Anthropology

Subheadline

“We’re not completely breaking the model, but looking at how to incorporate other evolutionary processes into our ideas of human evolution"

Much of what we think we know about human evolution has largely been attributed to natural selection – namely that species evolve by adapting to their environments.

But Lauren Schroeder, a paleoanthropologist at the ��Ƶ, says there’s reason to reconsider this Darwinian paradigm.

In a co-authored article to commemorate the 50^thanniversary of the Journal of Human Evolution, Schroeder offers a richer understanding of human evolution through nonadaptive processes such as genetic drift and gene flow.

“We’re not completely breaking the model, but looking at how to incorporate other evolutionary processes into our ideas of human evolution,” says Schroeder, an associate professor in the department of anthropology at U of T Mississauga. “We know that some have been overlooked.”

The article emphasizes that the four processes of human evolution – natural selection, gene flow, genetic drift and mutation – should not be considered separately. It says gene flow and genetic drift, seen in the morphology of the genus Homo, are keys to deepening our understanding.

However, non-adaptive processes are difficult to identify in fossil records because ancient fossils don’t tend to have DNA. This leaves researchers turning to other methods, including morphology, to document variation.

Hybrid Neanderthal-human fossils have been vital in providing genetic information that older fossil records can’t provide. This is where gene flow – when genes travel from one population to another – comes in.

“From ancient DNA analysis, we know that Neanderthals and humans interbred,” Schroeder says.

“There have been cases in the Neanderthal-human space where we have found fossils that look like hybrids – they have human and Neanderthal morphology. Through ancient DNA work, we found that they are indeed hybrids. This means that the effect of gene flow and the variation of a population needs to be taken into account.”

Another example is genetic drift, the random change in frequency of a gene variant in a population. This drift is the foundation of the neutral theory, which states that most evolutionary changes are caused by random occurrences – not natural selection.

“There has always been a big debate in evolutionary biology about the importance of natural selection and genetic drift in causing evolutionary change,” says Schroeder. “The question is how we find it in the fossil record, especially when we don’t have genetic data.”

To find the answers, Schroeder uses quantitative genetics, a subfield of population genetics that studies the evolution of measurable traits, such as height.

The early evolution of the genus Homo, which is estimated to have emerged 2.8 million years ago, is characterized by variation in fossils. In the past, this has been attributed to natural selection. After applying quantitative genetics methods, Schroeder found that variations in the cranium are more consistent with neutral evolution.

“Because we see traits that can be identified as adaptations, and differentiate those traits from ones that seem neutral, it’s reasonable to assume that not all of the morphological variation of the genus Homo can be attributed to natural selection,” Schroeder says.

“Now we can say there are multiple evolutionary processes, and here are the methods to look at them.”

The commemorative paper, which also highlights the authorship demographics and practices of the Journal of Human Evolution, has opened another research interest for Schroeder: to look deeper into what has been a Western- and male-dominated industry. Now an associate editor of the journal, Schroeder has co-authored another paper, currently in review, that examines the history of narrative in the evolution of the genus Homo from a socio-political context.

“When you don’t have a diverse group of people doing research, there is a loss to the field,” she says, adding that the history of paleoanthropology and who was studying these topics – and when – are among her major interests.

Grocers aren't passing along full Nutrition North food subsidy to consumers: Study

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 13:13:31 +0000

Grocers aren't passing along full Nutrition North food subsidy to consumers: Study

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 09/15/2023 - 09:13

Cutline

(photo by Miljan Lakic/Getty Images)

Marcia Kaye

Topic

Breaking Research

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Subheadline

Shoppers in remote northern communities only saw savings of 67 cents, on average, for every dollar of subsidy handed out to grocers – many of which are based in southern Canada

Hunger is such a dire problem in Canada’s remote northern communities that the federal government offers a food subsidy through retail grocery stores that is supposed to be passed along to consumers.

But that’s not happening, according to a new ��Ƶ study.

For every one dollar in subsidy that the large retail companies received through the Nutrition North Canada program, the average price for the consumer has gone down by only 67 cents, says study co-author Tracey Galloway, associate professor and chair of U of T Mississauga’s department of anthropology.

Tracey Galloway (supplied image)

So where did the other 33 cents on every dollar go?

“It went to the retailers who received it,” Galloway says. “How they use those additional funds is not captured in any metric that’s made available to us.”

Wherever the extra money ended up, it didn’t go to consumers, she adds.

With very low household incomes and food prices double or triple those in southern Canada, remote northern communities have shockingly high rates of food insecurity. “At least two-thirds of households in northern communities don’t have enough nutritious food, or enough food at all, and it’s more common in households with children,” says Galloway, who has been studying the issue for more than a decade.

She collaborated on this study, published in the Journal of Public Economics, with Nicholas Li, an assistant professor in the department of economics at Toronto Metropolitan University who previously worked at U of T. They used publicly available information collected by the government and posted on its Nutrition North website.

“This was always intended to provide some accountability,” Li says of the data shared on the site. “But no one had ever actually used that information to try to see how much of those subsidies was passed through to the consumer.”

Galloway and Li looked at more than 100 isolated communities across several provinces and territories, such as Attawapiskat and Fort Severn in Northern Ontario, Aklavik in Northwest Territories and Resolute, Gjoa Haven and Pond Inlet in Nunavut. Most of these communities lack year-round access by road, water or rail and are hundreds of kilometres away from larger service hubs.

While the communities, averaging 1,000 people, are mostly Inuit, First Nations or Métis, very few of the retail stores are Indigenous-owned. Most belong to companies based in southern Canada.

