Anthropology Commons^™

Three Decades In The Cold And Wet: A Career In Northern Archaeology, Sophia Perdikaris, George Hambrecht, Ramona Harrison

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

Thomas H. McGovern has been a pioneering researcher in the North Atlantic region for most of the past 40 years. He has taken his specialty in zooarchaeology beyond counting bones to actually addressing questions about human environment interactions and human response to extreme environmental events. A prolific writer and researcher with a multitude of publications and an impressive funding record, McGovern has always been a proponent of multidisciplinarity and international collaboration. His vision resulted in the creation of the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) that currently has more than 400 scientific partners and has been leading projects throughout the Circum …

Aging In America: Now And When, Laura Ihrig

Nebraska Anthropologist

The following paper is a study of aging in two societies, the United States and the traditional culture of the !Kung of western Botswana, Africa. The material reviewed includes current and projected population trends, cultural norms with regard to the elderly, and potential future implications of the gathered information. Resources consisted of journal articles, books, and government agency reports.

Constructing Inequality In Three Kentucky Communities: Discourses Of Blame And Responsibilty, Elizabeth J. New

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on the social determinants of health in Appalachia. Using anthropological ethnographic field methods, this thesis explores the ways in which public assistance programs and exchanges between health care practitioners and clients result in discourses of blame and responsibly. Also included is a discussion of the role that health insurance plays in granting or denying individuals living in poverty the opportunity for treatment and care. The narratives collected for this project then become the bases for a critical examination of the public discourse surrounding health care reform in the United States in 2009 and 2010.

Policing: A Sociologist’S Response To An Anthropological Account, Peter Moskos

Publications and Research

Social science writing should not ape quantitative science in format, structure, or style. If we can’t explain ourselves to others in a style both illuminating and interesting, we won’t and don’t deserve to be taken seriously. Too many in the Ivory Tower cling to the belief that research and academic writing must conform to a “scientific” format. Quality writing is more art than science. To be relevant, writing need not be – indeed should not be – rooted in a limited model of “hypothesis, replicable experiment, findings, discussion.” The more jargon and sociobabble we anthropologists, sociologists, and ethnographers spew out, …

“We Went To The Hills": Four Afghan Life Stories, James M. Weir

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines four Afghan life stories for prevalent micro-historical perspectives on shared Afghan macro-historical experiences. The introduction explains my background, motivations and objectives for conducting life history research in Afghanistan in 2004 and 2005. The first chapter outlines an approach applied to examining life stories that addresses three interrelated questions: first, how the narrator's presentation is related to the memory of the actual events narrated (biographical chronology), second, how a narrative image/s of a person's past is established in relationships to individually significant audience/s (narrative self / audience), and third, how interrelationships between the individual …

How Subways And High Speed Railways Have Changed Taiwan: Transportation Technology, Urban Culture, And Social Life, Anru Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Puebloan Sites In The Hidden Hills, James R. Allison

Faculty Publications

In 2006 and 2007, the Brigham Young University Archaeological Field School worked in the Hidden Hills area of the Shivwits Plateau, in the western part of the Arizona Strip. The field school mapped, surface collected, and tested a number of Puebloan habitation sites dating from about A.D. 800 to the late 1200s. Architecture includes surface room blocks, stand-alone circular structures, and pit structures, including one deep masonry-lined pit structure that may be a kiva. Ceramic analysis shows that the Hidden Hills residents participated in ceramic exchange networks encompassing other parts of the Arizona Strip as well as more distant places.

The End Of Farming In The “Northern Periphery” Of The Southwest, James R. Allison

Faculty Publications

Prehispanic farmers belonging to the Virgin and Fremont traditions once occupied most of Utah and adjacent parts of Arizona and Nevada. Through much of the twentieth century, these areas were called the "Northern Periphery'' of the Southwest, but in recent decades, both Fremont and Virgin have often been left out of syntheses of southwestern archaeology-even though they clearly had strong connections to the Southwest and represented, respectively, the northernmost and westernmost extensions of maize-based horticulture in western North America. This exclusion results from a combination of factors, the most important of which are geography and the territorial behavior of some …

Tales Of The Tribe Of Ishmael, Brian Siegel

Anthropology Publications

This is a history of the Tribe of Ishmael, a famous and the only urban cacogenic family in the American eugenics movement.

