RSS 1.0Electronic Dissertations and Theses - Anthropology
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This collection contains dissertations and theses by students in the Department of Anthropology at Washington State University.
Recent Submissions
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ETHNOBIOLOGICAL COLLABORATION WITH TWO SOCIETIES OF THE LATIN AMERICAN TROPICS
(2018)Ethnobiology, defined as the scientific study of dynamic relationships among peoples, biota, and environments (SoE, 2017), is a field that combines different approaches from other disciplines while also including issues ... -
STRANGERS IN A STRANGER LAND: LIVING HISTORY AND TRADITION IN THE LIVES OF ARAB-AMERICANS
(2018)Immigrants have been a part of the American story since the founding of the US state. However, while these experiences have undergone a transformation in the last forty years due to technological shifts and transformations, ... -
Lithics and the Late Prehistoric: Interaction on the Southern Columbia Plateau
(2018)The people of the Columbia Plateau have been frequently characterized as a homogenous culture despite a 2,500-year depth of history and large spatial extent. Moreover, differences in artifact form, assemblage composition, ... -
Understanding Culture History Using Topographic Morphometrics of Lithic Projectile Points: Paleoindian Case Studies from the Great Plains and Northern Alaska
(2018)The classification of projectile points into types has long been used by archaeologists to develop regional chronologies and serves as a basis by which to explain cultural continuity or change over time. This study ... -
‘TIS THE SEASON: AN EXPERIMENTAL EXAMINATION OF TOOLKIT VARIABILITY, LATE PLEISTOCENE- EARLY HOLOCENE INTERIOR ALASKA
(2018)Simultaneous use of two distinct projectile technologies in interior Alaska, during the end of the Pleistocene and early Holocene, is a study domain that has generated many diverse hypotheses. Some researchers view the ... -
DETECTION OF ANTHROPOGENIC ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS IN HOLOCENE EAST AFRICA: MICROBOTANICAL AND FUNGAL PROXY EVIDENCE
(2017)This dissertation examines landscape disturbance and modification related to food production in East Africa. Pollen, fungal spore, microcharcoal, and phytolith records are employed here to reconstruct histories of landscape ... -
SURVIVAL AND DREAMS: LIVES OF LGBTQ HOMELESS YOUTH IN LOS ANGELES
(2017)In Los Angeles County, the majority of the homeless youth population self-identifies as LGBTQ. This research attempts to uncover some primary survival strategies for this population via personal narrative. In order to ... -
Family poultry systems on the southern pacific coast of Guatemala: livelihoods, ethnoveterinary medicine and Healthcare decision making
(2017)Small-scale poultry rearing provides a livelihood for many households globally, and is a means for women to contribute to household income while raising children. This is an ethnographic case study of smallholder Guatemalan ... -
Paleoethnobotanical and Geoarchaeological Analyses at the Flying Goose Site (45PO435)
(2016-05)The Flying Goose Site (45PO435), located along the Pend Oreille River in northeastern Washington, is a small Late Prehistoric burned structure. This thesis presents the results of paleoethnobotanical and geoarchaeological ... -
Making Peace with the Warrior Next Door: Rituals in Identity, Wellness, and Transition in Veteran Communities
(2016)The nature of conflict requires service members to set aside peacetime roles and perhaps even disengage from closely-held self and worldviews. The transformation from civilian to service member is effectively addressed ... -
BEYOND PICKLES AND ICE CREAM: A BIOCULTURAL INVESTIGATION OF PREGNANCY DIET IN SOUTH INDIA
(2016)Leading evolutionary theories of women’s diet in pregnancy postulate that unusual changes in diet occur as a response to increased risk of toxin and/or pathogen exposure (coined the “maternal-fetal protection” hypothesis). ... -
Trade, territoriality, alliances and conflict : complexity science approaches to the archaeological record of the U.S. Southwest with a case study from Languedoc, France
(2016)This project utilizes network analysis and agent-based modeling to examine long-standing questions that can only now be asked with the rich data provided in southwestern Colorado and southern France: how Gauls and colonists ... -
Morphological Variability in Clovis Style Hafted Bifaces Across North America
(2016)This study examines morphological variability of Clovis style hafted bifaces from across North America. In total 695 Clovis hafted bifaces were analyzed. These data are analyzed using a Lithic Technological Organization ... -
EFFECTS OF STRESS ON ONSET OF MIDDLE CHILDHOOD AMONG SIDAMA AGROPASTORALISTS
(2016)Current research suggests that human childhood evolved as a phase of assessment, where children use experience with their social and physical environments to determine future development and reproductive strategies. Yet, ... -
Archaeological Survey and Testing in the Willapa River Valley of Southwest Washington
(2015)Modern studies of site distribution, utilization of near-coastal riverine resources, and the development of cultural complexity during the Holocene in southwestern Washington are hampered by the limited amount of data from ... -
Behavioral Ecology of Tobacco and Cannabis Use Among Aka Foragers of the Congo Basin
(2015)Little is known about substance use among extant hunting-gathering populations. I therefore conducted one of the first biocultural, and biomarker validated, studies of tobacco and cannabis among the Aka foragers of the ... -
Wari Lithic Networks: An Examination of Stone Tool Use at Cerro Baul and Cerro Mejia
(2015)The Middle Horizon (A.D. 600 - 1000) marked a distinct shift in the sociopolitical landscape of the Andes with the development of the expansive polity known as the Wari. The Moquegua Valley of southern Peru is believed to ... -
Costly Signaling Among Great Houses on the Chaco Periphery
(2015)Despite decades of Chaco-style great house research, the impetus for their construction and the extent to which their communities directly interacted across the northern Southwest remain poorly understood. A key question ... -
Investigating Restricted Knowledge in Lithic Craft Traditions Among the Pre-Contact Coast Salish
(2015)Using cultural transmission (CT) models, I predicted a shift towards more restricted household learning in a wide range of technologies, not simply the prestige items typically associated with the emergence of peer-elite ... -
One Goal, Different Paths: Cultural Models, HIV/AIDS, and Minority Health Outcomes in Urban America
(2015)HIV, since its emergence in the 1980s, has affected millions of people across the globe. Although the U.S. has seen three decades of research that has increased our knowledge of the virus, created medications to suppress ...