Person:
Meadow, Richard

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Meadow

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Richard

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Meadow, Richard

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Publication
    New Evidence for Early Silk in the Indus Civilization
    (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) Good, I. L.; Kenoyer, J. M.; Meadow, Richard
    Silk is an important economic fibre, and is generally considered to have been the exclusive cultural heritage of China. Silk weaving is evident from the Shang period c. 1600–1045 bc, though the earliest evidence for silk textiles in ancient China may date to as much as a millennium earlier. Recent microscopic analysis of archaeological thread fragments found inside copper-alloy ornaments from Harappa and steatite beads from Chanhu-daro, two important Indus sites, have yielded silk fibres, dating to c. 2450–2000 bc. This study offers the earliest evidence in the world for any silk outside China, and is roughly contemporaneous with the earliest Chinese evidence for silk. This important new finding brings into question the traditional historical notion of sericulture as being an exclusively Chinese invention.
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    Integrating taphonomy into the practice of zooarchaeology in China
    (Elsevier BV, 2010) Lam, Y. M.; Brunson, Katherine; Meadow, Richard; Yuan, Jing
    With the study of faunal remains (zooarchaeology) emerging as an increasingly prominent component of archaeological studies in China, the importance of studying processes of assemblage formation and preservation (taphonomy) is becoming evident. Remains of animals recovered from an archaeological site are a biased sample of the assemblage that was originally deposited because certain animal parts preserve better than others. Important characteristics of faunal assemblages, such as skeletal element representation and age profiles, can be affected by differential preservation caused by taphonomic agents, both cultural or natural. One primary goal of taphonomic studies is to provide an understanding of differential preservation of bone elements, allowing archaeologists to make more accurate assessments concerning the exploitation of different animal species by past peoples. Recent studies of the faunal assemblages from the Early Paleolithic site of Xujiayao and the Neolithic site of Taosi, both in Shanxi Province, provide examples of the effects that differential preservation can have on archaeological interpretations of skeletal element representation and age profiles, respectively. These examples illustrate how an understanding of taphonomy is critical to the future practice of zooarchaeology in China.
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    A Reply to Ji-Huan He
    (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) Good, I.; Kenoyer, J. M.; Meadow, Richard
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    Is Poverty in Our Genes?
    (University of Chicago Press, 2013) d’Alpoim Guedes, Jade; Bestor, Theodore; Carrasco, David; Flad, Rowan; Fosse, Ethan; Herzfeld, Michael; Lamberg-Karlovsky, Carl C.; Lewis, Cecil M.; Liebmann, Matthew; Meadow, Richard; Patterson, Nick; Price, Max Daniel; Reiches, Meredith; Richardson, Sarah; Shattuck-Heidorn, Heather; Ur, Jason; Urton, Gary; Warinner, Christina
    We present a critique of a paper written by two economists, Quamrul Ashraf and Oded Galor, which is forthcoming in the American Economic Review and which was uncritically highlighted in Science magazine. Their paper claims there is a causal effect of genetic diversity on economic success, positing that too much or too little genetic diversity constrains development. In particular, they argue that “the high degree of diversity among African populations and the low degree of diversity among Native American populations have been a detrimental force in the development of these regions.” We demonstrate that their argument is seriously flawed on both factual and methodological grounds. As economists and other social scientists begin exploring newly available genetic data, it is crucial to remember that nonexperts broadcasting bold claims on the basis of weak data and methods can have profoundly detrimental social and political effects.
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    South Asian contributions to animal domestication and pastoralism
    (2017) Patel, Ajita; Meadow, Richard