Digital Commons Network^™

Human Experience In The Immersive Experience Economy, Beliz Yuksel Inal

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the growing trend of immersive experiences, examining how they are designed and experienced. It compares the artistic Machine Hallucination and the commercial Van Gogh Immersive Experience examples. Analyzing audience engagement and social contexts, the research aims to understand the impact of immersive experiences on individuals and society.

An Analysis Of Differential Object Marking In Copala Triqui, Erin Mcgrath

ALL - Honors Theses

In this thesis, I review and investigate differential object marking in Copala Triqui, which uses the word man to overtly mark accusative case. Overt case marking is optional in some contexts and required in others. I describe the current literature on the topic and summarize the findings of other researchers on the optionality of man. Additionally, I examine another way to analyze differential object marking according to the qualities of the object only (“local”) or the relationship between the subject and object (“global”). The labels of local and global can be applied to existing analyses. The animacy, personhood, and pronominal …

What's In A Name? Plant Naming As Cultural Artifact And Story In The Midwestern United States, Sophie Wesseler

Undergraduate Theses

This project sought to collect and contextualize the historical and contemporary names given to plants by inhabitants of the Midwestern United States, understanding plant names as cultural artifacts that can offer insight into the communities in which they were created and evolved. Formatted as a series of entries, this collection gathered these names and contextualized them within other artifacts of cultural significance, such as art or poetry, and alongside historical research on their origins and cultural environments. Examining plant names through the fields of linguistics, semiology, anthropology, cultural studies, taxonomy, and ethnobotany, this work traces the names of various plants …

The Anthropology Of Self: How Achieving Greater Self-Concept Clarity Impacts Individual Behavior, Relationships, And Cooperation, Thomas Anthony Voccola

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the Passion & Purpose™ experience as a model for enhancing self-concept clarity (SCC) and its influence on personal and professional life. Traditional theories suggest self-concept forms unpredictably, possibly leading to pathologies that undermine well-being and interpersonal connections. Contrary to this, the study argues that deliberate interventions like Passion & Purpose™ can significantly improve SCC, promoting better mental, emotional, and relational health.

Adopting an anthropological perspective, which is rare in SCC research, this study uses ethnographic methods to delve deeper into self-knowledge. Passion & Purpose™, already implemented in various U.S. organizations, presents an innovative method for developing SCC. …

Celtic Cultural Identity In The Late Iron Age: Regional Comparisons Of Pit Burials, Samantha Lynn Beier

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Celtic-speaking peoples were once distributed across a vast territory from Europe to southwest Asia in the Middle and Late Iron Age. For example, the movement of some of these Celtic peoples, the Galatians, from Europe to Anatolia may be responsible for the appearance of new cultural practices that have been observed at two communities in the region during the Hellenistic period/Late Iron Age (ca. 300-100 BCE). Burial practices are one cultural practice that can be observed archaeologically in order to further investigate the migration of the Galatians and other Celtic tribes. Human interments in pits are found across Europe and …

Seeking Steatite: Analyzing The Spatial Distribution Of Southern California Arrow Shaft Straighteners, Christina Angela Livingston

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Arrow shaft straighteners are ground stone tools used in the production of arrows. Over the years, before Spanish colonialism, California Natives formed arrow shaft straighteners using various types of stone, such as granite or basalt. My thesis will focus on the arrow shaft straighteners made out of steatite. Steatite, or soapstone, is a metamorphic rock that is smooth to the touch. The smoothness makes steatite very easy to carve and modify. In California, there are many main sources of steatite. For my thesis, I will focus only on four of these sources: Inyo County, Santa Catalina Island, Sierra Pelona, and …

Mishopshno: Remnants Of The Past A Midden Analysis From Carpinteria, California, Alyssa Del Rosario

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

For this study, my primary goals are to determine the depositional history of a shell midden at the archaeological site of Mishopshno (CA-SBA-07) through accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating, examine the artifacts found at the site, and analyze the midden contents. Mishopshno was initially recorded in the 1920s by David Banks Rogers with the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum. The portions of midden analyzed for this thesis were excavated during construction monitoring of the sewer loop replacement in the Santa Rosa Campground at Carpinteria State Beach, Carpinteria, California.

