Honors Theses (Anthropology)

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    Nourishing 19th century Americans : the dietary advice in cookery books
    (University of Oregon, 2008-05) Petersen, Rocio
    Before the United States established its dietary guidelines and before the discovery of the chemistry of nutrition, authors of nineteenth-century cookery books based their opinions of a healthy lifestyle primarily on their own experiences. The most influential American authors of cookery books dealt with cooking for the home according to their understanding of health and nutrition, evident in the advice that they provided and in the nutritional content of their recipes. The cookery books represent shifts in the prescribed American diet before and during the dissemination of professional knowledge about the nutrients in foods. By tracing the changes of selected recurring recipes, I evaluate how meals from the early to late 1800s represent the basic tenets of a healthy lifestyle in terms of food choices at that time.
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    Shellfish and ancient human ecology: an archaeological study from San Miguel Island, California
    (University of Oregon, 2005-06) Steinberg, Alexis
    Archaeologist and ecologists are increasingly recognizing historical data as an important source in analyzing human ecological relationships. Archaeology provides a means for investigating such relationships and islands provide ideal landscapes for researching human impacts on marine ecosystems. My thesis is based on a 10,000 yearold record of shellfish harvesting from San Miguel Island, California and analyzes possible human impacts on California mussel (Mytilus californianus), black abalone (Haliotis cracherodii), and red abalone (H rufescens) populations. I discuss the environmental setting, archaeological background, and pertinent ecology of San Miguel Island, California as it pertains to shellfish and humans. Utilizing shell length measurements, I examine the human-environment relationship that existed between island peoples and shellfish communities. I suggest that shellfish harvesting pressures by the Chumash Indians and their antecedents over the past 10,000 years impacted shellfish communities by reducing the overall size of shells through time on San Miguel Island, California.