Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Historical Ecology Of Aridland Springs In Desert National Wildlife Refuge, Nuwu/Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute/Chemehuevi) Ancestral Territory, Nevada, Yarrow Sarah Valentine Geggus

Dissertations and Theses

Aridland springs are among the most threatened ecosystems in the world. Vital to desert ecologies and Indigenous cultures, these complex and individualistic ecosystems have layered histories. To inform management in the changing landscape of Desert National Wildlife Refuge, a 1.6 million acre protected area in Southern Nevada, I conducted a historical ecology study of a sample of ten upland springs. Through a six-part interdisciplinary methodology including interviews, archaeological survey, botanical survey, and archival research, I summarize findings into three broad eras: the Nuwu/Nuwuvi pre-Contact Era, the Settler Era, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Era.

For millennia, Nuwu/Nuwuvi drank …

Grandmotherhood In Ukraine: Behavioral Variation And Evolutionary Implications, Sofiya Shreyer

Masters Theses

Grandmothers are known to increase the health and well-being of their grandchildren in many different populations. However, grandmothers may vary in their contributions based on their relatedness to their grandchildren. In some populations, maternal grandmothers decrease the risk of mortality and increase the health of their grandchildren more than paternal grandmothers. Grandmaternal influence also sometimes varies based on the gender of the grandchild. The behavioral mechanisms of grandmaternal investment are not well understood and have not been explored in the heavily intergenerational context of Eastern Europe. This study examines the behavioral variation of sixty-two Ukrainian grandmothers through interviews and a …

The Gay Men Who Play With Their Hiv Status., Matthew I. Euzarraga

Capstones

• Since the 90’s a group of individuals known as Bug Chasers, predominately gay men have been playing a game of cat and mouse actively wanting to be caught and infected with HIV. This is a dive into the world of bug chasing.

An Interdisciplinary Analysis Of Health Equity As Evaluated Through The Covid-19 Response Concerning French-Speaking Refugees., Margaret Henning

Honors Theses

A collaborative approach is needed to understand the multifaceted medical bias and inequalities experienced by refugee camps of Francophone (French-speaking) nations. A combination of interest and passion for anthropology, medicine, and the French language presents a unique window of intersectionality to analyze this issue. Through a comprehensive review of literature published in both English and French languages, and connections with directors and leaders of refugee camps located in France and French-speaking African nations, we have elucidated a few examples of alarming medical bias experienced by both refugees and migrants. Although an exhaustive list of medical bias could be presented on …

How Palestinian Aid Organizations Adapt To The Possibility Of Further Annexation And Rights Abuses In The Wake Of "The Deal Of The Century", Nadia L. Wiggins

Capstone Collection

This research explores the question, “To what extent has the ‘Deal of the Century’ impacted Palestinian aid organizations, and how might it impact them in the future?” The significance of this question lies in the fact that the “Deal of the Century” claims to solve one of the longest and most complex conflicts, yet it has not been sufficiently analyzed from a Palestinian perspective nor a humanitarian perspective. Furthermore, by presenting scholarly critiques of the deal and aid worker’s concerns, my hope is that an American audience may be convinced of the complicity of our government in devising a failed …

“Space For All?”: An Analysis Of Race, Gender, And Society In The Cult Classic Doctor Who., Liron Sussman

Honors Theses

Much like the Doctor, people are constantly growing and evolving, and it is out of a desire for human connection that people strive, always, to improve and as a long-running television program, Doctor Who reflects that desire for connection. This analysis explores race, gender, and society as portrayed in the modern series of Doctor Who (2005-).

Alcohol Bottles At Fort Snelling: A Study Of American Military Culture In The 19th Century, Katherine Gaubatz

Culminating Projects in Cultural Resource Management

The goal of this research was to explore the theme of alcohol as a social status marker within the realm of the American military frontier in the early to mid-1800s. The study was done as a comparison between the drinking habits of the officers and the enlisted men throughout the occupancy of the selected fort during the 1800s. While glass bottles and alcohol are both extensively studied subjects in anthropology and archaeology, there is a gap in the shape of alcohol’s use as a social status marker within the American military. This thesis hopes to start to fill in that …

Videogame Tourism: Spawning The Digital Into The Physical Realm In The British Isles, Heather Rebecca Brinkman

Theses and Dissertations

Video game tourism is in its infancy but growing in popularity. This dissertation is an anthropological study of gamers’ attempts to interact with the physical environments in Scotland that influenced the virtual landscapes to which they have an emotional connection. Seven of the locations I identified as potential field sites provided some form of ethnographic material. I traveled with gamers to these seven sites. While at these sites, I observed and interviewed people that I met as well as did participant observations with those I went with. This project was able to demonstrate that gamers and tourists alike attempt to …

