Digital Commons Network^™

Rational Decisions: The Adaptive Nature Of Context-Dependent Choice, Alexandra G. Rosati, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Although classical economic theory hinges on the assumption that rational actors should seek to maximize gains, psychologists and behavioral economists have recently collected a wealth of evidence challenging this premise. In violation of the principles of rational choice, context appears to dramatically influence human decision making. Like humans, numerous nonhuman animals, ranging from honeybees to primates, are sensitive to context, suggesting deep evolutionary roots for seemingly irrational decision-making. Many psychologists have suggested that such choices may stem from cognitive biases that result in errors. We contend, however, that labeling context-dependent choices as errors obscures the real issue. Natural selection does …

Social Interaction Effects On Reward And Cognitive Abilities In Monkeys, Jeffrey R. Stevens, Marc D. Hauser

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

When given a choice between receiving $100 in 30 days and $110 in 31 days, most people wait for the larger, more delayed reward. However, when the choice is between $100 today and $110 tomorrow, many people shift their preferences to the smaller, immediate reward despite the same difference of $10 and one day. Reward properties—such as time to receipt—play a crucial role in our processing of rewards. However, reward processing does not only occur for individual decisions but also for social interactions; we must decide to either cooperate or compete with others for rewards. Humans stand out in the …

Paths To Knowledge As A Foundational Course In An Honors Program, Mark Vitha, Arthur Sanders, Colin Cairns, David Skidmore, Clive Elliot, William Lewis

Honors in Practice Online Archive

In this article we describe an honors course titled “Paths to Knowledge,” which was created to provide students with an understanding of the ways different disciplines create and evaluate knowledge. This is the only specific course within our honors curriculum that is required of all honors students. After seeing it evolve over several years, multiple instructors, and a variety of approaches to the theme, we believe that Paths to Knowledge may be a good model for a foundational course within an honors program.

Book Review: The Allen Site: A Paleoindian Camp In Southwestern Nebraska Edited By Douglas B. Bamforth, Daniel S. Amick

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Douglas Bamforth and his colleagues demonstrate in this edited volume the valuable role in modern archaeology for thoughtful reinvestigation of previously studied site locations and archaeological collections. Containing 14 chapters by 11 contributors, The Allen Site includes comprehensive paleoenvironmental research and detailed reanalysis of cultural materials recovered from renowned excavations conducted in the Medicine Creek Basin between 1947 and 1949, deposits that hold a series of human occupations ranging from 10,550 to 8,000 radiocarbon years in age. These new studies provide valuable improvements to our understanding of environmental change and early human adaptations during the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene …

Review Of "The Choctaws In Oklahoma: From Tribe To Nation, 1855-1970." By Clara Sue Kidwell, Robert Keith Collins

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Scholars of anthropology (particularly historical anthropology), history, and Native American studies interested in Choctaw history, cultural changes, everyday life choices, and contributions to American culture should find The Choctaws in Oklahoma: From Tribe to Nation, 1855-1970 and How Choctaws Invented Civilization and Why Choctaws Will Conquer the World important new contributions to the historical literature articulated by strong Choctaw voices. And readers interested in the complexities of Choctaw life in the Southern Plains, how Choctaws interacted with the region's other Indigenous groups (e.g., Kiowas and Comanches), and the inconsistencies between federal policies and Choctaw lived realities over time will be …

Review Of Defamiliarizing The Aboriginal: Cultural Practices And Decolonization In Canada. By Julia V. Emberley., Laura Peers

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This book examines how "representational technologies," including photography and archival material, were used to establish colonial control over Aboriginal families in Canada. Case studies include a critique of photographer Mary Schaffer's images of Aboriginal people in the Rocky Mountains, an analysis of an RCMP file concerning the disappearance of an Inuit woman and children, and a discussion of prairie writer Rudy Wiebe's retelling of Yvonne Johnson's life. Defamiliarizing the Aboriginal is a subtle addition to literature on the mechanisms of cultural representation and their dynamics within colonialism, placing these issues especially well within the framework of postcolonial and feminist politics. …

