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Publication Human Impacts and Diet Influence Mammal Gut Microbiomes Based on Natural History Collections(2024-09) Haynes, LauraNatural history collections (NHCs) are an underutilized resource to investigate anthropogenic influences and assess temporal trends in mammal gut microbiome diversity. Quantifying microbiome diversity can provide critical insights into species health, ecology, and evolution. This study leverages these collections to explore the impacts of anthropogenic, dietary, and climatic factors on the gut microbiome diversity of fluid-preserved rodent and bat specimens. Utilizing advanced genomic techniques, we extracted fragmented DNA from formalin-fixed specimens housed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Mammalogy collections. Our analysis aimed to discern historical differences in rodent and bat gut microbiomes and examine the effects of anthropogenic activities, dietary variations, and climatic conditions on these microbiomes. Our findings confirmed that human-impact and diet significantly influence microbial diversity in gut microbiomes. Samples from more urbanized areas displayed lower microbial diversity. Surprisingly, we found a low abundance of Proteobacteria in the bat specimens in comparison to contemporary studies. Given the extensive geographic distribution and zoonotic relevance of rodents and bats in human pathogen transmission, understanding their microbial responses to environmental changes is crucial. Our results underscore the potential of museum collections to provide insights into the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of host-microbiome interactions in the face of anthropogenic and climatic shifts.Publication Who's Eating What: A Molecular Diet Analysis of Patio kindae and Eidolon helvum in Kasanka National Park(2024-09) Schmidt, AllysonUnderstanding dietary requirements and the ecological roles of species is vital for effective conservation management. This study uses DNA metabarcoding, specifically the trnL intron, to examine the plant diet composition of Kinda baboons (Papio kindae) and straw-colored fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) in Kasanka National Park, Zambia. Our results revealed significant seasonal variation in the baboon diet highlighting their omnivorous nature and dietary flexibility. We also confirmed dietary overlap between the baboons and bats during the roosting period when both species are present in the park. This research highlights the importance of utilizing molecular techniques to better understand the dietary ecology of species and their interactions within ecosystems in order to provide critical insights for conservation strategies aimed at preserving these important species and their habitats.Publication Response & Resistance: A Comparison of Middle Connecticut River Valley Ceramics from the Late Woodland Period to the Seventeeth-Century(2013-02) Woods, JulieNative Americans from the middle Connecticut River Valley of New England experienced massive social disruptions during the seventeenth century due to European settlement, but not much is known about their cultural continuities and/or discontinuities during this dynamic period. As an additive technology, ceramics embody the technical choices of potters made at the time of manufacture thus enabling the study of the effect, if any, of colonialism on indigenous material culture and practices in New England. This study examines ceramic assemblages from one Late Woodland period site and one seventeenth-century site in Deerfield, Massachusetts to explore the extent to which ceramics can demonstrate continuities and/or changes in traditional ceramic manufacturing practices in response and/or resistance to colonization.Publication United in Difficulty: The European Union’s Use of Shared Problems as a Way to Encourage Solidarity(2013) Cleary, GraceThis thesis looks at a European Union cultural initiative, the European Capital of Culture (ECC), and how the contest has become a way for the European Union (EU) to encourage a shared sense of European heritage among EU states while also leaving room for diversity within and across EU nations. It describes the ways in which the ECC delineates and constructs the acceptable boundaries of shared cultural expressions and cultural difference. The argument put forth here is that the EU’s focus on shared problems is becoming an important part of European identity, one that permits countries to maintain certain kinds of marketable difference, such as food or music, while also encouraging a common outlook on handling problems. I examine how heritage is being redefined in the European Capital of Culture contest. I analyze the ways in which the ECC contest strives for heritage that is less exclusive–although not completely inclusive–and how this heritage is defined more in terms of process than product. In aiming to create cross-EU bonds, the contest eliminates some boundaries while reifying others. Through the use of both document analysis and fieldwork, this thesis contributes to a better understanding of ways in which European identity is constructed through the contest, focusing specifically on how a discourse of shared problems has become a way for countries to live up to the EU motto “United in Diversity.”Publication Rewriting the Balkans: Memory, Historiography, and the Making of a European Citizenry(2012) Johnson, Dana N.This thesis explores the work of historians, history teachers, and NGO employees engaged in regional initiatives to mitigate the influence of enduring ethnocentric national histories in the Balkans. In conducting an ethnography of the development and dissemination of such initiatives, I queried how conflict and controversy are negotiated in developing alternative educational materials, how “multiperspectivity” is understood as a pedagogical approach and