Anthropology Commons^™

Wilderness And The Geotag: Exploring The Claim That "Geotagging Ruins Nature" In The Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Wa, Mara Gans

All Master's Theses

This research explores the claim that “geotagging ruins nature” by quantifying and qualifying patterns in geotag use and visitors’ experiences in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, in Washington, United States. Many have raised concerns that geotags increase recreational visitation to public lands, which subsequently contributes to negative resource impacts. Others, however, claim that geotagging has made the outdoors more accessible to less privileged communities and raise concerns that condemning geotags will perpetuate the exclusion of certain groups from outdoor recreation. This debate is studied within federally designated Wilderness, which is legally defined as “untrammeled by man,” a definition rooted in problematic …

The Making And Unmaking Of An Appalachian “Home”: Tensions Between Tourism And Housing Development In Gatlinburg, Tennessee, J. Hope Amason

Anthropology and Museum Studies Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the economic and symbolic dimensions of redevelopment in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. I focus on one particular project, the East Parkway at Baskins Creek Bypass District, which concerned ten acres that contained a vital housing resource for low-income tourism-industry workers: residential motels. I connect Gatlinburg’s housing crisis with changing labor patterns in the wake of economic restructuring. I present two letters submitted by real estate developers and solicited by the City of Gatlinburg. In analyzing the letters, I identify two tensions: (1) between workers’ homes and the aesthetics of “Appalachian” tourism, and (2) between representations of workers and the …

Queer Political Organization In Israel, And Palestine: Shifting Away From Homonationalism, Tristan Blaisdell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this project, I present research I have done on the issue of pink washing queer Israeli and Palestinian citizens and homonationalism within Israel and Palestine. I also create an exhibit brief outlining a hypothetical museum exhibit on this topic to be put up at the museum of culture and environment. The first section outlines the history and theory of my exhibit, and a brief personal statement where I talk about my interest in the subject and where I’m coming from before I design this exhibit. My theory is built off concepts of diaspora, home, belonging, queer identity, and intersectionality …

Investigating The Spatial And Statistical Dimensions Of Mortuary Choice In The Historical-Period Old City Cemetery In Roslyn, Washington, Sarah Rain Hibdon

All Master's Theses

The historical-period Old City Cemetery in Roslyn, Washington contains individuals from diverse social backgrounds and exhibits considerable variation in mortuary expression. As such, the Old City Cemetery offers a unique opportunity to explore potential differences in social group mortuary practices spatially and statistically. Using burials in Roslyn’s Old City Cemetery, this project developed a methods framework to assess mortuary practice through demographics, burial location, and monument/plot attributes. I tested correlations between demographics and mortuary expression using spatial-statistical cluster analysis (Ripley’s K-Function), spatial density analysis (Kernel Density Estimation), and non-spatial statistical significance assessments (Factor analysis and Pearson’s R), and identified …

The Agricultural Deities Of Q ’Eqchi’ Mayas, Tzuultaq’As: Agricultural Rituals As Historical Obligation And Avatar Of The Cultural Reservoir In Rural Lanquín , Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, Yishan Lea

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Education and Professional Studies

This study, based on fieldwork in rural Lanquín, Guatemala, discusses cultural continuity and the sense of historicity through agricultural rituals and worship of the agricultural deity Tzuultaq’as. The place, Lanquín, and the Q’eqchi’ Maya peasant farmers are situated within a two-fold tension and contradiction. Geographically remote in relation to the economic centers in Guatemala, and marginal in infrastructural development, while their cash crop harvests never fail to be effected by the fluctuations of the global market. From the eclectic stance merging both theories of cultural essentialism and constructivism, by juxtaposing the emblematic event of the anti-Monsanto Law movement in 2014 …

A Zooarchaeological Analysis Of Hole-In-The-Wall Canyon (45kt12) And French Rapids (45kt13) Sites: Ginkgo State Park, Washington, Matt Johnson

