Anthropology Commons^™

The Paleoepidemiology Of Malaria In The Ancient Near East, Nicole Elizabeth Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The end of the Late Bronze Age in the Near East (1300 - 1200 BCE) saw the widespread collapse of several large cultural centers, the reasons for which are a subject of continued debate. Evidence from events leading up to this cultural collapse suggest epidemic disease may have factored into the eventual downfall of these early civilizations. Recent DNA analysis from Egyptian mummies who lived during the period leading up to the Late Bronze Age collapse identified malaria in several elite individuals, suggesting the widespread prevalence of this infectious disease in Egypt. However, the exact prevalence, antiquity, and dynamics of …

The Celtic Way: Order, Creativity, And The Holy Spirit In The Celtic Monastic Movement, Fiona Leitch

Senior Honors Theses

The Celtic monastic movement lasted hundreds of years and is responsible for much of the spread of Christianity to the West. Much of the movement’s success can be attributed to the Celtic Christians’ understanding of the importance of the role of creative culture and order as well as an openness and responsiveness to the leading of the Holy Spirit. It is these three things working in tandem that influenced the success of the Celtic monastic movement. Although the movement ended a thousand years ago, it can offer guidance and wisdom for carrying out ministry today. A case study of Cuirim …

Reassessing The Use Of Kelly’S Mobility Index In Examining Late Archaic Assemblage Variability In Southern Idaho, Shawn Elizabeth Roberts

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

During the past two decades North American archaeologists have attempted to document levels of prehistoric aboriginal mobility. Robert Kelly has developed a fourteen variable index for assessing mobility based upon the technological organization of chipped stone assemblages. Each variable has a binary outcome of high or low residential mobility reflecting Lewis Binford’s expedient versus curated technologies. Kelly’s index has been used to individually evaluate levels mobility of a number of Late Holocene age sites in southwestern Idaho. This thesis reanalyzes seven previously assessed sites as well as sixteen additional Late Holocene/Archaic open site assemblages along the Snake River in southern …

Local Ecological Knowledge And Chronic Disease In The Fort Mcdermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, Mark S. Beil

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between chronic disease and traditional knowledge is little understood within indigenous populations of North America. I hypothesize that individuals with higher levels of local ecological knowledge (LEK) will observe lower frequencies of chronic disease and better health outcomes. Health data will be compared to LEK within a subsample (n=31) of individuals residing within the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Reservation in Nevada and Oregon. Individual level health data on diabetes mellitus (type 2), pre-diabetes, BMI, chronic heart disease, and hypertension is measured directly by the investigator or self-reported. LEK level data is taken from expert interviews, subject interviews, surveys, and …

The Bioarchaeology Of Social Order: Cooperation And Conflict Among The Mimbres (Ad 550-1300), Kathryn Mary Baustian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Interpersonal conflict, social control, and culturally sanctioned violence are all potential modes of effecting change amongst most human groups. This research investigates the complex relationship between interpersonal violence, human skeletal biology, and social identity among prehistoric agricultural communities in the American Southwest. Using bioarchaeology as a research framework, the data presented in this study reveal patterns that can be used to better understand how violence is utilized or avoided in any time period. Bioarchaeology is well suited to investigate violence because it integrates the most direct evidence of conflict (traumatic skeletal injury) with detailed archaeological reconstructions of past human experiences. …

Discovering Rock Features With Geophysical Exploration And Archaeological Testing At The Mississippian Pile Mound Site, Upper Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee, Jeremy G. Menzer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Pile Mound survey includes magnetometry paired with targeted ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and electromagnetic induction (EMI) surveys of the mound and testing of associated features over the ca. 6.5 ha site. The GPR survey discovered six rock features (five large rock features within the mound and one marking the outside of the mound). Knowledge of mounds in the Upper Cumberland Plateau (UCP) is lacking—the closest other studied sites are at the Corbin Site, Croley-Evans, Bell Site, and Beasley Mounds, approximately 75 – 100 km away. However, the most similar mound construction is found at Corbin and Cherokee sites, some 175 …

The Process Of Othering From The “Social Imaginaire” To Physical Acts: An Anthropological Approach, Anthonie Holslag

