Children at Play: Ancient Footprints & Children's Behavior in the Ancient Past

Figure 1: Children's Footprints in Giant Sloth Footprint

 

 

Archaeology is the study of people in the past, including their cultural traditions, values, beliefs, and behaviors.  More often than not archaeology focuses on the lives of adults.  There are various reasons for this, including the control adults have in creating, forming, and transmitting culture throughout generations.  It is also easier to gain access to evidence related to and/or created by adults, leading to another reason why they are focused on in the archaeological record.  This does not mean, however, that studies of the archaeology of children are completely ignored.  Due to the difficulties in accessing those data these studies are often more difficult to complete, but when they are done they provide us greater insights into children and childhoods across the ages.  This blog post will discuss one such study in relation to very early human children here in North America.

 

The White Sands National Park site in New Mexico is now understood to be a very fruitful location for understanding early human life in the Americas.  Beginning in 2017 footprint expert Matthew Bennett from Bournemouth University (United Kingdom) began discovering various types of footprints throughout the area.  These included footprints from various megafauna, such as giant sloths, as well as those of humans. 

 

One of his most recent discoveries was a set of footprints of three to five small children found within a larger footprint of a giant ground sloth (Figure 1).  The composition and placement of the footprints intrigued Bennett and his team for several reasons.  First, their existence demonstrated that the environment had previously been far more wet than it is today (as the region is now a desert).  It also showed that humans and megafauna coexisted at least 11,500 years ago.  More importantly, though, Bennett interpreted the footprints to have been made by children playing in a mud puddle.  This conclusion is remarkable because it demonstrates that carefree living among children is not a recent cultural phenomenon but one that spans generations over thousands of years. 

 

Unfortunately, this information has not been formally published by Bennett and his team yet, but it may be part of a larger study of various types of human adults’ and children’s footprints found throughout the site.  Previously discovered footprint of an adult and child showed them walking side by side throughout the area, providing greater insights into life in the region. 

 

This information, however, is not without criticism.  There are concerns about the 11,500-year-old date attached to the children’s footprints.  This date pushes back the previously established date of humans’ arrival in the Americas.  The exact period of arrival has and continues to be widely debated within the archaeological community, but the radiometric dates acquired from seeds and plant remains within the giant sloth’s foot provide that date.  Hopefully, Bennett and his team formally publish their research on this and related discoveries so as to provide greater insights into early life among human children and help resolve the peopling of Americas debate.

 

Bibliography

Barras, Colin. "Ancient footprints show children splashed in puddles 11,500 years ago." New Scientist 6 April 2022. Electronic.

Bennett, Matthew, et al. PBS News Hour: Ancient footprints in New Mexico raise questions about when humans inhabited North America Stephanie Sy. 4 April 2022.

Savitsky, Zack. "Ancient human playground found inside sloth footprints." Science 13 April 2022. Electronic.

 

Creating Meaning: Linguistic Anthropology & Morphology

Just as culture is learned so is language.  Language learning occurs through one’s lifetime.  The first words uttered demonstrate the beginning of our mastery of a language, and we continue to learn not only words but how to modify, change, and adapt them to communicate specific and complex meanings.  By this I mean that a word in and of itself can often have limited meaning.  For example, the word “food” can conjure up a variety of different meanings, from specific types of food to emotional connections we may have with food generally or specific types of food.  We can, however, move beyond just the word “food”, which is a noun, to other words or modifications of the word itself to provide additional meaning.  For example, by adding an s to the word food it becomes plural, referring to more than one type of food (e.g., the foods of the world versus the food on the plate).  We can also refer to the act of eating food by slightly modifying food to feed, a verb.  Feed, however, can also be a noun if we are referencing a type of food (e.g., chicken feed, or chicken food).  These complexities of language are nuanced and unique to every language and can sometimes be culturally specific, which brings us to today’s topic: morphology. This blog post will discuss what morphology is and how the study of the morphological aspects of a language provides us insights into culture.

