Digital Commons Network^™

A Room With A View: Local Knowledge And Tourism Entrepreneurship In An Unlikely Indonesian Locale, Kathleen M. Adams, Dirk Sandarupa

Anthropology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article highlights the understudied role of local knowledge in contributing to the resilience of small-scale entrepreneurial tourism businesses in touristically-unpredictable times. Drawing on a micro-case study of a South Sulawesi (Indonesia) tourist-oriented restaurant-hotel that has thrived despite tourism’s ebbs and flows of tourism, we suggest that greater attention to the ways in which successful small-scale tourism entrepreneurs draw on local wisdom can help identify additional foundations for building resilience strategies. In spotlighting local knowledge as an under-recognized resource, this article also speaks to recent calls for the decolonization of tourism studies.

Reconstructing Landscape Use Patterns Using Strontium Isotope Ratios, Marian Irene Hamilton

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation uses modern habitats and fauna to model the variability and predictive power of strontium isotope ratios in identifying dispersal patterns in primates and habitat preference in primate and non-primate fauna. It concludes that there are significant isotopic differences between gallery forest and xeric grassland habitats in the same area and that these differences are reflected in fauna with habitat preferences for one or the other. It also identifies the most reliable methodological approaches for identifying the philopatric and dispersing sex in primate communities. Finally, it applies this methodological recommendation to strontium isotope data from South African hominins, concluding …

Linguistic Political Ecology With The Ngäbe Indigenous People Of Panama, Ginés A. Sánchez Arias

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Indigenous communities from all corners of the globe live in uncertain times. From the vantage point of their “remote" lands, they undergo some of globalization’s most harmful externalities. Their homes become increasingly harder to maintain as extractive industries, development schemes, clandestine land grabs, and national bureaucracies encroach creating new colonial lands. First by assimilation, and then integration, these processes systematically undermine indigenous culture and autonomy. In place of such destructive coloniality, indigenous societies shelter unique ecological and linguistic knowledge that continues to serve their progress. This research applies lessons learned from studying with Ngäbe communities of western Panama, towards a …

Intensive Archeological Survey Of The Willrae Tract City Of Florence, Williamson County, Texas, Caitlin Gulihur, Beth Valenzuela, Ann M. Scott

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

Georgetown Independent School District (GISD) has proposed the Willrae Tract project where school facilities will be constructed south of Florence, Williamson County, Texas. GISD retained Terracon Consultants, Inc. to conduct a systematic, intensive pedestrian survey of the approximate 100-acre project area. Because GISD, a political subdivision of the State of Texas, sponsored the project, the proposed undertaking is subject to compliance with the Antiquities Code of Texas and oversight from the Texas Historical Commission. In addition, the survey meets the standards for compliance under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, should a US Army …

Archeological Survey Of The Port Of Calhoun, Llc. Dock Facility Calhoun County, Texas, Eric Schroeder

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The Port of Calhoun, LLC. is planning to construct a commercial facility for transporting and storing sand. The facility includes the construction of a number of onshore deadmen for barge mooring, a bulkhead for loading and unloading barges, buildings for sand storage, and an area for the disposal of dredge material. Because the project will involve the placement of fill within the ordinary high water mark of the Victoria Barge Canal, the project will require a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District (Corps). Since the issuance of this permit is a federal undertaking, the Corps must …

Landscape Transformation During Ceramic Age And Colonial Occupations Of Barbuda, West Indies, Allison Bain, Anne-Marie Faucher, Lisa M. Kennedy, Allison R. Leblanc, Michael J. Burn, Rebecca Boger, Sophia Perdikaris

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

This research documented the history of landscape transformation on the island of Barbuda in the Lesser Antilles, Caribbean through cross-disciplinary research approaches. Excavations confirmed a human presence for the seasonal exploitation of conch meat and other mollusks during the Archaic Age (c.3000–500 BC), but more substantial impacts to terrestrial ecosystems likely began during the Ceramic Age (c.500 BC–AD 1500). Our combined sedimentary and charcoal records revealed that human-induced environmental transformations began with Ceramic Age peoples as they cleared vegetation for settlements and gardens with intentional burning. Sedimentary charcoal indicated a dramatic decline in fire during post-Ceramic Age abandonment, continuing through …

Science At Engineer Cantonment, Hugh H. Genoways, Brett C. Ratcliffe, Carl R. Falk, Thomas E. Labedz, Paul R. Picha, John R. Bozell

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Conclusions

It is our contention that Thomas Say, Titian Peale, Edwin James, and their colleagues of the Stephen Long Expedition of 1819–1820 were heavily engaged in scientific research, which took the form of the first biodiversity inventory undertaken in the United States. This accomplishment has been overlooked both by biologists and historians, but it should rank among the most significant accomplishments of the expedition. The results of this inventory continue to inform us today about environmental, faunal, and floral changes along the Missouri River in an area that is known to be an ecotone between the deciduous forests of the …

