Browsing by Subject "Anthropology"
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Item A new technique for delineating aboriginal trade and Spanish colonial expedition routes and the route of the Mendoza-Lopez expedition(Texas Tech University, 1998-05) Hays, JetOur theoretical background determines how research is viewed and can even color its resuhs. The historians who have studied the Mendoza-Lopez expedition use only documentary evidence or the experiences of early Anglo residents of the area in questions to come to their conclusions. The weakness here is that historical theoretical framework generally ignores the contributions of anyone but the writer of the source document. Thus the other researchers into the route of the Mendoza-Lopez expedition do not use the Jumano knowledge of the area or even acknowledge the use of native guides by the Europeans (Foster 1997: 22). Without Native help the Europeans would have been unable to traverse what to them was unknown wilderness. Another relevant theoretical perspective used in this thesis is military science, specifically the current doctrine (theory), Air-Land Battle. This also is a body of knowledge that gives the user a perspective that allows the filtration of all but the information that is relevant to a military problem. It also gives a common bases for decision making and for operations. At the very basic level the current U.S. Army doctrine is almost identical to the doctrine used around the world and back through history (Headquarters, Department of the Army 1993). Thus a understanding of current military theory gives insights into past military theory and thus can help identify locations that Mendoza, a Spanish military officer, would have used. The last theoretical perspective used here is a anthropological one. Despite a great deal of flux, there are three generally accepted modem archeological theories. Processual archeology, or "new" archeology, is an attempt to place a scientific approach to understanding prehistoric human behavior. It is characterized by an attempt to find testable hypotheses and theories used to interpret human behavior. Processualism views culture as a "extrasomatic adaptation," or the Unkage between humans and their environment. Technology is the means of that interface and thus by understanding technology you can understand human behay^or (Schiflfer 1996:580).Item A re-assembly and reconstruction of the 9th-century AD vessel wrecked off the coast of Bozburun, Turkey(Texas A&M University, 2005-11-01) Harpster, Matthew BenjaminIn 1973, researchers from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) were led to the site of a wrecked ship by sponge diver Mehmet A??k??n, near his hometown of Bozburun, Turkey. During further monitoring over the following 21 years by INA, the site was identified as a merchant vessel dating from the 9th century AD. The excavation of the site by INA researchers and students from Texas A&M University occurred over four summer seasons, from 1995 to 1998, and yielded approximately 900 whole or nearly-whole amphorae, personal items, palynological material, and approximately 35 percent of the vessel??s wooden hull. This dissertation is a record of the curation, cataloging, analysis and re-assembly of the preserved elements of the Bozburun vessel??s hull, as well as a theoretical reconstruction of the entire vessel. The Bozburun vessel is unique as it is the only fully-excavated shipwreck from the 9th century AD, and is, indeed, a valuable source of examples of ship construction in the Mediterranean between the 7th and the 11th centuries AD. This dissertation, after discussing the methods of excavation and cataloging methods, posits the hypothesis that the techniques used to build this vessel represent a transitional stage in shipbuilding technology, combining distinctly old and new techniques. While the builders used embedded edge joinery in the ship??s planking, a very old method, they also appear to have used a conceptual framework and standards to design the vessel as well; methods evident in modified forms in Italian shipbuilding treatises from the Renaissance.Item After Umm Kulthūm : pop music, postcolonial modernity, and gendered national subjectivity in Cairo(2010-05) Gilman, Daniel Jason; Keeler, Ward; Ali, Kamran A.; Strong, Pauline T.; Walters, Keith; Shemer, YaronI argue that the ways in which members of the youth generation in Cairo, Egypt consume Arabic-language popular music, and the aesthetic criteria by which they evaluate the worth of various songs and singers, constitute a key component, along with corresponding criteria of political, racial, gendered, and cultural authenticity of Egyptian subjectivity, of a new form of Egyptian gendered national subjectivity in postcolonial modernity. These aesthetic and authenticating criteria are fundamentally interrelated, as one’s consumer preferences within genres of Egyptian popular music are often taken as indicative of the nature of one’s Egyptian subjectivity. For previous generations in postcolonial Egypt, discriminating taste for high modernist aesthetics in