This dissertation examines the political economy of linguistic and social exchange among Yucatec Maya tourist workers in Coba, Quintana Roo, Mexico. I argue that local employees recreate the house (`otoch') in the market through spheres of social action and code-switching to reproduce the locally-controlled ejido (communally-owned lands on which Coba was founded over sixty years ago). Despite globalization, I show how the Maya conceive of the house as a form of value that structures relations within the ejido, since it remains largely kin-based today. Since language represents social action, I view the house as a social unit that is continuously mediated and transcends biological limitations of kinship. Moreover, I show how local notions of the house have enabled the Maya to syncretically embrace, refashion, and reject external forms of political-economic interaction (most recently, through the global capitalist economy) throughout various periods in their history. The ejido therefore, encompasses a variety of kin-based networks that continuously span spatial and temporal boundaries of sociality among the Maya. Most recently, the tensions involved in cultural/linguistic commodification through global tourism have provided a new outlet for workers to utilize multilingualism and outside social networks to personify the contemporary marketplace. This is done in accordance with an indigenous logic of negotiating ejido lands and sociality centered on the conversion of commodities into gifts. In this sense, Coba's tourist workers are mediators of value who transform the potentially alientating effects of capitalism by adapting it to a Maya logic of creating persons in the market (Gregory 1982, 1997, Uzendoski 2005). While validating family ties centered on hierarchies of shared social space, cosmology, history, and language among community members, Coba's citizens realize that direct involvement with the global market economy and knowledge of other languages are needed in order to remain in control over household sociality within the ejido. My research contributes to the fields of anthropology, linguistics, history, and economics by showing how indigenous populations conceptualize value by continuously mediating between two seemingly disparate systems of exchange in the house and market. Rather than view these groups as having been relatively isolated from the market economy, I have taken a more critical approach of understanding indigenous participation in tourism by arguing that transactions based on commodified exchange have characterized the Maya throughout their history, not just in the contemporary era. Yet these and other non-Western groups have still managed to personify much of these transactions by transferring capital wealth into social relations that continuously mediate spheres of interaction. In this sense, the ejido plays a pivotal role in forming a local sense of control over how tourism is managed in Coba. Rather than view the house as a fixed entity limited to residential boundaries therefore, my data has shown how the ejido itself encompasses all of the complex social relations (including bonds and tensions) that interact on a daily basis. These are ultimately in accordance with a Mayan logic of negotiating kin ties, based on hierarchies of shared social space, cosmology, history, and language among its members. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2012. / October 28, 2011. / Code-Switching, Exchange, Kinship, Tourism, Value, Yucatec Maya / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael Uzendoski, Professor Directing Dissertation; Joseph Hellweg, Committee Member; Mary Pohl, Committee Member; Gretchen Sunderman, Committee Member.

This Master's thesis analyzes two hundred and twenty-nine Formative period (1500 BC – 250 AD) ceramic figurines, whistles, and iconographic vessel appliqués from the lower Río Verde valley of Oaxaca, Mexico. The lower Río Verde region has recently proven important to understandings of social change in Oaxaca. A detailed analysis of a selection of the coastal figurines excavated over the last twenty years can contribute significantly to an understanding of cultural patterns both geographically and temporally in ancient Mesoamerica. Because the Formative period was a time of transition toward sedentism, agriculture, and hierarchical social inequality, its material culture is relevant to models of social transition. I spent a month during the summer of 2006 with the collections in Oaxaca, recording data on the artifacts. The goal of the project presented here is to seek a better understanding of the sociocultural context of these artifacts. I logged information on various attributes and measurements into a thirty-four variable spreadsheet. I also collected 1,286 photographs for later reference, and illustrated twenty-three of the artifacts. As a secondary aspect of this research, I collected fingerprint impressions from the figurines themselves, in the hopes of ascertaining whether men or women made the figurines. My analysis of the artifacts, many of which have not been previously studied in depth, allows me to comment on the figurines as a microcosm of the construction of personhood and ascribed social roles. Focusing on Formative period artifacts serves both as a method of limiting the sample size and seeking an understanding of sociocultural factors present during the rise of complex society in this part of the world. In addition to personhood theory, I use concepts such as mimesis and public ritual performance as ways to conceptualize the role figurines played in their ancient social milieu. I argue that these iconographic artifacts were focal points for domestic and public dialogue about ascribed social roles, conduits for contact with the ancestors, and vessels to mimetically capture the power of people, animals, and spiritual beings. I propose 'communal domesticity' as a useful conceptual framework for Formative era sociality. I conclude this thesis with a hypothetical reconstruction of the figurines as they functioned within the Formative period social context of the ancient coastal peoples, who probably included Chatinos or proto-Zapotecan ethnic groups living in the Río Verde region. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Fall Semester, 2007. / October 17, 2007. / Archaeology, Mesoamerica, Formative, Ritual, Gender, Social Identity, Appliques, Whistles, Rio Verde, Figurines / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary Pohl, Professor Directing Thesis; William Parkinson, Committee Member; Michael Uzendoski, Committee Member.

