Bioarchaeological Analysis

Nisa is very useful since she has more personal insight and experience on how the paleolithic women used to live. Evidence is that her family were hunter gatherers and when she left from “the bush” she started to learn what other people were like since she was only used to staying and waiting for her father to bring food. And she realized that people in the wider world are stingy.

Otzi, the 5,300 year old Iceman that was found on September 19th, 1991 was brutally killed in battle on a mountain. This theory is correct for many reasons including the injuries and where they are, how severe the injuries were, and more. It is also correct because in an article it had said “showed his death was violent, not the result of drowning, hypothermia or a fall.” proving other theorems incorrect. There were also two wounds in the Iceman’s right hand as well as his right wrist. We know this because the archeologists had said “he was stabbed while trying to defend himself with a dagger against an attacker” and if Otzi was really using a dagger then the attacker must have been closer and would not have had to use an arrow. There also

Miner (1956) discussed the body rituals among the Nacirema. The Nacirema are human beings, just like all other humans. They bleed, they love, they are born, and they die. However, for some reason, the Nacirema consider themselves a special breed of humans. This belief is so ingrained in their traditions and cultures that some have taken it to the extreme. Scholars have argued that the Nacirema’s inflated sense of pride stems from the greatness of their ancestors. They descended from a great group of warriors who came together and agreed on the future of their descendants. This essay will examine the Nacirema’s obsession with oil and how this informs their aggressive behavior.

Archaeology is the study of the ancient past, through the recovery and analysis of material culture. During the development of archaeology, various different kinds of scientific techniques have been established to aid in archaeological investigation. Recent archaeological techniques and processes such as Scanning Electron Microscopy, Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and Radiocarbon Dating are utilised to help better understand a civilisation, specifically the site of Lindow Man. These modern methods have supported in recognizing Lindow Man’s identity and important information regarding his death such as his appearance, his stomach content, what he had eaten prior death and his age. This information has since helped lead scientists to believe in

The skeletal characteristics of these hominines suggest that their mode of locomotion was likely a cross between occasional bipedalism and obligate bipedalism. From the reading we have learned that obligate bipedalism is bipedal locomotion that is practiced all of the time while occasional bipedalism is bipedalism that is practiced on occasion. The ratio of arm length to leg length (longer arms) suggests that they did spend time climbing trees, however the cranial and post cranial traits of these fossils suggest that they spent much of their time on the ground and likely ambulating bipedally combined with a variation of upright walking and knuckle walking. This is evidenced by two factors: the fact the foramen magnum of the skull is centrally located, and the ratio of arm to leg length. In creatures with bipedal ambulation, the foramen magnum is located in the center of the base of the skull to keep the head aligned over the center of gravity of the creature. If the fossils were walking primarily with their knuckles, the

In Patrick Tierney’s article “The Fierce Anthropologist,” he discussed the faults that are, or may be, present in Napoleon Chagnon’s anthropological research of the Yanamamo, or “The Fierce People,” as Chagnon has referred to them in his best-selling book on the people.

The first scholars that existed named the whole period of human devolvement the “Stone Age.” The stone age is divided into three periods which are Paleolithic which means the old Greek age, Mesolithic and Neolithic which is the new Greek age. The Paleolithic and Neolithic stone ages have many great differences and has changed greatly between the two periods.

Traditionally, Neanderthals have been viewed as large, hulking ape like beings that survived by aggression and power through the harshest conditions possible on earth. They have been painted as unsophisticated and unable to compete with humans on an intellectual level. These academics theorized that superior human intellect and reasoning gave humans the advantage in hunting game and securing the most valuable natural resource, eventually driving the Homo neanderthalensis to extinction 30,000 years ago. Popular culture describes Neanderthals as first viewed by science as large, hulking ape like beings. However, new evidence suggests that one of the first reconstructed Neanderthal skeletons did not consider that the individual suffered from acute arthritis. Despite unique, this Neanderthal ‘s hunching posture was associated with the entire species, giving one the impression of a “brutish caveman”. This new understanding has reformed research on the Neanderthal and a new understanding of humanity’s earliest ancestor

The handling of human remains and sacred sites of prehistoric people still remains as a hunge controversial subject in the field of Anthropology. Archaeology are bounded by all kinds of laws and regulations, guidelines are strictly followed by archaeologists to ensure a legal, ethical, and professional conduct of archaeological research. Complex ethical issues arise when an archaeologist tries to excavate a prehistoric site. Archaeologists must be careful when handling Native American remains as they might violate laws if they mishandle the human remains. All these laws existed to protect the basic human rights for the Native Americans. In this paper, perspectives from both Native Americans and archaeological researchers would be discussed.

Horace Miner wrote the article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”, in which he described and detailed the various body rituals practiced among the Nacirema culture. Horace starts the article by explaining that anthropologists encounter all types of cultural and ritualistic extremities, but the Nacirema body rituals are among some of the most extreme observed. The

It has flawlessly displayed the coalescence of the principles of archaeology, linguistics, forensic science and ethnography, the use of the holistic approach of anthropology (Parkin & Ulijaszek, 2007) to reveal the violence and inhumanity brought by global inequality, without euphemizing the real events. The message the anthropologist Jason De León has successfully resonated with his readers, serving as a thought-provoking eye opener of the current socio-political

Throughout the article, Archaeology as Anthropology, Lewis Binford argues that by looking at culture through a systemic view point our interpretations of the past can become stronger and will improve the field of archaeology and anthropology as a whole. His article is integral to the foundation of ‘New Archaeology’ because it gave a critical review of the short comings of a cultural historic approach, and provides suggestions of improvement that have been applied and even built upon in contemporary archaeology. These improvements are discussed by looking at three major functional sub-classes of material culture, with regard to the processes of change, and then applied in the context of the utilization of native copper in eastern North America. This approach created a new viewpoint with which to understand the past through cultural material and was one of the highlights that brought the field of archaeology to what it is today.

Miner’s article presents numerous anthropological concepts including culture, social behaviors, symbols, material culture and holism. While providing us with a synchronic view of an unexplored culture, Miner tackles the principle mindset that governs the “Nacirema’s” social customs and “rituals”, looks at key symbols and material possessions as the focus of the culture, and highlights the importance of studying a culture in its entirety to gain a full and accurate understanding.

The Neolithic period, which occurred during the Holocene Epoch, is defined as the final period of the Stone Age (Violatti, C. 2014). According Encyclopaedia Britannica it is marked as being “the final stage of the cultural evolution or technological development among prehistoric humans”. The Neolithic period saw the beginning of agricultural practices, and the keeping of livestock (Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2014). As the Neolithic phenomenon spread across Europe, populations changed from being hunter-gathers to farmers. This transition is associated with a large change in the populations’ economy, demography and genetics (Deguilloux, M-F, Leahy R, Pemonge, M-H & Rottier, S. 2012).

Majority of the skulls and skeletons of Sami were exhumed from public cemeteries, but some excavations were carried out at sacred Sami burial or religious sites. To add insult to the injury, the results that came out from these unholy experiments were as racially biased as the rationale for embarking on such unworthy exercises.