Digital Commons Network^™

Military Site Program Returns To Williamson's Plantation Battlefield, Steven D. Smith

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Design Of A Comprehensive Geographic Information System For The Administration Of El Camino Real De Los Tejas National Historic Trail, Jeffrey M. Williams

Faculty Publications

Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture’s (ATCOFA) Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Laboratory were engaged by the National Park Service (NPS) National Trails System-Intermountain Region to provide GIS services supporting the NPS’s development of a Comprehensive Management Plan for El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail (ELTE). The scope of work was completed under an agreement with the Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit sponsored by the Texas AgriLife Research Program at Texas A&M University. ATCOFA assisted the NPS in the coordination of local landowner and other local stakeholder contacts, conducted archival research …

Social Networking And Church Systems, Dwight J. Zscheile

Faculty Publications

Most existing church systems were shaped by bureaucratic organizational paradigms of a previous century that are coming under increasing stress today. The shift to a network society brings both profound challenges and great opportunities to the church in our culture.

Spanish Missions In The Indigenous Landscape:A View From Mission Santa Catalina,Baja California, Lee M. Panich

Faculty Publications

Mission Santa Catalina was founded on the margins of the Spanish colonial frontier in northern Baja California, but over time it became an important place in the indigenous landscape of the region. Dominican friars established the mission at a crossroads of native interaction, and recent archaeological, archival, and ethnographic research suggests that indigenous mission neophytes continued to engage in dynamic social and economic relationships with other native groups throughout the colonial period. At the same time, however, the diverse native peoples who lived at Santa Catalina formed new bonds to each other and to the lands around the mission itself. …

Biogeographic Anomaly Or Human Introduction: A Cryptogenic Population Of Tree Skink (Reptilia: Squamata) From The Cook Islands, Oceania, Alison M. Hamilton, George R. Zug, Christopher C. Austin

Faculty Publications

Archaeological and molecular data have revealed that the present day faunas of many island groups in Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia are not representative of the biodiversity generated within this region on an evolutionary timescale. Erroneous inferences regarding the mechanisms of speciation and the significance of long distance dispersal in shaping the present diversity of these island systems have resulted from this incomplete diversity and distributional data. The lizard fauna east of Samoa has been suggested to derive entirely from human-mediated introductions, a distribution congruent with biogeographic patterns for other Pacific species. Distinguishing between introduced populations and those that result from …

War Paths, Peace Paths: An Archaeology Of Cooperation And Conflict In Native Eastern North America, By David H. Dye, Charles R. Cobb

Faculty Publications

A review of War Paths, Peace Paths: an Archaeology of Cooperation and Conflict in Native Eastern North America, by David H. Dye.

Mitt Romney’S Religion: A Five Factor Model For Analysis Of Media Representation Of Mormon Identity, Sherry Baker, Joel Campbell

Faculty Publications

Mitt Romney’s religion accounted for 50% of all religion-related presidential primary campaign stories in 2007, and 30% of Romney’s total media coverage focused on his Mormon faith. This article reviews that coverage and considers it within the larger historical context of the complex relationship between media and Mormonism throughout the 180-year history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A factorial model (the first in the area of Mormon Media Studies) is proposed by which to document and analyze the wider societal influences that are reflected in media representation of Mormon identity. The model’s 5 factors include the …

Evaluation Study Of C.A.R.E., The National Education Association's Culture, Abilities, Resilience, And Effort Professional Development Training, Noni Reis, Denise Alston, Linda Bacon, Brooke Whiting, Sheila Simmons

Faculty Publications

This was an evaluation study of C.A.R.E., National Education Association's Culture, Abilities, Resilience and Effort (C.A.R.E.): Strategies for Closing Achievement Gaps. The training is based on culturally relevant pedagogy and on the Center for Research on Educational Diversity and Excellence standards. The research questions for the study were: 1.Did the training lead to changes in instructional practices? 2.Were the tools and materials provided by the C.A.R.E. guide used? 3.Did the strategies lead to changes in student behavior and school practices Participants (n-275) completed an on-line survey and/or a telephone interview. Two-thirds (66%) of the participants noticed improvements in student achievement, …

Book Review. Diamond, Heather A. American Aloha: Cultural Tourism And The Negotiation Of Tradition, Jo Farb Hernandez

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Pastors’ Perspectives On Assimilating New Members: Part 1–Challenges And Needs, Jane Thayer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Internal Clarity Of Scripture And The Modern World: Luther And Erasmus Revisited, Steven D. Paulson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Deep East Texas Grave Markers: Types, Styles, And Motifs, Nancy Adgent, Perky Beisel, George Avery

Faculty Publications

Grave markers are often the only physical evidence of a person’s existence and offer opportunities for even ordinary people to ‘speak’ from the grave. Sometimes the deceased selects the marker or leaves instructions for its composition.

In modern times, the grieving family typically chooses the type, style, motif, and inscription according to commercial availability, aesthetic appeal, and budgetary constraints. A cemetery visitor will likely have no idea of the actual circumstances that caused a particular marker to have its shape, design, and decorative elements.

Like other possessions, markers are subject to fashion trends and since the advent of mass production …

Deep East Texas Grave Markers: Types, Styles, And Motifs, Nancy Adgent, Perky Beisel, George Avery

Faculty Publications

Grave markers are often the only physical evidence of a person’s existence and offer opportunities for even ordinary people to ‘speak’ from the grave. Sometimes the deceased selects the marker or leaves instructions for its composition.

