Digital Commons Network^™

Disability And Migration: How Systems Of Violence Intersect With The Production And Experience Of Disability For Migrants In Morocco, Frances Condon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project investigates the perspectives and experiences of physically disabled, chronically ill, or bodily-impaired migrants from south of the Sahara living in Rabat, Morocco. Increasing interest in disabled migrants’ rights from international organizations risks erasing those being ‘protected’ if it does not attend to the intersections of race, class, citizenship, and gender as they relate to the production and experience of disability for migrants. Produced by and for the (white) global North, I argue that traditional Euro-American disability studies scholarship is ill-equipped to address the issues faced by disabled migrants in post-colonial contexts. In addition to being ineffective, the uncritical …

Perceptions Of Rural Birthing Practices: A Glimpse Into Maternal And Child Health For Women In Kangra District, Himachal Pradesh, Mackenzie Burke

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over the past two decades birthing practices within India have drastically changed. This change is most visible in the shift from homebirths to hospital births following the implementation of the National Rural Health Mission. This study aims to understand and give voice to women’s perceptions of birthing practices in the rural villages of Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh. A total of ten interviews were conducted with both mothers and healthcare practitioners in the surrounding villages of Kangra District in order to gain a thorough, qualitative understanding of birthing practices in the local communities. The healthcare practitioners’ responses were divided according …

When God Put Daylight On Earth We Had One Voice': Kwakwaka'wakw Perspectives On Sustainability And The Rights Of Nature, Douglas Deur, Kim Recalma-Clutesi, Adam Dick

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this chapter the authors ask: How are the 'Rights of Nature' truly manifested in an indigenous context? We contend that one especially illuminating example can be found in the teaching of the Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) people of coastal British Columbia. The Kwakwaka'wakw are among the most studied indigenous people in Americas, and are thus a key reference point, providing a rich tradition that is widely known and accessible through accounts of past anthropologists and a handful of living experts.

The authors of this article all speak from deep groundings in Kwakwaka'wakw tradition.

Mining’S Impact On Environmental And Human Health: A Case Study Of Ramba County’S Gold Mine, Vivika Fernes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research project aims to gain a greater understanding of the health implications that Ramba County’s goldmine has on miners, their families, and the environment. While this study observes the community-at-large, inclusive of visiting miners and extended family members of workers, it will focus on women who engage in artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). Millions of people in the developing word depend on ASGM for their livelihood, evident in this case study in Ramba County. However, while gold is associated with wealth, there is great irony in the fact that those working within the mining industry are being exploited …

Impacts Of Agricultural Practices On Soil Quality And The Resulting Soil Conservation Implication In Kizanda Village, Lushoto Region, Tanzania, Sarah Maccormick

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study examined soil conservation in Kizanda Village which is in the Lushoto District, Tanga Region in the West Usambara Mountains of Tanzania. In Tanzania, and more specifically, the rural montane area, agriculture is an important part of both social and economic development. Due to a reported high rate of land degradation in Tanzania, this development is threatened though the lack of soil conservation. This study conducted structured interviews with farmers in Kizanda through snowball sampling to collect information about local agricultural practices and farmers’ perceptions on soil conservation issues. Soil samples were then collected from the corresponding farms (n= …

Climate-Smart Agriculture: Building Resilience For Women Farmers In Kalchebeshi, Nepal, Annika Ruben

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This case study outlines women’s involvement in climate-smart agriculture and key climate adaptation strategies which are being implemented in the town of Kalchebeshi, Nepal. Kalchebeshi is considered a Resilient Mountain Village because of the town’s integrated approach to addressing climate change and building resilience for farmers. Key findings examined gender differences in farming responsibilities and the significance of farmers’ groups in women’s overall decision making and community involvement. Additionally, changes in water management and pesticide use have been shown to have a positive impact on the lives of women farmers in Kalchebeshi. This paper reinforces the importance of involving vulnerable …

Lithic Material Procurement And Processing Of The Ancestral Puebloans In Montezuma Canyon, Richae Knudsen

