Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

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Ałhił nda’ jilnishgo, Naa’nish ła eti’ Working Together, Gets Work Done THE NAVAJO APPROACH TO CULTURAL RESOURCES AND HERITAGE MANAGEMENT ON THE NAVAJO-GALLUP WATER SUPPLY PIPELINE
(2021) Billie, Tamara; Lafrenz Samuels, Katheryn; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Since the mid-1800s, non-Navajo and Non-Indigenous archaeologists and researchers dictated the Navajo people's history a Western scientific lens. The Indigenous Archaeology movement of the 1970s and 1980s gave Indigenous people a voice not present before in modern archaeology. The campaign incorporated values important to Native people like oral traditions, landscapes, and sacred places. The revitalization effort has impelled the Navajo Nation's Heritage and Historic Preservation Department to reclaim its heritage. The Navajo THPO is unique in that it decides what is significant to Navajo history, archaeology, and culture. This Navajo approach to heritage is apparent in the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Pipeline project. As the waterline weaves a path through a culturally rich landscape, the Navajo THPO uses its tribal laws and Federal legislation to manage and protect its cultural resources.
ARCHAEOBOTANICAL LEGACIES: CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE THROUGH AN INVESTIGATION OF MACROBOTANICALS, MICRORESIDUES, AND ETHNOBOTANICAL DATA AT 12OR0001, HOOSIER NATIONAL FOREST, INDIANA
(2024) Woodruff, Emma; Palus, Matthew; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Unequal archaeobotanical preservation has wide-reaching impacts on archaeologists’ views on what is culturally significant. By looking at the intersections and differences between ethnobotanical, macrobotanical, and microresidue data I examine the information streams that are available to archaeologists tasked with determining regulatory “ cultural significance” with regards to plants. This thesis documents the only microresidue research conducted as of this writing for 12Or0001, a site located on Hoosier National Forest in southern Indiana. Preliminary research is vital to beginning any consultation or collaboration process so that informed consent regarding laboratory methods and materials identification can be obtained. The viability of future microresidue studies, and their place in Cultural and Heritage Resource Management, are examined within the framework of existing United States legislation. Future research in ancient starches should include consultation and may aid the recovery of knowledge about traditionally utilized plants that has been lost to Indigenous Peoples over time.
AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF CLOVIS BLADE TECHNOLOGY AT THUNDERBIRD (44WR11), A PALEOLITHIC STRATIFIED SITE OF THE FLINT RUN COMPLEX, WARREN COUNTY, VA
(2024) Fredrickson, Kurt N; Palus, Matthew; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The presence of Paleoindians in the Eastern United States at the end of the Pleistocene has been a focus of scientific examination for more than a century, resulting in the discovery of numerous sites. These sites, occupied more than ten millennia ago, are extremely rare, and even more so in an undisturbed context. The Flint Run Complex in Northern Virginia contains not one, but several Late Pleistocene and Holocene open-air stratified Paleoindian sites. Thunderbird (44WR11) is the main site within the complex with evidence of human occupation in the region at around 9,990 BP. Numerous tools were recovered which fit the Clovis technocomplex and extensive analysis has been performed on bifacial technology at the site. Additionally, the identification of blades at Thunderbird would support previous assertions that the site was an important refugia on a migratory pattern where scheduled resource exploitation and toolkit refurbishments took place as part of seasonal rounds. How does the analysis of lithic blade production at the Thunderbird site (44WR11) refine our understanding of localized seasonal migration and exploitation of local resources among Paleoindian people of the Shenandoah River Valley. Confirmation of blades and their use would indicate a more robust exploitation of the region’s natural resources and reinforce previous assessments of the importance of Thunderbird as a sedentary seasonal base camp. Through the examination of 324 lithic artifacts from the site, this study seeks to identify the presence of a concerted blade manufacturing technology where it was believed one did not exist, and better understand the behaviors tied to those tools. Blades are a known part of the Clovis toolkit and have been found at sites across the United States. The identification of blades at Thunderbird will provide an expanded understating of the Clovis toolkit, the spread of blade technology, and of Paleoindian lifeways in the Middle Atlantic region.
