Anthropology Commons^™

Evaluations Of Health In Sympatric Free-Ranging Saguinus Imperator And Leontocebus Weddelli Using Neopterin, Urinalysis, And Blood Chemistry Analyses, Alexandra J. Sacco

All Master's Theses

This thesis is composed of one journal-ready article and one chapter that includes a preliminary interpretation of data for later publication. In summary, this thesis proposes the use of three different methods of evaluating the health status of New World Monkeys: urinary neopterin measurement, blood chemistry analyses, and urinalysis. Chapter II addresses the question of whether or not the neopterin molecule, a biomarker for cell-mediated immune system activation, is conserved across primate taxa. To do so, we collected urine samples across three New World Monkey (NWM) families including captive Leontopithecus rosalia and Pithecia pithecia, and wild populations of Leontocebus …

Ethnoprimatology Of Urban Cebus Yuracus: An Evaluation Of Human-Non-Human Interactions And Local Perceptions In Misahualli, Ecuador, Sofia Castro-Loza

All Master's Theses

Little is known about the group of white-fronted capuchins (Cebus yuracus) coexisting alongside humans in the town of Misahuallí, Tena, Ecuador. This ethnoprimatological study focuses on the human-nonhuman interactions and the perceptions of the local people about the capuchin group. Behavioral interactions were examined using all-occurrence sampling, and the local perceptions of the Misahuallí people were assessed using semi-structured interviews. In total, 2,103 human-capuchin behavioral interactions were recorded. The majority of interactions were positive (55.6%), and 69.6% revolved around food. Overall, the capuchins initiated more negative interactions and in contrast, humans initiated more positive interactions. When interviewed about …

Gorilla-Visitor Interface At A Zoo Exhibit: Positioning Effects Of Western Lowland Gorillas (Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla) And Zoo Visitors, Alan Bergman

All Master's Theses

Zoos have missions to provide high-quality care for their animals and an enjoyable and educational experience for visitors. Looking at the animal-visitor interface can allow zoos to evaluate their success in these efforts and to build upon what they have already accomplished. The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between visitors and gorillas in a zoo environment. The effect of gorilla proximity to visitor viewing areas on visitor attentiveness was examined in indoor and outdoor gorilla exhibits. Visitor experience surveys were collected from visitors exiting the outdoor exhibit. Stepwise multiple regressions revealed group and individual gorilla proximity effects …

A Cognitive Task As Enrichment For Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) In Sanctuary, Federico Rubio

All Master's Theses

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) hold an especially powerful attraction for researchers interested in cognition and how it developed to the degree observed in humans specifically and primates more generally. Chimpanzees are behaviorally complex primates with compelling data supporting their possession of intricate internal lives. The objective of this study was to simultaneously learn more of the cognitive process of inductive reasoning while also assessing the efficacy of a computerized box as a novel form of enrichment to aid in improving the environment of captive chimpanzees. Three social groups at the retired medical research chimpanzee sanctuary Project Chimps were given …

Water And Life. A Cross-Sectional Study On Determinants Of Beverage Consumption And Water Access In One Tribal Community, Christina White

All Master's Theses

Increasingly, poor diet has been shown to be one of the most crucial factors associated with cause of death, even more critical than smoking. Research in the past two decades has consistently linked increased consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) to the obesity epidemic contributing to a public health crisis all over the United States. Native Americans, among other minority groups, suffer obesity disproportionately from the rest of the US population, yet they continually fail to be included in research on the subject. Traditional research methods, sparse care coverage on reservations, consolidation of unique tribes into one classification, and failure to …

Rock Imagery: A Cultural Landscape Analysis In The Yakima Uplands, Jessica Eliana Delgado-Morris

All Master's Theses

This thesis evaluates the history of rock imagery documentation and the ways it can be improved moving forward. This study also explores the potentials of using viewshed analysis to examine the cultural landscape. The documentation and locational analysis support recommendations for future study and protection of rock image sites. There are currently twelve known rock imagery sites at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord - Yakima Training Center (YTC). Most of these sites have not been assessed for changes in integrity or damages in over twenty years. Prior documentation efforts have produced site forms with varying degrees of accuracy and completeness. During …

Holocene Periods Of Aggradation And Incision, Hanson Creek, Washington, Levi Earl Windingstad

All Master's Theses

The causes and timing of cycles of aggradation and incision in the Hanson Creek drainage in central Washington provide insight into changes in channel morphology and paleoenvironment within the region over the last 8000 years. Stratigraphically and spatially coincident archaeological evidence reveals information related to human occupation during the latter half of the epoch. Using LiDAR imagery and field surveys, recent processes such as degree of modern channel incision, accumulation of valley floor sediment, channel morphology and gradient were evaluated. The spatial distribution of these channel characteristics was assessed in relation to proximal landforms such as colluvial deposits, basalt outcrops, …

