Anthropology Commons^™

Comparing A Surface Collection To An Excavated Collection In The Lower Skagit River Delta At 45sk51, Sherri M. Middleton

All Master's Theses

In the Puget Sound Lowland of the Pacific Northwest, archaeologists have investigated a shift in settlement and subsistence patterns occurring in the mid-Holocene Epoch. The artifacts used as the evidence of this shift are interpreted with a concept known as resource intensification. This shift in artifact frequencies has been studied only in the last thirty years and in limited areas of the Puget Sound Lowlands. An opportunity to investigate a site dating to after the shift presented itself when Central Washington University acquired the Lower Skagit River Delta Surface Collection (LSRDSC). This artifact assemblage was collected from a plow-zone surface …

Categories And Cultural Models Of Nature In Northern Punjab, Pakistan, Stephen M. Lyon, Muhammad Aurang Zeb Mughal

Faculty & Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

“Culture Shock”: An Ethnographic Account Of A Small Business In The Face Of Change, Alexia Maggos

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This ethnography follows a small business in Indianapolis that was founded on a small business philosophy that embodied family-oriented, close-knit employee relationships. Aside from the small firm finding success in its established company culture, this small business found great financial success within a niche market. However, as part of new expansion plans, management began imposing a more traditional, hierarchical management styles. While this shift is predicted by contemporary management theory, the human effects and cultural costs of this process are worthy of study. This ethnography follows employees’ perceptions and reactions to the change in business philosophy and analyzes the instability …

Maracucha, Lorvelis A. Madueño

5.Two Homes

Lorvelis Madueño immigrated from Venezuela to New Orleans with her sister and her sister’s wife seeking stability after the 2014 Venezuelan protests. Madueño describes the sociopolitical climate of Venezuela, different race and ethnic understandings in the United States, gender and sexuality, and the gaita style of Venezuelan folk music. In conversations with her sister Loraine, Madueño reveals the similarities and differences in their upbringing and immigration experiences. Through these observations Madueño hopes to highlight the importance of immigrants sharing their stories.

Drowning In Rising Seas: Navigating Multiple Knowledge Systems And Responding To Climate Change In The Maldives, Rachel Hannah Spiegel

Pitzer Senior Theses

The threat of global climate change increasingly influences the actions of human society. As world leaders have negotiated adaptation strategies over the past couple of decades, a certain discourse has emerged that privileges Western conceptions of environmental degradation. I argue that this framing of climate change inhibits the successful implementation of adaptation strategies. This thesis focuses on a case study of the Maldives, an island nation deemed one of the most vulnerable locations to the impacts of rising sea levels. I apply a postcolonial theoretical framework to examine how differing knowledge systems can both complement and contradict one another. By …

Editorial—Culture And Cosmos : The Marriage Of Astronomy And Culture, Volume 21, Frank Prendergast, Nicholas Campion, Liz Henty, Bernadette Brady, Darrelyn Gunzburg, Fabio Silva

Book/Book Chapter

This volume of Culture and Cosmos draws together a selection of papers delivered at the 24th annual conference of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture (SEAC). The conference, titled 'The Marriage of Astronomy and Culture: Theory and Method in the Study of Cultural Astronomy', occurred between the 12th and the 16th September 2016 and was held at The Bath Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI), which has been hosting research endeavours since it foundation in 1824. SEAC 2016 combined history with the latest in twenty-first century developments and, for the very first time, was webcast to SEAC members who could …

Architecture, Fire, And Storage: Cathlapotle And Meier Features, Kenneth M. Ames, Katie Henry, Stephanie Butler, William Gardner-O’Kearney, Emily E. Shepard, United States. Department Of The Interior, U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service, Region 1, Portland State University. Department Of Anthropology

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report is one in a series on the archaeology of the Wapato Valley region of the Lower Columbia River. Most of the reports discuss aspects of the excavations and archaeology of two sites, the Meier site (35CO5) and Cathlapotle site (45CL1). Other related topics are also treated.

