Anthropology Commons^™

Movement As A Means Of Social (Re)Production: Using Gis To Measure Social Integration Across Urban Landscapes, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kristin Landau

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

This paper contributes to the archaeological study of movement in urban environments where built forms and natural features worked together to play a key role in structuring human mobility.We propose an analytical method using least cost analysis in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to empirically measure social integration. The method defines mobility as the potential for pedestrian movement, and identifies locations where people were most likely to walk to or through in a landscape. The calculated mobility data are then employed to identify with whom people were most likely to interact and the degree to which they were socially connected …

The Mayaarch3d Project: A 3d Webgis For Analyzing Ancient Architecture And Landscapes, Jennifer Von Schwerin, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Fabio Remondino, Giorgio Agugario, Gabrio Girardi

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

There is a need in the humanities for a 3D WebGIS with analytical tools that allow researchers to analyze 3D models linked to spatially referenced data. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) allow for complex spatial analysis of 2.5D data. For example, they offer bird’s eye views of landscapes with extruded building footprints, but one cannot ‘get on the ground’ and interact with true 3D models from a pedestrian perspective. Meanwhile, 3D models and virtual environments visualize data in 3D space, but analytical tools are simple rotation or lighting effects. The MayaArch3D Project is developing a 3D WebGIS—called QueryArch3D—to allow these two …

Pedagogía De Hablantes De Herencia: Implicaciones Para El Entrenamiento De Instructores Al Nivel Universitario, Lina M. Reznicek-Parrado

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study researches the differences in pedagogical needs between learners of Spanish as a Foreign Language (FL learners) and learners of Spanish as a Heritage Language (HL learners) at the university level. By using the UNL Modern Languages and Literatures Department as an illustrative case and based on an analysis of the Heritage Language student profile in the context of the United States, this study seeks to explore arguments in favor of providing training for university-level instructors of Spanish that responds to the specific pedagogical needs of Heritage Language Learners.

The relevancy of this study is not only based on …

Geospatial Virtual Heritage: A Gesture-Based 3d Gis To Engage The Public With Ancient Maya Archaeology, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Jim Robertsson, Jennifer Von Schwerin, Giorgio Agugario, Fabio Remondino, Gabrio Girardi

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

This paper presents our research to develop a gesture-based 3D GIS system to engage the public in cultural heritage. It compares two types of interaction—device-based vs. natural interaction— and summarizes the beta-testing results of a 3D GIS tool for archaeology, called QueryArch3D, in which participants used device-based interaction (i.e. mouse and keyboard). It follows with a description of the gesture-based system—that we developed in response to these beta-tests. The system uses QueryArch3D and Microsoft’s Kinect to enable people use body movements (in lieu of keyboard or mouse) to navigate a virtual reality landscape, query 3D objects, and call up photos, …

Public Buildings And Civic Benefactions In Western Rough Cilicia: Insights From Signaling Theory, Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

In the Hellenistic and Roman world of the eastern Mediterranean, Greek and Greco-Roman cities came to be defined by their physical cityscape. These buildings were constructed by specific city institutions, such as the council and the assembly, and financed through city funds, mass subscription and, importantly, public benefactions. Public benefactions, which also included support for festivals and competitions, were made by certain elite and usually wealthy individuals to the benefit of a defined community of citizens (and sometimes non-citizens, as in the case of fortification walls). Institutions within the benefiting community, again the council and the assembly, acknowledged these gifts …

From Mounds To Maps To Models: Visualizing Ancient Architecture Across Landscapes, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Since the onset of settlement pattern studies in the 1950s, landscape mapping projects have become an archaeological mainstay. Remote sensing technologies such as lidar, photogrammetry, and SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) steadily reveal new archaeological sites. For landscape archaeology, the detection and mapping of small architectural complexes and households offers important data to contextualize larger (often already known) sites and perform regional analyses. However, because the majority of sites remain unexcavated, analysis is limited, and yet Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and 3D Visualization are expanding the possible uses for older and newly-acquired data on unexcavated mounds. This paper describes a GIS …

