Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Analysis Of The Skeletal Remains From The Knobloch Site, 20ae633, Allegan County, Michigan, Alexandra D. Bybee

Masters Theses

The skeletal remains of at least thirty individuals were recovered from the Knobloch site, 20AE633, Allegan County, Michigan. The site is from the Late Woodland period, a time which saw a variety of strategies for food procurement, including hunting, gathering, fishing, and agriculture. It is not known to what extent these strategies were practiced. The results of trace element analysis of skeletal samples from the Knobloch site assemblage indicate a diet reliant on hunting and gathering.

Cultural Patterning In The Use Of Herbal Medicines (Jamu) And Health Seeking Behavior In A Javanese City, Brook Williams Weisman-Ross

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the social patterning in the use of traditional Javanese plant medicines, collectively called jamu, within the primarily ethnic Javanese city of Yogyakarta, in central Java, Indonesia. Using both qualitative and quantitative ethnographic research methods, forty-eight common and uncommon types of jamu are discussed, and five predictions are evaluated: 1. Jamu sold daily by door to door vendors (jamu gendong) will most often be preventatives, rather than curatives; 2. Jamu sold by sedentary vendors will more often be used for specific illnesses (curatives) than those sold by door to door vendors (jamu gendong); …

Aspects Of Ecology And Adaptation With An Emphasis On Hominoid Evolution, Clare Katharine Stott

Masters Theses

This thesis will explore hominoid evolution from the joint perspectives of ecology and palaeoanthropology. Unique to this study is the idea of Ecosystematics. While ecologists tend to focus their attentions on the immediate context of organismal existence and survival (i.e., the ecosystem), palaeoanthropologists more often focus on the long term, evolutionary trends of organismal adaptation, with usually much less attention given to the context of such adaptations. The Ecosystematic cycle bridges together these ideas of proximate (immediate context) and ultimate (long term) adaptation towards the end of better understanding of evolutionary patterns and processes inherent to hominid development. In this …

Interpreting Diet By Age, Status, And Gender And Establishing Weaning Patterns Using Trace Element Analysis On Human Remains From Umm El-Jimal, Jordan, Monica Shah

Masters Theses

The intent of this study is to learn about the dietary patterns of early fourth century occupants of a Late Antique site in northern Jordan. Bone samples of 107 individuals from two distinct cemetery· types, assumed to be status differentiated, were chemically examined for their trace element composition. Trace element analysis can potentially investigate groups of individuals to attempt to determine if gender, age, or status influenced access to food resources.

Statistical tests found that significant differences of trace element concentrations were evident in an inter-burial area study for all adults and subadults, and when examining intra-burial area males and …

Definition And Evaluation Of The Mississippian Lithic Assemblage From The Wymer-West Knoll (20 Be 132), Berrien County, Michigan, Sean R. Brown

Masters Theses

Analysis of the lithic assemblage from the Wymer-West knoll site was undertaken with the following objectives: (1) to define the lithic technology of the Mississippian occupational component of the site, (2) to compare length, width and width/length ratios of triangular projectile points from the Wymer-West knoll with other Mississippian sites to clarify the cultural affiliation of the Wymer-West knoll, and (3) to use site function, from the perspective of the overall Wymer-West knoll material culture in general and the Mississippian lithic technology in particular, as a framework to better understand the Wymer-West knoll's place in the regional culture history.

A …

A Statistical Analysis Of The Ceramics From The Dieffenderfer Site (20sj179), St. Joseph County, Michigan, Mark A. Steeby

Masters Theses

The Dieffenderfer site, located in Constantine Township, St. Joseph County, Michigan, is a multi-component site situated in the middle St. Joseph River valley. Calibrated radiocarbon dates from several features at the site suggest multiple re-use during the Late Woodland period from A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1400, with the most intensive occupations occurring during the 12th through 14th centuries. These dates are supported by a large Late Woodland ceramic assemblage in association with three spatially discrete activity areas; two of these activity loci are represented by housefloors, suggesting a degree of permanence by the residents.