All Master's Theses

A taxonomic and taphonomic faunal analysis was completed for the entire zooarchaeological collection (n=5,354) for two prehistoric archaeological housepit sites, Hole-in-the-Wall Canyon (45KT12) and French Rapids (45KT13). Both sites are located near Vantage, Washington, within the inundated area of the Wanapum Reservoir. Work focused on compiling site records, projectile point analysis, and radiocarbon dating in order to study site chronology, as well as the faunal analysis itself. Site 45KT12 includes at least two occupations; one occurring around 2000 cal B.P., and one beginning around 1100 cal B.P. and continuing at least through 650 cal B.P. A single analytical unit was …

The 5th Of May: Trajectory, Reappropriations And Possibilities Of A Mexico-American Tradition, Antonio Sánchez, Julieta Altamirano-Crosby

Anthropology and Museum Studies Faculty Scholarship

This paper is aimed at to analyze the historical significance of the date of 5th of May for Mexico and the United States. The Documental Argumentative Research method was used for this research, and it is concluded that this victory had a profound historical significance and relevance not only for Mexico but also for the United States, representing an important symbol of national patriotism. This date was forming a path of the new Chicano, the new Latino, a new future strategically minded, as an opportunity to educate, inform and inspire the public good, to reexamine Mexico and the Mexico-American history, …

Comparing A Surface Collection To An Excavated Collection In The Lower Skagit River Delta At 45sk51, Sherri M. Middleton

All Master's Theses

In the Puget Sound Lowland of the Pacific Northwest, archaeologists have investigated a shift in settlement and subsistence patterns occurring in the mid-Holocene Epoch. The artifacts used as the evidence of this shift are interpreted with a concept known as resource intensification. This shift in artifact frequencies has been studied only in the last thirty years and in limited areas of the Puget Sound Lowlands. An opportunity to investigate a site dating to after the shift presented itself when Central Washington University acquired the Lower Skagit River Delta Surface Collection (LSRDSC). This artifact assemblage was collected from a plow-zone surface …

The Hidden History Of Western Washington Logging Camps: St. Paul And Tacoma Lumber Company’S Camp #5 Ca. 1934-1947, Kayley Bass

All Master's Theses

Despite the importance of logging to Washington State’s heritage, there is little information on the life in the logging industry and the lumbermen who helped shape western Washington. The St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company (SPTLC) harvested the Kapowsin Timberlands from the early 1900s to the late 1950s. The logging camps located within these timberlands can provide information on the organization of these industry camps as well as on the daily lives of the men that would help build one of the most important industries in Washington. This thesis employed archaeological and historical approaches to understand this period of history. …

Defining Biodiversity: A Local Assessment Of The Tahuayo River, Peru Using Self-Directed Photography, Rozsika D. Steele

All Master's Theses

The Área de Conservación Regional Comunal Tamshiyacu Tahuayo (ACRCTT), located in Loreto, Peru, protects 420,000 hectares of the Amazon basin. In 2009, the ACRCTT received formal government recognition after three decades of advocacy and conservation work by resident communities. Local resource users who live a subsistence lifestyle possess sophisticated Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) that can be used to identify which constituents of biodiversity are culturally relevant. This information can help resource managers develop an operational definition of biodiversity. Self-directed photography is a research method that allows participants the opportunity to direct data collection and empowers them to visually communicate their …

Everyday Farm Life In The Moxee Valley 1915-1950: Historical Ethnography, Terri Towner

All Master's Theses

This study collected oral histories of those who lived or worked in the Moxee Valley, within the greater Yakima Valley of Washington State from 1915-1950. It documents and records the historical and cultural processes of farm life and its evolution for people living in this foremost hop-growing region of the United States. The larger goal is to characterize the community and social processes for use as primary source documentation to create historically accurate programs at the Gendron Hop Ranch-Living History Farm near Moxee. Nineteen participants were interviewed. Topics addressed in the study include farming in the Valley, the household, roles …

Saffron Cod (Eleginus Gracilis) In North Pacific Archaeology, Megan A. Partlow, Eric Munk

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Saffron cod (Eleginus gracilis) is a marine species often found in shallow, brackish water in the Bering Sea, although it can occur as far southeast as Sitka, Alaska. Recently, we identified saffron cod remains in two ca. 500-year-old Afognak Island midden assemblages from the Kodiak Archipelago. We developed regression formulae to relate bone measurements to total length using thirty-five modern saffron cod specimens. The archaeological saffron cod remains appear to be from mature adults, measuring 22–45 cm in total length, and likely caught from shore during spawning. Saffron cod may have been an important winter resource for Alutiiq people living …

