Digital Commons Network^™

Adapting Resilience To A New Hazard: Oil And Oysters In Coastal Louisiana, Audrey Maass

LSU Master's Theses

Inherently resilient practices are one mechanism that communities engage in to cope with disruptive events. A community retains and passes down the practices associated with inherent resilience in their collective memory. The inherent resilience of a community is developed over time, yet the explanation provided by Colten et al. lacks a genesis of how this process developed particularly in relation to the oil industry’s entry into Louisiana. The foundations of these practices will be explored through historic court documents to find encounters between oystermen and oil spills. In addition to legal resources, I also investigate newspaper articles and other historic …

Production, Discard, And Urban Life At The Early Horizon Center Of Caylán, Coastal Peru, Jacob Pate Warner

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis I examine material production, discard, and trash flow at the Early Horizon urban center of Caylán (800 – 1 cal. BC) on the Peruvian North-Central coast. Trash (or garbage, refuse, litter, or waste) is a central source of information for archaeologists examining prehistoric lifeways in Peru. Despite frequent use of trash as a source for radiocarbon samples, cultural material, and dietary evidence, few studies utilize the transportation and concentration of trash to examine human behavioral patterns. The Early Horizon, as a transitional period in Peruvian prehistory, presents an opportunity to test the utility of trash deposits in …

Touching Plantation Memories : Tourists And Docents At The Museum, Eddie Arnold Modlin Jr

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Plantations are one of the long-standing symbols of the U.S. South. Today, almost four hundred former plantation sites are museums. Over the last fifteen years a sustained, critical consideration of how slavery is remembered at these sites has developed in the academic literature. Geographers have argued that remembering slavery at these sites is geographic not only because most of these sites are in the South, but also because the public spatializes memory in certain ways at these historic places. To date, much of the memory literature about plantation museums focuses on the roles of these museums and their staff in …

Paul Tillich's Communication Theology And The Rhetoric Of Existentialism, Elizabeth R. Earle

LSU Master's Theses

20th century theologian and philosopher Paul Tillich believed that religion could only be understood in the context of the surrounding culture. He attempted to assert Christianity’s importance in the modern era, and did this through his use of language. In this study I examine how Tillich’s rhetorical situation uniquely informed the communication style of his sermons. Drawing on the work of Lloyd Bitzer, this rhetorical situation includes Tillich’s exigencies, rooted both in the personal and historical, his resources and constraints in the form of influences and limitations, and his audience which provided him with an arena. By examining selections from …

Liberalism And Globalization: An Essay On Montesquieu, Tocqueville, And Manent, Trevor Shelley

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Many in the West today talk about the emergent unity of humanity, as social scientists examine the world through “global values,” assessing “global opinion”; economists study the “global economy” and “global finance”; historians write of “universal history;” legal scholars speak of “global domestic politics” and “world society,” while advocating “transnational justice”; political pundits announce the death of the nation-state. One could list additional examples illustrating the same apparent fact: a growing sense of global unity, and a universalist perspective on things social, economic, legal, historical, and political. To what extent, however, is this phenomenon—often referred to as “globalization”—an extension of …

Caves And Class: Excavations At The Lang-Jourdan House In Mandeville, Louisiana, Matthew James Chouest

LSU Master's Theses

Jean Baptiste Lang, a divorced tobacco merchant from Belgium, constructed a summer home in Mandeville, Louisiana, in the mid-1850s. The most noteworthy feature of this house (16ST248) is its cave, a semi-subterranean room which he likely used as a wine cellar. The house was continuously occupied for over a century and remained one of few examples on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain of an original Anglo-Creole cottage. There are very few extant examples of caves in Louisiana due to the difficulty in maintaining such structures. The principal research questions addressed were (1) Can the cave be identified in the …

Sense Of Place, Place Attachment, And Rootedness In Four West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana Bars, John Winsor Mcewen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores place and the relationships that people have with place: sense of place, place attachment, and rootedness. These three concepts have each been researched and discussed on their own in journal articles, books, and book chapters, but the terms rarely appear in the same sentence let alone the same research article. In the United States, places of drink are historically linked to community and social interactions, and such establishments often possess a solid core of loyal patrons for whom going to their bar is a natural and routine part of their daily and weekly life. This research brings …

Bone Modification In Male To Female Transgender Surgeries: Considerations For The Forensic Anthropologist, Shelby Buchanan

LSU Master's Theses

No forensic anthropological standards exist for the identification of transsexual individuals from skeletal material. In fact, current standards produce inaccurate biological profiles for transsexuals. The reason being that current standard for ascription of sex from skeletal remains relies on pelvic morphology. Positive identification of unidentified individuals relies on the accuracy of the biological profile, which includes sex, provided by the forensic anthropologist. In the case of male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals, ascription of sex based on pelvic morphology will result in an inaccurate assessment of sex. This study, therefore, attempts to determine whether or not there exists evidence in the skeleton of …

