Anthropology Commons^™

Mapping Complex Land Use Histories And Urban Renewal Using Ground Penetrating Radar: A Case Study From Fort Stanwix, Tyler Stumpf, Daniel P. Bigman, Dominic J. Day

Anthropology Graduate Research

Fort Stanwix National Monument, located in Rome, NY, is a historic park with a complex use history dating back to the early Colonial period and through the urban expansion and recent economic revitalization of the City of Rome. The goal of this study was to conduct a GPR investigation over an area approximately 1 acre in size to identify buried historic features (particularly buildings) so park management can preserve these resources and develop appropriate educational programming and management plans. The GPR recorded reflection events consistent with our expectations of historic structures. Differences in size, shape, orientation, and depth suggest that …

“Here Come The Crackers!”: An Ethnohistorical Case Study Of Local Heritage Discourses And Cultural Reproduction At A Florida Living History Museum, Blair Bordelon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project explores the complex roles of power and heritage in the reproduction ofcultural and ethnic identities in the context of a local living history museum called Cracker Country. Throughout this thesis, I demonstrate how discourses of Florida heritage are constructed, reproduced, or contested in various ways among all the museum’s different communities of stakeholders. Using Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s (1995) theory of historical silences and expanding on Laurajane Smith’s (2006) notion of the Authorized Heritage Discourse, I explore the ways that heritage “works” at a local level, and the multitude of meanings it can hold within particular communities. I analyze the …

"We're The Lucky Ones": A Social Network Analysis Of Recovery After The Iowa Derecho, Kayla C. Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

On the afternoon of August 10th, 2020 a straight line windstorm, referred to as a derecho, tore across the Midwest. Derechos are often described as an “inland hurricane,” with wind gusts exceeding 58 mph. This thesis explores how Iowans relied on social networks to recover from the derecho. Personal networks were analyzed to understand how people utilized relationships for specific types of support. The relationships investigated included informal and formal sources such as family, friends, neighbors, government, volunteers, non-governmental organizations, and self-reliance. Data were collected on social networks and storm recovery through a survey and semi-structured interviews. Using anthropological theories …

Approximate Bayesian Computation Of Radiocarbon And Paleoenvironmental Record Shows Population Resilience On Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Robert J. Dinapoli, Enrico Crema, Timothy Reith, Carl P. Lipo, Terry L. Hunt

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

Examining how past human populations responded to environmental and climatic changes is a central focus of the historical sciences. The use of summed probability distributions (SPD) of radiocarbon dates as a proxy for estimating relative population sizes provides a widely applicable method in this research area. Paleodemographic reconstructions and modeling with SPDs, however, are stymied by a lack of accepted methods for model fitting, tools for assessing the demographic impact of environmental or climatic variables, and a means for formal multi-model comparison. These deficiencies severely limit our ability to reliably resolve crucial questions of past human-environment interactions. We propose a …

“I Wish Somebody Called Me, Told Me Not To Worry”: Evaluating A Non-Profit’S Use Of Social Support To Address Refugee Women’S Resettlement Challenges, Brandylyn L. Arredondo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This report details the qualitative findings from an evaluation of the Refugee and Migrant Women’s Initiative (RAMWI) in Tampa, FL. Founded in 2013, the 501(c)(3) provides cultural knowledge and sewing classes to resettled refugee women. Using primarily semi-structured interviews and participant observation, I place a critical lens on the non-profit to examine how refugee women and volunteers use the provided resources and experience the values (e.g., empowerment, vulnerability) RAMWI centralizes in its programs.

Interviews with refugee women, volunteers, and key informants revealed that the challenges RAMWI faces derive from six key areas of contention: 1) an informal organizational structure; 2) …

New Representations Of Difference: Mexican Filmmakers In New York City., Luis B. Quesada Nieto

CUNY Mexican Studies Institute

This essay comments on recent cinematographic productions that explore the complex links between Mexico and New York as part of the ʻMexico on the Hudsonʼ Online Film and Conversational Series, organized by the Mexican Studies Institute at City University of New York and the New York based non-profit media arts organization Cinema Tropical. The reflection takes the films I’m leaving now (Lindsey Cordero and Armando Croda 2019), On the Seventh Day (Jim Mackay 2018), and La Ciudad (David Riker 1998) as a sample that exemplifies a cultural and political phenomenon in which the mediated representation of contemporary minorities has been …