A Tale Of Two Sandals: Analysis Of Two Sandals From The Gordon Keller Collection, Emily Morris-Larsen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper presents a comparative analysis of sandals from the Utah State University Museum of Anthropology Gordon Keller collection. The sandals were recovered by Dr. Gordon Keller during fieldwork in southeastern Utah. Through a discussion and analysis of sandal styles and their temporal reaches, how these sandals relate to known specimens and greater Desert West sandal trends is uncovered. One sandal is a plaited vegetable fiber sandal, believed to be yucca. Pending radiocarbon analysis, stylistically the sandal appears to date to approximately 1200 AD. The second is a pair of unusual leather hide sandals, constructed in a shape more common …

Arranged Marriage, Partner Traits And Parental Investment: Examining The Reproductive Compensation Hypothesis In Humans, Annemarie M. Hasnain

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Both sexes choose mates based on qualities that will enhance offspring viability and quality. In some cases individuals are forced to reproduce with less desirable mates which has been shown to result in lower quality offspring. The Reproductive Compensation Hypothesis (RCH) predicts that parents who mate under constraint will increase their reproductive effort and investment in offspring to compensate for lowered offspring viability. Evidence for the RCH has been found in several animal species; however it has not been examined in humans. One possible type of mate choice constraint in humans is that of arranged marriage in which parents or …

Stress Levels In Cal Poly Student-Athletes Versus Non-Student-Athletes, Anthony Dean Mattle

Social Sciences

Comparative study between Cal Poly student-athletes and non-student athletes examining perceived stress levels and the prominence of six specific stressors (Schoolwork, money, future success, family, extracurricular, and time management). The data found no statistical significance between perceived stress levels and status as either an athlete or non-athlete. However, the data did show that status as an athlete or non-athlete had a statistical significance on where students ranked extracurricular activities among the six stressors.

The Chinese In California: Archaeology And Railroads At The Turn Of The Century, Evelyn Hildebrand

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Research on Chinese sites in California have focused on ethnicity, ethnic relations, and the material expression of ethnicity all of which are key issues in overseas Chinese archaeology. Chinatown sites produced data that helped define Chinese culture and experience in historical California. One railroad construction work camp site identified in 2016 located in the Cajon Pass in the late 1800’s offers the potential for insight into the lives of the workers. Chinese occupation in San Bernardino is not well understood, and the site may offer information on the culture, traditions, and integrations of the workers. Thousands of Chinese men left …

Using A Species Distribution Approach To Model Historic Camas (Camassia Quamash) In Southern Idaho And Implications For Foraging In The Late Archaic, Royce Johnson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Camas (Camassia quamash) is well documented as a traditional native food source throughout the Northwestern United States and Canada. A better understanding of the historic distribution of camas in Idaho would help to distinguish root foraging in this region from the Pacific Northwest. Modern grazing, development, climate change, and other factors have decimated native camas in this region. This study uses a species distribution model (MaxEnt) to provide a well-informed geospatial projection of the historic distribution and habitat characteristics of camas in Southern Idaho. Understanding the most significant landscape and climate characteristics for camas allows us to estimate …

Exploring Cooperative Behaviors Among The Sena Of Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique And The Dolgan/Nganasan Of Ust'-Avam, Siberia, Victoria Silva

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Why do humans cooperate? Mechanisms including inclusive fitness, reciprocal altruism, indirect reciprocity, and costly signaling provide explanations for human cooperation and partner choice. Using data from the Sena people of Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique and the Dolgan/Nganasan of Ust’-Avam Siberia, I examine several questions relating to cooperation. During a preliminary study, interview and observational data was collected that provide insight on the day-to-day activities of 33 households in Gorongosa National Park. Cooperative activities include cooperative socializing, play, cooperative breeding, and household labor. It was found that most daily activities observed were done solitarily and men were most likely to be …

Hate Speech, Habitus, And Identity Signaling On 4chan’S Politically Incorrect Board, Jonathon Geiger

Master's Theses

Websites, such as 4chan, have provided a place for extremism and hate speech to flourish through anonymous discourse. One group that has been especially important to this growth has been the alt-right. The alt-right is a far-right white nationalist movement that is known for engaging in trolling, creating memes, and generating conspiracy theories. Past research has focused on the amounts of hate speech and characterizing content on the website. However, past studies have not looked at the experience of using the website through the combination of participant observation and content analysis. Here I show that the extensive use of hate …

Nutrition At Tipu: A Comparative Analysis Of Juvenile Health In Maya Populations, Sydnie A. Bianchi

