Mark Hubbe

Early Holocene human skeletal remains from Cerca Grande, Lagoa Santa, Central Brazil, and the origins of the first Americans

We present the results of comparative multivariate morphological analyses based on nine skulls from Cerca Grande. The site is in the Lagoa Santa karst in Central Brazil, a key area for understanding the peopling of the Americas. The region has several archaeological sites with excellent preservation of late Pleistocene and early Holocene material culture and human skeletal remains. Stratigraphic association and direct dating of the Cerca Grande human skeletons place them definitely in the Early Holocene (c. 9000 bp uncalibrated). Principal components analysis and Mahalanobis distances reveal that these skeletons have no morphological affinities with present-day Native Americans or East Asians. These results agree with other studies and suggest that the skeletons may derive from a wave of migrants that entered the New World before the characteristic Mongoloid morphology spread throughout East Asia.

On the Misclassification of Human Crania: Are There Any Implications for Assumptions about Human Variation?

Cranial morphology has pervaded the discussion of human races for over a century. Nowadays, scholars can be divided into those who utilize craniometric variation as a way to explore evolutionary relationships among human groups (see Howells 1973, 1989, for the most inclusive studies on human cranial variation) and those who argue that skull morphology is inappropriate for recovering human evolutionary history because of its alleged plasticity. Recent studies have demonstrated that cranial morphology has a strong genetic background and that it behaves as a neutral evolutionary entity (Relethford 2004; Roseman 2004). This is not to say that the human skull presents no environmental plasticity or adaptive meaning, but its plasticity seems to be limited to specific anatomical regions. (Gonzalez-Jose et al. 2005). Williams, Belcher, and Armelagos (CA 46:340–46) have argued, however, on the basis of the misclassification of a high percentage of ancient skulls into modern reference samples, that “the possibility that skeletal material could be accurately sorted by geographic origin, at any other level than geographic extremes, is quite small” (p. 345). Accordingly, they conclude that cranial form is largely determined by immediate environmental conditions. We suggest that the design of their experiment is flawed. To test the hypothesis that ancient Nubians were closely related to ancient Egyptians, they used Fordisc 2.0, a forensic software that classifies individuals into reference samples. Their test was based on 12 variables that “have been shown to have diagnostic value” (p. 342), but 12 variables are far from enough to classify a skull on the basis of discriminant functions. To demonstrate this, we used 18 Howells (1973) populations, three from each geographical region, to classify individuals into their original populations. Individuals from six populations (table 1), from each region, were classified into the closest of

Paleoamerican cranial variation in global microevolutionary perspective: Implications for the settlement of the Americas

Leprosy is one of the few specific ninfectious diseases that can be studied in nbioarchaeology due to its characteristic ndebilitating and disfiguring skeletal changes. nLeprosy has been, and continues to be, one of the nmost socially stigmatising diseases in history, nover-riding all other aspects of social identity for nthe sufferers and frequently resulting in social nexclusion. This study examines the stable nisotopic evidence of mobility patterns of nchildren, adolescents, and young adult nindividuals with the lepromatous form of leprosy nin Medieval England (10 nth n–12 nth ncenturies AD) to nassess whether the individuals buried with the ndisease were non-locals, possibly from further nafield. Enamel samples from 19 individuals from nthe St. Mary Magdalen Leprosy Hospital, nWinchester (UK) were selected for strontium n( n87 nSr/ n86 n6Uue00cue003 DQGue003 R[JHQue003 ue00bį n18 nO) stable isotope nanalysis based on age at death (<30 years), the npresence of bone changes associated with nlepromatous leprosy, and the underlying geology nof their burial locations. The results from these ndata indicate that the St. Mary Magdalen Leprosy nHospital received an almost equal mixture of nlocal and non-local individuals from further nafield, including early pilgrims. At present, the nSt. Mary Magdalen Leprosy Hospital is the nearliest dedicated leprosaria found within Britain nand mobility studies such as these can help nelucidate and test some of the broader historical nnotions and identities associated with the nmovements of those infected with the disease in nMedieval England.s of the AAPA presentations 72 On the cover: Atlanta Skyline

Dissimilarity fraction for metric traits of human skull: Comparison with genetic studies

Cortisol, as a biomarker of the generalized adaptive stress response, can provide critical information on the physiological effects of behavior. However, group-living animals face multiple interacting stressors from their social and ecological environments. While recent research has revealed the impact of particular social stressors in isolation, few studies have examined how diverse factors contribute to long-term stress hormone variation. We applied multivariate analyses to a 10-year dataset to investigate urinary cortisol variation in wild female chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in Kibale National Park, Uganda. In interindividual contrasts, older females had higher cortisol levels, as did females that were low-ranking for their age. Over time, cortisol was significantly predicted by rates of aggression, particularly female-targeted aggression. The effect of male-female aggression was most pronounced for cycling, swollen females, who are the most frequent targets of sexual coercion. On the other hand, lactating females were strongly affected by group size, such that cortisol levels were elevated when parties contained more females and fewer males. Fruit consumption was an important covariate for lactating females, who experienced higher cortisol when the diet was poor. Our data indicate that both social and energetic factors contribute to stress variation in female chimpanzees, but that energetic stress increases in significance for females facing high reproductive costs. Our study also contributes to growing evidence that direct and indirect competition, while subtle in their expression, can have substantial impacts on female chimpanzees.