Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Louisiana State University

Discipline
Keyword
Publication Year
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 1291 - 1320 of 2754

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Three From The Bottom : Examining Racial And Ethnic Identity Among Italian Americans In Bossier City, Jamie Rene Digilormo Jan 2013

Three From The Bottom : Examining Racial And Ethnic Identity Among Italian Americans In Bossier City, Jamie Rene Digilormo

LSU Master's Theses

This study examines the use of ethnic and racial labels as they are used in the construction of social identity among Italian Americans in Bossier City, Louisiana. In particular, the researcher is interested in how racial and ethnic identities are constructed through linguistic features, such as labels, and how these labels can often reflect the beliefs, values, or ideologies that influence the speaker. By examining which labels are used and how, it is possible to better understand what it means for each participant to be an Italian American today. The researcher relies heavily on Foucault’s notion of knowledge/power and the …


A Hybrid Procedure For Classifying Synoptic Weather Types For Louisiana With An Application To Precipitation Variability, Amanda Michelle Billiot Jan 2013

A Hybrid Procedure For Classifying Synoptic Weather Types For Louisiana With An Application To Precipitation Variability, Amanda Michelle Billiot

LSU Master's Theses

An automated synoptic weather classification system, based on the weather types devised by Robert Muller for Louisiana, is presented in this thesis and an application of the classification system to precipitation variability in Louisiana is demonstrated. The automated classification presented here is a hybrid classification system that uses sea level pressure composites for each Muller weather type as seeds in a correlation procedure to classify daily NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis sea level pressure patterns. The resulting hybrid classification is automated, objective, and has value in describing the surface weather variability in Louisiana. In the second part of this research project, the newly …


The Effects Of Peer Instruction On Ninth Grade Students' Conceptual Understanding Of Forces And Motion, Nicole Congine Harvey Jan 2013

The Effects Of Peer Instruction On Ninth Grade Students' Conceptual Understanding Of Forces And Motion, Nicole Congine Harvey

LSU Master's Theses

Because students are often taught physics in a traditional, lecture-based classroom, the present study was undertaken to test whether the use of peer instruction, specifically concept questions embedded within a PowerPoint that allows for students to interact throughout the lecture, affects learner outcomes in a classroom setting. The outcomes from classes taught using peer instruction were compared to classes taught with traditional, lecture-based teaching strategies. Students in five different sections of a 9th grade Physical Science class were given pre-tests and post-tests to determine their learning gains on the topics of motion and forces. In the first unit of instruction, …


Quality Of Care: Analyzing The Relationship Between Hospital Quality Score And Total Hospital Costs, Jordan Andrew Newell Jan 2013

Quality Of Care: Analyzing The Relationship Between Hospital Quality Score And Total Hospital Costs, Jordan Andrew Newell

LSU Master's Theses

As healthcare costs and premiums have increased in the recent past, hospitals are forced to try to provide healthcare on tight budgets. In many cases, quality is often sacrificed in an effort to manage patient wait-times and costs. This research attempted to add to the existing body of knowledge of quality of care by defining a relationship between quality of care provided and total hospital costs. This study used the 2006 American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey Database and the 2006 Hospital Compare dataset to meet the data requirements for the study. A log-log, as well as a translog, cost function …


Emergent Irrigation Agriculture And Settlement Patterns In The Lower Nepeña Valley, North-Central Coast Of Peru, Caitlyn Yoshiko Mcnabb Jan 2013

Emergent Irrigation Agriculture And Settlement Patterns In The Lower Nepeña Valley, North-Central Coast Of Peru, Caitlyn Yoshiko Mcnabb

LSU Master's Theses

The Andes is one of many regions thought to have developed as a pristine hydraulic state; thus the region serves as a testing ground for theories on the development of irrigation. Since Wittfogel (1957) proposed a correlation between irrigation and the development of pristine states, the relationships between social organization, political power, and coordinated subsistence strategies have been hotly debated. This research will examine the role of irrigation in the transition to early urban settlements in the Nepeña Valley, on the north-central coast of Peru. I especially focus on the nature of political structure and social organization, examining the validity …


