Fundamental Uncertainties Invalidate The Precision Of Obsidian Hydration Dating: A Rapa Nui Case Study,
2026
Binghamton University--SUNY
Fundamental Uncertainties Invalidate The Precision Of Obsidian Hydration Dating: A Rapa Nui Case Study, Robert Dinapoli, Carl P. Lipo
Anthropology Datasets
Obsidian hydration dating (OHD) measures water absorption into volcanic glass to estimate artifact age. Recent studies using infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy (IR-PAS) claim ±30-year precision, comparable to radiocarbon dating. We tested these claims by applying Bayesian hierarchical models to 242 published IR-PAS measurements from Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Standard OHD practice treats burial temperature and humidity as known constants; we instead modeled them as uncertain variables and propagated that uncertainty through the rate equation. Realistic dating uncertainties are ±300 years, ten times larger than the claimed value. The 95% credible interval for any individual date (~600 years) exceeds Rapa Nui's entire …
A Comparative Study Of Aging And Cortical Folding In Chimpanzees And Olive Baboons,
2026
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
A Comparative Study Of Aging And Cortical Folding In Chimpanzees And Olive Baboons, William D. Hopkins, Angela M. Achorn, Michele M. Mulholland, Elizabeth R. Magden, Steven J. Schapiro, Courtney L, Fults, Jean‐Francois Mangin, Adrien Meguerditchian
Anthropology Faculty Publications
In light of the evidence that nonhuman primates naturally develop Alzheimer's disease neuropathologies, there is a renewed interest in research on the comparative biology of aging, including neurological changes across the age groups in species with diverse lifespans. In this paper, we examined age‐related differences in two measures of cortical folding, mean depth and fold opening, in a sample of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and olive baboons (Papio anubis). We found significant species differences in the slope and pattern of age‐related changes in cortical folding. As predicted, chimpanzees showed negative linear associations between age and mean depth and …
Conflict-Mediated Group Size Regulation: A Theory Of Supraoptimal And Suboptimal Group Size,
2026
Chapman University
Conflict-Mediated Group Size Regulation: A Theory Of Supraoptimal And Suboptimal Group Size, Eric Schniter
ESI Working Papers
Observed group sizes rarely match the size that would maximize what each member gets from belonging. We propose a two-part theory in which group size is regulated by two related conflicts: insider-outsider conflict over admission, and within-group conflict as crowding, competition, and social tensions intensify with size. Three strategies are available: admission, exclusion, and fission. The first part shows that even when exclusion is unavailable, fission dynamics alone drive group size away from the optimum in both directions, with the pattern set by how prospective joiners encounter groups and by the geometry of fission. When joiners compare groups across a …
Polarized Truth Decay & The Role Of Education In A Democracy,
2026
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Polarized Truth Decay & The Role Of Education In A Democracy, Sonja Varbelow, William Yaworsky
Anthropology Faculty Publications
The purpose of this paper is to delineate the causes and dangers of truth decay for a democracy, the role education has played in the process, and how education can present a resistance to this dangerous trend. Truth decay has been characterized as an increase in quantity of opinion over fact, divergent views on what constitutes a fact, and decreased confidence of traditional sources of information. We agree that truth decay is a serious problem but would characterize it somewhat differently. Opinions, divergent views, and decreased confidence in traditional sources of information are not detrimental by themselves. Instead, we see …
Anthropology 230 "Culture And Crime": Syllabus, Assignments And Brightspace Quiz Files,
2026
CUNY John Jay College
Anthropology 230 "Culture And Crime": Syllabus, Assignments And Brightspace Quiz Files, Eliza Darling
Open Educational Resources
As part of a project to convert online asynchronous sections in John Jay’s fully online program to OER, Dr. Eliza Darling compiled all of her materials for a 200-level anthropology course, “Culture and Crime,” into a single PDF that can be easily converted to other file types. The assignments and lessons make frequent use of open pedagogical principles. Dr. Darling has also included 14 quizzes as ZIP files that can be imported directly into any LMS, including Brightspace, Canvas, and Blackboard. Because these quizzes are already packaged for LMS import, instructors can add them directly to a course shell without …