Over time, significant disturbances have occurred to the site due to resource …

Cultivating Atmosphere In Independent Coffee Shops: Reflections On How Atmospheres Are Created Through Sensory Experiences, Brooke Bierhaus Sutton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Affective atmosphere is a fundamental component to the allure of coffee shops that is cultivated through sensory experience. In this thesis I examine how the sensory experience of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, create atmospheres in coffee shops. I ask, “how do coffee shops cultivate an affective atmosphere?” Through an exploration of material culture, design, affect, and the intentional production of third places, I illustrate the ways in which independent coffee shops have their own unique identities and atmospheres. By using memoir and reflexive analysis of my decade in global coffee culture, as well as an extensive literary review, …

"Speak Arabic!": Arabic Dialect Comparison Videos And The Reconfiguration Of The Maghreb-Mashreq Language Ideology, Jacquelyn Stewart-Kuhn

Honors Theses

There is a hidden power imbalance in the Arabic-speaking world. It is not related to warfare, politics, or oil, but language. For decades, Egyptian and Levantine (Mashreqi) dialects have been over-represented in Arabic language media, to the detriment of North African (Maghrebi) dialects. This imbalance has played a crucial role in reinforcing what Hachimi (2013) refers to as the “Maghreb-Mashreq language ideology,” i.e. the belief that Mashreqi dialects are superior to Maghrebi dialects. Yet in an era of social media, Mashreqi voices and dialects are becoming less dominant, and Arabic-speakers across the region are being increasingly exposed to Maghrebi voices …

Distribution And Conveyance Of Late Prehistoric Western Mojave Obsidian Artifacts, Nicholas James Shepetuk

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

There is a significant lack of publication, synthesis, and analysis of existing Late Prehistoric obsidian artifact sourcing data in the western Mojave Desert. However, a wealth of such data exists, especially in non-published archaeological reports produced mainly by cultural resources management firms. The purpose of this study was to test the validity of two regions which are divided roughly by the Mojave River and which are based on Sutton’s (1989) interaction sphere model. The Northwestern Region occupies the portion of the Mojave Desert to the north and west of the Mojave River, while the Eastern Region makes up the area …

Across The Snake River Plain: Terminal Pleistocene, Early Holocene, And Early Middle Holocene Land-Use In Southeast Idaho, Jennifer Finn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The range of mobility demonstrated to overcome challenges with resource distribution is a hallmark of hunter-gatherer societies. Previous studies in southeast Idaho have investigated the possibility that precontact human movement was impacted by climatic differences. According to preliminary studies on regional obsidian toolstone conveyance, land use patterns were already changing throughout the early Holocene due to increased aridity. However, the geographical distribution of Northern Side-notched projectile points suggests a significant expansion in mobility at the early Holocene/middle Holocene transition. This thesis tests the hypothesis that precontact early middle Holocene human mobility in the study area was conditioned by environmental factors …

A Manual On The Planning And Integration Of Archaeological Methods In To Outdoor Forensic Search Investigations, Jonathan Robert Garcia

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

As archaeology and its applications into forensic contexts develop into the growing discipline of forensic archaeology, an increasing amount of literature has resulted stemming from research on the integration of common archaeological methods. However, much of this literature is intended for professional archaeologists or forensic anthropologists who are well experienced in their respective disciplines. Emerging literature generally does not consider those who leads efforts at forensic scenes in the outdoors such as law enforcement officers who often lack a background in archaeology or forensic anthropology. This thesis seeks to resolve this dilemma by creating a new and accessible manual. The …

Batu Nisan Di Situs Binanga Sebagai Indikasi Pemukiman Muslim Kuno Di Pantai Barat Aceh, Amir Husni, Sanusi Ismail, Nasruddin As Nasruddin As, Bustami Abubakar, Reza Idria, Hermansyah Hermansyah, Ruhamah Ruhamah, Muhajir Al Fairusy

