Digital Commons Network^™

Archaeological Investigations At The Cruz Bay Public Cemetery In St. John, Us Virgin Islands, Kate A. Crossan, A. Brooke Persons, Mary Davis, Megan Kleeschulte, Giovanna Vidoli

Jeffrey L. Brown Institute of Archaeology Reports

The Jeffrey L. Brown Institute of Archaeology (JBIA) of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) in partnership with the Forensic Anthropology Center (FAC) of the University of Tennessee Knox-ville (UTK) performed archaeological monitoring and data recovery to remove and relocate burial features near the Cruz Bay Public Cemetery within the Cruz Bay Historic District in Cruz Bay, St. John, US Virgin Islands. The current Area of Potential Effect (APE) for the cemetery excavations targets the portion of the historic Cruz Bay Public Cemetery impacted by the Cruz Bay Underground project, encompassing 132 m (433 ft) of conduit excavations within …

Bura Ura, Kendu Waiyo (Rain Falls, Water Rises): The Tyranny Of Water Insecurity And An Agenda For Abolition In Kodi (Sumba Island, Indonesia), Cynthia Twyford Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the dynamic links between transformations in freshwater ecosystems and social changes in the Kodi region of Sumba (Indonesia). Insights into the politics surrounding changing hydrosocial systems are generated by using a feminist anthropology approach together with critical development studies and intersectionality theory. In aligning with fellow feminists whose advocacy sometimes takes the form of scholarship, I lay out a five-prong strategy for collecting empirical evidence from persons who are vulnerable when hydrological systems change and offer eight principles for future development interventions. The argument related to the five-prong toolkit is that by conducting intensive, extensive, opportunistic, and …

Pastoralism As Institutions: Modeling The Pastoral Landscape In Tibet In The Second And First Millennium Bc, Xinzhou Chen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Previous archaeological research has made significant advances in our understanding of the chrono-spatial patterns of ancient human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau based on archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and material cultural analysis. The surge of archaeological data in prehistoric Tibet calls for further analysis of the potential social and environmental forces that shaped the prehistoric landscapes of Tibet. This dissertation presents a synthetic analysis of the role of pastoralism in shaping the economy, materiality, and mobility of Tibetan societies in the second and first millennium BC. Based on both previously published archaeological evidence and my own analysis of newly documented archaeological data, …

Evolutionary History Of Populations Of Pleistocene Homo With A Focus On East Asia, Catherine Mclean

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the evolutionary history of our species is a key objective of paleoanthropology, yet the pattern of hominin evolution in East Asia remains uncertain. This research aimed to evaluate the relationships and evolutionary history of East Asian hominin paleodemes through the Pleistocene. Recent descriptions of Pleistocene East Asian hominins reveal a high degree of morphological variability, mosaics of primitive and derived traits, regionally predominant characteristics, and late surviving archaic morphologies. This study tests two hypotheses explaining the complexity of the East Asian hominin record: 1) Continuity with Hybridization, and 2) the existence of Multiple Hominin Lineages. These models were tested …

Historical Archaeology At The Chalmers Institute, Mississippi's First University, Antosia Briggs

Honors Theses

This study presents a basic description and analysis of the artifacts collected from the 2015 archaeological excavation conducted in Holly Springs, Mississippi at the Chalmers Institute site. The thesis includes history and background on Holly Springs as a city to orient the reader. This text also includes information regarding the program, Preserve Marshall County, as their work regarding the building and site ties directly into the ability of the student archaeologists being able to excavate in 2015 as well as the future of the building. This study analyzes the artifacts found based on the frameworks of the archaeology of institutional …

Our Mothers Are Dying: How Economics Affect Maternal Mortality, Kendall Wheelock

Honors Theses

One of the primary goals from the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals is to reduce maternal mortality on a global scale. It is well documented that economic success has a strong correlation with maternal mortality (Kirigia et al 2014, 1-3). There is ample research on how one’s health affects their ability to participate in society, furthermore protecting women within the sphere of medicine is a key part of advancing society. This thesis aims to give qualitative and quantitive backing to a deeper investigation of the correlation between economic success and maternal health.