Weathering The Storm: Effects Of Storm Periods On Ancient Populations Of Coastal Florida, Brett Parbus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding human response to natural disasters is a core problem for environmental archaeologists. Hurricanes are often devastating to coastal populations, and recognizing behavioral change in response to these major storm events provides context for the resilience and adaptability of ancient coastal people. This research project focuses on retrodicting periods of increased storm frequency and intensity for regions of the Florida coast and comparing those storm periods to the existing archaeological record in order to determine if there are correlations between increased storminess and periods of site abandonment and/or changes in subsistence strategy. These potential correlations may aid in our understanding …

The Impact Of The Medieval Climatic Anomaly On The Archaeology At Edwards Air Force Base, Jessica Amanda Porter-Rodriguez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

A series of severe and prolonged droughts occurred throughout the Northern Hemisphere between approximately 1150 BP to 600 BP. This phenomenon is referred to as the Medieval Climatic Anomaly and has been shown to have differentially impacted various regions of the world. Previous studies have suggested causal links between the Medieval Climatic Anomaly and observed culture change.

The goal of this study was to examine the Antelope Valley region of the Mojave Desert for evidence of impacts on human populations related to the Medieval Climatic Anomaly. To achieve this goal, a sample selection of archaeological sites was chosen from lands …

Talus Features Of The Middle Columbia River: Typological And Locational Analyses, Jeremy Ripin

All Master's Theses

The form and function of talus features of the Columbia Plateau are the subject of archaeological investigations and cultural resource evaluation and protection programs. Depressions excavated in talus slopes, most often circular to oval in shape, are called talus pits. Pit features are also located in colluvium and alluvial fans, and at the base of cliff overhangs. Over 568 of these features have been documented for 48 sites within the project area of the Priest Rapids and Wanapum reservoirs. Pits may have been used for hunting blinds, storage (food and/or equipment), burial, and/or and spirit questing. The size of pits …

Fracked Perceptions: Changes In Perception Regarding Hydraulic Fracturing Among Residents Of Dimock, Pennsylvania., Brian Straniti

All Master's Theses

The primary objective of this research is to critically analyze changes in perceptions associated with hydraulic fracturing within Dimock, Pennsylvania. Residents of Dimock initially welcomed fracking in 2006 due to positive corporate rhetoric promoting economic benefits such as mineral rights acquisition, land-leasing, and local business development. However, economic benefits diminished as Dimock advanced through a boom period resulting in a current economic and ecological bust. Two months of data collection occurred in the summer of 2016 using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. Political economy of nature and political ecology theoretical frameworks were used to analyze and conceptualize the …

Sleep As An Evolved Behavior: Ecological Opportunity Costs And Sleep Optimization, Gandhi Yetish

Anthropology ETDs

Sleep problems afflict millions world-over. Treating this has been difficult because there is no consensus definition for “normal” sleep. People can vary in their personal sleep need, but the determinants of variation in sleep duration are largely unknown, as is the criteria to determine how much variation is normal. Given that most diurnal mammals (including primates) appear to sleep from sunset to sunrise, the leading explanation for sleep pathology in the post-industrial world has been that electronics, especially light illuminating devices, substantially reduce sleep duration. This assertion has heretofore only been tested experimentally. This research aims to resolve this issue …

Prehistoric Pathoecology As Represented By Parasites Of A Mummy From The Peruaçu Valley, Brazil, Karl Reinhard, Adauto Araújo

Karl Reinhard Publications

Paleopathologists have begun exploring the pathoecology of parasitic diseases in relation to diet and environment. We are summarizing the parasitological findings from a mummy in the site of Lapa do Boquete, a Brazilian cave in the state of Minas Gerais. These findings in context of the archaeology of the site provided insights into the pathoecology of disease transmission in cave and rockshelter environments. We are presenting a description of the site followed by the evidence of hookworm, intestinal fluke, and Trypanosoma infection with resulting Chagas disease in the mummy discovered in the cave. These findings are used to reconstruct the …

Preliminary Insights Into Prehistoric Toolstone Preference Of Two Igneous Materials In The Tanana River Drainage, Interior Alaska, Brooks A. Lawler

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This project examines prehistoric human mobility and raw material preference for tool manufacture in a 45,918 square mile portion of Interior Alaska, the Tanana River Drainage. A geographic approach is used to investigate the distribution of prehistoric obsidian and rhyolitic artifacts in relation to the sources of these materials. The objective of the investigation is to reveal spatial patterning in the distributions of artifacts made of these two materials, relative to each other and relative to the cost of obtaining these raw materials from their sources on the landscape. I examine a hypothesis based in human behavioral ecology and optimal …

