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Articles 151 - 180 of 320

Full-Text Articles in Anthropology

Soy Gaucho: Nationalism And Modernity In Argentina, Geneva M. L. Smith Jul 2013

Soy Gaucho: Nationalism And Modernity In Argentina, Geneva M. L. Smith

Anthropology ETDs

Set in rural Argentina, debates over cultural recognition, land rights, and economic opportunity have been waged throughout the countrys history. By lodging the analysis in Argentina's rural zones, this project examines the series of neoliberal economic policies that led to a widespread shift to agricultural biotechnology, the ensuing social effects including urbanization due to decreasing rural labor opportunities, and the potential for new or hybridized political economies in the form of post-neoliberalism that have emerged out of Argentina's devastating 2001 economic crisis. In recent years, there have been accelerated agronomic and demographic shifts in Argentina's rural sector as farmers turn …

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The Bioarchaeology Of Changes In Social Stratification, Warfare, And Habitual Activities Among Iron Age Samnites Of Central Italy, Vitale Sparacello Jul 2013

The Bioarchaeology Of Changes In Social Stratification, Warfare, And Habitual Activities Among Iron Age Samnites Of Central Italy, Vitale Sparacello

Anthropology ETDs

This study uses a bioarchaeological approach to investigate the behavioral and social correlates of changes in skeletal properties during the Iron Age of central Italy. This was a period of demographic growth, increase in sociopolitical complexity, and social stratification. Early states were developing from simpler forms of social aggregation, and expansionistic, large-scale warfare was beginning. I analyzed the mechanical properties of Iron Age human skeletons (844 individuals) from 11 necropoleis belonging to the Oscan ethno-linguistic group (Samnites). The analysis of grave goods allowed for a division of individuals by status categories. Iron Age samples show an increase in stature compared …

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Local Food And Power Dynamics In Southeast Grand Rapids, Michigan, Christina Mello May 2013

Local Food And Power Dynamics In Southeast Grand Rapids, Michigan, Christina Mello

Anthropology ETDs

Various types of food security' projects essentially deliver little in the way of real opportunities for local food security among Southeast residents in Grand Rapids, MI. Nonetheless, developers justifying their gentrifying efforts are increasingly funded through large grants and public dollars by actually purporting themselves to seek solutions to reducing food insecurity in these Southeast neighborhoods. 'Community,' 'local,' 'sustainability,' and 'social justice' are common terms marketed as values to promote urban redevelopment, food security initiatives, and to sell local food. Food growers and activists challenge how these terms are defined and used for profiteering. Thus, there are competing value systems …

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Lost Worlds: Locating Submerged Archaeological Sites In Southeast Alaska, Kelly Rose Bale Monteleone May 2013

Lost Worlds: Locating Submerged Archaeological Sites In Southeast Alaska, Kelly Rose Bale Monteleone

Anthropology ETDs

Synthesis and interpretation of archaeologically documented land-use patterns and ethnographic data are used to identify and model where people chose to live, hunt, and gather prehistorically. This project tests the hypothesis that the archaeological record of SE Alaska extends to areas of the continental shelf that were submerged by post-Pleistocene sea level rise beginning around 10,600 cal years BP (9,400 14C years). Digital elevation models (DEM) and sea-level curve for southeastern Alaska are used to create time slices between 16,000 to 10,500 cal BP. The variables (slope, aspect, distance from paleo-stream, paleo-lakes, paleo-coastlines, and known archaeological sites, and coastal sinuosity) …

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Spanish Missionization And Maya Social Structure: Skeletal Evidence For Labor Distribution At Tipu, Belize, Lara Kristen Noldner May 2013

Spanish Missionization And Maya Social Structure: Skeletal Evidence For Labor Distribution At Tipu, Belize, Lara Kristen Noldner

Anthropology ETDs

The cultural and human biological outcomes of Spanish colonization of the Americas were diverse. This dissertation examines the effects of Spanish colonization on Maya social structure using skeletal evidence for the distribution of labor at Tipu, a mission site in west central Belize. Skeletal remains of indigenous Maya buried in the context of a church, and in accordance with European Catholic burial customs, were examined for enthesis development and the cross-sectional morphology (CSG) of upper and lower limb long bones. Nothing besides burial placement in relation to the church (inside or outside the walls) denotes social status among individuals. Bone …

