Sheela Athreya

Biography

Educational Background

• PhD, Washington University in St. Louis, 2003

Research Interests

• Specialty:

  • Middle and Late Pleistocene Hominin Evolution and Systematics
  • Postcolonialism in Biological Anthropology
  • Human Biological Variation, Craniofacial Biology
  • Quantitative Methods
    
    

  Current Research Projects:

  My research focuses on human evolution in the Middle and Late Pleistocene. I look at patterns of morphological variation within and among populations of this time period to understand the evolutionary history of our own species, Homo sapiens. I have explored questions of phylogeny and systematics using quantitative assessments of craniofacial morphology, and use the results to understand which evolutionary forces, including population dynamics and interactions, shaped regional populations of H. sapiens.

  For several years I conducted work in Gujarat, western India surveying sites associated with the Toba volcanic super-eruption.  This research, funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society, focused on paleoenvironmental reconstruction of western India before and after the eruption. I have also participated in the Narmada Basin Paleoanthropology Project in the central Narmada Valley of Madhya Pradesh, in excavations at Lower and Upper Paleolithic sites in France, and at a Harappan site in western India. I have also conducted research in museums throughout Europe, Asia and Africa looking at the original fossils of most Middle Pleistocene specimens.

  My current research is an NSF and Wenner-Gren funded project examining the burials from the Bhimbetka rock shelters in Madhya Pradesh, Central India.  This is a UNESCO world heritage site initially excavated in the 1970s and 1980s by the late V.S. Wakankar of Vikram University.  I am working with a multidisciplinary team to reconstruct early Homo sapiens  evolution in India using a combination of morphological, genomic, and archaeological data.  Our work aims to decolonize the study of our evolutionary history by moving beyond the “Out of Africa” model and building regional models, using local voices and data, that are more appropriate for South Asia.

  Related to this, I teach and publish on critical issues of voice, inclusivity, diversity, representation, and postcolonialism in science more broadly, and biological anthropology specifically.

Selected Publications

• • 2015 Athreya S. Modern human emergence in South Asia: A synthesis of morphological and genetic evidence. In Proceedings of the Symposium on the Emergence of Modern Human Behavior in Asia, Kaifu, Y, Izumi M and Goebel FE (eds). Texas A&M University Press. Chapter 5: 61-79.

  • 2014 Brophy JK, DJ de Ruiter, S Athreya and TJ DeWitt. Quantitative morphological analysis of bovid teeth and implications for paleoenvironmental reconstruction of Plovers Lake, Gauteng Province, South Africa. Journal of Archaeological Science 41:376-388.

  • 2013 Wu X and Athreya S. A description of the geological context, discrete traits and linear morphometrics of the Middle Pleistocene hominin from Dali, Shaanxi Province, China. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 150(1): 141-157.

  • 2013 Bruner E, Athreya S, de la Cuétara JM and Marks, T. Geometric variation of the frontal squama in the genus Homo: Frontal bulging and the origin of modern human morphology.  American Journal of Physical Anthropology 150(2): 313-323.

  • 2012 Athreya S. The frontal bone in the genus Homo: functional and phylogenetic sources of variation. (Invited review) Journal of Anthropological Sciences 90:1-22.

  • 2009 Athreya S. A comparative study of frontal bone morphology among Pleistocene hominin fossil groups. Journal of Human Evolution 57(6): 786-804.