Anthropology Commons^™

From Prairie To Practice: Environmental Controls And A Forensic Taphonomic Framework In Southeastern Nebraska, Jessica F. L. Gammage

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Forensic taphonomy examines the postmortem processes that affect human remains, but much of the existing research has been developed in environments that differ significantly from those encountered in the Central Great Plains. This creates limitations when applying established models to regions like southeastern Nebraska, where decomposition is shaped by tallgrass prairie ecosystems, loess-derived soils, and strong seasonal variability. Addressing this gap is important for improving the accuracy and reliability of medicolegal interpretations.

This study evaluates how environmental conditions influence decomposition in southeastern Nebraska and proposes a regionally grounded framework for forensic taphonomic research. Drawing on existing literature, regional ecological data, …

From Prairie To Practice: Forensic Taphonomy, Ethics, And Regional Ecology In Southeastern Nebraska, Jessica F. L. Gammage

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Forensic taphonomy examines the postmortem processes that affect human remains within specific environmental contexts and plays a critical role in medicolegal death investigation. Despite significant advances in decomposition research, experimental studies remain geographically and environmentally uneven, limiting the transferability of postmortem interval (PMI) estimation methods across regions. The Central Great Plains are underrepresented in forensic taphonomic research despite its distinct ecological and geomorphological characteristics.

This thesis evaluates southeastern Nebraska as a specific regional setting for forensic taphonomic research by integrating ecological, pedological, and geomorphological data with current forensic literature. Tallgrass prairie vegetation, loess-derived soils, seasonal moisture variability, and dynamic fluvial …

Understanding Roma Oppression In Europe Through Humantarian Forensic Analysis, Christal L. Quinn

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

This thesis examines the marginalization of Roma people in Europe, and how humanitarian forensic practices may help Roma communities in their quest for justice and recognition. The study draws exclusively on secondary information to examine the social, political, and legal issues affecting the Roma communities, who have endured centuries of institutional discrimination, marginalization, and violence. This thesis identifies ways in which systematic oppression continues to limit Roma communities’ access to education, housing, healthcare, and legal protection through a review of relevant literature and applicable theoretical frameworks. The study also examines the relevance of forensic science, particularly its humanitarian applications, in …

Rehumanizing Anatomized Individuals: Using Osteobiographies As A Step Towards Reparative Justice, Lillie C. Turpin

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

In 1985, India banned the export of human remains. This ended the major trade route for primarily US and European anatomical supply companies. Until this point, companies like Carolina Biological Supply exploited and erased vulnerable people's identities, molding them into anonymous anatomical specimens. This study investigates the life and postmortem history of twenty-five individuals, previously used as anatomical specimens, housed at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Using an osteobiographical approach, this research reconstructs aspects of these individuals' lived experiences and examines how anatomical preparation practices reflect structural violence and apathy.

Skeletal analysis of twenty-five individuals revealed a range of biological profiles, …

Non-Destructive Automated Classification Of Human And Large Mammal Long Bone Fragments: A Deep Learning Approach Using Micro-Ct Histomorphology And Grad-Cam Interpretation, Kathleen Marie Kelley

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

This study explores the development and validation of an automated, deep learning system designed to differentiate human from large mammal long bone fragments using micro-CT imagery. A comprehensive dataset of cross-sectional µCT images was assembled from human and animal skeletal material processed at the DPAA, Nebraska. A convolutional neural network (CNN) based on a ResNet-18 architecture, utilizing transfer learning from ImageNet weights, was trained to classify µCT images as human or animal. The model achieved a mean classification accuracy of 89.85% (± 8.27%) across five sample-level cross-validation folds, with a sensitivity of 96.21% and a 95% bootstrap confidence interval of …

Roads To Antiochia Ad Cragum: Pedestrian Survey And A Least Cost Path Model Of Roman Roads In The Vicinity Of Antiochia Ad Cragum, Southern Türkiye, Alexander W. Pastor

