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Local Land Use On Borneo: Applications Of Indigenous Knowledge Systems And Natural Resource Utilization Among The Benuaq Dayak Of Kalimantan, Indonesia, Stacy Marie Crevello Jan 2003

Local Land Use On Borneo: Applications Of Indigenous Knowledge Systems And Natural Resource Utilization Among The Benuaq Dayak Of Kalimantan, Indonesia, Stacy Marie Crevello

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Indonesia as a nation faces the formidable task of balancing sustainable economic activity, conservation goals, and continuation of traditional indigenous life ways. This research encompasses a broad but integrated system of human-land relationships among the Benuaq Dayak, an indigenous group who maintain their customary laws and land use systems. The study identifies and analyzes instances of community related land management and resource utilization in the interior of Borneo. As forest dwelling people, the environment has shaped the culture and life ways of the Dayak. They have developed a complex system of cultural aspects in relation to the forest that they …

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Using Trabecular Architecture Of The Proximal Femur To Determine Age At Death: An Accuracy Test Of Two Methods, Wendy Michelle Jones Jan 2003

Using Trabecular Architecture Of The Proximal Femur To Determine Age At Death: An Accuracy Test Of Two Methods, Wendy Michelle Jones

LSU Master's Theses

Osteologists and forensic researchers are often called upon to determine age at death for skeletal remains. Although there are common methods in wide use, new methods are always sought. This study evaluates the accuracy of two radiographic methods of determining age by looking at the changes in the trabecular architecture of the proximal femur. These two methods are the Szilvassy and Kritscher (1990) method and the Walker and Lovejoy (1985) method. Samples were taken from four skeletal collections. Radiographs were taken of each individual and both Szilvassy and Kritscher’s (1990) phases of trabecular change and Walker and Lovejoy’s (1985) phases …

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Assia Djebar. Le Corps Invisible: Voir Sans Etre Vue, Anna Rocca Jan 2003

Assia Djebar. Le Corps Invisible: Voir Sans Etre Vue, Anna Rocca

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis traces the evolution of attitudes towards the body, desire, autobiography, and self-affirmation, in three novels of Assia Djebar: L'amour, la fantasia, Vaste est la prison, and Les nuits de Strasbourg. The three novels share a common trait: the narrators' will to express their body and their desires. This body, which is simultaneously anonymous and concealed, is at the very center of a contradiction; it is often relegated to representation as a ghost without any corporeal reality. It is been our objective to follow the narrators' introspective reflection on the multiple relationships between Algerian women and public space, designated …

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An Anthropological Examination Of Classic Maya Burials From Moho Cay, Belize: Skeletal And Dental Evidence Of Demography, Diet And Health, Erin Suzanne Lund Jan 2003

An Anthropological Examination Of Classic Maya Burials From Moho Cay, Belize: Skeletal And Dental Evidence Of Demography, Diet And Health, Erin Suzanne Lund

LSU Master's Theses

In the Maya area, archaeological excavations have yielded an abundance of skeletal material from a multitude of sites throughout Belize, Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras. In 1979, a series of excavations led by Heather McKillop at Moho Cay, Belize, revealed a number of human interments. This thesis analyzes the Moho Cay skeletal collection composed of remains from eight discrete Late Classic (A.D. 600-800) burials and nine other archaeological units. Skeletal and dental analysis of the remains included assessing minimum number of individuals per burial and establishing age and sex for each individual. The bones were also examined for signs …

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Conservation Versus Survival: A Cultural Ecological Study Of Changing Settlement Patterns, Cultures, And Land Use In The Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve Of Northeast Honduras, Elizabeth Ann Fraser Jan 2003

Conservation Versus Survival: A Cultural Ecological Study Of Changing Settlement Patterns, Cultures, And Land Use In The Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve Of Northeast Honduras, Elizabeth Ann Fraser