Student Works

Recent analysis of lithic materials from Ancestral Puebloan sites in Montezuma Canyon demonstrates differences between the northern and southern sites in terms of practices of lithic procurement and processing. Materials from Alkali Ridge and Coal Bed Village had more lithic debitage without cortex, while those from Cave Canyon Village and Three Kiva Ruin had a much higher frequency of debitage with cortex. These data sets suggest that the northern sites performed primary flaking away from home, while those in the south did their primary flaking at home. This distinct behavior may be a result of differential access to lithic material …

A Least Cost Analysis: Correlative Modeling Of The Chaco Regional Road System, Sean Field, Carrie Heitman, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

During the ninth through twelfth centuries A.D., Ancestral Pueblo people constructed long, straight roads that interconnected the Chaco regional system across the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico. The intent and use of these features has eluded archaeological consensus, although recent research has reiterated the occurrence of long distance timber importation to Chaco Canyon. To enhance our interpretation of these features we offer a large-scale least cost analysis wherein optimal pathways that are modeled to simulate timber importation are compared to the actual road locations. A series of least cost paths were produced through different energy allocation algorithms, at …

Commmunity, Ecology, And Modernity: Faunal Analysis Of Skútustaðir In Mývatnssveit, Northern Iceland, Megan Hicks

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the archaeofaunal remains from Skútustaðir, a middle to high-status farm in Mývatnssveit, Northern Iceland, to understand the experience of rural communities and their ecologies during Iceland’s transition from regulated colonial exchange to a capitalist economy during the 17^th through 19^th centuries. Archaeofaunal analysis is used to reconstruct changes in the ways that people herded, hunted, and fished, providing insights into how they managed their local environments for subsistence and novel contexts of exchange. In addition to archaeofaunal analysis, primary textual sources are explored to assess how the Skútustaðir household and its rural community mobilized long-term …

Sedimenting Territory: A Political Geology Of Oil, Earth, And Spatial Politics In Turkey, Zeynep Oguz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Building on the recent turn to the material and earthly aspects of resources and political power in environmental anthropology and political geography, this work historically and ethnographically examines the kinds of territorial politics that oil’s materiality, geological qualities, and infrastructures have generated in Turkey. Despite being surrounded by oil-rich neighbors in the Middle East, Turkey’s domestic oil reserves supply only 7 percent of the country’s oil, all of which has been drilled in the Kurdish provinces of Batman, Diyarbakır, and Adıyaman in Turkey’s southeast, where the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) has been fighting the Turkish state since 1984 for cultural …

Unstitching The Borders: Color, Class And Consumption In Queens, New York, Cassandra R. Barnes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The following thesis is a comparative multipart examination into the ways in which globalization, translocality, and gentrification influence communities and their inhabitants through the lens of fashion. Political and social forces drive processes of consumption. In the Corona and Jackson Heights sections of Queens, New York, several waves of migration and immigration have given rise to an extremely diverse yet socially complex area. Historically, four major shopping districts: Roosevelt Avenue, 74^th Street, 82^nd Street, and Junction Boulevard developed in the two towns and reflected much of the demography within. Currently these districts are physically accessible to anyone able …

Claiming The Remains Of The Past: The Return Of Cultural Heritage Objects To Colombia, Mexico, And Peru, Pierre Losson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My research explores the reasons why three Latin American states (Colombia, Mexico, and Peru) claim the return of cultural heritage objects from holding institutions in the Western World, such as museums and universities. The literature on returns and restitutions, which focuses on questions of ownership and possession of objects, opposes two conceptions of cultural heritage: on the one hand, the internationalists argue that the location of a cultural object must be decided according to the interests of science and education, for the benefit and in the name of humankind; on the other hand, the nationalists consider that cultural heritage is …

A Critical Marketing Practitioner In Japan: Philosophy And Marketing Activities Of Seiji Tsutsumi, Kazuo Usui

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This paper explores some features of marketing activities and marketing thought of a Japanese critical marketing practitioner, Dr. Seiji Tsutsumi. The approach of the paper is biographical. Somewhat paradoxically, the paper finds – in the practices and thoughts of Dr. Seiji Tsutsumi – a refreshingly critical mindset, despite his huge commercial success in retail business in Japan. Similar biographical research should be done in other national contexts, to develop links between practices and critical theories.

