Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cooperative Conservation: Increasing Capacity Through Community Partnerships: Cultural Site Stewardship Program: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending December 31, 2004, Margaret N. Rees

Cultural Site Stewardship Program

A list of cultural sites unique to each of the four agencies is in the process of being compiled by the project manager. The first round, currently numbering more than 300 sites, is being defined in general categories by location and urgency for attention. Additions, refinements, and corrections will be ongoing.

Trainers for Nevada Heritage Site Stewardship were questioned in order to begin tailoring operating procedures for CSSP recruitment and training.

Memoirs Of A Public Intellectual, Chandan Gowda

Chandan Gowda

No abstract provided.

Employment Guarantee For Rural India, A Ganesh-Kumar, Srijit Mishra, Manoj Panda

Srijit Mishra

A report of a round-table discussion held in Mumbai in November 2004 on the proposed employment guarantee programme.

Burial Practices In Southern Appalachia., Donna W. Stansberry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted in an attempt to determine whether certain burial practices are unique to the people of Southern Appalachia. Eight individuals were interviewed, including a minister and a funeral director. As a result of the research, it was found that, although a strong sense of community and religion still prevails, making certain burial rituals distinctive to the people of Southern Appalachia, they are slowly eroding due to the growing presence of the modern American funeral industry.

Qualitative research methods were used to analyze a segment of the Southern Appalachian population, with literature reviews of related material and in-depth …

Earth Movers, Marion Lloyd

Marion Lloyd

For much of the last half century, archaeologists viewed the South American rain forest as a "counterfeit paradise," a region whose inhospitable environment precluded the development of complex societies. But new research suggests that prehistoric man found ways to overcome the jungle's natural limitations -- and to thrive in this environment in large numbers.

Seeking After Empire: Bioarchaeologists And American Indians In The New Millennium, Michelle Dawn Hamilton

Doctoral Dissertations

New and amended cultural resource laws are changing the academic and scientific landscape of North American bioarchaeology and archaeology. The passage of the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990 was an important watershed event in the history of the discipline of biological anthropology, and the increasingly successful utilization of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act by federally recognized sovereign tribes is resulting in unanticipated legal restrictions on the scientific collection of bioarchaeological data from American Indian skeletal remains and mortuary site settings.

The evolving relationships between bioarchaeologists and American Indians is examined in the context …

Biological And Statistical Variation In Age Estimation From Pubic Symphyseal Morphology With Regard To Individual Identification And Demographic Profiling, Erin H. Kimmerle

Doctoral Dissertations

Population variation in the morphological aging process of the pubic symphysis has generated much debate. The question of whether age parameters derived from an American population will reliably estimate age-at-death for East European skeletal populations is important since the ability to accurately estimate an individual’s age-at-death hinges on what standard is used. Consequently, successful age estimation, individual identification, and demographic profiling rests on the ability to correctly define the skeletal parameters of age-at-death.

The purpose of this study is to assess the aging process of American and East European populations and to determine what age parameters should be applied to …

A Test Of The Multiregional Hypothesis Of Modern Human Origins Using Basicranial Evidence From Indonesia And Australia, Authur C. Durband

Doctoral Dissertations

Proponents of the Multiregional Hypothesis of modern human origins have consistently stated that the material from Australasia provides one of the most compelling examples of regional continuity in the human fossil record. According to these workers, features found in the earliest Homo erectus fossils from Java can be traced through more advanced hominids from Ngandong and are found in both fossil and recent Australian Aborigines. For this study, non-metric observations will be used to determine the degree of similarity between earlier Homo erectus from Sangiran, the Ngandong fossils (including the Sambungmacan hominids), and fossil/modern Australian Aborigines in the cranial base. …

"Slash And Burn: A Swidden Critique Of Sri Lankan Anthropology." (Review Of Anthropologizing Sri Lanka: A Eurocentric Misadventure, By Susantha Goonatilake.), Arjun Guneratne

Arjun Guneratne

No abstract provided.

