In Search of the Missing Link

The missing link is a term that is popularly bantered in popular culture, but if you think about it, do you really know what the missing link is?  What it symbolizes?  Its importance to anthropology?  Today's blog post explores the concept of the missing link and potential candidates for this famous yet elusive entity.

The Missing Link (www.anticlothes.com)

The term "missing link" was coined in the early 1900s and describes a transitional hominid specimen that ideally blends features of nonhuman primates and humans and acts as the common ancestor among modern humans and apes, thereby demonstrating where the evolutionary branches between the two groups occurred.  The term was originally associated with the discovery of a "fossil" find known as Piltdown Man.  Piltdown Man was believed to be a Paleolithic hominid skeleton with features of both modern apes and humans, leading to the "missing link" conclusion, but it was eventually discovered that Piltdown Man was a fraud, created out of prejudice, jealousy, and European pride.  

Despite this fraud, the concept of the "missing link" continues.  While much is known about nonhuman primate and human evolutionary paths, there remains the mystery of who the common ancestor between modern apes and humans may be.  Paleoanthropological scholars have made progress toward this mystery, establishing that the most likely defining trait between the two groups would be skeletal evidence of bipedality (the ability to walk on two legs), and several candidates have been identified, including Ardipithecus, Orrorin, and Sahelanthropus. 

Ardipithecus: 

Ardipithecus ramidus  (www.wired.com)

Ardipithecus is one of the earliest known fossil genera, and the first species discovered was that of ramidus in Ethiopia in 1992 and 1993.  A total of 17 fossil fragments making up arms, the base of the skull, child’s mandible, as well as some teeth were found and they were diagnostically dissimilar from any other fossilized remains found to that point, warranting its own genus.  Ardipithecus ramidus (root of the ground ape) was the name used to describe these fossil finds, and they are the earliest discovered hominid ancestor, dating to 4.4 million years ago (mya).  These fossil finds were followed up a year later (in 1994) by more discoveries in Ethiopia.  This time around a total of 90 fragments representing a pelvis, leg, ankle, and foot, which substantiated the previous finds and solidified the place of Ardipithecus ramidus.  

This species is considered part of the Hominidae family because of the forward placement of the foramen magnum, teeth looking  slightly more human than ape, and changes to the elbow, but  this species  remains very ape like in several features, particularly enlarged canine teeth.  Plus, the only evidence of this species being bipedal is evidence of the location of the foramen magnum, and while there is fossil evidence of pelvis and legs, more fossilized evidence is necessary to guarantee without a shadow of a doubt that these species were actually completely bipedal and that the location of the foramen magnum was a true intermediary feature between apes and humans.  Without this defining evidence, some scholars are loathe to classify this species as the "missing link". 

Ardipithecus kadabba was discovered five years later, also in Ethiopia, and to date fossilized remains representing at least five specimens have been recovered.  This species dates to approximately 5.6 to 5.8 mya and is differentiated from the later ramidus by its teeth, which are considered more ape-like.  The only feature that suggests that this species was bipedal was one toe bone, which is not very strong evidence to that effect or being the "missing link".

Orrorin:

Orrorin tugenensis (http://www.smashinglists.com/10-human-evolutional-ancestors/)

Another discovery  at the site of Tugen Hills in Kenya of femurs (upper leg bones), teeth, and portion of the mandible (jaw) that date from 5.6 to 6.2 mya.  The scholars who made this discovery, dubbed Orrorin tugenensis, claim that the morphological  features on the femurs are evidence of bipedal walking, which if true would date this adaptation to 2 million years earlier than originally believed.   But other scholars question if this species belongs in the Hominid lineage, leaving this species and its "missing link" status in question.

Sahelanthropus:

Sahelanthropus tchadensis (http://www.smashinglists.com/10-human-evolutional-ancestors/)

Another species, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, is also believed to be a possible hominid ancestor by some scholars and dates between 7 to 6 mya.  This species was discovered in Chad and consisted of a cranium, jaw fragment, and several teeth.  Several of the cranial features are considered primate-like, but there are some key features that scholars claim to be more human like: small canines, reduced prognathism, continuous brow ridge.  The discovers claim that this species is evidence of the "missing link" between humans and nonhuman primates,  but others claim that the species is more ape than human and therefore in the ape lineage. 

*       *       *

In conclusion, there remains no definitive evidence that fully supports the discovery of the "missing link" thus far.  This does not mean that the "missing link" did not exist as there is substantial evidence both before and after the spot where the "missing link" would exist that suggests its existence.  The mystery remains and continues to drive the passions and interests of paleoanthropologists.  Who knows-perhaps the discovery of the "missing link" will happen today.  New discoveries are occurring daily.