By far the most dominant retailer is the North West Company (which operates as Northern Stores), with its head office in Winnipeg. It receives half of the $120 million in annual Nutrition North subsidies. Its largest competitors are Arctic Co-operatives Limited and Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec, with headquarters respectively in Winnipeg and Montreal.

“Evidence like this might lead you to question why so many taxpayer dollars are moving into the coffers of a southern-owned retailer operating in these communities, and often operating as a monopoly,” Galloway says.

The researchers found a stark difference between communities with one store and those with two stores. In early 2019, for example, when the federal government raised the subsidies, retailers in communities with two or more stores passed along 84 cents on the dollar to consumers. But where there was a monopoly and the single retail store faced no competition, consumers received only 55 cents.

The Nutrition North program, launched in 2011, was supposed to be an improvement over the old Food Mail system, which was a transportation subsidy administered by Canada Post to deliver food to isolated communities. But retailers objected to Canada Post’s monopoly on food transport, consumers complained that grocery prices remained high and the program subsidized all food whether nutritious or not.

By contrast, Nutrition North was intended to address these problems by paying retailers directly, placing higher subsidies on perishable foods such as vegetables, fruits, eggs, fresh milk and infant foods, and creating a system of accountability whereby retailers would have to report data into a sophisticated monitoring system.

Many Indigenous entrepreneurs launched small grocery stores, but they weren’t eligible for the subsidies because the reporting system can be labour-intensive and they were often forced to close. Moreover, accountability measures have rarely been enforced, with good reason: kicking a non-compliant retailer out of the program would eliminate the subsidy altogether, harming the consumer even more.

The researchers say there’s room for optimism. The federal government has formed a working group and is consulting with community members, with a long-term goal of creating a more equitable and accountable program. Galloway and Li have partnered with Kimberly Fairman – an Inuk resident of Yellowknife, executive director at the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research and adjunct lecturer at U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health – to compare federal and local concepts of what food security supports should look like.

In the short term, the researchers want to see clear data transparency, with public reporting of prices for every subsidized item, so consumers – and government – can see where the money is going.

“We need action soon because people are hungry and are going without,” Galloway says. “To say it’s urgent is a vast understatement.”

Historical study suggests link between institutionalization, hip fractures and death

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 01 Sep 2023 14:18:18 +0000

Historical study suggests link between institutionalization, hip fractures and death

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 09/01/2023 - 10:18

Cutline

(photo by Sukanya Sitthikongsak/Getty Images)

Topic

Subheadline

Researchers studied records of people who died between 1910 and 1967 and lived in Missouri state hospitals, city infirmaries and other public institutions

A team of anthropologists has found that the skeletal remains of people who lived and died in American public care institutions in the last century have much to tell us about the connection between patient neglect and hip fractures – a connection that may still exist today in Canada.

Using paleopathology – the study of disease in the past using sources including human remains – the three researchers studied individuals who lived in state hospitals, city infirmaries and other public institutions in Missouri and who died between 1910 and 1967.

They found evidence of hip fractures in 4.3 per cent of institutionalized individuals, almost double the 2.3 per cent prevalence among non-institutionalized people. Death records showed that many of these broken hips occurred from preventable accidents, including falling out of a wheelchair, tripping on an uneven floor, slipping in a bathtub or being pushed to the ground (most hip fractures need quick medical intervention to prevent deadly complications.)

“These folks were living in institutions that were supposedly caring for them,” says Madeleine Mant, assistant professor in the ��Ƶ Mississauga's department of anthropology and an author of the study, which was recently published in the journal PLOS One. “But ultimately the lack of care or the lack of resources or the lack of attention has created instances where they actually suffered fractures that led to their deaths.”

With colleagues Carlina de la Cova, of the University of South Carolina in Columbia, and Megan Brickley of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., Mant had access to a large anatomical skeletal collection housed at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. These were people unclaimed after death – either because they were alone in the world, their loved ones were too poor to afford a burial or their families simply weren’t informed of their passing.

The 600 individuals in the study included Euro-American and African-American women and men in their 40s through 90s. More than one-third had been institutionalized.

In both cohorts, older white women showed the greatest prevalence of hip trauma. But the finding that was most critical – and, for Mant, the most disturbing – was that of the instances of broken hips leading to death, 82 per cent of incidents happened in institutions.

“That’s what struck me the hardest – the idea that these vulnerable individuals were taken in by institutions that were obviously underfunded and understaffed and that undervalued the lives of these folks.”

Mant points to two explanations. The first is structural violence, a term describing the way social structures and institutions cause harm to people through inequities and marginalization. In the case of the institutions being studied, this could include underfunding, overcrowding, poorly trained staff and poorly maintained facilities. The second is cultural apathy, which means society doesn’t care enough to rise up, speak out and demand change.

While anthropologists look at the past to better understand the present, Mant says in this case it’s less an echo and more a direct line to what we’re seeing today in many care institutions in Canada. She says that whenever she talks about her research, people will tell her about an aunt, a grandparent or other family member who suffered a hip fracture while in care.

“This is not just a historical story, and it’s not just an American story,” Mant says. “It’s an ongoing modern concern and it seems to be, unfortunately, global.”

Other studies from the Netherlands and Switzerland have also shown a disturbingly high risk of fractures among institutionalized people. Mant’s study includes a mention of a Canadian news story that made headlines last year: a woman in an Oakville, Ont., nursing home had major spiral fractures in both thigh bones when she died, but staff seemed to know nothing about it.

Mant hopes the study will help increase awareness and encourage those making public policy to treat equitable care of institutionalized people as a basic human right.

“We need to be taking care of our most vulnerable, bring this to people’s minds who might not have been aware of it and, honestly, shame people who have known about these problems and haven’t done anything so far,” she says.

