Theses and Dissertations

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Open Access
Archaeological investigations of high altitude sites near Monarch Pass, Colorado
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1990) Hutchinson, Lewis A., author; Eighmy, Jeffrey, advisor; Benedict, James B., committee member; Leyendecker, Liston, committee member
The tundra and upper forest border north of Monarch Pass. in the central Colorado Rocky Mountains. contains a cluster of twelve sites. One of the sites. Water Dog Divide Game Drive, is an extensive system of rock alignments and associated hunting blinds. This site and other smaller systems in the Monarch site area are at present the southernmost documented examples of prehistoric timberline game drives along the Continental Divide. Cultural materials include projectile points. other flaked tools, groundstone and a broken ceramic vessel. Temporal periods indicated are 3000 B.C. to the historic. Two hunting blinds were excavated and three radiocarbon dates were obtained with corrected dates ranging from 900 A.D. - 1640 A.O. Four of the rock walls in the largest drive site contain a number of remnant wooden posts or sewels apparently used to help delineate the rock walls. It is hypothesized that the area was utilized on a seasonal basis to camp and communally hunt large game animals (bison, mule deer, elk. and mountain sheep). The sites may have been visited by peoples from the Plains. Great Basin. and Southwestern culture areas.
Open Access
5000 years at Crow's Roost in eastern Colorado
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1992) McDonald, Robert A., author; Jennings, Calvin H., advisor; Leyendecker, Liston, committee member; Zier, Christian, committee member; Theodoratus, Robert, committee member
Many areas on the high Plains of eastern Colorado have had little prehistoric research conducted on them. One of the areas where there is insufficient information about local prehistory is the area between the two major river drainages, the Arkansas and the Platte. Crow's Roost, a large sandstone cliff, located east of Colorado Springs, Colorado, is situated near this dividing line, known as the Palmer Divide. A series of prehistoric sites at Crow's Roost has been investigated over a period of five years by the Anthropology Department, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. These investigations indicate that there has been prehistoric occupation at this locality dating back at least 5400 years. This study presents an interpretation of the culture history, and of recent paleoclimatic fluctuations for this locality.
Open Access
Responses to climate variability of the livestock sector in the north-west province, South Africa
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2002) Hudson, Jerry Wayne, author; Kathleen, Galvin, advisor; Smith, Freeman M. (Freeman Minson), 1939-, committee member; Magennis, Ann, committee member
The goal of this study is to compare management drought strategies, including the use of climate forecasts, of livestock farmers in commercial areas with livestock farmers in adjacent communal areas within the western region of the North-West Province of the Republic of South Africa. In this rural semi-arid to arid region of the southern Kalahari, the majority of people make their living from animal production. It is shown that commercial farmers have a greater number of strategic options and greater accessibility to natural and human resources including pasture lands, water, and information. This research demonstrates that in this relatively homogeneous ecological setting, farmers' animal management responses to drought and use of climate forecasts are highly variable due to human factors such as culture, production goals, history, government policy, and market constraints. A human ecological framework is used to explain research findings and examine results within existing ecological, economic, ethnic, and historical constraints faced by local populations.
