Anthropology Commons^™

Dormant Ethnobotany: A Case Study Of Decline In Regional Plant Knowledge In The Bull Run Mountains Of Virginia, Susan Rene Leopold

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation introduces and applies the concept of dormant ethnobotany, a concept that helps explain the socio-economic, cultural and ecological aspects and implications of the transition away from active use of ethnobotanical knowledge and the factors that may lead to its re-emergence. Dormant ethnobotany is the study of relationships between people and plants that are inactive, but nonetheless still alive in memories, the historic record, and folklore and thereby capable of reemergence in support of the transition to a more sustainable society. The dissertation extends the field of ethnobotany from its current roots in the dynamic ethnobotany of indigenous peoples. …

Personal Narratives Of Women's Leadership And Community Activism In Cherkasy Oblast, Martha Kichorowska Kebalo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Ukraine's women's movement is part of a complex social field characteristic of formerly Soviet countries, but it also emerges from its own specific political history. Post-Soviet period, (neo-) nationalism, feminism and (neo-) socialism are significant forces shaping women's collective behavior. Their activism resonates with the pre-Soviet liberation struggle while it is shaped also by practices from the recent Soviet past. It also is sensitive to external pressures, including the agendas of Western aid and the Ukrainian diaspora.

This study accepts the emergence of non-state women's organizations as indicative of an incipient movement and examines this field of social activism in …

"... Rivalry, Hostility, And Romanita." An Ethnographic Study Of As Roma's Ultras, Mark Wayne Dyal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This is an ethnographic study of Italian Ultras, the organized and ritualized fan organizations associated with professional soccer in Italy. It examines the relationship between their belief and behaviors, paying particular attention to their political behaviors. The study follows 15 months of anthropological fieldwork undertaken in Rome, Italy. Its goal is to assess the role that the Ultras' particular critical understanding of modernity plays in organizing and actualizing their behaviors inside and outside of sporting contexts. Part of my effort in this study is to examine local reactions to national and international issues of globalization and liberalization. In following this …

Ritual Effigies And Corporeality In Kaqchikel Maya Soul Healing, Servando Z. Hinojosa

Anthropology Faculty Publications

To treat some cases of soul-loss, Kaqchikel Mayas use ritual effigies of the sufferer. These effigies, called k’al k’u’x, are made by wrapping the sufferer’s clothing around a wooden armature. For the effigy to be a viable ritual surrogate, the ritualist must douse it with water, heat it, and strike it during a soul-calling ceremony. This handling instantiates corporeality in the effigy by kindling normative body states in it, states that must be stimulated in the sufferer’s own body for it to spiritually reintegrate. Such Maya ritual substitution practices are how Kaqchikels deploy ritual surrogation processes that hinge on …

Coping With Forest Fragmentation: A Comparison Of Colobus Angolensis Palliatus Dietary Diversity And Behavioral Plasticity In The East Sagara Forest, Tanzania., Noah T. Dunham

Honors Projects

Habitat destruction and forest fragmentation are perhaps the largest threats to primate species around the world. While national parks, games reserves, and primate sanctuaries are instrumental in primate conservation, research suggests that some non-governmentally protected forest fragments may also serve as viable habitats for primates. Of course not all primates respond to fragmentation in the same way, but a species’ ability to survive in a fragment relates to 1) home range size 2) degree of frugivory 3) dietary flexibility and behavioral plasticity and 4) ability to utilize matrix habitats. Here I describe these variables in relation to black and white …

Tapal Kuda Bergolak: Suatu Kajian Tentang Resistensi Terhadap Pelengseran Presiden Gus Dur 2001, Abd. Latif Bustami

Antropologi Indonesia

This article describes social resistance in Tapal Kuda community against The People Consultative Assembly (Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat) who deposed President Wahid (Gus Dur) in 2001. Their resistance resulted in loss of human life as well as the destruction of religious buildings, educational institutions, and other public facilities, which are believed to have historical connections to their opponents, i.e. Muhammadiyah or its leader, Amien Rais. The Tapal Kuda community shares typical cultural characteristics such as Maduranese, Muslim, “remain traditional”, based on Ulama, and made their kiai (religious leader) as the highest role-model. Additionally, they have developed network of religious boarding schools …

Language Choice And Shift Among Families Of Sino-Malay Mixed Marriages., Mohana Raju

