Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons^™

The Coping Behaviors Of Adult Children After Treatment For Parental Alienation, Anissa J. Michaud

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

High conflict divorce and the alienation of a parent after a divorce causes minimal mental health issues and unhealthy coping skills in children. Without treatment programs that focus on PA, psychologists will continue to only treat the symptoms or rebuild the family system rather than treating the individual’s with healthy coping skills. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to compare personal experiences from adult male and females suffering with parental alienation after a parent’s high conflict divorce. Bowen’s theory of family systems was used as a theoretical approach to understand the comparisons of adult children on the basis of …

Finding Those Once Lost: The Analysis Of The Potter's Field At Woodland Cemetery, London, On

Archaeology eBook Collection

Mortuary archaeology is the archaeological study of death and burial. In North America, the anthropological, cross-cultural, and deep temporal perspectives are employed (cf. Martin et al. 2013a). The myriad ways that societies deal with death are the product of complex and intertwined social, economic, and environmental factors such as class, gender, ethnicity, subsistence practice, and social complexity, to name a few. Therefore, the study of mortuary rituals sheds important light on social complexity and organization. This makes it an excellent topic for an advanced course in a Department of Anthropology. The research described in this report is the result of …

A Comparative Analysis Of Homicide Rates Utilizing The University Of Tennessee Forensic Data Bank, Anna F. Hampton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Homicide has piqued the interest of society through media not only in the 21^st century, but also dating back to the 1800s with crime fiction novels. Homicide holds the attention of our society with crime drama television series and has become part of American culture. With the attention that homicide receives, studies focusing on homicide are therefore important. This research utilizes the University of Tennessee Forensic Data Bank (FDB) to examine and compare homicide rates to the Global Study on Homicide conducted by the United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Variables examined include sex, ancestry, cause of …

A Snapshot Of Care: Creating Models Of Care For Individuals Included In The Terry Collection, Felicia Robyn Sparozic

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Utilizing the bioarchaeology of care model, this research formulates a model of care based on ethnohistorical and skeletal markers of pathologic conditions. The index of care is the method used to create models of care, and this requires social, cultural, economic, environmental, and mortuary contexts to determine the resources required to aid a person through injury or disability. This paper investigates the impact of known medical, occupational, and morgue records that accompanied each selected individual in the skeletal collection. This additional information, beyond what is gained from skeletal analysis, generates a complex model of care. A more complex model of …

Spirit Eye Cave: Reestablishing Provenience Of Trafficked Prehistoric Human Remains Using A Composite Collection-Based Ancient Dna Approach, Tre Blohm

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Childhood Obesity In California: The Impact Of School Lunch Options And Physical Education Standards In Public Elementary Schools, Audrey Connell

Scripps Senior Theses

Obesity is a biosocial phenomenon in that it is shaped by both biological and social processes. On the biological level, excess body fat increases one’s risk of placing the body in a non-homeostatic state that can weaken the immune response. On the social level, social inequalities are linked to obesity in the United States where racial and ethnic minority communities with low education and high poverty rates bear the largest burden of obesity. In various institutions, multiple actors such as food marketers, public health officials, policy makers, and school administrators dictate the opportunities available to children for them to reach …

Re-Interpreting A Complex Maya Burial At Tutu Uitz Na, Justine Marie Bye

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

In 2017, John Walden led an excavation of the Tutu Uitz Na intermediate elite center, found in the Maya site of Lower Dover, Belize. He and his team uncovered two burials, designated SG1-BU2 and SG1-BU3. Their initial report claims that there were three individuals, all sacrificially bound and killed within an eastern triadic shrine. In 2019, Dr. Kirsten Green-Mink and Justine Bye, both of the University of Montana, re-analyzed the Tutu Uitz Na burials and performed a comprehensive bioarchaeological analysis. SG1-BU2 was found to contain three individuals – 2 adults and 1 subadult. SG1-BU3 contained one adult, likely of high …

Applications Of Close-Range Photogrammetry For Documenting Human Skeletal Remains In Obstructed Wooded Environments, Morgan Ferrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