In modern times, the grieving family typically chooses the type, style, motif, and inscription according to commercial availability, aesthetic appeal, and budgetary constraints. A cemetery visitor will likely have no idea of the actual circumstances that caused a particular marker to have its shape, design, and decorative elements.

Like other possessions, markers are subject to fashion trends and since the advent of mass production …

Administrative Decentralization: Should Districts And Regions Elect Their Own Leaders In Ghana?, Kwame Badu Antwi-Boasiako

Faculty Publications

Decentralization, leadership accountability, and empowerment of local leaders in Ghana are the main focus of this analysis. The paper discusses the complexities of decentralization and leadership responsibilities to effect changes toward a better path to socioeconomic development. It examines the problem with the Ghana Constitution as it pertains to local government elections and advocates for a constitutional amendment to empower districts and regions to elect their own leaders so that local governments in each district can be efficient and accountable to the electorate.

The House In The Market: How Q’Eqchi’ Market Women Convert Money And Commodities Into Persons And Personhood, Sarah Ashley Kistler

Faculty Publications

Recent research argues that globalization in Latin America sometimes results in the homogenization of culture and loss of indigenous identity. This paper, however, explores how Q’eqchi’-Maya market women in San Juan Chamelco, Guatemala, generate Q’eqchi’ personhood by embracing the conflicts of value introduced by the confrontation of globalization with longstanding Q’eqchi’ values. I argue that in Chamelco, market women are mediators of value who participate in global capitalism to reinforce the categories that structure indigenous life. Q’eqchi’ women engage in marketing activities not only to accrue capital resources, but also to maintain local values, centered on the junkab’al or “house,” …

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

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cultural Cognition At Work, Paul M. Secunda

Faculty Publications

Cultural cognition theory provides an anthropological- and psychological-based theory about how values actually influence judicial decisionmaking. It suggests that values act as a subconscious influence on cognition rather than as a self-conscious motive of decisionmaking.

Applying these insights to two controversial United States Supreme Court labor and employment decisions, this Article contends that judges, in many instances, are not fighting over ideology, but rather over legally consequential facts. This type of disagreement is particularly prevalent in labor and employment law cases where the factual issues that divide judges involve significant uncertainty and turn on inconclusive evidence.

This distinction between ideology …

Automobile Injuries As Injuries With Remedies: Driving, Insurance, Torts, And Changing The "Choice Architecture" Of Auto Insurance Pricing, Jennifer Wriggins

Faculty Publications

Tort and insurance law treat driving as a centrally important activity and treat injuries caused by automobiles as more significant than other injuries. The role of tort and insurance law in privileging injuries from driving, and driving itself, is largely unacknowledged in torts and insurance law scholarship. The Article shows how the negligence regime and automobile insurance regulation together function to actively support driving. They create a most-favored injury status for injuries caused by cars. The interlocking tort liability regime and automobile insurance system create a “choice architecture,” to use Cass Sunstein’s and Richard Thaler’s phrase, that favors and encourages …

Engaging With The Politics Of Determinist Environmental Thinking, Andrew Sluyter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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

Faculty Publications

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

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

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Planning An Information Commons, Michael J. Whitchurch

Faculty Publications

Of the steps in implementing an information commons, one of the most important is the planning phase. In order for the planning and implementation to be a success, buy-in and support from library users and administrators is essential. The result of the planning process is a detailed planning document which will influence the success of the commons. The document should include plans for policy changes, space for the commons, staffing issues, and assessments, both before and after implementation. Even with all the planning completed, an evaluation of the viability of and desirability for a commons should determine whether a commons …

Disrupted But Not Destroyed: Fictive-Kinship Networks Among Black Educators In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Daniella Ann Cook

Faculty Publications

Drawing on Adkins’ (1997) notion of reform as colonization and using ethnographic data from African American teachers in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, this article discusses how black educators’ fictive-kinship (Fordham 1996, Chatters, Taylor, and Jayadoky 1994, Stack 1976) networks have been altered in the changing landscape of reform. I argue that the importance of fictive-kinship relationships among educators and students was ignored in school-reform efforts in post-Katrina New Orleans. Post-Katrina school reforms disrupted, but did not destroy, these fictive-kinship networks. I discuss three themes: (1) fictive-kinship networks created before Katrina cultivated an environment centered on cooperation, collaboration, and solidarity, …

The End Of Farming In The “Northern Periphery” Of The Southwest, James R. Allison

Faculty Publications

Prehispanic farmers belonging to the Virgin and Fremont traditions once occupied most of Utah and adjacent parts of Arizona and Nevada. Through much of the twentieth century, these areas were called the "Northern Periphery'' of the Southwest, but in recent decades, both Fremont and Virgin have often been left out of syntheses of southwestern archaeology-even though they clearly had strong connections to the Southwest and represented, respectively, the northernmost and westernmost extensions of maize-based horticulture in western North America. This exclusion results from a combination of factors, the most important of which are geography and the territorial behavior of some …

The Universe Of Thinkable Thoughts Versus The Facts Of Empirical Research, Joseph A. Custer

Faculty Publications

Mr. Custer considers the use of "literary warrant" as it affects the usefulness of the West Digest System, and reports on the results of a survey he conducted with both legal practitioners and law faculty. He concludes that the West Digest System has some viability, but it will need to extend its literary warrant to remain a player in today's legal culture.

Summum, The Vocality Of Public Places, And The Public Forum, Timothy Zick

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Presuppositional Realm Of Biblical-Theological Methodology: Part 4: Critique And Transformation, Oliver Glanz

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Understanding Gender-Based Violence: Evidence From Kilimanjaro Assessment Of Rombo And Moshi Rural, Jane L. Saffitz

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.