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Burned But Not Forgotten: Foodways Analysis Of Cooking Spaces From The First Kitchen On Thomas Jefferson’S Monticello Plantation, Peggy Marie Humes
Burned But Not Forgotten: Foodways Analysis Of Cooking Spaces From The First Kitchen On Thomas Jefferson’S Monticello Plantation, Peggy Marie Humes
Masters Theses
This thesis research evaluates the macrobotanical assemblage identified in soil samples from contexts collected throughout the South Pavilion kitchen space (44AB089) at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello plantation in Charlottesville, Virginia. My primary research objectives strive to establish what types of plant remains are represented in soil samples recovered from three stratigraphically assigned temporal periods in this late eighteenth-century kitchen space. As the first kitchen at Monticello, where enslaved cooks prepared meals influenced by African American and French dishes for the Jefferson family until 1809, this site can help better establish an understanding of the cultural foodways and dishes within this time …
Using Fiber-Optic Reflectance Spectroscopy (Fors) To Identify Human Decomposition Fluid Characteristics In Plant Leaves And Soil, Anielle Duncan
Using Fiber-Optic Reflectance Spectroscopy (Fors) To Identify Human Decomposition Fluid Characteristics In Plant Leaves And Soil, Anielle Duncan
Masters Theses
Anthropologists may be asked by law enforcement or family members to assist in the search for missing deceased individuals. The search areas are often in harsh, rugged terrain for which some technologies, such as ground penetrating radar, cannot be used. Fiber-optic reflectance spectroscopy (FORS) is a portable instrument that can collect information on plants and soil in the surrounding environment, even in austere environments. This study aimed to test whether FORS could be used to identify decomposition fluid in nearby plants and soil in the visible near-infrared (VNIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectral regions. Using FORS to analyze the spectral …
Urbanization On The Landscape Of The Old City: An Archaeological Investigation Of Site 40kn223 In Knoxville, Tennessee, Garrett B. Wamack
Urbanization On The Landscape Of The Old City: An Archaeological Investigation Of Site 40kn223 In Knoxville, Tennessee, Garrett B. Wamack
Masters Theses
In this thesis, I examine the effects of urbanization on the landscape and the people who lived upon it at archaeological site 40KN223 within the Old City in Knoxville, Tennessee. This landscape analysis focuses particularly on the decades from 1850 to 1920 during the birth and growth of the Old City. Amid the rising tides of commercialization, industrialization, and the flood-prone waters of First Creek, residents established a working-class neighborhood on the fringe of a substantial African American community. I examine this neighborhood and the transformation of its immediate landscape to understand how urbanization impacted its transformation, to learn who …
Creating And Implementing Strategies For Nrhp Eligibility Assessment At The Fort Polk Military Reservation, Matthew Thomas Hoover
Creating And Implementing Strategies For Nrhp Eligibility Assessment At The Fort Polk Military Reservation, Matthew Thomas Hoover
Masters Theses
Large U.S. military installations, such as Fort Polk military reservation in south-central Louisiana, have for decades been the sites of cultural resource management (CRM) investigations, primarily due to the corpus of federal legislation developed to protect archaeological resources. These projects have yielded massive amounts of material and geospatial data and allowed researchers to develop sophisticated methodologies for analyzing site distribution, lithic tool manufacture, and many other avenues of inquiry. However, the cultural chronology represented on Fort Polk is still not well understood, and as a result assignation of National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)significance to sites on Fort Polk has …
Anthropology In A Rural Archive: A Study That Moves Along And Against The Archival Grain, Julian W. Mcdaniel
Anthropology In A Rural Archive: A Study That Moves Along And Against The Archival Grain, Julian W. Mcdaniel
Masters Theses
Anthropologists have long engaged with archival materials in order to provide historically accurate information that might assist in the production of ethnographic projects. Archives are unique institutions where historical data can be found that contributes valuable information about particular groups of people; however, archives themselves are again and again being controlled by a higher power, particularly that of the State, and this act of ownership contributes to acts of omission that misconstrue historical narratives as well as descriptions of the people and places depicted within an archive. In this project, I engage with an archive located in a rural town …
A Handy Study Of Secular Change In Metacarpals Using The Terry Collection And Utk Donated Skeletal Collection, Helen E. Martin
A Handy Study Of Secular Change In Metacarpals Using The Terry Collection And Utk Donated Skeletal Collection, Helen E. Martin
Masters Theses
Hand morphology reflects an individual’s physical interaction with the world around them. Technological innovation, improved nutrition and health, changes levels of physical activity, and other environmental factors provoke secular change in skeletal morphology. This study elaborates on previous secular change research that has documented the narrowing of the American skeletal form in recent American history, and it contributes new information to this field by focusing on metacarpals. By utilizing a dataset comprising individuals from the Robert J. Terry Collection (N=213) and adults from the UTK Donated Skeletal Collection (N=180), this study examines metacarpal morphology for secular change over a 170-year …
Dental Calculus: Future In Forensics, Emily Elgin
Dental Calculus: Future In Forensics, Emily Elgin
Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects
No abstract provided.