 

Morphology is defined as the structure and formation of words.  Word structure comes from the sounds present within a language, which when strung together create specific words.  The subtleties of sounds can distinguish the word and its meaning, e.g., bath (a place to bathe or wash up) versus path (a trail or track one moves along).  While sounds help create a word the subtle changes to those words, such as in tense (past versus present versus future; singular versus plural), descriptor words (e.g., adjectives or adverbs, which are attached to verbs or adjectives), and gendered (or gender neutral) language, is where morphology is concerned. 

 

Each language has specific rules that are followed in order to create and provide sensical communication.  These rules are learned through those around you, as well as can be learned formally through education and/or instruction.  Typically, one often first picks up the word structure first from family and peers, creating a cadence to the way someone speaks that someone can pick up on from listening to multiple speakers and might adopt themselves over time.  Further reinforcement or acquisition of the rules of language can also be learned formally, which several of you may recall from your grammar lessons in school.

 

Ultimately, though, these rules provide speakers ways of communicating effectively, but they also reflect cultural values.  We can see this with the use of pronouns.  In English there is a singular and plural you, but ultimately, we do not know which is being used unless there are additional words used alongside the you since you can be singular or plural.  For example, Pink Floyd’s song “Hey You” suggests a singular you based on the lyrics, but the ambiguity of the use of “you” in the lyrics makes it applicable to more than one individual, including a group of individuals.  In another Pink Floyd song, “Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)”, it is clearer that the singular you is being used with the lyric, “You! Yes, you behind the bike sheds, stand still laddy!” by qualifying with the singular “laddy” (British term for boy).  In other languages, such as French or Spanish, there are distinctions between the singular and plural you.  You may have learned both if you are native speaker of either language or if you learned either later, although you may not have learned both if the teacher felt that one, often the formal plural you, was unimportant.  In Awin, a language spoken in Papua New Guinea, there is a singular you, a you referring to two individuals, and a you for three or more individuals.  These distinctions in pronouns and the breadth of pronouns available demonstrate cultural values as recognizing individuals versus groups is distinguished.  This is also conveyed in the singular they post, which addresses how gender neutrality allows for acknowledgement of individuals who identify outside of the gender binary but also allows for greater versatility in meaning when communicating about individuals or groups of individuals, particularly if and when gender identity is unknown.

Reference

Welsch, Robert Louis, and Luis Antonio Vivanco. Cultural Anthropology: Asking Questions about Humanity. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

 

Anthropologist Profile: Dr. Isaiah Odhiambo Nengo, World Renowned Paleoanthropologist

 

Isaiah Nengo (Source: David Gottlieb)

 

Today’s blog post features Dr. Isaiah Odhiambo Nengo, a world renowned paleoanthropologist whose focus on early primate evolution has expanded our knowledge of primate and human evolution.  His scholarly accomplishments are well known, but it is his personal story, fraught with challenges, persistence, and accomplishment that I personally find most inspiring.  It also explains why he dedicated his time not only to his research but also to providing opportunities for his students and those interested in pursuing paleoanthropological study.

 

Nengo was born in 1961 near Nairobi, Kenya.  His family was considered impoverished even for Kenyan standards, but he did not let his family’s financial situation stop him from dreaming big.  In high school he realized his interests in biology when he visited the Nairobi National Museum and heard Dr. Louis Leakey give a lecture on hominid evolution.  It is reported that Leakey was the first white man to speak with Nengo, and the way Leakey communicated to both Nengo and his classmates was charismatic and informative enough to provide Nengo the confidence to pursue further study after high school.  He went on to earn his Bachelors in zoology and botany at the University of Nairobi.

 

Upon completion of his undergraduate studies he immediately approached Leakey to request to work alongside him.  That request was flatly denied.  Rather than give up on his dream Nengo persisted, returning several times to request to work with Leakey.  Leakey eventually became impressed by Nengo’s drive and determination and agreed, employing him in a position that allowed him to work alongside both Louis and Maeve Leakey at the Nairobi National Museum.  It was during his interactions with Maeve Leakey that Nengo became inspired to study and research primate, specifically ape, evolution.  Nengo also joined Leakey’s prestigious excavation team and worked alongside them as they excavated the Ekembo nyanzae skeleton, the earliest known fossilized ape species.  Nengo discovered the near complete hip of the species, which remains the most complete specimen of this species.

