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Reconnecting Our Fragments through Ceremony: An Indigenous Archaeology Comparative Ceramic Analysis in the Coca-Nahua Pueblo of Mezcala, Jalisco, Mexico.
(2024) Figueroa Alcantar, Jesus
This master’s thesis revitalizes archaeological inquiry from an Indigenous perspective in the Lake Chapala Basin of West Mexico through a comparative ceramic analysis of registered and non-registered ollas (jars) at the Mexkal’lan Community Museum and olla rim sherds from the Island of Mezcala, Jalisco Mexico with the Ph.D. dissertation of Margaret Nell Bond published in 1971. Due to historical exclusion of Indigenous perspectives in archaeology, I use my lived experience in Indigenous ceremony as a guiding theoretical framework in our process of interaction and interpretation of the material culture of our ancestors from Lake Chapala. I apply methodology from Indigenous archaeology that incorporates interviews with Indigenous Coca-Nahua elders in the town of Mezcala, Jalisco, Mexico in order to center local Indigenous Knowledge in the process of knowledge production. Therefore, this thesis is an initial conversation with the community of Mezcala on previous archaeological reports in the region, an explanation of the process of this ceramic analysis, with the research goals of understanding the regional context of these ollas in order to expand our understanding of dating and the chronology of our different tribal cultures of the Lake Chapala Basin.
The results of this comparative ceramic analysis brings the out-of-context ollas of Mezcala into closer context with other medium-sized ollas of similar form and style from the Ixtépete-El Grillo phase of the Valley of Atemajac (present-day Guadalajara, Jalisco) and the Lagos phase of Los Altos de Jalisco, both dating to the Classic period (300-900 CE). Recognizing the challenges to access to western forms of higher education and financial resources, I will donate two refurbished laptops with this thesis translated to Spanish and all cited references to Cesar Hesiquio “Papayo†Santiago de la Cruz and Noel Contreras Garcia from Mezcala, to encourage them and the community to continue to investigate and write their own history, and our collaboration as Indigenous colleagues and scholars.
Biogeochemical Controls on Arsenic Mobility within Hyporheic Zone Sediments
(2024) Varner, Thomas Scott
Arsenic contaminated drinking water is a global concern, specifically in the Bengal basin where millions rely on arsenic contaminated groundwater for drinking purposes. Currently, the primary process believed to be responsible for the high dissolved arsenic is the microbially-mediated reductive dissolution of arsenic-bearing iron-oxides. Recent studies suggest that the interactions between oxygen-rich surface water and iron-rich groundwater in the hyporheic zone precipitates abundant iron-oxide minerals which sequester arsenic. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the comprehensive role of hyporheic zone processes on the cycling of arsenic in sediment along the Meghna River, Bangladesh, and the Hooghly and Beas Rivers in India. The inorganic and organic chemical properties of the riverbank sediments were evaluated and the resulting biogeochemical processes influencing arsenic mobility within the hyporheic zone were determined. The findings show three distinct hyporheic zone scenarios which impact the fate of arsenic through differing biogeochemical processes. Along the Meghna River, a shallow silt layer, rich in labile organic matter, promotes arsenic mobility in the riverbank by fueling the microbially-mediated reductive dissolution of arsenic-bearing iron-oxides. Along the Hooghly River, surficial sands and minimal organic matter permits the precipitation of arsenic attenuating iron-oxides, maintaining low arsenic concentrations in the riverbank. Along the high-energy Beas River, a low residence time and oxic conditions prevents the microbial reduction of oxides, allowing for efficient transportation of As-bearing minerals to the underlying deltas. Together, this research provides a comprehensive analysis on the solid-phase properties of hyporheic zone sediments influencing the fate and transport of arsenic.
Ceramic Production and Distribution: Testing a Middle Preclassic Ceramic Economy in the Mopan River Valley, Belize
(2024) Villarreal, Alessandra Noelle
This project develops a testable model to study Middle Preclassic (1000 - 300 BCE)
ceramics from two sites in the Mopan River valley. Early Xunantunich and San Lorenzo may
typically be considered opposite ends of the sociopolitical scale. Early Xunantunich boasted
monumental construction as early as 800 BCE and likely served as a location of communally
integrative feasting and ritual performances. Visible from this early monumental site was the
Middle Preclassic community of San Lorenzo, represented archaeologically by few known
perishable dwellings and a large, buried chultun.
