Digital Commons Network^™

Kernel Density Estimation Of Tropical Cyclone Frequencies In The North Atlantic Basin, Robert Rohli

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Gumbo Yearbook, Class Of 2010, Louisiana State University And Agricultural And Mechanical College

Gumbo Yearbook

The Gumbo yearbook chronicles the entire academic year at LSU. In words and especially photos, the Gumbo shows the people, places, and events that make each year unique. In addition to formal portraits of schools and departments, the book contains hundreds of snapshots of students with their friends and dozens of pages showcasing organizations.

The 2010 Gumbo was published with a DVD containing a video yearbook, as well as a PDF. Those files are linked below.

Engaging With The Politics Of Determinist Environmental Thinking, Andrew Sluyter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

In The Shadow Of Slavery: Africa’S Botanical Legacy In The Atlantic World, Andrew Sluyter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Renegotiating Barbuda's Commons: Recent Changes In Barbudan Open-Range Cattle Herding, Andrew Sluyter, Amy E. Potter

Faculty Publications

Barbuda remains little developed and sparsely populated relative to its neighbors in the Leeward Lesser Antilles, a rather extraordinary and relatively unknown Caribbean place. Much of its distinctiveness derives from the communal land-tenure system, itself rooted in three centuries of open-range cattle herding. Yet, as revealed through interviews, newspaper archives, and landscape observations, openrange cattle herding has declined over the past three decades, with related changes in land tenure. As the new Barbuda Land Act came into effect in 2008, codifying the communal tenure system, the very landscape elements that manifest open-range herding have become obscure. In particular, the rock-walled …

The Geographical Review's Historical Dimensions And Recentism, Andrew Sluyter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Darwinian Populations And Natural Selection, Grant Ramsey, Hope Hollocher, Agustín Fuentes, Charles H. Pence, Edwin Siu

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Olaudah Equiano, Autobiography, And Ideas Of Culture, Sarah Brophy

1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era

No abstract provided.

Waging Word Wars: A Discourse Analysis Of The Patterns Of Norse Masculinity Presented Through Mannjafnaor In The Icelandic Sagas, Jonathan Mark Broussard

LSU Master's Theses

The mannjafnaðr is a verbal dueling competition containing boasts and insults through which Norse men compare their achievements and exploits against those of other men in bids to prove themselves more honorable in the eyes of the Norse community. This thesis examines the structure, content, and themes of the mannjafnaðr presented in the Morkinskinna, Magnussona, Brennu-Njals, and the Orvar-Oddr sagas as manifestations of the Norse conception of masculinity. My analysis reveals that these encounters are highly structured and provide interactants opportunities to evaluate adherence to culturally dictated strictures of honor – their own and their opponents’. Through a complex discourse …

Appropriation, Subversion, And Restoration In Felipe Guaman Poma De Ayala's El Primer Nueva Corónica Y Buen Gobierno, Joshua Clay Everett

LSU Master's Theses

Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala finished his chronicle, El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno, in 1615 for King Felipe III as a handbook for improving the Spanish colonial system, although it was not published until 1936 when it was rediscovered in Copenhagen. Despite the fact that the king did not publish it, the manuscript serves as an important part of colonial-period indigenous literature. In his chronicle, Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala effectively creates an image of himself as an acculturated Andean who defends the civil authority of the king of Spain and the religious authority of the Catholic Church. …

Mixed-Race Ancestry And Its Impact On The Facial Reconstruction Process, Jermaine Carl Robinson

LSU Master's Theses

Various facial reconstruction techniques are used by forensic artists to assist in the identification of human remains. In establishing the biological profile for completion of a facial reconstruction, often the most difficult yet most important determination to make is that of race and/or ancestry of the decedent. By purposefully creating a facial reconstruction of an unidentified presumed mixed-race female decedent, staying true to the tissue depth information arrived at as a result of this researcher’s tests to determine her race, this author plans to investigate if any biases arise among any potential parties involved in the forensic identification process. This …