Landscapes Of Medical Culture From The Amazonia Of Ecuador, Savannah Sorensen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis examines the relationships between humans and plants in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the role relationships and nature play in the affliction and healing of illnesses and diseases. Through animism, spirituality, and rituals, the Quechua and Canelos groups foster a deep connection with the land and each other which plays an important role in traditional medicine and healing; this important connection with each other and the land constitutes the main premise of this paper, the sociality of healing. Many other cultures such as the Kalahari Kang, Samoans suffering from cardiovascular problems, and Evangelical Christians take on a similar approach …

Engaging Ecological Narratives: An Inquiry Into Place-Based Knowledge And Disaster Risk Reduction In Gozo, Malta, Ella S. Richmond

University Honors Theses

This paper utilizes fieldwork on the island of Gozo, Malta as a case study in understanding place-based environmental relationships. I employ a mixed methodology ethnographic approach to explore the disconnect between local narratives of hazard risk and those of larger institutional actors including the Maltese government, the EU, and the World Risk Index. This study reveals themes of: 1) language shaping climate discourse; 2) place-based oral histories and lore as impacting how risk is perceived; 3) tension between tradition and modernity in the realm of risk reduction; and 4) conflicting climate narratives characterizing the nature of preventative action. I argue …

Poetry And Possibilities In Contemporary Egypt, Reem Badr

Theses and Dissertations

Egyptian colloquial poetry has historically been conceived of, by practitioners and onlookers alike, as a politically committed, subversive, resistant practice. In this thesis I explore how this poetry, with its complex inheritance, inhabits the realities of post-revolutionary Egypt. Throughout the chapters of this work I trace colloquial poetry in its more traditional forms, as well as in its more novel ones like Egyptian rap/trap, as it grapples with the reduced possibilities in the present. As it reflects and spawns a wider disillusionment with and refusal of politics and claims a reinvention of itself as a private practice, the poetry cannot …

Indigenous Youth Storywork: A Spiritual Awakening Of A Maya Adoptee Living In Kkkanada, Ana Celeste Macleod

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Indigenous adoptee scholars understand their identity through community connection, culture, education and practice. In this Storywork, through engagement with current literature and ten research questions, I explored what it meant to be an adoptee in West Coast (KKKanadian) Indigenous communities. An Indigenous Youth Storywork methodology was applied to bring meaning to relationships I have with diverse Indigenous Old Ones, mentors and Knowledge Keepers and their influence on my journey as a Maya adoptee returning to my culture. My personal story was developed and analyzed using an Indigenous decolonial framework and Indigenous Arts-based methods. The intention of this Youth Storywork research …

(Post-) Pandemic Tourism Resiliency: Southeast Asian Lives And Livelihoods In Limbo, Kathleen M. Adams, Jaeyeon Choe, Mary Mostafanezhad, Giang Thi Phi

Anthropology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

While tourism scholars have sought to problematize the unevenly distributed impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, we know much less about how resilience is cultivated among tourism practitioners and communities whose lives and livelihoods are have been placed in limbo. Drawing on literature at the intersection of critical tourism studies and resilience theory as well as interviews with local tourism practitioners and academics, four historically situated and place-based trends in Southeast Asia that are reshaping tourism in the region are outlined: livelihood diversification, ecosystem regeneration, cultural revitalization, and domestic tourism development. These trends highlight how the political economy of tourism in …

A Maya Migrant: A Journey Of No Return, Gaspar Pedro González

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

After years of listening to Maya migrants in the United states and listening to migrants forced back to Guatemala, the novella’s author Gaspar Pedro González created the story of Palas and Malkal, man and wife. The story begins with a discussion of the causes behind migration, and then proceeds to Palas while he arranges his trip with the coyote, makes his goodbyes to his family and community, makes the overland passage through Mexico, and when finally in the United States finds some hopes and plans unobtainable. Palas, and his family left behind in Guatemala, will encounter challenges to their cultural …

Introductory Note, Alan Lebaron

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

A note from the editor, Alan LeBaron, reviewing the contents and structure of Maya America Vol. 3 Iss. 2.