Attached supplemental files: feature catalogs for Meier and Cathlapotle sites

See Also: Preliminary Report and Catalogs: Archaeological Investigations at 45CL1 Cathlapotle (1991-1996) , Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge Clark County, Washington (1999)

Much as lithic tools or faunal remains, features have the potential to be independent lines of evidence in archaeological hypothesis testing. …

State Dependency Of The Forest-Tundra-Short Wave Feedback : Comparing The Mid-Pliocene And Pre-Industrial Eras Using A Newly-Developed Vegetation Model, Pablo Paiewonsky

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The forest-tundra-short wave feedback is the dominant short wave (SW) vegetation feedback at mid-to-high northern latitudes and is an important feedback in Earth’s climate system, especially due to its potential role in modulating glacial cycles. Little research has been done on how the strength of this feedback might vary with the background climate state. It is hypothesized that the feedback has generally strengthened over the last four million years. The feedback mechanism is hypothesized to be weaker under warm Northern Hemispheric conditions when tundra is primarily confined to the high Arctic than under cooler conditions in which the forest-tundra boundary …

Child Abuse In The Archaeological Context, Nicole Marie Popielarz

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Children have been a widely ignored subject in archaeology so it follows that child abuse has not been studied in detail in the archaeological context. This paper combines both forensic anthropology studies and Bioarchaeological studies to see if child abuse is a modern phenomenon. Signs of both non-accidental trauma and neglect have been documented by authors in the archaeological record. The purpose of this paper will be to describe signs of both nonaccidental trauma and neglect. Then examples in archaeological studies will be reviewed. The future of the study of abuse in the archaeological context is also discussed at some …

Evolution Of Lemur Pelage Color Variation, Amanda Nicole Spriggs

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation investigates the selective pressures that may be driving variation in pelage color patterns in Eulemur, Varecia, and Propithecus. This is addressed by exploring the relationship between the lemur pelage colors and ecological variables, such as habitat type, predation pressures, visibility variables, and level of sympatry. The following model is presented here to describe the evolutionary mechanisms that are thought to be maintaining pelage coloration in lemurs: Pelage color and pattern are potentially used to (1) signal to conspecifics information such as mate quality, (2) signal to congenerics species identity, and (3) avoid signaling the individual’s presence to predators. …

Black Death Bodies, Sharon Dewitte, Maryanne Kowaleski

Faculty Publications

The fourteenth-century Black Death was one of the most important and devastating epidemics in human history. It caused or accelerated important demographic, economic, political, and social changes throughout the Old World and has therefore been the subject of scholarly research in a variety of fields, including history, anthropology, demography, and molecular biology. In this paper, we examine the Black Death (specifically, the first and second outbreaks of fourteenth-century plague, c. 1347–1351 and 1361–1362) from bioarchaeological and historical perspectives, focusing on attempts to reconstruct mortality patterns and addressing the questions: Who died in England during the Black Death? How did they …

Agent-Based Modelling Of The Relationships Among Kinship, Residence, And Exchange, James R. Allison

Faculty Publications

In the North American Southwest, archaeological research has documented ceramic exchange networks in which spatially proximate households in consumer communities have greatly varying amounts of imported pottery. This paper uses agent-based modelling to gain insight into the processes responsible for these distributions. The agent-based model used here tracks kinship ties among agents representing individuals who give birth, marry, co-reside with spouses, and exchange things in a virtual landscape filled with small settlements of up to a few hundred individuals. Exchange of goods in the model flows through the kinship networks. The results suggest that the differential distribution of goods among …

Novicehood: Exploring Skill Level And How It Relates To Mass Analysis, Justin V. Morales

Honors College Theses

Lithic artifacts are among the most common remnants evidencing our ancestors’ intelligence and survivability. They can reflect many aspects of a culture’s practices and use of natural materials. The analysis of such remains is a mainstay of archaeology, but not all lithic analysis is the same. Analysis varies by method (mass flake analysis, individual flake analysis, etc.), and by the level of experience of the analysts themselves, creating debate on the comparability and the accuracy of each approach. This research is a case study of my effectiveness, being a novice level archaeologist, at Mass Flake analysis, using a contemporary collection …

Loss And Renewal: My Sicilian Roots In New Orleans, Lyndsey Nuebel

4.Inheritances

Lyndsey Neubel reflects on her upbringing in Slidell, Louisiana and her Sicilian family’s roots in the New Orleans area. Using frameworks of critical whiteness, she examines how the suburban environment of Slidell shaped her sense of self and heritage. Neubel’s grandfather tells her about their family’s immigration story, his Sicilian-American identity, and family life in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans. Nuebel explores how racism, segregation, and white flight shaped urban space and the suburbanization of the North Shore. She then analyzes how these sociocultural dynamics affected her preconceptions about New Orleans when she began attending the New Orleans Center …

Upfront: A Way Of Life On Barataria Boulevard, Shelbey Leco

4.Inheritances

Leco examines the culture of the West Bank of New Orleans and her Sicilian, Filipino, and Cajun French heritage. Opening with a detailed ethnographic description of a typical scene in the West Bank Walmart parking lot, Leco frames her thoughts about her hometown of Marrero, Louisiana. In conversations with her parents, Leco learns about her family’s immigration stories, occupations, and foodways. Leco’s paternal great-grandfather was a first generation Filipino-American who lived and worked in Manila Village, a Filipino fishing community on an island in Barataria Bay. Leco then describes her religious upbringing, the Immaculate Conception Parish community, and the cultural …

