English colonists on the island of Jamaica in the seventeenth century struggled with adversity while attempting to establish a permanent settlement. At the time, England lacked the infrastructure necessary to support a prolonged military presence in the Caribbean and English colonists were left to defend themselves amidst hostile neighboring islands. Privateers and pirates operating from Tortuga were lured to Port Royal, Jamaica, and their presence provided a source of security to the colony. Money spent by the privateers also supported the local economy. As the economy of Jamaica stabilized, pirates who once protected the island began preying upon Jamaican shipping. Colonists, influenced by the geophysical environment, economics and politics, were stimulated by piracy to improve upon inadequate ship designs and create an adapted design to mitigate their vulnerability to piratical attack at sea. The resulting ships, known as Jamaica sloops, became renowned for speed and maneuverability. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2005. / Date of Defense: March 4, 2005. / Piracy, Cultural Ecology, Caribbean, Royal Navy, Sloop, Jamaica, Agency / Includes bibliographical references. / Cheryl A. Ward, Professor Directing Thesis; Margaret Leshikar-Denton, Committee Member; William Parkinson, Committee Member; Robinson Herrera, Outside Committee Member.

Fort Mitchell (1Ru102), a frontier fort in East Alabama, was built during the First Creek Indian War in 1813 and occupied until 1840, four years after Indian Removal. In spite of its historical importance, information concerning daily life and, more specifically, foodways of soldiers and Lower Creeks is scarce. Archaeological material recovered from 1Ru102 has recently been analyzed. Archaeobotanical data obtained from 15 features are presented, and inferences are made about potential utilization of wild and domesticated plants by Georgia Militia (1st Fort), United States soldiers (2nd Fort), and Creek Indians (both forts) at Fort Mitchell. Two specific questions about the dietary use of plants recovered at 1Ru102 are explored. First, to what extent, if any, did soldiers supplement their rations with local foods? Second, what plants potentially contributed to soldier and Creek Indian diet at Fort Mitchell? Eleven economic plant species were identified, and it is suggested that these plants likely contributed to soldier and Creek diet. This analysis indicates that the most important food plant groups were domesticates (maize, peach), mast (walnut, hickory, and oak.), and fleshy fruits (plums/cherries, hackberry, grape, maypop.). Minimal botanical information is available for multicomponent historic sites—especially forts—in Alabama, and this archaeobotanical analysis contributes information to this neglected area of interest. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2004. / Date of Defense: February 19, 2004. / Plant use, Diet, Seed identification, Botanical analysis, Fort Mitchell, Creeks, Georgia Militia / Includes bibliographical references. / Cheryl Ward, Professor Directing Thesis; Rochelle Marrinan, Committee Member; Thomas Miller, Committee Member.

This thesis is an inquiry into the lives of four women in Tallahassee, Florida, who have not only chosen to adopt New Age beliefs, but also to become New Age healers. Of particular interest are the life events that influenced their decision to become metaphysical healers. Are there common themes in the life experiences of these four women? Do these life experiences parallel the life experiences and life stories of traditional shamanic healers? How has the incorporation of New Age ideas and healing practices affected their lives and their views of the world? And more broadly, how may these lives be understood in the context of our present times and in turn contribute to our understanding of the reinvention of shamanic healing in the New Age movement? The primary mode of investigation in this study is the 'life story.' Each informant provided a chronological account of her life, detailing the events and experiences she felt were most significant. These four life stories were then evaluated for common themes relevant to the thesis objectives outlined above. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2005. / Date of Defense: October 27, 2005. / Identity, Feminism, New Age, Women's Religion, Spirituality, Shamanism, Worldview, Alternative Healing / Includes bibliographical references. / Bruce Grindal, Professor Directing Thesis; Michael Uzendoski, Committee Member; Joseph Hellweg, Committee Member.

This study shows how Native American groups in Florida used dogs between the Early Archaic and First Spanish periods. The study relies on data from 89 archaeological sites which contained representations of dogs and dog bones. A comparison of data between the Archaic, Woodland and Mississippian periods reveals that Native American groups most often used dogs as occasional sources of food. This pattern of use of dogs as food was initiated in the Archaic period in the St Johns River Valley, spread throughout Florida in the Woodland period, and continued to a slightly diminished extent in the Mississippian period. During the Archaic, Woodland and Mississippian periods, Native Americans also created ritual roles for dogs. Spanish colonization ended Native Americans' independent development of roles for dogs. Catholic clergy members, Spanish settlers, and Spanish military forces persuaded Native Americans which moved to missions and military/urban areas to adopt Spanish ways of using dogs. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: December 15, 2006. / Archaeological, Archaeology, Treatment, Indian, Dog, Canine, Canid, Prehistoric, Historic, Florida, Native American / Includes bibliographical references. / Glen Doran, Professor Directing Thesis; Bruce Grindal, Committee Member; William Parkinson, Committee Member.

