▼ This brief, focused ethnographic study investigated the unique problems and adaptations of Zoroastrianism in North America and how they made it distinct from the religion practiced in the mother communities of India and Iran. The field research took place in the Zoroastrian community in Chicago, Illinois and involved participant observation and a series of interviews administered at several important events. Each interview was built around a number of open-ended questions about the community’s current difficulties, differences with other Zoroastrian groups, and members' predictions of the future. Most of the participants agreed that Zoroastrianism dealt with a different set of problems in North America than in India. Difficulties specific to North America included an unwillingness of younger members to participate in community life, difficulties meeting the needs of Zoroastrians outside of major cities, the part-time nature of the priestly occupation, and conflict between Zoroastrians of Indian and Iranian background. As a result the community has adopted a flexible attitude towards the practice of the religion that is unheard of in the mother country. This is important because some of the subjects maintained that the growing Zoroastrian community in this country might soon dominate the future of the world's oldest monotheistic religion. Advisors/Committee Members: Jacobson, Clement Jeffrey.

▼ Household archaeology is a relatively new phenomenon in Maya studies. Therefore, this thesis investigates how Maya archaeologists can better identify and differentiate commoner residential structures as opposed to public and elite contexts. Research focuses on a perceived housemound, Structure B4, located at the ancient Maya site of Hun Tun. Excavations at Structure B4 focus on distinguishing the function and associated status of the structure. Hun Tun is a modest ancient Maya settlement located in the Three Rivers Region of northwestern Belize near the large center of La Milpa. Research aids in the development of a database regarding architectural and building typologies, artifactual assemblages, chronology, and site layout. Likewise, Hun Tun's political and economic role within the greater Three Rivers Region is explored using hierarchical and heterarchical models. Archaeological excavations and comparison, along with ethnographic analogy, demonstrate the importance of distancing ourselves from the strict commoner-elite dichotomy that has dominated household-related theory. Advisors/Committee Members: Scarborough, Vernon.

▼ As agents on the landscape, humans leave an imprint that becomes incorporated into the archaeological record. The archaeological record may include stone tools or broken pieces of pottery, or, on a larger scale, geometric earthen constructions. An anthropologist or archaeologist attempts to interpret the behavior which led to the archaeological phenomenon. One cultural phenomenon that has been a constant source of intrigue for archaeologists is the earthen monuments built by indigenous people in North America. Perhaps the greatest earthworks in the world in terms of scale were built by indigenous people during the Middle Woodland period (ca.2100-1500 B.P.) within the Ohio Valley. The most visible expression of building prowess in terms of scale is exhibited in the Newark Earthworks Complex. This thesis explores the cultural phenomenon of the ditch at the Great Circle, part of the Newark Earthworks Complex, in order to examine the cultural response to environment during indigenous occupation of the Newark area. Paleoenvironmental reconstruction using proxy data helps elucidate cultural adaptation by indigenous people to either environmental stability or duress. This thesis examines four cores from one of the geometric components of the Newark Earthworks, the ditch of the Great Circle, and uses various environmental proxies including magnetic susceptibility (MS), powder x-ray diffraction (XRD), particle size analysis, and loss on ignition (LOI) from radiocarbon dated sediments retrieved from soil cores as an exploratory investigation of climatic conditions. Magnetic susceptibility in conjunction with radiocarbon dating indicates that the Newark Earthworks were built after a cold and dry period. The Great Circle earthwork was likely used as a water management feature after a climatic downturn. Mineralogical interpretation based on XRD analysis supports the conjecture that the ditch of the Great Circle held water, suggesting it was used as a water reservoir in prehistoric times. However, the indigenous people may have used the ditch for other purposes including using it as a social boundary as a means of separating those outside the circle from those within it. One or both of these behaviors may have been the impetus for constructing the Great Circle. Advisors/Committee Members: Tankersley, Kenneth.

▼ The ancient Maya constructed expansive architectural programs, adjusting to the natural environment, while also manipulating the landscape. An analysis of Maya architecture is an avenue through which to explore systems of social and political power, patterns in settlement organization, and repetition of architectural styles and techniques. Excavations at the site of Say Kah, Groups B and C, revealed architectural elements providing commentary on the status of the inhabitants, the communicative capabilities of architecture, and regional affiliations that are evident in shared site-planning principles. Architecture at Say Kah is examined using an integrated approach, unifying three theoretical perspectives: architecture as a manifestation of labor and resources, architecture as a communicative device, and architecture as a container. This approach allows for a complete interpretation of architecture, examining how its presence in the physical world extends into, and actively functions in, the social realm. Advisors/Committee Members: Jackson, Sarah.

