10th Annual
 South Carolina
 Anthropology
 Student Conference

Program
&
Abstracts

April 29, 2012
 at
Clemson University, Clemson, SC

Sunday, April 29, 2012
(Registration: 8:30-10:30)

Keynote Address

Dr. Lisa Rapaport, Departments of Biological Sciences and Sociology and Anthropology, Clemson University

Title: Social learning in golden lion tamarins: what a small South American monkey can tell us about ourselves

Cooperative childcare was a cornerstone behavior during human evolution.  Our hominin ancestors’ departure from the typical primate mothering pattern, in which the mother is solely responsible for the care and survival of her offspring, set us on a course that emphasized complex social learning and intelligence. The only primates, aside from humans, to exhibit a communal infant care strategy are the marmosets and tamarins, in which all family group members regularly contribute caregiving assistance, including food provisioning to infants and juveniles. Evidence is accummulating to suggest that these strikingly parallel social systems may have influenced the psychology of our species and that of these small Neotropical monkeys in unexpectedly similar ways. For example, like us, marmosets and tamarins exhibit a high motivation to assist others in a variety of contexts. Chimpanzees, in contrast, show little cooperative behavior. Experiments have shown that, unlike marmosets, even when chimpanzees understand that help is needed to solve a problem, they do not prefer to work together toward a common goal. Furthermore, my field studies of golden lion tamarins indicate that a cooperative childcare system may preadapt a species to rely on complex forms of social learning. I discovered that adult group-members use context-specific calls to train their young to search for prey. This type of directed instruction, or teaching, has rarely been observed in other primates, even among the great apes.

Ashley Ball and Paige Catotti, Clemson University

Title: The Prince in the Temple: The Mystery of Louis XVII

During the French Revolution, Louis-Charles, son of Louis XVI, is officially documented as having died at the age of 10 from tuberculosis as a prisoner in the Temple of Paris.  However, there have been alternate theories regarding these events; the most prominent hypotheses is that Louis-Charles escaped from Paris prior to his death, leaving a surrogate to die in his place.  We found several studies seeking to corroborate this theory using various forms of analysis.
In the first study, Jehaes et al (1998) used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis to test hair and skeletal remains of a self-proclaimed son of Louis XVI, Carl Wilhelm Naundorff.  By comparing his mtDNA to that of Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVII’s mother, and other female members of the Hapsburg royal family, the researchers were able to conclude that Naundorff was an imposter.
Finally, Jehaes and another team of researchers (2001) were able to use mtDNA analysis to determine the identity of the preserved heart taken from the ten-year-old boy who died in the Temple of Paris on June 8th, 1795.  For over two centuries, the relic was believed to have belonged to Louis-Charles, contradicting the theory of a surrogate having died in his place.  Two different laboratories compared mtDNA extracted from samples of the heart, stored in a crystal urn in the Basilque of Saint-Denis, to the same Hapsburg sequences used in the Naundorff study.  They were able to conclude the relic heart is that of Louis XVII, finally solving the mystery of the Louis XVII.

Megan Conroy, University of South Carolina-Columbia

Title: How to Eliminate Female Genital Cutting from Modern Society
Female genital cutting (FGC), the partial or total removal of a woman’s external genital organs, has been practiced for thousands of years in different parts of the world, especially Africa and the Middle East. In the last two decades, FGC has become an issue for health and human rights-focused work. Health-related consequences can include severe pain, shock, hemorrhaging, anxiety, severe depression, psychosomatic illness, and death. 
To better understand why FGC is so prevalent in certain societies and what can be done to eliminate the practice, I conducted research on the organizations that are taking action to eradicate FGC, in particular the WHO, Tostan, UNFPA, FORWARD, Amnesty International, The FGC Education and Networking Project, and UNICEF.  After reviewing their strategies, I found that work starting at the village level that then expands to the city and regional levels has been key in addressing FGC.  Respecting the value of long-held traditions while, at the same time, demonstrating how FGC is not a religious requirement and how it can have devastating consequences on the mental and physical health of women are effective strategies that have been used within communities. The most effectual methods of FGC eradication involve villagers educating other villagers, international response through fundraising and support of innovative strategies, group commitments to abandon the practice, and local laws that forbid FGC. 
With these strategies combined, this multi-pronged plan can be put into action and FGC can be revealed as a violation of human rights and a practice that needs to be stopped.

