Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Imagery In Nasca Cross-Knit Looped Textiles From The Milwaukee Public Museum, Katherine A. Cianciola

Theses and Dissertations

Textiles associated with the Nasca culture (0-650 C.E.) from Peru’s South Coast have been recognized for their complex and colorful ecological, anthropomorphic, and geometric imagery. Little, however, has been written about their three-dimensional cross-knit looping and embroidery. Cross-knit looping produced three-dimensional figures that were part of an elaborate border on clothing and a style specifically associated with the Nasca (Sawyer 1997:24, 27, 41, 97, 131-132, 136 for example). This thesis focuses on Nasca textiles primarily from the Malcolm K. Whyte (Accession Numbers: 18046 and 20517) collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) and includes three-dimensional cross-knit looping of ecological and …

Squaring The Circle: Talking About Accessibility At Discovery World, Ariel Butler

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, museums have made a concerted effort to consider accessibility and the needs of the broader community in their programming. This thesis analyzes how Discovery World, a science and technology museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, can better accommodate diverse learning styles and disabilities in their 2023 Summer Camp program through a case study of implementation. The thesis analyzes the impact of the plan to improve accessibility and inclusivity in the classroom for children in grades 1-8, focusing on how staff conceptualize the ideal setup and aims to provide valuable insights to enhance inclusivity and accessibility in informal educational settings. …

Dancing Mi Cultura: The Production Of Ethnic And National Identity In Midwestern Mexican-Americans Through The Performance Of Ballet Méxicano Folklórico, Katrina J. Frank

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies how Mexican Americans living in the northwest suburbs of Chicago produce connections to their Mexican heritage and culture through the performance of ballet Mexicano folklórico. Through ethnographic interviews of current and former folklórico dancers, as well as participant observation of adult folklórico dance practices, I contextualize the experiences of the interviewees using the anthropological theories of habitus, continuous and discontinuous selves, double-consciousness, liminality, and collective effervescence, as well as the works of Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, and Frantz Fanon, with the discussion of folklórico as an art, and the concept of institutional use of dance as …

“Artifacts Of Stone And Pottery”: An Analysis Of The Linn Site (Ias U-28) Collection At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Anastasia Tesfaye Demaio

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on an understudied archaeological collection at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) from the Linn Site (IAS U-28) in southern Illinois, acquired in the 1930s. Using archaeological methods and archival research, the research aims to characterize the collection's physical attributes and temporal and period affiliations and to contextualize it. This is accomplished through detailed analyses of ceramics and other materials, as well as comparison with other collections from the Linn Site, demonstrating the value of collections-based research. The significance of the research lies in utilizing unstudied materials as archaeological sites disappear. The research highlights ethical tensions and interpersonal …

Ghost Town Living: Presenting The Past On Youtube, Alannah Ray

Theses and Dissertations

Cerro Gordo is a privately-owned historic mining town in California, and the YouTube channel Ghost Town Living, with over 1.6 million followers, documents the current owner's goal of preserving and restoring the town for visitation. This thesis explores how Cerro Gordo and Ghost Town Living can be understood together through the lenses of museology, digital anthropology, and archaeology. Based on a site visit, analysis of digital media, and interviews with staff and people connected to the site, I explore the intersection between heritage sites and social media, and more widely, changing perceptions of American heritage, including who has the right …

Deconstructing Decapitation In Late Roman Gloucestershire And Oxfordshire, Uk, Shaheen M. Christie

Theses and Dissertations

The Roman conquest in Britain (AD 43) led to significant changes in indigenous settlements and agricultural systems, population diversity, social organization, economic activities, and funerary traditions. Archaeological investigations of burials from the first to fifth centuries AD in Britain have revealed a complex array of burial treatments and attitudes toward the dead, including decapitation burials, which are the most common form of differential burial represented in this period. Traditional interpretations of these burials have included infanticide, punitive execution, trophy taking, fear of the dead, and veneration practices. This project investigates a sample of decapitation burials from Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire dating …

