2003 KU ANTHRO · in prehistoric sound systems, the presence of reconstructable scale patterns and specific tone “coloring” (e.g., microtonalities) suggest that harmony is an

KUANTHROPOLOGISTNewsletter of the University of Kansas

Department of AnthropologyVolume 14 Summer 2003

Mary Sundal

My master’s thesis, Mortality and Causes of Death Among Karimojong Agropastoralists of Northeast Uganda, 1940-1999, examined how culture change within a context of ongoing violence has altered the mortality pattern of the Karimojong. I undertook a demographic analysis of the Karimojong population and compared mortality rates and causes of death of this population with other African pastoralist groups, most specifically the Turkana of Kenya. I presented a baseline comparison of the mortality dynamics of an East African pastoralist population using data obtained from reproductive histories, collected by Dr. Sandra Gray between August 1998 and March 1999, of over 300 Karimojong women. Specifically, I computed abridged life tables and

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Mortality Among Karimojong Agropastoralists

broad cause of death categories from 2235 individuals born between 1860 and 1999. The Karimojong reside in Moroto District of Northeast Uganda and are part of the Ateker subdivision of the Eastern Nilotic linguistic group. Since Moroto district is characterized by unpredictable rainfall and drought, a dual subsistence strategy of

pastoralism and cultivation of sorghum is the most suitable for the harsh environment. Among the Karimojong, as in most pastoralist populations, cattle are used a measure of wealth, with

most social relations involving the exchange of cattle among territorial sections. In the past, cattle raids among the Karimojong and other Ateker members were used to redistribute wealth and were common among pastoralists. However, the acquisition of automatic weapons in the late 1970s has undermined past responses to overcome the effects of drought and

famine; cattle raids now occur indiscriminately and target fellow Karimojong, a practice once forbidden. Thus, violence has affected daily activities among the Karimojong because seasonal migrations along cattle migration routes are main targets for armed cattle raiding. With mobility restricted,

a large portion of the Karimojong population, most specifically the women and children, remained at agricultural homesteads relying solely on agricultural products

“The high mortality of adult women and children

was indirectly linked to the effects of violence...For adult

men the majority deaths ... were attributed directly to

being participants in violent cattle raids.”

Odyssey Archaeological Research Fund...6Museum News...9Faculty and Graduate Student News...13Recent Graduates of the Department...16Laboratory of Biological Anthropology News...18

Image: Petroglyphs at Spriggs Rock, Little River, Kansas

The KU Anthropologist is produced yearly by gradu-ate students of the De part ment of An thro pol o gy at the University of Kansas622 Fraser HallLawrence, KS 66045. Tel. (785) 864-4103.

Please direct any questions and com ments to the editor at: [email protected]

Editor: Shannon RyanFaculty Advisor: Dr. Gwynne JenkinsLayout: Shannon RyanEditorial Assistants: Rachel Saalweachter, Melissa Rossow, Angie Kempf, and Cary Edmondson

Anthropology Department Web Address:www.ku.edu/~kuanth/

Graduate Student in Anthropology Web Address: www.cc.ukans.edu/~gsanth/

Please check out the KU Anthropologist on the web. It can be read by following the links on either of the above web pages. Thanks!

Summer 2003 KU ANTHROPOLOGIST Page 2

KUANTHROPOLOGISTfor nourishment. Throughout the 1970s, numerous famines occurred, leaving the Karimojong population to depend on international aid agencies for survival.

Disease risks among children and adults have altered as a result of the changing pattern of violence in Moroto District. Infectious disease had the greatest impact on the mortality pattern for women and children during recent decades. Therefore, the high mortality of adult women and children was indirectly linked to the effects of violence; high infectious disease load was a result of poor access to health care and the increase in population density at agricultural homesteads after the introduction of automatic weapons into the area. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s and into the 1990s, several widespread cholera and dysentery epidemics occurred, corresponding to the increase in the number of deaths of women and children reported to have resulted from diarrheal diseases during this time period.

For adult men the majority of deaths were not the result of epidemic disease but were attributed directly to being participants in violent cattle raids, because men were not forced to become sedentary at overly crowed relief centers as were women. In the 1940s 12% of adult male deaths were attributed to violence. However, after the 1950s deaths resulting from acts of violence (during a raid, confrontation with soldiers, or through alcohol poisoning) escalated and have remained above 30%, accounting for the largest proportion of deaths among all reported causes since the 1960s. With the introduction of automatic weapons in Karamoja in 1979, violent cattle raids are now carried out with great loss to human life explaining the largest proportion of adult male mortality in this sample for recent decades. AK-47’s are carried by most adult males in Karamoja and have extended the killing capacities in this society. Violence during the late 1980s through the 1990s has only escalated. Not only are cattle raids now extremely violent, but guns are used to kill members of different territorial affi liations through hijacking vehicles on main roads.

While this study may provide a starting point for the mortality analysis of the Karimojong, further analysis is needed. For my doctoral dissertation research I plan to continue studying the demography of the Karimojong, paying particular attention to the distal and proximal causes of infant and child mortality.

Congratulations to Jack Hofman and Jeannette

Blackmar as well as Phil Melton and Jennifer Rack on the recent birth of their sons!


Brian J. Garavalia

The purposes of my research are: 1) to describe the characteristics of retirees in educational classes offered through a formal venue in a continuing care retirement community (CCRC) named “The Villages,” located in central Florida; and 2) to examine the relationship between the number of years in retirement and the reasons retirees pursue educational activities. Research on late-life education is in short supply, although such research could inform postsecondary institutions which are increasingly offering programs geared towards retirees, such as Institutes for Learning in Retirement (ILR), Creative Retirement Institutes (CRI), Lifelong Learning Institutes (LLI), Continuing Education in Retirement Programs (CERP), SeniorNet, and Elderhostel.

In reviewing the literature, I noticed a commonality in the issues and concerns reported by retirees. Invariably, retirees expressed an interest in maintaining a degree of emotional, intellectual, physical, social, spiritual, or vocational wellness. Whereas a plethora of research studies report retirees’ likes and dislikes regarding educational programs, preferred courses and activities, learning modalities and educational locations and settings, little research documents the types of course content and activities that directly relate to dimensions of wellness in retirement. Noting this short fall in research, Elman (1998:380) contends:

Unfortunately, little social theory or substantive research--in the areas of aging and the life course or even in the sociologies of work or education--has been used to examine why adults are increasingly likely to participate in late-life education and learning.

My research draws on three theoretical perspectives from social gerontology and sociocultural anthropology: 1) social constructivism (macrolevel), 2) person-fit environment (P-FT) (mesolevel), and 3) selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) (microlevel).

In the present study, I interviewed residents of a CCRC and collected data through a self-developed written survey to pursue my premise that wellness is an overriding reason for pursuing educational activities in retirement. In addition, I am investigating whether these reasons vary among retirees who differ in years in retirement. That is, do retirees who have been in retirement for 5, 10, 15, 20 years or more differ from one another in their reasons for pursuing educational activities?

