Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Anthropology In 3d: The Use Of Photogrammetry In The Preservation And Dissemination Of Ethnographic Art, Alexander Spindler

Honors Projects

Photogrammetry is an effective tool used by archaeologists in museums and organizations by creating a 3D model from overlapping photos. This project involved a collection of ethnographic artifacts from Papua New Guinea that are currently housed in the Grand Valley State University Anthropology Department. This essay reviews the process and results of this project. Artifacts were photographed and 3D models were created using the Agisoft Metashape program. Models are disseminated via the Sketchfab website with proper cultural information. Artifacts originate from Sepik River tribes and were designed originally for the tourist industry. This project shows the utility of photogrammetry in …

Medical Populism And Covid-19 Testing, Kristin Hedges, Gideon Lasco

Peer Reviewed Articles

This paper uses the lens of medical populism to analyze the impact of biocommunicability on COVID-19 testing through a case study approach. The political efficacy of testing is traced through two mini-case studies: the Philippines and the United States. The case studies follow the approach of populism scholars in drawing from various sources that ‘render the populist style visible’ from the tweets and press releases of government officials to media reportage. Using the framework of medical populism, the case studies pay attention to the ways in which coronavirus testing figured in (1) simplification of the pandemic; (2) spectacularization of the …

"What's Happening Brother": Detroit's Revolutionary Black Workers And The Vietnam War, Nicholas Busby

Student Scholars Day Oral Presentations

The decade of the 1960s was pivotal in Detroit’s history. At a time when people struggled against imperialism and racism, Detroit’s Black community was especially cognizant of their role in this struggle. Based on extensive archival research findings, Detroit’s Black community intensely opposed racism and oppression, and Black auto workers were at the vanguard of this struggle within Detroit. These workers had strong reactions to the Vietnam War. The Inner City Voice and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers were militant groups in Detroit’s Black community during the Vietnam War. The politics and ideals of these Black groups were aligned …

Twiggy: An Osteological Reconstruction Of A Skeletal Model's Identity, Alexis Rausch

Student Scholars Day Posters

Since the 1990s, GVSU’s Anthropology Department has housed the disarticulated hanging skeleton of an individual nicknamed Twiggy who was originally used as a medical model. Typically little is known about individuals used as medical models, as is true in this individual’s case. To continue using these remains as teaching material, it is imperative that we understand more about their life. In alignment with post-processual archaeological theory, this project aims to reconstruct the life of one individual. In order to do so, a profile will be constructed for the individual by estimating traits such as age, sex, and stature. Their remains …

Digital Cultural And Historical Preservation, Natalie Heacock

Student Scholars Day Posters

The intent of this research is to test the effectiveness of photogrammetry and 3D scanning technology for the purpose of digital cultural and historical preservation. The case studies presented are of two historic pots, a lithic, a bitumen sample, a shipwreck, and an historic windmill. This research proves that 3D models for digital perseveration can be created through data acquisition, image processing, and the use of different software. Each study shown provides an example of how photogrammetry software can further efforts in historical and cultural preservation, as well as research in the archaeological field.

Please email any questions or comments …

Images Of Nursing From West Michigan: A Photo Essay, Aldina Mahmutovic

Honors Projects

The image of nursing is diverse and complex, with public perceptions influenced by traditional imagery and negative stereotypes. Few recent studies consider how nurses view their professional image. My study aimed to uncover how West Michigan nurses perceive the image of nursing. Approval was given by the local Sigma chapter (Kappa Epsilon at Large), to recruit participants from members, and by Grand Valley's IRB. Via an online REDCap survey, participants submitted an original photo and written narrative. Submissions were searched for underlying patterns using thematic analysis. Themes identified were: (1) nurses establish relationships with unique and vulnerable clients, using their …

An Undergraduates Perspective To Fieldwork, Roberto Carriedo Ostos

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

One Peninsula, Many Spains: An Inquiry On Memory, Historiography, And The Legacy Of The Spanish Civil War From 1930 To The Present, Adrian Rios