Early Horizon Defensive Structures And The Role Of Warfare In The Lower Nepeña Valley, Peru, James Steven Treloar

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis I examine the presence and distribution of defensive structures in Nepeña, Ancash, Peru, during the Early Horizon (ca. 900-200 B.C.). Data are gathered from pedestrian surveys, GPS coordinates, drawings, and photographs. I analyze architectural and spatial data using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools. I integrate these methods to investigate the organization and distribution of defensive structures in the lower Nepeña, in particular at the archaeological complexes of Caylán, Samanco, and Huambacho. Caylán is a multi-component archaeological complex with a major Early Horizon occupation, and serves as the primary site while the others are used to draw a …

Liberty Against Itself: British Freedoms In North America, Matthew Charles Connell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation explores the theoretical foundations of what I refer to as the Canadian liberal ethos. Taking the British parliamentary revolution of 1688 as pivotal event I examine the development of political liberty in its English incarnations and trace its development as it was expressed in colonial British North America. This dissertation hopes to provide an explanatory analysis the of the liberal ethos that can: (a) contribute to understanding the pre-suppositions of liberty in a liberal democratic order, (b) contribute to an understanding of diversity and competing philosophical principles that informed the settlement of British North America and the institutionalization …

The Effects Of Concurrent Driving And In-Vehicle Tasks: A Multivariate Statistical Analysis Of Driver Distraction In A High-Fidelity Driving Simulator, Julius A. Codjoe

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Distracted driving continues to remain a cause of concern for a number of bodies, including government agencies, traffic safety advocacy groups and law enforcement agencies, because of its traffic safety risks. The driving simulator continues to be popular with researchers in collecting data on performance variables that provide scientific knowledge of the effects of distracted driving. Several of these performance variables can be used to quantify a single distracting effect, resulting in a multivariate dataset. A literature review of related studies revealed that researchers overwhelmingly use univariate (single and multiple) tests to analyze the resulting dataset. Performing multiple univariate tests …

The Frontal Bone As A Proxy For Sex Estimation In Humans: A Geometric Morphometric Analysis, Lucy Ann Edwards Hochstein

LSU Master's Theses

Physical anthropologists have a toolkit for determining sex from skeletal remains composed of visual and metric techniques concerning the pelvis and the skull. However, complete elements are not always available and results can be indeterminate. The present study combines visual assessment of the skull with statistical methods of shape analysis, geometric morphometrics, to reach a better understanding of how cranial variation of the frontal bone is influenced by sex. The three-dimensional coordinates of frontal bone curvatures of 204 skulls from the Terry Collection were collected using a Microscribe digitizer. These data were used to assess the ability of this technique …

"Strike Me If You Dare": Intimate-Partner Violence, Gender, And Reform, 1865-1920, Ashley Baggett

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Between 1865 and 1920, new gender expectations in the postbellum period, as well as the willingness to use the state to intervene in marriages led to social and legal reform that provided a mechanism to empower women and enforce their right to be free from violence. Women emerged from the Civil War more aware about the drawbacks of dependency. The postbellum period also witnessed massive changes with industrialization, which enabled women to participate in what were previously considered male pursuits. With their new awareness and the changes of industrialization, women negotiated a new definition of womanhood, which included the right …

Electrical Resistivity Employed At The Livonia Mound Site (16pc1), Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, Jennifer Patricia Gardner

LSU Master's Theses

Electrical resistivity was used at the Livonia Mound site (16PC1) to identify construction breaks, possible human burials, and other cultural activity below the surface. Resistivity transects traveled across the mound and the level surface directly south of the mound; this latter section was called Area A. Four transects stretched across the north, south, west, and east slopes of the mound; as a result, four vertical profiles were created from the apparent resistivity (ƒâa) values. The standard deviation of each transect was computed using the ƒâa values from the four pseudo-sections to establish the base-line for analysis. ƒâa values for Area …

Mental Mapping The Transformation Of Social Space In Rio's Oldest Favela: Morro Da Providência, Jamie Lauren Worms

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Amid the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, strategic policy reforms at the federal, state, and municipal levels have reordered and re-purposed the social space of Rio’s favelas through the implementation of social and physical infrastructure. This research project contributes a geographical perspective to the ways in which fast-paced urbanization transforms and produces social space in Rio’s oldest favela, Morro da Providência. Based on Henri Lefebvre’s conceptual triad concerning the production of social space, this research uses mental mapping to understand the disparity between representations of conceived space and representational lived space. It also contributes to perceived …