Open Access
The Claude C. and A. Lynn Coffin Lindenmeier collection: an innovative method for analysis of privately held artifact collections and new information on a Folsom campsite in northern Colorado
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2002) Gantt, Erik M., author; Todd, Larry, advisor; Van Buren, Mary, committee member; Albright, John, 1937-, committee member
The Claude C. and A. Lynn Coffin Lindenmeier collection contains 1,125 pieces, 1,122 of which are chipped stone artifacts, collected from the Lindenmeier Folsom campsite between 1924 and the mid 1950s. A. Lynn Coffin, Judge Claude C. Coffin, and C. K. Collins are credited with discovering Lindenmeier adding historical significance to this collection. Furthermore, the size of the Coffin family assemblage from Lindenmeier is significant in comparison to the other known artifacts from the site curated by the Smithsonian and the Fort Collins Museum. The Coffin family assemblage from Lindenmeier more than three times as large as that held by the Fort Collins Museum (n=333) (Ambler 1999), more than four times that collected by the Denver Museum of Natural History (n=278) (Cotter 1978), and a significant portion of the number of diagnostic artifacts held by the Smithsonian (Wilmsen and Roberts 1978). Included with the collection is the 'Folsom Man' scrapbook compiled by Judge Claude C. Coffin. This scrapbook contains a wealth of unpublished information on the history of the initiation of professional investigations at the site. The scrapbook is summarized and many of the letter[s] and photographs contained within are presented here. Access to the Claude C. and A. Lynn Coffin materials is highly controlled, because of the stewardship concern for preserving the integrity of the artifacts, and has necessitated a new recording methodology to record basic information about the collection. In response to this need, an image based computer measurement method using the SigmaScan Pro 5.0 image analysis program was developed. This is presented here along with an assessment of the validity and comparability of the methodology. It is shown that the image and computer based method, which allows rapid initial photographic data collection, is valid and comparable to that of a caliper based measurement method. The results from the computer based method are also shown to have a high degree of internal consistency and to be comparable with measurements from analyses on other collections from the site. The results from the documentation of this important assemblage are then compared to and combined with the data from the Major Roy G. Coffin collection, housed at the Fort Collins Museum, and the Smithsonian collection from the site. General trends of donation behavior on the part of the Coffin family are discussed, and comparisons are drawn between relative frequencies of artifact types represented in the Coffin family collection and the Smithsonian collections. Information on post-Folsom occupations at the site is amended based on artifact types.
Open Access
Prehistoric archaeological investigations at Perdiz Creek: an inter-landscape comparative analysis in the southern Trans-Pecos region of southwestern Texas
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2004) Cason, Samuel, author; Mallouf, Robert J., committee member; Fiege, Mark, committee member
A 2000 Texas Archeological Society field school collected information from the Marfa Plains in the Southern Trans-Pecos region of southwestern Texas, using pedestrian survey and subsurface test excavations. This investigation presents archaeological data from Perdiz Creek, a portion of the field school project, using a landscape scale analysis in addition to site-specific information. The Perdiz Creek landscape is compared to an additional landscape unit, noting differences in feature distributions and environmental contexts. Course-grained observations are used to construct hypotheses concerning mobility patterns in different landscape settings. Finally, recommendations are made in regard to how landscape level analyses might proceed in future investigations and how this may contribute to an understanding of prehistoric behavioral diversity in the Southern Trans-Pecos and hunter-gatherer studies in general.
Open Access
The Frazier site: an agate basin occupation and lithic assemblage on the Kersey Terrace, northeastern Colorado
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2004) Slessman, Scott A., author; Todd, Lawrence C., 1954-, advisor; Zier, Christian J., committee member; Hill, Matthew G. (Matthew Glenn), committee member; Eighmy, Jeffrey L., committee member; Kelly, Eugene Francis, committee member
The Frazier site was discovered by Frank Frazier in 1965, and was excavated from 1965 to 1967 by the Denver Museum of Natural History under the direction of H. Marie Wormington. An analysis of the lithic assemblage and a description of the excavations are provided in this thesis because this information has never been published in any detail. The Frazier site is an Agate Basin bison kill-butchery site located near the town of Kersey, Colorado. The Frazier site is important not only because it is one of a few Agate Basin sites on the Northwest Plains, but also because it was the last major excavation directed by H. Marie Wormington for the Denver Museum of Natural History. The Frazier collection is comprised of 1,161 lithic artifacts and 20,012 pieces of bone. Interpretations of Agate Basin activities at the Frazier site are based on the analysis of the lithic material (debitage and tools), and the raw material composition of the collection. In addition to a traditional lithic analysis, the Frazier collection is inspected through the use of minimum nodule analysis (MNA). An examination of the spatial distribution of cultural remains indicates that several distinct activity areas are located at the site. The results of the analysis are used to compare the Frazier data with other Paleoindian sites in the region, particularly with Agate Basin period sites. Unlike the other long-term, multiple-event Agate Basin localities (Agate Basin site, Hell Gap site), the results of the analysis indicate that the Frazier site represents a single-event, short-term bison kill-butchery and processing occupation. The Frazier site therefore offers a different view of Agate Basin behavior on the Plains. Aspects of Agate Basin lithic technology, subsistence, site structure and function, and mobility at a kill/processing site are discussed.
