Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Diet, Size, And Phylogeny On Primate Dental Proportions, Rudolph J. Wilkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is generally appreciated that there is a relationship between the relative size of the incisors, mandible length, and diet in primates. More specifically, the differences in relative incisor size among primate species are believed to be evolutionary adaptations to their use during food processing and acquisition. While this satisfactorily explains relatively large incisors, it fails to address the relatively small incisor size seen in many taxa. One hypothesis is that there is a trade-off between molar size and incisor size in species with relatively short mandibles. The following study uses two-way ANOVA to evaluate the possibility that spatial constraint …

Increasing Accessibility For Hard-To-Reach Cultural Heritage Sites Using Low-Cost Drone Photogrammetry, Eray Can

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

New recording technologies have ushered in a transformative era in archaeological research, with drone photogrammetry emerging as a pioneering tool in this field. This innovative approach leverages unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with high-resolution cameras to capture precise aerial imagery of archaeological sites. Drone photogrammetry offers numerous advantages, such as cost-efficiency, rapid data collection, and the ability to access remote or challenging terrain. By seamlessly integrating photogrammetric techniques, these technologies offer archaeologists the ability to create highly detailed 3D models. This study delves into the principles and applications of low-cost drone photogrammetry in archaeology, highlighting its potential to enhance site …

Where One Puts Wood On The Fire: The Political Economy Of P’Urépecha Urban Neighborhoods At The Site Of Angamuco, Michoacán, Kyle Ryan Urquhart

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to understand the political and economic relationships in the organization and use of neighborhood public space at the archaeological site of Angamuco in Michoacán, Mexico. Ethnohistoric sources describe multiple distinct social classes for the P’urépecha people at the time of European contact, but they are ambiguous about the exact political and economic relationships among them. There is some description of how these different interest groups articulated at the level of the city-state, but there is not much information on the internal dynamics of neighborhood or district-level subdivisions of the city-state. The discovery of the remains of a …

Spatial Layout At Isgrig: A Menard Complex Site In The Lower Arkansas River Valley, Noelle King

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Late Mississippian sites in the Lower Arkansas River Valley, or Menard Complex sites, are not well understood especially as they relate to the larger question of Mississippian response to colonial contact. In this thesis, I will explore how the Menard Complex manifests at Isgrig (3PU0015), a site located on the Arkansas River south of Little Rock. I will examine the spatial layout of the site and use ceramic analysis to understand if the site changed significantly over time. Finally, I will compare Isgrig with other Menard Sites in the Lower Arkansas Valley to understand regional trends in site function during …

Understanding The Environmental And Genetic Influence On Fluctuating Asymmetry And Developmental Instability In Primates, Ashly N. Romero

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explored the impact of environmental factors on the development and perpetuation of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) and sought to understand the role evolution may play in the FA exhibited in two primate populations: the free-ranging Cayo Santiago rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) and the Southwest National Primate Research Center olive baboons (Papio hamadryas anubis). Demographic, ontogenetic, secular, external, and genetic factors were examined. Specifically, this dissertation investigated FA over all ontogenetic stages, across decades, between sexes, in association with ecological catastrophes, and with tooth pathology to try and tease apart factors that may influence FA and developmental instability. This dissertation …

Holocaust Education In Arkansas: An Exploration Of Policy Process And Implementation, Toby Lauren Wagner Klein

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Holocaust was the attempted extermination of the Jewish people--a fact previously considered to be common knowledge. However, recent national surveys find that Arkansas students have the lowest levels of knowledge of the Holocaust in the United States. A recent law mandated the teaching of the Holocaust for 5-12th grade public school students in Arkansas, however, little is known about the policy process and implementation of such a mandate. Given the magnitude of the gaps in the literature on this topic, this dissertation uses a three article format to address specific gaps and make specific contributions to the literature by …

Dental Microwear Of Miocene Primates From The Turkana Basin Of Northern Kenya, Leah K. Myerholtz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Comprehending the dietary patterns of Turkana Basin primates from the late Paleogene and early Neogene can contextualize the role of food choice in the evolution of higher primates in Africa. Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA) quantifies wear on the enamel of a tooth and can be used as a proxy to infer aspects of a taxon’s diet in the past. DMTA can provide insight into what specific animals in the past ate, rather than what they were capable of eating, and by extension, reflect food availability related to habitat preferences or environmental fluctuation. Here, primates from six Oligocene through Pliocene …

Gender Neutral Parenting: Raising A Generation Outside The Gender Binary, Toni Noelle Martinez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, the social and cultural reality remains organized around the gender binary. The binary legitimizes itself on the widely held belief that gender is determined by biology and, therefore, is “natural.” By exploring and firmly placing gender as a cultural construct, this thesis looks at the possibilities of fracturing the binary. Borrowing from Stephan Hirschauer (1994) and Judith Butler’s (2004), this thesis theorizes what a gender neutral world could look like and examines how Gender Neutral Parents contribute toward a gender revolution. Gender Neutral Parents, a community that is mostly found online, represent a small group that …

