On Wednesday, April 9 at 4:30 pm in Hibben 105, Nadia Neff will present the Ruth Kennedy Public Talk Nutritional Adaptations to Early Maize Cultivation: Earliest Isotopic Evidence of Maize-Based Animal Husbandry in the Neotropics.  

Abstract

The prehistoric adoption of maize as a dietary staple profoundly shaped human societies. While this carbohydrate-rich grain provided a reliable food source, its inherent nutritional limitations posed significant challenges. Maize is deficient in lysine, an essential amino acid crucial for maintaining balanced health. Maize-dependent diets, therefore, necessitate complementary dietary strategies to achieve nutritional balance. We report essential amino acid carbon stable isotope data from 39 directly dated human skeletons from the Maya Mountains of Belize (6,100-1,100 BP) to investigate how early populations mitigated these deficiencies through supplementation with lysine-rich food sources. Our concentration-dependent isotopic mixing models, based on daily human nutritional requirements, reveal that maize consumption was supplemented by managed or opportunistically hunted animals that consumed maize, contributing maize-derived lysine to human diets through biomagnification. Evidence indicates this dietary strategy began by 6,100 BP, consistent with paleobotanical evidence of early maize cultivation but predating evidence of maize reliance by ~2,000 years. These findings offer some of the earliest evidence of the coevolution of maize cultivation and animal management, deepening our understanding of adaptive food systems during the agricultural transition and offering insights into the nutritional strategies that underpin sustainable subsistence practices.

The Ruth E. Kennedy Award is given annually by the Department of Anthropology to honor the memory of Ruth E. Kennedy, wife of Edwin L. Kennedy, a major donor to the Maxwell Museum. Initiated in 1981, the award recognizes Mrs. Kennedy’s abiding interest in public education. The award is open to PhD students with an exceptional academic record, who have passed their PhD Comprehensive and Doctoral Specials Exams. The dissertation proposal must be approved, and the dissertation research must be completed and at least in the analysis phase. If dissertation is completed, the defense must have been in the past year. The student must be able to deliver public lecture at the designated time.