Anthropology Commons^™

Counting Chins To Count People: Determining Mni For Umm An-Nar Tombs From Mandibular Fragments, Chaylee Arellano, Quentin Burke, Lesley A. Gregoricka, Jaime M. Ullinger

Year 1: AAPA 2021 – virtual

Background: The Umm an-Nar period (2700-2000 BCE) was a time of rapid transformation within the Oman Peninsula, characterized by changes in mortuary practices, agriculture, and settlement. Located in the United Arab Emirates, Unar 1 (2400-2200 BCE) and Unar 2 (2300-2100 BCE) are two large Umm an-Nar tombs that held commingled, fragmented remains, posing a challenge in determining the minimum number of individuals (MNI). Based on the larger size of Unar 2, we hypothesized that the number of interred individuals would increase over time.

Methods: MNI was calculated using the zonation and landmark methods for the mandible. MNI and tomb size …

It Happened Centuries Ago: Using Gis And Spatial Analysis To Map The Quilombo Dos Palmares, Charlotte Mills

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In Brazil, the largest escaped slave community in the Americas incorporated multiple settlements into a united federation. This was Palmares, named for the palm forests where community members sheltered in the Captaincy of Pernambuco. Encompassing nine individual villages at its height in the mid-1600s, only one known settlement has been extensively studied by archaeologists. The remaining eight have not been definitively located. Through historiography, spatial analysis, and remote sensing techniques, the locations of the eight unknown sites of Palmares may be estimated using geographic information science. Introducing spatial analysis into the current body of Palmares literature offers new insights and …

Queer Arab American Experiences: Navigating Cross Cultural Expectations Of Gender And Sexuality, Gabriela Mansour

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The understanding of the experiences of queer Arab Americans and the ways in which they navigate cross cultural expectations of gender and sexuality is limited in the anthropology or social sciences scholarship. The available scholarship focuses primarily on queerness in juxtaposition to Islam, which is not relatable to all Arab Americans as they are a religiously diverse group. Through an intersectional approach, this research, conducted from April 2020 to May 2021, explores the lived experiences of queer Arab Americans from across the United States (U.S.) while seeking to identify potential commonalities that could encompass a more general queer Arab American …

Understanding The Dietary Behavior Of A 7th - 8th Century Avar Community From Jagodnjak, Croatia Using Stable Isotope Analysis Of Bone Collagen, Marlon Koci

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The dietary behavior of past communities is influenced by several factors such as environmental sources, social and economic organization, individual preferences, and physiological needs. Every society has its characteristics and understanding the dietary choices of its individuals expands the knowledge about its lifestyle. Applying biochemical tracers, we can explore the food choices of an Early Medieval Avar community. The Jagodnjak cemetery (n=35) in Croatia is dated to the 7–8th century. Historical and archaeological records are currently limited for Avar populations. Jagodnjak is a transitory community from a period where different historical events shaped the community's way of life. The research …

A Fat Imposter: The Embodied Intersection Between Race, Body Type And Fatness In Margaret Cho’S Comedy, Julia Cox

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

Margaret Cho is a comedic goddess who, in her mockery, serves flaming hot social commentary about race, body image, and fatness. Within this thesis, I used critical discourse analysis to understand how Margaret Cho embodies Asianness, whiteness, and the body types and images prescribed respectively. While working on data analysis, I came across a common media trope of fat women: the use of indexically Southern (United States), Appalachian, and Working class indexicals in speech and lexical items. I connected the ideologies surrounding Southern and Appalachian language to the inequalities that fat women face. This voicing had not previously been written …

Identity-Making And Spatialization Among Colby College's International Students, John G.G. Shamgochian

Honors Theses

This thesis presents the research that I have done for the award of Honors in Anthropology. The following text begins with a vignette that highlights identity-making and spatialization among international students in a moment of precarity and visibility. The “Introduction” records the development of my research from its initial topics to its current form, my methodology, my positionality, and the ethics of my research. Following this, in the chapter titled “Internationality,” I lay out the interwoven social, institutional, and political processes which shape the experiences of academic migrants. Because the purpose of this chapter is to fully contextualize my argument, …

Revitalization In The Alabama Black Belt: Cultivation Of A New Civic Hegemony In Rural Main Street America, Martha Grace Lowry Mize

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

One Alabama Black Belt community has sought to re-imagine itself as a future affluent space for new families, tourists, and diasporic communities—despite regional challenges—by supplanting traditional discourses and centering a new civic hegemony within local revitalization efforts. This research and thesis draws upon qualitative ethnographic methods: participant observation and interviews conducted in Marion, Alabama. Located in Perry County, Marion has approximately 3,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom are African-American. Marion was designated as a Main Street Community (June 2017) and began a series of revitalization initiatives to increase community pride and project confidence about future growth. The National Main Street …