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Conserving ecologically valuable areas is proclaimed a priority by governments, institutions, and citizens throughout the world. Preventing the erosion of the remaining indigenous cultures also receives widespread support. In response to these desires, numerous protected areas now exist; spaces that theoretically should attain both ecological and cultural preservation. However, many of these areas are found within a larger setting plagued by ongoing struggles to meet basic needs. Often these larger problems create a challenge to, if not work in opposition to, the original aims of protected areas. This study of nine communities looks at these and related issues in the …

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Politicizing The Reader In The American Lyric-Epic: Walt Whitman's Leaves Of Grass And Pablo Neruda's Canto General, William Allegrezza Jan 2003

Politicizing The Reader In The American Lyric-Epic: Walt Whitman's Leaves Of Grass And Pablo Neruda's Canto General, William Allegrezza

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Both Walt Whitman and Pablo Neruda wanted to create epic works that would distinguish American literature from the literary traditions of Europe, works that would grow organically from the native landscapes and peoples of the Americas. Part of their projects included creating works that would act as political sourcebooks for their cultures. Whitman wanted to foster a democratic culture in the United States through writing a grand poetic work, while Neruda wanted to create a communist culture in Latin America through an epic work. Soon into the project Whitman realized that the traditional epic was not a suitable form for …

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Evaluation Of Government Interventions In Ghana's Forest Product Trade: A Post-Intervention Impact Assessment And Perceptions Of Marketing Implications, Ben Nathan Donkor Jan 2003

Evaluation Of Government Interventions In Ghana's Forest Product Trade: A Post-Intervention Impact Assessment And Perceptions Of Marketing Implications, Ben Nathan Donkor

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since the mid 1990s Ghana's forestry sector has been going through reforms geared towards achieving the ITTO Year 2000 Objective for sustainable forest management and forest product trade. The reforms were partly introduced through legal approaches and also through activities under a long-term Forestry Sector Development Master Plan. The legal approaches mainly dealt with strengthening of sector institutions to effectively carry out forest concession administration and management, stumpage fee increases and more punitive actions against forest offences. Reforms with more direct impact on forest product export trade came through the implementation of the Forestry Sector Development Master Plan - reduction …

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Millennial-Scale Variations And Centennial-Scale Events In The Southwest Asian Monsoon: Pollen Evidence From Tibet, Caiming Shen Jan 2003

Millennial-Scale Variations And Centennial-Scale Events In The Southwest Asian Monsoon: Pollen Evidence From Tibet, Caiming Shen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Using quantitative reconstructions of vegetation and climate based on 234 surface samples and four fossil pollen records, a systematic study of millennial-scale variations and centennial-scale events in the Southwest monsoon over the last 14 000 years in the Tibetan Plateau was conducted. The SW monsoon stayed weak between 14 000 and 11 000 cal. yr BP. A marked drop in July temperature during 12 800 –11 500 cal. yr BP may indicate the occurrence of the Younger Dryas cold event. The SW monsoon started to intensify at 11 000 cal. yr BP. However, it did not increase monotonically, but abruptly …

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Empirical Analysis Of Economic Growth, Winford Henderson Masanjala Jan 2003

Empirical Analysis Of Economic Growth, Winford Henderson Masanjala

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

International evidence on growth rates in per capita incomes reveals persistent differences in development patterns among nations, and shows that the world distribution of per capita income is multi-modal with several basins of attraction. This dissertation investigates the factors underlying these international variations in both the level and rate of growth of per capita incomes. The first essay examines whether nonlinearities in the aggregate production function can explain parameter heterogeneity in the Solow (1956) growth regressions. The choice of and alternative specification of the production function is justified by showing that cross-country level regressions are more consistent with the more …

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A Comparative Analysis Of The Deterioration Rates Of Textiles And Their Role In Determining Postmortem Interval, Kellie Marie Gordon Jan 2003

A Comparative Analysis Of The Deterioration Rates Of Textiles And Their Role In Determining Postmortem Interval, Kellie Marie Gordon

