<p> The Maya site of Lamanai, located in northern Belize, exemplifies one of the longest occupation spans in the Maya Lowlands. First occupied in the Preclassic (ca. 1500 B.C.) and continuously inhabited through the Classic period &ldquo;collapse,&rdquo; Lamanai was thriving when the Spanish arrived in A.D. 1540. Lamanai&rsquo;s lagoon-side location at the head of the New River, with direct access to the Caribbean Sea, allowed for cultural and economic exchange well beyond the immediate region. The N10[3] architectural group (aka Ottawa Group), located in the Central Precinct of Lamanai, has been interpreted as an administrative and elite-residential complex, or palace, of some significance due to its lengthy occupation span and its location adjacent to two important ceremonial plaza groups in the Central Precinct. During the Late to Terminal Classic period (A.D. 624&ndash;962 at Lamanai), the Ottawa Group underwent a major architectural transformation, which may be an indication of changing functions and strategies on the part of Lamanai elites. These modifications may have played a role in Lamanai&rsquo;s persistence during the transition from the Classic to Postclassic periods in Mesoamerica&mdash;a time when other cities were abandoned in the Maya Lowlands. </p><p> During the massive remodeling of this Ottawa Group, some masonry structures were razed, while others, such as Structure N10-15, continued to be remodeled. This thesis gives a fresh assessment of the function of the Ottawa Group, describes the architectural sequence of Structure N10-15, and examines the caching patterns present throughout the different architectural stages. When considered together, the architectural changes at Structure N10-15 and associated changes in cache composition and placement signal a change in emphasis shifting away from exclusive elite-led activities associated with divine kingship toward those of a more inclusive and public nature.</p>

<p> The Central Aleutians Upland Archaeological Project used film and social networking to reach educator and public audiences. A series of short education films were created for Alaska public schools through consultation with school districts, Alaska Native corporations, tribes, and archaeologists. The consulted parties wanted Alaskan youth inspired to pursue anthropology, feature a role model Alaska Native college student, and use of Unangam Tunuu in the films. Social networking was approached with educational goals that were tested through an online anonymous survey. The Facebook member survey had a 23.5% response. The questions with the most incorrect answers were answered correctly 72.4% of the time with most questions being answered correctly 100% of the time. Facebook had 61.8% female members and YouTube had 70.5% male members from countries all over the world. The goal of creating relevant public archaeology content that inspired and educated Alaskan youth and the general public was met.</p>

The last 2000 years of Indian occupation of the central Labrador coast and adjacent interior regions is the focus of archaeological and ethnohistorical research. Recognition of the primacy of social mechanisms, including the perceptions and strategies that are used to construct and maintain a sense of group identity, are perceived as the means by which the small dispersed Indian populations throughout the region were linked together by social, economic and information networks. Research and excavations at more than twenty-five sites along the central and northern Labrador coast supports the recognition of a cultural continuity between the contemporary Innu cultures of Quebec-Labrador with the Naskapi-Montagnais of the exploration and ethnohistorical record, and the preceding protohistoric and late prehistoric period Indian occupations. Excavations at two sites, at Daniel Rattle-1 and at Kamarsuk greatly extend the duration of the late prehistoric period and provide the recognition of the Daniel Rattle complex (circa A.D. 200 to A.D. 1000) which is antecedent to the Pt. Revenge complex (circa A.D. 1000 to European Contact in the sixteenth century). Survey in the adjacent interior and excavation at coastal sites demonstrate a mixed economy for late prehistoric period Indian cultures in Labrador based on both terrestrial and marine mammal resources; an economy quite different from the specialized interior caribou hunting adaptation pursued by the nineteenth-century Naskapi. The cultural preference for production of a chipped stone tool assemblage relying nearly exclusively on Ramah chert is an especially visible aspect of social reaffirmation. The mechanisms that facilitated the movement of the distinctive raw material from the quarry sites in northern Labrador, down the Labrador coast and throughout the Far Northeast are a reflection of pervasive social networks that provided access to raw materials, information and relationships that united dispersed, low-density, populations of northern hunter-gatherers. The results of the research demonstrates the fallacy in relying too heavily on ethnographic accounts for modeling prehistoric social dynamics and reveals that the Innu are heirs of a cultural tradition which shows a remarkable propensity for taking advantage of the wide array of social strategies and resource options available to them.

