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Chapter 7: Symmetries Of Cloth And Corn In The Ancient Americas: Pattern Generation, Botany, And The Maize Matrix In Mexico And Peru, Lois Martin

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Discusses pattern generation, botany, and the maize matrix in Mexico and Peru.

Descriptive Analysis Of A "Fluted" Axe In The Anthropology Teaching Collections At Unl, Colten Miller

Nebraska Anthropologist

The axe in this study is a fine artifact. The bit is 10.3 cm long and the poll is 3.5 cm long. Combined with the width of the groove this axe has a total length of 16.5 cm. The thickness – defined as the distance from the top edge to the bottom edge at the thickest point – is 8.9 cm. It has a width of 5.1 cm – which is the distance between the right and left side at the widest point. The cutting edge is 6.4 cm in length. The axe weighs 2.6 pounds.

. . .

Determining …

Form Vs. Function: Assessing The Effects Of The Paddle-And-Anvil Technique In Cooking Vessels, Annabel Hendrickson

Nebraska Anthropologist

This experimental study analyzed the effects of the paddle-and-anvil forming technique in conjunction with burnishing, with the goal of comparing vessel performance between different forming techniques. Due to the compaction of clay minerals involved in the paddling process, the paddled vessels were predicted to be less permeable, more heat conductive, easier to wash, and stronger than their un-paddled counterparts. The results did not reflect this hypothesis; instead, the tests showed that the effects of paddling and burnishing are not consistent across all aspects of vessel performance, reflecting the difference between vessel forming and surface finishing techniques and displaying the importance …

Review Of Bones: Structure And Mechanics, Alexander Curry

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of Bones: Structure and Mechanics (2002) by John D. Currey.

Unsettling The West: Migration Routes And Homesteading Through Oral Histories, Sidney Wickham

Nebraska Anthropologist

Westward expansion in the nineteenth-century United States has long been framed through settler-centered historical narratives that emphasize progress and national development. This article employs oral history as an ethnographic method to examine migration routes and homesteading experiences in Nebraska and the broader Midwest, foregrounding how memory, storytelling, and lived experience function as cultural practices. Drawing on interviews with descendants of homesteaders, community members, and museum professionals, alongside diaries, newspapers, and archival materials, this study analyzes how migration was remembered, narrated, and transmitted across generations. Rather than treating overland trails and homesteads as singular pathways of movement, this research situates them …

A Semiotic Analysis Of German-American Cultural Suppression In The Lincoln Freie Presse From 1914 To 1918, Elle Ward

Nebraska Anthropologist

This study performs a historical semiotic content analysis of the Lincoln Freie Presse to document the processes of cultural coercion and resultant identity erasure within the German- American press of Nebraska during the critical period of January 1914 to December 1918. The research establishes a semiotic baseline (1914–1916) characterized by high linguistic and content autonomy and then tracks the immediate, stark shifts following the U.S. entry into World War I (the coercion period) and the succeeding mass anti-German hysteria (1917–1918). Quantitative findings convey a rapid and overwhelming visual conquest of the newspaper’s spatio-textual landscape: patriotic symbolism surged from zero to …

Chapter 2: Rhombus Textile Motifs And Patterns And Their Significance In Mesoamerica, Billie J. A. Follensbee, Lois Martin

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Presents the rhombus textile motifs and patterns in Mesoamerica and their significance.

Chapter 6: Snakeskin And Corn Markings: The Dotted-Diamond-Grid Pattern In The U.S. Southwest, Laurie D. Webster, Kelley A. Hays-Gilpin

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Discusses Southwestern tie-dye and its Mesoamerican and Andean connections.