Open Access
White South Africans in Colorado: understandings of apartheid and post-apartheid society
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2005) Weeber, Christine A., author
This pilot study focuses on the experiences of two white ethnic groups within the South African immigrant population, Afrikaners and English-speakers, who came of age during two different phases of apartheid, between 1958-1978 and 1979-1993. Race, ethnicity, generational standing, class, and nationalism remain important fault lines, so my analysis is structured to differentiate between the entrenchment and reproduction of these identities during apartheid and the disruption of these in the post-apartheid era and in people's migration to the U.S. Using a phenomenological approach, I investigate three issues: experiences of being white, the culture of apartheid, and immigration. Among the themes that emerged from my interviews are the "schizophrenic" nature of life under apartheid; guilt and responsibility; questions of truth, propaganda, and brainwashing; "Afropessimism" and racism; what it meant to be white under apartheid versus the present 'box of being white'; the 'push factors' of affirmative action and crime; and perspectives of race and racism in the U.S. versus South Africa. I also examine whiteness in these two white ethnic groups and as perceived by black and Colored (mixed race) informants. My research addresses the question of whether or not essential characteristics of whiteness exist, cross-culturally, based on a history of whiteness-as-domination. By applying Pierre Bourdieu's practice theory to whiteness studies, I attempt to account for the complexities of whiteness in this population. Patterns within this population show how historical ideologies of whiteness as-domination shaped the habitus of whites during apartheid. Yet, important exceptions to these patterns point to how people's habitus can change, moving whites out of the 'box of being white,' which remains a significant push factor for emigration out of post-apartheid South Africa.
Open Access
High altitude stone and wood structures of northwestern Wyoming: examples from the upper Greybull River area in the central Absaroka Mountains
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2007) Kinneer, Christopher C., author; Todd, Lawrence C., 1954-, advisor; Dean, Denis J., committee member; LaBelle, Jason M., committee member; Zier, Christian J., committee member
This thesis presents the results of archaeological investigations of seven sites with structures identified near the headwaters of the Greybull River in the Absaroka Mountains of northwestern Wyoming. These structures have in common a construction style that consists entirely of dry-laid and/or aligned locally available stone and, in some cases, wooden elements. Investigations, analyses and interpretations of high altitude stone structure sites are often framed by categorical assumptions about site and structure functions. Assumed functions often include game drives, ceremonial localities, location markers, architectural remnants, and windbreaks. These ascribed functions condition the types of data that are gathered, and thus the results of the analyses and interpretations are often self-fulfilling. No single, best, or functionally provable argument, beyond a possible association with hunting, will be provided for the newly presented sites and structures, as too little is known about the builders' cultural and/or temporal affiliations. Rather, conclusions with respect to site and/or structure function will be oriented around pattern recognition and comparative discussion.
Open Access
The Protohistoric period in northcentral Colorado: analysis of the Lykins Valley Site (5LR263)
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Newton, Cody Collins, author; LaBelle, Jason M., advisor
The Lykins Valley Site (5LR263) is a Protohistoric-aged site that contains both items of European manufacture and items such as stone tools associated with precontact indigenous technology. The site is a small group campsite occupied in a single event or multiple annual events possibly by a Cheyenne or Comanche group. Temporal analysis of the site indicates that the site was occupied shortly after A.D. 1800. This analysis of the Lykins Valley site is used as a stepping-off point to address larger questions about native acceptance of European technologies, the degree to which the western-central Great Plains were actually impacted by European intrusion and site types of the Protohistoric Period. This study finds that the region including Lykins Valley was not greatly affected by direct European contact until after the beginning of the 1800's, coinciding with the fur trade era. The Protohistoric occupation of 5LR263 exemplifies a native group that was fully equestrian, had somewhat integrated European technology into their culture via trade good acquisition, but was still reliant on pre-contact technology.
