Bradley E Ensor
Biographic Data
| ID | 132436 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bradley E Ensor |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bradley E |
| FAMILY NAME | Ensor |
| SIGNATURE | ENSOR B E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Eastern Michigan University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 130 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
The Not Very Patrilocal European Neolithic: Strontium, aDNA, and Archaeological Kinship Analyses
Making aDNA useful for kinship analysis
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Prehistoric histories of Hohokam kin groups
As described in the editors’ introduction, problematizing history may resolve the disjunction between long-term narratives of prehistory and short-term narratives of agency, relationality and identity. This chapter conceptualizes ‘history’ as a post-processual theoretical perspective and ‘prehistorical’ as methods to produce and analyze data. Furthermore, it maintains that relationality and identity are best understood through kinship. Prehistori…
Matrilineal and Patrilineal Descent
Two alternate versions of unilineal descent can structure corporate social groups and are related to residence practices. Matrilineal descent restricts group memberships to only those related through mothers and their mothers. Patrilineal descent limits group membership to those who share relationships through fathers. Other kin are excluded. The exclusive corporate unilineal groups (“lineages” or “clans”) provide members with property, spiritual…
Testing Ethnological Theories on Prehistoric Kinship
Although not a new topic, there is a growing trend in ethnology to interpret changing kinship terminology, social organization, and marriage practices deep into prehistory. These efforts are largely guided by phylogenetic, neoevolutionary, and historical particularist theoretical models using 19th to 20th century ethnographically recorded kin terminology. However, the “high-level” theoretical models and their assumptions are untestable without da…
The Bioarchaeology of Kinship: Proposed Revisions to Assumptions Guiding Interpretation
Bioarchaeology provides sophisticated techniques for estimating intra- and intercemetery biological relationships (i.e., biodistances), which can significantly expand anthropological research on kinship, explaining multiple dimensions of social life and identity in prehistory. However, some assumptions guiding the interpretation of results may need reconsideration. Although it is often assumed that descent groups should be homogeneous, social org…
Ethnological Problems and the Production of Archaeological Kinship Research
Ethnology traditionally guides most research on kinship practices. However, diachronic hypotheses are inadequately tested when using synchronic and normative information from limited periods of ethnological observations. Archaeological kinship analysis on residence, descent, and marriage, using middle-range factual correspondences between social practice and material remains, enable plausible inferences on variation and change in kinship practice…
Crow-Omaha: New Light on a Classic Problem of Kinship Analysis edited by Thomas R. Trautmann and Peter M. Whiteley
Reviewed by: Crow-Omaha: New Light on a Classic Problem of Kinship Analysis edited by Thomas R. Trautmann and Peter M. Whiteley Bradley E. Ensor Crow-Omaha: New Light on a Classic Problem of Kinship Analysis. Edited by Thomas R. Trautmann and Peter M. Whiteley. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2012. x + 348 pp. Illustrations, tables, maps, notes, references, index. $65.00 cloth. This book, resulting from a 2010 Amerind Foundation Advanced Sem…
Kinship and Social Organization in the Pre-Hispanic Caribbean
This title provides an overview of archaeological investigations in the insular Caribbean, understood here as the islands whose shores surround the Caribbean Sea and the islands of the Bahama Archipelago. The handbook brings together examples of the best research conducted by scholars from across the globe to address the complexity of the Caribbean past
Crafting Prehispanic Maya Kinship
Kinship Theory in Archaeology: From Critiques to the Study of Transformations
Kinship theory is argued to be an important aspect of social dynamics in past societies. However, archaeological critiques of kinship have suggested that descent and residence models are ideological constructs not associated with socioeconomic behavior, that social anthropologists believe normative kinship rules are rarely practiced, and that the models are biased by Western assumptions of biological relatedness. These critiques ignore the past s…
Chipped Stone Debitage, Material Selection, and Expedient Tool Production in Southeast Michigan
This article summarizes the results of exploratory analyses on material sources and debitage attributes from chipped stone artifacts at sites identified and sampled by the Eastern Michigan University Field School along the Huron River Valley in southeast Michigan. Several hypotheses are tested with chipped stone debitage assemblages from 35 prehistoric sites to better understand material selection, expedient versus formal tool manufacturing, and …
