Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Maxillary Suture Obliteration: A Method For Estimating Skeletal Age, Robert Walter Mann

Masters Theses

The palatal processes of the adult human maxilla consist of two horizontally directed bones of quadrilateral shape situated posterior of the nasal fossae. In the early stages of morphogenesis, these palatal folds are vertically oriented and separated by the developing tongue. Between the eighth and eleventh weeks the fetal tongue descends allowing alignment and midline fusion of the palatal processes of the maxilla. At birth the palate is composed of four bones joined by broad serrated sutures. With increasing age the suture gaps narrow, fuse, and ultimately obliterate.

The purpose of this study is to develop a method of estimating …

Sex Determination Of Fragmentary Crania By Analysis Of The Cranial Base: Applications For Study Of An Arikara Skeletal Sample, Margaret M. Williams

Masters Theses

A total of 175 adult human crania from an Arikara Indian skeletal sample are used in this evaluation of a discriminant function analysis for determining the sex of fragmentary crania. The method used was developed by Holland (1986b) and employs nine cranial base measurements. Only crania with associated innominates are used for development of the discriminant functions and a total of 26 crania without innominates are used as a test sample.

A test of measurement error indicates an average of 17.5% of variation due to measurement error for all measurements except the Distance between Foramina (DF). Data from the DF …

Premeditated Deceit: The Atomic Energy Commission Against Joseph August Sauter, Clifford T. Honicker

Masters Theses

About 130 miles northwest of Minneapolis, lies the farming community of Farwell, Minnesota (pop. 103). This is the case of Joe Sauter, a sheep farmer who in 1958 filed a claim against the Atomic Energy Commission for loss of livestock, damage to trees, and personal injuries that he believed were the result of radioactive fallout. This case will detail the efforts of the AEC to cut short the claim of radiation injury by suppressing key radiological data which would have substantiated Sauter's claim and proved damaging to the AEC.

Officials within the AEC knowingly and willfully made false statements and …

Socioeconomic Variability In Federal Period Overhill Cherokee Archaeological Assemblages, Brett High Riggs

Masters Theses

During the early nineteenth century, Cherokee society rapidly evolved from its traditional state of social and economic homogeneity into a state of marked socioeconomic heterogeneity, This transformation is attributable to differential acculturation of Anglo-American economic strategies, material culture, and ideologies by various sectors of Cherokee society. Such socioeconomic heterogeneity is expected to be manifested in the archaeological record by a high degree of intercontextual variability in Federal Period Cherokee assemblages, contrasting with low levels of variability in Colonial Period Cherokee assemblages. This proposition is addressed in this study through comparative analysis of 13 Federal Period Cherokee assemblages, two Federal Period …

The Effects Of Kinship On Land Transfer: A Study Of Settlement On The Cumberland Plateau Of Kentucky And Tennessee, Jeffrey W. Gardner

Masters Theses

This thesis examines specific aspects of nineteenth century Euroamerican settlement on the Cumberland Plateau of Kentucky and Tennessee. Primary historical documents i.e. county deed records, are used as the principal data source in a study of the effects of kin relationship on the process of land transfer. Blevins family property transfers, recorded between 1800 and 1910 in Wayne County, Kentucky and Scott County, Tennessee are examined systematically to: 1) test previous ethnographic and ethnohistoric empahses placed on kinship as a primary settlement determinant and the principal basis for local group solidarity; and 2) demonstrate the utility of deed record information …

An Archaeological Survey Of Big Bone Cave, Tennessee And Diachronic Patterns Of Cave Utilization In The Eastern Woodlands, George Martin Crothers

Masters Theses

An archaeological survey of Big Bone Cave, Tennessee was conducted by the author from August 1984 to August 1985. Results of the survey indicate that while numerous historic activities, particularly the mining of saltpetre, have disturbed prehistoric deposits in the cave, evidence of aboriginal use of the cave remains intact. The nature of prehistoric remains, their context, and the radiocarbon dated period of activity are used as evidence to support the interpretation that extensive mining of selenite gypsum occurred in the cave, primarily during the Early Woodland period.

The radiocarbon age chronology from Big Bone and other similar cave sites …