The Archaeology of Enslaved Children in Antebellum America
(2024) Lee, Samantha Jane; Leone, Mark P; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation is the first archaeological study that centers on the lives and experiences of enslaved children in the nineteenth century United States. I utilize a combination of archival research, oral histories and nineteenth-century slave narratives, as well as an archaeological artifact analysis component to provide innovative and necessary ways to understand how children experienced enslavement and how they may be represented archaeologically. This dissertation addresses the ways in which faunal and plant remains may be representative of the hunting, fishing, and foraging activities of enslaved children. A comprehensive summary of the work and labor that enslaved children were responsible for at early ages highlights the abundance of possibilities for artifact interpretations. Additionally, a critical analysis of archival documents and slave narratives demonstrates that not only were enslaved children considered a staple of the domestic slave trade, they were raised in virtually the same way and according to the same methods across the American Lower South, suggesting a childrearing protocol widely shared both publicly and privately between enslavers.
Beyond Consultation: Rethinking the Indigenous Right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent in Costa Rica
(2024) Breitfeller, Jessica Ashley; Chernela, Janet M.; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is an international legal norm meant to ensure Indigenous Peoples’ right to be consulted about projects that affect their lands. Over the past decade, the small Central American country of Costa Rica has strived to develop and implement a series of new, ‘culturally appropriate’ consultation protocols to better uphold the right to FPIC. This dissertation investigates the concept of FPIC as it applies to the Indigenous Bribri in the context of Costa Rica's burgeoning national forestry and climate change strategy known as the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) program. Drawing on extended, multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, including semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, this dissertation addresses the issues of Indigenous agency and autonomy by considering the ways in which the country’s REDD+ consultations and emerging FPIC processes serve to both strengthen and weaken communities’ rights to participation and self-determination. Weaving together a conceptual framework from political ecology, critical development theory, and political and legal anthropology, this study reveals that the country’s current FPIC protocols perpetuate historical state-Indigenous relations while simultaneously creating new opportunities for negotiation, compromise, and resistance. I demonstrate that FPIC consultations are all at once sites of ontological conflict, a legal instrument for the ontological defense of territoriality, and participatory spaces of (re)negotiation and resistance wherein ontological differences are arbitrated in an effort to shape policy and transform age-old power relations. Ultimately, this research deepens our understanding of how Western mechanisms designed to protect human rights and natural resources intersect with Indigenous ways of knowing and being to inform broader debates on Indigenous self-determination and climate justice. In doing so, it asks us to consider how we—as scholars, advocates, and practitioners—may go about collaboratively reimagining and rethinking FPIC in the future.
BROUGHT UP CAREFULLY: THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF WOMEN, RACE RELATIONS, DOMESTICITY, AND MODERNIZATION IN ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND, 1865-1930
(2013) Knauf, Jocelyn; Leone, Mark P.; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation explores the ways in which gender identity played an important role in shaping social and economic systems in post-Civil War Annapolis, Maryland. Focusing on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this study examines the definition, negotiation, and contestation of normative ideas about gender and acceptable social relationships during this time period of numerous social, political, and economic changes. Emergent gender ideologies were closely connected to citywide and national priorities, and normalized identity configurations were used to determine who would be considered eligible for civil rights and the protections of citizenship, and to individualize inequalities. Utilizing historical and archaeological evidence from two streets in the historic district of Annapolis, this dissertation focuses on the ways in which negotiations of gender norms can be seen through archaeologically recovered material culture - namely historic features, ceramics, glass, and fauna. This dissertation argues that the "public" project of governance in Annapolis was accomplished partially through negotiations about "domestic" spaces and responsibilities, which are closely tied to gender and race. During the post-Civil War period, developing gender norms - including ideas about what made a man worthy of citizenship or a woman worthy of protection - played an important part in reformulated expressions of white supremacy, initiatives to modernize cities, and the organization of domestic spaces and priorities. A variety of tactics were used to negotiate gendered identities in Annapolis, and variations in the ways that gender ideologies were expressed reflect active mediations of dominant ideologies.
