No description available.

A lengthy history (1550–950 Cal BP) of ceramic manufacture took place at the Gaspereau Lake Reservoir (GLR) Site Complex in Kings County, Nova Scotia, during which potters shifted their practice from fineware, emphasizing self-expression and signalling affiliation, to “production” pottery, focusing on quick turnaround times and larger scale of production. Researchers in the Maine–Maritimes Region have repeatedly noted the change from hard-bodied, thin-walled, elaborately and carefully decorated pots during the Middle Woodland to coarser-tempered, expediently decorated pottery with many coil breaks evident during the Late Woodland. This has sometimes been interpreted as a decreasing skill level through time, but I argue that these changes instead suggest a manufacturing context in which demand for pottery increased. This created incentives for “cutting corners” and employing strategies that increased the survival rate of pots during firing. Increased production is partly evident in increasing standardization of temper minerals and clay later in time, suggesting that potters increasingly accessed a single reliable source of raw materials rather than many different sources. I further argue that manufacturing occurred at or near the End of Dyke Site. I present a method of analyzing ceramics that is designed to take full account of the unusually large and nuanced GFC assemblage. This method goes beyond chronological and typological classifications that have sometimes been employed in the Northeast: it seeks to establish a historical understanding of the assemblage through tracing learning lineages. This classification, which I have called a “tradition-based classification,” introduces knowledge transfer as the dominant mechanism behind style at the level of assemblage. The ceramics have been grouped using attribute analysis, after which inferences about the variability have been assessed, and finally, several trends—chronologically situated using AMS dates—are proposed to build a history of ceramic manufacture at Gaspereau Lake. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Ceramics are one means of analyzing the practices of ancient cultures. Ceramics allow archaeologists to trace developments through time. This dissertation looks at how other sources of information are available to archaeologists by carefully tracing the evolution of certain characteristics through time. Some characteristics explored in this dissertation include the changing methods of manufacturing ceramics and the changing materials used by ancient potters. I conclude that ceramic production increased later in time, and that this change probably indicates a change in the larger society as pottery became increasingly in demand.

Decades of steel production and coking in the community of Sydney, Nova Scotia, have led to severe environmental insult. Increased amounts of air pollution from Sydney Steel Corporation and toxic emissions from the Muggah Creek Watershed have been well documented in several studies of the area since the 1960s. This research examines the potential impacts of exposure to hazardous waste on the reproductive health of women living in Cape Breton Regional Municipality through the following objectives: i) to assess the spatial pattern of various types of adverse reproductive events, plausibly linked to the environmental exposure of interest; ii) to determine if this pattern is related to proximity to the Tar Ponds/Coke Ovens site. To address the first objective, point pattern analysis was applied to observations from the Atlee Perinatal Database to determine if the observed pattern exhibited any clustering. To address the second objective, a multinomial logistic regression model was employed to determine if proximity to the Tar Ponds/Coke Ovens site was an important covariate of the adverse outcomes under study (preterm births, low birthweights, congenital anomalies and stillbirths). The results of the bivariate K-function indicated that there was weak global clustering for preterm births for two different time periods, while the ratio kernel estimates demonstrated that the patterns of the outcomes were non-random even after correcting for the underlying population distribution. The results of the multinomial logistic model demonstrated that variables pertaining to maternal characteristics, pregnancy history, current pregnancy maternal diagnoses, neonatal measures were important explanatory variables in the analysis. Place of residence was an important explanatory variable for preterm births and congenital anomalies. However, due to various limitations these results must be interpreted with caution. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

No description available.

Amphibolite grade pelites from the Buchan type metamorphism of the Meguma Group in southwestern Nova Scotia contain the assemblage And+Grt+Bt+Q+Pl+Ms+Ilm+Mgt±St±Crd±Sil±Po±Py. Grt-Bt geothermometry and Pl-Grt-And-Q geobarometry on samples from three widely separated 3-8 km traverses yield temperatures and pressures that cluster in two groups; (1) two traverses near Shelburne with T=500-510°C and P=3.5 kbar; and (2) one traverse on the West Pubnico peninsula, 40 km to the southwest, with T=530-560°C and P=1.5-2. 5 kbar. P_H₂O estimates based on Ms-and-Pl-V assemblages indicate that P_H₂O = .4-.9 P_Total for rocks from the Shelburne area and P_H₂O=P_Total for the rocks south of West Pubnico. Whole rock chemical analyses on samples from the three traverses show no systematic variations over the region. In the Pubnico traverse, the presence or absence of staurolite is dependent both on slight variations in the Fe/Mg ratios of the rocks and on temperature differences. In the staurolite-bearing rocks the assemblages and mineral chemistries indicate that the systems represent divariant continuous reactions and contain cordierite only where P_H₂O < P_Total. Thus the large number of phases is neither the result of disequilibrium nor representative of a low variance assemblage, but can be described as a divariant assemblage involving 8 to 9 major components. / Master of Science

