Graduate Theses & Dissertations

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Ceramic Analysis of Jacob Island 2
The goal of this thesis is to develop an understanding of the history of Middle and Late Woodland settlement at Jacob Island, located in Pigeon Lake in the Trent River region, through analysis of ceramic artifacts recovered during the 2016 excavation program. Using both typological and attribute based analysis. The results indicate a form of seasonal occupation. The ceramic patterning on site is broken down and fully examined for intra-site patterning and compared to concurrent regional examples. The regional comparison is carried out through statistical testing of independence. The results demonstrate both continuity and a pattern that is different than the surrounding region, supporting the concept of different expressions of materiality. These findings place JI-2 in a broader context with contemporary research in the South Eastern areas of Ontario and, in particular, the Trent River region. Author Keywords: Ceramic Analysis, Kawartha Lakes, Ontario Archaeology, Typology, Woodland
Changes in the Representations of Women from the 1980s Turkish Cinema to New Turkish Cinema
The thesis examines the changes in the representations of women in Turkish cinema from the 1980s through the 2000s in terms of semiotic codes. To demonstrate the shifts of the representations of women over three decades, four films directed by two representative filmmakers of the 1980s and the 2000s are analyzed within the context of gender codes: A Sip of Love (Atıf Yılmaz/1984), The Night, Angel and Our Gang (Atıf Yılmaz/1994), The Third Page (Zeki Demirkubuz/1999) and Envy (Zeki Demirkubuz/2009). Using gender as code in deconstructing women’s characteristics and their representations in the films, the research highlights the structural image of women in the semiotic sense. The stereotypical representations in Turkish cinema question social norms, patriarchy, and Islamic norms in Turkey. Author Keywords: Gender codes, Islam, Patriarchy, Semiotics, The representations of women , Turkish cinema
Chew the Fat
Fatty acid analysis was performed on archaeological bone from various fauna from sites in the Canadian arctic to better understand the preservation of fatty acids and their potential applications to palaeoecological and palaeodietary studies. These data were complemented by analyses of modern bone and soft tissue samples from livestock and harp seals (Pagophilus groenlandicus). Results of modern analyses revealed that in terrestrial species, bone has inherently lower concentrations of most fatty acids relative to other soft tissues (adipose, marrow, and muscle). These analyses suggest that the distribution of fatty acids in bone is unique compared to other tissues, and the types and abundances of fatty acids in bone may be linked to dietary sources of lipids. Of the archaeological samples analyzed, terrestrial species (caribou [Rangifer tarandus]) generally exhibited higher concentrations of saturated fatty acids compared to marine species (ringed seals [Pusa hispida] and polar bears [Ursus maritimus]), whereas marine species had higher concentrations of monounsaturated fatty acids compared to terrestrial species. Results of analyses on both modern and archaeological samples provided insight into the degradation of fatty acids in bone, and the rapid loss of polyunsaturated fatty acids in particular. Because the abundances of fatty acids are likely altered in the burial environment, it is recommended that future analyses incorporate compound specific isotope analysis to focus on applications of fatty acids that are typically in the highest abundance and arguably have undergone the least amount of change, including palmitic (C16:0) and stearic acid (C18:0) Author Keywords: Archaeological Science, Bone Lipids, Fatty Acid Analysis, GC-MS, Lipid Preservation, Palaeoecology
Childhood diet and feeding practices at Apollonia
This study analyses deciduous dental pathology and stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes to investigate the relationship between dietary composition, feeding practices, and oral health in a subadult skeletal sample from the Greek colonial site of Apollonia Pontica, Bulgaria (5th to 3rd century BC). Stable isotope analysis of 74 bone collagen samples indicates that weaning began between the ages of 6 months and 1 year, and was complete by the age of 4. The stable isotope data are consistent with a diet of primarily terrestrial C3 resources. The deciduous dentitions of 85 individuals aged between 8.5 months and 10.5 years were examined for evidence of a number of pathological conditions. The presence of dental caries, calculus, occlusal tooth wear and an abscess indicate that foods introduced early in life affected the oral health of these individuals. Overall, the deciduous dental data correlate well with the stable isotope data and ancient textual sources regarding infant and childhood dietary composition and feeding practices. Author Keywords: breastfeeding, deciduous dentition, dental pathology, stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes, weaning
Civic Agriculture
