Using support from the National Science Foundation, Mr. Benjamin Auerbach is investigating body size and shape variation among a geographically and temporally diverse prehistoric sample of New World humans. This project uses metric measures from archaeologically collected bones from an large number of sites throughout the Americas. These measures will help show how patterns of body size and shape have varied among Native Americans through time and in relation to their environments. Specifically, the study will address how physical variation has been affected by adaptations to climatic factors and to subsistence strategy (e.g., diet and food acquisition). It will also address how these relationships aid in interpreting population history (population movements and ancestry). The collected measures will be used to derive morphological characters (stature, body mass, and body proportions), employing conventional and recently-developed and refined techniques. Covariation among these characters will be assessed to investigate morphological heterogeneity among regions of the body. For example, how does variation in the length of the forearm, relative to the length of the arm, compare to variation in total limb length relative to total body length? Similarly, how does morphological variation in the skull compare to variation in the rest of the body? Results will have important implications for interpreting past studies that have only focused on some regions of the body, and for establishing the amount of coordinated response of different body regions to environmental factors. Samples that represent a number of time periods from geographically limited regions will be used to assess such changes in proportion and size over time, and relate these to known demographic and subsistence changes. The results will be interpreted using knowledge of group relationships and may, in turn, help resolve ambiguities in these associations. The variation of Native American body shape and the correspondence in patterns among different regions of the body (e.g., the skull and the limbs) have never been assessed among a geographically and temporally diverse sample. Correlating these patterns with potential influences such as climate and nutrition will elucidate how these variables contribute to biological diversity in the Americas and elsewhere around the globe. Moreover, understanding how environmental factors influence body shape and variation in the New World is critical for comprehending these patterns in human evolution and diversification in general. The colonization of the Americas by modern humans presents an ideal model by which to investigate many of these topics; New World humans settled varied environments and adopted a plethora of subsistence and cultural practices within a circumscribed period relative to some other known major migration events in human evolution. Results of this study will lead to a more holistic understanding of Native American morphological diversity and the extent to which this physical shape diversity has changed in response to environmental factors. Findings will better inform interpretations of Native American origins and colonization and diversity among living Native Americans, as well as general biological adaptation in modern humans. New standards for reconstructing stature and assessing morphological diversity in archaeological populations will be developed and made available to other researchers. Additionally, the research conducted in this study will assist in completing the graduate student training for Mr. Auerbach.