Model-Based Approaches To Discovering Diversity : New Implementations, Tests Of Adequacy And An Empirical Application To Central American Diptera, Noah M. Reid Jan 2013

Model-Based Approaches To Discovering Diversity : New Implementations, Tests Of Adequacy And An Empirical Application To Central American Diptera, Noah M. Reid

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Most of the earth’s biodiversity is unknown to science. With global climate change set to drastically alter its distribution, it is imperative to catalogue it and understand its function in order to preserve it and better understand how this change will impact humanity. Recent technological and statistical advances have in theory made possible increasingly rapid discovery and description of diversity. The statistical properties and performance of these new approaches are still poorly known, however, their integration with complementary methods from disparate disciplines has not been achieved. In this dissertation we present three chapters of original research that advance these areas …


Optimizing Peak Gust And Maximum Sustained Wind Speed Estimates From Mid-Latitude Wave Cyclones, Timothy Andrew Joyner Jan 2013

Optimizing Peak Gust And Maximum Sustained Wind Speed Estimates From Mid-Latitude Wave Cyclones, Timothy Andrew Joyner

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Wind storms cause significant damage and economic loss and are a major recurring threat in many countries. Maximum sustained and peak gust weather station data from multiple historic wind storms occurring over more than three decades across Europe were analyzed to identify storm tracks, intensities, and areas of frequent high wind speeds. Wind surfaces for maximum sustained and peak gust winds were estimated based on an anisotropic (directionally-dependent) kriging interpolation methodology. Overall, wind speed magnitudes and high intensity locations were identified accurately for each storm. Directional trends and wind swaths were also consistently located in appropriate locations based on known …


Evolutionary Assembly Of The Neotropical Montane Avifauna, Andres M. Cuervo Jan 2013

Evolutionary Assembly Of The Neotropical Montane Avifauna, Andres M. Cuervo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Three fundamental processes are thought to underlie biodiversity patterns: speciation, dispersal, and extinction. Biodiversity patterns in species-rich tropical mountains vary along horizontal (barriers), and vertical (elevation) dimensions. In this dissertation, I set out to explore the interplay between historical and ecological mechanisms hypothesized to shape diversification of Neotropical cloud forest birds. In the second chapter, I conducted comparative analyses using species-specific ecological traits, and 3,175 mtDNA sequences collected across the range of 45 co-distributed birds. First, I found that niche breadth, dispersal ability, and clade age influence lineage diversity (population differentiation). In particular, species that are old, poor dispersers, and …


Ecosystem Metabolism In Coastal Plain Streams Of Southeast Louisiana : Environmental And Watershed Effects, Jonathan L. West Jan 2013

Ecosystem Metabolism In Coastal Plain Streams Of Southeast Louisiana : Environmental And Watershed Effects, Jonathan L. West

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since its introduction in 1956, the use of open-system, diel dissolved oxygen curves for estimating the components of ecosystem metabolism in the lotic setting have been important in determining the current ecosystem theory of streams, both spatially among multiple systems and longitudinally within the same system, as well as identifying potentially impaired systems, especially when contrasted with streams considered unimpaired. Several factors have been identified as controls on both components of ecosystem metabolism and include light, nutrients, and stable substrates for gross primary production (GPP) and a source of organic matter (OM) for ecosystem respiration (ER). Stream size is important …


American-Indian Media: The Past, The Present, And The Promise Of Digital, Victoria Leigh Lapoe Jan 2013

American-Indian Media: The Past, The Present, And The Promise Of Digital, Victoria Leigh Lapoe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores how digital media are changing the rich cultural act of storytelling within Native communities. The norms and routines of the non-Native press often leave consumers with a stereotypical view of American-Indians. The researcher interviewed key Native journalists identified through the Native American Journalists Association. She also observed journalists at a primarily Native newspaper and Native radio station. The study conducted interviews with more than 40 Native journalists around the country to understand how digital media possibly advances the distribution of storytelling within the American-Indian community.