Bryant Graham, Melissa Dunphy, Christopher McKee, Clemson University

Title: Identifying War Casualties: Why, Where, and How

During the Civil War, the identification of war casualties was treated as a luxury; records of the dead were often inaccurate despite efforts of hospitals, military officers, and families to account for soldiers.  Today, the United States government takes proactive measures to recover and identify war casualties, in order to fulfill the promise that proper identification is established to human remains.  The World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq war were fundamental to the development of the Central Identification Laboratory, Japan and the United States Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel (POW/MIA) Office.  These offices work today to identify war casualties using a multitude of techniques.  These techniques include the use of blood samples from family donors or soldiers, dental records, military engagement records, age estimation from epiphyseal union, mapping of sites, and object association with a body. Using these techniques, one can identify remains of a single individual, or work to determine the identities of commingled remains in a mass grave. However some techniques are better suited for certain situations. For example the use of a blood bank made it easier to identify victims of a mass grave site in Serbia by cross referencing the DNA of the victims to that of the donors. Today, other nations use these techniques to identify civilian casualties, such as those seen in Croatia or Serbia, and to identify the remains of soldiers from previous conflicts such as WWI and WWII.  Author Irwin provides an in depth case study in the Journal of Forensic Science of the methods utilized to identify the bodies at three sites dating from 1918 to the Vietnam War.  He describes the difficulties of identifying unknown human remains due to environmental changes, removal of objects that might help to associate a body with a historical record, and in instances where physical features of a male soldier are particularly gracile and result in misidentification.  Ultimately, the methods of war casualty identification have progressed far from where they began. 

Chaney Hiers, Clemson University

Title: Effects of Insect Activity on Estimating Time Since Death

This poster will examine the effects of insect activity on estimating time since death. Research conducted at the University of Tennessee determined that insect activity was one of the top three factors affecting human decomposition. Time since death estimations become more accurate after determination of insect arrival time and the identification of insects has taken place. The studies below look at insect activity and the impacts they have on human decomposition. Ross and Cunningham’s study demonstrates that a critical part in human decomposition is the microenvironment and the organisms found there. Campobasso et al.'s study illustrates the importance of insect colonization in the decomposition process and how the presence of certain insect species can assist anthropologists in estimating the postmortem interval. A more specific study investigating insect activity, by Frederickx et. al, on human decomposition was conducted using the blowfly, Lucillia sericata.  The blowfly is one of the first insects to arrive at a decomposing body and it arrives minutes after death. These studies show a strong relationship between the role of insect activity in human decomposition and estimating time since death.

 Rachel Jones, University of South Carolina-Columbia

Title: From Slavery to Emancipation: Piecing Together Everyday Life on Witherspoon Island

This study seeks to provide information about consumer choice, market access, and use of space by enslaved laborers and sharecroppers residing on Witherspoon Island in Florence, South Carolina through the minimum vessel analysis of a single household.  The analysis, including cataloguing of ceramics, vessel reconstruction and identification, will reveal how the vessels were used prior to their discard and will enable intrasite and intersite comparisons.
 

Natalia Kerouac, University of South Carolina-Columbia

Title: The Consumption of Cultural Capital, Influences of Geography, and their Effects Upon the Psychology of Ontological Security: Indexicalization of Self-Identity Within a Globalized World

This research revolves around the consumption of social and cultural capital in global north and global south nations and its effects upon the psychology of ontological security, and how those patterns are internalized and in turn indexicalized with regard to one’s self-identity. This question developed as a response to Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997) and his point that the juxtaposition in power and affluence among humans is due to environmental differences and the power of geography. My argument is concerned with the power and consequences of human agency within the juxtaposition of power, its partnership with ecology, and how one’s self-identity is conditioned on a personal, social and national level according to one’s access to social and cultural resources and materials in a modern and globalizing world. My research is split into two complementary parts: a review of literature and field research conducted via interviews from which I extrapolated information that reflects back on the literature review, and vice versa. The literature review is interdisciplinary and holistic in its approach to laying out the parameters by which social/personal health and world-views are in partnership with geography in shaping Global North and Global South dichotomies. The interviews shed a more personal light on the themes in the literature that otherwise would have taken much of the personal aspects out of the project. Understanding how geography, culture, and psychology work together in shaping personal and national levels of ontology can provide a more effective way of understanding how a globalized society functions today.