The Spatial-Temporal Prediction Of Various Crime Types In Houston, Tx Based On Hot-Spot Techniques, Shuzhan Fan

LSU Master's Theses

A series of hotspot mapping theories and methods have been proposed to predict where and when a crime will happen. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses. In addition, the predictive accuracy of each hotspot method varies depending on the study area, crime type, parameter settings of each method, etc. The predictive accuracy of hotspot methods can be quantified by three measures, which include the hit rate, the predictive accuracy index (PAI), and the recapture rate index (RRI). This thesis research applied eight hotspot mapping techniques from the crime analysis field to predict crime hotspot patterns. In addition, these hotspot …

"Post Your Version Here!": Performances In/Of Online, Noncommercial, Video-To-Video Adaptations, Lyndsay Michalik

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Processes of creative adaptation no longer fit traditional, culturally sanctioned forms, like commercial book-to-film adaptation, or vice versa. Meanwhile, internet users are demonstrating how noncommercial, creative text adaptation using video technology has become an everyday art form, a skill set, a form of communication, and a means of cultural commentary. Internet video adapters physically perform in their own videos and they create videos that work performatively online. Negotiating the slippery spaces between copyright, creativity, and cultural commentary, these creators adapt videos in myriad ways, and find spaces to share their adaptations online, despite (for most) a lack of financial return …

Subjugated Territory: The New Afrikan Independence Movement And The Space Of Black Power, Paul Karolczyk

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I study the black revolutionary nationalist geography of the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) and the anti-racist space of Black Power. I adapt social theorist Henri Lefebvre’s concept of representational space to show how New Afrikan revolutionary nationalism intersects with space, place, and scalar politics in a representational space of black radicalism that confounds dominant notions of race, cultural identity, and national belonging in the United States. NAIM originated in 1968 when several-hundred black nationalist delegates met at the National Black Government conference in Detroit to create the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika. New …

Built Environment And Risk Of Obesity In The United States: A Multilevel Modeling Approach, Yanqing Xu

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation provides a series of exploratory analyses of the relationship between built environment and obesity by using multiple data sets and employing the state-of-art Geographic Information Systems methods. Several built environment factors including street connectivity, walkability and food environment, are for the first time measured across 48 contiguous states of the U.S., built from a fine geographic scale such as the census tract level. Based on the nationwide BRFSS data, the first study used the Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model to analyze the obesity rates at the county level. The model results reveal that overall obesity rates are negatively …

"They Are Not Gods!" Jewish And Christian Idol Polemic And Greco-Roman Use Of Cult Statues, Nijay K. Gupta

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

Excerpt: "One set of trademark convictions of early Judaism and Christianity includes their aniconic tradition, monotheistic commitment, and polemic against idols. In the late second or early third century c .e ., for example, Christian apologist Minucius Felix mocked pagan idol worship with these words: “When does the god come into being? The image is cast, hammered, or sculpted; it is not yet a god. It is soldered, put together, and erected; it is still not a god. It is adorned, consecrated, prayed to—and now, finally, it is a god once man has willed it so and dedicated it” (see …

Disparities In Accessibility To Pharmacies: A Case Study In East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, Samina Zahid Ikram

LSU Master's Theses

Accessibility is a term used to define the relative ease by which activities or services, such as work, recreation, shopping, education or healthcare, can be accessed from a given location. It is an important locational amenity for residents. This study examines accessibility to over 100 pharmacies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 2010. Accessibility to a pharmacy is critical for a community as it is the prime source to get medication and other health services. First, two Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based methods, namely the proximal area method and the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method, are used to measure the …

The Appeal Of Narrative In Research, Colette Daiute

Publications and Research

"I saw the bird flattened on the ground outside my door . One of the kindergarten child walked toward me slowly, crying. That's when I knew it was time to act."

The very brief narrative above occurs amid myriad spheres of social relations. These relations are not all apparent, but understanding narrative meaning requires understanding narrating as an interactive process. As researchers we enhance our Methods if we know how to read narratives as complex social processes. This openi11g narrative expresses a sequence of two past events.1 The narrative involves action ("walked," "act") and consciousness ("saw," "crying," "knew"). From the …

For The Hard Of Hearing: A Catholic Novelist Confronts Modernity, Louis Benjamin Maltese