Comparison Of Male And Female Rib Sternal Ends And The Effects Of Aging Using Elliptical Fourier Analysis, Marta M. Paulson
Comparison Of Male And Female Rib Sternal Ends And The Effects Of Aging Using Elliptical Fourier Analysis, Marta M. Paulson
Masters Theses
Sex and age make up two of the main tenets of the biological profile. Most anthropologists would argue that sex is one of the most important aspects of the profile. When creating a biological profile, the first step is to estimate sex of the individual because this can affect age estimation using the os coxa or estimations of stature. Past studies have noted that even though ribs carry out the same function in males and females there are morphological differences that can affect age estimation using the ribs. This study uses Elliptical Fourier analysis to compare differences in overall shape …
Intra-Skeletal Variation In Stable Isotopes Through Non-Destructive Approaches: Applications Of The Patterns Of Skeletal Remodeling To Biological Anthropology, Armando Anzellini
Intra-Skeletal Variation In Stable Isotopes Through Non-Destructive Approaches: Applications Of The Patterns Of Skeletal Remodeling To Biological Anthropology, Armando Anzellini
Doctoral Dissertations
Stable isotope analysis is a well-established method in biological anthropology used to deliver data on residence, diet, and life history. Samples for these analyses are often collected from the diaphyses of long bones with an assumption of an expected rate of turnover between five and ten years, depending on the skeletal element. However, the biological foundations of this assumption are still uncertain, especially concerning the intra-skeletal and intra-element variation of isotopic signatures that may relate to patterns of remodeling. Exploring these gaps in intra-element isotopic variation requires fine-grained work using multiple bones from multiple individuals, but such work is limited …
Morbidity, Mortality, And Marginalization: An Intersectional Investigation Of Respiratory Stress And Differential Frailty In Industrial-Era England, Derek A. Boyd
Doctoral Dissertations
Respiratory disease affects more than one billion people today, particularly in urbanizing areas of low- and middle-income countries due to overcrowding, air pollution, poor sanitation, and differential access to life-sustaining resources. We can look to the past to understand the social, economic, and environmental factors that influence respiratory disease burden among urban dwellers because conditions in the urbanizing areas of antiquity mimic those observed in lower- and middle-income countries today. This study explored the impact of classism, sexism, and regional inequalities on respiratory disease burden among urban dwellers with differing levels of social and economic marginalization in England during the …
Sphenoidal Sinuses And Spherical Harmonics: Variation And Covariation Of The Most Morphologically Diverse And Least Understood Paranasal Sinus, Katharine Grace Josephine Ryan
Sphenoidal Sinuses And Spherical Harmonics: Variation And Covariation Of The Most Morphologically Diverse And Least Understood Paranasal Sinus, Katharine Grace Josephine Ryan
Doctoral Dissertations
Understanding the shape variation of the human sphenoidal sinus is important to several areas of research. This includes clinical investigation (sinus pathology and safe endoscopic endonasal surgical practice) and paranasal sinus evolution (for which there is still no consensus). Yet, the sphenoidal sinus has high morphological variation, prohibiting its quantification through traditional geometric morphometric landmarking methods. The sphenoid body, and thus also the sinus contained within, is located directly at the developmental center of the basicranium in humans, where the three cranial fossae meet at the midline, and adjacent to the three synchondroses which are the sites of cranial base …
Body Size Interactions With Pubic Symphysis Age-At-Death Estimation: A Critical Analysis Of Senescence Of The Pubic Symphysis Components, Elizabeth A. Ronald
Body Size Interactions With Pubic Symphysis Age-At-Death Estimation: A Critical Analysis Of Senescence Of The Pubic Symphysis Components, Elizabeth A. Ronald
Masters Theses
Biological anthropologists struggle with accuracy and precision during age-at-death estimation when attempting to correlate biological age with chronological age, especially in older adults. Research has shown that intrinsic and extrinsic factors can cause this discrepancy. Anthropologists have recently found that body size may affect age-at-death estimation, with larger individuals being more commonly overaged and smaller individuals being underaged (Merritt, 2019; Wescott and Drew, 2015). This study elaborates on previous work in three ways. First, by applying Hartnett’s (2010) pubic symphysis phase method as the age-at-death estimation method used, which has not been assessed for body size interactions and is likely …
A Study Comparing “Better Body Bags” Versus Standard White Body Bags To Estimate Relative Preservation Of Human Genomic And Morphological Information, Serena A. Thariath
A Study Comparing “Better Body Bags” Versus Standard White Body Bags To Estimate Relative Preservation Of Human Genomic And Morphological Information, Serena A. Thariath
Masters Theses
In disaster scenarios, identification of the dead usually is delayed until after help is given to the living. During delays in recovery and transport of deceased individuals, decomposition of soft tissues will occur at a fast rate if individuals are not refrigerated. The Better Body Bag, or BBB, was designed for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with features such as a vacuum seal, reflective coating, and absorbent pad to help delay the onset of decomposition that could render someone unidentifiable. In this study, the BBB was tested to determine if the individuals placed within a BBB yielded …
Ischiopubic Index: A Metric Approach To Estimating Sex In The Pelvic Region, Tripoli G. Mulvihill
Ischiopubic Index: A Metric Approach To Estimating Sex In The Pelvic Region, Tripoli G. Mulvihill
Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects
No abstract provided.
