Anthropology Commons^™

A Stable Isotope Analysis Of Faunal Remains From Special Deposits On Ontario Iroquoian Tradition Sites, Laura Booth

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The deliberate interment of bears, deer, and dogs on Ontario Iroquoian Tradition sites (900-1650 AD) suggests these animals had social and ideological meaning. This thesis uses stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis from bone collagen of faunal remains from both special and refuse contexts on eight sites in Southern Ontario to investigate the possible relationship between an animal’s burial context, diet, and value. Results indicate that most animals consumed a diet typical for their species regardless of context, suggesting the ideological value of specially deposited animals was augmented through human-animal interactions other than dietary manipulation. Bears from the Dorchester site …

Cultural Resource Management And Aboriginal Engagement: Policy And Practice In Ontario Archaeology, Megan Devries

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Standards and Guidelines for Consultant Archaeologists (Ontario 2011) introduced a new requirement for archaeologists working in Ontario CRM to engage Aboriginal communities in response to growing criticisms from these communities over being excluded from the process. Considered vague by many involved in the industry, both archaeologists and Aboriginal community representatives have developed their own strategies for complying with these requirements and their own opinions on how what they do over the course of engagement does or does not fit into that policy. However, many Aboriginal concerns remain unaddressed in the current engagement process, leaving open the possibility that tension …

A Statistical Investigation Of Nonmetric Vertebral Traits With A Skeletal Population Sample From The Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, Tiffany A. Sarfo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This paleogenetic study utilizes 17 nonmetric epigenetic vertebral traits to determine their suitability for studying past genetic relationships. The samples utilized were from Egypt’s Dakhleh Oasis. Though infracranial nonmetric traits have a limited role in the study of past population genetics, this study has shown their value for elucidating past genetic patterns for intragroup analysis. The key to their utilization is to test the epigenetic factors (e.g., age, sex, symmetry and intertrait correlations) which were done using a number of statistical tests including Phi coefficient, G-test and the Odds ratio. This study utilized a novel set of spatial statistics to …

In Search Of A Cause: An Etiological Analysis Of Manubrial Porosity, Jose Sanchez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Few studies in paleopathology focus on the sternum as a unit of analysis to determine how it can contribute to disease diagnosis in the past. This thesis tested the null hypothesis that manubrial porosity was not associated with respiratory disease or pulmonary tuberculosis. One hundred fifty-four individuals from the Luis Lopes Skeletal Collection were assessed for manubrial porosity. This study sought to be as comprehensive as possible, and thus tested several variables to identify any significant associations with manubrial porosity. Using the odds ratio, 95% confidence interval, and chi-square tests, significant associations exist between manubrial porosity, adolescence, and sternal body …

What Is Writing In Undergraduate Anthropology? An Activity Theory Analysis, Boba M. Samuels

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

How students learn to write in the disciplines is a question of ongoing concern in writing studies, with practical implications for academia. This case study used ethnographic methods to explore undergraduate writing in two upper year anthropology courses at a Canadian university over one term (four months). Student and professor interviews, classroom field notes, surveys, and students’ final papers were analysed using a framework drawn from activity theory and informed by genre theory. Four themes emerged from the data: anthropology as school; the familiar vs. unfamiliar; reading; and hidden rhetoric. Findings suggest students approach disciplinary work primarily as students rather …

Reflections Of A Capacity Builder: An Autoethnographic Perspective Of Capacity Building Methods With A Youth Livelihoods Organization In Vanuatu, Sandra Moore

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Abstract

This autoethnographic narrative explores the author’s capacity building experiences, observances, insights, and reflections over a two year period working with a youth livelihoods nongovernmental organization in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. Autoethnographies explore the author’s own personal insight and reflection of their own experiences, which in turn may encourage readers to reflect on their own beliefs and practices. The author will define autoethnography and capacity building, briefly outline the historical context of Vanuatu, discuss the successes and challenges of facilitating capacity building, and reflect on her own values, assumptions, and learning within the social context of an international …

