This dissertation demonstrates how discourse surrounding Indonesian herbal indigenous medicine, or jamu, shapes Muslim womens health choices and sexual and gender subjectivities in contemporary Central Java, Indonesia. With jamu being composed mainly of roots from plants, Our Roots, Our Strength refers to how jamu creates a space for cultural discourse and practice that enables Muslim women to engage with power in terms of their reproductive and sexual health. Women turn to jamu for their most intimate health needs because, unlike state-supported biomedical campaigns which many women feel are aggressive, political and invasive, jamu: 1) is an informal, grassroots and gendered discourse, 2) supports long-held gender constructions and Indonesian-Islamic belief and medical systems, and 3) supports a holistic view of a womans health which includes sexuality and pleasure. At the same time, this research reveals the ways in which the jamu industry has made its wealth off of the creation of womens health needs, particularly in the sale of jamu to regulate menstruation and to satisfy ones husband through the use of herbal vaginal drying agents, both of which support gender inequality and are assumed biomedically to facilitate infection. While most often criticized as unscientific and dismissed by the formal public health sector, this study points to the need for formal womens healthcare to be invested in understanding the role jamu plays in many womens lives. This study is based on 15 months of ethnographic research including 116 in-depth interviews and participant observation in Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, focusing on jamu as a primary health resource for Muslim women by investigating the commercial production, distribution and consumption of jamu in small, medium and large industry contexts. Using jamu as a lens through which to examine the interplay of sex, gender, medicine, religion, and capitalism, this study contributes to anthropological scholarship on the jamu industry; the role of gender, sexuality, and Islam in health culture; the need for religious, sexuality and cultural studies in the construction of public health programs and policies; and the diversity of local religious moralities in the Muslim world.

The goal of this study is to determine whether aspects of modern life predispose individuals to different patterns of trauma than earlier populations. The specific patterns and susceptibilities to injury may be unique to individual populations and provide a reference in order to gauge quality of life and health status for the populations under study. The present investigation was conducted using the Hamann-Todd Osteological Collection and the William M. Bass Donated Collection. The analysis of both collections was conducted macroscopically without the aid of radiographs. Only complete, adult specimens were used to allow for greater statistical power, according to the method of Lovejoy and Heiple (1981) and Judd (2002). Each element of the skeleton, except for hands and feet, was visually inspected for the presence or absence of fractures. Demographic information was recorded for each individual and includes cause of death, age, sex, and ancestry. Statistical analyses were performed using SAS Version 9.1.3 (2003) and SPSS Version 16.0 (2007). The frequency data generated by the two collections in this study were analyzed using cross-tabulations with Chi-square tests, to determine if any differences occurred between the earlier and later populations, as well as between age, sex, and ancestry groups. The results indicate that differences exist across the demographic categories. The variation inherent in the sample may be attributed to the fact that the Hamann-Todd collection was created from a more socio-economically disadvantaged population, as compared to the Bass donated collection. Overall, there is significant variation found between the seven groups included in this study, which helps garner a further understanding of modern injury patterns.

This purpose of this study was to examine flake tools from Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian, and Cherokee components at the Townsend project (sites 40BT89, 40BT90, 40BT91, and 40BT94) in Blount County, Tennessee and to determine the functions of these flake tools and whether these tools are actually expedient. Also, any changes that may have occurred through time in the function of these tools was assessed, as well as how these changes might apply to surrounding archaeological sites. A stepwise microwear examination was conducted, which included three levels of analysis: macroscopic examination, stereoscopic examination, and incident light examination. All 1,723 flake tools were examined macroscopically, 883 flake tools were examined stereoscopically, and only 82 flake tools were examined using the incident light microscopic examination. It was found that the flake tools from the Townsend project can be divided into two different modes of flake tools, selected tools and shaped tools. Selected tools can be defined as those that do not exhibit evidence of intentional retouch and seem to have been used for varying functions. This group of tools includes scrapers, blades and blade-like flakes, humpbacked scrapers, ovate scrapers, and wedges. In contrast to selected tools, shaped tools can be defined as those exhibiting evidence of intentional retouch and specialized functions. This group of tools includes incurvate scrapers, drills, and gravers.