 Marshall Mills, Austin Abellena, and Russell Garland, Clemson University

Title: Mass Disaster

The goal for this project is to evaluate the current methods used by forensic anthropologists in relation to the September 11th US attacks.  By utilizing this case study we hope to give an effective representation of a forensic anthropologist’s roles and responsibilities when attempting to sift through mass disaster crime scene.  The main goals of the forensics team when sorting through a scene include assisting in the recovery of human remains, assessment and identification of remains found, as well as to analyze trauma or disease in relation to the event.  The World Trade Center, Pennsylvania, and Pentagon attacks present a varied range of scenarios and techniques to be utilized in this field.   The WTC attacks comprised four separate disasters: the initial plane crash, the fire which the crash started, the second plane collision, and finally the building collapse.  In comparison the Pennsylvania plane crash on the same day presents a much more common aviation disaster in that the site was an official crime scene from the start.  The team’s temporal differences as well as the personnel employed are a stark contrast to the city fire fighters and policemen who made up the bulk of the WTC initial recovery effort.
In addition to comparing and contrasting the three disaster sites, we hope to identify possible room for improvement.  Throughout the various recovery and rescue operations, many of the human remains in these disasters were badly compromised.  In the course of researching both the effective techniques as well as the errors made during the investigation, we have attempted to identify the issues which slowed down the various teams.  This data provides future teams with a game plan when evaluating current disasters.

Bernadette Schoenwald and Spencer Taylor, Clemson University

Title: Effect of Captivity in Sociality of Hamadryas Baboons and Drills

In the wild, the social systems of Hamadryas baboons and drills differ drastically. Male drills are solitary for the majority of their lives, while female drills live in large, stable groups of related individuals and their offspring. In contrast, Hamadryas males command harems of several unrelated females who bear his offspring. We hypothesize that these social behaviors will continue to be exhibited in captivity. We predict a high level of sociality within groups of female drills and a lower level of sociality between the Hamadryas females; we also predict that the male drills will be particularly solitary in comparison to Hamadryas males. We observed a troop of Hamadryas baboons at the Riverbanks zoo in Colombia, South Carolina, which consisted of one adult male, two adult females, and a juvenile male; also studied were two groups of drills at the Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia. The smaller group consisted of three adults, two female and one male, and the larger group consisted of three females and one male. Data were collected one day per year for three years, utilizing both time budget and all occurrences sampling methods. The information gathered from both species will be compared, with a focus on time spent in proximity to other group members and rates of social behaviors.

Saskia Vos, Clemson University
(Paper Session 1- 9:00-9:15)

Title: The Definition of Home in a Liminal State

The topic of this research project is the way that the idea of “home” is perceived by people that have parents, or are themselves, born out of country, but are being raised or have lived in the United States for a significant amount of time. People who have multiple national identities are trapped in a liminal state, a state where they are not clearly identified or can identify with one set culture, but rather are caught in between two cultures in a “grey area”.  I will collect information from a group of volunteers based on questions about the feelings, memories, and perceptions of home they themselves have vs. the way that other people perceive their nationality and identity. There are several potential discussion topics which would include how the once set idea of home is being totally altered in ever increasingly globalized world. Two other possible streams of dialogue would be how being in a constant liminal state affects one perception of the world, and how the world perceives people who are in a liminal state of nationality. This research will try to define this blurry area which people in a liminal state of mind have, and is something that people with a set culture take for granted—the idea of home.