The Violence Of Representation: The (Un) Narration Of Palestine In Public Discursive Space In Canada, Peige Desjarlais

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The thesis examines representations of Palestine and Palestinians in Canada by drawing on the historical literature, statements from Canadian officials, media items, and through interviews conducted with Palestinian exiles in London and Toronto. Based on this research, I argue that the colonization of Palestine went, and still goes, hand in hand with a particular narrative construction in North America. I propose that the pervasiveness of Zionist discourse in Canada is sustained by drawing on three main ideas or sources: a long colonial and Orientalist tradition (which sees Arabs and Muslims as the uncivilized and inferior others of Europeans), the instrumentalization …

Toward A Postmodern Avant-Garde: Labour, Virtuosity, And Aesthetics In An American New Music Ensemble, John R. Pippen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines the aesthetic beliefs and labour practices of the American new music ensemble eighth blackbird (lower-case intentional). Drawing on ethnographic research conducted with the ensemble for the past six years, I show how the ensemble responds to specific cultural pressures endemic to the classical music scene, its new music vanguard, and to the contemporary United States. eighth blackbird, I argue, has created an ensemble identity and performance style designed to satisfy numerous audience positions, from experts well-versed in the intricacies of musical techniques to lay-persons unacquainted with the values and practices of new or classical music. This attempt …

Sacred Heart: A Stable Isotope Analysis Of Childhood, Diet, And Mobility At A Nineteenth Century Ontario Cemetery, Emily Wells

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis uses stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen derived from bone collagen and tooth dentin to study infant feeding behaviour, diet, and mobility at the 19^th century Sacred Heart Cemetery in Ingersoll, Ontario, in use from 1848 to 1880. d¹⁵N and d¹³C bone values indicate a diet high in protein with a mix of C₃ and C₄ plants. The most significant source of dietary C₄ plants is through secondary consumption, via livestock raised on maize fodder. The dietary profile of the Sacred Heart population is similar to two contemporary Ontario populations. …

Confronting Colonial Standard Making Practices: Environmental Governance And Invasive Species Management At Walpole Island First Nation, Kristy A. Nicholson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Hegemonic standard making practices in Ontario environmental governance can disregard the interests of First Nations by limiting funding and scope for community environmental management (Dalton, 2009). Invasive species management at Walpole Island First Nation has sought to control aggressive plant species that have infiltrated culturally and economically important ecosystems. Ontario government agencies, Ministry of Environment (MOE), and Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), offer funding through sources such as the Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund (GLGCF) for community management projects with the intent to encourage collaboration. However, predetermined ‘acceptable’ project designs can override community defined-goals. This was evident during the funding …

"We Don’T Need Another Africville”: Historical Imaginings Of Gentrification And Development In Halifax’S North End, Kelly Baker

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

“Renaissance”, “revitalization”, “vibrancy”, and “gentrification” are all terms popularly used to describe the processes currently transforming Halifax’s North End. The longtime neglected, presumed-to-be dangerous, and widely avoided area is now said, by realtors, business owners, and City officials alike, to be a creatively-thriving and socially diverse community, and up-and-coming hotspot for independent business. Home to a large population of Halifax’s “creative class” of artists, musicians, and gays, the historically African Nova Scotian neighbourhood has, over the past decade, undergone a facelift, with some historic homes having been “flipped” three times, and their value sometimes quadrupled. Once-derelict buildings now house luxury …

“Write My Story Before I Forget”: An Auto-Ethnography Of Aboriginal Alcohol Dementia, Danielle Alcock

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The diagnosis of Alcohol Dementia and its health implications comes with an uncertain future for the individual and their families. To add to the minimal existing literature on the subject, this auto-ethnography focuses on three generations of Indigenous oral storytelling to re-construct the past of an Anishanabe father to understand his addiction in connection to broader social constructs. Decolonizing methodologies are used in the form of first person experience and connecting research to activism. Alcohol Dementia is examined using Aboriginal social determinants of health to critically discuss the direct affects of intergenerational trauma, uprooting and displacement and flaws within the …

