Barbara Rose Johnston Travel Award is a $1000 competitive grant to allow a society member at any stage in their career who lack institutional support to attend the AAA annual meeting and formally participate in Environment and Anthropology Society sessions. This competition is open to any member of the Society who lacks institutional support for conference travel, including those working for government agencies (federal, state, local, and tribal governments), nonprofits, community colleges, consultants, international scholars, and contingent faculty.

Deadline to apply: October 3, 2022

Full details can be found at:  https://ae.americananthro.org/prizes/barbara-rose-johnston-award/

The Department of Anthropology is pleased to announce that Ph.D. candidate Kiana Sakimehr has been awarded the John F. Richards Fellowship by the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies (AIAS). This institute is a private and non-profit organization located at Boston University and headed by scholars to promote and support the study of Afghanistan. 

Kiana will use the funds to cover expenses related to her field research that focuses on Afghan refugees who recently arrived in the US. She intends to investigate the often-neglected emotional aspect of migration and how it shapes peoples’ interpretations and perceptions of their new reality as refugees. By focusing on the wide-ranging functions of emotions, her project examines the possible reconfiguration of and transitions in emotions with regards to expectations of living in the US. Moreover, her study explores the role of institutional structural possibilities and constraints regarding these transitions in emotions. Kiana acknowledges the support she has received from her committee members, specifically her advisor Dr. Chantal Tetreault.

Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Dr. Masako Fujita and co-authors Katherine Wander, Tin Tran, and Eleanor Brindle recently published an article in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology. The article is titled “Characterizing the extent human milk folate is buffered against maternal malnutrition and infection in drought-stricken northern Kenya.” This publication investigates whether and how the extent of maternal buffering of milk folate may diminish under prolonged nutritional and disease stress, while taking into consideration infants’ varying vulnerability to malnutrition-related morbidity/mortality. The results of this study suggest that mothers buffer milk folate against their own nutritional stress even during a prolonged drought; however, the extent of this buffering may vary with infant age, and, among folate-deficient mothers, with infant sex.

Read the full article at: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24603

Abstract:

Objectives: Folate is an essential nutrient fundamental to human growth and development. Human milk maintains high folate content across the maternal folate status range, suggesting buffering of milk folate with prioritized delivery to milk at the expense of maternal depletion. We investigated whether and how the extent of this buffering may diminish under prolonged nutritional and/or disease stress, while taking into consideration infants’ varying vulnerability to malnutrition-related morbidity/mortality.

Methods: A cross-sectional study analyzed milk specimens from northern Kenyan mothers (n=203), surveyed during a historic drought and ensuing food shortage. Multiple regression models for folate receptor-α(FOLR1) in milk were constructed. Predictors included maternal underweight (BMI < 18.5), iron-deficiency anemia (hemoglobin <12 g/dl and dried-blood-spot transferrin receptor >5 mg/L), folate deficiency (hyperhomocysteinemia, homocysteine >12 or 14μmol/L), inflammation (serum C-reactive protein >5 mg/L), infant age and sex, and mother-infant interactions.

Results: In adjusted models, milk FOLR1 was unassociated with maternal under-weight, iron-deficiency anemia and inflammation. FOLR1 was positively associated with maternal folate deficiency, and inversely associated with infant age. There was interaction between infant age and maternal underweight, and between infant sex and maternal folate deficiency, predicting complex changes in FOLR1.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that mothers buffer milk folate against their own nutritional stress even during a prolonged drought; however, the extent of this buffering may vary with infant age, and, among folate-deficient mothers, with infant sex. Future research is needed to better understand this variability in maternal buffering of milk folate and how it relates to folate status in nursing infants.

Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Dr. Elizabeth Drexler publishes in the International Journal of Transitional Justice. The article, titled, “Impunity and Transitional Justice in Indonesia: Aksi Kamisan’s Circular Time” argues the Indonesian weekly Thursday silent protests by victims’ families, create sites of justice bringing together technical legal demands with compelling artistic performance to highlight the problem of persistent but invisible impunity, counter the legacies of authoritarian era social stigmatization, and expose the problematic nature of temporality in conventional transitional justice mechanisms.    

Read the full article at: https://doi.org/10.1093/ijtj/ijac010

Abstract: This article positions the Indonesian weekly Thursday silent protests by victims’ families, Aksi Kamisan, as a space of and beyond transitional justice. Analysing Kamisan as repeated, embodied creative acts that reset perceptions, possibilities and imaginations about social belonging, political subjectivity and national identity discloses how authoritarian era affective forces undermine transitional justice and demonstrates the power of alternative temporalities in coming to terms with past violence. ‘Circular time’ brings past and present injustice into the same frame as consistent action extending into the future. Circular time highlights how the time of waiting, uncertainty and lack of justice extends backward and forward connecting past, present and future in the repetition of impunity, and creates community and the space to imagine just futures. Circular time is created by repeated action against impunity in the present and celebrating the perseverance, consistency and agency of victims. Circular time resists the imposition of temporal linearity. Art performed at Kamisan and the act of standing in solidarity engages communities and audiences in a realm of politics and national belonging that is not possible in formal institutions. Over time, these repeated, temporary, inclusive actions can counter still resonant authoritarian era propaganda.