Ancient ape from Türkiye challenges the story of human origins, researchers say

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 14:55:53 +0000

Ancient ape from Türkiye challenges the story of human origins, researchers say

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 08/24/2023 - 10:55

Cutline

A new face and partial brain case of Anadoluvius turkae, a fossil hominine – the group that includes African apes and humans – from the Çorakyerler fossil site located in Central Anatolia region of Türkiye (photo by Sevim-Erol, A., Begun, D.R., Sözer, Ç.S. et al.)

Sean Bettam

Topic

Breaking Research

Global

Subheadline

Analysis of a newly identified ape fossil at 8.7-million-year-old site suggests the ancestors of African apes and humans evolved in Europe before migrating to Africa

A new fossil ape from an 8.7-million-year-old site in Türkiye is challenging long-accepted ideas of human origins and adding weight to the theory that the ancestors of African apes and humans evolved in Europe before migrating to Africa between nine and seven million years ago.

Analysis of a newly identified ape named Anadoluvius turkae, recovered from the Çorakyerler fossil site near Çankırı with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Türkiye, shows Mediterranean fossil apes are diverse and part of the first known radiation of early hominines – the group that includes African apes (chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas), humans and their fossil ancestors.

A new study published in the journal Communications Biology describes the findings. It was co-authored by an international team of researchers led by researchers David Begun at the ��Ƶ and Ayla Sevim Erol at Ankara University.

Excavation of the Anadoluvius turkae fossil, a significantly well-preserved partial cranium uncovered at the Çorakyerler fossil site in Türkiye in 2015. The fossil includes most of the facial structure and the front part of the brain case (photo by Ayla Sevim-Erol)

“Our findings further suggest that hominines not only evolved in western and central Europe but spent over five million years evolving there and spreading to the eastern Mediterranean before eventually dispersing into Africa – probably as a consequence of changing environments and diminishing forests,” said Begun, a professor in the department of anthropology in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science. “The members of this radiation to which Anadoluvius belongs are currently only identified in Europe and Anatolia.”

The conclusion is based on analysis of a significantly well-preserved partial cranium uncovered at the site in 2015, which includes most of the facial structure and the front part of the brain case.

“The completeness of the fossil allowed us to do a broader and more detailed analysis using many characters and attributes that are coded into a program designed to calculate evolutionary relationships,” said Begun. “The face is mostly complete after applying mirror imaging. The new part is the forehead, with bone preserved to about the crown of the cranium. Previously described fossils do not have this much of the brain case.”

The Çorakyerler excavation site near Çankırı, Türkiye is one of the most important humanoid settlements in Eurasia (photo by Ayla Sevim-Erol)

The researchers say Anadoluvius was about the size of a large male chimpanzee (50-60 kilograms) – very large for a chimp and close to the average size of a female gorilla (75-80 kilograms) – lived in a dry forest setting and probably spent a great deal of time on the ground.

“We have no limb bones, but judging from its jaws and teeth, the animals found alongside it and the geological indicators of the environment, Anadoluvius probably lived in relatively open conditions unlike the forest settings of living great apes – more like what we think the environments of early humans in Africa were like,” said Ankara University’s Sevim Erol. “The powerful jaws and large, thickly enamelled teeth suggest a diet including hard or tough food items from terrestrial sources such as roots and rhizomes."

The animals that lived with Anadoluvius are those commonly associated with African grasslands and dry forests today such as giraffes, warthogs, rhinos, diverse antelopes, zebras, elephants, porcupines, hyenas and lion-like carnivores. Research shows that the ecological community appears to have dispersed into Africa from the eastern Mediterranean more than eight million years ago.

“The founding of the modern African open-country fauna from the eastern Mediterranean has long been known and now we can add to the list of entrants the ancestors of the African apes and humans,” said Sevim Erol.

The findings establish Anadoluvius turkae as a branch of the part of the evolutionary tree that gave rise to chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and humans. Although African apes today are only known from Africa, as are the earliest known humans, the study’s authors – which also include colleagues at Ege University and Pamukkale University in Türkiye and the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands – conclude that the ancestors of both came from Europe and the eastern Mediterranean.

Excavation of the Anadoluvius turkae fossil took place at the Çorakyerler fossil site in Türkiye in 2015 (image by David Begun/Google Earth)

Anadoluvius and other fossil apes from nearby Greece (Ouranopithecus) and Bulgaria (Graecopithecus) form a group that come closest in many details of anatomy and ecology to the earliest known hominins, or humans. The new fossils are the best-preserved specimens of this group of early hominines and provide the strongest evidence to date that the group originated in Europe and later dispersed into Africa.

Çorakyerler is located in Çankırı province in Türkiye 's Central Anatolia Region (photo by Ayla Sevim Erol)

The study’s detailed analysis also reveals that the Balkan and Anatolian apes evolved from ancestors in western and central Europe. With its more comprehensive data, the research provides evidence that these other apes were also hominines and suggests it is more likely that the whole group evolved and diversified in Europe, rather than the alternative scenario in which separate branches of apes earlier moved independently into Europe from Africa over the course of several million years and then went extinct.

“There is no evidence of the latter, though it remains a favourite proposal among those who do not accept a European origin hypothesis,” said Begun. “These findings contrast with the long-held view that African apes and humans evolved exclusively in Africa. While the remains of early hominines are abundant in Europe and Anatolia, they are completely absent from Africa until the first hominin appeared there about seven million years ago.

“This new evidence supports the hypothesis that hominines originated in Europe and dispersed into Africa along with many other mammals between nine and seven million years ago, though it does not definitively prove it. For that, we need to find more fossils from Europe and Africa between eight and seven million years old to establish a definitive connection between the two groups.”

