Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Natural Selection Of Immune And Metabolic Genes Associated With Health In Two Lowland Bolivian Populations, Amanda J. Lea, Angela Garcia, Jesusa Arevalo, Julien F. Ayroles, Kenneth Buetow, Steve W. Cole, Daniel Eid Rodriguez, Maguin Gutierrez, Heather M. Highland, Paul L. Hooper, Anne Justice, Thomas Kraft, Kari E. North, Jonathan Stieglitz, Hillard Kaplan, Benjamin C. Trumble, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

A growing body of work has addressed human adaptations to diverse environments using genomic data, but few studies have connected putatively selected alleles to phenotypes, much less among underrepresented populations such as Amerindians. Studies of natural selection and genotype–phenotype relationships in underrepresented populations hold potential to uncover previously undescribed loci underlying evolutionarily and biomedically relevant traits. Here, we worked with the Tsimane and the Moseten, two Amerindian populations inhabiting the Bolivian lowlands. We focused most intensively on the Tsimane, because long-term anthropological work with this group has shown that they have a high burden of both macro and microparasites, as …

Behavioral Strategies Of Prehistoric And Historic Children From Dental Microwear Texture Analysis, Almudena Estalrrich, Kristin L. Krueger

Anthropology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Reconstructing the dietary and behavioral strategies of our hominin ancestors is crucial to understanding their evolution, adaptation, and overall way of life. Teeth in general, and dental microwear specifically, provide a means to examine these strategies, with posterior teeth well positioned to tell us about diet, and anterior teeth helping us examine non-dietary tooth-use behaviors. Past research predominantly focused on strategies of adult individuals, leaving us to wonder the role children may have played in the community at large. Here we begin to address this by analyzing prehistoric and historic children through dental microwear texture analysis of deciduous anterior teeth.

Bureaucratic Sorceries In The Third Policeman: Anthropological Perspectives On Magic & Officialdom, Alexandra Irimia

Languages and Cultures Publications

This article discusses The Third Policeman through the lens of a dialectic of enchantment and disenchantment that is firmly anchored in the history of anthropological discourse on bureaucracy (Malinowski, Lévi-Strauss, Tambiah, Herzfeld, Graeber, Jones). From this angle, Flann O’Brien’s novel is examined as an aesthetic illustration of an essentially anthropological argument: although bureaucracy has been described as an eminently rational form of social systematisation, regulation, and control (since Weber), it also functions, paradoxically, as a symbolic site for irrationality and supernatural occurrences, haunted by madness, mystery, and delusion. The novel is intriguing partly due to its nonchalant, humorous entwining of …

“Americanized” Worship In Brazilian Churches, Leon C. Neto

Masters Theses

Motivated by the marketability of high-profile artists and bands, Christian churches worldwide may see the inclusion of profit-driven worship songs as a recruiting tool for their communities. This process of globalization or "Americanization" around the world, propagated by mass media, is yet to be thoroughly investigated. This trend is likely decreasing the use of indigenous styles in Christian worship. The primary purpose of this current study is to produce scientific data suggesting that “Americanized” worship is a trend in Brazil and is affecting the production of indigenous worship repertoire. An online questionnaire was developed and applied to Brazilian worship leaders. …

Utilizing Remote Sensing Technology To Relocate Lubra Village And Visualize Flood Damages, Ronan Wallace

Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science Honors Projects

As weather patterns change worldwide, isolated communities impacted by climate change go unnoticed and we need community and habitat-conscious solutions. In Himalayan Mustang, Nepal, indigenous Lubra village faces threats of increasing flash flooding. After every flood, residual concrete-like sediment hardens across the riverbed, causing the riverbed elevation to rise. As elevation increases, sediment encroaches on Lubra’s agricultural fields and homes, magnifying flood vulnerability. In the last monsoon season alone, the village witnessed floods swallowing several fields and damaging two homes. One solution considers relocating the village to a new location entirely. However, relocation poses a challenging task, as eight centuries …

A Preliminary Assessment Of Compassion Fatigue In Chimpanzee Caregivers, Mary Lee A. Jensvold

Anthropology and Museum Studies Faculty Scholarship

Compassion fatigue is defined as “traumatization of helpers through their efforts at helping others”. It has negative effects on clinicians including reduced satisfaction with work, fatigue, irritability, dread of going to work, and lack of joy in life. It is correlated with patients’ decreased satisfaction with care. Compassion fatigue occurs in a variety of helping professions including educators, social workers, mental health clinicians, and it also appears in nonhuman animal care workers. This study surveyed caregivers of chimpanzees using the ProQOL-V to assess the prevalence of compassion fatigue among this group. Compassion satisfaction is higher than many other types of …

The Demographic And Socioeconomic Patterns Of New Latino Immigrants In New York City In The 2010s, Qiyao Pan

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines the demographic and socioeconomic patterns of new immigrants that arrived between 2010 and 2019 in New York City. It focuses on the characteristics and shifting dynamics of these newcomers in three time periods: 2010-2012, 2013-2015, and 2016-2019.