Interviews with the Villages’ residents, instructors, retiree-students, the director of development for The Village’s College Life Long Learning, and an extensive review of the existing literature were used to derive the items for the survey. The Villages’ retiree-students enrolled in courses from March through June

2003 were asked to complete the survey.

In addition to assessing retirees’ reasons for pursuing educational activities, the survey included demographic questions, allowing for the

computation of descriptive statistics to answer the first research question. To answer the second research question, respondents’ ratings of the importance of each dimension of health for pursuing educational activities will be correlated with the number of years in retirement. To further explore the relationship, participants will be divided into groups on the basis of years spent in retirement (e.g., 0-5 years, 6-10 years). A comparative analysis will be conducted to determine when (if at all) differences emerge among the groups in the reason for pursuing educational activities.

Retirees in the Classroom: Learning in Retirement

“Little research documents the types of course content and activities that

directly relate to dimensions of wellness in retirement.”


Chris Widga

In the fall of 2002 a collection of over 300 ethnographic and archaeological flutes were donated to the KU Museum of Anthropology by a Wichita donor. She had collected and used these instruments for performance and educational purposes since the 1950s.

The collection intrigued me. My first inclination, probably borne from a childhood of making noise, was to toot each flute until everyone within earshot was annoyed. Of course, preservation issues over-rode juvenile tendencies I might have, but I wondered, how similar or dissimilar were their respective scale patterns? How did these pitch systems fit into culture-specific harmonic systems? Were flutes only part of an ensemble and was it possible to tell? Could an understanding of these musical attributes lead to a better understanding of the social and performance (e.g., ceremonial/ritual, political, etc.) contexts from which they came?

So the frustrated musician in me gave way to the pondering anthropologist as I was content with measurements and photos. But the questions remained. A quick perusal of the ethnomusicological

literature convinced me that ethnomusicologists were generally not interested in the articulation of the social and the musical. And anthropologists were generally interested in musical objects as just that, material culture to be classed according to size, shape and design, without much consideration of their musical properties at all. In other words, no one was going to answer my questions and I’d have to answer them myself.

Music can be defined (for practical purposes) as the aesthetic combination of rhythm and pitch, and is present in almost all human cultures. This loose definition includes that music which is integrated into daily activities (e.g., Muslim p r a y e r s ) or simply p e r f o r m a n c e art (e.g., the New York Philharmonic). Yet in all places it occurs, it plays an important role in defining social situations and creation and maintenance of group identities.

Music is generally made up of three, interacting components: melody, harmony and rhythm. Melodic structures are the tunes we whistle as we wander through our

days, or the parts of TV commercials that stick with us all the way to the grocery store. Often consisting of a single vocal or instrumental sequence of pitches, melodic (or “scalar”) patterns are very obvious in the material record of ancient and ethnographic musical instruments. For instance, ethnomusicologists commonly reconstruct scales or pitch sequences from wind instruments (Maori flutes, Mclean 1982; Globular duct flutes, Olsen 2002). While melody is an important part of almost all known musical systems, few modern musicians would claim that it is all-important, or even the most distinctive part of musical systems.

W h i l e more difficult to conceptualize in prehistoric sound systems, the presence of reconstructable scale patterns and specific tone “coloring” (e.g., microtonalities)

suggest that harmony is an equally important component in the analysis of prehistoric music and that it is possible to understand basic, culturally-influenced harmonic structures. Unfortunately, most ethnomusicological projects are focused on a specific type

A MANIFESTO FOR MUSIC ARCHAEOLOGY

“Music in the past is knowable and

it is t ime that archaeologists

stopped treating prehistoric music

as something to be speculated upon.”


of instrument, or music within a specific context. Therefore, harmonic analyses never become an issue.

Finally, rhythm is extremely important to almost all extant musical systems and is often more important in music outside of the European musical tradition. Despite the importance of these musical attributes in modern ethnographic situations, very few researchers have been interested in understanding how rhythmic instruments might be tailored to specific social or environmental performance settings, (but see Fletcher and LaFlesche 1911). While much attention has been given to the iconographic or metallurgical characteristics of these instruments (e.g., Olsen 2002), no one has asked questions like “why are some drums more resonant than others?” or “ does this instrument design have something to do with a specific performance venue or the acoustics of a particular stage?”

While these three musical components are held in common by almost all of the worlds musical systems, these “musics” are by no means all alike. It is how each of these components articulate within the larger sphere of performance and social contexts that make each one of these systems unique.

While the contexts of the European musical tradition do not have any direct bearing on prehistoric music, the well-documented characteristics of this musical tradition can lend insight into the range of complexity that

may be present in the past. For instance, the standardized pitch system in European music was developed in the 1500s and has remained fairly stable for the last 500 years. In that time, composers have relied heavily on certain socially constructed melodic and harmonic structures that are familiar to audiences and performers alike. This vertical consistency, however, does not mean that all music within this system sounds the same. There are definite ways in how these structures are put together that define certain spatial (e.g., Delta Blues) and chronological (e.g., Golden Oldies, Romanticism) patterns. At times, music history has even been used as a metaphor for large-scale social processes (e.g., the British Invasion of America in the 1960s).

Music in Western social systems is used not only for entertainment purposes, but is commonly utilized to negotiate or define social situations. For instance, martial (march) music is performed during political contests or for soldiers returning from a war, and “pop” music may be used by teenagers to establish an identity separate from their parents. These characteristics, while particular to Western musical systems, may also imply the range of variability that may be found in both non-Western and prehistoric musical systems and suggest possible musical implications for defining social identities.

So where does that leave me with the recently acquired flute

collection at the KUMA? While 300 items sounds like a fair sample, I’ve come to the realization that it is only the tip of the iceberg. Any understanding of a prehistoric musical tradition will only come with a better understanding of how musical “parts” fit together (read--lots of comparative data). Music in the past is knowable and it is time that archaeologists stopped treating prehistoric music as something to be speculated upon. Musical instruments hold the key to unlocking some very interesting questions, if only we go beyond basic morphological and typological analyses where interpretations will be multi-faceted and flexible rather than absolute.

“Make it one for my baby, and one more for the road...” (Johnny Mercer).

References:

Fletcher, A. C. and F. L. Flesche 1972 (1911). The Omaha

Tribe. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln.

Mclean, M. 1982. A Chronological and

Geographical Sequence of Maori Flute Scales. Man 17(1):123-157.

Olsen, D. 2002. Music of El Dorado:

the ethnomusicology of ancient South American cultures. University Press of Florida, Gainsville.