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Antiochia ad Cragum, a Roman site located in modern southern Türkiye, has been intensively investigated through archaeological study. However, the surrounding landscape has received less attention. This thesis addresses this gap by examining how this past settlement might have been accessed, which is an important step in gaining a better understanding of how people and resources traveled overland and how infrastructure was made to accommodate this travel. Pedestrian survey was conducted along posited western and eastern segments of a Roman-era road, finding remains consistent with but not definitively establishing this interpretation. In addition, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was used to …

Decomposition Study Using Pigs In Southeastern Nebraska During The Fall And Winter Seasons, Ryan Bodine

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

When an individual is found deceased, one of the tools used in the identification process is estimating the post-mortem interval (PMI). This estimate is used to determine how long an individual has been deceased once their remains are found. To estimate an accurate PMI, knowing how decomposition is affected by external factors is key. The transition period from fall to winter in southeastern Nebraska consists of fluctuating temperatures as the seasons transfer from fall to winter. This thesis investigates how decomposition is affected during this transition period while also looking at two different environments that are common in Nebraska, prairies …

Exploring The Biocultural Profile Of The Undocumented Populations Of The Sonoran Corridor: A Skeletal Assessment Of The Prevention Through Deterrence Strategy, Mary A. Vaughn

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Over the last thirty years the mortality rate of the undocumented population at the US-Mexico border has risen, requiring methods distinguishing US-born individuals from immigrants to improve the likelihood of identification and repatriation through foreign consulates. Forensic anthropologists with the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (PCOME) have advocated for the use of the biocultural profile, combining the biological profile with factors including oral health, osteological stress, and personal effects. The biocultural profile serves two purposes, functioning both as a tool for identification and with which to document structural inequality within communities of origin.

This study examines changes in …

Program And Proceedings, The Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2026: 146th Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Thirty-Sixth Annual Meeting

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Program and abstracts of the proceedings for the Nebraska Academy of Sciences 136th annual meeting, 2025

Sessions

Aeronautics and Space Science

Anthropology

Biological and Medical Sciences

Earth Sciences

Ecology, Sustainability, and Environmental Science

Physics and Engineering

General Poster Session

2026 Maiben Lecture: Shifting Extremes: Understanding Nebraska’s Changing Climate and Preparing for What Lies Ahead, Deborah Bathke

2026 Friends of Science Awards: Julie Shaffer and Irina Filina

2026 C. Bertrand and Marian Othmer Schultz Colleaguate Schoalrship Award: Piper Ryschon and Bryce Reeson

In Memoriam: Paul Royster

Beyond Green: Re-Reading "Wicked" As Anthropological Text, Tan Gia Bao Huynh

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This paper examines "Wicked" through the lens of cultural borderlands, revealing how the musical dramatizes the creation and navigation of social boundaries. By analyzing Elphaba's journey, the research demonstrates how her green skin serves as a powerful metaphor for cultural otherness, while her experiences at Shiz University and beyond illustrate strategies of resistance, accommodation, and identity formation familiar to those navigating between dominant and marginalized spaces. Particularly significant is the paper's examination of Oz's propaganda system, which demonstrates how cultures manufacture monsters and heroes through selective storytelling and public ritual. This analysis offers fresh insights into "Wicked's" enduring appeal, suggesting …

Review Of Vampire Forensics: Uncovering The Origins Of An Enduring Legend, Elizabeth Brandt

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of Vampire Forensics: Uncovering the Origins of an Enduring Legend (2010) by Mark Collins Jenkins.

Chapter 1: A Brief Introduction: Rhombus Motifs In Textiles, Billie J. A. Follensbee, Lois Martin

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Presents a brief introduction to rhombus motifs in textiles.