From 1999 to 2002, the Transportation Center at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, conducted a number of archaeological investigations associated with the widening of State Route 73 (U.S. 321) through Townsend, Tennessee. The excavations at the Townsend sites resulted in the recovery of a large assemblage of chipped and ground stone tools. A lithic resource survey of the upper Little River drainage was undertaken to identify the likely source areas of raw materials used for the manufacture of the chipped and ground stone tools recovered during the Townsend excavations. These data were then used to identify local versus non-local materials use by prehistoric peoples in Tuckaleechee Cove. The results of this research are presented in this thesis.

A multitude of factors can affect the decomposition process, increasing or decreasing its rate. Some of the most frequently observed variables are temperature, moisture, insect activity, and sun or shade exposure. Coverings can impact the decomposition process, and are found frequently in forensic cases. In a survey of New Mexico cases, Komar (2003) reported that sixteen individuals were found wrapped in plastic, and twenty were noted as wrapped in a cloth or blanket. In a survey conducted of eighty-seven cases, fifty-four of the bodies were wrapped in some type of covering. Plastic was most common, but a variety was noted, including rugs, sleeping bags, and blankets, (Manhein, 1997). In order to document how coverings affect early decomposition an experiment was designed to mimic a forensic setting. Three human cadavers were used in each of two repetitions of this experiment. Two of the cadavers were covered, one in plastic tarp, the other in a cotton blanket, while the third was left uncovered as a control. The selection of materials was based on case reports of cadavers wrapped in plastic and blankets (Komar, 2003, Derrick, 2007 personal communication). Demographic and environmental variation between individuals was kept to a minimum. Data collected included daily minimum and maximum temperatures and two daily temperature point comparisons. The bodies remained covered for thirty days during this data collection. At the end of that period, the bodies were uncovered and the amount of decomposition was recorded.

Estimating age at death accurately can be invaluable in answering important questions in fields such as paleoanthropology, bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology. Sternal rib ends have received a great deal of research attention as an area that uniformly changes with age. The most popular methods developed in this area were developed by Iscan and coworkers (1984, 1985) using the right, fourth rib. However, the accuracy of this method has been called into question using different ribs (Yoder et al., 2001). The right, second, fourth and eighth ribs from the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection were examined using the Iscan et al. (1984, 1985) methods. Wilcoxon rank sum tests demonstrate that there is a significant difference between scores obtained using the right, fourth rib and the second and eighth ribs. In order to better understand these differences, a transition analysis was performed. This analysis showed that the second rib was significantly over-aged using the Iscan methods, while the eighth rib was consistently under-aged, although in some cases not significantly.

A good deal of what we know regarding the prehistoric Mississippian period (1000-1600 AD) in the Southeastern United States has been provided for by mortuary studies. Archaeological investigations have uncovered what appears to be differential treatment in burial practices among some subsets of community populations. The argument has been made that those individuals buried in ceremonial mounds or interred with finely crafted or exotic grave goods make up the “elite” sector of a population while those with less spectacular burial treatment are “commoners.”The purpose of this research is to determine if health status differs by burial location at the Late Mississippian Cox site of Anderson County, Tennessee. The site consists of one mound and an associated village. This study does not assume social rank is associated with burial location, but instead adopts a biocultural perspective to ascertain if differences in health status by burial location suggest possible differences in social status.A skeletal sample of 230 individuals was analyzed. Thirty-nine individuals were exhumed from the mound and 191 from the village. Sex, age, and health status were evaluated for each individual. Health status was determined by observing porotic hyperostosis, cribra orbitalia, dental disease, infectious disease, and linear enamel hypoplasias. An overall health score based on these characteristics was then calculated for each individual. Logistic regression as well as chi-square analyses were performed to determine any correlation between health status and burial location.There was no statistically significant difference between burial locations as they related to overall health status. Porotic hyperostosis was the only pathology to differ significantly by burial location (p=0.0005). Dental disease, infection, and linear enamel hypoplasias affected both mound and village samples similarly. Possible evidence for the presence of both tuberculosis and treponematosis among the site’s occupants was noted. A logistic regression of health score indicated that at any given age, if an individual exhibits one less pathology, he or she is 1.5 times more likely to be buried in the mound. However, social inequality in this late prehistoric community is not supported by any findings of biological inequality.

