Archive for the BAS Awards Category

2018 AAA Submissions

Logo_of_the_American_Anthropological_AssociationThis year we will be organizing a session of student presentations and will give awards for best student presentations. To be eligible for BAS awards, students must be part of this session! To be included in this session and therefore eligible for awards, students MUST notify Program Chair Chris Lynn (cdlynn@ua.edu) that they have submitted individual presentations for the BAS section.

We encourage you to consider organizing sessions in affiliation with BAS or joint sessions with BAS and other organizations (which means we can sponsor more sessions!). The BAS Program Committee is happy to provide feedback to anyone considering a submission for AAA or to answer any questions. Contact Program Chair Chris Lynn (cdlynn@ua.edu) with questions or info about your sessions.

The AAA submission portal closes April 16th at 3pm EST, with no new submissions allowed after 2pm EST.

John C. Willman Awarded the 2015 BAS Student Prize!

Willman_research_photoJohn C. Willman,  a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology at Washington University in Saint Louis, was awarded the 2015 Biological Anthropology Section Student Prize. Willman’s work explores non-masticatory dental wear, or the use of “teeth as tools”, among Neandertals and early modern humans. John presented in the session entitled “Advances in European Bioarchaeology and Mortuary Analysis”  at the Denver AAA meeting this year. His podium presentation was entitled “Labret Use Among the Pavlovian Peoples of Mid Upper Paleolithic Central Europe: A New Interpretation of the Buccal Wear Facets at Brno III, Dolní Vestonice, Pavlov, and Predmostí.”

Abstract: The unusual “buccal facets” on the cheek teeth of early modern humans from the Mid Upper Paleolithic (MUP) Central Europe are well-documented, but the phenomenon remains poorly understood. A review of buccal wear facet prevalence at all relevant MUP sites, an analysis of age-related changes in the patterning of facets, and bioarchaeological and ethnographic comparisons suggest that phenomenon is related to intentional body modification – namely, the wearing of large, facial “labrets”.

Ethnographically, labrets are known as a form of personal adornment, permanently secured through incisions in the cheeks (or lips), and gradually stretched to incorporate larger labrets. Permanently fixed labrets in the MUP sample examined here is documented by the consistent presence of facets on the maxillary dentition across all age categories. The surface area affected by buccal facets also increases along an age gradient, providing evidence for gradual stretching to incorporate larger labrets during an individual’s lifetime. Children are affected, but prevalence reaches 100% in adolescents and adults. Only one side of the dentition is affected among children and adolescents, while one or both sides are affected in adults. When both sides exhibit facets, wear is asymmetric, suggesting that a second labret is related to aspects of adulthood.

Material evidence of labrets associated with individuals exhibiting buccal facets are known from several prehistoric contexts and strengthens these conclusions. The high prevalence of buccal facets and strong age-related patterning supports a case for labret use as a marker of individual and social identity among the MUP peoples of Central Europe.

Congratulations, John!

For a list of past winners, and information on how to apply next year, click here.

Students: Remember to apply for the BAS Student Poster/Paper Award!

The BAS offers an award of $250 and free student membership in BAS for 2 years to the winner of their Student Poster/Paper Award. If you are an undergraduate or graduate student who has an accepted abstract at the 2016 AAA meetings in Minneapolis, you are eligible to apply. The due date for applications is Nov. 4, 2016.

Check out our awards page for details on how to apply and a list of past winners: https://bas.americananthro.org/awards/student-award.

2014 AAA BAS Student Paper/Poster Award Results

Lauren HosekAlanna Warner

Alanna Warner (left) and Lauren Hosek (right), both graduate students at Syracuse University, were awarded the 2014 Biological Anthropology Section Student Prize. Warner and Hosek co-organized a symposium at the 2014 AAAs entitled, “The Bones and the Worms: Bioarchaeology as Microhistory.” The session brought together experts from across the breadth of bioarchaeology to examine how details of individual lives can be gleaned from bioarchaeological material. Within the symposium, Warner and Hosek presented their own paper, “Enamel, Stone, and Gold: Probing Composite Mouths and Personhood in Nineteenth Century New York City.” In this paper, Warner and Hosek explored how different dental prostheses provide a window into the way individual remains integrate intimate personal, but also broader, contextual experience. Ashley Marie Franklin from Louisiana State University was awarded honorable mention. The complete abstracts can be seen below:


