Digital Commons Network^™

Sons Of Disobedience And Their Machines: How Sin And Anthropology Can Inform Evangelical Thought About Ai, Gregory S. Mckenzie

Liberty Theological Review

The purpose of this paper is to further discussion about artificial intelligence by examining AI from the perspective of the doctrine of sin. As such, philosophy of mind and theological anthropology, specifically, what it means to be human, the effects of sin, and the consequent social ramifications of AI drive the analysis of this paper. Accordingly, the conclusions of the analysis are that the depravity of fallen humanity is cause for concern in the very programming of AI and serves as a corrupted foundation for artificial machine cognition. Given the fallen nature of human thought, and therefore, fallen AI thought, …

Visual Displays In Space Station Culture: An Archaeological Analysis, Justin St. P. Walsh, Alice C. Gorman, Wendy Salmond

Art Faculty Articles and Research

We offer an archaeological analysis of the visual display of “space heroes” and Orthodox icons in the Russian Zvezda module of the International Space Station (ISS). This study is the first systematic investigation of material culture at a site in space. The ISS has now been continuously inhabited for 20 years. Here, focusing on the period 2000–2014, we use historic imagery from NASA archives to track the changing presence of 78 different items in a single zone. We also explore how ideas about which items are appropriate for display and where to display them originated in earlier Soviet and Russian …

Lwd Belize: A Case Study For A Rapid Growth Community During The Terminal Classic Period In The Maya Lowlands, Rafael Alfredo Guerra

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation examines the rise of Lower Dover (LWD) a Late Classic Polity in the middle Belize River Valley (BRV)in the Central Maya Lowlands, Belize. LWD was advantageously situated at the confluence of three important waters ways in the middle BRV to control riverine trade from the coast to the interior Maya heartland. Most large Maya centers developed over many centuries from Preclassic (ca. 400 BC) farming villages to polity capitals. LWD emerged in the Late Classic (ca. 600 AD) as many polities in the BRV were in decline. LWD was rapidly built by local elites and filled a power …

Agricultural Land Usage In Mansfield, Connecticut: An Analysis Of The Town’S Past And Present Agricultural Landscapes And Recent Farmland Conservation Efforts, Julia Tillinghast

Honors Scholar Theses

The town of Mansfield has a long history within the agricultural sector of Connecticut, from producing the first successful silk mill in the state to housing Mountain Dairy, a dairy supplier which sells to local consumers. This paper examines the history and progress of agricultural land usage within Mansfield, beginning with an overview of farmland in the town’s first century and ending with the current status of resident farms. At the start of settlement by English colonists in the 1700s, the town was deforested to make space for farms, housing, and general expansion. Moving forward to the 20th century, industrialization …

Migration And Mortality: Social Death, Dispossession, And Survival In The Americas, Miranda Cady Hallett, Joseph Nevins, Jamie Longazel, Amelia Frank-Vitale, Alicia Yvonne Estrada, Abby C. Wheatley

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

This panel presents research from the new edited volume Migration and Mortality (edited by Longazel and Hallett, Temple University Press, 2021). Death threatens migrants physically during perilous border crossings between Central and North America, but many also experience legal, social, and economic mortality. Rooted in histories of colonialism and conquest, exclusionary policies and practices deliberately take aim at racialized, dispossessed people in transit. Once in the new land, migrants endure a web of systems across every facet of their world—work, home, healthcare, culture, justice—that strips them of their personhood, denies them resources, and creates additional obstacles that deprive them of …

Separation Beyond Walls: A Discussion Of The Practical And Theoretical Implications Of Prevention Through Deterrence, Kristina Lynch

Undergraduate Theses

This thesis investigates the alternative policing strategy known as Prevention Through Deterrence affecting undocumented migrants at the United States Southern Border. By forcing migrants into the Sonoran Desert, they are subject to countless dangers along their immigration attempt, and in many cases death, as a means to eliminate these “unwanted figures” from the public eye. The policies that comprise Prevention Through Deterrence have been in effect since the 1990’s, but the prevention of certain people from effectively immigrating to the United States has been occurring for just about the entire history of our country. The fact that it is still …

