Clinical and osteological studies have provided evidence that patterns in human skeletal morphological variations can be correlated with general patterns of activity. A whole-body life-course approach, which combines a variety of activity pattern analyses, provides the strongest support for activity related morphological variations and their development during life. By understanding the patterns of types of activities and their associated strain levels, applying biological characteristics of individuals in a life-course perspective, it becomes possible to frame biological and cultural data within a social narrative. This study examines social identity over the life course in the historic dairy farming community of Middenbeemster, NL, through the examination of skeletal markers of bone growth and maintenance and activity-related stress. It was hypothesized that the high demand for Dutch dairy products during the occupation of Middenbeemster would be reflected in the manifestation and intensity of skeletal markers of activity, suggesting sex and age-related patterns of activity and workload. A total of 87 adults (M=46, F=41) were chosen to be analyzed for the following variables: non-pathological osteoarthritis of all appendicular joints, 8 non-genetic non-metric traits, and 27 entheseal insertions (per side) chosen to represent a variety of major muscle groups/movements. Additionally, humeral and femoral diaphyseal cross-sectional geometry was examined in 108 adults (M=57, F= 51) and 22 subadults. Musculoskeletal development analyses provide strong support for a sex-based division of labor with several changes in activity patterns over the life-course for both sexes. Men from Middenbeemster exhibited changes in types of activities that most likely reflect an age-associated change in duties of daily farm life from an apprentice-like position involving milking the herd to more strenuous and variable activities. Women from Middenbeemster also exhibited age-associated changes in types of activities. Overall, the patterns of the results suggest that younger women were involved not only in the caretaking of the home, but were also important contributors in the dairy production process. A review of historical literature provides support for the inferred sex and age-based divisions of labor, however, the conclusions reached in this dissertation suggest a far more active role for women in the economic success of the dairy farms than was historically recorded.

This project uses multiple methods to explore how the biosocial variables of age, sex, and status intersect with social inequalities in a prehistoric Colombian population. The archaeological site of Tibanica in the Sabana de Bogotá, Colombia (AD 1000-1400) is an ideal place to examine the biocultural aspects of intersectionality, as it is a settlement of a complex chiefdom society. Inequality may be tied to age groups, differences between the sexes, or between those who are archaeologically recognized as higher/lower status based on mortuary practices. This project studies three loci where identities and inequality may be expressed and evidenced in the body: food consumption patterns, physical labor, and skeletal health. Human skeletons present the opportunity to study how these variables that are both biologically real and socially constituted, may relate to unequal power access within any society. 199 human skeletons were studied using stable isotope analysis (13C, 15N) of tooth and bone samples (n=199) to reconstruct individual dietary histories, cross-sectional geometry analysis of femur (n=63) and humerus (n=33) bones to study human activity patterns, and bone remodeling in the metacarpal to examine overall bone loss and health (n=75). Dietary and activity data indicate significant differences between women and men over the lifetime, suggesting that different spheres of identity and activities were delineated by sex and age. Stable isotope data show differential access to particular foods, with both sexes consuming significant amounts of maize, but females consumed less maize and more C3-type foods than males. Cross-sectional geometry data revealed that male work emphasized lower body strength, probably related to agricultural work, while female activities required a strong upper body, likely related to food preparation and childcare activities. Skeletal health data indicate that in older age both women and men lost cortical bone in the hand, but women were more severely affected earlier in life, possibly due to skeletal responses to pregnancy and/or lactation. While historical and archaeological research of the Muisca has focused on the importance of social rank within a hierarchical chiefdom society, this dissertation suggests that a very salient aspect of everyday experience for the Muisca may have begun with social difference of another kind: between the sexes. These results demonstrate the capacity for bioarchaeological studies to provide unique data that can reveal complex social relationships that may not be observed through other lines of evidence, challenging assumptions about ancient peoples, and directing us to new lines of inquiry.