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Early-Life Influences On Body Composition, Metabolic Economy, And Age At Menarche, Megan A. Workman Dec 2012

Early-Life Influences On Body Composition, Metabolic Economy, And Age At Menarche, Megan A. Workman

Anthropology ETDs

Prenatal energy balance and postnatal psychosocial experiences have been linked by separate literatures to maturational timing, adult body composition (e.g., height, skeletal muscle mass), and life-long differences in metabolic physiology. This dissertation examines the potential influences of prenatal energy balance and postnatal psychosocial experiences in simultaneous analyses designed to test whether they exert additive or interacting influences on adult body composition (chapters 2 and 4), metabolic physiology (chapter 3), and age at menarche (chapter 4) among samples of U.S. men and women. Evolutionary models that address human developmental plasticity are explored as possible explanations for the observed relationships.

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Women Living Islam In Post-War And Post-Socialist Bosnia And Herzegovina, Emira Ibrahimpašić Jul 2012

Women Living Islam In Post-War And Post-Socialist Bosnia And Herzegovina, Emira Ibrahimpašić

Anthropology ETDs

This is an ethnographic study of what it means to be a Muslim woman in post-war and post-socialist Bosnia and Herzegovina. Almost two decades after the end of inter-ethnic wars that led to the dissolution of socialist Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Bosnias inhabitants are undergoing radical social, economic, political, and particularly religious transformations. This transformation, visible in both community and individual lives, can be discerned in all aspects of daily life. In this dissertation I examine the underlying reasons and motivations concerning the different ways in which one can practice and live Islam in Sarajevo and Zenica, two of the …

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Coffee And The Countryside: Small Farmers And Sustainable Development In Las Segovias De Nicaragua, Patrick W. Staib Jul 2012

Coffee And The Countryside: Small Farmers And Sustainable Development In Las Segovias De Nicaragua, Patrick W. Staib

Anthropology ETDs

Las Segovias de Nicaragua is a highland tropical region along the Río Coco and the Honduran border in the northern part of the country. Over the past decade and a half, efforts to introduce and establish organic coffee production methods and cooperative organization models have focused on the impoverished rural inhabitants of this region. This approach represents a significant shift in international development policies toward Third World producer nations. I engaged in this context to question the viability of organic coffee farming given the legacy of deceit, violence, and natural disasters that have plagued this region since the Spanish Conquest. …

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New Paleoclimate Reconstruction Techniques In Archaeology: Applications In Greece, New Mexico, And Portugal, Brandon Lee Drake Jul 2012

New Paleoclimate Reconstruction Techniques In Archaeology: Applications In Greece, New Mexico, And Portugal, Brandon Lee Drake

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation develops new techniques of analysis that make existing archaeological data more useful for understanding past climate change. These techniques are introduced through three key case studies in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, the Lower Alentejo of Portugal, and the Eastern Mediterranean. A 12,000 year record of pollen collected from packrat middens across Chaco Canyon were analyzed using a new normalization procedure to produce a Holocene record of piñon and ponderosa pine abundance. The normalization procedure, species occurrence, enabled statistical analysis of the data. Simple linear models indicated that piñon and ponderosa pollen were strongly correlated with …

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Feeding Ecology And Life History Strategies Of White-Faced Capuchin Monkeys, Elizabeth C. Eadie Jul 2012

Feeding Ecology And Life History Strategies Of White-Faced Capuchin Monkeys, Elizabeth C. Eadie

Anthropology ETDs

Dietary niches have widespread effects on individuals life histories, behaviors, and morphologies. Capuchin monkeys inhabit a complex dietary niche that often entails hunting of relatively large vertebrate prey, tool-use, and extraction of embedded resources that other closely related and sympatric species do not exploit. In this dissertation I examine, a) how juvenile capuchins overcome the challenges of reliance on a difficult-to-acquire diet, b) at what age juveniles achieve maximum foraging return rates for difficult-to-acquire foods, and c) what nutritional benefits capuchins obtain from exploitation of these foods. In the process of addressing these questions I test two prominent hypotheses regarding …