A Paleoethnobotanical Comparison Of Mortuary And Village Langford Tradition Sites In Northern Illinois, Tania Lee Milosavljevic

Theses and Dissertations

Archaeologists working in northern Illinois have conducted research on Langford Tradition (ca AD 1100-1450) sites for more than a century. The last 40 years have seen increasing methodological sophistication providing for a relatively nuanced understanding of food technology and resource use. Paleoethnobotany has provided one way to observe the diversity of plant use among Langford site occupants. Using standard paleoethnobotanical practices, plant macroremain from the Robinson Reserve Site (11CK2) are analyzed. The results of the plant macroremain analysis are then compared to existing floral data from the Washington Irving Site (11K52). This research investigates whether site functionality is distinguishable between …

Life Styles, Death Styles, And Posthumous Portraiture: Elite Female Burials In Iron Age Europe, Emily Ryan Stanton

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the grave good assemblages in 222 burial contexts from HallstattD (c. 600-400 BCE) tumulus cemeteries in west-central Europe to test the hypothesis that certain combinations of grave goods were associated with particular categories of persons based on an intersectional marking of gender, status, age and social role. The primary data set consists of high-status graves – male, female, ungendered/pre-gendered subadults, and those of indeterminate gender – in the Heuneburg interaction sphere in southwest Germany. The results of this analysis are compared to a secondary data set of comparable burials from other west-central European locations, to determine whether …

Visibility And Intervisibility: A Viewshed Analysis Of The Oneota Component Of The Lake Koshkonong Locality, Rebekah Joy Gansemer

Theses and Dissertations

This research was conducted to analyze the visual relationship between Oneota village sites, Late Woodland habitations, and mound sites during a period of time that saw all of these groups living contemporaneously on Lake Koshkonong. My research seeks to not only understand what and who Oneota sites could see on the landscape, but also who might have been able to see them. This research adds to the discussion of Lake Koshkonong Oneota relationships with contemporaneous groups during the 11th-15th centuries.This study focuses on four sites within the Lake Koshkonong Locality that date to the Oneota period: Crescent Bay Hunt Club …

Soul Quest Church Of Mother Earth: Ayahuasca Decriminalization And The Struggle Of An Institution To Become A Church, Tarryl Janik

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the process by which Soul Quest Church of Mother Earth Inc., an ayahuasca church, in Orlando, Florida, seeks to become a legal church in order to be exempted from the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 which classifies DMT, the psychedelic by-product of the boiled ayahuasca vine and chacruna leaf, as an illicit substance. The three-year study charts the process by which Soul Quest undertakes to demonstrate their practice and belief in terms that will conform to the State’s idea of what “church-ness” looks like and how sincere belief should be demonstrated in terms the law will find …

Monitoring Welfare In Captive Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) Using Individual Positional Behavior And Substrate Use Profiles, Joseph Lara

Theses and Dissertations

The welfare of captive chimpanzees partly depends on the structural features present in their enclosure. An individual’s manner of expressing positional behaviors depends on these environmental characteristics and may be reflective of their physical and mental health. This thesis seeks to further the scientific understanding of the relationships between positional behavior, substrate use and captive chimpanzee welfare. In pursuit of this goal, I designed and installed a novel vertical climbing aid onto a climbable platform structure within an enclosure at the chimpanzee sanctuary, Chimp Haven, in an effort to encourage mobility and vertical space use in the enclosure’s residents. Additionally, …

The Role Of Fake And Fraudulent Objects Within The Museum Context: A Case Study Of Tiwanaku Ceramics In The Milwaukee Public Museum Collection, Armando Manresa

Theses and Dissertations

During the 20th century thousands, if not millions, of fake and fraudulent artifacts made their way into museum collections around the world through purchases, donations, and museum exchanges. The growth in Pre-Columbian collections, in particular, was precipitated by the many archaeological discoveries during that time as well as the continued looting of known and unrecorded sites across Latin America. As authentic items flooded the collectors’ market and from there into art and natural history museums, a mass-scale industry in fake and fraudulent artifacts arose to meet the demand. These items were primarily created for tourists, but some artists became so …

