The present discourse-centered study examines how Japanese people currently in their sixties construct, in and through discourse, their memories of the indigenous historical era called Showa (1926-1989). These contemporaries are particularly called Showa hitoketa ("Showa single digit") since they were born between 1926 and 1934, or during the first nine years (i.e., single-digit years) of the era. As Showa has been often referred to as the "turbulent era" mainly because of its dramatic transformations caused by the nation's defeat in World War II, the generation of Showa hitoketa also has been widely discussed in the postwar Japanese society because of their particular ways of experiencing this historical period. By analyzing their concrete instances of discourses which emerged during our ethnographic interviews, I delineate the dynamic processes of meaning creation, and the interactions between discourse, society, history, and subjectivity. In particular, I focus on the Showa hitoketa informants' personal experience narratives of wartime as significant sites of their Showa memories. Based on my linguistic, semiotic, and interpretive approach to their narrative constructions of the past, I capture how each speaker generates specific experiential meanings, creates particular self-identities, authenticates his/her own memories, and establishes his/her understanding of the era itself. My exploration of the interdependence between text and context inherent in narrative discourse is crucial for the deeper understanding of how the speakers create meaning-filled memories of Showa. By focusing on the metapragmatic functions of signs in narrative discourse, I illustrate how the past is indexically linked to the present, and also how the self is indexically connected to others. The nature of the relationship between these elements is critically important for the investigation of how my informants as Showa historical actors create epistemological, ideological, and affective meanings of their memories. The era of Showa consists of several disjunctive moments for each individual, yet my informants construct their sense of continuity and coherence by transforming their experiences into narrative language.

<p> Images that come to mind when one thinks of the bucolic state of Vermont are not likely to include those of a mining landscape. These are reserved for the coalfields of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky, and perhaps the mining ghost towns of the American West. It is not surprising then that the discovery of substantial veins of copper in Orange County was to have dramatic impacts on not only the landscape of Vermont, but also its inhabitants. And in spite of the fits and starts of Vermont&rsquo;s copper industry, it owns a significant place in history. </p><p> Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, no fewer than five copper mines were in operation in Orange County. The Ely Mine, located in the southeast corner of Vershire, became one of the most productive copper mines in the United States. At one point employing over 800 miners and laborers, most of whom were Cornish and Irish immigrants, the Ely Mine spawned the creation of a boomtown consisting of over 150 buildings and dwellings. Following one of the earliest labor strikes of the era, the mine closed and, within two decades, the town of Copperfield completely disappeared. </p><p> This thesis is an historical narrative that tells the story of the Ely Mine, its boomtown, and particularly its miners by weaving together primary resource material such as United States Federal Census and immigration records, letters, and historical photographs, newspaper articles, and maps. </p><p> <i>Copperfield</i> is a story of perseverance and tenacity not only on the part of entrepreneurs and businessmen, but also &mdash; and most importantly &mdash; on the part of the hundreds of immigrant miners who passed through the Orange County copper mines. Without the contributions of these &ldquo;ordinary&rdquo; people, there would be no story to tell.</p>

<p> The primary objective of this dissertation was to reevaluate how physical anthropologists address the issue of oral health and oral health disparities in past populations. By utilizing methodology from dentistry as well as theoretical frameworks from archaeology and public health, we are able to address oral health in a more comprehensive light, allowing for a more interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of oral health in past populations. </p><p> The Erie County Poorhouse, established in Buffalo, New York in response to growing poverty, was located at what is now the University at Buffalo&rsquo;s South Campus. In 2012, skeletal remains were recovered from the associated cemetery (1851-1913). In all, 482 burial locations were identified, with skeletal remains from 376 individuals being recovered for analysis. Archaeological analysis of artifacts and coffin alignment suggest a temporal boundary between an older (earlier) and more recent (later) sections of the cemetery. </p><p> This time period marked a revolution for dental medicine in the United States. Changes in education, innovation, regulation, and public outreach all dramatically increased the accessibility, increased the quality, and decreased the costs of dentistry during the 19th century. Because of this, individuals occupying a lower socioeconomic class could have obtained dental services at higher rates than previous research suggests. This research analyzes dental pathologies, oral health, and oral health disparities within this sample in light of these advances in dentistry. </p><p> Of the 376 individuals available for analysis, 253 had at least one tooth or portion of alveolar bone to be scored for dental pathologies (antemortem loss, carious lesions, abscesses, calculus, periodontal disease) and dental restorations (dentures, fillings, bridges). In general, high frequencies of dental pathologies are present within this sample while only 10 individuals had evidence of dental restorations. Differences in dental pathologies were analyzed using MANOVA/MANCOVA tests as well as Multinomial Logistic Regression between sex (males/females) and sections of the cemetery (earlier/more recent), as well as by age (&lt;15, 15-19, 20-35, 36-50, 50+).