Using smartphones, U of T PhD candidate works with Nigerian women to protect communities

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 02 Aug 2023 14:11:01 +0000

Using smartphones, U of T PhD candidate works with Nigerian women to protect communities

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 08/02/2023 - 10:11

Cutline

Wumi Asubiaro Dada's PhD project involves working with local organizations and women in Nigeria to protect their home communities through the use of geospatial imagery and a mobile app (photo courtesy of Wumi Asubiaro Dada)

Cynthia Macdonald

Topic

Global Lens

Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies

Global

Graduate Students

Growing up in Nigeria, Omowumi (Wumi) Asubiaro Dada was outspoken, argumentative and animated by injustice.

It was obvious to her family what path her life would take: “They always said, we know you’re going to be a lawyer,” she says of her career in human rights law and feminist advocacy that has spanned two decades.

Now as a PhD candidate at the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies in the ��Ƶ’s Faculty of Arts & Science, Dada is working with local organizations and women in Nigeria to help them achieve justice by protecting their home communities through the use of modern technology – work that is being supported by a Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellowship.

In particular, she’s helping women in Kaduna – one of Nigeria’s 36 states – become a major force in conflict prevention and resolution. Dada worked with her PhD supervisor Kamari Maxine Clarke, a distinguished professor in the department of anthropology, and a local organization known as the CLEEN Foundation to create a project called the Early Warning Early Response (EWER). The system trains villagers, including women, to use publicly available geospatial imagery to identify planned attacks before they happen. A mobile app then sends push alerts to warn others to be prepared.

So far, 120 women have been trained on EWER since it was launched in 2021.

“They’ve been able to get information across, which, in some cases, has led to a de-escalation of violence,” says Dada. “And when there is a trigger, meetings are called. One of the conditions of these meetings is that women must form part of the quorum, which has increased their participation in decision-making in conflict prevention. Another effect is that women have brought other women into the fold.”

Dada believes that women can play a prominent role in defusing violence, which is a massive problem in Nigeria’s northern region. That includes kidnapping, sexual assault, village burnings and murder.

The sources of violence are complex and varied, Dada explains. “Kaduna in particular is very unsafe,” she says. “The violence there started as religious and ethno-communal clashes, with many reprisals and counterattacks and has now changed in dynamics to kidnapping, village burning with various violations such as murder and sexual assault.”

Climate change has also played a role.

“A lot of land has been affected by desertification,” Dada says. In the Lake Chad Basin across the border, “people who make their living by herding cows have lost their livelihood and become desperate, which has also led to crime.”

In all these cases, she notes, the voices of women are regularly ignored. “This is because they’re not considered part of the problem. And because they bear the brunt of much violence, they’re simply considered victims. I’m pushing the argument that we need to recognize the agency of women – it’s important that they be part of the solution.”

Dada adds that communities in Nigeria often left to fend for themselves with no assistance. Established in the days of colonial rule, the male-dominated police force is, like other units of the justice system, located far away and lacks the resources to properly assist rural communities, she says. This has resulted in widespread vigilantism – which can mean defensive violence, but also the prevention of crime before it happens.

This is where women come in.

“There’s a lot happening in the domestic sphere that is actually political,” she says. “Women often hear things being planned before anyone else hears about it. And women can influence the actions of others.” Dada points out that in pre-colonial society, women’s roles as keepers of knowledge, leaders of ritual and even warriors were far more respected than they are today. In her own Yoruba tradition, for example, many deities were female – which had a general effect on how human women were perceived.

Dada began her post-secondary studies immediately after high school and was practising law by age 21.

“At first, I worked in public interest litigation and human rights education, mostly representing incarcerated prisoners awaiting trial,” she says, noting this, too, is a critical problem in Nigeria, where the system is badly underfunded and some prisoners are held in congested facilities without bail for decades.

It was just one of the many problems Dada confronted in Nigeria’s legal system over the years – experiences that prompted her to identify the plight of women and make significant contributions to the women’s movement. That includes designing and managing a wide range of projects for non-governmental organizations, government and international development agencies.

As part of her current work, Dada seeks to advance Nigerian women’s participation at all levels of community justice administration. In addition to crime prevention, she is exploring restorative justice: examining the root causes of crime, and how best to reintegrate those who have offended back into society.

One of her Connaught Fellowship aims will be to present her findings at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women next year. There, she hopes to show how women’s work in domestic life should not be dismissed – but appreciated for its value in political and public life.

She says her PhD studies are helping her realize her community justice goals.

“If you have your sights set on changing structural inequality, this qualification can help you do that,” she says. “I’m engaging with ways to amplify the voices of people who would not ordinarily have the opportunity to make an impact on the structures that control their lives.”

After a harrowing escape from Sudan, U of T scholar Nisrin Elamin calls on the world to pay attention

siddiq22 — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 18:07:17 +0000

After a harrowing escape from Sudan, U of T scholar Nisrin Elamin calls on the world to pay attention

siddiq22 Wed, 06/14/2023 - 14:07

Cutline

Nisrin Elamin, an assistant professor of archeology and African Studies in U of T's Faculty of Arts & Science, recently fled Sudan, which is in the midst of an armed conflict between rival factions of the military government (photo courtesy of Nisrin Elamin)

Topic

Global

International

New College

Subheadline

Elamin, an assistant professor of archeology and African Studies, says more needs to be done to support the country's pro-democracy movement

Why aren’t there more eyes on Sudan – the site of a humanitarian crisis which has seen more than one million people driven from their homes in the space of two months, with many others killed or injured?