Review Of Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter And The Politics Of Sight. By Timothy Pachirat., Donald D. Stull

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

In June 2004, political scientist Timothy Pachirat went to work on the killfloor of an unnamed beef slaughterhouse in Omaha, Nebraska. He started out as a "liver hanger" in the cooler. There carcasses hang before being sent to the fabrication floor where "hundreds of handheld knives and saws reinvent chilled half-carcasses as steaks, rounds, and roasts that are then boxed and shipped to distributors and retailers around the world." For four days he worked in the chutes, driving cattle to the knocking box to be stunned, as required by the Humane Slaughter Act, before being turned into meat. Then for …

Review Of White Man's Water: The Politics Of Sobriety In A Native American Community. By Erica Prussing, Paul Spicer

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Epidemiological evidence consistently emphasizes the challenges American Indian tribes of the Great Plains confront through excess alcohol consumption. Until Erica Prussing's recent book, however, we have lacked a detailed analysis of the social and cultural context in which these challenges unfold. With a focus on women's experiences across two generations, White Man s Water provides us with a careful description of the social and cultural world of contemporary Northern Cheyennes, coupled with an understanding of how individual experiences within the milieu vary, especially as a function of history.

White Man's Water is a truly significant book: the first book-length ethnographic …

Review Of Clovis Lithic Technology: Investigation Of A Stratified Workshop At The Gault Site, Texas. By Michael R. Waters, Charlotte D. Pevny, David L. Carlson, Et Al. Foreword By Michael B. Collins., Heather M. Rockwell

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

This volume is a valuable contribution to the growing knowledge of Early Paleoindian behavior in the Southern Plains. It offers a thorough description of excavations and analyses conducted on collections from the Excavation Area 8 ofthe Gault Site in central Texas. The book is organized into ten chapters detailing the site setting, formation processes, Clovis tool manufacture patterns, microwear analyses, faunal analyses, and interpretations of the site's organization and purpose. ... Clovis Lithic Technology is a valuable contribution to researchers interested in the archaeology of the Great Plains, Paleoindian research, lithic analysis, and New World colonization research.

Alternative Individual Cartridge Case Identification Techniques, Curtis H. Sedlacek

Anthropology Department: Theses

Individual cartridge case identification is an essential component of historic battlefield archeology. With individual cartridge case identification archeologists are able to track the movement of the combatants as they move across the battlefield, giving a highly detailed view of the past. While useful, current methods of individual cartridge case identification require expensive equipment and extensive training and time to conduct. In this thesis two alternative methods of cartridge case identification are evaluated in order to determine if recent developments in the areas of 3D scanning and statistical analysis can be utilized to develop new methods of individual cartridge case method. …

Kinect And 3d Gis In Archaeology, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Fabio Remondino, Jim Robersson, Jennifer Von Schwerin, Giorgio Agugiaro, Gabrio Girardi

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

This paper explores the potential of using Microsoft's Kinect to create a low-cost and portable system to virtually navigate, through a prototype 3D GIS, the digitally reconstructed ancient Maya city and UNESCO World Heritage Site of Copan in Honduras. The 3D GIS, named QueryArch3D, was developed as part of the MayaArch3D project (http://mayaarch3d.unm.edu), which explores the possibilities of integrating databases and 3D digital tools for research and teaching on ancient architectures and landscapes. The developed system, based on the Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit (FAAST), controls in a remote and touchless mode the movements in the 3D environment in …

Social Interaction At The Maya Site Of Copan, Honduras: A Least Cost Approach To Configurational Analysis, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

In this article, I employ least cost paths using GIS to measure the relationship between site configuration and social connectivity at the ancient Maya site of Copan, Honduras. I investigate two questions. First, did people of different social classes experience varying degrees of social connectivity? Second, did people living in different parts of the city experience difference degrees of social connectivity? Ultimately, the goal is modify traditional configurational analysis using least cost analysis (LCA) to identify how social hierarchy was embedded in landscapes and how ancient people may have strategically manipulated landscapes to structure social interaction and community organization.