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article deals with the underlining aspects of Othering within the genocidal process of the Armenian genocide. It will emphasize that Othering is closely related to another process called Selfing, which gives an insight on the genocidal behavior of perpetrators. The article tries to combine these analytical processes with physical actions, and will thereby argue that these physical actions do not stand by themselves, but are indeed cultural expressions of Othering and Selfing; and that these processes are therefore not mere social imagnaire or abstract notions, but physical and thereby observable actions that gives an insight in genocidal intent. These …

Islands Of Change Vs. Islands Of Disaster: Managing Pigs And Birds In The Anthropocene Of The North Atlantic, Seth Brewington, Megan Hicks, Ágústa Edwald, Árni Einarsson, Kesara Anamthawat-Jónsson, Gordon Cook, Philippa Ascough, Kerry L. Sayle, Símun V. Arge, Mike Church, Julie Bond, Steve Dockrill, Adolf Friðriksson, George Hambrecht, Arni Daniel Juliusson, Vidar Hreinsson, Steven Hartman, Konrad Smiarowski, Ramona Harrison, Thomas Mcgovern

Publications and Research

The offshore islands of the North Atlantic were among some of the last settled places on earth, with humans reaching the Faroes and Iceland in the late Iron Age and Viking period. While older accounts emphasizing deforestation and soil erosion have presented this story of island colonization as yet another social–ecological disaster, recent archaeological and paleoenvironmental research combined with environmental history, environmental humanities, and bioscience is providing a more complex understanding of long-term human ecodynamics in these northern islands. An ongoing interdisciplinary investigation of the management of domestic pigs and wild bird populations in Faroes and Iceland is presented as …

The Construction Of The Homeless Individual: Contrasting The Effects Of Social Policy On Public Perceptions Of The Homeless During Two Periods Of United States History, Megan T. O’Connor

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Toolstone Use In Ozark Prehistory: Assessing Adaptations To A Lithic Dichotomy In The Boston Mountains And Springfield Plateau, Luke Allen Morris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Toolstone use in the Ozark Mountains is a reactionary process reliant on how the landscape provides or constrains chipped stone for prehistoric populations. These technological adaptations are recognized at sites throughout the area, but no regional assessment of lithic assemblages provides answers as to why certain stones are used at a particular location. This thesis employs a five step mass analysis of lithic assemblages, and GIS visualizations to observe how the organization of stone technologies vary based on location within contrasting geologic contexts. The chert-bearing Springfield Plateau, and the Boston Mountains with siltstone, are two neighboring dichotomous landscapes that illustrate …

Meta-Analysis On Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Between Humans And Non-Human Primates, Madalyn R. Page

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Due to genetic similarity, non-human primates are often the focus of zoonotic infectious disease research. The objective of zoonotic disease research can vary depending upon whether the study is focusing on human health or the health of wild non-human primate populations. Research with non-human primates is often associated with their use in medical laboratories for the benefit of human health. However, other studies focus on both the health of wild non-human primate populations and human interactions. This study reviews zoonotic disease research published in three main primatology journals: American Journal of Primatology, International Journal of Primatology, and Primates. …

Site-Based And Nonsite Archaeological Survey: A Comparison Of Two Survey Methods In The City Of Rocks, Idaho, Patrick Reed Mcdonald

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Archaeology in the western United States frequently employs pedestrian survey of the ground surface to locate and identify archaeological sites. Proponents of alternative survey techniques suggest that site-based survey may be inherently flawed and will not accurately detect, document, or account for artifacts located outside of site boundaries. Site-based survey identifies artifacts, and then searches the area more intensively in an attempt to identify a spatial break in artifact presence. Nonsite approaches utilize point plotting of all discovered artifacts in order to quantitatively identify relationships between artifacts. Quantitative analysis removes a level of researcher bias from the interpretation of past …

Spatial Patterns Of Rural And Exurban Residential Settlement And Agricultural Trends In The Intermountain West, Saleh Ahmed

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Population growth is often linked to negative impacts on agriculture. However, the effects of residential development likely depends on the spatial pattern of development, such as whether housing is clustered or dispersed, and whether it is located near or away from important farmland. For several decades, rural and urban planners have advocated policies to encourage consolidated forms of development as one strategy to protect agriculture and preserve open space. To date, relatively little empirical research has been conducted on the actual effects of different spatial patterns of residential settlement on agricultural. This study aims to fill that gap with a …

How Has The Domestication Of Dogs Impacted Native North American Culture And Way Of Life?, Mikaela E. Reisman

Senior Honors Projects

Dogs, as the only domestic mammal in North America, were a part of the life and culture of the people who migrated to the Americas from Eurasia. Originally domesticated from Eurasian wolves, the uses of dogs expanded once the Native American ancestors spread throughout the continents. I investigate the kinds of dogs Native Americans bred over thousands of years and how these dogs impacted native North American culture, through a review of recent genetic, biological, archaeological, oral historical, and historical evidence and research.