The purpose of this research was to test Weaver’s method of sex estimation using the auricular surface on neonatal skeletal remains of varying ages. The age of the individual was used to examine whether or not there existed a stronger correlation between age and elevation than sex and elevation. By assessing these relationships, it could be determined if Weaver’s method is more appropriate for individuals of certain ages more than individuals of other ages. Juvenile skeletons (n = 167) ranging in age from fourteen weeks post-conception to twenty years of age were assessed from two skeletal collections, and the results were analyzed using 2x2 contingency tables and logistic regressions. Weaver’s method yielded a 45.16% accuracy for determining sex in females and a 56.14% accuracy for estimating sex in males. These accuracies, close to chance, do not compare to Weaver’s original study which generated a 75% accuracy for determining sex of female fetuses and a 92% accuracy for determining sex in males fetuses. When age was incorporated into the analyses, unlike suggestions made by previous researchers, there was no correlation between it and auricular surface elevation.

The purpose of this study was to document the ethnohistory of the leprosarium Hansen Home and to examine the local knowledge ofleprosy in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. Kittitians often responded to questions about leprosy in 2000 with the statement "it's not catching." In 2002, the research goal was to address leprosy from a Kittitian vantage point. Through the lens of anthropological inquiry, archival materials were examined and a variety of stories were gathered about Hansen Home and the local knowledge of leprosy. The latter task was accomplished with ethnographic techniques, particularly semi-structured interviews. The accounts collected were multilayered, exposing culturally significant aspects of identity construction and blame assignment. As the local knowledge of leprosy was revealed, a clearer interpretation of this contagion was attained. A consistent trend has been the Othering of leprosy; assigning blame to the Other for bringing leprosy to St. Kitts and more specifically to Sandy Point. Leprosy is currently defined in the context of St. Kitts as not contagious. This is a reflection of Kittitians' ability to cope with leprosy and is a testament to the success of the public health care delivery agenda set in St. Kitts and Nevis. Despite their efforts to eradicate the disease, the legacy of leprosy still affects many people today. This thesis describes the medical pluralism of the local knowledge of leprosy, which is influenced by both biomedical and ethnomedical knowledge. Furthermore, this thesis describes life for the person with leprosy who lived on both the inside and outside of Hansen Home. It also describes a gradual shift in understanding contagion in St. Kitts, from a point of highly contagious to an understanding of not contagious.

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein is today remembered as the progenitor of the science fiction genre, the first major literary work to link a long history of fictional narratives concerning the origins of life notably drawing itself from the stories of Prometheus and Miltons Paradise Lost to the scientific rationalism of the enlightenment. Of the science fiction stories that would follow, Philip K. Dicks Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? perhaps remains one of the closest to Shelleys novel in terms of its concerns and themes. Dicks text is concerned with the thematic of the creation of human simulacra, but its interests are more involved with the ethical implications of technological advancement on society than the fantastic technologies he writes of. Given these similarities, notions of nature and the environment might seem ancillary to an analysis of these texts. These issues, however, are precisely what my thesis claims to be central to a proper understanding of Dicks and Shelleys novels. The aesthetic categories of the beautiful, and most importantly the sublime, are essential to this research. Both classic works of aesthetic theory namely Burke and Kant as well as mobilizations of the sublime that account for contemporary cultural trends such as those of Fredric Jameson and Jean-Francois Lyotard are utilized so as to track an epistemological shift in both conceptions of the sublime, as well as the relationship between humanity and its environment. This shift, from viewing the natural world as a space wherein humans immanently dwell, to a positivist notion of nature as resources for human manipulation documented in Caroline Merchants The Death of Nature can be linked to what Leo Marx describes as the movement from a natural to a technological sublime, and is both chronicled and critiqued in Frankenstein. Dicks Androids picks up where Shelleys novel leaves off, carrying an absolute ideological positivism to one possible conclusion, environmental and social crisis, inaugurating, interestingly, a return to a bizarre, and textually ironic spiritualism in the form of the religion Mercerism.