Doctoral Dissertation Research: Assessing Multiple Lines of Evidence for Gene Flow in Archaeological Contexts

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Reconstructing the movements and interactions of humans in the past informs our broader understanding of the biological and cultural processes that have shaped human populations through time. In this doctoral dissertation project, the investigator will compare two methods used to reconstruct human population dynamics in the past based on skeletal data. Understanding the relative merits of these biological methods will support more complex analyses that rely on both biological and cultural data from past populations. The interdisciplinary project draws upon theory and methods from evolutionary anthropology, genetics, statistics, and bioarchaeology. Through free and low-cost courses and outreach talks, a broad audience, including members of descendant communities, interested members of the public, and underserved students in STEM fields, will engage in discussions about the complexities of human population dynamics and the relevance of these processes in the modern world. The project will investigate two methods for identifying signatures of gene flow from osteological data, in order to address larger questions about the social, cultural and biological aspects of population interactions in the past. The two methods compared in this study determine the presence of gene flow by looking at two of its potential effects: a greater degree of similarity in morphology between groups (the biological distance model), and an increase in group morphological variation (the quantitative genetic model). The study will address three primary research questions: Does the inference of gene flow differ between studies using two different models to investigate the same skeletal remains? Are important nuances about group interactions captured using one biological method that are not inferable from the other, or do both methods need to be used together to achieve better resolution about gene flow? And finally, how does each method compare to hypotheses of migration established from material culture? These questions will be addressed by comparing the results of two analyses in two different archaeological contexts within a region with a well-researched archaeological record. The first context has evidence from material culture that is indicative of past migration (and possible gene flow) between groups, and the second has material culture evidence indicating cultural separation and likely no gene flow. Through these tests, the investigators will evaluate the ability of individual models to estimate gene flow in contexts with no written records.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.