California Mission Bell Markers: A Study of Heritage and Culture
(2024) Dover, Amanda Lee; Palus, Matthew; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Abstract Mission bell markers line the El Camino Real Highway, which is referred to as the 101 Freeway in contemporary times. Mission bell markers can also be found in public spaces throughout California. These mission bell markers were installed beginning in the early 20th century. To many, these mission bell markers hold a variety of symbolic representations. For some people, these mission bell markers are a symbol of their culture and heritage, while many others view these bells as an oppressive instrument of colonialism. Most of the California missions put forth a narrative of benevolence and a skewed view of history. This narrative glorifies and celebrates Spanish occupation and colonization while distorting California Indian culture and identity. The significance of this work brings awareness to the myth of the mission. The myth of the mission is one of a complex romanticized history that capitalizes on tourism and perpetuates the dominance and erasure of California Indigenous peoples. This thesis was also written to bring awareness to the California 4th grade mission curriculum that is put forth by the state of California in most public schools. This curriculum teaches a fabricated narrative of Spanish and California Indian relations. This curriculum, like the California mission’s narrative, perpetuates the myth of California Indian extinction. The 4th grade mission curriculum needs to be thoughtfully and respectfully revised. To explore the symbolism that mission bell markers hold to different individuals two surveys, an anonymous survey and a three-question survey were conducted. The results of these two surveys shed light on how certain groups of people and different individuals feel about mission bell markers that are found throughout the California landscape. Heritage is complicated and complex. There are different conceptions of mission bell markers that exist within different descendant communities and the public. These symbols hold different meanings to different people. How can highly charged perspectives of the California mission bell markers held among Indigenous and Californio descendant groups be reconciled in public heritage?
CAREER TRAJECTORIES AND INCORPORATION STRATEGIES IN THE LIFE HISTORIES OF FOREIGN-BORN FACULTY IN THE U.S.
(2015) Carattini, Amy Marie; Freidenberg, Judith N; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The primary aim of this study is to understand the factors that influence and affect high-skilled immigrant social practices and adjustment within an occupational unit located in the U.S. The secondary aim is to contribute to the body of knowledge in the process of transforming public perceptions from that of classifying immigrants almost exclusively in low skilled sectors to acknowledging the diversity of skill among the foreign-born. Through research with foreign-born faculty, located at a research university, this study focuses on career trajectories with special attention to domains of connection. Research findings indicate that their visibility as foreign-born is complex. Foreign-born faculty are no longer counted in university data when they have naturalized; however, many are recognized and counted as adding to minority quotas (such as Black, Latin@, and Asian). Foreign-born faculty who participated in this study, referred to as study collaborators for their engagement in the research process, often described who they were and what they did in relation to their occupation rather than their countries of birth and/or settlement--expressing a range of social connection(s) and incorporation strategies. The guiding question for this research is: "What variables influence domains of connection for foreign-born faculty?" In order to answer this question, 48 life history interviews were used to understand how foreign-born faculty constructed their career paths from early educational experiences to selecting teaching and/or research positions in their chosen field--both of which are connected to their subsequent/on-going immigration decisions. Research findings indicate two major career trajectories as they intersect with immigration, 1) being trained and professionally developed in the U.S. or 2) securing employment in the U.S. after being trained and professionally developed abroad. Three domains of connection are identified: political, lifestyle, and professional. This study contributes to anthropology of immigration and recent trends in scholarship by following skilled immigrant incorporation into the labor market to understand their social practices and concludes with suggestions for applied and policy contributions.
Chincoteague in Transition: Vernacular Art and Adaptation in Community Heritage
(2014) Sullivan, Kristin Marie; Chambers, Erve; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
In addition to serving aesthetic or representational purposes, art can express values related to heritage and identity politics. This dissertation discusses the ways in which the vernacular arts of hunting decoy and decorative wildfowl carving in Chincoteague, Virginia, as well as the closely related tradition of wildfowl hunting, express understandings of various forms of heritage in touristic and community exchange, representing and helping tell the story of the ways in which this locale's rural population has adapted to, resisted, and at times encouraged changes related to tourism development and environmental regulation. In the process this project considers how embodied cultural knowledge is presented through carving and closely related practices such as hunting, how environmental and community values relate to carving and carving-related traditions, and the ways in which community members negotiate identity and maintain the integrity of their communities through the production and appreciation of localized artistic expression. Research supporting this dissertation consists primarily of systematic participant observation and key informant interviewing with hunting decoy and decorative wildfowl carvers. It was conducted over the course of nearly two years living on Chincoteague Island, developing close relationships with wildfowl carvers and others associated with this tradition, for example shop owners, arts organizations, local historians, hunters, and museum specialists.