▼ All large urban centers require carefully designed and well-maintained water supplies for drinking, cooking, bathing and cleaning. This study examines how the Classic Maya urban center of Tikal provided water for these requirements. Tikal, located in the Department of El Petén in the southern Yucatan, manipulated the landscape to meet at least part of its water requirements through the collection and storage or rainwater in permanent artificial reservoirs. This study answers the question of whether or not the artificial media alone were sufficient to meet the water needs of the citizens. The methodology used in the study includes establishing ranges for data on rainfall, evaporation, surface seepage, reservoir capacity, rainfall-collection area capacity, population and water consumption through the use of maps, illustrations and text. The results of the thesis confirmed that the reservoirs alone made the focus city water sufficient, and established that ruling elite controlled a large portion of available water at the city, giving them much influence over their constituents but not absolute power. Advisors/Committee Members: Scarborough, Vernon.

▼ This study evaluates anthropological assumptions about prehistoric human use of the landscape with a spatial analysis in a Geographical Information Science (GIS) environment. Through a multi-stage, multi-method, cross-cultural analysis, this study proves that it is possible to predict where prehistoric archaeological sites are located on a highly dynamic landscape. Using each archaeological site found within a local scale as data points, the variables of elevation, slope aspect, distance from water and soils are statically evaluated and modified using GIS. The results of this analysis proves that not only is it possible to produce a predictive model of prehistoric landscape use, but it is also possible to make conclusions about prehistoric land use strategies. Advisors/Committee Members: Tankersley, Kenneth.

▼ In the US, many children do not receive the help they need for mental, emotional or behavioral problems. Fundamental to describing parents' help-seeking processes is an understanding of how parents talk about and account for their child’s behavior, as children generally depend on their parents or guardians to seek help on their behalf. In this study, 51 interviews were conducted in a Midwest, urban, pediatric, emergency room with mothers whose children screened positive for a behavioral, emotional or mental disorder. The interviews were analyzed for mothers' accounts of their child's behavior. The accounts referenced parents’ cultural understandings of child development; others' assessments (such as the child's teacher's) of the child’s behavior; their own parenting as a contributing factor to the behavior; a distressing situation or event as potential cause of problematic behavior; and also used biographical narrative to provide context for an account. These account types suggest that parents view their child's behavior as reflective of the context or situation in which it occurs; as a natural, if sometimes distressing, consequence of normal development; or as reflective of their parenting methods. From the findings, it is suggested that further attention be given to parents' view of their child's behavior as reflective of their own parenting. A suggestion is also made for clinicians to approach behavioral evaluation as a collaborative characterization between themselves and the parent. Advisors/Committee Members: Jacobson, Clement Jeffrey.

▼ Archaeological research conducted in 2009 at the Cerén site, a Late Classic Maya village in El Salvador rapidly buried in volcanic ash from the Loma Caldera eruption in A.D. 600, identified intensively cultivated outfields planted in manioc (Manihot esculenta) and maize (Zea mays) 200 meters south of the habitation area. Ash from Loma Caldera encased plants growing in the outfields when the volcano erupted, and the spaces once occupied by these plants were cast in plaster to reveal an unusually detailed view of an ancient agricultural landscape. A midden comprised of abundant charred paleoethnobotanical macroremains and artifacts was found among these fields. Manioc and maize stems cast in plaster were found to be growing from the midden at the time of the eruption. This thesis hypothesizes that manioc plant parts would be identified in the midden’s assemblage of charred macroremains since the plant’s stems grew from the midden. A paleoethnobotanical analysis conducted with the midden assemblage did not identify any manioc plant parts, however. To address the absence of manioc in the form of macroremains, the following questions are posed by this study: Do the plant remains identified from the midden reflect those plants identified in their systemic contexts within the Cerén village and the site’s southern agricultural outfields? If the plant remains from the midden and those plants identified in their systemic contexts in the village and outfields are similar, did Cerén’s unusual site formation processes contribute to this lack of a preservation bias between the two assemblages? Or does greater parity exist between plant macroremains recovered from the archaeological record and plant resources utilized at ancient Maya sites than archaeologists and paleoethnobotanists currently realize? If the plant remains from the Operation P midden differ from the plants identified in their systemic contexts at Cerén, how can plant use practices, site formation processes, and recovery/identification biases introduced by archaeologists and paleoethnobotanists contribute to discrepancies between the two assemblages? This study concludes that the absence of manioc and other plant taxa in the form of carbonized macroremains in the archaeological record does not necessarily preclude their presence and use by the ancient Maya at sites lacking the unique preservation conditions present at Cerén. Incorporating the systematic collection and analysis of both paleoethnobotanical macroremains and microremains into the research designs of archaeological projects in the Maya area will help to bridge the gap between archaeologically invisible plant resources and those used by the ancient Maya. Advisors/Committee Members: Scarborough, Vernon.

