Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Geospatial Bioarchaeological Perspective on Behavior, Activity Patterns, and Lifestyle in the Eastern Woodlands of North America

该项目测试的假设，即环境的物理地形直接影响的行为，活动模式和生活方式的美洲原住民谁住在北美东部林地。 具体来说，这项研究假设，一个异构的地形（例如，不同的海拔、山脉、丘陵和陡峭的斜坡），导致退行性关节病（DJD）的更高患病率和股骨的骨健壮性增加，而较少异质性的地形（例如，平坦地形）产生相反的结果。 此外，更多样化的景观的生物后果包括流动性降低和在较早年龄获得资源的机会有限。 该项目利用了西半球健康和营养史数据库中的美洲原住民部分，并建议从另外两个农业地点收集数据。将通过建立一个由生物和生态数据组成的空间参考数据库来模拟古环境。 DJD的患病率和骨健壮程度将用于重建骨骼、活动模式和生活方式，而其他健康指标（如颅骨疏松、骨骨膜炎、龋齿、骨质疏松和创伤）的患病率将用于评估环境对身体系统健康功能的影响。生物健康和成功适应环境的质量将根据古生态变量和空间关系的详细重建进行检查。 该项目的更广泛影响是它有助于加强研究和教育基础设施，并传播从这项研究中获得的数据。 该项目标志着地理信息系统方法在生物考古学分析中的首次大规模应用。该项目将特别有助于人类学和地理学领域，以及整个科学界。目前的西半球健康和营养史数据库已向公众开放，本项目的目的是向公众提供空间参照数据库。重新搜索者将能够访问数据库，并将其用于自己的研究目的。 这将继续促进合作努力，汇集资源和数据，以更好地了解过去的人类变异。现有数据库的规模表明了数据收集程序的合作和简化的重要性。 该项目将为这方面的持续工作提供范例。 此外，人类学和地理学领域的进一步整合将导致，有助于未来的地理空间生物考古学研究。

This project tests the hypothesis that the physical terrain of the environment directly influenced behavior, activity patterns, and lifestyle of Native Americans who lived in the eastern Woodlands of North America. Specifically, this research hypothesizes that a heterogeneous terrain (e.g., varied eleva-tion, mountains, hills, and steep inclines), results in a higher prevalence of degenerative joint disease (DJD) and increased bone robusticity of the femur, while a less heterogeneous terrain (e.g., flat topogra-phy) produces opposite results. Furthermore, the biological consequences of a more varied landscape include reduced mobility and limited access to resources at an earlier age. This project utilizes the Native American component of the History of Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere database and proposes to collect data from two additional agricultural sites. The paleoenvironment will be modeled by creating a spatially referenced database consisting of biological and ecological data. Prevalence of DJD and the degree of bone robusticity will be used to reconstruct behav-ior, activity patterns, and lifestyle, while the prevalence of other health indicators such as cranial poros-ities, osteoperiostitis, caries, abscesses, and trauma will be used to assess the impact of the environment on the healthy functioning of body systems. The quality of biological health and successful adaptation to the environment will be examined in light of detailed reconstruction of paleoecological variables and spa-tial relationships. The broader impacts of this project are its contribution to enhance infrastructure for research and education and to disseminate the data obtained from this research. This project marks the first large scale application of GIS methods in bioarchaeological analyses. This project will specifically contribute to both the fields of Anthropology and Geography, as well as to the scientific community in general. The current History of Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere database is available to the public and it is the intention of this project to make the spatially referenced database available to the public as well. Re-searchers will be able to access the database and use it for their own research purposes. This will con-tinue to facilitate collaborative efforts to pool resources and data for a better understanding of past human variation. The size of the existing database demonstrates the importance of collaboration and standardiza-tion of data collection procedures. This project will yield an example for continued work in this direction. Additionally, further integration of the fields of Anthropology and Geography will result, contributing to future geospatial bioarchaeological studies.