This dissertation examines political processes within Native American societies of seventeenth-century southern New England, focusing on the strategies used by individuals and groups to legitimize or challenge political authority within Native society. Documentary, archaeological, and oral history data are integrated in order to investigate the significance of and variation in different political strategies involving ideology, alliance, marriage, coercion, settlement, exchange, and the manipulation of material culture. I compare the political strategies employed by the leadership of three historically known polities (the Mohegans, Pequots, and Narragansetts). Two of these experienced a violently contested change in leadership personnel, while in the third leadership was more stable. These differences in internal political struggles, particularly in the legitimizing of authority, provide a context for understanding variation in political strategies.

This dissertation examines how space contributes to the creation and maintenance of social stratification. Space is understood to both constitute the context in which human behavior takes place and forms a part of its content. My examination of the transition from feudalism to capitalism illuminates how the material dimensions of landscapes serve to embody and reflect social meaning. Changing spatial relations define social distinctions based on class and gender and reinforce people's ideological understanding of where they belong in the social and physical world. Socially constructed landscapes play an active role in shaping and reproducing economic, political and ideological relations, in effect, the basic constituents of social life. The conceptual framework developed in this dissertation stresses the dialectical relationship between social action and social structure. Social structure is understood as being produced and reproduced through social action by individuals and groups; social structure, however, also serves to constitute and constrain social action. The focus in this dissertation is on the construction, use and maintenance of the built environment. The relationship between human behavior and the built environment is traced by examining the production and flow of social surplus as evident in its spatial manifestations and articulations. Specifically, I examine how space is used to mediate social stratification in the medieval town of Montblanc during the 18th and early 19th centuries. This study proceeds along three scales of analysis: (1) a regional approach to changing spatial boundaries at the level of Catalonia; (2) the overall transformation of the agricultural landscape and townscape; (3) and the transformation of specific structures as recorded in building biographies. Social stratification, class domination, and even resistance are evident in landscapes of the past. The built environment changed in ways that embodied and expressed societal and individual conceptions of space in accordance with socioeconomic variables during the transition from feudalism to capitalism. From this analysis of the socioeconomic and spatial circumstances in which one form of social organization was replaced by another, I offer an interpretation of how and why it occurred. The insights gained from this research offer additional understanding of how space is used and manipulated in different historical contexts.

The dissertation investigates the articulation of race, class, and religion among Africans in colonial New York and the methods used by these individuals to resist the oppressive conditions of Northern bondage. Men's, women's, and children's burials from the African Burial Ground Project in New York city will be compared to burial sites in The Netherlands, Suriname, and England in order to understand the range of mortuary practices available to captive Africans, and their influence on various social relationships constructed throughout the old and new world. Archaeological evidence will be used to explore social roles from burial positions and grave goods associated with individuals, emphasizing the cultural symbolic ritual of mortuary behavior.