To focus this research, the thesis focuses on …

Compromised Health: Examining Growth And Health In A Late Antique Roman Infant And Child Cemetery, Sierra Malis

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the relationship between growth, growth disruption, and skeletal indicators stress amongst juveniles (n=60) interred at the Late Antique infant and child cemetery at Poggio Gramignano (PG) (ca. 5th century CE), associated with a rural agricultural community. Growth disruption – evidenced by decreased long bone length compared to dental age – and stress experience – evidenced by skeletal stress indicators – were compared to those within juveniles from two urban Roman-era cemeteries (n=66), Villa Rustica (VR) (0-400 CE) and Tragurium City Necropolis (TCN) (400-700 CE). Results indicate that the PG juveniles had significantly smaller femoral lengths-for-age than VR …

Don't Forget Me: A Discussion On Social Memory And Commemoration, Anfernee Murray

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between social memory and social identity development among groups who share contested interpretations of their shared social memory. With social memories being a collaborative process that requires consensus and compromise, there arises conflict when groups are divided in deciding on what event of their shared history is relevant to remember - for it is these memories that influence and shape how a group identifies itself.

For Black Americans, this contention arises in the conversations surrounding the difficult and traumatic histories of their enslaved ancestors by the ancestors of their white counterparts. This is further complicated …

Los Pedrenses: Alternative Tourism, The Spectacle Of Youth, And Struggles For Local Authority In La Pedrera, Uruguay, Gwendelyn Gardner

Honors Theses

Tourism has been a longstanding industry in La Pedrera, a rural beach town along the Atlantic coast of Rocha, Uruguay. The effects of recent forms of tourism massification in the form of los boliches and Carnaval have prompted residents to develop a local discourse and sociopolitical front against youth and mass tourism. This discourse has roots in the strong connection between residents and the environment that has shaped the development of the community as caretakers of the region. Such reasoning is based on interviews with La Pedrera locals, social media analysis, and articles for local and national newspapers in conjunction …

Blacklash: Phenomenological Hermeneutics In Black Dance, Darvejon A. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

The horrors inflicted on Black bodies, souls, and spirits in the United States during the transatlantic slave trade, the Jim Crow era, and the current era (2023) have a lasting legacy of trauma metabolized through the body and transmuted generationally. Jones uses this data to contextualize the work of Black dance artists as hermeneutic phenomena in which the Black dance artist is a hermeneut tasked with delivering a message of the Black body/spirit complex: “I AM HUMAN. DO NOT KILL ME.” This paper examines how Black dance artists frequently petition for their survival — incessantly subjugated to the interpreter’s empathy, …

Book Review: Under The Weather: Reimagining Mobility In The Climate Crisis., Raymond Murphy

Critical Disaster Studies

Under the Weather: Reimagining Mobility in the Climate Crisis is an insightful, important book that reports on a fine-grained investigation Sodero made of the consequences and response to the disasters resulting from Hurricane Juan in Nova Scotia in 2003 and Hurricane Igor in Newfoundland in 2010, with comparisons to Hurricane Sandy in New York, Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, the 1998 ice storm in northeastern North America and the Icelandic ash cloud. One original feature is the focus on mobility, how indispensable it is in modern societies, how it is disrupted by extreme weather, and …

The Manito Topos Project: Place Naming And Toponymic Silencing In The Sierras Of Northern Nuevo México And Southern Colorado, Len N. Beké

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This dissertation reports on documentary research on vernacular toponymies in Manito communities in Nuevo México and Colorado. These toponymies are erased, obscured and delegitimized in official maps. Within the study area, vernacular antecedents for 49.5% of official names for natural features were documented, along with 280 previously unmapped names. These data were compared to the state-sanctioned toponymy to determine a typology of linguistic mechanisms of toponymic silencing. While a majority of official toponyms are based on Manito oral tradition, only 15.4% of the labels for natural features represent unaltered versions of names in that tradition. This dissertation theorizes the conceptual …