Enamel, Stone, and Gold: Probing Composite Mouths and Personhood in Nineteenth Century New York City
Alanna Warner (Syracuse University) and Lauren Hosek (Syracuse University)
Bodies are not closed systems, but rather dynamic and permeable social entities composed of multiple materials and temporalities. As Ingold notes, bodies are “flow(s) of materials comprising corporeal life” (2011:16). Expressions of identity and formations of personhood are relational, generated and distributed through social interactions and material things. While this sense of relational, extended personhood is well attended to in prehistoric archaeology, historical archaeologists have engaged less with theories of personhood and tend to rely more on modern Western notions of bounded individuals and bodies (Wilkinson 2013; Fowler 2010). In this paper, we examine 19th century dental prostheses—a stone tooth, a gold bridge, and gold fillings—found with commingled skeletal remains in the Spring Street Presbyterian Church burial vaults (ca. 1820-1846) in New York City. A microhistorical analysis of these prostheses demonstrates how objects and substances are incorporated into bodies, becoming part of the overlapping processes and temporalities that make up corporeal life. The mouth is an especially active social interface where materials with biological and geological histories of their own intersect with experiences, habits, and practices. We examine the microscale entanglements of class, gender, medical practices, and ideologies of morality and aesthetics in the dynamic social landscape of 19th century New York City. Finally, we consider how the relational nature of bodies and materials allows personhood to be experienced, performed, and extended through a smile, a stone, or a glint of gold.

 

Comparison of Occlusal Area in Old and New World Monkeys: The Difference and Extra Premolar Makes
Ashley Marie Franklin (Louisiana State University)
This study considers the influence in number of premolars on postcanine occlusal area and mesiodistal length. New World (NW) monkeys have 12 premolars, whereas Old World (OW) monkeys have 8. Four species were studied: Cercopithecus albogularis and Colobus guereza (OW), and Cebus capucinus and Alouatta palliata (NW). Two pairs of species are classified as having the same general diet: Co. guereza and A. palliata, and Cer. albogularis and Ceb. capucinus. Adult, wild caught, female specimens from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History were studied. Sample sizes were as follows: 20 Co. guereza, A. palliata and Ceb. capucinus, and 14 Cer. albogularis . Measurements, using sliding calipers, included length and width of premolars and molars. Results show the percentage of contribution of premolars to total mesiodistal length of postcanine teeth and occlusal area in postcanine teeth differs between OW and NW monkeys. Premolars contribute 33% of postcanine length in both OW species, whereas the percentages are 40% for A. palliata and 48% for Ceb. capucinus. Results also show a difference in percentage contribution to occlusal area between OW and NW monkeys. There is an uneven premolar occlusal area distribution on both P3 and P4 in both OW species, in contrast to a more even premolar occlusal area distribution across P2, P3, and P4 in both NW species. This indicates not only a difference in the number of premolars, but also in the way premolar occlusal area is distributed between OW and NW monkeys.

2014 W.W. Howells Book Award Winner

The selection committee for the W.W. Howells Book Award in Biological Anthropology is pleased to announce the 2014 winner. This year’s award will go Lynne A. Isbell for her book, The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent: Why We See So Well, published by Harvard University Press (2009). In this book, Isbell develops her intriguing “Snake Detection Theory,” arguing that snake predation was an important influence on primate evolution and that selection for the ability to detect snakes played a major role in the evolution of the primate visual system.  Lynne received the award at the BAS Business meeting, December 5, 2014. Congratulations, Lynne!

For more information on the W.W. Howells Book Award, given by the Biological Anthropology Section of the AAA, or for a list of previous winners, click here.

It’s time to apply for the BAS Student Poster/Paper Award

Are you a student? Are you giving a presentation at the AAA meetings? Are you interested in positive exposure with colleagues in your field (and $250!)?

Then apply now for the BAS student prize!

  • Send an email to Adam Van Arsdale
  • Include your name, presentation title, abstract, and presentation time/session
  • Make sure it is received no later than November 14, 2014.

To learn more about your eligibility and the rules, click hereSee last year’s winners featured here.

