Anthropology Commons^™

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

The Unsovereign Citizen: The Reconfiguration Of Rights And Belonging In Fascist Italy, Roberta Pergher

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Modern political thought tends to associate citizenship with democracy, equality, and political participation. This article demonstrates that citizenship can be profoundly important also for authoritarian rule. In Fascist Italy, citizenship remained central to political life, not as a vehicle of democratic participation, to be sure, but as a category through which the regime redefined belonging, hierarchy, and sovereignty. Drawing on citizenship legislation, imperial ordinances, racial laws, police reports, and ministerial commentary between 1912 and 1943, this article shows how the dictatorship hollowed out liberal citizenship within the peninsula, stratified it across imperial territories, consolidated it across diasporic populations, and ultimately …

Res Historica, Volume 5, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta, Lindsay Rae Smith Privette Phd

Res Historica

The 2026 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, Julia Ackerman, Callyn Wright, Logan Davis, and John Hinton. Cover art by Mary Beth Lee.

A Medical Home: How Pediatrics Challenges Systemic Barriers Through Relationships And Time., Doris Serrano , ‘26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

The Willow Who Kept The Secrets Of The Heart, Ana Suarez

Speak for the Trees!

This digital museum exhibit features the climate change fairy tale The Willow Who Kept the Secrets of the Heart, presented as a written narrative and recorded reading that explores the symbolic relationship between the Weeping Willow, water, and ecological care in the face of climate change. It also includes an infographic highlighting the Weeping Willow’s habitat, characteristics, and environmental challenges in Texas, along with a curator’s talk and curator’s board. The exhibit features an artifact entry using a half-filled vial of water to represent climate instability and the often-overlooked resources that sustain life, as well as a persuasive essay, …

Postcolonial Identity Formation Of Somali Borderland Identity, Sunny Ngethe

Posters - 2026

Colonial borders in Africa divided long-standing communities, disrupting shared systems of culture, mobility, and identity. Somali populations, spread across Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia, present a unique case of transnational identity persistence. Somalis have maintained strong cultural unity despite state-imposed divisions. This study examines how this communities navigate identity across borders shaped by colonialism and post-independence governance. Using qualitative analysis of historical and political content, this study draws on postcolonial theory and border studies to analyze how identity is constructed and maintained across imposed borders.

Disparities Between Chronological And Biological Age: A Biocultural Analysis Of Aging In Contemporary Populations, Nicollette S. Appel

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation investigates how structural and cultural factors collectively influence the aging process and how these effects manifest in both hard and soft tissues. Chapter 2 used an AI-based CT body composition tool and a CT-based biological age model to examine the relationship between age discrepancy and demographic variables such as sex, race/ethnicity, and manner of death. Results demonstrate significant differences in age discrepancy, with females, Native Americans, and individuals who died of natural causes exhibiting greater discrepancies. Chapters 3 and 4 further evaluate whether anthropological approaches to skeletal aging can be improved by adopting a biocultural perspective. These chapters …

Summoning Models Of “Decolonization”: Performances Of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai’S Historical Poetry In Contemporary Pakistan, Muhammad Z. Abro

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation examines how Shia communities in Sindh, Pakistan, mobilize the poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai as counter-history within a postcolonial order that folds sectarian difference into homogenized national culture. In dominant state and literary discourse, Latif is cast as a universal Sufi poet whose spirituality transcends doctrinal division and secures Sindhi and Pakistani belonging. The performances studied here place pressure on that settlement by treating the Risalo as a medium through which Karbala remains historically present. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork at the shrine of Shah Abdul Latif in Bhitshah and related sites in Sindh, the …

The Lithic Assemblage From The 700,000-Year-Old Butchery Site Of Kalinga (Luzon Island, Philippines): New Insights Into Technological Variability In The Early Paleolithic In Island Southeast Asia, Justin Guibert, Jean-Baptiste Lambard, Gerald John Palaya, Jackie Despriée, Alfred Pawlik, Xavier Gallet, John De Vos, Andrea Dominique Cosalan, Paul C.H. Albers, M. Gema Chacón, Thomas Ingicco, Marian C. Reyes