Jen Humphrey

A search for answers to the mystery of when the first people came to the Americas is being supported by a $1 million gift from a retired petroleum geologist and his wife, University of Kansas Chancellor Robert Hemenway announced today. The gift from Denver residents Joseph L. and Maude Ruth Cramer establishes the Odyssey Archaeological Research Fund at the Kansas University Endowment Association. The fund will support a joint research effort between the Kansas Geological Survey and the KU Department of Anthropology that will study the geology and archaeology of the midcontinent of North America in search of the earliest evidence of humans in the region. Archaeology is a discipline within the Department of Anthropology at KU. “This outstanding contribution will bring together a cross-section of faculty and graduate students in several disciplines – geology, anthropology, archaeology and paleontology, to name a few – in an effort to answer this tantalizing mystery,” Hemenway said. “We are honored to be the beneficiaries of the Cramers’ generosity and scientific vision.” The fund will support geoarchaeological research in Kansas and other areas of the midcontinental region. Geoarchaeology is the application of concepts and methods of earth sciences to the study of archaeological sites and the processes involved in the creation of the archaeological record. Rolfe Mandel, project coordinator for geoarchaeological studies at the Kansas Geological Survey, said researchers will use geoarchaeological techniques such as systematic surveys of drainage areas to find and date sediments. By identifying the age of deposits deeply buried in places like river valleys, researchers hope to discover areas best suited to preserve ancient traces of human activity. “The midcontinent is an important region for

understanding the timing and nature of the peopling of the New World,” said Mandel. “The important question is whether people arrived in the New World before 11,500 years ago, and the answer may be hidden in the sediments of this vast region.” In addition to research, the Cramers’ gift will also support a professorship. The individual named to the professorship will serve as executive director of the fund, teach a geoarchaeology course and conduct annual field research with specialists and graduate students. The professorship will be eligible to receive additional financial support through the Kansas Partnership for Faculty of Distinction Program. Joseph Cramer, who has had a long-time interest in identifying the first people of the Americas, said he hoped establishing the fund would draw financial support from other people and organizations for geoarchaeological research at KU. He said he chose KU based on the reputation of the Kansas Geological Survey and the strength of the archaeology program in the Department of Anthropology. “The search for identification of the first Americans is an effort being carried out at many archaeological research centers throughout the world,” Cramer said. “The answer to this great mystery will be very complex since ingress to the New World may have been achieved by entry over both the North Pacific and the North Atlantic Oceans, probably about the same time during the middle Wisconsin Glacial Interstitial at circa 25,000-30,000 years before the present.” “We have searched for this complex answer in past decades through application of standard archaeological methodology; however, the great topographical changes during the past 25,000 years have served to destroy and/or bury the occupational living surfaces of the first Americans, and it is necessary now to apply an especially oriented approach to this search through the employment of very experienced and dedicated geoarchaeologists as the directors for

COLORADOCOUPLE’S$1MILLIONTOFUNDGEOARCHAEOLOGICALRESEARCH


these efforts. This search will require application of multi-disciplinary expertise in order to be successful.”

He and his wife, who lived for many years in Kansas, have established endowments at four other major universities in order to pursue this same research objective. The fund the Cramers established for KU is endowed, which means that the principal is never spent and a designated percentage of the fund’s income is given to KU each year for the purpose specifi ed by the donor. To initiate the research at KU quickly, the couple also provided $30,000 in expendable funds for the 2002-2003 academic year.

The Cramers’ gifts count toward the $500 million goal of KU First: Invest in Excellence, the largest fund-raising campaign in KU history. KU Endowment is conducting KU First on behalf of the university through 2004 to raise funds for scholarships, fellowships, professorships, capital projects and program support. KU Endowment is an independent, non-profi t organization serving as the offi cial fund-raising and fund-management organization for KU.

The Carroll D. Clark speaker for 2002-2003 was Dr. Olga Soffer. Soffer is a professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Anthropology. Her primary research interests at the moment include studying artifacts from the Upper Paleolithic of Europe that show evidence of cordage, textiles and basketry in use at least 28,000 years ago. The existence of these materials was identifi ed through impressions on ceramics. Additionally, Soffer has also identifi ed a number of tools that were used to make textiles, cordage, and baskets. Soffer has taken this information a bit further and begun to ask questions about who was making and using these invisible artifacts. These questions have allowed her to think about gender and the role of women in the past, some of which was incorporated into her lecture while here at KU. In addition to the lecture Soffer was able to visit with colleagues in the department and with graduate students.

CarrollD.ClarkSpeaker:OlgaSoffer

Dr. Rolfe Mandel has been named the fi rst Odyssey Research Professor of Geoarcheology. This position was created by the Odyssey Archaeological Research Fund, an endowment fund set up by Joe and Maude Cramer. Mandel received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 1990. He has spent much of his career studying geoarchaeology on the central Great Plains and has been researching what geoarchaeology can tell us about the earliest people on the Great Plains.

Field, laboratory, and collection work supported by the Odyssey Archaeological Research Fund is being undertaken at a variety of sites in the summer of 2003. Sites such as the Kanorado site (14SN105), the Claussen site (14WB322) and the Vincent-Donovan (14BA308) are being excavated while survey is being undertaken at variety of locations in the midcontinent region. Additional fi eld work, analysis, and preparation of reports will take place in the fall.

Dr. Rolfe Mandel Named DirectorShannonRyan

Shannon Ryan


Hello everyone! Honestly, I came to college to find a way to help change the world. Most days this goal seems like an ever elusive and daunting effort, but I still believe that with great courage, strength, and the help of my friends it is possible. As I sat pondering the empty, endless, heartlessly mocking screen in front of me (taunting - write something, anything, I dare you!), I suddenly became inspired by the words of one of our greatest heroines, Margaret Mead. Well…this is it, my last duty as GSA president. It is a strange and difficult task, writing this farewell message to you all, because it has been a great two-year term. I thank you all for your assistance and support; I could not have done it without you! If the students in this department were not so fabulous it would make my job a lot harder. We truly do have a wonderful group of people who make up our department as a whole. I will think fondly of you all: from the graduate students who enliven the place, to the people in the office who keep it all going on, to the professors who guide us, and last, but not least, our department chair Jim Mielke who leads us all onward. Taking a moment to reflect, and consider the past, we should also remember Don Stull who for many years previous led the anthropology crew.

It has been a slow year in terms of GSA accomplishments. Our officers are mainly senior class people, who have more than their share of work to do, and I thank them whole-heartedly for showing up to meetings and trying their best to keep things together and running smoothly. I would also like to thank Rachel Saalweachter, new anthropology track Museum Studies student, for always attending our meetings and keeping us informed about happenings in the Museum of Anthropology. Wouldn’t it be nice to establish a closer relationship with the museum studies students as well as students from other departments? However, this takes effort and I hope that future students will take the time to build a closer community.

The GSA organized several Dinner & Discussions throughout the year, and so the tradition lives on. A huge thanks to those who make these get-togethers possible. Many thanks are also in order for those professors and students who so graciously presented their thoughts at these functions. Don Stull started off the fall semester providing the graduate students with his insightful views and invaluable advice on academic writing and publishing. Felix Moos and John Hoopes gave a thought provoking and inspirational talk and slide presentation on Nepal. Lastly, thanks to those brave graduate students who shared their research questions, visions, and ideas at the last dinner of the spring 2003 semester.

