Anthropology Commons^™

Unbalanced Or Absent: Assessing Indigenous Representation In Interpretive Materials At Government Administered Heritage Sites In Cascadia And Hawai‘I, Leah Marie Rosenkranz, Jeremy Spoon, Douglas Deur

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Unbalanced or absent Indigenous representation in interpretive materials at government administered heritage sites in settler colonial contexts can create contention and perpetuate a misinformed or one-dimensional visitor experience and historical narrative. This research therefore examines representation in interpretive materials accessible in 2019 at heritage sites with Indigenous ancestral connections in settler-colonial contexts. This study uses 10 U.S. case study heritage sites and two supplementary sites in Washington, Idaho, and Hawai‘i. Researchers utilized participant observation and systematic photography during two 2019 research phases to document interpretive materials. Quantification generated 731 analytic units which were subsequently assessed for the presence of inductively …

Reflections On Zooarchaeology In East Polynesia: Human-Animal Interactions And Human Ecodynamics, Virginia L. Butler

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The essay summarizes the key pillars of human ecodynamics (HE) research and then highlights the most trenchant ideas from each of the seven papers in the Special Issue, especially as they intersect with HE.

The Reddit Cannabis Subjective Highness Rating Scale: Applying Computational Social Science To Explore Psychological And Environmental Correlates Of Naturalistic Cannabis Use, Meredith C. Meacham, Alicia L. Nobles, Carlton ‘Cb’ Bone, Michael Gilbert, Johannes Thrul

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Social media data provide unprecedented access to discussions of active, naturalistic, and often real-time cannabis use in an era of cannabis policy liberalization. The aim of this study was to explore psychological and environmental correlates of cannabis effects by applying computational social science approaches to a large dataset of unprompted reports of naturalistic cannabis use with corresponding self-reported numerical ratings of subjective highness. Post title text was extracted via the Pushshift dataset from N = 328,865 posts to the r/trees Reddit community, where posters self-assess and disclose how high they feel on a scale from 1 to 10 (M = …

"Your Food Is Who You Are": Food Sovereignty Within A Native Urban Community Garden, Zoe Buhrmaster

University Honors Theses

This paper explores the concept of food sovereignty within the context of a community garden managed by the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA) in Portland, based on interviews with key garden coordinators and community members. The garden, initiated in 2019, emphasizes the cultivation of First Foods and traditional medicinal plants, serving as a space for cultural revitalization and community health. Food sovereignty, as defined by interviewees, encompasses a relational approach to plants as relatives, community control over food systems, and access to healthy, ancestral foods. The garden's history highlights its development amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and its role …

Queer Rural Youth Online: A Digital Ethnography, Joseph R. Burns

Student Research Symposium

This presentation is based on digital ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2023 within Queer subcommunities on the social media sites Reddit and Twitter (now known as X) and data collected from interviews with Queer rural youth members of these communities. The data reveal that social media use directly influences the lives and actions of Queer rural youth, who use the space to build social connections, shape their personal identities, and seek advice pertaining to their in-person lives and decisions. By using these spaces, Queer rural youth build both bonding and bridging social capital, learn to subvert restrictions to their Internet access, …

Mass Capture Fishing In The Marquesas Islands, Reno Nims, Patricia Pillay, Melinda S. Allen

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mass capture of small fishes with a variety of nets, traps, and weirs was widely practiced and economically important across East Polynesia at western contact. Archaeological research, however, has suggested these technologies were less important during the early settlement period and gained prominence over time. Several explanations have been proposed, including resource depression, changes in marine environments, and/or social and economic reorientations. In the Marquesas Islands, pelagic and offshore fishes were historically well represented in early assemblages relative to most Polynesian islands. Here we report on fishbone assemblages from Nuku Hiva Island that were recovered with fine mesh screens, identified …

The Evolution Of Agrarian Landscapes In The Tropical Andes, Courtney Shadik, Mark B. Bush, Bryan G. Valencia, Angela Rozas-Davila, Daniel Plekhov, Robert D. Breininger, Multiple Additional Authors