Impact Of Metropolization On The Crime Structure (Case Study Of Provincial Capitals In Poland), Natalia Sypion-Dutkowska, Michael Leitner, Marek Dutkowski

Faculty Publications

The aim of this study is to verify the hypothesis that the rapid metropolization process that has been taking place in large Polish cities since the beginning of the second phase of post-communist transition in 2000 leads to their socio-economic diversity, which is manifested, among others, in the differentiation of the level and structure of crime. Introduced into the discourse of this paper are subsequent stages of metropolization, which are called potential, initiating, advanced, and mature and which the examined cities have achieved so far. These stages have led to various economic and social effects, which resulted in changes in …

Embodying The Everyday Practices Of Urban Water: The Discourse Of Water Scarcity And Women's Subjectivities In Amman, Jordan, Katrin Masharqa

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Demographic Change In The North Atlanta Metro Area, Zachary Lloyd

Symposium of Student Scholars

The northern Atlanta suburbs are perhaps the premiere destination for migrants, both domestic and international, into the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. Filled with activities, good schools, and endless dining options, these communities are not only relatively safe to raise a family in, but also offer plenty to do for married couples and retirees. The counties of Gwinnett and Cobb, along with the northern portion of Fulton County (known as North Fulton) are the traditional northside suburban destinations, but growth there has slowed because much of the land is now densely developed. Predictably, the suburbs have extended northward through the counties of …

Religion In The News On An Ordinary Day: Methodology, Choices, And Bias, David H. Michels, Christopher Helland

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In this article we explore the Religion on an Ordinary Day (RoD) methodology in detail. The RoD project collected news stories published on September 17 over the period of three years (2013, 2014, 2015) in Australia, Canada, Finland, and the United Kingdom. We consider our decisions regarding the variability of language, researcher bias, and intercoder reliability in data collection and coding and the implications of those decisions. We offer a case study that analyzes references to New Religious Movements in the news. We considered the intentional choices, unintentional choices in the forms of accidents and misunderstandings, as well as unconsidered …

What The Shell? The Zooarchaeology Of Cerro San Isidro, Peru, Monica Fenton

LSU Master's Theses

Zooarchaeologists have documented the importance of marine resources in the ancient Andes, and the first field season at Cerro San Isidro (Ancash, Peru) proves no different. The multi- component hilltop archaeological complex lies in the agriculturally rich Moro Pocket of the middle Nepeña Valley, at least an eight-hour walk from the ocean on the north-central coast. Between June and August 2019, members of the Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Cerro San Isidro carried out the first scientific excavations at this important ancient human settlement. Block excavations focused on a hypothesized elite compound, documenting intermittent occupations from the Late Formative (c. 600 …

America’S Most Divided Sport: Polarization And Inequality In Attitudes About Youth Football, Andrew M. Lindner, Daniel Hawkins

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Football may be America’s most popular sport, but with growing evidence of the risk of sport-associated concussions, some adults are reconsidering which sports to encourage children to play. Using data from a nationally representative sample of 958 respondents, we examine how political party, belief in patriotic displays in sport, attention to concussion news, social class, and race are associated with support for children playing each of the five major U.S. sports: baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, and football. Our findings suggest that unlike other sports, attitudes about youth participation in football are divided by views on patriotism in sport, age, race, …

Nature-Based Tourism Sustainability And Climatic Change Implication In Ikogosi Resort, Southwestern Nigeria, Opeyemi S. Aniramu Mr., Olabiyi O. Coker Mr., Raphael G. Odelola Mr.

Journal of Environmental Sustainability

The implications of climatic changes have been predicted to have devastating effects on biodiversity condition particularly nature-based tourism. In this study, investigation on the climatic characteristics in Ikogosi-Ekiti, Nigeria was conducted. Also, spatio-temporal changes of green and non-green cover were analysed for the study.

