Buildings are a materialization of culture at a particular point in time. Subsequent modifications and new buildings express the culture at that time. The buildings of one city block, Squares 39 and 40, are examined at various points in time over the past three hundred years to document changes in the material expression of culture, and thereby, modification in the culture itself. The history of the city is viewed from the perspective of the people and the buildings of this single city block. Some historic events only peripherally affected the block and are discussed for background. A significant portion of the history of New Orleans occurred in and around this block. The three hundred years of history is divided into eight historic eras: Pioneering Period, French Colonial, Spanish Dominion, Early American Period, Economic Expansion, Antebellum and War Years, Reconstruction, and the Twentieth Century. Each era had a distinct effect on the buildings of Squares 39 and 40. The social, economic and political forces active in each historic era caused modifications in the buildings. These modifications can be read as the history of the block. Squares 39 and 40 are iconic of the city of New Orleans.

Transverse (Harris) lines are lines of opacity that extend across the medullary cavity in long bones; they are sometimes are also found in irregular bones. Predominantly, Harris lines are seen in radiographs of the tibiae. Many scholars believe that these lines of opacity are caused by nutritional interruptions during growth, while others believe these lines to be indicators of stress recovery, rather than interruption. This study examines the incidence of transverse lines in a Pre-Columbian Costa Rican population, called Vidor, located on the northwest Bay of Culebra. The burials of this population, originally excavated in 1977, contained more than 40 skeletons. Subsequent excavations at the site revealed a total of 192 individuals, most of which were juveniles and neonates and dated as far back as A.D. 300. Tibiae and ilia from 39 individuals of the Vidor population were radiographed in order to determine if any transverse lines were present and, if so, what the implications of nutritional status might be. The results showed that none of the ilia revealed any transverse lines in the x-rays and only seven of the tibiae exhibited opacities. Two of the seven tibiae exhibiting transverse lines contained multiple lines. A study conducted on the Vidor population by Obando (1995) included analysis of enamel hypoplasias and cortical bone thickness. The study showed that there were high frequencies of enamel hypoplasias and a loss of cortical bone starting as early as 1.0 years of age and lasting until six years of age, coinciding with weaning ages. Obandos study concluded that there were some nutritional deficiencies occurring in the Vidor population. The current study on transverse lines did not produce the same results. This study showed that, while there were some bands of opacity occurring in the tibiae, they could not be directly attributed to a dietary response.

This dissertation is an investigative cultural ecologic study of the pastoralists in the eastern and northwestern lowlands of Eritrea. Tigre, Hidareb, and Rashaida herders were identified and studied throughout the fieldwork. These ethnic groups constitute people with defined cultural and economic characteristics inhabiting environments characterized by marked seasonal variations in precipitation. Their livelihoods are almost wholly dependent on livestock forming types of modes of production identified as pure-pastoralism and agro-pastoralism. The distinction between these two forms lies primarily in the type of economic strategy pursued (i.e., wholly livestock-based economy versus livestock-crop economy) as well as in the pattern of pastoral movement involved (i.e., horizontal versus vertical). The information gathered from these groups through a structured questionnaire and through participant observation formed the basis for quantitative and qualitative analysis. It is concluded that the study groups employ herd mobility as an adaptive strategy used to take advantage of rainfall; a critical factor that determines the supply of forage as well as the number of animals that can be supported in an area. A regression analysis showed that the search for pasture explains most of the variations in a decision to migrate. In addition, the survey on the herd dynamics demonstrated that the variable and harsh environment of the study areas significantly impacted the livestock holdings of the households. The mortality pattern for all species types increased during the drought period across all zones studied. The analysis of the magnitude of the reduction across wealth classes indicated the rich pastoralists suffered greater loss in absolute terms, but such losses were lower in proportion to their holdings. The wealthy class reacted more quickly during the recovery phase, while the poor experienced either a long period of adjustment or an ejection from the pastoral system. Finally, the study concluded that the pastoral groups have entered into a new phase of development due to compelling human and ecological circumstances. Mobility is gradually being eliminated, while a strategic shift to sedentary cultivation, as an increasingly important process, is taking place.