Investigating The Use Of Bioengineered Oyster Reefs As A Method Of Shoreline Protection And Carbon Storage, Daniel D. Dehon

LSU Master's Theses

The Louisiana Gulf Coast is losing land at an alarming rate for a combination of reasons. At the same time carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere and the oceans by the increased burning of fossil fuels. Therefore, bioengineered oyster dominated artificial reefs have been developed in an effort to mitigate erosion while storing carbon in the oyster shells. These reefs support the growth of a native oyster species, Crassostrea virginica, which are considered ecological engineers and serve to improve water quality, protect coastal wetlands, capture and store carbon, and enhance the economy. Evaluation of test pieces showed the addition …

Understanding Teen Pregnancy Amongst Latinas: An Investigation Of The Cultural Values And Societal Factors That Contribute To Adolescent Motherhood, Mary Bateman Krom

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis presents an investigation into the various cultural and societal factors that contribute to the Latina teen pregnancy rate. According to the PEW Hispanic Center, Latinas account for more instances of adolescent motherhood than any other ethnic or ethnic demographic in the country. Although much research has been done in the area of teen pregnancy, so far little has been completed with the specified focus on the Latina population. This study therefore offers a unique perspective of the phenomenon in its consideration of various literary and sociological works, by both Latina and non-Latina authors, that underscore the prevalence of …

Demography, Health Status, And Mortuary Rituals Of The Late Woodland Poole-Rose Ossuary, Ontario, Canada: A Study Of The Clavicles, Nicole Elizabeth Smith

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is an analysis of the clavicles from a pre-contact (1550 A.D. ±50 years) native ossuary burial from Ontario, Canada. The Poole-Rose ossuary clavicles were analyzed for demography, pathological processes, trauma, and cultural modifications. Demographic markers on the clavicles are derived from the minimum number of individuals (MNI) estimation, medial epiphyseal age, and sex. Pathological processes are indicated by the presence of degenerative joint disease (DJD), periosteal reactions, and lytic lesions. Trauma includes healed fractures and cuts from defleshing of the clavicles. The presence of pre-burial cut marks is an indication of cultural modifications that were likely part of …

It Governance In Small And Medium Enterprise Post Sarbanes Oxley, Carlos Anthony Thomas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The history of IT governance research has been dichotomous in that research either focused on the IT governance structural arrangements or the contingencies that affect IT organizational decisions. Weill and Ross’s (2004) seminal text on IT governance represents a synthesis of these two streams of research and thus establishes a new trajectory in the discourse related to IT governance. Their study included analysis from both survey data and case studies. However, the case study sites included were of large capitalized companies. Moreover, the cases were conducted prior to the mandated implementation of Section 404 of Sarbanes Oxley (SOX), which oversees …

Changing Perceptions Of Archaeology In Post-Katrina New Orleans: A Geographic Information Perspective, David Patrick Harlan

LSU Master's Theses

Hurricane Katrina had a significant impact on the number and distribution of known archaeological sites in New Orleans, Louisiana. Due to government mandated investigation in heavily damaged areas, many archaeological sites were recorded in geographic locations where there were previously none recorded. This thesis examined the spatial distribution of sites in the context of archaeological predictive modeling to determine the impact of disaster recovery on site location. In addition, decision making processes that led to the discovery of sites were examined to determine how they contributed to spatial bias in the distribution of sites recognized by the Louisiana Division of …

Artisanal Whaling In The Atlantic: A Comparative Study Of Culture, Conflict, And Conservation In St. Vincent And The Faroe Islands, Russell Fielding

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Whalers from the Caribbean island of St. Vincent and the North Atlantic archipelago of the Faroe Islands hunt pilot whales and a variety of other small cetaceans for food. Vincentian whalers use harpoons, thrown by hand or fired from a modified shotgun mounted on the boat. Faroese whalers, using several dozen boats, work cooperatively to drive an entire pod of whales ashore, where shore-based whalers are waiting to complete the kill with traditional whaling knives. Vincentian whaling traces its origins to the late nineteenth century. Records of Faroese whaling date to the late sixteenth century but the practice is thought …