The Dehumanizing Violence Index: An Old World/New World Comparison Of Overkill In Archaeological Contexts, Paul Moriarity

Theses and Dissertations

THE DEHUMANIZING VIOLENCE INDEX: AN OLD WORLD/NEW WORLD COMPARISON OF OVERKILL IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXTS

Paul J. Moriarity

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2023Under the Supervision of Professor Bettina Arnold

Extreme forms of violent behavior appear in various cultural contexts throughout human history. This study compares so-called “overkill” sites from the late Central European Neolithic and the Pueblo Period of the American Southwest to develop a systematic approach to distinguishing between the levels of violence exhibited in overkill assemblages, compare and define possible motivations and choices for extreme violent behavior, and determine whether the purposeful use of extreme violence in temporally and …

Entangled Conquest: A Study Of Cultural Hybridization And Change In Norman Ireland, Sean Mcconnel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis employs entanglement theory and new geophysical macro-analytical methods to

examine the spread of Norman culture in late medieval Ireland. The traditional theories of

Anglo-Norman conquest by mass migration, by military conquest, and by political conquest are

reviewed and compared to a more nuanced theory of Normanization, which suggests that

genetically Irish people, who spoke Irish, practiced Irish law, and pursued Irish interests were

primarily responsible for what is considered "Norman" material culture on the Island. This

dissertation presents the idea that adherence to the English king was a necessary and expedient

action on the part of Irish lords …

Let Go And Let God: An Ethnographic Study Of Overeaters Anonymous, Subjectivity, And Extreme Eating Distress, Abby Forster

Theses and Dissertations

Academic discussions regarding eating disorders have been dominated by two frameworks: biomedical and feminist. While the former explains eating disorders as a product of individual pathology, the latter asserts the cause is culture. An aspect of culture that is often suggested is neoliberalism. This ethnographic study utilizes the term “eating distress” to acknowledge the localized idioms that occur outside of the bounds of biomedical settings. The research documents the experiences of many members of Overeaters Anonymous dealing with eating distress within a social context in which their body types are stigmatized. The dissertation examines the relationship between subjectivity, Overeaters Anonymous, …

Virtual Excavations: Digital Repositories, Data Reuse, And Ethically Accessible Archaeology, Allison Lindsey Densmore

Theses and Dissertations

Archaeological investigations produce massive amounts of data, yet these data are often sequestered by the original researchers or put behind paywalls that restrict access to academic publications. This inaccessibility makes it difficult to justify the destructive nature of archaeology. Open-access digital data management systems such as the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) provide archaeologists with new ways to preserve, share, and, most importantly, reuse archaeological data to combat this issue of data sustainability. The goal of this project is to investigate how these digital repositories allow for ethically responsible data access and reuse, thus mitigating the cycle of destruction, hoarding, and …

Differentiating Human From Nonhuman Bone: Insights From A Medical Examiner’S Collection, Kenosha, Wisconsin, Jordan L. Fourshee

Theses and Dissertations

Forensic anthropologists who work in medical examiner’s offices or similar contexts frequently need to differentiate nonhuman from human skeletal or partially decomposed remains. If we, forensic anthropologists, were more aware of which nonhuman bones were most common in such situations, we might be able to improve our training programs. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Kenosha County, southwest Wisconsin, accumulated over 1,940 nonhuman bones over a period of several years, most likely primarily between 2000 and 2005. These are the focus of this thesis, which presents a quantitative analysis of the most frequently encountered taxa and elements. The …

The Caretaking Of Eve Online: Institutional Ethics And Enactments At Ccp Games, Joshua William Rivers

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography examines the Icelandic video game developer CCP Games, the makers of EVE Online—a massively-multiplayer online game (MMO) that takes place in a star cluster far, far away. Through my exploration of CCP Games as an institution over the span of fourteen months, I highlight how corporations are culturally-situated, enacted entities. Simultaneously, I demonstrate that these culturally-located actors who serve as the architects of our digital infrastructures undertake such efforts from their situated vantage points, thereby embedding particular ethical commitments into the digital landscapes they craft and within which we live our social lives. Created with the intent to …

