Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Research and Publications
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Item Open Access Gender Stratified Monopoly: Why Do I Earn Less and Pay More?Smith, Stacy L.; stacylee; Smith, Stacy L.A modified version of Monopoly has long been used as a simulation exercise to teach inequality. Versions of Modified Monopoly (MM) have touched on minority status relative to inequality but without an exploration of the complex interaction between minority status and class. This article introduces Gender Stratified Monopoly (GSM), an adaptation that can be added to existing versions of MM as a step toward such a conversation. I draw on written student reflections and observations from five test courses over two years to demonstrate the effectiveness of GSM. Data indicate student recognition of the female status as more economically challenging and less “fair” relative to the male status, with real-world consequences.Item Open Access Visit to Blue Earth Village(2015) Ritterbush, Lauren W.; lritterb; Ritterbush, Lauren W.For more than four centuries the Kanza (Kaw) Indians made their homes in what we now recognize as part of the state of Kansas. Early during this period they lived along the Missouri River, but traveled widely, including along the river that bears their name, the Kansas or Kaw River. By the late eighteenth century they had established a permanent village (or villages) along the Kansas. Here they experienced both continuity and change as the cultural and political dynamics of the region shifted with more frequent and intense contact, direct and indirect, with Euroamericans. Clues to the experiences of the Kanzas in the early nineteenth century can be extracted from the written records produced by some of those who visited and through limited archaeological investigations of their former homes. This article provides a glimpse of Kanza life through the eyes of others, particularly a party of the Long Expedition of 1819. This view reveals a period of relative quiescence before the dramatic changes in Kanza society following the Treaty of St. Louis in 1825.Item Open Access Ukrainian labor migration in the Czech Republic: the brain drain and the existence of structural channels (Translated Title)Sanderson, Matthew R.; Strielkowski, Wadim; Hluštíková, Kateřina; mattrsItem Open Access Transnational traders: El Salvador’s women couriers in historical perspective(2014-11-07) Garni, Alisa M.; amgarniAn estimated one-third to one-half of Salvadorans who carry remittances and goods between El Salvador and the United States are women. Scholars studying these viajeras argue that their work simultaneously represents a break from traditional gender relations confining women to the home and an extension of gender traits that favor women in developing social ties. Although social ties are crucial to the courier trade, this argument ignores antecedents to viajeras’ work in El Salvador and suggests that transnationalism pushes women into realms of labor and physical mobility that have been gendered masculine. Using ethnographic methods, I examine the relationship between women’s historical work in El Salvador and their current work as viajeras, as well the relationship between viajeras’ experiences and those of women transnational traders in other parts of the world. My findings contribute to a small but growing body of research suggesting that instead of merely being excluded from or manipulated by global processes, many women in the Global South have expanded the realm of their activities to help shape variable forms of global capitalism. Studying how they do so sheds light on local mechanisms for combating gender inequality and promoting development.Item Open Access Kansas standard of need and self-sufficiency study, 1999: final report.(2014-01-03) Gibbons, Jacque E.; Bratsberg, Bernt; Bloomquist, Leonard E.; jacquegItem Open Access Kansas household self-sufficiency standard, 2004. Second edition.(2014-01-03) Gibbons, Jacque E.; Bloomquist, Leonard E.; jacquegItem Open Access Dollars, “free trade,” and migration: the combined forces of alienation in postwar El Salvador(2013-10-10) Garni, Alisa M.; Weyher, L. Frank; amgarni; weyherDriven by new conditions of desperation and alienation, mass migration in postwar El Salvador has continued unabated. While this migration could be seen as a way of “opting out” of on-going class struggle, we argue that it instead represents a critical dissipation of class relations and struggle. In the postwar context, the ruling class and the Salvadoran state now seek to capitalize upon the alienation of its own people and responses to that alienation – i.e., upon migration and the remittances it generates. The ruling class has ensured its economic domination regardless of who controls the state. Seeking to legitimize and maximize seizures of citizens’ income as it flows across borders as a matter of “economic” and “development” policy, the ruling class has depleted the productive base through which class struggle would ordinarily occur, creating new forces of alienation in El Salvador and extending the need for many Salvadorans to migrate.Item Open Access Land tenure, migration, and development: a comparative case study(2013-10-04) Garni, Alisa M.; amgarniComparative analysis of two Salvadoran towns with similar patterns of international migration but different historical land-tenure patterns reveals the emergence of radically different development strategies. Whereas in one case, mostly landed households with a history of farming commercially have been selling land and abandoning agriculture, in the other case, previously landless households whose members worked as sharecroppers before the onset of migration have been acquiring land and farming as much as possible. The opposite processes at work in these two cases raise important theoretical questions for both migration and development studies. Using ethnographic, census, and historical data, I examine how and why land ownership, under particular historical circumstances, conditions