Investigating the global dispersal of chickens in prehistory using ancient mitochondrial dna signatures

Data from morphology, linguistics, history, and archaeology have all been used to trace the dispersal of chickens from Asian domestication centers to their current global distribution. Each provides a unique perspective which can aid in the reconstruction of prehistory. This study expands on previous investigations by adding a temporal component from ancient DNA and, in some cases, direct dating of bones of individual chickens from a variety of sites in Europe, the Pacific, and the Americas. The results from the ancient DNA analyses of forty-eight archaeologically derived chicken bones provide support for archaeological hypotheses about the prehistoric human transport of chickens. Haplogroup E mtDNA signatures have been amplified from directly dated samples originating in Europe at 1000 B.P. and in the Pacific at 3000 B.P. indicating multiple prehistoric dispersals from a single Asian centre. These two dispersal pathways converged in the Americas where chickens were introduced both by Polynesians and later by Europeans. The results of this study also highlight the inappropriate application of the small stretch of D-loop, traditionally amplified for use in phylogenetic studies, to understanding discrete episodes of chicken translocation in the past. The results of this study lead to the proposal of four hypotheses which will require further scrutiny and rigorous future testingExcavations in Fais by MI were made possible by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. DB gratefully acknowledges support from the Marsden Fund, and the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution. During the course of this research AS was supported by a Postgraduate Scholarship from the University of Auckland and a Fellowship from the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolutio

The ‘one who knocks’ and the ‘one who waits’: Gendered violence in Breaking Bad

This article provides a cultural criminological analysis of the acclaimed US television series, Breaking Bad. It is argued here that – as a cultural text – Breaking Bad is emblematic of an agenda for change surrounding criminological theories of peoples’ propensity to do harm to one another. To exemplify this, the show’s central (male) protagonist is revealed to undergo a complete biosocial transformation into a violent offender and, as such, to demonstrate the need for criminological theory to recognise and further reflect upon this process. However, at the same time, the (re)presented inability of the show’s female characters to do the same is indicative of a number of gender-related questions that progressive criminological theories of violence need to answer. In considering these two fields in tandem, the show’s criminological significance is established; it is symbolic of the need for criminology to afford greater recognition to the nuanced intersections of both biological and sociological factors in the genesis and evolution of violent human subjectivities

1954: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text

Preface The 1954 Abilene Christian College Lectureship was one of the best attended and most successful in the history of the school. Considerable interest was manifested in the timely theme, “Overcoming Dangerous Tendencies,” and in the two special topics, “Ways and Means of Doing Mission Work,” and “Caring For Widows and Orphans.” The reports from the mission fields were highly stimulating, and all in all, the speeches were unusually high caliber. The Panel Discussions were also on timely subjects and well presented. They received a warm response, as did also the thirty classes that were conducted each day. These classes were taught by persons expert in their particular fields, and covered a wide range of interests to the faithful, working Christian. We at Abilene Christian College predict for this book of Lectures a wide and hearty reception, and believe that its reading will issue in profit to the individual and to the church at large. J. D. Thomas Lectureship Directo

Environmental Change and Prehistoric Polynesian Settlement in Hawai'i

Prehistoric environmental change in Hawai'i is evaluated through the analysis of sediment and pollen samples from dated cores and excavation profiles in the coastal lowlands of O'ahu. It is suggested that a lowland Pritchardia palm forest and associated species underwent rapid decline starting between about A.D. 1000 to 1200. This decline seems to have occurred earlier in coastal areas than in inland areas. By the time of Western contact in A.D. 1778 the native palm forest community had all but disappeared. Though prehistoric Polynesians are implicated in the decline, the actual mechanism remains to be demonstrated. The question of coastal infilling and progradation is also considered. Sea level change appears to be the overwhelming controlling variable. It is concluded that prehistoric Polynesians had little if anything to do with large-scale geomorphological alteration of the landscape, which has been a continuing process throughout the Holocene. KEYWORDS: paleoenvironment, Hawai'i, prehistory, impacts, vegetation, geomorphology, Holocene

"Setting the Record Straight" for Cachola-Abad and Ayau

In their article, "He Pane Ho'omalamalama: Setting the Record Straight and a Second Call for Partnership," published in Volume 7 (1999) of Hawaiian Archaeology (73-82), C. Kehaunani Cachola-Abad and Edward Halealoha Ayau accuse me of violating HRS sections §6E-11 and 12 as they pertain to the handling of burials. Their article, while dealing with a host of other concerns, devoted considerable attention to this issue. Their complaint centers on the recovery and analysis of inadvertently discovered human remains at the corner of Pi 'ikoi Street and Kapi'olani Boulevard in Honolulu in early 1994 (hereafter referred to as the Pi 'ikoi case, or just case). The work was done by my organization, International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc. (IARII). Cachola-Abad and Ayau believe that recovery of the skeletal remains and subsequent osteological analysis were performed without authorization, and also that a radiocarbon date on a sample of bone was obtained in violation of the law. As indicated in their article, Mike Wilson, former Chairman of the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), refused to prosecute IARII or me for these alleged violations, and also the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology (SHA) did not take action against me for the supposed 'defiance' of its code of conduct. Although Cachola-Abad and Ayau indicated strong displeasure with the inaction of Wilson and SHA, their inaction is hardly surprising considering there was no legal transgression or any professional or ethical misconduct. The legal issue, in short, is nonsense, and the misconduct charge has no conceivable basis

Pohnpei Coring Records: The Natural Distribution of Cyrtosperma chamissonis and Neolithic Charcoal Particles

Dating, pollen, and charcoal particle findings are presented from two mangrove swamp cores recovered from Pohnpei, Eastern Caroline Islands, Micronesia. The cores, from opposite sides of the island, provide continuous sediment sequences dating from the early Holocene. Pollen analysis demonstrates that the giant swamp taro (Cyrtosperma chamissonis), an important cultigen on many islands in the Western Pacific, was growing on Pohnpei during prehuman times, indicating that its natural prehuman distribution was far wider than previously suspected. The archaeological implications for the prehuman presence of C. chamissonis are discussed. The cores are inconclusive with regard to the timing of initial human settlement and landscape change on Pohnpei, possibly due to their location deep within large coastal mangrove forests where terrestrial pollen types and charcoal from local fires are poorly dispersed

Suggested Best Practices for the Application of Radiocarbon Dating to Hawaiian Archaeology

Ongoing studies (Duarte 2012; Rieth et al. 2011; Rieth personal communication) show that fully 90 percent of 2,334 radiocarbon determinations reported from archaeological contexts on Hawai'i Island, Maui, and portions of O'ahu have been from samples of wood charcoal of unspecified taxa or plant parts. Some unidentifiable portion of these dates are unrelated to, and older by as much as a century than, archaeological events of interest because, among other factors, they derive from the heartwood of one or more long-lived trees of unknown in-built age (Dye 2000). The fact that, in the absence of the samples' botanical sources, accurate dating results cannot be distinguished from inaccurate ones renders such unidentified samples poorly suited to the task of supplying the level of reliable chronometric accuracy required to understand processes in the brief and recent span of the Hawaiian archaeological record at any scale, from individual hearth use to multi-island agricultural expansion. The remaining ten percent of examples reviewed in the above-mentioned study are those reported by researchers who have avoided the problem of in-built age by dating only samples from individual, identified short-lived plants or plant parts such as seeds or twigs, an approach rooted in Murakami