This dissertation explores how Q'eqchi' market women in San Juan Chamelco, Guatemala use capitalist exchange spheres to generate personhood, persons, and kinship. Women use local kin categories to establish themselves as marketers and construct themselves as persons of stature in their local social hierarchy. I argue that the Q'eqchi' define kinship according to the local category of the junkab'al or 'house', a social group based on shared residence and participation in household activities that encompasses the categories of genealogical relatedness, consanguinity, affinity, and adoption. Since marketing is a family occupation in Chamelco, Q'eqchi' market women achieve positions of stature through their houses' longstanding participation in the marketplace. Many contemporary marketers trace their family market histories back for generations, relating that their mothers, grandmothers, or great-grandmothers also sold in the market. Chamelqueños view marketing as the inheritance or gifts passed down to them by their most ancient ancestors. As a result, marketing becomes a vocation for many of Chamelco's women, who state that they market because they were "called by their ancestors" to do so. The prestige (prestigio) that women acquire through marketing stems in part from the fact that the Q'eqchi' view marketing as an ancient and thus valued profession. In this respect, Q'eqchi' marketers establish themselves as persons of stature by tapping into the perceived ancient Maya tradition of marketing. Market women further enhance their high status by gaining recognition as marketers. In the market, they enact local notions of value, centered on demonstrating intelligence and wisdom, showing compassion and morality, proving their work ethic, and achieving immortality. They reinforce their high status by developing extensive social relations with clients, vendors, and visitors to the market who view them as worthy of emulation. Women embody these relations, which tie them to numerous high status activities, such as ritual cofradías, compadrazgo, politics, and the National Folkloric Festival. Market women often emerge as leaders of these highly-valued domains, thus reinforcing their positions of stature in Chamelco. Nevertheless, in Chamelco, Q'eqchi' women market to define their personhood and construct high status identities for themselves and for their families. Through marketing, they also revere their ancestors who sold in the market and keep them alive as a part of the market's reality. Marketing is a form of memory for Chamelco's market women, who perform narratives about their market ancestors throughout daily market life, recalling their time in the market, their strength, and their endurance. They tell these tales to clients, other vendors, and other community members as a means of incorporating their ancestors into contemporary market life. By doing so, market women not only honor their ancestors, who remain an integral part of their stalls, but also legitimize their own roles in the market and the community by connecting themselves to the strength of the past. This connection to the past serves a powerful tool for market women and their families by legitimizing their positions in Guatemala's national social hierarchy. Market positions, then, serve as important household possessions that embody junkab'al identity, keeping the junkab'al and its defining members at the forefront of Chamelco's historical memory. Because of the significant role marketing plays in family life, market women strive to ensure that market positions stay in the family. To do so, they draw on the local category of the junkab'al to designate their market heirs. By selecting their market heirs from among their female house members, including biological and adopted daughters, goddaughters, and employees, market women ensure that market titles, which define their personhood and generate their houses, remain associated with their houses over time. This research breaks new theoretical ground by illuminating the link between kinship and market exchange, demonstrating that indigenous marketers use market positions as inheritable possessions that embody their families' identities. Market women are mediators of value who use capitalist exchange spheres (M-C-M1) to generate persons and houses (M-C-P). By exploring kinship and marketing as mutually encompassing institutions, this research shows that local kinship notions shape one's participation in both gift and alienated exchange networks. Additionally this research contributes to the growing body of critical literature on indigenous kinship systems by exploring Q'eqchi' notions of shared substance. This ethnography presents the only complete analysis of Q'eqchi' kinship and of the house as a category of contemporary Maya kinship. By exploring the role of the house in the market, this research presents a new, more holistic model of the house, which considers it as a fluid social unit emerging through its interaction with other prominent social domains, including exchange. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2007. / February 28, 2007. / Continuity, Gender, Maya, Marketing, Exchange / Includes bibliographical references. / Joseph Hellweg, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Bruce Grindal, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Robinson Herrera, Outside Committee Member; Mary Pohl, Committee Member; Michael Uzendoski, Committee Member.