The Sociologists And The Anthropologists: Intellectual Imaginations Of Mennonite Settlements In The Paraguayan Chaco,
2026
The University of Akron
The Sociologists And The Anthropologists: Intellectual Imaginations Of Mennonite Settlements In The Paraguayan Chaco, Samuel Boucher
Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies
The debates over Indigenous rights and missionary intervention in Paraguay’s Chaco were shaped not only by international declarations and local conditions but by the sociologists and anthropologists who interpreted—and contested—them. North American sociologists such as J. Winfield Fretz, Jacob Loewen, and Calvin Redekop studied the Mennonite colonies as agents of modern development, weighing the achievements and shortcomings of their mission efforts. The Paraguayan anthropologist Miguel Chase-Sardi cast those same colonists as foreign capitalists exploiting their Indigenous neighbors, drawing international scrutiny through his contribution to the 1971 Barbados Declaration and its charge of ethnocide. The ensuing clash with administrators such as …
Reimagining Chinese Folk Toys In Contemporary Life Through Illustration And Toy Design,
2026
Syracuse University
Reimagining Chinese Folk Toys In Contemporary Life Through Illustration And Toy Design, Huimin Huang
Theses - ALL
This research explores how traditional Chinese folk toys can be reinterpreted through contemporary illustration and toy design. The research subjects are cloth tigers, fish lanterns and clay dolls. These three respectively carry cultural meanings as protection, celebration and happiness. With the changes in modern lifestyles, these handmade toys have gradually withdrawn from daily life and are more often preserved as cultural heritages. This article focuses on how to bring these traditional cultural elements back into contemporary life through visual narrative and product design. This project takes the seven-year-old girl, named Nannan, as the core character. She is dressed in traditional …
Language, Life, And Indigenous Knowledge: Cultural Contexts In Advanced Kaqchikel Maya Language Education Approaches To Indigenous Language Revitalization In Kik'aslemal Ri Kaqchikela': An Advanced Kaqchikel Maya Language Textbook,
2026
Universidad Autónoma de Campeche
Language, Life, And Indigenous Knowledge: Cultural Contexts In Advanced Kaqchikel Maya Language Education Approaches To Indigenous Language Revitalization In Kik'aslemal Ri Kaqchikela': An Advanced Kaqchikel Maya Language Textbook, José Israel Herrera
Journal of Maya Heritage
Abstract. This article examines the relationship between Indigenous language revitalization and the continuity of socially embedded systems of knowledge through the case of advanced Kaqchikel Maya language education. Drawing upon scholarship on Indigenous pedagogies, linguistic anthropology, and Indigenous epistemologies, the article explores how culturally grounded approaches to language learning contribute not only to the development of linguistic competence but also to the reproduction of memories, values, and intellectual traditions. Particular attention is devoted to Kik'aslemal ri Kaqchikela': An Advanced Kaqchikel Maya Language Textbook, whose thematic organization and collaborative development illustrate broader processes of knowledge production and cultural continuity. Rather than …
Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal Of Anthropology Fall 2025 Edition,
2026
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal Of Anthropology Fall 2025 Edition, Heyi Zhang, Eda N. Gokdemir, Layla Cyhn, Jason Kim, Thuần L. Trần
The Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Anthropology
No abstract provided.
Surviving And Thriving: The Indigenous Migrant,
2026
Western Michigan University
Surviving And Thriving: The Indigenous Migrant, Danna Guzman-Rodriguez
Honors Theses
This literature and cultural study highlights the generation of children of indigenous immigrants and the relationship with their indigenous identity and culture. This unique experience is complex and encapsulates issues such as indigenous cultural survival, homogeneity, globalization, and lack of cultural identity. Exploring the Totonac community in La Chaca, Veracruz in Mexico, allows for a deeper explanation of this experience. Speakers of Totonac and other indigenous languages often migrate to countries such as the United States and carry such cultural ties with them. What happens to these ties after moving to a Western-dominated country where globalization favors English and Western …
Editor’S Introduction,
2026
Ateneo de Manila University
Editor’S Introduction, Michael D. Pante
Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints
No abstract provided.