This dissertation examines the design and implementation of an active, cooperative pedagogy in an undergraduate biological anthropology course. The research draws upon a theoretical framework constructed from anthropology, education, and psychology research. The pedagogy studied was developed for and used in the laboratory component of a large, introductory course at the University of California at Berkeley. As such, the results of this research are relevant to not only other biological anthropology courses but also other large, introductory courses or laboratory-based courses in related disciplines.

The dissertation evaluates the efficacy of the stated pedagogy by answering the following questions: Does the pedagogy effectively engage students of all learning styles in higher-level thinking? Does the pedagogy effectively promote high quality student learning, particularly learning of high-level course material? Does the pedagogy effectively foster long-term retention of key course concepts and higher-level thinking across students of various learning styles? Three lines of evidence are employed to answer these research questions. To address issues of student engagement, classroom observations of students are qualitatively evaluated. Student performance on the final exam in the course is statistically analyzed to answer questions related to initial student learning. In considering issues of student retention from a longitudinal perspective, student performance on a follow-up survey (administered between three months and two years after course completion) is statistically analyzed.

Research presented here suggests the pedagogy does effectively promote student engagement with course material and foster students' long-term retention of learned course material. This efficacy is similar for students of different learning styles and generally applies to both low-level and high-level course material. Preliminary findings also suggest the pedagogy effectively promotes high quality student learning, including learning of high-level material.

It is argued that the stated pedagogy is effective and that this and similar pedagogies could be usefully employed in similar courses in anthropology and biology. Within higher education, generally, and the discipline of anthropology, specifically, there is growing concern over how to effectively teach undergraduate students. The research discussed here provides evidence that active, cooperative approaches to undergraduate anthropology instruction are successful in promoting student engagement, learning, and retention. This research also provides a template for the evaluation of pedagogical approaches that can be applied to future investigations of various pedagogies used in anthropology instruction.

This project employs multiple methods to explore how shifting periods of autonomy during the Portuguese Middle Ages (c. 500-1500 AD) impacted the social and biological fabric of everyday life and post-mortem bodily integrity in religiously distinct communities. The archaeological materials from Santarém, Portugal offer an opportunity to facilitate a comparative approach, as many of the excavated cemetery sites within the municipality are a palimpsest, and contain members of distinct religious and temporal communities. This dissertation prioritizes two cemetery sites: Avenida 5 de Outubro (S.Av5Out; n = 164 burials) and Largo Cândido dos Reis (S.LCR; n = 622 burials) which contain the human skeletal remains of Islamic (c. 8th – 12th centuries, C.E.) and Christian (c. 12th – 16th centuries, C.E.) city residents. This project examines how religious identity might explain some of the variation within and between medieval communities through an investigation of both lived experience (lifeways) and death, dying, and burial treatment (deathways). Lifeways are examined through three major axes: 1) oral health and disease, 2) growth and development, and 3) cortical bone maintenance and loss. The data overall suggest minor differences between Islamic and Christian sub-samples, though Christians exhibited reduced stature, increased odds of some indicators of non-specific stress (porotic hyperostosis and periostosis), and dental pathological lesions. Deathways are similarly examined along three major axes: 1) post-hoc archaeothanatology, 2) macrotaphonomic indicators (preservation, erosion, weathering), and 3) microtaphonomy (histotaphonomy). Islamic and Christian burials were found to be highly different in terms of construction, with Islamic graves significantly narrower and shallower than their Christian counterparts. Islamic skeletons were also less represented, and significantly less preserved than their Christian counterparts, regardless of age and/or sex. The results of this dissertation are part of an emerging pattern that the Christian conquests (canonically termed “Reconquista”) may well have been drastic in their restructuring and urbanizing of the Iberian Peninsula, for both the living and the dead. By examining both lifeways and deathways, this approach and accompanying results demonstrate synthesizing both bioarchaeological assessments of livelihood and funerary taphonomic assessments of deadlihood can reveal more textured understanding of past communities and how the living and the dead become intertwined in urban spaces.