 

He was eventually invited to pursue his doctorate at Harvard University, where he worked alongside established and notable paleoanthropological experts David Pilbeam and Stephen Jay Gould.  After graduating from the program he took a position at Miami University in Ohio and was the Director of the University’s Hefner Museum of Natural History.  He and his family’s experiences led them to opt to move to California to seek out a more culturally diverse social environment.  Nengo initially took a position teaching high school biology before landing a position at De Anza College, where he eventually reached tenured status. 

 

In 2010 Louise Leakey, daughter of Louis and Maeve Leakey, implored him to return to Kenya.  This resulted in him pursuing and securing a Fulbright Scholarship that enabled him to teach at the University of Nairobi between 2012 and 2013.  This led him to pursue various opportunities for both American and African students.  As he believed that there were too few African scholars and scientists working within the fields of paleoanthropology, he worked hard to establish the graduate program in human evolutionary biology at Turkana University College in Kenya.  It took several years to accomplish this goal as he had to navigate and overcome various challenges involving educational and governmental agents and institutions, but he never let these challenges stop him from achieving this goal.  He remained committed to this program up until his death, actively recruiting students, being involved in decision making of who was accepted, identifying funding sources so students could attend the program fully funded, developing and refining curriculum, and more.

 

He eventually went on to continue his research on primate evolution in Kenya, offering opportunities for both De Anza College students and students throughout Kenya and Africa to participate in his research alongside him.  In 2015 he and his students made a remarkable discovery: the Alesi fossil, which was the in-tact, fossilized skull of an infant ancestral primate (Nyanzapithecus alesi).  The sediments surrounding the skull dated it to 13 million years ago.  This in and of itself is amazing, but what is even more so is the preservation of this skull.  Fearing that the methods available to him would damage the integrity of the skull and potentially destroy any evidence they could gain from the study of it while it remained in tact Nengo actively pursued assistance from scholars outside of anthropology to identify nondestructive ways of studying the skull.  Working alongside French physicists to use a particle accelerator to scan the internal structures of the skull Nengo and his team realized that the skull was in excellent condition as a complete brain cavity, unerupted adult teeth, and inner ear bones were fully preserved and able to be studied through this new nondestructive method they pioneered.  The morphological characteristics of the Alesi fossil provide insights into primate evolution, particularly as this individual has characteristics found in various ape species.

 

This discovery led to Nengo founding the Turkana Miocene Project, a project that involves a multidisciplinary team who are charged with investigating sites from 30 to 5 million years ago throughout the Turkana Basin.  Their goals are to better understand primate evolution from the beginning to the period when hominids (humans) evolved.  He also became a Research Professor at Stony Brook University in New York, Associate Director of the Turkana Basin Institute, and Director for Research and Science at the Turkana Basin Institute.  He was also a fellow of the Institute for the Science of Origins and received numerous awards.

 

Unfortunately, Nengo passed away suddenly on January 23, 2022.  He is remembered fondly by his colleagues and students.  They described him as a soft spoken, visionary leader; a brilliant scientist; and beloved friend and mentor.   There have been calls to honor his memory by continuing his work in both ancient primate evolution and in providing opportunities for diverse populations of students and scholars who may not have as many chances to work in paleoanthropology. 

 

Bibliography

Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University. (2022). Tribute to Richard Leakey and Isaiah Nengo. Retrieved from Stony Brook University of New York: https://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/anthropology/faculty-and-staff/tribute.php

Nengo, I. (2017). A Story of Persistence. Retrieved from Isaiah Nengo, Biological Anthropologist: https://www.isaiahnengo.com/about

Ochieng, J. (2022, January 25). Isaiah Nengo, Associate Director of Turkana Basin Institute, Passes on. Retrieved from Turkana Basin Institute: https://www.turkanabasin.org/2022/01/isaiah-nengo-associate-director-of-turkana-basin-institute-passes-on/

Rowan, J., Princehouse, P., Kinyanjui, R. N., & Uno, K. T. (2022). Isaiah Odhiambo Nengo (1961–2022). Nature Ecology & Evolution.