Hohokam Political Ecology and Vulnerability: Comments on Waters and Ravesloot
Waters and Ravesloot (2001) test the assumption that natural river channel change caused periods of Hohokam cultural reorganization. However, they conclude that channel changes did not correlate with all periods and areas of significant cultural changes and that landscape alone cannot explain Hohokam transformations. An anthropological perspective on political ecology and disasters can explain why environmental processes and events differentially…
Kinship and Marriage among the Omaha, 1886-1902
kinship is a major model for patrilineal kinship and marital exchanges. However, some authors have suggested that kinship rules and unilineal descent are merely theoretical constructs of anthropologists or cultural ideals usually not followed in practice. Given the importance of kinship for theory, this article tests the normative rules for marriage against empirical data on actual marriage behavior among the late-nineteenth-century Omaha tribe o…
Disproportionate Clan Growth in Crow-Omaha Societies: A Kinship-Demographic Model for Explaining Settlement Hierarchies and Fissioning in the Prehistoric U.S. Southeast
Ethnohistoric data on the Omaha tribe of Nebraska indicate that marriage practices favored the disproportionate demographic growth of ceremonially prominent clans while other clans remained small or decreased in population. Ultimately, this process may lead to a “crisis in exogamy” for the larger, more ceremonially active clans, which can lead to fissioning or social transformations. As a model, the disproportionate demographic growth among cerem…
Social Formations, Modo de Vida, and Conflict in Archaeology
The focus of archaeological investigation is shifting from generalizations about societies for comparative theory-building to the internal dynamics of societies. The generalizations made in processual archaeology have been attacked for ignoring conflict and the modo de vida: the concrete rhythms of daily life. As a result, the increased attention to internal dynamics is beginning to paint complex pictures of social relationships. A structural mar…
Reply to Blakey and Armelagos, with additional remarks on the hypoplastic area method
Reply to Blakey and Armelagos, with additional remarks on the hypoplastic area method
Hypoplastic area method for analyzing dental enamel hypoplasia
Most analyses of dental enamel hypoplasia compare frequencies of disturbed tooth types, which do not account for variability in the area of affected enamel. An alternate methodology, hypoplastic area, is presented here that accounts for this variability by combining acute and continuous enamel hypoplasia into an interval‐level variable. The method compares samples based on individuals, by multiple tooth type variables, or by a single value rather…
The Bioarchaeology of Kinship: Proposed Revisions to Assumptions Guiding Interpretation
Bioarchaeology provides sophisticated techniques for estimating intra- and intercemetery biological relationships (i.e., biodistances), which can significantly expand anthropological research on kinship, explaining multiple dimensions of social life and identity in prehistory. However, some assumptions guiding the interpretation of results may need reconsideration. Although it is often assumed that descent groups should be homogeneous, social org…
Kinship Theory in Archaeology: From Critiques to the Study of Transformations
Kinship theory is argued to be an important aspect of social dynamics in past societies. However, archaeological critiques of kinship have suggested that descent and residence models are ideological constructs not associated with socioeconomic behavior, that social anthropologists believe normative kinship rules are rarely practiced, and that the models are biased by Western assumptions of biological relatedness. These critiques ignore the past s…
The Not Very Patrilocal European Neolithic: Strontium, aDNA, and Archaeological Kinship Analyses
Hypoplastic area method for analyzing dental enamel hypoplasia
Most analyses of dental enamel hypoplasia compare frequencies of disturbed tooth types, which do not account for variability in the area of affected enamel. An alternate methodology, hypoplastic area, is presented here that accounts for this variability by combining acute and continuous enamel hypoplasia into an interval‐level variable. The method compares samples based on individuals, by multiple tooth type variables, or by a single value rather…
Hohokam Political Ecology and Vulnerability: Comments on Waters and Ravesloot
Waters and Ravesloot (2001) test the assumption that natural river channel change caused periods of Hohokam cultural reorganization. However, they conclude that channel changes did not correlate with all periods and areas of significant cultural changes and that landscape alone cannot explain Hohokam transformations. An anthropological perspective on political ecology and disasters can explain why environmental processes and events differentially…
Crafting Prehispanic Maya Kinship
Kinship and Marriage among the Omaha, 1886-1902