"Fenced-In Place": White Settler Colonialism As Opposition To Increased Tribal Management Of The National Bison Range, Brittany Lee Palmer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Since the Tribal Self Governance Act was passed in 1994, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT) in western Montana have sought increased management responsibilities at the National Bison Range, which is fully encompassed by the Flathead Indian Reservation. Though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has managed the Bison Range since it was established in 1908, the Tribes assert that they were the original stewards of bison in the area, and have requested both the reinstatement of the National Bison Range to Tribal trust ownership and increased management responsibilities through negotiated Annual Funding Agreements with the Department of Interior. …

3d Printing Of The Proximal Right Femur: It’S Implications In The Field Of Forensic Anthropology And Bioarchaeology, Myriah Adonia Jo Allen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

3D scanning and Printing have become useful in many scientific fields over the last few years, and Physical Anthropology/ Archaeology is not an exception. With skeletal collections decreasing all over the globe and the question of preservation on the rise, it has become necessary to look towards different methods in which one can obtain important information. 3D scanning has become useful over the last few decades and therefore it is important to establish where this new technology can be of use. This paper will bring 3D scanning and printing into question and determine whether this technology should be used in …

Exhibiting Class: Art Exhibition And The New Chinese Middle Class, Ziwei Chen

Honors Theses

Kanzhan, translated at “going to exhibitions,” has emerged as one of the most popular leisure activities in urban China. Contemporary art exhibitions cover a wide range of subjects, including world-renown artists, jewelry and fashion brands, and pop-up museums. More and more visitors are taking art exhibitions experience as a way to exhibit their personal taste, which reflect the rise of middle-class values such as individuality and self-development in China. This paper is an anthropological exploration of the relationship between visitors and art exhibits and what those art exhibitions tell about the new middle class in China.

My research is based …

Els Catalans Són Diferents: Catalan Independence Through A Cultural Lens, Maren Burling

Honors Theses

With a focus on Catalan independence, this thesis looks at how Catalans create and perform their regional identity, and how cultural symbols of Catalan society – food, sports, language, and others – are uniquely situated within the wider Spanish society. Both linguistic anthropology and symbolic/interpretive anthropology inform my writing and support my argument for the importance of language and other cultural symbols to Catalan identity, which are key to understanding Catalan separatism. My research contributes to current conversations in anthropology about the role of cultural identity in creating community. I argue that, in the Catalan case, cultural identity both shapes …

Archival Of The Fittest: The Role Of Archives In Constructing Gay Dutch Historical Memory, Brooks Hosfeld

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Truth, particularly in history, is subjective and constructed through memory. Memory, in turn, is created by archivists, as they actively choose and preserve the narratives made available to researchers and the public; they hold a key position in deciding what is widely understood about what happened in the past. In the same way archivist bias leads to historical erasure, archivists establish historical remembering when they actively make space for individuals and groups who are traditionally omitted from past narratives. Community archives stand distinct from state counterparts, as they restructure what is deemed valuable enough to be preserved within historical memory, …

The Electromagnetic Brain A Review Of Em Theories On The Nature Of Consciousness By Shelli Joye, Pryzdia, Michael, Radin, Dean

Journal of Conscious Evolution

No abstract provided.

Gender, Politics, Market Segmentation, And Taste: Adult Contemporary Radio At The End Of The Twentieth Century, Saesha Senger

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This dissertation explores issues of gender politics, market segmentation, and taste through an examination of the contributions of several artists who have achieved Adult Contemporary (AC) chart success. The scope of the project is limited to a period when many artists who figured prominently in both the broader mainstream of American popular music and the more specific Adult Contemporary category were most commercially viable: from the mid-1980s through the 1990s. My contention is that, as gender politics and gendered social norms continued to change in the United States at this time, Adult Contemporary – the chart, the format, and the …

Leadership: A New Title, Ethan William Chandler Goffigon

Whittier Scholars Program

Through a method of digital storytelling and a modern day literature review, this project attempts to look at the notion of leadership and the effective versus non-effective personality and behavior traits associated with it. Through this evaluation of leadership, I will be utilizing my own experiences and reflecting on them to add an additional voice to each point addressed. Starting from when I was a child falling in love with superheroes to a young man who continues to learn from his every day life and his time in the past.