Digitally-Mediated Practices Of Geospatial Archaeological Data: Transformation, Integration, & Interpretation, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kristin Landau

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Digitally-mediated practices of archaeological data require reflexive thinking about where archaeology stands as a discipline in regard to the ‘digital,’ and where we want to go. To move toward this goal, we advocate a historical approach that emphasizes contextual source-side criticism and data intimacy—scrutinizing maps and 3D data as we do artifacts by analyzing position, form, material and context of analog and digital sources. Applying this approach, we reflect on what we have learned from processes of digitally-mediated data. We ask: What can we learn as we convert analog data to digital data? And, how does digital data transformation impact …

Interdisciplinary Lens On Indigenous Health Iniquities: Planning, Nursing, Anthropology, Geography, Education, Chantal Francouer, Alana Kehoe, Ivy Tran, Steven Vanloffeld, Lillian Woroniuk, Jacob Renaud

Head and Heart Posters 2019

Indigenous peoples experience poorer health outcomes on almost every measure of health and wellbeing, when compared to the rest of Canada. For decades researchers have been working independently on addressing health inequalities, yet little progress has been made on closing the gap. This Discipline-specific way of thinking is too narrow and neglects indigenous ideologies of holistic approaches to health. An interdisciplinary approach to indigenous health research provides a more collaborative and integrated opportunity to address the multidimensional aspects of health. This paper has the goals to contribute to the limited research on interdisciplinary indigenous health research.

Interdisciplinary Lens On Indigenous Health Iniquities: Planning, Nursing, Anthropology, Geography, Education, Chantal Francouer, Alana Kehoe, Ivy Tran, Steven Vanloffeld, Lillian Woroniuk, Jacob Renaud

Learning with your Head & Heart

Indigenous peoples experience poorer health outcomes on almost every measure of health and wellbeing, when compared to the rest of Canada. For decades researchers have been working independently on addressing health inequalities, yet little progress has been made on closing the gap. This Discipline-specific way of thinking is too narrow and neglects indigenous ideologies of holistic approaches to health. An interdisciplinary approach to indigenous health research provides a more collaborative and integrated opportunity to address the multidimensional aspects of health. This paper has the goals to contribute to the limited research on interdisciplinary indigenous health research.

Interdisciplinary Lens On Indigenous Health Iniquities: Planning, Nursing, Anthropology, Geography, Education, Chantal Francouer, Alana Kehoe, Ivy Tran, Steven Vanloffeld, Lillian Woroniuk, Jacob Renaud

2019 Cohort

Indigenous peoples experience poorer health outcomes on almost every measure of health and wellbeing, when compared to the rest of Canada. For decades researchers have been working independently on addressing health inequalities, yet little progress has been made on closing the gap. This Discipline-specific way of thinking is too narrow and neglects indigenous ideologies of holistic approaches to health. An interdisciplinary approach to indigenous health research provides a more collaborative and integrated opportunity to address the multidimensional aspects of health. This paper has the goals to contribute to the limited research on interdisciplinary indigenous health research.

The Archaeology Of Mississippian Vulnerability And Resilience In The New Madrid Seismic Zone, Michelle Megan Rathgaber

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work examines the vulnerability and resilience of Mississippian people in the Central Mississippi Valley to the large-scale New Madrid seismic zone earthquakes of the late15th to early 16th century. This is done using the theory of eventful archaeology/anthropology to look at cultural materials both before and after an event (such as an earthquake and sand blows) to look for evidence of changes to the schema and resources on which a society relies. If changes are present, the event can be labeled as such, if there are no changes, it means that the society affected did not see the event …

Climatology And Trends In Hourly Precipitation For The Southeast United States, Vincent M. Brown, Barry D. Keim, Alan W. Black