kinship is a major model for patrilineal kinship and marital exchanges. However, some authors have suggested that kinship rules and unilineal descent are merely theoretical constructs of anthropologists or cultural ideals usually not followed in practice. Given the importance of kinship for theory, this article tests the normative rules for marriage against empirical data on actual marriage behavior among the late-nineteenth-century Omaha tribe o…
Making aDNA useful for kinship analysis
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Testing Ethnological Theories on Prehistoric Kinship
Although not a new topic, there is a growing trend in ethnology to interpret changing kinship terminology, social organization, and marriage practices deep into prehistory. These efforts are largely guided by phylogenetic, neoevolutionary, and historical particularist theoretical models using 19th to 20th century ethnographically recorded kin terminology. However, the “high-level” theoretical models and their assumptions are untestable without da…
Social Formations, Modo de Vida, and Conflict in Archaeology
The focus of archaeological investigation is shifting from generalizations about societies for comparative theory-building to the internal dynamics of societies. The generalizations made in processual archaeology have been attacked for ignoring conflict and the modo de vida: the concrete rhythms of daily life. As a result, the increased attention to internal dynamics is beginning to paint complex pictures of social relationships. A structural mar…
Disproportionate Clan Growth in Crow-Omaha Societies: A Kinship-Demographic Model for Explaining Settlement Hierarchies and Fissioning in the Prehistoric U.S. Southeast
Ethnohistoric data on the Omaha tribe of Nebraska indicate that marriage practices favored the disproportionate demographic growth of ceremonially prominent clans while other clans remained small or decreased in population. Ultimately, this process may lead to a “crisis in exogamy” for the larger, more ceremonially active clans, which can lead to fissioning or social transformations. As a model, the disproportionate demographic growth among cerem…
Ethnological Problems and the Production of Archaeological Kinship Research
Ethnology traditionally guides most research on kinship practices. However, diachronic hypotheses are inadequately tested when using synchronic and normative information from limited periods of ethnological observations. Archaeological kinship analysis on residence, descent, and marriage, using middle-range factual correspondences between social practice and material remains, enable plausible inferences on variation and change in kinship practice…
Hypoplastic area method for analyzing dental enamel hypoplasia
Most analyses of dental enamel hypoplasia compare frequencies of disturbed tooth types, which do not account for variability in the area of affected enamel. An alternate methodology, hypoplastic area, is presented here that accounts for this variability by combining acute and continuous enamel hypoplasia into an interval‐level variable. The method compares samples based on individuals, by multiple tooth type variables, or by a single value rather…
Reply to Blakey and Armelagos, with additional remarks on the hypoplastic area method
Reply to Blakey and Armelagos, with additional remarks on the hypoplastic area method
Social Formations, Modo de Vida, and Conflict in Archaeology
The focus of archaeological investigation is shifting from generalizations about societies for comparative theory-building to the internal dynamics of societies. The generalizations made in processual archaeology have been attacked for ignoring conflict and the modo de vida: the concrete rhythms of daily life. As a result, the increased attention to internal dynamics is beginning to paint complex pictures of social relationships. A structural mar…
Disproportionate Clan Growth in Crow-Omaha Societies: A Kinship-Demographic Model for Explaining Settlement Hierarchies and Fissioning in the Prehistoric U.S. Southeast
Ethnohistoric data on the Omaha tribe of Nebraska indicate that marriage practices favored the disproportionate demographic growth of ceremonially prominent clans while other clans remained small or decreased in population. Ultimately, this process may lead to a “crisis in exogamy” for the larger, more ceremonially active clans, which can lead to fissioning or social transformations. As a model, the disproportionate demographic growth among cerem…
Hohokam Political Ecology and Vulnerability: Comments on Waters and Ravesloot
Waters and Ravesloot (2001) test the assumption that natural river channel change caused periods of Hohokam cultural reorganization. However, they conclude that channel changes did not correlate with all periods and areas of significant cultural changes and that landscape alone cannot explain Hohokam transformations. An anthropological perspective on political ecology and disasters can explain why environmental processes and events differentially…
Kinship and Marriage among the Omaha, 1886-1902
kinship is a major model for patrilineal kinship and marital exchanges. However, some authors have suggested that kinship rules and unilineal descent are merely theoretical constructs of anthropologists or cultural ideals usually not followed in practice. Given the importance of kinship for theory, this article tests the normative rules for marriage against empirical data on actual marriage behavior among the late-nineteenth-century Omaha tribe o…
