Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Middle To Late Holocene Environmental Change And Human Impacts In Seasonally Dry Neotropical Forest Of Northwestern Costa Rica: Sedimentary Evidence From Six Lakes, Martin R. Arford

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents evidence of long-term changes in climate, fire, and vegetation in northwestern Costa Rica, as revealed by sediment profiles from lakes on the seasonally dry, lower Pacific slope of Miravalles volcano in Guanacaste province (10.7^o N, 85.2^o W). Sediment cores were recovered for pollen and charcoal analysis from six lakes formed by volcanic activity approximately 8200 years ago.

Six regional pollen zones were delineated based on changes in pollen and sediments, and dated by AMS radiocarbon determinations on macrofossils. The basal pollen zone (Zone 6, prior to 8000 cal yr BP) comprises elastic sediments that correspond …

An Analysis Of The Spatial Distribution Of Chiefdom Settlements: Modeling The Mississippian Culture In The Tennessee River Valley, Jonathan Witcoski

Masters Theses

Location-allocation models based on optimization criteria are appropriate tools for the analysis of archaeological settlement patterns. In early agricultural societies, elite classes might maximize their control of the population and resources by optimally situating their primary settlements. Location-allocation models can simulate the multiple factors that potentially underlie settlement site location decisions. I describe several maximal covering models and their applicability to understand the degree of political centralization in the Upper Tennessee River Valley during several Mississippian archaeological cultural phases (900 to 1600 A.D.). My results support the notion that the main objective of the Mississippian elite in choosing sites for …

Late Holocene Charcoal Stratigraphy And Modern Charcoal Deposition In The Pine Rocklands Of Great Abaco Island, The Bahamas, David N. West

Masters Theses

The paleoecological history of the Bahamas archipelago is one of change throughout the Holocene, and is recorded in the sediments deposited in solution holes. However, with its karstic pine rocklands landscape, Great Abaco Island has virtually no overland flow of water, neither rivers nor sheet-flow. This means that transport of charcoal produced through biomass burning and deposited in local ponds and solution holes is primarily microscopic in size and is probably transported by wind. Fires in the pine rocklands are mainly low-intensity ground fires that result in very little aerial transport of charcoal. Unless a fire occurs immediately adjacent to …

Canada’S Cultural Media Policy And Newfoundland Music On The Radio: Local Identities And Global Implications, Sara Beth Keough

Doctoral Dissertations

As our access to information increases with the aid of communication technologies, there is concern about cultural homogenization. Ironically, however, in the face of globalization in the media, the local often becomes increasingly important. This study explores how Canada’s cultural policy toward the media, known as the Canadian Content regulations, has both local and global implications. I examine how Canadian Content regulations apply to radio, and how these radio regulations influence broadcasting in the St. John’s, Newfoundland radio market. Interviews with radio station personnel (e.g. DJs, program directors, music librarians) and radio listeners show that radio stations in St. John’s …

Late-Holocene Environmental History In The Northeastern Caribbean: Multi-Proxy Evidence From Two Small Lakes On The Southern Slope Of The Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic, Chad Steven Lane

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents multi-proxy evidence of paleoenvironmental change preserved in sediment records recovered from two lakes on the southern (Caribbean) slope of the Cordillera Central in the Dominican Republic: Laguna Castilla (18^o47'51" N, 70^o52'33" W, 976 m) and Laguna de Salvador (18^o47'45" N, 70^o53'13" W, 990 m).

The Castilla and Salvador sediment records contain evidence of prehistoric forest clearance and agriculture, including abundant maize pollen, dating back to around A.D. 1060. These pollen grains constitute the earliest evidence of maize agriculture from the interior of Hispaniola, and represent some of the earliest …

The Changing Landscape: The Urbanization Of Knox County, Tennessee, Charles Steven Brown

Masters Theses

Land use change, in the form of urbanization, is no longer limited to existing municipal boundaries. This change, however, is neither haphazard in direction nor unpredictable in scope. It is a series of highly evolved trends that have become one of the most highly studied and researched phenomenon in the social and physical sciences.

To examine land use change as urbanization for middle tier metropolitan area, Knoxville and Knox County Tennessee were chosen as sites for my research. While Knoxville still serves as the cultural, physical and governmental center for the area, residential and commercial development have scattered throughout the …

Century-Scale Trends In Climatic Variability For The Pacific Northwest From Western Juniper (Juniperus Occidentalis Hook. Ssp. Occidentalis) Tree-Ring Data, Christopher Aaron Underwood

Masters Theses

The history of the Earth’s climate shows many fluctuations, and there is reason to believe that climatic fluctuations will continue to occur in the future. Climatic shifts related to processes such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) initiate many environmental anomalies, including interruptions in traditional storm tracks, average precipitation, fire regimes, streamflow, and animal behavior. Our historical climatic records are too short to fully illustrate climatic fluctuations over long time scales. Proxy records are often used to extend these historical climatic records. In this dendroclimatological study, I used wester juniper (Juniperus occidentalis Hook. ssp. occidentalis) from central Oregon …

Review Of Do Glaciers Listen? Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters And Social Imagination By Julie Cruikshank, Paul K. Gellert

Sociology Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.