abstract: Understanding agricultural land use requires the integration of natural factors, such as climate and nutrients, as well as human factors, such as agricultural intensification. Employing an agroecological framework, I use the Perry Mesa landscape, located in central Arizona, as a case study to explore the intersection of these factors to investigate prehistoric agriculture from A.D. 1275-1450. Ancient Perry Mesa farmers used a runoff agricultural strategy and constructed extensive alignments, or terraces, on gentle hillslopes to slow and capture nutrient rich surface runoff generated from intense rainfall. I investigate how the construction of agricultural terraces altered key parameters (water and nutrients) necessary for successful agriculture in this arid region. Building upon past work focused on agricultural terraces in general, I gathered empirical data pertaining to nutrient renewal and water retention from one ancient runoff field. I developed a long-term model of maize growth and soil nutrient dynamics parameterized using nutrient analyses of runoff collected from the sample prehistoric field. This model resulted in an estimate of ideal field use and fallow periods for maintaining long-term soil fertility under different climatic regimes. The results of the model were integrated with estimates of prehistoric population distribution and geographical characterizations of the arable lands to evaluate the places and periods when sufficient arable land was available for the type of cropping and fallowing systems suggested by the model (given the known climatic trends and land use requirements). Results indicate that not only do dry climatic periods put stress on crops due to reduced precipitation but that a reduction in expected runoff events results in a reduction in the amount of nutrient renewal due to fewer runoff events. This reduction lengthens estimated fallow cycles, and probably would have increased the amount of land necessary to maintain sustainable agricultural production. While the overall Perry Mesa area was not limited in terms of arable land, this analysis demonstrates the likely presence of arable land pressures in the immediate vicinity of some communities. Anthropological understandings of agricultural land use combined with ecological tools for investigating nutrient dynamics provides a comprehensive understanding of ancient land use in arid regions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Anthropology 2013

abstract: This dissertation explores how the written word and natural and cultural landscapes entwine to create a place, the process by which Arizona's landscapes affected narratives written about the place and how those narratives created representations of Arizona over time. From before Arizona became a state in 1912 to the day its citizens celebrated one hundred years as a state in 2012, words have played a role in making it the place it is. The literature about Arizona and narratives drawn from its landscapes reveal writers' perceptions, what they believe is important and useful, what motivates or attracts them to the place. Those perceptions translated into words organized in various ways create an image of Arizona for readers. I explore written works taken at twenty-five year intervals--1912 and subsequent twenty-five year anniversaries--synthesizing narratives about Arizona and examining how those representations of the place changed (or did not change). To capture one hundred years of published material, I chose sources from several genres including official state publications, newspapers, novels, poetry, autobiography, journals, federal publications, and the Arizona Highways magazine. I chose sources that would have been available to the reading public, publications that demonstrated a wide readership. In examining the words about Arizona that have been readily available to the English-reading public, the importance of the power of the printed word becomes clear. Arizona became the place it is in the twenty-first century, in part, because people with power--in the federal and state governments, boosters, and business leaders--wrote about it in such a way as to influence growth and tourism sometimes at the expense of minority groups and the environment. Minority groups' narratives in their own words were absent from Arizona's written narrative landscape until the second half of the twentieth century when they began publishing their own stories. The narratives about Arizona changed over time, from literature dominated by boosting and promotion to a body of literature with many layers, many voices. Women, Native American, and Hispanic narratives, and environmentalists' and boosters' words created a more complex representation of Arizona in the twenty-first century, and more accurately reflected its cultural landscape, than the Arizona represented in earlier narratives. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. History 2014

This research explores the relationship between social identity, artifact style, and communities of practice in the late prehispanic U.S. Southwest, focusing on how domestic, utilitarian objects and contexts both shape and reflect social identities. During the A.D. 1200s and 1300s, large-scale migration and aggregation occurred over much of the U.S. Southwest, bringing diverse individual and community identities into contact and, potentially, conflict. Within this social context, this research focused on clarifying the relationship between social identities and utilitarian objects and domestic contexts, and how this relationship can elucidate the social history of a community. These issues were explored through analysis of corrugated utilitarian pottery from the sites of the Homol’ovi Settlement Cluster (HSC), a community of seven villages in northeastern Arizona occupied from around 1260 through 1400. The social organization of corrugated pottery production in the HSC was approached from several angles. To identify the number and nature of the ceramic manufacturing communities present during the Pueblo IV occupation of the Homol’ovi area, sherds were submitted for instrumental neutron activation analysis and petrographic analysis. The results of the compositional analyses indicate that ceramic production groups in the Homol’ovi area were not primarily distinguished by access to specific raw material resources. What differentiation there is within the raw materials used by Homol’ovi potters appears to have been determined primarily by village, with the residents of a few villages preferring to use specific clay or temper sources. Both locally produced pottery and ceramics imported into the Homol’ovi area were incorporated into a typological and stylistic analysis. This analysis found evidence of two different production styles in the corrugated pottery assemblage. One appears stylistically similar to pottery produced in areas to the north around the Hopi Mesas; the other appears to be more akin to stylistic traditions practiced in the Puerco area and in the Chevelon drainage. This diversity suggests the presence of multiple immigrant communities co-residing within the HSC. This social diversity is not reflected in the decorated ceramic tradition of the HSC, which largely conforms to the ceramic traditions of the Hopi Mesas. Interrogating the disjuncture in the identities embodied through different categories of material culture, used in different social contexts, provides a framework through which to explore the complex social relationships that characterized Pueblo IV villages formed as individuals and communities negotiated the competing forces of integration and differentiation. This study demonstrates the value of approaching identity from multiple scales. If identity is understood as fundamentally multi-faceted and multi-scalar, even seemingly homogeneous cultural units are characterized by social diversity and the tension that accompanies such diversity. The patterns of production visible in utilitarian corrugated pottery provide a nuanced method of clarifying the complex identities of Ancestral Puebloan communities and assessing social connections and differences between groups.

