Tag Archives: south america

Amazonian Tribal Warfare Sheds Light on Modern Violence, Says MU Anthropologist

By Guest PostOctober 10, 2012Culture, Scienceafghanistan, altercation, Amazon, amazon forest, amazonian, amazonian warfare, anthropologist, cause, christianity, civilization, clash, cultural factor, cultural identity, culture influence, deadly attack, death, drew bailey, european contact, europeans, evolutionary history, external raid, frequency, global goal, humans, instinctual motivation, intensity, internal raid, intertribal warfare, libya, missouri, modern gang, mortality, primate ancestor, rival group, river basin, robert walker, south america, tribal life, tribal society, university, us embassy, violence, violent conflict, war, was treachery

Developing a shared sense of global community could help reduce major episodes of violence

In the tribal societies of the Amazon forest, violent conflict accounted for 30 percent of all deaths before contact with Europeans, according to a recent study by University of Missouri anthropologist Robert Walker. Understanding the reasons behind those altercations in the Amazon sheds light on the instinctual motivations that continue to drive human groups to violence, as well as the ways culture influences the intensity and frequency of violence.

“The same reasons – revenge, honor, territory and jealousy over women – that fueled deadly conflicts in the Amazon continue to drive violence in today’s world,” said Walker, lead author and assistant professor of anthropology in MU’s College of Arts and Science. “Humans’ evolutionary history of violent conflict among rival groups goes back to our primate ancestors. It takes a great deal of social training and institutional control to resist our instincts and solve disputes with words instead of weapons. Fortunately, people have developed ways to channel those instincts away from actual deadly conflict. For example, sports and video games often involve the same impulses to defeat a rival group.” (more…)

American Eels Return to Mountain Streams after Dam Removal

By Guest PostAugust 1, 2012Environment, Naturealan weaver, american eel, anguilla rostrata, atlantic coast, dam, dam removal, embrey dam, endangered species, fredericksburg, freshwater eel, freshwater stream, greenland, hydroelectric power, jeb wofford, life cycle, migration barrier, mountain streams, nathaniel hitt, rappahannock river, sargasso sea, sheila eyler, shenandoah national park, south america, usgs, virginia

Shenandoah National Park, Va. – American eels are declining across their range but are showing indications of a population revival following the removal of a large dam in Virginia.

The removal of Embrey Dam on the Rappahannock River increased American eel numbers in headwater streams nearly 100 miles away, according to research just published by U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service researchers.

American eels undergo long-distance migrations from their ocean spawning grounds in the Sargasso Sea to freshwater streams along the Atlantic coast from northern South America to Greenland. Dams may slow or even stop upstream eel migrations. However, prior to this research, little was known about American eel responses to dam removal. (more…)

Vampire Bat Study May Lead to Better Rabies-Control Strategies

By Guest PostJune 14, 2012Nature, ScienceAmazon rainforest, badgers, bat colonies, blood samples, bovine, cattle, charles rupprecht, culling bats, daniel streicker, ebola, genetic studies, immune, infectious diseases, ivan vargas, joel montgomery, jorge gomez benavides, marburg hemorrhagic fevers, mathematical modelling, nipah encephalitis, pejman rohani, peru, rabies, rabies in peru, rabies infections, rabies virus, sars, sergio recuenco, south america, tuberculosis, united states, university of michigan, vacuum effect, vampire bats, vampiricide, víctor pacheco, wildlife disease, zoonotic diseases

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A new study of rabies in vampire bats in Peru has found that culling bats—a common rabies control strategy—does not reduce rates of rabies exposure in bat colonies, and may even be counterproductive.

The findings may eventually help public health and agriculture officials in Peru develop more effective methods for preventing rabies infections in humans and livestock, according to a team of scientists from the United States and Peru led by Daniel Streicker, a postdoctoral associate at the University of Georgia Odum School of Ecology.