This study investigates variance in bone quality and quantity with respect to site, sex, and female reproductive history in a model species, baboons. Three sites are examined: 1) the midshaft humerus, 2) the midshaft femur, and 3) the L1 vertebra. A total of 109 individuals are included in the humerus analyses, 76 in the femur analyses, and 24 in the lumbar analyses. Intracortical remodeling at the midshaft humerus and femur is assessed through static histomorphometry and trabecular architecture of the lumbar vertebra is assessed through micro-CT. Analyses of bone micro and macrostructural variance reveal significant trends.

Site-specific patterns are observed between the humerus and femur in baboons. Most notably: high porosity, percent osteonal bone, and low adjusted cortical area characterize the midshaft humerus as significantly more remodeled and porous than the midshaft femur. Significant sex differences are also observed. At the midshaft humerus, males grow larger osteons and Haversian canals but have lower overall activation of remodeling whereas females have increased secondary osteon activity (e.g. higher osteon population density, and percent osteonal bone) but exhibit smaller osteons and Haversian areas.

Some of the variance observed in females is related to reproductive history. At both the midshaft humerus and femur, osteon sizes are increased in high parity females, and this may be related the cumulative exposure to elevated estrogen levels during multiple pregnancies, as estrogen has been observed experimentally to increase osteoblast activity and decrease osteoclast functioning. Percent porosity at the midshaft humerus is also observed to be significantly higher in females with high lactation histories. Short-term cortical porosity during lactation has been observed in several animal model species (e.g. rat, dog), typically with only partial recovery. Here, the high porosity in females with high lactation histories suggests that full recovery from short-term lactation-related resorption is incomplete, resulting in increased porosity in the long-term. However, despite the increased intracortical porosity in high-lactation females, significant increases in total and cortical cross-sectional areas are seen at the humerus and femur. Increased periosteal apposition during pregnancy (or retrospectively with parity) at appendicular sites has also been observed in macaques, rats, and humans and here, the behavioral aspects of infant-rearing associated with long periods of juvenile care and nursing also appear to increase the outer cortex (periosteum) of the humerus and femur. The inverse reproductive-specific relationship of periosteal deposition with increased endosteal resorption may have an adaptive mechanical significance. Endocortical resorption results in a decrease in mechanical strength of cortical bone and the increases in periosteal apposition and overall cross-sectional area may help protect the maternal skeleton from fracture during this catabolic period. As long as periosteal apposition continues, the effects of increased intracortical porosity should not have detrimental effects on overall cortical bone health and fracture. Therefore, the overall effects of high parity and lactation on appendicular cortical bone health seen here in the humerus and femur are theoretically neutral.

Analyses here also revealed a potentially interesting relationship between lactational history and lumbar trabecular architecture. The female with the highest lactation history (34% of her life was spent nursing) exhibits abnormally high trabecular spacing, and abnormally low trabecular number and connectivity. Although short-term pregnancy-related changes observed here as well as in rats and humans show increased trabecular number and connectivity, the large resorption of cancellous bone that occurs during multiple cycles of long lactation appear to deteriorate these "new" struts, leaving behind large spaces, a reduced number of trabeculae, and overall decreased connectivity. Although this particular female's trabecular spacing is high, and her connectivity is low, she exhibits a bone volume measurement in the normal range. Because bone volume has the most significant effects on bone strength and stiffness it is unclear if this outlier female's abnormal trabecular architecture puts her at a mechanical disadvantage. Therefore, the long-term effects of reproductive differences at the lumbar site studied here also appear to be neutral. However, both the short and long-term alterations observed in this study are based on a small number (n=3) of outliers and need to be more rigorously tested in a larger sample group.

According to evolutionary theory, females in an iteroparous species that produce multiple offspring over time (e.g. monkeys and humans) would have selectively evolved mechanisms to maintain the skeleton over an entire lifetime of reproduction to increase reproductive success and optimal offspring survival. If evolution favored mechanisms that conserve and repair skeletal tissues during these reproductive periods, there should be no or little detrimental effect to the skeleton in the long term. In this study, even though aspects of bone quality and quantity did show variance with respect to reproductive history, these changes likely do not have strong effects on bone fragility and fracture risk. Therefore, the overall effects of high parity and lactation on appendicular cortical bone health and trabecular quality and quantity seen here are theoretically neutral. However, mechanical testing was not directly carried out in this study. Future work investigating both cortical and trabecular micro-architectural changes with reproductive history should include mechanical testing of specimens to clarify how these specific combinations of microstructural and macrostructural alterations affect bone fragility and fracture risk.