Methods: This report uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) data for all years released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa, (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/index.shtml). See Public Use Microdata Series Steven Ruggles, J. Trent Alexander, Katie Genadek, Ronald Goeken, Matthew B. Schroeder, and Matthew Sobek. Integrated Public …

Education And Employment Trends Among Puerto Ricans In New York City, 1990-2019, Amber Ferrer

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction

This report examines demographic trends in educational attainment and employment among Puerto Ricans living in New York City between 1990 and 2019. The report also observes the relationship between race and gender with employment and education trends.

Methods

This report uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) data for all years released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa, (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/index.shtml). See Public Use Microdata Series Steven Ruggles, J. Trent Alexander, Katie Genadek, Ronald Goeken, Matthew B. Schroeder, and Matthew Sobek. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: …

The Socioeconomic Background Of The Covid-19 Pandemic In New York City: Latinos In Corona, Elmhurst, And Jackson Heights, 1990-2019, Oscar Aponte

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This report analyzes the socioeconomic conditions of Latinos between 1990 and 2019 in three of the neighborhoods in New York City hit the most by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of the number of cases and deaths per capita. The cases per capita in Corona, Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights neighborhoods were 1 in 19 people in Corona, 1 in 16 people in Elmhurst, and 1 in 19 people in Jackson Heights, significantly higher than the cases per capita in the rest of the city.

Methodology:

This study uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) for all …

Socioeconomic Conditions Of Foreign-Born And Domestic-Born Latinos In New York City, 1990-2018, Oscar Aponte

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction:

This study focuses on the socioeconomic conditions of the five largest Latino nationalities in New York City (Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Mexicans, Ecuadorians, and Colombians) between 1990 and 2018. The report reveals significant differences in the socioeconomic status of Latinos and other racial and ethnic groups as well as between foreign-born and domestic-born Latinos.

Methods:

This report uses the American Community Survey PUMS (Public Use Microdata Series) data for all years released by the Census Bureau and reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa, (https://usa.ipums.org/usa/index.shtml). See Public Use Microdata Series Steven Ruggles, J. Trent …

Utilization Of Gis In Tracking Disinterment And Movement Of Unknown Us Wwii War Dead: Foundations For A Geospatial Approach To Addressing Commingled Remains, Ella Axelrod

Anthropology Department: Theses

In the aftermath of World War II, the US was faced with the monumental task of finding and identifying over 405,000 service members who did not survive the conflict (McDermott, 2005, p. 1). Of these 405,000, 81,000 remain missing and 2,498 remain unidentified in cemeteries across Europe alone (American Battle Monuments Commission, 2022). Often, these individuals were interred and disinterred multiple times, crossing the continent in the journey from loss incident or battlefield to their final resting place. Commingling, the accidental mixing of remains, is an ever-present concern in the forensic identification of individuals from mass casualty incidents (Belcher et …

South-To-North Migration Preceded The Advent Of Intensive Farming In The Maya Region, Douglas J. Kennett, Mark Lipson, Keith M. Prufer, David Mora-Marín, Richard J. George, Nadin Rohland, Mark Robinson, Willa R. Trask, Heather H. J. Edgar, Ethan C. Hill, Erin E. Ray, Paige Lynch, Emily Moes, Lexi O’Donnell, Thomas K. Harper, Emily J. Kate, Josue Ramos, John Morris, Said M. Gutierrez

Faculty and Student Publications

The genetic prehistory of human populations in Central America is largely unexplored leaving an important gap in our knowledge of the global expansion of humans. We report genome-wide ancient DNA data for a transect of twenty individuals from two Belize rock-shelters dating between 9,600-3,700 calibrated radiocarbon years before present (cal. BP). The oldest individuals (9,600-7,300 cal. BP) descend from an Early Holocene Native American lineage with only distant relatedness to present-day Mesoamericans, including Mayan-speaking populations. After ~5,600 cal. BP a previously unknown human dispersal from the south made a major demographic impact on the region, contributing more than 50% of …

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 24. Wallace At 200: Potential Subjects For Student Theses, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

The bicentennial of Alfred Russel Wallace’s birth in 2023 will likely produce a wide array of reviews of his life and work; here, we pause for a short look at some Wallace-related questions that might be adapted for student theses and dissertations. Some of the subjects treated fall in with established lines of research, while others are suggested by other Wallace interests or activities that have not been much explored.