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Health Parameters Across The Lifespan Among The Ache Of Paraguay, John D. Wagner Jul 2012

Health Parameters Across The Lifespan Among The Ache Of Paraguay, John D. Wagner

Anthropology ETDs

This work provides an integrative approach for assessing population health among a group of indigenous South American forager-farmers, the northern Aché of eastern Paraguay. The Aché were full-time hunting and gathering nomads up until the time of first peaceful contact in the early 1970s when they experienced a devastating virgin-soil population epidemic that killed approximately 40% of the population, where all age and sex groups were affected more or less equally with the exception of a higher survival rate among reproductive-aged women. The Aché are now settled on several reservations and have fully recovered their population numbers. The Aché have …

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Investigating Epistemological Implications Of Geospatial Representation In The Making Of Histories Of The Pueblos, Using An Exploratory Mixed Methods Approach, Judith Van Der Elst Jul 2012

Investigating Epistemological Implications Of Geospatial Representation In The Making Of Histories Of The Pueblos, Using An Exploratory Mixed Methods Approach, Judith Van Der Elst

Anthropology ETDs

The claim that epistemological differences between western science and indigenous research methodologies are the roots of contention of the interpretation and construction of histories is investigated. An exploratory mixed methods approach is employed to test whether current systems of geospatial analysis and representation are suitable for understanding different ways of knowing, focused on the spatial domain as a fundamental cognitive domain. Recent studies indicate that spatial cognition is significantly different among speakers of different language groups and that spatial ontology is not universal across the human population, providing the theoretical underpinning for questioning the organizational principles of currently used systems …

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The Effects Of Genetic Ancestry And Sociocultural Factors On Pulmonary Tuberculosis Susceptibility In Northeastern Mexico, Bonnie Nadyne Young Jul 2012

The Effects Of Genetic Ancestry And Sociocultural Factors On Pulmonary Tuberculosis Susceptibility In Northeastern Mexico, Bonnie Nadyne Young

Anthropology ETDs

Genetic and environmental factors contribute to variation in tuberculosis (TB) disease risk among individuals in the Americas, although the relative contribution of each of these factors remains unclear. Genetic ancestry may serve as a proxy for underlying genetic differences in TB risk between the European, Native American, and African groups that formed many populations in the Americas, but this has never been tested. Such tests are complicated by the fact that genetic ancestry and important potential social predictors of TB are usually confounded. The urban center of Nuevo León, the Monterrey Metropolitan Area (MMA), presents a unique setting to tease …

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Tribes, States, And Landscapes: The Ecological Impacts Of Changing Land Use During The Islamic Period In Southern Portugal, F. Scott Worman May 2012

Tribes, States, And Landscapes: The Ecological Impacts Of Changing Land Use During The Islamic Period In Southern Portugal, F. Scott Worman

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation concerns human-environment interactions in southeastern Portugal during the centuries following the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire. In contrast to the feudal systems that developed across Western Europe outside Iberia, the Islamic polities that controlled the study area from 711 to 1248 C.E. allowed agrarian producers a great deal of political and economic independence. As a result, rural areas were more densely populated and the residents were wealthier than in earlier or later periods or contemporary feudal Christian kingdoms. The archaeological, geological, and historical investigations reported in this volume illuminate the timing, nature, and causes of past ecological …

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Planting Seeds Is A Metaphor: Being Agrarian, Agricultural Activism, And Emergent Identity In New Mexico, Elise Trott May 2012

Planting Seeds Is A Metaphor: Being Agrarian, Agricultural Activism, And Emergent Identity In New Mexico, Elise Trott