popular music, especially the singer Umm Kulthūm, comprised an aspect of desirable cultural modernity and authenticity. This aesthetic has been superseded among contemporary youth by an emphasis on direct emotional evocation as an index of authenticity. Correspondingly, youth in Cairo have come to judge the authenticity of their Egyptian subjectivity against the political subjectivity of their elders’ generations, and the authenticity of their gendered, racial, and cultural subjectivities against those of the West and those of other Arab countries, most particularly Lebanon.Item An anthropological, archaeological research center and museum for Guatemala City, Guatemala(Texas Tech University, 1971-05) Robinett, Barton LNot availableItem An Anthropological, Archaeological Research Center and Museum for Guatemala City, Guatemala(Texas Tech University, 1970-12) Robinett, Barton LNot Available.Item Anthropological research center, Cuzco, Peru(1969-01) Collinsworth, DannyItem Bangladesh’s forest NGOscape : visions of Mandi indigeneity, competing eco-imaginaries, and faltering entrepreneurs in the climate of suspicion(2013-05) Dodson, Alex Ray; Ali, Kamran Asdar, 1961-The assemblage of competing development programs I call an "NGOscape", effective in Bangladesh's forest spaces, is a window into understanding both local and extra-local imaginings of the future of these spaces. By tracing the close interaction of three of the most prominent forces in operation in Bangladesh's forest NGOscapes: indigeneity, environmentalism, and entrepreneurialism, I discuss how the government and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) work to increase management and securitization of these forces. Through ethnography and close analysis of the minority Mandi community, and NGOs in the capital city of Dhaka and in rural Modhupur, Tangail, I interpret Modhupur as a vital and telling site for examining the close interdependence of these three themes. Adivasi ("aboriginal") folklorization and representation is deployed by Mandi leaders and NGOs, and provides a space for Mandi internal debates about authenticity, representation, modernity, and the way forward. Neoliberal imaginings centered on transforming Mandi livelihoods into something more appropriately modern are realized on the ground, evidenced by Alternative Income Generation (AIG) programs that push for market integration, and attempt to utilize claims about adivasi indigeneity to advance a security-management paradigm, national stability, and civic responsibility. Young activists and environmentalists based in Dhaka are crucial forces in promoting the broader development and NGO agenda, utilizing the themes of environmental responsibility and progressive conservation programs. Additionally, development agendas are complicated by other factors, such as eco-tourism trends that seek to indoctrinate the Mandi and other rural actors into acceptable and responsible ways of managing environment, while also relying on national pride. These competing forces rely on national pride and social shaming to transform rural Bangladeshis from being somehow "backward" into more desirable, modern subjects. Yet severe distrust within a larger "climate of suspicion," between adivasi leaders, activists, and the state ultimately disrupt the fluidity of development practices at the local level. The result places various actors in precarious positions, left to interpret and be interpreted into development, NGO, and state-based objectives.Item The beads of Bosutswe, Botswana(2010-05) DuBroc, Beau Richard; Denbow, James R. (James Raymond), 1946-; Rodriguez-Alegria, Enrique R.The hilltop archaeological site, Bosutswe in Botswana had a nearly a thousand years of continuous occupation. Nearly every single strata in both precincts produced shell beads of various materials and origin. By using travelogue sources as well as more recent enthnographical sources, I focus on the possible uses and importance of beads to the people of Bosutswe and the wider southern African region. Using the excavated beads as evidence, I show how certain varieties of beads made their way to the site by way of trade routes with distant riverine areas. Also, I compare my findings with arguments claiming that different groups preferred different sizes beads; therefore, one can determine a site’s ethnic makeup by this measurement alone.Item Can there be an archaeology of religion? Two case studies in Roman Britannia(2012-05) Maloney, Ashley; Witmore, Christopher; Larmour, DavidThe primary aim of this thesis is to rethink archaeological approaches to religion and ritual as seen in Roman Britain. To this end I focus on regional examples in Chester, the Roman fort of Deva, one of the largest and lengthiest military settlements in Roman Britain. This assesses what has been deemed “religious” in such an area and how the evaluation of spirituality from particular examples of material culture is problematic in discussing the wider interpretation of belief-systems. Broad processual models like Romanization lack the intricacy of the individual and methodologies like historical archaeology allow modern constructs to define paradigms within cultures that are often absent, but assumed under previous systems of study. The introduction of recent interdisciplinary approaches and methodology, in so far as cognitive-processual archaeology, phenomenology, ‘spiritual entanglement’, post-colonial theory and the study of movement and interaction in Roman Britain changes the standard definitions of religion in a context of material culture. This thesis calls upon new approaches to archaeology to again question the interpretation of an archaeology of religion.Item Deuteronomy 25:5–10 : a rite for the living or for the dead?