Next Issue
Volume 3, March
Previous Issue
Volume 2, September
 
 

Humans, Volume 2, Issue 4 (December 2022) – 8 articles

  • Issues are regarded as officially published after their release is announced to the table of contents alert mailing list.
  • You may sign up for e-mail alerts to receive table of contents of newly released issues.
  • PDF is the official format for papers published in both, html and pdf forms. To view the papers in pdf format, click on the "PDF Full-text" link, and use the free Adobe Reader to open them.
Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
12 pages, 2300 KiB  
Article
From the Trowel’s Edge to the Scholarly Sidelines: Community-Based Research in Academic Archaeology, 2012–2021
by Alice P. Wright
Humans 2022, 2(4), 277-288; https://doi.org/10.3390/humans2040018 - 01 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1359
Abstract
Community-based approaches in archaeology are poised to make an important contribution to the decolonization of the discipline. Archaeologists who are committed to this agenda are undoubtedly aware that community archaeology is a vibrant and growing research area, but the extent to which the [...] Read more.
Community-based approaches in archaeology are poised to make an important contribution to the decolonization of the discipline. Archaeologists who are committed to this agenda are undoubtedly aware that community archaeology is a vibrant and growing research area, but the extent to which the practical aspects and interpretive impact of community archaeology are known beyond its adherents is unclear. This article reviews recent publication trends in highly ranked, international archaeology journals to determine if and what kind of community archaeology is reaching a discipline-spanning audience. The main finding of this analysis is that community archaeology occupies a dynamic but narrow niche within general archaeological scholarship. I argue that this pattern must be confronted and reversed if the transformative potential of community-based research is to be realized in archaeology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Reflections on the Sociology of Archaeology)
Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 3253 KiB  
Article
Using Mixed Methods to Understand Spatio-Cultural Process in the Informal Settlements: Case Studies from Islamabad, Pakistan
by Ramisa Shafqat and Dora Marinova
Humans 2022, 2(4), 259-276; https://doi.org/10.3390/humans2040017 - 30 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2166
Abstract
A mixed-methods approach is used to understand the human factors defining cultural heritage in two informal settlements in Islamabad, Pakistan, namely France Colony and Mehr Abadi. The methodology applied is based on spatial investigation within a placemaking framework to create a visual representation [...] Read more.
A mixed-methods approach is used to understand the human factors defining cultural heritage in two informal settlements in Islamabad, Pakistan, namely France Colony and Mehr Abadi. The methodology applied is based on spatial investigation within a placemaking framework to create a visual representation of the neighborhoods, and grounded theory to explore the experiences and memories of their inhabitants through verbal communication. A combination of techniques, including transect walks, photography, and on-site interviews, allows us to map the tangible and intangible elements of the informal settlements. Cultural characteristics are identified as essential in the spatio-cultural processes occurring in the informal settlements. The study concludes that cultural dilapidation happens because of obstructions in the processes translating intangible heritage into tangible space. Appropriate policy interventions are suggested to minimize the loss of rural heritage transfer to informal settlements within the urban fabric of Islamabad. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

8 pages, 358 KiB  
Article
Local Knowledge in American Archaeology: A Study in High Context Communication
by Lawrence E. Moore
Humans 2022, 2(4), 251-258; https://doi.org/10.3390/humans2040016 - 24 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1311
Abstract
Over the course of twenty five years, approximately 1990 to 2015, American archaeologists grew to accept the regular use of local knowledge, in the form of Native American and local community knowledge, in their development of archaeological knowledge and in cultural resource management. [...] Read more.
Over the course of twenty five years, approximately 1990 to 2015, American archaeologists grew to accept the regular use of local knowledge, in the form of Native American and local community knowledge, in their development of archaeological knowledge and in cultural resource management. This change mostly pushed archaeologists to engage with groups of people that would have been ignored previously. This transformation is part of a larger process of Modernism becoming Post Modernism via the expanded use of high context communication, a concept from Communications Studies, throughout American culture. This paper briefly describes the use of local knowledge and summarizes structural changes in cultural resource management, especially consultation practices, that highlight a wider usage of high context communication. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Reflections on the Sociology of Archaeology)
Show Figures

