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Botanical Resource Use In The Bronze And Iron Age Of The Central Eurasian Mountain/Steppe Interface: Decision Making In Multiresource Pastoral Economies, Robert Nicholas Spengler

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation examines botanical resources as components of Central Asian economies in the Bronze: ca. 2500 - 800 B.C.) and Iron Ages: ca. 800 B.C. - A.D. 500) using a paleoethnobotanical data set from four archaeological sites, Begash, Mukri, Tasbas, and Tuzusai. These sites are located in the Semirech'ye region of eastern Kazakhstan, and they occupy distinctive microenvironmental zones along the mountain and steppe boundaries; furthermore, they show a great deal of material cultural similarity and are placed into the same culture groups by researchers. The introduction of macrobotanical studies to Central Asian archaeology allows for a critique of former …

Do You Know How To Dance?: Mediating Identity Through Film And Dance In Visakhapatnam, India, Kaitlin Patterson, Dr. Charles Nuckolls

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I went to India to study gender relations in the family, but as I spent more time there I came to know a group of striking individuals and instead focused my research on a similar topic, film as a mediator of culture, but in this case a mediator for the deaf. The Omkar and Lions School for the Deaf (OLSD) looks out onto the bright blue bay of Visakhapatnam, India. Despite the beautiful view, the students rarely spend time in the water; their time is consumed with other things. They have school to go to, homework to complete, temple to …

The Metropolitan Myth: Catastrophic Language, Ecologies Of Violence, And The Storm Of Progress In A South Asian City, Kartik Amarnath '13

Honor Scholar Theses

Humanity is faced with an impending urban crisis, as the urban population is expected to move far beyond the rural in coming decades. With unprecedented rates of urbanization and sprawl, we find proliferations of informal communities such as slums and shantytowns. UNHCR estimates a population of 3 billion slum dwellers – a third of humanity – by 2050 (UNHCR). Much of this sprawl will take place in the Global South in mid-sized urban spaces, rather than present-day megalopolises. It is important for academia to engage with processes of urbanization, understanding how systems of power, culture, and production shape urban landscapes …

Geographic Variation In Chin Shape Challenges The Universal Facial Attractiveness Hypothesis, Zaneta M. Thayer, Seth D. Dobson

Dartmouth Scholarship

The universal facial attractiveness (UFA) hypothesis proposes that some facial features are universally preferred because they are reliable signals of mate quality. The primary evidence for this hypothesis comes from cross-cultural studies of perceived attractiveness. However, these studies do not directly address patterns of morphological variation at the population level. An unanswered question is therefore: Are universally preferred facial phenotypes geographically invariant, as the UFA hypothesis implies? The purpose of our study is to evaluate this often overlooked aspect of the UFA hypothesis by examining patterns of geographic variation in chin shape. We collected symphyseal outlines from 180 recent human …

Fruitful Communities: Evaluating The History And Impacts Of Treepeople’S Fruit Tree Program, Kayla B. Imhoff

Pitzer Senior Theses

TreePeople is a Los Angeles based non-profit organization that uses environmental education, initiatives, and programs to engage with the greater community to work towards the goal of a sustainable future for Los Angeles. The Fruit Tree Program is one of TreePeople’s longest running programs of 29 years, which distributes free bare-root fruit trees to economically disadvantaged communities as a source of fresh fruit and the other environmental benefits that trees offer. This paper is a comprehensive report detailing the history of the program and the impacts it has had on communities across Los Angeles County. Looking at three communities in …

Woman Into The Wild: Female Thru-Hikers And Pilgrimage On The Appalachian And Pacific Crest Trails, Lucy L. Bosche

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis follows solo women hikers as they embark upon walking either the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail from beginning to end. By witnessing the ways in which the women hikers navigate the counter-culture of the trails, a critique of American society is revealed. This paper focuses on the differences between trail culture and normative culture, the transformations the hikers undergo, and how the hikes have affected the women’s lives.

News - Georgia State University - Gsu Library Receives $210,000 Neh Grant, Christian J. Steinmetz

Georgia Library Quarterly

Georgia State University Library recently received a $210,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for “Planning Atlanta: A New City in the Making, 1930s – 1990s”, submitted by librarian Joe Hurley (Principal Investigator) and history professor Kate Wilson (co-PI).