The approaches used in this dissertation advance biological anthropology and bone science by implementing thorough examinations of age, sex, and female reproductive history with respect to micro and macrostructural difference in cortical and trabecular bone. This study also contributes methodologically by demonstrating the importance of using multiple lines of evidence when exploring variance in bone quality and quantity.

In this dissertation project I use multiple lines of evidence to investigate the ways in which inequality and access shape disease outcomes, mobility and movement, and experience in two rural Medieval sites in the Italian peninsula (San Pietro di Villamagna, Lazio; Pieve di Pava, Toscana). I question the nature of disability itself, examining it from multiple angles and in terms of a vibrant body of critical disability studies scholarship, biological anthropology research, and feminist new materialisms. Medieval Europe, and the Italian peninsula in particular, is a dynamic and diverse period for understanding the body and its role in daily life, due to the complexity of changing religious ideology and practice, as well as turbulent political transformation. Biological anthropologists have considered disability, impairment, and the body as an object of study for decades; in contrast, the framework implemented in this dissertation thinks with disability about the influences and intersections of social inequalities, access to economic privilege, and agricultural work in the rural Medieval landscape. In this project I use population-level skeletal indicators from the spine and femur alongside individual-level descriptive paleopathology analysis to examine these issues. The spine elements from 265 individuals (Villamagna n=128, Pava n=137) were examined for skeletal indicators of degenerative joint disease in the apophyseal and zygapophyseal joints and scored according to an ordinal scale; cross-sectional geometry properties of the femur for 233 individuals (Villamagna n=114, Pava n=119); and a descriptive paleopathological analysis of one individual from Villamagna results are presented in this dissertation. Degenerative joint disease data from the spine suggest that economic access plays a role in disease outcomes at Villamagna, and that subtle intersectional differences in economic experience (intra-class differences) are important factors alongside physical activity in predicting spine disease outcome. Cross-sectional geometry data from the femur suggest differing baseline levels of terrestrial mobility between Pava (Tuscany) and Villamagna (Lazio), greater sample dispersion (variation) amongst older age people, and higher bending strength and rigidity at Villamagna compared to Pava. Females with less access to economic resources are have significantly higher medullary area (endosteal bone loss) and significantly less cortical area than other groups, in addition to higher prevalence of spine disease. The case of one particular individual from Villamagna highlights the trouble with diagnosis and purposes a methodology of counter-diagnosis for expanding traditional paleopathology and osteobiography approaches to human skeletal remains and disease. These results demonstrate one way in which bioarchaeological data and biological anthropology can be ethically oriented towards social justice and liberation, expanding the ways in which disability and disease are conceptualized broadly and more specifically in the archaeological and recent past. The results of this project prompt us to think with an intersectional and critical disability perspective about any number of bioarchaeological and biological anthropology questions, not only about identity—but also about human variation, adaptation, and biology.

Issues regarding Undocumented Border Crossers continue to remain an area of engagement and research among forensic anthropologists, specifically in the border states of Arizona, Texas, and California (Anderson and Spradley 2016). Work has focused primarily on the identification and repatriation of these individuals (Bartelink 2017:132–133; Gocha et al. 2018:144; Martínez et al. 2014:11; Reineke and Halstead 2017:52). While the identification of these individuals is and will continue to be important, it can be argued that the political, economic, and social issues prompting these migrations would be worthy of study (Bartelink 2017; Gocha et al. 2018, Martínez et al. 2014; Reineke and Halstead 2017). An area of more limited area of study are the structures of violence, both direct and indirect, that lead many of these individuals on the treacherous journey to cross the border, and their long‐term effects on health. In continuing with this line of research, it is key to understand the socio‐political context of why individuals and specific communities migrate, why the United States was chosen, and the biocultural outcomes of living in context.

