Furthering Perspectives
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Furthering Perspectives Anthropological Views of the World Anthropology Graduate Student Society Spring 2020 Volume 9 1 | P a g e Anthropology Graduate Student Society Spring 2020 Volume 9 Editor’s Note Welcome to the Spring 2020, Volume 9 edition of Furthering Perspectives: Anthropological Views of the World! I am so pleased to present the following collection of articles written by our dedicated students here at Colorado State University. Anthropology is a field that studies all of that which makes us human, and thus, Furthering Perspectives invites perspectives from a broad array of disciplines. The following collection of articles present only a few of the many theoretical and applied approaches that contribute to our anthropological knowledge. Acknowledgements The Anthropology Graduate Student Society thanks every student, reviewer, and editor who helped make this volume of possible. Thank you to all the faculty members who gave their invaluable support to students as they wrote and underwent the review process. A big thank you to all the reviewers for their feedback, and thank you to all the students who provided the cover photos for this volume. Editor-in-Chief Cynthia Ortega Cover Photo Credit Assistant Editor and Reviewer Top: Celebrating community development, Benin. Photo Julia Greer taken by Julia Greer Review Panel Bottom Left: The Great Hunt, Alex Pelissero Utah. Photo taken by Paul Andrew Du Buckner Carly DeSanto Bottom Right: Actualistic Experiment on a Bison Tibia, Furthering Perspectives Danielle Backman CSU. Photo by Denise Frazier Denise Frazier Keri Canada © 2020 Anthropology Graduate Kimberly Nichols Student Society Colorado State University | Fort Collins, CO Louise Steele Design and Layout by Cynthia Ortega Melissa Raguet-Shofield Anthropological Views of the World 2 | P a g e Contents Spring 2020 Volume 9 Anthropology Graduate Student Society Biology 5 Taxonomic Identification of Dentally-Unassociated John Johnson Postcranial Fossil Elements in Early Eocene (~56-52 MA) Mammals 10 Size Matters: Testing Dental-Based Total Body Mass Estimate Kristina Magyar Formulae-More Than a Means to Determine Diet in Early Eocene (~56-52 MA) Primates (OMOMYOIDEA, ADAPOIDEA) in the Bighorn Basin, WY Culture 17 Moshing: A Game with Complex and Subtle Undertones Denise Frazier Disaster, Resilience, Change 22 The Importance of the Social Sciences in Climate Change Research Danielle Beckman 29 The Resilience of Immigrant Populations in the United States within Julia Greer the Food System 36 Vulnerability, Resilience, and Social Justice: Addressing Systemic Shadi Azadegan Inequality in Disaster Recovery 44 Rockport Residents and Life After Harvey: Results from the 2019 Sarvis Anarella, Althaea Kress, Colorado State University Ethnographic Field School Study Zoe Shutte, Julie Spawn, Sydney Vander Waerdt, Michelle Anderson, Charlotte Dorsey, and Amanda Kircher Ecology 55 Cultural Forests of Amazonia: A Historical Ecological Analysis Grace Ellis of Forest Management in Amazonia 3 | P a g e 62 Traditional Ecological Knowledge and the National Environmental Paul Buckner Policy Act: Integrating Indigenous Perspectives, Sustainable Resource Stewardship, and Environmental Impacts Analysis Health 76 Curbing Disease, Building a System: Partners in Health’s Julia Reedy Response to the West African Ebola Epidemic 87 The Role of Public Libraries in Community Health Sheri McCaskill 95 An Epidemic Crisis: The Disastrous HIV Infections Among Yan Xue Rural Blood Donors in China Theory 102 The Legacy of Classical Sociological Theory: Androcentrism Carolyn Conant and Universalism in the Tradition of the Canon 4 | P a g e Taxonomic Identification of Dentally-Unassociated Postcranial Fossil Elements in Early Eocene (~56-52 MA) Mammals John Johnson Introduction the earliest true primates (Adapoidea, At the beginning of the 2019 CSU Omomyoidea) arose. Paleontological Field School, there were a vast This will benefit the discipline of number of postcranial fossils in the Primate Origins anthropology by providing the field with Lab that were unidentified and unassociated with information and resources about postcranial and dentition. These specimens were filling a large locomotive adaption evolution. Having this section of the lab, while not supplying the lab with information could further the understanding of the any valuable data at the time. In order for these human body, as well as the environment where the specimens to yield data for research, they would Order Primates first began. These methods, which first have to be identified to a referenceable taxon have been applied to modern, extant, mammals, (e.g. genus and/or species). This led to the following could be applied to extinct animals of