Anthropology ETDs

In recent years, small-scale agriculture and acequia (traditional ditch irrigation) practices have become a significant locus for the goals and agendas of multiple stakeholders in New Mexico, attracting political, scholarly, and popular interest from a wide variety of groups and individuals. For this reason, local acequieros (acequia irrigators) and farmers are constantly engaged in processes of boundary-making, identity formation, and negotiation over the limits, claims, and goals of their involvement in agricultural activism, as well as the involvement of others. This thesis addresses the content, meaning, and implications of the strategic identity formation and boundary-making practices of one organization at …

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Florentine Palaces, Costly Signaling, And Lineage Survival, Michael K. Church May 2012

Florentine Palaces, Costly Signaling, And Lineage Survival, Michael K. Church

Anthropology ETDs

My dissertation evaluated whether the palaces built in Florence, Italy during the Renaissance are a form of costly signaling. Costly signaling theory was developed to explain why organisms have attributes and behaviors that appear to defy basic Darwinian logic by having costs that are not offset by obvious benefits. The theory proposes that such attributes and behaviors persist because they are reliable signals of information about the signalers. Signal audiences use the information content of signals to rank signalers and to modify their interactions with signalers in ways that benefit signalers. These interactions can involve mate choice, predation avoidance, status …

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Zapatista Materiality Disseminated: A Co-Construction Reconsidered, Ilse Biel May 2012

Zapatista Materiality Disseminated: A Co-Construction Reconsidered, Ilse Biel

Anthropology ETDs

In this study, I explore two central examples of Zapatista material culture, the Zapatista mask and the souvenir muñecas zapatistas [Zapatista dolls], as they become plot lines in the co-constructed encuentro that shapes the Zapatista concept internationally leading to a false image of Zapatista homogeneity. Taking on their own dynamic substance that frequently is dislodged from the context of the people they appear to represent they become indicative of the discourse about the Zapatistas, one that does not necessarily originate in the activities of the Zapatistas. I suggest that, within the broader encuentro process between Zapatistas and non-Zapatistas, the Zapatistas …

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Predictive Geospatial Modeling For Archaeological Research And Conservation: Case Studies From The Galisteo Basin, Vermont And Chaco Canyon, Wetherbee Bryan Dorshow May 2012

Predictive Geospatial Modeling For Archaeological Research And Conservation: Case Studies From The Galisteo Basin, Vermont And Chaco Canyon, Wetherbee Bryan Dorshow

Anthropology ETDs

Geospatial modeling of ancient landscapes for predictive scientific research and hypothesis testing is an important emerging approach in contemporary archaeology. This doctoral dissertation is comprised of three published North American case studies that clearly demonstrate the value of predictive geospatial modeling to address explicit goals of contemporary archaeological research, conservation and cultural resource management. The case studies consist of a GIS-based prioritization analysis of natural and cultural resources conservation value in the Galisteo Basin of north-central New Mexico, an archaeological sensitivity analysis (site-discovery potential) for the state of Vermont, and a predictive model of agricultural potential during the Bonito Phase …

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Testing Hypotheses Of The Demographic Transition In San Borja, Bolivia, Kristin Snopkowski Dec 2011

Testing Hypotheses Of The Demographic Transition In San Borja, Bolivia, Kristin Snopkowski

Anthropology ETDs

Understanding the demographic transition, a trend in which fertility drops after a period of population growth, has been an important area of anthropological and demographic research. This dissertation seeks to understand fertility change by testing five models that have been presented in the literature. The predictions that are unique to each hypothesis are tested in San Borja, Bolivia, a community currently undergoing a fertility transition. Low modern fertility seems counter-intuitive given the increase of individual wealth, but there have not been sufficient tests to lead to an understanding of why this occurs. Informational hypotheses explain fertility transition as a change …

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The Structure Of Energy Production And Redistribution Among Tsimane' Forager-Horticulturalists, Paul L. Hooper Dec 2011

The Structure Of Energy Production And Redistribution Among Tsimane' Forager-Horticulturalists, Paul L. Hooper

