Anthropology Commons^™

Synergistic Communities For Biochar, Albert Bates, Jonathan Bates, Peter Hirst

USBI Biochar Conferences

Biochar & Permaculture: Albert Bates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afaKoWXsRiU

Biochar & Aquaponics: Jonathan Bates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c21drA2KS4

Jonathan will present his experience using biochar as a powerful growing medium in aquaponic systems. Aquaponics being the culturing of fish and plants together ecologically in closed systems (the merging of aquaculture and hydroponics). Biochar grow media benefits aquaponic systems in multiple ways, including its light weight, local sourcing, bio-chemical qualities, ecological nature, and affordable price. Through pictures and discussion he will show how his experiment has faired, and offer ideas for economic opportunities of aquaponic biochar in the Northeast.

Biochar & the Klamath Hydro Settlement: Peter Hirst …

Contested Subjects: Biopolitics & The Moral Stakes Of Social Cohesion In Post-Welfare Italy, Milena Marchesi

Open Access Dissertations

The requirements of European Unification, along with broader processes of globalization, including immigration, are reshaping economic and welfare priorities and reconfiguring the relationship between citizens and the state in Italy. The reorganization of the Italian welfare state around the principle of subsidiarity combines neoliberal restructuring with a commitment to social solidarity and cohesion and privileges the family as the social formation best suited to mediate between state, market, and citizens. As the state retreats from some of its former social welfare responsibilities, it simultaneously extends its reach into matters of reproduction and family-making. Biopolitics in the time of subsidiarity encompasses …

Community Commons: An Analysis Of The Gullah Communities Of South Carolina, Elizabeth Brabec

Elizabeth Brabec

Descended from slaves brought to the southeast United States between the early 17th and mid 19th centuries, the Gullah-Geechee of South Carolina and Georgia in the United States, have developed distinctive, culturally-expressive creole communities. Juxtaposed against their ancestor’s plantation slave villages, present-day settlements reveal deliberate creations of community and strong connections to place. The Gullah concept of place and community also includes an understanding of the land as commons that is at odds with the dominant culture in the United States.Under slavery the Gullah lived in rigidly geometric settlements. Although this was the only settlement pattern the slaves had experienced, …

Knuckle-Walking Signal In The Manual Phalanges And Metacarpals Of The Great Apes (Pan And Gorilla), Stacey Ann Matarazzo

Open Access Dissertations

The "Knuckle-walking Hominin Hypothesis" postulates that there was a knuckle-walking phase during the transition from quadrupedalism to bipedalism. To address this question, previous research has focused on the search for a "signal" within the wrist, and metacarpals of extant knuckle walkers that can be used to infer this locomotor pattern in extinct hominins. To date, the examined features have not yielded a clear, non-contested signal. I explore the Knuckle-walking Hominin Hypothesis in two ways: 1. by examining the hand postures and the manual pressure application of Pan and Gorilla during knuckle walking to determine whether there are species specific differences …

Participatory Visual & Digital Methods, Aline Gubrium, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Table of contents and introduction of Participatory Visual and Digital Methods by Aline Gubrium and Krista Harper. Available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book editions from Left Coast Press .

Photovoice/Fotovoz: Como Começar, Krista Harper, Ana Isabel Afonso

Krista M. Harper

Como começar uma pesquisa participativa utilizando o metódo Fotovoz (Photovoice).

Continuity In The Face Of Change: Mashantucket Pequot Plant Use From 1675-1800 A.D., Kimberly Carol Kasper

Open Access Dissertations

This investigation focuses on the decision making relative to plants by Native Americans on one of the oldest and most continuously occupied reservations in the United States, the Mashantucket Pequot Nation. Within an agency framework, I explore the directions in which decision making about plants were changing from 1675-1800 A.D. I evaluate plant macroremains, specifically progagules (seeds), recovered from ten archaeological sites and the historical record from the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation, located in southeastern Connecticut. I demonstrate how decision making about plants related to food and medicinal practices during the Colonial Period were characterized by heterarchical choices that allowed the …

Genetic Diversity Of Ixodid Ticks Parasitizing Eastern Mouse And Dwarf Lemurs In Madagascar, With Descriptions Of The Larva, Nymph, And Male Of Ixodes Lemuris (Acari: Ixodidae), Marina B. Blanco, Mostafa A. Elfawal, Lance A. Durden, Lorenza Beati, Guang Xu, Laurie Godfrey, Stephen M. Rich

