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On November 20, 1979, worldwide attention was still focused on Tehran, but in Saudi Arabia that morning, unbeknownst to anyone, events that would change the Muslim world were also occurring. This morning was the first day of the year 1400 according to the hijra calendar and hundreds of gunmen seized Islam’s holiest shrine, the Grand Mosque in Mecca. Armed with rifles that they had smuggled inside coffins, these men came from more than a dozen countries. Led by a Saudi radical named Juhayman al Utaybi, they believed that the Saudi royal family had become a servant of American infidels, and they declared the return of the mahdi. With around 50,000 worshippers trapped inside the holy compound, Mecca’s bloody siege lasted two weeks. In the meantime, false reports blaming the United States for the siege inflamed Muslim populations and caused hundreds of deaths in American diplomatic centers around the world. While many facts regarding this operation are relatively well known at this point, what is less well known is the effect that this raid had on radical Islamic dissidents in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere. This research first shows that Juhayman al-Utaybi’s movement came as a result of social and political forces specific to Saudi society, then gives details on the attack itself, and finally highlights the lingering influence of this event both within and outside of Saudi Arabia.
Daily activity patterns in animals are the product of complex interactions between an internal biological clock mechanism and extrinsic factors. This study was performed to investigate the potential effects of temperature on the activity patterns of 12 female Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) under a 12:12 photoperiod. Gerbils were group housed and kept in either normal conditions with warm temperature (27oC) in the light and cool temperature (18oC) in the dark, or in a reversed temperature pattern. Data were collected remotely using web-cams and the gerbils’ activity levels compared between conditions. There were subtle but significant differences between groups in the overall activity of gerbils. Weekly food consumption and the mass of gerbils at the end of the experiment were also significantly different between experimental conditions. These results support the hypothesis that ambient temperature is involved in the regulation of activity patterns in gerbils.
Recent research in Gabon suggests mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) live in large, “female-led” troops with peripheral males who compete for access to females during the breeding season. This social structure differs greatly from captive conditions where a single male and a few females are housed together year-round, which may affect female-female and male-female interactions. The results reported here come from a year-long study of one troop (n=5) of captive mandrills housed at the San Francisco Zoo. Dominance interactions were documented and “best fit” dominance hierarchies were calculated and analyzed along with other group interactive behaviors. During the study period, two significant demographic changes occurred: 1) a planned, artificial change to female reproductive ability; and 2) an unplanned illness of the dominant female. The dominance hierarchy, which was stable at the beginning of the study, began to break down and a new dominant female emerged by the end of the study. The male also expressed behavioral changes as mating opportunities were presented to him. My research illustrates that even in captivity, dominance hierarchy remains an important element in mandrill social structure and that demographic changes can impact it as well as male mate choice. This provides new insight into the social behavior of a relatively little known primate species and provides valuable information for captive mandrill breeding programs.
Working as the Women’s Resource Center Coordinator at the University of Wisconsin Superior has given me insight into a change in the needs of students at our school. I have conducted primary and secondary research to see if other schools are experiencing a similar change in their need for a Women’s Center. In my paper I discuss the historical importance of Women’s Centers dealing with women’s rights movements. I then go on to discuss that there is a need for equality for all people and a center promoting that equality, rather than just women’s rights, and how that would be much for useful to this generation. I surveyed eight Universities, one of which was a COPLAC school, questioning them about the type of women’s/ gender center they have. I then did some further secondary research on schools based on their websites. I concluded that the center at UW-Superior should be changed to encompass a wider range of diversity, based on what other surrounding universities are doing.
The Abdülhamid II Photo Collection was originally given as a gift to the United States by the Ottoman sultan in 1893 and is now housed in the Prints and Photographs Division at the Library of Congress. The fifty-one albums containing 1,819 photographs display Ottoman industrial, military, and educational projects. Notably absent from the albums are the familiar scenes of Orientalist painting, literature and photography that were common in Western culture at the time.