Kevin Kinross, Clemson University
(Paper Session 1- 9:15-9:30)

Title: Democracy and Capitalism: Challenging Traditional American Views

The Czech Republic has had a long history of struggling to gain independence. Eventually, the Velvet Revolution of 1989 liberated Czechs from communist control, and would eventually lead to significant economic, political, and cultural transition for the Czech Republic. For the past two decades, the Czech Republic has been adjusting toward capitalism and democracy; however, remnants of the socialist past can be observed throughout the country.  During a month long study abroad trip to the Czech Republic during the summer of 2011 I made observations and conducted informal interviews with Czechs from multiple generations. Attitudes of the current Czech political and economic system vary based on generational gaps.  Comparisons made with Czech political and economic system to the American systems have modified my views about democracy and capitalism. 
  

Danielle Anderson, Clemson University
(Paper Session 1- 9:30-9:45)

Title: Czech and American Cultural Differences

This paper is about Czech culture as seen in art, stores, and parks, along with a comparison of Czech and American culture based off of observation and personal reflection on my experiences. All of these observations were made during a four week Study Abroad in June of 2011.  As an American, many things that I was taught to expect in a social environment changed when in a different environment where people have different cultural rules about etiquette and personal space, for example. Americans emphasize a certain amount of personal space, but in the Czech Republic people do not have this same bubble. Czech stores show what they value the most and what products they use more than others. Their stores also demonstrate how certain roles, such as a cashier, are different. Too many people assume that because a culture is different, that it is not as good as theirs. However, through the use of such anthropological methods, we can try and accept a different culture. By understanding other people in such a way, we can more easily communicate with them and appreciate their cultural differences.

Caleb Klipowicz, Clemson University
(Paper Session 1- 9:45-10:00)

Title: Identity and Movement: The History of Sokol as Practice
Though little known in parts of the U.S., the Sokol "body culture" movement of the late 19th century occupies a unique niche among the various movements towards an independent Czechoslovak state. This paper gives a brief overview of the Sokol movement from its founding in Prague by Czech and German nationals in 1862 until the infamous Munich Agreement of 1938. In this time period, Sokol would become a resistance movement to cultural and political imperialism through the embodiment of democratic, nationalistic, and ethnic principles embedded within the bodies of each member. Gymnastics as a medium thus became a means of uniting a people under a common identity and breaking with the daily practices of internalized domination. This study analyzes secondary sources about Sokol, utilizing a "Practice Theory" approach that draws heavily on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault. The Sokol movement represents an interesting case study into the connections between bodies, knowledge and politics that act and interact in subtle but important ways.

Sonja Berling, University of South Caroina-Columbia
(Paper Session 1-10:00-10:15)

Title: Discourse Practices in Chilean Cinema: The Social and Political Functions of Language in Cinema Regarding the 1973 Coup d’etat in Chile

This paper is for my senior undergraduate thesis and discusses the rise of a national cinematic tradition in Chile that originated with political impulses to influence political and social change during the early 1970s, especially surrounding the coup d’état of 1973. It is a work positioned at the merger of visual and linguistic anthropology that, in its complete form, seeks to identify discourse practices in Chilean cinema that speak to issues of national identity/ collective belonging and collective memory.  It offers analysis of these discourse practices through application of factors or theoretical models of language as social or political action, language as a performance or representation of identity, and language as a reflection of social, cultural and political realities and ideologies. The goal of the paper is to situate the aforementioned struggles, made visible in Chilean cinema, over the course of time by attending to plot, imagery, and language used in three films that are exemplary representations of the time periods of the 1970s and today. In the abridged presentation version, I will focus on the contemporary feature film Machuca (2004) and how it re-contextualizes the political impulses of the 1970s, visible through the documentary films of that era, while also drawing upon particular semiotic resources to enact and reflect upon those political impulses today.