Nisrin Elamin asks herself that question every day. The assistant professor in the department of anthropology and the African Studies program in the Faculty of Arts & Science recently escaped from Sudan, where she had been visiting family.

After a dangerous, difficult journey from the capital city of Khartoum to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, Elamin was evacuated at the end of April, along with her parents and three-year-old daughter.

Now, she thinks about her many close relatives who remain sheltering in place in and around Khartoum – and about the millions of other Sudanese people still living there and in other parts of the country in desperate conditions.

Entire villages have been burned to the ground, with many citizens deprived of access to food, water, medicine and fuel during the ongoing conflict between rival factions of the military government.

“It’s a terrible situation,” Elamin says. “And the international humanitarian response has been ‘too little, too late’ in the sense that when we evacuated, the aid community evacuated with us.”

During a temporary ceasefire, several international aid organizations have been able to resume assistance to Sudan. But aid agency operations often report obstructions, and Elamin says the Sudanese people themselves have sometimes proven most effective at helping their fellow citizens.

“People have been relying on resistance committees and civilian volunteer networks,” she says.

“These are grassroots democratic forces that have been the backbone of Sudan’s popular uprising against the current regime since 2018. They’ve been the ones distributing food and water – and they have actually been arrested for doing this work.”

Women carrying belongings walk down a street in Omdurman, Sudan, the twin city of the country's capital, Khartoum (photo by AFP via Getty Images)

Since Sudan gained independence from colonial rule in 1956, the country has spent the majority of those years riven by internal conflict. In 2021, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of Sudan’s army, and Lt. General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), paramilitary chief of the Rapid Support Forces, collaborated to topple the regime of Omar al-Bashir – a leader who had been indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2009 for directing a campaign of mass killing in the Darfur region and was subsequently imprisoned on corruption charges.

Yet the generals are themselves steadfast enemies of democracy – together, they have been responsible for human rights violations, including al-Burhan’s direction of the Khartoum Massacre of 2019 and Hemedti’s brutal leadership of the Janjaweed militia in Darfur beginning in 2003. And now they are at war with each other.

“The Rapid Support Forces were supposed to be integrated into the armed forces based on a political agreement that would eventually lead to democratic elections,” Elamin says.

“But these two generals, who are known war criminals, are now struggling for political and economic control. And everybody else is in the middle of this.”

Even prior to the fighting that gave rise to this catastrophe, Sudan – Africa's third-largest country – was dealing with a refugee crisis and severe food insecurity. The United Nations estimates that 25 million people in the country currently need aid and protection.

Elamin is an American citizen who recently completed her first year as a scholar at U of T. She is currently writing a book based on 15 months of fieldwork in Sudan, and her recent trip there was taken with the intention of conducting follow-up research while also introducing her young daughter to her Sudanese family.

“My work focuses on large-scale land investments – what many call ‘land grabs’ in central Sudan, where I’m originally from,” she says.

“I’ve been tracing the impacts of Gulf Arab corporate and domestic investments on local communities and researching the various forms of resistance to these investments. Just to give you an idea, the Saudis and Emiratis have invested about $27 billion in real estate infrastructure over the last two decades – all while the country was governed by a brutal military regime.

“Such investments have also impacted local food sovereignty – these shifts in land ownership undermine people’s access to subsistence food, and they’re relying on imports now more than ever.”

Elamin notes that despite the various crises affecting them, the people of Sudan remain unbowed. Soon after the shelling and explosions began, “only 16 per cent of hospitals in Khartoum were operating at capacity. The Sudanese Doctors’ Union has set up field hospitals on the outskirts of the city to treat the injured, deliver babies and do whatever is needed, though even getting there is dangerous.”

Since her return from Sudan, Elamin has been tireless in her efforts to inform the public about what is happening in her family’s homeland, appearing on international radio and television programs. She points out that while the news cycle invariably moves on, Sudan’s problems do not.

Still, Elamin affirms that much is being done.

“For example, the Sudanese Students Union at U of T recently held an event to inform the community about what’s happening. It was also a fundraiser for the Sudanese Doctors’ Union – that’s an important initiative to support, because money goes directly to the support the lifesaving work doctors are doing there.”

Elamin also calls on governments around the world to lend help where they can. Much more assistance is needed at the borders of the seven countries bordering Sudan, which are all processing refugees at a painfully slow rate in the punishing desert climate.

She notes Canada could provide expedited travel visas, such as those offered to refugees from Ukraine.

“But probably the most important thing is for Canadians to assist the international community – specifically efforts on the African continent led by regional actors such as the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority for Development – with their effort to broker a sustainable peace," Elamin says.

"This requires, in my view, putting these two generals on trial instead of putting them at the negotiating table – and really starting a transitional kind of process: one that centres the pro-democracy forces that have been sidelined.”

U of T Mississauga's first-ever Indigenous rematriation adviser seeks rightful owners of 40,000-artifact collection

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 15:11:24 +0000

U of T Mississauga's first-ever Indigenous rematriation adviser seeks rightful owners of 40,000-artifact collection

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 11/28/2022 - 10:11

Cutline

Robin Gray, an assistant professor of sociology, is U of T Mississauga's first-ever adviser on Indigenous rematriation (photo by Drew Lesiuczok)

Kate Martin

Topic

Our Community

Indigenous

Sociology

Robin Gray doesn’t believe in empty promises – which is why she’s embracing a new role after being appointed the ��Ƶ Mississauga’s first-ever special adviser on Indigenous rematriation.

“It’s not enough just to say it,” says Gray, an assistant professor in U of T Mississauga’s department of sociology. “You have to walk the walk.”