Figure 1

25 pages, 2711 KiB  
Article
Reassessing Neolithic Diets in Western Scotland
by Catriona Pickard and Clive Bonsall
Humans 2022, 2(4), 226-250; https://doi.org/10.3390/humans2040015 - 20 Nov 2022
Viewed by 2981
Abstract
Although marine resources are known to have been exploited by both foragers and early farmers in Scotland, the importance of seafood to the diets of Neolithic groups has been widely debated. Here we present paired stable isotope (δ13C and δ15 [...] Read more.
Although marine resources are known to have been exploited by both foragers and early farmers in Scotland, the importance of seafood to the diets of Neolithic groups has been widely debated. Here we present paired stable isotope (δ13C and δ15N) and radiocarbon measurements on Early Neolithic human remains from Raschoille Cave in Oban. These are compared with published data for other sites in western Scotland and used to re-evaluate the use of marine resources by the first farmers. The diets of Late Mesolithic foragers and Early Neolithic farmers were modelled from stable isotope data using both Linear and Bayesian (FRUITS) mixing models. Our FRUITS dietary models indicate that Mesolithic foragers obtained much of their dietary protein and calories from marine resources, consistent with the predominance of shellfish, fish and sea mammal remains in their shell middens. Of note is the large proportion of dietary calories obtained from plant foods, which is like that of the early farming groups. The diets of Early Neolithic farmers appear relatively homogeneous across Scotland. Plant foods were the primary source of calories. Meat and/or dairy from terrestrial mammals were the most important source of dietary protein. Marine resources were, at most, a minor component of the ‘lifetime’ diet. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