▼ Investigations of prehistoric lowland Maya water management practices have largely focused on large-scale water storage facilities such as reservoirs, artificial drainage systems that were used to hold, maintain, and deliver water year-around. The scarcity of surface water in the highly seasonal rainfall regime within the karst Maya Lowlands meant that these structures frequently provided the principal source of water in much of the region during the dry season. Utilizing a dataset of forty-seven cores from two reservoirs, Corriental and Perdido, at Tikal, Guatemala, my thesis investigates the development history of these reservoirs with a focus on Corriental as a series of ecological linkages between people and their environment, which gradually led to specialized and disturbed landscapes in the Lowlands. Utilizing volume magnetic susceptibility, particle size distribution, soil horizon identifications, and loss on ignition data, the argument is made that Corriental and Perdido occupy a dramatically modified and artificial landscape that reflects critical accretionary trajectories of development. Advisors/Committee Members: Scarborough, Vernon.

▼ This study explores the attitudes of immigrant Korean caregivers and their experiences of caring for an elderly relative in the context of adaptive processes in the United States. Focusing on how living in a host country affects the attitudes and values of these caregivers, this study employs a descriptive, case study approach aimed at documenting and better understanding Korean caregivers' attitudes towards elderly care and decision making in end-of-life care. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with four Korean participants residing in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio in 2010. Five aspects of elderly care were addressed: (1) Experiences of caregivers with the Elderly; (2) Caregivers' attitudes towards aging and death; (3) Caregivers' experiences with caregiving; (4) Use and knowledge of health care services among caregivers, and (5) Caregivers' attitudes towards end-of-life care and decision making. Analysis of transcripts suggests that first-generation immigrants retain a strong sense of filial piety and duty toward parents, but separated from the wider family network, they often struggle to provide for their parents in the traditional manner. Not all of the caregivers were familiar with advanced directives, but all expressed concerns with Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders which can conflict with traditional Korean end-of-life values wherein family members make decisions on behalf of their elderly relative. Many Koreans are misinformed about important subjects such as advance directives, hospice care and Life Sustaining Technology (LST). Health care professionals can benefit from reading this study by identifying caregivers and educating them on these subjects in a culturally sensitive manner. Advisors/Committee Members: Jacobson, Clement Jeffrey.

▼ Using lithic raw material data from 33Ha49 in Shawnee Lookout Park in Hamilton County, Ohio, this research explores the role that waterways play in lithic raw material procurement strategies. Previous archaeologists have investigated the cultural processes associated with the movement of lithic raw materials across the landscape (Tankersley 1989, 1991, 1998). Explanations for the movement of flaked-stone artifacts include both human activity and geological processes. To best examine the cultural processes associated with raw lithic procurement, Optimal Foraging Theory was applied. By utilizing Optimal Foraging Theory, lithic raw material is considered a type of “currency” and becomes subjected to considerations of risk, energy expenditure, and efficiency. The use of waterways in lithic procurement could offer a way for groups to maximize their gain and acquire quality lithic raw materials. Research has also found evidence of people operating on the waterways. Evidence of dugout canoes operating on lakes and rivers has been recovered (Fagan 2004; Gamble 2002; Johnston 1962). Excavated during the summer of 2011, the lithic raw materials, which consisted primarily of chert, numbered over 17,000. Using primarily visual and petrographic identification techniques, all of the lithic raw materials were sourced to their locations in the Greater Ohio Valley. Statistical models considered stream location, distance, direction, glaciation, quality, and locality as factors to understand what elevates certain lithic raw materials over others. These models demonstrated the importance of streams in procuring these lithic raw materials. The evidence for this was most visible with Wyandotte chert. It was concluded that streams can be a viable route to more easily obtain lithic raw materials from source areas. Waterways provide the most energetically efficient way to procure currencies such as lithics. Advisors/Committee Members: Tankersley, Kenneth.

▼ Several competing models and interpretations regarding sherd-and-lithic artifact scatters in the American Southwest are topics of debate among archaeologists. The limitations of many of these models have been postulated to be caused, in part, by the use of inappropriate units of analysis, such as the “limited-activity site” taxon, and non-standard sampling procedures. By using the Upper Basin Archaeological Research project’s Mapping Unit (MU) concept, this study explores potential sources of inter-class and intra-class variability. In order to analyze possible sources of inter-class variability, sherd-and-lithic artifact scatters are compared to all other types of Mapping Units through spatial and statistical analysis. Additionally, this study investigates artifact assemblage data from a sample of 42 sherd-and-lithic artifact scatters in order to evaluate potential sources of intra-class variability. In both analyses, a special emphasis is placed on comparison between sherd-and-lithic artifact scatters that exist independently of architecture, versus those that are associated with architecture. Through these analyses, competing models are evaluated and new interpretations are formed regarding the role of sherd-and-lithic artifact scatters in larger regional settlement and subsistence models. Advisors/Committee Members: Sullivan, Alan.