Analyzing The Effects Of Context-Aware Mobile Design Principles On Student Performance In Undergraduate Kinesiology Courses, Eric John Seneca Jan 2013

Analyzing The Effects Of Context-Aware Mobile Design Principles On Student Performance In Undergraduate Kinesiology Courses, Eric John Seneca

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Learning occurs when content is accessed in a recursive process of awareness, exploration, reflection and resolution within one’s social context. With the rapid adoption of mobile technologies, mobile learning (m-Learning) researchers should incorporate aspects of mobile human-computer interaction research into the instructional design process. Specifically, the most visible, current definitions of and current research in m-Learning provide overviews of the learning theory informing mobility and focus on device characteristics, but do not focus on how people interact with mobile devices in their every day lives. The purpose of this convergent study was to determine what effect does the incorporation of …


Sport Team Fandom, Arousal, And Communication : A Multimethod Comparison Of Sport Team Identification With Psychological, Cognitive, Behavioral, Affective, And Physiological Measures, Shaughan Alan Keaton Jan 2013

Sport Team Fandom, Arousal, And Communication : A Multimethod Comparison Of Sport Team Identification With Psychological, Cognitive, Behavioral, Affective, And Physiological Measures, Shaughan Alan Keaton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The study of sport fandom is undertaken in a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to communication, psychology, sociology, economics, marketing and business. These investigations are significant because of the ubiquitous presence of sport fandom in world culture and its interdisciplinary adaptability in academia. To date however, there has not been a consistent conceptual or operational definition of sport fandom and related factors such as spectatorship, involvement and identification. Consequently, this lack of cohesiveness has serious ramifications, including lack of comparability in results and an inability to generate consistent evidence of the validity and reliability of the various self-report …


Two Histories, One Future : Louisiana Sugar Planters, Their Slaves, And The Anglo-Creole Schism, 1815-1865, Nathan Buman Jan 2013

Two Histories, One Future : Louisiana Sugar Planters, Their Slaves, And The Anglo-Creole Schism, 1815-1865, Nathan Buman

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

During the five decades between the War of 1812 and the end of the Civil War, southern Louisianans developed a society unlike any other region. The vibrant traditional image of moonlight and magnolias, the notion that King Cotton dominated the South’s economy as Anglo-Saxon masters lorded over their enslaves African-American workers still dominates the image of the American South. This image of a monolithic South, however, does not give a clear indication of the many sub-regional distinctions that both challenged and rewarded the inhabitants of those areas and provides exciting ways to understand slaveholding society culturally. Louisiana’s slaveholding class consisted …


Translating Arthur : The Historia Regum Brittanniae Of Geoffrey Of Monmouth And Roman De Brut Of Wace, George Gregory Molchan Jan 2013

Translating Arthur : The Historia Regum Brittanniae Of Geoffrey Of Monmouth And Roman De Brut Of Wace, George Gregory Molchan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation primarily focuses on re-presentations of the foreign others in the twelfth-century chronicles Historia regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth and Roman de Brut of Wace of the Isle of Jersey. Geoffrey and Wace, I argue, deploy a number of strategies in their narratives regarding the Matter of Britain that mainly though not wholly work to reinforce hegemonic versions of history through dehumanizing and demonizing the others that inhabit their narratives. The strategies that Geoffrey and Wace deploy towards the inhabitants of their narratives, I contend, operate within a framework that both celebrates and defends the Normans’ pretensions to …


Beach-Dune Interactions And A New Cycle Of Foredune Evolution, Gulf County, Florida, Michael Bitton Jan 2013

Beach-Dune Interactions And A New Cycle Of Foredune Evolution, Gulf County, Florida, Michael Bitton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Coastal foredunes are important natural resources that serve as nature’s first line of defense against powerful storms, protecting inland development and human populations. With the ever-increasing possibility of sea-level rise and the potential for increased frequency of major tropical storms, coastal mapping and understanding foredune development are important tools that coastal stakeholders can use to aid in policy planning. The currently predominant beach-dune interaction models are inadequate as comprised and do not apply globally. The models currently in use lack sufficient quantitative data and have poorly defined variables to support their underlying concepts, and as a result, they are difficult …


Sites Of Indigenous Language Practice : Geography Of American Indian Language Policy, Thomas Pierre-Yves Brasdefer Jan 2013