(2014-12) Sowards, Thomas Kelly; Hackett, Jo AnnThis work looks at the rite presented in Deut 25:5–10 through a sociological framework. As such, it argues that ritual is a social act aimed at protecting communal interests over the interests of its individual members. More specifically, the rite described in Deut 25:5–10 was meant to act as a bulwark against infiltration of tribal land through exogamy. In later periods, it is argued that the focus of the rite narrowed to the priestly class.Item Exhibiting Mexicanidad : the National Museum of Anthropology and Mexico City in the Mexican imaginary(2011-08) Coupal, Melissa Biggs; Strong, Pauline Turner, 1953-; Ali, Kamran; Flores, Richard; Foley, Douglas; Seriff, SuzanneThis dissertation provides an ethnographic account of the ongoing and evolving relations between the construction of nation and cultural production at the Museo Nacional de Antropología (MNA, or the Museo) in Mexico City. The MNA plays a key role in the production, reproduction, and dissemination of representations of Mexico’s pre-colonial past and its existing indigenous populations as components of contemporary Mexican nationhood. Historically, the Mexican state has used anthropological knowledge to inform and implement policies enacted to cement the ties of an ethnically diverse population to the nation, define and preserve national patrimony, and promote heritage as an economic resource. The dissertation explores the MNA as an arena for the expression of the tensions generated by these sometimes disparate agendas. I argue that the MNA, rather than simply reproducing and maintaining official understandings of the relationships between citizens and nation, also provides a space for the negotiation and transformation of these relationships.Item Exploration and Empire: Iconographic Evidence of Iberian Ships of Discovery(2011-08-08) Bojakowski, KatieThis dissertation research project focuses on maritime exploration during the Age of Discovery and the vessels that were the technological impetus for this dynamic era that ultimately led Christopher Columbus to the New World and Vasco da Gama to India. Little is known about the caravel and the nau, two ships which defined this era of global expansion; archival documents provide scant information regarding these vessels and to date there are only a few known archaeological examples. The caravel and the nau became lasting symbols of the bourgeoning Portuguese and Spanish maritime empires and are featured prominently in contemporaneous iconography. This dissertation bridges the gap between the humanities and sciences through the statistical analysis of the caravel, galleon, and nau in the iconographic record. As one of the first intensive uses of iconography in nautical archaeology, the study analyzed over 500 images using descriptive statistics and representational trends analysis in order to explore the two research questions posed, Are the ships represented in the iconography accurate? and Can iconography provide information on constructional characteristics of these vessels that will determine typology, evolution, and design changes? Gauging the accuracy of the ship representations was fundamental to establishing this study?s validity. The artists creating these images were not shipwrights or mariners and thus this research was not limited to the technological and constructional aspects alone. The dissertation addressed technology as a cultural symbol in order to understand how and why cultures attach such powerful and important symbolism to technology and adopt it as an identifying feature. On a broader level, this dissertation proved that iconography is a viable data source within nautical archaeology. The representational trends and general construction proportions analyzed in the iconographic record did provide an ample amount of information about the different ship types to greatly assist in the reconstruction of a caravel, galleon, or nau. The vast quantities of new data generated using these methodologies have the potential to significantly advance the study of these three ship types when paired with current and future archaeological evidence.Item Remaking urban worlds : New Delhi in the time of economic liberalization(2011-05) Mehra, Diya; Visweswaran, KamalaThis dissertation examines the impact of neoliberal economic reform on New Delhi's urban landscape. It shows how the city has transformed since 1991 through two distinct, but