Chapter 11 Flashcards
Beringia Refuge hypothesis
A theory of the population and settlement of the
Americas.
stage 1: Beringia Refuge hypothesis
migrants from Asia reached Beringia, experienced a moderate reduction in genetic variation, and then continued down the west coast of the
Americas
stage 2: Beringia Refuge hypothesis
Asian migrants in
Beringia became trapped during the Last Glacial Maximum. A more serious genetic bottleneck occurred, and these people eventually populated the far northern American regions.
bias of the book
The biased interpretation of history presented in the writings of literate peoples when writing about non-literate peoples.
caries
The decay and crumbling of a tooth or bone.
Clovis First
The theory that the Clovis people were the first to settle the Americas, around 13,000–13,500 years ago.
Coastal Migration hypothesis
The theory that the first people to settle in the
Americas took a route following the West Coast along shores now under water.
cribra orbitalia
Porous lesions of the orbital roof of the frontal bone
genetic bottleneck
A situation in which either only a few genetic variants are able to pass through some kind of natural geographic barrier or (more generally) a significant percentage of a geographic population or
species is prevented from reproducing.
geofacts
Items created by nature, not by humans.
Great Zimbabwe
A series of huge granite edifices, including a large wall known as the Great Enclosure, built by the ancestors of the Shona
people of southern Africa (specifically Zimbabwe) between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.
Kennewick Man
The remains of a skeleton that were discovered along the banks of the Columbia River in 1996, dated to 9,330–9,580 ya
NAGPRA
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
periosteum
The dense connective tissue that forms a membrane at the
outer surface of bones
Spirit Cave mummy
A mummy discovered in Nevada in the 1940s, radiocarbon dated to 9,430 ± 60 years ago. The teeth show signs of sinodonty and craniometry suggesting similarity to the Ainu
Monte Verde
A significant pre-Clovis site in Chile. A peat bog has allowed many organic materials to be preserved.
trophies of science
the way in which indigenous peoples dead remains are treated, while non-Aboriginal remains are treated with respect.
The Accidental Mummies
of Guanajuato
Mexican museum exhibit that went on a US tour. These mummies were dug up during a period from 1896 to 1958 when relatives of the dead were required to pay a grave tax. The bodies of those who failed to pay were exhumed and put on display until the law changed in 1958.
Latin America Attitude towards the dead
human remains are excavated and
displayed without opposition in museums as a result of ‘Indianness’
Inca Mummies
naturally frozen mummies in the Andes mountains,
victims of sacrifices during the Inca Empire. found between 1995 and 1999.
Juanita (the ‘Ice Maiden’)
the first mummy discovered at 6,309
metres (20,700 ft.
Otzi The Iceman
In 1991, a frozen body was found on a mountain on the Austria–Italy border, dating to between 5,300 and 5,200 years ago.
The Bog Mummies of Europe
In northwestern Europe, hundreds of bodies have been found in peat bogs, dating from the final centuries BC to the first centuries AD.
Iron Age farmers that were murdered / sacrificed
Hypoplasias
are grooves, lines or pits in teeth that reflected arrested growth due
to poor nutrition and/or disease
tooth size
linked to nutritional health. smaller indicates agriculturalists and poorer nutrition/more processed food consumed
agriculture effect on bones
increase in periosteal reaction to infection, as
detected in the tibia, caused by increased settlement size and closeness and frequency of human contact. Decrease in average height. Early farmers had a reduced rate of osteoarthritis, particularly of the neck
and back due to large amount of bending and heavy lifting
required in the collection of food versus the production of food
Cribra Orbitalia
Lesions of the orbital roof of the frontal bone. Produced in situations of
iron-deficiency anemia, due to deficiency of iron in the diet, parasitic
infections, chronic diarrhea, significant blood loss.
Origins of Aboriginal people
Aboriginal people originally come from Asia. Features: straight, dark hair; brown eyes; skin of various shades of brown; shovel shaped incisors.
How did aboriginal peoples get to America?
Aboriginal peoples of the Americas walked from Asia across Beringia, a land mass connecting Siberia and Alaska during the peak of the Ice Age.
Meadowcroft Rockshelter
tool-bearing
layer dating to roughly 14,800 BP in Meadowcroft, Pennsylvania. possibility of coal contamination in the groundwater, distorting radiocarbon dates
Pedra Furada
The Pedra Furada site in northeastern Brazil contains strata dating as far back as 48,000 to 56,000 years ago; in these layers is evidence of fire and what look like flaked
pebble tools.
geofacts versus
artifacts
a natural stone formation that is difficult to distinguish from a man-made artifact
diversity of
languages
The farther south you go in the Americas, the greater the diversity of
languages. North America has 55 language groupings. South
America has 143. West coast of Americas also more diverse.
language diversity suggests:
1.South America may have been broadly settled before North America.
2.First settlers took a western coastal route in their migration, the Coastal
Migration hypothesis
linguistic groups native to the Americas
Amerind, Na-Dene, and Eskimo–Aleut
Y-Chromosomes and the Americas
2004 study on Y-chromosomes in 51 populations of Aboriginal peoples in the Americas
76.4% belonged to haplogroup Q, 5.8% to C
C is concentrated in Na-Dene and absent in Eskimo–Aleut.
2003 study found C group in six Greenlandic Inuit, supporting Beringia Refuge hypothesis
1996 study of pre-contact Mexican populations suggests Southeast Asian migration along Pacific Coast
Costal Route Hypothesis (Kurt Fladmark)
first Aboriginal people travelled down from the northwest corner of North America by following an ice-free path down the West Coast.
Skulls versus Genes
Kennewick skull: cranium belonged to a European but skeletal material and artifacts demonstrated that it was Aboriginal.
skull was like ainu or Austronesian; dental analysis suggested it had sundadont teeth
Luzia
discovered in Brazil in 1975 and dated roughly 11,500 ya, making
it the oldest skeleton in the Americas. Cranium is narrow and oval; her face and chin are typical of non-Mongoloid Southeast Asians
The Lagoa Santa Skulls
skulls from central Brazil from 7,500 to 11,000 ya; morphology is different from late and modern Northeastern Asians and
Amerindians, and similar to present Australians/Melanesians and Africans.
The Lagoa Santa Skulls Hypotheses
local diversification hypothesis: local microevolutionary
process took place. This was dismissed
migratory hypothesis:
two different populations moved into the area,
the first and the earliest being different from the second and larger migration