The Rhythm Of The Land: Women’S Use Of Plants During The Pigeon Phase Of Magic Waters (31jk291) In Cherokee, North Carolina, Kelly Dean Santana
The Rhythm Of The Land: Women’S Use Of Plants During The Pigeon Phase Of Magic Waters (31jk291) In Cherokee, North Carolina, Kelly Dean Santana
Masters Theses
This thesis focuses on the paleoethnobotanical remains of the Pigeon phase village component of the Magic Waters site, 31JK291. The Pigeon phase represented the early Middle Woodland period in the western North Carolina region and spans from approximately 200 BC to AD 200, situated in between the earlier Swannanoa phase (1000 BC to 200 BC) and the later Connestee phase (AD 200 to AD 800; Ward and Davis 1999). The site of Magic Waters is located adjacent to Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Hotel in Cherokee, Jackson County, North Carolina, among the Blue Ridge ecoregion of the Appalachian Summit. The site …
Secular Change In Croatian Male Crania: 1812-1973, Ileana Ilas
Secular Change In Croatian Male Crania: 1812-1973, Ileana Ilas
Masters Theses
The study of secular change is the study of changes that have taken place in the human body during recent centuries. Although changes that affect populations are generally understood to occur over many centuries and millennia, anthropological studies have shown that population changes have occurred in the last two centuries, over a relatively small time period comprising a mere two hundred years. Biological anthropologists in particular are interested in how the human skeleton has changed in recent history, whether in the limbs, the torso, or the cranium. Changes have been observed in all areas of the skeleton, and these changes …
Curvilinear Fractures In Burned Remains: An Assessment Of The Relationship Between Fracture Convexity And Fire Directionality, Kimber G. Cheek
Curvilinear Fractures In Burned Remains: An Assessment Of The Relationship Between Fracture Convexity And Fire Directionality, Kimber G. Cheek
Masters Theses
Burned remains present a challenge for forensic anthropologists due to the variable nature of fires, the unique way fires impact remains, and the impact of heat changes on the analysis of the remains. A topic of extensive study is the fracture patterns seen in burned remains. Curvilinear fractures are one type of fracture that was originally discussed in the context of studying the preburned state of remains (Baby, 1954; Binford, 1963; Buikstra and Swegle, 1989). These fractures are thought to be created through the kinetic energy generated as muscles shrink and pull on the periosteum, fracturing the bone below (Symes …
Exchange And Social Interaction In The Tennessee River Valley: A Geospatial Approach To The Analysis Of Late Archaic Archaeological Sites, Justin S. Bailey
Exchange And Social Interaction In The Tennessee River Valley: A Geospatial Approach To The Analysis Of Late Archaic Archaeological Sites, Justin S. Bailey
Masters Theses
The cultural manifestation known as the Shell Mound Archaic persisted in the lower Midwest and Midsouth region of the Eastern United States for over four millennia beginning in the Middle Archaic ca. 8900 cal BP and terminating at the end of the Late Archaic ca 3200 cal BP. A geospatial approach is applied to the analysis of exotic material exchange of the Late Archaic (ca. 5800-3200 cal BP) to assess how foraging peoples in the Tennessee River Valley interacted and persisted during this time. Exotic material items manufactured from copper, marine shell, steatite, and other nonlocal materials demonstrate distinct spatial …
An Analysis Of Mincer's Method And Ut-Age, Sarah Hartman
An Analysis Of Mincer's Method And Ut-Age, Sarah Hartman
Masters Theses
Third molars have the most developmental variation of all human dentition, yet Mincer’s method and the computer program UT-Age use third molars to estimate the age of migrants crossing the U.S. border. Most migrants subjected to dental exams are classified as Hispanic. However, the term and reference samples used to estimate age do not account for the possible population variation that the term “Hispanic” can encompass. Additionally, third molar reference samples do not address the possible influence of impaction on third molar development. The objective of this study is to assess the effects of various sources of third molar variation …