Is Empathy Gendered And If So, Why? An Approach From Feminist Psychological Anthropology, Claudia Strauss

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Difference feminists have argued that women have special virtues. One such virtue would seem to be empathy, which has three main components: imaginative projection, awareness of the other's emotions, and concern. Empathy is closely related to identification. Psychological research and the author's own study of women's and men's talk about poverty and welfare use in the United States demonstrate women's greater empathic concern. However, some cross-cultural research shows greater sex differences in empathy in the United States than elsewhere. This combination of findings (women tend to demonstrate greater empathic concern, but this typical difference varies cross-culturally) requires a complex biocultural …

Property As Legal Knowledge: Means And Ends, Annelise Riles

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This article takes anthropologists’ renewed interest in property theory as an opportunity to consider legal theory-making as an ethnographic subject in its own right. My focus is on one particular construct – the instrument, or relation of means to ends, that animates both legal and anthropological theories about property. An analysis of the workings of this construct leads to the conclusion that rather than critique the ends of legal knowledge, the anthropology of property should devote itself to articulating its own means.

Trop De Soleil Tue L'Amour : Une Expression De L'Écriture Du Mal-Être De Mongo Beti, Rodolphine Sylvie Wamba

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The classical and dissident African writer Mongo Beti perpetually uses the theme of man’s quest for freedom in everything he does. In fact, the philosophy of “Rubénism” is found in each of his works. Given that man must survive in the “ocean of shit” he lives in, the writer, using a popular language, freely chooses to add some humour to everyday life. Thus, the text we studied appeared as a genuine thriller, complete with comedy and tragedy, which presents a deviation from more formal writing. This is the main idea of this analysis, which consists of showing Trop de soleil …

Édouard Glissant : Du Dé-Lire Verbal Au Discours Maîtrisé, Katell Colin-Thébaudeau

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article questions the experience of delirium of the character of Marie Celat and places it in relation to the violence of identity and cultural alienation linked to the history of the West Indies. Using the word “Odono” as a pretext, which was transmitted to the character by a family tale, the text tackles the problem of the identity and origin of the subject. In Marie Celat’s delirium, the reference to “Odono” opens the way for diverse positions on the subject of enunciation, stretching the historical truth into an a-temporal, a-spatial, “out of chronology” event. The words juxtapose each other …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 10, Iss. 2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

Four thousand years ago, Archaic period peoples hunted swordfish in the Gulf of Maine. In addition to fauna remains, archaeologists have recovered stone representations of the distinctive sword-shaped bill, suggesting that these animals had a cultural significance that went beyond their dietary value. What archaeologists don't know is precisely where and how the fish were taken. In our own time, swordfish rarely come inshore. Commercial operators, both harpooners and long-liners, fish the eastern side of Brown's and George's Banks and points farther along the continental shelf. Even if hunters of the Archaic period could travel that distance, it would have …

Seeking After Empire: Bioarchaeologists And American Indians In The New Millenium, Michelle Dawn Hamilton

Doctoral Dissertations

New and amended cultural resource laws are changing the academic and scientific landscape of North American bioarchaeology and archaeology. The passage of the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990 was an important watershed event in the history of the discipline of biological anthropology, and the increasingly successful utilization of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act by federally recognized sovereign tribes is resulting in unanticipated legal restrictions on the scientific collection of bioarchaeological data from American Indian skeletal remains and mortuary site settings.

