Digital Commons Network^™

The Kin Composition Of Social Groups: Trading Group Size For Degree Of Altruism, Leticia Avilés, Jeffrey Alan Fletcher, Asher D. Cutter

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Why some social systems form groups composed of kin, while others do not, has gone largely untreated in the literature. Using an individual-based simulation model, we explore the demographic consequences of making kinship a criterion in group formation. We find that systems where social groups consist of one generation breeding associations may face a serious trade-off between degree of altruism and group size that is largely mediated by their kin composition. On the one hand, restricting groups to close kin allows the evolution of highly altruistic behaviors but may limit group size to suboptimal levels, the more severely so the …

South Park Blocks Area Development Strategy: Priorities And Actions To Strengthen Neighborhood Identity, Lisa Abuaf, Natasha Detweiler, Steve Faust, Jennifer Mannhard, Dan Zalkow

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Past and current planning efforts by the City of Portland, such as the South Park Blocks Urban Renewal Area and the West End plan, have sought to promote new mixed-use development through increasing the residential density and investment in the area. The West End plan focused primarily on the area north of SW Salmon Street and the urban renewal area currently does not have a standing advisory committee to represent the Downtown neighborhood’s interests. This project consists of a neighborhood analysis to distill the identity of the area, an identification of the opportunities and challenges to development, and a strategy …

Money That Burns Like Oil: A Sri Lankan Cultural Logic Of Morality And Agency, Michele Ruth Gamburd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

New labor opportunities have drawn Sri Lankan women to work as domestic servants in the Middle East. Many migrants complain that their remittances "burn like oil," disappearing without a trace. The gendered discourse on burning remittances both draws on and contradicts an older cultural system that fetishizes money. The emerging logic provides symbolic resources for women to spend their remittances on advancements for the nuclear family, distancing themselves from other kin. (Migration, remittances, fetishism, Sri Lanka, Middle East)

The Holocene History Of Bison In The Intermountain West: A Synthesis Of Archaeological And Paleontological Records From Eastern Oregon, Nicole Anne Stutte

Dissertations and Theses

Intermountain West bison abundance and chronology is much debated, but little work addressing these debates has occurred in eastern Oregon. Historic records indicate bison were absent from eastern Oregon at Euro-American contact. However, during explorations in eastern Oregon in 1826 Ogden reported bison skeletons in a dry lake bed, suggesting bison once lived in the area.

This study reviews archaeological and paleontological records, and ethnohistoric accounts of early 19th century explorers, to synthesize the Holocene history of bison eastern Oregon. Bison NISP (number of identified specimens) was documented from site reports when available, and overall abundance was measured by number …

Book Review Of, Plants Of Haida Gwaii, Douglas Deur

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "Plants of Haida Gwaii" by Nancy J. Turner.

New Arrivals: Options For Successful Resettlement Of The Somali Bantu, Aaron Abrams, Kristin Dahl, Ryan Hunter, Jennifer Kenny, Angela Southwick

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

The National Somali Bantu Project (NSBP) is committed to pursuing a more comprehensive approach and is interested in connecting the Somali Bantu refugees with their agrarian roots to foster cultural and social ties and provide economic development opportunities. With this goal in mind, the National Somali Bantu Project asked that RefugEEE Consulting investigate the possibility of implementing a comprehensive resettlement approach with an agrarian component that could be pursued once the Somali Bantu refugees have settled into their new environment over the next one to three years. This document serves as a decision-making guide to be used when the National …

Bulletin: General Catalog Issue 2004-2005, Portland State University

Bulletin & Curriculum Change Documents

No abstract provided.

The Scale Of Pottery Manufacture During The Old Kingdom, Sarah L. Sterling

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The existence of specialized craftsmen — including stonemasons, coppersmiths, carpenters, jewelers and potters — in ancient Egypt arises in part from the general industries spawned from the elaborate monumental constructions that characterize the Old Kingdom (ca. 2600-2100 BCE). Pottery vessels in particular are one of the most abundant kinds of artifacts known from ancient Egypt, with functions ranging from formal presentation to baking bread, to grains and olive oil storage. While not all pottery is associated with monumental architecture, the emergence of specialized or semi-specialized potters is likely due to the same socioeconomic factors that gave rise to such famous …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet June 2003, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The June 2003 Monthly packet includes the June agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held May 2003.

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet February 2003, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The February 2003 Monthly packet includes the February agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held January 2003.

Urban Ecology & Conservation Symposium 2003: 1st Annual -- Sharing Data, Making Connections (Abstracts), Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium

Urban Ecosystem Research Consortium of Portland/Vancouver

The UERC is a consortium of people from various universities and colleges, state and federal agencies, local governments, non-profit organizations and independent professionals interested in supporting urban ecosystem research and creating an information-sharing network of people that collect and use ecological data in the Portland/Vancouver area.

UERC Mission Statement:

To advance the state of the science of urban ecosystems and improve our understanding of them, with a focus on the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan region, by fostering communication and collaboration among researchers, managers and citizens at academic institutions, public agencies, local governments, non-profit organizations, and other interested groups.

