This thesis examines the cultural context in which Japanese children are constructing their
own perspective of the environment because in the development of environmental education in
Japan, the perspectives of children and teachers have not been taken into consideration. Although
educators have made efforts to give direction to environmental education,...
St. Lawrence Island, Alaska is home to two Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) under remediation by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since 1985. After more than two decades the local residents continue to be concerned about inadequate site characterization and cleanup. During the summer of 2005, I collected ethnographic...
This thesis evaluates the programs, activities, and relationships of Enfoque Ixcan, a non-profit eye care project providing services to a rural area of Guatemala.
I conducted ethnographic interviews with key stakeholders of the organization and carried out participant observation in the Ixcan region of Guatemala in February 2006. The research...
This research focuses on the economic and social impacts to women’s and children’s dental health after methamphetamine abuse. Family oral health status, access to professional services, health literacy and home hygienic practices are evaluated in the frameworks of critical medical anthropology, applied anthropological praxis and matrix and bio-psycho-social addiction models...
The objective of this thesis is to provide a predictive model for the archaeological investigation of the first farmsteads in the Pacific Northwest, established in the early- and mid-nineteenth century by Canadien and Métis families retiring from their service in the fur trade. Past studies of this population have either...
This thesis examines the impact of urban renewal on individual health, specifically focusing on an urban planning model called Smart Growth that is being used in Portland, Oregon. Findings are based on qualitative and quantitative analyses of interview and survey data from study participants living in a community where renewal...
Both conflicts and new identities result when indigenous' traditional values of landscape and resource management are superimposed with federal governments' management of archaeological and forest resources in federally designated protected areas. This thesis examines the relationship and discourse between two Cuicatec towns in Oaxaca, Mexico and three Mexican government agencies...
A number of researchers view farmers’ markets as an appropriate vehicle for
re-embedding food markets into communities (O’Hara & Stagl, 2001, Feenstra, 2002,
Lyson, 2005). Amidst astounding growth in the number of farmers’ markets in the
United States in recent decades, many markets struggle and fail. Recent research
suggests that...
For centuries humans have been searching for precious metals. The search for gold has greatly changed the landscape of the American West, beginning in the 1850s and continuing today. Various gold rushes around the country created mining colonies in remote areas, thereby connecting the frontier with the rest of America...
Hunter-gatherers depend on naturally occurring resources and, in order to survive, must overcome resource procurement challenges inherent in their environment. One challenge relates to the temporal and spatial availability of resources, which hunter-gatherers address, in part, through the strategic use of space to position themselves for optimal access to necessary...
In this era of free trade and globalization, food is traveling greater and greater distances to its consumers. This is causing small farms and small farmers all over the world to protest as their livelihood is being undercut by cheap agricultural commodities from outside their communities. In the Ecuadorian Andes,...
This thesis contains the cultural biography of Buddhist and Hindu items in a
small college town in the United States. It explores different factors that have led to
the availability of these items here, what attracts Americans to them, and the meanings
they give these items. Semi-structured interviews were conducted...
Food insecurity and hunger have become persistent problems resulting from an increase in impoverished segments of populations worldwide. For those not affected, the problem seems unnoticeable – it is happening somewhere else far away from them. However, in the United States, the number of people living below the poverty level...
This thesis examines how changes made to the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) in 2003 impacts those now utilizing the emergency room (ER) for primary health care. This thesis also examines how these changes impact staff members working in the ER of Salem Hospital. Through the utilization of qualitative research methods,...
This research covers Japanese animation and its popularity in the United States. It focuses on hardcore fans for whom this animation has become part of their lives. Using interviews of self-identified anime fans, this research explores how anime fandom has become a part of American life despite originating in a...
Between 1927 and 1930 the Nevada Contracting Company of Fallon, Nevada constructed the Zion Tunnel and a portion of the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway in Zion National Park, Utah. During the construction approximately 200 workers lived at the contractor's camp, known today as the Nevada Camp. This camp, a temporary work...
Microfinance, or the technique of lending small amounts of money to the world's poor for productive activities, has emerged as a dominant approach to poverty alleviation among international development organizations. However, consensus does not yet exist as to the best mechanism for delivery of loans. While most organizations simply offer...