My Family, My Identity: An Ethnohistorical Exploration Of A Multiethnic Family, Sarah Oosahwee-Voss

All Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on family identity in a time when multiethnic couples are increasing in population. How will this populace choose to define who they are? The purpose of this thesis is to focus on a multiethnic family, specifically one with different tribal heritages, and explore how their identity was formed over time and maintained through various times in their history. Multiple ethnographic methods were utilized in tandem to collect the information. A framework was then created to determine the main themes found throughout the history and information compiled in order to define the core values within their family identity. …

Blarney In St. Louie: Performing Irishness At The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904, Cassandra L. White

All Master's Theses

The dynamics of power between the privileged and those who must be subordinate to them was glaringly apparent at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. While natives from many countries were displayed in ethnographic villages, the Irish were represented in the Irish Industrial Exposition concession on the Pike. A group of ninety performers came from Ireland to show their skills this concession; among these were a troupe of actors from Dublin. The Dublin troupe was engaged to perform AE’s Deirdre, but left before they had been at the exposition for a month because they felt that the Irish …

Moving Foward?: Problematic Ideologies In Twenty-First Century Fairy Tale Films, Alyson Kilmer

All Master's Theses

Fairy tales, as a reflection of our values and belief systems, are crucial in shaping and maintaining cultural ideologies. In the twenty-first century, cinematic fairy tales have the unique position of representing such values in an expansive and expeditious manner. Audiences must therefore be critically conscious of the messages promoted by these tales. An analysis of the five most popular contemporary fairy tale films, Disney’s Princess and the Frog (2009), Tangled (2010), Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), and Disney’s Frozen (2013) and Maleficent (2014), revealed minimal attempts to propitiate critical audiences in regard to changing cultural values, but …

Creating A Somali Manhood: Navigating Race, Place, And Power In Seattle, Wa, Saeed Mohamed

All Master's Theses

This research focuses on the production of social space by young Somali men who live in low-income communities in south Seattle, Washington. Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews, this study examines social interactions in key urban spaces. These spaces include the mosque, streets, a community center, and the soccer field. By focusing on how young Somali men interact and navigate social space, this study provides a gendered and ethnic perspective on how relationships of power and authority become spatialized in an urban context.

The Identification And Historic Context Of Mining Archaeology Of The Wenatchee Mountains Within The Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Jared Valenta

All Master's Theses

A historically important metal mining region within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness of the Wenatchee Mountains was studied employing archival research and systematic pedestrian archaeological survey. The objective of the study was to provide a historical context for hardrock mining activities within the study area and vicinity and document any new historic archaeological sites within the study area. The results serve the scientific, scholarly, and general public by providing both a more complete archaeological record and aid in the formulation of land use policy within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Three loci of activity containing a total of 27 features with associated …

"Return To Sender": Confronting Lynching And Our Haunted Landscapes, Mark J. Auslander

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

This article considers a set of controversial images, primarily taken between 1880 and 1920, depicting lynchings and racial violence. Emory University has made these images publicly available, prompting some to worry that the collection will re-inflict trauma on those who suffered under racism in the United States. The articles asks, in part: if new initiatives in museums or other public spaces could help Americans to collectively confront their inner demons and move beyond the timeless repetition of trauma.

The article is available from Southern Changes: The Journal of the Southern Regional Council, 1978-2003.

The Indigenous Origins Of The Egyptian God-King, Deborah Jo Burnham

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The question of the Egyptian God-King's origin is not a matter of ethnicity, but rather one of culture. Is it indigenous and as such, an integral part of the rise of Egypt as a primary civilization? Or is it Mesopotamian and a product of diffusion, bringing with it the idea of the city-state and monumental architecture including the pyramid?

The Historical Development Of Basic Woodworking Hand Tools, Sidney R. Deane

Graduate Student Research Papers

It was the purpose of this study to (1) present a history of the evolution of basic woodworking hand tools; (2) to relate the tools and methods used by frontier craftsmen; and (3) to compare the structure of modern woodworking hand tools with older tools.