Presenting The Afriarch Isotopic Database, Steven Goldstein, Sean Hixon, Erin Scott, Jesse Wolfhagen, Victor Iminjili, Anneke Janzen, Kendra Chritz, Elizabeth Sawchuk, Emmanuel Ndiema, Judith C. Sealy, Abigail Stone, Gretchen Zoeller, Leanne N. Phelps, Ricardo Fernandes

Faculty Publications—Sociology and Anthropology

AfriArch is an archaeological and paleoenvironmental data community designed to integrate datasets related to human-environmental interactions in Holocene Africa. Here we present a dataset of bioarchaeological stable isotope (C/N/O) and radiocarbon measurements from African archaeological sites spanning the Holocene. Modern measurements, when reported together with archaeological data in original publications, are also included. The dataset consists of 5568 entries and covers the entirety of Africa, though most isotopic research has been concentrated in southern Africa. The AfriArch isotopic dataset can be used in paleodietary, paleodemography, paleoclimatic, and paleoenvironmental studies. It can also be employed to highlight data gaps across space …

Uncomfortable Yet Necessary: The Impact Of Ppe On Communication In Emergency Medicine, Jennifer Aengst, Grace A. Walker-Stevenson, Tabria Harrod, Jonathan Ivankovic, Jacob Neilson, Jeanne-Marie Guise

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: The efficacy of pre-hospital emergency services is heavily dependent on the effective communication of care providers. This effective communication occurs between providers as part of a team, but also among providers interacting with family members and patients. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a number of communication challenges to emergency care, which are primarily linked to the increased use of PPE.

Methods: We sought to analyze the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on Emergency Medical Service (EMS) workers and pre-hospital care delivery. We conducted focus groups and one-on-one interviews with fire-EMS first responders between Sept 2021 and 2022. Interviews …

High-Metabolism Infrastructure And The Scrap Industry In Urban China, Adam Liebman

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty publications

Abstract

Rapid urbanization in 21st-century China has been fraught with contested demolition, overdevelopment and shoddy infrastructure with short lifespans. By viewing this infrastructure as having “high metabolism” and examining the urban scrap trade that is fuelled by its material outputs, this article challenges a common assumption that such a form of urbanization is merely wasteful and problematic. Crucially, such urbanization also puts rural migrants and scrap into motion in a way that helps to reproduce its form. This occurs by generating socio-material nodes of scrap trading wherein migrants make the most of temporarily stable situations with entrepreneurialism. The nodes are …

Teaching Time; Disrupting Common Sense, Kevin Birth

Publications and Research

In my course “Time” I set out to disrupt the connection between cognitive tools used to represent time (clocks and calendars) and experiences of time. This article documents some of the topics and pedagogical methods I use: using unusual due dates for assignments, making the clock look strange, disrupting the idea of “now,” showing how clocks cultivate gullibility, exploring the different hour systems of the past, criticizing clock-based logics used in primatological research, explaining the theory of special relativity, and exploring the political and economic consequences of sleep loss.

Moving Beyond Gender Bias, Mariam Ayad Dr.

Sociology, Egyptology & Anthropology Department: Faculty Work

No abstract provided.

A 14,100 Cal B. P. Rocky Mountain Locust Cache From Winnemucca Lake, Pershing County, Nevada, Evan J. Pellegrini, Eugene M. Hattori, Larry Benson, John Southon, Hojun Song, Derek A. Woller

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

The remains of approximately 1000 (MNI) Rocky Mountain locusts (Melanoplus spretus) from an archaeological cache pit in Crypt Cave, Winnemucca (dry) Lake, Nevada, date to between 14,305–14,067 calendar years before present (95.4 % confidence; 12,238 ± 18 ¹⁴C yrs. B.P.). The age of this western Great Basin occupation along the shoreline of Lake Lahontan is consistent with occupation of several other Western North American terminal Pleistocene sites dating prior to 14,000 cal. B.P., including distinctive petroglyphs on the western shore of Winnemucca Lake dating as early as 14,800–13,200 cal. B.P.

