This thesis considers theoretically the institutional nature of culture and its strength as a determinant of political behavior in Southwest Virginia. Beginning with a description of the geography of Southwest Virginia and the demographics of the region's inhabitants, the thesis proceeds to outline the cultural nuances of the region that make it ripe for misunderstanding by the outside world when attempting to explain the cognitive dissonance between voting behavior and regional needs. Then the thesis explores how the culture of the region serves as its own institution that protects itself from outside forces. This phenomenon is explained through an outline of the man-made institutions which have been forged to ensure long-term political power that itself protects the institution of regional culture. Further evidence is presented through voting and demographic data that solidifies the role of culture in determining political behavior. / MA

This study examines the socioeconomic lives of artisans of German descent who worked within Wythe County, Virginia from 1780 to 1830. It is particularly concerned with how a distinct German-American culture manifests over time as seen through these artisans' produced materials and structures. This thesis traces this manifestation through a careful examination of Wythe material culture, wills, probates, inventories, court records, account books, receipts, invoices, census records, personal correspondence, and personal property tax assessments. Scholars of early America and the southern backcountry have often narrated German cultural identity transformations along the lines of language and marriages. This work diverts from those tendencies, thereby complicating prior understanding of German-Americans settlement and development patterns in early America. Beginning in the 1780s entire German families, neighborhoods, and communities left their prior American homes and settled within a relatively unsettled area of southwest Virginia. These predominately second-generation German descendants brought with them to the backcountry a culturally-constructed material culture lexicon passed onto them by their ancestors. This thesis argues that artisans of Wythe County operated as major agents of economic and social development while also providing a hybridized cultural resource for their neighbors and surrounding Great Road communities. These German families and congregations, composed of farmers, hausfrauen (housekeepers), and craftsmen by trade, sought to maintain a familiar and distinct cultural landscape and ethos through the many wares and structures they produced. These German neighborhoods accommodated and diversified their trades to fit within a burgeoning early-American society while still aware of their predominately German community's cultural character and needs. / Master of Arts

The southwest monsoon is responsible for a summer precipitation maximum for much of the southwest U.S. Biostratigraphies of pollen, plant macrofossils, and aquatic fossils in lakes from near modern monsoon boundaries in conjunction with climate modelling suggests variations in strength of the monsoon system during the late Quaternary. At Montezuma Well, Arizona, high percentages of Pinus and Juniperus pollen as well as maximum influxes of Quercus and Gramineae pollen suggest a shift from dominantly winter to summer precipitation between ca. 12,000 and 9000 yr BP. Maximum aridity occurred 7000-4000 yr BP, coincident with lowest lake levels. In the High Plateaus region of the Colorado Plateau, high Artemisia to Chenopodiaceae-Amaranthus pollen ratios suggests precipitation maxima until ca. 6000 yr BP at Fryingpan Lake and 5000 yr BP at Posy Lake. Pollen records suggest that Pinus edulis, P. ponderosa, and Quercus gambelii, were present on the western Colorado Plateau throughout the Holocene. Expansion of shadscale steppe vegetation at low elevations and upslope movement of ecotones for Pinus edulis, P. ponderosa, and Q. gambelii after ca. 6000 yr BP and low lake levels ca. 5000-3700 yr BP, suggest a period of maximum aridity from decreased summer precipitation. In the San Luis Valley, Colorado, pollen records from Head Lake on the basin floor suggest an expansion of oaks and junipers at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary that may indicate increased summer precipitation. Lake levels of Head Lake fell sharply after ca. 9500 yr BP. Pollen records from Como Lake in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains suggest that Pinus ponderosa was established in the area by ca. 12,000 yr BP and Pinus edulis by ca. 9500 yr BP. Highland regions such as the High Plateaus (until ca. 6000-5000 yr BP) and central Colorado (until ca. 4000 yr BP) may have experienced Holocene summer precipitation maxima later into the Holocene than sites in lower elevation regions. Regional orographic uplift as a catalyst for convective summer precipitation may be responsible for the duration of summer precipitation maxima in these regions. On a longitudinal gradient, sites to the west such as in the southern Great Basin and Mohave Desert may have recorded enhanced summer precipitation earlier, reflecting different histories of the low-level jets in the southwest. The paleoecologic record generally confirm predictions of general circulation models (GCMs) that southwest monsoon circulation was enhanced from 12,000-6000 yr BP in response to peaks in annual (11,500-11,000 yr BP) and summer insolation (10,000-9000 yr BP) during the late Quaternary.