CHRONIC SUFFERING: CHRONIC ILLNESS, DISABILITY, AND VIOLENCE AMONG MEXICAN MIGRANT WOMEN
(2022) Guevara, Emilia Mercedes; Getrich, Christina M; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation seeks to better understand how Mexican migrant women who work in the Maryland crab industry make sense of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, asthma, and musculoskeletal pain while at the same time living spatially and temporally complicated lives as circular temporary migrant laborers. I explore how immigration and labor policies and practices, constrained and conditional access to resources and care, and exposure to multiple forms of violence structure their chronic illness experiences and entanglements of biological and social processes that intersect. Together, these embodied biological and social processes coalesce into what I describe as problemas crónica-gendered “chronic problems” – and other disruptions that migrant women endure across time and transnational space. I describe how problemas crónicas manifest themselves throughout the lives and migratory careers of Mexican migrant women and how they grapple with obstacles as they seek care, renegotiate their identities, and re/build their lives.
Clinical Practice in Prenatal Care: Perspectives of Latina Mothers, Healthcare Providers, and Scientists on Male Circumcision
(2015) Colon-Cabrera, David; Freidenberg, Judith N; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This study examines how the interplay between biomedical and ethnomedical perspectives impacts on reproductive health services and consumer decision to circumcise among Latinos in Prince Georges County, Maryland. International research influenced circumcision decision-making during prenatal care: little is known about how neonatal male circumcision (MC) is understood at local clinics; about what patients and providers know regarding circumcision benefits; and the reasoning behind the choices made regarding MC among Latinos. What are the beliefs, practices, and policies regarding MC at community clinics and the international research that influences these policies? Ethnographic research was conducted in three clinics in the state of Maryland including participant observation in the clinics, and interviews with healthcare providers, Latina women who sought services, and scientists and policy makers currently active in MC research. The study explored the interplay between biomedical and ethnomedical knowledge of prenatal care services. Interviews were also conducted with six scientists and policy makers currently active in MC research. The study found that as a reproductive health procedure MC illustrated a complex interplay between biomedical and consumer knowledge. Specifically, healthcare providers did not talk about MC to patients mainly because: 1) They thought that the majority of the Latina women seeking services did not want the procedure; 2) The clinics are constrained for resources and circumcision is not a priority when compared to other prenatal care topics deemed more important in the short prenatal visits. In addition, the policy makers and scientists made assumptions referring to the discussion of circumcision by reproductive and sexual health services clinics when providing prenatal care to clients. Their knowledge relied exclusively on the results of clinical trial data, and how this data could inform policy and clinical guidelines. This dissertation contributes to understanding how services impact MC decision-making and increase the pool of data in regards to the feasibility of overarching MC policies aimed at infants. In addition, this research recommends to critically examine MC as a biomedical practice that is now being rationalized as an HIV prevention strategy.
