Anthropology Commons^™

Devotee/Ethnographer: My Struggle At The Boundary Walls Of Participant Observation, Atreyee Majumder

Articles

This article demonstrates the difficulty of incorporating within the methodological ambit of ‘participant observation’, a possibility of the ethnographer herself staking claim in the religious truth claims of the community that constitute the subject of research. In so doing, this article provides a critique of the concept of participant observation to point out that participant observation anticipates the work of the ethnographer in participating in the physical, performative lives of the community that she purports to study, but never the internal life, especially the life of accessing a register of truth. I found myself in a curious situation as a …

Intersecting Mobilities: Beyond The Autonomy Of Movement And Power Of Place, Miriam Ticktin, Rafi Youatt

Publications and Research

It is widely understood that we live in a world where people, goods, species, and things of all sorts are on the move, and that the politics around mobility and its regulation and meaning are critical to contemporary political and social life. Human migration has been globally intensive for well over a century; industrial economic production, consumption, and trade move goods around the world; transportation infrastructure moves all sorts of cargo around, human and nonhuman; regular and irregular ecological processes and changes are creating new patterns of nonhuman movement; variants of viruses race around the world; even geological elements are …

Borders: A Story Of Political Imagination, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

This article traces three different political imaginaries about borders, suggesting that the dominant imaginary—the one of border walls, driven by a fear of invasion—is only one way to live in the world. The goal is to make space in our political imaginations to rethink how we live together, including thinking beyond nation-states as containers that keep people in or out. By first showing how the vision of invasion is built and maintained with intersecting transnational technologies and ideologies, I open the way to thinking otherwise. Second, I trace the counterpolitics of borders developed by artists and activists, resisting borders and …

An Inventory And Assessment Of Sample Sources For Survey Research With Agricultural Producers In The U.S., Jessica D. Ulrich-Schad, Shuang Li, J. G. Arbuckle, Edem Avemegah, Kathryn J. Brasier, Morey Burnham, Anil Kumar Chaudhary, Weston M. Eaton, Wei Gu, Tonya Haigh, Douglas Jackson-Smith, Alexander L. Metcalf, Amit Pradhananga, Linda S. Prokopy, Matthew Sanderson, Emma Wade, Adam Wilke

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Researchers need probability samples to collect representative survey data about the behaviors and attitudes of agricultural producers they study in relation to the natural resources that they manage, yet obtaining accurate and complete sampling frames is challenging. We extract data from a publication database to identify the most commonly used sampling frame sources in survey research of agricultural producers in the U.S., finding that government program participant lists are used most often, while private vendor samples are increasingly being purchased. Based on our research experience, we find that for many projects, private vendors can provide the most rigorous samples. Given …

What Happened To The “New Middle Class”? The 2016 Borp (Brazil’S Once-Rising Poor) Survey, Benjamin Junge, Sean T. Mitchell, Charles H. Klein, David De Micheli

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research note provides a detailed account of the development and implementation of a household survey conducted in 2016 as part of a larger investigation into the lifeways and political subjectivities of Brazil’s “once-rising poor,” the demographic sector comprising poor and working-class people who experienced various forms of socioeconomic mobility in the early twenty-first century. After reflecting on the challenges of maintaining a critical perspective on class labels and relations that were intensely contested at the time, the article introduces the survey sample (n = 1,204), highlighting variables captured. It then establishes the demographic profile, mobility experiences, political values, attitudes, …

The Effects Of Burial Practices On The Preservation Of Bioarchaeological Remains From Caddo Sites In Northwestern Louisiana, Riley Kloostra

LSU Master's Theses

There are many variables which can impact the preservation of skeletal remains. This study attempts to understand how six specific variables present at two Native American sites may have impacted the skeletal preservation of burials at those sites. Four of the six variables are extrinsic factors, which vary on the level of the burial pit; these are presence of shell artifacts in the burial, presence of ash in the pit fill, presence of a clay cap over the burial, and depth of the burial pit. The other two variables discussed are intrinsic factors, varying on the level of the individual; …

The Cost Of Living In Larger Primate Groups Includes Higher Fly Densities, Jan F. Gogarten, Mueena Jahan, Sébastien Calvignac-Spencer, Colin A. Chapman, Tony L. Goldberg, Fabian H. Leendertz, Jessica M. Rothman