</p><p> To better address the concept of oral health, a new index, modified from an oral health index used in clinical dentistry, was utilized&mdash;The Oral Health Archaeological Index&mdash;which generates an &lsquo;oral health score&rsquo; for each individual. The oral health scores generated were compared using ANOVA tests between sex and sections of the cemetery. Results indicate that females had on average higher oral health scores than males (Females= 0.871, Males=0.759). </p><p> To assess the degree of oral health disparities, Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients were calculated using oral health scores and dental restorations. In order to test significance, 50 bootstrapped samples were generated for males, females, and for each section of the cemetery. For each bootstrapped sample, Gini coefficients were calculated. These Gini coefficients were than compared using student&rsquo;s t-test between the sexes and sections of the cemetery. Results suggest that there is greater evidence of oral health disparities among males than females (Female Gini Coefficient=0.0658, Male Gini Coefficient=0.09185). </p><p> This dissertation moved beyond traditional analysis of &lsquo;oral health&rsquo; by utilizing the above Oral Health Archaeological Index, theory, and public health studies to allow for a more robust analysis of oral health in past populations. These methods and theories allow for new interpretations to be made beyond the biological and socioeconomic, focusing on the individual experience and agency of an individual, attempting to ascertain what factors encourage or discourage an individual from seeking out dental treatment.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Alejandro Lugo. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-208) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> This thesis examines the lifestyle of the people who lived in Kaup&omacr; between 1930- 1950. A number of those who lived in Kaup&omacr; during that time were interviewed and their stories have been compiled under various topics relating to their life, the nature of the land, the community, religion, food getting, and life at home. This thesis examines their traditional Hawaiian knowledge, behavior and spirituality. Place names were also researched in order to verify names documented previously and to document additional names.</p>

<p> This dissertation examines how racial ideologies have historically been entangled with discourses on citizenship and gender difference in the United States. In looking at the case study of the 18^th- and 19^th-century African American community on Nantucket, I ask how these ideologies of difference and inequality were experienced, reinterpreted, and defied by women and men in the past. Whereas New England has maintained a liberal and moralistic regional narrative since the early-19^th century, this dissertation builds on scholarship which has increasingly complicated this narrative, documenting the historically entrenched racial divides in the region.</p><p> Historic African American community philosophies and social ideals are investigated through newspapers, pamphlets, and other records of the time. To address the household and individual scale, an archaeological investigation was undertaken at the homestead of a prominent 19^th-century black family on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The Seneca Boston-Florence Higginbotham House was home to a prominent late-18^th- and 19^th-century African American-Native American family on the island. The materiality of the Boston home&mdash;the artifacts, architecture, and landscape features&mdash;are the basis for making interpretations of the lives of the individuals that once lived there.</p><p> African diaspora theory, black feminist thought, and theories of performativity form the basis for the interpretive framework of this dissertation. The process of community formation and mobilization is considered with regard both for the uniting potential of cultural background and the uniting potential of political and social goals. The diversity of the African diaspora is seen as both an asset and a challenge to the uniting of the community on Nantucket. Race, gender, age, social status, and other vectors of social cohesion all contributed to the experience of intersectional identities. The concept of performativity, which proposes that identities are temporarily stabilized during actions, is also part of the foundation on which identity is theorized in this dissertation.