Nebraska’S Medico-Legal System: A Death Investigation Analysis, Ashley Novak

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

A large part of the founding of the United States of America focused on the idea of state control over their internal affairs. For this reason, the United States is home to a largely decentralized medico-legal system. The State of Nebraska hosts a coroner-based death investigation system as is written into their legislation regarding the establishment of their medico-legal system. By studying legislation, federal and state reports, as well as publications by academics within the field, merits and weaknesses of the Nebraskan coroner system can be uncovered. Additional considerations and understandings that are needed to be understood include: understanding what …

A United, Not A Divider: Community, Identity, Performance & The Tomato Krewe Parading Group Of East Nashville's Tomato Art Festival, Allison Cate

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis is an ethnographic study of the “Tomato Krewe,” a social group that participates in the parade of East Nashville’s annual Tomato Art Festival. Drawing on participant-observation, interviews, and my own experiences as a member of the krewe and resident of East Nashville, I examine krewe members’ narratives about the festival, the material culture that they create for the parade, and the levels of performance that they engage in while parading. Central to my analysis is how krewe members understand the Tomato Art Festival as an expression of East Nashville identity.

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 26: Confessions Of A 'Wallace Enthusiast', Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

The author’s longstanding interest in the life and thought of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) is profiled in three ways, through: (1) a brief factual review of its history (2) a discussion of some problems with the way Wallace has been treated over the years, and (3) a consideration of the author’s personal experience with the paranormal, and how this has made him, if not always a full believer, more patient with divergent explanations of the type Wallace was famous for.

Cotton Blight Identification With Ground Framed Canopy Photo-Assisted Multispectral Uav Images, Changwei Wang, Yongchong Chen, Zhipei Xiao, Xianming Zeng, Shihao Tang, Fei Lin, Luxiang Zhang, Xuelian Meng, Shaoqun Liu

Faculty Publications

Cotton plays an essential role in global human life and economic development. However, diseases such as leaf blight pose a serious threat to cotton production. This study aims to advance the existing approach by identifying cotton blight infection and classifying its severity at a higher accuracy. We selected a cotton field in Shihezi, Xinjiang in China to acquire multispectral images with an unmanned airborne vehicle (UAV); then, fifty-three 50 cm by 50 cm ground framed plots were set with defined coordinates, and a photo of its cotton canopy was taken of each and converted to the L*a*b* color space as …

Study On The Thermospheric Density Distribution Pattern During Geomagnetic Activity, Lirong Yin, Lei Wang, Lijun Ge, Jiawei Tian, Zhengtong Yin, Mingzhe Liu, Wenfeng Zheng

Faculty Publications

The atmospheric density of the thermosphere is a fundamental parameter for spacecraft launch and orbit control. Under magnetic storm conditions, the thermospheric atmospheric density experiences significant fluctuations, which have a negative impact on spacecraft control. Exploring thermospheric density during geomagnetic storms can help to mitigate the effects of such events. Research on the inversion of accelerometer measurements for different satellites and the variations of atmospheric density under extreme conditions is still in its infancy. In this paper, the distribution of atmospheric density during three geomagnetic storms is investigated from the inversion results of the Swarm-C accelerometer. Three major geomagnetic storms …

Multidecadal Pre- And Post-Collapse Dynamics Of The Northern Larsen Ice Shelf, Shujie Wang, Hongxing Liu, Richard B. Alley, Kenneth Jezek, Patrick Alexander, Karen E. Alley, Zhengrui Huang, Lei Wang

Faculty Publications

Rapid retreat of Antarctic ice shelves in a warmer climate remains challenging to predict, contributing to uncertainties in projections of sea level rise. The collapse of the Larsen B Ice Shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula in 2002 was perhaps the most dramatic example of ice shelf retreat on record. Despite a general consensus that regional climate warming is associated with ice shelf collapse, knowledge of the precise details leading to and following collapse is limited. Here we examine a comprehensive set of satellite observations, modeling experiments, and climate reanalysis data to elucidate calving behavior, flow dynamics, and mechanical conditions of …