Hallucinogenic Neoshamanism As Antimodernism: Development And Ethical Considerations, Ethan Thompson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Humans have been using hallucinogenic plants and fungi for thousands of years. Historically, people around the world have made use of these substances to aid in their spiritual development. Studies of the usage of hallucinogens in indigenous societies often use the term “shamanism” to characterize the associated system of belief and ritual practices. In popular understanding, shamanism is a religious system that features highly ritualized performances in which a practitioner (shaman) utilizes an altered state of consciousness to gain access to realms inhabited by spirits with the intent of recruiting their help to resolve a problem, cure a patient, correct …

Reconstructing Bison And Mammoth Migration During The Late Pleistocene And Early Holocene Of Central Texas Using Strontium Isotopes, Joshua John Porter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the Late Pleistocene (LP; past 130,000 years), over two-thirds of large mammal (>45kg) species went extinct globally. While the role of humans is hotly debated, the effect of these extinctions is growing clearer; the extinctions resulted in widespread and lasting faunal community reorganization. However, the impact of these extinctions on dietary and migratory behavior within faunal communities is unknown. Our study examines the impact of the megafaunal extinctions on the dietary and migratory behavior of surviving Bison individuals in Texas using carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotopes. Strontium isotopes are incorporated into mammalian enamel during their tooth development and …

Investigating The Mechanics And Chemistry Of Sickle Polish Development, Justin Jared Dubois

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This series of experiments is designed to understand the development and chemistry of sickle gloss. Sickles are common in the archaeological record and have long been studied for their eponymous “sickle gloss”. There is debate as to how this gloss is formed. Five experimental sickles containing flint and novaculite blades were used to harvest high and low moisture content rye and common fescue and associated field weeds. The differences in the development of sickle gloss were examined. High moisture content plants create thick, smooth fields of polish with undulating, billowing margins at a higher developmental speed. Low moisture content plants …

Tooth Crown Morphology And Testosterone Transfer In Female Members Of Opposite-Sex Dizygotic Twin Pairs, Randall Feezell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The twin testosterone transfer (TTT) hypothesis posits that females gestated with male co-twins develop more masculine phenotypes due to in-utero androgen exposure. Research has shown co-gestational effects to be associated with increased deciduous and permanent tooth size in females belonging to opposite-sex dizygotic twin pairs (OSF) as compared with females belonging to same-sex monozygotic (MZF) and dizygotic (SSF) twin pairs and female siblings. This study evaluates whether the TTT hypothesis explains patterns of dental morphological variation, namely differences between OSF and other females (SSF, MZF, female siblings) in a contemporary sample that includes both deciduous and permanent data. This work …

Canine Microwear In Relation To Diet In Sumatran Primates And African Great Apes, Putu Pujiantari

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers canine microwear in relation to diet in five Sumatran primates (Pongo abelii, Hylobates lar, Hylobates agilis, Presbytis thomasi, and Macaca fascicularis) and two African great apes (Pan paniscus and Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) using both microwear texture analysis and microwear feature analysis techniques. Statistical results for texture analysis show that there are significant differences in scale of maximum and heterogeneity. This indicates that some species have large pits on their canine surfaces, having these dominated by deep features at coarse scale yet have a slight microwear heterogeneity. For feature analysis, all variables show statistically significant variation. Variance in …

An Assessment Of The Neurovascular Structures Of The Trigeminal Nerve And Their Relationship To Diet In Primates, Caitlin Yoakum

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) enters the mandible via the mental foramen, supplies nervous sensation to the mandibular teeth as it travels through the mandibular canal, and exits the mandibular foramen to send information to the brain to maintain chewing cycles and protect the teeth from damage. Although bony canals and foramina have been shown to form around soft-tissue structures, there are some examples (e.g., the hypoglossal nerve/canal) where the nervous structures do not comprise most of the canal/foramina space. It is important to know the size of nerves because it has been established that larger nerves convey more information …

Investigating Depth Estimation To Archaeological Magnetic Source Bodies, Jeremy G. Menzer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Magnetometry is the most widely applied archaeo-geophysical technique. Current practice standards employ the technique to map only in a two-dimensional plan view fashion, but in deep geologic studies depth estimators are routinely applied to magnetic datasets. These estimators provide three-dimensional information to magnetic source-bodies. There are many different depth estimators employed in geologic study that all require various degrees of processing complexity. This study investigates two mathematically simple techniques, half-width rules and multi-height methods. Half-width rules are likely the oldest depth estimators within the field while multi-height techniques are but a minor footnote in the literature. The applicability of these …