Evidence of Native American use of dogs ranges from hunting, to companionship, to using their fur for …

Watercraft, People, And Animals: Setting The Stage For The Neolithic Colonization Of The Mediterranean Islands Of Cyprus And Crete, Katelyn Dibenedetto

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

One of the most significant developments in human history was the “Neolithic Revolution,” which first began around 11,000 years ago in mainland Southwest Asia. It resulted in not only the economic reorientation from hunting and foraging to herding and farming based on domesticate resources, but also significant changes in human technology, demography, society, political organization, ideology and human relationships to the environment. In order to understand this momentous process, however, it is important to understand the events that set it in motion. This is particularly the case when dealing with oceanic Mediterranean islands, specifically Cyprus and Crete, where there is …

Differential Development Of Sickle Polish Due To Moisture Content Of Herbaceous Plant Material, Justin Jared Dubois

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This experiment uses four experimental sickles containing flint and novaculite blades to harvest wet, growing grass and mature, dry rye in an effort to determine the differences in the development of sickle polish and other use wear traces caused by moisture content and other plant characteristics. During harvesting, samples of harvested material averaging about two handfuls were collected. These samples were massed, dried, and massed again to determine moisture content of the plants. The sickles were each used for approximately 13 hours. Each blade was then cast using high resolution dental epoxy for microscopic inspection. An edge survey was conducted …

Understanding The Role Of Support Groups In The Lives Of Parents Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Amelia Leggett

Anthropology

The birth of a child with disabilities forces parents to rewrite narratives of family and what it means to raise a child with disabilities. Parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often find that their child’s behavior and development makes it difficult to relate with parents of typically developing children, and so support groups become a place to find parents who share similar experiences. This study examines the role of support groups in the lives of parents of children with ASD. It asks how the support group differs from other sources of support and relationships, what information is sought …

Unsortable Wares: A Petrographic Analysis Of Addis Temper From The Fatherland Site (22ad501), Adams County, Mississippi, David Benjamin Abbott Jr.

Master's Theses

In the Lower Mississippi Valley from about 1200AD until European contact, two different ceramic tempers (and presumably cultures) existed side-by-side. Areas in which grog or clay tempering occurs are considered part of the Plaquemine Culture. Areas in which shell tempering predominates are considered part of the Mississippian Culture. Ceramic pastes that contain both shell and grog cause some classificatory confusion. This research examines the history of some of the confusion surrounding Addis ware/paste through its varying descriptions in the archaeological literature and attempts, through experiment and petrographic analysis, to give some insight into this paste recipe and its variability.

Presence-At-Hand, Eric Lyle Schultz

Graduate School of Art Theses

Abstract

The writing that follows is intended to provide a theoretical framework for the motives behind my practice. The primary concerns addressed are the reception, transmission, and physical shape of knowledge. I will discuss a human condition that exists as a byproduct of both the legacy of representation as well as the innate biology of the brain. I will argue that as a society we are governed by the residue of an extreme logic, and that this condition places severe margins on our potential for creative solutions. I will propose that our ability to create meaning is stifled by the …

Resistance, Acquiescence Or Incorporation? An Introduction To Land Grabbing And Political Reactions ‘From Below’, Marc Edelman, Ruth Hall, Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Ian Scoones, Ben White, Wendy Wolford

Publications and Research

Political reactions ‘from below’ to global land grabbing have been vastly more varied and complex than is usually assumed. This essay introduces a collection of ground- breaking studies that discuss responses that range from various types of organized and everyday resistance to demands for incorporation or for better terms of incorporation into land deals. Initiatives ‘from below’ in response to land deals have involved local and transnational alliances and the use of legal and extra-legal methods, and have brought victories and defeats. The relevance of political reactions to land grabbing is discussed in light of theories of social movements and …