Climatic data from Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) for a period of 1975-2014 were analyzed to reveal the trend of climatic changes using appropriate statistical tool. A 30 meter Landsat image of TM 1991, ETH+ 2002 and OLI 2015 were used for the study. The satellite images were digitally processed using Arcgis10.3 and Fragstat 3.0. Species Diversity …

Shape-Based Classification Of Partially Observed Curves, With Applications To Anthropology, Gregory J. Matthews, Karthik Bharath, Sebastian Kurtek, Juliet K. Brophy, George K. Thiruvathukal, Ofer Harel

Faculty Publications

We consider the problem of classifying curves when they are observed only partially on their parameter domains. We propose computational methods for (i) completion of partially observed curves; (ii) assessment of completion variability through a nonparametric multiple imputation procedure; (iii) development of nearest neighbor classifiers compatible with the completion techniques. Our contributions are founded on exploiting the geometric notion of shape of a curve, defined as those aspects of a curve that remain unchanged under translations, rotations and reparameterizations. Explicit incorporation of shape information into the computational methods plays the dual role of limiting the set of all possible completions …

Mapping Historical Archaeology And Industrial Heritage: The Historical Spatial Data Infrastructure, Daniel Trepal, Don Lafreniere, Timothy Stone

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

While a vibrant and growing research literature exists on the value of GIS to archaeology in general, the application of geospatial digital data to the subfield of historical archaeology is less well developed, especially in North America. This is particularly true for the era of industrialization, where the archaeological record is accompanied by a comparatively rich historical record. Historical and industrial archaeology are fundamentally bound up in the interplay between material and historical data, and it is in enhancing the dialogue between these two evidentiary bodies that interdisciplinary geospatial approaches are most fruitful to these subdisciplines. Drawing on recent discussions …

Desire And The Work It Does: Alterity And Exogamy In A Kotiria Origin Myth From The Northwest Amazon Of Brazil, Janet M. Chernela

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

In terms of the pan-Amazonian social paradigm that transforms affines into kin and assimilates them into the consanguineal unit, Eastern Tukanoans must be regarded as exceptional. This paper explores a foundation myth that allows us to better understand relations of self and Other, incest and exogamy, and violence and amity among the Eastern Tukanoan-speaking Kotiria. The narrative provides a heretofore-absent foundation for Tukanoan affinity, revealing complications and nuance in Kotiria notions of alterity and the generative role of Desire in its transformation. It is a synthesis not from nature, but from poesis; not from trust, but from theft; not from …

Vol. 44 No. 1/2 (2021): Pacific Studies Full Issue, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Pacific Studies is published two times a year by The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i #1979, 55–220 Kulanui Street, Lāʻie, Hawai‘i 96762, but responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles rests with the authors alone. Subscription rate is US$40.00 yearly, payable to The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies. The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies (formerly The Pacific Institute) is an organization funded by Brigham Young University Hawai‘i. The Center assists the University in meeting its cultural and educational goals by undertaking a program of teaching, research, and …

Cape Town Cartographies: Which Spaces Can The Youth Access? Mapping The Mobilities Of 11 University Of Cape Town (Uct) Students, Sokona Mangane

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

South Africa went through a gruesome system of segregation known as apartheid, from 1948 until 1994 which enforced spatial and racial divisions through limiting access to spaces, places and (im)mobilities. Despite the formal ending of apartheid in 1994, and some changes it brought to the divided and wounded country, the neo-apartheid spatial structure of the regime lives on in some form or other, particularly in Cape Town. This research paper sought to explore the racial segregation in the mother city further, by examining the daily movements of students from the University of Cape Town (UCT), who are part of the …