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation constitutes an integrated analysis of the Tsimane' economic subsistence system. Its analyses are guided by a body of evolutionary theory which posits that life history traits, the structure of social relationships, and nature of economic production co-evolve in patterned and predictable ways. This theory specifically suggests that, for humans, the returns to embodied capital development and declines in reproductive efficiency late in life interact to produce: prolonged development, extended lifespan, menopause, and a predominantly downward three-generational system of energetic provisioning. The current analyses of Tsimane' work effort, production, and transfers are consistent with this theory in the following …

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Through The Eye Of The Needle: Investigations Of Ethnographic, Experimental, And Archaeological Bone Tool Use Wear From Perishable Technologies, Elisabeth Ann Stone Jul 2011

Through The Eye Of The Needle: Investigations Of Ethnographic, Experimental, And Archaeological Bone Tool Use Wear From Perishable Technologies, Elisabeth Ann Stone

Anthropology ETDs

Perishable technologies - objects made from soft, organic materials that often decay quickly in the archaeological record - are known to be both ubiquitous and abundant in contemporary and historic societies, regardless of variation in social and economic organization or local environment. They are commonly made by women, children and elders, members of society that are often underrepresented in reconstructions of the past. However, their perishable nature means that these objects are recovered from the archaeological record at low rates, relative to that of more durable materials. Consequently, most evidence for these technologies is indirect. Use wear on the surface …

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Predicting Body Mass From The Skeleton With An Application To The Georgia Coast, Shamsi R. Daneshvari Jul 2011

Predicting Body Mass From The Skeleton With An Application To The Georgia Coast, Shamsi R. Daneshvari

Anthropology ETDs

Body mass has been studied in multiple subfields within anthropology, including paleoanthropology, bioarchaeology, biomechanics, and forensics. Most previous studies that focused on predicting mass from the skeleton utilized population averages, living subjects, and/or small sample sizes. This study sought to create an individualized predictive model of body mass estimation from multiple skeletal elements. The new multiple element model was then compared to three models currently used by anthropologists. Three hypotheses were tested: 1) the multiple element model has a lower predictive error than the other models, 2) upper limb elements will predict mass more accurately and 3) articular dimensions predict …

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The Discourse And Practice Of Native American Cuisine: Native American Chefs And Native American Cooks In Contemporary Southwest Kitchens, Lois Ellen Frank Jul 2011

The Discourse And Practice Of Native American Cuisine: Native American Chefs And Native American Cooks In Contemporary Southwest Kitchens, Lois Ellen Frank

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation analyzes the emergent Native American cuisine of the American Southwest. It consists of an ethnography of both Native American cooks, who are largely self-taught and practice in noncommercial settings, as well as Native American chefs, some self taught and some professionally trained and working in commercial settings. The ethnographic work includes both extensive and intensive field interviews with chefs and cooks, and close attention to their work in home and professional kitchens. Particular attention is paid to histories of food knowledge, as well as to food preparation concepts, techniques, performance, and aesthetics. The foods employed by these cooks …

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Ceramic Resource Selection And Social Violence In The Gallina Area Of The American Southwest, Connie Irene Constan Jul 2011

Ceramic Resource Selection And Social Violence In The Gallina Area Of The American Southwest, Connie Irene Constan

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation examines the relationship between social violence and ceramic resource procurement. Do people in middle-range societies alter resource use in response to conflict? Specifically, does social strife influence the distance to which potters in middle-range societies will travel to collect ceramic resources? Distance and quality are primary elements in clay selection. Clay is heavy, so for many potters distance is the determining factor in clay selection (Arnold 1985, 2000). Arnold (1985, 2000) estimated procurement thresholds using worldwide ethnographic data from 111 traditional societies. He found that for both clays and tempers, people prefer to travel only one kilometer, but …

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The Evolutionary Ecology Of Human Infancy, Amanda Veile Jul 2011

The Evolutionary Ecology Of Human Infancy, Amanda Veile

Anthropology ETDs

Infancy is a time of profound energetic trade-offs, and in many South American native groups, infant growth is stunted and mortality by infectious disease is high. The goal of this dissertation was to explore the nature of human infancy from a life history theoretical perspective. Specifically, I investigated infant growth, feeding patterns, and thymic development in two South American native populations, the Tsimane of Bolivia and the Pumé of Venezuela. This broad goal is addressed through four specific goals: 1) to model the weaning transition using behavioral data collected in Tsimane communities where infants experience varying mortality rates, 2) to …