Cultural And Contextual Differentiation Of Mesoamerican Iconography In The Southwest/Northwest, Michael T. Searcy

Faculty Publications

Ample research has documented the long-term interaction between Mesoamerica and the U.S. Southwest/Northwest Mexico (SW/NW). Nelson (2006:345) has used the phrase "Mesoamerican interaction markers" as a way to describe evidence of this contact in the SW/NW. He further defines these as "a variety of archaeological patterns that are reminiscent of Mesoamerican counterparts" including "objects, practices, and styles." Some of the interaction markers that have been studied at length are trade goods such as copper bells, macaws, shell, and iron pyrite mirrors (Bayman 2002; Bradley 1993; Ericson and Baugh 1993; Kelley 1966, 1995; Mathien 1993; McGuire 1993b; Nelson 2000; Riley 2005). …

Domestication Alone Does Not Lead To Inequality: Intergenerational Wealth Transmission Among Horticulturalists, Michael Gurven, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Paul L. Hooper, Hillard Kaplan, Robert Quinlan, Rebecca Sear, Eric Schniter, Christopher Von Rueden, Samuel Bowles, Tom Hertz, Adrian Bell

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

We present empirical measures of wealth inequality and its intergenerational transmission among four horticulturalist populations. Wealth is construed broadly as embodied somatic and neural capital, including body size, fertility and cultural knowledge, material capital such as land and household wealth, and relational capital in the form of coalitional support and field labor. Wealth inequality is moderate for most forms of wealth, and intergenerational wealth transmission is low for material resources and moderate for embodied and relational wealth. Our analysis suggests that domestication alone does not transform social structure; rather, the presence of scarce, defensible resources may be required before inequality …

Brief History Of Religion In Northeast Ohio, A, George W. Knepper

Cleveland Memory

This monograph presents a concise but comprehensive look at the history of religion in Northeast Ohio. Starting with the early settlers from New England, Professor Knepper traces the increasingly diverse mixture of faiths that now characterize the life of the sacred in Northeast Ohio. In doing this, Professor Knepper is drawing on a lifetime of study into Ohio's history. Original publication date 2002.

Interpreting The Architectonics Of Power And Memory At The Late Formative Center Of Jatanca, Jequetepeque Valley, Peru, John P. Warner

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This works examines the Late Formative Period site of Jatanca (Je-1023) located on the desert north coast of the Jequetepeque Valley, Peru. Je-1023 is a complex site made up of numerous free-standing compounds that are organized around several predictably located, replicated interior complexes that were important in determining the overall shape and interior organization of the site. While this work relies on a number of data sets traditionally used by archaeologists as a means of examining prehistoric cultures such as ceramics, ethnobotanical analysis, and the surrounding relic landscape, architectural analysis is the primary means by which Je-1023 is examined.

This …

Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Colonization And Regionalization In Northern Perú: Fishtail And Paiján Complexes Of The Lower Jequetepeque Valley, Greg J. Maggard

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Until relatively recently, the view of Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers in the Americas was dominated by the “Clovis-first” paradigm. However, recent discoveries have challenged traditional views and forced reconsiderations of the timing, processes, and scales used in modeling the settlement of the Americas. Chief among these discoveries has been the recognition of a wide range of early cultural diversity throughout the Americas that is inconsistent with previously held notions of cultural homogeneity.

During the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene, the development of widely varying economic, technological and mobility strategies in distinct environments is suggestive of a range of different adaptations and traditions.

It …

Social Categories And Health Care Outcomes: African American Women And Hiv Survival In The Urban South, Alyson J. O'Daniel

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This ethnographic research examines the daily life and institutional conditions under which low-income Black women in urban North Carolina perceived and attended to HIV health-related needs. I focus specifically on the interplay among women’s living conditions, programmatic service needs, and their strategies for navigating the local system of care to explore and refine the categorical label “low income.” I found that there were significant differences among study participants in terms of their monthly incomes and financial resources, housing quality and status, and personal experiences with incarceration and substance abuse. The economic differences among women translated into social differences within the …

Building Sustainable Societies: Exploring Sustainability Policy And Practice In The Age Of High Consumption, Cindy Isenhour

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is an attempt to examine how humans in wealthy, post-industrial urban contexts understand sustainability and respond to their concerns given their sphere of influence. I focus specifically on sustainable consumption policy and practice in Sweden, where concerns for sustainability and consumer-based responses are strong. This case raises interesting questions about the relative strength of sustainability movements in different cultural and geo-political contexts as well as the specific factors that have motivated the movement toward sustainable living in Sweden.

The data presented here supports the need for multigenic theories of sustainable consumerism. Rather than relying on dominant theories of …

“Everyday Symbols For Mediation” Conflict And Cooperation Over The Management Of Cultural And Natural Resources Within The Big South Fork National River And Recreation Area, Carol Jo Evans

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Utilizing quantitative and qualitative methods, this in-depth ethnographic study of the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area (BSFNRRA) examines social conflict and resistance stemming from competing values, definitions, and concerns over the management of cultural and natural resources within the region. The timing of this project is fortuitous for the National Park Service (NPS) has completed the creation of a ten year General Management Plan. Thus, we are provided with an opportunity to study and analyze the policy and methodology that park officials are required to follow in creating a management plan and eliciting public participation.