Publications and Research

Flies are implicated in carrying and mechanically transmitting many primate pathogens. We investigated how fly associations vary across six monkey species (Cercopithecus ascanius, Cercopithecus mitis, Colobus guereza, Lophocebus albigena, Papio anubis, and Piliocolobus tephrosceles) and whether monkey group size impacts fly densities. Fly densities were generally higher inside groups than outside them, and considering data from these primate species together revealed that larger groups harbored more flies. Within species, this pattern was strongest for colobine monkeys, and we speculate this might be due to their smaller home ranges, suggesting that movement patterns may influence fly–primate associations. Fly associations increase with …

Giving Of One’S Self: Perceptions, Experiences, And Motivations In United States Blood Donation, Allison Huene, Jamie Jones, Hayden Steingruby, Alexis Warnecke

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Through our research on blood donation, we hope to answer the following questions:

Why do people donate blood? Do they perceive it as an altruistic donation or gift?

Our methods include semiotic analysis, survey distributed online, semi-structured interviews, qualitative research over social media platforms, and participant observation done through donating blood ourselves. Through seeking to gain insight on blood donation as a type of standardized gift given in a market economy, as well as examining the way donors view themselves and their action of giving, we may be able to provide suggestions for how blood shortages could be alleviated, or …

Dataset Of Antemortem Tooth Loss And Carious Lesions At Deir El-Medina, Anne Austin

UMSL Datasets

These data are from observations on antemortem tooth loss and the presence of carious lesions from the site of Deir el-Medina, Egypt. The data were collected by Anne Austin and Mélie Louys as part of the mission of the Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale at the site during the 2012-14 and 2019-20 field seasons. These data were derived from human remains found in Theban Tombs 6, 217, 290, and 298. They are estimated to date from 1550-945 BCE. These data include macroscopic observations from 32 mandibles and 44 maxillae consisting of 485 observable teeth and 1,052 observable tooth sockets. Any mandibles …

Genetic Correlation, Pleiotropy, And Molar Morphology In A Longitudinal Sample Of Australian Twins And Families, Kathleen S. Paul, Christopher M. Stojanowski, Toby Hughes, Alan H. Brook, Grant C. Townsend

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study aims to expand our understanding of the genetic architecture of crown morphology in the human diphyodont dentition. Here, we present bivariate genetic correlation estimates for deciduous and permanent molar traits and evaluate the patterns of pleiotropy within (e.g., m1–m2) and between (e.g., m2–M1) dentitions. Morphology was observed and scored from dental models representing participants of an Australian twin and family study (deciduous n = 290, permanent n = 339). Data collection followed Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System standards. Genetic correlation estimates were generated using maximum likelihood variance components analysis in SOLAR v.8.1.1. Approximately 23% of deciduous variance …

Bringing People Back Into Public Health Data: Community Feedback On A Set Of Visualization Tools - Summary Report, Alejandro Cerón, Mia Glover, Quisi Rodriguez-Oregel, Dani Thompson, Tom Adams, Naomi Asakura, Kaela Belknap, Anna Block, Nicole Boehler, Hannah Boeve, Sarah Bomers, Sasha Borovok, Grace Bryan, Kate Buffington, Majesty Cain, Beth Carideo, Haley Chesno, Grace Connell, Jake Corbett, Camille Cruz, Chloe Dawkins, Anna Denniston, Lydia Dickens, Sophie Duplock, Samuel Dwinell, Avery Ess, Sam Ferman, Ellis Geis, Ethan Graupmann, Xander Hedrick, Angel Hernandez-Miramontes, Grant Huyghe, Sara Ibrahiem, Anna Jamieson, Ian Kang, Allie Kris, Erin Lawrence, Maddie Leake, Ryan Leary, Taylor Loh, Charlotte Monroe, Alexander Nguyen-Lopez, Henry O’Daffer, Cat Parish, Jaylee Recountre, Grace Rizzo, Noah Roseth, Grace Rothstein, Katie Sage, Marie Saltzmann, Stephen Shlain, Riley Shores, Mackenna Simson, Mark Teneza, Jack Weinmeister, Justin Weinzweig, Alison Wenman, Patch Whelan, Lea Zimmerman

Anthropology: Undergraduate Student Scholarship

This course-based study is a product of the University of Denver’s Spring 2022 The Social Determination of Health (ANTH 2424) class. The study aimed to understand how well a set of public health visualization tools tells the data stories about people in Colorado, and about important public health problems. For this, a team of almost sixty undergraduate students taking the class, coordinated by three graduate teaching assistants, and directed by the course instructor interviewed a total of fifty-six people from Colorado, qualitatively analyzed those interviews, and wrote reports that draw conclusions and recommendations.