Experiential Interior Design: Branding Entertainment And Nightlife For The Postmodern Young Urban Professional, Niccole S. Skomal

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Past study on Interior Design has been primarily looked at through the lenses of aesthetics and functionality. Only recently have scholars begun to see the influence marketing, in the form of branding, can have on the Interior Design process in targeting specific lifestyle groups. The purpose of this research is to understand the fabric of the postmodern Young Urban Professional lifestyle as a marketing tool for branding and designing services in the form of entertainment and nightlife. With an increasing lack of community and social connectedness in today’s postmodern society, Young Urban Professionals tend to consume entertainment and nightlife as …

Hyphenated Identities As A Challenge To Nation-State School Practice?, Edmund T. Hamann, William England

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This chapter concludes the edited volume Hyphenated Identities and affords a chance to juxtapose how transnational students negotiate school and identity with how school systems in turn view such students, and then it allows the examination of two different strategies -- situational ethnicity versus the assertion of hyphenated identity -- as a glimpse into the cosmology of transnationally mobile students as they come into adulthood.

Schooling, National Affinity(Ies), And Transnational Students In Mexico, Edmund T. Hamann, Víctor Zúñiga

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

An examination of responses by 346 students from Nuevo León and Zacatecas, Mexico, who had previously attended schools in the United States, found that 37% asserted a hyphenated identity as "Mexican-American," while an additional 5% identified as "American." Put another way, 42% did not identify singularly as "Mexican." Those who insisted on a hyphenated identity were not a random segment of the larger sample, but rather had distinct profiles in terms of gender, time in the United States, and more. This chapter describes these students, broaches implications of their hyphenated identities for their schooling, and considers how this example may …

Review Of Gentle People: A Case Study Of Rockport Colony Hutterites. By Joanita Kant., Rod Janzen

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Joanita Kant's Gentle People is an excellent case study of South Dakota's Rockport Hutterite Colony. The book includes in-depth description and analysis of the lifestyle of Rockport Colony residents and covers people of all ages and interests. There are numerous helpful photographs, both contemporary and historical. Members of the Rockport Colony belong to a religious society that has practiced "community of goods" for nearly five centuries. The book not only introduces the reader to the deep-seated beliefs and practices of members, but also provides important sociological analysis supported by helpful figures and maps, including population pyramids, floor plans, and colony …

Review Of Wives And Husbands: Gender And Age In Southern Arapaho History. By Loretta Fowler., Kathleen S. Fine-Dare

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Wives and Husbands will likely become a classic of ethnographically informed historical anthropology. From the moment distinguished anthropologist Loretta Fowler's work opens with its account of Little Raven and Walking Backward-a brother and sister born in the early nineteenth century who lived to see great changes- to its final pages, which offer at least ten "new lines of research" that scholars might do well to follow to correct errors regarding everything from women's status under change to the "reidentification process" undergone by educated Arapahos returning to their communities, a wide variety of readers will find themselves engaged in a book …

Review Of Arch Lake Woman: Physical Anthropology And Geoarchaeology. By Douglas W. Owsley, Margaret A. Jodry, Thomas W. Stafford, Jr., C. Vance Haynes, Jr., And Dennis J. Stanford., Daniel J. Wescott

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Approximately 10,000 radiocarbon years before present, the body ofa 17- to 19-year-old female, probably associated with the Plainview Culture, was buried on the south side of Arch Lake, located near the present-day border of New Mexico and Texas. The young woman was interred in an extended supine position with a necklace of talc beads low on her neck, a bag containing red pigment and a unifacial stone tool on her left hip, and a bone tool placed on her chest. Her grave remained relatively undisturbed until 1967 when it was exposed, discovered, and carefully excavated by archaeologists. The Arch Lake …

Review Of Light From Ancient Campfires: Archaeological Evidence For Native Lifeways On The Northern Plains. By Trevor R. Peck., Matthew Boyd

