As Japan underwent rapid modernization and economic expansion after World War II, its cultural complex transformed into a postmodern mingling of Western and Eastern cultures, merging modern and antiquated tradition (Heine 1995:29). The Japanese have absorbed many Western traditions without immigrating, or living outside of their own (Eastern) society; Japanese marriage rituals exhibit such Eastern and Western cultural minglings. Wedding receptions, regarded as mini-drama, contain traditions of oldmaterial taboos, inedible wedding cakes, beer ceremony, the importance of the color white, as well as blended traditional-modern acts such as toasting champagne while wearing a kimono, and gift-giving rituals incorporating famous American jewelry store wares. Wedding businesses involve such rituals through the presentation of material cultures. This study seeks to understand changing Japanese behaviors and thoughts, asking why many Japanese choose to maintain aspects of tradition ceremony while engaging foreign elements of material culture in similar ritualsin this case, the food of a contemporary Japanese wedding (between the late 1990s and 2001). Additionally, French cuisine is a standard reception meal for modern Japanese weddings. Combinations of Japanese, Western and Chinese cuisines are also served in receptions, following French cuisine structure: hors duvre, soup, meat, fish and desserts. By way of the authors participant observation in and around wedding receptions and foodways of young Japanese females, this paper also examines diversity in Japanese individuals consciousness toward their own culture and heritage, focusing on the intentional incorporation of Western cultural influences into the traditional Japanese wedding ceremony.

Blood proteins and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) deposited in crime scene soil may remain biologically active and detectable after a considerable lapse of time. Soils were sampled from three sites of known criminal activity in the former Yugoslavia. From an execution site near Stutica, Kosovo, soil samples were analyzed for year-and-a-half-old blood proteins using an immunological test, cross-over immunoelectrophoresis. From a total of 72 samples, 44 returned positive results for human blood proteins. Soil solution from grave soils sampled at a cemetery in Duz, Kosovo, and a mass grave in Knin, Croatia were analyzed for VFAs using gas chromatography (GC) and mass spectrometry (MS). Six samples were removed from four graves in the Duz cemetery for testing. Prior to exhumation and soil sampling, bodies laid in the graves approximately one-and-a-half-years. GC results from the cemetery revealed the presence of iso-butyric and valeric water soluble VFAs in one sample. MS examination of the samples was inconclusive. From the six-year-old mass grave in Knin, four samples were taken. However, one sample was discarded due to mold contamination. GC and MS analysis revealed the presence of iso-butyric and iso-valeric water soluble VFAs in two of the three remaining samples. In addition, MS analysis revealed the following non-water soluble VFAs in all three samples: capric, lauric, myristic, palmitic, stearic, and oleic. Possible causes for inconsistent results between the cemetery graves and the mass grave may be attributed to the differences in burial styles, differences in soil moisture and clay content, and sampling handling. The positive findings of blood proteins and VFAs in the Kosovar and Croatian soils validate CIEP, GS, and MS analysis of older site soils. These methods may be used to successfully identify crime scenes, and especially suspected scenes more than a year old, in the absence of bodies or other physical evidence.

Roadside death memorials are a response to the sudden, tragic death of a loved one; and are appearing with increasing regularity in developed and developing countries across the globe. In Mexico, however, wayside memorials and shrines of religiosity are a centuries-old tradition. This work, an effort to understand why the exact location of a persons death is so important that a sacred place must be created where no place is intended, is basic and exploratory research. A multi-method, and cross-disciplinary case study, based upon the authors fieldwork in Mexico, produces massive data and constitutes a robust explanatory triangulation. A geographic survey identifies 9102 artifacts at 6891 locations and answers the question: what is where? An ethnographic method, applied to place as the physical manifestation of culture, minutely describes individual artifacts at 14% of the sites. Together these methods produce an interpretation, or reading, of the landscape as text at the state, regional, and national scales as well as for individual artifacts and sites. The same concept of multi-scalar investigation is applied to the context in which this landscape appears. Context is addressed along two fronts: the conceptual or theoretical context, and the narrative context of the authors field experience. The former is divided into three topics: religion and the conceptualization of death, emotions as a force, and culture as a dynamic mixture of specific cultures. The minute details of conceptual context, personal experience, and empirical description form a tapestry of hybrid culture and place. These, uniquely Latin American, Mestizo Places signify multiple and simultaneous concepts of be-ing in the world, exist within different realities at different analytic scales, and resist, selectively accept, and modify modernity.