Faculty Publications

This research introduces a climatology of hourly precipitation characteristics, investigates trends in precipitation hours (PH) and hourly accumulation, and uses four different time series to determine if precipitation intensity is changing across the southeastern United States from 1960 to 2017. Results indicate hourly intensity significantly increased at 44% (22/50) of the stations, accompanied by an increase in average hourly accumulation at 40% of the sites analyzed (20/50). The average duration of precipitation events decreased at 82% (41/50) of the stations. However, the frequency of 90th percentile hourly events and events above station-specific average hourly totals did not show a broad …

Investigation Of Spectral Variation Of Pine Needles As An Indicator Of Arsenic Content In Soils, Ji Hye Shin, Jaehyung Yu, Lei Wang, Jieun Kim, Sang Mo Koh

Faculty Publications

The spectral response to arsenic (As) stress of pine needles (Pinus densiflora Siebold and Zucc.) from an abandoned lead (Pb)–zinc (Zn) mine was investigated based on chemical and spectroscopic analyses. The correlation analysis between the content of As in needle samples and that of soils and spectral parameters of the needle samples were conducted. The results showed very high correlation between As content in pine needles and soils. The major spectral response of pine needles to the As stress were characterized by the increase in the green and red color reflectance, the decrease in the first derivatives at 1648 nm, …

Sacred Geopolitics: Latter-Day Saints In German Samoa During New Zealand’S Invasion, Dylan Michael Beatty

Pacific Studies

This article traces the connections in German Samoa between missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), Samoan Latter-Day Saints, and the colonial regimes in Samoa, 1900–1920. Latter-Day Saint missionaries largely omitted remarkable geopolitical events, such as New Zealand’s invasion and a devastating influenza epidemic, from news reports written for audiences in the United States.

The underlying cause for this silence was reterritorializations in Utah and Samoa. By the 1890s, the church in general began adapting to American norms in recognition of the federal government’s sovereignty in Utah. By the turn of the century, Samoa was annexed …

Dynamics Of Land Use, Environment, And Social Organization In The Sasanian Landscape Of Eastern Iraq—Western Iran, Mitra Panahipour

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding human-environment interactions has been one of the main challenges in archaeological studies over recent years. Past research on the Near Eastern territorial empires in general, and the Sasanian Empire in particular, primarily emphasized the dominant role of human on landscape transformation. In addition, politically centralized schemes such as agricultural intensification and expansion of water supply systems have been at the center of most of the discussions and remained the main hypothesis of the Sasanian land use practices.

This dissertation investigates population’s diverse responses to environmental variability during the Sasanian period (224-651 CE) across a landscape in eastern Iraq—western Iran. …

Understanding Cumulative Hazards In A Rustbelt City: Integrating Gis, Archaeology, And Spatial History, Daniel Trepal, Don Lafreniere

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

We combine the Historical Spatial Data Infrastructure (HSDI) concept developed within spatial history with elements of archaeological predictive modeling to demonstrate a novel GIS-based landscape model for identifying the persistence of historically-generated industrial hazards in postindustrial cities. This historical big data approach draws on over a century of both historical and modern spatial big data to project the presence of specific persistent historical hazards across a city. This research improves on previous attempts to understand the origins and persistence of historical pollution hazards, and our final model augments traditional archaeological approaches to site prospection and analysis. This study also demonstrates …

The History Of Admixture In African Americans, Jessica Marie Gross

Anthropology ETDs

African American admixture has been a focal topic of genetic studies since the mid-20^thcentury. Generally, these studies estimate individual- and population-level African and European ancestry proportions. Some of these studies fit unrealistic admixture models to the patterns of genetic diversity in African Americans to determine both the onset time of admixture between Africans and Europeans, and the per-generation contribution of Europeans.

This research has failed to consider the contribution of the millions of Africans who migrated, either forcibly or by choice, to North America during and after slave importation, and failed to consider how changing social dynamics have …

Mule Nation, Polina Konokh

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis project is a TV pilot and the second episode of the show. There is also a critical essay that serves as an explanation of the creative work.