This research looks at the at the skeletal, material culture, and ethnographic evidence of structural violence in Latin America, and how this leads to immigration. Structural violence can be seen in these various avenues and used in conjunction with one another in providing a better framework that is not necessarily driven by the researcher’sinterpretation but by the individuals who experienced this structural violence firsthand. This portion of the research will home in specifically on the material culture associated with crossing of the United States/Mexico border. Many, if not all the individuals crossing the United States/Mexico border, carry with them religious, sentimental, nutritional, or protective items. Each of these items may be indicators of the life the individuals are leaving behind, in combination with the one they are hoping to achieve in the United States. The bigger picture here is that this crossing is long and dangerous, so whatever they decide to take with them must have some type of value or importance, be it for survival or emotional and physical support. This study offers a different perspective on the material culture associated with crossing the border in that it allows for the individuals to speak for themselves rather than have the researcher make their own interpretations.

Utilizing skeletal remains from an urban, colonial hospital in Central Mexico, this dissertation strives to illustrate how an examination of the bodies from archaeological contexts can shed light on the activities of everyday life in the past. While other archaeological material can tell us about the tools used to perform activities, we do not always have accurate information about who was doing what, when, and for how long. If not careful, scholars can fall into the trap of preconceived notions of a gendered division of labor that may or may not accurately portray how daily life activities were organized in other times and spaces. This issue is complicated by historical documents from the Spanish Colonial Period in the Americas, which were often written by European men and with specific administrative agendas. Similarly, the examination of gendered objects within archaeological explorations of Colonial Mexico are fraught with cyclical reasoning that stem from methodological issues within the subfield of bioarchaeology. Skeletal remains provide an exceptional opportunity to examine the actual bodies of individuals that accomplished day-to-day tasks. Yet, rather than simply relying on binary sex categories derived from skeletal features to discern gendered patterns of labor, I instead examine groupings of individuals that are derived from similar kinds of biomechanical stress. Combining the social theories of embodiment and materiality with biological understandings of bone remodeling and biomechanics, the bioarchaeological analyses used in this research illustrate how the social and biological interact to create unique individual bodies that literally become chronicles of the amount and kind of activities performed during life. These changes better illustrate the organization of labor that actually occurred rather than arbitrarily creating groups of individuals based on modern conceptions of sex/gender that cannot always be ascertained from the skeleton and may not have even existed in societies in the past.

The specific historical focus of my research is on the urban colonial experience in Central Mexico. The skeletal collection utilized in this study was recovered from the remains of the Hospital Real San José de los Naturales (HSJN), established in 1553 as the first royally sponsored hospital to care for the indigenous population in the Spanish colonies. Three non-invasive bioarchaeological analyses are used to discern subtle material changes to the bone tissue. Macroscopic analysis of entheseal changes interprets the areas of insertion for muscles on long bones that change with biomechanical stress from repetitive movements commonly used in everyday life. Next, metacarpal radiogrammetry examines the amount of cortical bone of the second metacarpal bone of the hand and provides a rough estimation of the amount of bone remodeling that occurred throughout adulthood for each individual as well as the trends in the population as a whole. Finally, cross-sectional geometry utilizes computed tomography images of the transverse plane of long bones (humerus and femur) to analyze the amount of cortical bone as well as its distribution around the central axis of the long bone. This geometric analysis provides not only an understanding of the amount of bone, but its overall strength and rigidity in response to biomechanical stress. The combination of various bioarchaeological analyses provides a richer understanding of the numerous ways in which the stress of daily activity becomes literally incorporated into bone. Furthermore, none of these methodologies are intrinsically tied to the traditional methodology of sexing skeletons and therefore is free from many of the interpretive issues that result from simplistic categorizations of individuals.