Nidus Idearum. Scilogs, Vii: Superluminal Physics - Second Edition, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

My lab[oratory] is a virtual facility with non-controlled conditions in which I mostly perform scientific meditation and chats: a nest of ideas (nidus idearum, in Latin). I called the jottings herein scilogs (truncations of the words scientific, and gr. Λόγος – appealing rather to its original meanings "ground", "opinion", "expectation"), combining the welly of both science and informal (via internet) talks (in English, French, and Romanian). * In this seventh book of scilogs collected from my nest of ideas, one may find new and old questions and solutions, referring to different scientific topics – email messages to research colleagues, or …

Educator Perspectives On Suggested Changes To The Jordanian Education System As A Result Of The Syrian Refugee Crisis, Sara Sydney Caplan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The research investigates the question: How do teachers believe the Jordanian education system should change in order to best meet the needs of all students given the recent influx of Syrian refugees? The researcher interviewed seven teachers in Amman and Madaba, Jordan to gather qualitative data on their perspectives on the current Jordanian education system. Educators interviewed represented a vary of different school populations, grade levels, environments, resources and subject areas. Teachers interviewed and material culture demonstrated that the current education system is in need of multifaceted reform. The primary issue raised by many interviewees is enhanced discrimination and inequitable …

Family Caregivers' Perspectives On Establishing Hospice Care In Belize, Rachael Florita Battle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

End-of-life (EOL) care decisions present a challenge for family caregivers. Despite the increasing number of terminally ill patients in need of pain management and comfort care, there is limited qualitative data about how populations in the developing world can access culturally appropriate resources and EOL support. In this phenomenological study, 17 Garifuna family caregivers in southern Belize were interviewed about their experience caring for terminally family members. The conceptual frameworks were Kübler-Ross’s hospice approach and Watson’s theory of human caring. The two theories were selected based on their significance to this process: Kübler Ross’s hospice approach and its impact on …

Psychological Well-Being And Acculturation Of Mexican Alumni Of U.S. Colleges And Universities, Cynthia L. Ruelas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Hispanic population is the largest and fastest growing population in the United States, which necessitates research on the acculturation process, especially because of the current events regarding the Texas–Mexico border. Although research has indicated the need to develop coping skills to support positive mental health during acculturation, there is a lack of empirical information regarding acculturation and mental health among Mexican alumni of U.S. colleges and universities. Based on social identity theory and acculturation theory, this quantitative, correlational study was conducted to examine the relationship between acculturation and psychological well-being (PWB) among Mexican alumni of colleges and universities in …

Can Religiosity Be Explained By ‘Brain Wiring’? An Analysis Of Us Adults’ Opinions, Sharan Kaur Mehta, Christopher P. Scheitle, Elaine Howard Ecklund

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Studies examining how religion shapes individuals’ attitudes about science have focused heavily on a narrow range of topics, such as evolution. This study expands this literature by looking at how religion influences individuals’ attitudes towards the claim that neuroscience, or “brain wiring,” can explain differences in religiosity. Our analysis of nationally representative survey data shows, perhaps unsurprisingly, that religiosity is negatively associated with thinking that brain wiring can explain religion. Net of religiosity, though, individuals reporting religious experiences are actually more likely to agree that brain wiring can explain religiosity, as are individuals belonging to diverse religious traditions when compared …

Late Assyrian Plain Simple Ware: A Ceramic Analysis, Tasha Hunter

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The focus of this project will be to firmly establish, characterize, and define the range of traits that describe the most common fabric type of the pottery found at Ziyaret Tepe, which was called by the excavators and ceramic experts Plain Simple Ware (code designation LA01). To characterize and describe the range of traits of Plain Simple Ware from Ziyaret Tepe, ceramic analysis, specifically, a method called ceramic petrography was employed in this study of thirty samples of pottery. The results include confirmation that the clay used to produce the pottery had mineral deposits consistent with the geomorphology of the …

Households And Changing Use Of Space At The Transitional Early Mississippian Austin Site, Benjamin Garrett Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Austin Site (22TU549) is a village site located in Tunica County, Mississippi dating to approximately A.D. 1150-1350, along the transition from the Terminal Late Woodland to the Mississippian period. While Elizabeth Hunt’s (2017) masters thesis concluded that the ceramics at Austin emphasized a Late Woodland persistence, the architecture and use of space at the site had yet to be analyzed. This study examines this architecture and use of space over time at Austin to determine if they display evidence of increasing institutionalized inequality. This included creating a map of Austin based on John Connaway’s original excavation notes, and then …

Crafting Stone Discoidals On The Frontier: Production And Identity In Southwest Virginia, Hamilton Hastie Bryant

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Stone discoidals are widely recognized as a class of artifacts associated with Mississippian cultural traditions and even some of its various descendant communities. Excavations at the Carter Robinson site a Fourteenth Century Mississippian frontier site in Lee County Virginia have revealed evidence of the production of stone discoidals. Although craft production in Mississippian societies has been the subject of much debate little to no attention has been given to the production of stone discoidals. The purpose of this thesis is to explicate the method of stone discoidal production at Carter Robinson and to explore how this production was organized overtime …

