Aug 2013, IAAH conference: Dittus & Gunathilake call to align the management of Sri Lanka’s heritage sites with ancient cultural values and UNESCO policy

The following presentation was delivered at the International Conference on Asian Art, Culture and Heritage organized in collaboration with the International Association for Asian Heritage (IAAH) and the Sri Lanka Ministry of Culture and the Arts,    held from 21st to 23rd of August 2013

Section:   Trends in Heritage Management, Museology and Tourism

Title:  A call to align the management of Sri Lanka’s heritage sites with ancient cultural values and UNESCO policy

Authors:  Wolfgang Dittus, Ph. D.1,2,3  and  Sunil Gunathilake3

Authors’ Institutional Affiliations:

1 Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC,  USA

2 National Institute of Fundamental Studies, Sri Lanka

3 Association for the Conservation of Primate Diversity, Polonnaruwa

ABSTRACT:

The preservation of Sri Lanka ancient cultural heritage would benefit from a more balanced distribution of emphasis in management and conservation among the different elements that constitute this heritage.  The elements of the ancient civilization includes not only (a) the  physical remnants of monuments and artifacts, (b) the tanks and irrigation systems, but also (c) the  living forest gardens, and the natural  environment that buttressed the quality of ancient life.  Currently, most archaeological attention and resources are focused on the reconstruction and preservation of ancient stone monuments, infrastructural modernization and tourist management.  The ancient cultural heritage, however, extends far beyond monuments.

Forest gardens, for example, were an integral part of the ancient civilizations of South Asia.  In Sri Lanka, historical evidence for their existence is widespread being associated with at least 27 sites, the most prominent are known from Sigiriya, Mihintale, Sithulpawa. Rithigala and Polonnaruwa.   Their antiquity in Sri Lanka goes back to at least  King Mutasiva’s period ( 307-247 BC) (Mahavamsa: Geiger 1912), and […]

Nov 2013: In the American Journal of Physical Anthropology Dr. Dittus considers changes in the anatomical distribution of body fat that were critical in the evolution from arboreal monkeys to terrestrial hominids.

Dittus, WPJ (2013).  Arboral adaptations of body fat in wild toque macaques (Macaca sinica) and the evolution of adiposity in primates. American Journal of Physical  Anthropology 152:333-344.
Abstract
There is a paucity of information on body composition and fat patterning in wild nonhuman primates.  Dissected adipose tissue from wild toque macaques (Macaca sinica) (WTM), feeding on a natural diet, accounted for 2.1 % of body weight.  This was far less than fatness reported for nonhuman primates raised in captivity or for contemporary humans.  In WTM, fatness increased with age and diet richness, but did not differ by sex.  In WTM (none of which were obese) intra-abdominal fat filled first, and “excess” fat was stored peripherally in a ratio of about 6:1. Intermuscular fat was minimal (0.1%).  The superficial paunch held <15% of subcutaneous fat weight in contrast to its much larger proportions in obese humans and captive monkeys where most added fat accumulates subcutaneously.  With increasing total adiposity, accumulating fat shifted in its distribution among 8 different main internal and peripheral deposit areas – consistent with maintaining body balance and a low center of gravity.   The available data suggest that, in arboreal primates, adaptations for agile locomotion and terminal branch feeding set constraints on the quantity and distribution of fat.  The absence of a higher percentage of body fat in females and neonates (as are typical of humans) suggests that arboreal adaptations preclude the development of fat-dependent, large-brained infants and the adipose-rich mothers needed to sustain them. The lifestyle and body composition of wild primates represent a […]