References:

http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/orrorin-tugenensis

Feder, Kenneth and Park M. Human Antiquity: An Introduction to Physical Anthropology and Archeology, McGraw-Hill. 

Trans-In-America

Today's blog post focuses on one topic within the larger subject of gender.  Gender is defined as the social and cultural characteristics associated with one's sex, which is characterized by the biological traits (e.g. breasts or penis) an individual possesses.  Gender is a social construct that is associated with specific perceptions of self (i.e. how someone and others define the individual) as well as roles, or sets of behaviors that are prescribed to specific genders by the culture one lives in.  Within American and Western cultures, the norm is that there are two genders: male and female, but there exists several different genders around the world and even in the United States.  Transgender is the umbrella term that covers several non-conventional genders, including heteronormative male/female binary and others that go beyond it, around the world and has been in the public eye in recent months due to the media attention on transgendered individuals (e.g. Avery Edison's Story, Challenges of Transgendered Soldiers, Maine Supreme Court Ruling, and Italian Transgender Politician Arrested in Sochi).  Today's blog post is meant to introduce readers to what it means to be transgendered within Western contexts, the challenges faced by transgendered individuals, and how to assist transgendered individuals both directly and indirectly.  

Source Unknown

Because gender is a socially and culturally constructed concept, the term transgender has and is continually being redefined in order to meet the needs and expectations who identify as transgendered and society as a whole.  In its current incarnation, transgender (or simply trans*) is defined as anyone who does not identify with the gender identity and gender roles associated with one's sex.  This is a rather simplistic yet complicated definition, however, as not all individuals who fit this definition will actually be considered transgendered by others or oneself.  For example, the popular Western term "tom-boy" refers to females who take on masculine characteristics, such as girls and women who play "like boys", but many of these individuals may still identify as girls/women (as both sex & gender) and therefore would not fit into the transgendered category.  On the other hand, there may be an individual who dresses and takes on the roles & behaviors of the gender opposite of his/her sex and would be considered to be transgendered by many, but the individual does not identify as transgendered but may instead identify as either the male or female gender.

UC Davis LGBT Resource Center

Many transgendered individuals experience all sorts of discrimination from subtle to overt, as well as individual to institutional.  I have unfortunately seen this discrimination first hand when I was in graduate school.  I lived in an apartment building and one of my neighbors appeared to be a transgendered individual (I say appeared because the topic never came up and I felt it was impolite to ask, particularly when this person's gender did not matter to me).  This neighbor was extremely polite and friendly, paid the rent on time, never disturbed others, and was someone I enjoyed speaking with in the hall or elevator.  Several of my other neighbors, however, took offense to this neighbor's ambiguous gender category.  "Is that a he or is that a she?" they would ask me, and I would reply with, "Why does it matter?"  Unfortunately, that answer was not sufficient to several people, who avoided this neighbor as a result.  Unfortunately, many transgendered individuals experience situations such as these on a daily basis.  In addition to this individual discrimination, institutional discrimination is also common.  Transgendered individuals are discriminated against in regards to employment, medical attention, housing, education, and judicial systems.  Institutional discrimination has largely been criminalized in matters of race or age, but criminalization of institutional discrimination in regards to gender identity, particularly transgendered identity, has not been established.  This allows individuals and institutions to continue to discriminate against transgendered individuals without consequence.

 

These injustices, however, do not have to continue as there are several things that you, as an individual, can do to assist transgendered individuals.  The first and simplest thing is to educate yourself about what it is to be transgendered and the issues facing transgendered individuals.  As well, if you meet someone you think is transgendered, refer to them in the ways they want to be identified as.  For example, my neighbor identified as a woman, so when spoke about my neighbor I said "she" or "her" or called her by her name (withheld upon request).  If you are unsure, politely ask, keeping in mind social norms of the society and culture you are in.  Also, never assume anything about a transgendered individual, which is good advice for meeting anyone new.  The old adage, "You know what it means to assume, right?  It makes an 'ass' of 'u' and 'me'," very much applies here because assumptions can and often do lead to inappropriate and false conclusions, and you manage not only to harm others but yourself, as well.  You could be missing out on meeting someone great, such as the case with my neighbors.  

As necessary, feel!  It is okay to feel uncomfortable.  Those feelings are natural and they are okay.   Explore your feelings, your thoughts, your prejudices, and your ignorance.  Figure out where those thoughts are coming from and what you are most comfortable with.  It serves everyone's best interests if you can be tolerant of everyone's views instead of fighting everyone who disagrees with you in the slightest.  Ultimately, you have to come to terms with how you feel, and hopefully those terms lead to a peaceful coexistence for yourself and those around you-regardless of gender, sexual orientation, age, race, ethnicity, etc.

