Tag: Anthropology

Freedom Towns, Freedom Colonies: A Primer for Prosperity

Presenter: Sarada Thomas – Anthropology, Architecture

Faculty Mentor: Richard Margerum

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Connection and Community

The study examines Freedom Towns and Colonies. The newly freed had few resources but established hundreds of these communities. Many were very successful, and some are still in existence today.

Modern African American communities are materially in the same place as those from the early 1800s. Previous research indicates the same methods could be used to create similar economic transformation. The study answers the questions: how did these towns and colonies emerge? What are the lessons, successful practices, and guiding principles from their history? How can policy support and protect efforts to apply them?

A primary literature review framed the study at the intersection of political economics, sociopolitical history, and community development. A secondary literature review of oral histories, government documents, and journalistic articles provided data for analysis.

Primary findings show cooperative and collective behaviors span successful communities while failures were induced externally. The implication is privation among ADOS communities can be alleviated using internal and external solutions drawn from history.

This work is significant in its assumption of ability, motivation, and ongoing effort by ADOS communities. Second the study centers the community’s cultural habits as a solution to their economic, social, and political condition. Third, this work is significant in its clarification of policy’s role to support, promote and protect the community and its efforts.

Zanzibari Perceptions of Acquired Immunity and Rebound Malaria

Presenter: Ava Minu-Sepehr – Anthropology

Faculty Mentor(s): Melissa Graboyes, Karl Reasoner

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—HURF

This work-in-progress talk presents initial findings from 38 Swahili-English interviews conducted with Zanzibaris about the history of malaria and their understandings of rebound malaria and the biomedical concept of acquired immunity. Over the past century, periods of intense malarial interventions in Zanzibar reduced malaria tremendously, while subsequent withdrawals led to dangerous rebound epidemics. This project weaves together contemporary interview data and historical context to present “vernacular knowledge” about malaria. “Vernacular knowledge” captures different and fluid forms of thinking, knowing, and meaning-making using local language, recognizing the impact of foreign. I will report initial findings from this research, as we complete coding of the interview transcripts using a modified grounded theory approach. Salient themes across oral interviews include danger, education, and responsibility, as well as the role of the environment and foreign funding in discussions about malaria. Our research demonstrates that Zanzibari’s don’t share the same biomedical framings of “rebound malaria” and “acquired immunity,” but that their understandings vary based on age, gender, and expertise with malaria. This research challenges what types of knowledge are valued and disseminated, and allows us to ask how the work of decolonizing diverse knowledge can be performed. This project is part of a larger NSF grant led by Professor Graboyes on the history of malaria in Africa.

Male Affiliation as an Alternative Mating Strategy in Japanese Macaques

Presenter: Katherine Jones − Anthropology

Faculty Mentor(s): Frances White

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

In non-human primates, dominance is often considered the primary strategy for securing mating opportunities. However, while dominance is certainly an influential factor in an individual’s reproductive success, the ability to form and maintain strong social relationships serves a similar purpose, especially for those individuals who are unable to hold a high dominance rank. Social bonding is predictive of cooperation, higher rates of tolerance, lower rates of aggression, and reproductive success. Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) form complex inter-male social networks, with an individual’s position in the network potentially impacting their reproductive success. In this study, we aimed to examine the inter-relatedness of dominance, positive male-male relationships, and reproductive success. Using behavioral data collected at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, we calculated simulated rank orders and constructed social networks based on grooming interactions between adult males. We then investigated correlations between the number of infants a male sired and the male’s age, dominance rank, and social network positionality. Although the most dominant male was more reproductively successful than many lower-ranking individuals, the male with the most offspring was one who had a more central position within the social network. These findings offer a preliminary model for better understanding male social bonding as an alternative mating strategy.

Intragroup Dominance Hierarchies of Domestic Female Llamas in a Long-Term Herd

Presenter: Skye Grubb − Anthropology

Faculty Mentor(s): Larry Ulibarri, Frances White

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

This study examines the presence of a dominance hierarchy among females of an established domestic llama herd. To examine this, a group of thirteen female llamas and one male cria were fed high-quality food in clumped distributions. Their agonistic interactions were observed and recorded using a continuous recording method separated into one minute intervals, as well as a combination of focal animal sampling and scan sampling. A variety of factors including age, long-term health, established time within the herd, proximity, size, frequency of aggression, and reproductive success were examined regarding contribution to the linear dominance hierarchy. Centrality and physical positions within the herd social structure were also considered during analysis of rank. Upon the construction of the original dominance hierarchy, tests of linearity were performed to establish the potential of reversals and changes in the hierarchy over the period of roughly six months. A fairly linear dominance hierarchy has been constructed, showing three distinct groupings of females in terms of general proximity. The majority of reversals occurred in the higher positions of the hierarchy, with individuals lower in the hierarchy interacting aggressively only minimally.

Anemia and Socioeconomic Status Among Older Adults in the Study on Global AGEing (SAGE)

Presenter: Georgia Greenblum − Anthropology

Faculty Mentor(s): Josh Snodgrass, Alicia DeLouize

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Healthy Considerations

Research on anemia has primarily focused on young children and pregnant women, yet anemia also raises considerable health concerns for older adults. Anemia can often be easily identified and treated, yet it affects large populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The older adult population is rapidly growing in LMICs; therefore, not only is this population understudied but the impact of anemia within this population will become a larger global issue. Documenting anemia rates and identifying associated factors in different countries will help public health officials more effectively target this disorder.

Hemoglobin levels and survey data from 14,659 adults 50 years and older in South Africa, China, and Mexico were obtained from Wave 1 of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE). Data were analyzed to describe anemia rates and to test relationships between anemia, age, and socioeconomic status (SES).