Most bioarchaeological data analyzes these data separated according to age or sex groups, but this practice is based on the assumption that a difference should be present between these variable. In this study, differences in the amount of muscle usage is found when following this method of preliminary division by age and sex, but differences in the kind of muscle usage is less clear. This could be the result of a significant overlap in the kinds of biomechanical stress received over the life course and between males and females. Instead, I used an exploratory data analysis software program and statistical cluster analysis, to identify groups of individuals with similar kinds of bony changes. None of these cluster groups consisted of solely males or solely females, supporting the notion that a preliminary division may obscure other patterns of biomechanical stress.

The cluster analyses help to do two things overall - isolate small groups of individuals on the extremes with a lot of bone growth or very little bone growth so that other averages are not skewed; and isolate groups of individuals who experienced unique kinds of movement. Additionally, these analyses are able to isolate variation that exists in terms of movement within age or sex groups. Sharing a sex/gender identity does not automatically mean that you will have the same opportunities available to you. This is an especially important factor to remember for this skeletal population, since other identities such as geographical origin or migration status created drastic differences in activity.

For the lower limb, the ability to isolate unique kinds of movement proved to be the most useful aspect of this different interpretive approach. When examining the data by age or sex groups, all individuals showed signs of walking on two feet (leg extension, lower leg flexion and extension, and plantar flexion) with only slight differences in the amount of stress. One of the groups derived from the cluster analysis, however, indicated that in addition to the movements associated with walking they also had a higher amount of stress from leg adduction (moving the leg toward the midline of the body). During this time period, the Spanish introduced new techniques for creating pottery using a potter's wheel with a lower kick wheel to create momentum. It is possible that this isolated group of individuals may have experienced this unique kind of biomechanical stress as a result of such a unique labor opportunity.

For the upper limb, the cluster analysis was useful for isolating groups of individuals with different kinds of movement, but also for showing variation in the amount of stress within sex groups. The data, when preliminarily divided according to age and sex, showed slight increases in the amount of stress across the life course and high average scores for males than females; however, differences in kind of biomechanical stress was less clear. The groups derived from cluster analysis for entheseal changes helped to separate groups of individuals with more whole arm movements (arm extension, shoulder rotation, and arm abduction) and a group of individuals with more precise forearm movements (forearm supination, forearm flexion, and hand/wrist control). The individuals in this last group are both males and females, which is why it may have been difficult to discern this difference with the data preliminarily divided. Another important distinction found was different levels of activity among individuals that performed these whole arm movements and that also caused an increase in the amount and distribution of the cortical bone among the males in the population. Only indigenous males were obligated to participate in the different tribute labor systems during this colonial time and it is possible that the cluster groups help to isolate this subset of the male population that performed more strenuous manual labor.

Interpretation from a perspective of embodied subjectivities acknowledges that many different aspects of identities controlled the kinds of labor opportunities available to individuals in urban New Spain. Individuals who performed similar kinds of work on a day-to-day basis will have similar kinds of responses to these biomechanical stresses and cluster analysis illustrates actual distinctions in the way individuals were using their bodies that then became incorporated into the skeleton. If the data are divided from the beginning of analysis then our interpretations are inventing differences that may or not actually exist. Rather, biological data related to categorical aspects of identity should be added into interpretations only after groups of individuals with similar kinds of bone changes have been identified, in order to avoid assumptions about labor organization based on modern conceptions, historical written documents, or other archaeological data. The complex intersection of gender, geographical origin, age, and migration status during the colonial period likely influenced the creation of these variable groups of individuals with unique biomechanical stress.

Despite the unique historical moment that brings these varied populations together, bioarchaeological analyses of other times and places should also attempt to analyze the data from a perspective of embodied subjects. This means that patterns of organization should be discerned from the bone functional adaptation data first. The groups of individuals identified will then represent people who experienced similar kinds of biomechanical stress that later became materially incorporated into their bodies. Interpretation of these patterns should include other biological variables, like age and sex, but only after divisions by biomechanical stress. Preliminary divisions only test if our assumptions about how labor should be organized actually exist, rather then help to interpret actual patterns of difference.