Chapter 4: The Grid Patterns In The Vestments And Headdresses Of Female Statuary From The Classic Period Cultures Of Central Veracruz, Chantal D. Huckert

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

This chapter focuses on grid designs appearing on female clothing in Late Postclassic Nahua sources, in Maya sources, and on the Late Classic figurines of Central Veracruz. This study examines cross-hatched lattice patterns based on repetitions of rhombus and quincunx motifs associated with the sentient Mesoamerican Earth complex. The attached catalog presents a clear reference to these motifs and their variants, while the rest of the chapter is divided into two sections and addresses the general cross-hatched lattice pattern and the associated motifs. The first section discusses the all-over grid design, dotted or not, on the clothing of Mexican highland …

Chapter 5: The “Dotted-Grid” And “Dotted-Diamond” Motifs On Skirts: Fertility And Power During The Epiclassic And Early Postclassic Periods In Central And Western Mesoamerica (600 To 1200 Ce), Juliette Testard

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Discusses gender, apparel, and attributes with respect to the Epiclassic shift in politics and ideology, the grid, hatched, and rhomboidal patterns in central Mexican imagery during the Epiclassic, and the dotted-grid and dotted-diamond motifs on female figurines during the Epiclassic and Early Postclassic Periods.

Chapter 7: Symmetries Of Cloth And Corn In The Ancient Americas: Pattern Generation, Botany, And The Maize Matrix In Mexico And Peru, Lois Martin

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Discusses pattern generation, botany, and the maize matrix in Mexico and Peru.

Descriptive Analysis Of A "Fluted" Axe In The Anthropology Teaching Collections At Unl, Colten Miller

Nebraska Anthropologist

The axe in this study is a fine artifact. The bit is 10.3 cm long and the poll is 3.5 cm long. Combined with the width of the groove this axe has a total length of 16.5 cm. The thickness – defined as the distance from the top edge to the bottom edge at the thickest point – is 8.9 cm. It has a width of 5.1 cm – which is the distance between the right and left side at the widest point. The cutting edge is 6.4 cm in length. The axe weighs 2.6 pounds.

. . .

Determining …

Form Vs. Function: Assessing The Effects Of The Paddle-And-Anvil Technique In Cooking Vessels, Annabel Hendrickson

Nebraska Anthropologist

This experimental study analyzed the effects of the paddle-and-anvil forming technique in conjunction with burnishing, with the goal of comparing vessel performance between different forming techniques. Due to the compaction of clay minerals involved in the paddling process, the paddled vessels were predicted to be less permeable, more heat conductive, easier to wash, and stronger than their un-paddled counterparts. The results did not reflect this hypothesis; instead, the tests showed that the effects of paddling and burnishing are not consistent across all aspects of vessel performance, reflecting the difference between vessel forming and surface finishing techniques and displaying the importance …

Review Of The Red Market: On The Trail Of The World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, And Child Traffickers, Christine Parker

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of The Red Market: On the Trail of the World's Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers (2011) by Scott Carney.

"We All Came Back For Them. We Remembered": A Review Of Erin Kimmerle's We Carry Their Bones: The Search For Justice At The Dozier School For Boys, Molly Nowak

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys (2022) by Erin Kimmerle.

Review Of Plundered Skulls And Stolen Spirits: Inside The Fight To Reclaim Native America's Culture, Christine Parker

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Reclaim Native America's Culture (2018) by Chip Colwell.

Review Of Human Body Decomposition, Alexander Curry

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of Human Body Decomposition (2016) by Jarvis Hayman and Marc Oxenham.

Review Of Bones: Structure And Mechanics, Alexander Curry

Nebraska Anthropologist

Review of Bones: Structure and Mechanics (2002) by John D. Currey.