Congratulations to all of our fellow students who graduated KU this year, and may your futures spread wide and long in front of you, bringing you fulfillment and happiness. As the cycle of life continues and we say goodbye to some, we have the privlege of welcoming others; I am happy to announce that we will have 12 fresh faces joining the department in the fall of 2003. There will be 12 new graduate students: 7 cultural, 4 archaeoloical, and 1 biological. Congratulations and good luck to you all!

In one respect, I must admit that I am sad that this is my last duty as president, but in a more positive light, I am quite happy to introduce my successor Angie Kempf. Congratulations Angie! At least I know that I am leaving the responsibility of this position in the best possible and capable hands. Best wishes to you! I wanted to leave with just the right exit, but the words are escaping me, all I can think of are some lyrics, “Everything counts in large amounts.” This is not such a bad closing, it brings us full circle; everything we do does count, sometimes we never know just how much. That’s why I chose the quote by Margaret Mead, to remind us all that the small things will save us all, whether it is groups of people, gestures, thoughts, changes or steps. I have never been very good at good-byes <sniff>, but this is it; I will miss you all!

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

A Letter from the GSA President

Melissa Rossow


MUSEUM NEWS

Rachel Saalweachter

On April 3, 2003 the Anthropology Museum proudly opened the exhibition Celebrating Anthropology. The theme of the exhibition, Celebrating Anthropology, is in keeping with the Museum’s mission, to promote understanding and appreciation of human diversity, past and present, for the benefit of all people. The exhibition featured nine separate displays ranging from North American Cradleboards to Music Archaeology of the Americas. The Native American Cradleboards exhibit was enhanced by Helen Krische Dee’s remarks about the importance of cradleboards. The displays were curated by a variety of people, from professors in the Anthropology Department to undergraduate students taking Dr. Jack Hofman’s “Prehistory of Eastern North America” class. The opening also offered a rare opportunity to hear Drs. Brad Logan, Arienne Dwyer, and John Hoopes (all of the

languages and cultures alongside this road in Asia. Specifically, and from her own experience, she spoke about the Uyghurs. Her talk complimented her exhibit of traditional clothing from this region of the world. Finally, Dr. Hoopes explained to listeners where the Chibchan World (Costa Rica and Columbia) is located along with its significance. Additionally, he showed some of the musical instruments and other artifacts from that region that are curated at the museum. For the evening, the Anthropology Museum took the innovative approach of opening each floor to visitors. Museum staff, graduate student assistants, and volunteers were on hand to speak with visitors about the Museum’s ongoing projects and the current exhibition. For two hours, visitors walked around the museum and had the chance to speak with Museum personnel in the Digital Library Initiatives office and the Plains Anthropologist office.

Department of Anthropology) speak about the exhibits each had helped to prepare. Of the experience, Dr. Logan said, “I was pleased to be able to share with the visitors of that evening information about the excavation of the Scott site house, a Late Prehistoric (Steed-Kisker phase) structure in Stranger Creek valley near Tonganoxie (Leavenworth County), Kansas.” “The house was the subject of a joint excavation including archaeologists from the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, the Kansas Anthropological Association, the Archaeological Association of South Central Kansas, among others. It is the most complete structure of that archaeological culture in Kansas and data recovered from it promises to provide significant information in the near future and, given what we hope will be long-term curation at the Museum of Anthropology, for many years to come.” Dr. Dwyer spoke about the Silk Road and the endangered

Alison Miller

During the spring 2003 semester Alison Miller and Hokyong Choi, both Museum Studies graduate students, along with Louis Yin, an undergraduate in Computer Science, worked on the Digital Library Initiatives Project (DLI) at the KU Museum of Anthropology. The project focused on the Kansas City Hopewell archaeological material housed at the museum. For this project Miller created a database, which encompasses five Kansas City Hopewell

CelebratingAnthropology

TheDigitalLibraryInitiativesProject

continued on page 17


Brad Logan

It is appropriate, given the termination of the Museum of Anthropology’s Office of Archaeological Research (OAR), for me to summarize its accomplishments. The purpose of OAR was to conduct archaeological research projects through contracts and grants with various agencies that comply with environmental legislation and executive orders passed in the late 1960s and 1970s. The aim of these mandates is to protect and preserve cultural resources in the United States, or to mitigate the adverse impacts of federally-supported undertakings on them. Since that time, most of the archaeological research in the United States has been supported by compliance contracts. Contract archaeology, also known as Cultural Resource Management (CRM), has a long history at the University of Kansas, one that now appears to have come to an end. Prof. Carlyle Smith directed the earliest archaeological investigations of this kind through his positions as Curator of Anthropology at the Museum of Natural History and Professor in what was first the Department of Sociology and Anthropology an subsequently the Department of Anthropology. From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, Smith directed excavations in South Dakota and Kansas for the Smithsonian Institution’s Missouri River Basin Survey program, the nation’s first major post-WWII archaeological salvage operation. Contract archaeology experienced explosive growth after passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and this was reflected by the increased number of archaeological projects in the Central Plains that were undertaken by the University of Kansas under the direction of Prof. Alfred E. Johnson. While still a young man in Ellsworth, Kansas, Johnson participated in some of the investigations that had been directed by Carlyle Smith. These experiences whetted Johnson’s enthusiasm for archaeology. He later attended KU as an undergraduate and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology at the University of Arizona. In 1965, Johnson joined the faculty of the Department of Anthropology at KU. In 1968

he succeeded Smith as Curator of the Museum of Anthropology, which had been established the year before as a separate unit at the Museum of Natural History. In 1972 he became its Director and seven years later he moved the Museum into Spooner Hall. Johnson directed many CRM projects in Kansas and Missouri for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, the Missouri Department of Transportation, and other agencies. He also established, with Prof. Patricia O’Brien of Kansas State University, the Kansas Archaeological Field School (KAFS), a research and educational program they co-directed from 1967 to 1976. Several of the field schools were also supported by contracts with those federal agencies. The artifacts and other data obtained through contract and field school projects directed by Johnson and Smith are a significant part of the Museum’s archaeological collections. These have provided the data for many theses and dissertations for anthropology graduates at KU. When the KU Museum of Anthropology (KUMA) moved to Spooner Hall in 1979, Johnson established a separate office under a director who would be responsible for running its contract archaeology program. The first director was Dr. Paul E. Brockington, who had obtained his doctorate in anthropology at KU and returned to his alma mater from a similar position with the contract program at the University of South Carolina. During his brief tenure, Brockington oversaw the final two years of a major archaeological research program at El Dorado Lake in Butler County, Kansas that KUMA had begun in 1967. He also served as Principal Investigator of the Stranger Creek Archaeological Project (SCAP), a reconnaissance survey of that drainage in Leavenworth, Jefferson, and Atchison Counties, Kansas. That project was supported by a series of grants from the National Park Service awarded by the State Historic Preservation Office, Kansas State Historical Society. Then a doctoral student in the anthropology program, I served as Project Director of SCAP from 1979 to 1984, subsequently completing my dissertation on the archaeology of Stranger Creek. In 1981, Brockington left to pursue contract