Site formation processes at Ayia Varvara Asprokremnos, a potentially early Neolithic archaeological site on Cyprus, are examined in order to build a larger predictive model. The study area immediate to the site encompasses 6.33 hectares and includes the site and alluvial terraces on both sides of the Gialias River. Fourteen...
Pacific lamprey (Lampetra tridentata) have historically been considered by the Western scientific community as a "trash" fish and generally overlooked in West Coast fisheries management. Recent population declines in Pacific Northwest streams have triggered new research to understand the life history and ecological significance of this species. These new studies...
This thesis employs cultural analysis to better understand the meanings consumers have for the brands they consume. This research uses qualitative methods to elicit and analyze the brand meanings alumni and students have of their alma matter and alumni associations. Results from this research suggest that consumption is a ritual...
The present thesis chemically examined 174 industrial North Staffordshire pottery fragments from an archaeological context, using Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA). In an integrated effort to combine an archaeometric approach with archival research and traditional analysis methods, the purpose of the thesis was to link industrial pottery manufacturers recipes to...
In the early 1990s, a cutback in harvestable timber led to economic stress among the families and communities of Oregon's Santiam Canyon. This ethnographic study uses symbolic anthropology and cultural ecology to examine the changing relationships among the timber industry, timber communities, and gender roles. Timber-dependent economies have always struggled...
As recent interest has grown in the connections between how food is produced, distributed and consumed, and the overall health of food systems for people and the environment, a movement toward localizing food systems has emerged. In Lincoln County, Oregon, citizens, restaurateurs and university extension faculty, among others, have started...
Fort Hoskins, located in Kings Valley, Oregon, was established in 1856 as one of
three forts to monitor the newly created Coastal Indian Reservation. Companies U and F
of the 4th Infantry were assigned to Fort Hoskins until 1861 when they were transferred
to the East with the outbreak of...
The Anzick Clovis assemblage was first discovered in the late 1960's near Livingston, Montana. More than 100 stone and bone artifacts were found in association with the remains of two subadults proven
to be the earliest radiocarbon-dated human burial in North America. Although human remains are notoriously absent, similar artifact...
In Prek Toal, a poor subsistence fishing village on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake, the conservation organization Osmose is using ecotourism revenues to finance poverty intervention programs and promote conservation in a threatened ecosystem. This thesis examines local perceptions of tourism as a measure of Osmose’s success. Limited awareness of tourism...
The decision to attend a university creates many important decisions for a young adult, with one of the most important being the choice of where to live while they make the transition into independent adults. Many choose to live on campus during this critical time. The differences that exist, and...
My research is looking at the cultural and kinship ties of African and Native peoples and how our worlds were forged together by colonization, bonded during the institutionalize state of shackles and slavery and how the legacy of these tools of genocide are now tearing us apart.
Being of mixed...
The purpose of this study is to use an integrated biocultural perspective to examine the decision-making processes of young survivors as they navigate breast cancer treatment and reproductive health care options. This retrospective study utilizes a mixed-methods approach that integrates quantitative survey data (Phase I) with interview (Phase II) and...
The purpose of this study was to determine whether a course in cultural competency would impact associate degree nursing students' perceptions of their abilities to provide care to culturally diverse clients. Ethnographic interviews with nursing faculty, graduates and students were utilized in course development. The cultural competency course was evaluated...
In the obsidian rich areas of central Oregon numerous lithic cache sites have been documented and strongly suggest the existence of a regional caching practice, however these sites remain poorly understood as cultural behavior. The primary objectives of this study are to develop and apply a research strategy addressing the...
This thesis explores the reasons for conversion to Islam for ten well-educated, Caucasian, American born women of European descent in a small, relatively affluent college town in Oregon, United States. It follows their process of constructing a new identity with their families, with friends, within the Muslim community and within...
This ethnographic study was conducted among the Meo community of north India to understand cultural norms, prescriptive behaviors, and practices associated with conceptions and contraception among Meo women and men living in five neighboring villages in the region of Mewat. The study goals were to collect ethnographic data on fertility-related...