From Exquisite To Extinct: Linguistic Human Rights In The Tibetan Diaspora || Tibetan Pragmatics, Standardization Ethics And Obligatory Bilingualism, Camille Zora Inge

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This work documents a sample of the rich qualities of Tibetan language and discusses how Buddhism is embedded and woven throughout its character. From translation compounds revealing the deeper meaning of Lord Buddha to morpho-­‐ syntactic implications of the emptiness of the self, Tibetan offers a window into an insider’s understanding of Buddhist philosophy. With such a vibrant linguistic story, Tibetan language ought to be respected and upheld, taught and treasured. But, the Chinese occupation in Tibet has resulted in a physical and cultural degradation of Tibetan culture. One of the least tangible yet most affective oppressions has been upon …

Clay-Potter Imagery In The Bible: Theological And Practical Implications For Daily Christian Life, Karl Stelzer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

God, the Master Potter, uses clay-potter imagery to explain spiritual truth. These passages are ignored, explained superficially, or misinterpreted and have not had the divinely intended impact. Theologically, doctrines of Theology Proper, Bibliology, and Anthropology have been compromised. Practically, the Holy Spirit has been hindered. To demonstrate the need for clay-potter instruction, research will include a comparative analysis of information gathered through questionnaires to churches that have held a clay-potter conference and those that have not, and an examination of written material and popular presentations. This author combines professional pottery expertise and biblical training to present accurate exposition. This thesis …

Global Futures And Government Towns: Phosphates And The Production Of Western Sahara As A Space Of Contention, Mark Drury

Publications and Research

The study of natural resources lends itself to theorizing the politics of nature and the politics of time. The space of Western Sahara, where both remain highly contested, provides an opportunity to consider the ramifications of resources in political conflict at different historical moments. Drawing from environmental histories of North Africa and the Sahara, as well as the anthropology of time, the author focuses on two historical moments. The first, from 1945 to 1972, concerns the discovery of phosphate deposits during the Spanish colonial period and the implications of this discovery for political authority in the Sahara more broadly. The …

Gagner La Vie: Examining Return Preparedness And Resource Mobilization Among Moroccan Immigrants To France Who Return To Live Permanently In Agadir, Morocco, Karolina Michelle Dos Santos

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

If Moroccan immigrants are so in tune to their home culture and home happenings, under what conditions do they stay in France facing the problems of unemployment and homelessness? This study focuses on the return migration of Moroccans from the Sousse region; specifically Agadir and the surrounding Tiznit areas, who left Morocco during the decade of 1960 and who have permanently returned to live in Morocco. The study was conducted by using the snowball sampling technique to conduct semi-structured interviews of Moroccan return migrants in AitMelloul, a neighborhood of Agadir. My findings suggest that the return migrants from the Sousse …

Dharma And The Free Market: Reconciling Buddhist Compassion With A Market Economy In Post-Socialist Mongolia, Yazmeen Mendez Nuñez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this inductive ethnographic study, I explore the unique social and theological pressures placed on Mongolian Buddhists after the wake of free market transition in Mongolia. It utilizes the Buddhist virtue of compassion as a lens by which the study might examine how Mongolians balance their spirituality and commitment to Buddhist ethics with new roles as rational agents in an emergent free market. In this study I draw on narratives from thirteen subjects as well as extensive participant observation to examine the ways that Mongolian market reform has guided social paradigms of ethic that present ethical contradictions with Buddhist dharma, …

Stories Of The Stars: The History And Folklore Of Tibetan Ethnoastronomy, Mara Johnson-Groh

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Traditionally, the night sky played an important role in the lives of Tibetans. Stars and constellations were used in navigation and in telling time. Folklore and proverbs surround these constellations and there are myths about the moon and planets as well. However, many of the stories that can be found today either originate in or are influenced by Indian culture. With the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet, came Vedic texts on astrology, which had a profound impact on the culture of ethnoastronomy in the region. Adapted Vedic astrology, merged with practices from China, eventually replaced traditional ethnoastronomy. Because of the …

“Papa, Should I Tell You What I Think Of This Exhibition, I Would Cry.” An Analysis Of Visitor Impression Books At The Bosnian Historical Museum In Sarajevo, Amanda Lawnicki

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Visitor impression book are often overlooked objects in museums. However, a study of these books can provide insight into a whole range of topics regarding museum and/or memory studies, especially in consideration of the larger socio-political climate. By nature, the books are both intensely personal and inherently collective – as they constitute an assembly of personal emotions and evaluations of the exhibit. This allows us to examine the books on a microscopic, individual level and in a global context.

