Department of Anthropology

Underground gravity-flow channels (karez; also qanat) have been an important technology for accessing subterranean water resources and supplying the water needs of (esp. agricultural) communities throughout the Middle East and North Africa and elsewhere for many centuries, but in the past several decades have suffered the effects of groundwater mining and mechanized agriculture. Study and conservation of these hydraulic systems typically depends on the persistence of surface traces of the buried components (e.g., preserved maintenance shaft openings). These traces are easily erased by intensive agriculture, so that many of the regions where karez have been important but which are heavily cultivated today have a major barrier to detection, biasing archaeological research to karez landscapes under a narrow range of taphonomic conditions and limiting prospects for the revitalization of these hydraulic systems by local communities. We demonstrate here a user-friendly technique for geophysical survey using smartphone accelerometers to sense surface-wave energy from an active seismic source, enabling the efficient and low-cost detection of relatively deeply-buried (∼20 m) karez systems without surface traces. We discuss the application of this technique particularly to the rapid characterization and study of karez landscapes on the Erbil Plain in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

In 1933, monuments from the Classic Maya site of Piedras Negras, Guatemala, were loaned to the Penn Museum for a temporary period. Twelve years later, the agreement was revisited at the request of the Guatemalan government, which sought to incorporate the monuments into its National Museum. In order for the Penn Museum to retain two monuments for longer, the two parties agreed upon a deal: a longer loan extension for two Piedras Negras monuments in exchange for a disparate assemblage of Central and South American gold pieces from the Penn Museum’s storage collections. I argue that in facilitating this agreement, archaeologists, government officials, and museum professionals layered monetary value onto disparate archaeological cultures. In trying to create a fair exchange, this valuation process also involved a balancing act, in which objects of Maya heritage were weighed against objects united only by their material: gold. I refer to this skewing of objects from Panamá, Colombia, Perú, and Ecuador as a single culture group as a constructed “cultural alloy” in which their materiality of gold afforded archaeologists the ability to gloss them into a new cultural whole that, while fictive, was perceived as greater than the sum of its parts.

Many domesticated animals share a syndromic phenotype marked by a suite of traits that include more variable patterns of coloration, reduced stress, aggression, and altered risk-taking and exploratory behaviors relative to their wild counterparts. Roughly 150 years after Darwin’s pioneering insight into this phenomenon, reasonable progress has been made in understanding the evolutionary and biological basis of the so-called domesticated phenotype in mammals. However, the extent to which these processes are paralleled in non-mammalian domesticates is scant. Here, we address this knowledge gap by investigating the genetic basis of the domesticated phenotype in the Bengalese finch, a songbird frequently found in pet shops and a popular animal model in the study of learned vocal behaviors. Using whole-genome sequencing and population genomic approaches, we identify strain-specific selection signals in the Bengalee finch and its wild munia ancestor. Our findings suggest that, like in mammals, the evolution of the domestication syndrome in avian species involves a shift in the selective regime, capable of altering brain circuits favoring the dynamic modulation of motivation and reward sensitivity over augmented aggression and stress responses.

Catastrophic fire behavior in the Sierra Nevada range is increasing in tandem with worsening forest conditions related to non-Native approaches to fire ecology and climate change. Among the myriad negative human and community effects linked to thistrend, lesser understood are the relationships between differing forest management strategies and impacts to Ancestral Places or 'Esak 'Tima (Maidu and Nisenan for “places to learn”) which are living locations and traces of Ancestral practices that are integral to the health of Native Californian communities. Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, TEK specialists, and Tribal Leadership are on the front lines of government-to-government negotiations of sovereignty, especially with respect to their communities' living relationships with Ancestral Places. These are sometimes located in places managed by other institutions, agencies, and land occupiers and are most often far more than just dots on a map, but rather complex interconnected landscapes of Ancestral practices. These Tribal perspectives on guarding Ancestral Places are linked to not only the uses of Cultural Fire, or wénném sa in ecosystem restoration but also increasing aspects of the legibility and reincorporation of elements of Ancestral Places and Practices into healthy contemporary relationships with Tribal community members. These aspects of applied Traditional Ecological Knowledge and practice are highlighted in the relationships between wénném sa, Tribal archaeology, and forest management techniques our coalition is researching in California and are part of how our partnership in community-accountable archaeological research supports restorative justice. We foreground the principles of guardianship in the forest to build datasets that will support community priorities for Tribal access, food and medicine sovereignty, and intergenerational knowledge transfer. These kinds of direct action guardianship and mandated research will serve as models for co-management policies in other forests. Central to our efforts is demonstrating a model of evidence-based practice in recognition that leaders in our rapidly changing ecological reality cannot have a complete toolkit without them, especially if societies attempt to reconcile issues of racial just ice and sovereignty. Our partnership in this way connects heritage resource management to forest management and human rights policy while building community accountable research deliverables.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments in low- and middle-income countries largely followed the strategy of national lockdowns adopted by high-income countries. The South African government imposed some the most restrictive policies in the world. In this article, we examine the perceptions and lived experiences of South Africans in Johannesburg in relation to this initial response to the pandemic. In-depth interviews were conducted with a diverse group of 38 South African adults in Johannesburg, South Africa. The analysis followed an inductive approach. The data revealed that the majority of participants had a positive view of the strong response to the first wave of the pandemic by the South African government, including the restrictive lockdown measures. However, concerns regarding the government's response included worries about the economy and livelihoods of poor people under lockdown, divisions in compliance between townships and wealthier communities, poor funding in the healthcare sector, corruption and nepotism in the distribution of government aid, and the lack of cultural adaptation of awareness-raising campaigns about COVID-19. The ability of governments to gauge how populations perceive the effectiveness of public health measures is essential for identifying obstacles to disease-control objectives.