Three pig (Sus scrofa L.) carcasses were exposed during the summer in three different biogeoclimatic zones ranging in elevations from 6,700 to 11,100 feet in order to determine the rates of carrion decomposition and arthropod succession patterns on carrion in southwest Colorado. The carcasses were exposed in three scenarios: sun-exposed, shaded, and sun-exposed/shaded. Of the total 63 taxa collected, thirty species overlapped between two biogeoclimatic zones. A strong elevational preference is indicated for the Sarcophagidae taxon. A previously undescribed Boettcheria species was collected at 11,100 feet. The rates of decomposition lengthened as elevation increased due to a prolongation of the bloat stage. Natural mummification occurred at the two highest elevational sites. The meteorological data recorded at the local NOAA stations did not reflect the weather conditions that occurred during the same time period in the three biogeoclimatic zones.

The Ocmulgee Big Bend and Lake Blackshear regions of Georgia have diverse uplands and lowlands, rich in different types of food. Archaeological investigations have shown Late Woodland-style ceramics and artifacts extending up to the Middle Mississippian Period in these regions. Archaeologists have proposed the people of this region did not adopt maize agriculture or a Mississippian subsistence or cultural pattern during the Early Mississippian Period. This study tests this hypothesis with osteological and isotopic data from burials recovered from the Cannon site (9Cp52) and osteological data from the Telfair Mound site (9Tf2). Isotopic data demonstrate clearly that these people were not consuming maize, but were consuming some food high in carbohydrates. Potential sources of carbohydrates are discussed, as are possible models to explain the dental and isotopic data, including one based upon starchy seed agriculture. Finally, future lines of research, stemming from questions in this research, are outlined.

This thesis addresses the recent development of tourism on Utila, the westernmost island of the Bay Islands of Caribbean, Honduras. Especially during the 1990s, international tourists, mostly Europeans and North Americans, were attracted to the island because it was a relatively inexpensive place to dive on a beautiful fringing reef and to enjoy other benefits of a tropical beach community. Larger nearby islands, Roatán and Guanaja, had developed something of a tourism industry earlier. A review of the economic and culture history of Utila reveals that modern islanders -- English-speaking Anglo- and Afro-Caribbeans originally from the Cayman Islands were preadapted for international tourism. Previously, they had interacted with the international community through the fruit trade and merchant sailing. Returning islanders enjoyed a "laid back" lifestyle which was also appealing to tourists. Because Utila has been a relatively cheap spot for tourists, it first attracted a "backpacker" type and when Europeans seeking cheap diving and drugs discovered the island, its reputation as a preferred destination attracted this lower level of the tourist types. As the tourism industry matured, interest in up-scale faculties has increased and a few small resorts have been constructed. At the moment, construction of an international airport, access roads to resort areas, and other large scale alterations of the landscape are locally severe and might be expected to seriously affect the island's environmental stability. Another source of significant environmental and culture change are the Spanish-speaking Hondurans from the mainland, who have been attracted to Utila by the island's reputation as a place of developing tourism and economic prosperity.

Remote sensing images contain huge amount of geographical information and reflect the complexity of geographical features and spatial structures. As the means of observing and describing geographical phenomena, the rapid development of remote sensing has provided an enormous amount of geographical information. The massive information is very useful in a variety of applications but the sheer bulk of this information has increased beyond what can be analyzed and used efficiently and effectively. This uneven increase in the technologies of gathering and analyzing information has created difficulties in its storage, transfer, and processing. Fractal geometry provides a means of describing and analyzing the complexity of different geographical features in remotely sensed images. It also provides a more powerful tool to compress the remote sensing data than traditional methods. This study suggests, for the first time, the implementation of this usage of fractals to remotely sensed images. In this study, based on fractal concepts, compression and decompression algorithms were developed and applied to Landsat TM images of eight study areas with different land cover types; the fidelity and efficiency of the algorithms and their relationship with the spatial complexity of the images were evaluated. Three research hypotheses were tested and the fractal compression was compared with two commonly used compression methods, JPEG and WinZip. The effects of spatial complexity and pixel resolution on the compression rate were also examined. The results from this study show that the fractal compression method has higher compression rate than JPEG and WinZip. As expected, higher compression rates were obtained from images of lower complexity and from images of lower spatial resolution (larger pixel size). This study shows that in addition to the fractals use in measuring, describing, and simulating the roughness of landscapes in geography, fractal techniques were useful in remotely sensed image compression. Moreover, the compression technique can be seen as a new method of measuring the diverse landscapes and geographical features. As such, this study has introduced a new and advantageous passageway for fractal applications and their important applications in remote sensing.