Being an Eastern Shawnee Tribal member I understand the importance of documenting oral histories of Tribal elders to ensure that our cultural history is passed on to future generations. Therefore, the focus of this project is the collection, of oral histories and folklore in order to document traditional knowledge and...
The continuation of geoarchaeological investigations at Tseriadun (35CU7) contributes to the understanding of the site's depositional history and the associated environments, thereby identifying the long term geomorphic change in the area and providing the environmental context for local human activity as it is reflected in the archaeological record. Meeting this...
Oregon’s coastal communities grew from the booming logging and fishing industries of the 19th century, but in recent decades have faced not only major declines in both timber and fish resources but also an increasing reliance on tourists and retirees and the resultant glut of seasonal service-sector jobs. As a...
The existence of a “digital divide,” or inequalities of access to digital technologies among different American subpopulations, has been hotly debated and contested since the National Telecommunications and Information Administration first popularized the phrase in 1995. The purpose of this thesis is to critically examine the dominant discourses around the...
This thesis is based on the excavations of the Robert Newell farmstead (35MA41), excavated in 2002 and 2003 by the Oregon State University Department of Anthropology archaeological field school. Robert Newell lived at this farm from 1843- 1854. Major architectural features, including a brick hearth and postholes were discovered at...
Development in China over the last thirty years has emphasized infrastructural and economic advancement. Despite enormous gains in living standards in the industrialized eastern provinces, much of China's interior and western provinces remain relatively underdeveloped. Populated mostly by ethnic minorities, the southwest province of Yunnan (meaning south of the clouds)...
This ethnography looks at the processes a rural Oregon community is undergoing as some members attempt to re-animate the community by creating a community center after the loss of its school and market, two vital services that provided venues for social interaction and engagement.
The methodology for this research includes...
Reflecting an effort to broaden the scope of research concerning Mexican
migration, this thesis describes the experiences of monolingual Spanish-speaking
Mexican migrants in Corvallis, Oregon and explores the roles of language and culture
in shaping these migrants' experiences. Data were collected through intensive
participant observation and semi-structured interviews.
Migrants arrive...
In an effort to supplement the recently completed NOAA fishing community profiles, three coastal Oregon communities were chosen as sites for a collaborative project designed to produce long-form profiles. In order to provide a representation of the coast Newport, Port Orford, and Garibali, Oregon were included based on community size,...
The La Ballena #3 site J69E is a shell midden located on Espiritu Santo Island in Baja California Sur. Archaeological excavations conducted in the summer of 2004 investigated a midden containing lithic and shell artifacts as well as faunal and human remains. Analysis of the debitage and formed lithic tool...
Religious histories have always appropriated pre-existing symbol systems of religion into newer forms, often with the goal in mind to acculturate a population into a new cultural setting to reach a desired status quo of society. The problem with acculturation theory is that it is filled with teleological and quantitative...
Fort Hoskins, located in Kings Valley, Oregon, was a U.S. Army post
established in 1856 and decommissioned in April 1865. In 1992, the site of Fort
Hoskins went into the public trust as a Benton County Park. Developing an
interpretive center for the park will necessitate ground disturbing activities on...
Current estimates indicate that between one-third and one-half of women in the United States have at least one abortion in their lifetime, and that many women encounter socioeconomic, logistical, or social obstacles in the process of seeking care (Jones 2005, Guttmacher 2008). The purpose of this study is to critically...
This thesis is an exploratory and descriptive study of the relationship between a US
military base and Kin Town, Okinawa, Japan, presented in the form of ethnography.
Guided by James Scott's theory of "weapons of the weak," it explores the relationship
between the two in terms of how the townspeople...
Fort Yamhill, located in the eastern foothills of the Oregon Coast Range near modern day Grand Ronde, Oregon, was a U.S. Army post established in March 1856 as part of a three fort system to guard the newly established Coast Reservation and to provide a Union presence in the state...
This study examines selected cultural elements of the negotiating environment in seventeen organizations having home or branch offices in the Northwest United States. Conference room and boardroom design, intentional placement of meaningful artifacts, arrangement of seating, and providing of refreshments are compared. Observations and interviews of organizational representatives in nine...