The Reciprocal Influences Of The Old Order Mennonite Community And Tourism In St. Jacobs, Ontario, Mingyuan Zhang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research examines the reciprocal influences of the Old Order Mennonite community and tourism in St. Jacobs, Ontario. It is an ethnographic account of encounters between tourists and the Old Order Mennonite community who have both benefited from and been challenged by tourism development for four decades in the area of St. Jacobs. Cultural generalization and different ways of over-representing and misrepresenting the Old Order Mennonite identity has triggered tourists’ curiosity to seek the nostalgic past and social interactions with the Old Order Mennonite community. Even though tourism in St. Jacobs has been initiated and managed with the purpose of …

The Politics Of Honduran Schoolteachers: State Agents Challenge The State, Jordan D. Levy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines the everyday work of schoolteachers in post-coup Honduras from the theoretical perspective that they are individuals with a vested interest in the state, who reflect upon their own experiences when carrying out the vital state service of national public education, and while acting as leaders of the anti-coup National Front of Popular Resistance. This movement emerged in response to the violent overthrow of the country’s democratically-elected president in June 2009 and has since broadened its agenda, calling for the ‘re-foundation’ of the Honduran state by rewriting the constitution.

Yet state formation occurs not only through such formal …

New Opportunities In Digital Archaeology: The Use Of Low-Cost Photogrammetry For 3d Documentation Of Archaeological Objects From Banks Island, Nwt, Colleen Haukaas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis investigates the use of low-cost three-dimensional (3D) modelling programs (Agisoft Photoscan and 123D Catch) to create and disseminate digital replicas of archaeological features and artifacts in the context of the Ikaahuk Archaeology Project, a community-based archaeology project on Banks Island, Northwest Territories. It aims to 1) assess the benefits and challenges of low-cost photogrammetry for in-situ documentation of hunter-gatherer archaeological features; 2) determine the usefulness of low-cost photogrammetry for replicating small-scale artifacts in comparison to 3D scanning methods; and 3) explore how Internet media can be used to disseminate 3D models. This thesis demonstrates that low-cost …

The Methodological And Diagnostic Applications Of Micro-Ct To Palaeopathology: A Quantitative Study Of Porotic Hyperostosis, Jennifer A. Morgan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this dissertation was to assess the value of micro-CT to palaeopathology for the non-destructive analysis of orbital and cranial porotic hyperostosis, common lesions observed in many archaeological skeletal collections. The objectives of this study were to: 1) identify palaeoepidemiological trends in the prevalence of porotic hyperostosis that may support differential diagnoses, 2) evaluate the reproducibility and reliability of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) methods of micro-CT data collection for the quantitative analysis of bone microarchitecture, and 3) quantitatively evaluate orbital and cranial porotic hyperostosis to determine the value of micro-CT methods for understanding disease pathogenesis and improving …

Elemental Distribution In Bone Impacted By Bacterial Diseases, Steven J. Naftel

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Previous work, by this and other authors, noted several elements in bones and teeth are distributed non-uniformly. It was theorized that elemental distributions may be accentuated in the case of bacterial infections. Regions of bone surrounding Dental Abscess and Tuberculosis lesions were identified from, Varden (AdHa-1) and LeVesconte, Ontario; San Pedro, Belize and Kellis II Cemetery, Egypt. The abscess cavities were excised intact and cross-sectioned through the identified lesion.

