Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Archaeological And Historical Investigation Of A 19th Century Leprosarium At Hassel Island, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Amanda Marie Barton

Masters Theses

Located on Hassel Island, a small island off the coast of Charlotte Amalie, in St. Thomas, USVI, a small leprosarium, or quarantine hospital for those affected with leprosy, was in operation from 1833 to 1861 as a way to isolate those with leprosy from the general population. Surface and sub-surface excavations took place over the spring and summer of 2008 in preparation for proposed National Park Service hiking trail that would be laid parallel to the site remains.

Firstly, this thesis provides a historical background on leprosy, as well as a background on how leprosy and disease has been studied …

Contextualizing The Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site (40wg59): Understanding Landscape Change At An Upland South Farmstead., Daniel Whitaker Howard Brock

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on a contextual archaeological approach to investigate the historic landscape of the Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site. Tipton-Haynes is a late eighteenth- through twentieth-century upland south farmstead located in Johnson City, TN. Home to two prominent Tennessee families and occupied until acquired by the state in the 1960s, the site has experienced many alterations to the landscape over time. The analysis presented views the landscape as material culture investigated through a multidisciplinary approach including historic research, architectural survey, geophysical survey, dendrochronology, and archaeology. To make sense of the complex nature of the Tipton-Haynes site, multiple methods were used …

Anthropological Apologetics: A Proposal Of An Anthropological Compendium As Evidence For The Imago Dei, Jeffrey R. Dickson

Masters Theses

Evangelical scholarship has shown great admiration for the work of Gary Habermas and others in their contribution to Christian apologetics by validating the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ with a list of minimal facts generally agreed to by historical and biblical scholars. This thesis will explore the methodology of the minimal facts approach and appropriate it as a tool to explore the data within the field of anthropology which offers evidence for the biblical concept of the Imago Dei. This study will focus on Wolfhart Pannenberg in his critically acclaimed work demonstrating the importance of the theological perspective …

(Re)Conceptualizing Death: Examining Attitudes Toward Death At The Anthropological Research Facility, Kiley Nicole Compton

Masters Theses

The Anthropological Research Facility (ARF), commonly known as the “Body Farm,” provides a unique research setting in which researchers work intimately with human remains in various stages of decomposition. While the ARF, and forensic anthropology, is well documented in popular culture, little academic research has been conducted to investigate the sociocultural phenomena associated with working with human remains.

This thesis investigates the reactions and attitudes toward death of those involved in operational and administrative duties at the ARF focusing on how these attitudes influence and are influenced by involvement at the facility. This research also provides a point of departure …

Green In A Sea Of Pink: Environmental Reframing Of Mainstream Breast Cancer, Amy Elizabeth Scanzillo

Masters Theses

As a contested illness, breast cancer has mainstream and alternate narratives that vie to shape related scientific research and legislative policy. The mainstream breast cancer movement (MBCM) shapes the dominant discourse of breast cancer risk, prevention, and cure through the utilization of the conventional biomedical model of knowledge. The environmental breast cancer movement (EBCM) contests the mainstream breast cancer narrative because EBCM activists argue that it supports an unequal power dynamic and does not adequately reflect breast cancer risk and prevention. Through the incorporation of citizen science and the precautionary principle into breast cancer research and policy, EBCM activists reframe …

An Analysis Of Personal Adornment At Fort St. Joseph (20be23), An Eighteenth-Century French Trading Post In Southwest Michigan, Ian B. Kerr

Masters Theses

Since 1998 Western Michigan University archaeologists have investigated Fort St. Joseph (20BE23), an 18th century mission, garrison and trading post located in present day Niles, Michigan. The project’s research directive focuses on exploring notions of identity formation and its material expression in light of the prolonged and persistent cultural contact between Native Americans and Europeans at the site.

