STRI special events, Aug-Sep 2024
Smithsonian opens the LepiDome, Congratulations Lisa Barnett, Congratulations Rachel Page, Exhibition by Irene Kopelman, Human-wildlife coexistence and more!
smithsonian-cyanSpecial
events
Wartime grant brings Ukrainian bat biologists to Panama
Over the last two years, staff at the Ukrainian Bat Rehabilitation Center have worked to save bats from the dangers of the Russian full-scale invasion. Now, they join researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute to study bat behavior in Panama.
by Olivia Milloway
Animal Behavior Natural History Disease Ecology Conservation Biology Connections in nature: Plants, Animals, Microbes and Environments Barro Colorado Island Gamboa
smithsonian-cyan
Rachel Page"Scientists for
scientists"
How frogs’ superpowers may have led to life on land
Frogs lay eggs both in the water and in jelly-like masses on plants. Could their flexible behavior help explain how vertebrates moved from life in ocean to life on land?
Animal Behavior Developmental Biology Evolutionary Biology Herpetology Natural History Zoology Life in Deep Time Gamboa
smithsonian-cyan
Owen McMillan Roberto Ibañez Harilaos Lessios
Language and cultural “intercambios” bring the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute community together
Since 2023, a grassroots diversity and inclusion initiative has brought English and Spanish language learning to hundreds, fostering connection and feelings of belonging within the STRI community.
Story by Olivia Milloway
Anthropology Exploration Sociology Anthropology Exploration Sociology Origins of Species and Societies Earl S. Tupper Gamboa Naos CTPA
smithsonian-cyanLanguage
Exchange
Rare shark spotted for the first time in Panama’s eastern Pacific
The elusive prickly shark was observed during a submarine expedition to the depths of the Cordillera de Coiba seamounts, a biodiversity hotspot and marine protected area.
By Leila Nilipour
Marine Biology Biodiversity Exploration Marine Policy Fisheries and Marine Conservation Ecosystem Ecology Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet
smithsonian-cyan
Hector M. Guzman
The human body is shaped and modified, not only by our genes, but also by the environment and cultural contexts in which we live. My research seeks to understand lifeways of human populations that adapted to, interacted with, and impacted marine and terrestrial ecological systems in the Isthmo-Colombian Area for thousands of years through their embodied biocultural diversity.
Our lab supports research into the lived experience of ancient Isthmian cultures and human groups of the American Tropics more broadly. We explore a wide variety of research questions using multiple, often interdisciplinary approaches that include the study of diverse archaeological material culture and organic remains. My particular research uses evidence of ancient biocultural activities and disease to recreate an enhanced view of cultural activities and overall well-being of ancient Isthmian populations through time.
Many archaeologists have relied on contact-period Spanish accounts of indigenous groups on the Isthmus to inform ideas about cultural activities, particularly burial rites among these groups. However, the observations and interactions between the Spanish and the indigenous Isthmian groups they encountered were far from unbiased. Our analysis of human remains in conjunction with archaeological evidence of their mortuary contexts allows us to “fact-check” these chronicles, permitting the correction of potential misrepresentations of pre-Columbian lifeways. Our research has shown that in many cases, the violent and barbaric portrayals of indigenous Isthmians in Spanish accounts are not reflected in the archaeological record, and thus, cannot be taken at face-value in application to understandings of past human lifeways.
From the expansion and reduction of certain painted ceramics styles across time and space, we know about the timing of cultural changes taking place in ancient Isthmian communities. What remains uncertain is whether these changes marked an influx of new groups of people migrating into the region, or alternatively, increased long-distance cultural influence through trade route expansion. We are pursuing this question by looking for macroscopic signs of new biological phenotypes in human remains through biodistance analysis of human dental metric and non-metric traits, and microscopic, biochemical evidence of foreign peoples through strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of bones and teeth.
Like many cultures worldwide, ancient Isthmian communities interacted with deceased kin over a prolonged period of time. Rather than a behavior of extradition and exclusion, the ancient populations inhabiting the Isthmus of Panama took special care of the sick who died before their prime, often leaving more sumptuary ornaments in the graves of infants and children than in those of adults. We are interested in refining our understandings of the types of activities practiced by, and diseases that afflicted, individuals and populations in the Isthmo-Colombian Area. Through a OneHealth approach, we plan to use these improved understandings to clarify the multifaceted impacts and consequences of past human activity on the tropical ecosystems in which they were situated.
B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2008
M.A., Louisiana State University, 2010
Ph.D., University of Arkansas, 2015
Sánchez Aguilarte VV, Rivera Sandoval J, Smith-Guzmán NE. 2023. Utilizando la exostosis del oído externo para rastrear cambios temporales en actividades acuáticas humanas en Panamá precolombino. Chúngara: Revista de Antropología Chilena.
