Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Archaeological And Historical Investigation Of The Blount Mansion Slave Quarters, Brooke Hamby

Masters Theses

Introduction: Archaeologists have been studying African-American material culture during slavery and subsequent freedom since the 1960's (McCarthy 1995). While most historians believed that no trace of African culture remained through slavery and consequent oppression, archaeologists (McCarthy 1995) and anthropologists (Herskovits 1941) sought to prove that African-Americans persisted with their culture as a rebellion or reaction to their forced migration to the Americas (Ferguson 1992). In studying African-Americans in archaeological context, historical archaeologists have not had to change thier methodology but had to modify their interpretive approach. Because a culture historical framework tells us only what types of artifacts African-Americans possessed, …

Multiple Regression Of Body Weight On Stature And Waist For Estimation In Forensic Anthropology, Eldred L. Pierce

Masters Theses

Questions have been present in the forensic literature for many years about the most proper and accurate method for calculation of human body weight. Many have tried and failed to measure aspects of the human skeleton and find some correlation with body weight at the time of death. This has never been possible and selected skeletal measurements regressed against known weight will bear this out. Simple measurements of the femur were regressed with weight and with stature to show that skeletal measurements in general have a higher correlation with stature than with weight. The bulk of this thesis will deal …

Identifying Osseous Cut Mark Morphology For Common Serrated Knives, Jenny Rebecca Martin

Masters Theses

Worldwide crime statistics indicate that while the firearm is the instrument of choice used in the commission of homicide, bladed weapons run a very close second. This being the case, the analysis of these implements and the cut marks they create in soft and osseous tissues demands the attention of the medico-legal and law enforcement community, particularly forensic pathologists and anthropologists. To this end, the author and several colleagues inflicted stab wounds with three pairs of common serrated-edged kitchen knives of differing blade structures to the thoracic areas of three euthanized domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) and examine the cut marks …

Exploring Thematic Balance In Personal Narrative As A Marker For Responsiveness, Laura G. Porter

Masters Theses

Research on personal narrative as a template or map that organizes experience and creates a lens for the interpretation of reality has largely relied on structural analysis for its assessments of adequacy. As a synthesis of beliefs and values with actions, thoughts, and feelings, however, the tone and thematic quality of an individual's life story must also shape the narrative compass that guides interactions in the social world. Among these elements, one's theory of reality will exert a significant impact on the overall context within which the specific unfolding of narrative plots occurs. In Western societies in particular, this perspective …

The Rime Of The Ancient Miners, Jay Douglas Franklin

Masters Theses

Terminal Archaic hunter-gatherers explored and heavily utilized deep passages of 3^rd Unnamed Cave, which lies at the bottom of the Western Cumberland Plateau Escarpment in north central Tennessee. Footprints, torch stoke marks, chert mining pits with digging stick marks, flintknapping debris accumulations and associated fireplaces, and petroglyphs remain as evidence of this intensive utilization. The focus of this thesis is largely technological, centering on the chert mining and subsequent reduction activities that followed. Specifically, insight into four major issues is developed, including the nature of the flintknapping activities practiced deep within 3^rd Unnamed Cave, the goal(s) of the …

Gender Negotiation On The East Tennessee Frontier: An Example From The Bell Site, Thomas Charles Stinson

Masters Theses

Archaeological investigations involving questions of gender have become more prominent in recent years. Material recovered from the Bell Site (40KN202), the remains of an 18^th-century log house in Knoxville, Tennessee is examined to determine the role of women on the East Tennessee frontier. Historical information concerning social structuring of gender roles in the 18^th and 19^th century America is examined to determine the social factors involved in gender construction, and the impact these factors may have had on women living on the East Tennessee frontier. This documentary data is then compared with artifacts excavated at 40KN202. …

The Development And Application Of A Digitized Image Database For The Estimation Of Age Based On Bone Histology, John Edward Mailen

Masters Theses

In this study, digital image analysis was incorporated into existing regression formulas for age estimation. Previous studies in forensic anthropology have utilized only the manual counting of Basic Structural Units (BSUs) within the bone matrix for age estimation. The integration of an image database with the accepted regression formulas (Kerley 1965 and Kerley and Ubelaker 1978) allows for data to be reexamined without having to be sampled from the original slides. Thus, the data will have a more dynamic nature, where it could be investigated by other researchers from the original readings. In addition, the data can help train future …

Cut Mark Classification With Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis, Jennifer Cheryl Love

Masters Theses

Cut marks are preserved records of human activity and are used by anthropologists for a variety of purposes including reconstructing past events. Presently, examination of surface modifications with a dissecting or scanning electron microscope is the most common technique for mark classification. Although appropriate for morphologically typical marks, these methods are subjective and non-applicable to atypical marks. In light of these limitations, the author attempted to develop a method that utilized residual material transferred from a weapon to the bone for classification.

Recent advancements in electron microscopy led to the development of the environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM) equipped with …

Diffusion Of Innovations Theory Applied: The Adoption Of Digital On-Demand Technology By Book Publishers And Printers, Jill Cohen Walker

Masters Theses

Desktop publishing rose in popularity during the late 1980s, allowing whole documents—books, journals, reports, etc.—to be created on computers. The printing industry had to develop compatible technology to accommodate the changes in document creation. In response to desktop publishing, digital printing appeared in 1990 with the invention of computer-to-plate technology. In its earliest days, it was limited to specific commercial applications such as check and business-form printing.

An amalgam of several technologies, digital printing has evolved and on-demand printing has matured into a book-printing technology that starts with the creation of a document and ends with the shipping of the …

Estimating Sex And Weight Of Odocoileus Virginiamus (Whitetail Deer) With Implications To Human Status At Toqua, Christian Deforest Davenport

Masters Theses

Whitetail deer (Odocoileus virginianus) was one of the prevalent food resources of human beings in both prehistoric and early historic North America (Smith 1975). This paper shall explore deer selection by prehistoric hunters though analysis of deer remains from Toqua (40MR6). Toqua is a multicomponent site spanning from the late Mississippian (AD 1200-1600) through the historic Overhill Cherokee Period (AD1600-1800) in Tennessee (Polhemus 1987: 1246). Previous work done by Bogan (1980), demonstrated a status related distribution not only between species but also within species at this site. This is typified by the presence of axial portions of whitetail …