Honors Projects

In this essay, I analyze the events of the Spanish Civil War and their ramifications through the lens of cultural memory and historiography. I argue that ideas of memory are crucial to how societies and individuals understand history and that the Spanish Civil War had a tremendous impact on the Spanish people and significantly affected the memory not only of witnesses of the conflict, but to their descendants. This essay utilizes primary and secondary sources to understand the function of memory and varied responses to the Spanish Civil War. The essay begins with a brief historical overview of the conflict …

Neonatal Shoulder Width Suggests A Semirotational, Oblique Birth Mechanism In Australopithecus Afarensis, Jeremy M. Desilva, Natalie M. Laudicina, Karen R. Rosenberg, Wenda R. Trevathan

Peer Reviewed Articles

Birth mechanics in early hominins are often reconstructed based on cephalopelvic proportions, with little attention paid to neonatal shoulders. Here, we find that neonatal biacromial breadth can be estimated from adult clavicular length (R² = 0.80) in primates. Using this relationship and clavicular length from adult Australopithecus afarensis, we estimate biacromial breadth in neonatal australopiths. Combined with neonatal head dimensions, we reconstruct birth in A. afarensis (A.L. 288-1 or Lucy) and find that the most likely mechanism of birth in this early hominin was a semi-rotational oblique birth in which the head engaged and passed through the inlet …

Isotopic Evidence For Early Trade In Animals Between Old Kingdom Egypt And Canaan, Elizabeth R. Arnold, Lindsay Babcock, Gideon Hartman, Haskel Greenfield, Itzhaq Shai, Aren Maeir

Funded Articles

Isotope data from a sacrificial ass and several ovicaprines (sheep/goat) from Early Bronze Age household deposits at Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel provide direct evidence for the movement of domestic draught/draft and husbandry animals between Old Kingdom Egypt (during the time of the Pyramids) and Early Bronze Age III Canaan (ca. 2900–2500 BCE). Vacillating, bi-directional connections between Egypt and Canaan are known throughout the Early Bronze Age, but here we provide the first concrete evidence of early trade in animals from Egypt to Canaan.

Why Chinese Neo-Confucian Women Made A Fetish Of Small Feet, Aubrey L. Mcmahan

Grand Valley Journal of History

Abstract for “Why Chinese Neo-Confucian Women Made a Fetish of Small Feet”

This paper explores the source of the traditional practice of Chinese footbinding which first gained popularity at the end of the Tang dynasty and continued to flourish until the last half of the twentieth century.[1] Derived initially from court concubines whose feet were formed to represent an attractive “deer lady” from an Indian tale, footbinding became a wide-spread symbol among the Chinese of obedience, pecuniary reputability, and Confucianism, among other things.[2]^,[3] Drawing on the analyses of such scholars as Beverly Jackson, Valerie Steele …

The Burden Of Pursuing Treatment Abroad: Three Stories Of Medical Travelers From Yemen, Beth Kangas

Peer Reviewed Articles

This case study features stories of patients from Yemen, a low-income country in the Arabian Peninsula, who traveled abroad for medical care. Their stories, drawn from interviews with Yemeni medical travelers in India, highlight the economic and emotional burden of pursuing treatment abroad. These stories of chronic non-communicable diseases and serious injuries depart from the common portrayal of medical tourists as wealthy elective patients from the North traveling for cosmetic surgery. The stories center on the demand and benefit of technological medicine for patients from low-income countries and raise questions about what constitutes ‘health’ when non-communicable conditions often entail ongoing …

Resurrection Machines: An Analysis Of Burial Sites In Ancient Egypt’S Valley Of The Kings As Catalysts For Spiritual Rebirth, Jarrett Zeman

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

In Ancient Egyptian tombs, processes associated with sympathetic magic acted as a direct catalyst for resurrection. Sympathetic magic, defined as an action, object or depiction whose effect resembles its cause, is reflected in royal tombs constructed during Egypt‟s New Kingdom (1550-1069 BCE) in the Valley of the Kings. However, sympathetic magic has rarely been applied to Ancient Egyptian topics in an explicit fashion. As a result, the tombs of Amenhotep III (KV22), Seti I (KV17) and Ramesses IX (KV6) are analyzed as case studies of this phenomenon. Change and continuity evident in each tomb‟s architectural structure, decoration, and physical burial …

Determining Personality In Sanctuary Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Rebecca S.A. Brittain, Judith A. Corr

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

No abstract provided.