The Office of Archaeological Research: 1979-2003


archaeology elsewhere. He is now president of Brockington Associates, a successful private CRM firm based in Atlanta. His successor, Dr. Alan H. Simmons, had obtained his doctorate at Southern Methodist University (SMU) and came to KUMA from a stint as an archaeologist with the Navaho Nation. He reorganized the contract program as the Office of Archaeological Research and, during his four-year directorship, oversaw archaeological projects in Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, and Idaho. Funding for these projects came from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the USDA Forest Service, and the National Park Service. His interest in prehistoric human adaptations to arid environments also led him to research in Egypt and Jordan and, in 1984, to Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. Simmons undertook the latter project with the Kansas Archaeological Field School, reviving a program that, since 1976, had been dormant during the heyday of large CRM projects that had provided much student support and training.

During Simmons leadership of OAR, I served as Project Director of several contract projects, including SCAP. In July 1985, Simmons took a position at the Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada (he is now Professor of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas). His departure coincided with my completion of the Ph.D. and I then assumed the position of Director of OAR.

Over the past 18 years OAR has completed 77 contract and grant projects with a total funding of $1,828,570. These projects provided hands-on training in archaeological field and laboratory techniques, as well as financial support, for 48 graduate students and 56 undergraduate students. Funding for them was received from the Kansas City District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department of the Army, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, Kansas State Historic Preservation Department, National Endowment for the Humanities, and University of Kansas General Research Fund. The great majority of these projects were in the Central Plains, reflecting

the geographic focus of my research interests. Project areas were located primarily in Kansas, but included Nebraska, Missouri, and Iowa. During this period, I also participated in the archaeological investigation of Grubgraben in lower Austria under the directorship of Prof. Anta Montet-White. The results of my analyses of animal remains from that Epigravettian site, occupied 18,000 years ago by hunters of reindeer and horse, are presented in publications of the University of Liege and the Royal Society of Anthropology and Prehistory of Belgium.

As a result of OAR investigations in the Central Plains undertaken by me, more than 350 sites have been recorded in Kansas alone. Many of these are located on federal lands, including Kirwin, Lovewell, Norton (Keith Sebelius) Webster Reservoirs and at Fort

Leavenworth. Most of the larger projects, however, required excavation of previously recorded sites in order to determine if they possessed sufficient research potential to merit nomination to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). For example, projects at Clinton Lake, Perry Lake, Lovewell Reservoir, Fort

Leavenworth, and on private lands in Atchison, Clay, Johnson, and Leavenworth Counties, Kansas entailed NRHP evaluation of more than 60 sites, 12 of which were recommended for nomination. One of the latter, the DB (Disciplinary Barracks) site, exemplifies the process of site discovery, evaluation, and full-scale excavation that results in significant new research.

Named for the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, the DB site was destroyed by construction of that prison in 1998. The site had been discovered in 1994 during an OAR survey funded by a Legacy Resource Grant from the Department of the Army. More support led to two test excavations in 1995 and to extensive excavations during the summer of 1996. Finally, the Fort permitted additional excavations with the Kansas Archaeological Field School in 1997. Our investigations revealed that the DB site was a previously unknown example of

The purpose of the Office of Archaeological Research:

“To conduct archaeological research projects through contracts and grants

with various agencies that comply with environmental legislation and executive orders passed in the late

1960s and 1970s.”


periodic upland occupation along the lower Missouri River over a long span of time. Evidence recovered indicated the site had been used by Paleoindian hunters at the end of the Pleistocene, hunter-gatherers during the Archaic period from ca. 5500 to 2600 years ago, and pottery-making cultures during the Woodland and Late Prehistoric periods from ca. 1500 to 600 years ago.

The KAFS investigation of the DB site was one of seven summer field schools that I had directed since 1986. Including the fall and spring semester field schools that I also taught on occasion, these field schools trained a total of 89 students and gave financial support through teaching assistantships to 11 graduate students. Reflecting my research interests, five of the field schools focused on prehistoric sites, particularly those of the ceramic-ages (AD 1-1500), along the Lower Missouri River valley in Atchison and Leavenworth Counties. The other field schools targeted ceramic-age sites endangered by residential development in Johnson County and sites of the poorly known White Rock culture in Lovewell Reservoir. The latter two projects, both examples of contract supported field schools, resulted in nominations of sites to the National Register of Historic Places. As a result of my work on White Rock sites at Lovewell, I redefined that culture (essentially ignored since 1969 and dated wrongly to Protohistoric time) as the result of the westernmost migration of bison-hunting Oneota peoples from the Midwest during Late Prehistoric time. My work coincided with and contributed to a broadening interest among archaeologists in the 13th century AD expansion of these Siouan-speaking groups.

Archaeologists, of course, must follow their fieldwork activities with laboratory analyses and report writing. Such thoroughness characterizes all of the contract and field school projects under my supervision. Thus, I have authored or edited 23 monograph-length reports in the Museum’s Project Report Series, as well as numerous shorter reports submitted for review to state and federal agencies. The ultimate goal of an archaeologist is to share the results of his or her research with peers and public. To that end, I have published more than 40 articles and reviews in such journals as American Antiquity, Journal of Field Archaeology, Ethnohistory, Current Research in the Pleistocene, Plains Anthropologist, Central Plains Archaeology, Kansas Anthropologist, Missouri

Archaeologist, and Wisconsin Archaeologist, as well as chapters in monographs, encyclopedias, and books. Several of these reflect collaborative efforts with KU faculty in the Departments of Anthropology and Geography and in the Museum of Natural History. I have also presented 40 papers at international, national, and regional meetings of professional societies and more than 50 lectures to civic and lay anthropological organizations. In addition to presenting one summer workshop in archaeology, serving as curator of one exhibit, and co-curator of two others, I have also led numerous tours of the Museum to school groups, reviewed hundreds of artifacts brought to KUMA by many collectors, and “job-shadowed” many students from local high schools.

One of the latter students exemplifies the influence that Museum personnel have had on prospective visitors. Daniel Pugh came to me for a Job Shadow session in mid-May 1995. Unable to set up such a session with cultural anthropologists, he had decided to fall back on his then secondary interest in archaeology. Dan became one of the students in the KAFS-1997 excavation at the DB site, subsequently served on several of my contract projects (co-authoring the project report on the Norton Reservoir survey), and completed his B.A. with honors in anthropology at KU. His honors paper was published in Plains Anthropologist and his follow-up research under my direction on the field school dig at the DB site resulted in the publication of his article in Kansas Anthropologist. He is presently working on his doctorate in anthropology at the University of Michigan with support from a National Science Foundation Fellowship. When Dan’s doctoral research brought him back to Kansas in May 2002, he took time to serve as Co-Field Director of the OAR survey of Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge.