Ancient Lowland Maya Neighborhoods: Average Nearest Neighbor Analysis And Kernel Density Models, Environments, And Urban Scale, Amy E. Thompson, John P. Walden, Adrian Z. Chase, Scott R. Hutson, Damien Marken, Bernadette Cap, Eric Fries, M. Rodrigo Guzman Piedrasanta, Timothy S. Hare, Sherman W. Horn Iii, George J. Micheletti, Shane M. Montgomery, Jessica Munson, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kyle Shaw-Müller, Traci Ardren, Jaime J. Awe, M. Kathryn Brown, Michael Callaghan, Claire E. Ebert, Anabel Ford, Rafael A. Guerra, Julie A. Hoggarth, Brigitte Kovacevich, John M. Morris, Holley Moyes, Terry G. Powis, Jason Yaeger, Brett A. Houk, Keith M. Prufer, Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple methods have been employed to identify ancient neighborhoods in archaeological contexts. However, the use of different methods for neighborhood identification within the same spatiotemporal setting results in challenges for comparisons within and between ancient societies. Here, we focus on using a single method—combining Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and Kernel Density (KD) …

Ancient Lowland Maya Neighborhoods: Average Nearest Neighbor Analysis And Kernel Density Models, Environments, And Urban Scale, Amy E. Thompson, John P. Walden, Adrian S.Z. Chase, Scott R. Hutson, Damien B. Marken, Bernadette Cap, Eric C. Fries, M. Rodrigo Guzman Piedrasanta, Timothy S. Hare, Sherman W. Horn, George J. Micheletti, Shane M. Montgomery, Jessica Munson, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kyle Shaw-Müller, Traci Ardren, Jaime J. Awe, M. Kathryn Brown, Michael Callaghan, Claire E. Ebert, Anabel Ford, Rafael A. Guerra, Julie A. Hoggarth, Brigitte Kovacevich, John M. Morris, Holley Moyes, Terry G. Powis, Jason Yaeger, Brett A. Houk, Keith M. Prufer, Arlen F. Chase, Diane Z. Chase

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Many humans live in large, complex political centers, composed of multi-scalar communities including neighborhoods and districts. Both today and in the past, neighborhoods form a fundamental part of cities and are defined by their spatial, architectural, and material elements. Neighborhoods existed in ancient centers of various scales, and multiple methods have been employed to identify ancient neighborhoods in archaeological contexts. However, the use of different methods for neighborhood identification within the same spatiotemporal setting results in challenges for comparisons within and between ancient societies. Here, we focus on using a single method-combining Average Nearest Neighbor (ANN) and Kernel Density (KD) …

Mobility Interrupted: A New Framework For Understanding Anti-Left Sentiment Among Brazil’S “Once-Rising Poor”, Benjamin Junge, Sean T. Mitchell, Charles H. Klein, Matthew Spearly

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

How do sequences of upward and downward socioeconomic mobility influence political views among those who have “risen” or “fallen” during periods of leftist governance? While existing studies identify a range of factors, long-term mobility trajectories have been largely unexplored. The question has particular salience in contemporary Brazil, where, after a decade of extraordinary poverty reduction on the watch of the leftist Workers’ Party (PT), a subsequent period of economic and political crises intensified anti-PT sentiment. This article uses original data from the 2016 Brazil’s Once-Rising Poor (BORP) Survey, using a 3-city sample of 822 poor and working-class Brazilians to analyze …

George Floyd In Papua: Image-Events And The Art Of Resonance, Karen Strassler

Publications and Research

This article offers an introduction to the “image-event” as both concept and method through a focus on the circulation of images around the killing of George Floyd. It examines how these images reverberated and resonated in West Papua, a restive region of Indonesia that has been the site of a long-standing separatist movement. It critically examines a celebratory media discourse that sees the US-based Black Lives Matter movement as expanding outward to spark similar movements elsewhere, a logic that reiterates long-standing colonialist narratives that figure places like Papua as backwaters belatedly receiving and imitatively taking up ideas that flow from …

Factors Influencing Terrestriality In Primates Of The Americas And Madagascar, Timothy M. Eppley, Selwyn Hoeks, Colin A. Chapman, Joerg U. Ganzhorn, Katie Hall, Megan A. Owen, Dara B. Adams, Néstor Allgas, Multiple Additional Authors