Designing Digital Antiquity: Classical Archaeology In New Virtual Applications, William Loder

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I argue that the combination of existing archaeological theory with game design theory offers an innovative avenue for creating serious 3D applications of archaeological sites in virtual reality that can be productively used for pedagogical, research, and outreach solutions. In this thesis, I engage with the archaeological theories of phenomenology and sensory studies, briefly touching on structure and agency as well as discussion of some current digital applications in use in the field. For this project, I am interested in game design theory as it relates to education and I view Virtual Reality as an important tool …

Analyzing The Mediating Effects Of Social Capital And Sense Of Community Between International Student’S College Sports Fan Identification And Acculturation, Kibaek Kim

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to the number provided by the International Institute of Education (IIE), there are over one million international students enrolled in the United States. Although the number of international students is increasing, the incremental rate started to decrease after reaching its peak in the 2017-2018 academic year. While previous studies focused on the role of leisure activities, such as physical activity participation, to analyze how international students can receive social support from their communities to better acculturate in the U.S., this study focused on the role of spectator sports on providing social support and its effect on international student’s acculturation. …

Mvskoke-Nene Momis Komet Yvkvpvkkeyetos/We Keep Walking The Mvskoke Path: A Reflexive And Phenomenological Ethnographic Study Of The Ceremonial Beliefs And Practices Of A Modern Mvskoke Community In Florida, Christopher B. Bolfing

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an ethnographic investigation of the intersection between cosmology, worldview, ethnoecology, and traditional religious performance, particularly in terms of the relationship between subjective experience and intersubjectivity. It is a study of how people come to understand the world – an attempt to understand understanding. I explore the acquisition of social, cultural, and ecological knowledge through participation in the traditional religious ceremonialism of a Mvskoke ceremonial community, called the Busk. I write about living people and living religious traditions, but I am also a member of this community and, therefore, I am also telling my own story. Reflexivity, then, …

Caring Against The Carceral: How Families Mediate The Social Death Of Incarceration, Jessica Claire

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Incarceration, especially in the United States, is deeply related to issues of racism, poverty, and citizenship. These particular experiences are the result of a history of biopolitical control affecting Black and brown communities and have a quintessential origin in enslavement. Those who are incarcerated are isolated, dishonored, and powerless as a result of the criminalization of race and poverty. These observations led to questions surrounding the particular impact families may have on the experiences of those who are incarcerated. Families of Incarcerated Loved ones, or FOILs, mediate incarceration through intentional socialization which has the potential to counteract the realities of …

A 3-Dimensional Approach To Projectile Point Classification, Kayden Dennis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Typologies have long been used by archaeologists to answer questions about the past, ranging from issues of site chronology to tool function. However, current methods are hampered by subjective misclassifications as well as a loss of the range of variability among different tool forms due to a process that forces them into singular types. This thesis looks to create a simple and reliable technique of projectile point classification. It is also the author’s goal to use a classification system that monitors cultural transmission over time. This objective is addressed with an Archaic projectile point sequence from the Albertson site in …

Geospatial Analysis Of Registered Sex Offenders: A Case Study From Pulaski County, Arkansas, Maggie Rose Bridges

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this case study was to analyze the spatial distribution patterns of the residences of registered sex offenders in Pulaski County, Arkansas to determine the impact of state enforced residence restrictions. Density and clustering factors were used to identify census tracts of the study area with high and low concentrations of offenders. These zones were then compared to identify which characteristics were similar and dissimilar between high and low concentration zones. The results indicate that there is a non-random distribution of registered sex offenders in the study area. The findings also indicate that the residence restrictions placed on …

Social Acceleration In The Marketplace: Three Essays Exploring The Intersection Of Culture And Consumption, Sarah Grace

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Consumer culture is fast. Goods, services, people, ideas, and values – the material and nonmaterial aspects of culture – are moving more quickly throughout the marketing system than ever before. Such acceleration effects diverse stakeholders: people, public, and planet. This dissertation explores the phenomenon of ‘social acceleration’, and specifically, the ‘acceleration of the pace of life’ which examines the feeling that time is going faster in modern societies as a result of “the increase of action episodes per unit of time” (Rosa 2013, 80). This project develops an understanding of how meanings in marketing are socially constructed in relation to …

Born-Again On Sundays: Exploring Narratives Of Belief And Performances In A Belizean Methodist Church, Katharine Serio

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

If you are only at church services on Sunday and do not actively practice your religious faith every day, are you “born again” every day? Reverend Rebecca Lewis of Wesley Methodist Church in a small town in Belize preaches active participation in the church and encourages her congregation to attend all religious events, pray rigorously, and read the Bible actively, but how does the congregation listen to her and react to her sermons? “Born-Again on Sundays” is an ethnographic account that draws on anthropological theories of belief and vernacular religion, performance and narrative, and poverty and reflexivity to explore the …