This thesis re-imagines the social sustainability of civic agriculture. This entails critically examining the idea of sustainability and exposing why a tendency to undertheorize its social dimension is problematic for how we think about sustainability, and consequently for how we do sustainability. What is demonstrated is that we can overcome this tendency by adopting Stephen McKenzie's understanding of social sustainability as a positive condition and/or process within a community. Once brought into contact with the concept of civic agriculture as presented by Thomas A. Lyson, and expanded upon by others, this broadened understanding of social sustainability reveals that we can think of civic agriculture as both a means to, and an expression of, social sustainability. Specifically, this thesis argues that it is civic agriculture's community problem-solving dimension which animates civic agriculture in such a way that it creates the sort of condition and/or enables the sort of process which reflect aspects associated with a substantive and/or procedural understanding of social sustainability. This re-imagining of the social sustainability of civic agriculture provides ways to defend civic agriculture from its critics and is exemplified by drawing from a personal encounter with civic agriculture. In the end, it is proposed that in light of this research there are now good reasons to re-examine civic agriculture and to critically re-imagine what qualifies who as a civic agriculturalist so that the contextual nature of the social sustainability of civic agriculture can be better respected. Author Keywords: civic agriculture, community problem solving, local food systems, social sustainability, Stephen McKenzie, Thomas A. Lyson
Civil Aviation and Scheduled Air Services in Colonial Botswana, 1935-1966
This thesis provides an in-depth and chronological study of the development of civil aviation in the Bechuanaland Protectorate (today’s Botswana), and the role played by the British Government in the development of this form of transport. The thesis argues that Her Majesty’s Government’s neglect and very little interest in its protectorate’s civil aviation represented a form of underdevelopment. The study also reveals the constant contradiction between the neglect of the imperial government and the constant lobbying on the part of colonial administration in the Protectorate for the establishment of an air service. To the colonial administrators, civil aviation represented a symbol of modernity and progress as well as more practical advantages such as mobility. The thesis finally concludes that the Bechuanaland Protectorate’s first airline was established due to growing nationalism both locally and on the continent, at large. The British Government facilitated the establishment of the airline as an attempt to appear benevolent to the protectorate on the eve of independence. Author Keywords:
Class Struggle and Solidarity in Neo-Liberal Times
The lengthy and raucous 1986 Gainers meatpacking plant strike in Edmonton, Alberta was one of the most important events in recent Alberta labour history. In the midst of the economic crisis of the 1980s and the rise of neo-liberal ideas, the strike marked a backlash by both the labour movement and ordinary citizens against attacks on workers and unions. Characterized by widely covered picket line violence, repressive police and court actions, and government unresponsiveness, the strike generated massive solidarity within and beyond the labour movement. This solidarity originated in a rejection of the neo-liberal new reality of Alberta typified by high unemployment, anti-union laws and practices, and lack of government welfare support, and it generated a provincial change the law campaign, national boycott, and rising class consciousness. The working class mobilization during the Gainers strike was a watershed for the Alberta labour movement. Author Keywords: Alberta Federation of Labour, Gainers strike, neo-liberalism, solidarity, working class
Class Struggle, The Communist Party, and the Popular Front in Canada, 1935-1939
This thesis is an attempt to provide a critical history of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) during the Popular Front era, roughly November 1935 to September 1939. This study contains a detailed examination of the various stages of the Popular Front in Canada (the united front, the height of the Popular Front, and the Democratic front), with special attention paid to the CPC’s activities in: the youth movement, the labour movement, the unemployed movement, the peace movement, and the anti-fascist movement. From this I conclude that the implementation of the Popular Front, the transformation of the CPC from a revolutionary party to a bourgeois party, was not a smooth process, but instead was punctuated and resisted by elements within the CPC in what can be considered a process of class struggle internal to the CPC itself. Author Keywords: Canada, communism, Great Depression, labour, Popular Front, socialism
Commonality of Enemies
Carlism and anarchism were revolutionary social movements that acquired significant popular support during the most intensive period of modernization in Spain (mid 19th to mid 20th centuries). It was noted but not well explored by contemporaries and historians that these enemies were similar in their hostility towards modernization and in their intense idealism. This thesis compares the two movements in order to determine the nature of their commonality and what this suggests about ideological enemies. A range of sources were consulted, including scholarship on modern Spain, biographical information on individuals who converted from Carlism to anarchism and contemporary print media. It was concluded that they were produced by the same destabilizing processes of disentailment and industrialization, which drew the working classes towards proposals that would have otherwise seemed implausibly utopian. The thesis further suggests that they were uniquely idealistic, in that they put moral integrity before the success of their cause. Author Keywords: anarchism, Carlism, enemy other, modernization, Modern Spain, social movements
