Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Joseph Hefner, along with Dr. Rebecca Redfern of Newcastle University, Professor Sharon N. DeWitte of the University of Colorado, and Professor Dorothy Kim of Brandeis University have published an article in Bioarchaeology International titled “Race, Population Affinity, and Mortality Risk during the Second Plague Pandemic in Fourteenth-Century London, England.”

Abstract

We investigate whether hazards of death from plague and physiological stress at a fourteenth-century plague cemetery (Royal Mint, London) differed between populations using N = 49 adults whose affiliation was established using macromorphoscopic traits. Compared to a nonplague cemetery (N = 96), there was a greater proportion of people of estimated African affiliation in the plague burials. Cox proportional hazards analysis revealed higher hazards of death from plague for those with estimated African affiliation. There were higher rates of linear enamel hypoplasia in those with estimated African affiliation, but this finding is not statistically significant. These results provide the first evidence that hazards of plague death were higher for people of estimated African affiliation compared to other affiliations, possibly because of existing inequalities, in addition to migration (free or forced) outcomes. These findings may reflect premodern structural racism’s devastating effects.

Read the full article here: https://journals.upress.ufl.edu/bioarchaeology/article/view/2403

This piece has received significant media coverage:

https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-study-claims-structural-racism-played-role-black-death-plague

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12775007/Black-women-African-descent-likely-die-medieval-plague-structural-racism.html

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/dec/13/badenoch-condemns-london-plague-study-after-mp-calls-it-woke-archaeology

Anthropology undergraduate senior Sam Lavake has been awarded a Field Grant by the Forensic Sciences Foundation. This grant will be used to support her Dean’s Assistantship this year. Sam’s research proposal was titled “Validation of Three-Dimensional Photogrammetry Models to Document Cranial Trauma”.

From the American Academy of Forensic Sciences website: Each year the Forensic Sciences Foundation (FSF) awards monies in the form of grants to members of the forensic science communities to help the investigator/researcher initiate original in-depth, problem-oriented research throughout the year. These grants are open to members and affiliates (at any level) of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. This year, the FSF Research Committee has awarded three Field Grants and seven Lucas Grants totaling $34,546.

For more information: Field and Lucas Research Grant Recipients

Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Dr. Elizabeth Drexler announces the publication of her new book, Infrastructures of Impunity: New Order Violence in Indonesia, available now from Cornell University Press.

From the publisher’s website: In Infrastructures of Impunity Elizabeth F. Drexler argues that the creation and persistence of impunity for the perpetrators of the Cold War Indonesian genocide (1965–66) is not only a legal status but also a cultural and social process. Impunity for the initial killings and for subsequent acts of political violence has many elements: bureaucratic, military, legal, political, educational, and affective. Although these elements do not always work at once—at times some are dormant while others are ascendant—together they can be described as a unified entity, a dynamic infrastructure, whose existence explains the persistence of impunity. For instance, truth telling, a first step in many responses to state violence, did not undermine the infrastructure but instead bent to it. Creative and artistic responses to revelations about the past, however, have begun to undermine the infrastructure by countering its temporality, affect, and social stigmatization and demonstrating its contingency and specific actions, policies, and processes that would begin to dismantle it. Drexler contends that an infrastructure of impunity could take hold in an established democracy.

The book is available directly from the publisher here. Use the code 09BCARD for 30% off.

Department of Anthropology Ph.D candidate Jeff Burnett has been awarded the Wenner-Gren Enagaged Research Grant for his proposal titled “Oak Bluffs Historic Highlands Archaeology Project”. For this project Jeffrey will be conducting a landscape study that utilizes archaeological methods, archival data, and oral histories and stories to map the beginnings and growth of a Black vacationing community in the Highlands area of Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts.

For more information on the Wenner-Gren Engaged Research Grant, please see the following description from their website: This program supports research partnerships that empower those who have historically been the subjects of anthropological research, rather than researchers themselves. Designed in alliance with individuals who have borne the impact of marginalization, these partnerships bring together scholars and their interlocutors in an effort to expand anthropological knowledge, combat inequality, and help communities flourish. The program supports projects that will make a significant contribution to anthropological conversations through collaboration and engagement.

Anthropological research involves forging ethical relationships. Researchers must acknowledge the contributions of interlocutors and compensate them appropriately for their labor and time. Projects funded by Engaged Research Grants go even further. Not only are interlocutors participants in the research, but they have an active role in determining the problems explored. This grant program targets projects that show greater potential when undertaken as a partnership, beginning with the formulation of research questions and extending to data gathering, skill sharing, scholarly communication, and public mobilization. Engaged research occurs in a broad range of settings, including communities, courtrooms, government offices, and laboratories. It results in findings that are meaningful and potentially transformative for research participants and others with a stake in the collaboration. Through this program, the Foundation seeks to demonstrate how engagement can foster innovation and further anthropological knowledge.