Sio Fakatonga ‘Ae ‘Aati Fakatonga: Tongan Views Of Tongan Arts, Pā‘Utu-‘O-Vava‘U-Lahi, Adriana M. Lear, Manuesina ‘Ofakihautolo Māhina, Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai, Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu, ‘Ōkusitino Māhina

Pacific Studies

As inherent in the title of this essay, we present a critical exercise in viewing Tongan arts from a Tongan lens by combining ontology and epistemology in both process and outcome. By ontology and epistemology, reference is made to ways of being as subject matters of creation and ways of knowing (or seeing and doing) as works of art and literature. The latter engages in the abstraction of the single level of reality with respect to the subject matters in both the creative and the consumptive processes, whether they be faiva performance, tufunga material, or nimamea‘a fine arts. Herein, we …

Bulk Scanning Method Of A Heavy Metal Concentration In Tailings Of A Gold Mine Using Swir Hyperspectral Imaging System, Yongsik Jeong, Jaehyung Yu, Lei Wang, Kwang Jae Lee

Faculty Publications

This work introduces a bulk data acquisition method using a hyperspectral imaging system (HIS) to measure chromium (Cr) concentration in the soil samples obtained from tailings of a gold mine considering of the spectral competition between heavy metal elements. The chemical, mineralogical, and spectroscopic analyses in a laboratory environment revealed that heavy metal elements' competitive geochemical behaviors were manifested as spectral competitions between heavy metal elements in tailings. The heavy metal elements can be classified into two groups based on their geochemical behaviors: chromium-nickel (Cr-Ni) and zinc-arsenic-cadmium-lead (Zn-As-Cd-Pb). We found an inverse relationship between the two groups in their spectral …

Tuaikaepau: “Slow-But-Sure” – A Sung And Danced Poetry Of Tragedy, Pā‘Utu-‘O-Vava‘U-Lahi, Adriana Māhanga Lear, Sione Lavenita Vaka, Maui-Tāvā-He-Akó, Tēvita O. KaʻIli, Hūfanga-He-Ako-Moe-Lotu, ‘Ōkusitino Māhina

Pacific Studies

We critically examine Tuaikaepau “Slow-but-sure” as a sung and danced poetry of tragedy by Queen Sālote, in which she deals with her subject matter of artistic and literary creativity as a text in the broader context of history. Poetry and tragedy are respectively concerned with the mediation of ‘uhinga human meanings, and anga‘i-tangata sociality and anga‘i-manu animality, resulting in fakamā shame. Both poetry and tragedy are conducted in history, treated in Tonga (and Moana Oceania) in plural, temporal–spatial, collectivistic, holistic, and circular ways, as opposed to their treatment in singular, techno–teleological, individualistic, atomistic, and linear modes in the West. History …

Vol. 44 No. 1/2 (2021): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 44, No 1/2-Oct 2021 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal.

Making Yourself At Al-Dar: On Islamic Education, Social Imaginations, And Affective Possibilities, Alia Amr Amin Shaddad

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the Dar as an alternative space of knowledge, and unravels how its different contexts and rhythms allow us to imagine what that alternative means in the everyday. In order to do so, this thesis unpacks questions of space, time, subjectivity, and potential. I look at the ways in which this Dar is constituted as a space through its relations with other spaces and by engaging questions of temporality. By doing so, this thesis maps this space to make clear what and how it is, and highlights the historical and geographical context it exists in. This also includes …

Teasing Apart Impacts Of Human Activity And Regional Drought On Madagascar’S Large Vertebrate Fauna: Insights From New Excavations At Tsimanampesotse And Antsirafaly, Laurie R. Godfrey, Brooke Crowley, Kathleen M. Muldoon, Stephen J. Burns, Nick Scroxton, Zachary S. Klukkert, Lovasoa Ranivoharimanana, Jamie Alumbaugh, Matthew Borths, Natalie Vasey