Sites Of Indigenous Language Practice : Geography Of American Indian Language Policy, Thomas Pierre-Yves Brasdefer

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

For over 1.9 million indigenous people in the United States, speaking their native language has become a rare opportunity. There are several obstacles standing in their way, from geographically separated communities to hundreds of years of contrarian policies and sometimes a collective lack of interest. Today, indigenous language use has become an integral part of self-determination and political sovereignty, sometimes more so than a communicative activity. This dissertation examines the political steps taken by American Indian communities around the United States to ensure that their languages can still be spoken into the twenty-first century, and analyzes the complex implications of …


Voices From The Coolest Corner Of Hell: A Content Analysis Of Slave Narratives In The Study Of Creolization In The Education Of 19th Century African American Slaves, Gina M. Rizzuto Jan 2013

Voices From The Coolest Corner Of Hell: A Content Analysis Of Slave Narratives In The Study Of Creolization In The Education Of 19th Century African American Slaves, Gina M. Rizzuto

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The general argument made by Southern historian, Ulrich Bonnell Phillips in 1918, is that the plantation functioned as a type of school for the slave. Similarly, in 1976, Anthony Gerald Albanese examined the plantation system as an institution that conditioned the behaviors of both slaves and slave owners. I maintain that the plantation system was not only an educative agency that conditioned behaviors, but also a conduit for the creolization process. The focus of this study is creolization in the education of African American slaves in the nineteenth century. This is a mixed methods content analysis of African American slave …


Nonprofit Organizations In The Making Of Civic Community : Exploring How The Structure Of Nonprofit Sectors Matters For Community Wellbeing, Sarah Prater Walsh Jan 2013

Nonprofit Organizations In The Making Of Civic Community : Exploring How The Structure Of Nonprofit Sectors Matters For Community Wellbeing, Sarah Prater Walsh

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, through the lens of the civic community perspective, I examine the role of nonprofit organizations in enhancing community wellbeing. The primary contribution of this dissertation to existing literature on civic communities is the theoretical development of the concept of civically engaging institutions. I take a multifaceted approach to the understanding and investigation of civically engaged institutions, in which I expand the concept beyond civic congregations and associations, to include all organizations categorized as nonprofit. Synthesizing literatures on nonprofit organizations and civic communities, I argue that nonprofits can be considered locally oriented and civically engaged as they are …


"It's Easier If You Have A System" : Analysis And Applications Of The Milanov Violin Method, Paula Farias Bujes Jan 2013

"It's Easier If You Have A System" : Analysis And Applications Of The Milanov Violin Method, Paula Farias Bujes

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to analyze the historical context, philosophic basis, and teaching principles of Trendafil Milanov’s violin method, as well as practical applications for violin pedagogy. This qualitative case study incorporated narrative and material culture components and utilized ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews. The participants were members of the Milanov family who were raised in that tradition and an American student using the Milanov method at the time of the study. An analysis of Milanov’s last published method, First Violin Lessons (1981), was completed to complement interview and observation data. Emergent themes related to the method’s pedagogical …


Effects Of Environmental Conditions On Characteristics Of Prescribed Fires And Resprouting Of Hardwoods In Shortleaf Pine-Oak-Hickory Ecosystems Of The United States, Tracy Lynn Hmielowski Jan 2013

Effects Of Environmental Conditions On Characteristics Of Prescribed Fires And Resprouting Of Hardwoods In Shortleaf Pine-Oak-Hickory Ecosystems Of The United States, Tracy Lynn Hmielowski

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Fire is an essential process for maintaining pine-dominated ecosystems in the southeastern United States. Fire opens space for pine recruitment, consumes fine fuels, stimulates flowering of herbaceous plants, and topkills woody plants. Topkill is the death of the aboveground portion of the plant, which does not necessarily lead to mortality. Most of the woody species in these ecosystems are able to resprout following topkill, sprouting new shoots from meristems at the base of the plant. In the absence of fire, pine-dominated ecosystems transition to closed canopy hardwood forests. Prescribed fires can be applied to mimic the historical fire regime, but …