LSU Master's Theses

A predominant problem that must be solved in the medico-legal field of forensic science is when death occurred. Accurate determination of postmortem interval (PMI) enables investigators to narrow the time frame of events for a case, a crucial step for law enforcement in forensic analysis. Multiple taphonomic variables affect the decay rate of the human body and the subsequent formation of PMI estimates. Employing a two-phased strategy, this study seeks to analyze the correlation between the deterioration rates of various fabric types in relation to determining the PMI of a forensic case. First, an analysis was completed based on a …

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Louisiana Sugar: A Geohistorical Perspective, Elizabeth Vaughan Jan 2003

Louisiana Sugar: A Geohistorical Perspective, Elizabeth Vaughan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The planting of sugarcane in Louisiana’s southern parishes has persisted with stunning continuity since its introduction in the late eighteenth century. This industry, however, is an economic and agricultural anomaly. It is a relic of the sixteenth-century expansion of European capitalism in which granulated sugar, then a novel product, stimulated the Atlantic slave trade and contributed to the incorporation of the sugar-producing colonies of the Americas into an emerging European-world economy. The Louisiana sugar industry was launched in 1795 with a historic granulation from a new variety of sugarcane recently introduced into the Caribbean. From this early success, the industry …

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Delta Memories And Delta Days: Facets Of Ladies' Lives As Revealed To A Southern Daughter, Susan E. Probasco Jan 2003

Delta Memories And Delta Days: Facets Of Ladies' Lives As Revealed To A Southern Daughter, Susan E. Probasco

LSU Master's Theses

The Arkansas Delta is a land considered by many to be devoid of beauty and richness of life. However, to a daughter who was the youngest child of the youngest child of a youngest child that was born in the Delta, the region is beautiful, enhanced by the observations of the lives of the women she observed there. An ethnography of the everyday lives of white, middle-class southern women in a small Arkansas Delta town seeks to communicate some of the richness and beauty of their lives, as well as other aspects of culture illustrative of southern culture in general, …

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Voegelin's History Of Political Ideas And The Problem Of Christian Order: A Critical Appraisal, Jeffrey Charles Herndon Jan 2003

Voegelin's History Of Political Ideas And The Problem Of Christian Order: A Critical Appraisal, Jeffrey Charles Herndon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation will analyze the problem of Christian political order in light of Eric Voegelin’s History of Political Ideas. The great weakness in Voegelin, according to many critics, was his failure to deal with the historical appearance of Jesus of Nazareth and to fully examine the implications of Christianity for human beings in their political and social existence. The completed publication of the History of Political Ideas now offers the opportunity for a more complete assessment of Voegelin’s position with regard to the problem of Christian political order. The History contains his most comprehensive treatment of Christianity, in terms of …

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The Social Context Of Norse Jarlshof, Marcie Anne Kimball Jan 2003

The Social Context Of Norse Jarlshof, Marcie Anne Kimball

LSU Master's Theses

A series of excavations from 1897 to 1951 showed the site of Jarlshof in Shetland to have been occupied by proto-Pictish, Pictish, and Viking peoples. These inquiries culminated in J.R.C. Hamilton’s 1956 monograph Excavations at Jarlshof, Shetland. In the years since the writing of the monograph, much new information has come to light that relates to the time periods found at Jarlshof. The concern of this thesis is how the new findings relate to Viking Age Jarlshof and how Viking Age Jarlshof relates to this new information. In order to set Viking Age Jarlshof into its overall historical context regarding …

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Perceptions Of Stereotypes In Hispanic Children's Literature, Nancy Gomez Jan 2003

Perceptions Of Stereotypes In Hispanic Children's Literature, Nancy Gomez

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study attempted to determine the accurateness of the representation of the Hispanic culture in children’s books. I interviewed ten people: five non-Hispanic and five Hispanic, and I found that the Hispanic people do not seem to pay as much attention to physical features as non-Hispanic people do. However, they were concerned about the portrayal of the Hispanic culture in traditional ways: the traditional roles of women, the traditional dress, the architecture of the houses and the portrayal of the Hispanic people living in rural areas and being extremely poor. It appears that from the timeline covered by the books, …