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Changes in land-use practices have been a central element of human adaptation to Holocene climate change. Many practices that result in the short-term stabilization of socio-natural systems, however, have longer-term, unanticipated consequences that present cascading challenges for human subsistence strategies and opportunities for subsequent adaptations. Investigating complex sequences of interaction between climate change and human land-use in the past—rather than short-term causes and effects—is therefore essential for understanding processes of adaptation and change, but this approach has been stymied by a lack of suitably-scaled paleoecological data. Through a highresolution paleoecological analysis, we provide a 7000-year history of changing climate and …

Queer Rural Youth Online: A Digital Ethnography, Joseph Robert Burns

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is based on digital ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2023 within Queer subcommunities on the social media sites Reddit and Twitter (now known as X) and data collected from interviews with Queer rural youth members of these communities. The data reveal that social media use directly influences the lives and actions of Queer rural youth, who use the space to build social connections, shape their personal identities, and seek advice pertaining to their in-person lives and decisions. By using these spaces, Queer rural youth build both bonding and bridging social capital, learn to subvert restrictions to their Internet access, …

Provisioning Services Decline For Both People And Critically Endangered Wildlife In A Rainforest Transformation Landscape, Katherine J. Kling, Timothy M. Eppley, A. Catherine Markham, Patricia C. Wright, Be Noel Razafindrapaoly, Rajaona Delox, Be Jean Rodolph Rasolofoniaina, Jeanne Mathilde Randriamanetsy, Pascal Elison, Natalie Vasey, Multiple Additional Authors

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The loss and degradation of forests and other ecosystems worldwide threaten both global biodiversity and the livelihoods of people who use natural resources. Understanding how natural resource use impacts landscape provisioning services for both people and wildlife is thus critical for designing comprehensive resource management strategies. We used data from community focus groups, botanical plots and an inventory of plant species consumed by the Critically Endangered red-ruffed lemur (Varecia rubra) to assess the availability of key provisioning services for people and endemic wildlife on the Masoala Peninsula, a rainforest transformation landscape, in northeastern Madagascar (Masoala National Park and 13 surrounding …

"Suited To The Wants Of The Country": Historical Ceramics From The Fort Vancouver Sutler's Store, Vancouver, Washington, Kaitlyn Nicole Hosken

Dissertations and Theses

For much of the early 19th century, the British Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) dominated commercial activity throughout the Pacific Northwest. Following development of the Oregon Trail in the 1840s and 1850s, however, the HBC saw increasing social and economic competition from American settlers. This research examines nationalist attitudes evident during the transition to the American colonial era and effects on the consumption of commercial goods. Analyses compare archaeological ceramics from two retail sites located in what is now Vancouver, Washington: an 1850s American sutler's store and the HBC Sale Shop. Additional comparison is made with a contemporaneous U.S. Army Officers' …

Large-Scale, Collaborative Imagery Survey In Archaeology: The Geospatial Platform For Andean Culture, History And Archaeology (Geopacha), Steven A. Wernke, Parker Van Valkenburgh, James Zimmer-Dauphinee, Bethany Whitlock, Giles Spence Morrow, Ryan Smith, Douglas Smit, Daniel Plekhov, Multiple Additional Authors

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Imagery-based survey is capable of producing archaeological datasets that complement those collected through field-based survey methods, widening the scope of analysis beyond regions. The Geospatial Platform for Andean Culture, History and Archaeology (GeoPACHA) enables systematic registry of imagery survey data through a ‘federated’ approach. Using GeoPACHA, teams pursue problem-specific research questions through a common data schema and interface that allows for inter-project comparisons, analyses and syntheses. The authors present an overview of the platform's rationale and functionality, as well as a summary of results from the first survey campaign, which was carried out by six projects distributed across the central …

The House Full Of Otters: Recalling Human–Sea Otter Relationships On An Indigenous Oregon Coast, Douglas Deur, Peter Hatch, Hannah Wellman

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sea otters have held a special role in the cultural, spiritual, and economic life of Native American communities throughout recorded time. Along the coast of what is now Oregon, Native oral traditions recall a rich history of human encounters with sea otters, and speak of the species’ ubiquity, significance, and sentience. Native people also hunted sea otters, fashioning their uniquely dense fur into chiefly robes and using the pelts in ways central to community life — presaging the species’ later role in the global fur trade. Archaeological evidence of sea otter use can be found in sites of diverse antiquity …