Laurie R. Godfrey

The ixodid ticks parasitizing small-bodied nocturnal mouse and dwarf lemurs (Primates, Cheirogaleidae) in Madagascar are poorly documented. At Tsinjoarivo, a high-altitude eastern rain forest, mouse and dwarf lemurs were parasitized by ixodid ticks. At Ranomafana, a montane southeastern rain forest, dwarf lemurs hosted a species of Ixodes, whereas mouse lemurs were parasitized by Haemaphysalis lemuris. Ixodes specimens represent all active stages, and females are morphologically consistent with previous descriptions of Ixodes lemuris females, the only described stage in the literature. Morphological comparisons and genetic analysis using fragments of COI gene confirm that all Ixodes ticks from Tsinjoarivo and Ranomafana forests …

Participatory Visual & Digital Methods: Democratizing And Decolonizing Research, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Presentation based on my book with Aline Gubrium, Participatory Visual and Digital Methodologies (Left Coast Press, March 2013).

Borders Of Bureaucracy: Crossborder Cooperation And Its Challenges, Johanna Mitterhofer

CHESS Student Research Reports

No abstract provided.

Performing Place At Ancient Idalion, Cyprus: An Anthropological Perspective On The Lower City South Sanctuary Architecture, Rebecca M. Bartusewich

CHESS Student Research Reports

The ancient site of the Lower City South sanctuary of Idalion is a site of place making and identity formation during the 1st millennium BCE of Cyprus. This archaeological site represents repetitive building patterns and persistent cultic activity that denote a cultural tradition that withstood the changes of administrative control in the Cypro-Classical and Hellenistic periods. Certain architectural elements, like altars and water features, are characteristic of a continued tradition at the ancient site and they are evidence of a recursive building practice that falls into templates of place making and identity formation as introduced by Bourdieu and Giddens. Identities …

Luso-London: Identity, Citizenship, And Belonging In ‘Post-National’ Europe, Stephanie Aragao

CHESS Student Research Reports

This paper explores relations between Portuguese-speakers living in London. It takes the experience of Lusophones as a case study in illuminating how intragroup diversity is negotiated and transnational, multi-ethnic identities constructed and performed in everyday life. Through critical ethnography and interviewing, I provide an account of the varied experience of ‘belonging’ in Europe, for citizens and migrants who connect through similar language and cultural affinities and a shared, albeit contentious, history. By exploring daily rituals in workplaces, bars, cafes, and shops owned, operated, and patronized by Lusophones, I unpack postcolonial reconfigurations of citizens and migrants in their everyday experience of …

Response & Resistance: A Comparison Of Middle Connecticut River Valley Ceramics From The Late Woodland Period To The Seventeeth-Century, Julie Woods

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Native Americans from the middle Connecticut River Valley of New England experienced massive social disruptions during the seventeenth century due to European settlement, but not much is known about their cultural continuities and/or discontinuities during this dynamic period. As an additive technology, ceramics embody the technical choices of potters made at the time of manufacture thus enabling the study of the effect, if any, of colonialism on indigenous material culture and practices in New England. This study examines ceramic assemblages from one Late Woodland period site and one seventeenth-century site in Deerfield, Massachusetts to explore the extent to which ceramics …

Intersecting Symbols In Indigenous American And African Material Culture: Diffusion Or Independent Invention And Who Decides?, Donna L. Moody

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Native American and African American material culture of mid-19^thcentury to present day appear to hold evidence for a more ancient spiritual and cultural relationship between these two diverse peoples. There is evidence of strikingly similar, and in some instances, identical, pre-Columbian (before 1492) symbols from Africa and North America which allows us to examine questions of diffusion or independent invention.

This thesis provides an examination of cultural practices and spiritual beliefs of the Indigenous peoples of North America and Africa through symbols incorporated in the material culture of each, focusing primarily on textiles and it provides an exploration …

Of Dirt And Decomposition: Proposing A Place For The Urban Dead, Katrina M. Spade

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

The intent of this thesis is to challenge our society’s existing options for the care and processing of the deceased, and to design a space and a ritual which are both deeply meaningful and ecologically beneficial. The community for whom this architecture is designed currently lacks the religious or cultural rituals which would otherwise guide them through the process of laying of their loved ones to rest. For this community, both traditional burial and cremation are devoid of meaning and culturally irrelevant ways of dealing with the deceased, in addition to being unnecessarily wasteful processes. Likewise, the community for which …