This ethnographic study examined some of the ways that global markets and the infrastructure of agribusiness affect local smallholder farmers in the Ten Rivers region who are transitioning toward more sustainable and traditional agricultural methods. The purpose of this research was to discover what barriers smallholder farmers face in developing...
Reinhabitation is an approach to building local cultures and economies within industrial society. The food system is a vital starting point. What are the principles of reinhabitory food systems? What are the possibilities for a locally adapted food system in the Marys River region of western Oregon? I describe past...
The purpose of this research is to investigate how stakeholders involved in collaborative watershed groups in Oregon work with each other to form ideas and take action. Most collaboration efforts include encouraging a high level of trust with a great value placed on relationships and partners, being open and flexible,...
Perhaps more than any other building type, ecclesiastical buildings preserve
a wealth of information about those who erected and used the structures. In
terms of style, form, and function, religious architecture reflects a group's
philosophies about the physical and metaphysical worlds, and the cultural
traditions within their own community. This...
In July of 2001, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
activated the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDLs) provisions of the
Clean Water Act. As the first river in Oregon to implement TMDL
regulations, people and agencies in the Tualatin basin face many
challenges. Non-point source pollution affects water quality in the...
In this ethnographic study, I examine how women living in downstate Illinois decide to give birth at home. I view decision-making as a process that unfolds throughout pregnancy and continues into the postpartum period, contextualizing "choice" in a region where homebirth is a politically and socially marginalized practice. The methodology...
On the national level, landowners demand for conservation programs like EQIP and WRP has far outstripped federal funding in 2001. Yet within Oregon's Willamette Valley, both EQIP and CREP have had a rough time gaining momentum. Much of the past research on rural landowners' conservation participation has relied on surveys...
Since the 1952 Bolivian agrarian reform, farmer unions have sought to establish themselves as producers for regional markets. Development strategies led by the World Bank and IMF have largely jeopardized small farmers, and challenged farmers to meet market demands. At present, a new agrarian revolution is being implemented and is...
Around the globe, an array of alternative agrifood movements has emerged largely in response to the ecological and socio-economic threat caused by industrialized agricultural processes. From organic agriculture, to Slow Food, Locavore, and the Food Sovereignty movement, people around the world are reasserting their right to healthy and culturally appropriate...
The purpose of this study is to ethnographically examine traditionally prescribed notions of sons and daughters in an Indian diasporic community located on Devon Avenue in Chicago. Informed by the association between "ideal" and "actual" family building patterns, this study situates reproductive behaviors and demographic outcomes in its local context...
This ethnographic research aims to discover the implications of the
commodification of production processes amongst the Ersu Tibetans of Sichuan,
China. This thesis examines the commodification of Ersu agriculture and ethnic
identity in the historical context of both China and the world-system. Ethnohistorical
and ethnoecological methodologies are utilized to answer...
Micronesians are in the process of becoming independent nation-states after nearly a
century of colonial rule, including four decades of U.S. administration as the Trust
Territory of the Pacific Islands. Pressures to attain self-sufficiency have led many of these
island nations to embrace tourism as an economic development strategy. Meanwhile,...
Over the last 25 years structural adjustment programs have challenged Ecuador's ability to provide adequate social services and employment opportunities. In the wake of these policies, many women have turned to non-governmental agencies for possible solutions and assistance. Empowerment programs as a form of development work in particular have been...
This research examines the impact of low health literacy among patients with End Stage Renal Disease. The sample included individuals who participated in a health education class (Pre-Renal Education Program) offered at the Samaritan Dialysis Services in Corvallis, Oregon. Data collection techniques included participant observation, individual interviews, evaluation of the...
The perplexing condition of chronic pain, particularly low back pain, is the catalyst for interest in this research project. It is specifically focused on treatment trajectories of individuals experiencing chronic low back pain. The predominant interest is the utilization of alternative treatments and that of mainstream medicine (also referred to...
This thesis takes an in-depth look at specific behaviors that are putting Maasai women at risk for HIV/AIDS in Kenya. Methods used include in-depth interviews, focus group discussion, demographic data collection, and nutritional anthropometric measurements. The research took place June September 2004. Analysis reveals a strong connection between poverty and...