Sociology & Anthropology Department Faculty Publications

Abstract

Despite a long history of archaeological and paleoanthropological research, our understanding of the Early Paleolithic in Island Southeast Asia remains limited as only a few sites with clear stratigraphic contexts—Mata Menge (Flores Island), Ngebung 2 (Java Island), Calio and Talepu (Sulawesi Island)—have been documented. This scarcity of well-stratified assemblages has led to a poor characterization of technological variability and cultural sequences, which mainly rely on surface collections and early typological classifications/facies (e.g., Pacitanian, Cabengian, Cabalwanian, Liwanian, Arubian, etc.). These classifications, mostly based on a handful of cobble artifacts, have long obscured the technological diversity of early hominin settlements in …

Exploring Communication Obstacles Of Indigenous Language Speakers (Research Proposal), Robert Vargas

Posters - 2026

Indigenous languages have been disappearing at an alarming rate. It is estimated that every two weeks an indigenous language dies (Toth, 2022), and the cause of this rapid decline in indigenous language use is too often ignored or unrecognized by non-indigenous language speakers. This study is focused on pinpointing the factors that play into the decline of indigenous languages and how these factors correlate to the experiences indigenous languages speakers face. Through Literature review the findings will highlight the importance of preserving indigenous languages and the benefit indigenous languages can have within cultures and societies.

Transforming Wood, Transforming Bodies: Craft Work, Addiction Recovery, And Regional History At An Appalachian Guitar Factory, Eva Murillo , ‘26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Dairy Cows And Doughnut Holes: The Class Politics Of Municipal Boundaries And Logistics Land Use In Inland Southern California, Anthony Rumbos-Perez , ‘26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

Mock Interview & Peer Feedback (Assignment), Mccaffrey Brenna Ph.D.

School of Arts & Sciences

This assignment was developed by SUNY Geneseo Brenna McCaffrey during the spring 2026 semester.

Learning Objectives 

• Identify the skills and preparation required for strong job interviews
• Understand the importance of thoughtful and clear communication with peers
• Practice giving constructive feedback on another person’s performance
• Reflect on receiving constructive feedback and integrating feedback into future behavior

Anth 322 Borderlands Action Project, Jennifer R. Guzmán Ph.D.

School of Arts & Sciences

This assignment was developed by SUNY Geneseo Professor Jennifer Guzmán during the spring 2026 semester.

Learning Objectives

• Making a material contribution to liberatory struggles around a borderlands social or environmental issue
• Developing skills that prepare you in career readiness, including
• Skills in critical thinking to address real world issues
• Skills for contributing to greater equity and inclusion
• Skills for teamwork, including valuing what each person brings to the project, building mutually supportive relationships, communicating effectively to make decisions, distributing work equitably, following through on commitments.

Anth 322: Anthropology Of Borderlands (Syllabus), Jennifer R. Guzmán Ph.D.

School of Arts & Sciences

This syllabus was developed by SUNY Geneseo Professor Jennifer Guzmán during the spring 2026 semester.

Course Learning Objectives

By participating in this course, you will:

• Gain familiarity with anthropological literature concerning borders, migration, immigration enforcement, and the U.S.-Mexico border
• Explore historical and current immigration policies and their impacts on communities across the borderlands and throughout the Americas
• Learn from people directly affected by migration, including migrants and others who live in the borderlands, and with advocates for migrant justice
• Build connections with people and organizations that are working on humanitarian and migrant justice issues.
• Think critically and intersectionally about solutions …

Beyond The Mansion: Black Women In Tenant Farming And The Material Culture At Rose Hill Plantation, Caroline Elizabeth Hall

Theses and Dissertations

This research is focused on archaeological materials recovered from three late-nineteenth to mid-twentieth-century tenant house sites at Rose Hill Plantation State Historic Site. Excavations took place during the Spring of 2023 by the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology (SCIAA), under the direction of Stacey Young with the South Carolina State Parks, Recreation, and Tourism (SCPRT). Through an analysis of these artifacts, primary historic documentation, and previously recorded oral histories from descendants of Rose Hill Plantation I will discuss how the material culture and landscape associated with these tenant houses can be viewed through a lens of intersectionality to …

