Jamaica (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
51-75 (1,658 Records)
This is an abstract from the "Beyond the Round House: Spatial Logic and Settlement Organization across the Late Andean Highlands" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Scholars of the Andes often assume that the social units they study—residence, community, and region—are monotonically scaled, nested from smaller to larger. This suggests universal correspondences between the analytical and observational objects through which social units are known; hence...
The Ancient City of Dos Hombres: Material Expressions of Power (2017)
Investigations at the ancient Maya city of Dos Hombres have been guided by an interest in social, political and economic organization, based on architecture and material culture remains. Excavations in the civic ceremonial center of Dos Hombres have been focused in the northern plaza, a very public space that likely was a place of commerce, public ritual and sacred space, thereby the prime backdrop for publicly legitimizing authority. Newly excavated data, especially architectural exposures as...
Ancient DNA Studies in Tropical Environments: A Study into the Genetics of the Pre-Columbian Indigenous Population of Puerto Rico (2017)
Studies into ancient DNA have advanced significantly in the last few years, but these have largely been absent in tropical environments. In the Caribbean, a number of questions still pertain as to the bioarchaeology of the indigenous pre-Columbian populations and the exact origin of these early inhabitants. Focusing on the skeletal remains of a late Saladoid population from Punta Candelero site (AD 640-1200), three correlated and simultaneous studies have been coordinated with the aim to...
Ancient networks of the Caribbean: Interaction and Exchange across the Historical Divide (2017)
In this paper, we present multiple lines of evidence for the existence of interwoven and dynamic ancient networks in the Caribbean. This region is characterized by a long and unique history of social relationships between communities and peoples at various temporal and spatial scales. Through time, Caribbean networks of human mobility and the exchange of goods and ideas were shaped by expanding and contracting group territories, fission and fusion of local communities, and variable degrees of...
Ancient Urbanites: The Spatial and Social Organization of Outlying Temple Groups at Ceibal, Guatemala (2017)
Recent investigations of minor temple groups at Ceibal, Guatemala shed light on the social and spatial organization of ancient Maya cities. Many researchers suggest that minor temples were important integrative hubs in lowland Maya settlements. Because minor temples were constructed at regular intervals around the urban epicenter of Ceibal, it appears that they were integral to city planning, and likely the centers of localized communities. Although they may have been discrete social units, the...
Ancient woods used in a ritual context at Chenque I cemetery (Pampean region, Argentina) (2017)
Empirical evidence of ancient ritual practices is not often found in many archaeological sites. This complex ideological aspect of past human societies has usually been reported in association with the presence of monuments such as sculptures, tombs, funeral mounds, temples and shrines and also with particular artefacts used during ceremonies and rituals such as ceramic, stone or metal vessels, musical instruments and so on. Archaeobotanical evidence could contribute enormously to the study of...
"... and his wife Sally": The Binford Legacy and Uncredited Work in Archaeology (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Sins of Our Ancestors (and of Ourselves): Confronting Archaeological Legacies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Often mentioned as an afterthought in sentences about her more famous husband, Sally R. Binford has long been a topic of discussion for those interested in 20th century female archaeologists. Her foundational work in the early endeavors of the ‘New Archaeology’ set the stage for an academic revolution,...
An Andean Mountain Shrine: The Case of Balconcillo de Avillay, Huarochiri (Lima, Peru) (2017)
One of the characteristics of ritual practices in the Andean Society is the presence of shrines in top of mountains related to local deities. These shrines formed part of ancient cultural landscapes that involved settlements, farmlands, cemeteries, and even complex road systems. Most of these ritual spaces are not regularly present in the archaeological record, yet they are frequently mentioned in etno-historical accounts. This study presents a preliminary analysis of a shrine located in the...
Andean Population Dynamics Revealed by Genome-wide Data from the High Elevation Cuncaicha Rock Shelter (2017)
Present-day Andean human populations harbor a relatively high genetic diversity but a minimal population structure and differentiation among them. Moreover, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y chromosome studies on pre-contact human remains suggest that both modern and ancient Andean populations derive from a single ancestral origin. However, nuclear ancient DNA (aDNA) data from the Andes in particular and South America in general are still too scarce to fully address questions on genetic continuity...
The Angel of History and the Paradise of Progress in the Scholarship of Peter Roe (2017)
In honor of the innovative contribution by Peter Roe to the ethno-archaeological research on Amazonia, my paper will focus on the indigenous knowledge forms which invert our own logics about material objects. Roe’s early willingness to allow indigenous thought to impact our scientific interpretations was well ahead of its time. Today, we on the ethnographic side of Amazonian scholarship, have little difficulty speaking in terms of the "social life of things." Yet, even beyond, the legitimacy...
Animal Imagery and the Mythic Level of Jama-Coaque Figural Style (2017)
The mythological and iconographic analyses of Peter G. Roe have made seminal contributions to our understanding of Amerindian cosmology and religious thought in South America, both in the ethnographic present and in the prehispanic past. His unitary mythic model set forth in the Cosmic Zygote (1982) and explored in subsequent publications has convincingly demonstrated that this quintessentially Amazonian model has "deep-time" attributes that shed interpretive light on iconographic...
Annotated Bibliography: Distant Early Warning (DEW) System, Alaska (2008)
An annotated bibliography of the Distant Early Warning (DEW) System. The DEW Line was an integrated chain of early warning radar and communication stations constructed between 1953 and 1957 from northwestern Alaska across northern Canada. The DEW System remained in use throughout the mid to late 1980s. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was replaced with the North Warning System (NWS).