Territoriality, Monumentality, And Religion In Formative Period Nepeña, Coastal Ancash, David Chicoine, Hugo Ikehara, Koichiro Shibata, Matthew Helmer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Sherds With Style: A Ceramic Analysis From A Protohistoric Site In Oktibbeha County, Mississippi., Allison Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A key part of understanding the lesser known contact period in the Southeastern United States is studying the effects of contact on Mississippian chiefdoms and their descendant population. The Starkville Archaeological Complex is an archaeological pattern of a distinct clustering of contact-era sites in the Blackland Prairie physiographic district of northeast Mississippi. Atkinson (1979) defined these sites as a dispersed settlement pattern with distinct ceramic assemblages associated with European metal. The ceramics are characterized as sandy historic Chickasaw pastes with Mississippian-like distinct curvilinear or angular surface decorations. This thesis is an analysis of the ceramic assemblage excavated in 2016 from …

“To Nurture Something That Nurtures You”: Care, Creativity, Class, And The Production Of Urban Environments In Deindustrial Michigan, Megan L. Maurer

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

In this dissertation I investigate how gardeners and beekeepers in a small, deindustrial city in Michigan used their activities to produce their environments. Drawing on fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, I consider what kind of labor gardening is. For residents of Elmwood, gardening was a way to care for households, communities, and ecosystems. Furthermore, this care was performed through a type of creative, material labor that served to address forms of alienation experienced by these individuals. While all sorts of Elmwoodites gardened, they did so in ways that were specific to their experiences of race and class. These experiences, in …

Project 400: The Plymouth Colony Archaeological Survey Report On The 2016 Field Season Cole’S Hill, Brewster Garden, And Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts, Christa M. Beranek, David B. Landon, John M. Steinberg, Brian N. Damiata

Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research Publications

In May and June of 2016, a field school from the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts Boston, in partnership with Plimoth Plantation and the Town of Plymouth, undertook a fourth season of work as part of Project 400: The Plymouth Colony Archaeological Survey. The approaching 400th anniversary (1620-2020) of the founding of Plymouth Colony, New England’s first permanent English settlement, provides a unique opportunity to revisit our scholarly understanding of the Colony’s history. Working with community partners and descendant organizations, including the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the General Society of Mayflower Descendants, and local museums, we …

Gender Division In Sport: Through The Eyes Of Female Student-Athletes At Cms, Kris Brackmann

CMC Senior Theses

In this ethnography (anthropology thesis) I explored the binary gender division in modern sports culture through the analysis of stereotypes shaped by the history of women's sport, iconography of female athletes portrayed by mainstream media, and the reinforcement of stigma and pressure to conform to social norms by the normalized everyday discourse of college men and women at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges. Even though Title IX brought significant gender equality to sport in terms of women's access to athletic participation and facilities, I argue that there is still much work to do to modify social attitudes toward women's sports. While CMS female …

Do Muslim Village Girl’S Need Saving?: Critical Reflections On Gender And The Suffering Child In International Aid, Rania Kassab Sweis

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In her chapter, "Do Muslim Village Girl’s Need Saving?: Critical Reflections on Gender and the Suffering Child in International Aid," Dr. Rania Sweis poses the following questions: What does it mean when powerful actors in western based international NGOs recognize the Muslim village girl as the ultimate savable victim'? What gendered and racialized logics arc at play in this category's strategic deployment, and what arc their tangible effects for both NGOs and village girls who receive aid'? She argues that large-scale international aid projects that aim to speak for, uplift and save Muslim village girls in Egypt and other countries …

Kinship And The Self-Organization Of Exchange In Small-Scale Societies, James R. Allison

Faculty Publications

Circulation of material goods is common in small-scale societies. Even where exchange is not coordinated above the level of the household, goods produced in one area are consistently conveyed to distant settlements. Numerous ethnographic studies demonstrate that exchange transactions are common among kin, and that the circulation of goods in small-scale societies is structured by kinship ties. From an individual’s point of view, the number of kinfolk available to exchange with and where they live strongly affect access to nonlocal goods. This paper explores the interrelationships among kin networks, settlement organization, and exchange using agent-based modeling, ethnographic studies, and archaeological …