THE CLOISTERED INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE OHIO & ERIE CANAL: AN ANALYSIS AND INVENTORY OF THE CANAL WITH A THEORETICAL LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPROACH
(2022) Waugh, Mason Richard; Palus, Matthew M; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The period of the 1820s and 1830s experienced a burst of canal construction across Ohio. The Ohio & Erie Canal connected the Cuyahoga River to Akron, and thence southward to Portsmouth along the Ohio River. The opening of the canal allowed early settlers within Ohio to easily transport products, effectively lowering the costs of goods and increasing the profitability of businesses utilizing the thoroughfare. Towns near the canal flourished as commodities previously difficult to obtain were now brought from long distances. These improvements that the Ohio & Erie Canal brought, as well as the context and significance of the canal, have been thoroughly documented in historical literature. A few intact portions of the Ohio & Erie Canal are currently included on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and listed on the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) online Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping system. Several Cultural Resource Management (CRM) compliance surveys have also identified and documented canal remnants. However, most portions of the canal are not inventoried or listed on the SHPO online GIS mapping system. Few components of the canal are listed on the NRHP and within Scioto County there are only two locks represented on the NRHP. The general location of the Ohio & Erie Canal is well documented on historical maps; however, the placement of stream crossings and ancillary components (culverts, weirs, bridges) are poorly understood or perhaps cloistered, communicating little to the outside world as they are currently known. A series of plat maps was recorded in the early 1900s by the Canal Commission of the State of Ohio. Plat maps of the Ohio & Erie Canal in Scioto County were obtained for this project and were provided by the Ohio History Connection (2022). No large-scale effort to my knowledge has been made to georeference the plat maps of the Ohio & Erie Canal and analyze archaeological potential using Historical GIS (hGIS), which uses historical documents such as plat maps to answer questions about the past or to inventory canal features based on their location. To address the lack of recorded ancillary structures on the southern descent of the Ohio & Erie Canal, a total of 35 separate portions of the canal plat maps were georeferenced to the modern landscape to identify archaeological potential, ancillary structure locations, and to support recommendations for new contributing resources to the NRHP-listed historic districts. Seven separate categories of ancillary canal components or features which could be extrapolated from the canal plat maps were assigned GPS coordinates. The seven categories consisted of aqueducts, buildings, bridges, culverts, inlets, locks, and waste weirs. These components represent 70 individual features correlating to what was indicated on the canal plat maps through stations 1770-2660 in Scioto County. The inventory of these features breaks down the Ohio & Erie Canal component types and lists coordinates to increase accessibility of the information for future researchers and planners. A cross comparison of the portions of the canal currently listed on the NRHP and the SHPO online GIS mapping system is also completed and contained in this thesis. With the previously inventoried canal components and the newly georeferenced portions of the canal analyzed, this thesis assists further studies in assessing archaeological potential along the canal. Lastly, a recommendation is made suggesting which ancillary components along the canal could be contributing elements to the discontinuous or incomplete NRHP listing. This thesis attempts to provide interested researchers a better understanding of the ancillary components of the canal and how these components should be evaluated for NRHP eligibility. The Ohio & Erie Canal was not simply a historical waterway providing transportation of commodities, but also an early historical engineering feat containing a culmination of various structures whose design was to maintain water levels and one of the first mass engineering attempts in Ohio to manage the landscape and communities around the canal. Culverts along the canal are not only important, but they are also necessary for understanding how the Ohio & Erie Canal operated, how it adapted to certain topographical challenges, and were essential to the functioning of the canal. Removing culverts along the canal would not have allowed the canal to function due to the necessity of proper water levels. The public dissemination of the georeferenced data included in this thesis is intended to be a lasting benefit to gongoozlers, historians, researchers, and planners alike. As such this data will be made available by allowing the georeferenced maps and associated layers available through ArcGIS Pro. The map package in ArcGIS Pro is available upon request by contacting the author of this thesis.
Creating Anthracite Women: The Roles of Architecture and Material Culture in Identity Formation in Pennsylvania Anthracite Company Towns, 1854-1940.
(2019) Westmont, Victoria Camille; Leone, Mark P; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Coal company towns are defined by the experiences of the men who owned and the men who worked in the mines, broadly ignoring the women and families who also inhabited and toiled in these spaces. In the Northeastern Pennsylvania anthracite region, women undertook a variety of methods to change their social positions through the renegotiation of their gender, ethnic, and class identities. Performing ‘proper’ middle class American gender expressions, including through the adoption of culturally-coded objects, provided working class women with greater social power and cultural autonomy within the context of systemic worker deprivation and ubiquitous corporate domination. Drawing on identity performance theories, material culture theories related to gender, class, and migration, and theories of the built environment, I examine how women established identities based in and reinforced by material culture and spatial organization Drawing on archaeologically recovered material culture, oral histories, archival research, and architectural data, I demonstrate the ways in which working class women used cultural norms to elevate themselves and their status within their communities. Women were able to balance their needs with ubiquitous gender oppression within working class industrial society by mastering the tasks assigned to women – responsibilities as mothers, familial ministers, household managers, and feminine matrons – and using those positions to pursue what they needed for their own survival. These identities were further negotiated and enforced by the built environment. By examining household decorations, house floorplans, house lot spatial organization, and company town layouts as a whole, I discuss how workers and company town architects used the built environment to exert and subvert ideas of power, control, and self-determination. This research reveals that the process of identity formation amongst working class women in the anthracite region was a careful and complicated conversation between national level cultural influencers, industrial directors, and company town social trends. As women sought out and exploited new ways of exercising discretion over their otherwise structurally circumscribed situations, they gained social leverage and influence that has been consistently ignored in modern retellings of their lives.