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Against The Odds: Indian Gaming, Political Economy, And Identity On The Pala Indian Reservation, Shasta Christina Gaughen Jul 2011

Against The Odds: Indian Gaming, Political Economy, And Identity On The Pala Indian Reservation, Shasta Christina Gaughen

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation explores how the introduction of Indian gaming has affected identity, culture, and political economy on the Pala Indian Reservation in San Diego County, California. I propose that the economic and political changes that have taken place at Pala since the Pala Casino opened in 2001 can be explored against a theoretical backdrop of how history, politics, and power have constituted and are constituting local categories of identity, belonging, and culture for the Pala Band of Mission Indians. The theoretical understanding of Indian gaming as a consequence of federal policies has contributed to my analysis of how the Pala …

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Making Modernity: Ideological Pluralism And Political Process In Zinacantán, Kristen Adler May 2011

Making Modernity: Ideological Pluralism And Political Process In Zinacantán, Kristen Adler

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation examines political process and ideology in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico, focusing on the Tsotsil-speaking community of Zinacantán. The complex interplay between constructions of tradition and modernity clearly indicates that Zinacantán is not the isolated, "closed corporate community" often portrayed in the anthropological literature. Rather, complexities that emerge from local narratives suggest profound ideological pluralism, e.g., liberal individualism alongside hierarchical complementarity. Through a focus on narrative and event, this work challenges received notions of tradition and modernity and demonstrates the diverse ways in which Zinacantecos are traditionalizing the modern and modernizing the traditional through reflexive communicative means. Although …

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Neutrosophic Interpretation Of The Analects Of Confucius, Florentin Smarandache, Fu Yuhua Jan 2011

Neutrosophic Interpretation Of The Analects Of Confucius, Florentin Smarandache, Fu Yuhua

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

This book is the companion volume of "Neutrosophic Interpretation of Tao Te Ching,” its purpose is to extend the foundation and application range of “The Analects of Confucius.” The reasons for this are as follows. Firstly, we are willing to point out that The Analects of Confucius already has some limitations, because many questions we are interested in cannot be answered within “The Analects of Confucius.” For example, The Analects of Confucius basically discussed the matters in China, however considering all possible situations it should matter in foreign countries as well, i.e. the “global village.” This was impossible in Confucian …

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"We're Parents Too!" Changes In Father Involvement In Domestic Labor Among Urban Middle Class Dual-Worker Couples, Ruth Burgett Jolie Dec 2010

"We're Parents Too!" Changes In Father Involvement In Domestic Labor Among Urban Middle Class Dual-Worker Couples, Ruth Burgett Jolie

Anthropology ETDs

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate fathers involvement in domestic labor among middle class, dual-worker families in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I argue that men's participation in domestic labor is affected by their parental identities. Three things influence parental identity: (1) demographics, including socioeconomic position, age, race/ethnicity, (2) religiosity, meaning ones adherence to religious values and participation in a formal religious institution (Wilcox 2002:781), and (3) parental ideology, denoting the belief structure surrounding what a parent ought to do. Demography and religiosity are themselves mediated by parental ideology, and in turn also further shape, parental ideology. Parental ideology directly …

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Domestic Architectural Production In Northwest Mexico, Elizabeth Arwen Bagwell Jul 2010

Domestic Architectural Production In Northwest Mexico, Elizabeth Arwen Bagwell

Anthropology ETDs

This study examines the organization of architectural production at Cueva Bringas and Cueva el Aguaje, two prehispanic coursed-adobe cliff dwellings in the Northern Sierra (Casas Grandes) region of northeastern Sonora, Mexico. Since there are no archaeological models of the organization of domestic architectural production, an ethnographic study was completed to establish a set of expectations for this data set. The results of this study found that architecture is primarily built by groups whose members are not part of the household intending to occupy the structure. In addition, architectural production varies by gender of the producer, level of complexity, production step, …

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