Anthropology Commons^™

Editor's Introduction, Jr. Aguilar

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

Political Conjuncture And Scholarly Disjunctures: Reflections On Studies Of The Philippine State Under Marcos, Jr. Aguilar

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

This professorial address contends that a scholarly, systematic, and impartial study of Marcos’s authoritarian rule is necessary, given the highly politicized interpretations of the past bequeathed to younger generations through textbooks and social media as well as the Philippine academic community’s general inability to analyze the defunct regime and to influence public discourse and shape public history. Social scientists must tap new sources of information, such as the Marcos Papers, to produce truthful and nuanced narratives of the past, even as they must endeavor to understand the Marcosian social fantasy and the sources of Filipino authoritarianism, which can illumine both …

Survival Strategies: A Study Of Working Families In New York City, Kafui Gozey

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

The main focus for this project was to find out how working families survive life in New York City which is known to be one of the most expensive places to live on earth. In effort to find answers to this, I visited the city for a period of two weeks to observe the lives of locals and also to interact with them. After days of interactions and gathering information, it was evident that there is a huge population of working families in New York who struggle to make ends meet. It was also made clear that these families do …

Coggan, Forrest Winston, 1926-2018 (Fa 1282), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1282. Correspondence between Forrest Coggan and Sarah Gertrude Knott as well as other board members, sponsors, teachers, and business partners who conducted work with the National Folk Festival Association. .

Anderson, Kenneth (Fa 1283), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1283. Student folk studies project titled “The Art of Curing Hams,” which includes the history and process of curing hams in Kentucky. The paper includes descriptions of the three different processes of curing hams and ends with a comparison of the three.

Communication In Stormwater Utility Fees Across Michigan, Hailey Olson

Honors Theses

Stormwater Utilities (SWU) ordinances are gaining wide popularity in municipalities throughout the Great Lakes region of the United States. A SWU creates a fund to maintain and update stormwater infrastructure, which in turn helps to reduce destructive flooding, and also results in higher quality waterways. This study examines two SWUFs in the State of Michigan: one in the City of Jackson (COJ), which implemented a SWUF in 2011; and the second in the City of Ann Arbor (COAA), which implemented its SWUF in 1984. These two case studies offer important contrasts and lessons. For instance, as a result of resident …

Fairy Tale: A Very Short Introduction By Marina Warner, Barbara L. Prescott

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Bad Habitus: Anthropology In The Age Of The Multimodal, Stephanie Takaragawa, Trudi Lynn Smith, Kate Hennessy, Patricia Alvarez Astacio, Jenny Chio, Coleman Nye, Shalini Shankar

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

"The recent reframing of the Visual Anthropology section in American Anthropologist was motivated by a sense that new technologies have democratizing power and that through multimodal forms we can address a shift toward engagement and collaboration in anthropological research (Collins, Durington, and Gill 2017). Our purpose in this essay is to engage and expand the discussion raised by Samuel Collins, Matthew Durington, and Harjant Gill in their 2017 article 'Multimodal Anthropology: An Invitation,' which has been widely cited and has helped to inspire a range of new projects in anthropology that do not prioritize text. Although the idea of multimodal …

Clinard, Pamela And Laura Drew (Fa 1281), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1281. Student folk studies project titled “The Bell Witch,” which includes two papers with descriptions of the Bell Witch legend in Robertson County, Tennessee. Sheets may include descriptions of the legend, text classifications, transcriptions of interviews, names of informants, ages, locations, illustrations, and photos.

Book Review: Seeds Of Greatness By Denis Waitley, Jennifer Maynard

Marriott Student Review

Book review of Seeds of Greatness by Denis Waitley, personal anecdotes and summaries of research on the secrets to success in life and in the business world.

Foundation For Measuring Community Sustainability, Pamela A. Mischen, George C. Homsy, Carl P. Lipo, Robert Holahan, Valerie Imbruce, Andreas Pape, Joe Graney, Ziang Zhang, Louisa M. Holmes, Manuel Reina

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

In order to understand the impact of individual communities on global sustainability, we need a community sustainability assessment system (CSAS). While many sustainability assessment systems exist, they prove inadequate to the task. This article presents the results of a systematic review of the literature on existing sustainability assessment systems; offers a definition of a sustainable community; provides a multi-scale, systems approach to thinking about community; and makes recommendations from the field of performance measurement for the construction of a CSAS.

