Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
while simultaneously emphasizing the importance of hands-on instruction with experienced
scholars familiar with the intricacies of this research.
WHAT QUESTIONS CAN BE ANSWERED WITH STABLE
ISOTOPE ANALYSIS?
As has been described in this volume (see DiGangi and Moore [Chapter 2]), it is impera-
tive that researchers understand the link between their research questions and the types of
methodological approaches that might assist them. For example, skeletal biologists interested
in subsistence might consider analyzing the frequency of dental caries, or the composition of
dental calculus (see Hammerl [Chapter 10], this volume); or they might decide to analyze the
isotopic composition of various human tissues. Ultimately, it is incumbent upon the
researcher to make clear connections between their research questions, theoretical frame-
work, and methodological approach. Given that the focus of this chapter is on stable isotope
analysis, skeletal biologists should seek to understand the connection between human
behavior and bone chemistry.
While most university composition instructors, and indeed numerous anthropology
faculty, might deduct points from their students' essays for the overuse of trite clich´sin
formal writing, I am going to break that rule-of-thumb here by emphasizing one adage
that highlights the primary reason that skeletal biologists are interested in stable isotope
analysis in the first place: you are what you eat! In essence, it is well known that through
numerous physiological processes the chemical elements consumed and imbibed by
Homo
sapiens
sometimes become directly incorporated into skeletal and dental tissues through
complex processes such as bone remodeling (
Agarwal, 2008
; Trammell and Kroman
[Chapter 13], this volume) or ion substitution (see
Burton (2008)
). As will be described in
this chapter, the isotopic signature of various foodstuffs also provides clear insight into
the types of subsistence strategies that humans have utilized (as well as when major shifts
in plant exploitation occurred), clues regarding an individual's geological origin, and
nuanced insight into status and estimates of social hierarchy. These areas are of major interest
to skeletal biologists and other scholars with research interests in biological anthropology
and archaeology.
Perhaps no topic utilizing stable isotopes has been of greater interest than that of subsis-
tence, on both individual and population levels. In particular, researchers have correlated
the development of large-scale social transformations with marked shifts in subsistence
strategies. Taking the Southeastern United States as an example, scholars have long recog-
nized that adoption of maize agriculture was one component of Mississippian cultural
developments that set this period of time apart from earlier epochs (
Griffin, 1967; Doolit-
tle, 2004; Blitz, 2010
). In an early study, Lynott and colleagues (1986) were able to apply
stable isotope analyses and radiocarbon dating to a sample of 20 individuals from 14
archaeological sites throughout the Ozark region of Missouri and Arkansas that spanned
a timeframe from 3200 B.C. to approximately 1880 A.D. Ultimately, the analysis of carbon
isotopes in this study demonstrated a marked shift to maize-based agriculture after 1000
A.D., which was correlated with the emergence of politically centralized ceremonial
centers.