Historical and ethnographic sources depict use of portable braced shaft weapons, or pikes, in megafauna hunting and defense during Late Holocene millennia in North and South America, Africa, Eurasia and Southeast Asia. Given the predominance of megafauna in Late Pleistocene North America during the centuries when Clovis points appeared and spread across much of the continent (13,050-12,650 cal BP), braced weapons may have been used in hunting of megaherbivores and defense against megacarnivores. Drawing from historical examples of pike use against lions, jaguars, boars, grizzlies, carabao and warhorses we consider the possibility of a fluted lithic pike. Associated osseous rods have been problematic as Clovis foreshafts due to the bevel angle and the apparent weakness of the splint haft when great strength is needed for deep penetration in megafauna hunting. However our review of Late Holocene pike use in megafauna encounters indicates the sharp tip becomes less important after hide or armor has been pierced because compression is sustained. Thus, foreshaft collapse after hide entry may not limit but rather increase the efficacy of the braced weapon. We conduct preliminary static experiments to model a fluted pike that adjusts during compression such that haft collapse and point detachment (when point jams on impact with bone) preserve the fluted biface, beveled rod and wooden mainshaft tip. In addition to Clovis point attributes and association with osseous rods, potential archaeological correlates of Clovis pike use include the high frequency of Clovis point isolates and concentrations of complete points with unbutchered mammoth remains at sites such as Naco in Arizona.

Millions of skeletal remains from South Asia were exported in red markets (the underground economy of human tissues/organs) to educational institutions globally for over a century. It is time to recognize the personhood of the people who were systematically made into anatomical objects and acknowledge the scientific racism in creating and continuing to use them.

OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa introduced new societal adversities and mental health threats in a country where one in three individuals are expected to develop a psychiatric condition sometime in their life. Scientists have suggested that psychosocial stress and trauma during childhood may increase one's vulnerability to the mental health consequences of future stressors-a process known as stress sensitization. This prospective analysis assessed whether childhood adversity experienced among South African children across the first 18 years of life, coinciding with the post-apartheid transition, exacerbates the mental health impacts of psychosocial stress experienced during the 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (ca. 2020-2021). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data came from 88 adults who participated in a follow-up study of a longitudinal birth cohort study in Soweto, South Africa. Childhood adversity and COVID-19 psychosocial stress were assessed as primary predictors of adult PTSD risk, and an interaction term between childhood adversity and COVID-19 stress was calculated to evaluate the potential effect of stress sensitization. RESULTS: Fifty-six percent of adults exhibited moderate-to-severe PTSD symptoms. Greater childhood adversity and higher COVID-19 psychosocial stress independently predicted worse post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in adults. Adults who reported greater childhood adversity exhibited non-significantly worse PTSD symptoms from COVID-19 psychosocial stress. DISCUSSION: These results highlight the deleterious mental health effects of both childhood trauma and COVID-19 psychosocial stress in our sample and emphasize the need for greater and more accessible mental health support as the pandemic progresses in South Africa.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused prolonged stress on numerous fronts. While the acute health impacts of psychosocial stress due to the pandemic are well-documented, less is known about the resources and mechanisms utilized to cope in response to stresses during the pandemic and lockdown. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to identify and describe the coping mechanisms adults utilized in response to the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic during the 2020 South African lockdown. METHODS: This study included adults (n = 47: 32 female; 14 male; 1 non-binary) from the greater Johannesburg region in South Africa. Interviews with both closed and open-ended questions were administered to query topics regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were coded and thematically analyzed to identify coping mechanisms and experiences. RESULTS: Adults engaged in a variety of strategies to cope with the pandemic and the ensued lockdown. The ability to access or engage in multiple coping mechanisms were either enhanced or constrained by financial and familial situations. Participants engaged in seven major coping mechanisms: interactions with family and friends, prayer and religion, staying active, financial resources, mindset reframing, natural remedies, and following COVID-19 prevention protocols. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the multiple stressors faced during the pandemic and lockdown, participants relied on multiple coping strategies which helped preserve their well-being and overcome pandemic-related adversity. The strategies participants engaged in were impacted by access to financial resources and family support. Further research is needed to examine the potential impacts these strategies may have on people's health.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to examine the intergenerational effects of maternal adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and child mental health outcomes in rural Uganda, as well as the potentially mediating role of maternal depression in this pathway. Additionally, we sought to test the extent to which maternal social group membership attenuated the mediating effect of maternal depression on child mental health. METHODS: Data come from a population-based cohort of families living in the Nyakabare Parish, a rural district in southwestern Uganda. Between 2016 and 2018, mothers completed surveys about childhood adversity, depressive symptoms, social group membership, and their children's mental health. Survey data were analyzed using causal mediation and moderated-mediation analysis. RESULTS: Among 218 mother-child pairs, 61 mothers (28%) and 47 children (22%) showed symptoms meeting cutoffs for clinically significant psychological distress. In multivariable linear regression models, maternal ACEs had a statistically significant association with severity of child conduct problems, peer problems, and total child difficulty scores. Maternal depression mediated the relationship between maternal ACEs and conduct problems, peer problems, and total difficulty, but this mediating effect was not moderated by maternal group membership. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal depression may act as a potential mechanism linking maternal childhood adversity with poor child mental health in the next generation. Within a context of elevated rates of psychiatric morbidity, high prevalence of childhood adversity, and limited healthcare and economic infrastructures across Uganda, these results emphasize the prioritization of social services and mental health resources for rural Ugandan families.