If you feel the need, become an advocate.  Take what you have learned and fight in the best interests of transgendered individuals.  Keep in mind what it is that the transgendered individual(s) and/or community want and need and focus your efforts accordingly.  There are several organizations you can get involved with if you are so inclined, including The Center and GLAAD.  If a more local, grassroots organization is your style, ask around your community to find out what resources are available and which are interested in volunteers or advocates.  These places are also great locals to learn more about transgendered issues and educate yourself about transgender identity in general.

Bibliography:

Gezon, Lisa and Kottak, Conrad.  2011.  Culture.  Mc-Graw Hill.

https://www.apa.org/topics/sexuality/transgender.aspx

http://www.wikihow.com/Respect-a-Transgender-Person

http://www.gaycenter.org/gip/transbasics/whatistrans

Keepers of the Dead: Embalmers, Morticians, and Mummy Practitioners

This post was suggested by a friend of mine based on a previous post about animal mummies.  

Mummies and all manners of the dead have managed to capture the attention of cultures around the world.  There has been a great deal of scholarly work committed to the study of mummies, and the breadth of research expands both temporal and geographical boundaries.  This body of work has increased our knowledge about how, why, where, and when deceased individuals were mummified, but despite this comprehensive and exhaustive review of the topic, there remains very little attention on the individuals tasked with producing the mummified remains.  Today's blog post is meant to remedy this deficiency by beginning an exploration into this very complex and limited topic of research.  This post is by  no means a comprehensive review of this topic (on mummy practitioners, those responsible for mummifying the dead), in part due to the scarcity of scholarly research available and at my current disposal, but it is simply meant to provide some information for the curious readers of this blog, in particular the individual who inspired this post, as well as hopefully garner interest among the scholarly community to further investigate this topic.

As already mentioned, there remains very little information concerning whom mummified the dead for a variety of reasons.  In some cases, it is unclear who mummified the dead due to a scarcity of written records available to scholars to reference.  In other cases, individuals who witnessed the mummification practices did not record who was chosen to mummify the dead.  Because of this scarcity of resources and availability of information from both the literature and scholars currently working in the field (myself included), I will focus this post on three cultures that both practiced mummification and have some information available in regards to potential or known mummy practitioners: the Egyptians, the Chinchorro, and the Ibaloi. 


The Sacred & Elite Priesthood: Egyptian Mummy Practitioners

Artistic rendition of ancient Egyptian mummification ritual.  Artistic credit: Licarto (licarto.deviantart.com/)

The most comprehensive information concerning mummy practitioners comes from ancient Egyptian cultures as these people not only kept prolific records, but there unique cultural practices were also observed and recorded by outsiders.  It is the work of Greek scholar Herodotus that has been an invaluable source for Egyptian mummy scholars concerned with the particularities of mummification practices, but he also provides scholars with specific information concerning the mummy practitioners themselves.


Egyptian mummification was an integral part of Egyptian mortuary traditions as it was believed that the destruction of the body of the deceased led to the ultimate destruction of the soul, and therefore great care of the deceased's body was undertaken in order to allow the deceased to survive and flourish in the afterlife.  According to Herodotus, a group of sacred and elite priests were responsible for mummifying the dead in part because of the sacred nature of releasing the soul from the body so that it could continue "living" into the afterlife.  Early anthropogenic (intentional) mummification practices (circa 2600 B.C.) were reportedly crude, but mummification procedures evolved as time went on before ultimately ending in approximately A.D. 364.  These practices were refined over generations as priests passed on their knowledge to subsequent generations of priests, which according to interpretations of Herodotus's work states that this occupation was passed through family lineages, specifically among fathers to their sons or close male relatives.  Each priest had a specific role that he served in the mummification ritual, be it reading the sacred rites that released the soul to preserving the corpse through anthropogenic mummification.  In this way, the mystique and importance of the priests remained high and they were able to command respect and power within society while keeping their skills a secret.  This was until mummification procedures and significance waned within Egyptian societies, in which case mummification practitioners were less priestly and more individuals who provided a service for a specific price.