Glimpses Of Oregon’S Sea Otters, Cameron La Follette, Douglas Deur

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sea otters are an iconic species in the history of what is now known as Oregon. Their pelts brought great wealth in late eighteenth and nineteenth century China, motivating some of Oregon’s earliest exploration, trade, and contact between Native American and Euro-American people. Over time, hunting eliminated the species from Oregon’s coastal waters. This article provides a broad introduction to the history of Oregon’s now-extinct sea otter population, describing the emergence of the Chinese market that created and sustained the hunt, the British discovery of profits to be made by trading for the pelts, and the rise of American traders. …

The Invisible Slaughter: Local Sea Otter Hunters On The Oregon Coast, Cameron La Follette, Richard Ravalli, Peter Hatch, Douglas Deur, Ryan Tucker Jones

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Most accounts of the extirpation of sea otters from the Oregon coast focus on the well-documented international maritime fur trade of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The historical record shows, however, that sea otters persisted much later. The final extirpation in Oregon occurred as a result of household-scale hunting by Native Americans and Euro-American settlers, from the mid-nineteenth century until around 1910. Especially on the south coast, a cottage industry of sea otter hunting flourished for decades — a pattern similar to the neighboring states of Washington and California. This article summarizes this long-ignored history, drawing from the …

Human-Modified Landscapes Driving The Global Primate Extinction Crisis, Erik Joaquín Torres-Romero, Vincent Nijman, David Fernández, Timothy M. Eppley

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The world's primates have been severely impacted in diverse and profound ways by anthropogenic pressures. Here, we evaluate the impact of various infrastructures and human-modified landscapes on spatial patterns of primate species richness, at both global and regional scales. We overlaid the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) range maps of 520 primate species and applied a global 100 km2 grid. We used structural equation modeling and simultaneous autoregressive models to evaluate direct and indirect effects of six human-altered landscapes variables (i.e., human footprint [HFP], croplands [CROP], road density [ROAD], pasture lands [PAST], protected areas [PAs], and Indigenous …

A Content Analysis Of Social Media Discussions On Thc-Oacetate, Daniel J. Kruger, Amila Karahmet, Sydney M. Kaplan, Taylor Stacy, John Redfield, Vitush Agarwal, Mutaz Faqqouseh, Carlton Cb. Bone

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Novel cannabinoids require systematic research to inform policies and practices. There is a growing interest in semi-synthetic cannabinoids by consumers, manufacturers, and regulators. However, there is a scarcity of research on these substances. Online discussion forums can provide guidance for research questions when current knowledge is scarce. The current project investigates the topics and issues covered in a social media forum devoted to THC-O-acetate (THCO), a semi-synthetic cannabinoid with rapidly rising popularity. Reddit comments posted on the THCO subreddit from June 2021 through November 2021 were coded for major and minor themes by a team of five coders and a …

Confronting Web3 Technology: Opportunities, Challenges And Community Formation, Christopher-John Rogers

Dissertations and Theses

The emergence of blockchain technology created an entire industry of innovative new digital assets--or tokens--and diverse new fields of expertise founded on ideological aspirations of a new World Wide Web that reimagines digital value transfer through decentralization and disintermediation. Experimentation in the so-called "Web3" industry produces rich new fields of ethnographic study revealing the experiences of diverse individuals navigating novel technological capabilities which give way to new avenues of identity formation, community building, and ecosystem creation. These exciting new endeavors come with difficult challenges threatening the realization of ambitious visions for digital futures. Ethnographic research conducted through discourse analysis, participant …

"Where Is Your Accent From?": The Voice Of My Identity, Robert Northman

Amplify: A Journal of Writing-as-Activism

This essay probes the role of language in how it contributes to the construct of one's identity. The author discusses lived experiences centered on the the perceptions of accented English that is actually African American Vernacular English. The essay explores how these experiences were formed and how they developed over the course of the author's lifetime. The author also discusses ways in which language has caused both comfort and conflict, and provides a glimpse into a unique perspective that can contribute to a greater understanding of the power and importance of language.