Culturally based stereotypes are a pervasive force behind quick judgments about behavior, intent, and beliefs which allow individuals to interact efficiently to meet their own goals. Gender stereotypes are present in marketing media and servicescapes, where they define the behavior, needs, and wants of shoppers. The literature on consumer behavior...
This study examines the utilization of health care by Korean American women in Pierce County, Washington. Pierce County, with its large population of Asian Americans, offers a variety of health care options, everything from biomedicine to acupuncture and herbal remedies. Regarding the multitude of options available, I asked the question...
This thesis examines the motivations of ecological restoration volunteers with the Oregon chapter of The Nature Conservancy. This study helps fill in voids left by a lack of research on the motivations of ecological restoration volunteers. Studies that have explored restoration volunteer motivation relied largely on surveys that revealed altruistic...
Using the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) this thesis shows that entomological information and material can be retrieved using current historical archaeological methods. Historical archaeology has the ability to uncover connections between arenas as varied, and seemingly isolated, as the honey bee, the environment, and human cultures. By focusing on...
My thesis explains the several problems that arise when a person from a Western English speaking country goes to work as an English teacher at private institutes in South Korea. It is based on my own experiences when I worked as an English teacher at private institutes in South Korea...
This thesis explores the complexity of relationships between communities and the ecosystems in which they live through a focus on forest restoration and fuels reduction on private land. As a case study, research took place in the Klamath-Siskiyou region of rural Northern California, in Humboldt and Siskiyou counties. The research...
This thesis examines archaeological material in order to explore gender and ethnicity issues concerning fur trade era families from a settlement in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. Ethnohistorical information consisting of traders journals and travelers observations, as well as documentation from the Hudson's Bay Company, Catholic church records, and genealogical information...
This archaeological based research uses ceramics in the study of acculturation from a site excavated by an urban archaeology contract firm, and utilizes the theories of consumer choice, ethnicity and acculturation. Artifact analysis took place in the form of minimum vessel counts, artifact relative frequencies, and Chinese artifact values, as...
This research examines the relationship between health literacy among End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) patients and its relevance for communication between patients and providers. The study was conducted among dialysis services providers at the Good Samaritan Dialysis Center and dialysis patients receiving care at the Center. Data collection techniques included...
This thesis describes the archaeological site content and integrity of the Copeland site (35BE90) in Corvallis, Oregon. The Copeland site is owned by the Benton County Historical Society and is the future home of the Benton County Historical Museum. In 2001, an Oregon State University archaeological field school was conducted...
This thesis presents a discussion of the main materialistic theories proposed to explain the process of development among the indigenous population of Latin America. Four theoretical approaches are presented and discussed. The first one deals with the social group referred to as peasants. The second one explains the process of...
Site ORYA3, the Smith House, is located in Dayton, Oregon. The archaeological project originated because owners of this structure, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, applied for a demolition permit. The 1859 home, first occupied by two early Oregon pioneers, Andrew and Sarah Smith, was considered architecturally significant,...
Both development and post-structuralist anthropologists have
critiqued development. Development anthropologists are concerned
that development does not take adequate account of the social and
cultural factors of developing nations, while post structuralists question
the ontology of development and assert that domination over
developing nations is inherent in the concept of development....
Mukti Ashram is a rehabilitation center in north India that works with ex-child laborer boys. Fieldwork completed at the ashram in 1997-98 centered around the issue of the organization's attempt to enact social change through the engineering of community within the ashram's walls. Several fundamental processes that contribute to this...
This thesis examines the concepts of power and participation and how they are intertwined in the examination of the urban planning systems in Curitiba, Brazil. Power is identified as both the planning system's ability to affect the daily lives of the city's residents and the power of individuals and groups...
The United States Forest Service's Passport In Time program is designed to involve the public in archaeology on National Forest land. Three of the program's goals are: 1) allow archaeologists to conduct research they would not otherwise have the time or the budget to conduct; 2) teach the public about...
In the United States during the last 30 years there has been a shift from extractive natural resource-based economies of the Old West to a New West defined by environmental protection. Over the past century, a growing national support for environmental protection has influenced a lengthening list of national and...