Specialized Morticians?: Chinchorro Mummy Practitioners

Statuette Mummies (Photo Credit: Christine Elisabeth Boston)

The Chinchorro people produced what is known as the world's oldest and possibly most unique anthropogenic mummies, in part because the political & economic structure of this culture (potentially egalitarian, semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers) that is not diagnostic of such complex mortuary traditions.  Decades of study on the Chinchorro mummies have yielded information concerning how the mummies were created, but the reasons for mummifying the deceased and practitioners who completed the mummification processes are unknown.  The Chinchorro culture was one devoid of a written language, meaning no written records are available for consultation among modern scholars, but this has not stopped scholars from hypothesizing about who mummification practitioners were and how the practice was taught to future generations of practitioners.

Unfortunately, scholars have no narrowed down the who, but they do have some ideas about the how.  A comprehensive study of Chinchorro mummies conducted by Dr. Bernardo Arriaza identified several types of mummies, including one anomalous type known as statuette mummies.  These mummies are small figurines molded out of clay with individual face masks.  They are atypical of remaining Chinchorro mummies since they are not full figured human or completely humanoid mummies as many of these mummies lack basic anatomical features, such as arms or legs.  A variety of studies have been conducted on these mummies in order to determine the exact purpose they served in Chinchorro society, and several hypotheses have developed as a result.  One study involved x-raying the statuette mummies and demonstrated that some mummies contained either human fetal or animal bones, while others contained no bones whatsoever.  This led the scholars to conclude that these mummies were either representations of still born fetuses who were mummified in order to relieve the grief of the families or these mummies were used as tools to teach mummy practitioners the specific techniques associated with mummifying the dead.  Without more specific evidence (written or oral) an absolute explanation may never be reached, but this latter hypothesis does establish an identification of potential mummy practitioners or at least their training.

A Collective Effort by the Living and the Dead: Ibaloi Mummy Practitioners

Ibaloi Mummies

The Ibaloi mummies, also known as the Fire Mummies, of the Philippines presented a unique challenge for me in regards to finding out who the mummy practitioners are.  These mummy practices are believed to have begun as early as 2000 B.C., although some scholars believe they were more prevalent in A.D. 1200.  These mummification practices continue minimally today, which has allowed all sorts of anthropological scholars to have witnessed the practices, but very little has been published (or at least is accessible via available published resources) regarding who these mummy practitioners were.

Based on the information that I was able to collect, it appears that mummification practices were shared by both the living and the deceased.  Mummification began when someone recognized that their death was close, and they willingly consumed a brine (salty) beverage that is believed to have begun the drying process of the body and informed close members of their preferences for burial and mummification.  In the event that the person passed away prior to drinking this beverage in life, the deceased was made to drink the beverage after death.  After the death of the individual, reports claim that tribal members, in particular elders of the community, began the mummification processes of smoking the body with tobacco and other resources.  Some scholars report that the process lasted up to two years, and there is evidence of continued care of the mummies years after the mummification process was completed.  It is unclear how the mummification processes were passed on through generations, but based on the evidence that the mummies were cared for for many years after their death it is my assumption that this was a community effort with all members of the society working toward the preservation of the deceased.  It is also very interesting that the living, prior to their own death, involved themselves in the mummification process by electing to drink the brine beverage in order to start the mummification process, which is a unique aspect of this process that is unknown in other societies and cultures that also practiced anthropogenic mummification.

In conclusion, the current understanding of mummification around the world is comprehensive but incomplete.  Information concerning the mummy practitioners, those who mummified the dead, is unknown or vaguely described.  It is unclear as to why this information is not readily available in many cases, particularly when written or observed accounts are present, but perhaps this lack of information demonstrates our modern society's fascination with death but taboo against those who are involved in the process.  It is an interesting paradox that provides insights not only on the ancient dead but the modern living.      


Egyptian Mummification Sources


http://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/mummies.htm

http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/funerary_practices/embalmers.htm


Chinchorro Mummification Sources


Arriaza BT.  1995.  Beyond Death: The Chinchorro Mummies of Ancient Chile.  Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. 

Arriaza BT, Standen V, Madden G, Beckett R, Conlogue G, Inzulza A.  2001.  Radiological Studies of Six Chinchorro Statuette Mummies.  Mummies in a New Millennium: Proceedings of the 4th World Congress on Mummy Studies.  Lynnerup N, Andreasen C, Berglund J, eds.  Greenland National Museum and Archives and Danish Polar Center.


Ibaloi Mummification Sources

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Kabayan_Mummy_Burial_Caves

http://ofwlayf.com/kabayan-mummies-in-benguet-philippines/

Aufderheide AC.  2003.  The Scientific Study of Mummies.  Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press.

Picpican I.  2003.  The Igorot Mummies: A Socio-cultural and Historical Treatise.  Quezon City: Rex Bookstore, Inc.