Community Coalescence and Regional Geospatial Trends of Ceramic Decorative Variation in Late Woodland Northern Iroquoia
This case study focuses on geospatial patterns of decorative variation in pottery assemblages from 234 Northern Iroquoian village communities, occupied between ca. 1350–1650 CE. Previous interpretations of these assemblages’ ceramic decorative variability have been based on the assertion that potters from these communities used collar decorative motifs as communicative social signals. However, they did not consider whether these geospatial decorative patterns could simply reflect the outcome of stochastic macroscale social learning processes driven solely by probabilistic information exchange between closer neighboring communities. Cultural transmission, the theoretical framework applied here, is well-suited to address this perspective. Thus, the primary research question of this case study is, “Are the expected outcomes of random copying processes sufficient to explain the range of geospatial ceramic decorative variability observed across Northern Iroquoia?” Random copying processes are the stochastic, probabilistic social learning mechanisms driving the collective decisions of multiple communities, making up one side of the “random-selective copying spectrum.” When the decorative decisions of multiple communities are collectively guided by shared ideas (such as, potentially, symbolic communication structures), they become subsumed under the broad umbrella of “selective copying” processes. The social learning mechanisms involved on both sides have predictable geospatial and structural ranges of ceramic decorative patterning. The goal of this case study was thus to evaluate the range of patterning in Northern Iroquoia, both generally as well as at narrower temporal and spatial scales. Ultimately, region-specific temporal trends in selective copying processes seeming to reflect recently established temporal trajectories of community coalescence were identified. Author Keywords: coalescence, cultural population structure, cultural transmission, isolation by distance, Northern Iroquoia, social signaling
Community and conservation
Faced with the intersecting environmental crises of the 21st century, conservation organizations are searching for practices that produce better, more sustainable outcomes. However, they have often relied on forms of conservation which shore up rather than disrupt settler relationships to land in the form of fortress conservation and assumptions about the human-nature dualism. In this thesis, I examine a local land trust that intends to include community[-based] conservation into its conservation practices. In particular, I explore how the organization’s volunteers understand and construct the relationship between community and conservation, and the ways this might impact operations. Using a community-based research approach, interviews (n=17) were conducted. The findings indicate that the volunteers are demographically homogenous, leading to a homogenous, Western-science informed understanding of community[-based] conservation. This perspective views involvement of community as a direct trade-off with optimal ecological goals. As the volunteers wield uncommon power in organizational governance, difference in opinions toward missions or operations could lead to constraints on the organization. This study contributes to larger academic discourses on environmental volunteers, land trusts, and frames of conservation, and provides tangible recommendations to an organization attempting to include community[-based] conservation in its practices. Author Keywords: community-based conservation, environmental governance, environmental volunteers, frames of conservation, land trusts, power
Community, Complexity, and Collapse
The city-state of Minanha, located in west central Belize, reached its zenith and most culturally complex stage by the Late Classic period, 675-810 AD. Only a century later, its royal court “collapsed”. The Contreras Valley is a small farming community located in a settlement zone south of Minanha. Decades of research at Minanha and the analysis of artifact frequencies from commoner households allow for a better understanding of the intra- and inter-community social practices occurring at the site of Contreras Valley and within the greater Minanha area. An Archaeology of Communities as well as Resilience Theory frameworks are utilized to explore the integrative social, political, and economic strategies of this commoner population. These theories are used to better understand the developmental history of the royal court from the perspective of the peripheral commoners, who sustained a population while the royal court disintegrated. Furthermore, this thesis focuses on the intersection of resilience and communities, and how the Contreras Valley experienced phases of resilience as well as vulnerability throughout its history. The resilience of this group of individuals will generate an increased cognizance of how a community copes with and continues to thrive in a climate of political chaos and instability. Author Keywords: Ancient Maya, Archaeology, Archaeology of Communities, Artifact frequencies, Resilience Theory, Settlement pattern studies

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Graduate student theses produced at Trent University. You may also browse theses and dissertations by year, program, or author.

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