Open Access
Excavations at the Gilligan's Island shelters (5FN1592), Fort Carson Military Reservation (FCMR), Fremont County, Colorado
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Anderson, Cody Mitchell, author; Eighmy, Jeffrey L., advisor; Zier, Christian J., committee member; Fiege, Mark T., committee member
This thesis examines the surface and subsurface archaeological work undertaken in 2002 at the Gilligan's Island site (5FN1592), located at the base of the Rocky Mountains on the Fort Carson Military Reservation, eastern Fremont County, Colorado. Permission was granted by Fort Carson to conduct an excavation at this site in order to determine its potential to produce significant subsurface occupational remains. Excavations focused on two connecting rock shelters at the base of a prominent cliff face. Four interconnecting grid units were positioned in a trench-like fashion through the central midline of each shelter proper. Deposition of excavated units ranges up to 1.3 meters in depth. These trenches exposed deeply stratified prehistoric materials including multiple intact features. The radiocarbon data (based on conventional uncalibrated dates) identified three prehistoric cultural components: Middle Archaic period (ca. 4240-3010 B.P.), Late Archaic period (ca. 2230-1880 B.P.), and Developmental period (ca. 1390- 1070 B.P.). A historic component is also evident and is associated with probable looting activities in the shelters.
Open Access
From souvenir to sundance: perceptions and participation of residents in cultural tourism on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2009) Graham, Melanie Ann, author; Pickering, Kathleen Ann, 1958-, advisor; Browne, Katherine E., 1953-, committee member; Gloeckner, Gene William, 1950-, committee member
Cultural tourism development on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota has the potential to increase access to the cash economy for Pine Ridge residents, as well as the potential to create negative social, cultural and economic impacts that threaten to overshadow any benefits. In the effort to develop responsible and culturally appropriate tourism, it is critical to understand how tourism impacts the daily lives of residents, and how they participate in these economic activities. Surveys and interviews with households (n=47) and business owners (n=43) explore how a Pine Ridge economy that is embedded in Lakota values of reciprocity and generosity interacts with and contradicts the global economy. Results reveal that this sample of residents expresses a generally positive attitude regarding tourism, as well as a strong consensus that the greatest potential for exploitation lies in the commercialization of Lakota spirituality. Additionally, the experiences of business owners demonstrate that tourism does increase access to the cash economy, but it is only a marginal improvement in local sources of supplemental income when entrepreneurs lack the resources necessary to compete in the difficult business environment on Pine Ridge. Understanding and responding to the experiences of local residents will enable communities to mitigate the negative impacts of tourism in order to maximize the positive outcomes, resulting in a tourism sector on the reservation that is responsible, accountable and undeniably Lakota.
Open Access
Human health in western Serengeti: using three methodologies to better understand the interactions and impacts of conservation, culture, and poverty
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Knapp, Linda M., author; Galvin, Kathleen, advisor; Magennis, Ann, committee member; Coughenour, Michael B., committee member
Set in the famous ecosystem of one of the world's largest wildlife migrations, this anthropological research was conducted (in 2004-2007) in villages adjacent to Serengeti National Park. Using several different methodologies (nutritional analyses, archival data collection, and qualitative semi-structured interviews), this study seeks to answer the question: what is the health status of western Serengeti people? Particularly important is the emergence of three key themes: conservation, culture, and poverty and how each are correlated to various health indicators in this study. Overall, the combined methods demonstrate that western Serengeti people have relatively poor health (compared to the rest of rural Tanzanians) and simple (lowprotein) diets, a fact that is significantly correlated to low socio-economic status. The role of conservation upon human health is still somewhat unclear as nutritional data do not indicate an immediate negative correlation, yet interviewees' perceptions are that wildlife are harmful to their food security and well-being.