Pliny's Defense Of Empire, Thomas Raymond Laehn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Despite perennial interest in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History as a record of the prodigious, the quotidian, and the useful in Rome in the first century AD, for over half of a millennium Pliny has been considered little more than an inept compiler of facts and marvels intellectually incapable of formulating a cogent argument supported through the selective marshalling of his materials. It is my contention that Pliny’s encyclopedic text is in fact a first-rate work of political philosophy constituting an apology for Roman imperial expansion grounded in a sophisticated conception of man as the only being capable of passing …

Regional Narratives, Hidden Maps, And Storied Places: Cultural Cartographies Of The Cariri Region, Northeast Brazil, Jorn Seemann

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In recent years, maps and mappings have gained increasing attention in cultural-geographic studies. However, little has been written about how to employ cartographic products and processes as research methodologies in practice. In this dissertation I present four different qualitative mapping strategies that I label cultural cartographies and that aim to critically investigate the relations between geographical knowledge and representation, society and cartography, culture and maps. A region in Northeast Brazil, the Cariri in the state of Ceará, was selected as the space to test these strategies and to show how maps (both historic and contemporary and in their metaphorical sense) …

Land Use, Individual Attributes, And Travel Behavior In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Anzhelika Antipova

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Although the interrelationship between land use and travel behavior was given more than scant attention in the past, urban planners are far from a solution to reduce commuting and travel by car. One of the reasons is that studies of this kind are often conducted at the aggregate scale limiting one’s probabilities of making inferences of individual/household-level travel behavior. Using 1997 Baton Rouge Personal Transportation Survey (BRPTS) data this study attempts to overcome this limitation. First, a multi-level modeling (MLM) approach is applied to investigate the geographical effect of a place and the role of population composition in accounting for …

"It's Not Just About The Buildings, It's About The People": Architecture Practice, And Preservation In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Bethany W. Rogers

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Drawing on the legacy of architectural studies in cultural geography, this dissertation integrates traditional approaches to built environments that take seriously the physical form and presence of buildings with more recent scholarship that employs performance and practice theory to address the embodied, contingent, and ongoing practices through which buildings are endowed with meaning by those who use, inhabit, or identify with them. Using ethnographic and architectural-documentation methods to carefully apprehend the interrelationships between architecture and embodied practices, this dissertation presents a set of ethno-material case studies – four buildings and their community of users that were central to New Orleans’ …

Ancestral Determination From Foramen Magnum, Stephanie Marie Crider

LSU Master's Theses

Ancestry estimation is a crucial part of the biological profile creation in forensic anthropology. Without proper classification of ancestry, other aspects of the biological profile, such as stature, can be affected. Several techniques are used by forensic anthropologists to determine ancestry of unidentified remains. Some anthropologists believe the cranium to be an excellent indicator of ancestry (Rhine 1990). The focus of this research was to determine the utility of the foramen magnum region on the cranial base as a positive indicator of ancestry. Previous studies have explored the effectiveness of using the cranial base’s occipital condyles for ancestry assignment of …

Acadiana And The Cajun Cultural Landscape: Adaption, [Sic] Accommodation Authenticity, Joseph Jerome Mckernan

LSU Master's Theses

The following points are important for this discussion of Acadiana and the Cajun Cultural Landscape: First, in order to fully understand the Cajun nature and what makes the Cajuns distinct, we must explore their history from the time they arrived on the shores of North America to the present. Without doing this, we cannot truly understand their way of life and where it came from; Second, what and where is Acadiana--the Cajun homeland--and what are its socioeconomic and demographic characteristics; Third, how have folk culture and celebration of heritage mediated Cajun culture; Fourth, why are these traditions manifested in what …

Head Shaping Of The Ancient Maya At Wild Cane Cay And Moho Cay, Belize, Kellye Alyse French