Cebolla Canyon, in the El Malpais National Conservation Area, New Mexico, was homesteaded extensively in the late 18th and early 19th centuries by Hispanic and Euro-American families. The local environment provided grazing resources for sheep and cows, and the ability to homestead in this area allowed families to pursue seasonal or year-round occupation. The regional histories of these migrants differ, but the exploitation possibilities of land and timber provided people with the promise of land ownership and sustainability with respect to their necessities and desires; these are strongly based on sociopolitical factors of the time. Focus here is on Hispanic and Euro-American homesteading sites, comparatively. Dendrochronology can provide target dates for felling events, and in combination with archaeological remains we can grasp the duration of occupation for homesteading sites. We can also identify methods in which ethnicity can be delineated in the historical archaeological record. Further insight is provided by historical documents, such as census records and homesteading patents that can give us an idea of how people institutionally- or self-identified as an ethnic group. Additionally, information about interactions between ethnic groups can be parsed from historical documents that may not be fully present in the archaeological record.

The Early Agricultural period (EAP) has been a central focus of study in the American Southwest and northwestern Mexico for the past 30 years. This long interval, also considered as part of the Late Archaic in the greater region, comprises the introduction of maize agriculture and the development of sedentary agricultural communities over the course of more than 2000 years. Radiocarbon ages on maize indicate that maize was regularly cultivated by 2100 cal BC in the Tucson Basin; several recently dated specimens from the site of Las Capas suggest maize may have been grown here even earlier, between 2500 to 3700 cal BC. The shift from a mobile hunter-forager economy to a subsistence economy built around maize agriculture was long, and did not follow the trajectory of other agricultural societies world-wide; the Neolithic Demographic Transition in the Southwest was a slow process, prefaced by some 2500 years of agriculture, and did not occur simultaneously across the region. This dissertation comprises three articles that address the EAP in in southern Arizona. The first presents a review of the current status of research on the Archaic in the Tucson Basin, with a focus on the EAP and the past 30 years of work by both academic and Cultural Resource Management institutions. The second article places the EAP and development of agricultural communities in the context of Network Theory and Cultural Niche Construction theory; although regional populations were small, communities throughout northwestern Mexico and the Southwest US were connected by social and economic ties that facilitated the transmission of goods, information, and people, all of which were fundamental to the spread of agriculture and its associated societal consequences. The third article presents a chronological analysis of EAP sites in the Tucson Basin. OxCal is used to model the ages of 12 sites that date to the Silverbell interval and San Pedro phase; 160 radiocarbon ages, most obtained from carbonized maize, are used in the analysis. Temporal variation among sites and their locations along the Santa Cruz River floodplain are evaluated in light of changes in river geomorphology and the cumulative effects of community investment in agricultural infrastructure.

MARKET VALUE is a collection of stories about people in Southwest Florida struggling to make sense of their lives when faced with shifting economic realities. The characters in the collection reevaluate their relationships and uncover secrets, forced to navigate a new American landscape of stalled opportunities and uncertain futures. In “Call the Storage King,” Walt assumes that his girlfriend has total faith in their relationship, but accidentally discovers evidence to the contrary. In “Luxury Living,” a resident of a mostly-empty riverfront condo gives a guided tour to a prospective buyer, revealing the building’s short but sordid history along the way. Influenced by the suburban satire of Tom Perotta and A.M. Homes, MARKET VALUE presents a changing landscape where characters form unexpected alliances and sever old ties, in order to come closer to their downsized American Dreams.

OUT OF VIEW is a collection of stories set in the American Southwest about people coping with loss—the death of parents, children, ideals, innocence. The characters in this collection reap or resist lessons of life as they struggle to find their place in the world. In “First Rain,” 15-year-old Tessie struggles with the loss of her father and the demands of her mother as she navigates the rocky terrain of adolescence. In “Monsters,” middle-aged Maury has to choose between a new relationship and protecting the well-being of his 4-year-old ‘daughter.’ The stories are influenced by the Western realism of Maile Meloy and the playful plotting of Ron Carlson. These stories are inspired both by the Sonoran Desert—expansive, sun-soaked, unrepentant—and by the people who live, love, and lose in the interstices between Manifest Destiny and the Reconquista.