My research involved an examination of the visitor impression books at the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and focused on …

Factors Of Cultural Perception Of Depression: An Analysis Of Students At The University Of Tennessee At Chattanooga, Rachel Brosius

Honors Theses

This study focuses on the perceptions and beliefs of a population of students from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga toward depression and the contributing cultural factors behind its high prevalence. The study is broken into eight sections that contribute to the overall understanding of depression in Tennessee. First, the current literature on depression and stigmata related to mental illness is examined to catalogue the findings ofresearchers with similar interests. Following this the data collection methods I took to gain the data used in this study are explained as well as the demographic elements of the study. Next the data …

Warren County Kentucky Homemakers Project (Fa 82), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 82. These interviews examine the lives of rural women through their membership in the Warren County Homemakers Extension Program. Former extension agents and members recall their experiences in the organization and the significance of the education programs in preparing them to adapt to new technologies and to move from farm life to public work.

Peace Education And Its Discontents: An Evaluation Of Youth, Violence, And School-Based Peace Programs In Northern Uganda, Jayanni Webster

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

This research paper discusses current efforts and programs designed to address the issues of peace and conflict resolution, post-war recovery and education in northern Uganda. Through the collection of stories of life after war, I examine the experiences of children and youth and pilot peace education programs in secondary and primary schools. Northern Uganda was the site of a brutal civil war waged between the rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, and the government’s Uganda People’s Defense Force. The war resulted in the mass abduction of children and the forced displacement of the northern population into internally displaced persons’ camps. …

An Environmental And Historical Study Of The Nipomo Mesa Region, Jason C. Carr

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Herbal Remedies Among California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo Students, Maria Cacciatore, Kimmie Layland, Nicole Morrisey

Social Sciences

Many practitioners now recognize that herbal remedies can be an effective and natural alternative to the standard American, western biomedicine. The objective of our research project is to discover the perceptions about herbal remedies as alternative medicine among Cal Poly students. Specifically we ask, why are they chosen and how students gauge their effectiveness. We seek to see if students have experimented with these herbal remedies, why they chose this route for wellness, and how they value the use of herbal alternative. If we are successful in this project, we will have a greater understanding of how young educated adults …

Social Sciences Career And Internship Exploration Day, Connie Ng, Katrina Schwarz, Janiece Jarman

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Parsley, Rachel, B. 1991 (Fa 593), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper and two transcripts (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project FA 593. Paper titled “Folk Medicine in the Mammoth Cave Area” written by Rachel Parsley for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Parsley details folk remedies and folk medicine of the communities in the Mammoth Cave Region of south central Kentucky. Parsley’s research centers around interviews with her father, Andrew G. Parsley, Jr., and an Edmonson County resident, Bertha Skaggs, a well-known local practitioner of folk remedies. In addition to her interviews, Parsley relies on information collected by a …

Recasting The Agency Of Unaccompanied Youth, Lauren Heidbrink

Faculty Publications

This is Chapter 6 of Emerging Perspectives on Children in Migratory Circumstances: Selected Proceedings of the Working Group on Childhood and Migration June 2008 Conference, published by Drexel University Department of Culture & Communication. Click for full-text.