In particular, Gray has been asked to advise on a plan for the safekeeping of a large collection of Indigenous artifacts now housed in U of T Mississauga’s department of anthropology. The plan – part of the university’s ongoing commitment to Truth and Reconciliation – will centre Indigenous protocols and laws and confront colonial harms, recognizing the urgency of reconnecting Indigenous people with these cultural heritage materials too long held institutionally.

“We heard about (the collection) through the media – stories on CBC and CTV – and we thought ‘What? How did they get here?’” says Gray, who is a member of U of T Mississauga’s Indigenous Table. “And it turned out it wasn’t just a few artifacts stored here at UTM, but in fact 40,000 – just an incredible number.”

The collection came to the department of anthropology after the artifacts were uncovered during the development of a subdivision near Hurontario Street and Highway 403 in Mississauga.

The excavation of "Midden 1" during the dig at the Antrex Village site in Mississauga in the early 1990s (photo by ASI Heritage)

Ancestors and artefacts

Now known as the Antrex Site, the 1.6-acre area revealed nine longhouses and is believed to have been occupied in the 13th and 14th century by up to 500 people, including ancestors of the Huron-Wendat, Wyandot and Haudenosaunee nations. Researchers believe it was also regularly visited by members of the Anishinaabe. The artifacts, which include fragments of handmade pottery, beads, effigies, pipes, axes, hammers, arrowpoints, bracelets and pendants, were uncovered and catalogued by Archeological Services Inc., with assistance from Erindale College Archaeological Field School in 1992.

Now, guided by Indigenous communities and the U of T Mississauga Indigenous Table, the university hopes to help reunite the items with their rightful owners in a process known as rematriation. That process represents one small step in U of T Mississauga's commitment to become better at honouring its responsibility to Indigenous communities and lands and to being accountable for building the right relations.

“Most people are more familiar with ‘repatriation,’ but this is different,” says Gray, who is also currently working on a book titled Rematriation: Paradigms for Indigenous Futurity that won U of T Mississauga’s First Book Manuscript Workshop Competition. “‘Rematriation’ is not just wordplay, it’s not just feminizing a word. It has decolonial potential if we take it seriously.”

Repatriate vs. Rematriate

She says repatriation is related to traditional Euro-western and patriarchal ideas about personhood, nationhood, property and ownership, while rematriation is rooted in Indigenous values.

“With repatriation, you have to do all these negotiations to gain permission to access your own culture. Even though it is supposed to be righting a historical wrong – restorative justice – it’s still approached as ‘prove to me it’s yours,’” says Gray, noting many First Nations communities are matriarchal, with leadership roles held largely by women.

“In rematriation, you use the laws of the source nation. It says, ‘It's the source nation's call. It's their unique needs, priorities, and values that matter.’ You have to be humble about that. Let that be the framework for making decisions about what happens by being accountable to partnership and collaboration.”

Although the concept of rematriation is only just beginning to gain ground in the academic world, Gray says she grew up with it, inspired by her late aunt Lee Maracle, an acclaimed author, orator and U of T instructor.

“She introduced these ideas in the ’80s, and I want to keep her legacy alive by continuing the work,” says Gray. “One of the last conversations we had was about rematriation.”

Convocation Inspiration

Gray, who is also cross appointed to departments of anthropology and sociology in the Faculty of Arts & Science on the St. George campus, says U of T Vice-President and U of Mississauga Principal Alexandra Gillespie approached her about the adviser position after hearing Gray discuss rematriation in her speech at June’s convocation ceremonies. Gillespie and Gray had also been working together for more than a year through U of T Mississauga's Indigenous Table.

The speech made me think differently... about how to do things in a good way, to live by our core values,” says Gillespie, who adds that the project also aligns with U of T's Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Answering the Call Wecheehetowin, and U of T Mississauga’s Strategic Framework, which has as its central hub a commitment to truth, openness and reciprocity.

Gray says she has seen exponential growth in recruiting and retaining Indigenous faculty, staff and students at U of T Mississauga since joining the department of sociology in 2018, and that the creation of the adviser position further demonstrates an ethic valued by her own ancestors – the Ts’msyen – known as Amuks’m, meaning to listen attentively.

“Truth and Reconciliation is about asking people to listen and react,” she says. “Not just to learn and absorb but to do something about it.”

Call to Action # 67 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission requires Canada to develop best practices for heritage institutions, including for their restoration of Indigenous cultural property.

“(U of T Mississauga is) an institutional power and, as gatekeepers of the artifacts from the Antrex Village site, we have to consider our accountability,” Gray says. “For (Gillespie) to see the value of that and provide this opportunity for me, it makes such a difference when the leader takes that seriously and listens intently.”

A boulder used as a grinding surface south of House 4 at the Antrex site in Mississauga (photo by ASI Heritage)

Mapping next steps

Gray plans to provide Gillespie, the Indigenous Table and other partners with a map of next steps about the artifacts by June 30, 2023.

A key step, says Gray, has been identifying parties with an interest, including local Indigenous communities. She will demonstrate a commitment to building better relationships by listening to, learning from and staying in contact with the source community.

“We want to identify any partnerships that have been made or, on the flip side, any lingering questions, concerns or obstacles that prevent a decision on the collection: where should it go, be housed, whether here at U of T or returned to a community, or to their own archives or cultural centres,” says Gray. “And it's up to the source community to make those decisions. Not me. Not UTM. UTM just has to be responsible and accountable to play their part in making things right.

“I want to protect the best interests of the Indigenous communities and their belongings, which many Indigenous communities consider ancestors or something very sacred, as not just inanimate things – but things with a spirit that connect us to place and people, to culture and knowledge.”

