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Dr. Laurie Reitsema
Assistant Professor
Director, Bioarchaeology and Biochemistry Laboratory
- Office: Baldwin Hall, Rm 151B GA
- Voice: 706-542-1458
- Fax: 706-542-3998
- Add to address bookreitsema@uga.edu
Education
Ph.D. Anthropology, The Ohio State University 2012
Expertise & Interests
- Stable isotope biochemistry
- Human-environment interactions and human diet
- Political ecology, life history, human behavioral ecology
- Eastern Europe, Slavs
- Non-human primate diets and reproductive ecologies
Research Projects
I study human diet as a link between biology, culture and environment, focusing on stable isotope analysis of archaeological populations. I am working primarily with European skeletal samples, and am beginning new research studying diet and stress among modern humans and non-human primates.
Selected Publications
- L. J. Reitsema (2012). Introducing fecal stable isotope analysis in primate weaning studies. American Journal of Primatology. DOI: 10.1002/ajp.22045
- L. J. Reitsema, G. Vercellotti (2012). Stable isotope evidence for sex- and status-based variations in life-history and diet at medieval Trino Vercellese, Italy. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 148: 589-600.
- L. J. Reitsema, D.E. Crews (2011). Oxygen isotopes as a biomarker for sickle cell disease? Results from transgenic mice expressing human hemoglobin S genes. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 145: 495-498.
- L. J. Reitsema, D.E. Crews, M. Polcyn (2010). Preliminary evidence for medieval Polish diet from carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 1413-1423.
- L. Reitsema, T. Kozłowski (2010). Wstępne sprawozdanie z analiz izotopowych szczątków ludzkich i zwierzęcych (A preliminary report of the isotopic analyses of human’s and animal’s bones). In: Wczesnośredniowieczne cmentarzysko szkieletowe w Kałdusie (Early mediaeval skeleton cemetery in Kałdus [site 4]), ed. W. Chudziak, Mons Sancti Laurentii, vol. 5, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, pp. 135-138.
Affiliations
Course Instruction
| Fall 2012 | ||||
Introduction to Biological Anthropology |
ANTH 3040 | |||
| Fall 2012 | ||||
Senior Seminar in Anthropology |
ANTH 4910 | |||
I study human diet as a link between biology, culture and environment, focusing on stable isotope analysis of archaeological populations. I am working primarily with European skeletal samples, and am beginning new research studying diet and stress among modern humans and non-human primates.
My research focuses on biocultural change among late Holocene humans, for which large and well-preserved skeletal samples are often available, permitting a wide range of scientific bioarchaeological inquiry.
Stable isotope ratios in a given world region are sensitive to local ecology. Human land management strategies such as manuring and swidden agriculture in the past can influence the isotopic signatures of the local plants and animals. Through animal bone chemistry, we can learn more about how humans have interacted with the environment.
I also am interested in population movement in Eastern Europe. Some of my research identifies non-local stable oxygen isotope signatures in the bones and teeth of immigrants. A fraction of bone or tooth is enough to provide the collagen or carbonate required to conduct stable isotope analyses, which can be collected in the field and returned to the lab for preparation and analysis.
In addition to studying humans, I conduct research on nutrition, diet and weaning among our living, non-human primate relatives. This langur baby, born at the Toledo Zoo, was the subject of a recent pilot study.