Review Of Chevato: The Story Of The Apache Warrior Who Captured Herman Lehmann. By William Chebahtah And Nancy Mcgown Minor, Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This fascinating book foregrounds the oral history of Chevato (Billy Chiwat), a Lipan Apache who in May 1870 captured eleven-yearold Herman Lehmann near Fredericksburg, Texas. Orphaned when young, Chevato joined the Mescalero Apaches, who were the ones actually responsible for the kidnapping of Herman and his brother Willie. In middle age, through the influence of the powerful Comanche Quanah Parker, Chevato became a Comanche and moved to Oklahoma where he lived until his death in 1931.

Non-Native captivity narratives, which have been a familiar part of American culture for centuries, usually focus on the crystallizing events of captivity and do …

Review Of African Creeks: Estelvste And The Creek Nation. By Gary Zellar, Robbie Ethridge

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Estelvste, or "black people," in the Creek Indian language, are the subjects of this well-written, absorbing story of the people of African descent whose lot in life cast them with the Creek Indians of present-day Georgia and Alabama and, after Indian Removal, present- day Oklahoma. Gary Zellar refers to them as African Creeks, distinguishing this particular population from both African Americans, Euro-American Creeks, and Indian Creeks. Such distinctions are necessary to the history of the Creek Indians because, after European contact, Creek lives became irreversibly and forever blended with those of the immigrant populations, yet the Creeks themselves adhered …

Review Of The Comanche Empire. By Pekka Hamalainen, Mariah F. Wade

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The Comanche Empire is an important and well-researched book that traces the development of the Comanche nation in the eastern and western borders of the Greater Southwest from the early eighteenth century through the mid-nineteenth century. Segmented into eight thematic chapters, this work explores the Comanches' sources of inward power and power over others, but privileges the Comanche perspective to place the author's conclusions within a historical context. Hamalainen's treatment of the complex relationships between the Comanches and other European and Native American societies is unique, particularly as it clarifies the social and trade mechanisms the Comanches established and nurtured …

Gratitude Works: Its Impact And The Mediating Role Of Affective Commitment In Driving Positive Outcomes, Randle D. Raggio, Judith Anne Garretson Folse

Marketing Faculty Publications

After studying the effects of Louisiana’s post-hurricane “thank you” campaigns, the researchers find expressions of gratitude significantly improve perceptions of Louisiana in the midst of its recovery. Through a national survey conducted November 2006, they find that those who saw or heard a thank you advertisement have more positive attitudes toward the state and its people, a greater willingness to pay a premium for its products, services and travel to the state, and spread positive word-of-mouth, thus justifying the use of public funds to support the campaign. The authors investigate the role of participation on the effectiveness of expressions of …

Post-Clovis Survival Of American Mastodon In The Southern Great Lakes Region Of North America, Neal Woodman, Nancy Beavan Athfield

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The end of the Pleistocene in North America was marked by a wave of extinctions of large mammals, with the last known appearances of many species falling between ca. 11,000–10,000 ¹⁴C yr BP. Temporally, this period overlaps with the Clovis Paleoindian cultural complex (11,190–10,530 ¹⁴C yr BP) and with sudden climatic changes that define the beginning of the Younger Dryas chronozone (ca. 11,000–10,000 ¹⁴C yr BP), both of which have been considered as potential proximal causes of this extinction event. Radiocarbon dating of enamel and filtered bone collagen from an extinct American Mastodon (Mammut americanum) …

A Robust, Multisite Holocene History Of Drift Ice Off Northern Iceland: Implications For North Atlantic Climate, John T. Andrews, Dennis Darby, Dennis Eberle, Anne E. Jennings, Matthias Moros, Astrid Ogilvie