Local history

Gray says a grant from the Peel Social Lab has allowed her to hire an assistant who will be vital in helping her research the heritage landscape and the poetics and politics of return in Ontario.

“I’m not from here – I’m not Anishinaabe, Wendat or Haudenosaunee, not from the Mississaugas of the Credit,” says Gray, whose own family is Ts’msyen from Lax Kw’alaams, B.C. and Mikisew Cree from Fort Chipewyan, Alta.

“To rematriate, you really have to localize the context and understand the landscape of reclamation for Indigenous people in a specific area or region.”

Gray will also review other attempts in Ontario to reunite Indigenous artifacts with their source nations, including a U of T project which dealt with Wendat human remains. There are not many precedents to draw on. That adds to Gray's challenge, but it also indicates the urgency of her work.

A just future

“We want to know what possibilities and pitfalls to be aware of and then imagine otherwise for a more just and decolonialized future,” she says, noting Canadian museums hold more than six million artifacts from Indigenous nations, but lack a federal policy or law to guide their return.

Many of those items are “captured forms of heritage, acquired under duress,” Gray says, adding she believes her U of T Mississauga report can help modernize protocols for protecting cultural items.

“I hope we will encourage other institutions to become comfortable being uncomfortable and take that gatekeeper role seriously, and model a more relational and decolonial approach in processes of return,” she says.

'I had to pave the path for myself': Iakoiehwáhtha Patton on being named a Rhodes Scholar

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 14:16:04 +0000

'I had to pave the path for myself': Iakoiehwáhtha Patton on being named a Rhodes Scholar

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 11/24/2022 - 09:16

Cutline

Iakoiehwáhtha Patton, a student at Victoria College, studies art history, anthropology and the Renaissance – and has a passion for Netherlandish art (photo courtesy of Iakoiehwáhtha Patton)

Topic

Indigenous

Rhodes Scholar

Undergraduate Students

Victoria College

Iakoiehwáhtha Patton, a fourth-year art history student at the ��Ƶ and member of the Kanien'kehá:ka First Nations community in Quebec, was caught off guard when she found out she was headed to the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.

“It’s completely unbelievable,” says Patton, who was notified of the scholarship via a phone call that was briefly disconnected as she walked through her apartment building.

The Victoria College student frantically ran through her hallway, waving her phone in an effort to find a signal.

“All I heard was, ‘You're on speakerphone … Congratulations, you've been awarded the Rhodes Scholarship.’ And the only words that I could say was, ‘Oh my God.’ Then I started crying.”

Patton – who is believed to be the first Indigenous, First Nations woman from Canada to receive the prestigious award – then called her mother in Kahnawake, the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) community outside Montreal. “The first thing she asked was, ‘Are you kidding? This is a terrible joke.’”

Soon after, the well wishes and congratulations began pouring in from family, friends and from U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science community.

“On behalf of the Faculty I want to congratulate Iakoiehwáhtha for this historic achievement in becoming the first female First Nations Rhodes Scholar,” says Melanie Woodin, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. “Driven by passion and her identity, she has blazed a trail of accomplishment inside and outside the classroom, worthy of one of the world’s most distinguished academic honours.”

Rhonda McEwen, president and vice-chancellor of Victoria University in the ��Ƶ – which includes Victoria College – also offered her warm wishes.

“On behalf of the entire Vic community, I offer heartfelt congratulations,” says McEwen. “[Iakoiehwáhtha] continues to exemplify outstanding leadership and passion for making the world a better place, an important shared value at Vic. We all join in a sense of pride when our students achieve their goals and pursue their dreams, and I know that Iako will continue to achieve her big ambitions.”

Studying art history, anthropology and Renaissance studies, Patton has a passion for Netherlandish art – art produced by Dutch artists during the 15th- and 16th-century Northern Renaissance period.

She’s exploring the intersections of gender, colonialism and its artistic representations. And she says she can’t wait to continue her studies at the University of Oxford, focusing on the imaging of North American Indigenous peoples in Netherlandish art. She hopes to shed light on the deeply rooted inequalities of colonial and gender relations embedded within these works.

“I began studying Netherlandish art because I loved Rembrandt – I loved the Dutch Golden Age,” says Patton, who is president of the History of Art Students’ Association and a member of multiple Indigenous advisory committees.

“I took all the classes taught by Professor Ethan Matt Kavaler,” says Patton. “He's phenomenal, and he really cultivated my passion.”

There’s also a very personal connection to this period for Patton.

“The Dutch had one of the biggest colonial empires at the time,” she says. “They had a colony in the United States called New Netherland that extended from Albany all the way to Delaware. And that was where my people were situated in the 17th century. So there's this overlap of my discipline that I love and my community's history.”

She says more research is needed on the North American context of Netherlandish art and how depictions of Indigenous Peoples, culture and materials impacted European artists.

“That's what I want to study at the graduate level,” she says. “Art communicates values, communicates belief systems – and it's situated within its cultural context. And it can never be devoid from its colonial context. You can’t separate it. Our art history is history.”

What makes being invited to Oxford so surreal for Patton is that she never envisioned becoming a Rhodes Scholar. She thought these scholarships were meant for scientists, engineers, budding political leaders and CEOs, not arts students.

“I had a very narrow idea of what a Rhodes scholar was, I didn't think I fit that mould,” she says. “I didn't even know they looked for people in the humanities. It always seemed so untouchable, especially coming from my background.”

But through the support of her college and professors, the idea of studying at Oxford became attainable.

“The support from everyone at the university and Victoria College has been incredible,” says Patton. “I want to specifically thank the department of art history for the past three years. I have grown into the scholar and leader I am because of their guidance and encouragement.”

She says she approached the life-changing opportunity presented by the scholarship like every other academic challenge she has faced – creating her own road.

