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Population Structure Drives Cultural Diversity In Finite Populations: A Hypothesis For Localized Community Patterns On Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile), Carl P. Lipo, Robert J. Dinapoli, Mark E. Madsen, Terry L. Hunt

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

Understanding how and why cultural diversity changes in human populations remains a central topic of debate in cultural evolutionary studies. Due to the effects of drift, small and isolated populations face evolutionary challenges in the retention of richness and diversity of cultural information. Such variation, however, can have significant fitness consequences, particularly when environmental conditions change unpredictably, such that knowledge about past environments may be key to long-term persistence. Factors that can shape the outcomes of drift within a population include the semantics of the traits as well as spatially structured social networks. Here, we use cultural transmission simulations to …

Infanticide And Human Self Domestication, Erik O. Kimbrough, Gordon M. Myers, Arthur J. Robson

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

"Our hypothesis, which is largely complementary to Wrangham, is that band elders engaged in infanticide and direct and indirect child homicide against the offspring of reactive aggressive adults through decisions during the foraging period of the Middle and Upper Pleistocene. We hypothesize that elders may have targeted the offspring of reactively aggressive males (and females) as retaliation for behaviors that were not good for the elders or their offspring and because surreptitiously killing the offspring of violent males was much less dangerous to the elders than killing the violent males. Such retaliation could have selected against reactive aggression as a …

Elysium As A Social Allegory: At The Nexus Of Dystopia, Cyberpunk, And Plutocracy, Emre Ulusoy

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Island Paradise To Urban Streets: Identifying The Effects Of Military Forced Displacements On Indigenous Islanders, Alexandria Mckinnell

Anthropology Undergraduate Senior Theses

During the twentieth century, indigenous islanders across the world were forcibly removed from their native lands by Western powers for militarily advantageous reasons. The Bikinians’ removal is the most notorious case of military forced displacement, but many other island communities faced the same fate during the superpower struggles of World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. This study analyzes two documented cases of military expulsions of indigenous islanders, the Bikinians and the Chagossians. I created a matrix analyzing the common cultural experiences shared by both communities as a result of their expulsions and how those effects persist …

An Analysis Of Obsidian Artifacts From The Black Mountain Redoubt (48fr6463): A Late Archaic To Late Prehistoric Shoshone Campsite In Northwestern Wyoming, Mary Margaret Hagen Erlick

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Black Mountain Redoubt is a small Late Archaic through Late Prehistoric campsite in northwestern Wyoming associated with a series of communal bighorn sheep hunting traps. A diverse tools assemblage along with several house features indicates a wide range of activities specifically associated with bighorn sheep hunting. We use a 100 percent analysis of the obsidian formal tool and debitage assemblage as a test of obsidian conveyance in western Wyoming. Obsidian artifacts come from the five major regional sources but are dominated by Obsidian Cliff materials in keeping with the Yellowstone Plateau conveyance zone. In contrast, obsidian from Malad, Idaho …

An Evaluation Of Activity In A Colonial Maya Cemetery Using Femoral Cross-Sectional Analysis, Casey Lejeune

Master's Theses

Cortical bone formation in the population of Tipu, a colonial visita site in Belize, was examined here to reveal factors of their activity and address the possibility of a status-based burial plan. To answer this question, this research examined the endosteal surface of the midshaft femur using digital imaging methods. The femora from 70 individuals were photographed and examined using the BoneJ plugin in ImageJ software. The cortical bone area was compared to additional variables, including sex, age, stature, pilastric index, and burial location. It was hypothesized that sex, age, and stature would correlate with cortical bone area similarly across …

Archaeological Analysis Of An Early Mississippian Frontier Structure In Southwestern Virginia, Sophie Husslein

Honors Theses

Ely Mound (44LE12) is a significant prehistoric frontier site located in Lee County, Virginia. Frontier sites are important in understanding processes of cultural hybridity and the formation of social hierarchies. Through an analysis of artifacts recovered from a household structure during a 2019 excavation, this research explores Ely’s function on the Mississippian cultural frontier, and discusses its relationship to the Carter Robinson site located within the county (44LE10). Finally, I conclude that the occupants of Ely Mound were a local people engaging with select Mississipian cultural practices and suggest that this site could be an example of Mississippianization.

The Kararaô Of Central Brazil By Gustaaf Verswijver, John Hemming

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

No abstract provided.

Mass Analysis And Raw Material Sourcing As Metrics Of Poverty Point's Socio-Political Organization, Jeffrey Lewis, Jr.