Assessing Global Citizenship Pathways In A Communication, Advocacy, And Global Citizenship Classroom In The Midwest, Satveer Kaur-Gill

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

To assess instruction in an undergraduate communication course titled Communication, Advocacy, and Global Citizenship, this qualitative inquiry examined how undergraduate students at a Midwest university engaged with global citizenship as a communicative process by conducting a content analysis of student assignments, guided by three key research questions formulated from four course objectives. The assessment found that place-based learning on global issues enhanced students' understanding of the meaning of global citizenship in a globalized world. Based on a qualitative evaluation of their key assignments, students successfully articulated threads and connections between local community concerns and issues as globally situated communicative phenomena. …

Chapter 3: Diamonds In The Rough: The Development And Occurrences Of The Rhombus Motif, Its Components, And Its Variations In Olmec And Olmec-Related Textiles, Billie J. A. Follensbee

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Discusses the development of textiles in the Mesoamerican Preclassic/Formative period from the Gulf Coast, the rhombus textile patterns and motifs in Olmec and Olmec-related imagery, and includes further reflections on the dotted-diamond motif, its components, and their correlations.

Review Of Human Body Decomposition, Alexander Curry

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of Human Body Decomposition (2016) by Jarvis Hayman and Marc Oxenham.

Review Of Plundered Skulls And Stolen Spirits: Inside The Fight To Reclaim Native America's Culture, Christine Parker

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America's Culture (2018) by Chip Colwell.

Review Of The Red Market: On The Trail Of The World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, And Child Traffickers, Christine Parker

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of The Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers (2011) by Scott Carney.

"We All Came Back For Them. We Remembered": A Review Of Erin Kimmerle's We Carry Their Bones: The Search For Justice At The Dozier School For Boys, Molly Nowak

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys (2022) by Erin Kimmerle.

North Korean Archaeology And Archaeological Interpretation In The Twentieth Century, Gabrielle E. Stoddard

Nebraska Anthropologist

This paper examines how political unrest in North Korea during the twentieth century affected Korean Archaeology. During the occupation of the Korean peninsula by the Empire of Japan during 1910–1945, Japanese scholars embarked on the study of archaeology in Korea. Japanese archaeologists used Korean archaeological data and materials to push a colonial viewpoint that Korea was a weak state that could not advance without oversight from a conquering nation. After Korea was liberated by the Soviet Union and the United States in 1945, it was divided into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North) and the Republic of Korea (South). …

Smudging And Polishing To Create A Non-Stick Surface For Ceramic Cookware: An Experimental Study, Galazie Pendleton

Nebraska Anthropologist

This paper examines whether smudging and polishing the interior of a ceramic cooking vessel will result in a non-stick cooking surface. The experimental study displayed in this paper is inspired by the prehistoric Southwestern practice of smudging and polishing ceramic bowls in the Mogollon region. Many scholars have assumed that smudged and polished cooking surfaces result in non-stick cooking surfaces, but no experimental studies have been conducted to test this. This paper aims to restart the conversation around the non-stick nature of smudged and polished bowls by recording the cleaning process after cooking. To create a holistic approach to this …

Review Of From Here To Eternity: Traveling The World To Find The Good Death, Piper Sacco

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death (2018) by Caitlin Doughty.

Communication And Privacy Management Between Female Veterans, Their Military Voluntary Kin, And Biolegal Family Members, Carol Lee Tschampl-Diesing

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Military voluntary kin (MVK) refer to relationships between Service members and/or Veterans that they consider to be “like family,” despite lacking blood or legal ties. The purpose of this qualitative/interpretive communication study was to explore how female Veterans, who are the largest growing population of U.S. Veterans, discursively construct MVK relationships, navigate communication, privacy management, and boundary turbulence with their MVK and biolegal families (BLF). The researcher undertook in-depth interviews with nine female U.S. Veterans who reported having at least one MVK. The researcher posed four research questions, engaging in an interpretive analysis.