Student Works (2010-2019)

In this study, the researcher has made an attempt to investigate the language choice of Sino-Malay mixed marriage families residing in Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. The study hopes to look for any existing patterns to indicate if these families are shifting from the native tongues existing at home, namely, Malay and Chinese, to another language due to their choice of language for selected domains and perception towards the mother tongues. In this study, participants consisted of sixteen (16) Sino-Malay mixed-marriage families of which the fathers are all Malay and mothers are all of Chinese descent. The theoretical framework of the …

Ship To Shore: Inuit, Early Europeans, And Maritime Landscapes In The Northern Gulf Of St. Lawrence, William W. Fitzhugh, Anja Herzog, Sophia Perdikaris, Brenna Mcleod

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

Recent research at Hare Harbor on the Quebec Lower North Shore in the northeastern Gulf of St. Lawrence reveals great potential for archaeological and historical research on Basque and other early European activities in the northwestern North Atlantic. Although considerable data have been retrieved from Red Bay, Labrador, and a few other sixteenth-century sites in the Strait of Belle Isle and Gulf of St. Lawrence, archaeological knowledge of the early European phase of North American history in this region is limited, and information about post-sixteenth-century Basque occupations is nearly nonexistent. This chapter reports on a multicomponent site with late sixteenth-century …

Factors Controlling Pre-Columbian And Early Historic Maize Productivity In The American Southwest, Part 1: The Southern Colorado Plateau And Rio Grande Regions, Larry V. Benson

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Maize is the New World’s preeminent grain crop and it provided the economic basis for human culture in many regions within the Americas. To flourish, maize needs water, sunlight (heat), and nutrients (e.g., nitrogen). In this paper, climate and soil chemistry data are used to evaluate the potential for dryland (rain-on- field) agriculture in the semiarid southeastern Colorado Plateau and Rio Grande regions. Processes that impact maize agriculture such as nitrogen mineralization, infiltration of precipitation, bare soil evaporation, and transpiration are discussed and evaluated. Most of the study area, excepting high-elevation regions, receives sufficient solar radiation to grow maize. The …

Power & Politics In Resettlement: A Case Study Of Bhutanese Refugees, Christie Shrestha

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

This thesis examines the complexities in the resettlement of Bhutanese refugees. Using anthropological ethnographic field methods, this thesis explores the power dynamics between the employees of a resettlement organization and the refugees and the intricate webs of power within different institutions, such as local NGOs and healthcare institutions. The study argues that humanitarian actions and interventions are often driven by bureaucratic politics and policies that contradict what humanitarianism stands for as apolitical and value-neutral. These contradictions or paradoxes in humanitarianism also are also present in refugee resettlement. Analyzing these paradoxes that characterize resettlement, this thesis illuminates structural discontinuities or gaps …

When Women Migrate: Children And Caring Labor In Puebla, Mexico, Denise Geraci

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This investigation concerns children and caregivers in Santa Ursula, a town in Puebla, Mexico from which many women have migrated to the United States in recent years. The expansion of female migration since the 1980s and children who remain behind in women's poorer nations of origin, where households, communities and governments assume their care, are salient features of global economic restructuring (Hondagneu-Sotelo 2001). This study analyzes how children's circumstances change when mothers migrate, and how family, community and state representatives understand and deal with these changes. Social reproduction in a community like Santa Ursula supports not only a source of …

Faunal Analysis Of The Early Modern Bishop's Farm At Skalholt, Arnessysla Iceland, George Hambrecht

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation presents the analysis of faunal material recovered from middens outside the main complex of the Bishop of Southern Iceland's Cathedral farm at Skáholt, Arnessysla, Iceland. Issues of diet, deposition patterns, as well as participation in larger trade and intellectual networks addressed. All of these issues are examined in order to investigate larger issues centered around the early modern Atlantic world. The Skáholt material is also compared with the larger body of existing early modern Icelandic archaeofaunal data in order to investigate issues of adaptation and resilience in the face of harsh climatic as well as social and economic …

Assessing (Multi)Culturalism Through Public Art Practices, Anru Lee, Perng-Juh Peter Shyong

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Halaf Bead, Pendant And Seal 'Workshops' At Domuztepe: Technological And Reductive Strategies., Ellen H. Belcher