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Despite the relatively long legacy of professional archaeological research in the northern Great Plains, few comprehensive syntheses of the region's 13,000- year human history have been produced in recent years. This is particularly the case for the Canadian side of the region, which has tended to be overlooked in most scholarly summaries of Great Plains prehistory. The shadowy nature of the Canadian prairies to the wider community of Plains archaeologists is not due to a lack of archaeological research in the region-Alberta, alone, has over 35,000 registered sites-but instead reflects the poor dissemination ofCRM (Culture Resource Management) reports and other …

Understanding Bioprospecting: Can Indigenous Populations Benefit From The Search For Pharmaceuticals In Areas Of High Biodiversity, Emily Schwindt

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Bioprospecting is a controversial issue, and anthropologists and other scientists are quick to take sides. The idea of large corporations pumping money into conservation and development programs, while developing what could be the latest life-saving drug simply sounds too good to be true, and often times is. However, if all parties work together and proceed with caution, these benefits could become more than a fantasy. Looking at case studies from Costa Rica, India, South Africa and Panama this paper attempts to find patterns among successful bioprospecting agreements and note shortcomings and identify risks. This information will be used to suggest …

Designing A School Garden Space That Emphasizes Children's Wants And Uses Permaculture Design Methods, Mikhaela Mullins

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A case study was organized at Saratoga Elementary school in Lincoln, Nebraska to obtain data on what children desire in a garden space. To collect this data a school garden space was constructed and an after school garden club was implemented. Students who participated in the after school garden club partook in the study by drawing their ideal garden. Elements that the subjects drew were identified and categorized into ‘highly desired’ and ‘somewhat desired’.

These elements were then incorporated into a proposed garden design plan for Saratoga. The proposal plan uses Permaculture design methods to emphasize sustainability.

Review Of Bridging The Divide: Indigenous Communities And Archaeology Into The 21st Century. Edited By Caroline Phillips And Harry Allen., Larry J. Zimmerman

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

An outgrowth of demands for ethical treatment and repatriation of their ancestral remains, Indigenous Archaeology (IA) reflects the desire of Indigenous peoples to have a say in how stories of their pasts get told. Too often, Indigenous people claim, archaeologists have discounted oral tradition in favor of scientifically derived histories, histories that may discount or contradict millennia-old beliefs. IA is different, done for them, sometimes by them, and usually in complete collaboration with them. Their questions are central to research agendas and interpretations. IA is controversial because some archaeologists see collaboration as infringement on academic freedom, as movement away from …

Review Of Hell Gap: A Stratified Paleoindian Campsite At The Edge Of The Rockies. Edited By Mary Lou Larson, Marcel Kornfeld, And George C. Frison., Jack W. Brink

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Every Plains archaeologist has heard of the Hell Gap site. But few could tell you much about it. All that changes with the publication of this needed, dense, thorough collection that chronicles the life and content of this singularly important archaeological site. With 20 papers and 13 appendices, this book takes a monumental step forward in furthering our knowledge of nearly the entire Paleoindian sequence of occupation on the western Plains. Hell Gap is the type site for three Paleoindian point styles: Goshen, Hell Gap, and Frederick, and contains at least six other cultural complexes: Folsom, Midland, Agate Basin, Alberta, …

Review Of Kiowa Military Societies: Ethnohistory And Ritual. By William C. Meadows, Gregory R. Campbell

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Drawing on over a decade of research, in combination with archival and published anthropological and historical literature, William C. Meadows provides a detailed ethnographic account of Kiowa military societies and their historical development. Employing a perspective spanning from the prereservation era to the present, Meadows describes each military society'S origins, structures, rituals, ceremonies, functions, and associated music, dances, songs, and material culture within the context of the Kiowa military society system. Beginning with Rabbits Society in the first chapter, he graphically portrays the Mountain Sheep Society, Horse Headdress Society, the Black Legs Society, Unafraid of Death or Skunkberry Society, Scout …

