Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: A Microevolutionary Analysis of Population change

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

This research uses data from archaeological cemeteries to study the interactions among borderland peoples engaged in power struggles for territory and how impacts by conquerors influence regional population relationships. Previous research has shown that cultural groups respond differently to expansion into their homeland. What is not yet clear is whether biological relatedness correlates with the sharing of cultures and lifestyles that result from these interactions.

Specifically, how prominent was the change in regional gene pools as societies became more culturally intertwined? Nevertheless, it is well established that colonized people adopt richly diverse identities despite expectations to culturally integrate. When common regional histories are known, identifying groups with shared genetic relationships provides a key component towards understanding their social identity construction.

Closed and unchanging societies have not proven to be the norm in the past, and exploring these concepts archaeologically is important because it questions typological and static ideas about culture. This research provides a reading of the past that finds traction in modern discussions of social identities and self-determination. The project provides open-source data to be shared with other scholars for additional comparative studies.

It generates a novel bioarchaeological model for understanding regional relationships and enhances educational and training opportunities for students and mentees.

This research uses changes in heritable dental phenotypes as indicators of gene flow, a methodological approach which can be applied in other contexts, with existing data sets, and is non-destructive. Assessment of shared genetic histories is used to determine if contacted populations were subject to biological assimilation. Recognition of unanticipated ancestral ties can be an indication of crafting of identities that flourished in complex ways and encourages archaeological studies to reconsider typological classifications.

Only after resolving what is unknown, “how were people related?”, can what is known historically be appropriately applied.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.