For Mexico, China, and South Africa the rates of anemia in older adults were found to be 24%, 28%, and 91%, respectively. An association between lower wealth and higher prevalence of anemia was present only for two groups: men in Mexico and women in China. Each year of age after 50 was associated with a 2% higher prevalence of anemia among women in Mexico and China, a 3% higher prevalence for men in China, and a 6% higher prevalence for men in Mexico.

These results highlight the global burden of anemia in older adults.

Ethnohistory of Indigenous Transculturation and Resistance in the Sibundoy Valley of Colombia

Presenter(s): Rowan Glass — Anthropology

Faculty Mentor(s): Reuben Zahler, Maria Fernanda Escallón

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—HURF

This paper interprets Indigenous culture change and resistance in the ethnohistory of the Sibundoy Valley of southwest Colombia. Drawing on historical, ethnographic, and theoretical sources, I trace these processes as they have developed in the valley from colonial period to the present, focusing on the twentieth century. Previous histories of the Sibundoy Valley have emphasized the complementary roles of the Catholic Church and the Colombian state as history-makers in this frontier zone, where the colonial logics of these agents were forcibly imposed on the Indigenous communities they encountered there. While recognizing the importance of Church and state as historical actors in this region, this paper finds that Foucault’s claim that “where there is power, there is resistance” aptly applies to the ethnohistory of the Sibundoy Valley. Although the effects of colonial power on the Indigenous communities of the valley are clear, in all cultural domains in which culture change has occurred it has been countered by practices of resistance which have operated to maintain Indigenous cultural integrity. The historical continuity of such practices demonstrates that the Indigenous communities in question have not been passive subjects of colonial power, but rather active agents in negotiating and resisting it. This paper interprets Sibundoy Valley ethnohistory to position the valley’s Indigenous communities at center stage, as the protagonists and makers of their own history.

Global Biomarker Implementation in the WHO’s World Health Survey Plus

Presenter(s): Madeleine Getz — Anthropology

Co-Presenter(s): Micah Warner-Carey, Rosa Taylor

Faculty Mentor(s): Josh Snodgrass, Alicia DeLouize

Session: (In-Person) Poster Presentation

The Global Health Biomarker Laboratory (GHBL) is collaborating with the World Health Organization to plan and implement the World Health Survey Plus (WHS+). The WHS+ is an expansion on the original World Health Survey, a project conducted during 2002-2004 in 69 countries with over 3,000 participants. The WHS+ is a flexible and comprehensive data collection system that provides countries with the ability to monitor progress towards health goals and obtains high-quality, nationally representative data on health, social, economic, and policy topics. This project aims to fill data gaps globally and improve health equity within and between countries. By developing protocols, training videos, and technical expertise on point-of-care biomarker implementation, the GHBL is at the forefront of implementing new point-of-care technologies (POCT); the WHS+ biomarkers are hemoglobin as an indicator of anemia, HbA1C and glucose as indicators of diabetes risk, and lipids as indicators of hypolipidemia and cardiovascular risk. Additionally, the survey is collecting anthropometrics, blood pressure, pulse, hand grip strength, walking speed, and cognitive function as direct measures of health. We are currently in the early stages of methods development and implementation; the WHS+ has the potential not only to help countries provide more equitable and sustainable healthcare and promote country-specific care-seeking behaviors, but also to further our global knowledge of healthcare and disease.

Contextualizing a Collection of Rare Cambodian Glass Ornaments Within Contemporaneous Trade Networks

Presenter: Kelby Beyer − Anthropology, Spanish

Faculty Mentor(s): Alison Carter

(In-Person) Poster Presentation

Though archaeological glass ornament research in Iron Age Southeast Asia is a well-established field, the current body of work excludes morphologically and numerically rare objects (Carter 2016). This research uses compositional data to contextualize a looted collection of rare glass ornaments within a likely Phum Snay, Cambodia context situated within Iron Age Southeast Asian glass trade networks and interaction spheres. Laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LAICP-MS) compositional analysis of six of the collection’s 12 total glass earrings, bangles, and a spiral ornament forms the basis of this research. This work found that this collection’s glass ornaments were likely circulated within a local South China Sea potash glass trade network operating in the early Iron Age as well as a long-distance high-alumina mineral soda glass exchange network with South Asia during the late Iron Age. This previously unstudied collection’s novel compositional data of understudied rare prestige glass ornaments and contextualization of those artifacts within exchange networks contributes to previously sparse understandings of Iron Age Southeast Asian glass composition, exchange networks, and interaction spheres of several rare ornament types.

Gender Diversity and Deviation in Medieval Scandinavia

Presenter: Miles Berry − Anthropology

Faculty Mentor(s): Gantt Gurley

(In-Person) Oral Panel—HURF

There is a trope in the medieval Scandinavian literary tradition that bends the gendered actions and presentations of its characters in a way that changes their social standing within their stories. Unfortunately, homophobia and transphobia within academia have been precedent for decades and have caused the overlook of queer characters in such medieval literature. In my research, I attempt to contradict the notions that queer people did not exist in medieval Scandinavia and posit that some queer medieval individuals even held high places in society because of their identities. This paper finds evidence of what moderns consider gender diversity and deviation within medieval Scandinavian life, using both literature and archaeology. I inspect the Poetic and Prose Eddas, selected Icelandic Family Sagas, and archaeological burials that were deemed exceptional or diversionary from gendered expectations. These findings are based on both modern queer theory and a scale created by Carol Clover to analyze societal standing in Icelandic Family Sagas.