North Korean Archaeology And Archaeological Interpretation In The Twentieth Century, Gabrielle E. Stoddard

Nebraska Anthropologist

This paper examines how political unrest in North Korea during the twentieth century affected Korean Archaeology. During the occupation of the Korean peninsula by the Empire of Japan during 1910–1945, Japanese scholars embarked on the study of archaeology in Korea. Japanese archaeologists used Korean archaeological data and materials to push a colonial viewpoint that Korea was a weak state that could not advance without oversight from a conquering nation. After Korea was liberated by the Soviet Union and the United States in 1945, it was divided into the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North) and the Republic of Korea (South). …

Unsettling The West: Migration Routes And Homesteading Through Oral Histories, Sidney Wickham

Nebraska Anthropologist

Westward expansion in the nineteenth-century United States has long been framed through settler-centered historical narratives that emphasize progress and national development. This article employs oral history as an ethnographic method to examine migration routes and homesteading experiences in Nebraska and the broader Midwest, foregrounding how memory, storytelling, and lived experience function as cultural practices. Drawing on interviews with descendants of homesteaders, community members, and museum professionals, alongside diaries, newspapers, and archival materials, this study analyzes how migration was remembered, narrated, and transmitted across generations. Rather than treating overland trails and homesteads as singular pathways of movement, this research situates them …

A Semiotic Analysis Of German-American Cultural Suppression In The Lincoln Freie Presse From 1914 To 1918, Elle Ward

Nebraska Anthropologist

This study performs a historical semiotic content analysis of the Lincoln Freie Presse to document the processes of cultural coercion and resultant identity erasure within the German- American press of Nebraska during the critical period of January 1914 to December 1918. The research establishes a semiotic baseline (1914–1916) characterized by high linguistic and content autonomy and then tracks the immediate, stark shifts following the U.S. entry into World War I (the coercion period) and the succeeding mass anti-German hysteria (1917–1918). Quantitative findings convey a rapid and overwhelming visual conquest of the newspaper’s spatio-textual landscape: patriotic symbolism surged from zero to …

Smudging And Polishing To Create A Non-Stick Surface For Ceramic Cookware: An Experimental Study, Galazie Pendleton

Nebraska Anthropologist

This paper examines whether smudging and polishing the interior of a ceramic cooking vessel will result in a non-stick cooking surface. The experimental study displayed in this paper is inspired by the prehistoric Southwestern practice of smudging and polishing ceramic bowls in the Mogollon region. Many scholars have assumed that smudged and polished cooking surfaces result in non-stick cooking surfaces, but no experimental studies have been conducted to test this. This paper aims to restart the conversation around the non-stick nature of smudged and polished bowls by recording the cleaning process after cooking. To create a holistic approach to this …

Chapter 2: Rhombus Textile Motifs And Patterns And Their Significance In Mesoamerica, Billie J. A. Follensbee, Lois Martin

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Presents the rhombus textile motifs and patterns in Mesoamerica and their significance.

Chapter 6: Snakeskin And Corn Markings: The Dotted-Diamond-Grid Pattern In The U.S. Southwest, Laurie D. Webster, Kelley A. Hays-Gilpin

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Discusses Southwestern tie-dye and its Mesoamerican and Andean connections.

Chapter 3: Diamonds In The Rough: The Development And Occurrences Of The Rhombus Motif, Its Components, And Its Variations In Olmec And Olmec-Related Textiles, Billie J. A. Follensbee

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Discusses the development of textiles in the Mesoamerican Preclassic/Formative period from the Gulf Coast, the rhombus textile patterns and motifs in Olmec and Olmec-related imagery, and includes further reflections on the dotted-diamond motif, its components, and their correlations.

Defending The Homeland: An Archaeoethnodemographic (Aed) Analysis Of Population Dynamics And Settlement Patterns In The Navajo Dinétah, Ad 1720–1745, Kurt Mantonya

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation presents an innovative archaeoethnodemographic (AED) analysis of Navajo population dynamics during the Middle Period (AD 1720−1745) of the Gobernador Phase in the Dinétah, the ancestral Navajo homeland in northwest New Mexico. During this critical quarter-century, intensified Ute and Comanche slave-raiding and Spanish military expeditions forced the Diné to abandon traditional dispersed settlement patterns in favor of defensive aggregation around fortified pueblitos—small masonry defensive structures built on boulder-tops and mesa-rims throughout the region.

The study employs an AED framework that systematically integrates archaeological site analysis, ethnographic household organization data, historical documentation, and demographic modeling to reconstruct population dynamics during …