"Treat Everybody Right:" Multidimensional Foodways In Detroit, Alex B. Hill

Wayne State University Theses

Detroit is assumed to be a “food desert” even with contradicting evidence. With fruits and vegetables available at each of Detroit’s 70+ independent grocery stores, there remains a lack of understanding in consumer preference and perception of nutritional access. It was reported in 2010 that upwards of $200 million in grocery spending leaves the City of Detroit. Throughout the months of July to September 2014, 73 Detroit residents participated in focus groups and group interviews to discuss food purchasing habits and perceptions of food access. Of the 73 participants, 51 completed a Food Purchasing and Eating Patterns (FPEP) survey which …

3d Tool Evaluation And Workflow For An Ecological Approach To Visualizing Ancient Socio-Environmental Landscapes: A Case Study From Copan, Honduras, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Shona Sanford-Long, Jack Kerby-Miller

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Architectural reconstructions are the centerpieces of ancient landscape visualization. When present, vegetation is relegated to the background, resulting in underutilized plant data—an integral data source for archaeological interpretation—thus limiting the capacity to take advantage of 3D visualization for studying ancient socio-environmental dynamics. Our long-term objective is to develop methods of 3D landscape visualization that have value for examining changes in land use and settlement patterns. To begin to work toward this objective, we have (1) identified 3D tools and techniques for vegetation modeling and landscape visualization, (2) evaluated the pros and cons of these tools, (3) investigated biological and ecological …

Mens Life History, Testosterone, And Health, Louis Calistro Alvarado

Anthropology ETDs

Testosterone is hypothesized to mediate life history trade-offs between reproduction and survival in men, promoting mating effort over other forms of investment, which entails energetic and mortality costs. Sexually dimorphic musculature represents one form of somatic investment in mating. Favorable energy availability is posited to promote preferential investment in mating effort through upregulated testosterone production and augmented musculature, whereas nutritional constraint is predicted to downregulate testosterone to facilitate a diminished, thriftier phenotype. Furthermore, life history trajectories influencing mens testosterone levels have important health implications for androgen-sensitive disease. Here, I examine broad features of men's life history and health, and their …

Lithium In Drinking Water And Suicide Mortality: Interplay With Lithium Prescriptions, Marco Helbich, Michael Leitner, Nestor D. Kapusta

Faculty Publications

Background: Little is known about the effects of lithium intake through drinking water on suicide. This intake originates either from natural rock and soil elution and/or accumulation of lithium-based pharmaceuticals in ground water. Aims: To examine the interplay between natural lithium in drinking water, prescribed lithium-based pharmaceuticals and suicide in Austria. Method: Spatial Bayesian regressions for males, females and pooled suicide mortality rates were estimated. Results: Although the expected inverse association between lithium levels in drinking water and suicide mortality was confirmed for males and for total suicide rates, the relationship for females was not significant. The models do not …

Chapter Eight: Ethnoarchaeology Of Foraging And The Case Of Vanishing Agriculturalists In The Amazon Basin, Pei-Lin Yu

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Debates about ancient Amazonian social organization have evaluated characterizations from a range of sources that include ethnographically documented foraging societies and archaeological discoveries suggestive of sedentized agriculturists. This study uses qualitative ethnoarchaeological data about foraging and small-scale horticulture among the Pumé of Venezuela, and Lewis Binford’s quantified database of foraging groups and environmental parameters, to develop a testable model that predicts the conditions under which Amazon Basin foragers would (or would not) intensify subsistence to the point of incorporating maize and other cultivars; as well as the conditions for reversing the process. Specific expectations for the archaeological and paleoenvironmental record …

Socioecological Processes In The Science Of Planetary Change, Cynthia Twyford Fowler, Cynthia Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

This presentation seeks to further understandings of human encounters with socioecological change and also of socioecological processes in the science of planetary change. In this presentation, I interpret the space-time involvements of two social groups. Using one filter, I do basic science by examining the ways Sumbanese construct the monsoonal landscapes which they communicate about, within which they move, and where they interact with other constituents of their environments. Using an alternate filter, I engage critical theory by deconstructing the ways scientists’ visualize changing landscapes with the aid of geospatial technologies. Whose purposes do geospatial scientists serve in documenting the …

Variable Models For Organization Of Earthworking Communities In Upper Purus, Southwestern Amazonia: Archaeological And Ethnographic Perspectives, Sanna Saunaluoma, Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

No abstract provided.

Gordillo, Gastón. Rubble: The Afterlife Of Destruction. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014., Ismael Vaccaro Ph.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

Book review.