This thesis seeks to further this directive by exploring how personal adornment materiality both structures and broadcasts individuals’ social identities. By employing an intrasite spatial analysis of the assemblage of adornment artifacts from recognized domestic contexts at Fort St. Joseph this thesis …

Archaeological Investigations Of Control And Autonomy At The Colony Farm Of The Michigan State Asylum, 1880-1950, Alison Thornton

Masters Theses

This project is designed to look into mechanisms of control and patient autonomy in institutional confinement, using Colony Farm in Kalamazoo, Michigan as a case study. I have chosen to specifically examine landscape, architecture, foodways, and personal goods/dress as avenues in which to parse out information regarding control and autonomy. The main themes throughout this paper are work as a cure, patient labor, and the blurring of roles between patients, staff members, and paid hired workers. These themes are intertwined with landscape, architecture, foodways, and personal goods/dress and highlight the contradictions inherent in institutional confinement, especially in the context of …

Chenopodium Berlandieri And The Cultural Origins Of Agriculture In The Eastern Woodlands, Daniel Shelton Robinson

Masters Theses

The development of agriculture in the New World has been a topic of prominent historic interest, but one that has ignored some regions in favor of others. The woodlands of Eastern North America have felt this bias in the investigation of agricultural origins, but this has not prevented the development of theories to explain the emergence of a complex of indigenous agricultural plants in the region. Data collection and technological advances have in large part validated these theories, creating a model for domestication. By emphasizing farming over other cultural practices, however, these theories lack explanatory power with regards to the …

Plant Remains, Investment Strategies, And Site Processes: Two Sites Along The Nolichucky River In Greene County, Tennessee, Jessie Luella Johanson

Masters Theses

Sites 40GN228 and 40GN229, located in Greene County, Tennessee, provide a record of subsistence change and variation in landscape management practices spanning from the Late Paleoindian to the Pisgah phase of the Mississippian period. The botanical remains from these sites detail changing plant-human relationships over a 12,000-year time span in the upper Ridge and Valley of eastern Tennessee. The expansive temporal and spatial scale of the two sites presented an opportunity to evaluate the plant assemblages on several levels. The substantial cultural deposits allowed a synchronic and diachronic look into plant use. In addition, the geographic proximity of the two …

A Tale Of Two Shelters: Using Xrf Analysis To Assess Compositional Variability Of Pottery From Two Sites In Franklin County, Tennessee, Sierra May Bow

Masters Theses

The Southern Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee is an area characterized by the presence of thousands of caves and perhaps tens of thousands of rock shelters which served many purposes during the prehistoric Woodland Period (ca. 1000 B.C.-1000 A.D.). This thesis will discuss two Woodland rockshelter sites situated along the western escarpment of the South Cumberland Plateau.

The Griffin Rockshelter is a relatively small sandstone shelter which contains a predominantly Late Woodland archaeological component. Recovered artifacts consist of a wide assortment of material remains including fauna, shell, and lithics, and over 700 pottery sherds. In addition, the shelter contains engraved petroglyphs …

The Distribution Of Paleoindian Debitage From The Pliestocene Terrace At The Topper Site: An Evaluation Of A Possible Pre-Clovis Occupation (38al23), Megan King

Masters Theses

The lithic debitage excavated from units where pre-Clovis material was found were analyzed using mass analysis as well as individual flake analysis. Statistical analyses were performed to test whether or not the assemblages associated with known occupation were similar to those associated with pre-Clovis levels. No significant difference was observed between the physical attributes of the lithic debitage found within strata associated with known prehistoric populations and the lithics found within pre-Clovis aged deposits. Two alternate explanations for these patterns exist: one which argues for the presence of a legitimate pre-Clovis occupation at the Topper Site and the other citing …

Orientalism And Three British Dames: De-Essentialization Of The Other In The Work Of Gertrude Bell, Freya Stark, And E.S. Drower, Lynn Sawyer

Masters Theses

Although postcolonial criticism has run its course for thirty years, a fresh look at Edward Said's Orientalism offers insight into how Orientalism functions in the writings of three British dames. Gertrude Bell in The Desert and the Sown, Freya Stark in The Southern Gates of Arabia, and E.S. Drower in The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran, however, challenge Said's theory. Their writing raises questions about how gender alters the discourse about the Other, and whether Said essentializes the Occident. Bell, Stark, and Drower serve as case studies in which to analyze the politically and rhetorically complex interactions between the West …