This thesis presents the results of the combination of six individual remote-sensing surveys of the primary mounds and plazas at Shiloh Mounds National Historic Landmark, Shiloh, Tennessee. These surveys were conducted prior to invasive ground-disturbing activities at the site associated with the mitigation of erosional threats to Shiloh Mound A by National Park Service archaeologists. The uniqueness of the site, due in part to its lack or significant prior disturbance, afforded a unique opportunity for NPS archaeologists to remotely investigate buried evidence of prior Mississippian occupation and use of the site. The fusion of the results of these separate remote-sensing surveys provided the opportunity to identify specific feature-types based on their visibility (or lack-thereof) in the datasets of each separate remote-sensing platform. While studies of this sort have been undertaken in Old World archaeology with some regularity, this is the first time that an integrated remote-sensing survey of this scope has been undertaken at a Mississippian mound center of this magnitude. The results of this investigation have provided intriguing new ideas about the layout and 'architectural grammar' of large Mississippian sites in the Southeast. Implications of the findings of this thesis are further refining the anticipated 'norms' of Mississippian prehistoric landscapes. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Sciences. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2007. / Date of Defense: December 14, 2006. / Mound, Southeast, Mississippian, Remote Sensing, Archaeology, Earthwork, Village / Includes bibliographical references. / Glen Doran, Professor Directing Thesis; Bruce Grindal, Committee Member; William Parkinson, Committee Member.

Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park, located in Tallahassee, Florida, is home to one of the more beautiful ornamental gardens in the State of Florida. The gardens were designed and developed by Alfred B. Maclay between 1923 and 1944, and donated to the state in 1953 by his wife Louise Fleischmann Maclay and their two children Georgiana Maclay Bowers and Alfred B. Maclay, Jr. Mr. Maclay was an affluent northerner who was one of many to buy old antebellum plantations in the Red Hills of Florida for use as winter retreats and hunting grounds. This land was home to African-American tenant farmers, some of whom Mr. Maclay employed as domestic servants, laborers and gardeners. In fact, the land upon which Maclay established his gardens and the majority of the land that now comprises the park were once owned by African-Americans, purchased by tenant farmers and ex-slaves from antebellum planter and Florida Attorney General Mariano Papy in the 1870s. The African-American community on the shores of Lake Hall and Lake Overstreet is historic, having endured slavery, farmed through the mid-twentieth century as both tenant farmers and landowners, and worked at Maclay Gardens as plantation and then state employees, remnants surviving to this day in neighborhoods adjacent to the park. This project is part of a larger effort to research the African-American heritage associated with the park so that it can be effectively interpreted to the visiting public. It consisted of archaeological fieldwork and analysis that focused on the Cedar Shake House, a historic farmstead on Lake Overstreet just north of the Maclay House, and historical research on the larger African-American community and socio-cultural context. Evidence was recovered via a pedestrian survey and the dating and spatial analysis of surface artifacts that supports the contention that Maclay tenants and former residents Annie and Henry Sawyer's livelihood had shifted from farming to plantation employment between the late 1930s and early 1950s when the site was vacated, a common trend as African-Americans sought to escape the cycle of debt associated with tenant farming in favor of wage earning jobs on and then off the plantation. While no evidence of an earlier occupation has yet been recovered, no evidence recovered to date precludes the possibility that the Cedar Shake House was also occupied around the turn of the twentieth century by members of the Robinson family, African-Americans who purchased the property shortly after Emancipation. Additional subsurface investigations are currently underway at the site, conducted by the National Park Service. The Cedar Shake House and other historic homesteads located within park boundaries hold the potential to reveal information not just about former occupants' daily lives but larger transitions, such as shifts from landownership to tenancy or tenant farming to plantation employment, spurred by economic, social and political factors that continue to shape our lives today. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Anthropology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2008. / March 31, 2008. / Lake Hall, Lake Overstreet, Mariano D. Papy, Tenant Farm, Leon County / Includes bibliographical references. / Glen Doran, Professor Directing Thesis; Bill Parkinson, Committee Member; Bruce Grindal, Committee Member.

