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Lori E. Wright Associate
Professor |
Anthropology
Building |
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Teaching:
Current course
information is available at elearning.tamu.edu for students registered
in the courses.
Education:
Ph.D.
1994- The University of Chicago
M.A. 1989- The University of Chicago
B.Sc. 1987- Trent University
Research
Interests:
My research is centred on the interaction of cultural behavior and human biology in the past using skeletal biology. My research program explores the implications of human behavior for human biology among the Maya of Central America and also examines how health may have shaped cultural transitions during ancient Maya history. Taking a broad comparative and historical perspective on the Maya biocultural past, I focus on two broad areas of biocultural research: 1) reconstruction of prehistoric diets through stable isotopic analysis of bones and teeth, and 2) evaluation of health status through pathological lesions on skeletons and through skeletal indications of growth arrest during childhood. Currently most of my research consists of bioarchaeological analyses of status-related discrepancies in diet and health at the site of Tikal in Guatemala. The research also addresses residential mobility using strontium isotopes. I am involved in collaborative research at several other Maya sites, especially Kaminaljuyu, and Piedras Negras, and have worked on a number of archaeological projects in both Guatemala and Belize.
Selected
Publications:
Wright,
L.E.
2006 Diet, Health and Status among
the Pasión Maya: A Reappraisal of the Collapse. Vanderbilt
Institute of Mesoamerican Archaeology Series, Volume 2, Vanderbilt
University Press, Nashville. 256 pages.
Wright,
L.E.
2005 In search of Yax Nuun Ayiin
I: Revisiting the Tikal Project’s Burial 10. Ancient
Mesoamerica 16(1): 89-100.
Wright,
L.E.
2005 Identifying immigrants to
Tikal, Guatemala: Defining local variability in strontium isotope
ratios of human tooth enamel. Journal of Archaeological Science
32(4): 555-566.
Wright,
L.E.
2003
La muerte y el estatus economico: Investigando el simbolismo
mortuorio y
el acceso a los recursos alimenticios entre los mayas. In A. Ciudad,
M.H. Ruz,
M.J. Iglesias (eds.) Antropologia de la Eternidad: La Muerte
en la
Cultura Maya.
Madrid: Sociedad Espanola de Estudios Mayas, Publicaciones Num.
7.
pp. 175-193.
Wright, L.E.,
and M.A.
Vasquez
2003 Estimating long bone length from fragmentary
remains:
forensic standards from Guatemala. American Journal of Physical
Anthropology
120(3):
233-251. (link
to
pdf)
Wright,
L.E.,
and C.J. Yoder.
2003 Recent progress in Bioarchaeology: Approaches to
‘the
osteological paradox.’ Journal of Archaeological Research 11(1):
43-70. (link
to pdf)
Wright,
L.E., H.P. Schwarcz, and R.
Acevedo
2000 La
dieta de los habitantes de Topoxte, una reconstruccion isotopica.
In W.
Wurster (ed) El Sitio Maya de Topoxte: Investigaciones en una isla
del lago
Yaxha, Peten, Guatemala. Mainz,
Germany: Verlag Philipp von Zabern. Pp. 158-164.
Emery, K.F.,
L.E. Wright, and H.P. Schwarcz
2000 Isotopic analysis of ancient deer bone: biotic stability in
Collapse
Period Maya land-use. Journal of Archaeological Science 27(6):
537-550. (link
to
pdf)
Wright, L.E.
1999 The elements of Maya diets: Alkaline earth baselines
and
paleodietary reconstruction in the Pasion Region. In C.D. White
(ed.), Reconstructing
Ancient Maya Diet. Salt
Lake City: University of Utah Press. pp. 197-219.
Wright, L.E.
and H.P. Schwarcz
1999 Correspondence between stable carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen
isotopes
in human tooth enamel and dentine: Infant diets and weaning at
Kaminaljuyu. Journal
of Archaeological Science 26: 1159-1170. (link
to
pdf)
Wright, L.E.
and F. Chew
1998 Porotic hyperostosis and paleoepidemiology: A forensic
perspective
on anemia among the Ancient Maya. American Anthropologist 100(4):
924-939.
Wright, L.E.
and H.P. Schwarcz
1998 Stable carbon and oxygen isotopes in human tooth enamel:
Identifying
breastfeeding and weaning in prehistory. American Journal of
Physical
Anthropology
106(1): 1-18. (link
to pdf & erratum
pdf)
Wright, L.E.
1997 Biological perspectives on the collapse of the Pasion Maya. Ancient
Mesoamerica
8: 267-273.
Wright, L.E.
1997 Ecology or society? Paleodiet and the collapse of the Pasion
Maya
Lowlands. In S.L. Whittington and D.M. Reed (eds.), Bones of the
Maya:
Studies of Ancient Skeletons. Smithsonian
Institution Press. pp. 181-195.
Wright, L.E.
1997 Intertooth patterns of hypoplasia expression: Implications
for
childhood health in the Classic Maya collapse. American Journal of
Physical
Anthropology
102(2): 233-247. (link
to pdf)
Wright, L.E.
and C.D. White
1996 Human biology in the Classic Maya collapse: Evidence from
paleopathology and paleodiet. Journal of World Prehistory 10(2): 147-198.
Wright, L.E.
and H.P. Schwarcz
1996 Infrared and isotopic evidence for diagenesis of bone
apatite at Dos
Pilas, Guatemala: paleodietary implications. Journal of
Archaeological
Science
23(6): 933-944. (link
to
pdf)
Burton, J.H.
and L.E. Wright
1995 Nonlinearity in the relationship between bone Sr/Ca and
diet:
Paleodietary implications. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 96(3): 273-282.
White, C.D.,
L.E. Wright, and D.M. Pendergast
1994 Biological disruption in the Early Colonial Period at
Lamanai: In
C.S. Larsen and G.R. Milner (eds.) In the Wake of Contact:
Biological
Responses to Conquest.
New York: Wiley-Liss. pp. 135-145.