Analyses of human skeletal remains by physical anthropologists necessitate precise methods for the determination of age at death. Physical anthropologists recognize that the most accurate estimations of age at death are produced from evaluation of multiple indicators of age. To this end, three skeletal sites, the auricular surface, pubic symphysis, and right fourth sternal rib end, are often evaluated for age in adult skeletal remains. However, as of yet, no standardized method of combining the respective estimates of age provided at these sites has been reported. The above mentioned skeletal sites of 49 females and 77 males from the Hamann-Todd collection were evaluated for age at death. Regression analyses were used to assess the relationship between the estimated age and actual age. Furthermore, regression analyses were used to combine the estimates of age in an effort to provide an accurate estimate of age at death. Results of the regression analyses show that a relationship exists between the respective estimates of age provided at each site and actual age. The values of R for regressions on the male and female samples reflect an 85% and 90% correlation between the actual ages of individuals and the predicted ages resulting from combination of the respective estimates through linear regressions. However, the large predicted age ranges associated with predicted ages make the results of the regressions questionable for forensic use. Although mean absolute differences between the predicted and actual ages for the male and female samples are low, 4.35 and 5.62 years, respectively, the large maximum absolute differences demonstrate the vast amount of variability possible in indicators of age in the human skeleton. An exception to the problem of large predicted age ranges produced through regression analysis occurred for the sample characterized as young adult males. This group showed both narrower predicted age ranges of roughly 11 years and a maximum absolute difference between actual and predicted age of 8.43 years. However, none of the other sectioned samples showed similar results, making the method useful for only a small sample of human skeletal remains submitted for analysis. Regression analyses performed after the removal of outliers on samples divided into young and mature adults did provide more accurate estimates of age at death and smaller more useful predicted age ranges. However, use of these models requires that outliers be recognizable in a laboratory context without comparative data, which may not be practical. Ultimately, the possibility of using additional skeletal indicators of age at death could serve to narrow the predicted age ranges provided by regression analyses. This research question should be addressed in future studies.

The planting of sugarcane in Louisianas southern parishes has persisted with stunning continuity since its introduction in the late eighteenth century. This industry, however, is an economic and agricultural anomaly. It is a relic of the sixteenth-century expansion of European capitalism in which granulated sugar, then a novel product, stimulated the Atlantic slave trade and contributed to the incorporation of the sugar-producing colonies of the Americas into an emerging European-world economy. The Louisiana sugar industry was launched in 1795 with a historic granulation from a new variety of sugarcane recently introduced into the Caribbean. From this early success, the industry grew rapidly as immigrants from the Caribbean poured into Louisiana to escape the unrest associated with slave revolts and incipient emancipation. The burgeoning industry contributed to a westward migration of US populations into the newly opened Louisiana Territory as entrepreneurs responded to news of the enormous wealth made by the successful sugar planters. The sugar industry of Louisiana also stimulated the expansion of intra-regional slave trade as eastern slaveholders sold surplus slaves to the widening slave economy of the state, putting in place institutions and values that remain problematic today. Sugarcane now contributes the largest share of the states gross farm income, having surpassed cotton in year 2000. Its cultivation in the latitudes of Louisiana , however, is at a disadvantage compared to the tropical climates, where its full maturation is not abbreviated by a short growing season. The Louisiana industry persists in this marginal climate because of tariff protection, price supports, and the on-going research to select and release ever-stronger varieties with resilience, early maturation, and high sugar concentration. When viewed from the national and global perspectives, especially the eventualities of the NAFTA and trade resolutions with Cuba, continued sugarcane cultivation in Louisianas subtropical climate is an uncertainty.

The use of dentition for identification has been well established in the field of forensics. However, dental analysis has been employed primarily for positive personal identification. The purpose of this thesis research is to explore the possibility of using dental characteristics for general profiling of the decedent. Dental characteristics, including caries and dental restorations, were examined in the dentition of 41 modern forensic cases in the LSU FACES Collection. Twenty-one of these cases are positively identified individuals whose remains were donated to the university. The other 20 cases are active forensic cases which have not been identified. The general profiling information, including sex, age, race, and socioeconomic status, was compared with the dental characteristics to determine any correlations between the categories. In the 20 unidentified cases, socioeconomic status was not known and, therefore, these cases were not analyzed for socioeconomic status correlations. Many significant relationships exist between the dental characteristics and the identifiers, sex, race, age, and socioeconomic status. Socioeconomic status has the least number of correlations. Age and race have the most.