Open Access
Biogeomorphic processes and archaeological site formation in Absaroka Mountains of northwestern Wyoming
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Bechberger, Jillian M., author; Todd, Lawrence C., advisor; Coleman, Robert, committee member; LaBelle, Jason M., committee member
Archaeologists frequently associate Thomomys talpoides, the Northern Pocket Gopher, with the loss of stratigraphic integrity (Bocek 1986; Morin 2006). Disturbance from subsurface burrowing and the redistribution of sediment can result in both lateral and vertical movement of cultural material. However, fossorial activity does not necessarily negate the research potential of a site. Burrowing mammals may actually reveal previously unidentified archaeological sites, help land managers develop effective site testing plans and evaluate site significance, and contribute to a better understanding of a region’s archaeological record and past environmental conditions. This research explores the influence of pocket gopher activity on site formation at a high elevation prehistoric flaked stone scatter in the Absaroka Mountains of northwestern Wyoming. Pocket gopher activity was documented at the site in a 1-hectare sample area surrounding a small sag pond. It was suspected the sediment pocket gophers transport to the surface while digging subsurface tunnels was eroding downslope into the small pond, burying cultural material. Archaeological data were examined in conjunction with pocket gopher behavioral patterns and geomorphic processes to better understand the affect of burrowing and sediment relocation on cultural material. Geospatial analysis was used to identify topographic controls on burrow placement. The physical characteristics of flaked stone recovered from pocket gopher disturbed sediment were compared with artifacts located on the undisturbed site surface and subsurface artifacts collected during test excavation to identity patterns in distribution potentially resulting from gopher activity. Erosion from pocket gopher mounds was evaluated by comparing the sediment characteristics of active and abandoned burrows and using a GIS-based erosion model. Results show pocket gopher burrows occur most frequently on north facing slopes. Neither gradient nor elevation could be shown to significantly influence burrow placement. There were differences in the locations of winter pocket gopher activity and summer activity. The physical characteristics of artifacts found within pocket gopher disturbed sediment were indistinguishable from artifacts on the site surface. Subsurface flaked stone exhibited significant differences in the artifact characteristics examined at all depths. However, the vertical distribution of artifacts at the site was not consistent with patterns noted in other pocket gopher impacted archaeological sites. The erosion model indicated sediment from pocket gopher disturbed areas at the site would be deposited in the sag pond, however the amount of predicted accumulation did not correspond with accumulation calculated using radiocarbon dated samples collected from known depths. The impact of pocket gopher activity on the lateral and vertical movement of artifacts at 48PA2874 could not be definitively demonstrated. This project provides a general background for further research on pocket gopher impacts to archaeological material in alpine settings. With additional research the effect of pocket gopher activity on artifact distribution in high elevation environments can be better understood.
Open Access
Divinely masculine: Neopaganism and gender identity in contemporary America
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Enberg, Jessica M., author; Snodgrass, Jeffrey G., advisor; Margolf, Diane Claire, committee member; Browne, Katherine E., 1953-, committee member; Pickering, Kathleen Ann, 1958-, committee member
This research is focused on how men use religion to define their gender identity. Specifically, this paper looks at the religion Neopaganism. Out of the 1960s and 1970s Counter Cultural and New Religious Movements rose Neopaganism, an earth-based religion in which the Goddess(es) and the God(s) are venerated, nature's yearly cycle of seasons are celebrated, and magic is practiced. This paper will discuss how the Feminist and Men's Movement that arose from the 1960s and 1970s affected gender roles in the U.S. and prompted the study of U.S. Masculinities. From these studies it was determined that men's gendered identities could no longer be understood in terms of a singular masculinity, but as several masculinities. These masculinities are placed into two categories: the hegemonic masculinity, or the ascendant and dominant masculinity in the U.S. culture, and subordinate masculinities, which are those that differ from the hegemonic masculinity in terms of ethnicity, sexuality, religion, class position and marital status. The focus of this paper is how men in Neopaganism use religion to define their subordinate masculinities. The research group for this study consisted of five men and four women, with the main focus on the male informants. The ethnographic methodologies included observation, participation, and 36 in-depth, open-ended interviews. The main findings include the following: the male informants have what they consider to be strong feminine sides; while the male informants acknowledged there is a U.S. male stereotype they do not believe in a strict gender role for men and women; all the male informants were looking for balance of masculine and feminine in their lives; the balance they sought had more meaning for them when found through religion because it offered divine justification for how they perceived themselves as men; and the Neopagan environment in which they participate offers both a safe haven for them to express their true gender identity without fear, retribution, ridicule or judgment.