Excerpt from the book abstract:

Most of the pieces provide in depth points of view from child migrant perspectives—data that is often difficult to obtain and portray sensitively. Child-centered data is exceptionally valuable in helping us to grasp the micro-forces by which childhood is changing through migration and how children experience or activate agency under trying conditions...Lauren Heidbrink [discusses] Spanish speakers in …

Halq'eméylem Language Revitalization: Tracing Ideologies In Hybridity, Sonya Rao

Anthropology Department Honors Papers

Recently, indigenous language revitalization has gained attention from Western media and charitable organizations, a process that has depoliticized the history of indigenous languages. One result of this is the naturalization of the ideological projects that put Native languages at risk, as well as the practices that hinder their revival. I focus on how the scientific and intellectual project of linguistics can dispossess elements of Native languages from its speakers, using it as capital for its own objectives. I show that the history of speech communities shapes the language ideologies that inform choices in the revitalization process, the restraints under which …

The Ranchos Of Los Adaes: Spanish Geography And American Land Claims In Western Louisiana, Darryl Pleaseant

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

Discovering the ranchos associated with the Presidio and Mission of Los Adaes has been a research goal for many years. Unfortunately research into the Spanish presence in Western Louisiana never revealed documentary evidence suggesting possible locations for the ranchos. Only generalized information was recovered in regards to a couple of the ranchos but definitely not solid data on their location. Recently it has come to our attention that perhaps our search had the wrong temporal parameters, we apparently should have been focused on the period after Los Adaes was closed. The research presented within the following pages has hopefully resolved …

Synthesis: What We Have Learned From The East Texas Radiocarbon Database, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula

CRHR: Archaeology

This poster provides a short overview of what we have learned from the East Texas Radiocarbon Database since it became available on the Council of Texas Archeologists’ website in 2011. These successes are numerous and include the advancement of novel methodological approaches; an improvement in our comprehension of the temporal nuances within the East Texas Archaic; the division of the East Texas Woodland period into Early, Middle and Late; the refinement of Caddo temporal chronology – particularly from a geographic perspective -- and it has provided one line of evidence to use to argue for the fluorescence of corn-based agriculture …

Epistemology And Synthesis: Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis And The Caddo Tradition, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

The statistical groupings illustrated herein represent the current iteration of Caddo INAA compositional groups based upon the chemical composition of archaeologically-recovered ceramics. For some time, a number of Caddo archaeologists have thought these results to be lacking. This poster symbolizes the first step toward a new interpretation of chemical composition groups, and the initial instancce within which GIS has been employed as an analytical tool.

Consilience: Radiocarbon, Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis, And Litigation In The Ancestral Caddo Region, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

Through the creation and analysis of databases for radiocarbon, instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), and law, macro-level trends are exposed that form the framework of a broader research program aimed at advancing ideas of craft specialization and archaeological theory in the ancestral Caddo region of Southwest Arkansas, Northwest Louisiana, Northeast Texas, and Southeast Oklahoma. The findings of this investigation illustrate the research potential that remains buried within the context of cultural resource management (CRM) reports and legal databases (Westlaw and LexisNexis) that is awaiting consumption within regional research designs aimed at exploring the nuances and trends that appear through synthetic …

The Archaeology Of The Caddo, Robert Z. Selden Jr.

CRHR: Archaeology

No abstract provided.

La-Icp-Ms Analysis Of Quartzite From The Upper Gunnison Basin, Colorado, Bonnie L. Pitblado, Molly Boeka Cannon, Hector Neff, Carol M. Dehler, Stephen T. Nelson

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

We report the results of LA-ICP-MS analysis of 402 quartzite samples representing 48 collection loci in the Upper Gunnison Basin (UGB), Colorado and determine the extent to which the sources can be geochemically discriminated from one another using this non-destructive technique. The ability to differentiate among the sources would open the door to provenance studies of the quartzite chipped-stone tools and debitage that constitute 95% or more of most of the 3000-plus prehistoric site assemblages documented in the UGB. Our samples represent prehistorically quarried and non-quarried quartzite sources, including outcrop (primary) and gravel (secondary) deposits. The results reveal spatial and …

The Search For "Strong Medicine": Pathways To Healthcare Development In Remote Nepal Using Gis, Catherine Lee Sanders, Kimber Haddix Mckay

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Nepalese agropastoralists’ confrontations with forces of change in the last generation have altered villagers’ abilities to gain access to health services, clean water, and nutrition in Humla District, Nepal. Development efforts and Nepal’s recent armed conflict, in particular, introduced novel technologies and ideologies that a subsection of villagers have responded to in a fashion that we did not expect. In this article, based on theories about the diffusion of innovation and risk, we argue that, together, villagers and other change agents have cocreated new contexts of vulnerability in the postconflict setting of rural Nepal, as observed in remote Humla District. …