Mobility and Migration: Discussion

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Del curso dictado por Universiteit Leiden

Osteoarchaeology: The Truth in Our Bones

270 calificaciones

Universiteit Leiden

Osteoarchaeology: The Truth in Our Bones

270 calificaciones

This course is about what we can learn from examining the human skeleton, and how we can use this knowledge to reconstruct the lives of people who lived in the past. In archaeology and anthropology, human skeletal remains can provide unique insights into the past and the present; insights that cannot be gained otherwise. These insights are explored in five main themes spread out over five weeks of learning. First, it is shown how age-at-death, sex and stature can be estimated by the close examination of (archaeological) skeletal remains. In subsequent modules it is shown how human bones can provide information about the diseases and injuries that people suffered from and what they ate. Also, it is shown how the human skeleton provides information about the kinds of activities that people engaged in and about how they migrated and moved around their landscapes. In this course, you will examine all aspects of the human skeleton that can provide us with information about these different facets of life. Together we will explore the scientific field that is known as human osteoarchaeology. - Human, because it is about us and our ancestors, - Osteo, because it is about our bones, - Archaeology, because we use this information to better understand the behaviors and events experienced by past people. During the course, you will decipher the clues left behind in the skeletons of past peoples with the methods and techniques that are presented. You may also discover some clues hidden in your own skeleton and what they reveal about the life that you are living. Want to know more? You can take a look at the course trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJi22TxzpRw

De la lección

Bones to Mobility and Migration

Welcome to the last module of this course! This week is all about mobility and migration, so people moving through the landscape. How much did people relocate, and where did they go? We can answer these questions by looking at the shape of longbones, and by studying the isotopes and the DNA that can be found in human bones. Stick with us to find out how exactly these methods work, and what they reveal about population movements in the past.

Mobility and Migration: Introduction6:51

Mobility and Migration: Long Bone Morphology9:53

Mobility and Migration: Strontium Isotopes14:06

Mobility and Migration: Ancient DNA15:58

Mobility and Migration: Discussion4:39

Thank You and Good Luck! :)8:30

Conoce a los instructores

Andrea Waters-Rist
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Archaeology

Hi, everybody.

Welcome to the final discussion video and indeed the final video for this course.

Congratulations on having made it this far.

So, in order to wrap up module five and

to engage in a bit of discussion about some of the concepts that were presented,

we're going to come back to a question that was posed in the introduction.

That question being, are we as a species somehow inclined to move,

to migrate, to explore?

And the reason we're asking that question is because if you think about it for

our species but for also our bipedal ancestors,

we are marked by a series of quite major migratory events.

We clearly move a lot.

And so it's worthwhile to consider what factors and

what variables are important in considering why it is we,

as a species, move so much.

To start off the discussion is Anna-Marijn.

>> Well, that's actually a very interesting question, that last one.

Archeological and

anthropological studies have shown that there is actually number of factors that

inspire us to move from one place to another to start of with new land.

For example, if your group expands you need more resources to support that group.

One way of getting those resources is getting new land.

Resources is actually a very important factor in ushering people to move,

because we also see that people, for example, follow migratory animals.

But on the other hand, people also move because they're fleeing from violence or

they suffer from environmental degradation,

which is also a very hot topic at the moment.

When we see with environmental changes and people living on land for

generations find that the land's just not helping them sustain their lives anymore.

However, in the end are we maybe just curious to explore what's behind

the horizon to just go and see what is out there.

>> Those are some very interesting points,

as something that I immediately heard was the word migrate which immediately made me

think of a person moving from one country to another country.

But then when you think about the past that might not have been the case at all.

Because modern geopolitical boarders are actually a really recent invention.

For example, if you think about Homo sapiens leaving Africa and

going out of Africa, they probably weren't going out of Africa at all.

They were just moving through the land.

>> And nowadays, we've named that continent Africa but that's it.

Another question in that regards also, how long does it take for

us before we consider an area to be truly our own.

Or if we even had such concepts of ownerships of land.

>> Yeah.

And this concept of being able to own land indeed might

be a relatively recent invention.

And it's important to consider because the ownership of land is then what allows

us to say that a part of the landscape is ours and thus not someone else's.

So, it's quite relevant in thinking about debates involving immigration today,

debates that of course can get very heated and very divisive.

So, with one group saying they own a particular piece of land.

That then gives them the right to benefit off of the resources from that land.

It gives them the responsibility to care of that land.

But it also gives them what they feel is the right to defend that land.

To defend it against what they consider to be the other or a group or

a population who does not have ownership to that land.

All of that be as it may what we can see anthropology and

archaeology is that borders and boundaries have changed a lot.

In the past populations moved around a lot and so in keeping this in mind,

we can sort of get a better understanding about modern conceptions of ties

to the land and perhaps how recent or ancient these may be.

So we welcome your thoughts and your feedback on this question.

Please share it with us in the online discussion forum.

And we look forward to seeing you there.

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