Debra L Martins
Biographic Data
| ID | 87856 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Debra L Martins |
| GIVEN NAMES | Debra L |
| FAMILY NAME | Martins |
| SIGNATURE | MARTINS D L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Nevada, Las Vegas |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7341-8908 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 47 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 301 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 47 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1979 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Mortuary Patterns at Turkey Creek Pueblo: Gender and Life History at a Mogollon Pueblo Site (AD 1225–1286)
Osteological and mortuary data are used to explore how sex, age, life history, and social prestige, as bioarchaeologically visible axes of gender identity, informed mortuary treatment at Turkey Creek Pueblo, Arizona (n=323), the earliest aggregated pueblo in the Point of Pines area of the Mogollon region (AD 1225–1286). The mortuary program at Turkey Creek Pueblo is suggestive of a homogenous community where burial treatment is not strictly condi…
Life at Mesa Verde: An Analysis of Health and Trauma from Wetherill Mesa, Mesa Verde National Park
Many Mesa Verde cliff dwellings were occupied during the thirteenth century in the final decades before the Four Corners region was depopulated. Deposits in such cliff dwellings offer unique opportunities to research motivations for migration and to understand living conditions in these unusual locations. In compliance with NAGPRA, bioarchaeological data were collected from Wetherill Mesa burials in 1995; this study is the first systematic analys…
Twenty-first century bioarchaeology: Taking stock and moving forward
This article presents outcomes from a Workshop entitled "Bioarchaeology: Taking Stock and Moving Forward," which was held at Arizona State University (ASU) on March 6-8, 2020. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (ASU), and the Center for Bioarchaeological Research (CBR, ASU), the Workshop's overall goal was to explore reasons why research proposals submitted by bioarchaeologists, both g…
Zoonotic diseases: New directions in human–animal pathology
Zoonotic diseases-human diseases of animal origin-represent one of the world's greatest health challenges, both today and in the past. Since the Neolithic, zoonotic diseases have been one of the major factors shaping and influencing human adaptation. Archaeology is ideally situated to provide the long view on human-animal-pathogen relationships through combining cultural, environmental and biological datasets, yet long-term studies of linked huma…
Violence and Masculinity in Small-Scale Societies
Archaeological and ethnographic accounts of violence in small-scale societies represent a baseline for thinking about the ways that violence and masculinity originated and evolved, becoming entwined social processes. Male violence (lethal and nonlethal) is expressed in diverse and complex ways because it is associated with social spheres of power and influence, and it is embedded within ideologies, histories, and collective memories. Applying ant…
Gendered Violence in Small- Scale Societies in the Past
The Poetics of Corpse Fragmentation and Processing in the Ancient Southwest
Statement and Commitments from SAA Editors to Change the Underrepresentation of Black, Indigenous, and Other Scholars from Diverse Backgrounds in Our Publications
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the 'Save PDF' action button
Statement and Commitments from SAA Editors to Change the Underrepresentation of Black, Indigenous, and Other Scholars from Diverse Backgrounds in Our Publications
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Working, Living, and Dying Together: Rethinking Marginality, Sex, and Heterarchy in Kayenta Communities (AD 900-1150)
Differential diagnosis of a progressive neuromuscular disorder using bioarchaeological and biogeochemical evidence from a bronze age skeleton in the UAE
The Bioarchaeology of Pain and Suffering: Human Adaptation and Survival during Troubled Times
Ancient human remains can be analyzed with an eye toward clarifying the limits of human adaptation to many of life's hardships. Data collected from the remnants of skeletonized bodies provides information on the costs of living under trying times and the pain, suffering, and disability experienced. Focusing on the survivors of stressful conditions such as colonization, endemic warfare, climate change, or slavery provides a way to examine the expe…
Skulls, Skeletons and Shakespeare
Hard Times in Dry Lands: Making Meaning of Violence in the Ancient Southwest
The scientific and systematic integration of data derived from human remains is offered as an important methodology with which to test hypotheses regarding violence in the Greater Southwest prior to European contact. The evidence suggests a continuum of violent activities that does not fit into broad classifications such as warfare. Osteological remains combined with site information illuminates how and why violence was performed and bones were p…
Bioarchaeological contributions to the study of violence
The bioarchaeological record has an abundance of scientific evidence based on skeletal indicators of trauma to argue for a long history of internal and external group conflict. However, the findings also suggest variability, nuance, and unevenness in the type, use, and meaning of violence across time and space and therefore defy generalizations or easy quantification. Documenting violence‐related behaviors provides an overview of the often unique…
Commingled Human Skeletal Assemblages: Integrative Techniques in Determination of the MNI/MNE
Bioarchaeological and Forensic Perspectives on Violence: How Violent Death Is Interpreted from Skeletal Remains
Introduction: Interpreting violence in the ancient and modern world when skeletonized bodies are all you have
A summary 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.