Neonatal Shoulder Width Suggests A Semirotational, Oblique Birth Mechanism In Australopithecus Afarensis, Jeremy M. Desilva, Natalie M. Laudicina, Karen R. Rosenberg, Wenda R. Trevathan

Peer Reviewed Articles

Birth mechanics in early hominins are often reconstructed based on cephalopelvic proportions, with little attention paid to neonatal shoulders. Here, we find that neonatal biacromial breadth can be estimated from adult clavicular length (R² = 0.80) in primates. Using this relationship and clavicular length from adult Australopithecus afarensis, we estimate biacromial breadth in neonatal australopiths. Combined with neonatal head dimensions, we reconstruct birth in A. afarensis (A.L. 288-1 or Lucy) and find that the most likely mechanism of birth in this early hominin was a semi-rotational oblique birth in which the head engaged and passed through the inlet …

Radio Home: Giving A Voice To The Homeless In Spokane, Washington, Aaron R. Bocook

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Exclusion From Rights Through Extra-Territoriality At Home: The Case Of Paris Roissy-Charles De Gaulle Airport's Waiting Zone, Pauline Gj Maillet

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In this dissertation I argue that, since the 1980s, French airports have been designed to exclude people from legal, human and refugee rights. The particular space where this happens has been successively called “international zone”, “transit zone” and “waiting zone” and its scope has been significantly extended overtime. I contend that French authorities have used the concept of extra-territoriality in concert with the material design of the airport to sustain exclusion. While this research focuses on France, findings bear relevance to the global governance of migrants and refugees. The French case epitomizes how states creatively use the law (or absence …

Environmental Degradation And The Progression Of Inequality Between Urban And Rural China: A Literature Review, Summer Smith

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Research has found that the inequality gap throughout China has been perpetuated by environmental degradation that has maintained and contributed to the various factors influencing inequality between urban and rural residents. In order to promote economic growth, institutions meant to regulate corporate enterprises have had less authority. This research focuses on the consequences and contributing factors of environmental degradation as well as its impact on the inequality gap between rural and urban the rise in infertility, the population burden, access to healthcare, access to education, the gender gap, political participation, occupational perceptions, and the international response. Secondary sources suggest that …

The Effect Of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (Pcos) On The Human Skeleton, Sarah Bruckler

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The purpose of this pilot study is to determine the systemic effects of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) on bone mineral density (BMD). Excessive male sex honnones, excessive insulin levels, and weight gain characterize PCOS, and are correlated to increased BMD. PCOS is also associated with symptoms and comorbid conditions, like chronic vitamin D deficiency, menstrual dysfunction, and hypothyroidism, which are all correlated with decreased BMD. Existing research on this topic reports conflicting results; some studies show a significant correlation between PCOS and increased BMD, while others suggest that no significant correlation exists. These previous studies focused on load-bearing areas of …

Walking In The City: Koji Nakano’S Reimagining And Re-Sounding Of The Tale Of Genji, Isabella Ramos

Scripps Senior Theses

Imagined Sceneries is a work written by composer Dr. Koji Nakano of Burapha University, Thailand for two sopranos, koto, light percussion, narrations, soundscapes recorded in Kyoto, Japan in December 2015, and digital projections of Ebina Masao’s 1953 print series Tale of Genji. Imagined Sceneries’ reimagining and “re-sounding” of Heian Kyoto relies on a balance between what is imagined and what is experienced in performance. Its many elements collectively explore multiple layers of Japanese histories, soundscapes, environments, and sensibilities. Using Michel de Certeau’s concepts of the city, this thesis journeys through Nakano’s imagined spaces.

Adapting Skazki: How American Authors Reinvent Russian Fairy Tales, Sarah Krasner

Scripps Senior Theses

Adaptations of works have the potential to bring their subject matter to a new audience. This thesis explores the adaptation of Russian fairy tales into novels by authors Orson Scott Card and Joy Preble by looking at how they present Russian fairy tales, folkloric figures, and fairy tale structure to an American audience.

Menageries Multiple: An Introduction To Zoological Multiplicity In The Modern American Zoo, Emily D. Gratke

Scripps Senior Theses

American zoological parks have been sites of intense consumer and scholar interest since their origination in the 20th century. Today, zoos reside at a tenacious hub of ideologies, practices, and priorities contributed to by various stakeholder groups. I propose that the foundational cause of this tension is zoological multiplicity: the theory that through human practices and perceptions, animals can embody multiple identities. Via an exploration of zoological multiplicity in American zoos with specific focus on zoo management, zoogoer, and animal activist stakeholder groups, this project proposes the widespread acknowledgment and understanding of zoological multiplicity as a method to improve animal …