Nathaniel S. Weaver, Clemson University
(Paper Session 2- 10:45-11:00)

Title: Development of Juvenile Gorillas in the Wild versus Captivity

Living in zoos may affect behaviors or developmental trajectories in ways that we typically would not see in the wild (Hosey 2004). I will be comparing the differences in social interactions among young captive Gorilla gorilla gorilla at Zoo Atlanta with studies done in the wild. The gorillas will be observed for approximately 12 hours during 3 days of observation, across 3 different years (April 10, 2010; April 9, 2011 and April 14, 2012). The three foci will be mother-Infant interaction, play interactions, and non-play interactions among juveniles. All occurrences of the following the social interactions will be recorded and from these, behavioral rates will be calculated: non-contact aggression, contact-aggression, displacement, chest-beating displays, begging, submissiveness, grooming, carrying, and other social interactions. I will also examine rates of social and solitary play. These data will be compared to field studies of the same species (lowland gorilla) and the mountain gorilla (G. beringei). I predict that the zoo gorillas will exhibit higher rates of social interaction, and that the zoo infant will be more likely to roam outside the immediate care of the mother than do infants in the wild. I also predict that captivity will foster faster social and behavioral independence. Results will be discussed.

Christine da Rosa, Winthrop University
(Paper Session 2- 11:00-11:15)

Title: Down the Rabbit Hole: The Teachers of the CAH Charter School
The Children’s Attention Home is an emergency and long term shelter for children who are removed from their homes due to neglect, abandonment, and/or abuse. Many of the children at the Home are unable to attend public school, often due to emotional or physical trauma. Six years ago, a charter school was founded by the Children’s Attention Home named the Children’s Attention Home (CAH) Charter School. With six faculty members, its goal is, “to provide a safe and individualized educational experience that stimulates academic achievement and personal empowerment for abused, neglected or abandoned children,” (Children’s). A noble statement, but how do six people, three being volunteers, ‘provide a safe and individualized educational experience’ to the 6,000 traumatized children who have come and left the school? My paper is based on an ethnographic research project undertaken during the Fall 2011 semester. In this research I investigated two main questions: how do they do it? and why do they do it? I first examine "the how" of the school through its structure, including formal and informal terminology, rules, and teacher certification. I then explore the teachers’ motivations, their personal attachments and stress.

Jordan Fagan, Clemson University
(Paper Session 2- 11:15-11:30)

Title: Female Sexuality in Egypt

Women in Egypt are a diverse group, yet many sexual practices throughout the country are very similar, and almost every aspect of their sexuality is governed in some way. This is mainly due to the exceptionally patriarchal character of Egyptian society today. Investigating a female’s sexuality in Egypt involves many factors including a female’s fertility, or ability to have offspring or reproduce. While discussing a woman’s ability to reproduce, her reproductive rights play a role in indicating her status. Other factors of female sexuality and women’s reproductive rights include family planning, or use of contraception, and complications in sexuality such as sexually transmitted infections. Taking all of these areas of sexuality into consideration, a woman’s knowledge, beliefs about, and general misconceptions about each area must also be considered to help understand the level of autonomy a woman has regarding her sexuality in Egypt. One of the more popular topics of discussion and debate regarding female sexuality in recent years is Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting (FGM/C). Egypt is one of the most progressive of the developing countries in the Middle East and yet the practice of FGM/C is so prevalent that nearly every social group participates in this practice. Being so widely practiced in such a diverse country shows that FGM/C comes from more than just a religious background, that it is imbedded in the culture itself.

Marguerite Dunn, Clemson University
(Paper Session 2- 11:30-11:45)

Title: Polygamy and Power:  A Comparison of Women’s Roles in Ugandan Polygyny and Tibetan Polyandry

Polygamy, one of the most common forms of marriage in the world today, can present itself in several forms, each with its own unique structure and societal implications.  Polygyny, the most widely practiced form of polygamy, is celebrated in various areas of Uganda, where marriage and family hold a special place in society.  Conversely, polyandry, which is practiced in Tibet, a place where the value of marriage is less dominant, is a dying practice throughout the globe.  The prevalence and type of marriage practiced by a society, in addition to the perception of the necessity of marriage, may influence a variety of factors within the region.  To further examine this influence, Ugandan polygyny and Tibetan polyandry were studied in relation to one another.  While the perceived societal gender roles showed a degree of overlap in Uganda and Tibet, the family structures, intra-family power relations, and female autonomy differed between the two societies.