Participants described three ways they navigated interactions …

Musical Self-Efficacy Through Active Music Listening: A Phenomenological Approach, Amy Marie Fraser

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Music is often perceived as a talent reserved for the naturally gifted, rather than a fundamental human ability. This study questioned that perception by examining how active music listening can develop musical self-efficacy and reshape attribution beliefs about musical ability. Using a phenomenological approach, this study explored the experiences of students in a university music appreciation course, investigating how structured listening exercises, peer interactions, and reflections contribute to their perceived musical beliefs and competence. Grounded in Bandura’s self-efficacy theory and Weiner’s attribution theory, the study considered whether musical engagement can be accessible to all and not limited by perceived talent. …

Defending The Homeland: An Archaeoethnodemographic (Aed) Analysis Of Population Dynamics And Settlement Patterns In The Navajo Dinétah, Ad 1720–1745, Kurt Mantonya

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation presents an innovative archaeoethnodemographic (AED) analysis of Navajo population dynamics during the Middle Period (AD 1720−1745) of the Gobernador Phase in the Dinétah, the ancestral Navajo homeland in northwest New Mexico. During this critical quarter-century, intensified Ute and Comanche slave-raiding and Spanish military expeditions forced the Diné to abandon traditional dispersed settlement patterns in favor of defensive aggregation around fortified pueblitos—small masonry defensive structures built on boulder-tops and mesa-rims throughout the region.

The study employs an AED framework that systematically integrates archaeological site analysis, ethnographic household organization data, historical documentation, and demographic modeling to reconstruct population dynamics during …

Unl Emeriti And Retirees Association Newsletter, November 2025

UNL Emeriti and Retirees Association: Newsletters and Other Materials

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Emeriti and Retirees Association Newsletter, November 2025

Message from the ERA President Pam Edwards

Welcome to new members

Give to the ERA scholarship fund

Wake up to well-being

Book review, The Intentional Life

Medicare open enrollment

Announcements and notices

Upcoming programming

Programming recap

Connecting through recipes

Memory moments

Understanding And Assessing Climate Change: Preparing For Nebraska’S Future, 2024 Climate Change Impact Assessment Report, Deborah J. Bathke, Eric Hunt, Heather Akin, Andrea D. Basche, Jesse E. Bell, Daniel R. Dileo, Ross Dixon, Martha Durr, Tonya Haigh, Francis John Hay, Kristina W. Kintziger, Nicholas A. Mcmillan, Hank Miller, Jerome Okojokwu-Idu, Crystal Powers, Tirthankar Roy, Zhenghong Tang, W. Ryan Wishart, Aaron R. Young, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Jonathan J. Spurgeon

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Contents

Report Team

Acknowledgments

Executive Summary

Introduction

Climate Change Contexts: Global, National, and State

Observed Changes in Nebraska's Climate

Projections of Nebraska's Future Climate

Water Systems

Energy

Ecosystems

Agriculture

Human Health

Communities and the Built Environment

Indigenous Peoples

Climate Justice and Equity

The Response of Faith Communities

Nebraskans' Perceptions of Climate Change

Next Steps and Future Work

Supplemental Report: Adaptation, Risks, and Impacts

About the Authors

Faith-based Communities Survey

Evaluated Plans and Assessments

References

Exclusion From The Good Life: The Impact Of Anti-Asian Racism On Asian Nebraskans, Heather Fryer, Sharon Ishii-Jordan

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

To understand how Americans of Asian descent experienced, adjusted, and overcame negative experiences in Nebraska, recognizing the external forces on their lives is paramount. The experiences of Asians in their diaspora across the U.S. and Nebraska during a 150-year span have been shaped by both external (global and domestic) and internal (personality and resilience) factors. The presence of stereotypes specifically targeted toward Asian Americans due to exotic imaginings, pseudoscience, and economic fears, in addition to the images created by national media, gave rise to society’s acceptance of stereotypes. These external factors contributed to a belief that continues to this day …

The Earliest University Of Nebraska Graduate Degrees, 1886-1909, Mark A. Griep

Mark A. Griep Publications

This list of the earliest graduate degrees awarded by the University of Nebraska (NU) in Lincoln was assembled to learn about the university’s research activity that preceded its admission to the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU) in 1909.