Dan is only one example of the many KU students who benefited not only from their own talents, but from opportunities for archaeological training, financial support, and research offered by OAR. I, too, have benefited from knowing and working with these students, from serving on more than a dozen graduate committees, and from learning what these young men and women had to teach me. I look forward to seeing many more like them at Kansas State University, where I now continue my work as Research Associate Professor.


Will BanksBanks is completing the data analysis for his doctoral research and is currently writing his dissertation. This work includes a high-power use-wear analysis of stone tools from the Upper Paleolithic site of Solutré in eastern France. Will has one recent publication, and two in press that will be out this year. They are:

Banks, William E.2002 Analyse Traceologique de L’Industrie Lithique Aurignacienne de Solutré, Secteur M12. In, Solutré: Les fouilles 1968–1998, edited by Jean Combier and Anta Montet-White, pp. 243–246. Société Préhistorique Française, Mémoire 30.

Banks, William E. and Marvin Kay2003 High-Resolution Casts for Lithic Use-wear Analysis. Lithic Technology 28 (in press).

Banks, William E.2003 Catchment Basins as Islands in West-Central Oklahoma: Farra Canyon. In Islands in the Plains, edited by Marcel Kornfeld and Alan Osborn. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City (in press).

Dr. John Janzen In the summer of 2002 Janzen attended a conference on “Fieldwork in Africa” at the West Africa Research Center in Dakar, and participated in a panel on migration. He also journeyed to the northern Senegalese city of Saint Louis to confer with faculty regarding the exchange program KU has with the Universitat‚ Gaston-Berger in Saint Louis. He also participated in panels on similar topics at the fall meetings of the American Anthropological Association in New Orleans and the African Studies Association in Washington D.C.

Janzen continues to direct the KU African Studies Resource Center, which, among many other accomplishments, held seminars in the fall 2002 and spring 2003 semesters. New KU historian Liz

MacGonagle spearheaded the fall seminar on “African History: New Perspectives and Methodologies,” and Saadia Malik led the spring semester seminar on “Sharia Law, Islam, and Women’s rights in Africa.” The Center also co-sponsored a workshop on “Africa & Latin America: Histories, Connections, Identities” with the Latin American Studies Center. This provided an opportune occasion to invite experts on the topic of Janzen’s spring seminar “Kongo-Transatlantic.”

Dr. Janzen’s recent publications include three book reviews and two book chapters:

Wyatt MacGaffey, “Kongo Political Culture: The Conceptual Challenge of the Particular.” Canadian Journal of African Studies.

Mahmood Mamdani, “When Victims become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda.” Contemporary Sociology.

Boris Wastiau, “Mahamba: The Transforming Arts of Spirit Possession among the Luvale-Speaking People of the Upper Zambezi.” Anthropos.

“Continuity, Change, and Challenge in African Medicine,” In Medicine across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Medicine, ed. Helain Selin. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers (pp. 45-69). with Edward C. Green.

“Illusions of Home: The Story of Return of a Rwandan Refugee.” In Lynellyn Long & Ellen Oxfeld, eds. Coming Home? Refugees who Return. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Dr. Gwynne Jenkins Jenkins took a research leave during Spring 2003 for a Fulbright in Costa Rica where she studied the history and practice of surgical sterilization and taught a

FACULTYANDGRADUATESTUDENTNEWS:2002-2003


Web NewsA new section on the Lithic Casting Lab’s web site now features the Moose Creek site in Alaska, excavated by Georges Pearson. < http://www.lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/2003februarymoosecreekpage1.htm >

Georges Pearson was recently added to the team of consulting correspondents for the International Journal of Paleoanthropology (PALANTH). <http://www.palanth.com>

Shannon RyanRyan is a third year master’s student with an emphasis in plains archaeology. She is currently collecting data for her thesis on atlatl weights from the central Great Plains. This summer, she is participating in fieldwork funded by the new Odyssey Archaeological Research Fund. This fieldwork includes excavation, survey, and analysis of materials from sites around Kansas.

Chaya SpearsSpears’ Master’s thesis, under the advisorship of Professor Kendall Thu, was entitled “The Industrialization of Swine Production and Local Knowledge of the Environment: Comparison of Two Illinois Communities,” and examined the influence of environmental vulnerability on community evaluation of environmental risk. She would eventually like a teaching position in a post-secondary institution where she can utilize her skills for both academic and non-academic purposes (e.g. policy change, grassroots mobilization, etc.).

She is currently finishing her coursework for the Ph.D. program and has begun research for her first field statement which examines the definition, utility, and operationalization of ‘social capital.’ This summer she will accompany and assist her advisor, Dr. Jane Gibson, in a cultural anthropological field school in Costa Rica (June 8-28), and will later participate in the National Science Foundation Institute for Research Design (July 28-August 15).

graduate seminar on the politics of reproduction in the Universidad de Costa Rica’s Centro de Investigaciones en Estudios de la Mujer. Prof. Jenkins will take a two year leave of absence (Fall 2003-Spring 2005) during which time she will be a Greenwall Fellow in Bioethics and Health Policy in the Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Georges PearsonPearson graduated in December 2002 (Ph.D.) and is now a new adjunct professor in the department. He is actively seeking funding to continue his excavations at Cueva de Los Vampiros in Panama, where he hopes to return next year with some students.

Pearson’s recent activites include:

PublicationsPearson, G. A. 2003. First Report of a Newly-Discovered Paleoindian Quarry Site on the Isthmus of Panama. Latin American Antiquity 14:(in press).

Pearson, G. A., R. G. Cooke, R. A. Beckwith, and D. Carvajal. 2003. Update on Paleoamerican Research on the Isthmus of Panama. Current Research in the Pleistocene (in press).

Pearson, G. A., and R. G. Cooke. 2002. The Role of the Panamanian Land Bridge During the Initial Colonization of the Americas. Antiquity 76:931-932.

Yesner, D.R., and G. A. Pearson. 2002. Microblades and Migrations: Ethnic and Economic Models in the Peopling of the Americas. In Thinking Small: Global Perspectives on Microlithization, edited by R. G. Elston and S. L. Kuhn, pp. 133-161. Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association 12, Washington, D. C.

LecturePearson gave a lecture last January at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain entitled: “El Poblamiento Inicial del Continente Americano: Revisión del Estado Actual de la Cuestión”


14 New graduate students arrived in the fall 2002 to begin work on either a master’s or Ph.D. in the department. They are:

Ginny Arthur is from Manhattan, Kansas and commutes to KU. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Social Work from KU. Currently Ginny is a clinical social worker with 25 years experience in private practice in marriage and family therapy. She is interested in cultural anthropology, particularly grassroots women’s groups and their importance for social and intellectual well being of women in the retirement years of their life.