University Honors Theses

In the early part of the 20th century German Catholic theologian and cultural critic, Romano Guardini, published The End of Modernity, outlining the conceptual shift of self-identity and cosmology from Antiquity to Modernity. Characterizing modernity as turning upon a false self-identity termed “mass man.” This false image of life furthers the individual person’s fragmentation, and deafens their ability to hear the Catholic voice. Walker Percy’s familiarity with Guardini is most explicit in The Last Gentleman where Percy represents the difficulty of hearing the call of Catholicism. Recently, Paul Elie and Dana Gioia have pointed out the lacking literary presence …

Sense Of Place And Stakeholder Involvement In Rural Environmental Management, Jessica Lynn Beutler

University Honors Theses

There is a growing need for involvement of local communities in environmental management in order to develop dynamic and holistic management strategies. Communities have direct impact on the ecosystems they live in; therefore, it is vital to understand the environmental values and knowledge of environmental threats held by those communities. Integrating the community’s knowledge into local environmental management can help engage instead of alienate them. The relationship between rural communities and their local environment in Puget Island, WA was investigated by conducting interviews with residents, examining at their values and understanding of environmental issues. Additionally, this research investigates how sense …

Traversing The United States-Mexico Border: Gender And Kinship In Migrant Families, Patrick S. Harhai

University Honors Theses

This paper explores the process of gender and kinship reconfiguration during transnational migration. Transnational migrants shift and adapt the ways in which they fulfill the cultural responsibilities of kinship and gender. This study focuses on Latin American migrants and their kin networks on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Although themes of global economic, trade, and immigration are present, the focus is migration in a western context. Drawing on published ethnographies, I use data collected by anthropologists and other social science researchers in the past decade and a half to elucidate the ways in which governmental bodies control and incite …

Issues Of Authenticity In Small Scale Tourism: A Study Of The Mcdisney Experience, Jordan Nelson

University Honors Theses

The small scale tourist industry began as a rejection of mass tourism and the consumerist ideals associated with it. The search for authentic experience and authentic culture has become synonymous with small scale tourism and backpacker culture. The rejection of mass tourism typically results in a more culture centered approach to tourism which entails more interactions with locals in hopes of an authentic cultural experience. However, in this article I will discuss the issues that arise with the commoditization of culture and the people of that culture when the search for authenticity is informed by western ideals in the case …

Américo Castro, Saint James, And Spain: The History Of A Belief, Daniel Blanchard

University Honors Theses

The present essay is broadly interested in the problem of writing history, and the way different manners of confronting this problem are received and represented in the modern day as our historiographical compass increases in depth, scope, and capacity. Within the breadth of this theme, my case study is centered on the Spanish historian Américo Castro (1885–1972), an author whose work embodies not only the Spanish intellectual trends of his day, but also a substantial swath of Western philosophy and academic scholarship. I demonstrate the influence of existential philosophy on Castro, as well as the myopic filter of nationalism through …

The Secret Life Of The Cross-Cultural Fairy Tale: A Comparative Study Of The Indonesian Folktale "Bawang Merah, Bawang Putih" And Three European Fairy Tales, Sarah Nicole Donaldson

University Honors Theses

Folklore was one of the earliest developed forms of story telling, and fairy tales especially remain influentially pervasive in society today. In this paper, I seek to deconstruct five versions of the Indonesian folktale "Bawang Merah, Bawang Putih," through comparisons with the European fairy tales "One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes," "The Fairies," and "Mother Holle," using an interdisciplinary approach incorporating psychoanalytic and feminist theories in a close reading of the tales. Through tracking the transfer of money in the tales, I establish that heroines rarely keep their money as young, marriageable girls are considered commodities themselves within the fairy tale world. …

Affordable Housing For Public Benefit: A Comparison Of Newly Constructed And Rehabilitated Developments In The North And Northeast Neighborhoods Of Portland, Oregon, Sara Matijascic

University Honors Theses

Rising property values and low vacancy rates have led to a high demand for affordable housing in Portland, Oregon. In order to fulfill this need, a strategy that considers development cost and potential benefits of affordable housing to the public must be put into place. In this report, I compare development cost and public benefit of two housing creation methods – new construction and rehabilitation – to determine ways to increase economic feasibility, as well as positive externalities of the development process. This inquiry is tested using a public benefit survey that was distributed to housing professionals working in Portland, …

Adoption And Child Trafficking: Structural Violence In The International Adoption System, Vanessa Virgiel

University Honors Theses

In the United States there exists as part of the institution of international adoption a hegemony of “saving” orphans from developing or economically devastated nations. This hegemony is a factor contributing to an adoption “market” in orphans, leading to incidences of the trafficking of children as part of the intercountry adoption system. This study's purposes are thus twofold. First it is a preliminary attempt within the academic realm to determine the emergence of this hegemony by delineating the US history of intercountry adoption from its origins in the mid-1940s as a response to humanitarian crises, to its current status as …