Disarticulated and Disturbed, Processed and Eaten? Cautionary Notes from the La Plata Assemblage (AD 1000–1150)
Troubled Times: Violence and Warfare in the Past
Evidence amassed in Troubled Times indicates that, much like in the modern world, violence was not an uncommon aspect of prehistoric dispute resolution. From the civilizations of the American Southwest to the Mesolithic of Central Europe, the contributors examine violence in hunter-gatherer as well as state societies from both the New and Old Worlds. Drawing upon cross-cultural analyses, archaeological data, and skeletal remains, this collection …
George J. Armelagos (1936–2014)
Violence Against Women in the La Plata River Valley (A.D. 1000-1300)
Scalp marks stand out as particularly clear evidence of war. As Ostendorf Smith demonstrates, scalping was practiced in North America from ancient times, although much less extensively than after Europeans began paying bounties for them. Skeletal trauma may come from sources as diverse as subsistence activities, spousal abuse, sports, internal coercion, ritual sacrifice and of course war. Weapons constitute another set of evidence. Pacific Northw…
The Bioarchaeology of Postmortem Agency: Integrating Archaeological Theory with Human Skeletal Remains
Taking the social agency of dead bodies as its main theme, this introduction discusses the articles in this special section on the bioarchaeology of post-mortem agency and discusses theoretical concerns relevant to the (bio)archaeological analysis of agency. In particular, the argument that only biological living persons have social agency or impact the direction of social processes, or the decisions of others is challenged. The challenges of def…
Commingled and Disarticulated Human Remains: Working Toward Improved Theory, Method, and Data
Indigenous violence in Northern Mexico on the eve of contact
Bioarchaeological contributions to the study of violence
The bioarchaeological record has an abundance of scientific evidence based on skeletal indicators of trauma to argue for a long history of internal and external group conflict. However, the findings also suggest variability, nuance, and unevenness in the type, use, and meaning of violence across time and space and therefore defy generalizations or easy quantification. Documenting violence‐related behaviors provides an overview of the often unique…
The Bioarchaeology and Taphonomy of Violence at Castle Rock and Sand Canyon Pueblos, Southwestern Colorado
Violence and the role of violence have emerged recently as topics important to understanding the prehistory of the northern Southwest. Recent excavations at Castle Rock and Sand Canyon pueblos, two thirteenth-century sites in the Mesa Verde region of southwestern Colorado, bring new data to bear on these subjects. Field contexts and the results of bone and myoglobin analyses indicate that nonlethal and lethal violence occurred in both of these vi…
Changing Patterns of Violence in the Northern San Juan Region
Evidence of human violence in the Northern San Juan region of the American Southwest has stimulated a variety of inferences, including interpersonal strife, cannibalism, raiding, and warfare. We summarize existing information on regional violence and discuss new research results from excavations in the Sand Canyon locality. The analysis explores similarities and differences in patterns of violent deaths through time and across the region and expl…
Morphometrics of compact bone: An example from Sudanese Nubia
Morphometric analysis of compact femoral tissue was applied to a prehistoric population from Sudanese Nubia. Microradiographs of thin sections from below the lesser trochanter were examined. A total of 74 adults (40 females, 34 males) from the X‐Group population (A.D. 350–550) were used to determine the underlying processes of bone remodeling in skeletal growth and maintenance. The relationship of bone turnover to the age of onset, patterning and…
Commingled and Disarticulated Human Remains: Working Toward Improved Theory, Method, and Data
Twenty-first century bioarchaeology: Taking stock and moving forward
This article presents outcomes from a Workshop entitled "Bioarchaeology: Taking Stock and Moving Forward," which was held at Arizona State University (ASU) on March 6-8, 2020. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (ASU), and the Center for Bioarchaeological Research (CBR, ASU), the Workshop's overall goal was to explore reasons why research proposals submitted by bioarchaeologists, both g…
Skeletal remodeling and mineralization as indicators of health: An example from prehistoric Sudanese Nubia
Hard Times in Dry Lands: Making Meaning of Violence in the Ancient Southwest
The scientific and systematic integration of data derived from human remains is offered as an important methodology with which to test hypotheses regarding violence in the Greater Southwest prior to European contact. The evidence suggests a continuum of violent activities that does not fit into broad classifications such as warfare. Osteological remains combined with site information illuminates how and why violence was performed and bones were p…
Violence and Masculinity in Small-Scale Societies
Archaeological and ethnographic accounts of violence in small-scale societies represent a baseline for thinking about the ways that violence and masculinity originated and evolved, becoming entwined social processes. Male violence (lethal and nonlethal) is expressed in diverse and complex ways because it is associated with social spheres of power and influence, and it is embedded within ideologies, histories, and collective memories. Applying ant…