2013 AAA BAS Student Paper/Poster Award Results

KisselThe winner of the BAS Student Paper/Poster Award for 2013 is Marc Kissel (University of Wisconsin, Madison) for his paper, “Testing Genetic Models of Human Evolutionary History against the Anthropological Record.”

Comparing measurements of supraorbital skeletal features from two Neandertal populations (Vindjia and Krapina), Kissel explores whether genetic drift or natural selection best explains observed morphological variability. Having found that observed variability cannot be explained by drift alone, he suggests that closer attention be paid to human reproductive behavior as illustrated in ethnographic record of hunter-gatherer communities, and that effective population size may not be a good indicator of census size in the Pleistocene.

ScottHonorable mention for this prize went to Jill E. Scott (University of Iowa) for her paper, “A 3-D Morphometric Analysis of Mandibular Symphyseal Variation in Homo.”

In this paper, Jill Scott tests whether various measurements of chin morphology can be used to successfully differentiate H. sapiens, H. neanderthalensis, and H. heidelbergensis. Using Principal Component Analysis, she finds that H. sapiens separate from both Neandertals and H. heidelbergensis along PC1. However along PC2, H. sapiens group with Neandertals to the exclusion of H. heidelbergensis. In this study, she explores new ways to measure and statistically test morphological differences that have been explored primarily in a qualitative manner in the literature.

2012 AAA BAS Student Paper/Poster Award Results

Michaela Howells

The winner of the BAS Student Paper/Poster Award for 2012 is Michaela Howells (University of Colorado, Boulder) for her paper, “You Just Have to Wait: The Impact of Marital Status on the Pregnancy Outcomes of Samoan Women” with co-authors Richard Bender, Darna L. Dufour, John Ah Ching, and Bethal Mua’sau. 

 

 

2011 AAA BAS Student Paper/Poster Award Results

We are very pleased to announce the winner of this year’s student prize for outstanding presentation:

Meredith Ellis (Syracuse University) for her paper,  “A Disciplined Childhood: A Social Bioarchaeology of the Subadults of the Spring Street Presbyterian Church”. This paper is going to be published in an edited volume by Jennifer L. Thompson, Marta Alfonso-Durruty, John J. Crandall, “Tracing Childhood: Bioarchaeological Investigations of Early Lives in Antiquity”.

We are also pleased to announce a runner-up:

Valentine Volk (Cleveland State University), for her paper, “A Preliminary Assessment of Health and Disease at the Late Woodland Mayer Site, Vermillion, Ohio”.

2011 W.W. Howells Book Award Results

The 2011 W.W. Howells Book Award was presented to Wenda Trevathan for her book, Ancient Bodies, Modern Lives: How Evolution Has Shaped Women’s Health. Oxford University Press.

The book was recognized as an insightful and compelling consideration of the importance of evolution to women’s biology and health.

“Written by a leading light in the field of evolutionary medicine, Wenda Trevathan’s Ancient Bodies, Modern Lives describes how many contemporary health problems, particularly those of women, are the result of a mismatch between our “Stone Age” bodies that evolved over millions of years and our current (and radically changed) life styles. Thorough, authoritative, and easy to understand, this book offers suggestions for making informed decisions that impact the health of contemporary women and that of their children and their children’s children. Run, don’t walk (or stroll bipedally), to give this important and elegantly written book to your favorite bride-to-be, mother-to-be, mother, grandmother, or great grandmother! Inquisitive men will also find this book engaging.” –Dean Falk, Ph.D., Hale G. Smith Professor of Anthropology, Florida State University.

Letter from Karen Strier to BAS members

Download the letter

2010 AAA BAS Student Paper/Poster Award Results

BAS 2010 student award winners:

Allison Foley (paper)
DISABILITY AND DISEASE IN THE ANCIENT MIDWEST: A PALEOPATHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MORTON SITE, IL Continue reading 2010 AAA BAS Student Paper/Poster Award Results

109th Annual Meeting

109th Annual Meeting was held in New Orleans, November 17-21, 2010.

The Distinguished Lecture was given by Ken Weiss: “What Darwin got wrong and why it matters.”

The 2010 WW Howells Award winner is Bernard Chapais (University of Montreal) for his book, Primeval Kinship: How Pair-Bonding Gave Birth to Human Society.