This thesis describes the filming and post-production strategy used to develop the ethnographic film, And the Rivers Flow: Hunting and Treaty Rights in a First Nations Community. This paper outlines my process, suggesting that an engaging, dramatic film can emerge quite naturally by examining the narratives already present in filmed footage. I suggest that, if framed carefully, the final presented narrative can correspond to both the dramaturgical conventions of Western drama and the anthropological criteria of Victor Turner's social drama (1996). And the Rivers Flow tells the story of two First Nations hunters who were charged with trespassing and illegally hunting on land they considered to be traditional territory safe for hunting. Throughout the story, viewers are taken along on a late-summer moose hunt where respect, knowledge, and a spiritual connection to the land are just as important as any piece of equipment. Combining documentary storytelling with ethnographic footage, And the Rivers Flow adds to the growing discourse surrounding the perpetuation of native peoples' traditional beliefs in spite of encroaching development and outside governmental pressures. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Anthropology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science. / Fall Semester, 2007. / April 23, 2007. / Ethnographic Film, Narrative, Drama, Victor Turner / Includes bibliographical references. / Joseph Hellweg, Professor Directing Thesis; Michael A. Uzendoski, Committee Member; Bruce T. Grindal, Committee Member.

The remains from Windover (8BR46) were excavated in the 1980s from a mortuary pond near Florida's eastern coast. Represented are over 168 individuals, from neonates to elderly, enabling an evaluation of health at all stages of life. Through the application of the Western Hemisphere Health Index (Steckel and Rose, 2002), the overall health of the Windover population has been assessed and compared to populations utilizing various subsistence practices, in a variety of geographic regions spanning 7,000 years of human history. This assessment indicates a surprisingly low overall health score for a pre-agricultural population, with relatively elevated rates of trauma, anemia, and hypoplastic defects yet low incidences of dental and degenerative joint disease. Several factors were explored in an attempt to explain the low health scores of Windover. The health of hunter-gatherer populations was evaluated, yet overall these groups scored high on the index. Methodological issues were examined, which showed that interobserver error was quite high in some categories. However, the majority of the scoring criteria utilize presence/absence values, minimizing interobserver error. The trauma criteria were found to be extremely limiting, since it excludes all torso fractures. This prevents the evaluation of some forms of mechanical loading, interpersonal violence, and multi-trauma. Overall, the methodology is straightforward, easy to follow and is now available online. The final section explored factors that would have had negative implications on health at Windover. This included environmental conditions conducive to the presence and spread of insects, parasites and infectious organisms; a riverine-based diet that was nutritionally adequate yet at times in short supply due to environmental fluctuations; and the social climate of semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers. It is proposed that Windover may represent the incipient stages of sedentism based on the size of the cemetery and archaeobotanical evidence indicating seasonal occupation of the site. The low scores obtained by the Windover population could be a reflection of a population's attempt to transition from a mobile to a more sedentary existence, with the associated health costs inherent to larger, stationary populations. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Anthropology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2006. / March 2, 2006. / Osteology, Paleopathology, Bioarchaeology, Skeletal, Archaic, Health / Includes bibliographical references. / Glen H. Doran, Professor Directing Dissertation; Isaac Eberstein, Outside Committee Member; Rochelle A. Marrinan, Committee Member; Clarence C. Gravlee, Committee Member.

The consumption of alcohol among Indians of southeastern North America is examined in this thesis. I discuss and compare the colonial strategies of the Spaniards in La Florida and the English in Carolina. The Spanish colonial strategy focused on converting Indians while English colonial strategy focused on exploiting Indians for economic gain. These differing strategies led to the very different alcohol consumption patterns among the Indians associated with the Spanish and the English. I examined the presence of alcohol in the Southeast using both historical and archaeological evidence. Alcohol was present in many different contexts. It was consumed by Franciscan friars, Spanish soldiers and settlers, English soldiers and settlers, and Indians allied with the English. The only group that did not consume alcohol was comprised of Indians living in missions established by the Spanish friars. Several explanations for this lack of alcohol consumption are discussed and parallels are drawn between the colonial strategies of the Spanish and English and the alcohol consumption of the Indians groups allied with each colonial power. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Anthropology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2010. / February 24, 2010. / Colonialism, Spanish Missions, Alcohol Consumption, Mission Archaeology, Southeastern Native Americans, Acculturation / Includes bibliographical references. / Rochelle Marrinan, Professor Directing Thesis; Glen Doran, Committee Member; Lynne A. Schepartz, Committee Member.