The preservation of osseous material at the Turner Farm site, Maine provides us with an opportunity to examine more closely some of the variability in Northeastern Late Archaic mortuary practices, especially that associated with the Moorehead/Maritime Archaic and Susquehanna traditions. A minimum of '70 individuals was recovered from Turner Farm from unburned primary inhumations (n = 7), unburned secondary inhumation features (MNI = 7), and secondarily deposited cremations (MNI = 56). All burials have been attributed to the Susquehanna occupation of the site by Bourque (1993). Neither age nor sex appears to have directly determined burial treatment at death since males, females, and subadults were afforded primary as well as burned and unburned secondary inhumation. All the unburned secondary interments appear to have undergone significant decomposition and were largely disarticulated at the time of deposition. Similarly, analysis of the burning patterns of the human bone suggests that individuals deposited in the secondary cremation features were disarticulated and in various stages of decomposition at the time of the burning. Complete individuals were deposited in burned (Feature 38/1974) and unburned (Feature 30/1975) secondary interments while incomplete individuals were contained in other cremated (Features 7/1975, 9/1975, 12/1975, 19/1975, 24/1975, 30/1975, 41/1974, 42/1974) and unburned (Feature 39/1974) contexts. All cremation features contained at least some cremated faunal material with Feature 24/1974 representing the largest quantity of burned animal bone (981 g; 86.7% of feature weight). My analysis of the Turner Farm burials suggests that a shift from the interment of complete to incomplete individuals may have occurred. Further, the relative number of individuals secondarily interred signifies the importance of Turner Farm as a regional cemetery. I suggest that participation in a closed mating network (Wobst 1974, 1976) explains well the florescence of northeastern Late Archaic mortuary traditions. The discontinuity associated with the Susquehanna tradition in Maine may reflect an augmentation of ritual specificity functioning to increase mating network allegiance. Curation of individuals may serve to increase the number of ceremonial events associated with the mortuary ritual. Territoriality may be symbolized through participation in highly visible mortuary customs including cremation. In addition, the choice of coastal sites as the location for communal burial areas may functionally improve the position of marginally located groups within the mating network.

<p> The Early Helladic II&ndash;III (EH II&ndash;III) transition was a period of dramatic cultural change in the Argolid, and one of the most prominent shifts which occurred at this time was in the pottery, which changed from forms with few handles, simple decoration, and homogeneous appearances to ones with an abundance of handles, prominent decoration, and wide variation in appearances. While this shift has been explained to some extent by writers such as Rutter (1993) and Spencer (2007), the nature of this change has not yet been fully explored. This thesis explores this problem by examining the organization of pottery production in Early Helladic Lerna, a type site for the region. This is done by examining indirect evidence from Lerna in EH II and EH III, largely through the use of standardization analysis, which is then used to evaluate the organization of pottery production in each phase by using Costin&rsquo;s parameters of craft production, namely intensity, concentration, scale, and context (1991). These are then compared, ultimately concluding that production was at the level of very low-intensity household production for domestic use and limited non-economic trade in both periods. The single change observed is in the context of production, which is found to move from a midpoint between independent and attached production in EH II to embedded production in EH III, a form of attached production. This occurred as the result of a change from a seemingly uncontested political sphere in EH II to one characterized by competition between individuals or groups in EH III, which caused the political powers to draw nearer to their otherwise unchanged pottery production groups in order to compete for power. </p><p> This thesis contributes to current scholarship in several ways. It first of all provides new evidence for the organization of pottery production in the Argolid during EH II and III, which has received little scholarly attention. It also contributes to research into the nature of the political changes which occurred across the EH II&ndash;III transition, such as Weiberg and Lindblom&rsquo;s suggestion of differential adoption of foreign elements in the Argolid in EH III (2014), which I propose is due to varied approaches to competition for political authority. Finally, it provides a useful instance of shifting political power and an associated change in production context that problematizes typical narratives regarding the development of attached craft production (Costin 1991: 12).</p><p>