Master's Theses

Hypotheses about the socio-political organization of Poverty Point have each attempted to answer the procedures that led to the site’s construction and continued use. Mass analysis and raw material sourcing of the North Three excavation units offer an enhanced examination of the lithic activities of the Poverty Point site. These analyses provide new insight into how the site may have been utilized by those traveling to the site by assigning social values to the raw materials transported there. The results of this lithic analysis and comparison to previous investigations suggest a crucial activity that would have impacted the socio-political organization …

Warrior Dialogue In Samuel: Honor, Shame, And Divine Proxy, Robert A. Kranz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Discourse between warriors plays a role in several battle scenes within the books of Samuel. The repartee is a way for the narrator to add color and depth to the narrative and develop essential themes. Social-scientific criticism has often examined these interactions through the cultural lenses of honor and shame. Peristiany, Bourdieu, and Pitt-Rivers are just some scholars who developed cultural frameworks based upon the importance of honor and shame in the Mediterranean region. Malina, extrapolating from North African cultural studies by Bourdieu, developed a challenge and response model for the acquisition of honor as depicted in the Bible. However, …

Club-Fighters Of The Amazon: Warfare Among The Kayapó Indians Of Central Brazil By Gustaaf Verswijver, Laura Zanotti

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

No abstract provided.

Functional Changes In Fortified Places: Strategy And Defensive Architecture In The Medieval And Early Modern Eras, Scott Kirk

Anthropology ETDs

Castles – defined as the fortified residences of a militarized elite class – are a global, cross-cultural phenomenon rather than a historically particular development in medieval Europe. Pairing Niche Construction Theory (NCT) with the Lévi-Straussian concept of the House, this research combines architectural, statistical, and geospatial analyses for a sample of castles from medieval European, western colonial, and nonwestern societies to show: (1) castle building is a recurring feature of competition in stratified pre-industrial societies, (2) geography and topography constrain castle location and function, and (3) changes in castle placement, design and elaboration reflect the changing nature of social, economic …

Sea-Level Rise And Settlement At Ta’Ab Nuk Na, Belize: Analyses Of Marine Sediment From The I-Line, 4m Transect, Conner B. Flynt

LSU Master's Theses

The ancient Maya of Mesoamerica created a culture with writing, religion, and vast trade networks. These trade networks are evident on the southern coast of Belize, where archaeologists have found sites dedicated to salt making. One of these sites, Ta’ab Nuk Na, was the subject of this thesis. Sediment and charcoal samples were collected from this site by the Underwater Maya Research Group led by Heather McKillop and E. Cory Sills. For my thesis research, I subjected these samples and components within them to loss-on ignition, radiometric dating, and microscopic analysis. Loss-on ignition was used to ascertain organic material percentage …

Violence And Masculinity In Small-Scale Societies, Debra L. Martin

Anthropology Faculty Research

© 2021 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved. Archaeological and ethnographic accounts of violence in small-scale societies represent a baseline for thinking about the ways that violence and masculinity originated and evolved, becoming entwined social processes. Male violence (lethal and nonlethal) is expressed in diverse and complex ways because it is associated with social spheres of power and influence, and it is embedded within ideologies, histories, and collective memories. Applying anthropological research on violence as a generative and transformational social process demonstrates how violence plays a key role in creating, maintaining, and transforming social structures in …

Lessons From Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) For Governance In Conditions Of Environmental Uncertainty, Carl P. Lipo, Pamela A. Mischen, Terry L. Hunt

Anthropology Datasets

No abstract provided.

Fluvial Sequencing And Caddo Landform Modification At The Crenshaw Site (3mi6), John R. Samuelsen, Margaret Guccione

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

The Red River in southwest Arkansas creates a changing environment that has had a large impact on those who lived there, including floods, channel movements, and the erosion of whole landforms. River movements, and the resulting oxbow lakes, create an environment favorable to fishing. This study uses historical documents, lidar data, and coring methods to sequence past river movements around a multiple-mound Caddo ceremonial center, the Crenshaw site. This information is used to determine the likely location of the Red River at the time the ancient Caddo constructed the mounds and to note where portions of the ancient site may …

An Emergent Legionnaires' Disease Syndemic: Water Supply Systems, Infrastructural Violence, And Afflicted Lives In The South Bronx, Ny, Eduardo Piqueiras