Ravi DeSilva is a new student in the department pursuing a Master’s Degree in Cultural Anthropology. He is originally from Topeka, Kansas and received his B.S. degree in Biology from Boston College. His present fields of study include Medical Anthropology and a geographical research emphasis in the Middle East.

Elizabeth Garrett began her career as a graduate student in the Spring 2003. She is interested in Archaeology and is orginaly from Topeka, Kansas. She comes to KU with a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. Elizabeth is interested in North American pre-history and the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural life-ways.

Lisa Jackson is earning her Master’s in Cultural Anthropology. Lisa received her B.A. degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Duke University. Currently her research emphasis pertains to the cosmological spiritual beliefs of the Miskito of Honduras in relation to resource extraction.

Kiran Jayaram, a new arrival to the program, has many ongoing projects. He has several works scheduled for publication in 2003. His M.A. thesis

on the mouvman rasin in Haiti is being published by the Institute for Haitian Studies, and another work on transnationalism he co-authored will appear in the literary journal Chain. He submitted a review of a book on Haitian Rara and is working on an edited volume with Professors Bartholomew Dean (University of Kansas, Anthropology) and Peter Herlihy (University of Kansas, Geography). In the fall of 2003, Kiran will transfer to the graduate program in anthropology at the University of Florida to continue his studies.

Chaya Spears, a native of Illinois, began her first year in the KU anthropology Ph.D. program in the fall of 2002. Chaya received her B.S. (1999) and M.A. (2002)-both in anthropology-from Northern Illinois University. Her general topical interest is in Cultural Anthropology, although her specific interests include agricultural, environmental, economic, and religious issues. Her geographical research area of interest is the Midwestern US.

Other graduate students joining the department in the fall of 2002 are: Norberto Baldi-Salas (biological), Melissa Bowyer (cultural), Kale Bruner (archaeology), Timothy Griffith (archaeology), Brian Lagotte (cultural), Bill Lamboley (cultural), Roche Lindsey (archaeology), Sherry Loveland (cultural), and Rachel Robinson (cultural).

12 Students currently plan to join the department in the fall of 2003. These students will be featured in next year’s Anthropologist.

Welcometoallthenew

graduatestudents!

ANINTRODUCTIONTOTHENEWGRADUATESTUDENTS


May 2002Dorothy Collins, M.A.“The ‘Business’ of School Partnerships”Jane Gibson, Chair; Donald Stull; Lewis Mennerick (Soc.)

Melissa Filippi-Franz, M.A.“The Anthropology of Violence: Embodied Knowledge as Expressed Through Narrative” John Janzen, Chair; F. Allan Hanson, Beverly Mack (AAAS)

Christine D. Garst, M.A.“Relative Dating of the Oneota Occupations at the Leary Site (25RH1): A Study of the 1968 Field Season’s Ceramic Artifacts”John Hoopes, Chair; Jack Hofman; Brad Logan; Lauren Ritterbush (K-State)

Jennifer Macy, M.A.“An Upper Republican Lithic Assemblage From 25FT39: A Study in Variability”Jack Hofman, Chair; John Hoopes; Donna Roper (K-State)

Thuy Pham, M.A.“Exploration of the Lives of Vietnamese Americans in the United States”Donald Stull, Chair; Felix Moos; Jane Gibson

Laura H. Herlihy, Ph.D.“The Lobster Diver and the Mermaid: Situational Ethnic and Gender Identities Among the Indigenous Miskito Peoples, Honduras”John Janzen, Chair; F. Allan Hanson; Bartholomew Dean; Charles Stansifer (Hist.); Elizabeth Kuznesof (Hist.)

Jennifer Hunter, Ph.D.“Cervical Cancer in Iquitos, Peru: A Tragedy of

RecentGraduatesoftheDepartmentPostponed Priority”John Janzen, Chair; Bartholomew Dean; Sandra Gray; Gwynne Jenkins; Ann Kuckelman Cobb (KUMC)

August 2002Dean T. Sather, M.A.“Lithic Technological Organization: A view From the Canning Site”Anta Montet-White, Chair; Jack Hofman; Mary Adair; Brad Logan

December 2002Mary B. Sundal, M.A.“Mortality and Causes of Death Among Karimojong Agropastoralists of Northeast Uganda, 1950-1999”Sandra Gray, Chair; James Mielke; Michael Crawford

Brandi Wiebusch, M.A.“Environmental Effects on Mixed-Longitudinal Growth in Weight of Immunized Karimojong Children”Sandra Gray, Chair; James Mielke; Lynn Marotz (HDFL)

M.J. Mosher, Ph.D.“The Genetic Architectue of Plasma Lipids in the Buryat: An Ecogenetic Approach”Michael Crawford, Chair; James Mielke; Felix Moos; Jack Hofman; John Kelly (Biol.)

Georges Pearson, Ph.D.“Pan-Continental Paleoindian Expansions and Interactions as Viewed from the Earliest Lithic Industries of Lower Central America.”Online at: http://people.ku.edu/~ftgap/pearson/PEARSON.htmJack Hofman, Chair; John Hoopes; Michael


CONGRATULATIONSTOALLTHENEWGRADUATES!

May 2003Shelly Berger, M.A. “Pots and Posts from Hallman, a Bluff Creek Phase Sit in Harper County, Kansas”Alfred Johnson, Chair; Mary Adair; John Hoopes

Christopher Widga, M.A. “Human Subsistence and Paleoecology in the Middle Holocene Central Plains. The Spring Creek (25FT31) and Logan Creek (25BT3) Sites”Jack Hofman, Chair; Darcy Morey; Larry Martin (Nat. Hist. Mus.)

Kevin Skyat - Kengingwiluya, Ph.D.“The Search for Self Images in Consumption Society of Shopping Malls in the Baltimore Metropolitan Area”John Janzen, Chair; F. Allan Hanson; Akira Yamamoto; Jack Hofman; Richard Branham (Industrial Design)

Roberta Sonnino, Ph.D. “For a ‘Piece of Bread’? Interpreting Sustainable Development Through Agritourism in Southern Tuscany, Italy”Jane Gibson, Chair; Donald Stull; F. Allan Hanson; Norman Yetman (Soc.); Robert Antonio (Soc.); Michael Herzfeld (Harvard Univ.)

sites and included information about ceramic, chipped stone, ground stone, and bone material types. Photographs and slides of the excavations are also available. The database includes brief descriptions, measurements and the catalog numbers of the artifacts. Introductory information, maps, and links, are available on the site. Choi took digital photographs of over 1,500 artifacts and the team integrated them into the online database for researchers and the public alike. Using the finished site, students and researchers will be able to search the database, as well as save their information online. In addition to digital photographs, visitors are able to view a few artifacts in a three-dimensional format. To access this information please visit: www.anthro.ku.edu/hopewell (Images for this article can be found at www.anthro.ku.edu/hopewell/trowbridge).

Crawford; Richard Cooke (Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst.); Peter Herlihy (Geog.)

DLI Projectcontinued from page 9


against well-documented historic events.