The study was published online this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The research team includes University of Michigan population ecologist Pejman Rohani. (more…)

CU-Boulder-led Team Finds Microbes in Extreme Environment on South American Volcanoes

By Guest PostJune 13, 2012Scienceatacama mountain soil, fluorescent techniques, microbial species, rocky soils, south america, tallest volcanoes

A team led by the University of Colorado Boulder looking for organisms that eke out a living in some of the most inhospitable soils on Earth has found a hardy few. (more…)

Rare Animal-Shaped Mounds Discovered in Peru by MU Anthropologist

By Guest PostApril 3, 2012Scienceandres ocas, animal shaped, bernardino ojeda, chan chan, charcoal eye, chillon valley, condor, egypt, google earth, image, june solstice, lucio laura, Milky Way, monstrous caiman, mounds, nazca, North America, ohio, omar ventocilla, peru, peruvian mounds, pyramids, robert benfer, serpent mound, south america, university of missouri

*Anthropology Helps Us Understand the Past and Allows for a Deeper Understanding of the Future.*

COLUMBIA, Mo. — For more than a century and a half, scientists and tourists have visited massive animal-shaped mounds, such as Serpent Mound in Ohio, created by the indigenous people of North America. But few animal effigy mounds had been found in South America until University of Missouri anthropology professor emeritus Robert Benfer identified numerous earthen animals rising above the coastal plains of Peru, a region already renowned for the Nazca lines, the ruined city of Chan Chan, and other cultural treasures.

“The mounds will draw tourists, one day,” Benfer said. “Some of them are more than 4,000 years old. Compare that to the effigy mounds of North America, which date to between 400 and 1200 AD. The oldest Peruvian mounds were being built at the same time as the pyramids in Egypt.” (more…)

As Next Supercontinent Forms, Arctic Ocean, Caribbean will Vanish First

By Guest PostFebruary 13, 2012Scienceamasia, ancient rocks, arctic ocean, asia, caribbean sea, collision, continental blocks, david a d evans, earth, eurasia, Europe, extroversion, formation, geographic center, geologist, introversion, magnetism, north, north pole, northward migration, nuna, orthoversion, pangea, rodinia, ross n mitchell, south america, supercontinent, taylor m kilian, yale university

Geologists at Yale University have proposed a new theory to describe the formation of supercontinents, the epic process by which Earth’s major continental blocks combine into a single vast landmass. The new model radically challenges the dominant theories of how supercontinents might take shape.

In a paper published Feb. 9 in the journal Nature, Yale researchers introduce a process called orthoversion, in which each succeeding supercontinent forms 90 degrees from the geographic center of its ancient predecessor. Under the theory, the present-day Arctic Ocean and Caribbean Sea will vanish as North and South America fuse during a mutual northward migration that leads to a collision with Europe and Asia. (more…)

Sea Change – Penguins Provide Window into Shifting Antarctic Ecosystem

By Guest PostJanuary 29, 2012Environmentadelie penguins, Antarctic, chinstraps, climate change, ecosystem, environmental change, environmental dynamics, food web, gentoos, gliders, google earth, indicator species, kim bernard, krill, matthew oliver, nasa satellites, ocean, ocean substructure, ocean temperature, penguin, phytoplankton, predator, rising temperature, Rutgers University, south america, teresa messmore, travis miles, underwater robots, west antarctic peninsula

What’s the best way to study the Antarctic’s ecosystem? Follow the penguins.

Scientists are tracking penguins on land, under the sea, and even from space to unravel the environmental dynamics in the West Antarctic Peninsula as the region experiences climate change.

“We’re not just down there bird watching,” said Matthew Oliver, assistant professor of oceanography in UD’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. “This is a concerted effort to put the whole ecosystem together.” (more…)

Ancient Popcorn Discovered in Peru

By Guest PostJanuary 26, 2012Scienceacademia nacional de la historia, andean region, ceramic pottery, coast of peru, corn microfossils, corncobs, dolores piperno, duccio bonavia, grains, huaca prieta, human welfare, husks, kernels, maize, male flowers, Mexico, panama, panama city, paredones, phytoliths, popcorn, smithsonian tropical research institute, south america, stalks, tassels, teosinte, tom dillehay, tropical ecosystem, tropical forests, tropical nature, vanderbilt university, wild grass

People living along the coast of Peru were eating popcorn 2,000 years earlier than previously reported and before ceramic pottery was used there, according to a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences co-authored by Dolores Piperno, curator of New World archaeology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and emeritus staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.

Some of the oldest known corncobs, husks, stalks and tassels (male flowers), dating from 6,700 to 3,000 years ago were found at Paredones and Huaca Prieta, two mound sites on Peru’s arid northern coast. The research group, led by Tom Dillehay from Vanderbilt University and Duccio Bonavia from Peru’s Academia Nacional de la Historia, also found corn microfossils: starch grains and phytoliths. Characteristics of the cobs—the earliest ever discovered in South America—indicate that the sites’ ancient inhabitants ate corn several ways, including popcorn and flour corn. However, corn was still not an important part of their diet. (more…)