People And Power: Person-First Language Usage And The Criminal Justice System, Casey E. Orr

Amplify: A Journal of Writing-as-Activism

Language is power. Word choice and terminology, especially those referring to people, are expressions of societal norms and institutional power. Dehumanizing crime-first terms and labels are abundant and common in criminal justice contexts despite being protested by system-involved individuals and activists. Instead, many advocate for person-first terms wherein identifying language emphasizes an individual’s humanity. With a peace-focused anthropological framework, this paper presents the case for person-first language in criminal justice contexts. It is evident that adopting first-person language usage regarding the criminal justice system is necessary after analyzing and considering the multiple sources, such as the voices of those who …

Dancers Of The Book: Yemenite, Persian, And Kurdish Jewish Dance, Quinn Bicer

Anthós

Despite the cultural significance of dance in Jewish communities around the world, research into Middle Eastern Jewish dance outside of the modern nation-state of Israel is sorely under-researched. This article aims to help rectify this by focusing on Yemenite, Persian/Iranian, and Kurdish Jewish dance and explores how these dancers have functioned and been received within the societies they have been a part of. The methods that have gone into this article are a combination of analyzing primary source recorded dances and existing secondary source research into the dance of these communities. Through these methods, this article reveals how Yemenite, Iranian, …

Doings With Land: Process And Participation Through Indigenous-Led, Experiential Education In Saqáanpa (The Snake River In Hells Canyon), Clark Shimeall

University Honors Theses

In our rapidly unraveling world, the re-centering of Indigenous ways of being and knowing is more important than ever. This re-centering is based in cultural revitalization and transmission within Indigenous communities, and these processes are intimately tied to relationship with Land. This writing describes the "doing" of an Indigenous-led experiential educational program for Nez Perce and Cayuse descended youth -- the Saqáanma School -- which was conducted via whitewater raft on pik'uunin (the Snake River) through saqáanpa (Hells Canyon) in July 2021. The complex exchanges between people, culture, and Land embodied in this project are examined through Barker and Pickerill's …

Humanity In Trauma, Alyssa K. Thompson

University Honors Theses

The main objective of the literature review is to use the trauma-informed care paradigm to argue that the current implementation of trauma-informed care reinforces hierarchies of harm, leading to feelings of moral obligation and moral injury while perpetuating othering. This literature review criticizes trauma-informed care, emphasizing lived experiences against the characteristics trauma-informed care aspires to reflect. The review centers on the broad themes of understanding, universality, and acceptance of the present trauma-informed care paradigm. The critique comes from the silently excluded group of healthcare workers, with a personal perspective from a professional who worked in an urban hospital emergency department …

Umm Huwaiwitat: A Neolithic Site Near Petra, Jordan, Daniel Plekhov, Cristiano Nicosia, Luiza Osorio G. Silva, Sarah Newman, Felipe Rojas

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Studies of the rural landscapes around the Nabataean/Roman city of Petra in Jordan have tended to assume a developmental trajectory based on that of the urban centre. Recent archaeological investigations at the site of Umm Huwaiwitat, however, shed light on the longer-term histories of human occupation and land use in the region north of Petra. Excavation has revealed Late Neolithic deposits formed by the burning of animal dung and the disposal of ash. These deposits underlie walls, today serving as agricultural terraces, which date to at least the Early Bronze Age. Umm Huwaiwitat therefore provides a microcosm of the long-lived …

Comparing True Maternal And Paternal Care In Pair-Living, Ex-Situ Varecia Rubra (Red Variegated Lemurs) Contextualized Among Other Primate Cooperative Breeders, Payton Elizabeth Zuver

Dissertations and Theses

Observations of variegated lemurs in the wild have revealed a cooperative breeding strategy including extensive male care to young, primarily in the form of infant guarding. This thesis presents an analysis of the first quantitative assessment of true paternal and true maternal care from pair-housed, ex-situ red variegated lemurs (V. rubra) housed at the Lemur Conservation Foundation's Myakka City Lemur Reserve in western Florida. This study aims to answer specific research questions: How do paternal and maternal care compare when resources are abundant, and paternity is certain? Is male care instinctual? Is it driven by energetic necessity? If …