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This article aims to discuss the development of ancient Muslim settlements on the west coast of Aceh based on the findings of Islamic gravestones at the Binanga site in Subulussalam City, Aceh. This site is very unique, it is located inland and right on the banks of the Singkel River, which is connected to the highlands of Sumatra. There are 131 Islamic gravestones, and their shapes vary greatly. The results of the morphological analysis show that the gravestones were divided into two groups: Aceh gravestones (batu Aceh) and Barus gravestones (nisan Barus). There are no biographical inscriptions carved …

Rekonstruksi Nama Jember Dalam Lakon Babad Jember Ludruk Surya Utama, Fahmy H. Abdillah

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This study entitled “Reconstruction name of Jember in Babad Jember Play Ludruk Surya Utama”, is a study of ludruk play that are suspected of having participated in producing or distributing the origins name of Jember, through babad Jember play which performed with Madura, Java and Indonesia language. The reconstruction was based on a structural review; plot, theme, character and toponymy in babad Jember play by Surya Utama group. Examine the mixed use of language based on texture; the dialogue of the Jember babad play which consists of (a) external dialogue in the form of communication between actors, especially in conflicts …

Persepsi Pemerintah Dan Masyarakat Dalam Pelestarian Cagar Budaya: Studi Kasus Kawasan Cagar Budaya Pusat Pemerintahan Kesultanan Siak Sri Indrapura, Agi Ginanjar

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This article discusses the importance of government and community collaboration in the preservation and potential use of Siak Sri Indrapura Cultural Heritage Area. It is not easy to carry out preservation as mandated by the law, because in practice various problems may arise, especially those related to the area’s use. The purpose of this study is to integrate interpretations concerning the importance of government and community collaboration in the preservation of cultural heritage areas and those concerning their potential use by taking into account socio-cultural and economic values. This study was designed using a convergent qualitative and quantitative approach (convergent …

Tinjauan Kritis Konservasi Tekstil Koleksi Jubah Sultan Thaha Museum Kebangkitan Nasional, Zulfa Nurdina Fitri, Ali Akbar

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

A museum plays a central role in conserving cultural heritage. Hence, conserving museum collections is pivotal for preserving the values of the collection. The museum of National Awakening has a potential national collection that requires curative conservation due to its damaged condition, i.e., Sultan Thaha Robes. However, the conservation effort lacked written and visual documentation of the collection due to the collection's urgency, causing it difficult for conservators to access the conservation-related information. This paper presents a critical review of conservation stages performed on Sultan Thaha Robes while suggesting a complete, systematic conservation solution based on the theoretical collaboration of …

Kontestasi Kuasa Dalam Perdagangan Rempah Di Pantai Barat Dan Selatan Aceh Abad Ke 18 Hingga 19 M, Muhajir Al Fairusy Ma, Jovial Pally Taran Jpt, R. Michael Feener Mf, Haikal Haikal Hk

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

The spice route has become a national discourse in the context of strengthening the Indonesian nation's maritime cultural identity. As one of the big nations, the archipelago was once a cross-national melting pot in the context of hunting and trading spices on an international scale. After all, spices were the prima donna commodity of their time, which raised the name of the archipelago to the international trade stage. This research was conducted to find out the history of the spice route in one of the archipelago regions, especially in Aceh. After all, Islam and the spice trade have become a …

“Somebody’S Gotta Try And Go Forward”: Musical Identity And The (Re)Construction Of Authenticity In Hawai‘I And Mongolia, Heather E. Cook

Anthropology Honors Projects

Based on thirty-seven interviews with musicians and performers in Mongolia and Hawaiʻi, this ethnography explores the complex relationships between nationalism, cultural imperialism, hybridity, and conceptions of authenticity in the colonial context through the lens of folk music. Engaging with theories of practice and postcolonialism, I argue that within contemporary contexts of globalization and cultural imperialism, musicians and performers have formed a sense of musical and cultural identity dependent on nationalist conceptions of tradition, yet the notion of cultural authenticity no longer depends on the absence of Western influence, but on the cultural sovereignty of the artist and the agency of …

