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Multisensory Experiences In Archaeological Landscapes—Sound, Vision, And Movement In Gis And Virtual Reality, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kristy Primeau,, David E. E. Witt, Graham Goodwin

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Archaeologists are employing a variety of digital tools to develop new methodological frameworks that combine computational and experiential approaches which is leading to new multisensory research. In this article, we explore vision, sound, and movement at the ancient Maya city of Copan from a multisensory and multiscalar perspective bridging concepts and approaches from different archaeological paradigms. Our methods and interpretations employ theory-inspired variables from proxemics and semiotics to develop a methodological framework that combines computation with sensory perception. Using GIS, 3D, and acoustic tools we create multisensory experiences in VR with spatial sound using an immersive headset (Oculus Rift) and …

Disrupted Identities And Forced Nomads: A Post-Disaster Legacy Of Neocolonialism In The Island Of Barbuda, Lesser Antilles, Sophia Perdikaris, Rebecca Boger, Edith Gonzalez, Emira Ibrahimpašić, Jennifer D. Adams

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

In the aftermath of the forced evacuation of the island of Barbuda due to Hurricane Irma, the Barbudan people have experienced an exile and return to a ‘new’ geographical, political, and economic context, albeit on the same island. With the specter of climate change and the potential impacts on island communities and nations, we use Barbuda, sister island of Antigua in the Lesser Antilles, to examine the trajectory of nomadic identities as they navigate changes that threaten contemporary land relationships and culture. Since its first permanent settlement in the 17th Century, the island geography of Barbuda has been fundamental to …

Science At Engineer Cantonment, Hugh H. Genoways, Brett C. Ratcliffe, Carl R. Falk, Thomas E. Labedz, Paul R. Picha, John R. Bozell

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Conclusions

It is our contention that Thomas Say, Titian Peale, Edwin James, and their colleagues of the Stephen Long Expedition of 1819–1820 were heavily engaged in scientific research, which took the form of the first biodiversity inventory undertaken in the United States. This accomplishment has been overlooked both by biologists and historians, but it should rank among the most significant accomplishments of the expedition. The results of this inventory continue to inform us today about environmental, faunal, and floral changes along the Missouri River in an area that is known to be an ecotone between the deciduous forests of the …

3d Tool Evaluation And Workflow For An Ecological Approach To Visualizing Ancient Socio-Environmental Landscapes: A Case Study From Copan, Honduras, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Shona Sanford-Long, Jack Kerby-Miller

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Architectural reconstructions are the centerpieces of ancient landscape visualization. When present, vegetation is relegated to the background, resulting in underutilized plant data—an integral data source for archaeological interpretation—thus limiting the capacity to take advantage of 3D visualization for studying ancient socio-environmental dynamics. Our long-term objective is to develop methods of 3D landscape visualization that have value for examining changes in land use and settlement patterns. To begin to work toward this objective, we have (1) identified 3D tools and techniques for vegetation modeling and landscape visualization, (2) evaluated the pros and cons of these tools, (3) investigated biological and ecological …

Parochlus Kiefferi (Garrett, 1925) In Nebraska (Diptera: Chironomidae), Barbara Hayford

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

A rare species of nonbiting aquatic midge, Parochlus kiefferi (Garrett, 1925), was discovered in Squaw Creek in the Pine Ridge of northwest Nebraska. Parochlus is a genus of midge found throughout the Southern Hemisphere and is only represented by this one species in the Northern Hemisphere. The typical North American species distribution of P. kiefferi includes high alpine and northern latitude streams, so the collection of P. kiefferi from a low elevation and low-latitude stream in Nebraska represents a range extension for the species. A survey for P. kiefferi from 83 samples from 53 stream sites in northern Nebraska yielded …

Health And Fertility Implications Related To Seasonal Changes In Kidney Fat Index Of White-Tailed Jackrabbits In South Dakota, Dustin Schaible, Charles D. Dieter

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

White-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii) populations in the Northern Plains have been in a general decline for the past decade or longer. A suggested reason for this population decline was reduced body condition of individual jackrabbits due to habitat changes. In order to evaluate body condition, we determined the kidney fat index of 314 white-tailed jackrabbits harvested in 44 counties throughout South Dakota. We removed and weighed kidneys and all perirenal fat associated with the kidneys from collected jackrabbits. We measured kidney weight to determine times of high metabolic activity as indicated by an increase in mass. Body condition was …

Editing Eden, Frank Hutchins, Patrick C. Wilson

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Recent scholarship on the Amazon has challenged depictions of the region that emphasize its natural exuberance or represent its residents as historically isolated peoples stoically resisting challenges from powerful global forces. The contributors to this volume follow this lead by situating the discussion of the Amazon and its inhabitants at the intersections of identity politics, debates about socioeconomic sovereignty, and processes of place making. Editing Eden focuses on case studies from Amazonian Brazil, Colombia, and Ecuador regarding the themes of indigeneity, community making, development politics, and the transcendence of indigenous/nonindigenous divides. Portraits of the Amazon emerge through an analysis of …

Toward A Strategy For The Conservation And Protection Of The World’S Temperate Grasslands, William D. Henwood

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Temperate grasslands are one of the world’s great biomes and were once home to some of the largest assemblages of wildlife the earth has ever known. Today these grasslands are considered the most altered terrestrial ecosystem on the planet and are recognized as the most endangered ecosystem on most continents. While species and habitat declines continue, temperate grasslands have the lowest level of protection of the world’s 14 biomes. With only 4% of the biome under protected status, considerable effort will be required to increase this level of protection. Several international bodies have suggested that achieving at least a 10% …

Redefining The Dust Bowl Region Via Popular Perception And Geotechnology, Jess C. Porter, G. Allen Finchum

