening of the grave related to looting activity or reburial practice. “Grave activity” may affect the structure, the position and presence of one or more bodies as well as the presence (or absence) of funerary deposits. A disturbed grave should be studied by disentangling these activities. This can be achieved with a reconstruction of the chronology and the types of activity as well as the particular consequences of each. While these activities are usually highly confusing to archaeologists, it is shown how a systematic documentation can be used to offer a better understanding and interpretation of Meroitic funerary practices.

Mancala at the pyramids of Meroe

Game-boards carved on monuments offer an intriguing opportunity to track a certain mindset in time and space. In an earlier Antiquity article, the author showed us that mancala boards were carved on the Roman plinths at Palmyra by Arab soldiers. Here he takes us into Sudan, finding new mancala boards on the first-millennium pyramids at Meroe. With adroit detective work, he shows that these too are probably owed to military visitors, this time a group of nineteenth-century Turkish soldiers of the Ottoman empire—perhaps those assigned to help Giuseppe Ferlini to blow up and pillage the tombs.

Strategic interactions: Games of the Ju|’hoan

Three strategic games played by the Ju|’hoan—a board, a card, and a gesture game—complicate the rhetorics that suggest an evolutionary or psychological significance of play. They are mostly played by adults, although every individual adult does not necessarily engage in each game. The Ju|’hoan card and board game practices were transmitted through contact across large parts of Botswana and Namibia, while the gesture game n!àì has been known in other San communities. It suggests that the significance of strategic games is more likely found in its potential for social interaction (i.e., allowing to overcome cultural divides) than in evolution and psychology. Within the anthropological literature, strategy games were thought to be absent in egalitarian societies, such as that of the Ju|’hoan. Here, the roles of power, competition, and winning were thought to be disruptive and unwanted. A closer examination of the details behind the Ju|’hoan games shows that not only were strategy games adopted and adapted from neighboring societies but that the game of n!àì was developed by the Ju|’hoan into a competitive one. The evolutionary or psychological significance of play is informed by studies on individual play, children’s play, and games with informal rules. When considering strategic games throughout history, it is their role of facilitator rather than the playing practice itself that makes games relevant across languages, cultural divides, and sociopolitical boundaries.

Strategic games in society: the geography of adult play

ABSTRACT The hypothesis presented in anthropology that games of strategy are more likely to be found in complex societies appears not to be informed by historical research on board and card games. The geographic distribution of games points to a history of trade and migration rather than a preference expressed by complex societies. Strategy games are primarily played by adults, while anthropological research on play has been primarily focused on children. As a result, the idea that strategy games are resisted by particular societies has continued unchallenged in the anthropological literature even though evidence on the presence of board and card games questions its validity.ABSTRACTThe hypothesis presented in anthropology that games of strategy are more likely to be found in complex societies appears not to be informed by historical research on board and card games. The geographic distribution of games points to a history of trade and migration rather than a preference expressed by complex societies. Strategy games are primarily played by adults, while anthropological research on play has been primarily focused on children. As a result, the idea that strategy games are resisted by particular societies has continued unchallenged in the anthropological literature even though evidence on the presence of board and card games questions its validity.

Navigating Disciplinary Boundaries: Script, Games and the Role of Language

Datasets from ethnography help generalize the findings in cultural transmission theory. Participation in cultural transmission theory of social scientists has been sparse. Other untapped sources of data that are similar in kind and that already enjoy interdisciplinary attention require a skillful navigation of disciplinary boundaries. Both writing systems and board games are examples of descriptive material collected in the historical sciences that are used for testing hypotheses related to cultural evolution. They show that physical appearance and a system of rules can be transmitted independently, and that language is not always a boundary in the transmission process. It is argued that research questions shared by different disciplines should be embraced so that incompatibilities of method and theory are no longer an obstacle for collaboration.

The absence of games in the presence of claims. Reply to Garry Chick

I wish to join Garry Chick in thanking René Proyer who has facilitated this discussion of a persistent claim in the anthropological literature about strategic games. By stating that ‘Roberts et al.’s claim that simple societies “should resist borrowing” games of strategy is clearly incorrect’, Garry Chick agrees with the main criticism put forward in the article ‘Strategic games in society: the geography of adult play’. We may differ on the reasons why. According to Garry Chick ‘there is no reason to believe that the ethnographic or coding errors in the SCCS are other than random’. However, both Townshend (1980) and the article on which he just commented have shown that the errors are only of one kind: the presence of games in societies is not contested, only the supposed absence of games. Museum collections (Walker, 1990) also show that there is a systematic lack of documenting, for example, mancala games in the ethnographic literature. Sbrzesny (1976), a work not used in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS), based her research on play among the !Ko (also known as !Xóõ or !Xun) on the premise that games had not been systematically studied for hunter-gatherer communities in the Kalahari Basin and she was correct. We can perhaps agree that the cross-cultural comparative method remains a viable method of research but the present databases do not allow for this method to substantiate links between cultural complexity and strategy games as they do not contain systematic data on games. A study on the cultural transmission of board games (de Voogt, Dunn-Vaturi, & Eerkens, 2013) has shown that board games as cultural traits are particularly suitable to be shared by different societies across large geographical areas and for long periods of time. Most strategy games that we play today are shared with neighboring societies, countries or even continents. The rules of chess, checkers, backgammon, parcheesi/ ludo, dominoes, to name a few, have remained largely the same as they spread across the world while each of these have known geographic origins as well as specific time periods in which they were developed. Few if any societies develop strategy games regularly but most if not all will adapt one or more rules over time. An important purpose of societies having games is to play them with their neighbors (Crist, de Voogt, & Dunn-Vaturi, 2016). This suggests that there may be many societies, including those scoring high on social complexity and political integration as defined in the SCCS, that did not develop or originate the strategic games they are playing today or they may have done so but a long time ago. In other words, it is not a slight change when Garry

DuruCalculations and the Understanding of Mancala Expertise

Duruor rounds are a central aspect of calculating moves in a group of mancala games. It is shown that the ability to calculate multiple duru is a prerequisite to mancala (bao) expertise in Zanzibar, while duru-related optimization strategies explain the accomplishments of Maldivian mancala (ohvalhu) players. Since bao masters define duru calculation skills as part of bao expertise, their performance on duru calculation tasks is contrasted with that of novice players. The results show that only game-specific duru calculation skills distinguish novices from master players. Maldivian players of ohvalhu solved their mancala game by identifying a winning opening. Their optimization strategy includes a minimization of the number of duru for a move choice. Duru calculations have a central role in our understanding of mancala expertise and both game-specific and general aspects of duru inform us about problem-solving and decision-making processes of mancala experts.