Open Access
Tree-rings, historic documents, and interpreting past landuse and environments in the Upper Greybull River Watershed, northwestern, Wyoming
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Reiser, Marcy L., author; Todd, Lawrence C., 1954-, advisor; LaBelle, Jason M., committee member; Coleman, Robert O., committee member; Sherman, Kathleen A., committee member
Set in a high montane Engelmann spruce parkland in the central Absaroka Mountains of northwestern Wyoming, this thesis combines dendrochronology, archaeology, and data from historic documents to explore past human activity and climate in the Upper Greybull River Watershed. Based on early Euro-American accounts of the region, and its rugged remoteness, this harsh environment might seem an unlikely place for past human groups to survive and thrive. However, research conducted in the area since 2002, as part of the Greybull River Sustainable Landscape Ecology (GRSLE) project, reveals a dynamic environment rich with both prehistory and history and one that illuminates the past but just as quickly obscure and erase it. As a snapshot of ongoing research, this thesis presents tree-ring crossdating results for four historic cabins and associated structures collected prior to the Little Venus fire of 2006, including crossdates from a historic cabin that burned to the ground. Crossdating results are also presented for culturally modified trees in the area, including culturally peeled trees, and for a "ghost forest," which may represent the remnants of an ancient forest that succumbed to fire in the late-1400s to mid-1600s. Based on these crossdated samples, a preliminary standardized index of annual tree-ring growth, or master chronology, has been established which extends the tree-ring chronology back to 1260. This master chronology was then compared to historic documents from the region and accounts by early settlers of environmental conditions in the Upper Greybull River Watershed. This comparison has resulted in a more complex and nuanced understanding of past climate and human landuse, as well as highlighting stories about the past that only trees and historic accounts can tell. This thesis is part of an ongoing and urgent effort to collect, preserve and crossdate tree-ring samples from this fire-prone region. Like much of the West, forests in this area have been devastated by a recent bark beetle epidemic, posing a significant threat to cultural resources, especially those made of wood.
Open Access
The steps of kings: terraced landscapes in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, México
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Pezzutti, Florencia Lorena, author; Pendell, Dustin L., advisor; Pritchett, James, committee member; Shields, Martin, committee member
This thesis uses a landscape approach incorporating landesque capital as statecraft to relate agricultural intensification and state formation theories using data collected from the former island of Apúpato, in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, Michoacán, México. Apúpato is located in the geo-political core of the Purépecha Empire, south of Tzintzuntzan, the empire's capital. Apúpato was an important Purépecha island belonging to the Canzonci [Purépecha emperor] and was used as a ritual center, an imperial treasury, and for feasts and expeditions (RM 2008: page) This thesis incorporates recent archaeological investigation, including full coverage settlement pattern survey, geoarchaeology, and remote sensing/ARCGIS, which documented patterns of settlements, confirmed the presence of terraces, and the general landscape development of the former island. This thesis documents and analyzes, for the first time, agricultural terraces in the former island of Apúpato. The most common form of agricultural intensification is terrace agriculture (Donkin 1979) which is linked to the development of social complexity in middle range societies, and states and empires (Fisher et al. 2003). For Mesoamerica, terraces are a fundamental characteristic of ancient social complexity, and continued to be used post-Conquest (A.D. 1520). In the Lake Pátzcuaro basin, agricultural intensification was an important component of state formation in the lake Pátzcuaro basin (Pollard 1993) exemplified by raised field systems and by the construction of terraces to repair Classic period land degradation (A.D 300-800) and to improve productivity of seed crops (Fisher et al 2003; Fisher 2005). This thesis examines the implications of agricultural intensification and state formation in Mesoamerica, using terrace data collected from the former island of Apúpato. The terrace system documented on Apúpato represents a refugia for the Purépecha built environment in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, since the Apúpato island setting remained an island for hundreds of years, helping keep Apúpato protected and isolated from the consequences of the European conquest. The terraces documented in the former island of Apúpato are analyzed in terms of their form, function, and construction development for the first time in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin.
Open Access
Green practice: development of a cultural model for contemporary western Buddhism at the eyes of compassion Sangha and their engagement with climate change issues
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Burd, Megan M., author; Snodgrass, Jeffrey, advisor; Sherman, Kathleen, committee member; Sarenac, Darko, committee member
As Buddhism moves globally, many shifts in the practice are currently taking place. This thesis examines both historical anthological concepts regarding Buddhist practices and societies, as well as contemporary analysis of the development of Buddhism in the United States and beyond. Working with several Buddhist practitioners in Colorado, the question of how practitioners of Buddhism engage with the issue of climate change. Responses and contemporary research are fused to create a cognitive model of how contemporary Buddhists in a particular Sangha group might think about and engage with the issue. A picture on how these Buddhist practitioners engage with and enact their thoughts on issues of climate change derive from this cultural model, as well as from surveys, interviews, and participants observations.