Rebecca Nolph, Winthrop University
(Paper Session 3- 1:45-2:00)

Title: Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon Natural Resource Utilization

Homo neanderthalensis and Cro-Magnons inhabited overlapping territories in Europe and western Asia and occupied similar (and sometimes even the same) ecological habitats during portions of the Paleolithic, coinciding roughly for 10-15,000 years. This paper documents how Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons differed in patterns of natural resource utilization. For example, Neanderthals focused on consuming game that was high in energy content (mostly higher ranked mammals such as reindeer, mammoths, woolly rhinoceros, and other large herbivores). Cro-Magnons had a broader diet that included fish and other marine life. This research reports how at around 30,000 BP, shortly before their disappearance, there are indications of an expansion of the Neanderthal diet to include smaller mammals and even fish. This work also explores the underlying reasons for this shift in diet, such as depletion of the larger game or competition with Cro-Magnons, and proposes a reason for the lack of marine utilization by Neanderthals for thousands of years. Lastly, this research examines how food choice may have impacted the long term survivability of Neanderthals.

Agatha Baluh, University of South Carolina-Columbia
(Paper Session 3- 2:00-2:15)

Title: The Middle Stone Age Lithic Assemblage at Birimi, Ghana
This paper will introduce work to be carried out this summer and the forthcoming academic year. The intended archaeological investigation will be centered on the Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithics found at the Birimi site in Northern Ghana. The Birimi site has one of the few dated MSA assemblages in West Africa.  This paper will explore what form of lithic technology was used to create these MSA lithics from Birimi. Specifically, it will demonstrate that the early modern humans of Birimi used Levallois or pseudo-Levallois technology, a prepared core technology. It will explore to what extent this technique, or, as it may be, different techniques were employed, and what this may reveal about behavioral modernity. The aim of this project will be to describe the understudied MSA and to learn more about the lives and technology of early modern humans. This research will take into account often reproduced Western notions of Africa as ‘traditional’ or ‘primitive’, misconceptions surrounding ages and stages in African archaeology, and Time and Deep Time.

Stacey Whitacre, University of South Carolina-Columbia
(Paper Session 3- 2:15-2:30)

Title: A Study of Rifle Ammunition Frequency Variation from Five Revolutionary War Sites: Evidence for Individual Agency?

In 1781, two Revolutionary War battles took place in South Carolina: the Battle of Fort Watson and the Battle of Fort Motte. It has been suggested that American sharpshooters, who were a dynamic part of the Battle of Ft. Watson, might also have been present at the Battle of Ft. Motte which was fought only two weeks later by the same American generals and at least some of the same men (Smith; Legg). The presence of sharpshooters at both battles is evidenced by the analysis of rifle ammunition recovered during metal detection survey and excavation at both sites. After excavation, the lead shot was uniformly weighed, measured, and analyzed for other characteristics. This level of analysis is helpful due to the fact that during the eighteenth century there was a great degree of variation in the manufacture of rifles. Each rifle was unique and came with a mold that would produce rifle balls specifically for that gun. Therefore, the variation seen in the weight and diameter of rifle balls found at Ft. Watson and Ft. Motte is indicative of the active participation of several different guns. During analysis, the ammunition data from Ft. Motte presented an anomaly. It is hypothesized that this anomalous data from Ft. Motte presents evidence of an individual sharpshooter. I will compare rifle ammunition data from five Revolutionary War battles in South Carolina to show that Ft. Motte is indeed an anomaly and merits additional archaeological investigation.

Brooke Kenline, University of South Carolina-Columbia
(Paper Session 3- 2:30-2:45)

Title: Capitalist Entrepreneurs and Industrial Slavery in the Rural Antebellum South

Research into the Old Edgefield Stoneware potteries of South Carolina has typically focused on the technological innovations of ceramic production and the origins of the distinct alkaline glaze while rarely relating the material evidence to the wider social relations of production. Results into the investigation of the domestic loci at the Reverend John Landrum site (38AK497) during the summer 2011 field season along with the analysis of historical documents help to contextualize the emergence and success of the stoneware industry as well as illuminate how the use of slave labor enabled one pottery owner to gain social capital to improve his social and economic standing in the community in addition to the achievements and cultural creativity of the enslaved laborers themselves.