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation examines how contemporary approaches to Legionnaires’ disease (LD) narrowly view it as a biomedical entity that obscures critical moral, temporal, and contextual dimensions creating gaps in how LD “cases” are defined and mitigated. Those who receive an LD diagnosis experience many unique challenges (e.g., personal, existential, community-based, and environmental) yet little is known about how this group of individuals experience recovery and attach meaning to their individual experiences. Using an anthropological lens of illness and recovery and a syndemics view of infrastructural violence this study examines those inadequately addressed multiple dimensions which limit our ability to confront the …

Understanding Struggles And Triumphs Of Widows In Central Nigeria: A Path To Communication And Economic Empowerment, Meredith Annette Garrison

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

One in ten African women age 15 or older are widows. Approximately 8 million widows live in Nigeria with many living in extreme poverty. Throughout the nation, widows are subjected to physical and psychological harm from their families and communities following the deaths of their husbands. Women are marginalized across Nigeria, but widowed women often experience ostracization and oppression that leads to poverty. Most widows rely on informal business and petty trading to survive but these ventures typically only bring in less than a $1 a day for a family. This dissertation critically examined the situation of widows in a …

The Rise And Fall Of Wiñaymarka: Rethinking Cultural And Environmental Interactions In The Southern Basin Of Lake Titicaca, Maria C. Bruno, José M. Capriles, Christine A. Hastorf, Sherilyn C. Fritz, D. Marie Weide, Alejandra I. Domic, Paul A. Baker

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

Investigations of how past human societies managed during times of major climate change can inform our understanding of potential human responses to ongoing environmental change. In this study, we evaluate the impact of environmental variation on human communities over the last four millennia in the southern Lake Titicaca basin of the Andes, known as Lake Wiñaymarka. Refined paleoenvironmental reconstructions from new diatom-based reconstructions of lake level together with archaeological evidence of animal and plant resource use from sites on the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia, reveal frequent climate and lake-level changes within major cultural phases. We posit that climate fluctuations alone do …

Devastation And Displacement: The Destruction Of Native Communities As A Result Of Specifically The Garrison Dam On The Missouri River In North Dakota And The Dalles Dams On The Columbia River In Oregon, Farryl Elisa Hunt

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

ABSTRACT MASTER’S THESIS

Devastation and Displacement: The Destruction of Native Communities as a Result of the Garrison Dam on the Missouri River in North Dakota and the Dams on the Columbia River in Oregon

By Farryl Elisa "Lisa" Hunt

This master's thesis in anthropology is a cross-cultural analysis that explores two intersecting yet distinct discourses of destruction and displacement for two groups of Native people in Oregon and North Dakota. The building of The Dalles Dam in Oregon and The Garrison Dam in North Dakota damaged thriving livelihoods due to the loss of irreplaceable flooded areas.

This thesis will utilize …

Power And Control: An Exploration Of Health And Medicine At Camp Lawton (9js1), Emily L. Jones

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In late 1864, as the American Civil War was entering its final stages, the Confederacy built a prison to ease the overcrowding at the infamous Andersonville prison. This prison, located in Millen, Georgia, would be known as Camp Lawton. Camp Lawton was abandoned in November of 1864 but has recently been the site of ongoing archaeological investigation. Despite this, little research has been done focusing specifically on health and medicine at Camp Lawton. In this thesis, I use qualitative analysis of Civil War prisoner and guard accounts and analysis of artifacts from Camp Lawton to understand the nature of access …

Reconsidering The Late Woodland: A Critical Reassessment Of Perception And Periodization In The Ohio Valley, 400-1000 Ce, Devin A. Henson

Senior Independent Study Theses

The Late Woodland period in eastern North America has traditionally been conceptualized as a cultural hiatus between the region’s Hopewell and Mississippian traditions. As a drastic (though not complete) reduction in the practices of monumental architecture and art produced with nonlocal materials occurred during this time, the end of the preceding Hopewell tradition (and its related Interaction Sphere) has been depicted as a “collapse” or “devolution” by multiple researchers. However, the Late Woodland also saw a rise in population, intensification of agriculture, and technological innovation. Although the combination of these factors and the period’s architectural and artistic reduction appear contradictory, …

The Lost Histories Of The Shetayet Of Sokar: Contextualizing The Osiris Shaft At Rosetau (Giza) In Archaeological History, Nicholas Edward Whiting

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Osiris Shaft is one of many archaeological signatures associated with Egypt’s Giza Plateau, the most well-known of which are the Great Pyramids. However, the role(s) the Osiris Shaft feature played in the religious and daily practices of ancient Egyptians remain(s) unknown. This research seeks to contextualize the Osiris Shaft in Egyptian history to learn more about this feature’s story. In order to achieve this goal, this thesis examines funerary deities associated with Memphis theology and explores archaeological investigations related to the Osiris Shaft, including the work of Dr. Zahi Hawass and investigations by the Giza Mapping Project. Thanks to …