Understanding Struggles And Triumphs Of Widows In Central Nigeria: A Path To Communication And Economic Empowerment, Meredith Annette Garrison

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

One in ten African women age 15 or older are widows. Approximately 8 million widows live in Nigeria with many living in extreme poverty. Throughout the nation, widows are subjected to physical and psychological harm from their families and communities following the deaths of their husbands. Women are marginalized across Nigeria, but widowed women often experience ostracization and oppression that leads to poverty. Most widows rely on informal business and petty trading to survive but these ventures typically only bring in less than a $1 a day for a family. This dissertation critically examined the situation of widows in a …

Datos Preliminares De La Temporada 2019 Del Proyecto De Investigación Arqueológica Cerro San Isidro, Distrito De Moro, Ancash, David Chicoine, Jeisen Navarro

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Explanations For Brazil’S Inequality Reduction From 1989 To 2015, José N. Cabrera-Schneider

Nebraska Anthropologist

Latin America has been known for its persistent inequality, and the explanations of its origin vary greatly. However, in recent years (the 1990s to early 2010s) inequality in Latin America decreased significantly. In this paper, I focus on the inequality trends in Brazil to look for particular drivers that reduce inequality. Among the essential drivers are education; a reduction in the income gaps between gender, race, geography, and formality; and types of income, such as income from labor or income from conditional cash transfers. However, the effect of the drivers is not always the same, especially for education.

China’S Three Gorges Dam: Development, Displacement, And Degradation, Trent M. Carney

Nebraska Anthropologist

China’s state-led push towards modernization and enhanced economic growth has been marked by environmentally unsustainable practices, the results of which are still being combated today (Sapiro 2001). The construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in Hubei province, China, represents the largest civil engineering project of the modern era. The dam is capable of generating one-sixth of China’s total electrical capacity; however, China’s attempts to go green come at a substantial cost. (Gleick 2009; Morgan & Waretini 2013; Paerl et al. 2011; Xu et al. 2013). Some of these consequences include increased geologic activity: the forced resettlement …

Tourism’S Impacts On Local Populations, Morgan Glup

Nebraska Anthropologist

This writing serves to discuss the various impacts of tourism on local populations. Despite the growth of the tourism industry, only a handful of anthropological studies about the impact of tourism on local populations exist. Therefore, this writing is focused on the study of tourism by anthropologists as there is much about tourism that lends itself well to being studied from an anthropological perspective. Issues relevant to anthropology such as political economy, social change, and cultural identity are directly affected by tourism. A brief overview of the work done by anthropologists on tourism and local populations is discussed. Many anthropological …

Ua12/2/67 Alpha Kappa Alpha, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Ua12/2/68 Sigma Nu, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about Sigma Nu fraternity.

America's Best Idea: Settler Colonialism And Recognition In The United States National Park Service Website, Madison Gates

Scripps Senior Theses

By examining closely how the National Park Service misrepresents their history and current relationships with Indigenous communities I work to demonstrate the depths of this misrepresentation and the impacts it has on various Indigenous communities and nations. In the first chapter, I explain how the history of national parks is founded on fundamentally opposed conceptions of land between Indigenous people and settlers and how this difference was used as justification for settler violence. In chapter two I explore the ways in which the National Park Service uses cultural collaboration to further tourist experience at the expense of respecting and properly …

Tick Bites And Blood Relations : Regional Relationships And Interpretations Of Lyme Disease Risk In New York's Hudson River Corridor, Jessica Somers

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Lyme disease is a bacterial pathogen that spreads from animals to humans through bites from blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis). The disease is a public health problem causing both physical suffering and increased health care spending since the 1980s. A snapshot of Lyme disease coverage in the popular media shows that most people prioritize conversations about Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment over prevention concerns. Anthropology has recently examined peoples’ anxieties and debates regarding the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease in the United States. There has been less work within the discipline on Lyme and tick-borne disease risk perceptions. This dissertation …

The Revival Of Reindeer Herding In The North Baikal Highlands, Republic Of Buryatia, John P. Ziker