Department of Anthropology Ph.D. student Emily Milton published her Master of Arts research in the Journal of Archaeological Science with co-authors Dr. Kurt Rademaker, Dr. Nathan D. Stansell (Northern Illinois University), Drs Hervé Bocherens and Döbereiner Chala-Aldana (University of Tübingen, Germany), and Annalis Brownlee (University of Alaska-Anchorage). The article, titled, “Examining surface water δ18O and δ2H values in the western Central Andes: A watershed moment for anthropological mobility studies,” reviews the isotopic patterning of surface waters in the western Peruvian Andes and implications for archaeological and forensic migration research. Emily’s research was funded by a National Science Foundation grant (PI: Dr. Rademaker) and the William A Lovis Research Fund in Environmental Archaeology.

Read the full article at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2022.105655

Abstract: Oxygen isotopes are commonly applied to study archaeological human and animal mobility among the vertical ecological zones of the Central Andes in South America. Such research assumes that oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in meteoric waters demonstrate an inverse relationship with elevation. However, because the primary source of precipitation in the Central Andes is the Atlantic Ocean, this expectation is likely complicated by surface-level processes on the western Andean slope. We evaluate the spatial patterning of stable isotope values in surface waters along a coast-highland transect in southern Peru (∼15-17°S). Surface water δ¹⁸O and δ²H values in the study area are consistent with regional and global meteoric waters. However, lowland and highland surface waters demonstrate wide variability and overlapping ranges of surface water isotope values. Therefore, it is challenging to discern the origin of surface waters based on elevation alone. Rather, surface water δ¹⁸O and δ²H values appear to reflect hydrologic processes including seasonality, stream order, catchment size, and distance from the source. We identify the “Watershed Effect,” which precludes the use of δ¹⁸O and δ²H in Andean bioarchaeological studies of inter-zonal mobility. Moreover, changing hydroclimate over the Holocene and present sampling precision for biological analytes confound existing interpretations of δ¹⁸O derived from archaeological bioapatite. Given the regional complexities of δ¹⁸O_water presented here, isotopic assessments of human paleomobility require better baseline data than those currently available for the Central Andes. We contend that previous archaeological datasets using δ¹⁸O_bioapatite to assess mobility between high and low elevations should be re-evaluated. Further, future studies should provide adequate baseline data to justify archaeological analyses and support subsequent interpretations.

Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Dr. Joe Hefner and Ph.D. Candidate Micayla Spiros and co-authors Sherry Nakhaeizadeh, Tim J.U. Thompson, Ruth M. Morgan, Viktor Olsson, Alexandra Berivoe, and Martin Arvidsson published their work in the University of Florida Press’ Forensic Anthropology Journal. The article is titled “Using Eye-Tracking Technology to Quantify the Effect of Experience and Education on Forensic Anthropological Analyses.” The article discusses how the human interpretation of analytical outputs is a significant challenge in forensic science, making it vital to explore the application of protocols as we enhance our practices. This study assesses decision making in forensic anthropological analyses utilizing eye-tracking technology to quantify an observer’s estimate of confidence and reliability. The manuscript focuses on empirical decision-making studies, forensic anthropologists can improve practices—increasing the transparency of evaluative decision making by targeting confusing or problematic aspects of a data collection practice, and in so doing, enhance training. 

Read the full article at: https://journals.upress.ufl.edu/fa/article/view/1934

Abstract: “The human interpretation of analytical outputs is a significant challenge in forensic science, making it vital to explore the application of protocols as we enhance our practices. This study assesses decision making in forensic anthropological analyses utilizing eye-tracking technology to quantify an observer’s estimate of confidence and reliability. Ten individuals with varying levels of education and experience were asked to score cranial morphologies for two human crania. Each participant’s fixation points, fixation duration, and visit count and duration were assessed using Tobii™ Pro 2 eye-tracking glasses. Mid-facial morphologies capturing relative widths were the quickest scored traits, with an overall median time of 14.59 seconds; more complex morphological assessments took longer. Using time as a proxy for confidence, Kruskal-Wallis rank sum results indicate individuals with less experience differed significantly from individuals with greater experience (p = 0.01) although differences in level of education were not significant. Interestingly, intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) indicate interobserver reliability is high between observers, suggesting experience only slightly improves agreement. These preliminary results suggest experience is more important than level of education. Through empirical decision making studies, forensic anthropologists can improve practices—increasing the transparency of evaluative decision making by targeting confusing or problematic aspects of a data collection practice, and in so doing, enhance training.”