We Are Gullah: A Community Approach To Preserving Gullah Geechee Historical Sites Of Significance, Peter Gaytan

All Theses

The National Register of Historic Places is an inventory established by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 that identifies architectural and archaeological sites significant to American history. The National Register was created to encourage the documentation, evaluation, and protection of America’s historic resources. Over 96,000 historic properties, sites, and structures are currently listed on the National Register. Despite the number of historic places listed on the National Register there is still an overwhelmingly low number of sites listed on the National Register relating to underrepresented communities. This thesis assessed the definition of significance laid out in the National Register …

Geophysical, Archaeological, And Geospatial Investigations At Presidio Los Adaes, 18th Century Capital Of Spanish Texas, Robert Linam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Presidio Los Adaes (16NA16), located in present day northwest Louisiana, served as the capital of Spanish Texas for much of the 18th century. Maps and historical documents provide architectural plans for the fort and other buildings on the site but differ in the size and location of several buildings. In 2009, a geophysical survey of the site with ground penetrating radar, magnetometry, electrical resistance, and electromagnetic induction showed good preservation of architectural foundations. Visual assessment of the maps and geophysical data, information from archaeological excavations, and spatial statistics suggests that the fort was originally built as specified by the architect, …

Rock Or Relic? Lithic Technology And Social Life In The Mimbres Mogollon Region Of Southwestern New Mexico, Jeffrey Dylan Clark Person

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This research project investigates stone tool technology at pithouse and pueblo sites in the Mimbres Mogollon region of southwestern New Mexico. Starting around AD 550, people in this area were shifting from mobile foragers who moved in seasonal rounds to sedentary village farmers. This process of subsistence change sparked further changes in material culture and social organization across the Mimbres region. The dissertation focuses on lithic debitage, the stone flakes and rock shatter that resulted from reducing stone cores into usable cutting and scraping tools. Debitage from three Mimbres sites, the Harris site, La Gila Encantada, and Elk Ridge were …

“Man, I Will Miss This Place”: An Ethnographic Account Of Place-Making On Dickson Street Through Men’S Bathroom Graffiti, Ethan S. Brown

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Walking into a public bathroom, often we are faced with interesting, unique, and easily ignorable cases of residual humanity: bathroom graffiti. These writings, academically known as latrinalia, offer scholars a unique portrait of the people who form an immediate culture and community. By providing opportunities to produce individual and collective identities, local folklore, and contesting narratives of space, latrinalia allows authors to carve out personal or cultural place out of the impersonal materiality of space. Utilizing traditional methods of ethnographic fieldwork, latrinalia in the men’s bathrooms of three bars along the famed Dickson Street in Fayetteville, Arkansas is approached …

Geographic Object-Based Image Analysis For Archaeological Site Detection: A Case Study For The Chicama Valley, Peru, Cesca Craig

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study represents a first attempt at applying geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) for the detection of extant archaeological sites in the Chicama River Valley located in northern coastal Peru. This region is characterized by the presence of mound-like archaeological sites dispersed throughout large-scale agricultural fields. High-resolution multispectral imagery from Planet Labs was used in this study because of its high spatial and temporal resolution and availability at no cost through Planet’s Education and Research Program. The main goal for this study was to explore GEOBIA as an approach to archaeological site detection and assess the feasibility of developing exportable …

Spirits And Spirituality: Temperance And Racial Uplift In Nineteenth-Century Nantucket, Ma, John T. Crawmer