Connecting For Equitable Climate Adaptation: Mapping Stakeholder Relationships In Metro Boston, Rosalyn Negrón, Antonio Raciti, Rebecca Herst, Patricio Belloy, Katsyris Rivera-Kientz, Gabriela Boscio Santos, Ashley Smith

Sustainable Solutions Lab

Climate change is already disproportionately impacting historically marginalized populations. Without intentional interventions, adaptation efforts will amplify existing social and economic inequities. At the same time, society will mobilize massive resources to address increasing climate-related threats. This means that climate change also presents opportunities to address persistent and systemic inequities. However, equitable adaptation efforts are impeded by multiple factors. For example, many frontline communities do not have the capacity to work on adaptation efforts if it means diverting attention from addressing existing inequities. Even as policymakers, practitioners, and planners increasingly prioritize climate adaptation, frontline communities are not brought into the process …

An Assessment Of The Extremes And Impacts Of The February 2021 South-Central U.S. Arctic Outbreak, And How Climate Services Can Help, Rebecca A. Bolinger, Vincent M. Brown, Christopher M. Fuhrmann, Karin L. Gleason, T. Andrew Joyner, Barry D. Keim, Amanda Lewis, John W. Nielsen-Gammon, Crystal J. Stiles, William Tollefson, Hannah E. Attard, Alicia M. Bentley

Faculty Publications

In February 2021, a widespread cold-air outbreak, with two associated winter storm systems, impacted the South-Central United States. After a comprehensive summary of the synoptic setup and a day-by-day analysis of the event, we assess the significance of the storm from a climatological perspective. Concerning winter precipitation, there were isolated instances of record snowfall accumulations. While freezing rain and freezing drizzle both occurred, total freezing precipitation accumulations did not exceed a one-in-50 year event. The duration of the cold was notable — many stations across the region broke records for the highest number of consecutive days below freezing. When analyzing …

Dataset Of Antemortem Tooth Loss And Carious Lesions At Deir El-Medina, Anne Austin

History Faculty Works

These data are from observations on antemortem tooth loss and the presence of carious lesions from the site of Deir el-Medina, Egypt. The data were collected by Anne Austin and Mélie Louys as part of the mission of the Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale at the site during the 2012-14 and 2019-20 field seasons. These data were derived from human remains found in Theban Tombs 6, 217, 290, and 298. They are estimated to date from 1550-945 BCE. These data include macroscopic observations from 32 mandibles and 44 maxillae consisting of 485 observable teeth and 1,052 observable tooth sockets. Any mandibles …

Streets Of Grievance: Everyday Poetics And Postcolonial Politics In Urban Algeria, Stephanie Victoria Love

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes the intersections of language, settler-colonial and postcolonial politics, and urbanism in North Africa (Algeria). It is an urban and linguistic ethnography of Oran, Algeria’s second-largest city, based on sixteen months of ethnographic, linguistic anthropological, and archival research conducted in Arabic and French. I show how contemporary Oranis mobilize language as a key resource in contemporary urban politics, which are inextricably tied to French colonialism’s material remnants, rubble, and legacies. In contemporary Oran, the connection between the colonial past and the postcolonial present remains palpable, even sixty years after independence; however, while the postcolonial Algerian state has long …

Everything To Lose: Extraction, Racism, And Survival On Wet'suwet'en Land, Anne Spice

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work critically analyzes the role of extractive industry in the continued colonization of Indigenous peoples and occupation of Indigenous lands, and examines how Indigenous resistance to oil and gas projects augments the damaging effects of fossil fuel extraction and create alternative possibilities for life in the face of catastrophic environmental crises. In Wet’suwet’en territory, in Northern British Columbia, Canada, construction has begun on the fracked gas Coastal GasLink pipeline, despite the opposition of local Indigenous leaders and chiefs. Several Indigenous land reoccupation camps have been set up by Wet’suwet’en people to resist the pipeline’s construction, and the resulting conflict …

