This dissertation draws on ethnographic data and political ecological theory to analyze the experience of residents living in the IBM-Endicott Superfund site in Endicott, New York. Combining in-depth narratives and quantitative measures from a household survey, it highlights residents' perceptions of 1) environmental health risk, 2) risk mitigation, 3) deindustrialization...
This thesis merges the fields of Ecology and Anthropology by applying Habitat Suitability Modeling to the relationship between people and plants in the Pacific Northwest. In it, I create and optimize two Maxent habitat suitability models for camas (Camassia spp.) in Oregon. The first model describes the physical environment of...
In 1976-77 and 2010, Oregon State University (OSU) excavated portions of the enlisted men’s barracks and privy at Fort Hoskins, a Civil War-era fort. In operation from 1856 to 1865, this fort served as part of a security network to protect and monitor the recently created Coast Indian Reservation. The...
The Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP), piloted in Oregon in 2001, provided $100 worth of vouchers (aka coupons) to low-income seniors to buy fresh local produce from farmers at farmers' markets and roadside stands. Presented in a political ecology framework, this research integrated the perspectives of beneficiaries and their...
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...
Remnants of railroad logging camps, and their associated features, are perhaps some of the most common archaeological resources found on public lands in the Pacific Northwest. Many camps have already been located, their cultural materials inventoried, and networks of logging railroad grades mapped. Yet, despite these efforts, little can be...
During the 19th century the United States Army was a military institution characterized by a hierarchical system of authoritative, social and economic inequality between members of its different military grades. Although necessary for insuring military discipline within the Army this system of inequality also influenced the non-military social lives of...
Over the past 42 years clay smoking pipes have been excavated from two U.S. army posts, Fort Hoskins (35BE15) and Fort Yamhill (35PO75) and curated at Oregon State University. These two forts were established in Western Oregon in 1856 and by 1866 both had been decommissioned. Numerous theses have focused...
The Younger Dryas climatic event is a global phenomenon associated with a 1,000 year return to glacial conditions during the late Pleistocene period between 12,800 and 11,500 cal BP. Because of its significant effects on paleoenvironmental conditions in some parts of the world, archaeologists commonly seek to assess whether the...
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...