Kelly Goldberg, University of South Carolina-Columbia
(Paper Session 3- 2:45-3:00)

Title: Locating Gullah Identity in the Archaeological Record

Marginalization and cultural silencing have been problems long-plaguing Africans and African Americans in the South Carolina Lowcountry, particularly those identifying with the Gullah culture.  The removal of large groups from Africa, transportation across the Atlantic, and forced bondage in the new world, comprise a horrific set of events that did not end with slavery.  Many of these African peoples, and their descendants, have been continually discriminated against, whether through flagrant public denouncement, or through a more subtle structural violence.  Just as these groups were not heard in the past, a silencing of their heritage, brought about by a lack of archaeological and historical attention, has ensured that they remain unheard in the present.  With a silenced heritage their agency has been severely limited, making it exceedingly difficult to break out of the cycle of structural violence. 
While a great deal of archaeological research has been conducted in the lowcountry, little attention has been given to defining what aspects constitute and are visible of a Gullah culture.  Consequently, artifacts from these projects have not been analyzed to their fullest extent, and aspects of their stories, and by association the voices of their owners, remain silent.  In order to maintain control over their present, marginalized groups must have access to their past.  By bringing this past to the foreground through archaeological research a context can be established for identifying Gullah sites, and the link between modern Gullah people and their heritage can be strengthened. 

Bri Farber, University of South Carolina-Columbia
(Paper Session 4- 3:30-3:45)

Title: Ruminating on Ruminants: Goats and the People Who Raise Them in South Carolina

My research aims to explore the character, trials, and successes of traditional and burgeoning food cultures in South Carolina specifically in the context of food security and sustainability. To do this, I will focus on the single commodity of goats and the people who raise goats in SC. While I plan to focus on goat farmers, this project will allow me to investigate the relationships and interactions between goat farmers, food distributors, agricultural and livestock associations, and consumers as well. The growing interest in local and sustainable food production in South Carolina reflects a national and international trend as people begin to question the origin and quality of what they eat. Farmers markets, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), urban farms, community gardens, and many other creative food projects provide meaningful alternatives to the globalized agro-industrial food system. However, the difficulties  small-scale, local, sustainable food producers face in providing for their livelihoods are generally obscured in the service of a fetishized ideology (Gagné 2011, Pilgeram 2011). Additionally, sustainable food raises questions of access by diverse demographics of people since generally sustainable food has been characterized as a middle-class and white space (Pilgeram 2011, Slocum 2007). I will inquire about how, despite the consumer’s desire for connection, sustainable food projects in a market economy contend with commodification and issues of inclusion/exclusion. I will examine the agency of food producers and how they resist and are constrained by power structures.

Michael Young, University of South Carolina-Columbia
(Paper Session 4- 3:45-4:00)

Title: Mountain Flower: Guatemalan Q’eqchi’ Maya Empowerment and Self-Determination through Community-based Sustainable Tourism.

My research concerns a Guatemalan community-based eco-tourism project and the ways in which members contend with issues of sustainability, conservation, globalization and the influences upon the development of ecological and economic stability.  Central America in particular exemplifies the flux in market shifts affecting socio-cultural behavior due to globalization especially when considering the historical impacts of foreign involvement and structural adjustments that have been implemented.  My research examines a potentially sustainable community-based ecological tourism business that has been created within a Q’eqchi’ Maya community near Livingston, Guatemala.  This study investigates community’s decision-making processes concerning the internal and structural modifications made to adapt to the current market economy.  To successfully accomplish this goal, I view the complexity of these factors through local cultural perspectives. 
When conducting research pertaining to development, environmental degradation must also be taken into account.  The amalgamation of these components combined with historical context allows for better insight into cultural identity formation.  Understanding the human-ecological relationship of how populations shape their environment and how these behaviors form the social, political, and economic systems is the focus of my research.  The formula for understanding these elements must have a human component.  The application of anthropological theory through qualitative and quantitative analyses will create models that can potentially be applied to equally important contemporary and future scenarios concerning sustainability.  The sustainable tourism business lacks advertising and my research involves the creation of a promotional video for the community.  This video is a collaborative work with involvement from members of the community.  The video showcases and demonstrates the experience offered by the community as well as what the community feels is representative. 