The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and the resulting Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) became widespread in the early 1980s. At the beginning of the epidemic, HIV/AIDS was affecting mainly gay men. As the disease began to spread, more diverse populations were affected. Now, two decades later, the face of HIV and AIDS has changed. In the year 2000, the Baton Rouge area (which includes the parishes of Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, West Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana) had the highest detected rate of HIV/AIDS cases in the state, and the 16th highest detected rate of HIV/AIDS cases in the nation. This study was developed to determine why the HIV/AIDS transmission rate is so high in the Baton Rouge area, what methods are being used to lower transmission rates and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, and what needs to be done to bolster the efforts already underway. Statistical data were collected from the Louisiana Office of Public Health to determine what populations were being affected by HIV/AIDS. Officials from HIV/AIDS community based organizations, public health clinics, universities, and governmental service organizations were interviewed to determine what is being done to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS. A survey was also developed to better understand the effects of HIV/AIDS on the people living with the disease. The results of the study indicate that HIV/AIDS is spreading most rapidly in the African-American community, with 89% of all new cases reported in 2000 affecting African-Americans. The areas of prevention that are lacking include minority audiences, low-income areas, as well as education in public schools. One of the main concerns of people with HIV is the lack of health care options, as Earl K. Long Hospital is the only place to obtain free or low-cost treatment for HIV/AIDS. To better serve the HIV-positive community, and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, more funding should be directed towards prevention and towards healthcare. Also, the Baton Rouge community-at-large needs to be educated about HIV/AIDS so that a greater level of tolerance and understanding about the disease can be achieved.

Sex determination of adult remains has become a well-established practice in forensic anthropology. However, the assessment of sex in fetal remains is a highly contested subject. The purpose of this research is to ascertain whether fetal and early infant specimens can be sexed accurately using five bones of the cranium and the mandible. The first part of this research project is based on the work of Fazekas and Kosa (1978), in which they test to see if statistical significance can be found between the cranial base bones of fetal male and female specimens. The second part is based on the morphognostic analyses of infant mandibles performed by Schutkowski (1993) to determine sex. The sample used for this project is the Johns Hopkins Fetal Collection, which is housed at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Statistical analyses on the bones of the cranial base are performed by using the Kruskal-Wallis test. Morphognostic analyses of the mandibles do not include statistical tests and were based on visual observations alone. Analyses of the cranial base bones yield no significant differences between the sexes. However, Schutkowskis techniques prove to be successful in determining sex based on the shape of male and female mandibles. The conclusion, that there are sex differences in the mandible, but not in the cranial base, is based on developmental differences between males and females. The cranial base develops more slowly than does the mandible. The accelerated growth of the mandible leads to a differentiation in the sexes, which becomes apparent early in skeletal development.

This study focuses on radii excavated from the Poole-Rose ossuary and analyzes the occurrence and patterning of degenerative joint disease (DJD) on the proximal and distal joint surfaces. The Poole-Rose ossuary, located in eastern Ontario, is dated to A.D. 1550 +/- 50. The Poole-Rose population, dating to the Late Woodland period, were agricultural in their subsistence activities. The disarticulated patterning of the skeletal remains suggests this site was associated with the Feast of the Dead, a mass interment burial ceremony. This ceremony took place about every eight to twelve years. Frequencies of lipping, porosity, and eburnation were reported in degree of severity for the proximal and distal joint surfaces. The results of this study are comprised of qualitative and quantitative analyses, including frequencies and co-occurrences of degenerative changes by joint surfaces. These results indicate that a combination of stress factors and possibly systemic factors are involved and responsible for the onset of DJD. Pitting alone appears to represent initial changes, while lipping and eburnation, most often accompanied by pitting, represent the more moderate and severe cases. Generally speaking, pitting is the most frequent characteristic of DJD, proximal lipping is less frequent than distal lipping, and eburnation occurs in about 3.5% of all specimens. The results of cross-tabulations indicate a statistically significant relationship between lipping and pitting on each joint surface, with the distal joint surface being affected more frequently by degenerative changes. Eburnation occurs in every case with lipping and pitting. Occurrence of degenerative changes suggests no statistically significant differences between the left and right sides. The Poole-Rose population was not subjected to severe levels of mechanical stress that might aggravate the onset of DJD or its initial changes.