7 pages, 229 KiB  
Article
Seeing with the Strong Programme
by Alice B. Kehoe
Humans 2022, 2(4), 219-225; https://doi.org/10.3390/humans2040014 - 12 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1242
Abstract
Using the Strong Programme developed in Edinburgh in the 1970s clarifies how to do sociology of science freed from Enlightenment paradigms of testing for Truth. This paper uses, as an example, the case of Lewis Binford and his wife (in the 1960s) Sally [...] Read more.
Using the Strong Programme developed in Edinburgh in the 1970s clarifies how to do sociology of science freed from Enlightenment paradigms of testing for Truth. This paper uses, as an example, the case of Lewis Binford and his wife (in the 1960s) Sally Rosen, revealing Rosen’s work to make Lewis’s writing clear and persuasive. Rosen’s work was the efficient cause of Lewis Binford’s success with the New Archaeology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Reflections on the Sociology of Archaeology)
29 pages, 327 KiB  
Article
Mormon Fundamentalist, Polygamous Marriage and What It May Tell Us about Being Human
by William Jankowiak
Humans 2022, 2(4), 190-218; https://doi.org/10.3390/humans2040013 - 12 Oct 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3382
Abstract
The research that forms this paper was conducted over six years 1993-1999 in a Mormon Fundamentalist community in Western USA. I wanted to understand if it was possible to love multiple individuals at the same time or if, instead, there was a preference [...] Read more.
The research that forms this paper was conducted over six years 1993-1999 in a Mormon Fundamentalist community in Western USA. I wanted to understand if it was possible to love multiple individuals at the same time or if, instead, there was a preference for emotional involvement. I live inside the community dwelling with different families which enable me to view ordinary life and daily interactions that are often not noted in survey research. I supplement this approach by collecting the life history of people’s relationships and feelings toward one another. My results are present as a set of ethnographic narratives that highlight the emotional fulfillment and angst of individual experience trying to love more than one person at the same time. I found that the impulse to form dyadic love is relentless; women are the primary agents behind the push towards a more exclusive couple centered or dyad love intimacy; the “favorite” wife was readily identified in 52 out of 60 families. This presents something of a paradox: humans are both a pair-bond species who desire to form dyadic unions, even when they are not culturally sanctioned, and who have an adaptive cognitive capacity to create alternative ways of living. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers Defining Humans)
13 pages, 6019 KiB  
Article
Metallurgical Characterization of a Copper-Alloy Aramaic-Inscribed Object from Tulûl Mas‘ud (Elyakhin)
by Dana Ashkenazi, Rafael Y. Lewis, Esther Eshel and Oren Tal
Humans 2022, 2(4), 177-189; https://doi.org/10.3390/humans2040012 - 05 Oct 2022
Viewed by 1435
Abstract
An Aramaic-inscribed object made of copper-alloy was discovered in 1993 in the south-western part of Tulûl Mas‘ud (Moshav Elyakhin) and has recently been studied using an archaeometallurgical approach. Based on visual testing and multifocal light microscopy observation, the object was probably produced in [...] Read more.
An Aramaic-inscribed object made of copper-alloy was discovered in 1993 in the south-western part of Tulûl Mas‘ud (Moshav Elyakhin) and has recently been studied using an archaeometallurgical approach. Based on visual testing and multifocal light microscopy observation, the object was probably produced in a nearby workshop, with the inscription engraved using a sharp tool during the production process. Given the larger assemblage of inscribed copper-alloy artefacts from the site, this item appears not only to have been used as a cultic object, but was also most probably made for the purpose of cultic offerings. The XRF analysis results of the Aramaic-inscribed object after it was sanded revealed the core metal to have been made of relatively pure copper with a tin content of less than 1.0 wt. % Sn. The choice to produce the object using a low-tin copper-alloy indicates that the alloy was chosen based on technological considerations, in order to facilitate plasticity in fashioning the part into its cylindrical shape. The manufacturing process involved bending the object while it was hot and shaping it into its final form by means of several cycles of forging and annealing. Although the current research has revealed the bulk composition and the general manufacturing process of the object, the microstructure of the core alloy could not be observed because destructive testing was not permitted. Although only a single copper object was analysed, the current archaeometallurgical study allows to gain further information on metallurgical knowledge and manufacturing processes of copper objects in the Persian period Levant. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 1709 KiB  
Review
The Evolution of Well-Being: An Anthropology-Based, Multidisciplinary Review
by Seth Dornisch
Humans 2022, 2(4), 161-176; https://doi.org/10.3390/humans2040011 - 28 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2448
Abstract
Evolutionary perspectives have generated many questions and some answers in the study of human health and disease. The field of evolutionary medicine, and related analytics of evolutionary psychiatry and evolutionary psychology have extended and expanded the way health disorders are viewed by searching [...] Read more.
Evolutionary perspectives have generated many questions and some answers in the study of human health and disease. The field of evolutionary medicine, and related analytics of evolutionary psychiatry and evolutionary psychology have extended and expanded the way health disorders are viewed by searching for why humans, as a species, are vulnerable to certain pathological conditions. The search is organized into four domains that apply proximate and evolutionary explanations to human traits and developmental sequences. This framework opens inquiry to the ontogeny, phylogeny, mechanism, and adaptive significance of human health conditions. In this paper I argue that evolutionary medicine seems to parallel biomedicine in its primarily pathogenic focus. That is, conditions of pain, suffering, and disorder have received the most attention. Some work has used the architecture of evolutionary medicine to take a salutogenic approach, evaluating the proximate and evolutionary explanations of human well-being. I propose that an evolutionary understanding of human well-being requires a survey of emotions and their relationship with neurobiology, language, and culture. My anthropology-based, multidisciplinary review of biopsychosocial processes reveals the way evolution has shaped modern human understanding of well-being through sociolinguistic learning processes and thereby our individual experiences of well-being. These insights have the power to contextualize human suffering and flourishing as we progress toward the goal of attenuating the former and expanding the latter. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers Defining Humans)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Previous Issue
Next Issue
Back to TopTop