Chipped Stone Debitage, Material Selection, and Expedient Tool Production in Southeast Michigan
This article summarizes the results of exploratory analyses on material sources and debitage attributes from chipped stone artifacts at sites identified and sampled by the Eastern Michigan University Field School along the Huron River Valley in southeast Michigan. Several hypotheses are tested with chipped stone debitage assemblages from 35 prehistoric sites to better understand material selection, expedient versus formal tool manufacturing, and …
Kinship Theory in Archaeology: From Critiques to the Study of Transformations
Kinship theory is argued to be an important aspect of social dynamics in past societies. However, archaeological critiques of kinship have suggested that descent and residence models are ideological constructs not associated with socioeconomic behavior, that social anthropologists believe normative kinship rules are rarely practiced, and that the models are biased by Western assumptions of biological relatedness. These critiques ignore the past s…
Crafting Prehispanic Maya Kinship
Kinship and Social Organization in the Pre-Hispanic Caribbean
This title provides an overview of archaeological investigations in the insular Caribbean, understood here as the islands whose shores surround the Caribbean Sea and the islands of the Bahama Archipelago. The handbook brings together examples of the best research conducted by scholars from across the globe to address the complexity of the Caribbean past
Crow-Omaha: New Light on a Classic Problem of Kinship Analysis edited by Thomas R. Trautmann and Peter M. Whiteley
Reviewed by: Crow-Omaha: New Light on a Classic Problem of Kinship Analysis edited by Thomas R. Trautmann and Peter M. Whiteley Bradley E. Ensor Crow-Omaha: New Light on a Classic Problem of Kinship Analysis. Edited by Thomas R. Trautmann and Peter M. Whiteley. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2012. x + 348 pp. Illustrations, tables, maps, notes, references, index. $65.00 cloth. This book, resulting from a 2010 Amerind Foundation Advanced Sem…
Ethnological Problems and the Production of Archaeological Kinship Research
Ethnology traditionally guides most research on kinship practices. However, diachronic hypotheses are inadequately tested when using synchronic and normative information from limited periods of ethnological observations. Archaeological kinship analysis on residence, descent, and marriage, using middle-range factual correspondences between social practice and material remains, enable plausible inferences on variation and change in kinship practice…
Matrilineal and Patrilineal Descent
Two alternate versions of unilineal descent can structure corporate social groups and are related to residence practices. Matrilineal descent restricts group memberships to only those related through mothers and their mothers. Patrilineal descent limits group membership to those who share relationships through fathers. Other kin are excluded. The exclusive corporate unilineal groups (“lineages” or “clans”) provide members with property, spiritual…
Testing Ethnological Theories on Prehistoric Kinship
Although not a new topic, there is a growing trend in ethnology to interpret changing kinship terminology, social organization, and marriage practices deep into prehistory. These efforts are largely guided by phylogenetic, neoevolutionary, and historical particularist theoretical models using 19th to 20th century ethnographically recorded kin terminology. However, the “high-level” theoretical models and their assumptions are untestable without da…
The Bioarchaeology of Kinship: Proposed Revisions to Assumptions Guiding Interpretation
Bioarchaeology provides sophisticated techniques for estimating intra- and intercemetery biological relationships (i.e., biodistances), which can significantly expand anthropological research on kinship, explaining multiple dimensions of social life and identity in prehistory. However, some assumptions guiding the interpretation of results may need reconsideration. Although it is often assumed that descent groups should be homogeneous, social org…
Prehistoric histories of Hohokam kin groups
As described in the editors’ introduction, problematizing history may resolve the disjunction between long-term narratives of prehistory and short-term narratives of agency, relationality and identity. This chapter conceptualizes ‘history’ as a post-processual theoretical perspective and ‘prehistorical’ as methods to produce and analyze data. Furthermore, it maintains that relationality and identity are best understood through kinship. Prehistori…
The Not Very Patrilocal European Neolithic: Strontium, aDNA, and Archaeological Kinship Analyses
Making aDNA useful for kinship analysis
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Geography (11 works) · Anthropology (10 works) · History (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Genealogy (9 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (8 works) · Kinship (8 works) · Archaeology (6 works) · Demography (6 works) · Anthropological Studies and Insights (5 works)