Factors Controlling Pre-Columbian And Early Historic Maize Productivity In The American Southwest, Part 1: The Southern Colorado Plateau And Rio Grande Regions, Larry V. Benson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Maize is the New World’s preeminent grain crop and it provided the economic basis for human culture in many regions within the Americas. To flourish, maize needs water, sunlight (heat), and nutrients (e.g., nitrogen). In this paper, climate and soil chemistry data are used to evaluate the potential for dryland (rain-on- field) agriculture in the semiarid southeastern Colorado Plateau and Rio Grande regions. Processes that impact maize agriculture such as nitrogen mineralization, infiltration of precipitation, bare soil evaporation, and transpiration are discussed and evaluated. Most of the study area, excepting high-elevation regions, receives sufficient solar radiation to grow maize. The …

Preservation Ethics In The Case Of Nebraska’S Nationally Registered Historic Properties, Darren Michael Adams

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation focuses on the National Register of Historic Places and considers the geographical implications of valuing particular historic sites over others. Certain historical sites will either gain or lose desirability from one era to the next, this dissertation identifies and explains three unique preservation ethical eras, and it maps the sites which were selected during those eras. These eras are the Settlement Era (1966 – 1975), the Commercial Architecture Era (1976 – 1991), and the Progressive Planning Era (1992 – 2010). The findings show that transformations in the program included an early phase when state authorities listed historical resources …

Life In The Truck Lane: Urban Development In Western Rough Cilicia, Nicholas K. Rauh, Rhys F. Townsend, Michael C. Hoff, Matthew Dillon, Martin W. Doyle, Cheryl A. Ward, Richard M. Rothaus, Hülya Caner, Ünal Akkemik, Luann Wandsnider, F. Sancar Ozaner, Christopher D. Dore

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

What combination of forces precipitated urban development in the ancient Mediterranean world? Are the remnants of such forces identifiable in the archaeological record? Since the Mediterranean basin presented itself as an ethnically diverse region where goods and services were transported largely by water, to what degree was urban development at the local level stimulated by the expansion of overseas empires? More specifically, does a ›world system‹ theoretical construct adequately address the phenomenon of urban development in the ancient Mediterranean world? This construct has gained significant popularity with those attempting to explain the pace and scale of development in the pre-classical …

Fishing Booths And Fishing Strategies In Medieval Iceland: An Archaeofauna From The [Site] Of Akurvík, North-West Iceland, Colin Amundsen, Sophia Perdikaris, Thomas H. Mcgovern, Yekaterina Krivogorskaya, Matthew Brown, Konrad Smiarowski, Shaye Storm, Salena Modugno, Malgorzata Frik, Monica Koczela

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

Excavations in 1990 in North-West Iceland documented a stratified series of small turf structures and associated midden deposits at the eroding beach at Akurvík which date from the 11th–13th to the 15th–16th centuries AD. The site reflects a long series of small discontinuous occupations, probably associated with seasonal fishing. The shell sand matrix had allowed excellent organic preservation, and an archaeofauna of more than 100,000 identifiable fragments was recovered. The collections are dominated by fish, mainly Atlantic cod, but substantial amounts of whale bone suggest extensive exploitation of strandings or active whaling. This paper briefly summarizes the excavation results, presents …

Solving The Puzzle Of The Archaeological Labyrinth: Time Perspectivism In Mediterranean Surface Archaeology, Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

This chapter critiques the currently embraced paradigm in Mediterranean surface archaeology of regional/settlement pattern studies – seated in flat-time functional metaphysic. As shown by Mediterranean archaeologists, that chronotype does not deal well with either complexity or history. And, attending methods, also as demonstrated by Mediterranean archaeologists, do not consistently accommodate or satisfactorily assign meaning to the varied archaeological landscape. But another formational metaphysic exists and seems better to comprehend the complex, historical world and to acknowledge landscape variation.This chapter argues for approaches to the Mediterranean landscape that accept and embrace a time perspectivism.

Beating A Dead Horse: Reply To Levy’S Comments, Alan J. Osborn

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The author reponds with a rebuttal to comments made by Jerrold E. Levy concerning his paper "Ecological Aspcets of Equestrian Adaptations in Aboriginal North America" which was published in American Anthropologist, volume 85, pages 562-591.