From Boca Chica To Mars: Spacex, Desubjectification And The Making Of Expendable Futures, Iwalewa Oluwajuwonlo Olorunyomi

Theses and Dissertations

This project examines how SpaceX’s development of Starbase Boca Chica Beach in Brownsville, Texas, produces what I call desubjectified futures: the systematic transformation of residents from subjects who imagine and create futures into objects upon which futures are imposed. Drawing on five weeks of ethnographic fieldwork, including interviews with residents, environmental justice organizers, and members of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe, I argue that SpaceX achieves hegemony not simply by manufacturing consent but through an ontological operation that strips communities of the capacity for collective self-determination before consent becomes meaningful.

I trace this process through three interrelated modes. First, discursively, how SpaceX …

Lithics, Lasers & Legacies: New Methods On The Curated Materials From Nipper Creek (38rd18), Joseph Alan Lindler Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The Nipper Creek site (38RD18) is an Archaic Fall-Line site in South Carolina that was excavated in 1985 to determine the Indigenous occupational history of the site following its discovery. Using Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) technology on select debitage from 1985, and on samples from known tool-stone quarries in the Southeastern United States, this study explores the differences of these samples and the attempt to determine a source location of the lithic materials excavated from the Early Archaic contexts to better understand the settlement of Nipper Creek (38RD18) as it relates to known lithic quarries.

This study compares …

The Purpose Death Serves: Trauma Analysis Of Human Sacrifices At El Pollo, Moche Valley, Peru, Rachel Witt, Gabriel Prieto, Alan Chachapoyas, John Verano, Luis Flores De La Oliva, Feren Castillo

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Research

Human sacrifice is one of the most dramatic and enduring rituals known to ancient societies. Death of the victim represents the climax of the event because lethal violence produces vivid images that articulate power relations between the organizers, audience, and those sacrificed. This study reconstructs burial treatments, biological profiles, and trauma patterns on 49 human sacrifices excavated from the site El Pollo located 13 km from Chan Chan, the capital city of the Chimú Empire (AD 1050/1100–1450), in the Moche Valley, Peru. Children and adolescents (n = 31/37) exhibit cutmarks to the anterior chest, which mirror the victim profiles and …

Buried Identities: Analyzing Maya Gender Roles Through Burials At Chan Chich, Belize, Nicole Watson

Student Publications

The site of Chan Chich, Belize, has undergone excavations since 1996, but there has been little attention given to the question of gender. Burial analyses serve as the most fruitful way to comprehend gender inequalities and differences at Chan Chich, and this paper examines every burial excavated at the site since its first field season. The findings show evidence for elite women engaging in craft production and ritual activities, while also receiving immense care and effort in their burial constructions. Although there is limited data to work with, it is clear that some women held essential responsibilities and gained respect …

Computational Analysis Of Immigration Discourse And Political Polarization: Evidence From U.S. Political Podcasts During The 2024 Presidential Election, Reishiro Kawakami , ‘26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This study examines how immigration is discussed across the U.S. political podcast ecosystem during the 2024 presidential election cycle, with a focus on differences across the political spectrum. While prior research on immigration attitudes has relied heavily on survey data, this study shifts attention to naturally occurring political communication by analyzing large-scale podcast transcripts. Drawing on a novel dataset of over 48,500 episodes (approximately 40,000 hours of audio) from the top 100 political podcasts ranked on Election Day, this paper combines keyword search, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis to investigate both the thematic structure and emotional tone of immigration discourse. …

Disputing Geographies Of Sanctuaries: Legal Manifestations And Re-Imagined Practices In Adverse State Conditions For Migrants In Philadelphia County And Miami Dade County, Clara Ximena Villalba , ‘26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

No abstract provided.