The first …

Archaeological Evidence For Resilience Of Pacific Northwest Salmon Populations And The Socioecological System Over The Last ~7,500 Years, Sarah K. Campbell, Virginia L. Butler

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Archaeological data on the long history of interaction between indigenous people and salmon have rarely been applied to conservation management. When joined with ethnohistoric records, archaeology provides an alternative conceptual view of the potential for sustainable harvests and can suggest possible social mechanisms for managing human behavior. Review of the ~7,500-year-long fish bone record from two subregions of the Pacific Northwest shows remarkable stability in salmon use. As major changes in the ecological and social system occurred over this lengthy period, persistence in the fishery is not due simply to a lack of perturbation, but rather indicates resilience in the …

Sri Lanka’S Post-Tsunami Recovery: Cultural Traditions, Social Structures And Power Struggles, Michele Ruth Gamburd, Dennis B. Mcgilvray

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 26, 2004 killed over 220,000 people and affected two million more in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and other Indian Ocean nations. As the world reels under the impact of more recent disasters in Haiti, Peru and Pakistan, we consider lessons learned about postdisaster relief and recovery from the aftermath of the tsunami in Sri Lanka.

The tsunami waves caused by an undersea subduction earthquake off the coast of Sumatra devastated 70% of Sri Lanka’s coastline and killed 35,000 people. Days after the disaster, Dennis McGilvray joined forces with Michele Gamburd to organize an …

Down On The Farm: A Photo Essay Of The Indiana Farmer, Elizabeth Schaible

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Critical Aesthetics Of Disorder: A Porteña Crisis Of Size, Melissa Maldonado-Salcedo

Publications and Research

In Argentina, contemporary notions of progress originate within the whitening projects of the nineteenth century. In this work I propose that the imprints of these Colonial modernization projects are still visible on the porteña body. For this reason I examine the Porteño fashion industry alongside the pervasive Barbie culture. I believe that Porteñas embody the national crisis of identity. I seek to pose the possibility — instead of arguing the fact — that the fashion industry's power over Porteñas (women who live in Buenos Aires Capital) toughened post the economic crisis of 2001. The reason for this is rooted in …

Mestizaje: Piro Indian And Spanish Vecino In Socorro, Texas From 1744 To 1813, David Camarena

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research examined culture on what is now the U.S./Mexico border, among Piro Indians and Spanish citizens (vecinos) in the community of Socorro, Texas between 1744 and 1813. The purpose was to better understand the process of mestizaje as experienced by Piro Indians as they participate in larger hegemonic Spanish civil and ecclesiastical institutions. Using archival materials along with secondary sources, this thesis reconstructs the antecedents that ultimately led the primary Indian community to transform into a Hispano settlement along the banks of the Río Grande. Pressured by vecino encroachment, participation in the Spanish wage-labor system, several environmental catastrophes in …

Turkey Backbones And Chicken Gizzards: Women’S Roles And The Making Of A Soup King In Post Socialist Hungary, Lisa Pope Fischer

Publications and Research

This article looks at soup making as a lens to view the impact of societal change for Hungarian pensioner women. Food as a practice illustrates agency: strategies and tactics used in time and space to communicate meaning for people in everyday life. During the Socialist period women endured frustrations of long lines and scarce resources. Post socialism, their heroic clout as food providers is diminished by the introduction of a market economy. However, the survival skills learned in the socialist era allow them to adapt to the new era of high inflation, and high unemployment. I use descriptions of one …

Book Review Of, Integrating Zooarchaeology And Paleoethnobotany: A Consideration Of Issues, Methods, And Cases, Virginia L. Butler

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "Book Review of, Integrating Zooarchaeology and Paleoethnobotany: A Consideration of Issues, Methods, and Cases" by Amber M. VanDerwarker and Tanya M. Peres.

Local And Traditional Knowledge And The Historical Ecology Of Pacific Herring In Alaska, Thomas F. Thornton, Madonna L. Moss, Virginia L. Butler, Jamie Hebert, Fritz Funk

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article focuses on the historical ecology of the Pacific herring, a marine food web resource, in the Gulf of Alaska. It states the hearing conducted by the Alaska Legislature's House special committee on fisheries on the status and management of herring in Southeast Alaska during which Tlingit fisherman Clarence Jackson of Kake notes the disappearance of herring in his lifetime. Information on herring ecology based from Native and non-Native individuals from Southeast communities and archaeological site reports reveal that non-Natives in Southeast Alaska have exploited herring with the development of a herring reduction plant. It underscores the need for …