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Dr. Janz’s research focuses on long-term cultural changes among hunter-gatherers in northern latitudes and arid environments, with an emphasis on human-animal relationships, palaeoecology, and technology. Her field research in Mongolia broadly addresses the changing environments and lifeways of East Asian hunter-gatherers from the Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age, particularly how these changes have impacted community human-animal relationships. Ongoing projects include studying possible wild cattle management in the far eastern steppes of Mongolia, as well as investigating ostrich ecology in the context of post-glacial megafaunal extinctions, particularly the role of climate change in human diet approximately 8500 years ago. Recent discoveries include evidence of ritual treatment of extinct megafauna such as woolly rhinos and giant elk at a 25-30,000-year-old habitation site, the use of domesticated dogs by settled big-game hunters and herders, and local production of carnelian beads in the Gobi Desert, which was once thought to be imported from South Asia.
Department of Sociology