Department of Anthropology Associate Professor Dr. Masako Fujita and co-authors Katherine Wander, Siobhan Mattison, Blandina Mmbaga and others publish in Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health.  

The article is titled “Tradeoffs in milk immunity affect infant infectious disease risk.” The article discusses research on milk immune activity, a new area of research, among almost 100 breastfeeding mother–infant dyads in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

The study used a new lab-based technique and described how mothers’ milk differed in their immune responses to some bacteria, and followed the infants to see whether those receiving milk with stronger responses in lab were less likely to develop infectious diseases.  

They found support for this with the infectious agent Salmonella. Infants receiving milk with stronger pro-inflammatory responses to Salmonella had lower risk for respiratory infections during the 2.5 months follow-up period. However, they also found the opposite pattern with a non-infectious bacterium. Infants receiving milk that responded strongly to the benign strains of E. coli (that tends to exist harmoniously in our digestive systems) had higher risk for gastrointestinal infections. Moreover, milk responses to Salmonella tended to co-occur with responses to E.coli, suggesting that milk with strong immune responses have potential to decrease risk for some infections but increase others among infants.  

Their findings make sense in that immune protections often come with collateral damage because the immune system does not always differentiate pathogenic from benign targets, giving rise to allergies and auto-immune conditions, for example. Still, the study’s discovery of protective and harmful effects of milk immune activity on infant infectious disease risk comes as a bit of surprise because we tend to think of milk as the mighty fluid that does no harm. The reality seems a bit more complicated, calling for future research to clarify how the immune system of milk has evolved to strike a balance between protection and harm.

News coverage about the article: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-07-boost-breastfeeding-immune-benefits.html

Read the article here: https://doi.org/10.1093/emph/eoac020

Abstract:

“Background and objectives

The human immune system has evolved to balance protection against infection with control of immune-mediated damage and tolerance of commensal microbes. Such tradeoffs between protection and harm almost certainly extend to the immune system of milk.

Methodology

Among breastfeeding mother–infant dyads in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, we characterized in vitro proinflammatory milk immune responses to Salmonella enterica (an infectious agent) and Escherichia coli (a benign target) as the increase in interleukin-6 after 24 h of incubation with each bacterium. We characterized incident infectious diseases among infants through passive monitoring. We used Cox proportional hazards models to describe associations between milk immune activity and infant infectious disease.

Results

Among infants, risk for respiratory infections declined with increasing milk in vitro proinflammatory response to S. enterica (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.68; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.54, 0.86; P: 0.001), while risk for gastrointestinal infections increased with increasing milk in vitro proinflammatory response to E. coli (HR: 1.44; 95% CI: 1.05, 1.99; P: 0.022). Milk proinflammatory responses to S. enterica and E. coli were positively correlated (Spearman’s rho: 0.60; P: 0.000).

Conclusions and implications

These findings demonstrate a tradeoff in milk immune activity: the benefits of appropriate proinflammatory activity come at the hazard of misdirected proinflammatory activity. This tradeoff is likely to affect infant health in complex ways, depending on prevailing infectious disease conditions. How mother–infant dyads optimize proinflammatory milk immune activity should be a central question in future ecological–evolutionary studies of the immune system of milk.”

Department of Anthropology Assistant Professor Dr. Lucero Radonic, Ph.D. Candidate Cara Jacob, alumna Dr. Rowen Kalman, and community partner Yvonne Lewis co-publish in Case Studies in the Environment. The article is titled “Questionable Quality: Using Photovoice to Document Women’s Experiences of Water Insecurity in Flint, USA.” The article discusses a Flint, Michigan based community-based participatory research project documenting grassroots narratives about the impacts of water insecurity on the lives of women. 

Read the full article at: https://doi.org/10.1525/cse.2022.1706476

Abstract: “Household water insecurity is a global problem; one not escaped by residents of high-income nations. In this article, we review a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project conducted in Flint, MI, to document grassroots narratives about the impacts of water insecurity on the lives of women. In 2014, Flint residents found themselves connected to modern water infrastructure that delivered potable water contaminated by lead and pathogens. Through a photovoice method, participating women documented how experiences of water insecurity continues to impact their lives many years after state authorities declared the water crisis to be over. This study adds to a growing literature that highlights how the “adequateness” of water quality is not a stable or self-evident condition for there are different frameworks for water cleanliness, safety, and risk. With attention to methodology, this case study emphasizes the importance of legitimizing the embodied experience of participants through research design and implementation. This CBPR project contributes to the existing toolbox of methods for studying household water insecurity by complementing the growing literature on security metrics with a narrative-focused approach to documenting women’s lived experiences of water insecurity. Finally, the article invites readers to consider how and to what degree to mobilize participatory approaches to understand conditions and lived experiences of resource insecurity without further stigmatizing or exploiting impacted communities.”