Hard Labor and Hostile Encounters: What Human Remains Reveal about Institutional Violence and Chinese Immigrants Living in Carlin, Nevada (1885–1923)
Critique of the Claim of Cannibalism at Cowboy Wash
The article by Billman et al. contributes to a growing body of data that demonstrates the complex variability of the Pueblo world during the twelfth century. Although the article's title promises a comprehensive review of major cultural and environmental processes (drought, warfare, cannibalism, regional interactions), relatively little theory regarding these processes informs their research design, and much of their interpretation is based on we…
The Bioarchaeology of Postmortem Agency: Integrating Archaeological Theory with Human Skeletal Remains
Taking the social agency of dead bodies as its main theme, this introduction discusses the articles in this special section on the bioarchaeology of post-mortem agency and discusses theoretical concerns relevant to the (bio)archaeological analysis of agency. In particular, the argument that only biological living persons have social agency or impact the direction of social processes, or the decisions of others is challenged. The challenges of def…
Robusticity and osteoarthritis at the trapeziometacarpal joint in a Bronze Age population from Tell Abraq, United Arab Emirates
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive disease of the joints and can cause pain, reduced range of motion and strength, and ultimately loss of function at affected joints. Osteoarthritis often occurs at sites where biomechanical stress is acutely severe or moderate but habitual over the course of a lifetime. Skeletal remains from an Umm an-Nar tomb at Tell Abraq, United Arab Emirates (ca. 2300 BC), were recovered and represented over 300 individuals…
Cortical bone maintenance in an historic Afro‐American Cemetery sample from Cedar Grove, Arkansas
The relocation and analysis of 80 skeletons from the Cedar Grove Cemetery, located in southwest Arkansas, provides an opportunity to examine the level of health and nutrition exprienced by Afro‐Americans in the post‐Reconstruction South (1878–1930). The demographic profile lends support to the interpretation that Cedar Grove participated in the nationwide decline in Afro‐American health. The high frequencies of skeletal lesions indicative of diet…
The Bioarchaeology of Pain and Suffering: Human Adaptation and Survival during Troubled Times
Ancient human remains can be analyzed with an eye toward clarifying the limits of human adaptation to many of life's hardships. Data collected from the remnants of skeletonized bodies provides information on the costs of living under trying times and the pain, suffering, and disability experienced. Focusing on the survivors of stressful conditions such as colonization, endemic warfare, climate change, or slavery provides a way to examine the expe…
Violence Against Women in the La Plata River Valley (A.D. 1000-1300)
Scalp marks stand out as particularly clear evidence of war. As Ostendorf Smith demonstrates, scalping was practiced in North America from ancient times, although much less extensively than after Europeans began paying bounties for them. Skeletal trauma may come from sources as diverse as subsistence activities, spousal abuse, sports, internal coercion, ritual sacrifice and of course war. Weapons constitute another set of evidence. Pacific Northw…
Bioarchaeology in the United Arab Emirates
Physical anthropology and bioarchaeology (one of the newer interdisciplinary sub‐disciplines) are alive and well in the U.A.E. Older analytical approaches that rely on subjective observations and non‐systematic study of human remains are being replaced with more biocultural and processual approaches that integrate biological data from human remains within a broader archaeological and cultural context. With the publication of a major synthetic wor…
Zoonotic diseases: New directions in human–animal pathology
Zoonotic diseases-human diseases of animal origin-represent one of the world's greatest health challenges, both today and in the past. Since the Neolithic, zoonotic diseases have been one of the major factors shaping and influencing human adaptation. Archaeology is ideally situated to provide the long view on human-animal-pathogen relationships through combining cultural, environmental and biological datasets, yet long-term studies of linked huma…
Statement and Commitments from SAA Editors to Change the Underrepresentation of Black, Indigenous, and Other Scholars from Diverse Backgrounds in Our Publications
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the 'Save PDF' action button
Statement and Commitments from SAA Editors to Change the Underrepresentation of Black, Indigenous, and Other Scholars from Diverse Backgrounds in Our Publications
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Working, Living, and Dying Together: Rethinking Marginality, Sex, and Heterarchy in Kayenta Communities (AD 900-1150)
On the Use of Microstructural Bone for Age Determination
Morphometrics of compact bone: An example from Sudanese Nubia
Morphometric analysis of compact femoral tissue was applied to a prehistoric population from Sudanese Nubia. Microradiographs of thin sections from below the lesser trochanter were examined. A total of 74 adults (40 females, 34 males) from the X‐Group population (A.D. 350–550) were used to determine the underlying processes of bone remodeling in skeletal growth and maintenance. The relationship of bone turnover to the age of onset, patterning and…
On the Use of Microstructural Bone for Age Determination
Skeletal remodeling and mineralization as indicators of health: An example from prehistoric Sudanese Nubia