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Fractal Compression And Analysis On Remotely Sensed Imagery, Ke Xiao Jan 2003

Fractal Compression And Analysis On Remotely Sensed Imagery, Ke Xiao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Remote sensing images contain huge amount of geographical information and reflect the complexity of geographical features and spatial structures. As the means of observing and describing geographical phenomena, the rapid development of remote sensing has provided an enormous amount of geographical information. The massive information is very useful in a variety of applications but the sheer bulk of this information has increased beyond what can be analyzed and used efficiently and effectively. This uneven increase in the technologies of gathering and analyzing information has created difficulties in its storage, transfer, and processing. Fractal geometry provides a means of describing and …

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Dialogic Dogs And Phatic Felines: Speaking To And Through Our Pets, Nicole M. Dufour Jan 2003

Dialogic Dogs And Phatic Felines: Speaking To And Through Our Pets, Nicole M. Dufour

LSU Master's Theses

While many pet owners acknowledge that they speak to their pet, Pet Communication has remained mostly overlooked by researchers. Through discourse analysis, this thesis is an attempt to analyze Pet Communication, which deals with human speech to a pet, about a pet, or through a pet. I analyze data which I transcribed in the waiting room of the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine Small Animal Clinic. Data were collected from conversations that took place between pet owners, between pet owners and the Clinic's staff, pet owners and their pets, and between staff and pets. These data were then …

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Forensic Dentistry: Dental Indicators For Identification, Jennifer Gail Hopper Mcclanahan Jan 2003

Forensic Dentistry: Dental Indicators For Identification, Jennifer Gail Hopper Mcclanahan

LSU Master's Theses

The use of dentition for identification has been well established in the field of forensics. However, dental analysis has been employed primarily for positive personal identification. The purpose of this thesis research is to explore the possibility of using dental characteristics for general profiling of the decedent. Dental characteristics, including caries and dental restorations, were examined in the dentition of 41 modern forensic cases in the LSU FACES Collection. Twenty-one of these cases are positively identified individuals whose remains were donated to the university. The other 20 cases are active forensic cases which have not been identified. The general profiling …

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An Ecopath/Ecosim Analysis Of An Estuarine Food Web: Seasonal Energy Flow And Response To River-Flow Related Perturbations, Laura Lynette Althauser Jan 2003

An Ecopath/Ecosim Analysis Of An Estuarine Food Web: Seasonal Energy Flow And Response To River-Flow Related Perturbations, Laura Lynette Althauser

LSU Master's Theses

Estuaries are often the receiving basins for major river systems which makes them vulnerable to anthropogenic influences. I used Ecopath and Ecosim to investigate the structure of the Weeks Bay, Alabama, USA food web, and the responses of the food web to bottom-up perturbations. Four season-specific steady-state Ecopath models were developed and used to compare the production, biomass, consumption, biomass flows, and higher order indices of ecosystem functioning of the Weeks Bay food web under winter, spring, summer, and fall conditions. The season-specific Ecopath snapshots indicated that the structure of the Weeks Bay food web was resilient. Winter had the …

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Revisiting The 1992 Los Angeles Riots: An Analysis Of Geographical Perspectives, Paul Watts Jan 2003

Revisiting The 1992 Los Angeles Riots: An Analysis Of Geographical Perspectives, Paul Watts

LSU Master's Theses

The intent of this thesis is to investigate the complexities of the 1992 Los Angeles riots from a spatial perspective. To study the 1992 Los Angeles riots is an attempt to understand dynamic and unpredictable events, events that can result in multiple deaths, vast property damage, and leave irrevocable scars on a community for years. It is these reasons that should call geographers to the challenges of studying riots. Part of this thesis is to critically evaluate previous quantitative work on the 1992 Los Angeles riots and to argue for a new investigative approach in understanding riots in general. My …

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Pollen Dispersal And Deposition In The High-Central Andes, South America, Carl A. Reese Jan 2003

