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Medical imaging applied to archaeological human remains represents a powerful tool for the study of specimens of exceptionally fragile nature. Here, the authors report a tomographic computerized investigation on the naturally mummified human remains from the Takarkori rock shelter (Libyan Sahara), dated to the Middle Pastoral Neolithic (ca. 6100-5600 uncal BP). The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Medical radiological techniques allowed us to discriminate and isolate the tissues preserved thanks to their different electron density, driving us to detailed examinations of features of interest.

With a focus on anatomy and taphonomy, the authors infer on post-depositional phenomena in a way that could not be achieved through traditional approaches.

The investigation of digital data allows to acquire new sets of information with no risk for the original object. This case study is especially important considering that the human remains from Takarkori are currently not available to the scientific community due to political instability in Lybia.

This conceptual article presents a schematic of rat maternal behavior and niche stress epigenetic effects as a case study that is then aligned with current evolutionary concepts, which raises new questions regarding immigrant assimilation and niche dynamics.

The necessary background material for rat maternal and niche(s) stress factors are incorporated into a recursive, test-operate-test (rTOT), information-only-transfer, schematic (Patterson, 2023), which is an extension and refinement of the test-operate-test-exit (TOTE) schematic of Miller et al. (1960).

The generated epigenetic rTOT demonstrates the fundamental evolutionary unit of the flexible organism within its niche(s). The rTOT also confirms that epigenetic processes, epigenetic inheritance and phenotype plasticity are significant conceptual tools for understanding evolution. The teleology of rat adaptations for niche fitness via maternal behavior has been demonstrated. Sterling's (2011) allostasis, or predictive homeostasis, is extended to include species-niche(s) interaction(s) that are governed by recursive information feedback loops that function via self-organized criticality (SOC) for species and niche(s). Use of a rat model for biosocial issues in humans is strengthened.

Epigenetic rTOT only covers the species side of the evolutionary unit. Niche(s) require(s) a separate rTOT schematic. The information modeled does not include the entire system producing epigenetic effects but models a substantial portion of it.

Epigenetic rTOT demonstrates the utility of phenotypic plasticity, epigenetics and epigenetic inheritance as explanations for inheritable behavior patterns. rTOT is a useful computational model for evolutionary issues. The issues involved in niche modeling using an rTOT schematic are briefly reviewed.

When the demonstrated epigenetic model of rat genetics and inherited behavior are applied to the issues of immigrant enclaves, epigenetic complications for the difficulties of assimilation into the culture within which the enclaves are embedded become apparent. However, the questions raised must be addressed with extreme care to avoid cultural imperialism. Such cultural issues must be modeled with an rTOT application that covers the materials involved. The limitations of human Learning III restrictions when attempting to model Learning IV issues are addressed. Research into the means by which abuse and trauma are maintained by epigenetic means is urgently needed.

The rTOT schematic visualizes rat maternal behavior and stress epigenetic effects that produce inheritable behavior patterns, which answers Jablonka's (2017) request for new computational modeling representations. The concept of allostasis, or predictive homeostasis, (Sterling, 2011) is extended to the niche(s) of the organism under study so that allostasis becomes a fully cybernetic concept governed by SOC for both the organism and its niche(s). This new case study confirmed evolutionary effects of epigenetics, epigenetic inheritance and phenotypic plasticity. Niche control of organism evolution is presented. Epigenetic applications for immigrant assimilation issues have been suggested and niche dynamic questions have been raised.

Purpose – A study of the origins of socioeconomic complexity at the agropastoral site of Jachakala in the eastern altiplano of Oruro, Bolivia with pre-Tiwanaku and Tiwanaku-contemporary components (ca. AD 150–1100). It uses faunal remains to explore differential access to subsistence resources.

Methodology/approach – Synchronic and diachronic analyses of camelid faunal remains from the multicomponent highland Bolivian site of Jachakala are used to explore access to cuts of meat of variable meat utility value among three areas of the village community. The merits of interzonal analyses, rather than inter-household comparisons, are argued as well.

Findings – Differential access to cuts of camelid meat among residents of Jachakala indicate early and sustained wealth differences beyond those typical of a subsistence-oriented economy. This is significant in part because of the clear absence of political elites at the site who might have controlled or directed resource distributions.

Research limitations/implications – This study suggests the origins of socioeconomic complexity can be divorced from the development of a political elite, providing a comparative case study for archaeologists interested in similar issues elsewhere.

Originality/value – This approach to the origins of complexity focuses not on agricultural resources or control over the production or distribution of craft or exotic trade goods, but rather on animal remains. Using faunal remains as a proxy for wealth, not just protein or pastoralism, this case study contributes to discussions about incipient complexity.

Entrepreneurship by Indigenous people in Canada and Australia, while historically connected to the ancestral lands and traditional practices of Indigenous people, has been evolving and expanding in scope and nature. In this article, the authors aim to offer an integrative framework for capturing the contemporary dynamics and outcomes of entrepreneurship by Indigenous people as they pursue venture creation as part of their broader development aspirations.

Drawing on literature from place-based views of entrepreneurship and social identity theory, the authors develop a typology to account for four modes of entrepreneurship by Indigenous people along two contextual dimensions – Indigenous territory and Indigenous marker.

Indigenous practicing entrepreneurship may choose to conduct business within or outside of traditional lands and demonstrate more or less indigeneity in their business activities as they marshal resources and seek opportunities. The authors identify how these diverse Indigenous businesses contribute to the economic development among Indigenous communities as part of their ongoing struggle to rebuild their “nations” using business.

This article contributes by differentiating sociocultural vs economic resources in noneconomic contexts to develop a theoretical typology of Indigenous entrepreneurship. By detailing the relations between Indigenous territories and Indigenous lands and between Indigenous identity and Indigenous markers, the authors contribute to a more nuanced and practical conceptualization of Indigenous entrepreneurship.