a tool of reconciliation, and how the interests of civil society intersect with those of the state and supranational actors. My research sought to interrogate the field of power in which such attempts to innovate history education occur, with attention trained on the values encoded and deployed in this work.Publication Stereotypes of Contemporary Native American Indian Characters in Recent Popular Media(2012) Mclaurin, Virginia A.This thesis examines the ongoing trends in depictions of Native American Indians in popular mainstream media from the last two decades. Stereotypes in general and in relation to Native American Indians are discussed, and a pattern of stereotype reactions to colonists’ perceived strains is identified. An analysis of popular television shows, movies, and books with contemporary Native characters will demonstrate new trends which we might consider transformed or emerging stereotypes of Native people in non-Native media. These trends will not only be shown to have emerged from more general national and regional stereotypes of Native identity, but will also demonstrate a continuation of the historical willingness of colonists to rely on more virulent Native stereotypes in cases where they perceive some Native threat. Particular attention will be paid to the denial of Indian identity in the southeast and northeast through comedy and mockery and, on the other hand, the exaggeration of Indian identity in the western United States through shape-shifting, paranormal encounters, mystery, and more conventional Native interests. At the end of the thesis, some possible methods for grappling with these problematic portrayals will be discussed.Publication The Jante Law and Racism: A Study on the Effects of Immigration on Swedish National Identity(2011-02) Turausky, Kevin JThis paper focuses on how the Swedish social code known as The Jante Law plays a role in the prevalence of racism in Sweden, both on the individual and societal levels. Its core message that no one is superior to another fundamentally contradicts racism and informs government policy, but also reinforces institutionalized discrimination. I use literature review, ethnographic observations and interviews to examine the ways in which racism is understood and experienced in Sweden. This paper also investigates how concepts of sameness and community have changed over time and how the shifting of these concepts have resulted in greater inclusiveness in Swedish society. I first overview the history of Sweden’s interactions with non-Swedes and the shift in attitude regarding them. I then discuss the origins and nature of the Jante Law and how it functions as a hegemonic system as well as promoting certain behaviors as a component of governmentality. Furthermore, I analyze the trend of new cultures and ideas entering Swedish society and how such changes are causing the Jante Law to decline. I investigate how a culturally engrained notion of being modest and inconspicuous alters overt and covert racist discourse in Sweden. Additionally, I include an ethnographic account of my experience in Sweden as well as those of interviewees of various ethnic and cultural backgrounds. I conclude the paper with a discussion of the implications for Swedish society as immigration increases while the Jante Law loses its influence over Swedish culture.Publication Exhibiting Human Evolution: How Identity and Ideology Get Factored into Displays at a Natural History Museum(2010-09) Mitchell, ChanikaThis paper focuses on how identity and racial ideology are factored into displays in the exhibit, Fossil Fragments: The Riddle of Human Origins, at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. I used visitor questionnaires, observations, exhibition construction and curatorial interviews to examine that the concept of race is so ingrained in our society racial ideology and identity is automatically embedded in exhibits about human evolution. How may the exhibition inform the visitors’ perception of race and human evolution? A key aspect investigated was if the curatorial staff was conscious or unconscious about the racial ideological information present in the exhibit. By examining the exhibition construction and visitor observations, I was able to see aspects of the exhibit reinforced visitor racial ideological beliefs. In seeing how exhibition construction coupled with the legitimacy and power of the museum effect people’s thoughts on human evolution, helped me understand that not only information in the museum but information left out can be as detrimental. All the information allowed me to form recommendations change the exhibit so that identity and racial ideological information would no longer be present.Publication The Problem of Excess Female Mortality: Tuberculosis in Western Massachusetts, 1850-1910(2008) Smith, Nicole LUnder the modern mortality pattern females die at all ages at a lower rate than males. However, this was not always the case. For much of the nineteenth century in the United States and parts of Europe it appears that females died at a higher rate with respect to at least one disease, pulmonary tuberculosis. The purpose of this research is to investigate this question in four towns of the Connecticut River Valley, Massachusetts. First, it is necessary to establish age- and sex-specific mortality rates in the four rural towns in the Connecticut River Valley during the latter half of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th. Secondly, it is necessary to identify those cases in which tuberculosis was the main disease and cause of death. This research seeks to discuss and contribute to the topic of excess female mortality. The four Massachusetts towns of Greenfield, Deerfield, Shelburne, and Montague constitute my research sites. These towns are appropriate for the anthropological pursuit of historical epidemiology due first to the towns’ rural nature at a time when the majority of Americans lived in rural towns, not large urban cities where studies are often focused. Secondly, these towns are of interest because of the extensive data collection that has been conducted previously. Tuberculosis (TB) is an interesting and instructive disease to focus research on. TB has re-emerged in recent decades, and research on the disease may have applied implications and value. TB was the number one killer during the study period, and the nature of the disease is such that it is very sensitive to the social environment. The combination of a rural setting and tuberculosis may give insight into the etiology of a disease that shares a long yet uneven history with humans, and has both biological and cultural significance. Under the traditional mortality pattern females of particular age ranges have greater mortality rates than males. This research discovered that females exceeded males in mortality rates at ages ten to 19 and 30 to 39 and that TB was the root cause of greater female mortality. Interestingly, the sex-specific gap in TB mortality rates was much wider than the gap in overall mortality rates. Thus, while females were dying of one cause, evidence shows that males were dying of another, which may have offset male TB mortality rates.Publication Intersecting Symbols in Indigenous American and African Material Culture: Diffusion or Independent Invention and Who Decides?(2013-05) Moody, Donna L.Native American and African American material culture of mid-19thcentury to present day appear to hold evidence for a more ancient spiritual and cultural relationship between these two diverse peoples. There is evidence of strikingly similar, and in some instances, identical, pre-Columbian (before 1492) symbols from Africa and North America which allows us to examine questions of diffusion or independent invention. This thesis provides an examination of cultural practices and spiritual beliefs of the Indigenous peoples of North America and Africa through symbols incorporated in the material culture of each, focusing primarily on textiles and it provides an exploration into the traditional knowledge systems that under-lie the adaptations and syncretism of these culture groups in creating objects and ascribing meaning to symbols. In order to understand the similarities, along with the continuity and retention of ancient belief systems, it is necessary to travel the path back, as far as possible. Anthropological debates such as diffusion vs. independent invention are encountered and examined. Through the many processes of colonization, the histories of Indigenous peoples have been sanitized or erased to accommodate European hegemony and perceptions of superior knowledge systems. In searching for that which has been misplaced or stolen through colonization, the necessity of supporting an Indigenous praxis of Theory and Method in the discipline of Anthropology is presented. By recognizing Indigenous knowledge systems, and from such a perspective, it would be disingenuous to believe that there was no intercontinental contact between the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and those of Africa prior to 1492.Publication Grandmotherhood in Ukraine: Behavioral Variation and Evolutionary Implications(2020-09) Shreyer, SofiyaGrandmothers are known to increase the health and well-being of their grandchildren in many different populations. However, grandmothers may vary in their contributions based on their relatedness to their grandchildren. In some populations, maternal grandmothers decrease the risk of mortality and increase the health of their grandchildren more than paternal grandmothers. Grandmaternal influence also sometimes varies based on the gender of the grandchild. The behavioral mechanisms of grandmaternal investment are not well understood and have not been explored in the heavily intergenerational context of Eastern Europe. This study examines the behavioral variation of sixty-two Ukrainian grandmothers through interviews and a semi-structured questionnaire. I test whether maternal and paternal grandmothers differ in face-to-face contact with their grandchildren and whether the gender of the grandchild influences the frequency of face-to-face contact. Additionally, I examine qualitative responses from grandmothers on various aspects of childcare to determine whether maternal and paternal grandmothers have different childcare strategies and experience grandmotherhood in different ways. I found that maternal grandmothers have significantly more face-to-face time with their grandchildren (173.8 days out of the year as compared to 87.5 for paternal grandmothers, pPublication Archery's Lasting Mark: A Biomechanical Analysis of Archery(2019-09) Dorshorst, TabithaThe physical demands of archery involve strenuous movements that place repetitive mechanical loads on the upper body. Given that bone remodels in response to mechanical loading (Ruff, 2008), it is reasonable to assume that repetitive bow and arrow use impacts upper limb bone morphology in predictable ways. The introduction and increased use of archery have been suggested to impact bilateral humeral asymmetry (Rhodes and Knüsel, 2005; Thomas, 2014). However, this claim is yet to be tested in vivo. This project aims to use kinematic and electromyographic approaches to validate claims inferring that, 1. archery places mechanical loading on the non-dominant arm resulting in lowered asymmetry, and 2. the dominant arm in archery has more mechanical loading placed in the anterior-posterior direction while the non-dominant arm has more mechanical loading placed in the medial-lateral direction. Some muscles (i.e. Pectoralis major and posterior Deltoid) act symmetrically on both humeri, while most muscle groups (i.e. Biceps brachii, Triceps brachii, Deltoid (lateral), and Latissimus dorsi) are activated asymmetrically on