Crime scenes involving human skeletal remains in obstructed wooded environments are challenging to document. One potential option to include with the crime scene processing protocol is 3D documentation utilizing close-range photogrammetry (CRP). This method results in the generation of realistic 3D models and accurate plan-view maps of the crime scene. The purpose of this research was to explore the use of CRP to preserve contextual information of simulated scenes involving scattered human remains in obstructed wooded environments. The main goal was to improve CRP methodology as well as demonstrate how to incorporate this method into the forensic archaeology documentation protocol. …

Diet-Breadth Analysis In The American Southwest: Metabarcoding Method With Coprolites, Paige Nicole Plattner

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Molecular analysis of coprolites is proposed as new means of studying bio-archaeological remains that aids in the ability to capture diet breadth from past populations. This research utilizes the targeted PCR method, known as metabarcoding, to study dietary elements preserved in the coprolites from three greater Southwest sites. The Illumina MiSeq technology was used to sequence the samples after multiple rounds of targeted PCR using two primers (16s and 12s) proven successful for taxonomic identification with animal DNA and one primer specific to plant DNA (Rias et al 2011).

The sequencing data was then run through two different bioinformatics pipelines …

Alas, Poor Yorick: A Dna Analysis Of Ancestry Using Crania, Claire Hanson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Current methods for estimating ancestry in biological profiles provided to law enforcement and forensic collections rely heavily on the use of metric and non metric methods such as FORDISC 3.1 and “trait lists.” The reliance on these methods has led to inaccurate and ambiguous ancestry estimations, as many metric and non metric methods are subjective and cannot be statistically tested for error rates. As a result, forensic collections, such as the University of Montana Forensic Collection, could potentially house remains that have been inaccurately curated. In order to test the accuracy of curation in the UMFC, DNA samples were extracted …

Refining The Data Collection Methodology Of Outdoor Forensic Scenes Involving Scattered Human Remains Using Close-Range Photogrammetry, Megan Mccollum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-

The documentation of outdoor forensic crime scenes involving human remains poses multiple challenges to law enforcement officials documenting the context of the scene. More rigorous protocols for the documentation of these scenes are needed, and recent advances in technology open up the possibility of three-dimensional (3D) documentation of the scene. More commonly used in archaeological contexts, close-range photogrammetry (CRP) creates reliable 3D models through triangulation of overlapping points between multiple photographs. This documentation technique allows for the preservation of the entire 3D context and the virtual manipulation without evidence destruction. However, CRP has only been preliminarily used in the field …

Group Differences In Mother-Infant Macaca Fascicularis Behavior, Parasite Load, And Body Condition Within An Anthropogenically Altered Forest, Elizabeth M.C. Coggeshall

All Master's Theses

This study aimed to establish preliminary health and behavioral data, as well as understand group variation for a large population of Macaca fascicularis individuals within an anthropogenically altered monkey forest. A parasitic analysis of 40 mother and infant individuals showed that M. fascicularis carried 13 different parasitic taxa, and that there was parasitic variation between groups. Body condition scores were determined using a newly created and adapted body condition scale from 146 sampled mother macaques. Body condition scores were significantly different between groups, specifically the pond group when compared to the three other groups. Mother-infant behavioral differences were seen between …

The Development Of Social Behavior In The Tibetan Macaque (Macaca Thibetana), Rose Amrhein

All Master's Theses

Social cognition is vital for the proper integration into adulthood for any highly social animal species. The development of social intelligence during the childhood and adolescence of a social organism affects the individual throughout its life. This social intelligence allows for the establishment and maintenance of bonds through the formation of empathy, the understanding of intention and emotion, and theory of mind in some species. Changes to the rate and effectiveness of social development could lead to an individual incapable of integrating into the social environment of adulthood. Yet, much still needs to be learned about the process and influences …

Examining Environmental Use By Captive Lemur Catta And Varecia Rubra, Rhiannon Belcher

All Master's Theses

There are over 100 named species of lemurs, of which 94% are considered threatened with extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They live in increasingly fragmented forests. To understand how best to protect them in their natural habitats, we can observe how they manipulate the environment and how they use objects, both natural and humanmade, around them. Understanding their behavior is a critical component of conservation, and observing behavior in a captive setting allows us to study lemur-environment relationships without disrupting what little habitat is left in Madagascar. In this study I investigated whether the …