</p><p> The historical analysis which contextualizes this research project focuses on the establishment and perpetuation of African American community ideals in the northeastern United States during the 19^th century. Notions of citizenship and gender ideals were racialized and defined according to white standards. Women and men of African descent, as well as of other cultural backgrounds, were seen by dominant white culture as outside the bounds of citizenship by virtue of not being white and outside the bounds of womanhood/manhood by not being white women/men. Black communities, or communities of color, in the Northeast countered these hostile ideologies with a complex set of strategies for redefining, rejecting, or transforming dominant ideals of womanhood and manhood. Black gender ideologies represented the synthesis of several sets of cultural traditions, economic circumstances, and political goals. While these changed in important ways over the course of the 19^th century, black gender ideals were consistently based on a normative notion of respectability while at the same time critiquing the race and gender ideologies of the society that defined respectability. In addition to this, people of color were increasingly defining a sense of collective identity based on these shared ideas of respectability and uplift and the ways that women and men achieved this in the home as well as in more public spaces.</p><p> This dissertation first examines how the Boston-Micah family of the late-18^th and early-19^th centuries contributed to the founding of the community of color on Nantucket island. African American, Native American, Cape Verdean, European, and people from other lines of descent were a part of this community and in the early-19^th century they united around the identifier of "people of color." Seneca Boston and Thankful Micah were among the first of these people to strike out and settle on the southern edge of town. Through an analysis of their material worlds&mdash;including ceramics, their house itself, and their plot of land&mdash;it is suggested that they were actively negotiating dominant discourses on racial exclusion, citizenship, and gender which excluded people of color from the rights and privileges of full personhood.</p><p> The 19^th-century occupants of the house contributed to the growth, florescence, and survival of the African American community through the boom of the whaling industry on the island, an economic depression, and the resurgence of the economy with the coming of the tourism industry in the late-19^th century. Mary Boston Douglass, Eliza Berry, Lewis Berry, Phebe Groves Talbot Hogarth, Elizabeth Stevens, and Absalom Boston experienced the race and gender ideals of the black community in the northeast, and wider American society, in a variety of ways. An analysis of ceramics, personal adornment objects, and small finds is used to examine their experiences. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

<p> This dissertation examines a period in the late expansion phase (A.D. 1400-1650) of pre-contact Hawaiian society when formidable changes in ritual and social organization were underway which ultimately led to the emergence of Hawai.i as a powerful complex chiefdom in East Polynesia. Remotely located towards the northwest were two geographically remote and ecologically marginal islands called Mokumanamana and Nihoa Islands. Though quite barren and seemingly inhospitable, these contain over 140 archaeological sites, including residential features, agricultural terraces, ceremonial structures, shelters, cairns, and burials that bear witness to an earlier occupation and settlement efforts on these islands. This research demonstrates that over a four hundred year period from approximately ca. A.D. 1400-1815, Mokumanamana became the central focus of chiefly elites in establishing this island as a ritual center of power for the Hawaiian system of heiau (temples). These efforts had long lasting implications which led to the centralization of chiefly management, an integration of chiefs and priests into a single social class, the development of a charter for institutional order, and ultimately a state sponsored religion that became widely established throughout the main Hawaiian Islands. The ideological beliefs that were developed centered on the concept of the cord (.aha) as a symbolic connection between ancestors and descendants came to be a widespread organizing dimension of Hawaiian social life. Through commemorative rituals, the west was acknowledged and reaffirmed as a primary pathway of power where elite status, authority, and spiritual power originated and was continually legitimized. </p><p> This research utilizes an interdisciplinary approach in combining ethno-historical research with archeology as complimenting ways of understanding the Hawaiian past. Through these approaches ritual power is established as a strategic mechanism for social political development, one that leads to a unified set of social beliefs and level of integration across social units. Ethno-historical analysis of cosmogonic chants, mythologies, and oral accounts are looked at to understand ritualization as a historical process one that tracks important social transformations and ultimately led to the formation of the Hawaiian state religious system. Archaeological analysis of the material record is used to understand the nature of island settlement and the investments that went into developing a monument at the effective edge of their living universe. A strong regional chronology is created based on two independent chronometric dating techniques and a relative ordering technique called seriation applied to both habitation and ceremonial sites. An additional number of techniques will be used to track human movement as source of labor, and the transportation of necessary resources for survival such as timber resources through paleo-botanical identification, fine-grained basalt through x-ray fluorescence, and food inferred through the late development of agriculture.