Georgia Ghosts: History, Folklore, And The Roots Of The Southern Gothic, Katherine M. Mcdowell

Master's Projects

There is something quintessentially human about ghost stories, yet particular regions tend to be more powerfully associated with haunted folktales than others. One of the regions is the southeastern United States. In fact, these oral traditions appear to have influenced the area's best-known literary subgenre: the Southern Gothic.

Why is the South considered haunted? Are there particular qualities in historical events that make them more likely to engender ghost stories? What makes the South's folkloric spirits so powerful that they appear even in modern literature? Most of all, what connects the region's history and folklore with the Southern Gothic? By …

Understandings Of Vulnerability And Social Determinants Of Health In Forensic And Expert Social Anthropology: A Scoping Review, James W. W. Rose, David M. Tran

The Qualitative Report

Forensic and expert social anthropology (FESA) is a branch of social anthropology that specialises in the provision of evidence to legal-administrative processes, which are overseen by courts and other legally empowered bodies, and which give regard to the social cultures of legally and administratively involved individuals and communities (LAIICs). Despite a preoccupation with political advocacy in the broader philosophy of social anthropology, FESA literature does not typically give regard to LAIIC vulnerability defined qualitatively in terms of social determinants of health, including physical, mental, and social well-being. This paper presents findings from a JBI/PRISMA-ScR scoping review of n=1,674 texts, identifying …

Forgotten Places In Political Spaces, Lisa K. Rankin, Peter G. Ramsden

Northeast Historical Archaeology

The way in which many people, perhaps particularly those in secure and affluent circumstances, view their ancestry and heritage, and display it to others, is often a matter of pride. In some contexts, however, the identification of ‘ancestors’ and ‘heritage’ can have critically important - and sometimes dire - political, social and spiritual ramifications. Here we examine examples in which archaeological and/or historical evidence points to a distancing or ‘active forgetting’ of ancestors and places associated with them. The motives for creating these ‘forgotten places’ are diverse and might include a fear of ‘ghosts’ or death, the desire to project …

Healing A Generation; Implementation Of Higher Education Curricula For Venezuelan Journalism Students Living Under Structural Violence To Promote A Transition Into Democracy, José Luis Jiménez-Figarotti Prof.

The SUNY Journal of the Scholarship of Engagement: JoSE

Venezuela's sociopolitical landscape has deteriorated significantly over the past decade, culminating in a profound humanitarian crisis. This ethnography, conducted from 2015 to the present, explores the experiences of a study group comprising 2000 Venezuelan communication college students, aged 17 to 25, who navigate structural violence while striving for quality higher education. The research employed a multifaceted approach, encompassing interviews, focus groups, and observations. Additionally, this qualitative study examines the outcomes of implementing an interdisciplinary journalism curriculum grounded in human rights and media activism, complemented by online sessions and an environmental education component. This educational project aims to foster critical thinking …

Tribal Relations And Nagpra: Consciousness, Connectedness, And Cause, Rylee S. Lalonde

All NMU Master's Theses

Native American Grave Protection Act (NAGPRA) was enacted in 1990 as a way for federally recognized tribes to bring home Ancestors and belongings that have been held captive in universities, museums, and government agencies. This thesis examines if NAGPRA helps Tribal nations in their goals for repatriation and protection as intended. By connecting with Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (THPO) from Anishinaabe Tribes in the State of Michigan via survey and interview, this study demonstrates that Indigenous voices are important, especially in writing their own history. This thesis sought to answer the questions: Does NAGPRA harm or help tribes? Where are …

Between Here And There: Vietnamese Identity Formation In The United States, Nancy Vu , '24