Animals As Neighbours: The Past And Present Of Commensal Animals By Terry O'Connor, Derek Woods

The Goose

Review of Terry O'Connor's Animals as Neighbours: The Past and Present of Commensal Animals.

A Bird In The Bush: Dillon Ripley, Sálim Ali And The Transformation Of Ornithology In Sri Lanka, Arjun Guneratne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Cultural Resources Survey Of Texas Eastern Transmission Lps Phase 1 Pipeline Anomaly Repairs On The Petr To Tivo Segment Of Line 16 In Refugio And Aransas Counties, Texas, Charles E. Bludau Jr., Tony Scott

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

On behalf of Texas Eastern Transmission, LP and Edge Engineering and Science, LLC., HRA Gray & Pape, LLC, of Houston, Texas, has completed a 100% pedestrian cultural resources survey and limited shovel testing of an estimated 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) of linear area in Refugio and Aransas Counties, Texas. Texas Eastern has identified several locations along the PETR to TIVO Segment of Line 16 that require replacement of aging pipe. One of the areas requiring maintenance work is identified as “Phase 1”, for which the archaeological survey was completed in May of 2015.

The Lead Federal Agency has been identified …

A Cultural Resources Survey Of Texas Eastern Transmission Lps Phase 2 And Phase 3 Pipeline Anomaly Repairs On The Petr To Tivo Segment Of Line 16 In Refugio And Aransas Counties, Texas, Charles E. Bludau

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

On behalf of Texas Eastern Transmission, LP and Edge Engineering and Science, LLC., HRA Gray & Pape, LLC, of Houston, Texas, has completed a 100% pedestrian cultural resources survey and limited shovel testing of an estimated 7.84 kilometers (4.87 miles) of linear area in Refugio and Aransas Counties, Texas. Texas Eastern has identified several locations along the PETR to TIVO Segment of Line 16 that require replacement of aging pipe. Two of the areas requiring maintenance work are identified as “Phase 2” and “Phase 3” for which the archaeological survey was completed in May of 2015.

The Lead Federal Agency …

A Cultural Resources Survey For The Donna Independent School District’S Aquatic Center And Walking Trail Project, Donna, Hidalgo County, Texas, Herbert G. Uecker, James E. Warren

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

In late April, 2015, Archaeology Consultants, Inc., performed a cultural resources survey for the Donna Independent School District Aquatic Center and Walking Trail Project in Hidalgo County, Texas. About 6.65 acres was surveyed. The location of the project area within public school district property and within a region known to contain numerous archeological sites prompted the Texas Historical Commission to recommend the survey for compliance with the Antiquities Code of Texas. The Commission issued Texas Antiquities Permit 7163 for the survey.

The survey included a search of the Commission’s Texas Archeological Sites Atlas for previous surveys and recorded archaeological sites …

Rebound Hardness Results For Raw Material Located Near Pinnacle Point, South Africa And The Implications Thereof, Christopher M. Shelton

Sociology & Anthropology Theses - Archive

The focus of this study is to test our ability to glean ancient human behavioral ecology data through a specific form of raw material mechanical properties testing. Through the quantitative analysis of raw material in regards to knapping quality (hereafter referred to as knappability), collection processes and choice patterns of a study group can be inferred. More precisely, this study serves to test the viability of the use of the Schmidt hammer as a means of determining knappability, with the area in and around Pinnacle Point (Western Cape, South Africa) as the focus area and silcrete and quartzite as the …

Settlement History And Interaction In The Manialtepec Basin Of Oaxaca's Central Coast, Victoria Menchaca

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the focus of over 70 years* of archaeological research, Oaxaca, Mexico, is one of Mesoamerica*s best understood regions. Yet, despite the volume of work in Oaxaca, information about one of its key resource areas, the central Pacific coast, remains limited. Specifically, the ambiguous role of Oaxaca*s Central Coast in interregional relationships during pre-Hispanic times to the sites of Monte Alban and Tututepec has been a chronic problem and major source of debate for decades. The purpose of this thesis is to begin clarifying the role of Oaxaca*s Central Coast in interregional networks and its pre-Hispanic history. Analysis utilized surface …

Keeping In Touch: Exchange As An Adaptive Strategy In Southern Nevada, Timothy Joshua Ferguson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Archaeologists have always wondered about the extent of vessel movement in the American Southwest. Identifying vessel movement allows for the study of social interactions across a region and the role of ceramics in the adaptive processes of agriculturalists living in marginal, highly variable environments. In many instances, exchange may act as a way to reduce the risk of resource shortfalls by creating social ties in other areas. This research investigated the changing risk reduction strategies of households in the lowland Virgin region of southern Nevada by using geochemical methods to trace the exchange of locally produced pottery. It was hypothesized …