The principal organizers span …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet January 2003, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The January 2003 Monthly packet includes the January agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held December 2002.

Bulletin: General Catalog Issue 2003-2004, Portland State University

Bulletin & Curriculum Change Documents

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of, Women In Post-Independence Sri Lanka, Michele Ruth Gamburd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "Women in Post-Independence Sri Lanka," by Swarna Jayaweera

In The Wake Of The Gulf War: Assessing Family Spending Of Compensation Money In Sri Lanka, Michele Ruth Gamburd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Between 1997 and 2000, the United Nations Compensation Commission delivered US$ 4000 apiece to roughly 87,000 Sri Lankan citizens who suffered displacement and loss of employment due to Iraq’s military actions in Kuwait during the Gulf War. Using qualitative ethnographic data, this essay examines eleven case studies of Kuwait returnees in the village of Naeaegama, in southern Sri Lanka. Like the majority of Sri Lankans caught in the Gulf War, these returnees are women from poor rural families who worked as domestic servants in Kuwait. The essay compares how the eleven households have spent compensation money and migrants’ remittances. Spending …

Tracking Down The Marrons: Archaeo-Geography Of Marronage In The Caribbean, E. Kofi Agorsah

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the Maroons escaped from enslavement into unknown and inaccessible environments, they relied on their mental maps developed through sequential exploration of those environments to establish and defend their settlements. Initially they would take advantage of the knowledge of the areas surrounding the plantations from which they escaped, explore them thoroughly and then, at the appropriate time, link their escape routes and locations to those mental maps that they had acquired. That knowledge would have helped them to develop networks of familiar pathways and landmarks along, and around which, they arranged their settlements. This paper suggests that knowledge of such …

Fergie's Prescience: The Changing Nature Of Diglossia In Tunisia, Keith Walters

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite criticisms it has received, Ferguson's (1959b) account of diglossia should be recognized for its prescience. It offered not only an admittedly idealized characterization of diglossia in Arabic, but also pointed out how and why it might change. Focusing on Tunisia, this article demonstrates the many ways in which Fergie was right. It examines the changing demographics of Tunisians' access to the high variety of Arabic; the complex ways in which Tunisians, and Arabs more generally, deal with the "communicative tensions" diglossia creates; and considers the changing nature of Arabic in what is, in many ways, a postdiglossic Tunisia.

The Other Side Of The Tracks: The Archaeology And History Of A Virginia City, Nevada Neighborhood, Julie Marie Schablitsky

Dissertations and Theses

Archaeologists and historians have conducted a limited number of 19th century western neighborhood studies. The small number of inquiries into the urban past has left research on western working and middle class neighborhoods, along with their ethnic and class composition, relatively untouched by modern scholars. Although eastern immigrant neighborhood studies by historic archaeologists are currently increasing, western immigrant neighborhood research projects continue to be underrepresented in the literature. Perceiving an absence of western urban neighborhood studies, an intensive study on an ethnically heterogeneous working and middle class neighborhood was conducted in Virginia City, Nevada.

The community was situated adjacent to …

While Mind Dances With Heart: Nurturing Design Vocabularies Through Personal And Cultural Identities, Shenglin Chang

Proceedings of the 18th National Conference on the Beginning Design Student

Although there are many ways of approaching design. my aims "in teaching young student designers was to have them understand the importance of finding the balance between the intuitive with the rational." (Mirochnik, 2000: 65) The approach that I take in teaching my beginning landscape design studio is one in which I draw upon my former career as a dancer/ choreographer. I have found that within the process of creating and performing dance, the rational and the visceral constantly intersect: choreography and performance are processes in which the mind dances with the heart. I educate my beginning design students to …

Feng Shui And Chinese Rituals Of Death Across The Oregon Landscape, Andrew Ryall Briggs

Geography Masters Research Papers

Paper 2: Upwards of 20,000 Chinese migrated to Oregon before 1890. Upon their deaths many were interred in "Chinese cemeteries." In China, the placement of cemeteries is an important aspect of the traditional Chinese religion. This paper asks if the early Chinese practiced the same Feng Shui in the placement of the Oregon gravesites. While Feng Shui is not codified, there are a few general principles to determine graveyard placement, and by comparing Oregon Chinese gravesites with that required for proper Feng Shui placement, concluded that the early Chinese immigrants may have followed the precepts of traditional Chinese religion in …

A Review Of Systems: New Paradigms For The Human Sciences, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This essay is a selective review of Systems: New Paradigms for the Human Sciences, edited by Gabriel Altmann and Walter A. Koch (Berlin: Walter de Gryter, 1998). It is selective because it is impossible to engage such a varied collection of systems-theoretic essays in a review of reasonable length. To invoke a relevant dialectical idea: the characteristic strength of any system is often also its characteristic weakness. One strength and weakness of the systems field is its great diversity, and this diversity is reflected in this volume by the range of subjects addressed in its 27 articles. I will not …

Bulletin: General Catalog Issue 2002-2003, Portland State University

Bulletin & Curriculum Change Documents

No abstract provided.

