Graduate student John Starbuck passed his comprehensive exam today and is now ABD. John's adviser is Joan Richtsmeier. Congratulations John!
December 2010 Archives
Graduate student Brenda Frazier successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, "The Cranial
Morphology of Dwarf Primate Species" today. Brenda's adviser is Joan Richtsmeier. Congratulations Brenda!
Nathan Craig's paper entitled, "Cultural Dynamics, Climate, and Landscape in the
South-Central Andes During the Mid-Late Holocene: A Consideration of Two
Socio-Natural Perspectives" was accepted for publication in Chungara, the
Chilean Journal of Anthropology.
Abstract:
Through a case study focusing on the Rio Ilave, Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru, this paper examines the Mid-Late Holocene climatic transition and the Archaic-Formative cultural transition as a means to evaluate two seemingly competing socio-natural theories for accelerated cultural change: resource stress and abundance. Stress based approaches emphasize the principle that experimentation, that may lead to behavioral adaptations, arises out of attempts to solve specific problems. Alternatively, abundance based approaches assert that rates of cultural change accelerate when material constraints or limits are eased. Results from the present case study indicate that during the relatively resource stressed arid Mid-Holocene, several new cultural practices developed: reduced residential mobility, storage, domestication, and intensified plant processing. During the succeeding moist and relatively resource abundant Late-Holocene, these new cultural practices greatly intensified. These intensified economic activities resulted in deforestation, and this in turn created new forms of environmental stress. Thus, experimentation occurred during a period of stress. This was followed by a relaxation of material constraints that led to intensification of the new economic activities. This intensification in turn appears to have generated new kinds of stress. This case study shows that, rather than forming competing theories, stress and abundance approaches explain different kinds and contexts of accelerated cultural change.
Abstract:
Through a case study focusing on the Rio Ilave, Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru, this paper examines the Mid-Late Holocene climatic transition and the Archaic-Formative cultural transition as a means to evaluate two seemingly competing socio-natural theories for accelerated cultural change: resource stress and abundance. Stress based approaches emphasize the principle that experimentation, that may lead to behavioral adaptations, arises out of attempts to solve specific problems. Alternatively, abundance based approaches assert that rates of cultural change accelerate when material constraints or limits are eased. Results from the present case study indicate that during the relatively resource stressed arid Mid-Holocene, several new cultural practices developed: reduced residential mobility, storage, domestication, and intensified plant processing. During the succeeding moist and relatively resource abundant Late-Holocene, these new cultural practices greatly intensified. These intensified economic activities resulted in deforestation, and this in turn created new forms of environmental stress. Thus, experimentation occurred during a period of stress. This was followed by a relaxation of material constraints that led to intensification of the new economic activities. This intensification in turn appears to have generated new kinds of stress. This case study shows that, rather than forming competing theories, stress and abundance approaches explain different kinds and contexts of accelerated cultural change.
John Starbuck and two volunteers (law student Jackie
Starbuck and anthropology/psychology undergraduate Ashley Bowersox) recently traveled to
West Chester, PA to collect data at the Chester
County Down Syndrome Interest Group, Inc. Buddy Walk (http://www.ccdsig.org/).
Dr. Benjamin F. Voight, a research scientist in the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT will be presenting
"Understanding the Genetics of Metabolic Disease by Sequencing and Genotyping" on
Monday, December 13 at 4:00 p.m. in the Berg Auditorium - 100 Life Sciences Building.
Please plan to attend. Everyone is welcome!
Voight_lecture .doc
Please plan to attend. Everyone is welcome!
Voight_lecture .doc
Douglas Kennett will be the speaker at this week's Department of Anthropology colloquium
on Friday, December 10. The title of his presentation is "Environmental Archaeology." The colloquium will begin at 3:30 p.m. in 202 Carpenter Building.
All are welcome. Please plan to attend.
All are welcome. Please plan to attend.
The annual Holiday Bazaar will be held at the Matson Museum of Anthropology on Friday and Saturday, December 3 and 4 from 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Although the museum is currently closed for renovations, this event will be held on the second floor of Carpenter Building (located on the University Park campus near the Nittany Lion Shrine & Nittany Lion Inn). The bazaar features handicrafts and jewelry inspired by many cultures.