Creating Effective and Sustainable Public Archaeology: An Analytical Roadmap
(2023) Henderson, Breanna; Palus, Matthew; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Archaeology is the study, and by extension, the story of cultures, and everyone deserves access to their stories and those of their ancestors. The better one understands archaeology, culture, and history, the better one understands themselves and those around them. Thus, this thesis seeks to identify what approaches are needed to create sustainable, effective, and engaging public archaeology programs. Due to the extreme importance of further efforts of inclusion, collaboration, and diversity within archaeology, which will be explained and explored within the following chapters, this analysis will quantify the myriad of ways in which public archaeology can be achieved and showcase that it is possible to provide impactful programs for a variety of communities and audiences, no matter how lavish or frugal one’s budget may be.Over the course of this thesis, six public archaeology programs will be examined through twelve metrics. The programs featured are The Estate Little Princess Archaeology Project, Archaeology in the Community, Nome Archaeology Camp, The Sugarland Ethno-History Project, the Texas Archeological Stewardship Network, and Project Archaeology. All six programs involve some level of collaboration with other archaeological and/or educational entities. The metrics were designed after careful consideration of the current public archaeology models proposed by Colwell (2016) and Atalay (2012). Colwell’s Collaborative Continuum and Atalay’s Community-Based Participatory Research models are more inclusive and diverse in their scope than Grima’s Multi-Perspective Model. All three models will be discussed in this thesis. Lastly, the metrics used are not meant to be rigid or to be used for “grading” each program on any sort of scale, but rather to highlight the methods required to create and sustain effective public archaeology. Each public archaeology program should be individualized to fit its specific audience, leaving participants with a greater respect or connection to the past, depending on where they fit within a given narrative. It is hoped that this thesis will inspire more to get involved in public archaeology and help to showcase that it can be achieved at any level.
The Cultural Ecology of Youth and Gender-Based Violence in Northern UgandaGANDA
(2015) Lundgren, Rebecka Inga; Whitehead, Tony; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Twenty years of conflict in northern Uganda has resulted in high rates of gender-based violence, unintended pregnancy and a generation exposed to a lifetime of violence. Understanding gender socialization is critical because gender role differentiation intensifies during adolescence, and hierarchies of power in intimate relationships are established. Life histories with 40 adolescents in transitional life stages; puberty, older adolescents, newly married and new parents give voice to gendered experiences of puberty, sexuality, reproduction and violence. 35 in-depth interviews were conducted with individuals nominated by youth as significant in their lives. The Cultural Systems Paradigm (CSP) offers an organizing framework to understand the intersectionality of the components of cultural systems within which youth develop. Social settings, systems and processes shape the acquisition of gender identities. Adolescents depend on others for care and resources, and their networks play influential roles manifesting idea systems and imposing or mediating historical and economic context. Boys and girls recognize that social norms are gendered and identify mechanisms for "learning" gender. Less evident enculturation processes include gendered time and space, experiences of violence, kinship systems and political and historical influences. Social sanctions maintain gender norms/roles, making it difficult for youth to forge new ways of interacting. Study results elucidate the ways masculine and feminine identities are shaped by observation and experience of intimate partner violence and harsh physical punishment. The experience of internal displacement solidified inequitable gender norms, fostering masculinities rooted in violence. Results also suggest that gender is stamped on the bodies of developing boys and girls during puberty. This stage also marks the beginning of vigilant enforcement of increasingly rigid gender roles by family, peers and community. Recognition of the power of hidden influences and social sanctions for gender role transgressions informed an intervention which encourages youth to reflect critically on the examples in their lives and amplifies the voices of gender equitable role models. Building on pathways of resistance to hegemonic gender identities identified during the research, a life course approach was developed to provide differentiated, yet complementary, interventions at key transition points.