A variety of statistical tests were used to analyze data from the fluted-point database compiled by Anderson and Faught (2000b) to determine if modern population density and/or cultivated square kilometers of land bias the fluted-point sample. Results for each statistical test are presented to show how the different tests can influence interpretation of the data. Ultimately, it was determined that only one test, the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis, was appropriate for analysis of the data compiled in the fluted-point sample. When the lower forty-eight states are conflated, statistical analysis showed that the fluted-point database was biased by modern population density and amount of cultivation. Counties with higher population density have more fluted-points recorded than those with lower population density. As with population density, counties with more cultivation per square kilometer have more fluted-points recorded than those with less cultivation. The same is true for the northeast, south, and midwest regions of the United States, as well as those states east and west of the Mississippi. There was no statistically significant relationship, however, between cultivation and modern population density and fluted-points recorded in the Western region. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester, 2006. / November 16, 2005. / Cultivated Square Kilometers, North American Fluted-Point Database, Modern Population Density, Statistical Analysis, Kruskal-Wallis / Includes bibliographical references. / Glenn H. Doran, Professor Directing Thesis; Rochelle A. Marrinan, Committee Member; William Parkinson, Committee Member.

Over the last two decades, the archaeological investigation of African American cemeteries has become a contentious issue. Oftentimes, the archaeologists are at odds with the African American community over how these types of excavations should be conducted and what role the public should play in them. The goal of this work is to explore the reasons why this has become so, in addition to suggesting ways to fix this problem in the future. The author conducted seven interviews with eight individuals. A total of five of the individuals were archaeologists who had excavated African American cemeteries while the remaining three individuals were African Americans who had been members of communities in which African American cemeteries were excavated. The purpose of the interviews was to see both sides of the issue, archaeologist and non-archaeologist, in order to better understand where each side was coming from. With these interview data, a synthesis between the two sides can then be created. Hopefully, by better understanding what each side is trying to accomplish in the excavation, the relationship between archaeologists and non-archaeologists involved in the excavation of African American cemeteries can be improved. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Sciences. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2005. / Date of Defense: December 13, 2005. / African American Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, Archaeology, Cemetery Excavation, Public Archaeology / Includes bibliographical references. / Glen Doran, Professor Directing Thesis; Maxine Jones, Outside Committee Member; Rochelle Marrinan, Committee Member.

This research project entailed an investigation of whether the degree of similarity between various Islamic and pre-Islamic Middle Eastern societies' overall patterns of drug plant prescription, as calculated using principles of numerical taxonomy, would correlate with the known facts of culture area morphology and the succession of intellectual traditions in the region. The attempt to quantify similarity in overall pattern is tantamount to a "cognitive dialectometry" of Islamic ethnopharmacology and its precursors, and is a first step in the development of a comparative historical approach to cognition analogous to that used in linguistics. The study considers fourteen sets of prescriptions, or "native" descriptions of medicinal attributes of drug plants, composed between 1534 B.C. and the present. For each source, patterns of grouping were identified by applying a hierarchical clustering program to a data matrix reflecting its drug plant prescription/attribute correlations. The resulting cluster trees were treated as pile sort results. Traditionally, pile sorting is a technique where cultural consultants are asked to sort items into groups based on their similarity. Shared groupings across sources were tallied, various means and functions of similarity were calculated based on sharing of groupings among sources, and degrees of overall similarity among sources were modeled using a battery of four key statistical techniques: hierarchical clustering, multidimensional scaling, k-means clustering and factor analysis. A numerical taxonomy approach to Islamic medicine shows a clear relationship between the proximity and shared history of contemporaneous localities and their overall degree of similarity in practice. It also shows that the degree of similarity between sources from different time periods correlates with the relative strength of their presumed relationships of descent and influence. The results substantiate the existence and measurability of "cognitive dialects" analogous to linguistic lects and allow for the possibility of future analyses of "cognitive creolization." / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Anthropologyin partial fulfillment of therequirements for the degree ofDoctor of Philosophy. / Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2005. / Date of Defense: October 21, 2005. / Cognitive Creolization, Cognitive Dialect, Ethnobotany, Memetics / Includes bibliographical references. / Judy K. Josserand, Professor Directing Dissertation; Peter P. Garretson, Outside Committee Member; Glen H. Doran, Committee Member; Bruce T. Grindal, Committee Member.