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

My thesis looks at the processes of identity formation within the Vietnamese diasporic community, who sought refuge in the United States shortly after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. It draws on semi-structured interviews with Vietnamese community members from Arizona and California, textual analysis of Vietnamese magazines and written work by Vietnamese writers, and auto-ethnography informed by my family history and personal experiences in the Vietnamese community. My analysis brings together insights from different scholarly traditions that explore identity, memory, materiality, and migration. After an overview of the histories of Vietnamese migration and integration to the United States, …

Philadelphia’S Urban Community Gardens: Decolonization, Green Space, And Food Security, Freddie Lin , '24

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Pal-Bert: An Improved Question Answering Model, Wenfeng Zheng, Siyu Lu, Zhuohang Cai, Ruiyang Wang, Lei Wang, Lirong Yin

Faculty Publications

In the field of natural language processing (NLP), there have been various pre-training language models in recent years, with question answering systems gaining significant attention. However, as algorithms, data, and computing power advance, the issue of increasingly larger models and a growing number of parameters has surfaced. Consequently, model training has become more costly and less efficient. To enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the training process while reducing the model volume, this paper proposes a first-order pruning model PAL-BERT based on the ALBERT model according to the characteristics of question-answering (QA) system and language model. Firstly, a first-order network …

“It’S Always An Admixture Of So Many Identities”: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Indigenous Kalasha Cultural Identity, Fahad Riaz Choudhry Dr, Karen Jennifer Golden, Miriam Sang-Ah Park

The Qualitative Report

This case study examined how an Indigenous Kalasha participant in northern Pakistan makes sense of his multi-faceted identity. The interpretative phenomenological analysis method was used to analyze data from an in-depth, single person case study. Our selected participant was a 36-year-old male postgraduate student from an Indigenous marginalized tribe, which is an ethnic and religious minority group in the northern Hindukush mountain region of Pakistan. Results are presented in four superordinate themes: (1) Identity: admixture of a number of identities, (2) Changing culture and its psychological impact, (3) Cultural protective factors against psychological problems and (4) Mental health perspective. …

Abundant Bodies In Times Of Excess: A Critical Exploration Of Fatness From Cairo To Tokyo, Sarah Aly

Theses and Dissertations

This work is an autoethnographic exploration of the social construction of fatness in contexts of existing and emerging neoliberal state control through the embodied experiences of fat people, following the tradition of ‘fat epistemology’ promoted by the emerging 'critical fat studies' field. It is a comparative study of the experiences of fatness as an unstable embodied category of being, rather than a liminal undesirable state or medical condition, in Cairo, Alexandria, and Tokyo, paying particular attention to the gender, racial, and class dynamics surrounding the construction (and marginalization) of fatness across various spatial and temporal contexts. These experiences are considered …

The Missionary And The Pea: An Anthropological Study Of The French Mep Economy, Michel Chambon

Journal of Global Catholicism

This paper discusses how the French missionaries of the Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP) are linking humans and material objects to support their religious agenda. Revisiting the long history of this organization in Hong Kong and Thailand, but also its distinct recruitment and assignment policies, I highlight how these Catholic missionaries rely on their French cultural background to interconnect people and goods. While theological principles and political pragmatism shape their functioning, I argue that their economy is distinctively rooted in the French notion of terroir –the taste of place— an embodied relation to land that acts as a cultural mechanism …

A Queer Chinese Pilgrimage: Encountering Catholic Life In Manila, George Wu Bayuga

Journal of Global Catholicism

Starting in the late 1990s, Chinese Catholic priests, sisters, and seminarians began journeying to the Philippines to undergo religious and spiritual formation. This paper documents this journey and characterizes it as a kind of queer pilgrimage. Recognizing the queer theoretical parallels between minoritized populations under hegemony and Catholic life under socialism, this paper calls for attention to the queer work of imagining futures that emerges through processes of movement, encounter, and reflexivity across new political and social spaces. Specifically, this paper highlights how state-religious relations under socialism can differentially shape how Chinese Catholics think of themselves, faith formation, and how …