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper summarizes work with two Evenki reindeer herding collectives in the Severo-Baikal’skoe nagor’e in July, 2010. Ethnographic work with reindeer herder groups Oron and Uluki, both established in the early 1990s in the Kholodnoe community, highlighted two variations on the traditional Evenki approach to reindeer herding evincing numerous commonalities. Both groups relied on natural and human-made features of the landscape to habituate reindeer to areas where reindeer herding had been abandoned for close to 20 years. Reindeer herders and reindeer mutually determine seasonal and daily mobility patterns, and reindeer herding activities are leveraged to conduct big-game hunting and furbearer …

Content Controlled Spectral Indices For Detection Of Hydrothermal Alteration Minerals Based On Machine Learning And Lasso-Logistic Regression Analysis, Kyuhun Shim, Jaehyung Yu, Lei Wang, Sangin Lee, Sang Mo Koh, Bum Han Lee

Faculty Publications

This article introduced the quantity controlled spectral indices working at mineral contents higher than 5 wt.% for detection of sericite, chlorite, and pyrophyllite, which are the representative alteration minerals of phyllic, propylitic, and advanced argillic hydrothermal alterations. The X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the samples are mostly pure with minor content of quartz. The absorption features of target minerals showed systematic decrease in absorption depth with decrease in the mineral content, and the changes varied by mineral types. A total of 1253 target mineral spectra and 605 nontarget mineral spectra were classified by a random forest model, which achieved an …

A Short Text Classification Method Based On Convolutional Neural Network And Semantic Extension, Haitao Wang, Keke Tian, Zhengjiang Wu, Lei Wang

Faculty Publications

In order to solve the problem that traditional short text classification methods do not perform well on short text due to the data sparsity and insufficient semantic features, we propose a short text classification method based on convolutional neural network and semantic extension. Firstly, we propose an improved similarity to improve the coverage of the word vector table in the short text preprocessing process. Secondly, we propose a method for semantic expansion of short texts, which adding an attention mechanism to the neural network model to find related words in the short text, and semantic expansion is performed at the …

Documentary Research And Archaeological Investigations At The Turner House, Pembroke, Massachusetts, Elizabeth G. Tarulis, Christa M. Beranek

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

The Turner House (PEM.49) is an early 19th-century house in Pembroke, standing on land owned by the town. In order to assist the town’s Historical Commission in developing long term management plans for the property, the Fiske Center conducted a shovel test pit (STP) survey of the areas around the house. We excavated 50 x 50 cm STPs at 33 locations, two of which were expanded into larger excavation areas. Most of these test pits confirmed that use of the property in the late 20th and early 21st centuries had completely disturbed the historic deposits in most areas. In some …

Dramaturgi Sakaiba Dalam Hibridisasi Budaya Minahasa Sulawesi Utara, Tony Tampake, Micchelle Hermanus

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This paper discusses the sakaiba ritual procession in Minahasa which is carried out every year by the Christian community to welcome the New Year. The research was conducted in Taratara village, Tomohon, North Sulawesi. This study focuses on the significance and meaning of the sakaiba ritual procession within the context of the hybridization of contemporary religious culture in Minahasa. By using the theoretical concepts of ritual and dramaturgy, as well as applying the descriptive qualitative methods, this research found that the sakaiba ritual procession is a liminal hinge that allows a peaceful encounter between the ancient Minahasa traditions and the …

Jalan Gender, Jalan Spiritual: Menggali Pembentukan Gender Project Dalam Konteks Pengalaman Keberagamaan Perempuan, Katrin Bandel, Anne Shakka, Gusnita Linda, Yustina Devi Ardhiani

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Using the method of collaborative autoethnography, this study critically reflects on the life stories of three women from different backgrounds by focusing on gender and religion. One of the main aspects that we examined is gender projects, i.e. the projections people make when imagining their future gender roles and identities. As a result of our (self-) observations, we found that, while at first the gender project of those women was formed by the patriarchal gender order of their society, as time progresses, after living through and evaluating a variety of often traumatic experiences, they developed their own gender projects more …

Peran Perempuan Dalam Tradisi Sedekah Gunung Di Desa Pelangas, Kecamatan Simpang Teritip, Kabupaten Bangka Barat, Putra Pratama Saputra, Tiara Ramadhani, Michael Jefri Sinabutar

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Women have a role in a particular culture, and this can serve as a way to express their freedom and to be on an equal footing with their male counterparts. The Jering ethnic group in Palangas Village, Bangka Island, has a traditional ritual that is still carried out by the community, namely sedekah gunung. This ritual is carried out once a year, coinciding with the 14th night of the full moon. This ritual serves as an expression of gratitude for the good harvest that occurred for the entire year. This study used the descriptive qualitative method, while data collection techniques …