the impact of migration on development.Item Open Access Critical thinking in geology and archaeology: interpreting scanning electron microscope images of a lithic tool(2005) Nicolaysen, Kirsten P.; Ritterbush, Lauren W.; lritterbAs co-instructors of an undergraduate course in Archaeological Geology, we have developed an in-class research project using the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to analyze and interpret physical traces of stages in the history of a unique lithic artifact. This exercise requires preliminary instruction on percussion and pressure flaking, geological materials suited for chipped stone tool manufacture, contextual archaeological analysis, theory of electron microscope use, and post-depositional surface processes, particularly those creating natural wear due to wind or water abrasion. With this background, students acquired four images of surface and edge locations of the study artifact using the SEM. We asked students to write a description of the analytical technique, a compilation of their observations and analytical data, and an interpretation of the artifact's history. Although most students recognized that the artifact recorded multiple stages of manufacture and use, additional comparative images of water- or wind-worn, chipped or ground cherts would give students greater ability to distinguish cultural modifications from those created by post-depositional geologic processes. Students expressed enthusiasm about the project and indicated a high level of engagement on evaluations (mean score=4.3-4.4, median score=4.5-5.0 on a scale of 1 [low] to 5 [high]).Item Open Access Drawn by the bison: Late Prehistoric native migration in the Central Plains(2002) Ritterbush, Lauren W.; lritterbPopular images of the Great Plains frequently portray horse-mounted Indians engaged in dramatic bison hunts. The importance of these hunts is emphasized by the oft-mentioned dependence of the Plains Indians on bison. This animal served as a source of not only food but also materials for shelter, clothing, containers, and many other necessities of life. Pursuit of the vast bison herds (combined with the needs of the Indians' horses for pasturage) affected human patterns of subsistence, mobility, and settlement. The Lakota and Cheyenne, for instance, are described as relying heavily on bison meat for food and living a nomadic lifestyle in tune with the movements of the bison. More sedentary farming societies, such as the Mandan, Hidatsa, Pawnee, Oto, and Kansa, incorporated seasonal long-distance bison hunts into their annual subsistence, which also included gardening. In each case, multifamily groups formed bands or tribal entities of some size that cooperated with one another during formal bison hunts and other community activities. Given the importance of bison to these people living on the Great Plains, it is often assumed that a similar pattern of utilization existed in prehistory. Indeed, archeological studies have shown that bison hunting was key to the survival of Paleoindian peoples of the Plains as early as 11,000 years ago. If we combine archeological information about this very early period of prehistoric existence with documentation of the historic era, it seems plausible to interpret that focused bison hunting was the mainstay of Indian societies throughout the millennia of native occupation of the Plains. Upon close examination of the archeological record, however, we find that bison hunting was not equally important to all past Plains societies. During the Late Prehistoric period (A.D. 1000-1500), for instance, indigenous societies of the Central Plains were not heavily reliant on bison hunting. These societies organized themselves around individual households and depended on the harvesting of a wide variety of locally available wild and domestic resources. This pattern of subsistence, with limited interest in bison, proved successful given the small-scale social organization of these societies. A change toward more focused bison hunting developed in the Central Plains late in prehistory, not by indigenous Plains populations but by groups that migrated into the region in the thirteenth or fourteenth century. These immigrants came from the east and were likely Siouan rather than Caddoan speakers. They organized themselves in groups (villages) of linked households. Archeologists refer to this cultural manifestation as the Oneota tradition. With the entry of Oneota peoples into the Central Plains, indigenous households shifted their settlements, making room for the more cohesive and potentially aggressive population.Item Open Access White Rock Oneota chipped stone tools(2005) Padilla, Matthew J.; Ritterbush, Lauren W.; lritterbA standardized approach to descriptive analysis of chipped stone artifacts from the White Rock site (14JW1) in north-central Kansas allows comparison with Oneota lithic assemblages. These comparisons reinforce the interpretation of the White Rock phase as the remains of a late prehistoric Oneota population in the Central Plains. White Rock peoples made tool forms (e.g., small triangular points) similar to those recovered from Oneota sites in the Midwest. Informal tools are well represented, reflecting an Oneota lithic technology. Despite continuity in chipped stone tool production, regional adaptation is evident in the selection of lithic raw materials from the Central Plains, production of blades and blade tools, and an abundance of scrapers. The latter, along with beveled knives, reveals extensive processing of bison hides and meat, a reflection of Oneota adaptation to the Plains.Item Open Access Late Prehistoric Oneota population movement into the central Plains(2000) Ritterbush, Lauren W.; Logan, Brad; lritterb; bloganThe White Rock phase is an intrusive Late Prehistoric archaeological complex in the central Plains. It shows clear ties to the Oneota tradition of the upper Midwest. Population movement best explains the presence of this Oneota complex in the Plains. Interpretations of seasonal mobility or migration are evaluated through analysis