Diet And Nutrition Of Lemurs In The Lean Season, Santiago Cassalett

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Animals must navigate complex food and nutrient environments that are constantly in flux to obtain the macro and micronutrients necessary for their growth, reproduction, and survival. The nutritional needs of animals also vary over the life course, further complicating the search for adequate foods and the nutrients within them. The hypervariable and unpredictable environment of Madagascar creates a complex nutrient landscape for lemurs in particular because they are subject to large fluctuations in food availability. These fluctuations are thought to create extreme periods of nutritional stress during the dry season (known as the lean season) for lemurs. In response, lemurs …

Genetic Impacts Of Deforestation On Mouse Lemurs, Darice Westphal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The impact of deforestation on the genetic structure of mouse lemurs is poorly understood. In this project, I assess deforestation of Madagascar’s terrestrial protected regions, quantify genomic wide genetic variation in two sympatric mouse lemurs, and evaluate the role of landscape structure in genetic relatedness patterns within two sympatric mouse lemur species. Overall deforestation rates across the 98 terrestrial protected areas in Madagascar are increasing, resulting in an average annual deforestation rate of 0.68% per year, with approximately 10,600 km² lost between 2000 and 2019. In a comparison of relatedness patterns between the sympatric gray mouse lemur (Microcebus …

All Aboard The Abortion Pill Train: Activism, Medicine, And Reproductive Technologies In The Republic Of Ireland, Brenna Mccaffrey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The successful legalization of abortion in the Republic of Ireland in 2018 is one of many recent political changes amidst ongoing global debates about the role of reproductive freedom in modern societies. This dissertation follows these changes through both clandestine and highly public social movement activism, deliberative and legislative political processes, and dynamic shifts in medical service provision over a three-year period from 2017 to 2020. I center the abortion pill as a medical and pharmaceutical technology that has been under-examined by scholars as an agent of change in the story of Ireland’s abortion debates. The emergence of non- profit …

Building The Revolution: Ideology, Affect And Gender In Bolivarian Caracas, Andreina I. Torres A.

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Building the Revolution: Ideology, Affect and Gender in Bolivarian Caracas,” examines the Bolivarian Revolution (1998-present) as a heterogenous shifting political process, and terrain of struggle in which a multiplicity of actors disputed the meanings and direction of socialism in Venezuela. During three years of ethnographic and archival research in Caracas (between 2014 and 2017) I researched one of the many Campamentos de Pioneros (Pioneer Camps) that was part of the Movimiento de Pobladores y Pobladoras de Venezuela (Venezuela’s Settlers’ Movement). The pioneers sought to “rescue” and occupy centrally located land in the national capital in order to build housing for …

Shaping The Witch: A Visual Art Thesis, Amanda Cobb

University Honors Theses

This thesis is an exploration of the complex and interconnected nature of folklore, personal mythology, and re-enchantment as expressed through the lens of puppetry. I have drawn inspiration from the works of deeply reflective works concerning the psychological nature of mythologies of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, as well as the magical and beautiful work of artists Jim Henson, Brian and Wendy Froud, and Mercer Meyer. Through working in the medium of puppets, I have given consideration to the possibilities and limitations of these forms in expressing the complexity of narrative, personal mythology, the anxiety of disenchantment, lost and reclaimed …

The Cultural Dilemma Of The American Education System: An Observation Of How It Lives In Montessori, Amaya Varma

University Honors Theses

This thesis acts as a case study examining the culture of a Montessori school by highlighting major themes from a selection of interviews. The intention is not to measure the amount of diversity in this school, but rather to provide an observation of people's understanding of the concept. It intends to show the limits and contradictions of any schooling project which concerns the structural constraints of the American education system. It reveals an internal "culture of kindness" which is constructed in this school and argues that Montessori education could be amenable to instilling certain values which allow for students to …

The Role Of Native Hawaiian Spiritual Practices In Social Systems And Environmental Stewardship, Christina A. Hornbaker

Social Sciences

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Native Hawaiian spiritual practices played a role in social systems and stewardship practices. Lightfoot and colleagues (2013) suggest that more archaeological research is needed on traditional resources and environmental management practices. The authors point out that “landscape management practices… are subtle and not prone to leaving smoking guns in the archaeological record” (Lightfoot et al. 2013), which makes such sites difficult to document without ethnographic accounts. Due to this subtlety, I will mainly be pulling information from interviews or oral histories from Hawaiian descendants, early explorers and missionary accounts, ethnographers, and …