Archaeological Investigations At A Mississippian Platform Mound Site In Lowndes County, Mississippi, Hannah Danielle Zechman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Upper Tombigbee River Valley and the Black Prairie two adjacent physiographic regions located in northeast Mississippi are defined archaeologically by the existence of multiple single-mound sites with associated farmsteads or small habitation sites. This thesis is an analysis of mound-construction data and the ceramic assemblage excavated in 2017 from the Butler Mound Site (22LO500) a single-mound site located in Lowndes County Mississippi. The purpose of this thesis is to determine when construction of the Butler Mound occurred using mound-construction data ceramic analysis and radiocarbon dating. This thesis also seeks to understand how Butler and neighboring sites relate to one …

Folk Dance: An Occupation For Building Community, Wendy Price

Online Theses and Dissertations

This pilot ethnographic study describes the behaviors and values among the members of a central Appalachian folk-dancing community. The participants were four women, three adults and one teenager, each of whom were long-standing members of the community. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and participant observation, as the principal researcher had been a member of this community for 12 years at the time of the study. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, coded, and subjected to cross-case analysis. Codes informed categories, from which emerged two overarching themes regarding values held by this community: hospitality and human connection. Hospitality encompassed practices related to …

A Pilot Study Comparing The Penetration Properties Of Bilobed And Trilobed Bronze Arrowhead Points Modeled From Neo-Assyrian Finds From Ziyaret Tepe, Turkey, Damon Mullen

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The aim of this project is to help understand how and why cultures implement technology. This paper specifically focuses on testing and analyzing how morphological variation in arrowhead shape affects performance attributes. As a model of variation, we have chosen to concentrate on two different types of bronze arrowhead based on Neo-Assyrian finds, bilobed and trilobed, to see if they, by virtue of morphology only, have differing penetration capabilities.

Racial Segregation In Indianapolis, 1990–2010: A Spatial Perspective, Vijay Lulla, Owen Dwyer

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The index of dissimilarity is the most widely used method for measuring racial segregation. When applied to Indianapolis, this index has returned results showing the city to be among the most segregated in the country. The resulting measure, however, suffers from two shortcomings. First, the index of dissimilarity is sensitive to the census-defined geographic unit chosen for the analysis; thus, this index returns different (though proportionate) results depending on whether the population data are aggregated to larger or smaller enumeration units. Second, the index of dissimilarity cannot account for the influence of spatial proximity; adjacent census blocks interact regardless of …

Effects Of Cisnormative Beauty Standards On Transgender Women’S Perceptions And Expressions Of Beauty, Delmira Monteiro, Mixalis Poulakis

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The authors conducted a qualitative study exploring the effects of cisnormative beauty standards on transgender women’s perceptions and expressions of beauty. Twelve self-identified Caucasian transgender women completed a semistructured interview that provided descriptive data related to the women’s perceptions of societal beauty standards. Analysis of the data revealed the following primary themes: Participants viewed the beauty of transgender and cisgender women as diverse or as encompassing a broad range of variability; societal beauty standards were influential on participants’ expressions of beauty; and participants’ viewed out-group transphobia as a factor contributing to discriminatory and prejudicial perceptions of transwomen’s beauty.

Natural Disaster, Crime, And Narratives Of Disorder: The 1861 Mendoza Earthquake And Argentina’S Ruptured Social And Political Faults, Quinn P. Dauer

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Social scientists studying natural disasters have generally found an absence of panic, a decrease in crime, and survivors working together to find basic necessities in the days and weeks after a catastrophe. By contrast, political and military authorities implement measures such as martial law to prevent chaos and lawlessness threatening private property. The media amplifies narratives of disorder, creating the perception of uncontrolled masses wantonly committing crimes in a disaster’s aftermath. Historians study natural disasters to view political, social, economic, and cultural structures stripped of their everyday veneer. The 1861 earthquake that destroyed the provincial capital of Mendoza in western …

“We Are A Very Happy Family”: 19th-Century Familial Power Dynamics, Stella A. Ress

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

This article examines the roles of family members in the mid-19th century in America, using the Willard family as a case study. Ultimately, this thick description of the Willard family demonstrates that power within the family structure was neither intrinsic nor static; moreover, one person did not control the family and its decisions at all times. Instead, each family member, depending upon circumstances, situations, and his or her own nature, negotiated and laid claim to power through various sources of authority. Josiah Willard’s authority stemmed from his role as father and husband; society crowned him king of the household, and …