Graduate Masters Theses

Studies of alcohol consumption have shown alcohol’s role in defining social boundaries based on class and ethnicity, but few have interrogated alcohol in the context of race. During the early-19th century, free black communities were encouraged to refrain from alcohol as part of a larger project of racial uplift. Black societies and churches perceived intemperance as not only immoral but a threat to community survival. Excavations of the Nantucket African Meeting House noted a considerable lack of alcohol bottles, but it was unclear whether temperance was equally observed at the neighboring Boston-Higginbotham House. This research uses a minimum number of …

The Erasure Of Rural West Texas Voices In Higher Education Institutions An Autoethnographic Study Of Minoritized Students Of West Texas In Their Journey To Obtain Success In Higher Education Institutions, David Whaley-Weems Sr

All Dissertations

I was once told there is a person in the world who has locked within his or her mind the framework for the cure for cancer or even the ability to create an energy model that will revolutionize how society consumes natural resources. Now imagine if I told you I have seen that person alive and well working as an oil well driller on a rig in Mentone, Texas. The first question most people would ask is, “Why is the person drilling in the middle of nowhere Texas instead of impacting the world by way of displaying his or her …

The Solidarity Manifesto: A New Network For Future Change, Sofia Calicchio

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Colonialism is a scheme of standpoint; colonizer versus colonized, West versus East, good versus bad. When put in the foreground, the value of what we see heavily relies on our perspective and knowledge. When learning to dissect, deconstruct, and decolonize spaces, we need to start utilizing decolonial thought as an historical tool rather than a true depiction of reality. Decolonizing spaces and recognizing Western colonization practices means challenging the normative structures in colonial history, thus breaking the cycle of oppression through building community and fostering solidarity. Drawing on theories exploring access to public spheres, representation, protection, permanence, cultural displacement and …

“Nails Done, Hair Done, Everything Did!”: Consumption And The Creation Of Black Feminine Selves, Simone Reid

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how race and gender shape the meaning that Black women associate with their beauty consumption practices and spending. Much of the existing feminist scholarship on beauty has been postfeminist, privileging the concept of agency and empowerment over structural realities. However, the materialist feminist frame has more utility to address how beauty operates within the lives of Black women as a form of distinct gendered racial oppression. The concept of aesthetic capital emerges from the materialist feminist perspective and suggests that beauty demands the investment of considerable economic resources and can deliver economic returns. Despite this, aesthetic capital …

Dungeons & Dragons: Fractals Of The Human Self, Katie Anderson

Honors Theses

Dungeons & Dragons at its core is roleplay based storytelling, which implies the idea that the game is a work of fiction. While the world of Iad and the Free States of Tarvan does not exist on planet earth, the experiences and emotions felt by the players and their characters within the world are very much real. Players use extensions of themselves, their characters, to interact with the world around them, forging relationships and new lines of fate and destiny. Characters are fractals of their out of game personas, attached to one’s base personality and expanding outwards. The development of …

“... I Thought You Were Black .” An Autoethnographic Exploration Of The Fragmentation Of Identity And Culture., Sherley Arias-Pimentel

Honors Theses

"If anthropology doesn't break your heart, then you're not doing it right." - Ruth Behar Writing this thesis has been a trying experience. Within these pages, you will find the therapeutic expedition of a caramel-colored, Spanish-speaking, second-generation black Dominican woman from Newark, NJ who took advantage of this research opportunity to better understand the racial and ethnic parts of her identity which have caused her much turmoil and low self-esteem. Centering myself, my identity, and my story in this research and grappling with the complexities of the subject matter has been an exhausting yet liberating experience. I have contemplated many …

China's Public Diplomacy Philosophy, Logan Webb

ATU Scholars Symposium

China has become a giant in the globalized world in such a short period of time. This led me to the research question, “What is China’s public diplomacy philosophy?” Using a textual analysis of major geopolitical events that China is involved in (The Belt and Road Initiative, the South China Sea dispute, Uyghur imprisonment, and the Hong Kong government takeover) and the history of China since the Chinese Civil War, it becomes apparent that the country uses the concept of hard and soft power for its public diplomacy. If a country is not receptive to China or its intended actions, …