There are multiple problems addressed in the text, such as growing up, living in the modern world, countries not working properly for their citizens and other important issues of our modern life, with a thorough explanation of some of them in the critical essay.

The screenplays are formatted according to the current industry standards.

The result of this thesis is two first episodes of a potential TV show.

“Medical Tourism Will…Obligate Physicians To Elevate Their Level So That They Can Compete”: A Qualitative Exploration Of The Anticipated Impacts Of Inbound Medical Tourism On Health Human Resources In Guatemala, Valorie A. Crooks, Ronald Labonté, Alejandro Cerón, Rory Johnston, Jeremy Snyder, Marcie Snyder

Anthropology: Faculty Scholarship

Background: Medical tourism, which involves cross-border travel to access private, non-emergency medical interventions, is growing in many Latin American Caribbean countries. The commodification and export of private health services is often promoted due to perceived economic benefits. Research indicates growing concern for health inequities caused by medical tourism, which includes its impact on health human resources, yet little research addresses the impacts of medical tourism on health human resources in destination countries and the subsequent impacts for health equity. To address this gap, we use a case study approach to identify anticipated impacts of medical tourism sector development on health …

The Ethnohistory Of Freshwater Use On Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile), Sean W. Hixon, Robert J. Dinapoli, Carl P. Lipo, Terry L. Hunt

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

Sources of drinking water on islands often present critical constraints to human habitation. On Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile), there is remarkably little surface fresh water due to the nature of the island’s volcanic geology. While several lakes exist in volcanic craters, most rainwater quickly passes into the subsurface and emerges at coastal springs. Nevertheless, the island sustained a relatively large human population for hundreds of years, one that built an impressive array of monumental platforms (ahu) and statues (moai). To understand how Rapanui acquired their scarce fresh water, we review ethnohistoric data from first European arrival (1722) through the …

Late Classic Soil Conservation And Agricultural Production In The Three Rivers Region, Byron Smith, Stanton Morse

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Agricultural production during the Classic Period (c.1,700 to 1050 BP) in the Central Maya Lowlands was comprised of a variety of techniques that were used to satisfy dietary needs and to stimulate its subsistence economy. The complexity of those methods was a consequence of a variable topography and previous forest management practices that likely resulted in wide-spread deforestation, and subsequently large-scale erosion which limited arable land. The Classic Maya solution to limitations in arable land, augmented by increased erosion seems to have come in the form of geotechnical constructions placed in a variety of positions along the contours of hillsides …

Mapping Maya Hinterlands: Lidar Derived Visualization To Identify Small Scale Features In Northwestern Belize, Jeremy Mcfarland, Marisol Cortes-Rincon Ph.D.

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This paper will discuss the processes and methods of relief visualization of LiDAR-derived digital elevation models (DEM’s) and classification of secondary data to identify archaeological remains on the ancient Maya landscape in northwestern Belize. The basis of the research explores various Geographic Information System (GIS) and cartographic techniques to visualize topographical relief. Graphic terrain maps assist archaeologists with predictive settlement patterns. The Relief Visualization Toolbox (RVT 1.3) aids to visualize raster DEM datasets in the predictive identification and interpretation of small-scale archaeological features. This dataset and methodology can be utilized to answer questions of population estimates, mobility costs, and effectiveness …

A Geospatial Recipe For Identifying Social Values And Fragmentation Issues Of The Friends Of The Dunes Land Trust, Buddhika Madurapperuma, Jess Barger, Melissa Collin, Christine Emerson, Sean Fleming, Brian Murphy

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The beach and coastal sand dunes comprise a dynamic and fragile ecosystem that provides a bounty of ecological services. These lands provide protection from coastal erosion and sea level rise, and are home to a rich biodiversity of plant and animal species in addition to their recreational value. The Humboldt Coastal Nature Center and the surrounding coastal dunes (HCNC) are man-aged as a land trust by Friends of the Dunes (FOD). FOD prioritize the restoration of dune habitats and encourages public involvement through community supported education and stewardship programs, guided nature tours, and naturalist training programs. The faculty, students, and …