Another Indigenous Feminist on Settler Colonialism in Archaeology (2018)
This paper addresses the ongoing phenomenon of settler colonialism that permeates even the best intentioned "decolonizing" efforts. This paper gives the same credence to Indigenous and non-Western laws, stories, and epistemologies; practices what Sara Ahmed (2014) calls "citational rebellion;" and putts substantial weight into the lived experiences of Indigenous peoples in order to argue that when white archaeologists capitalize on Indigenous, Black, or People of Colour’s (BIPOC) things, bodies,...
Anthropology is Elemental: Teaching Children Using a Four-Field Approach (2018)
Public outreach and education are essential for the future of archaeology. While many organizations are actively involved in informing the public on the value of archaeological knowledge and the importance of preservation, the majority of in-depth education on archaeology and anthropology as a whole remains at the university level. Anthropology is Elemental is an education and outreach program that teaches four-field anthropological concepts to elementary school students through a...
Anthropology Underwater: Landscape archaeology above and below water in the Great Lakes (2018)
Submerged prehistoric landscapes have unique traits which make them invaluable to archaeologists – increased preservation of organic remains, Pompeii-like snap shots in time, and data that either do not exist on land or are deeply buried. These attributes make the few challenges that remain for conducting archaeology underwater more than worth the effort. Early human occupation in the Great Lakes has been difficult to investigate as acidic soils and dynamic water levels left many archaeological...
The Antiquity and Persistence of Traditional Health Beliefs and Practices in the Northern Andes (2017)
This paper presents findings of a new European Community funded research project: "Indigenous Concepts of Health and Healing in Andean Populations". The study population are indigenous Quechua peoples in northern Andean Ecuador. The project examines ethnic Andeans’ understanding of their world and how health, illness and healing are understood within it. Current practices of traditional medicine (TM) have evolved within complex historical contexts into new forms which can reveal the nature of...
Apotguan Revisited: A Bioarchaeological Analysis of Latte Period Burials from Guam (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Research and CRM Are Not Mutually Exclusive: J. Stephen Athens—Forty Years and Counting" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Cultural Resources Management studies in the Mariana Islands have consistently expanded opportunities for in-depth bioarchaeological research. Burial assemblages originating from historic preservation compliance obligations generally derive from one of three contexts: displaced fragmentary remains;...
Appendix - 'Nueva Cadiz' in the Americas (2021)
Dataset for an article published in BEADS The Journal of the Society of Beads Researchers
Applications of Geospatial Technologies in Known Archaeological Landscapes: Re-examining the Archaeological Settlement Pattern of Falefa Valley (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Geospatial Studies in the Archaeology of Oceania" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The development and present nature of landscape archaeology in the Pacific owes much to the pioneering work of Janet Davidson and Roger Green in Falefa Valley, Upolu, Sāmoa. This research, completed in the absence of modern geospatial technology, not only demonstrated the potential of landscape-scale investigations in Polynesia but also...
Applications of Wiggle-Match Dating in North American Historical Archaeology (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Wiggle-match dating (WMD) of tree-ring sequences facilitates high-resolution radiocarbon dating in historical archaeology, a period notorious for an imprecise radiocarbon record. We demonstrate the application of WMD in historical archaeology with two case studies: (1) a cypress dugout logboat exhibiting a unique combination of European and Native American...
Applied Archaeological Ethics: Inclusive Pedagogical Practices (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As archaeologists, our ethical obligations include responsibly training future generations of practitioners. Oftentimes, we understand this responsibility as taking the form of training proper field methods, timely and complete reporting of data, and other aspects that deal specifically with the physical aspects of archaeology – artifacts, records, and...
Applied Zooarchaeology, food practices, conservation biology programs and contemporary cultural traditions in the Caribbean Region of Colombia. (2017)
At present, human population groups in the Colombian Caribbean, in common with people from most regions of the world, face problems associated with the sustainability of resources that results to a large extent from the indiscriminate use of plant and animal species for food among other uses. The phenomenon not only impacts plant and animal species but rebounds, too, on human beings. Although governmental and non-governmental bodies have made some efforts to implement preventive programs...
Applying Continuous Process Improvement Methodologies to Evaluate and Rebuild the Air National Guard Cultural Resources Management Program (2018)
The Air National Guard (ANG) Cultural Resources Program oversees historic preservation and tribal consultation for 160+ installations throughout the United States and its Territories. One government official and one CEMML Cooperator manage the program centrally from Joint Base Andrews, MD, but the volume of work has prevented officials from managing resources in a proactive and systematic way. As such, managers are applying the Continuous Process Improvement/Lean Six Sigma methodology to focus...
Applying Geophysical Prospection to Interpret Historical Burial Practices at Two Cemeteries on St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean (2021)
This is an abstract from the "NSF REU Site: Exploring Globalization through Archaeology 2019–2020 Session, St. Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research examines the relationship between the Old Church Cemetery and the Jewish Cemetery on the Dutch Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius. These cemeteries are located near each other, yet the people buried in them had different religious ideologies and social positions....
Applying pXRF Technology to Repatriation at the National Museum of Natural History (2018)
The Anthropology collections at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) have a long history of treatment with pesticides and contact with other materials that contain potentially hazardous elements. When the NMNH Repatriation Office began to use portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) technology, it focused on identifying potentially hazardous elements on archaeology, ethnology, and physical anthropology collections. If identified, the Repatriation Office attempted to determine the source of...