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

An important indicator of Holocene climate change is provided by evidence for variations in the extent of drift ice. A proxy for drift ice in Iceland waters is provided by the presence of quartz. Quantitative xray diffraction analysis of the < 2 mm sediment fraction was undertaken on 16 cores from around Iceland. The quartz weight (wt.)% estimates from each core were integrated into 250-yr intervals between −0.05 and 11.7 cal. ka BP. Median quartz wt.% varied between 0.2 and 3.4 and maximum values ranged between 2.8 and 11.8 wt.%. High values were attained in the early Holocene and minimum values were reached 6–7 cal. ka BP. Quartz wt.% then rose steadily during the late Holocene. Our data exhibit no correlation with counts on haematite-stained quartz (HSQ) grains from VM129-191 west of Ireland casting doubt on the ice-transport origin. A pilot study on the provenance of Fe oxide grains in two cores that cover the last 1.3 and 6.1 cal. ka BP indicated a large fraction of the grains between 1 and 6 cal. ka BP were from either Icelandic or presently unsampled sources. However, there was a dramatic increase in Canadian and Russian sources from the Arctic Ocean ~1 cal. ka BP. These data may indicate the beginning of an Arctic Oscillation-like climate mode.

A Preliminary Survey Of Lesser-Known Polyandrous Societies, Katie Starkweather

Nebraska Anthropologist

To challenge the common misconception that there are only four societies in the world that allow polyandry, this paper uses types of polyandry, suggested by Levine and Sangree (1980), to identify polyandrous societies from India, Africa, South America, and North America. Basic issues of these societies are examined within the context of four commonly cited attempts to explain the existence of polyandry. The goal of the paper is a preliminary look at the existence of polyandry around the world and an initial exploration of issues that mayor may not be associated with this form of marriage.

Zoroastrians On The Internet, A Quiet Social Movement: Ethnography Of A Virtual Community, Helen Gerth

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Zoroastrians today are a small but vibrant ethno-religious diaspora estimated at 130,000-258,000. They are members of the oldest monotheistic world religion originating in the Inner Asian steppes in approximately 1500 B.C. living as a religious minority in widely dispersed communities across the world. Increasingly they have turned to the Internet to discuss challenges of declining population, maintaining an ethno-religious identity, conversion, and intermarriage. The question grounding this research is how does this small ethno-religious minority maintain its boundaries and cohesion in the modern world? This study found that Zoroastrians maintain group boundaries and cohesion in the modern world, in part, …

Puebloan Plain-Weave Pointed/Rounded-Toe Sandals, David Toy Yoder

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An assemblage of 226 Puebloan pointed/rounded-toe sandals from sites throughout the northern Southwest was examined to answer the following questions: how were these sandals constructed, when where they used, and where were they distributed. The answers to these questions were then used to investigate cultural boundaries, communities of practice, and interaction among the Anasazi. Methods of analysis included a technical analysis, soft X-ray radiography, microscopic fiber identification, spatial analysis, AMS radiocarbon dating, and experimental reconstruction.

Based on these analyses it appears that pointed/rounded-toe sandals were used as early as A.D. 631 to as late as A.D. 1178. Spatially, this sandal …

When Did The Ancestors Of Polynesia Begin To Migrate To Polynesia? The Mtdna Evidence, David Lesniewski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The timing and nature of the migration of the ancestors of the Polynesian people is debated by two competing theories. The "Express Train" and "Slow Boat" theories assert that the migration of the Proto-Polynesian people began around 6,000 years before present (BP) or around 10,000 years BP respectively. Through the use of haplogroups and specific genetic mutations a direct relationship between the Proto-Polynesians and modern Polynesians was attempted to test which of these theories was correct. The ancient skeletal remains from the island of Borneo currently housed at UNLV were used in this study as their dates fall within both …

New Yarmouth, Eastern Neck, Maryland: Resistance To Town Building From The Colonial Period To The Present, Brynn Torelli

