Kenneth A. R. Kennedy

Tooth Wear and Culture: A Survey of Tooth Functions Among Some Prehistoric Populations [and Comments and Reply]

Studies of hominid fossils have frequently reported that one of their outstanding characteristics is their heavily worn teeth. Many skeletal remains of modern man also show this condition of dental attrition, which is probably related to certain cultural activities. The varieties of foods consumed by primitive man and the specialized tool functions of the teeth have left significant marks in the form of worn occlusal surfaces over the dental arches. This paper discusses some of the functions of the teeth indicated by these marks and suggests that tooth wear should be studied carefully in order to gain significant information about the activities of past populations.

Morphological Variations in Ulnar Supinator Crests and Fossae as Identifying Markers of Occupational Stress

Recent morphometric studies of ulnae of prehistoric skeletal remains from populations known to have used spears, atlatls, and similar projectile weapons for hunting and warfare reveal a high incidence of hypertrophy of the ulnar crest, to which the supinator muscle is attached, along with pronounced depth of the adjacent supinator fossa, especially in the upper extremities of males. Similar features occur in the right ulnae of living persons of both sexes who are habitually engaged in certain occupational and athletic activities involving angular displacement of the forearm as a result of medial rotation of the arm at the shoulder, shoulder and arm rapid extension, and abrupt shifts from forearm supination to pronation. Aside from its forensic science implications in determination of right- or left-handedness as a trait peculiar to the individual, observation of these markers of stress on the proximal end of the ulna are significant in identification of skeletal remains of persons known to have engaged in specific brachial activities during life. The biomechanics of these movement patterns and activities in which they occur, when properly interpreted, are relevant to forensic science problems of individual identification and paleoanthropological studies of occupational stress factors in extinct populations for which a skeletal record is available.

Some Aspects of the Evolution of Early Hominid Sexual Dimorphism [and Comments and Reply]

This paper reviews the patterns of sexual dimorphism in the living higher primates and suggests criteria for sex determination in the australopithecines. Using the bimodal distribution for australopithecine canine breadths, sex determination for individual specimens is attempted. The pattern of sexual dimorphism in the australopithecines differs from that in other higher primates: posterior-tooth dimorphism, mandibular-corpus dimorphism, and probably, therefore, body-size dimorphism are at the extreme of the higher-primate range, while canine dimorphism is considerably less than in most living primates, although greater than in living humans. It is suggested that the primary cause of the difference between hominid and pongid trends in the evolution of sexual dimorphism is the increasing importance of tools as a supplement and replacement for the canines in hominid evolution.

The wrong urn: commingling of cremains in mortuary practices.

Personal identification of human skeletal remains altered by the heat of crematory furnaces in modern mortuaries may be complicated by the presence of more than a single individual in a sample. When identification of cremains of neonates and young children is required in legal disputes, as in cases where relatives suspect that a funeral establishment has presented them with the ashes of another individual, the forensic anthropologist may be consulted by their legal representative. Problems to be considered in personal identification of cremated bodies are (1) presence or absence of commingled remains in a sample; (2) identification of one or more individuals present. Methods used in sorting and identifying neonate, infant and pre-adolescent remains include reconstruction of stature in situations where long bone diaphyses are preserved, as this may provide evidence of age at time of death, and assessment of dental crown development of unerupted and erupted deciduous teeth also for age determination. These procedures were used in the case reported here concerning mortuary practices of a funeral home and a family claiming that they were presented with the cremains of an adult and not those of their 15-hour-old daughter.

Markers of occupational stress: conspectus and prognosis of research

In his role as discussant of the papers presented at the symposium on Activity Patterns and Musculoskeletal Stress Markers: An Integrative Approach to Bioarchaeological Questions at the 66th Annual Meetings of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists held in St. Louis, Missouri, on 4 April 1997, the author summarizes topics presented by the participants and others, discusses innovative methodological procedures and statistical approaches advanced by these contributors, and offers concluding remarks about the present status of studies of markers of occupational stress (MOS), which include investigations of specific markers of musculoskeletal stress (MSM) and degrees of skeletal robusticity (RM). The recent resurgence of interest in identification and diagnosis of habitual patterns of activity, as registered on bone and dental tissues, is exemplified in this collection of reports by scholars active in the fields of forensic anthropology, palaeodemography, palaeopathology and human skeletal biology. Earlier hypotheses are reassessed by new methodologies, but formulation of reliable standards for recognizing MOS and interpreting their underlying causes remains a challenge for the advancement of future research programmes.

But Professor, Why Teach Race Identification if Races Don't Exist?