Where To Deposit Your Master’S Thesis Or Doctoral Dissertation In The Unl Digital Commons, Sue Ann Gardner, Paul Royster

Thesis and Dissertation Deposit Information Resources

A list of degree-granting programs with links to the proper series for thesis and dissertation deposit in the UNL Digital Commons.

UNL = University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Updated May 2025.

Find your degree-granting program in the list, then click on the link to go to the proper series to deposit your thesis, dissertation, or other student work.

If you have questions about the process or problems finding the correct series or uploading your work, contact Sue Gardner.

Recognizing Injustice, Reclaiming Voices: Establishing A Missing Persons Database For Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women And Children In Nebraska, Bayly W. Watson

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Indigenous people have been the victims of harsh persecution since the time of colonization; this has negatively impacted Native communities and has contributed significantly to the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Children (MMIWC) across the United States and Canada. Under Legislative Bill 154, Richards et al. (2021) conducted an initial study to identify missing Native cases in Nebraska and in 2023, the Attorney General appointed a Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Liaison to help combat the number of missing Indigenous in the state. This thesis contributes to previous research by analyzing 20,049 reports from three …

Heat Induced Diagenesis And Osteometrics: An Experimental Approach To Assessing Thermal Alterations To Forensic Anthropological Data On Dry Bone, Audrey Holbeck

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Fire appears in forensic casework in instances of arson, vehicle fire, house fire, to conceal evidence, or, in increasing contemporary frequency, wildfire, as a result of climate change. Thermal alteration is a destructive process to osseous material and can impact the accuracy of identification methods and trauma analysis by alteration of the structure, appearance, and morphology of human remains. This study seeks to validate previous research on the metric and morphological changes bone undergoes when exposed to extreme heat, and how that may impede estimation of metric features such as stature. Three long bones, a humerus, femur, and tibia, from …

Comparative Analysis Of Gunshot Trauma And Decomposition In Southeast Nebraska, Alexandra C. Tieken

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Accurately identifying gunshot trauma (GST) in forensic anthropology remains a significant challenge, particularly in distinguishing the effects it has on decomposition. This study investigates how different types of gunshot trauma influence the rate and characteristics of decomposition in a humid continental climate, specifically southeastern Nebraska. Utilizing Sus scrofa domesticus (domestic pigs) as human proxies, four pigs were euthanized by professionals and subjected to controlled conditions at the Reller Prairie Field Station. Three pigs were inflicted postmortem with close-range gunshot trauma using a 9mm handgun, a 12-gauge shotgun, and an AR-15 rifle, while a fourth served as a trauma-free control. For …

Wildfire And Decomposition: A Taphonomic Analysis Of Thermal Alterations And Decomposition, Ashley Novak

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Within the field of forensic anthropology, practitioners may be faced with remains that have been thermally altered by thermal alterations caused by wildfire. Within the field, very little research has been conducted examining how these thermal events impact rates of decomposition. While research has been conducted generally on the effects of thermal alteration on decomposition, these studies do not look through this lens and provide answers to the question of how do thermal alterations caused by wildfires affect rates of decomposition? This research examines the effects of thermal alteration caused by wildfire on the rate of decomposition. A decompositional study …

Firearm Trauma Across Time: Investigating Civil War Gunshot Trauma And Their Impact On Modern Forensic Analysis, Morgan K. Reeder

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

This thesis will examine the ballistic trauma caused by Civil War-era firearms and ammunition. These weapons, each with distinct characteristics, had a profound impact on the nature of combat and the resulting injuries. By investigating how these firearms’ ammunition interacted with human bone structure, this research will offer a detailed analysis of the trauma these weapons produced.

This research intends to answer several key research questions. First, how did the different types of Civil War firearms affect skeletal remains? Second, what are the key characteristics of gunshot trauma caused by these firearms in terms of bone fracturing and fragmentation, and …