Timber-dependent, rural communities in the Pacific Northwest face dramatic economic, political, and cultural change. New philosophies of forest management, primarily formulated in urban communities, require new approaches to the use and extraction of resources. What are the roles of rural communities that wish to adapt and sustain themselves? Two rural...
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of women in the
Japanese workplace. Data obtained from in-depth interviews and
questionnaires, shows that the Japanese workplace is in a state of
change moving toward a higher level of opportunity for female workers.
While similar to the circumstances experienced...
Several popular cultural movements emphasizing indigenous spirituality have arisen in the United States and Europe within the past thirty years. Spiritual discourses attributed to Native Americans, among other groups, are borrowed by Euro-Americans in search of alternatives to dominant ideologies. In such a circumstance, Native Americans become part of a...
Low-income women in an Oregon city of approximately 35,000 inhabitants have limited access to prenatal care services during their pregnancies. The purpose of this study was to uncover the impacts of several factors on the experiences of twenty-seven health department clients with public health department prenatal care practitioners and with...
Using GIS, this study creates a predictive model of a distinct population of French-Canadian settlers, highlighting shared environmental characteristics of known sites that may have factored into their decision-making process as they chose locations for their farmsteads. While traditional historic and archaeological research has been conducted on French Prairie, the...
New technology may have negative, as well as positive, effects on a sociocultural system. Biodiesel is growing in popularity as a fuel alternative that addresses global warming and reduces dependency on petroleum. The biodiesel innovation fits well into the existing behavioral infrastructure of Linn and Benton Counties, Oregon. The introduction...
The Surgeon General of the United States in 2003 documented the existence of striking disparities for minorities and immigrants in mental health services and the underlying knowledge base. This thesis expands the knowledge base by examining the personal experiences and perspectives of community health workers (CHWs) employed in a mental...
Excavations conducted at Indian Sands (35-CU-67C), located along Oregon's southern coast, during 2002 and 2003 identified two discreet, artifact-bearing stratigraphic units. The uppermost unit is a deflated surface containing burnt shell and lithic artifacts associated with early Holocene ¹⁴C dates, while the underlying unit contained only lithic tools and debitage,...
This thesis is an integrated study that links several disciplines-archaeology, anthropology, geography, atmospheric sciences, and microbiology. It attempts to generate an argument that central to climate change is disequilibrium in human ecologies- in my case, disease ecologies in Iceland during the 15th century. This thesis investigates the environment's effect on...
Maya Mopan farmers in southern Belize face socio-economic hardships, persisting environmental constraints, and an unfavorable political climate that has prevented land tenure stability on reservation lands. This thesis describes the agricultural practices of a group of Mopan farmers and examines farm-site diversification and its relationship to ecological knowledge, out-migration, agricultural...
This thesis describes investigations of archaeological materials recovered from Site ORBE2, an early-twentieth century historic site in Corvallis, OR. The archaeological materials were found only after construction workers had excavated trenches underneath the still-standing structure on the site in order to install a new foundation. Over 1500 artifacts were recovered...
Culture, thought worldview and language have been
discussed for a long time in different fields from various
perspectives. However, the basis of this study is the view
of language as both the product and producer of people just
as people are the producer and product of language. Each
language requires...
Gender relations as well as the social situation of Manchu women have long been ignored in studies of the cultural evolution of the Manchu. By setting the discussion of Manchu women in the context of cultural adaptation, this study reintroduces gender and women's problems into the research on the Manchu...
This thesis outlines dominant ideologies and practices that affect women's authority in the urban social milieu of north India. Theories that consider the causes of social stratification by gender as well as social movement patterns are useful for understanding the durability of gender roles. The utility of these theories for...
Issues of diversity are receiving significant attention within the National Park Service recently, due in large part to a growing awareness that its future as a relevant and viable agency is dependent upon improving its response to and management of diversity. A diversity assessment of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site...
In this paper I focus on the process of formulating an ethnic identity in the United States for individuals of mixed-ethnicity. My main question explores the complexities an individual with parents of separate and distinct ethnic heritages faces when constructing an ethnic identity in our society. American society is reaching...