Elemental distributions in the bones were obtained using Synchrotron X-ray Fluorescence mapping. Maps of Zinc, Copper, Iron and Bromine were collected from the samples. The elements included in this study displayed …

More Than Just Sex: The Social Implications Of Hiv/Aids In Lusaka, Zambia, Mbaka Wadham

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The thesis research examines the implications of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on people living in Lusaka, Zambia with a particular focus on women. This study incorporates a literature review, qualitative semi-structured interviews and is grounded in anthropological and feminist theories concerning gender. It explores the intersections of the economic situation, cultural norms and education as well as the gendered nature of socialization to provide further insight into the multifaceted and overlapping factors that may influence the propagation of HIV/AIDS within this society. Through ethnographic accounts, individual lived experiences are explored and highlight the variability in women’s conditions in Lusaka, particularly when …

Averting Lemur Extinctions Amid Madagascar's Political Crisis, Christoph Schwitzer, Russell Mittermeier, Steig Johnson, Giuseppe Donati, Mitchell Irwin, Heather Peacock, Jonah Ratsimbazafy, Josia Razafindramanana, Edward E. Louis, Lounes Chikhi, Ian C. Colquhoun, Jennifer Tinsman, Ranier Dolch, Marni Lafleur, Stephen Nash, Erik Patel, Blanchard Randrianambinina, Tove Rasolofoharivelo, Patricia C. Wright

Anthropology Publications

The most threatened mammal group on Earth, Madagascar’s five endemic lemur families (lemurs are found nowhere else), represent more than 20% of the world’s primate species and 30% of family-level diversity. This combination of diversity and uniqueness is unmatched by any other country—remarkable considering that Madagascar is only 1.3 to 2.9% the size of the Neotropics, Africa, or Asia, the other three landmasses where nonhuman primates occur. But lemurs face extinction risks driven by human disturbance of forest habitats. We discuss these challenges and reasons for hope in light of site-specific, local actions proposed in an emergency conservation action plan.

Challenging Essentialized Representations Of Romani Identities In Canada, Julianna Beaudoin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Roma are one of the world’s most marginalized and exoticized ethnic groups, and they are currently the targets of increasing violence and exclusionary polices in Europe. In Canada, immigration and refugee policies have increasingly dismissed Roma as illegitimate or ‘bogus’ refugee claimants, in large part because they come from ‘safe’ European countries. These policies are reinforced through Canadian media discourse that primarily situates Roma as abusers of the refugee system. This dissertation on Romani identity challenges these demeaning and essentializing representations by focusing on three areas most relevant to Romani identities: first, historical representations; second, the role of media in …

Statecraft In The Virú Valley, Peru, In The First Millennium A.D., Jordan T. Downey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation is an archaeological study of statecraft in the Virú Valley, Peru, during the Early Intermediate Period (ca. 400 B.C. – A.D. 800). Virú was the subject of an influential research program in the 1940s (the Virú Valley Project), which produced important datasets for studying early complex societies in the region. But recent work has begun to upend many of the original conclusions, pointing to the need for a thorough review of the chronological foundation on which they rested, and calling for the re-analysis of ancient settlement patterns and infrastructure projects as proxies of the increasing centralization of authority …

The Bioarchaeology Of Care, Lauren Ouellette

2014 Undergraduate Awards

In archaeology, human skeletal remains are often dealt with separately from their social context. However, by taking a biocultural approach to reconstruct both biological identity and sociocultural context, the discipline of bioarchaeology can be used to diminish this divide concerning the human body and can provide important perspectives on human behaviours. One such behaviour is caregiving, and this paper explores the ability of bioarchaeology to identify evidence of human caregiving from human remains. Tilley’s (2012) four-stage “bioarchaeology of care” methodology is reviewed as a framework for future researchers to follow. The capacity of bioarchaeology to interpret caregiving behaviour using theories …

Selwyn Dewdney Fonds, Amanda Jamieson

Western Libraries Publications

Fonds consists of records illustrating the career of Selwyn Dewdney as writer, artist and pioneer in the field of native rock art, and also contains personal materials and records relating to his background and family. Included are printed editions of published articles and books, source materials, manuscript drafts, sketches, drawings, notes, exhibition catalogues and slides, articles about Dewdney’s rock art studies, financial records, correspondence, notebooks and albums, genealogical charts and notes, photographs, family Christmas cards, and newspaper clippings.