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The Dust Bowl is a historical vernacular region that has been delimited by a diverse group of academics, literary authors, and popular cultural voices. However, the general public’s perception of the Dust Bowl region has not been mapped and analyzed. This research queried residents of 93 Great Plains counties in order to ascertain their perceptions and knowledge of the vernacular Dust Bowl region. Analysis of the responses via the application of geographic information system mapping reveals striking differences between respondents of varying age and place of residence. Findings suggest that spatial understanding of the Dust Bowl phenomena is eroding among …

An Environmental Biography Of Bde Ihanke-Lake Andes: History, Science, And Sovereignty Converge With Tribal, State, And Federal Power On The Yankton Sioux Reservation In South Dakota, 1858-1959, David Nesheim

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Lake Andes sits at the center of the Yankton Sioux Reservation in south-central South Dakota and might be described as a prairie pothole, except it encompasses nearly 5,000 acres when full of water, stretching twelve miles long by a mile to a mile and a half wide in a quasi-crescent shape. Originally carved out by a receding glacier during the Wisconsin glaciations, for its entire history the lake has gone dry during low precipitation -- a cycle interrupted after the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) commissioned several artesian wells beginning in 1896. As the lake expanded, the U.S. Fish Commission …

Stoking A White Backlash: Race, Violence, And Yellow Journalism In Omaha, 1919, Nicolas Swiercek

James A. Rawley Graduate Conference in the Humanities

The “Red Summer of 1919” marked the nadir of interracial violence that characterized urban America during the post-World War I era. Of the more than twenty-five cities that experienced so-called “race riots” that year, Omaha, Nebraska on 28 September 1919 witnessed a vigilante mob of white youth and adults numbering in the thousands destroy the county courthouse, attempt to lynch Omaha’s mayor, and brutally execute an African American man named William Brown. The violence in Omaha and places as disparate as Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Longview, Texas occurred in communities coping with dramatic internal migrations, urban spatial tension, job competition, …

Cattle, Environment, And Economic Change: A History Of Cherry County, Nebraska’S Cattle Industry, From Earliest Times To 1940, Gail Lorna Didonato

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

A modern cattle industry in Cherry County, Nebraska, developed as challenges of land use and pressures of economic change demanded new and flexible adaptation to the unique environment. Located in the Sandhills, a region only opened to legal white settlement after Indian removal in 1878, the area passed through phases of occupation. Open-range cattlemen drawn by lucrative local markets gave way to struggles over land use between farmers and ranchers. Early twentieth century legislation, the 1904 Kinkaid Act, designed to promote farm settlement, in the end, benefited ranchers the most. As the wedge to gain legal access to land ownership, …

Bibliography Of The University Of Nebraska Studies, Marilyn Irene Planer

Papers from the University Studies series (University of Nebraska)

In this the Centennial Year of the University of Nebraska, it seems appropriate to present a bibliography of the University's Studies series, which was initiated in 1888. Works issued from that date through 1941 comprised the "Old Series"; they were identified by volume and number and by month and year of publication.

publication. Eighteen Studies in Language, Literature and Criticism were printed between 1917 and 1940, four Studies in the Humanities between 1941 and 1945, and two Studies in Science and Technology in 1941 and 1942. The "New Series," which began in 1946, continues to this day on an irregular …

An Ecological Study Of Timberline And Alpine Areas, Mount Lincoln, Park County, Colorado, Irving H. Blake, Abigail K. Blake

Papers from the University Studies series (University of Nebraska)

During the short alpine growing season of 1945 the authors had the opportunity of studying conditions and biota on Mount Lincoln, Park County, Colorado, in an attempt to evaluate the ecological conditions and animal communities of the area. Of the large amount of taxonomic and ecological zoology published on the state, most has been in the field of autecology, and, except in the province of aquatic studies, little has appeared bearing on synecological relations, especially among invertebrates. The marked differences between the physiography, climatology, and biology of timberline, alpine, and other stations seemed to offer a field well worthy of …

Sociological Studies Of The Alpine Vegetation On Long Peak, Walter Kiener

Papers from the University Studies series (University of Nebraska)

General. On this continent no investigation is on record that had for its purpose the structural study of a whole unit complex of alpine vegetation. From Colorado several works are available that treat of the problem in part only. There was very little in the available literature on the biology, structure, and floristic composition of the complete vegetation when the writer, as a ranger for the United States National Park Service, was stationed for five summers on a ranger station located in the alpine zone facing Longs Peak. A desire to increase the knowledge of alpine vegetation led to this …

Ecological Study Of The Weed Population Of Eastern Nebraska, Elva L. Norris

Papers from the University Studies series (University of Nebraska)

EXACT knowledge of the relations existing between weeds and cultivated crops is very limited. This is true also of the amount of viable weed seed present in arable soil. Impressions and observations have been recorded, but very few quantitative investigations have been made. The numerous circulars and bulletins about weeds, issued by many experiment stations, deal mostly with descriptions of species and methods of weed control. The present research was undertaken primarily to determine the relationship which exists between weeds and cultivated crops, but also to obtain an estimation of the number of viable weed seeds present in the soil. …

On A New Subspecies Of Otter From Nebraska, Myron Harmon Swenk

Papers from the University Studies series (University of Nebraska)

Formerly otters were very common along all of our Nebraska streams. In the winter of 1819-20 they were found frequently on the Missouri river and tributary streams near Engineer Cantonment (north of Omaha), as reported by Edwin James, that botanist and geologist of the Major S.H. Long Expedition. At Fort Kearny, Nebraska, on July 5, 1856, W.S. Wood with Lieut. F.T. Bryan's survey party obtained a young female otter which is now Cat. No. 1877 (skin) and 2575 (skull) of the U.S. National Museum. Otters were also extensively and persistently trapped by the early trappers and Indians, and due to …