Uncovering Cooperation In Housepit 54, Bridge River, British Columbia, Canada, Megan Denis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

There is a significant amount of literature regarding the theory of cooperation, as well as ethnographies and data from modern populations that clearly show cooperation, yet it is difficult to tease that information out of the archaeological record. My thesis will focus on floors IIi to IIc of Bridge River’s Housepit 54 in British Columbia, Canada, which extends from the Bridge River 2 period to the Bridge River 3 period and includes two incidents of resource stress and one of resource plenty. These times of fluctuating resource availability should result in the population utilizing different approaches to social organization. By …

Nutrition At Tipu: A Comparative Analysis Of Juvenile Health In Maya Populations, Sydnie A. Bianchi

Master's Theses

The site of Tipu in west central Belize provided a foothold for Spanish missionaries in the 17^th century. The effects of contact on adults among the 550 burials recovered in the cemetery there have been well studied, but the children have received less attention. Therefore, this study examined juvenile health through four markers: Linear Enamel Hypoplasia (LEH), a non-specific marker of health disruptions; Porotic Hyperostosis (PH), an indicator of anemia; and Periostitis, an indicator of infection. Some 131 individuals were evaluated using criteria developed by Steckel, Sciulli, and Rose (2002). The results were compared to Late Classic Copán (Storey, …

When Leaders Surrender Their Divine Lineage: The Loss Of Cosmic Connection Between Maya Local Lords And Their Supernatural Deities, Amy S. Peterson

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

The Maya who lived during the Classic Period (200 CE to 900 CE) went through many changes in their daily lives. In the Late Classic Period (600 to 900 CE), social, political and economic stressors caused even more change to their routines, leading to the “collapse” around 800-900 CE. Current hypotheses for this collapse included warfare, environmental factors, human degradation of landscapes, as well as internal and external influences. I hypothesize that in the Early Classic (200 to 600 CE), rulership of local communities by Maya lords, or ajawob, related mainly to their connection to a pantheon of supernatural …

Warfare And Welcome: Practicality And Qur’Ānic Hierarchy In Ibāḍī Muslims’ Jurisprudential Rulings On Music, Bradford J. Garvey

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

While much ink has been spilled by musicologists on the legal standing of music in Islamic jurisprudential scholarship, few scholars have offered as comprehensive a view as Lois Ibsen Al-Faruqi. Thirty-five years after her major works on this issue, this article seeks to reassess her model of musical legitimacy within Muslim scholarship. Al-Faruqi places Qur’ānic recitation at the apex of a unidirectional continuum of sound art, with genres less similar to the recitation of the Qur’ān located progressively further away from it. Based on fieldwork in the Sultanate of Oman in 2015-17 and engaging with recent reinvigorations on the anthropological …

A Terror To The People: The Evolution Of An Outlaw Gang In The Lower Midwest, Randy Mills

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The details of the heretofore unexamined Reeves Gang may serve as an important case study of violence and lawlessness in the Lower Midwest in the decades following the Civil War. Unlike the “social bandits” such as the Jesse James and Dalton Gangs of the Middle Border region, most outlaw gangs made little attempt to get along with locals. These groups ruled by fear and typically fell afoul of vigilante hangings and shootings— a one-act play, if you will. The Reeves Gang, the focus of this study, would come to be atypical, their tale turning into a three-act play, moving from …

Ronald K. Edgerton’S American Datu: John J. Pershing And Counterinsurgency Warfare In The Muslim Philippines, 1899–1913, Review Author: Hawkins

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

The Philippine Covidscape: Colonial Public Health Redux?, Warwick Anderson

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

Comparing historical perceptions of three epidemics in the Philippines and the responses they elicited allows us to see how these disease outbreaks were conceived in terms of configuration, whether ecological or sociological, and contamination. Cholera in 1902, influenza in 1918–1919, and Covid-19 in 2020 each open up revealing cross sections through Philippine social life, culture, and governance. Furthermore, simplistic assumptions of contamination or pollution—in contrast to more complexly structured configurational models—are correlated with coercive or militaristic reactions to pandemics, including social distancing, lockdowns, curfews, and suppression of dissent. KEYWORDS: MEDICINE • SCIENCE • HISTORY • CHOLERA • INFLUENZA • COVID-19