This research reconstructs Paleoindian social organization using models that describe the manner in which people create and maintain variability and consistency in material culture and predicts the spatial and chronological patterning that should result from those behaviors. The research also develops a methodology that is designed to discern these spatial and chronological patterns and provides a sound basis for inferring the presence and configuration of social organization. The models and methodology are applied to data consisting of isolated Paleoindian points from north central Florida. The results demonstrate a clustering of similar point forms that are used to infer the presence of different social groups. The models propose that consistency in material culture is created through social learning processes that tend to focus group members on one or a limited number of cultural models. Variation is created through individual innovation and the variable abilities of the group members to make artifacts based on those models. It is these processes of learning and making that establishes regional differences in the design of material culture. Typologies based upon these regional differences can be used to infer the territories of the groups that share cultural models. The models predict that greater regional differentiation should be created through time and that the differentiation may only be present in relatively small differences in one or more attributes. In addition chronological effects, the degree of differentiation between groups should be more pronounced with distance. The data in my research consists of about 950 Paleoindian points collected from Florida. In order to ensure that I was measuring an unaltered cultural model, I limited the statistical analyses to the undamaged bases of the points that were unaffected by resharpening, which left 107 Early Paleoindian and 385 Middle Paleoindian points. Nine measurement attributes, nine ratio attributes, and three or four principal components were used in analysis of variance and Tukey-Kramer tests to discern significant regional differences. The analyses produced five significant results for the Early Paleoindian period and 122 significant results for the Middle Paleoindian period. The results comport with the models' predictions. There was a significant increase in the number of differences through time, which can be interpreted as a "settling in" of Middle Paleoindian groups in the region. The differences were apparent in such attributes as the size of the ear, the degree to which it flared out from the base, or the length of the waist. Based on the spatial pattern of differences and similarities, it appears there were three territories in the Middle Paleoindian period centered in the Chipola River, Santa Fe River, and the Hillsborough region. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Anthropology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2006. / October 20, 2006. / Territory, Clovis, Projectile Point, Typology, Florida, Archaeology, Paleoindian, Statistics / Includes bibliographical references. / William Parkinson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Joseph Donoghue, Outside Committee Member; Rochelle A. Marrinan, Committee Member; Glen H. Doran, Committee Member; Frank Marlowe, Committee Member; David G. Anderson, Committee Member.

Ceramic anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines occur abundantly throughout Mesoamerica during the Middle Formative period. At the site of San Andrés in Tabasco, Mexico, archaeological excavations have recovered such figurines. The context in which they were found indicates that they were used in household areas, some of which may have been related to ritual or feasting activities. A comparison of Formative period figurines from other areas in Mesoamerica demonstrates their occurrence in household areas, and as being mostly of the female gender, particularly during the Middle Formative period. The strong similarities between figurines from San Andrés and the nearby Middle Formative center of La Venta provide evidence of close interaction between the two sites and suggest that ritual behavior at San Andrés was influenced by La Venta Olmec ideology. The combination of the physical characteristics of the figurines, the contextual information, and well as ethnohistorical and ethnographic sources suggest that the San Andrés figurines may have been used for life events involving pregnancy, birth, injury or illness, or for depicting mythical or historical events. This study proposes that the ceramic figurines from San Andrés may have functioned to embody animate forces or beings of the supernatural realm that were called upon to ensure productive and reproductive success for the inhabitants of this area during the Middle Formative period. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Anthropology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. / Summer Semester, 2004. / April 23, 2004. / Figurines, Mesoamerica, San Andres, La Venta, Olmec, Formative Period, Archaeology, Mimesis / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary Pohl, Professor Directing Thesis; Kathryn Josserand, Committee Member; Michael Uzendoski, Committee Member.