The evolving relationship between bioarchaeologists and American Indians is examined in the context …

Preliminary Report On The Faunal Remains And Taphonomic Analysis Of Plover's Lake Cave, Cradle Of Humankind, South Africa, Juliet Krueger Brophy

Masters Theses

This study examines a sample faunal assemblage from Plover’s Lake Cave, South Africa, and uses the faunal identification and taphonomic indicators to determine the bone accumulating agents and make inferences about their behavior and environment. Fossil assemblages can be dramatically affected by ancient bone collectors as evident by their taphonomic signatures. The taphonomic overprint given to a site is typically due to episodic factors and the paleoenvironmental reconstructions that are based upon these assemblages must take into account any biases the accumulating agents may impart. After performing several analyses involving bone modification and taxonomic abundance, I suggest three accumulators were …

Molecular Anthropology And The Punta Lobos Assemblage: Dna-Based Sex-Typing Of Juveniles From Ancient Hair Samples, Adriane Michelle Scola

Masters Theses

The recent proliferation of techniques suitable for DNA recovery in ancient samples has prompted anthropological researchers to explore molecular-based investigations of human remains from archaeological contexts. This study demonstrates the utility of ancient DNA analysis to strengthen a site-specific demographic profile from the Punta Lobos assemblage. DNA extraction via a silica-based extraction technique from juvenile hair bulb samples and further DNA amplification via high cycle-number PCR was undertaken to genetically type individual sex. Morphologically indeterminate subadult samples were typed as biological males when amplification was successful. The inclusion of preliminary amplification results from a mitochondrial DNA marker suggests that DNA …

The Devil And The Land Of The Holy Cross: Witchcraft, Slavery And Popular Religion In Colonial Brazil, Stephen Selka

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Book review of The Devil and the Land of the Holy Cross: Witchcraft, Slavery and Popular Religion in Colonial Brazil. Laura de Mello e Souza. Translated by Diane Grosklaus Whitty. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003. xxiii + 350 pp., tables, notes, glossary, bibliography, index. ISBN 0-292-7023601.

Amazon Sweet Sea: Land, Life, And Water At The River’S Mouth, Alf Hornborg

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Book review of Amazon Sweet Sea: Land, Life, and Water at the River’s Mouth. Nigel J.H. Smith. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002. xii + 296 pp., plates, map, notes, appendix, bibliography, index. ISBN 0-292-77770-1.

La Vivienda Colectiva De Los Yanomami, Graziano Gasparini, Luise Margolies

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article on the shapono, the traditional dwelling of the Yanomami, is taken from our book, Arquitectura Indígena de Venezuela. The Yanomami are one of the three indigenous groups of the tropical forest region of lowland Venezuela who build large collective dwellings that house the entire community. In contrast to the neighboring Ye’kwana and Wôthuha, who inhabit closed structures located near large waterways, the Yanomami are forest people whose traditional shapono is a structure opening onto a large central patio. Here, we examine the cultural division of space into private, semiprivate, and public areas in the context of Yanomami …

Steps To A Political Ecology Of Amazonia, Steven L. Rubenstein

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Many recent studies of Amazonia have documented the ways in which agents of the state or capital seek to colonize not only indigenous land and labor, but indigenous desires as well. This colonization of the third kind has disastrous consequences: recently, William Fisher asked, “Why ... did it seem that Xikrin would sell their grandchildren’s environmental birthright just at the moment when reservations were finally being demarcated and boundaries guaranteed for generations to come?” Here I argue that this sort of question must become one of the central concerns of Amazonian ethnology. Drawing on work by Fisher and others, I …

Histories And Historicities In Amazonia, Minna Opas

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Book review of Histories and Historicities in Amazonia. Neil L. Whitehead, editor. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003. xx + 236 pp., maps, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 0-8032-9817-X.

