Anthropology presentations (MU)
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Items in this collection represent public presentations made by Department of Anthropology faculty, staff, and students, either alone or as co-authors, and which may or may not have been published in an alternate format. Items may contain more than one file type.
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Item New World Colonial Churches that Function as Astronomical Instruments(2010) Benfer, Robert AlfredThis poster present photos and charts of churches that align with solstice sunrises or sunsets, as examples of architecture as astronomical instruments.Item Proyecto Buena Vista 2002-2005: El Templo Mas Antiguo del Mundo y Las Primeras Esculturas Preceramicas(2005) Benfer, Robert Alfred; E., Bernardino Ojeda; Restaure, Hugo Ludeña; Duncan, Neil Andrew, 1971-; Vallejos, MiriamThis presentation presents pictures and layouts of Buena Vista in Peru, a temple that has the oldest calendar found in the world, and the first preceramic three dimensional sculptures found in the New World. It is an example of a site with astrological alignment, orientated to the constellations associated with water, The Fox and The Flame (animals that appear in a mural) and aligned with the sunrise.Item Bioarchaeología: Estudios de salud/dieta por families a dentro de estudios de individuos hasta poblaciones(2007) Benfer, Robert Alfred; Pechenkina, Ekaterina A.This powerpoint presentation describes the results of skeletal studies of the health and diet of families from preceramic Peru within the context of studies of individuals to populations. Findings from Paloma in the Valle de Chilca, and Villa El Salvador in Peru are discussed, and the health findings compared to similar finds in China.Item Definición de la Astrononomica Temprana del Sitio de Buena Vista(2010) Benfer, Robert Alfred; Restaure, Hugo LudeñaEl propósito principal del proyecto de investigación fue definir la ocupación temprana del sitio, con las diferentes remodelaciones y ampliaciones evidenciadas. Las excavaciones en el sitio Precerámico de Paloma, Valle de Chilca han aportado importantes datos del período Precerámico Medio. Se han evidenciado importantes cambios en la salud y la dieta, mediante los estudios de los esqueletos, dientes, sarro, coprolitos, restos de plantas, y animales. Para conocer el Precerámico en la costa central, se considera necesario estudiar las primeras y últimas manifestaciones, por ello se inician los estudios de un sitio temprano, Quipa, ubicado en el valle de Chilca, caracterizado por ser un sitio con un componente mayor del Precerámico Terminal. El objetivo principal de la investigación realizada es conocer el sistema económico que produjo las primeras evidencias de arquitectura monumental en el flanco oeste de los Andes. Tenemos evidencias que los residentes, quizás estimulados por el efecto de los cambios del Optimun Climaticum, hace 5,000 años o más, empezaron a adoptar la cerámica y comenzaron a vivir en centros, competitivos entre ellos, densamente ocupados. El proyecto busca definir nuevas formaciones sociales que complementen específicamente las relaciones establecidas en los Andes entre las aldeas de agricultores y los pastores estacionales, y en la costa, las relaciones entre pescadores y agricultores. El sitio arqueológico Buena Vista tiene especial relevancia por ser el único con evidencias de esculturas de tipo tridimensional y con templos con alineaciones con las constelaciones, en períodos tempranos, en el valle medio del Chillón. El proyecto buscó determinar las características de la arquitectura temprana del sitio.Item Why Humans Do What They Do: Interdisciplinary Research on Realistic Decision Making(2010) O'Brien, Michael J. (Michael John), 1950-; Melnyk, Andrew, 1962-; Bettencourt, Ann; Mandy, David M.; University of Missouri (System); Missouri Life Sciences Summit (2010: University of Missouri--Kansas City)MU has enormous potential to be the site of path-breaking interdisciplinary research on the topic of realistic decision making. Not only is this research a basic component of human life science, it also has clear application to the marketing of life-science-related industries and products. The standard approach to modeling decision making incorporates a variety of simplifying assumptions. Agents are often assumed to be fully rational and to have narrowly defined personal goals, complete knowledge about the relevant options, and the ability to perform complex optimization calculations. Although these assumptions are frequently relaxed, standard psychological and economic analyses derive power from the ability of simplified models to represent complex behaviors. Despite the benefits of assuming a simplified rational decision-making process, there is growing recognition that alternative models, which replace the assumption of simple rationality with alternative assumptions, may aid in understanding decision making. As we better understand how humans make decisions in the real world, significant changes will be felt across economics, business, politics, and ethics. Economists have long understood that groups of individuals will not always coordinate on efficient outcomes merely by following self interest. But recently they have focused attention on the basic decision-making process, reflecting an increasingly mainstream acceptance of models in which simple rational decisions are no longer assumed. This is attested to by the number of popular trade books and new celebrity intellectuals who have attracted unprecedented attention to this kind of research; for example, Malcolm Gladwell's popular trade book, Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking (2005), focuses on how humans make immediate judgments through unconscious mechanisms that operate independently of rational decision making. A better understanding of the nonrational factors that influence decision making will have specific, transformational consequences for large areas of our economic and political lives. Even though such research is still in its infancy, there are already several private consulting firms that work with Fortune-100 companies for the purpose of informing their marketing and sales strategies through the use of neurological studies. In the political arena, the same companies are now marketing their services to political parties for the purpose of influencing voters' reactions to candidates and platforms. As this research proceeds, we can easily envision a future in which a focus on the nonrational elements of decision making becomes even more dominant among those who move public opinion. MU is in a unique position to carry out the kind of interdisciplinary research—based on a framework that goes beyond the traditional assumptions still largely dominant in rational-choice models—that is at the center of recent developments in the study of decision-making; indeed, we have an exceptional opportunity to become an important center for such research. The reason for this is the broad and deep research overlap among faculty in economics, psychology, philosophy, and anthropology, together with MU's new, state-of-the-art Brain Imaging Center. A survey of faculty research interests in the four disciplines shows that there are obvious strengths in the study of decision making that cannot be duplicated elsewhere.