Micah Sorum, University of South Carolina-Columbia
(Paper Session 4- 4:00-4:15)

Title: Back from Costa Rica: A Perspective on Migration from Nicaraguan Sending Communities

This presentation explores Nicaraguan migration to Costa Rica as part of a basic employment strategy.  Due to lack of jobs and low wages at home, many Nicaraguans must leave their country in search of employment abroad.  The majority of these Nicaraguan migrants go south to work in low-wage jobs created by Costa Rica’s export-oriented agriculture and tourism sectors or to work as domestics within private homes.  Despite the need for migrant labor in Costa Rica, Nicaraguans often face discrimination and barriers to securing work permits.  As undocumented migrants, Nicaraguans are vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace, and in-depth interviews with Nicaraguan return migrants reveal that low wages, long hours, poor working conditions, xenophobia, and sexual exploitation are important issues in this migration stream.  Furthermore, due to high living costs and low wages in Costa Rica, Nicaraguans find it difficult to send as much money to their sending household as they had hoped.  If remittances are sent, they are used to cover basic expenses in the sending household and on rare occasion for investing in housing or land.  Nicaraguan migration to Costa Rica has decreased slightly in recent years but continues to be an important strategy for contending with negative economic forces, evidencing the kind of structural violence that limits options.

Caroline Cornish, Clemson University
(Paper Session 4- 4:15-4:30)

Title: “This is a social experiment”: An Examination of the Effectiveness of the “Kony 2012” Campaign

This paper is a preliminary investigation of the effectiveness of the “Kony 2012” video campaign now popular on the internet. Directed by Jason Russell, the “Joseph Kony for 2012” video was released by the non-profit group “Invisible Children” and is a call for action against the threat that the warlord Joseph Kony poses to Uganda. This video was released on various sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, and has a staggering 100 million views to this day. My main goal is to evaluate the apparent strength of this campaign and to examine how and why it was effective. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, I expect to find that the number of the video’s viewers, the amount in organizational donations, and the general emotional reactions towards this video will be much higher in comparison to other recent “call for action” campaigns. Since my inquiry is merely exploratory, I will be looking only at the structure of the video campaign and its use of social media to deliver an effective message. Based on this research, I suggest that anthropologists might use this video as a model to inspire audiences for other activist campaigns.

Megan O’Kelly, Clemson University
(Paper Session 4- 4:30-4:45)

Title: Unsolved Mysteries of Ciudad Juárez

Ciudad Juárez, a U.S.-Mexico border city located in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, is the site of over 273 maquiladoras, manufacturing plants used by multinational companies for cheap labor.  Maquiladora workers make less than five dollars per day doing dangerous tasks while working long and hard hours.  Women are considered more employable than men in maquiladoras because they are thought of as more docile, patient, dexterous, accepting of poor working conditions, and take orders better.  Like many other border cities, Ciudad Juárez is also largely infiltrated by drug cartels.  Drug wars between the Juárez Cartel and neighboring enemy cartels take many innocent people as their victims.  Since the 1990s, the state of Chihuahua has been beset with murders and kidnappings of hundreds of women, the majority of which still remain unsolved.  Most of the slain women were maquiladora workers that were raped, murdered, and then discarded in the desert, and it is believed that the Juárez Cartel or a serial killer is to blame.  Unfortunately, due to corrupt government and law enforcement officials, these victims have not received the justice that they deserve, and those behind these crimes are currently unpunished.  This paper seeks to investigate the history, current theories, state of affairs, and actions being taken to bring justice to the victims of the feminicidios, femicides, of Ciudad Juárez.