A5022340122- Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
- Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond
- Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies
- Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory
- Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
- Human-Animal Interaction Studies
- Geographies of human-animal interactions
- Latin American history and culture
- Psychedelics and Drug Studies
- Culinary Culture and Tourism
- Paleopathology and ancient diseases
- Historical Studies in Central America
- Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation
- Archaeological and Geological Studies
- Cuban History and Society
- Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Archaeology and Natural History
- Botany and Plant Ecology Studies
- Indigenous Health and Education
- Forest ecology and management
- Social and Educational Sciences
- Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research
Binghamton University
2004-2023
University of Victoria
2012-2023
Trinity University
2003
University College London
1988
University of London
1987
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
1985
University of California, Berkeley
1985
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
1982
The dog was the first domesticated animal but it remains uncertain when domestication process began and whether occurred just once or multiple times across Northern Hemisphere. To ascertain value of modern genetic data to elucidate origins domestication, we analyzed 49,024 autosomal SNPs in 1,375 dogs (representing 35 breeds) 19 wolves. After combining our with previously published data, contrasted signatures 121 breeds a worldwide archeological assessment earliest remains. Correlating...
Despite evidence for the protracted presence of humans in Amazon Basin, its vast interfluvial habitats are frequently depicted as having survived until recently ‘wild’ landscapes with neither human settlement nor substantial land use. Related research interests paleoecology and archaeology share parallel histories development explanatory paradigms understanding processes contributing to neotropical ecology, both emerged from earlier periods dominated by models based on stability equilibrium...
▪ Abstract Any understanding of contemporary biodiversity change in the Americas is likely to be uninformative and misleading if it employs a prehistoric baseline imbued with pristine characteristics. Archaeological evidence clearly displays protracted history environmental transformations at varying geographical temporal scales throughout Holocene (that is, past 10,000 years). Because problems inherent interpretation archaeological record, genesis these often can only ambiguously attributed...
Analysis of the dissected remains certain small mammals suggests a consistently high ratio edible meat to live weight. These figures, together with great abundance in natural and culturally modified settings, are combined support argument that they may have been important elements prehistoric diet. Their dietary status be underestimated because number biases.
Native South American animal domesticates appear in the northern Andes well before area was occupied by Incan and, later, Spanish empires. They include camelids and cuy (guinea pig), both of which are allochthonous to Andes, muscovy duck. Throughout Ecuador, pertinent skeletal specimens at various sites contexts antedating first millennium AD tend be rare, often associated with specific non-utilitarian contexts, usually uncovered locations from spondylid oyster shell circulated. Their early...
Although common and widespread today throughout the neotropical lowlands, domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) may have been a relatively recent introduction into certain areas. Numerous early documents, however, implicate precolumbian presence of tamed endemic South American canids, at least in lowland areas northern America adjacent Caribbean. These limited descriptions small dogs that did not bark were eventually dismissed scholarly literature as simply domesticated trained to bark. A...
Humans inhabiting South America during early portions of the Holocene variably interacted with native foxes (Family Canidae) in different parts continent at a time when there is little firm evidence for presence domesticated dogs (Canis familiaris). Preserved specimens fox tend to be ubiquitous archaeological contexts which we have associated archaeofaunal samples. In few cases these include association human interments. The endemic regions are predisposed broad-spectrum diets, opportunistic...
Ethnographic observations of floor formation in an occupied and abandoned Achuar jea dwelling structure are combined with contemporary taphonomic studies swept trampled surfaces. These suggest that refuse accumulation incorporation markedly different food-preparation areas ash deposits around fixed hearth features when compared to regularly traffic domestic earthen house floors. points examined the horizontal vertical analysis highly fragmented bone remains Early Formative at site Real Alto,...
Abstract Hallucination is associated with a set of universal and redundant sensory phenomena which often include the appearance anthropomorphic images. These are especially apparent through drug intoxication, technique used by native shamans tropical lowland South America to achieve ecstatic communion spirits. The paper presents evidence for ritual use figurines as repositories ecstatically contacted It suggested that certain Early Formative stage archaeological in western Ecuador may have...
Abstract Knowing whether a species has been extirpated, or if it ever inhabited specific geographic area, direct importance for planning conservation activities. The taruka ( Hippocamelus antisensis ) is one of the largest Neotropical mammals; distributed in central Andes, and there are published records this Ecuador. Recently, missing museum specimens have cast doubts on validity these Ecuadorian records. Here, we examine Ecuador by analyzing multiple sources information. Our approach...
Dissection of certain animal specimens indicated that meat poundage figures based on modern processing practices could be unreliably high.
The arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere (ca. AD 1500) is generally used as a convenient reference point for signaling early appearance invasive faunas. Although use this date embraces an implicit belief benign landscape management by pre-Columbian inhabitants Americas, substantial evidence anthropogenic movement domesticated, wild, and synanthropic vertebrates throughout Neotropics suggests that it may be exaggerated erroneous aims ecological restoration biological conservation.
Abstract This study examines archaeofaunal materials contained within a large bell-shaped prehistoric pit from the site of Pechichal (M3B4-011) in northern Manabí Province lowland western Ecuador. feature provides high resolution archaeological context for understanding assemblage accumulation and deposition, important data inferring local environmental conditions. The can be divided into two distinct groups based upon vertical representation its skeletal remains throughout pit. One group,...