The Seasonality And Parasite Richness And Prevalence Of The Weddelli’S Saddleback Tamarin (Leontocebus Weddelli), Krista Banda

All Master's Theses

This study surveyed the intestinal helminths (parasitic worms) of Weddelli’s saddleback tamarins (Leontocebus weddelli), focusing on seasonality in parasite prevalence and richness. The collaborative study with Field Projects International took place at the Estación Biológica Rio Los Amigos (EBLA) in southeastern Peru. Fecal samples were collected by following semi-habituated groups of tamarins, yielding 16 samples in the dry season of 2015 and 11 samples in the wet season of 2015-2016. Findings were interpreted to understand trends for parasite prevalence and richness between the two seasons; however, novel helminths for the study species were observed. Trends were interpreted with …

A Community Of Care: Patterns Of Pathology And Trauma With A Focus On The Bioarchaeology Of Care At Carrier Mills, Il (10,000 – 1000 Bp), Alecia Schrenk

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Illness and injury are universal human experiences which are endowed with cultural meaning. Bioarchaeology has only recently begun to engage with the socioeconomic impacts of illness, injury, impairment, and healthcare provisioning in the past. This study examines how the Middle Archaic (6000 – 300 BC) and Early Woodland (1000 – 200 BC) hunter-gatherer community of Carrier Mills, Illinois was affected by and managed the socioeconomic burdens of poor health. The data presented in this study used bioarchaeological analyses to reveal patterns of poor health and healthcare provisioning within the Carrier Mills community. Bioarchaeology is ideally situated for such investigations since …

Estimating Body Mass Through Bone Mineral Density Studies Using Dexa (Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry), Kaitlin Harstine

Master's Theses

Identification of a decedent is one of the primary goals of forensic anthropologists. In order to do this, one must build a biological profile based on the remains that are provided. Sex, age, ancestry, and stature are four of the most common, however a fifth addition piece of information that could be beneficial is body mass. The goal of this research is to explore the relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) and body mass, using data collected from dual x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans of 107 collegiate football athletes. Athletes are a good fit for this study because they have achieved …

Hippocampal Extracellular Potassium Levels And Formation Of Spatial Memory In Response To Retrodialysis Insulin Administration, Gabrielle Shames

Anthropology

Insulin is the most common treatment for hyperglycemia, such as that caused by type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus. Insulin causes cellular uptake and storage of glucose to maintain homeostasis and also plays important roles in other systems; an important example is regulation of potassium. In the periphery, insulin administration has been shown to increase the cellular uptake of potassium via Na+/K+ ATPase, leading to hypokalemia. Research in our lab and others has shown that insulin is a key regulator of cognitive function and local metabolism within the hippocampus. To date, however, no studies have examined whether insulin acts …

Death On The Horizon: Osteoethnography Of The People Of Akhetaten, Alissa Michelle Bandy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to define and implement osteoethnography. Osteoethnography is the analysis and description of an ancient culture through the bioarchaeological and archaeological evidence, utilizing cultural anthropological theories and techniques. An osteoethnographic narrative is presented in this dissertation, which describes the embodied lives of the people of the 18th Dynasty Egyptian city of Akhetaten, now known as Amarna, founded in 1355 B.C.E. by the Pharaoh Akhenaten. Osteoethnography looks at how people are shaped by and shape their environment, how culture impacts health, and how culture informs the lives of its practioners. Osteoethnography employs life course theory, and …

Small Group Learning Is Associated With Reduced Salivary Cortisol And Testosterone In Undergraduate Students, Kristin Snopkowski, Kathryn Demps, Ross Griffiths, Karen S. Fulk, Scott May, Kimberly Neagle, Kayla Downs, Michaela Eugster, Tessa Amend

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Small group learning activities have been shown to improve student academic performance and educational outcomes. Yet, we have an imperfect understanding of the mechanisms by which this occurs. Group learning may mediate student stress by placing learning in a context where students have both social support and greater control over their learning. We hypothesize that one of the methods by which small group activities improve learning is by mitigating student stress. To test this, we collected physiological measures of stress and self-reported perceived stress from 26 students in two undergraduate classes. Salivary cortisol and testosterone were measured within students across …