Master's Theses

The site of Tipu in west central Belize provided a foothold for Spanish missionaries in the 17^th century. The effects of contact on adults among the 550 burials recovered in the cemetery there have been well studied, but the children have received less attention. Therefore, this study examined juvenile health through four markers: Linear Enamel Hypoplasia (LEH), a non-specific marker of health disruptions; Porotic Hyperostosis (PH), an indicator of anemia; and Periostitis, an indicator of infection. Some 131 individuals were evaluated using criteria developed by Steckel, Sciulli, and Rose (2002). The results were compared to Late Classic Copán (Storey, …

Dancing Through Covid: An Ethnographic Exploration Of Exotic Dancers' Experiences During A Pandemic, Danyelle Sturdivant

Anthropology Undergraduate Senior Theses

The novel coronavirus pandemic, quarantine, and social distancing measures affected working conditions for a variety of workers. Exotic dancers were distinctly impacted due to the stigma of their work which, prior to the pandemic, often involved the sale of close-proximity lap dances. This paper explores exotic dancers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide insight on the unique challenges they faced.

Data were gleaned using ethnographic methods with modifications informed by phenomenology. Existentially-engaged participant observation was performed in a small, Southern strip club, identified here as Flare. Two rounds of formal, recorded interviews were conducted with six exotic dancers, and …

Searching For Archaic Semi-Subterranean Habitation At The Halls Swamp Site In Southern New England, Erin Flynn

Culminating Projects in Cultural Resource Management

Abstract

Semi-subterranean habitation structures, also referred to as pithouses have been interpreted on archaeological sites across North America and over a long span of time, up to 9,000 radiocarbon years before present (RCYBP) and are still used today. Although pithouses or earth lodges may vary in their size, shape, and construction, they share the following attributes: a floor, hearth, depression, and post molds. Experimental archaeology based on ethnographic studies used to reconstruct pithouses has helped define the archaeological signatures of pre-contact pithouses. The high investment of time and labor needed for the construction of large features, such as pithouses, storage …

Evidence Of Culinary Practices In Faunal Data Of Site 38ch1531, Meagan Perkins

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Religion In Modern Sports Fanaticism: From Classical Antiquity To Online Sports Forums, Matthew Prokopiw

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In tracing the concept of religion to its theorization and study by French sociologist Émile Durkheim this dissertation presents concrete and abstract support for a commonly forwarded proposition: fanaticism of the modern spectacle of sports amounts to religiosity, characterized by a social logic of vitality and totemism, notably present as well in the ancient Roman spectacle and Greek agōn. Based in the contemporary theory of French sociologist Michel Maffesoli, following Durkheim and the study of the sacred by Le Collège de Sociologie, this dissertation contributes an immersive and critical investigation into the nascent but encompassing online dimension of fanaticism …

Save Water Drink Wine: Challenges Of Implementing The Ethnography Of The Temecula Valley Wine Industry Into Food-Energy-Water Nexus Decision-Making, Zaida E. Darley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study demonstrates the interrelationships of people, food, energy, and water associated with Temecula Valley’s wine industry and reveals contradictions and biases in how people view these resources, which ultimately shape management and policies. The FEW (Food, Energy, and Water) Nexus is an approach increasingly used by policy- and decision-makers to understand the interrelationship of several resources. However, a FEW Nexus approach often lacks in social aspects that influence environmentally and economically sustainable outcomes, especially in the wine and wine tourism industry. When quantitative and qualitative data are available, the other challenge is which assessment to use. Two assessments often …

Blackness, Gender And The State: Afro Women's Organizations In Contemporary Ecuador, Beatriz A. Juarez-Rodriguez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation presents an ethnographic analysis of the Afro women’s social organization CONAMUNE (Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras del Ecuador), the political thought and praxis of its members and their entanglement with myriad ethno-racial political spaces in contemporary Ecuador. CONAMUNE is an umbrella organization comprised of Afro women’s grassroots organizations from different provinces of Ecuador. In addition to their activities within CONAMUNE, many of the women with whom I worked have sought out positions of government employment or political representation (as teachers and principals, as employees of government ministries or programs, as local municipal councillors, etc.), through which they bring …

History And Memory In The Intersectionality Of Heritage Sites And Cultural Centers In The Pacific Northwest And Hawai'i, Leah Marie Rosenkranz

Dissertations and Theses

While working to maintain contemporary and future relationships with stakeholders, heritage sites and cultural centers across the United States attempt to tell the history and experiences of the land and people who were once there, are there in the present, and will be there in the future. Fort Vancouver National Historic Site is one of these heritage places. This study is a response to current management needs identified for the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. Through an internship with the ongoing Fort Vancouver National Historic Site Traditional Use Study, my research examines how heritage sites and cultural centers fulfill the …