Isaza-Aizpurúa II, Jiménez-Acosta M, Smith-Guzmán NE, Sharpe A, Martín JG, Cooke RG. Precolumbian lifeways at three estuarine and two platform island sites in Pacific Panama. 2023. In: Dolores Elkin and Christophe Delaere, editors. Underwater and Coastal Archaeology in Latin America. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
Smith-Guzmán NE. 2022. A paleoepidemiological approach to the challenging differential diagnosis of an isolated 1500-year-old anomalous molar from Panamá. International Journal of Paleopathology 39:1–13. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpp.2022.07.002
Smith-Guzmán NE, Sánchez Herrera LA, Bray WM, Cooke RG, Redwood S, Díaz C, Jimenez Acosta M, Ranere A. 2021. Resurrecting Playa Venado, a Precolumbian site in central Panama. In: McEwan C, Hoopes J, editors. Pre-Columbian Art from Central America and Colombia at Dumbarton Oaks. Pre-Columbian Art at Dumbarton Oaks, no. 5. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks. Pp. 279–329.
Smith-Guzmán NE, Sánchez Herrera LA, Cooke RG. 2021. Patterns of disease and culture in ancient Panama: A bioarchaeological analysis of the early graves at Cerro Juan Díaz. Bioarchaeology International 5:78–95.
Sharpe AE, Smith-Guzmán NE, Curtis J, Isaza-Aizpurúa I, Kamenov GD, Wake TA, Cooke RG. 2021. A preliminary multi-isotope assessment of human mobility and diet in pre-Columbian Panama. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 36:102876.
Smith-Guzmán NE. 2021. An isthmus of isolation: The likely elevated prevalence of genetic disease in ancient Panama and implications for considering rare diseases in paleopathology. International Journal of Paleopathology 33:1–12.
Smith-Guzmán NE, Rivera-Sandoval J, Knipper C, Sánchez Arias, GA. 2020. Intentional dental modification in Panamá: New support for a late introduction of African origin. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 60:101226.
Smith-Guzmán NE, Cooke RG. 2019. Cold-water diving in the tropics? External auditory exostoses among the Pre-Columbian inhabitants of Panama. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 168:448–458.
Smith-Guzmán NE, Cooke RG. 2018. Interpersonal violence at Playa Venado (550-850 AD), Panama: A re-evaluation of the evidence. Latin American Antiquity 29:718–735.
Smith-Guzmán NE, Toretsky J, Tsai J, Cooke RG. 2018. A probable primary malignant bone tumor in a pre-Columbian human humerus from Cerro Brujo, Bocas del Toro, Panamá. International Journal of Paleopathology 21:138–146.
Smith-Guzmán NE, Rose JC, Kuckens K. 2016. Beyond the differential diagnosis: New approaches to the bioarchaeology of the Hittite Plague. In: Zuckerman MK, Martin DL, editors. New Directions in Biocultural Anthropology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
Smith-Guzmán NE. 2015. The skeletal manifestation of malaria: An epidemiological approach using documented skeletal collections. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 158:624–635.
STRI at COP 28: A call for nature-based climate solutions and global collaboration
Experts from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute emphasized nature-based solutions, discussed ocean resilience, and launched the GEO-TREES initiative for global forest carbon monitoring.
by Leila Nilipour
Forest Ecology Marine Policy Long Term Monitoring Global Change Ecosystem Services Reforestation and Silviculture Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet
smithsonian-cyan
Ana Spalding Stuart DaviesTropical
science in Dubai
Wishing farewell to our friend, Dr. Richard Cooke
He would have turned 77 this past October. We deeply miss his endless enthusiasm for learning and his passion for teaching others.
Archaeology Anthropology Zoology Life in Deep Time Naos
smithsonian-cyanA guiding
force in
archaeology
Bilingual Bat Nights, Noches de Murciélagos, along the Panama Canal
The first Sunday of every month, residents and visitors join researchers from the Smithsonian Bat Lab to get a close-up look at Panama’s bats.
Panama
By Olivia Milloway
smithsonian-cyan
Rachel PageGamboa
Bat Nights
Extraordinary fossil find reveals details about the weight and diet of extinct saber-toothed marsupial
A 13-million-year-old saber-toothed marsupial skeleton discovered during paleontological explorations in Colombia is the most complete specimen recovered in the region
Paleontology and Paleobiology Evolutionary Biology Taxonomy Exploration Life in Deep Time CTPA
smithsonian-cyan
Carlos JaramilloPrehistoric
predator