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The work presented in this thesis is an attempt to shed light on the early colonial development of Maryland's Eastern Shore and its possible relationship with current settlement patterns in the region, with particular interest in Kent County. Traditional interpretations of the lack of urban development on the Eastern Shore, both in the Colonial era and the present, have tended to focus on environmental and geographical factors. This research seeks to examine this trend toward rural living in newer and broader ways by incorporating human agency and investigating the possibility that the lack of town development during the Colonial era …

"The Varied Carols I Hear": The Music Of The New Deal In The West, Peter L. Gough

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Federal Music Project and subsequent WPA Music Programs served as components of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal" efforts to combat the economic devastation precipitated by the Great Depression. Operating during the years 1936 to 1943, these programs that engaged unemployed musicians mirrored similar efforts of the Federal Theatre, Art and Writers' Projects. Though the Federal Music Project proved to be the largest of the cultural programs in terms of both employment and attendance, to date it has received the least attention from scholars. This dissertation demonstrates that, given the societal landscape of 1930s America, a regional perspective is …

Analysis Of Flaked Stone Lithics From Virgin Anasazi Sites Near Mt. Trumbull, Arizona Strip, Cheryl Marie Martin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines flaked stone tools that were used by the Virgin Anasazi and the debitage resulting from their manufacture at six sites in the Mt. Trumbull region in order to infer past human behavior. The behaviors being examined include activities carried out at sites, the processing and use of raw stone materials, and patterns of regional exchange. I have applied obsidian sourcing technology and an analysis of flaked stone attributes. The research indicates a range of activities occurred at habitation sites at Mt. Trumbull, and toolmakers did not need to expend large amounts of time and energy on acquiring …

Communication Technologies: Diffusion Of Online News Use And Credibility Among Young Web Users In The Information Age, Chee Youn Kang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The increasing popularity and extensive usage of communication technologies, particularly the Internet and online news, makes it important to obtain an insightful perception of the new media. The purpose of this study is to examine the diffusion of online news use and credibility among young web users in terms of how these main users adopt, use, and trust the new media. This study attempts to find which online news sites are widely used by this group, based on the credibility of online news adopted among undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), in which demographic …

Unearthing Archaeology: A Study Of The Recent Coverage Of Selected English-Language Archaeology Journals By Multi-Subject Indexes And By Anthropological Literature, David C. Tyler, Yang Xu, Emily Dust Nimsakont

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

Librarians, faculty, and professional researchers, and students already encounter difficulties in locating journal articles for the field of archaeology, yet, in the current budgetary climate, librarians needing to reduce subscription costs may be tempted to cancel smaller, discipline-specific indexes in favor of large multi- subject indexes with broad coverage. This study examines and compares the coverage provided to 208 archaeology and archaeology-related journals and magazines by six multi-subject indexes (Academic Search Premier, ArticleFirst, eLibrary, IngentaConnect, Wilson OmniFile, Web of Science) and by anthropology’s primary index, Anthropological Literature, over a twenty year period (1988–2007).

2008 Hes Presidential Address: We're All "Persons" Now: Classical Economists And Their Opponents On Marriage, The Franchise, And Socialism, Sandra J. Peart

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

My purpose is to paint a broad brush narrative—it will have some visual representations as well—of how nineteenth-century political economists and their critics confronted a set of basic and related questions: Are men and women equally capable of self governance? Are they equally able to decide when and whom to marry and how many children to have? Can they be trusted equally to cast a ballot? Is their right to property inviolate or might new arrangements be designed and adopted for the production and distribution of wealth?