Reframing Kabyle Resistance In Marc Garanger's Femmes Algériennes 1960,
2026
Claremont Colleges
Reframing Kabyle Resistance In Marc Garanger's Femmes Algériennes 1960, Lea Wong
Journal of Amazigh Studies
This article examines the identity photographs taken by Marc Garanger as a site of Kabyle women’s resistance in the Algerian War. Over the course of 1960, Garanger moved between various wartime displacement camps across Kabylia, photographing indigenous people for the production of identity cards––a crucial from of colonial population control. Since its publication, Garanger’s Femmes algériennes has become an ambiguous symbol of resistance in the Algerian War, largely due to the subjects’ perceived antagonistic posture and gaze. This article takes a forensic approach to analyzing Kabyle women’s wartime adornment, uncovering a new framework for conceptualizing Algerian women’s agency grounded in …
Representations Of Women Safeguarding Living Cultural Heritage For The Future In 21st Century Kabyle Cinema,
2026
Claremont Colleges
Representations Of Women Safeguarding Living Cultural Heritage For The Future In 21st Century Kabyle Cinema, Sheila Petty
Journal of Amazigh Studies
This article examines cinematic representations of how some Kabyle women relate to and shape claims to Amazigh (Kabyle) land, language, tangible and intangible cultural heritage; how they navigate and safeguard cultural memory; and how this is depicted in three Kabyle films: La Langue de Zahra/ Zahra’s Mother Tongue (Fatima Sissani, France/Algeria, 2011); Nnuba (Sonia At Qasi-Kessi, Algeria, 2019; and Azar/Racine/Root (Malik Bourkache Daoud, Algeria, 2023). The article also probes how the filmmakers use tangible cultural heritage (documentary film) to document, transpose, and transmit intangible cultural heritage (memories, poetry, song, stories). Through an analysis of the narrative form and cinematic style …
Listening To Taos Amrouche, A Kabyle Woman’S Singing Voice In A Context Of Exile And Immigration : Between A Search For Intimacy And Independence,
2026
Lake Forest College, Chicago
Listening To Taos Amrouche, A Kabyle Woman’S Singing Voice In A Context Of Exile And Immigration : Between A Search For Intimacy And Independence, Melek Chekili
Journal of Amazigh Studies
This article analyzes the vocal, musical and literary strategies Algerian Kabyle singer and writer Taos Amrouche employs to determine the place voicing holds for her in contexts of colonization, exile and migration. I demonstrate through her singing career and her 1975 autobiographical novel l’Amant Imaginaire, that within the ambivalences stemming from her birth in Tunisia to exiled Kabyle Christian converts and her emigration to France, Taos Amrouche’s singing voice provides a space where those ambivalences can co-exist. By being adamant about keeping her artistic activity close to her body and explicitly referring to sex in her writing, she exerts …
Skeletons Vs. Mummies: Osteological Trauma On Bog Bodies As A Measure For Cultural Change In Ancient Europe,
2026
Portland State University
Skeletons Vs. Mummies: Osteological Trauma On Bog Bodies As A Measure For Cultural Change In Ancient Europe, Miranda Hoodenpyl
University Honors Theses
Bog bodies are some of the most well known archaeological finds in the world, and are preserved human remains found in wetlands. Researchers use the information stored in the bones of bog skeletons and mummies to learn about cultural lifestyles, travels, diet, and diseases throughout time in Northern Europe and the British Isles. Through multiple cultural changes and migration, the "bog body phenomenon" has remained an unusual treatment displayed throughout time. This literature review looked at skeletal trauma on bog remains to identify cultural change over time in Northern Europe and the British Isles, spanning the Neolithic, Bronze, Iron, and …
Open Materials For Ant-Psy 210, Sex And Culture,
2026
CUNY John Jay College
Open Materials For Ant-Psy 210, Sex And Culture, Melissa Zavala
Open Educational Resources
Sex and Culture explores the cultural construction of human sexuality from the framework of the individual in society. Students will examine the social learning of sexual behaviors, beliefs and practices. Analytic focus will include how culturally prescribed gender roles for men and women inform notions of right and wrong. Specific topics may include institutionalized gender inequality, marriage and the family, homophobia and other issues involved in the relationship between sex and culture. All topics will be considered from a historical and cross-cultural perspectives.