No Tunes Chime Amidst The Bones: A Zooarchaeological Analysis Of Saltpeter Cave (3nw29), An Ozarchaic Bluffshelter In Northwest Arkansas, Nathanael G. Fosaaen
No Tunes Chime Amidst The Bones: A Zooarchaeological Analysis Of Saltpeter Cave (3nw29), An Ozarchaic Bluffshelter In Northwest Arkansas, Nathanael G. Fosaaen
Masters Theses
The Southeastern Ozarks region is a karst limestone environment featuring many sheltered sites, including Saltpeter Cave in Newton County, Arkansas. Early and Middle Archaic components of this site assemblage contain abundant faunal materials that illustrate how Ozarchaic peoples modified their subsistence strategies to accommodate significant climate change that began ~10,000 years ago. I have employed several quantitative techniques, including, density-mediated attrition analysis, diet breadth models, and bone fragmentation patterns to investigate the hunting and trapping practices at this southern Ozarchaic site. I have also employed small mammal representation and correspondence analysis using datasets from Dust Cave, Modoc Rock Shelter, and …
Simulating Fluvial Transport Patterns Of Human Remains In The Tennessee River, Karli Palmer
Simulating Fluvial Transport Patterns Of Human Remains In The Tennessee River, Karli Palmer
Masters Theses
Law enforcement and search and recovery personnel often encounter difficulties when trying to determine where to find a decedent within an aquatic environment. Drowning, boating accidents, and other water related deaths are not uncommon. However, expensive equipment such as sonar and remote operated vehicles, or specially trained rescue divers are often required when searching for remains. Due to both public health and ethical concerns, there is a lack of controlled studies on aquatic decomposition and fluvial transport of human remains, which has contributed to the difficulty of predicting where remains in the water may be located. The purpose of this …
An Archaeological Study Of Pit Cellars And Ethnic Identity In Tennessee, Daniel Whitaker Howard Brock
An Archaeological Study Of Pit Cellars And Ethnic Identity In Tennessee, Daniel Whitaker Howard Brock
Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation examines pit cellars in Tennessee. Pit cellars are pits excavated into the ground typically underneath historic structures and are often referred to as subfloor pits, root cellars, or hidey holes. Archaeologists believe these pits were generally used for the storage of food or personal items and can provide valuable household-level information normally not obtained from other features. These pits were usually filled quickly after their use and often contain artifacts which provide data on diet, personal space, kinship, gender, race, ethnicity, class, spiritual beliefs, and the conditions of slavery. Pit cellars were also regularly constructed by their users …
Standing Their Ground: Resisting Black Erasure In Knoxville, Tn Through The Citizens Cemetery Project, Tatianna Griffin
Standing Their Ground: Resisting Black Erasure In Knoxville, Tn Through The Citizens Cemetery Project, Tatianna Griffin
Masters Theses
In this thesis, I examine ongoing efforts by Knoxville, Tennessee’s Black community to resist the erasure of their history and sense of place through community and volunteer efforts to reclaim and restore Good Citizens (Citizens) Cemetery. Citizens Cemetery is Knoxville’s oldest Black cemetery, interring nearly six thousand enslaved Africans and their descendants, but today is severely dilapidated due to decades of neglect. Through this project, I explore how framing volunteer opportunities as a critical service-learning program and how Black community efforts to reclaim and restore Citizens combat erasure of Knoxville’s Black community’s history and sense of place. I also explore …
Infrastructures Of Trust And Care In Latin American Migrant Communities, Lily Hardwig
Infrastructures Of Trust And Care In Latin American Migrant Communities, Lily Hardwig
Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects
No abstract provided.