On The Importance Of Context: Examining The Applicability Of Infertility Insurance Mandates In The United States Using A Mixed-Methods Study Design, Nathanael B. Stanley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Accessibility of infertility services is disproportionately experienced in the United States. Although there exist state-based health insurance mandates for infertility services, these mandates contain language that disqualify people from using them. In order to better understand why these mandates are not able to reduce the financial burden and bridge the income disparity for using infertility services, the purpose of this study is to add context to the applicability of these insurance mandates through qualitative and quantitative inquiry. Using the Glass and McAtee model of risk regulators as an operational paradigm, this research explores the role of environmental context, or “place”, …

Privacy And The Digital Divide: Investigating Strategies For Digital Safety By People Of Color, Denavious Hoover

Theses and Dissertations

People of color are becoming increasingly concerned with digital privacy. They are concerned about the obfuscated data collection and sharing practices of major social media plat- forms and the strong entitlement of other users in the online space to their content. This study examines how people of color conceptualize and behave to produce safety in the online space, or, in other words, digital privacy. This study challenges notions that people are not purposeful about privacy in the online space and highlights the voices of people of color, whom are not of- ten included in theorizing or decision making about the …

Dance And Know You Are A Part: The Instrumentality Of Performative Politics And Dance In The Configuration Of Local Social Memory And Afro-Brazilian Identity And Agency In Pelotas, Rio Grande Do Sul, Brazil, Triston R. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The arts have been a refuge from perpetual repression and omission, and, a platform for social activism for Afro-descendants in the Americas. In Brazil this is very much the case. With performance serving as a social barometer or a looking glass, dance becomes a source of cultural knowledge, acts as preservative, and negotiates individual mobility within a given context. The Afro-Brazilian dance company, Cia de Dança Daniel Amaro in Pelotas, Brazil grants its members a means of activism and agency to challenge entrenched national narratives and reinterpret local social memory.

Most academic writings about dance or performance in Brazil, focus …

Identifying The Universals Of Death: An Interpretive Analysis Of Mortuary Ritual In Ancient Egypt And Modern America, Sarah Snare

Senior Theses

This project compares mortuary practices in ancient Egypt and modern America in an effort to identify cross-cultural consistencies in the treatment of the dead. An analysis of the meaning and motivations behind these rituals reveals that they serve similar functions in both societies. Death provokes intense emotions of grief and long periods of mourning, which can debilitate the people who knew the deceased and even the society itself. Therefore, to promote survival of individuals and the community, mortuary rituals must address these disturbances. Focusing on ancient Egypt and modern America, this study finds that mortuary practices function to restabilize society …

Hunter-Gatherer Behavior At Dorn Levee #1 (38fa608): An Analysis Of Lithic Assemblage Formation At A South Carolina Piedmont Site, Robert Altom Cesarini Lyerly

Theses and Dissertations

The site of Dorn Levee #1 (38FA608) in the South Carolina Piedmont has the potential to provide unique information regarding the behaviors and activities of the hunter-gatherer populations who inhabited it throughout prehistory. The Late and Terminal Archaic Period landscape in the Southeast saw with it many major changes in hunter-gatherer lifeways that had begun initial development in periods prior. The continued use of Dorn Levee #1 suggests that it was highly important for these hunter-gatherers, and an analysis of their mobility patterns and general behaviors through the associated lithic debitage material can assist in illuminating its role within a …

Indigenous Coaches And The National Aboriginal Hockey Championships, Dallas Gerald Hauck

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships (NAHC), an annual hockey tournament held in Canada where Indigenous youth compete in provincial/territorial teams. Research focused especially on the insights that coaches, organizers, and other tournament officials can provide into this tournament that aims to both highlight the skills of Indigenous players and also to provide cultural activities and enhance pride. Drawing on interviews at the NAHC at the 2019 tournament in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada, this thesis aims to understand the impact the tournament has on those involved, as well as outside influences that constrain and impact the event. The major …

Do Actions Speak Louder Than Words? Communicative Frequencies And Multimodality In Ring-Tailed Lemurs (Lemur Catta), Hilary Hager

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The study of multimodal communication in primatology has increased only recently. At present, there are no on-going investigations of multimodal communication in ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta), despite the body of research on this species. I investigated how different modes of L. catta inter-individual multimodal communication are socially coordinated and integrated by examining frequencies of occurrence within four potential biological and social factors: age, troop affiliation, sex, and dominance rank. Research was conducted over four months at the Duke Lemur Center, Durham, NC, on 14 individuals from three separate troops of captive, free-ranging L. catta. Results demonstrate communicative …