Combining archival and field investigation, this study reconstructs the historical geography of mahogany in Honduras. Focusing on the north coast, its temporal focus stretches from the mid-eighteenth century through the last years of the nineteenth century. This incorporates the earliest stages of the commercial mahogany trade in Honduras, its decline and subsequent rebirth, its boom period in the mid-1800s, and its eventual decline. The initial chapters of the study address cultural aspects of the mahogany trade. The mahogany extraction process is examined in detail to provide a foundation for discussion of the expansion and development of the trade itself. With this framework, it becomes possible to explore the trade's legacies in the contemporary Honduran landscape, including investigation of toponyms and relict mahogany sites. In the chronological narrative, particular emphasis is placed on the rebirth of the trade in the 1830s under the auspices of Francisco Morázan and Marshall Bennett, as well as the boom years of the 1840s and 1850s. This period was characterized by sustained expansion up the main river valleys of the north coast. In the Aguán valley, rival mahogany interests succeeded in generating a great deal of diplomatic activity concerning the sovereignty of the Miskito Shore as well as a litany of armed incursions and property seizures. Ultimately, as the boom passed so too did much of the conflict. As the trade declined in importance, British mahogany cutters were supplanted by Honduran and American concerns, and mahogany was eventually replaced by the fruit trade. The impacts of the mahogany trade were ultimately limited to the north coast itself. Though lucrative to a small number of individuals, mahogany failed to generate significant returns to the state, and the region remained as isolated from state influence as it had before the trade began. Yet the trade had substantial local impacts, opening the lowland forests to development and generating a flurry of local economic and political activity. These impacts are still evident in the contemporary cultural landscape, although mahogany has largely disappeared from the river valleys of the north coast.

This study analyzes cutmarks on the femora from the Poole-Rose ossuary as evidence of postmortem cultural modification related to the Feast of the Dead. The ossuary is located in southern Ontario, Canada, and dates to A.D. 1550 ±50. The Feast of the Dead is a burial custom associated with the Huron and other groups of the Great Lakes. The relative size of the population is compared to other indigenous North American skeletal populations. The MNI using the femur for the adults of the Poole-Rose ossuary is 248, based on the presence of the proximal half of the shaft. The subadult MNI is 52, based on the lesser trochanter or the epiphyseal surface of the lesser trochanter. Only adult femora were examined in the cutmark analysis. Of the adults, sixteen percent of the Poole-Rose population shows evidence of cutmarks. In total, approximately 30 percent of the femoral specimens recovered show cutmark damage. The cutmarks appear in three general areas or zones. Zone one is defined as the neck of the femur; zone two is the proximal half of the shaft, below the greater and lesser trochanter; and zone three is the distal half of the shaft. Chi-square analysis shows the pattern of cutmarks occurrence to be random between males and females and random between the zones of the femora. Comparison of the relative size of the Poole-Rose population to other indigenous North American skeletal populations shows the people of this ossuary to be very tall and robust. The results of this study indicate that the Poole-Rose ossuary is consistent with the ethnographic account of attributes associated with the Huron Feast of the Dead.

The Poole-Rose ossuary, a prehistoric Native Canadian population from Ontario, Canada, represents a Late Woodland period communal burial that has been radio-carbon dated to 1550 A.D. +/- 50 years. The location and attributes of this ossuary, a secondary burial deposit, led the site's excavator, Dr. Heather McKillop, to believe that it is a part of the "Feast of the Dead" ceremony. Due to commingling of the individuals, the human remains from this ossuary have been analyzed by element. This thesis examines the ulnae, one of the bones of the forearm, for evidence of degenerative joint disease. Additionally, the thesis includes analysis of cutmarks on the ulnae associated with defleshing of the remains as part of a burial preparation ceremony. A minimum number of 221 individuals (MNI) are represented by the left ulnae in this population. Analysis of degenerative joint disease (DJD) included examination of pitting, lipping and eburnation on all joint surfaces. A chi-square analysis of DJD on the ulnae indicates a significant relationship (p < 0.05) between locations where the DJD is present. However, no significant relationship exists in terms of the side of occurrence of DJD (left versus right), with the exception of distal lipping. Cutmark analysis reflects that defleshing cutmarks on the ulnae are randomly distributed between left and right ulnae and on the shafts.

Analysis of death trends in a geographic area can provide valuable information regarding the health of the people in that area. Additionally, evaluation of variables such as sex, race, age, and cause of death can aid local health officials in serving the needs of the population. East Baton Rouge Parish is located in southern Louisiana, includes the capital city of Baton Rouge, and has a population of 412,852. An analysis of death cases handled by the Coroner's Office in East Baton Rouge Parish has not been performed until now. This thesis presents results from an analysis of all deaths in East Baton Rouge Parish that were considered coroner's cases from January 1, 1991, to December 31, 2001. The race, age, sex, cause of death, and year of death of 23,813 coroner cases were analyzed. The results of this study indicate that white males aged 75 and older represent the largest number of deaths. In addition, the results show that heart disease is the number one killer of people in East Baton Rouge Parish, followed by cancer. These results were compared to the death trends of the state of Louisiana and the death trends of the United States. The goal of this comparison was to determine if the trends in the parish paralleled the trends of the rest of the state and country. The results of this analysis mirrored the death trends of the state of Louisiana. Finally, the results also closely reflected the death trends of the nation.