Today there are more than fifty million acres on American Indian reservations and Indian people can determine, to a great extent, what happens on their land. One way Indians can keep the renewable aspect of their land is by considering its use in a nonconsumable way, such as with the creation of parks. This dissertation addresses and analyzes policy and management concerns related to selected parks on the Navajo and Zuni reservations. Any successful venture with Indian people must entail a blend of cultural awareness and sensitivity along with federal-tribal policy and history. To that extent, Indians as ecologists before the arrival of Europeans to this continent, and an extensive review of federal Indian policy is offered. With the establishment of any park certain issues will arise that are significant to the creation and management of the area. The parks analyzed in detail are Monument Valley Tribal Park, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, and the newly established Zuni-Cibola National Historical Park. General processes of management and specific issues of concern are identified and analyzed. Methods of tribal-National Park Service cooperation are discussed. An administrative history of the Navajo Tribal Parks system is also presented.

Paleomagnetic poles were obtained from the Chinle, Kayenta, Summerville, and Morrison Formations. Combined with paleomagnetic poles from the Moenave Formation, poles from the Chinle and Kayenta formations record ∼30 m.y. of North American apparent polar wander (APW) within a regional stratigraphic succession. During the Carnian and Norian stages of the Late Triassic, Chinle poles progress westward. During the Hettangian through Pliensbachian stages of the Early Jurassic, the pattern of APW changed to an eastward progression. Even after correction for 4° clockwise rotation of the Colorado Plateau, a sharp corner in the APW path (J1 cusp) is resolved near the pole from the Hettangian/Sinemurian (∼200 Ma) Moenave Formation (59.4°N; 59.2°E). The J1 cusp implies an abrupt change from counterclockwise rotation of Pangea prior to 200 Ma to clockwise rotation thereafter. Paleomagnetic poles obtained from the Summerville and Morrison formations are consistent with the Middle and Late Jurassic APW path described by the Corral Canyon and Glance Conglomerate paleomagnetic poles as well as a Late Jurassic Cusp (J2 cusp) in the APW path. The APW path described by the J2 cusp, a single Morrison Formation pole, and mid-Cretaceous paleomagnetic poles suggest from ∼150-126 Ma the North American plate experienced a minimum rate of motion of 0.93°/m.y. which is similar to rates calculated for the Late Triassic (0.73°/m.y.) and Jurassic (0.66°/m.y.). This rate is much lower than rates based on previous APW paths. Thermal demagnetization and data analysis indicate that within-site dispersion is an important criterion for selecting sites which retain a high unblocking-temperature, characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM). This criterion was used to define at least three stratigraphically-distinct, antipodal polarity-zones within each member/formation, suggesting the ChRM was acquired soon after deposition. ChRMs from 15 to 22 sites in the Upper Shale Member of the Chinle Formation define an early Norian paleomagnetic pole position of 57.4°N, 87.8°E (K = 60, A₉₅ = 5.0°). ChRMs from 18 to 43 sites in the Owl Rock Member of the Chinle Formation define a middle Norian paleomagnetic pole position of 56.5°N, 66.4°E (K = 183, A₉₅ = 2.6°). ChRMs from 23 of 35 sites in the Kayenta Formation define a Pliensbachian pole position of 59.0°N, 66.6°E (K = 155, A₉₅ = 2.4°). ChRMs from 15 to 35 sites in the Summerville Formation define a late Callovian pole position of 53.8°N, 133.6°E (K = 25, A₉₅ = 7.5°). ChRMs from 15 sites in the Morrison Formation (9 from the study of Steiner and Helsley [1975]) define a single, ∼147 Ma, paleomagnetic pole position of 64.1°N, 152.4°E (K = 113, A₉₅ = 3.6°).

This dissertation presents the linguistic ecology of a Spanish-English, bilingual first grade classroom. The term linguistic ecology refers to the communicative behaviors of a group, as well as the physical and social contexts in which their communication occurs. In addition, a linguistic ecology includes the reciprocal influences of persons and environment on each other. Two questions guided this study: (1) How do the children interpret the roles of English and Spanish in their classroom environment? and (2) What resources, human and material, are made available to support the development of both languages in this bilingual classroom? Three over-arching categories were used to describe and analyze the linguistic ecology as viewed by the children: (1) the materials available in the school to support Spanish development; (2) the staffing for bilingual instruction; and (3) the dynamics of language use within the school, especially within one first-grade classroom. The results of this inquiry study strongly suggest that children of bilingual classrooms discern that (1) more time is devoted to English instruction; (2) more communication occurs in English; (3) few teachers have high levels of Spanish proficiency; (4) the personnel of bilingual schools utilize more English than Spanish in the school environment; and (5) Spanish language resource materials are fewer in number and often less appealing than their English-language counterparts. In effect, this case study documents and interprets the social and educational processes through which bilingual children in one U.S. school come to appreciate the prestige and power of English versus Spanish.

No description available.

abstract / Earth Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

No description available.