Molecular Anthropology And The Punta Lobos Assemblage: Dna-Based Sex-Typing Of Juveniles From Ancient Hair Samples, Adriane Michelle Scola

Masters Theses

The recent proliferation of techniques suitable for DNA recovery in ancient samples has prompted anthropological researchers to explore molecular-based investigations of human remains from archaeological contexts. The study demonstrates the utility of ancient DNA analysis to strengthen a site-specific demographic profile from the Punta Lobos assemblage. DNA extraction via a silica-based extraction technique from juvenile hair bulb samples and further DNA amplification via high cycle-number PRC was undertaken to genetically type individual sex. Morphologically intermediate subadult samples were typed as biological males when amplification was successful. The inclusion of preliminary amplification results form a mitochondrial DNA marker suggests that DNA …

The Genius Of The Nation Versus The Gene-Tech Of The Nation: Science, Identity, And Gmo Debates In Hungary, Krista Harper

Anthropology Department Faculty Publication Series

Introduction In the late 1990s, Hungarian politicians, environmentalists, and agricultural lobbyists weighed the pros and cons of allowing genetically modified (GM) food and seeds to enter the Hungarian market. Starting around 1994, a small group of Hungarian environmentalists began researching GM issues. Initially, they feared that as a post-socialist country seeking foreign investment, Hungary would become prey to multinational corporations seeking an ‘emerging market’ with a lax regulatory environment. The terms of the debate were reframed over time, notably following 1998, when a number of European Union member states banned the imports of GM foods and when Hungarian expatriate geneticist …

Reproductive Measures, Fitness, And Migrating Mennonites: An Evolutionary Analysis, Joan C. Stevenson, Phillip Mark Everson, Michael Grimes

Anthropology Faculty and Staff Publications

Given the same reproductive span, more children with shorter interbirth intervals and less parental attention per child should not do as well. There should be intermediate optima in family sizes. but only two studies have demonstrated optima. The goal here is to determine whether the relationship between fitness and fertility is linear and whether this relationship masks underlying variation in reproductive behaviors in a Mennonite congregation that lived in two disease settings. Prussia/Russia Vs. Kansas. The relationships between children born and fitness were determined by calculating linear and quadratic regressions for total. Prussia/Russia vs. Kansas. and families with deaths vs. …

Diversity And Homogeneity In American Culture: Teaching And Theory, Claudia Strauss

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

In teaching, as in any kind of cultural production, you can look at content, or you can look at reception. Here I want to talk about both: the content of what to say about diversity and sharing in U.S. culture, and how that may be received.

Bulletin Of The Massachusetts Archaeological Society, Vol. 65, No. 2, Massachusetts Archaeological Society

Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society

• Editor's Note (James W. Bradley)
• A Winged Bannerstone from Maine: Stone and Perishable Archaic Technology (Arthur E. Spiess)
• Making the Case for the Abbott Complex: The Bird Rock Site, Pelham Bay, NY (Edward J. Kaeser)
• Probable Early Woodland Fish-Spearing Points from Kingston, MA (Bernard A. Otto)
• Symbols in Stone, Part Two: Quartz Ceremonial Items from the Little League Site, Middleborough, MA (Curtiss Hoffman)

Framing The Bride: Globalizing Beauty And Romance In Taiwan’S Bridal Industry, By Bonnie Adrian, Marc L. Moskowitz

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Communalism To Consumerism: Consumer Culture In Samoa, Amelia Neptune

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Communalism is a system of living where the good of a total group is prioritized over individual wealth or wellbeing. Consumerism is a fascination with the act of purchasing and acquiring goods. This paper attempts to find out how consumer culture might clash or coincide with a tradition of communalism within the Pacific island nation of Samoa. It looks at the history of communalism within Samoa, and how communalism has been interpreted in Samoa’s modern society, manifesting in the form of remittances and formal gift exchanges.

With the introduction of a cash economy from the West, the paper looks at …

Just Behind The Mountain: Refugee Children Imagine Tibet, Emma Tobin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Since the Tibetan diaspora began in 1959, when His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet for India, many Tibetans have settled and started families in exile. Today, a large percentage of Tibetan refugees have been born in exile, and have therefore never seen their country. Within Tibetan exile communities, however, the importance of Tibetan identity is strongly emphasized and people are still very much invested in the plight of Tibet. As a result, there exist strong ideas about the reality of life in Tibet within the exile community. According Jamyang Norbu, “Though the Shangri-la stereotype is a Western creation, …