Digital Commons Network^™

A Comparison Of Human Decomposition In An Indoor And An Outdoor Environment, Genevieve T. Ritchie

Masters Theses

In the medicolegal context, forensic anthropologists assist investigators by gathering information from skeletal remains. While humans decompose in both indoor and outdoor environments, little research has been performed on the differences in the decomposition rate and process between subjects in an indoor environment and subjects in an outdoor environment. Limited accessibility to appropriate facilities for a comparison study between indoor and outdoor decomposition rates has prevented such research from being attempted. Documented through daily notes and photographs, six human subjects were observed from the fresh to the end of the bloat stages of decomposition. Three subjects were placed in an …

A Test Of The Transition Analysis Method For Estimation Of Age-At-Death In Adult Human Skeletal Remains, Jonathan D. Bethard

Masters Theses

Physical anthropologists and bioarchaeologists often seek to generate biological profiles of individuals represented by skeletal remains. One particularly informative component of the biological profile is skeletal age-at-death. Age-at-death estimation is vital to numerous contexts in both paleodemography and forensic anthropology. Throughout the history of the discipline, numerous authors have published methods for adult age-at-death estimation. These methods have proved invaluable, but they are not free from error. As a result, workers have continually worked to improve the methodological toolkit for estimating age-at-death.

In June of 1999, researchers gathered in Rostock, Germany for the sole purpose of evaluating and testing age-at-death …

Biological, Linguistic, And Cultural Variation Among 19Th Century Plains Indians, Brad Jamison

Masters Theses

In this study I have examined relationships between biological, linguistic and cultural patterns of variability among 19^th Century Indian groups of the American Great Plains. Through this research I have sought to address Cavalli-Sforza et al.’s (1994) call for studies regarding cultural and biological correlation and also to partially assess their methodology of equating linguistic relationships with biologically influential, ethnic boundaries. I have constructed biological, linguistic, and cultural distance matrices, based on the Boas database of anthropometric measurements, Ruhlen’s (1976) and Campbell’s (1997) linguistic taxonomies, and Murdock’s (1967) Ethnographic Atlas, respectively. Furthermore, I constructed a geographic distance matrix …

The Impacts Of Deforestation On Drum Making In Ghana, West Africa, Erin Rae Eldridge

Masters Theses

For decades, musicians from all over the world have been studying the music and rhythms of West Africa. Although some literature exists on the construction of rhythmic instruments, very little research has examined the impacts of environmental change on instrument making processes. This thesis represents an ethnographic investigation of the impacts of deforestation on drum making in Ghana, West Africa.

Research on this topic was conducted during the summer of 2003 in the Volta, Eastern, and the Northern Regions of Ghana. The research methods included participant observation, formal and informal interviews, botanical methods for plant identification, and literature searches. Informed …

Patterns Of Traumatic Injury In Historic African And African American Populations, Christina Nicole Brooks

Masters Theses

For my master’s thesis project titled, “Patterns of Traumatic Injury in Historic African and African American Populations,” I examined trauma incidence in American slave and free populations. The objectives of this study were (1) to present frequency and distribution analysis of injuries in each sample, (2) to create cross tabulations to show similarities and differences in each site and compare these results to between, (3) interpret the frequency and distribution of injuries from a cultural aspect, to better understand the violence and physical demands endured by American slaves and freeborn African American. Most of the skeletal samples used in this …

'It's Not Catching': Hansen Home And The Local Knowledge Of Leprosy In The Federation Of St. Kitts And Nevis, West Indies, Nancy R. Anderson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to document the ethnohistory of the leprosarium Hansen Home and to examine the local knowledge ofleprosy in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. Kittitians often responded to questions about leprosy in 2000 with the statement "it's not catching." In 2002, the research goal was to address leprosy from a Kittitian vantage point. Through the lens of anthropological inquiry, archival materials were examined and a variety of stories were gathered about Hansen Home and the local knowledge of leprosy. The latter task was accomplished with ethnographic techniques, particularly semi-structured interviews. The accounts collected were …

Estimating The Postmortem Interval In Freshwater Environments, Billie Lee Seet

Masters Theses

Forensic investigators often deal with human remains recovered from water. Estimating the time since death for bodies that have been submerged in water can be quite difficult because there is a lack of data on the subject. This preliminary study was intended to provide additional data through the use of record research. Autopsy reports containing cases in which human remains were recovered from bodies of freshwater were used. Thirty-one variables were collected from each report in a present/absent context. Nine of the variables were then used in logistic regression analyses in order to measure their relationship to time in water. …

Dna Degradation And Postmortem Interval: Preliminary Observations And Methods, Rebecca Roberts Anderson

Masters Theses

As deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) research advances, anthropologists are finding more ways to use this technology to their advantage. Establishing postmortem interval (PMI) is a primary goal of forensic anthropology. It is known that DNA degrades, or breaks down, after an organism dies. Although several researchers have studied DNA degradation, few have focused on DNA’s rate of decay in relation to time. In this project, degradation was examined in blood using both a controlled atmosphere and exposure to environmental and substrate effects.
This study was intended to gather information on PMI, using DNA degradation as a measure of time. Based on …

Deciphering Dearmond Mound (40re12): The Ceramic Analysis Of An East Tennessee Mississippian Center, Shannon Douglas Koerner

Masters Theses

The DeArmond mound (40RE12) was initially excavated by WPA investigator John Alden and crew between February 1940 and March 1941 before being inundated by the Watts Bar dam in January of 1942. The site included a pyramidal earthen mound with an adjacent village. The mound was excavated in stratigraphic levels, with cultural material separated by building stages.

The ceramic collection from this excavation is used in a study of Mississippian temporal and spatial variation within the eastern Tennessee Valley. The collection is comprised of 22,826 pottery sherds and an additional 22 partial, reconstructed, or whole vessels. Morphological and stylistic analyses …

The Health Status Of Early 20th Century Blacks From The Providence Baptist Church Cemetery (40sy619) In Shelby County, Tennessee, Rebecca J. Wilson

Masters Theses

Paleopathological investigations of health are an important component in the construction of a population’s history. Such studies make possible analyses regarding Black health in the late 19^{th and early 20th centuries, a time period where the availability of relevant and objective literature is limited. Also, these investigations permit a comparison between similar populations to determine the extent to which the demographic, social, economic, and political conditions of this time period affect a specific population.}

This study compares the Providence Baptist Church cemetery in Shelby County, Tennessee to two contemporary historic Black cemeteries in order to address an urban versus …

Transportation And Transformations: An Archaeological And Historical Study Of The Mcbrearty Site (40kn270) And Carriage Houses In The North Knoxville Area, Greta Jill Gomez

Masters Theses

The McBrearty site is located on the northeast corner of West Glenwood and East Scott Avenues in Old North Knoxville, an area of the city that developed as part of the incorporated city of North Knoxville in 1889. Situated on the site is the McBrearty home, a Victorian Queen Anne Cottage built in 1892, and the architectural remains of a carriage house located at the rear of the property. While the McBrearty house has undergone few architectural changes since its construction, all that remains of the carriage house are thirteen brick piers protruding from the earth in the rear yard. …