Anthropology Commons^™

Warfare And Shamanism In Amazonia, James Andrew Whitaker

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Book review of Warfare and Shamanism in Amazonia. Carlos Fausto. Translated by David Rodgers. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2012. xv + 347 pp., maps, illustrations, footnotes, bibliography, annex, index. USD $99.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 978-1-107-02006-1

Holocene House Hunting: An Application Of Satellite Image Analysis Towards Locating Prehistoric Archeological Sites In Alaska's Brooks Range, Joseph Keeney

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this study, satellite image analysis was applied to archeological sites at Lake Matcharak in the Brooks Range of Alaska. The Goal was to test whether or not satellite remote sensing, which has been successful in locating large-size archeological features, could be applied to small-size prehistoric features found in Arctic Alaska. Using 1-m resolution IKONOS and 30-m resolution ASTER DEM data, vegetation indices (NDVI and tasseled cap) and slope were generated and stacked into one image. Supervised and unsupervised classifications were then applied to the resulting image to look for spectral/slope characteristics that were unique to known site locations at …

Good Men Grow Corn: Embodied Ecological Heritage In A Belizean Mopan Community, Kristina Baines

Publications and Research

Recent developments in land rights and land use in the Toledo district, Belize has generated anthropological and activist interest surrounding traditional ecological knowledge and practice, and the role of heritage in communities. This study explores the connection between ecological knowledge and practices, and the concurrent construction of heritage, and community health and wellness, broadly defined. Developing and using the concept of “embodied ecological heritage,” this dissertation takes a phenomenological approach to understanding the convergence of ecological heritage and health in multiple realms of everyday life, arguing that lived experience of participating in “traditional”practices is fundamentally connected to wellness in the …

The Use Of Space At The Late Woodland Shady Grove Site (22-Qu-525), Stephen George Harris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Very little previous work has been done at the Late Woodland Shady Grove site. This thesis will examine and reconfirm some of the previous conclusions about this site's placement within the temporal framework of the Northern Yazoo Basin. The Late Woodland and Mississippian occupations of the site used the same space in decidedly different ways. How the use of space has changed through time will be examined from several different perspectives, including geophysical survey and the intra-site distribution of artifacts.

Preterm Birth And The Perception Of Risk Among African Americans, Gwendolyn Simpson Norman

Wayne State University Dissertations

Background: African American women deliver preterm at a rate that is two to three times that of their white counterparts, and after decades of research, this disparity in birth outcomes still remains unexplained. While factors including income, education, neighborhood conditions, infection and stress have all been associated with prematurity, no combination of these factors has explained why the disparity persists. Recently, however, racism-specific stress has emerged as a possible factor contributing to this disparity. This study was designed to learn how preterm birth was explained by African Americans directly impacted by prematurity. Methods: Interviews were conducted with African American women …

Bottigheimer, Ruth B., Fairy Tales: A New History, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

Dancing The Numinous: Sacred And Spiritual Techniques Of Contemporary American Belly Dancers, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

In this paper, I explore how contemporary American practitioners of belly dance (as Middle Eastern dance and its many varieties are often called in the English-speaking world) conceptualize not only the spiritual dimensions of their dance, but also how the very notion of performance affects sacred and spiritual dance practices. Drawing on interviews with this community, I describe the techniques of sacred and spiritual belly dancers, how these dancers theorize performance, and how the conflicts inherent to patriarchal mind-body dualism are resolved in these practices. My purpose here is twofold: to document an emergent dance tradition and to analyze its …

Queering Kinship In ‘The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers', Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The fairy tales in the Kinder- und Hausmiirchen, or Children's and Household Tales, compiled by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are among the world's most popular, yet they have also provoked discussion and debate regarding their authenticity, violent imagery, and restrictive gender roles. In this chapter I interpret the three versions published by the Grimm brothers of ATU 451, "The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers," focusing on constructions of family, femininity, and identity. I utilize the folkloristic methodology of allomotific analysis, integrating feminist and queer theories of kinship and gender roles. I follow Pauline Greenhill by taking a queer view of …

Review Of Storytelling Globalization: From The Chaco And Beyond, Jeremy M. Campbell

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Addressing The Learning Needs At Occupy Dc, Andrew J. Batcher

Capstone Collection

The purpose of this paper is to examine how learning can help the Occupy movement in Washington DC. It explores three questions. What are the learning needs of the movement? What educational content can help meet those needs? And how can education be practiced in a way that most effectively addresses the learning needs within the real world circumstances of the movement? Research methods include participant observation, surveys, interviews, focus groups, literature review, and primary document review. Data was coded into 11 outcome oriented learning needs and 3 educational orientations which are geared towards meeting those needs. This paper is …

This Paper Is Only Skin Deep: The Socio-Cultural And Biological Reality Of Human Variation, Paige Jamieson

A with Honors Projects

This project is an anthropological study of human variation and "race".

Gesture Use By Free-Living Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) Related To Partner Attentional State, Glee Larsen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Both in the wild and in captivity, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) use gesture to communicate with each other. The three modalities of gesture that chimpanzees use are auditory, tactile, and visual. Captive chimpanzees use gesture modalities appropriately according to the communicative partner's attentional state. A communicative partner is the target of the communicator's actions. A partner may be either paying attention (attending) or not paying attention (inattentive) to the chimpanzee who is attempting to communicate with them. The present study investigated whether a free-living population of chimpanzees use gesture modality appropriately to the partner's attentional state. Visual gestures depend …

Editorial Board & Iowa Academy Of Sciences Officers And Directors

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

No abstract provided.

