FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY AS A MEASURE OF DEVELOPMENTAL INSTABILITY IN ARIKARA BIOARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSEMBLAGES A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School At the University of Missouri In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy By MARK BEARY Dr. R. Lee Lyman, Dissertation Co-Advisor Dr. Todd VanPool, Dissertation Advisor May 2018 © Copyright by Mark O. Beary 2018 All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the Dissertation entitled FLUCTUATING ASYMMETRY AS A MEASURE OF DEVELOPMENTAL INSTABILITY IN ARIKARA BIOARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSEMBLAGES Presented by Mark Beary A candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy And hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Dr. R. Lee Lyman Dr. Todd VanPool Dr. Daniel Wescott Dr. Mark Flinn Dr. Michael Glascock DEDICATIONS To my parents, Kathleen and Charles Miller, for all their love and support. To my father, Lawrence T. Beary, in memoriam. To the Sahnish (Arikara) people, past and present, teenikutuhnaa’iitUxù’. As best as I could tell it. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The guidance and assistance I have received throughout this project have been to such a degree that, at times, I suspected this section would become a chapter in its own right (and I still think it easily could). I am thankful for the many email conversations that I have had with Dr. P. Willey. Dr. Willey continually provided his first-hand knowledge of the Crow Creek excavations and skeletal data recovery. He also introduced me to Dr. Larry Bradley, Chair of the Anthropology, Sociology and Native Studies Department at the University of South Dakota where the original Crow Creek excavation and analysis files are stored. Dr. Bradley and his former student, Adrian Holzer, invested a great amount of effort in organizing the Crow Creek data and documentation, making it much more accessible to other researchers, such as myself. A portion of the data collected for this project came from the University of Tennessee’s collection. Dr. Benjamin Auerbach was instrumental in my gaining access to that collection and for that I am thankful. Additionally, I must also thank Dr. Lee Meadows Jantz and Rebecca Wilson for their assistance during the weeks I spent in the University of Tennessee skeletal lab collecting data from the collections housed there. I also thank Dr. Richard Jantz for his suggestion and advice, which pushed my data collection in a new direction – specifically to the Smithsonian. Of course, I am thankful for the efforts of Dr. Stephen Ousley, Erica Jones and others who collected the craniometric data on the Smithsonian Institution’s Arikara collection, some of which were used here. ii I owe a great deal of thanks to Dr. Chris Dudar who was very helpful in assisting me with obtaining the aforementioned craniometric data from the collection housed at the Smithsonian. Beyond this, the conversations he and I had regarding the research I was conducting eventually lead to an internship opportunity with the Repatriation Office that allowed me the opportunity to gain access to additional data that were previously beyond my reach. My thanks to Dr. Bill Billeck for approving that arrangement, and to Dr. Dudar, Erica Jones and Jane Beck for their time and assistance during my time at the Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center. I also need to thank Dr. David Hunt for providing me space to work among the physical anthropology collections – and, perhaps more importantly, a sturdy table and comfortable chair. Many thanks to Dr. Ray Wood, the quintessential Plains archaeologist, who welcomed me into his office on several occasions, provided me access to obscure archaeological publications and photographs, and always had a great story or two to share. Furthermore, instruments used to collect data for this research were partially funded by a couple of research grants received through the W. Raymond Wood Opportunities for Excellence in Archaeology fund (University of Missouri, Department of Anthropology). My thanks to Dr. Wood, and all the other MU Anthropology Department archaeologists, for making this possible. Dr. Carol Ward made a portion of this research possible by providing me access to her MicroScribe digitizer for collecting three-dimensional craniometric data, and for that, I am very grateful. Dr. Tim Cole has been extremely helpful in facilitating my ability to apply Euclidean Distance Matrix Analysis to the research reported here. Dr. Cole graciously supplied me a copy iii of the software he created (EDMAware) which made the tasks of handling extremely large datasets much more manageable. Each of my committee members clearly played an important role in developing this work and I am thankful for all of their support and guidance along the way. Dr. Michael Glascock graciously joined my committee towards the end of the project. I have been fortunate to know Dr. Glascock for about a decade now and he has been a great mentor and constant source of scientific knowledge during that time. Dr. Mark Flinn’s broad base of bioanthropological knowledge and research, fortunately for me, includes his own research concerning the relationship between bilateral asymmetries and stress. Beyond his expertise, his suggestions and encouragement along the way have been appreciated. Dr. Danny Wescott has always been a good academic sounding board for all topics related to skeletal biology and bioarchaeology. His commitment to remaining a part of this committee, even after moving to another academic institution, while not surprising in the least, is greatly appreciated. In addition, I want thank to Dr. Todd VanPool who agreed to serve as my departmental advisor on this document given Dr. Lyman’s emeritus status at the time of its completion. Finally, Dr. Lee Lyman, who has served as my primary academic advisor during my time at MU, has been a constant source of anthropological wisdom. On the surface, it may seem odd that a professional zooarchaeologist would agree to take on a bioarchaeology/forensic anthropology graduate student. However, if you know Dr. Lyman, you realize it is not odd at all because his professional interests extend well beyond zooarchaeology. Dr. Lyman’s diverse interests speak to not only his great intellect, but also his understanding that the best path forward for all of science is a true multidisciplinary approach. Academics that run with the same iv pack can cover a lot of distance, but rarely do they forge new trails. To make new inroads, it is often necessary to get out of your comfort zone; and if there is one thing Dr. Lyman is good at, it is getting people out of their comfort zones. Simply put, he is one of the best anthropologists and academics that I have had the pleasure of working with and learning from. His patience and friendship throughout this time have meant a lot to me. Of course, this section would be woefully incomplete if I did not include a few words about my wife, Emma, and our three wonderful children. It seems rather fitting that I would ultimately end up writing a dissertation related to Plains archaeology since Emma and I, both Eastern U.S. transplants, met for the first time in a Midwestern cornfield surveying for archaeological sites. Since that time, she has been a constant source of support for a variety of life endeavors, including this one. We left the field to pursue our respective graduate careers, marrying just three days before I started my Master’s work. Our daughter, Ava, would be born during the first semester of my doctoral program, she was followed a couple of years later by Isaac, who was likewise followed a couple of years later by Oliver. Raising and supporting a young family while pursuing a doctoral degree is no easy task and there were times I questioned if it was possible to be successful at both. Looking back, I now wonder how I would have ever gotten here without them. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... ii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures .................................................................................................................................. xi Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2: Fluctuating Asymmetry ................................................................................................. 6 2.1.1 Types of Asymmetry ................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 3: The Arikara .................................................................................................................. 15 3.1 Coalescent Climatic Conditions .................................................................................... 16 3.2 Initial Coalescent (A.D. 1300 to 1550) .......................................................................... 22 3.3 Extended Coalescent (A.D. 1450 to 1650). ................................................................... 25 3.4 Post-Contact Coalescent (A.D. 1650 to 1785). ............................................................. 26 3.5