Publications and Research

Almost a thousand beads, pendants and seals have been excavated from the site of Domuztepe over the past decade. This paper is based on an examination of the general typology and technology of this assemblage. Manufacturing systems based upon social networks of decentralised organisation of small production ‘workshops’ are explored. It is suggested that these networks shared a system of sequenced actions according to raw material and finished products. A group of unfinished beads in the preliminary phase of production suggests evidence of batched reduction and finishing strategies that balanced breakage risk with a high level of proficiency. At Domuztepe …

Women's Rights And The Millennium Development Goals, Caroline A. Jones

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

The Millennium Development Goals are one of the first sets of time-bound, attainable goals that directly address and attempt to reduce the number of people living in poverty. Women are disproportionately affected by poor socioeconomic conditions and the recognition of this, via the Millennium Development Goals, is a positive step forward for women’s rights. This paper will focus on the fifth Millennium Development Goal, to reduce maternal mortality. The argument will be presented that this goal is insufficient in implementing sustainable change as it does not address the underlying cultural practices such as economic disparity, violence against women, and access …

The Life-Giving Stone: Ethnoarchaeology Of Maya Metates, Michael T. Searcy

Faculty Publications

Descendants of the ancient civilizations of southern Mexico and Central America are one of the greatest sources of information of Maya life. today the modern Maya live and work in the rural villages and towns spread out over this vast region. Many Maya communities continue to thrive culturally, while others, due to colonialism and civil war, have lost many of their traditions and customs. But even those groups ravaged by the strains of globalization ad the industrial revolution have retained some thread of cultural patrimony that ties them to their prehistoric ancestors. This is manifest in many different forms of …

Decorative Renascence: Tracing Early Ceramic Designs Into The Late Prehistoric Period In The U.S. Southwest/Northwest Mexico, Michael T. Searcy

Faculty Publications

Cordell (1997) has characterized the late prehistoric period (A.D 1200-1450) in the U.S. Southwest/Northwest Mexico as one of crystallization when ―many specific forms, designs, symbols, or motifs can be traced to much earlier periods‖ but, "they came together in new ways". This paper traces the emergence of designs and motifs among earlier ceramic traditions, such as Mimbres and Ancestral Puebloan, and their later appearance on Salado and Casas Grandes pottery. I use design analysis to explore the spread of styles and symbols throughout time and space and show how these methods contribute to interpretations of interregional interaction and cultural continuity.

Mississippi Period Occupational And Political History Of The Middle Savannah River Valley, Keith Stephenson

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Research focusing on the political economy of Mississippian mound centers in the middle Savannah River valley has prompted a reevaluation of current interpretations regarding societal complexity. I conclude the clearest expression of classic Mississippian riverine-adaptation is evident at centers immediately below the Fall Line with their political ties to chiefdom centers in the Piedmont, and especially Etowah. By contrast, those centers on the interior Coastal Plain were politically autonomous with minimal signatures in social ranking. The scale of appropriated labor and resulting level of surplus production, necessitated by upland settlement on the Aiken Plateau, fostered social contradictions making communally-oriented and …

Preliminary Efficacy Of A Computer-Delivered Hiv Prevention Intervention For African American Teenage Females, Charles H. Klein, Josefina J. Card

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study translated SiHLE (Sisters Informing, Healing, Living, and Empowering), a 12-hour Centers for Disease Control and Prevention evidence based group-level intervention for African American females 14-18 years of age, into a 2-hour computer-delivered individual-level intervention. A randomized controlled trial (n = 178) was conducted to examine the efficacy of the new Multimedia SiHLE intervention. Average condom-protected sex acts (proportion of vaginal sex acts with condoms, last 90 days) for sexually active participants receiving Multimedia SiHLE rose from M = 51% at baseline to M = 71% at 3-month follow-up (t = 2.06, p = .05); no statistically significant difference …

What Anthropologists Should Know About The New Evolutionary Synthesis, Cameron M. Smith, Julia Cleverly Ruppell

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Discoveries of modern biology are forcing a re-evaluation of even the central pillars of neo- Darwinian evolution. Anthropologists study the processes and results of biological and biocultural evolution, so they must be aware of the scope and nature of these changes in biology. We introduce these changes, comment briefly on how will influence anthropology, and suggest numerous readings to introduce anthropologists to the significance and substance of the new evolutionary synthesis.