A cluster analysis performed on the …

"They Taught Us Jesus Christ And Captain Cook And Everything": Exploring Koori Identity At La Perouse, Amanda Katherine Lambert

Masters Theses

Identity politics, the social construction of identity, is a phenomenon which affects many people worldwide. Indigenous Australians, however, are unique because of their indigenous, racial, and ethnic status. The construction of Koori identity, then, has its roots in a colonial and post-colonial history of cultural and racial devastation and discrimination. At this historical moment, Koori people are voicing and identifying themselves, consequently, contesting the externally imposed dominant paradigms of their identity. This text is a study of the construction of self-construction of Koori identity at La Perouse. The overall purpose of this thesis is to explore the day-to-day meaning of …

A Test Of The Accuracy Of Facial Tissue Thickness Measurements Taken From Computed Tomography, Amy L. Schilling

Masters Theses

Computed Tomography (CT) as a source from which to gather measurements of facial tissue depth is investigated. Measurements made from the surface of the bone to the outer skin surface were taken at the landmarks used by Rhine and Campbell (1980). These distances were measured on the axial slices of the Visible Human Male anatomical data and compared to measurements taken at the same landmarks on the Visible Human Male CT taken on the frozen specimen.

While two of the measurements varied by several millimeters, no statistically significant differences were found. Locating the correct landmark on an axial image …

Childhood Health And Nutrition: An Exploration Of Enamel Hypoplasia Studies Using The Milwaukee County Institutional Grounds Cemetery, 1882-1925, Maura K. Polli

Masters Theses

The focus of this study is the dentition of a Midwestern United States historic almshouse population, the Milwaukee County Institutional Grounds cemetery (MCIG), 1882-1925. A survey of linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) in the anterior dentition of a subsample of this population has been conducted to demonstrate incidences of childhood stress. LEH is symptomatic of extended periods of disease or nutritional stress experienced during the formative years of tooth development.

A subsample of 140 individuals was examined for LEH. The labial surface of the anterior dentition was examined for the frequency and chronological distribution of LEH. The frequency of LEH ranges …

Responsibility, Submission, And Power: Social Factors Which Influence Rural Out-Migration Among Women In Southern Vietnam, Jeffery D. Wright

Masters Theses

This paper examines the circumstances that affect the decisions of young women living in rural southern Vietnam to move to Ho Chi Minh City in search of employment. Issues of power, submission, and responsibility that underlie interpersonal relationships in Vietnam will be discussed with special attention to the way they affect the lives of Vietnamese women. It has been widely suggested that rural out-migration in developing countries is largely economically driven. My own field research in Vietnam during the summer of 1996 suggests that the migration of women in southern Vietnam is not simply an attempt to make more money. …

Technological Analysis Of Ceramic Surface Treatments At The Wymer-West Knoll (20be132), A Mississippian Site In Southwestern Michigan, Suzannah Greve-Brown

Masters Theses

Red-slipped and blackened, burnished, shell-tempered ceramics from the Wymer-West knoll are described and analyzed. Such ceramics have not been previously recognized or detailed in south west Michigan. Similar ceramics do occur, however, at Mississippian sites in the upper Illinois and the Mississippi River valleys. The Wymer-West knoll ceramics are thus considered to be possible trade items. An X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy test is utilized in order to compare the red-slipped ceramics with ceramics having other surface treatments. A petrographic thin section analysis is also used to distinguish the potentially imported ceramics from shell-tempered, cordmarked ceramics presumably produced at the site. Results …

Kanpo Consumption Among Japanese Students At Western Michigan University: Case Studies In Medical Pluralism, Joseph Paul Siuda

Masters Theses

Many societies have pluralistic medical systems in which biomedicine and alternative therapies coexist. Some anthropologists view medical pluralism adaptively, where the strengths of various therapies complement each other. Others highlight the hegemonic power of biomedicine and its tendency to suppress or co-opt alternative therapies. To understand medical pluralism, one must examine alternative therapies in particular cultural contexts.

Kanpo, or Japanese herbalism, has survived political and legal suppression resulting from Japan's 19th century attempts at westernization and now poses a challenge to the biomedical model of health and illness. Since the 1970's more Japanese are turning to kanpo rather than …