Ancient Pottery Making At Cerro San Isidro, Nepeña Valley, Peru, Kaitlyn M. Lowrance

LSU Master's Theses

Located in the Nepeña Valley of north-central Peru, Cerro San Isidro was first documented in the 1930s when the valley was initially surveyed. While numerous sites along the valley, particularly those located in the lower valley, have been extensively researched since this initial survey, members of the Proyecto de Investigación Arqueológica Cerro San Isidro (PIACSI) conducted the first formal excavations in 2019. My thesis project analyzes the ceramic artifacts – in particular pottery fragments – from that field season in order to evaluate continuity and change in morphological and technical styles from the Early Horizon through the Late Intermediate Periods …

The ‘Wickedness’ Of Governing Land Subsidence: Policy Perspectives From Urban Southeast Asia, Rapti Siriwardane-De Zoysa, Tilo Schöne, Johannes Herbeck, Julia Illigner, Mahmud Haghighi, Hendricus Simarmata, Emma E. Porio, Alessio Rovere, Anna-Katharina Hornidge

Sociology & Anthropology Department Faculty Publications

Drawing on Jakarta, Metro Manila and Singapore as case studies, we explore the paradox of slow political action in addressing subsiding land, particularly along high-density urban coastlines with empirical insights from coastal geography, geodesy analysis, geology, and urban planning. In framing land subsidence as a classic ‘wicked’ policy problem, and also as a hybrid geological and anthropogenic phenomenon that is unevenly experienced across urban contexts, the paper uses a three-step analysis. First, satellite-derived InSAR maps are integrated with Sentinel-1A data in order to reveal the socio-temporal variability of subsidence rates which in turn pose challenges in uniformly applying regulatory action. …

“Beer & Hymns” And Community: Religious Identity And Participatory Sing-Alongs, Andrew Mall

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

As a series of loosely-organized events, “Beer & Hymns” started at the Greenbelt Festival in England in 2006 and migrated to the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina in 2012. Local Beer & Hymns gatherings meet at bars, breweries, clubs, and pubs across the U.K., the U.S., and around the world. Most are not affiliated with a church or Christian denomination, instead relying on the energy of independent local organizers. Some attendees are regular churchgoers, other are not, but all find community in these sing-alongs—congregational singing, that is, outside of traditional congregational contexts. Beer & Hymns is exactly what it …

Dataset For Faunal Analyses Of Biry House Food Remains, Castroville, Tx, Kathryn Maupin

Anthropology Datasets

In 2013, Van Dyke excavated a historic residence located at 309^th Paris Street in Castroville, Texas. Beginning in 1844, the house was occupied by the families that had immigrated from the Alsace region of France. Preliminary analyses of the faunal recovered from a lime slaking pit suggested that over the course of the home’s residence, family members incorporate wild taxa into their diet in addition to their traditional Alsatian foodstuffs. Expanded analyses of the faunal remains from additional features provide additional evidence that the diet of the residents slowly transitioned away from a strict Alsatian diet and eventually included …

Sacred Music In Colonial Era Hispaniola: The Evangelization Of The Taino People, Tito J. Gutierrez

Student Theses

During the 15th-18th centuries, the major European religious orders; the Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, and Jeronymites, journeyed to the newly colonized American territories in an attempt to convert the multitudes of natives peoples living there. Along with prayer books, crucifixes, and religious images, these missionaries brought sacred European music to American shores in an attempt to attract the native people to the Catholic faith.The use of music as a tool for conversion of native people in places such as Mexico, South America, California, and the South West United States, have been well researched and documented. However, the research of the spiritual …

Patterns Of Recent Natural Selection On Genetic Loci Associated With Sexually Differentiated Human Body Size And Shape Phenotypes, Audrey M. Arner, Kathleen E. Grogan, Mark Grabowski, Hugo Reyes-Centeno, George H. Perry

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Levels of sex differences for human body size and shape phenotypes are hypothesized to have adaptively reduced following the agricultural transition as part of an evolutionary response to relatively more equal divisions of labor and new technology adoption. In this study, we tested this hypothesis by studying genetic variants associated with five sexually differentiated human phenotypes: height, body mass, hip circumference, body fat percentage, and waist circumference. We first analyzed genome-wide association (GWAS) results for UK Biobank individuals (~194,000 females and ~167,000 males) to identify a total of 114,199 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) significantly associated with at least one of …

A Collection Of Early Holocene Flaked-Stone Crescents From The Northern Great Basin, Matthew T. Boulanger, G. Logan Miller, Philip Fisher

Anthropology Research

Several flaked-stone crescents from the northern Great Basin were recently identified within the James M. Collins artifact collection held in the Archaeological Research Collections, Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University. These artifacts are morphologically and technologically consistent with other pre- Columbian crescents reported from the region. The two obsidian crescents in the collection exhibit compositions that are consistent with obsidian from the Whitehorse/Double H source, located immediately south of where the artifacts were reportedly obtained. Analysis of the crescents for use wear suggests that they were used in a manner consistent with transversely hafted projectiles. Data reported here add to …