This program is open to applicants with PhDs in anthropology and related fields. We also welcome applications from students enrolled in a doctoral program (or equivalent, if applying from outside the U.S.) at the time of application. There is no preference for any methodology or subfield. Individuals of all nationalities are eligible to apply.

Click here for further information.

For more information on Jeff Burnett’s project, please see the following links to local newspaper stories:

MV Times

Vineyard Gazette

Department of Anthropology Ph.D. candidate Emily Milton, along with co-authors Dr. Jordi Rivera Prince of Brown University and Ph.D. candidate Melina Seabrook of Harvard University, have published an article in Bioarchaeology International. The article is titled “Reconciling Identity Narratives: Creating Collaborative Space with Isotopic Baselines.” The article provides a critical perspective on the use of isotopes for bioarchaeological identity studies.

Abstract: Isotopic methods have provided breakthrough insights into bioarchaeological identity studies, yet merit more critical theoretical perspectives. Inspired by and in conversation with intersectional feminist, Indigenous, and environmental literatures, we interrogate with and for whom such research is conducted. Potential inequities in bioarchaeological research using isotopes include the extractive and specialized nature of isotopic methods. Additionally, in the context of identity studies, Western notions of the individual may separate humans from nature, creating an artificial division between people and place. We propose isotopic baselines may create a more engaged practice by considering living human dynamics and place. Looking toward a more inclusive and equitable future for bioarchaeological and isotopic research, we propose ways to reduce power imbalances created by isotopic research. Ultimately, we suggest the collection and interpretation of environmental baseline data provide an opportunity to reconcile and expand conceptualizations of identity beyond the West.

Read the full article here: https://journals.upress.ufl.edu/bioarchaeology/article/view/2332

Lead author and MSU alum Dr. Mari Isa of Texas Tech University, Department of Anthropology Professor and Chair Todd Fenton, current MSU Anthropology Ph.D. candidates Alex Goots and Elena Watson, and engineering colleagues Patrick Vaughan and Dr. Feng Wei, have published a collaborative article titled “Effects of input energy and impactor shape on cranial fracture patterns” in the November 2023 issue of Forensic Science International.

Read the full article: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1hxKS1MCG0a57K

Abstract: This study documents relationships between input energy, impactor shape, and the formation of fractures in human crania. Parietal impact experiments (n = 12) were performed at 67% higher input energy compared to previously reported experiments. Fracture origins, characteristics, and locations were compared at two input energy levels with three impactor shapes (focal “hammer”, flat “brick”, and curved “bat”). Impacts with all three impactors at both energy levels produced fractures originating at and remote to the impact site, indicating both mechanisms are typical in temporoparietal blunt force impacts. Higher energy impacts generally produced more impact site fractures, depression, and comminution than lower energy impacts. A small, focal impactor produced cone cracks, depression, and fractures localized near the impact site. A broad, curved impactor produced circumferential fractures and linear fractures extending into adjacent bones. A broad, flat impactor produced fracture patterns ranging from linear fractures to large depressed and comminuted defects.

The Department of Anthropology is pleased to announce that Ph. D. candidate Rhian Dunn is one of 24 doctoral students who have been awarded the 2023 Graduate Research Fellowship by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). The NIJ is the research, development, and evaluation agency for the United States Department of Justice, which aims to promote research dedicated to improving “knowledge and understanding of crime and justice issues through science” (nij.ojp.gov/about-nij). Specifically, the Graduate Research Fellowship program supports doctoral students engaging in research that advances the NIJ’s mission.

Rhian will use the funds to cover expenses related to her dissertation research, titled “Sampling and Section Bias in Research using Documented Skeletal Collections.” She intends to identify potential sources of bias encountered in the initial research phase for forensic and biological anthropological studies using data from documented human skeletal collections. The fellowship begins January 1st, 2024 and will run until May of 2025. She hopes that this dissertation research will enable forensic and biological anthropologists to better understand the extent of bias introduced in the research process and how such biases might affect the validity of historic methods still in use. Rhian acknowledges the support she has received from her committee members and her dissertation committee chair and advisor, Dr. Joseph T. Hefner, the PI on this grant.

Dr. Larry Robbins, retired professor from the MSU Department of Anthropology, has coauthored a chapter in a new book titled “Handbook of Pleistocene Archaeology of Africa” alongside Dr. Michael Murphy from Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Dr. George Brook from the University of Georgia, and Dr. Linhai Yang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The chapter is on the Tsodilo Hills in Botswana and focuses on the Pleistocene archaeology of three sites in this area of the Kalahari Desert and how paleoenvironmental factors may have influenced their occupation over the last 100,000 years.

Further information about the release can be found here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-20290-2