Anthropology Theses and Dissertations
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/6203
2024-03-29T05:35:45ZMicrobes, Mothers, and Others: Allocare and Socially-Mediated Gut Microbiome Transmission Across the Colobus vellerosus Lifespan
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/29298
Microbes, Mothers, and Others: Allocare and Socially-Mediated Gut Microbiome Transmission Across the Colobus vellerosus Lifespan
Christie, Diana
In this dissertation, I investigate relationships between gut microbiome variation and social interactions in a natural population of black and white colobus monkey (Colobus vellerosus) at Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, Ghana. This species displays high levels of allocare, which varies across infants and increases infant contact with non-maternal adults, thus presenting an excellent opportunity to examine the role of early life social contact on the developing gut microbiome. Allocare following infant birth also changes adult social dynamics, providing a natural experiment for investigating the effects of longitudinal social change on gut microbiome variation. Thus, in studying social behavior and gut microbial variation in this species, I address gaps in knowledge related to the impact of social interactions on microbiome assembly early in life as well as how changes in social environment affect microbiome plasticity.In Chapter I, I introduce the importance of the gut microbiome, factors shaping its variation, and Colobus vellerosus as a model to better understand this topic. In Chapter II, I characterize the developing colobus gut microbiome and examine how adult social partners shape it. I found that shared social group was predictive of infant-adult microbial similarity and allocare behaviors by adults likely transmitted microbes to infants. However, I was unable to pinpoint dyadic transmission of microbes between infants and adult social partners. In Chapter III, I explore the relationship between social shifts and gut microbiome plasticity. I found that grooming increased among adult females after infant birth, which coincided with an increase in adult female gut microbial similarity. While I was unable to tie this increased microbial similarity to social relationships on very short (3-month) time scales, shorter time periods than typically used (6-month) did predict microbial similarity. In Chapter IV, I provide implications for this work, including the importance of adult social partners seeding the developing colobus gut microbiome, the underappreciated role of microbial transmission to the evolution of allocare, and how relatively short-lived changes in social relationships may cause microbial shifts in adulthood. This dissertation expands our understanding of the social factors shaping the gut microbiome, particularly in cooperatively breeding species.
This dissertation includes previously unpublished co-authored material.
2024-03-25T00:00:00ZSome Social Implications of Trade Unionism in Ghana and Nigeria
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/28235
Some Social Implications of Trade Unionism in Ghana and Nigeria
Ramsperger, Richard
Although much has been written on patterns of labor
In West Africa, there are no studies which are devoted
primarily to the social aspects of labor unions.
The purpose of this thesis is to try to determine
to what extent the trade union movement has been affected,
modified, or influenced by traditional economic, social,
and political systems in Ghana and Nigeria. It will be
necessary to consider first the major factors which have
had a direct bearing upon the traditional and modern
economic systems before the place of the trade union in .
the scheme can be assessed, therefore, the thesis will
include some descriptive data on traditional economic
attitudes in Ghana and Nigeria and a comparison of these
with the economic attitudes required for industrialization.
Then the changes in attitudes and patterns of labor, which
have accrued over time due to the impact of industrialization, will be treated. It will also be necessary to
contrast the organization and function of traditional and
modern economic associations In order to determine what
influence these have had upon each other.
139 pages
1962-06-01T00:00:00ZDrums and Guns: A Cross-Cultural Study of the Nature of War
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/27950
Drums and Guns: A Cross-Cultural Study of the Nature of War
Nammour, Valerie Wheeler
560 pages
1974-12-01T00:00:00ZGeographic and Spatial Evaluation of Group and Territorial Decisions on Rapa, Austral Islands
https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/handle/1794/27664
Geographic and Spatial Evaluation of Group and Territorial Decisions on Rapa, Austral Islands
Lane, Brian
A myriad of local adaptations has been associated with the great human dispersal across the Pacific Ocean, occasionally expressing cultural change in dramatic ways. On the small and remote island of Rapa (Rapa Iti) in the South Pacific, a tradition of monumental ridgetop fortified settlements was established between AD 1300-1400, only a century after colonization. In the 300 years that followed, fortified settlements became entrenched as a visible extension of endemic intergroup competition on the island. However, the underlying reasons for the construction and specific role these constructions played in the associated territorial conflict is still not well understood. The striking nature of the forts has dominated the island’s archaeology for over a century, and although often used as an example of the endpoint of intense intergroup competition in Polynesia, Rapa’s history and explanations concerning the emergence of territorial strategies have only been partially explored. This dissertation explicitly applies a human behavioral ecology framework to provide hypotheses and explanations regarding the endemic competition through analysis of the island’s resource base and placement of fortified settlements. This is accomplished through a series of geospatial analyses and spatial statistical models that explore agricultural productivity and cost reductive strategies related to territorial defense. The results of this body of work point to the changing nature of competition in the past and the dynamic roles that the fortified settlements played within society. The human behavioral ecology models of the ideal free distribution and economic defendability provide the theoretical framework for a more nuanced explanation of past intergroup competition and its most visible features, the pare.
2022-10-04T00:00:00Z