A Qualitative Analysis For Sex Determination In Humans Utilizing Posterior And Medial Aspects Of The Distal Humerus, Veronica L. Wanek

Dissertations and Theses

Visual and metric analysis both provide accepted methods for sex determination in humans. Visual ascertainment uses differing morphological traits in males and females to establish sex. Researchers have continually sought accurate methods of sexing long bones when skulls or pelves are absent or fragmented. These long bone elements may not have sexually distinct characteristics, but tend to survive in the field quite well.

Metric analysis depends on size dimorphism between males and females to correctly assign sex. Metric methods fail where the sexes overlap or when skeletal elements cannot be assigned to their correct biological population. Under these conditions, visual …

Patterns In Glass : The Interpretation Of European Glass Trade Beads From Two Protohistoric Sites In The Greater Lower Columbia Region, Gretchen Anne Kaehler

Dissertations and Theses

The issue of social status as it manifests in the archaeological record has long been a problematic one. Glass beads are often the most numerous class of historic artifacts recovered in protohistoric sites in the Pacific Northwest. Ethnohistoric accounts indicated that these beads might have functioned as prestige items and as a form of "primitive cash" among the aboriginal peoples of the Lower Columbia River in the early to mid 1800s. To what extent were glass beads indicative of status and can their spatial distribution within protohistoric sites be used to address this question?

The purpose of the present study …

Not Everyone Who Speaks Spanish Is From Spain: Taino Survival In The 21st Century Dominican Republic, Pedro Ferbel-Azcarate

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The national identity of the Dominican Republic is based on an idealized story of three cultural roots-- Spanish, African, and Taíno--with a selective amnesia of the tragedies and struggles inherent to the processes of colonial domination and resistance. Further, African, Taíno and mixed AfroMestizo culture have been marginalized in favor of nationalist ideologies of progress and civilization found in the embrace of Hispanidad and Catholicism. In such a way, Dominicans have been disconnected from their African, their indigenous, and their mixed Afro-Mestizo Criollo (Creole) ancestry and cultural heritage, even though it is these ancestries and heritages which mark Dominicans with …

Applying The Constructivist Framework To Elementary School Social Studies: Benefits For Young Learners And Preservice Teachers, Nancy P. Gallavan

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

The constructivist framework provides elementary school teachers with pedagogical guidance and professional support particularly effective for teaching and learning social studies benefiting both their young learners and their preservice teachers. Research conducted with approximately 100 elementary school teachers produced three key conditions for applying the constructivist framework competently to social studies education. Findings from this research revealed that elementary school teachers believe that foremost they must he cognizant of and proficient in their: (1) knowledge, skills, and attitudes of social studies content and purposes, (2) understanding for developing social studies curriculum and methods for communicating the social studies effectively both …

Writing In The Contact Zone: Three Portraits Of Reflexivity And Transformation, Laurene L. Christensen

Dissertations and Theses

Culture is at the core of language teaching. Because classrooms are contact zones (Pratt 1991), teachers must have a well-developed sense of their own intercultural competence so that they may better facilitate the cross-cultural discovery inherent in language teaching. Teacher preparation programs need to provide opportunities for new teachers to increase their intercultural awareness. The purpose of this research was to qualitatively understand the experiences of pre-service teachers in a required culture-learning class at a large urban university. Specifically, the focus of this study was the completion of a mini-ethnography project designed to give the students a cross-cultural exchange. Since …

Public Outreach And The "Hows" Of Archaeology : Archaeology As A Model For Education, Jon Darin Daehnke

Dissertations and Theses

There is growing awareness of the importance of public outreach in archaeology. Many professional archaeologists argue that in order to ensure continued funding we must communicate the relevance of our discipline to the public in a more effective manner. Furthermore, it is often argued that public outreach and education provides perhaps the only reliable defense against looting and rampant psuedoarchaeology.

Current outreach activities, however, tend to focus on what archaeologists have discovered about the past. While this type of outreach is important, a more effective model for public outreach would focus on the methods of archaeology, rather than the results. …

A Most Sacred Place: The Significance Of Crater Lake Among The Indians Of Southern Oregon, Douglas Deur

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Discusses the Native American view of Crater Lake, Oregon, as a place of religious significance and the misunderstandings with whites as to its importance to Oregon's Indian tribes. Created some 6,500 years ago by volcanic eruption, Crater Lake has long been seen by Indians as a sacred place. Their hunting, berry gathering, and vision quests in the lake area were tied to their religious view of the lake. Since the 1850's, whites have treated the lake with a lack of understanding of its significance to the Klamath tribes. The National Park Service restricted hunting and charged Indians fees to pass …

Contested Lands, Contested Identities: Revisiting The Historical Geographies Of North America's Indigenous Peoples, Douglas Deur

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In my work with the tribes and First Nations of western North America, I am told the same stories again and again. In intricate and sometimes gruesome detail, I am told how the white world, in its efforts to occupy and claim the western half of the continent over the last two centuries, employed myriad strategies—strategies of conquest—to separate indigenous peoples from their lands. And in these stories, tribal members, no matter their levels of education or backgrounds, recognize that the military conflicts, genocide, territorial dispossession and displacement, and enforced marginalization that has characterized Indian-white relations over this period cannot …