LSU Master's Theses

As a sign of beauty or status, the ancient Maya shaped the skulls of their infants, resulting in what modern researchers see as several forms of cranial modification. My project consists of the study of cranial modification of the coastal Maya from two trading ports, including an Early Classic (A.D. 300-600) sample Moho Cay, Belize, and a Postclassic (A.D. 900-1300) sample from Wild Cane Cay, Belize. Using the classification set forth by Dembo and Imbelloni, I calculate the type of cranial modification found at each site. I then create gender, temporal, and spatial distributions and compare the results to other …

In Sickness And In Health: Experiencing Medical Spaces In Mbarara (Uganda), Kara E. Miller

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis is a contribution to cross-cultural studies on health and medicine explored through the material and symbolic facets of health care in a region of Southwest Uganda. Research conducted in the healing spaces of Mbarara reflects traditions in the anthropology of the body and brings a lived perspective to conditions of sickness and wellness. By tracing the biographies of treatment spaces, the medical landscape is evaluated in terms of participants’ perceptions, convictions, and knowledge sets. Phenomenological methodology is employed in this exploration of ill states and curative places, which braids concepts and academic work in the areas of medicine, …

Identifying Historic Storm Surges And Calculating Storm Surge Return Periods For The Gulf Of Mexico Coast, Hal Needham

LSU Master's Theses

Tropical cyclone-generated storm surges inflict natural disasters that are among the most catastrophic globally. The surges observed along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico are among the highest in the world, second only to the Bay of Bengal. Storm surge activity along the U.S. Gulf Coast remains poorly understood, however, in part, due to the absence of credible research that accurately depicts the maximum height and location of historic surge events. This research addresses this gap in the scientific literature by creating a database of storm surge observations along the Gulf Coast between the years 1880 to 2009. A total of …

Revitalizing The Suburban Dream: Disaster, Displacement And Resilience In Eastern Orleans Parish, Meredith Morgan Feike

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Hurricane Katrina tested the disaster resiliency of communities throughout the city of New Orleans. More than four years after breaches in levees led to the flooding of one hundred forty square miles of the Crescent City, some residents are still struggling to reclaim their neighborhoods one block at a time. Eastern Orleans Parish is a portion of the local landscape whose long-term sustainability remains uncertain. Rebuilding is extremely slow with only a fraction of residents returning to the area. Development in New Orleans East began after World War II as a result of urban sprawl. Many New Orleanians desired a …

Other Tomorrows: Postcoloniality, Science Fiction And India, Suparno Banerjee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation I argue that science fiction as a genre intervenes in the history-oriented discourse of postcolonial Anglophone Indian literature and refocuses attention on the nation’s future—its position in global politics, its shifting religious and social values, its rapid industrialization, the clash between orthodoxy and modernity, and ultimately the dream of a multicultural nation. Anglophone Indian science fiction also indicates India’s movement away from a nation trying to negotiate the stigma of colonialism to a nation emerging as a new world power. Thus, this genre reconstructs the Indian identity not only in the domestic sphere, but also in a …

Mapping The Digital Divide In Neighborhoods: Wi-Fi Access In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Luke Driskell

LSU Master's Theses

The communication made possible by the Internet has leveled the global playing field in some ways, but helped maintain traditional inequalities as well. The “digital divide” refers to disparities in telecommunication access and use from global to local scales. This study uses access point mapping to quantify local Internet access in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A Wi-Fi access point (router) density was obtained and compared to various demographic and socioeconomic attributes in neighborhoods. Fieldwork confirmed the expectation that traditionally disadvantaged groups would have the lowest rates of Wi-Fi ownership, but median household income was unexpectedly less related than race, education, and …

Further Investigations Into The King George Island Mounds Site (16lv22), Harry Gene Brignac Jr

LSU Master's Theses

Research at the King George Island Mounds site (16LV22) consisted of shovel testing the island on which the site is located and placing test units in two recently discovered mounds in Area B on the south side of the site (Mounds F and G). The shovel test pits were placed on the western half of the island in an attempt to locate habitational features related to the earthworks on the eastern half of the island. All shovel tests done on King George Island during this investigation were negative showing no signs of occupation near the site proper. Units were placed …