Strategic Interaction And Social Networks, Quqiong He Jan 2013

Strategic Interaction And Social Networks, Quqiong He

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays which investigate individuals’ interaction in different contexts using social network analysis. The first essay generalizes the models of link formation of Rogers (2005) by allowing that giving and asking choices can be made separately and simultaneously by each agent. We focus on two specifications of the relationship function: the concave specification and the linear specification. The second essay empirically tests how the pattern of village structure, in terms of lineage network composition, affects people’s reciprocal behavior, utilizing data from Chinese Household Income Project Survey 2002. The third essay demonstrates different types of asymmetries and …


The Shoulder Suspension Of Bipedal Humans And The Head Suspension Of Quadrupedal Cats : A Reconstruction Of Macroevolutionary Changes Of Complex Systems Based On Nautral Experiments, Comparative Anatomy, And Biomechanical Analyses Of Extant Organisms, Michelle L. Osborn Jan 2013

The Shoulder Suspension Of Bipedal Humans And The Head Suspension Of Quadrupedal Cats : A Reconstruction Of Macroevolutionary Changes Of Complex Systems Based On Nautral Experiments, Comparative Anatomy, And Biomechanical Analyses Of Extant Organisms, Michelle L. Osborn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The biological processes in macroevolutionary transformations, which result in the origin of new species and supraspecific taxa, are not directly observable in organisms with long reproductive generations and need to be extrapolated and reconstructed from physiological, anatomical, and microevolutionary processes. This dissertation reconstructs the anatomical and biomechanical changes that affected the head-neck-shoulder apparatus during the macroevolutionary transformation of a quadrupedal mammal to a bipedal one by studying two model organisms, namely the human and the cat. I hypothesize that the anatomical differences in the head-neck-shoulder apparatus of the two organisms are caused by different force regimes that act on them. …


Toward An Ideal Of Moral And Democratic Education: Afro-Creoles And Straight University In Reconstruction New Orleans, 1862-1896, Dana C. Hart Jan 2013

Toward An Ideal Of Moral And Democratic Education: Afro-Creoles And Straight University In Reconstruction New Orleans, 1862-1896, Dana C. Hart

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Straight University emerged as an integrated higher education institution in New Orleans in 1870 and promoted education and training for young men and women, irrespective of race, gender, or ethnicity. Named after its generous patron, Seymour Straight, the university emerged as a space for community and egalitarianism at a time when the assertion of emancipation and civil rights redefined how people lived together in reconstructing a “New South.” Education represented an archetype to shape the future direction of Southern society in a meaningful and tangible way, and Straight University represented this ideal at its founding. The university also became a …


Utilizing Community Media To Facilitate Cross-Cultural Communication Between Lsu Agcenter Field And State Agents And Louisiana Agricultural Producers, Ava Denise Attaway Jan 2013

Utilizing Community Media To Facilitate Cross-Cultural Communication Between Lsu Agcenter Field And State Agents And Louisiana Agricultural Producers, Ava Denise Attaway

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine how Louisiana agricultural producers get information related to their crops. Specifically, this study examined how Louisiana agricultural producers used the Louisiana State University AgCenter’s website and other media sources so that it could be determined which form of community media could be used to facilitate cross-cultural communication between LSU AgCenter field and state agents and Louisiana agricultural producers. Data for this study were obtained from 187 usable surveys completed by Louisiana agricultural produceragricultural producers. The data were analyzed to determine if producers utilized the LSU AgCenter website, the frequency they utilized …


Shifting Place Identities In A Post-Conflict Society : Irony And Multiculturality In Quemoy, Taiwan, Yi-Chia Chen Jan 2013

Shifting Place Identities In A Post-Conflict Society : Irony And Multiculturality In Quemoy, Taiwan, Yi-Chia Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT Quemoy is a small island with an area of fifty-eight square miles at the mouth of Xiamen Bay on the southeast coast of China. As a Cold-War front of Taiwan shelled by the Chinese artillery for twenty years, Quemoy is becoming a heritage tourism destination attracting mainland Chinese to sightsee in its military structures. In this study, I examine landscape change in the post-conflict society through the interplay of three social dynamics—reconciliation, demilitarization, and touristification—exploring the cultural mechanism of landscape change and its meaning. Through a review of Quemoy’s history, I identify Quemoy’s geographical characteristics—marginality, cultural hybridity, and islandness—formed …