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Madagascar experienced a major faunal turnover near the end of the first millenium CE that particularly affected terrestrial, large-bodied vertebrate species. Teasing apart the relative impacts of people and climate on this event requires a focus on regional records with good chronological control. These records may document coeval changes in rainfall, faunal composition, and human activities. Here we present new paleontological and paleoclimatological data from southwestern Madagascar, the driest part of the island today. We collected over 1500 subfossil bones from deposits at a coastal site called Antsirafaly and from both flooded and dry cave deposits at Tsimanampesotse National Park. …

Where They Sing Solo: Accounting For Cross-Cultural Variation In Collective Music-Making In Theories Of Music Evolution, Aniruddh D. Patel, Christopher Von Rueden

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Collective, synchronous music-making is far from ubiquitous across traditional, small-scale societies. We describe societies that lack collective music and offer hypotheses to help explain this cultural variation. Without identifying the factors that explain variation in collective music-making across these societies, theories of music evolution based on social bonding (Savage et al.) or coalition signaling (Mehr et al.) remain incomplete.

Nomadland: The New Frontiers Of The American Dream At The Periphery Of The Market, Aleksandrina Atanasova, Giana Eckhardt

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

This Dialogue contribution is based around the film Nomadland, which won five Oscars, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actress. Nomadland, a captivating ode to resisting market logics of accumulation, delivers a gripping image of what life looks like in the absence of possessions. Navigating between the extremes of lack and social displacement, and community and newfound ability to live life with little, the nomads find ways to live in the face of despair and disenchantment. Nomadland is a critique of the death of the American dream while at the same time a story of solidarity amongst the dispossessed.

Digging In The Field Of Dreams: An Archaeological Report On The Middleborough Little League Site, Curtiss Hoffman

Faculty, Administrator & Staff Books

The Middleborough Little League Site, in southeastern Massachusetts, which is situated on three successive terraces overlooking the Nemasket River, and was occupied by Native Americans for over 7,000 years, from ca. 6200 B.C. to ca. 1100 A.D. The purpose of the current volume is to present the evidence for this unique archaeological site in full detail, and to demonstrate several analytical methods that have been used to interpret the site, which may be useful to archaeological investigators elsewhere in the Eastern Woodlands region. In addition to presenting the evidence from this site, putting the site into its regional context, and …

Teaching Digital Cultural Heritage And Digital Humanities The Current State And Prospects, S. Münster, K. Fritsche, F. Apollonio, B. Aehnlich, V. Schwartze, R. Smolarski

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Digital literacy and technology education has gained much relevance in humanities and heritage related disciplines during the recent decades. Against this background, the purpose of this article is to examine the current state of educational programs in digital cultural heritage and related disciplines primarily in Europe with supplemental information from the US. A further aim is to highlight core topics, challenges, and demands, and to show innovative formats and prospects

Climate Change And The Ancestors: Rain, Gender And Politics In An African Water Catchment, Jessie Fredlund

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Uluguru, a small mountain range in eastern Tanzania and one of the rainiest places in East Africa, serves as the principal water catchment for Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, and for commercial farms along the country’s central coast. Home to smallholder farmers who cultivate a variety of crops on mostly rain-fed farms, the catchment has been a site of struggle over water and nature since the nineteenth century. Today, climate change has rendered rainfall increasingly unpredictable, and a wave of “sustainable development” interventions has pressured farmers to change their practices and to engage in unpaid forms of ecological labor …

Spectral Urbanism: Modern Ghost Cities, Rare Earths, And Political Time At The Limits Of Materialism, Linsey Ly

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Contemporary urbanization in China is marked by speed, repetition, and similitude, key features of what I call spectral urbanism that also attends to the presence or absence, to recursivity and deferral. The mass development of empty, outmoded, and seemingly abandoned modern ghost cities in China’s borderlands come to be used as evidence of an interruption or lack in the veneer of Chinese modernity. The contours and quality of stalled development are measured, read in objects of the built environment that have yet to fulfill their anticipated function: vacant buildings, quiet roads that lead no one to empty parks, homes which …