Takumi TSUTAYA Assistant Professor

E-mail:
Lab web site: https://sites.google.com/view/anthr/
Google Scholar Citations: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=ja&user=7QGRI8wAAAAJ
ResearchMap: https://researchmap.jp/tsutatsuta/

Biological anthropology, Primatology, Bioarchaeology

We all live one life, and each of us has a story to tell. If you were born as a hunter-gatherer in the Jomon period or a chimpanzee in the rainforest, how would you have been born, grown up, had children or not, and died? I have reconstructed the lived experiences of such “we” (Homo sapiens and evolutionarily related species). Furthermore, I have been investigating the impact of differences in socio-cultural and natural environments on the lived experiences of individuals and how such differences affect evolution and social situations over a long time frame.

Specifically, I apply stable isotope analysis to biological samples to reconstruct diet, breastfeeding and weaning patterns, and habitat, and proteomic analysis to reconstruct physiological conditions, species and body tissues from which samples were derived, to investigate lived experience of past humans and extant primates. I am also developing analytical methods for this purpose. Research on the lives of non-human vertebrates and sociological interviews with modern humans have also been done. My scientific approaches range from the field to the lab. For example, I am participating in excavations and wildlife studies to collect samples and data, analyzing the samples in the laboratory, and using computers to analyze data and develop programs to build mathematical models.

My research has focused on reconstructing past breastfeeding and weaning practices in Japan from the Jomon to the Edo period (bioarchaeology), analyzing the diet of wild chimpanzees and orangutans (primate ecology), and examining the conflict between evolutionary traits and socio-cultural environments on modern human child-rearing practices (mismatch between culture and biology).

takumi_tsutaya

Papers and publications

  1. Tsutaya T. (in press).
    Blurred time resolution of tooth dentin serial section.
    Journal of Physical Anthropology. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24113.
  2. Tsutaya T, Meaghan M, Koenig C, Sato T, Weber AW, Kato H, Olsen JV, Cappellini E. (2019).
    Palaeoproteomic identification of breast milk protein residues from the archaeological skeletal remains of a neonatal dog.
    Scientific Reports 9: 12841.
  3. Tsutaya T, Shimatani K, Yoneda M, Abe M, Nagaoka T. (2019).
    Societal perceptions and lived experience: infant feeding practices in premodern Japan.
    American Journal of Physical Anthropology 170: 484–495.
  4. Tsutaya T, Yoneda M. (2015).
    Reconstruction of breastfeeding and weaning practices using stable isotope and trace element analyses: a review.
    Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 156: 2–21.
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