This is a story interwoven with extraordinary characters: John Stuart Mill will be …

The Phylogenetic Relationship Between Populations Of Marginally And Sympatrically Located Pinus Halepensis Mill. And Pinus Brutia Ten. In Turkey, Based On The Its-2 Region, Cansu Özge Tozkar, Sertaç Önde, Zeki̇ Kaya

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Turkish red pine (Pinus brutia) is a widespread and important forest tree species in Turkey, occurring mainly in southern, western, and northwestern Turkey, while the natural occurrence of Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) is restricted to 2 locations and is found sympatrically with Turkish red pine. In the present study sympatric populations of both species from Muğla and Adana provinces in Turkey were sampled, and the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS-2) region of ribosomal DNA was comparatively studied with sequence analysis. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) demonstrated 100% of total molecular variation between the species in Muğla province, versus only 50.65% …

The Nature Of Contradictions In India: Using An Applied Ethnographic Technique To Further Intercultural Understanding, Melissa Lr Handa

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

India is often noted for the large body of contradictions that exist within it, which has left many observers in a state of bafflement, never really understanding why or how such huge inconsistencies can harmoniously exist. The intent of this thesis is to begin an exploration into India’s mass of contradictions.

The insights of Indian informants were incorporated into this study in an attempt to explain this dilemma. The respondents were interviewed in order to determine whether (1) they are aware that these contradictions exist and (2) whether they attempt to reconcile them and, if so, how. The fascinating interplay …

Analytical Jurisprudence And The Concept Of Commercial Law, John Linarelli

Scholarly Works

Commercial lawyers working across borders know that globalization has changed commercial law. To think of commercial law as only the law of states is to have an inadequate understanding of the norms governing commercial transactions. Some have argued for a transnational conception of commercial law, but their grounds of justification have been unpersuasive, often grounded on claims about the common content among national legal systems. Legal positivism is a rich literature on the concept of a legal system and the validity conditions for rules in legal systems, but it has not been used to understand legal order outside or beyond …

Trademark Intersectionality , Sonia K. Katyal

Faculty Scholarship

Even though most scholars and judges treat intellectual property law as a predominantly content neutral phenomenon, trademark law contains a statutory provision, Section 2(a) that provides for the cancellation of marks that are “disparaging,” “immoral,” or “scandalous,” a provision that has raised intrinsically powerful constitutional concerns. The constitutional tensions surrounding Section 2(a), invariably, affect two central metaphors that are at war within trademark law: the marketplace of goods, which premises itself on the fixedness of intellectual properties, and the marketplace of ideas, which is premised on the very fluidity of language itself. Since the architecture of trademark law focuses only …

Commentary, Anna Gelpern

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Enforceable promises discourage lying, cheating, and stealing. Contracts that embody such promises shape institutions, distribute power, and organize markets. The Smith-King critique of elite empirical contracts scholarship reveals a field preoccupied with the first set of functions and barely interested in the second. I am loath to second-guess this view without empirical evidence of my own. Instead, I draw from it two sets of implications-one for the substantive study of contracts, the other for the relationship between contract theory and contract empiricism.

2009-2010 Undergraduate Course Descriptions, Rochester Institute Of Technology

RIT Digital Archives

No abstract provided.

Religious Rituals In Tayabas, Jayeel Cornelio

Development Studies Faculty Publications

I was one of the research leaders of the Ateneo Cultural Laboratory 2009 in Tayabas, Quezon Province, Philippines. Funded by Fundacion Santiago, the project has released a report offering a comprehensive documentation, analysis, and policy proposals regarding the various aspects of the cultural heritage of Tayabas. This chapter specifically deals with the town's religious rituals which showcase how Catholicism, while deeply embedded in everyday life, also manifests elements that may be pre-Hispanic in character. The paper ends by emphasising a community-based approach to the preservation of these fascinating religious rituals. The report is now in the hands of Fundacion Santiago …

Educational Travel And Adolescent Development, Ann Saitow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Educational travel forms the basis for novel learning experiences that enhance adolescent development by enabling students to make choices about their own survival in an unfamiliar setting. This biological adaptation is driven by stimulation of the midbrain which produces high levels of dopamine, the chemical associated with learning. The elements of educational travel that promote sustained adolescent learning are: clear communication, commitment and action, communal trust and respect, maturity developed through assigned responsibilities and exposure to varied life circumstances, flexibility, and transition back to traditional school environments.