Function And Aesthetic Value: An Analysis Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's Thai Royal Silver Collection, Aislinn Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes 45 objects from the Thai Royal Silver collection currently housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM). Of these, 41 were donated by a single donor, Dr. Louis Schapiro, who collected the objects during his time working as Medical Advisor for the King of Siam in 1931-1932. Following his death, his son Mark held onto the objects until 1969, when they became a part of the MPM’s collection. The chosen objects include boxes, bowls, and other types of vessels. Through researching this collection, the following questions guided the direction for this thesis: How did the silver industry begin …

The Case Of The Benin Bronzes: Exploring Repatriation In U.S. Museums, Kendra Voelz

Theses and Dissertations

The Benin Bronzes are a grouping of an estimated 10,000 works made from brass, ivory, wood, clay, as well as other materials. These objects originated from the royal palace in Benin City, located in present day Nigeria in Africa. Within the last five years, beginning in 2017, discussions surrounding the repatriation of these artifacts from museums around the world have been reignited to a high degree where institutions are actively working towards researching and, in increasing numbers, repatriating the material to Nigeria. Through video and written interviews this thesis examines the thoughts and opinions of 11 professionals in museums across …

Interpreting The Socio-Symbolic Value Of Jet And Amber Artifacts As Markers Of Religious Transformation In Early Christian Britain, Rachel C. Strohl

Theses and Dissertations

During the Medieval period in Britain, changes in the lived materiality of religion aided in the reinforcement of new ideologies. Christian missionaries and foreign invaders introduced new religious structures and cultural paradigms from the Continent that included novel symbolic forms and material markers. In pre-Christian contexts, jet and amber are thought to have been used for religious purposes due to their presumed magical properties, such as burning and generating a static charge. These materials also served as lucrative exports throughout Europe and beyond before the introduction of Christianity. Textual records from the Mediterranean as well as archaeological evidence for the …

The Effects Of Hybridization On Skeletal Morphology In Two Closely Related Populations Of Rhesus Macaques (Macaca Mulatta): A Geometric Morphometric Approach, Cody Zachery Schumacher

Theses and Dissertations

Precise identification and classification techniques are vital for the field of paleoanthropology to ensure that hominin fossilized remains are labeled accurately. The morphology of extinct hominin specimens will typically be compared to extant nonhuman primate species because of how closely related they are phylogenetically. Observable similarities in their morphological variation can be examined to infer which traits may be a result of evolution and this can update our understanding of their evolutionary relationships. The genus Macaca displays a level of morphological variation that is similar to that seen in the genus Homo, therefore macaques can be used as an analogous …

Social Networks And Archaic Foragers In The Western Great Lakes: A Case Study In The Old Copper Complex, Robert Einar Ahlrichs

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents the results of an investigation into the use of social networks by Old Copper Complex Middle and Late Archaic (5000 B.C. to 1000 B.C.) foragers in the western Great Lakes region to distribute copper. The research consists of an application of Social Network Analysis to data derived from two copper assemblages from Wisconsin, one from Lake Nokomis in northern Wisconsin, and the other from Lake Koshkonong in southeast Wisconsin. This dissertation critiques the current model of copper distribution, the Lake Superior Model (LSM), and then constructs a more nuanced model. In order to facilitate these research goals, …

Practice, Community, And Algorithms: How Youtube Creators Learn Through Making, Morgan E. Forbush

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I answer the following questions: How do YouTube content creators learncontent creation through their practice and participation in communities of practice? How do these communities help creators form identity? And, lastly, how do the YouTube’s automated systems shape creators’ practice and impact their identity? To explore these questions, I observed a community of new creators to understand how creators learned about content creation from others. I interviewed 11 YouTube creators that ranged in size of viewership and experience to understand how they personally adapted their content to the platform of YouTube as they create videos. I find …