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Among mammals, the order Primates is exceptional in having a high taxonomic richness in which the taxa are arboreal, semiterrestrial, or terrestrial. Although habitual terrestriality is pervasive among the apes and African and Asian monkeys (catarrhines), it is largely absent among monkeys of the Americas (platyrrhines), as well as galagos, lemurs, and lorises (strepsirrhines), which are mostly arboreal. Numerous ecological drivers and species-specific factors are suggested to set the conditions for an evolutionary shift from arboreality to terrestriality, and current environmental conditions may provide analogous scenarios to those transitional periods. Therefore, we investigated predominantly arboreal, diurnal primate genera from the …

Employing Respondent Driven Sampling (Rds) To Recruit People Who Inject Drugs (Pwid) And Other Hard-To-Reach Populations During Covid-19: Lessons Learned, Roberto Abadie, Patrick Habecker, Kimberly Gocchi Carrasco, Kathy S. Chiou, Samodha C. Fernando, Sydney Townsend, Aníbal Valentin-Acevedo, Kirk Dombrowski, John T. West, Charles Wood

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

Background: Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) is an effective sampling strategy to recruit hard-to-reach populations but the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of this strategy in the collection of data involving human subjects, particularly among marginalized and vulnerable populations, is not known. Based on an ongoing study using RDS to recruit and study the interactions between HIV infection, injection drug use, and the microbiome in Puerto Rico, this paper explores the e􀀀ectiveness of RDS during the pandemic and provided potential strategies that could improve recruitment and data collection.

Results: RDS was employed to evaluate its effectiveness …

Academic And Social Acculturation Experiences Of Underschooled Latin American English Learners: A Phenomenological Study, Deborah Kay Blackledge

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to explore the acculturation experiences of underschooled Latin American English Learners (ELs) in a secondary school in the southern part of the United States. The underschooled ELs are defined as English learners ranging in ages from 13-17 years old who have come from another country in Latin America within a three-year time span having three years or less of educational schooling in their native country. The sampling size for this study consisted of eight EL students in grades seventh through tenth grade. The subsequent central question guided the study: What are the …

Anth 101 Introduction To Cultural Anthropology, Antonia M. Santangelo

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Bulletin Of The Massachusetts Archaeological Society Vol. 83, No. 1 – 2, Massachusetts Archaeological Society

Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society

• Editor’s Notes (Ryan Wheeler)
• Forgotten Foundations: Remote Sensing and Excavations of the Mansion House at Phillips Academy (Ryan H. Collins)
• 500-Year-Old Late Woodland Lithic Workshop in an Estuarine Environment at the Cut River In Marshfield, Massachusetts (Alan E. Strauss)
• Nashaquitsa Site, Martha’s Vineyard (Andrew J. Stanzeski and John Stanzeski)
• The Zooarchaeological Remains of the Nashaquitsa Site, Martha’s Vineyard (Sara M. Magee, David C. Parris, Dana J. Ehret, and Gregory D. Lattanzi)
• Predictive Models for Locating Inland and Coastal Villages in Northern Essex and Middlesex Counties, Massachusetts (Mary Ellen Lepionka and Timothy Gondola)
• Contributors.

‘Too Shy To Talk About This Topic’: The Impacts Of Gender Conceptions On The Embodied Sexual Experiences And Perceptions Of Urban Vietnamese Students In Ho Chi Minh City, Lily Kafka

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper aims to articulate how ‘traditional’ gender roles are resisted, conformed to, and changed among youth within the context of Vietnam’s emerging market economy and consumer culture. Thus, a comprehensive understanding of how gender conceptions have progressed throughout Vietnamese history was a significant portion of my research. The data collection consisted of qualitative data through online surveys and in-depth interviews to understand the impacts of Vietnamese gender conceptions on the embodied sexual experiences and perceptions of university students in Ho Chi Minh City. My findings suggest that contemporary Vietnamese youth, specifically students residing in Ho Chi Minh City, are …

El Significado Cultural De La Platería Mapuche Contemporánea, Anna Frankel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mapuche silver jewelry (rüxan) is one of the best known symbols of the Mapuche people and is an important aspect of their history and cultural tradition. Silver jewelry production reached its peak in the mid-19th century, but declined drastically with the Chilean invasion and annexation of Mapuche territory in 1883. Despite this loss, Mapuche rüxan and rüxafes (silversmiths) exist to this day.

I analyzed the modern use and relevance of mapuche jewelry to understand why this tradition has survived the repression and poverty the mapuche people have faced. I asked the question: What are the roles of silverware in the …