2nd Place Contest Entry: "Shaping The Ape: Storytelling, Cultural Reflection, And Boundary Negotiation In Human-Ape Zoo Encounters", Abigail Bond Halling

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Abigail Bond Halling's submission for the 2026 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won second place. It contains their essay on using library resources, and a summary of their research project on human-primate interactions and projections at the Western zoo site, and their bibliography.

Abigail is a fourth-year student at Chapman University, majoring in Sociology and Anthropology. Their faculty mentors are Dr. Steven Pfaff and Dr. Kyle Harp-Rushing.

Ramachandra Guha, ‘Speaking With Nature: The Origins Of Indian Environmentalism’, Neeraj Vedwan

Department of Anthropology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Ramachandra Guha, Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2024), 407 pp., $ 17.32, ISBN: 9780300278538.

Editor’S Introduction, Michael D. Pante

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

March 30, 2026 Nagpra And Tribal Relations Committee Meeting Minutes, Bryan Morey

University NAGPRA and Tribal Relations Committee

March 30, 2026 minutes for the WKU NAGPRA and Tribal Relations Committee meeting. Meeting conducted via Zoom.

The Evolution Of Self-Awareness In Conscious Organisms, Robert A. Dielenberg

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Self-awareness in conscious organisms remains an enduring puzzle for philosophers and neuroscientists. This paper proposes a tripartite evolutionary model tracing its emergence through three sequential types: the sensory self (primitive egocentric, valence-tagged awareness of sensory states), the bodily self (external objectification of the body as a distinct entity, evidenced by mirror self-recognition in select species), and the cognitive self (internal objectification of the mind enabling recursive self-transformation). Adopting a monist framework, the model treats consciousness as the biological substrate of delayed neural apperception (the “Delayed Present”), within which selves emerge as increasingly sophisticated models. It distinguishes non-human metacognition—implicit, online regulation—from …

Qualitative Versus Quantitative Analysis Of Entheses: Using An Ordinal Scale And 3d Scanned Metrics To Understand Entheseal Differences In The Charity Hospital Cemetery (16or108), Gillian Stewart

LSU Master's Theses

Using a sample from New Orleans’ Charity Hospital Cemetery (16OR108), an analysis between ordinal scores and digital quantitative analysis (DQA) measurements of the entheses (muscle attachment sites) was performed. The skeletal elements (n = 235) examined were the humerus, radius, femur, and tibia. The entheses were 3D scanned using an Artec Space Spider scanner and processed with the Artec Studio Professional© v.2018 and Geomagic Wrap® v.2021 software. Entheses were analyzed by: left and right sides, male and female, and distribution of scores across elements. The analyses yielded significant differences between proliferative and erosive score distribution. Scores between elements exhibited variation. …

Semiotics Of Difference: Language, The Body, And Haitian Personhood In The Dominican Republic, Benjamin Puterbaugh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present dissertation is an ethnographic and multimodal semiotic analysis of the role of signs in the daily life of Haitians in the Dominican Republic (DR). I investigate how language and other embodiments of Haitian alterity are perceived and ascribed value by hegemonic social orders. I center the analysis on the popular perceptions of the Haitian person-type or characterological figure (Agha, 2003) as (over)determiners of actual Haitian subjectivity. I investigate the ways that Haitian personhood is translated, that is, perceived and assigned value, in the Dominican context, and the implications this has on realities of Haitian immigrants. In addition to …

Critical Roles And Critical Rolls: A Frame-Analytical Perspective Of Self-Making, Safe Spaces, And Worldbuilding In Tabletop Role-Playing Games, Cal Quayle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many gamers prefer to play tabletop roleplaying games, or TTRPGs, in order to a) join a community, and b) tell a story collaboratively with friends and acquaintances. This thesis discusses selfhood-making, safe spaces, and allegory in imaginary worlds from the perspective of Erving Goff man’s frame analysis. It relies on a theoretical framework of imagined communities, the magic circle, and subcreation. This research culminated in the understanding that people play TTRPGs for a variety of reasons - collaborative storytelling and exercising critical thinking skills, but respondents overwhelmingly reported that they enjoyed the ability to socialize with friends and strangers, and …