This dissertation is an ethnography of biomedical imaging technologies in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It is based on two years of fieldwork and archival research, and structured around two themes, clarity and quality, which articulate the aspirations and uncertainties that presently surround imaging technologies. Though I consider a variety of imaging technologies in this dissertation, including x-ray and mammography, I focus on obstetrical and non-obstetrical ultrasound, which was not available until 1989 and has since proliferated, particularly in the private sphere. My analysis engages scholarship on biomedical imaging from feminist medical anthropology and science and technology studies, but explores issues that are minimized in these studies, such as how imaging technologies circulate within unequal flows of resources and expertise, and how local repertoires for visualization configure imaging practices. Imaging technologies enter deep histories of health-related development in postcolonial Cambodia, and in a health system recently dismantled by conflict and chged by scarce resources, technologies are both valued and suspect as tools to improve the quality of care. Ultrasound training and donation programs are novel combinations of business and charity that involve doctors, corporations, and governments, and illustrate how humanitarian and postsocialist entrepreneurial logics configure the circulation and use of ultrasound machines in Phnom Penh. My analysis of obstetrical ultrasound imaging shows how aesthetic values of color and clarity are important to how pregnant women and their families relate to ultrasound images, and relate to the fetus through images. In a pluralistic medical scene oriented towards therapeutics, diagnostic imaging holds the possibility of "seeing clearly" into body interiors. The notion of a transparent body serves as a precondition for biomedical imaging here as in other contexts, but uncertainty and trust are specifically weighted in conditions where quality and ethics are suspect, and where illness may be a sign of karma's unfolding. Tracing ultrasound imaging outside of clinical contexts illuminates how imaging is open to intervention by lay and other-than-biomedical actors, such as Buddhist healers and ancestors. My analysis of the uncertainties associated with imaging technologies in Phnom Penh de-centers the epistemic focus, explicit or not, of imaging studies to date.

This dissertation focuses on the role of gender and sexuality in the US, and how people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender create and contest ideas of community and belonging through ritual and performance. I examine how race, class, and gender affect the dynamics of power and prestige within public LGBT spaces. Based on 18 months of fieldwork throughout the US, my dissertation research with drag queens, drag kings, promoters, audience members, and other stakeholders in national “gay” pageant competition systems examines the resources at stake for those involved, along with the cultural politics that inform unfolding events. The social spaces I work in are largely built by and dominated by gay men and transwomen; however, lesbians and transmen are increasingly participating. For many, this arena provides a space where individuals with non-normative gendered and sexualized identities can find not only safety and affirmation, but prestige and power. Yet, there remain deep divisions limiting the power of those assigned female at birth. I argue that this persistent inequality stems from the endurance of larger patterns of male privilege which shape US social life more generally. In the world of gay pageantry male dominance is achieved economically, structurally, and ideologically, even as many participants challenge normative gender frames.

The appearance of agriculture brought profound changes to the technology, social organization, and lifestyles of early farming communities across the globe. From the perspective of hunter-gatherers, the adoption of agriculture carried the risk of starvation if crops failed and other food sources were seasonally unavailable or locally depleted. Why prehistoric peoples adopted agriculture considering this risk is a fundamental question within archaeology. My dissertation research focuses on understanding the role that wild animal resources played toward the speed and scale of the adoption of agriculture, using the tallgrass prairie region of western Iowa as a case study. The tallgrass prairie is a transitional environment between the grasslands of the Great Plains and the deciduous woodlands of the eastern United States. Domesticated plants were introduced to this region during the late Archaic period (ca. 3000-800 BC), and gradually incorporated into the diet with increasing intensity throughout the Woodland period (ca. 800 BC-AD 1200). My research establishes the long-term trends in animal use within this environmental context which may have set the stage for the adoption of and later reliance upon plant-based agriculture. Specifically, I examine the diet-breadth of Woodland peoples by establishing which animal species they exploited, and to what degree. Evidence of resource stress is identified through the intensity in which large game (bison and deer) carcasses were processed. Finally, I explore the use of pocket gophers as survival food at one important location, the Rainbow site (13PM91).