not just the research question: could zooarchaeological Eocene, but also to Pleistocene fauna of North methods, as used on modern extant faunal remains, America, which humans have had an impact on. By be applied to extinct faunal postcranial remains for combining the practices of paleontology and taxonomic identification and taphonomic zooarchaeology, the understanding of the Order descriptions in the absence of associated dental Primates can well be expanded. elements? Teeth are the most common anatomical Methods and Materials elements in the vertebrate fossil record and are the The study sample was obtained from the primary means of identifying fossil taxa. If CSU Department of Anthropology and Geography’s postcranial remains are recovered in association Primate Origins Lab collection of early Eocene (~56- with teeth, reliable taxonomic designations can be 52 Ma) Willwood Formation, Bighorn Basin, WY made. In this project, zooarchaeological methods fauna. The fossil specimens were recovered during were used to identify fossil anatomical elements the ANTH 470 Paleontology Field School 2013-2019 lacking dental associations. The research consulted field seasons and consisted of more than 200 fossil published descriptions of postcranial remains to specimens. Most of the specimens that were build a database of information and documents that examined were mammalian, with a few exceptions. could be used for postcranial-based taxonomic Within the unidentified specimens, some reptiles identification. The fossils used in this research were and birds were found among the sample. The obtained from the CSU Primate Origins Lab. First, reptiles and birds, however, will not be included in the methodology was tested against fossil this research’s results. This research will focus specimens in which dental & postcranial elements primarily on the mammals in the hopes of were recovered in association. Second, the positive identifying postcranial elements of the earliest results allowed the methodology to be applied to primates and their relatives, the Plesiadapiforms, unassociated postcranial fossil elements. With that existed during the Eocene. taxonomic identification, postcranial remains of The process used to identify the taxa starts primates, their taxonomic relatives, and sympatric with first identifying the Bunn Size Class for each fauna can be examined for adaptive variations with fossil element in the collection. This ranks the the goal of understanding the paleobiome in which postcranial elements from the smallest size (Size 5 | P a g e 1A; less than 10 lbs.) up to the largest size (Size 6; triangular. On average, the medial-lateral breadth of greater than 6000 lbs.) (Bunn 1982). Each of the Hyracotherium’s distal epiphysis is roughly 15±5 mm species documented to be found in the Eocene (Wood et al. 2011; Kitts 1956). Hyracotherium thus received a Bunn Size Class as well, in order to falls into the size class 1B to 2 (10-250 lbs.) (Bunn minimize the total number of faunae that had to be 1982). investigated for each fossil. This created a bias on When comparing Hyracotherium to the fossils that would be first observed in this Homogalax, there are some notable size differences in research, due to the desire to primarily identify the distal humerus. Hyracotherium (an early horse) primates. Given the size of the primates of the and Homogalax (an early tapir) both belong to the Eocene Epoch, the first postcranial fossils identified in this research were those in the 1A to 2 size range Order Perissodactyla. Hyracotherium is smaller in (less than 10 lbs. to 250 lbs.) (Bunn 1982). total body mass (TBM) when compared to the Each fossil fragment was then identified to its much larger Homogalax. Homogalax’s distal humerus skeletal element (e.g., humerus, radius, femur) and medial-lateral breadth tends to be 25±2 mm (Rose the portion of the bone (e.g., distal, proximal) it 1996). By documenting the presence of all these represented. By identifying the fossil fragment, the characteristics, as well as determining it to be too research was able to identify key osteological small to be Homogalax, the fossil specimen can be features that might be present. This would include attributed to Hyracotherium (Fossil example seen in features such as the presence of a supertrochlear Figure 1). foramen on the distal end of the humerus, or the direction and height of the greater trochanter on the proximal end of the femur. From here, linear measurements were obtained using calipers. The calipers were accurate to the hundredth of a millimeter. This included maximum length of the fossil, maximum width of the epiphysis, maximum diameter of the shaft, and independent measurements of the osteological features that are present. Once this data was obtained, the fossils could be compared with