Cultural Heritage and Climate Change Adaptation Pathways
(2018) Van Dolah, Elizabeth Rebecca; Paolisso, Michael; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This dissertation seeks to ethnographically understand the role of cultural heritage in climate change adaptation decision-making, and the mechanisms by which heritage is used to shape adaptation pathways for responding to climate-induced socio-ecological changes. Cultural heritage can broadly be understood as the practice of engaging with change through an ongoing social processing of the past. Research on cultural heritage to date has demonstrated the ways that heritage is closely linked to issues of identity, power, and sociocultural processes of change (Lafrenz Samuels 2018). In the context of climate change adaptation, heritage research has much to offer to a growing body of literature that points to the need to better understand the underlying sociocultural factors that affect social resilience and human adaptation (Cote and Nightingale 2012). This dissertation speaks to these calls in approaching heritage as a mechanism for carving climate change adaptation pathways. I explore the role of heritage as an adaptation pathway in the context of a collaborative adaptation planning project called the Integrated Coastal Resiliency Assessment (ICRA), which was carried out on the Deal Island Peninsula, a rural, low-lying area on the Maryland eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. I utilize qualitative methods in semi-structured interviewing, participant observation, and text analysis to ethnographically elucidate a range of heritage threads and to analyze how these threads shape collaborative adaptation decision-making through the ICRA process. Findings from this research identify three overarching heritage themes that are embedded in local Methodist traditions, traditional watermen livelihood practices, and histories of isolation and independence. I demonstrate how these threads are used to frame local understandings of socio-ecological change and climate change vulnerabilities on the Deal Island Peninsula. I also demonstrate how broader heritage deployments in the Chesapeake Bay shape local experiences of vulnerability through processes of disempowerment. I conclude with a discussion of how heritage is integrated into the ICRA process to facilitate a bottom-up decision-making process that re-empowers local actors in governing their own vulnerabilities. The main conclusion from this research points to the importance of considering heritage mobilization in climate change adaptation planning.
Cultural Resilience and Lithic Traditions: Examining Stone Tool Use and Production by Enslaved Africans in the Caribbean and Africa
(2024) Hardy, Darrell; Palus, Matthew M; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This thesis explores the continuation of African stone tool-making traditions among enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, specifically through case studies in Jamaica and St. Kitts. By examining archaeological evidence, this study argues that enslaved Africans on these islands were not merely passive recipients of new cultural influences but actively maintained and adapted their traditional lithic practices. The findings challenge the prevailing narrative that attributes all stone tools in the New World solely to Native American or European origins. Instead, they suggest a more complex picture of cultural persistence and adaptation, with enslaved Africans using their ancestral knowledge to produce and utilize stone tools in novel contexts. This research contributes to a broader understanding of the African Diaspora by highlighting the resilience and creativity of enslaved communities, who maintained cultural continuity despite displacement and enslavement. The study also underscores the need for re-evaluating the cultural significance of stone tools found at archaeological sites in the Caribbean, urging scholars to consider the contributions of African traditions in shaping the material culture of the region.
A DEEPER DIVE INTO THE WATER: A COMPARISON OF HYDROLOGIC FEATURES AS VARIABLES IN PRECONTACT SITE LOCATION PREDICTIVE MODELS FOR THE VIRGINIA PIEDMONT
(2024) Johnson, Jeffrey Wade; Palus, Matthew M; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The use of predictive modeling in Cultural Heritage Resource Management (CHRM) archaeology has become commonplace since its foundational principals were established in the 1980s, but criticisms of the practice persist, often centered around their lack of theory and dehumanization of the archaeological record. Proximity to water, typically expressed in the United States as distance to streamline data from the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD), is one of the most utilized variables when creating predictive models for Precontact period sites, but how does the variable “distance to streamline” compare to other hydrologic variables? In this thesis I seek to answer the question “how do distance to stream confluences and distance to wetlands compare to distance to streamline when attempting to predict Precontact site locations in the Virginia Piedmont?”The publication Quantifying the Present and Predicting the Past: Theory, Method, and Application of Archaeological Predictive Modeling (Altschul et al. 1988) is considered foundational to the practice of predictive modeling in archaeology; it is referenced frequently in modern theoretical works and throughout this thesis. The approaches to creating archaeological predictive models are typically divided into two camps: models that utilize an inductive, or correlative, approach and models that utilize a deductive, or theory driven, approach. Rather than