Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Implications Of Vertebral Degenative Disease And Vertebral Ligamentous Ossification In Native Populations Of The Lower Tennessee River Valley, Sarah Ann Boncal

Theses and Dissertations

Cervical vertebrae are an effective biomechanical proxy for understanding physical activities of a populace due to the osteological reactivity of nuchal muscle use to extensive weight and pressure. Differentiation in the distribution of osteophytosis (OPL), osteoarthritis (OA), and ossification of the ligamentum flavum (OLF) along the cervical vertebrae may indicate particular biomechanical stresses and/or burden-bearing differences between subsistence strategies.

A collection of 287 pre-Columbian Native American individuals (N = 854 vertebrae) was analyzed for presence and severity of OPL, OA and OLF. The sample consists of remains from six archaeological sites located in the lower Tennessee River Valley: three sites …

The Effects Of Cold Adaptation On The Growth And Development Of The Neandertal Cranial Base, Sarah Caldwell

Theses and Dissertations

Neandertals and modern humans possess very different craniofacial shapes. Some recent work has attributed these contrasting shapes specifically to differences in brain development, which are extrapolated to mean differences in cognitive function. However, this may not necessarily be the case. In this paper, it is suggested that a size increase in the cranial base and rapid cranial growth are due not to cognitive differences, but environmental factors, specifically Neandertal adaptation to cold. Adaptation to cold would not only explain the more rapid growth of the Neandertal cranium, but also elongation of the cranial base via elongation of the nasopharynx for …

A Comparative Study Of Upper Limb Mechanical Stress In The Pre-Colombian Tennessee River Valley, Deborah Lyn Neidich

Theses and Dissertations

This investigation establishes the presence of rotator cuff disease (RCD) within human skeletal samples from a prehistoric North American context and evaluates the subsistence based (hunter-gatherer an agricultural) differences of the pathological and non-pathological osseous reactive change. The skeletal sample as recovered as a part of an archaeological salvage project from the western Tennessee River Valley prior to the 1944 completion of the Kentucky Lake Dam. The sites consist of three Middle and Late Archaic (4500-1000 BCCE) period hunter-gatherers and one Mississippian (1050-1450 CE) period agriculturalist sample. These sites are now submerged in the Kentucky Late Reservoir.

The bone elements …

In Search Of Ubuntu: An Examination Of Enslaved African Domestic And Labor Environments On St. Eustatius, Deanna Lynn Byrd

Theses and Dissertations

The discovery of dry stone rock features in the northern hills on the Dutch island of St. Eustatius presented a unique opportunity to investigate an enslaved African environment during the time of enslavement. Abandoned after emancipation, the area has remained virtually undisturbed by eco-tourism, making it an archaeological gem. The intact nature of the sites held potential to add significantly to our understanding of choices enslaved Africans made in slave village design, orientation, and the construction of their dwellings, as well as the labor activities of daily life. In doing so, this investigation attempted to detect whether higher levels of …

A Sequence Of French Vernacular Architectural Design And Construction Methods In Colonial North America, 1690 -- 1850, Wade Terrell Tharp

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines published and unpublished historical archaeological research, historical documents research, and datable extant buildings to develop a temporal and geographical sequence of French colonial architectural designs and construction methods, particularly the poteaux-en-terre (posts-in-ground) and poteaux-sur-solle (posts-on-sill) elements in vernacular buildings, from the Western Great Lakes region to Louisiana, dating from 1690 to 1850. Such a sequence is needed to provide a basis for scholarship, discovery, and hypotheses about prospective French colonial archaeological sites. The integration of architectural material culture data and the historical record could also further scholarship on subjects such as how the French in colonial North …

Identifying The Visible: A Look At How Economic Class And Ethnicity Influence Women's Visibility Within A Household, Cori Elise Rich

Theses and Dissertations

Archaeology has allowed for underrepresented, often invisible, groups of people within history to become visible and have their stories told. Minority groups such as women, African Americans, and those occupying the lower class are just some of these underrepresented groups who have been identified through cultural remains. Despite archaeologists' best efforts in identifying these groups; there is still much work yet to be conducted. There is a lack of information from the eighteenth-century, and even less work done on the way ethnicity and class impact women's visibility within the archaeological record.

This paper utilizes seven site reports, from households of …

All Systems Go, Harry William Sidebotham

Theses and Dissertations

Just like nature and life, my work is made up of many smaller parts working synergeticly in order to function properly. The systems I use are increasingly more complex, involving layers of interacting information competing for attention, giving rise to emergent qualities that could not

exist without the interaction. Paraxial imaging and emergent shapes could not exist without the systems or the chromophobic choices.

Tammy Rae Carland's Queer Riot Grrrl Zine"I ( Heart ) Amy Carter": A World Of Public Intimacy, Annah-Marie Rostowsky

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes Tammy Rae Carland's queer Riot Grrrl zine I (heart) Amy Carter as a counterpublic sphere engendered by acts of public intimacy that make visible the intersectional complexities of gender, sexuality, class, and race that insidious traumas continually work to conceal. It looks to Ann Cvetkovich's inquiries into the positive aspects of public cultures in the book An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures (2006) as well as Mimi Thi Nguyen's investigation of the Riot Grrrl race crisis in the article "Riot Grrrl, Race, and Revival" (2012) as frameworks to critique Carland's visual and textual …