North Of The Grid: The Black Experience Of 17th -19th Century Rural New York City, Stephanie E. Barnes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the United States, transatlantic slavery was a racial project and template for race-making which created a country that relied on institutions that were organized and performed through social stratification. Today, the nation still operates on systemically racist institutions that have benefited whites while disadvantaging ‘others.’ The narratives presented in American history are rooted in whiteness and benefit the white community while marginalizing nonwhites. Over two hundred years of slavery history in this country has been purposely manipulated and left out. My research focuses on using an historical archaeological framework to research and share the lives of free and enslaved …

Why, New York City? Gauging The Quality Of Life Through The Thoughts Of Tweeters, Sheryl Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As a resource for social data, Twitter’s platform has been used to measure the quality of life through sentiment analysis. This capstone project explores another methodological technique—querying Twitter data around specific keyword terms to determine dominant topics, word patterns, and sentiment leanings in a geographical area. Focusing on New York City and Los Angeles for comparative analysis, the keyword term “why” will be used to build a Python analysis around topic modeling and sentiment analysis. Using this approach, the analysis reveals social and cultural differences, the overall sentiment of tweets, and subjects of interest to tweeters.

GitHub Repository for all …

Landscape, Settlement, And Community: The Natural, Human, And Sacred Geography Of Classic Maya Civilization In West-Central Guatemala, Marc A. Wolf

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the fluid and commonly multi-compositional aspects of Maya settlement patterns, which reflect concepts of space within Maya worldviews. Research will be focused on the predominantly Classic (ca. AD 650-810) era archaeological site of Cancuen and its neighbors in the Verapaz department of Guatemala. These settlements provide a complex arena where questions of identity, spirituality, and ethnic affiliations can be addressed within a spatial context. The continuing detailed settlement and environmental survey mapping within the Cancuen region is the primary source of evidence from which a more thorough appreciation of emic Maya spatial considerations will be investigated.

The …

Investigación Arqueológica: Sitio Buen Suceso, Comuna Dos Mangas, Provincia De Santa Elena. Informe Preliminar. Temporada 2019, Sarah M. Rowe, Guy S. Duke, Daniela Balanzátegui

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Preliminary report on the 2019 excavation season at Bun Suceso, a Valdivia site located on the coast of Ecuador. Report submitted to the Region 5 Office of the Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural, Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Sunbelt Schooling: Publics And Politics Of Education Advocacy In Phoenix, Arizona, Matthew Chrisler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For the past forty years, public education in the United States has been the target of both neoliberal and conservative education reforms that have imposed austerity and privatization, set limits on racial, gendered, and sexual citizenship, increased school responsibility for social reproduction, and winnowed visions of public education as both a universal social entitlement and site of participatory democracy. These reforms emerged from, and remain powerfully anchored in, the United States Sunbelt, a crescent of metropolitan suburbs spanning southern California to Florida. This region propelled the conservative revolution in American politics but is also the site of progressive organizing that, …

Beakers, Berkemeiers, And Roemers: Glass Drinking Vessels From The 17th-Century Dutch Settlement Of Fort Orange, New Netherland, Kristina Staats Traudt

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis examines 17th-century glass drinking vessel remains uncovered during the 1970-1971 Fort Orange excavations in Albany, New York. Fort Orange was a colonial outpost established by the Dutch West India Trading Company on behalf of the United Provinces of the Dutch Republic in 1624. The fort served as an important trading post within the colony of New Netherland. Drinking vessels are studied in order to determine any traceable patterns of preference in form, decorative elements, or use. Vessels of note include roemers, berkemeiers, goblets, and varying forms using Venetian and Façon de Venise decorative techniques. The analysis is separated …

Entities: A Field Of Imaginary Games, Thrasyvoulos Ioannis Kalaitzidis

LSU Master's Theses

With this body of work, I am looking for visual symbols that help communicate unuttered meanings through storytelling and stimulate an affectual response to the viewer. This exploration is presented in two different forms: a surreal sculptural installation and a board game. The installation consists of large-scale sculptures made from light and soft materials (polyurethane foam, plastic waste, paper) that are available to move inside the gallery, while the board game is presented as a set of 3D prints with instructions on how the participants can play it. The materials used in the installation suggest a way to transform waste …