Under The Radar: The Everyday Resistance Of Anarchist Punks In Bandung, Indonesia, Steve Moog

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Amidst a current resurgence of hypernationalism across the globe, resistance movements and counterhegemonic ideologies are becoming increasingly visible and more common elements of broader socio-political discourses. While high-profile protests have ignited public interest in resistance movements—turning relatively unknown groups such as Antifa and Black Bloc into household names—little attention has been paid to the behind-the-scenes networks undergirding many of these organizations. Translocal do-it-yourself (DIY) punk rock networks are spaces in which alternative and subversive ideologies are enacted through the everyday implementation of anarchist philosophies and DIY ethics. Here, ‘under the radar’ modes of resistance are found in the lived realities, …

Lay Latitude: Latter-Day Saint Women's Agency In Northwest Arkansas, Andrew Tompkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The question of women’s agency in gender-traditional religions has been the subject of much scholarly attention over the past four decades, but little research has been done focusing specifically on Latter-day Saint women and their identities and roles within the structure and practice of the Church. In popular media representations, Latter-Day Saint women are often depicted as submissive or surviving, either powerless pawns or resistant warriors. However, many Latter-day Saint women find fulfillment and empowerment within and because of, rather than outside or in spite of, the institutional Church. In this thesis, I explore women’s agency in Northwest Arkansas’ Greendale …

An Isotopic Assessment Of Late Prehistoric Interregional Warfare In The Southcentral Us, John R. Samuelsen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Skull burials are found all over the world. The cause of such ancient Native Americans deposits often lead to disagreement among scholars torn between warfare and ancestor veneration. One skull-and-mandible deposit, representing at least 352 people (A.D. 1253-1399), was uncovered at the Crenshaw site, a multiple-mound Caddo ceremonial center in southwest Arkansas. Most previous research suggested they were victims of interregional warfare from the Southern Plains or Mississippi Valley. One previous study hypothesized that this was a Caddo burial practice which expanded during the Middle Caddo period (A.D. 1200-1500) due to the adoption of maize as a staple and a …

Death On The Horizon: Osteoethnography Of The People Of Akhetaten, Alissa Michelle Bandy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to define and implement osteoethnography. Osteoethnography is the analysis and description of an ancient culture through the bioarchaeological and archaeological evidence, utilizing cultural anthropological theories and techniques. An osteoethnographic narrative is presented in this dissertation, which describes the embodied lives of the people of the 18th Dynasty Egyptian city of Akhetaten, now known as Amarna, founded in 1355 B.C.E. by the Pharaoh Akhenaten. Osteoethnography looks at how people are shaped by and shape their environment, how culture impacts health, and how culture informs the lives of its practioners. Osteoethnography employs life course theory, and …

Archive And Repertoire Of The Esala Perahera Performance In Sri Lanka, Hashintha Jayasinghe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the archive and the repertoire of the Esala Perahera in Sri Lanka and charts the ideological and cultural implications of the performance. The archival analysis begins with the interrogation of the historical chronicles and the recorded history of the performance in the Sinhala and English texts. Thereafter, travel literature and the dissemination of cultural knowledge on the Perahera are discussed. The study of the repertoire and the photographic archive explores key performances in the Esala Perahera in 2016 and 2017. Postcolonial theory, theories on cultural anthropology, and performance theory are used to analyze the archive and the …

Dynamics Of Land Use, Environment, And Social Organization In The Sasanian Landscape Of Eastern Iraq—Western Iran, Mitra Panahipour

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding human-environment interactions has been one of the main challenges in archaeological studies over recent years. Past research on the Near Eastern territorial empires in general, and the Sasanian Empire in particular, primarily emphasized the dominant role of human on landscape transformation. In addition, politically centralized schemes such as agricultural intensification and expansion of water supply systems have been at the center of most of the discussions and remained the main hypothesis of the Sasanian land use practices.

This dissertation investigates population’s diverse responses to environmental variability during the Sasanian period (224-651 CE) across a landscape in eastern Iraq—western Iran. …

The Archaeology Of Mississippian Vulnerability And Resilience In The New Madrid Seismic Zone, Michelle Megan Rathgaber

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work examines the vulnerability and resilience of Mississippian people in the Central Mississippi Valley to the large-scale New Madrid seismic zone earthquakes of the late15th to early 16th century. This is done using the theory of eventful archaeology/anthropology to look at cultural materials both before and after an event (such as an earthquake and sand blows) to look for evidence of changes to the schema and resources on which a society relies. If changes are present, the event can be labeled as such, if there are no changes, it means that the society affected did not see the event …