Biological Implications of Gender Roles in Mobile Pastoralist Societies

Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI

Investigators

Abstract

Pastoralist communities have played a role in shaping human history over thousands of years, and as a subsistence strategy, pastoralism continues to be practiced in many parts of the world. This project tests previous assumptions about the egalitarian nature of pastoralist societies, using bioarchaeological methods and data to investigate how factors such as diet, mobility, and social organization may have impacted people differently depending on age and sex. The research advances knowledge about the biological impacts of gendered experience and human adaptive strategies that have been employed by human groups in shifting social and natural environments. The project includes a comprehensive program to strengthen education and resources in STEM fields, facilitate public outreach and conservation efforts in cultural heritage, and provide analytical training in advanced methods of data analysis including isotope analysis and dental microwear studies. The investigators also develop strategies for effective science communication and dissemination of research findings with international colleagues. The investigators examine osteological markers of diet, health, physiological stress, and weaning strategies to test assumptions of egalitarianism among pastoralists, with the expectation that gendered experience will differ as a result of increasing social stratification, even among more mobile pastoralist groups. The project employs analytical chemistry, macroscopic skeletal assessment, morphological characterization through 3D laser scanning, and dental microwear analysis, to obtain and compare detailed assessments of diet, health, and stress across a number of past populations. Comprehensive diet and health indices are generated for groups living during periods of significant cultural transformation, including times of increased mobility for some groups and sedentarization for others, as well as widening social stratification. This research strategy allows examination of 1) potential variation in biocultural impacts, health profiles, and physiological stress associated with gender roles to test notions of egalitarianism; 2) dietary signatures to assess continuity and change among groups, and 3) the timing and nature of weaning strategies employed within and between populations. 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.