"Still Here, Trying To Find My Way": Understanding The Experiences Of Hiv Disruption And Reorganization Among Older African Americans In Detroit, Andrea Nevedal

Wayne State University Dissertations

Adults aged fifty and older are the fastest growing age group with HIV/AIDS. Research on older adults with HIV has focused primarily on health status and physiological changes that occur as people age with HIV. However, little is known about the socio-cultural consequences that occur when older adults are diagnosed with HIV and as they age with HIV. Drawing from an anthropological approach to the life course and Becker's (1997) framework of life disruption, this dissertation research explored to what extent people experienced disruption from living with HIV and reorganized their lives after experiencing disruption.

The specific aims included identifying …

Crossing The Valley Of Death: A Multi-Sited, Multi-Level Ethnographic Study Of Growth Startups And Entrepreneurial Communities In Post-Industrial Detroit, Marlo Rencher

Wayne State University Dissertations

The intention of this research is to reveal the humanity of the startup experience for American growth companies. What is it about the growth entrepreneurship experience that has been hidden from view? Can we begin to articulate a holistic view of entrepreneurship--including those human universals and culture-bound particulars that must be successfully navigated?

This study is an ethnographic account of three Detroit-based entrepreneurial communities and the people within them. This research examines the sociocultural features of entrepreneurship on three levels. The first level of context for growth businesses to be studied is that of their entrepreneurial community. These communities have …

Protection Of The Natural And Cultural Heritage Of The Mongolian Altai, Ulikpan Beket, Hans D. Knapp

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

The Altai-Sayan Ecoregion is known as a hotspot of biodiversity with large wilderness landscapes and a high rate of endemism in Central Asia and Siberia. There are many large and important protected areas of different categories. Parts of the Russian Altai, the “Golden Mountains of Altai”, are inscribed as World Natural Heritage. Also the neighbouring countries contain pristine landscapes, which could be a potential for an extension to a transnational serial World Heritage Site.

The Mongolian part of the ecoregion is characterized by very diverse landscapes and vegetation complexes: Deserts, semi-deserts and desert steppes in arid basins, river floodplains, salt …

Anthropological Data Regarding The Adaptiveness Of Hebephilia, Raymond B. Hames, Ray Blanchard

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Hebephilia is the sexual attraction to early pubertal children in Tanner Stages 2 and 3, generally ages 11 through 14.

The second author of this letter (R.B.), a member of the Paraphilias Subworkgroup of the Work Group on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders for DSM-5, proposed a diagnostic entity for DSM-5 that resembles the ICD-10 model, but with a different name: Pedohebephilic Disorder. In the original proposal (Blanchard, 2010a), this disorder would have three subtypes: pedophilic, hebephilic, and pedohebephilic. In the current version of the proposal, which is still under consideration, the name has been changed to Pedophilic Disorder, in …

Kinect And 3d Gis In Archaeology, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Fabio Remondino, Jim Robersson, Jennifer Von Schwerin, Giorgio Agugiaro, Gabrio Girardi

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

This paper explores the potential of using Microsoft's Kinect to create a low-cost and portable system to virtually navigate, through a prototype 3D GIS, the digitally reconstructed ancient Maya city and UNESCO World Heritage Site of Copan in Honduras. The 3D GIS, named QueryArch3D, was developed as part of the MayaArch3D project (http://mayaarch3d.unm.edu), which explores the possibilities of integrating databases and 3D digital tools for research and teaching on ancient architectures and landscapes. The developed system, based on the Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit (FAAST), controls in a remote and touchless mode the movements in the 3D environment in …

Binford, Lewis R., Alan J. Osborn

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Binford challenged anthropologists and archaeologists to expand the scope of their research, to develop more rigorous methodologies for data collection and analysis, and to think more critically. Science is a marathon without a finish line. Our understanding of past and present human behavior and cultural systems does not come easily. Social scientists can produce reliable knowledge by means of an iterative process that involves generating, testing, and refining (or rejecting) explanatory models. These models are, then, combined to construct scientific theories. The robust consequences of these theories are then continually scrutinized and evaluated. Binford continually made use of the complex …

Evidence From Detrital Zircon Ages For Middle Pennsylvanian Uplift And Drainage In The Source Area Of The Chariton Conglomerate And Marmaton Group Sandstones, Southern Iowa And Northern Missouri, Scott Mcfadden, Steven H. Emerman, Jane Pedrick Dawson, Kevin A. Rey, Tracy Kemp Anderson

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

The Chariton Conglomerate is a quartz/limestone conglomerate of Middle Pennsylvanian age sparsely exposed in southern Iowa and northern Missouri. In Iowa it is characterized by quartz granules and rounded crinoid columnals. The objective of this study was to use detrital zircon ages to determine the provenance of the Chariton Conglomerate and possibly associated Marmaton Group sandstone beds. Detrital zircon ages were obtained for five conglomerate and two sandstone beds of the Chariton Conglomerate in Iowa, three conglomerate beds of the Chariton Conglomerate in Missouri, and two sandstone beds of the Marmaton Group in Iowa. According to the Kolmogorov-Smirnoff Test, the …