“And They Wrote It All Down As The Progress Of Man”: Relationships Between Environment, Extractive Industries, And Appalachian Agency, Emma V. Kelly
“And They Wrote It All Down As The Progress Of Man”: Relationships Between Environment, Extractive Industries, And Appalachian Agency, Emma V. Kelly
Masters Theses
The landscape of Central Appalachia has shaped and been shaped by its residents for thousands of years. The advent of industrialized extractive industries greatly shifted the nature and the extent of these processes, with capitalistic domination being asserted over the environment. While this shift towards industrialization was a widespread phenomenon, it undertook a unique trajectory within Appalachia, a region which occupies a distinct position within the national perspective. Although geographically established by the Appalachian Regional Commission, Appalachia is more than a politically defined set of counties: It is an incredibly diverse sociocultural region that exists on varying planes of marginalization …
Assessing Multiple Lines Of Evidence For Gene Flow In Archaeological Contexts, Angela Marie Mallard
Assessing Multiple Lines Of Evidence For Gene Flow In Archaeological Contexts, Angela Marie Mallard
Doctoral Dissertations
This multi-study dissertation assesses the ability of two skeletal analysis methods—a model-bound quantitative genetic method (Relethford-Blangero) and a model-free biological distance method (Mahalanobis’ D2)—to evaluate gene flow in the U.S. Southwest and Northwest Mexico based on archaeological models. The first study uses dental metric data from the Sonoran Desert and Mogollon Rim (c. 1600 B.C. to A.D. 1450) to pilot the Relethford-Blangero method in this context. Notably, the method shows that populations from two large sites have less than expected dental variance, failing to support a gene flow event despite material culture pointing to at least two coexisting …
Chemical Elemental Analysis Using Portable X-Ray Fluorescence As A Means Of Sorting Commingled Human Remains, Matthew Mikal Davis
Chemical Elemental Analysis Using Portable X-Ray Fluorescence As A Means Of Sorting Commingled Human Remains, Matthew Mikal Davis
Masters Theses
Anthropological analyses include the examination of individual skeletal elements to estimate the biological profile of an unknown individual (age, sex, stature, and ancestry). Commingled human remains (the remains of multiple individuals mixed together) present a significant challenge to these analyses. Commingled skeletal elements may appear similar in size and color, making visual determinations of which bones belong to a certain person insufficient to ensure accurate sorting. Furthermore, when remains are fragmentary as well as commingled, it is more complicated to re-associate each element with a single individual. Traditional methods of sorting commingled remains include pair matching, osteometrics, taphonomic assessment, and …
Queering Disasters: Embodied Crises In Post-Harvey Houston, Thomas T. Tran
Queering Disasters: Embodied Crises In Post-Harvey Houston, Thomas T. Tran
Masters Theses
This project addresses how neoliberal expansion complicates disaster recovery for queer communities in an urban context looking specifically at how disasters, disease, and marginalization operate as interlocking systems of oppression for queer people in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. This research draws upon anthropological studies of disasters, urban studies, critical medical anthropology, and queer theory to employ a queer political ecology that combines understandings of disasters and diseases as socio-political and ecological phenomena with queerness as a set of culturally constructed vulnerabilities that carry embodied effects. Starting from the understanding that disasters more heavily impact groups that already …
Exploring The Fourth Reality: Cultural Anthropologists' Reflections On Expert Witnessing For Asylum Cases, Mary Ruth Wossum-Fisher
Exploring The Fourth Reality: Cultural Anthropologists' Reflections On Expert Witnessing For Asylum Cases, Mary Ruth Wossum-Fisher
Masters Theses
This thesis seeks to contribute to the small but growing literature on anthropology and expert witnessing by conducting ethnographic research with anthropologists who have worked as expert witnesses. The goal of this project is to illuminate how anthropologists reflect on the production of knowledge, ethics, and their identity in the realm of expert witnessing. Through twelve online questionnaires and six follow-up interviews, this research discusses how ten anthropologists and two political scientists conceived of the “Fourth Reality,” or “the reflexive awareness of the expert witness as an expert witness” (Phillips 2017: 42) throughout the asylum process. This thesis covers: 1) …
Queer Spaces, Religious Places: Sharing Risk And Making Kin Within A Queer Church Amidst A Pandemic, Sadie V. Counts
Queer Spaces, Religious Places: Sharing Risk And Making Kin Within A Queer Church Amidst A Pandemic, Sadie V. Counts
Masters Theses
This thesis aims to explore the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic on a queer, Christian congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church in Knoxville, TN and the impacts of the pandemic queer kinship and intimacy within the church setting. The thesis explores the ways in which queer kinship manifests within the church and how those relationships have been disrupted and altered by COVID. It also compares the long-term effects of the AIDS epidemic on the church congregation and they ways in which they may be experiencing COVID in a similar manner. Finally, the project explores the ways that intimacy has …