Two Cemeteries In One: An Historic Archaeological Analysis Of The Cemeteries That Comprise Today’S Liberty Cemetery In Trevor, Wisconsin, Sydne Morgan Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an historic archaeological comparison of the two cemeteries that comprise today’s Liberty Cemetery in Kenosha County, Wisconsin: the Old Cemetery (1844-1883) and the New (1885-1924). Salem, Wisconsin’s first settlers arrived in the 1830s, and shortly thereafter some began burying their dead at a place called Liberty Corners. The burial grounds continued to grow, and within a few years, the church across the street began overseeing it. The church transferred the graveyard to a private organization in 1884, and that group mixed a new cemetery—called Liberty Cemetery—into the same grounds as the old one. This thesis compares these …

Incipient Games: Restoring The Past Through Play In Historical Reenactment, Luke Konkol

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an ethnography of an historical reenactment group which stewards a living history village portraying the nineteenth-century “Wisconsin frontier.” It analyzes productions from improvisations, to scripted vignettes, to a “whodunit” mystery game. Across their practice, reenactors are met with a host of challenges including ‘authenticity,’ balancing constructionism and objectivism, visitor engagement, educating the public, and the bleeding together of period techniques and modern thinking. Such challenges push against the boundaries of analyzing the project of reenactment (or larger social life) as theatre. Given terms like “play-acting” and “role-playing” in the space of reenactment, this thesis examines this phenomenon …

"Making God's Love Manifest": American Expressions And Productions Of Charisma In Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi's Global Following, Karen Margaret Esche-Eiff

Theses and Dissertations

While situating it in a changing American religious landscape marked by increasing participation in metaphysical religion, this dissertation examines the appeal of contemporary Indian godperson, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma), to Americans. Although replete with portraits of individual Indian spiritual leaders’ charisma, the anthropology of religion literature seldom addresses the processes whereby such figures’ charisma gets produced. Drawing on thirteen months of multi-sited ethnographic research conducted between 2015-2016, this dissertation uses Max Weber’s theory of charisma to answer the following questions: what extraordinary capacity do American devotees attribute to Amma; what is the process whereby they and she co-produce this …

Geostatistical Perspectives On Recuay Mortuary Landscapes In Highland Peru, Dominic Greenlee

Theses and Dissertations

The Recuay lived in the highlands of Peru from AD 250-700. Their customs and traditions were divided into regionally distinct styles of material culture. As the Moche (AD 200-900) emerged along the coast of Peru, the Recuay engaged them in long distance trade, culture exchange, and likely conflict. Towards the end of the Recuay sequence, they were overshadowed by the Wari (AD 600-1000) beginning with the adoption of chullpa style tombs and ending with the full adoption and integration of the Wari cultural bundle in Ancash. This thesis uses published data from the Callejón de Huaylas, specifically from the Río …

Oneota Lithic Economy And Tool Function At The Schmeling Site (47je833) In Southeastern Wisconsin, Megan Catherine Harding

Theses and Dissertations

The perceived homogeneity of Oneota lithic assemblages has often provided a challenge for archaeologists to extrapolate broader conclusions about Oneota tool economies beyond their preference for speed and efficiency. Using standardized methods, lithic materials recovered from the 2006 and 2008 excavations at the Schmeling site (47JE833) are examined to determine if the lithic economy is indicative of day-to-day activity or reflects a particular cultural function like that of a mortuary precinct. The results of this analysis are then contrasted against the Crescent Bay Hunt Club site (47JE0904), Koshkonong Creek Village site (47JE0379), and the Carcajou Point site (47JE0002) to examine …

Care In Crisis: The Ethical, Affective, And Subjective Worlds Of Homeless Service Providers In A Us City, Todd Jonathan Ebling

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the ethical, affective, and subjective worlds of homeless service providers in a US city. While ample studies have been conducted that focus on homeless populations in the United States, very little ethnographic research has been undertaken that focuses on those who interact most with homeless populations—workers in the homeless service sector. Drawing on fifteen months of ethnographic research and forty interviews with staff conducted in 2017 and 2018, I examine the work of care and the complex experiences that workers faced in their attempts to provide care for homeless clients at a nonprofit homeless shelter for men …