Uncovering Nodes In The Transnational Social Networks Of Hispanic Workers, James Powell Chaney Jan 2013

Uncovering Nodes In The Transnational Social Networks Of Hispanic Workers, James Powell Chaney

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the little studied but socially salient processes through which Latino migrant laborers find work, travel, and obtain documentation using transnational social networks spanning between their places of origin and destinations in the United States. This project focuses on the creation and maintenance of these transnational linkages with a particular interest in their expansion into locations throughout American South, the region with the highest growth rates of Hispanic populations. The aim is to understand how such migrant-labor processes influence migratory patterns and result in place creation, both in these case studies and more generally. The case studies in …


(Un)Writing The Academic Other : Theorizing The "At Risk" Body, Jessica Lynn Exkano Jan 2013

(Un)Writing The Academic Other : Theorizing The "At Risk" Body, Jessica Lynn Exkano

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A dominant Western historical reproductive narrative has constructed our knowledge of the “at risk” student body. Sustained through a metaphor of family, historical representations construct at risk as a matter of familial inheritance, through genetics, culture, or socioeconomic status. While at risk labels have changed over time, historical memory of at risk remains centered on a deficit-view of the family, while absolving social responsibility. This linear conception of “at risk” discourse disallows an interrogation of other systemic factors that can challenge or sustain the historical construction of the “at risk” body. This dissertation draws upon poststructural, narrative, and curriculum theories …


Underwater Excavations Of Two Ancient Maya Salt Works, Paynes Creek National Park, Belize, Elizabeth Cory Sills Jan 2013

Underwater Excavations Of Two Ancient Maya Salt Works, Paynes Creek National Park, Belize, Elizabeth Cory Sills

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract Underwater excavations were conducted at an Early Classic (A.D. 300-600) and a Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) submerged ancient Maya salt works in Paynes Creek National Park, Belize. The archaeological investigations included underwater excavations, artifact analysis, marine sediment chemical testing, and source identification of obsidian—an important indicator of trade. The excavation and analysis of the salt works in Paynes Creek add a new perspective on ancient Maya craft production and the economies of other ancient civilizations. The archaeological excavations reveal activity areas associated with a substantial salt industry for distribution to the southern Maya inland inhabitants, where this biological requirement …


Friends Of Bill F. : Alcohol, Recovery, And Social Progress In Southern Fiction, Conor Adam Picken Jan 2013

Friends Of Bill F. : Alcohol, Recovery, And Social Progress In Southern Fiction, Conor Adam Picken

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In “Friends of Bill F.: Alcohol, Recovery, and Social Progress in Southern Fiction,” I argue that many southern writers use the trope of drunkenness to investigate the South’s often hesitant stance toward social change. The overwhelming presence of hard drinking in southern fiction is so ubiquitous that it becomes nearly invisible, and what distinguishes twentieth century southern literary representations of alcohol from their antecedents is how overconsumption reflects a dis-ease in both the individual drinker and the region as a whole. Emerging from the concept of diseased drinking is the idea of recovery, and by foregrounding recovery language alongside depictions …


Seeing The Forest And The Trees: Ancient Maya Wood Selection And Forest Exploitation At The Paynes Creek Salt Works, Belize, Mark Edward Robinson Jan 2013

Seeing The Forest And The Trees: Ancient Maya Wood Selection And Forest Exploitation At The Paynes Creek Salt Works, Belize, Mark Edward Robinson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The discovery of ancient wood, preserved below the seafloor in a shallow mangrove lagoon in Paynes Creek National Park, Belize, provides the opportunity to study human-environment interaction for an aspect of society that can rarely be glimpsed. Taxonomic identification of construction wood and charcoal at Early Classic (A.D. 300-600) Chan B’i, and Late Classic (A.D. 600-900) Atz’aam Na, are reported and discussed to assess forest exploitation strategies and species selection over time. Principles of optimal foraging are applied to interpret the specific contexts of human behavior in wood selection. Insights from the Annales School of French Structural History and the …