Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing Multiple Lines Of Evidence For Gene Flow In Archaeological Contexts, Angela Marie Mallard

Doctoral Dissertations

This multi-study dissertation assesses the ability of two skeletal analysis methods—a model-bound quantitative genetic method (Relethford-Blangero) and a model-free biological distance method (Mahalanobis’ D²)—to evaluate gene flow in the U.S. Southwest and Northwest Mexico based on archaeological models. The first study uses dental metric data from the Sonoran Desert and Mogollon Rim (c. 1600 B.C. to A.D. 1450) to pilot the Relethford-Blangero method in this context. Notably, the method shows that populations from two large sites have less than expected dental variance, failing to support a gene flow event despite material culture pointing to at least two coexisting …

Chemical Elemental Analysis Using Portable X-Ray Fluorescence As A Means Of Sorting Commingled Human Remains, Matthew Mikal Davis

Masters Theses

Anthropological analyses include the examination of individual skeletal elements to estimate the biological profile of an unknown individual (age, sex, stature, and ancestry). Commingled human remains (the remains of multiple individuals mixed together) present a significant challenge to these analyses. Commingled skeletal elements may appear similar in size and color, making visual determinations of which bones belong to a certain person insufficient to ensure accurate sorting. Furthermore, when remains are fragmentary as well as commingled, it is more complicated to re-associate each element with a single individual. Traditional methods of sorting commingled remains include pair matching, osteometrics, taphonomic assessment, and …

Queering Disasters: Embodied Crises In Post-Harvey Houston, Thomas T. Tran

Masters Theses

This project addresses how neoliberal expansion complicates disaster recovery for queer communities in an urban context looking specifically at how disasters, disease, and marginalization operate as interlocking systems of oppression for queer people in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. This research draws upon anthropological studies of disasters, urban studies, critical medical anthropology, and queer theory to employ a queer political ecology that combines understandings of disasters and diseases as socio-political and ecological phenomena with queerness as a set of culturally constructed vulnerabilities that carry embodied effects. Starting from the understanding that disasters more heavily impact groups that already …

Exploring The Fourth Reality: Cultural Anthropologists' Reflections On Expert Witnessing For Asylum Cases, Mary Ruth Wossum-Fisher

Masters Theses

This thesis seeks to contribute to the small but growing literature on anthropology and expert witnessing by conducting ethnographic research with anthropologists who have worked as expert witnesses. The goal of this project is to illuminate how anthropologists reflect on the production of knowledge, ethics, and their identity in the realm of expert witnessing. Through twelve online questionnaires and six follow-up interviews, this research discusses how ten anthropologists and two political scientists conceived of the “Fourth Reality,” or “the reflexive awareness of the expert witness as an expert witness” (Phillips 2017: 42) throughout the asylum process. This thesis covers: 1) …

Finger Ridge-Counts Correlate With The Second To Fourth Digit Ratio [Post-Print], Richard Jantz

Anthropology Publications and Other Works

Objectives

This study examines the relationship of finger ridge-counts to second to fourth digit ratio, which has not yet been definitively demonstrated. The related question of sex dimorphism in finger ridge-counts is further elucidated.

Methods

A sample of Germans, including 1134 males and 1031 females, was examined for sex dimorphism in the finger ridge-counts. Second and fourth digit lengths were measured in a sub-sample of 91 males and 100 females to compute second to fourth digit ratio. Principal component scores were obtained to investigate sex dimorphism and the correlation between ridge-counts and digit ratio. Regression and analysis of covariance were …

Reconstructing The History Of Koch Cemetery, Clare Remy

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

This project examined commingled and fragmentary skeletal remains from Koch Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, where thousands of epidemic victims were buried in mass graves. There were two primary research objectives: 1) to use archival research to construct a site history and understand patient demographics, and 2) to decommingle and estimate collection population. Archival research used Ancestry LE and Newspapers.com to collect data on the demographics of the dead and historical social dynamics of healthcare. Zooarchaeological and forensic anthropological methods, including zonation and landmark analysis, were used to estimate the minimum number of individuals (MNI) and most likely number of …

Reconstructing The History Of Koch Cemetery, Clare Remy

Select or Award-Winning Individual Scholarship

This project examined commingled and fragmentary skeletal remains from Koch Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, where thousands of epidemic victims were buried in mass graves. There were two primary research objectives: 1) to use archival research to construct a site history and understand patient demographics, and 2) to decommingle and estimate collection population. Archival research used Ancestry LE and Newspapers.com to collect data on the demographics of the dead and historical social dynamics of healthcare. Zooarchaeological and forensic anthropological methods, including zonation and landmark analysis, were used to estimate the minimum number of individuals (MNI) and most likely number of …

Assessing The Precision Of Cranial And Mandibular Morphoscopic Traits From 3d Surface Scans, Sarah Thomas Schwing

Masters Theses

Virtual anthropological (VA) methods have been successfully used to capture metric data in the form of standard caliper measurements as well as volumetric data from various human skeletal elements. Virtual anthropological investigations of morphoscopic traits have increased over the past two decades, however, greater attention has been paid to investigations of metric data and to the use of CT technologies. Few studies have focused on morphoscopic data and fewer have employed 3D surface scans in data collection. Morphoscopic VA studies largely pertain to age estimation using the os coxa; fewer pertain to sex estimation and, to the author’s knowledge, no …

On The Paleoethnobotanical Significance Of Cherokee Farm, Hattie Alexis Ruleman

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Pterion And Broca’S Area: An Exploration Of Asymmetry In The K-S Distance, Bryn R. Dalrymple

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Queer Spaces, Religious Places: Sharing Risk And Making Kin Within A Queer Church Amidst A Pandemic, Sadie V. Counts

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to explore the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic on a queer, Christian congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church in Knoxville, TN and the impacts of the pandemic queer kinship and intimacy within the church setting. The thesis explores the ways in which queer kinship manifests within the church and how those relationships have been disrupted and altered by COVID. It also compares the long-term effects of the AIDS epidemic on the church congregation and they ways in which they may be experiencing COVID in a similar manner. Finally, the project explores the ways that intimacy has …