Through a lens of ritual economy, I initially hypothesized that Early Xunantunich was a
node of intercommunity gathering activities that hosted community members from surrounding
settlement sites, including San Lorenzo. Community participants likely brought offerings in
ceramic vessels, which were ultimately left at the site after the event. This was tested through a
compounding, multistage methodology that assessed the model’s material correlates using type-variety,
petrography, and Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA), and ethnoarchaeological
collaboration.
This methodology confirmed that Early Xunantunich was a node of an inter-community,
and indeed interregional, network that likely gathered at the site for rituals, feasts, and the
construction of Structure E-2-3rd. However, it also revealed that residents of San Lorenzo likely
also performed complex intra-community rituals at home, supplied by community-specific
potters. These findings shine new light on the sociopolitical and economic relationships of the
Mopan River valley in the Middle Preclassic period, and warrant more exploration into our
assumptions about the interactions between monumental sites and surrounding “hinterlandâ€
communities.
Revealing "La Gran Ocultadora": Frida Kahlo at the Intersection of Art and Linguistic Repertoire as Representative of the Cultivation of Identity
(2024) Diaz, Kandice Nikkole
The present dissertation investigates the linguistic features of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo’s register that serve as acts of identity meant to index various parts of her identity. I explore how Kahlo constructs and performs her identity through her writings as a result of language contact, in relation to mexicanidad, and as a means to mark her as a member of the speech community of Mexico City. The methodology used in this study is a combination of corpus stylistics and close reading. Data collection began with a manual scan of the corpus and utilized a digital tool (Internet Archive) to perform KWIC searches to locate occurrences of specific linguistic features. Once the linguistic features were located, close reading was used to ascertain Kahlo’s rhetorical purpose and the contextual meaning of each piece of data. The corpus used for examination purposes is comprised of Kahlo’s writings, to include her letters and diary, all of which were analyzed in Kahlo’s mother-tongue to ensure reliability of conclusions made based on the analysis. I argue that Kahlo’s language use presents an invaluable resource in which to examine her construction and performance of identity in addition to the visual aspects of this performance. I also argue that Kahlo’s writings display her alignment with ingroups and specific ideologies as deliberate rhetorical choices meant to garner a desired response from her audience, while other aspects of her register occur as an example of natural language use. Thus, this study adds to the limited scholarship on identity work based on a written corpus, fills the gap on linguistic studies conducted on Kahlo beyond a biographical focus, and offers an expanded application of Le Page and Tabouret-Keller's “acts of identity†theory.
Practicing Care in the Borderlands: Family, Fulfillment, and Everyday Experience among Older Migrant Caregivers in the Rio Grande Valley
(2024) Ramirez, Jessica Jazmin
This thesis will analyze the everyday lives of older Mexican women who have migrated from Mexico to the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) and who have experiences with family caregiving to better understand how their cultural ideologies of care, gender, and kin relations shape their care practices. This research responds to the call from anthropology and migration studies to integrate the perspectives and experiences of women who have migrated to correct the implicit assumption that men are always central figures (e.g., Brijnath 2009; de la Luz Ibarra 2002; Ibarra 2022; Raijman and Schammah-Gesser 2003; Yarris 2017b). I explore these older Mexican women’s gendered migration experiences to gain insight into how they establish their own place-making within their homes in the RGV. Additionally, this research seeks to understand how these older Mexican women experience everyday caregiving within the home in light of their gendered social roles and obligations shaped within and by kin relations (Mohanty 1998). Within this discussion I was able to explore these older Mexican women’s local cultural ideologies of gender, care, and kin relations and how they influence their care practices and everyday realities in the RGV. Through this, I also examine the sense of fulfillment and stressful obligation that accompany family caregiving among the older women in my project. Broadly, I argue that highlighting these cultural narratives from older Mexican women in the RGV contributes to a deeper understanding of the diverse and complex local cultural ideologies of gender, kinship, and care practices within the context of life histories of migration.