Pollen Dispersal And Deposition In The High-Central Andes, South America, Carl A. Reese

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation uses fossil (ice core) and modern pollen samples collected throughout the central Andes to investigate the paleovegetational changes in the area as well as the modern dispersal and depositional characteristics of pollen in this region of South America. The results of the fossil pollen study on Mt. Sajama reveal a vegetation history that closely corresponds to the chemical and physical records already published from the mountain. Pollen becomes abundant after 15,000 B.P. and suggests the occurrence of two distinct phases between 15,000 and 12,000 B.P. (a short interstadial and the Deglacial Climatic Reversal). After 12,000 B.P., there is …

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Helen M. Turner, American Impressionist, Maia Jalenak Jan 2003

Helen M. Turner, American Impressionist, Maia Jalenak

LSU Master's Theses

A renewal of interest in the French impressionists began in 1974 with the 100th anniversary of the first exhibition of the artists who broke with the official Salon in Paris and held their own exhibitions from 1874 through 1886. Since 1974, there has been a swell of interest in reinvestigating lesser-known European and American impressionist artists, especially women artists whose work often was relegated to second-class professional status. Among them was Helen Maria Turner (1858-1958), an artist whose work merits further examination. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, Turner's art was held in great esteem by critics, …

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Developing Risk Assessment Maps For Schistosoma Haematobium In Kenya Based On Climate Grids And Remotely Sensed Data, Kelsey Lee Mcnally Jan 2003

Developing Risk Assessment Maps For Schistosoma Haematobium In Kenya Based On Climate Grids And Remotely Sensed Data, Kelsey Lee Mcnally

LSU Master's Theses

It is important to be able to predict the potential spread of water borne diseases when building dams or redirecting rivers. This study was designed to test whether the use of a growing degree day (GDD) climate model and remotely sensed data (RS) within a geographic information system (GIS), could be used to predict both the distribution and severity of Schistosoma haematobium. Growing degree days are defined as the number of degrees centigrade over the minimum temperature required for development. The base temperature and the number of GDD required to complete one generation varies for each species. A monthly climate …

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From Lime Kilns To Art Galleries: A Historical Anthropogeography Of The Maine Coast City Of Rockland, William Francis Fagan Jan 2003

From Lime Kilns To Art Galleries: A Historical Anthropogeography Of The Maine Coast City Of Rockland, William Francis Fagan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is a historical anthropogeography that focuses on the city of Rockland, Maine from its prehistoric beginnings to the present. Throughout the historic period, a series of single industries have dominated Rockland's economy while its population has remained remarkably stable. Lime production, for mortar and plaster, was first, beginning with the earliest Europeans in the area in the eighteenth century and coming to its end in the 1930s. Shipping and shipbuilding were important outgrowths of the lime industry but shipbuilding ended by the early 1920s with the change from wood to steel as the favored material for shipbuilding. Commercial …

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Characterizing Spatially Explicit Patterns Of Antibiotic Resistance In The Marine Environment Using Top-Level Marine Predators, Jason Kenna Blackburn Jan 2003

Characterizing Spatially Explicit Patterns Of Antibiotic Resistance In The Marine Environment Using Top-Level Marine Predators, Jason Kenna Blackburn

LSU Master's Theses

This research is the first known study to characterize spatially explicit patterns of Antibiotic Resistance (ABR) in top-level marine predators. A total of 134 viable bacteria samples were isolated from cloacal swabs of seven shark species and one teleost species and then stratified by geographic location. Samples were collected using sterile rayon-tipped culturettes and transported to the LSU-SVM for classification and antibiotic resistance analyses using the Kirby-Bauer method. Samples were characterized by Gram-stain and morphology and placed into three groups: 1) Gram-negative rods, 2) Gram-positive cocci, or 3) Gram-positive rods. Prevalence rates were calculated for each study site as the …