“My parents didn't go to university and I didn't really have Indigenous academic role models, especially in my field,” she says. “So, I've always felt I had to pave the path for myself. But in doing that, I always felt like I had a responsibility to do that for other Indigenous scholars as well.

“I know that I'm the first in a lot of the things that I'm doing, though it was unintentionally. But I know the weight and responsibility that I have as an Indigenous woman. It's not just about me anymore.”

Patton has been to England once as part of a student exchange in Grade 11. So, the idea of living on her own overseas is a little daunting. But that’s overshadowed by the excitement of getting to know her fellow students and instructors.

“The Rhodes community is so diverse – they come from so many different areas of life, different countries, different disciplines,” says Patton. “I've heard that it's so tight knit and once I announced on social media that I got the scholarship, I had so many people who are still at Oxford, or have gone to Oxford through the Rhodes Scholarship, reach out to me.”

She’s already connected with her newfound network, learning about what to expect. “It was just so comforting,” says Patton. “They responded immediately and are answering any questions I have.”

What does she want to do after finishing her next degree?

She sees herself completing a PhD in art history but how, when and where will likely be determined by her time as an Oxford student.

Says Patton, “Every person I've talked to has said the Rhodes Scholarship opens doors to opportunities I can't even fathom, so I want to be open to any opportunity that comes from this.”

Researchers probe COVID-19’s uneven impact on racialized and immigrant communities in Peel Region

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 11 May 2022 17:04:30 +0000

Researchers probe COVID-19’s uneven impact on racialized and immigrant communities in Peel Region

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 05/11/2022 - 13:04

Cutline

A woman receives a vaccine dose in Mississauga last year. By asking community members about their experiences, U of T researchers want to better understand why Peel Region emerged as a pandemic hotspot (photo by Cole Burston/AFP via Getty Images)

Topic

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

After than two years and six waves, COVID-19 continues to affect Canadians – but it has taken a particular toll on residents of Peel Region, which last year emerged as a nationwide pandemic hotspot.

Now, researchers are hoping to find out why.

A new ��Ƶ Mississauga study, “Understanding the COVID-19 Journeys and Vaccine Experiences of Racialized and Immigrant Communities in the Greater Toronto Area,” is probing the pandemic’s uneven impact on Ontario’s second-largest municipality, a culturally and economically diverse region of 1.5 million that consists of the cities of Mississauga and Brampton and the town of Caledon.

By directly asking community members about their experiences, the one-year qualitative study seeks to illuminate why racialized populations experienced relatively higher rates of virus exposure, and how families and communities worked together to support each other during the crisis.

“As of right now, we know what we think happened based on media coverage and very basic information on case rates,” says co-principal investigator Tracey Galloway, an associate professor in U of T Mississauga’s department of anthropology. “We really want to hear from people who lived it all across Peel Region, what their stories were and what the pandemic felt like for them in their homes and families and communities.”

The idea for the study was sparked by the desire of Peel Public Health and Trillium Health Partners to learn about the lived experiences of community members most impacted by the pandemic. Galloway joined with Assistant Professor Matthew Adams and Professor Kathleen Wilson – both of the department of geography, geomatics and environment – and with a team of post-doctoral, doctoral, master’s and undergraduate students, began mapping out all six COVID-19 waves across the region’s hardest-hit postal code areas.

Next, the team created recruitment posters in English, Bahasa, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Spanish and Urdu. The posters were distributed to local community and immigrant welcome centres to display at their facilities.

“With my background as a Black woman, the accessibility of this study was important, so that we could capture as many perspectives as possible,” says medical anthropology and women’s health graduate student Fatema Ali, who served as the project’s research co-ordinator and as an interviewer. “This is work that highlights and centralizes the voices of the people we are focusing on.”

Residents line up outside the International Centre during Peel Region's "Doses After Dark" vaccination clinic in Mississauga in May 2021 (photo by Cole Burston/AFP via Getty Images)

A total of 69 interviews took place, and the team is now analyzing the data to identify themes that might explain the pandemic’s disproportionate burden on racialized communities. The researchers also hope to learn about the roles of young adults in immigrant families in interpreting public health information. As well, they want to learn what sources of information people used to determine risky or safe behaviours relating to COVID-19, particularly around vaccines.

PhD student Amanda Norton used her geospatial analysis expertise to identify patterns of infection rates. The process involved using mapping software to determine how the patterns relate to the racial and socio-economic makeup of affected communities.

“I think it’s really important to understand that these disparities exist in health,” Norton says. “Maybe in the next pandemic, we can be more prepared to support these communities.”

The overall goal of this study, which is supported by a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, is to increase the efficacy of health messaging and care for racialized urban communities within Canada. That’s a priority that is important to health geographer and U of T Mississauga post-doctoral researcher Thelma Abu, who is helping to analyze the qualitative data.

“My hope is that findings from this research assists stakeholders, including health practitioners, in understanding how marginalized populations and those living in vulnerable circumstances navigate life,” Abu says, “and better inform community health programming targeted at strengthening communities, better public health messaging and care, and addressing health inequities.”

Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds: Researcher Mavra Ahmed studies school food programs in Canada

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 29 Apr 2022 16:19:37 +0000

Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds: Researcher Mavra Ahmed studies school food programs in Canada

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 04/29/2022 - 12:19

Cutline

Mavra Ahmed is helping lead a U of T study reviewing all breakfast, lunch and snack programs in Canadian schools, along with their impact on children’s academic achievement and health (photo courtesy of Temerty Faculty of Medicine)

Jim Oldfield

Topic

Our Community

Joannah & Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition

Alumni

Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Children