the humerus. On the whole, asymmetrically acting muscle groups acting on separate arms result in similar overall directional bending. Therefore, the overall cross-sectional shape of the bone would be similar for the draw and bow arm. Repeated bow use would undoubtedly induce humeral modification consistent with increased non-dominant arm robusticity, which in turn would lower asymmetry. Findings from this project thus support the hypothesis that the adoption of the bow and arrow results in decreased humeral asymmetry and strengthen morphological approaches to behavioral reconstruction.Publication Were Neandertal Humeri Adapted for Spear Thrusting or Throwing? A Finite Element Study(2014-09) Berthaume, Michael AnthonyAn ongoing debate concerning Neandertal ecology is whether or not they utilized long range weaponry. The anteroposteriorly expanded cross-section of Neandertal humeri have led some to argue they thrusted their weapons, while the rounder cross-section of Late Upper Paleolithic modern human humeri suggests they threw their weapons. We test the hypothesis that Neandertal humeri were built to resist strains engendered by thrusting rather than throwing using finite element models of one Neandertal, one Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) human and three recent human humeri, representing a range of cross-sectional shapes and sizes. Electromyography and kinematic data and articulated skeletons were used to determine muscle force magnitudes and directions during three positions of spear throwing and three positions of spear thrusting. Maximum von Mises strains were determined at the 35% and 50% cross-sections of all models. During throwing and thrusting, von Mises strains produced by the Neandertal humerus fell roughly within or below those produced by the modern human humeri. The EUP humerus performed similarly to the Neandertal, but slightly poorer during spear thrusting. This implies the Neandertal and EUP human humeri were just as well adapted at resisting strains during throwing as recent humans and just as well or worse adapted at resisting strains during thrusting as recent humans. We also did not find any correlation between strains and biomechanical metrics used to measure humeral adaptation in throwing and thrusting (retroversion angle, Imax/Imin, J). These results failed to support our hypothesis and suggest they were capable of using long distance weaponry.Publication Effects of Terrain on Reconstructions of Mobility in Past Populations(2016-02) Whittey, Erin MFemoral and tibial diaphyseal geometry has frequently been used to evaluate mobility and other patterns of physical activity in past populations. The high antero-posterior (A-P) to medio-lateral (M-L) bending rigidity ratio (IX/IY) typical of many hunter-gatherer femora, for instance, may reflect mechanical loads associated with long distance travel. The possible confounding effect of physical terrain on lower limb diaphyseal morphology is rarely evaluated. This study investigated the possible effect of terrain on lower limb shape ratios (IX/IY) and bending and torsional strength (ZP) in adult skeletons from Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia, covering a time span from around 30,000 BP to the present. Midshaft femoral and tibial cross-sectional geometric properties for 3515 individuals were gathered from databases kindly provided by researchers. Geographic coordinates were found for each archaeological site. Local terrain for each site was quantified with ArcGIS 10 mapping software using USGS elevation data, and characterized as flat, hilly, or mountainous. Analysis of variance shows significant differences (pP) of both femoral and tibial midshaft among the three terrain categories, with more A-P oriented diaphyseal shapes and greater strength in hilly and mountainous groups, even after correcting for the effect of subsistence on these cross-sectional properties. These results suggest that terrain needs to be taken into account in analyses of lower limb diaphyseal structure and mobility. Latitude and coastal proximity were also investigated as possible biogeographic factors in the morphology of lower limb diaphyses.Publication The Process to Political Mobilization in Five College Capitalism: Forms of Antiracism, Personal Reflection and Community-Building(2017-02) Homrich, Caitlin B.The town of Amherst, Massachusetts is home to the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, and Hampshire College, institutions that have greatly influenced the town’s prolific history of political activism as well as the high educational attainment and economic status of the majority of its residents. Often hailed as a liberal utopia, research on the political mobilization occurring in this town provides insight into the process and limitations of ally politics: when most of the residents of Amherst are White, how do they engage in racial justice activism? When most of the residents are wealthy and/or highly educated, how do they engage in challenges to capitalism’s structural inequalities? In this thesis, I approach these questions by examining the political mobilization process of myself and others in three organizations: Coming Together, Re-Evaluation Counseling (RC), and the student organization, UMass Alliance for Community Transformation (UACT). I explore how Coming Together focused on antiracism in a process of focused personal reflection about racial identity and personal antiracism practices, and how that process silenced the people of color in the organization, was vii detrimental to my own mental health, and demobilized many potential-activists. In an effort to understand this organization better, I explore the practices of personal reflection and the vision of social change in RC, an organization which greatly influenced Coming Together. I argue that the more holistic and rigorous personal reflection in RC was