</p><p> The results of this study indicate that Mokumanamana and Nihoa islands were the focus of ritual use and human occupation in a continuous sequence from ca. A.D. 1400- 1815, extending for intermittent periods well into the 19th century. The establishment and maintenance of Mokumanamana as a ritual center of power was a hallmark achievement of Hawaiian chiefs in establishing supporting use on these resource deficient islands and pushing towards greater expressions of their power. This island temple was perhaps one of the most labor intensive examples of monumentality relying heavily on a voyaging interaction sphere for the import and transportation of necessary outside resources to sustain life. It highlights the importance of integration of ritual cycles centered on political competition (and/or integration) and agricultural surplus production through the calibration of the ritual calendar. The creation of this ritual center of power resulted in: (1) a strong ideological framework for social organization and order; (2) a process in which a growing class of ramified leaders could display their authority and power to rule; and increased predictability and stability in resource production through forecasting- all of which formed a strong foundation for the institutional power of Hawaiian chiefdoms.</p>

<p> Cemeteries of the enslaved on many plantations in the 18th and 19th centuries were places where communities could practice forms of resistance, and develop distinct African-American traditions. These spaces often went unrecorded by elites, whose constructed landscapes were designed to convey messages of their own status and authority. In their oversight of these spaces, however, elites failed to notice the nuanced meanings the slaves themselves instilled in the landscapes they were forced to live and work in. These separate meanings enabled enslaved African Americans to maintain both human and cultural identities that subverted the slave system and the messages of inferiority that constantly bombarded them.</p><p> This thesis focuses on the archaeological study of the Slave Cemetery at George Washington's Mount Vernon. Here, methodological and theoretical principles are utilized to study the area that many enslaved workers call their final resting place. Through the use of this space, it is hypothesized that Mount Vernon's enslaved community practiced distinct traditions, instilling in that spot a sense of place, and reinforcing their individual and communal human identities. This thesis will also investigate the cemetery within its broader regional and cultural contexts, to attain a better understanding of the death rituals and culturally resistant activates that slaves at Mount Vernon used in their day-to-day battle against the system that held them in bondage.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, History of Art, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 21, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-10, Section: A, page: 3782. Adviser: Patrick R. McNaughton.

This dissertation traces the complex ways in which non-European military cultures - often designated as 'savage' - and the expeditions undertaken against them - regularly conceptualised as 'savage warfare' - were understood in the Victorian imagination. It addresses how these understandings shifted across time in relation to developments such as imperial expansion; cultural and intellectual shifts including the rise of evolutionary theory; and the practical issues that emerged in response to the undertaking of wars where such opponents were met on the field of battle. It is distinctive in working at the intersection of nineteenth-century intellectual, cultural, imperial and military history, and utilises a wide range of sources. The nineteenth century was a unique period during which this eclectic and differentiated debate - which both explored and contributed to the construction of ideas on 'savagery' - arose due to the proliferation of cross-cultural knowledge and the development of periodical culture. As members of the armed forces were on the front-line of cross-cultural interactions, the military context shines a light on the richness of this discourse and helps to frame a complex debate about the boundaries between 'civilisation' and 'savagery'. While understandings of 'savagery' that embodied assumptions of ruthlessness, bloodthirstiness, and a lack of moral understanding can be traced in British perceptions of 'savage' warriors during this period, this dissertation argues that the designation of a warrior culture as 'savage' was not uncontested, nor did it preclude the admission of 'civilised' characteristics, or criticisms with regard to British conduct in 'savage' wars. By uncovering the competing discourses on how 'savage' warriors were perceived during this period, this dissertation reinforces critiques of the 'cultural determinist' notion that military cultures are fixed; emphasises the lack of coherence with regard to British perceptions of 'savage' warriors, thus contributing to scholarship that has identified the inconsistent nature of 'orientalism'; and challenges conventional periodisation of the development of colonial racism and anti-humanitarianism during the nineteenth century.