Conference Schedule | Environments and Adaptation in Ancient China: Recent Advances and Global Context | February 8-9, 2019
Michigan League Kalamazoo Room
Friday 2/8
9:00 Opening remarks: Pär Cassel, UM Department of History
Panel 1: Ecology and economy
9:15 Talk 1: Brian Lander (Brown University): Humans and Deer in Neolithic North China
9:30 Talk 2: Gyoung-Ah Lee (University of Oregon): Agricultural adaptations amid the climate shift during the post-Climate Optimum period in the Yiluo Region, North China
9:45 Talk 3: Jacqueline Eng (Western Michigan University): Environmental dynamics and socio-cultural impacts of biological indicators of diet, oral health, and childhood stress in Iron Age steppe populations
10:00 Coffee break
10:20 Talk 4: Xinyi Liu (Washington University in St. Louis): The wind that shakes the wheat and barley: Culinary and environmental adaptations of the Fertile Crescent crops in China
10:35 Talk 5: Dongya Yang (Simon Fraser University): Review of research publications of human osteoarchaeology in China
10:50 Discussion/Q&A moderator: Raven Garvey (UM Department of Anthropology, UMMAA)
11:45 Lunch break
Panel 2: Subsistence, technology, and social change
1:15 Talk 1: Rowan Flad (Harvard University): Transitions in agricultural technology at the start of the Meghalayan in the Tao River Valley of NW China
1:30 Talk 2: Kate Pechenkina (Queens College): Deficiency diseases in the early human populations from the Central Plain of China: From the Neolithic to the Early Dynasties
1:45 Talk 3: Deborah Merrett (Simon Fraser University): Timing of stress episodes at Houtaomuga: Neolithic and Bronze Age comparisons
2:00 Coffee break
2:20 Talk 4: Ye Wa: A buried past: The prehistory and history of a local community in the Wei River Valley, Shaanxi, China
2:35 Talk 5: Lothar von Falkenhausen (University of California, Los Angeles): Problems in the study of the rural economy of Late Bronze Age China
2:50 Discussion/Q&A: moderator Laura Motta (UM Department of Classical Studies)
3:45 Day’s public activities conclude
Saturday 2/9
Panel 3: Spatial, chemical, and geological analyses
9:30 Talk 1: TR Kidder (Washington University in St. Louis): The tangled roots of the Anthropocene: A case study from ancient China
9:45 Talk 2: Robert Drennan (University of Pittsburgh): Environmental risk buffering in Chinese Neolithic villages: Impacts on community structure in the Central Plains and the Western Liao Valley
10:00 Talk 3: Sandra Garvie-Lok (University of Alberta): Human-environment interactions in China’s Central Plains: Contributions and promise of stable isotope analysis
10:15 Coffee break
10:35 Talk 4: Gary Crawford (University of Toronto): Human-environment interaction in Early and Late Neolithic Shandong Province, China
10:50 Talk 5: Loukas Barton (University of Pittsburgh): How well do we understand the relationship between environment and adaptation, and is it necessary for understanding human history?
11:05 Discussion/Q&A moderator: Brian Stewart (UM Department of Anthropology, UMMAA)
12:00 Lunch break
Round Table Discussion
1:30 Gary Beckman (UM Dept of Middle East Studies), Jay Crisostomo (UM Dept of Middle East Studies), Perrin Selcer (UM Dept of History), John Kingston (UM Dept of Anthropology), Linda Gosner (UM Dept of Classical Studies), Moderator: Liz Berger (LRCCS)
3:00 Coffee Break
3:15 Discussion and Q&A with all participants
4:00 Day’s public activities conclude