more empowering, although taxing of energy. Finally, I contrast these experiences with the political mobilization I experienced in the UACT introductory course, Grassroots Community Organizing (GCO). I argue that the ongoing facilitation in critical personal reflection, relationship- and community-building, and practice in activism work in GCO was politically mobilizing and simultaneously produced a community culture of anti oppression. Ultimately, this thesis argues that effective activism against racism requires activism against capitalism, and vice-versa, and that highly intentional anti-oppression community-building can denaturalize, and mobilize participants against, the capitalist ideologies of alienation and competition. In order to do this comparative work, I rely heavily on the methods of participation observation and, rooted in Black feminist anthropology, autoethnography.Publication Producing the Dead Sea Scrolls: (Trans)national Heritage and the Politics of Popular Representation(2015-05) Taylor, Evan P.This thesis explores the politics of representing the assemblage of ancient manuscripts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls to popular audiences in Israel, the occupied West Bank, and the United States. I demonstrate that these objects of national heritage are circulated along transnational routes to maintain the legitimacy of nationalist discourse abroad. Three sites—the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Qumran National Park in the West Bank, and a travelling exhibit presented at the Boston Museum of Science—are examined for textual narrative, spatial arrangement, and visitor behavior. Analysis of these observations illuminates two recurring motifs common to all three sites: the restoration of an ancient ethno-national landscape (“land of Israel”) in the contemporary landscape of Palestine/Israel and the important legacy of ancient Jewish society in contemporary Israel and “the West.” These motifs and the way they are presented through a framing of cultural heritage can be associated with a larger nationalist discourse maintained by Israeli state authorities and mainstream media that perpetuates a linking of western liberal and Zionist ideologies. I contend that the transnational circulation of this nationalist heritage narrative works to legitimize—at a global scale—an ongoing Israeli program of occupation and settlement in Palestinian territory subsumed under the biblical/Zionist frame of the “land of Israel.” While making preliminary suggestions toward critical interventions, I also suggest that the analysis of transnational encounters with nationalist heritage merits deeper ethnographic investigation towards understanding its impact on individuals’ political (in)action towards the Israel/Palestine conflict.Publication Food and Diet in the Andes: Changing Markets and Lives in Nuñoa(2015-05) Fisher, James AThe town of Nuñoa, located in the southern Peruvian Andes, has been the ongoing focus of anthropological research. Household surveys of diet and food security (n=69) administered during 2012 are analyzed here and compared to past studies from previous decades. Study results show clearly that the amount and diversity of new foods available in the area has increased dramatically, but also gives evidence for continued disparate access to certain types of food along class lines. Socioeconomic status had a significant negative correlation with food insecurity and poor households more frequently consumed both potatoes and other cheap, high carbohydrate foods such as rice, noodles, and flour. In contrast, foods eaten significantly more often by wealthier households included cheese, fish, and vegetables, all of which have become much more available since dietary surveys were conducted in the late 1960s. It is likely that many rural families have migrated into the center of town looking for steady employment, which has decreased dietary seasonality and increased reliance on market access.Publication Factors Influencing Primate Hair Microbiome Diversity(2021-09) Kitrinos, CatherinePrimate hair is both a substrate upon which essential social interactions occur and an important host-pathogen interface. As commensal microbes provide important immune functions for their hosts, understanding the microbial diversity in primate hair could provide insight into primate immunity and disease transmission. While studies of human hair and skin microbiomes show differences in microbial communities across body regions, little is known about the nonhuman primate hair microbiome. In this study, we collected hair samples (n=159) from 8 body regions across 12 nonhuman primate species housed at 3 US institutions to examine 1) the diversity and composition of the primate hair microbiome and 2) the factors predicting primate hair microbiome diversity and composition. If both environmental and evolutionary factors shape the microbiome, then we would expect significant differences in microbiome diversity across host body sites, host sex, host housing institutions, and host species. We found that the hair microbiomes of these captive primates contained high abundances of gut-, respiratory-, and environment-associated microbiota rather than skin-associated microbiota. We also found that host species identity is the strongest predictor of both hair microbiome diversity and composition, while sex and body region are strong predictors of taxonomic richness and microbiome composition, and institution is a moderate predictor for both diversity and composition. Our results suggest that hair microbial communities are affected by both evolutionary and environmental factors and vary both within and across primate species, and that there may be transmission of microbes across primate body regions. These findings have important implications for understanding the biology and conservation of both wild and captive primates.