Written And Oral Histories Of The Chicano Movement At New Mexico Highlands University, 1968-1970, Julianna C. Wiggins

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This thesis presents spoken, written, and drawn histories produced before the Chicano Movement at New Mexico Highlands University in November 1970 and the discourses which have followed in the movement’s wake fifty years later. This qualitative study explores the campus climate at NMHU using the student newspaper Highlands Candle. Its contents from 1968 until 1971 are contrasted with the multiple voices of a generation which adopted the term Chicano as a racial identifier into the NMHU vernacular. Social factors including the formation of student-of-color groups and the return of veterans from the Vietnam War appear to change the student …

Evolution Of Endurance Running Genes Across Primates, Natalia T. Grube

Theses and Dissertations

The endurance running hypothesis has emerged as a key idea to explain several unique anatomical, physiological, and genetic features of modern humans—among these features is the evolution of ACTN3 (Bramble & Lieberman 2004, Nature), a gene linked to human athletic performance. An additional gene linked to human endurance performance is ACE. Because endurance running is a uniquely human trait, I predicted that ACE and ACTN3 genes would be evolving adaptively in the human lineage when examined in a wider primatological framework. To test this I compiled ACE and ACTN3 genes from 14 primate species and phylogenetically tested if these genes …

Yager, Liz (Fa 1276), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1276. Student folk studies project [“Songs and Epitaphs,”] which includes survey sheets with with the lyrics of folk songs and epitaphs in Oldham County, Kentucky. Sheets may include brief description of the folk song, lyrics, epitaph, date collected, and informant’s name and age.

Commercial Fishers’ Perspectives On Revitalizing The Fishing Industry In Coastal Georgia, Julia Thomas

Honors College Theses

Competition from imported seafood, low product prices, increasing operation costs, and other socio-economic factors are negatively affecting coastal Georgia’s commercial fishing industry. Fishers’ local ecological knowledge (LEK) is extensive and gives them unique perspectives into the problems the industry is facing. Their perspectives differ from those of biologists or policymakers, making them useful for implementing good management policies that not only consider the scientific knowledge of a fishery, but the human aspect as well. This thesis used conducted semi-structured and card-sorting interviews with commercial Georgia fishermen in two fishing communities to learn about the problems they face and their unique …

Gray, Timothy L. (Fa 1280), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1280. Student paper titled “Superstition or Belief on Coach and Athlete” in which Timothy Gray examines the relationships between sports players and their coaches through a folkloric lens. In his paper, Gray describes a brief history of how belief has impacted the ways in which sports are played and the effects, whether positive or negative, of enacting certain superstitious practices before games. The paper also includes a small collection of superstitions and beliefs gathered from close friends and professional coaches.

Kohlmeyer, Kandy (Fa 1278), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1278. Student paper titled “Texas Legends” in which Kandy Kohlmeyer gathers together two tales, one known as “The Legend of Armicosa Mission” and the other “The Legend of the Vision.” In her brief preface, Kohlmeyer explains that she collected the tales from a Mexican woman named Francis Garcia while Kohlmeyer was on vacation in Alice, Texas.

Tuell, Gwynne (Fa 1279), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1279. Student paper titled “Folktales and Sayings” in which Gwynne Tuell gathers together a small number of materials relating to popular beliefs, proverbs, and superstitions.

Harper, Laura (Fa 1277), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1277. Student paper titled “Beliefs, Planting and Weather Signs, and Place Names” in which Laura Harper gathers together a number of practices and ideas based on traditional folklore wisdom. Harper collected the information from family members and neighbors. The paper includes handwritten note cards arranged by theme.

Pacifying Hunter-Gatherers, Raymond B. Hames

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

There is a well-entrenched schism on the frequency (how often), intensity (deaths per 100,000/year), and evolutionary significance of warfare among hunter-gatherers compared with large-scale societies. To simplify, Rousseauians argue that warfare among prehistoric and contemporary hunter-gatherers was nearly absent and, if present, was a late cultural invention. In contrast, so-called Hobbesians argue that violence was relatively common but variable among hunter-gatherers. To defend their views, Rousseauians resort to a variety of tactics to diminish the apparent frequency and intensity of hunter-gatherer warfare. These tactics include redefining war, censoring ethnographic accounts of warfare in comparative analyses, misconstruing archaeological evidence, and claiming …

Deriving Lane-Level Insight From Gps Data: Innovations For Traffic & Autonomous Driving, James Fowe

PSU Transportation Seminars

With the on-going disruption of the transportation industry and rapid advancement in ITS technologies; emerging smart cities, navigation systems and autonomous transportation, the need for highly accurate geospatial localization has never been more crucial. These technologies demand that we have more granular location information of vehicles not just on a road, but to a specific lane on the road.

This presentation will give a pedagogical style summary and overview of some of the on-going research work at HERE Technologies and how we have pushed the state-of-the-art in lane-localization of noisy GPS probe data using novel Machine Learning Algorithms and how …

Applying Anthropology, Assembling Indigenous Community: Anthropology And The Pascua Yaqui Tribe In Southern Arizona, Nicholas Barron

Anthropology ETDs

In the context of the US, anthropology and Indigenous politics are interconnected phenomena with points of intersection that are more often assumed then empirically explored. Using a historical anthropological approach, this study addresses this oversight through a focused analysis of the interconnected histories of anthropology and the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Southern Arizona. Illustrated through four case studies of engagements between anthropologists and the Pascua Yaqui, I pose three interrelated arguments regarding the relationship between anthropology and Indigenous political formations. To being with, the dichotomous view of anthropology as friend or foe, dominator or liberator, to and of Native communities …