The Kansas Nutrition Project was funded by a two-year grant from the Kansas Attorney General’s Office from a settlement fund resulting from litigation against vitamin manufacturers. This research, headed by post-doctoral fellow MJ Mosher and research assistant Kristin Melvin, examines the relationship among nutritional and activity patterns, genetics, and various lipid phenotypes in Mennonite families of Kansas. Field investigations began this Spring with a research team consisting of eight persons: faculty, graduate students and a phlebotomist visiting the Alexanderwohl congregation in Goessel, KS. The complex phenotypic measures include leptin, total cholesterol, high-and low-density lipoproteins, fasting insulin levels, and body mass index. The results will be provided to the participants, their physicians, and a statistical summary will be available on the project website.

The Basque Diaspora Project was funded by a two-year grant from National Geographic Society. Currently, more than 600 Basque DNA specimens (from Spain and the United States) are being analyzed by Kristin Melvin for mitochondrial DNA variation. STR analyses were conducted on a smaller subset and have been described at the Human Biology Association meetings in Tempe, Arizona.

This summer, two undergraduate students are beginning their research careers by conducting laboratory investigations at the LBA. They are:• Eric Siegfried, a joint major in Genetics and Anthropology, who received an Undergraduate Summer Research Award to analyze DNA specimens from Kamchatka, Russia.• Ellen Quillen, a University Scholar’s Program, Genetics and Biochemistry, will be analyzing mtDNA data on Newfoundland outports. She plans to write up the results for an Undergraduate Honor’s Thesis.

Dr. Michael Crawford

The LBA continues to be involved in a number of unique research programs. These include:

Peopling of the Aleutian Islands. The Universities of Utah and Kansas have been conducting a collaborative research program funded by the National Science Foundation on the Siberian origins of the inhabitants of the Aleutian Islands. The Utah group, headed by Dennis O’Rourke (KU Ph.D., 1980), is focused on ancient DNA variation extracted from skeletal remains of prehistoric natives of the Aleutian Islands. Their results are being compared to the variation observed in the contemporary populations measured by the University of Kansas team. DNA sequences (analyzed by Rohina Rubicz) reveal that the Aleuts cluster with the Chukchi and Siberian Eskimos, but differ from the Alaskan Eskimos. The coalescence dates based on sequences from haplogroups A and D are consistent with the archeological dates, suggesting that the Aleuts date back to approximately 9,000 years BP. The genetic data also rules out the likelihood that paleo-Aleuts were replaced by neo-Aleuts, and indicates genetic continuity of at least 5,000 to 6,000 years. Results of this research have been submitted for publication to the journal Human Biology by authors Rohina Rubicz, Tad Schurr and M.H. Crawford.

Demographic signature (based on molecular genetic variation) of population expansion of the Yakut of Siberia. This research project involves Mark Zlojutro, research assistant at the LBA and an MA candidate, Mark Sorenson, Northwestern University, and Yakut geneticist (Lorisa Tarskaya). Six Yakut populations, that have expanded from southern Siberia in historic times, are being examined for mtDNA sequences and RFLP variation. Demographic events, such as demic expansion or rapid population reduction, leave their indelible signatures on mtDNA distributions. This study provides a test of the mismatch distributions

THE LABORATORY OF BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY


Publications:Arya, R., R. Duggirala, R. Comuzzie, S. Puppala, S. Modem, B.R. Busi, and M.H. Crawford 2002 Heritability of anthropometric phenotypes in caste populations of Visahapatnam, India. Human Biology 74(3): 325-44.

Crawford, M.H. 2003 Obituary: Gabriel Ward Lasker (1912-2002). Amer.J. Hum. Biol. 15(3): 410-414.

Duggirala, R., M. Uttley, K. Williams, R. Arya, J. Blangero, and M.H. Crawford 2002 Genetic determination of biological age in the Mennonites of the Midwestern United States. Genetic Epidemiology 23(2): 97-109.

Madrigal, L., J. Relethford and M.H. Crawford 2003 Heritability and anthropometric influences on human fertility. Amer. J. Hum. Biol. 15(1): 16-22.

Rubicz, R., K. Melvin, and M.H. Crawford 2002 Genetic evidence for the phylogenetic relationship between Na-Dene and Yenisean speakers. Human Biology 74(6): 743-60.

Presentations at National Meetings:MH Crawford gave a presentation about Gabriel W. Lasker’s contributions to human biology at a special reception in honor of Lasker. This reception was sponsored by Wayne State University Press and the American Association of Anthropological Genetics.

Arantza G. Apraiz, M. Zlojutro, R. Roy, and M.H. Crawford presented a poster at the Human Biology Association in Tempe, Arizona, “STR Variation in a Basque population: Biscay Province.”

Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, J. Marinez-Laso, J. Moscoso, J. Zamora, E. Lowy, G. Livshits, E. Gomez-Casado, C. Silvera-Redondo, K. Melvin and M.H. Crawford presented a poster, entitled: “HLA genes in the Chuvashian population from European Russia: Admixture of central European and Mediterranean populations,” at the Human Biology Association meeting.

Jennifer Rack presented a poster, “Genetic variation of Hungarian populations: Origins and affinities,” in Tempe at the HBA meetings.

Mark Zlojutro, M. Sorensen, J.J. Snodgrass, L.A. Tarskaya, and M.H. Crawford presented a poster at the HBA meetings, entitled “Mitochondrial DNA analysis in Yakutia: Implications for the genetic history of Northern Siberia.”

M.H. Crawford served as a discussant at a symposium in the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, entitled “Neurological phenotypes.” He discussed 12 papers on various topics of gene mapping and behavioral genetics.

M.H. Crawford presented at the Arctic Anthropology Conference in Pocatello, Idaho, “Chronology of the Peopling of the Aleutian Archipelago: Molecular Evidence.” Nov. 1-2, 2002.

Tad Schurr, Rohina Rubicz and M.H. Crawford Presentation at the Cold Springs Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biology, Molecular Genetic Symposium.

Plaudits:M.J. Mosher has accepted a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Starting in August, 2003, she will be working with assistant professor, Kari North, a KU Ph.D. in 1998.

Lisa Martin (KU Ph.D. in 1998) has been highly productive at the University of Cincinnati, where she recently relocated after a post-doc at the SW Foundation for Biomedical Research. She recently published eight articles on various genetic epidemiological topics in prestigious journals, such as Nature Genetics, Genetic Epidemiology, Diabetes, and Human Biology. In recent work Martin mapped QTLs that influence estrogen levels, diabetes susceptibility, coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction.

Robert Halberstein (KU Ph.D. in 1973) recently published an article in the Journal of Caribbean Studies entitled: “Caribbean Immigrants to the US”. 17: 1 & 2: 1-12.

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2003 KU ANTHRO · in prehistoric sound systems, the presence of reconstructable scale patterns and specific tone “coloring” (e.g., microtonalities) suggest that harmony is an