Canvas And Catalyst: Reinventing Urban Space, Ricardo A. Borges

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

As an intervention strategy set amid a stark and neglected, yet highly energized urban setting of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this project seeks to relieve a stagnating urban condition through the introduction of contemporary and dynamic forms of expression. Skateboarding and street art can be seen as interpretative modes of action that reinvent objects, spaces, and conditions within the urban landscape, lending creative and engaging gestures to the everyday. As (sub) cultural expressions in their own right, these practices transcend their mere formal representations, and present unique identities, spaces, and modes of engagement within a society, initiating a creative mindset and DIY …

“Calling The Question” The Politics Of Time In A Time Of Polarized Politics, Elizabeth L. Krause, Anurag Sharma

Anthropology Department Faculty Publication Series

In this paper, we examine the role of time in shaping decision-making processes in a town meeting, a type of legislative body common in many New England towns. Town meetings are one of the oldest and most democratic institutions of local governance in the United States, and they provide a rich arena in which to investigate how large groups of people convene and make decisions together. A mixed-methods approach enabled our team of researchers to gain insight into the processes and dynamics that played out in one town meeting. We analyze the tensions between democratic values of “taking time” vs. …

Concepts Of Place And Identity In The Iron Age Of Idalion, Cyprus: An Analysis Of Architectural Repetition, Rebecca M. Bartusewich

Rebecca M Bartusewich

No abstract provided.

The Tyranny Of Narrative History, Heritage, And Hatred In The Modern Middle East, Neil A. Silberman

Neil A. Silberman

Narrative is the heart of heritage interpretation, and modern Middle Eastern narratives of national histories tell distinct and conflicting tales. This paper highlights some major genres of archaeological and historical storytelling and analyzes the symbolic messages they convey. A closer look at the juxtaposition of competing story forms reveals a complex intertwining, in which one nation or ethnic group’s “period of desolation” is simultaneous with their rivals’ “Golden Age.”

Heritage Interpretation As Public Discourse: Towards A New Paradigm, Neil A. Silberman

Neil A. Silberman

No abstract provided.

Imperfect Isolation: Factors And Filters Shaping Madagascar’S Extant Vertebrate Fauna, Karen E. Samonds, Laurie Godfrey, Jason R. Ali, Steven M. Goodman, Miguel Vences, Michael R. Sutherland, Mitchell T. Irwin, David W. Krause

Laurie R. Godfrey

Analyses of phylogenetic topology and estimates of divergence timing have facilitated a reconstruction of Madagascar’s colonization events by vertebrate animals, but that information alone does not reveal the major factors shaping the island’s biogeographic history. Here, we examine profiles of Malagasy vertebrate clades through time within the context of the island’s paleogeographical evolution to determine how particular events influenced the arrival of the island’s extant groups. First we compare vertebrate profiles on Madagascar before and after selected events; then we compare tetrapod profiles on Madagascar to contemporary tetrapod compositions globally. We show that changes from the Mesozoic to the Cenozoic …

'Calling The Question': The Politics Of Time In A Time Of Polarized Politics, Elizabeth L. Krause, Anurag Sharma

Elizabeth L. Krause

In this paper, we examine the role of time in shaping decision-making processes in a town meeting, a type of legislative body common in many New England towns. Town meetings are one of the oldest and most democratic institutions of local governance in the United States, and they provide a rich arena in which to investigate how large groups of people convene and make decisions together. A mixed-methods approach enabled our team of researchers to gain insight into the processes and dynamics that played out in one town meeting. We analyze the tensions between democratic values of “taking time” vs. …

On Dialogue Studies, Donal Carbaugh

Donal Carbaugh

The study of dialogue is a way to open several intellectual arenas for investigation while at the same time offering insights into multiple scenes of practical yet culturally diverse human practices. This article reviews several such arenas including studies of dialogue as a culturally distinctive form of communication, dialogue as an approach to understanding social practices, dialogic ethics, as well as dialogue as an integrative view of not only cultural practice but also natural environments. Throughout, dialogue studies are cast as a broad field with distinct disciplines within it, as holding deep value for understanding diversity in peoples’ practices, as …

Cultural Discourse Of Dwelling: Environmental Comunication As A Place-Based Practice, Donal Carbaugh

Donal Carbaugh

In this essay we contribute a response to intellectual and practical problems by using and developing a perspective on environmental communication that is reflexively grounded in place and that explores human relations with nature, while embracing cultural and linguistic variability in these processes. Our goals are to introduce a way to think through communication to places, and further to link that understanding to issues of engaged environmental action, to deeply seated notions of identity, and to the affective dimension of belonging that place-based communication often brings with it. Our way of doing this is to theorize and study cultural discourses …