Although the typological race concept is obsolete in present-day systematic biology and anthropology, the idea that human populations and individuals are classifiable into separate races (Blacks, Whites, Native Americans, etc.) persists in government census data and mass media sources as well as in the forensic sciences. Determination of ancestry is a critical component of the forensic anthropologists methodology in identification of human remains. In training students in laboratory techniques of personal identification, the paradox of the scientific rejection of the race concept and its survival in medical-legal contexts needs to be addressed explicitly. Forensic anthropologists and their colleagues in other branches of biological anthropology are best able to determine the ancestral background of an individual when they are familiar with the geographical distributions and frequencies of phenotypic traits in modern populations. Their methodology does not necessitate a racial classification based upon nonconcordant characters in order to provide evidence for positive identification of individuals.

Biological Adaptations and Affinities of Mesolithic South Asians

The earliest reported discovery in South Asia of human skeletons associated with Mesolithic cultural materials occurred in 1880–1881 at Mahara Pahar, Uttar Pradesh, India (Allchin, 1958; Carlleyle 1883, 1885). In the full century that has elapsed since the date of Carlleyle’s survey, the Mesolithic skeletal record has increased considerably (Kennedy 1980). Today skeletal biologists may turn to research materials from South Asia that are commensurate in size and preservation quality with Mesolithic series from Europe, Africa, and the Levant. South Asian collections are datable within a temporal range extending from the terminal Pleistocene times of ca. 12,000 years b.p. (before present) to the periods of establishment of Neolithic communities in the northwestern sector of the subcontinent by the seventh millennium b.c. and by some 4000 years later in peninsular India. Thus, they are contemporary with other Mesolithic skeletal series recovered from sites outside of South Asia. Also, certain economic and technological aspects of the hunting—gathering Mesolithic life-style persisted until historic times in some tribal areas in India. Distribution of the Indian Mesolithic is attested to by the archaeological evidence scattered across the South Asian landmass from Afghanistan in the west and eastward to Assam, from the Kashmir Valley of the Himalayan ranges southward to island Sri Lanka.

Early Human Cultural and Skeletal Remains from Guitarrero Cave, Northern Peru

An early man site in highland Peru yielded a rich cultural assemblage in stratigraphic association with faunal remains, botanical remains, and campfire remnants that furnished secure radiocarbon dates. A human mandible and teeth, showing interesting patterns of occlusal wear, were found in a stratum dated by a charcoal sample to 10,610 B.C., the oldest such date in South America.

South Asian Prehistoric Human Skeletal Remains and Burial Practices

South Asia is assuming a frontier position with respect to recent advances in human paleontology, skeletal biology, paleodemography, and paleoecology. For many years the exclusive preserve of archaeological investigation, the Indian subcontinent is now yielding a prehistoric skeletal record that promises to answer many questions of a biological and demographic nature that the study of the artifactual and stratigraphical record does not supply. Not only have the numbers of prehistoric skeletal specimens increased through recent excavations, but many skeletal specimens and series collected in earlier times are being reinvestigated. Furthermore, the information derived from modern morphometric analyses of skeletal remains extends far beyond a preoccupation with racial identification and discernment of biological affinities. Reorientation of research designs means a closer association of anatomical and statistical analyses of skeletal materials to specific archaeological issues as well as the application of these data to the broader spectrum of world prehistory and human evolution. In his or her search for comparative skeletal data, the biological anthropologist is discovering the richness of research materials available in South Asia, a skeletal record that has a considerable, if discontinuous, antiquity of some 9 to 15 million years for hominoids.

The Pleistocene Epoch and the Evolution of Man [and Comments and Reply]

THE CALABRIAN STAGE was defined by Gignoux (1913) as the last stage of the Pliocene Epoch, characterized in the Mediterranean by the presence of Arctica (Cyprina) islandica and a dozen marine mollusks previously restricted to northern waters (North Atlantic, North Sea, and Baltic Sea). Arctica islandica and the associated mollusks belong to a rather shallow facies (less than 150 m., according to Ruggieri 1965) and are supposed to have entered the Mediterranean following a general temperature decrease. In deeper-water facies, the climatic deterioration is evidenced by the sudden and widespread appearance in abundance of the northern benthonic foraminiferal species Hyalinea (Anomalina) baltica (Schroeter). Although this foraminiferal species and the molluscan species Arctica islandica are generally not found together because of their different habitats, Ruggieri (1961, 1965) established that Arctica islandica entered the Mediterranean somewhat earlier than Hyalinea baltica and distinguished a Lower Calabrian characterized by the occurrence of the former and the absence of the latter. The 18th International Geological Congress in London in 1948 removed the Calabrian stage from the Pliocene and redefined it as the first stage of the Pleistocene. Later, the General Assembly of the 7th