The Reacculturation Of Veterans Post Transition Assistance Program, Kyle Alan Hanlan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As many as 61% of veterans have sought reintegration services after the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) to help them cope with culture shock. TAP is not designed to address cultural transition. However, culture shock has resulted in disassociating behavior, unemployment, and homelessness in the veteran community. The purpose of this study was to identify the unmet reacculturation needs of post-active duty veterans in Chester County, Pennsylvania, who have utilized the United States’ Department of Defense’s TAP. Using an ethnographic approach, this study identified the extent that the TAP helps 13 post-active duty veterans obtain the autonomy stage of culture shock …

Pengaruh Profesi Tukang Cukur Dalam Transformasi Kampung Peundeuy, Banyuresmi, Garut, Hilyatun Nishlah, Dhita Hapsarani

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Being professional barbers from Garut—known as ASGAR, short for Asli Garut, which means ‘of Garut origin’—has been the main source of income for most men residing in Kampung Peundeuy, Banyuresmi Village, Garut Regency, West Java. The profession is considered so successful in providing financial welfare for the villagers and improving their social status that many of the residents decide to leave the village to expand their business elsewhere, especially in Jakarta and other big cities in West Java. This phenomenon has intensified since the 2000s until the residents finally dub Kampung Peundeuy as a “barber village” in West Java. In …

Ragam Budaya Penggunaan Piranti Sumpit Masyarakat Bandung, Selvia Selvia

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

Food is an inseparable part of a culture and serves as one of the characteristic markers of a culture or ethnic groups. The arrival and presence of the Chinese ethnic group has contributed to the diversity of the Indonesian culture in general. One of Chinese dishes that have become a favorite delicacy in Bandung is noodles, a wide variety of which is sold in various areas around the city. Noodles are considered as a substitute for daily staple food and have become part of Indonesian identity in general. This field study used the descriptive qualitative method. Data collection was carried …

The Rainbow Nation Vision: (Re)Constructing & (Re)Imagining South Africanness, Riley Crouthamel

Capstone Showcase

“Rainbowism” or the new form of nationalism inspired by Mandela’s “Rainbow Nation vision” emphasizes unity, equality, and non-racialism, and has become the dominant myth and metaphor by which South Africa is recognized in the post-apartheid era. Through an application of a theoretical framework that emphasizes the mythological and imaginative aspects of constructive nationalism and an analysis of Rainbowism’s rise to mythical dominance and evolution in the South African imaginary over the span of the past three decades of democracy using ANC “Rainbowist” discourses in both explicit and inexplicit ways, this thesis argues that Rainbowism arose as a counter myth in …

Día De (Los) Muertos - The Revered Mexican Holiday Of Death, Logan Johansen

Undergraduate Research Journal

In recent years, Americans have become enthralled with what many might refer to as Mexican Halloween. Notably, the Disney film Coco in 2017 portrayed a fantastical interpretation of the holiday, combining music and a wholesome story typical of the company’s many animated films. Although the celebration falls just after October 31st, the traditional holiday is not an imitation of the Americanized All Hallows’ Eve. Yes, there are costumes, candy, and lots of partying, but the purpose and intent of the holiday is entirely different. With rapidly growing popularity in the United States and even across the world, it is important …

Forensic Implications For The Diagenetic Alteration Of The Stable Isotopic Composition Of Pig Ribs Following Exposure To Aqueous Conditions., Erin Martin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This research involves the examination of the contribution of stable isotope analysis to the forensic anthropological objective of human identification. Oxygen isotopes, which vary in water in a predictable manner according to climatological and geographical factors, can be used to determine the region of origin of an unidentified individual following isotopic analysis of human skeletal remains. However, stable oxygen isotopes from human remains recovered from various aqueous environments may be altered by diagenetic processes that occur following deposition. The focus of this research is to determine potential diagenetic changes in the oxygen isotopic value (d18O) of Sus scrofa (domestic pig) …

Bioarchaeological And Mortuary Patterns At Holtun, Guatemala: Integrating A Comparative Osteobiographic Approach, Horvey Palacios

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Bioarchaeological analysis can help identify patterns of mortuary ritual and social experience of ancient Maya peoples. However, there is limited bioarchaeological and mortuary evidence for the relationship between the development of social complexity and social experience. Particularly, how is social organization reflected in patterns of burial practice and skeletal markers of stress. This thesis uses osteobiographies to contextualize the mortuary and biological profiles of 20 individuals interred at the Maya site of Holtun, Guatemala to examine bioarchaeological variation during the Preclassic (800 B.C. – 250 A.D.) and Late Classic (550 A.D. – 900 A.D.) periods. This work highlights the integration …