A Data Collection Program For Reducing Ipv In Lgbtq+ Communities, Alexandra Michel, Nicholas Cheke, Lourdes Gonzalez, Rachel Greim

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health Annual Conference

Sexual and gender minority populations are not currently being accurately tracked or counted in most domestic violence (DV) and intimate partner violence (IPV) surveillance programs in Oregon. However, research indicates that LGBTQ+ populations experience IPV at rates comparable or even higher than heterosexual populations. Additionally, distrust of law enforcement and services designed around heterosexual experiences of IPV further reduce the ability of LGBTQ+ populations, particularly transgender women, to access IPV services. We propose that through the use of a PRECEED-PROCEED model, a program could be developed to more accurately collect sexual orientation and gender identity data by IPV service providers …

In The Name Of Profit: Canada’S Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Reserve As Economic Development And Colonial Placemaking, Richard M. Hutchings, Marina La Salle

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

Taking a critical heritage approach to late modern naming and placemaking, we discuss how the power to name reflects the power to control people, their land, their past, and ultimately their future. Our case study is the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Reserve (MABR), a recently invented place on Vancouver Island, located in southwestern British Columbia, Canada. Through analysis of representations and landscape, we explore MABR as state-sanctioned branding, where a dehumanized nature is packaged for and marketed to wealthy ecotourists. Greenwashed by a feel-good “sustainability” discourse, MABR constitutes colonial placemaking and economic development, representing no break with past practices.

‘Doing’ Llama Face Stew: A Late Moche Culinary Assemblage As A Domestic Dedicatory Deposit, Guy S. Duke

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Presented here is a meal from a simple cooking vessel, excavated from the Late Moche (AD 600–850) site of Wasi Huachuma on the north coast of Peru. This meal, cooked in a whole, plain vessel and spilled beneath the floor of a domestic structure, was unambiguously marked by a large stone embedded in the floor. It contained diverse plant and animal materials associated with the sea, the coastal plains, the highlands and the jungle. Via its contents and placement, this meal embodies the ways in which the domestic world of exchange and interaction was deeply entangled with the spiritual and …

Prehistoric Plant Resources In The Cedar Valley: How Prehistoric People Utilized Flora In Subsistence Practices, Lyn Tackett

Research in the Capitol

Over the last 10,000 years, the Cedar Valley in northeastern Iowa has seen an influx of plants and people; both of which have impacted the native flora of the region. Prairie grasses, wetlands, and other natural features of the Iowa landscape have been altered to accommodate the use of the land by humans. Some of the clues to what attracted various cultures to this region are hidden within the native flora. Therefore, a comparative study of the Cedar Valley area was done to determine what plants were available to Prehistoric native people when they came to the Cedar Valley. After …

Miami Craft Brewery Collection, David Lanster

Library Research Scholars Program 2018-2019

The Miami food scene - including restaurants, breweries, bakeries, and distilleries - is in a state unlike any it has experienced before. Fueled by innovators in cuisine and tangible public excitement, it is an unprecedented time in terms of both quantity and quality for South Floridians to eat and drink. The Miami Craft Brewery Collection effort within the Special Collections hopes to document and celebrate the rise of Craft Brewing in Miami through the collection of brewery documents, advertising ephemera, bottles/labels, actual beer, and oral histories from prominent leaders in the field.

It’S Not Funny: A Discourse Analysis Of Sexism In Stand-Up, Greer Snyder

Senior Theses - Anthropology

In this thesis, I will be doing a discourse analysis of two stand-up comedians over the course of their careers as comedians, these two being men who have been confirmed to have, or convicted for, committing acts of violence and sexual assault against multiple women. I ask: What can we learn about the relationship between violent acts and language through an examination of the speech of these two men? I chose stand-up comedy as my ‘field’ for researching violence because it is a unique platform that often reflects social norms and ideals, acting as a sort of mirror, and acts …

Sustainable Messaging In Film: A Survey Of A College Community, Chelsea Faught

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The concept of sustainability encompasses environmental, social, and economic issues. A sustainable approach encourages a balanced earth in both well-being and resource conservation for the sake of future generations. Unfortunately, awareness of and participation in various dimension of sustainability are currently inadequate given the current projections of the negative impact of climate change to humanity. Therefore, this project was designed to research if there was a relationship between viewing sustainably themed films and becoming more sustainably-conscious as a way to explore a potential avenue for mental and behavioral change. Furthermore, this project examines audience perception of sustainable messaging and content …

Natural Mummies Of Northern Europe: An Exploration Into The Biocultural Importance Of Bog Bodies, Reilly Boone

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

For several centuries, peat harvesters in Northern Europe have been finding the mummified remains of late Bronze Age (1100 – 800 B.C.E.) and Iron Age (800 B.C.E.- 400 C.E.) people. Within the last century, scientists have begun to study these remains in depth. These bodies pique much curiosity due to the apparent violence associated with their deaths. Because of this, these remains have proven to be significant parts of the societies in which they died and that in which they were discovered. It is inferred from archaeological evidence that these individuals may have held religious importance in Bronze-Iron Age societies. …