establishing distance correlations between wetlands and stream confluences with previously recorded site data, I utilize a deductive approach where I establish the importance of those variables through archaeological theory pertaining to subsistence and settlement patterns and test their value with site data. Inductive associational models are very good at showing that archaeological site distribution is strongly patterned, but they often lack the explanatory framework that would be useful for management decisions based on their findings. The Study Area the models are tested on is located within Orange County, Virginia near the town of Locust Grove, and encompasses about 686 acres. The Study Area contains two main streams, named Cormack Run and Mine Run, the confluence of those streams and other lower order streams, as well as wetlands located adjacent to the streams. Precontact occupations have likely occurred in this region for the past 12,000 years, if not longer. The test results demonstrate that models created using deductively derived variables perform well enough to justify their use in CHRM contexts, but also include the added benefit of an explanatory framework. The guidelines for archaeological investigations in Virginia allow for the use of predictive models when conducting inventory surveys, meaning the archaeological predictive models (APM) created for this thesis could be utilized in a real-world context. The primary focus of this thesis was to determine if using hydrologic features other than streams, specifically stream confluences and wetlands, to express the distance to water variable would improve the performance of an APM. I demonstrated that, yes, other hydrologic features may be better predictors of Precontact site locations in the Virginia Piedmont. Secondarily, I hoped to show that an APM created using a deductive approach would perform well enough to be considered appropriate for use in CHRM contexts. The high probability areas of all three of the APMs I created yielded Kg values high enough to be considered as having predictive utility. This demonstrates that the use of all three of the APMs I created could be considered appropriate to guide survey efforts in a CHRM context.
Demographic Investigation of a Piscataway Creek Ossuary
(1974) Ashmore, Rebecca Anne Huss; Kerley, Ellis R.; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md)
Skeletal material from an ossuary on Piscataway Creek was analyzed to determine the minimum number of individuals present, and their sex, stature, developmental life stage and age at death. Cultural debris indicated a date of about 1400-1500 A.D. for the burial. At least 281 individuals were recovered, based on a count of right femoral and temporal petrous portions. Although no sex determination was possible for the 68 juveniles, age at death for this group ranged from 7 foetal months to 18 years. For the 213 adults, sex was evenly divided for the population, and mean stature was fixed at 172.86 cm. for males and 160.61 cm. for females. 107 adults died during young adulthood; 81 died during middle age; and 16 died during old age. A sample of each life stage was tested microscopically to determine age at death. Young adults averaged 56.19 years; and old adults averaged 65.71 years. Average age at death for the entire population was 39.33 years.
Discourse and Dissent in the Diaspora: Civic and Political Lives of Iranian Americans
(2013) Zarpour, Mari Tina; Freidenberg, Judith N; Anthropology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This study examines the political agency of Iranian immigrants. Through the rhetorical device of "political talk" which encompasses politically- and civically- oriented discourse, action and ideology, this research follows political talk as it presents itself in two locations within the public sphere: in the life course of Iranian Americans, and through online discourse. Methods used included a combination of conventional ethnography (participant observation, informal interviews, life history interviews), and virtual ethnography to develop a typology of political and civic action. Life history interviews provided an understanding of the meanings informants assigned to political and civic action within the larger trajectory of their lives, especially within the context of migration experiences. Virtual ethnography involved the analysis of three different Iranian digital diaspora communities. First, this research found that the civic and political spheres of engagement are linked, and that Iranian immigrants use organizations to learn participatory democracy. It illustrates how ethnic organizations, online and offline, act as both vehicles and activators for immigrant political participation and further civic engagement in the U.S. Additionally, this research uncovers how factors (age at migration, length of time in U.S., particular migration experience) impact notions of belonging and solidarity. It unpacks immigrant political agency to demonstrate the range of behaviors and activities which constitute political and civic participation. It contributes to understanding modes of citizenship and belonging by relating individual, historical, and situational variables in order to understand the relationship between homeland events, immigrant politicization and political behavior. Analysis of the three digital communities evidenced the multiple ways that digital diasporas can be a forum for engaging politically and in creating political community by allowing for a diversity of voices. Finally, merging conventional and virtual ethnography highlighted the dominant discourses about participation in larger society, and demonstrated the formation of a distinctly Iranian-American civil society.