interlinked processes: firstly massive 'upgradation' and place-marketing efforts, initiated and supported by the state, to create for the city a global identity worthy of the capital of a newly resurgent and aspirational nation, one that is also welcoming to new capital flows and forms as Delhi undergoes massive spatial, and economic expansion. Secondly, neoliberal urban development is also marked by a series of mass evictions of the city's existing informal, indigenous economy as degraded urban forms. In tracking the unfolding 'worlding' of the city, the dissertation is interested in the production of locality at the scale of the city, the ways by different sites, networks and neighborhoods articulate with the process, and how locality is produced through a series of inclusions and exclusions. In the first half of the dissertation, the focus is the conjectural emergence of conditions of transformation, mainly through the articulation of state urban renewal policies which promote privatized urban development, judicial eviction orders and media circulated calls for the building of a new 'upgraded' city to replace the old. This, as a new 'globalized' and aestheticized imaginary of the nation, city and its citizens takes shape. In the second half, the dissertation examines shows how upgradation and mass eviction have played out in Delhi neighborhoods, juxtaposing the experience of middle class areas, who's activism has been vital in putting forth a new vision of the city, with two cases of displacement. These are the demolition of the city's slums, and secondly the sealing or closure of large networks of indigenous/informal traders. In all three cases, the dissertation outlines ethnographically how residents receive, perceive and negotiate changes in relation to their memories, habitus, and local knowledges of the old, and how they engage with state and political actors, judicial fiat, party politics and the structures of the city's mass democracy to encourage or oppose urban reforms. In its conclusion, it argues that upgradation and eviction notwithstanding, activism across classes has engendered a common critique of governance among residents.Item Settler colonialism, knowledge articulation, and the politics of development in the TIPNIS indigenous territory and national park in Amazonian Bolivia(2015-12) Beveridge, James Michael; Speed, Shannon, 1964-; TallBear, KimberlyThis thesis examines how the dispute over the Bolivian government’s plan to construct a highway through the TIPNIS indigenous territory and national park in Amazonian Bolivia crystallizes the divergent visions and politics at play in realizing development projects in the TIPNIS. While progressive indigenous and environmental rights were inscribed in the 2009 Bolivian constitution, I argue that the government’s plan to impose the TIPNIS highway is a settler colonial project to dispossess the TIPNIS communities of their lands. This is facilitated by a national government—civilian colonist complicity that undermines the TIPNIS sovereignty and brings the TIPNIS territory under increasing governance and regulation under a post-frontier governance regime. I furthermore employ a framework I call knowledge articulation to examine the struggles of different actors to resist and/or implement varying development visions, which sometimes overlap and at other times compete with each other, in the TIPNIS. All of these projects demonstrate that the Bolivian decolonial path is fundamentally an amalgam: articulated knowledges, hybrid economies, and development outcomes that are resisted, contested, and negotiated configurations of various actors’ uneven authority, expertise and power.Item White lies : the White epistemology of race and Blackness in a White upper class school(2013-05) Reed, Naomi Beth; Franklin, Maria; Pierre, JemimaDuring eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in the suburbs of southwest Houston, Texas I examined the ways in which White upper class students, teachers, administrators, and parents think about race. As a result of exploring racial language, racial discourse, and racial texts in two US history textbooks, classroom lectures and activities, students' conversations and interviews, and local parents' political organizing, I explored the ways in which White people often think about, construct, and employ race. More specifically I learned the ways in which the White elite residents of this particular suburb know race. I am calling their way of knowing race a "White epistemology of race." I demonstrate how this White epistemology of race has informed, shaped, and guided this particular White community's attitudes toward their own education and residential resources as well as the education and residential resources of their Black and Brown intra-district peers. This dissertation aims to theorize the White epistemology of race and show it to be the unyielding source of a White "redemptive" ideology that is supported and created by the deployment of certain racialized discourses that insist and depend upon representations of Black cultural pathology.