Cortical bone maintenance in an historic Afro‐American Cemetery sample from Cedar Grove, Arkansas
The relocation and analysis of 80 skeletons from the Cedar Grove Cemetery, located in southwest Arkansas, provides an opportunity to examine the level of health and nutrition exprienced by Afro‐Americans in the post‐Reconstruction South (1878–1930). The demographic profile lends support to the interpretation that Cedar Grove participated in the nationwide decline in Afro‐American health. The high frequencies of skeletal lesions indicative of diet…
Biological Anthropology Section
Biological Anthropology Section
Biological Anthropology Section
Biological Anthropology Section
Biological Anthropology Section
Science or Sacrilege: Native Americans, Archaeology and the Law
Science or Sacrilege: Native Americans, Archaeology and the Law. 1996. 60 minutes, color. video by Nicholas Nicastro. For more information contact University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning, Berkeley, CA 94704 (510/624-0460
Changing Patterns of Violence in the Northern San Juan Region
Evidence of human violence in the Northern San Juan region of the American Southwest has stimulated a variety of inferences, including interpersonal strife, cannibalism, raiding, and warfare. We summarize existing information on regional violence and discuss new research results from excavations in the Sand Canyon locality. The analysis explores similarities and differences in patterns of violent deaths through time and across the region and expl…
Critique of the Claim of Cannibalism at Cowboy Wash
The article by Billman et al. contributes to a growing body of data that demonstrates the complex variability of the Pueblo world during the twelfth century. Although the article's title promises a comprehensive review of major cultural and environmental processes (drought, warfare, cannibalism, regional interactions), relatively little theory regarding these processes informs their research design, and much of their interpretation is based on we…
Dead Bodies and Violent Acts
Commantary: Dead Bodies and Violent Acts
Reconstructing Health Profiles from Skeletal Remains
This chapter provides a selective review of nine skeletal and dental lesions that have been used to construct the skeletal database employed in the development of the health index. These lesions are described within a biosocial framework. Change in length of subadult long bones can identify differences in nutrition and health. Linear enamel hypoplasias provide information on the severity and temporal pattern of stress during infancy and childhood…
The Bioarchaeology and Taphonomy of Violence at Castle Rock and Sand Canyon Pueblos, Southwestern Colorado
Violence and the role of violence have emerged recently as topics important to understanding the prehistory of the northern Southwest. Recent excavations at Castle Rock and Sand Canyon pueblos, two thirteenth-century sites in the Mesa Verde region of southwestern Colorado, bring new data to bear on these subjects. Field contexts and the results of bone and myoglobin analyses indicate that nonlethal and lethal violence occurred in both of these vi…
Robusticity and osteoarthritis at the trapeziometacarpal joint in a Bronze Age population from Tell Abraq, United Arab Emirates
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a progressive disease of the joints and can cause pain, reduced range of motion and strength, and ultimately loss of function at affected joints. Osteoarthritis often occurs at sites where biomechanical stress is acutely severe or moderate but habitual over the course of a lifetime. Skeletal remains from an Umm an-Nar tomb at Tell Abraq, United Arab Emirates (ca. 2300 BC), were recovered and represented over 300 individuals…
Bioarchaeology in the United Arab Emirates
Physical anthropology and bioarchaeology (one of the newer interdisciplinary sub‐disciplines) are alive and well in the U.A.E. Older analytical approaches that rely on subjective observations and non‐systematic study of human remains are being replaced with more biocultural and processual approaches that integrate biological data from human remains within a broader archaeological and cultural context. With the publication of a major synthetic wor…
Looting, Collecting and Selling Ancient Artifacts: Who Are the Victims
Introduction of agriculture and its effects on women's oral health
This study explores the dynamic relationship between the introduction of agriculture and its effects on women's oral health by testing the hypothesis that female reproductive physiology contributes to an oral environment more susceptible to chronic oral disease and that, in a population undergoing the foraging to farming transition, females will exhibit a higher prevalence of oral pathology than males. This is tested by comparing the presence, lo…
Indigenous violence in Northern Mexico on the eve of contact
Battered and abused: Analysis of trauma at Grasshopper Pueblo (AD 1275–1400)
Hard Labor and Hostile Encounters: What Human Remains Reveal about Institutional Violence and Chinese Immigrants Living in Carlin, Nevada (1885–1923)
Commingled and Disarticulated Human Remains: Working Toward Improved Theory, Method, and Data
Commingled Human Skeletal Assemblages: Integrative Techniques in Determination of the MNI/MNE
Sociology (25 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (22 works) · Anthropology (16 works) · History (16 works) · Archaeology (15 works) · Geography (14 works) · Computer Science (13 works) · Ecology (11 works) · Medicine (11 works) · Paleopathology and ancient diseases (10 works)