Ka Here Tāngata:1 Mātauranga And Te Ao Māori In Biocultural Kākāpō (Strigops Habroptilus) Conservation Approaches,
2026
University of Denver
Ka Here Tāngata:1 Mātauranga And Te Ao Māori In Biocultural Kākāpō (Strigops Habroptilus) Conservation Approaches, Sophie Perfetto
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This master's thesis examines conservation as a form of living cultural heritage practice through the co-management of kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus), a critically endangered parrot and taonga species in Aotearoa New Zealand. Situated within ongoing histories of colonial dispossession and Western frameworks of land and species management, contemporary kākāpō conservation is shaped through the partnership between the Department of Conservation’s Kākāpō Recovery Programme and Ngāi Tahu. Drawing on semi-structured interviews collected during fieldwork from July to August 2025, this study examines how institutional partnerships structure decision-making, authority, and responsibility in contemporary conservation governance. Findings demonstrate that Māori knowledge systems …
Reseeding Relations: Comparing Museum And Indigenous Seed Sharing & Rematriation Protocols In The Midwestern United States,
2026
University of Denver
Reseeding Relations: Comparing Museum And Indigenous Seed Sharing & Rematriation Protocols In The Midwestern United States, Madeline G. Anderson
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
While the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) paved the way for the repatriation of ancestors and certain cultural objects to Indigenous communities, museums still struggle to address other forms of cultural returns. Heritage seeds, those which hold cultural significance to Indigenous peoples, held within museum collections perpetuates the colonization of Indigenous lifeways. This research examines rematriation as an Indigenous form of cultural return better suited to address these needs than limited repatriation models. I analyze how museums are working to create rematriation processes for their collections which reflect diverse Indigenous epistemologies and ontologies through a three-tiered approach: …
Picturing Africa: Critical Reflections On The Importance Of Imagery In Textbooks,
2026
Spelman College
Picturing Africa: Critical Reflections On The Importance Of Imagery In Textbooks, Amber R. Reed, Bailey A. Brown
Essays in Education
While many social studies teachers in the Atlanta metro area are working to combat stereotypical and racist images of Africa, our analysis of three commonly used textbooks demonstrate these are exactly the types of images that tend to get reproduced. This essay draws on an analysis of three commonly used textbooks in Georgia as well as interviews with teachers in the area. We show how stereotypes of Africa as filled with wild animals, primitive, and poverty-stricken are often upheld in publications despite teachers’ fervent desire to dismantle them. Because these images are often decontextualized, it is difficult for teachers and …
Tectonic Influences On The Evolution Of Settlement Decisions In The Near East,
2026
Lawrence University
Tectonic Influences On The Evolution Of Settlement Decisions In The Near East, Truett Koden W. Marr
Lawrence University Honors Projects
This study asks a fundamental question in archaeology: why do people consistently choose certain places to settle over others? Focusing on the Near East, it investigates how deep-time tectonic features, specifically fault systems, structure long-term settlement decisions by shaping water availability and ecological productivity. To address this, I integrate a large geospatial dataset of 1,023 archaeological sites with 9,075 mapped fault traces across 674 hydrological basins. Using statistics in R, I apply Poisson generalized linear models to test basin-level relationships between site density and fault density and conduct distance-to-fault analyses comparing archaeological sites to randomized controls. These analyses are further …