This Master of Arts thesis examines how political marketing, and the Doer/Dexter model specifically, helped the NDP in Manitoba and Nova Scotia win elections from 1999 through 2007 in Manitoba and in 2009 in Nova Scotia. The study uses content analysis on the election platforms of the period and elite interviews with key political strategists of the NDP in order to gain insight and draw conclusions on what political marketing elements were critical to the party’s electoral success. This study concludes that the NDP in Manitoba and Nova Scotia used market research and a similar comprehensive political marketing strategy, now known as the Doer/Dexter model, which focused on the simplification of communication, the moderation of policy and the inoculation of any perceived weakness in order to win power. / May 2016

The term ‘global peacelessness’ is used to describe the impact of persistently high rates of interpersonal violence throughout the world, and particularly violence against women (Flaherty, 2010). This violence is epidemic and constitutes a global health problem and pervasive human rights violation. Responses are critiqued as narrow in scope, reactive and lacking in coordination. The research presented in this thesis contributes to addressing this gap by exploring measures community citizens from diverse backgrounds defined as important to ending violence. Specifically, the research question asked ‘What do community members of Lunenburg County say about the structural and cultural influences on interpersonal violence?’ It links the field of peace studies with the interpersonal anti-violence field and the field of addiction. The meta-analysis that frames this dissertation asserts that grassroots community peacebuilding will involve defining and connecting measures at the local level that can lead to defining and challenging broad, oppressive cultural and structural factors linked to the persistence of violence at provincial, national, and international levels. Situating interpersonal violence within a peacebuilding framework provides a critical lens that moves from a narrow focus on individual responsibility to include a wider analysis of the origins of violence to include social, cultural, economic, and political factors and ultimately compel a collective community response. This emancipatory function of peacebuilding must include a focus on promotion of environments where boys and men, girls and women, can live safe and satisfying lives that include the development of skills that promote nonviolence and peace.

With the fear of decline of the Cape Breton fiddling tradition after the airing of The Vanishing Cape Breton Fiddler by the CBC in 1971, both the Cape Breton community and ethnographers clamored to preserve and maintain the extant practices and discourse. While this allowed for performance contexts and practices to burgeon, it also solidified certain perspectives about the “diasporic preservation” and resultant “authenticity.” This work aims to trace the seeds and developments of the beliefs surrounding the Cape Breton fiddling tradition, from the idealizations of Enlightenment Scotland to the manipulation and commercialization of the folklore and Celticism of twentieth-century Nova Scotia. These contexts romanticized older practices as “authentic,” a construct that deeply impacted the narrative about the Cape Breton fiddling tradition. One of the most rooted and complex concepts in this narrative is that of “old style,” a term that came to represent the idealized performance practice in post-1971 Cape Breton fiddling. As models were sought for younger players to emulate, pre-1971 “master” fiddlers with innovative stylistic approaches began to be identified as “old style” players. The interstices of the tradition allowed more extreme stylistic experimentation to be accepted as “traditional,” while the symbiotic social practice of dancing necessitated relative conservatism. Analysis will show that “listening” tunes fell into the interstices of allowable innovation, while dance (particularly step-dance) tunes demanded certain “old style” techniques. A more holistic view of the complexities of the Cape Breton fiddling tradition follows from a perspective not only of the socio-musical elements that shaped the historical narrative, but also of the musical elements of this dance-oriented “old style.”

The existence of racism in Canada is well documented (Johnson and Enomoto 2007; Henry and Tator 2006; Lopes and Thomas 2006), yet little is known about the employment experiences of those marginalized by race. In a study looking at African Canadians’ experiences of racism related stress, James, Este, Bernard, Benjamin, Lloyd and Turner (2010), found that racism in the employment sector was one of the most significant areas of stress faced by the study participants. Given these findings, this qualitative study sought to further explore the everyday employment experience of adults in Nova Scotia, who are marginalized by race. In addition, it sought to foster deeper understandings of the influence of employment equity policy on organizational change.

Urban highway infrastructure in North America has been singularly designed for the automobile, severing parts of the urban fabric, blighting our once-thriving city centres and resulting in spaces that are void of the human scale. The Cogswell Interchange in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada is such an infrastructure, cutting through the downtown core and heritage district. This thesis investigates the Cogswell Interchange in an attempt to animate and enliven a dead urban space, reducing traffic and bringing new activity and life to the street. Reappropriating parts of vehicular infrastructure for cyclist and pedestrian use and creating a variety of activities and programs (gallery, gym, restaurant, park) enables an increased connectivity for pedestrians and cyclists and brings a more human-scale urbanity to the site. The infrastructure itself becomes a framework upon which to build, revisioned as an active, vibrant place which people can experience with a renewed sense of wonder and appreciation.