The purpose of this study is to explore the world of anatomical gifts, specifically whole body donations for anatomical dissection, and to examine the relationship between laboratory cadavers and anatomy students. This relationship is rooted in the "anatomical gift" of a body to science. As a result of this gift, the physical remains of a dead person are transformed into a liminal artifact—one that possesses characteristics of both person and thing—whose purpose is to be cut apart for scientific study. Two inherently anthropological concepts that can help us to understand the cadaver and its relationships are "the gift" and the body as material culture. Anthropology has traditionally divided the world in such a way as to separate mind, body, and material things. Yet the gift to science of a dead human body occupies material, biological, and cultural domains—and as such both challenges and sheds light on subdisciplinary boundaries. What sort of people donate their bodies "to science," and why do they do it? How do anatomy students respond to working with cadavers? What is the nature of the relationship between cadaver and student? To address these questions, I focus on the experiences of prospective body donors and occupational and physical therapy students in western Massachusetts. I combine quantitative and qualitative data, drawn from survey questionnaires completed by a self-selected sample of prospective donors and by three cohorts of OT and PT anatomy students, to contribute to our understanding of the anatomical gift, the body as material culture, and subdisciplinary boundaries. As a result of this research, several points have emerged that may be of use to anatomy students, prospective donors, and body donor programs. To further the analysis of whole body donation for anatomical dissection, I propose three lines of more specifically focused research. Such continued research would make valuable contributions to the pedagogy of anatomy. At a broader and more theoretical level, it would also enhance our appreciation of the complex relationships between persons and things, and between the living and the dead, at the intersection of human biological, material, and cultural domains.

<p> This dissertation addresses questions related to craft production, social identity, and interaction through a multifaceted analysis of ceramic production and use during the Majiayao (3200-2000BC) and Qijia (2300-1500BC) periods in the Tao River Valley of northwestern China's Gansu Province. Situated between the Gobi Desert to the north and the foothills of the Tibetan Plateau to the south, for millennia this area acted as a key conduit for interaction between groups in central China and the Eurasian steppe. Majiayao and Qijia communities played a vital role in adopting, adapting, and retransmitting new domesticates, technologies, and ideas in both directions, helping shape the course of both Chinese and steppe civilization.</p><p> Despite these contributions to the development and spread of Chinese civilization, however, this region of northwest China is often pigeonholed into the trope of cultural devolution, with climatic shifts forcing a change from sophisticated Majiayao farmers to the small-scale, possibly pastoral societies of the Qijia. This conclusion is based almost entirely on shifts in pottery form and decoration, with the large, elaborately painted urns of the Majiayao period being replaced by the smaller, mostly undecorated pottery that defines the Qijia period. This dissertation challenges these conclusions by investigating the relationship between craft production, consumer and producer identity, and social interaction in order to provide a more nuanced understanding of the continuities and changes occurring between the two periods.</p><p> Taking a communities of practice based approach to ceramic production, this research focuses first on identifying potential groups of producers through assessment of paste recipes and forming techniques. In order to identify these groups, sherds from four Majiayao and Qijia habitation and mortuary contexts were sampled and analyzed using petrographic analysis. This technique provides information not only on the mineralogical makeup of a vessel, but also can provide insight into specific paste recipes and production techniques. This study revealed striking differences between vessels from mortuary and habitation contexts during the Majiayao period, pointing to the potential use of mortuary rituals for the negotiation and construction of relationships with other communities. It also demonstrated surprising continuity in production knowledge and techniques between the two periods, showing that changes in pottery form and decoration are not necessarily accurate reflections of underlying shifts in social identity. </p><p> In addition to petrographic analysis, whole vessels from mortuary contexts were also examined in order to assess how they were produced and used. Use-wear analysis was employed in order to understand the use histories of individual vessels, revealing that the majority of pots placed in graves during both periods were well used before interment. Standardization analysis was also carried out in order to explore potential production differences between various vessel types. It was demonstrated that while production does appear to vary between vessel types, there is impressive continuity in degree of vessel uniformity between the Majiayao and Qijia periods.</p><p> Combining the results of these three techniques, this research is able to address not only the communities of practice who were making these vessels, but also the potential roles they played in building and mediating relationships between groups. Specifically, for the northern Tao River Valley, it appears that despite significant shifts in pottery form, mortuary rituals, and the relationships that were mediated by these items and events, underlying communities of practice persisted over the course of more than 600 years.</p><p>