Open Access
A vision of transformation: women's organizing and development in Guatemala
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Bludau, Meaghan Beth, author; Browne, Katherine E., 1953-, advisor; Sherman, Kathleen A., committee member; Taylor, Peter Leigh, 1959-, committee member
This thesis presents an analysis of research I conducted with Somos Mujeres, a community-based women's organization in Guatemala. The sisters who founded the organization subscribe to a comprehensive model of women's development that attempts to address the underlying social, economic, and political factors that perpetuate women's inequality. I examine the evolution of Somos Mujeres' mission and programs, and I explore the impact of the organization on the lives of women who join. I argue that this holistic approach holds the promise of broad change. However, formidable barriers prevent the organization from implementing its mission. Lack of resources, limited access to the global handicraft market, as well as pressure from outside funding organizations undercut the organization's ability to implement its vision. This study highlights the challenges community-based organizations face at the ground level as they negotiate the development sphere. I argue that the mission and programming of Somos Mujeres is shaped not simply by the interests of the women the organization serves, but also by the agendas of powerful donor institutions, and I consider potential avenues of change that could provide community-based organizations greater power to determine the course of their own development.
Open Access
Zapatista healthcare in a civilian targeted warfare zone: Chiapas, Mexico
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Sullivan, Julie Ann Marie, author; Sherman, Kathleen, advisor; Magennis, Ann, committee member; Valdez, Norberto, committee member; Vernon, Irene, committee member
Indigenous people in Chiapas, Mexico have endured hundreds of years of attacks on their cultures and life ways. They have been marginalized, excluded, and oppressed. They have experienced the loss of ancestral lands and the destruction of their natural resources and environment. They have been denied fundamental human rights including access to land, education, and healthcare. They have suffered disproportionately high infant and maternal mortality rates and deaths from curable, preventable disease. They have survived without access to clean water, sanitation facilities, or electricity. Finally in 1994 with the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and other Neoliberal economic projects on the horizon, over three thousand Indigenous people came together, called themselves Zapatistas, and declared war on the Mexican government. The world watched as the Zapatistas demanded basic human rights and the Mexican government promised reform. When the government failed to honor their promises, the Zapatistas responded by creating autonomous communities with their own form of government, education, and health care. The purpose of this study is to assess the autonomous Zapatista healthcare system in the Oventic caracole following the Zapatista rebellion using a political ecology theoretical approach. Specifically, does the Zapatista healthcare system operate successfully and how has this model changed healthcare access and well being of the people living in this civilian targeted warfare zone? What effect has the militarization had on health care? This research has the potential to provide valuable contributions to the Zapatista struggle as they continue to develop and improve the healthcare system in autonomous communities living in resistance. Additionally, this work may serve as a resource and guide for local and international non-governmental organizations, non-profit organizations, medical professionals, and Zapatista support groups who wish to contribute to the growth, sustainability, success, and autonomy of the Zapatista healthcare system.
Open Access
Growing pains: the local food movement in northern Colorado
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) McNamara, Maureen Catherine, author; Browne, Katherine E., advisor; Sherman, Kathleen A., committee member; Raynolds, Laura, committee member
Global food and agribusiness corporations exhibit significant control over food production and consumption. Around the world, people contest this corporate food regime through efforts like local food movements. Critics often undermine the power of localism movements and claim that local food is a short-term trend that will not impact the larger market. In my thesis, I explore the local food movement in Northern Colorado. My analysis draws on fieldwork I conducted in 2009-2010 and includes data from participant observation, semi-structured interviews (n=23) and an online survey (n=67). In Northern Colorado, local food producers and advocates are passionate about and committed to growing the local food system. The strong network of producers ensures that the movement stays rooted in and develops as an integral part of the community. Despite producers' enthusiastic and collaborative energies, local food is not for the most part economically viable. Producers, consumers, and advocates in Northern Colorado are faithful to local food, but individual commitments cannot counter the powerful forces that shape food production and consumption. In order for local food to challenge the global agro-food structures, the movement has to adopt a more political and economically focused approach that moves beyond consumer education and marketing strategies.