This study sought to identify components of the institutional transformation of Southwest Texas Junior College from its participation in the Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI) The RCCI was centered on increasing access to educational opportunities and regional economic development in four historically poor regions of the United States. It was felt that this two-pronged approach to increase access and economic development would ameliorate poverty and provide opportunity. The pilot colleges were chosen from Appalachia, Delta South, Northern Plains (Tribal colleges), and the Southwest. Southwest Texas Junior College in the southwest border region of Texas and Mexico was chosen in 1994 as one of nine pilot college participants in the Ford Foundation project. Documentation of the college's characteristics were conducted during the 1994 and 1995 preliminary visits by Stephen G. Katsinas at the request of the Ford Foundation to find suitable rural community colleges in historically distressed areas of the United States to be invited to participate in RCCI. Follow-up site visits were conducted by Christopher Thomas in 2002, 2004, and 2005. Data was collected during all site visits by open-ended questionnaires, interviews, content analysis of documents, and observation. Extended site visits and living in the college's residence halls increased the researcher's knowledge of the region, the college, its faculty, staff, and students. Results from the study indicated Southwest Texas Junior College has undergone substantial institutional transformation as a result of its participation in RCCI. The College increased access in all eleven counties to students in its state-assigned service delivery area through increased relationships with twenty-two area highs schools, the extensive expansion of curriculum and permanent facilities at its branch campuses in Eagle Pass, Del Rio, and Crystal City, increases in its adult basic education programs, increases in its technical training programs, and by increasing its workforce training programs. The college has also increased its regional economic development by assuming a leadership role in the region for economic development activities and by increasing its use of federal, state, and local grant opportunities. The Middle Rio Grande's recognition by the federal government as a Rural Enterprise Zone (the Futuro Proposal) and its participation in the Lumina Grant Project are further demonstrations of its success at increasing regional economic development. Addition documentation and research on this institution and this region are warranted and suggested as this area's population projections continue to show sharp increases.

abstract: Riparian areas are an important resource, especially in the arid southwest, for many wildlife species. Understanding species occurrence in areas dominated by non-native vegetation is important to determine if management should be implemented. Saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) is one of the most prevalent non-native trees in riparian areas in the southwest United States and can alter vegetation structure, but little is known about how medium and large carnivores use stands of saltcedar. Three riparian forest types make up the San Pedro riparian corridor: non-native saltcedar, native mesquite (Prosopis spp.) bosque, and a mixture of native cottonwood (Populus fremontii) and willow (Salix goodingii) woodlands. My goals were to determine relative use, diversity, and occupancy of medium and large mammals across forest types to evaluate use of the non-native stands. I sampled mammals along approximately 25.7 river kilometers between July 2017 and October 2018, using 18 trail cameras (six per forest type) spaced 1km apart. I summarized environmental variables around the camera sites to relate them to species occupancy and reduced them to 4 components using a Principal Component Analysis (PCA). I observed 14 carnivore species, including bobcat (Lynx rufus), coyote (Canis latrans), and coati (Nasua narica) over 7,692 trap nights. Occupancy of some species may have been influenced by the different components, but models showed high standard errors, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions. Most mammal species used all three forest types at some level and no surveyed forest type was completely avoided or unused. Coyote tended to have greater use in the mesquite forest while canids trended toward greater use in saltcedar forest. Based on two-species occupancy models as well as activity overlap patterns, subordinate species did not appear to avoid dominant species. No species seems significantly affected by non-native saltcedar at this time. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Biology 2019

Framed by problems and dialogues established in anthropology of religion, ritual studies, and Yi studies, this dissertation explores the processes of religious revitalization and knowledge transformation in contemporary southwestern China among the ethnic Yi people, one of China’s officially designated 55 minority groups. Utilizing ethnographic and visual methods during a 16-month long fieldwork (2016-2017) conducted in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southern Sichuan, this dissertation examines the politics of religion and knowledge in the mapping of both the Chinese state’s modernist transformations of the 20th century and the ways that local Yi ritual specialists (mainly focused on the bimo priest-shamans) and lay participants wrestle with the emerging circumstances of social change. It draws on local discourses of mixin (“superstition”) as a site for untangling China’s historical problematization of “religion” and the concurrent public ambivalence towards the legitimacy and conceptualization of Yi ritual practices. It also tackles the theoretical debate on magico-religious practices and suggests an analytic approach to Yi bimoist ritual knowledge, practice, and power by undertaking a comparative framework of shamanic studies in South America and Inner Asia. In addition, this dissertation develops an ethnographic understanding of the assemblages and trajectories of objects, animal sacrifice, and the materio-socio-sensorial environment in Yi everyday and ceremonial lives. With this, it illustrates how a morally legitimate relatedness in light of a socio-cosmo-genealogical flow of power is casted in a history-in-the-making of an ethnic group.