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The Relationship Between Elementary School Foreign Language Study In Grades Three Through Five And Academic Achievement On The Iowa Tests Of Basic Skills (Itbs) And The Fourth-Grade Louisiana Educational Assessment Program For The 21st Century (Leap 21) Test, Carolyn Joyce Taylor-Ward Jan 2003

The Relationship Between Elementary School Foreign Language Study In Grades Three Through Five And Academic Achievement On The Iowa Tests Of Basic Skills (Itbs) And The Fourth-Grade Louisiana Educational Assessment Program For The 21st Century (Leap 21) Test, Carolyn Joyce Taylor-Ward

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The passage of the federal educational legislation, No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, established foreign languages as a core curricular content area. Nonetheless, educational policy makers at the state and local levels often opt to allocate greater resources and give instructional priority to content areas in which students, and ultimately the school systems themselves, are held accountable through high-stakes testing. Although foreign languages are designated as a core content area, instructional emphasis continues to be placed on curricular areas that factor into state educational accountability programs. The present study employed a mixed-methodology design. The primary goal was to explore …

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Off Road Vehicle Soil Suitability Analysis Within The Kisatchie National Forest, Jacqueline Avellanoza Prudente Jan 2003

Off Road Vehicle Soil Suitability Analysis Within The Kisatchie National Forest, Jacqueline Avellanoza Prudente

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Soil degradation due to improper use of off road vehicle (ORV) is among the major problems in the Kisatchie National Forest (KNF), especially in Catahoula (CRD), Evangeline Unit, Calcasieu (ERD), and Kisatchie Ranger (KRD) districts. The USDA-Forest Service (USFS) maintains designated trails within the forest, but many ORV users create their own trails. To address this issue, a research project was initiated in 2001 to assess the suitability of KNF soils for ORV traffic using Geographical Information System (GIS) software. The objectives were achieved by utilizing soil properties, rainfall events, soil trafficability ratings, Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI), and infiltration parameters. …

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Water Resource Management By The Ancient Maya Of Yucatan, Mexico, Terance Lynn Winemiller Jan 2003

Water Resource Management By The Ancient Maya Of Yucatan, Mexico, Terance Lynn Winemiller

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since the publication of popular accounts of exploration by adventurers such as John Lloyd Stephens captured the attention of an audience eager for tales from exotic places, scholars of the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica have been fascinated with the silent crumbling remains of ancient Maya cities that dot the cultural landscape of Yucatán in staggering numbers. Scientific research began in earnest nearly one hundred years ago with the first of many great Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C. archaeological projects. Most researchers mention water resources in their reports, but no attempt has been made to study water resource management on a …

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Development Of Gis As An Information Management System: A Case Study For The Burden Center, Zhitao Su Jan 2003

Development Of Gis As An Information Management System: A Case Study For The Burden Center, Zhitao Su

LSU Master's Theses

For a park site, it is very important and necessary to let the local planning authorities realize and understand the important aspects and benefits of the site and to establish the long-range development strategies for the location. In order to succeed during the planning process, the communication and information that flow among all the participants must be well organized. In this situation, a project-wide Geographic Information System (GIS) would be a good solution. The goal of this project is to explore the possibilities for administrative authorities to implement a GIS database system to support the site planning and management of …

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Contesting For Power In Public Performance: Hegemonic Struggles In The Louisiana Shrimp And Petroleum Festival, Allen Alford Jan 2003

Contesting For Power In Public Performance: Hegemonic Struggles In The Louisiana Shrimp And Petroleum Festival, Allen Alford

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study was undertaken to analyze the influence of hegemony on the creation of cultural identity-specifically the cultural identity of Morgan City, Louisiana-through the annual performance of the Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival of that city. The information utilized in this study was assembled from a variety of sources: newspaper reporting from 1935 to 1999, chronicling the Festival and related subjects; works of several theorists in the area of ritual and performance studies; works that examine the concept of hegemony, principally from a Marxian perspective; anthropological studies of Gulf Coast commercial fishing cultures; reports by official State of Louisiana agencies, …

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