of White Rock phase assemblages. Evidence for gardening and lithic material use patterns suggest permanent or year-round occupation of the central Plains resulting from the Oneota migration.Item Open Access Leary site revisited: Oneota and Central Plains tradition occupation along the lower Missouri(2002) Ritterbush, Lauren W.; lritterbArchaeologists of the central Plains and prairie peninsula have known of the Leary site (25RH1) in extreme southeastern Nebraska for more than 85 years. Early archaeological visitors to the site concluded that its remains were distinctly different than those from more common Central Plains tradition sites in the region. Instead, the Leary ceramics compare favorably with those from Oneota sites typically found to the east. The apparent anomalous position of this Oneota settlement in the central Plains indicates trans-Missouri movement of Oneota peoples into the eastern Plains. Leary is significant for the clues it holds regarding overall Oneota expansion during the Late Prehistoric period, as well as possible cultural interaction with Plains populations. The latter is especially relevant due to the fact that archaeological remains of the Central Plains tradition are also present at the Leary site. Analysis of curated assemblages collected during 1935 and 1965 suggests multiple Central Plains tradition occupations bracketing or overlapping those associated with the Oneota tradition. This and other finds at the Leary site raise interesting research questions to be addressed through future archaeological studies.Item Open Access A Late Prehistoric bison processing camp in the central Plains: Montana Creek East (14JW46)(2009) Ritterbush, Lauren W.; Logan, Brad; lritterb; bloganBison utilization during the Late Prehistoric period in the central Plains varied from the diffuse pattern that characterizes the Central Plains tradition to the focal pattern of the westernmost Oneota. Both patterns are represented at sites in the Lovewell locality on White Rock Creek, a tributary of the lower Republican River in north-central Kansas. Intensive bison exploitation is also represented at the Montana Creek East (14JW46) site within this locality. Abundant faunal remains indicative of marrow and bone grease processing are associated with the varied, if modest, lithic and ceramic assemblages. These do not suggest use by Oneota or Central Plains tradition peoples although a date fits the Late Prehistoric period. A buried Plains Woodland component, previously undocumented at Lovewell, indicates earlier evidence of bison hunting. Together the remains at this and certain other sites at Lovewell indicate extensive use of bison by different groups.Item Open Access Clinker, pumice, scoria, or paralava? Vesicular artifacts of the lower Missouri basin(2010) Estes, Mark B.; Ritterbush, Lauren W.; Nicolaysen, Kirsten; lritterbAbrading artifacts made of vesicular (porous) rock are not uncommon at archaeological sites along the Missouri River and adjacent areas. Various terms have been used to describe this material including pumice, scoria, clinker, and floatstone. Each of these terms implies different geologic origins (volcanic vs. non-volcanic) and affects interpretation of the potential modes of transport. Identification of the source area of these materials may provide significant information regarding past human movements and activities. This study focuses on vesicular artifacts in the central Plains and in particular from the Leary site (25RH1) in the southeastern corner of Nebraska. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was used to identify the chemical compositions of a subset of the Leary artifacts and comparative geologic samples of volcanic and metasedimentary origin. The results imply that the Leary (and likely many other) vesicular artifacts from the central Plains are non-volcanic in origin. The raw material from which these artifacts were made is more properly termed "paralava" and derives from outcrops in the northern Plains. Historical documents suggest that this buoyant material was transported naturally be the Missouri River as "floatstone".Item Open Access Evaluating the reliability of AMS dates on food residue on pottery from the late prehistoric Central Plains of North America(2013-03-28) Roper, Donna C.; droperAge offsets of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) assays on food residue taken from pottery vessels are well-documented in Europe and Asia in cultural contexts were freshwater aquatic products are attested, but are less well studied in North America. The present study examines a series of residue dates from the late prehistoric Central Plains of North America, comparing them with context dates run on annual plant remains. At least 13 of 23 assays are either incongruent with ages on annual plant remains, inconsistent among themselves within a site, or not credible for their cultural context. The conclusion is that food residue from ceramics does not produce consistently accurate dates. Some possible factors that may serve to introduce old carbon to residue samples are discussed. It also is noted that one’s conclusions about the reliability of residue may be conditioned by the precision of the age determinations and by the goals of a specific chronology-building effort.Item Open Access Two George Washington medals: Missing links in the chain of friendship between the United States and the Wabanaki Confederacy(2013-03-20) Prins, Harald E. L.; prinsItem Open Access ‘I spy…’: the (im)possibilities of ethical participant observation with antagonists, religious extremists, and other tough nuts(2012-11-06) Falcone, Jessica M.; jfalconeItem Open Access A meditation on meditation: the horizons of meditative thinking in Tibetan monasticism and American anthropology(2012-11-02) Falcone, Jessica M.; jfalconeItem Open Access An anthropological introduction to YouTube(2010-11-19) Wesch, Michael; mweschRecording of a lecture titled "The Anthropology of YouTube,” given by Michael Wesch on June 23, 2008 at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