Developing A Sample-Efficient Analytical Pathway For A Qualitative Chemical Investigation Of Ancestral Chilkat Dyeing And Weaving Practices, Dario Gerlando Durastanti

Dissertations and Theses

The project goal is to identify the dyestuffs used in hand-woven Chilkat blankets from the collection of the Alaska State Museum and the Sheldon Jackson Museum. Chilkat weaving is practiced by Northwest coastal clans, particularly in Southeast Alaska since at least the early 19th century. Through this collaboration, 117 wool fibers from 23 Chilkat textiles, and 193 reference samples consisting of dyed fibers using both natural and synthetic dye sources, raw dye material, and dye bath aliquots were provided to the lab for reference characterization and identification. In these analyses, dyes were classified as being either natural or synthetic, subdivided …

Kurdish Filmmaking In Turkey: History And Narratives, Omar Sadik

Dissertations and Theses

This research investigates the history and politics of cultural production by examining Kurdish filmmaking in Turkey. Sadik provide an analysis of contemporary films and filmmakers to explore how Kurdish cinema in Turkey is situated in broader, global political-economic structures. By examining this important case through the lens of history and memory, Sadik clarify how production and aesthetics in Kurdish cinema point to important systemic processes. Sadik uses three main research strategies in this study: a historical survey of Kurds in Turkey, an analysis of ten semi-structured interviews with contemporary Kurdish directors and an analysis of films directed by Kurdish filmmakers …

A Habitat Stronghold On The Precipice: A Call‐To‐Action For Supporting Lemur Conservation In Northeast Madagascar, Timothy M. Eppley, Cortni Borgerson, Natalie Vasey, Multiple Additional Authors

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The northeast of Madagascar is as diverse as it is threatened. The area bordering the Analanjirofo and SAVA regions contains six protected areas and at least 22 lemur species. Many applied research and conservation programs have been established in the region with the aim of ensuring both wildlife and people thrive in the long term. While most of the remaining humid evergreen forest of northeast Madagascar is formally protected, the local human population depends heavily on the land, and unsustainable natural resource use threatens this biodiversity hotspot. Drawing from our collective experiences managing conservation activities and research programs in northeast …

Legal Geographies, Caroline Griffith, Sarah Klosterkamp, Alida Cantor, Austin Kocher

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

This encyclopedia entry defines and discusses legal geography. Legal geography is an interdisciplinary area of scholarship that focuses on the intersections and co-constitution between law and space and place: that is, how law and legal processes produce space/place, and how particular places in turn influence law. Rather than thinking of law as an abstract, universal, a-spatial set of rules, legal geography examines the ways in which law is situated in place, and how places are shaped by legal practices and processes.

Contextualizing Patterns In Short-Term Disaster Recoveries From The 2015 Nepal Earthquakes: Household Vulnerabilities, Adaptive Capacities, And Change, Jeremy Spoon, Drew Gerkey, Alisa Rai

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Disaster recovery is multidimensional and requires theoretical and methodological approaches from the interdisciplinary social sciences to illustrate short- and long-term recovery dynamics that can guide more informed and equitable policy and interventions. The 2015 Nepal earthquakes have had catastrophic impacts on historically marginalized ethnic groups and Indigenous households in rural locations, arising in the immediate aftermath and unfolding for years afterward. Analyzing factors that shape household recovery patterns can help identify vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities in addition to signaling potential future changes. We pursue this goal using survey data from 400 randomly selected households in 4 communities over 2 10-week …

Uncomfortable Yet Necessary: The Impact Of Ppe On Communication In Emergency Medicine, Jennifer Aengst, Grace A. Walker-Stevenson, Tabria Harrod, Jonathan Ivankovic, Jacob Neilson, Jeanne-Marie Guise

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: The efficacy of pre-hospital emergency services is heavily dependent on the effective communication of care providers. This effective communication occurs between providers as part of a team, but also among providers interacting with family members and patients. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a number of communication challenges to emergency care, which are primarily linked to the increased use of PPE.

Methods: We sought to analyze the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on Emergency Medical Service (EMS) workers and pre-hospital care delivery. We conducted focus groups and one-on-one interviews with fire-EMS first responders between Sept 2021 and 2022. Interviews …