The Abdülhamid II collection is one outgrowth of the Hamidian program of public relations, but one that was largely ignored. The albums were shelved and more or less forgotten until the 1980s and the tropes of Oriental exoticism and social backwardness prevailed. Since then there has been some scholarship on the albums, the most detailed of which is a six page article published in the Journal of Turkish Studies by William Allen in 1988. Other authors have cited the albums as part of a larger historical narrative but most ignore their inherent value to the field.
This paper seeks to take a more focused approach and considers the albums themselves. The photography found in the albums is compared to the commercial photography of the period in order to display that neither is a completely “accurate” portrait of the Ottoman Empire near the turn of the century. The Abdülhamid II Collection is a remarkably rich resource not only for students of Ottoman history, but also those considering photography and the global climate at the end of the Nineteenth Century.
This research explores the concept of how Italians and Italian-Americans construct the notion of “home”. A contribution to the Many Ways Home project, this paper offers a cross-cultural comparison. Through participant-observation and interviews with Italian-Americans in both New Jersey and Asheville, North Carolina (June to October 2008) and Italians in the Tuscan city of Siena (January to June 2009), I analyze what “home” means to my participants by examining the contributions of intersecting factors such as country of residence, socio-economic class and generation. For both groups, the concept of “home” extends beyond the physical dwelling where a person resides to a close-knit community of people. Though Italian-Americans and Italians may differ in the ways they define their “Italianess”, all see “home”, and in a larger sense “homeland” as a defining cultural trait.
Keywords: Identity, Home, Italian-American
Deforestation is a perilous threat to some of the most diverse and useful habitat on earth, as well as a major factor in desertification. Understanding how people and economic inequality directly affect forest resources is vital to creating sustainable conservation that does not cause further human suffering. This paper explores reasons for deforestation in two of the most diverse biomes on earth: the Amazon rainforest of Brazil and the temperate forests of Appalachia. By using the method of literature review, it is apparent that many similarities and differences occur in land use and their effects. In both of these areas, rural and indigenous cultures have been reduced to poverty by the actions of rich multinational and/or large corporations as forest resources are milked for short-term profit. Wealthy exploitation has left behind widespread destruction and waste; while the poor also mismanage the surrounding land in their desperation to survive in an age of growing living standards. This comparison also examines how these social classes, along with the government, are involved in current sustainable efforts to conserve forest ecology for local prosperity and future generations.
Keywords: economic inequality, Appalachia, deforestation
As jazz music rose to popularity in the early twentieth century, people of all backgrounds were drawn to it. Visual artists recognized the distinctive rhythms and defining colors in jazz as inherently unique, and sought to recreate them visually. Piet Mondrian’s colored, pulsating blocks in Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-1943) and Victory Boogie Woogie , created in the following year, shows that rhythm is an important element in the depiction of jazz music. In regard to color, Henri Matisse’s chromatic improvisations in his famous cut-out work, Jazz (1947), show the importance of color to the inimitable nature of jazz music. In France, Matisse was artistically guided by the concept of jazz; but, as an artist who spent significant time in America, Mondrian was specifically inspired by the sounds of New York City. Ultimately, the new, modern city and the new modern music of jazz went hand-in-hand in their profound influence upon modern art. These artists show the inspiration that can be drawn visually from the rhythms and colors of America’s music: Jazz.
Distinguishing between Peromyscus leucopus (white-footed mouse) and P. maniculatus (deer mouse) with morphological characteristics is difficult, especially when the species co-occur, and biochemical markers require time and money. The objective of this study was to develop a regional discriminant model based on foot and tail lengths to categorize P. leucopus and P. maniculatus into one of three groups; those that are clearly one species or the other and those that fall in a grey area in between. Museum specimens from six contiguous counties in northeast Missouri were used to develop the model. The model was validated with set of specimens that included all outliers in which species identification was determined with mitochondria DNA markers specific for the two species. This conservative model based on foot and tail lengths was 82.8% accurate with greater accuracy for P. leucopus. Accuracy of the model is increased if the cut off value for group assignment is increased but this increases the number of specimens that fall in the grey area which require genetic identification to confirm species identity.
Through a postmodern approach, this paper examines the ways in which Woolf utilizes form and nature imagery in her two novels To the Lighthouse and The Waves to activate the sublime state in the reader. Woolf’s use of imagery fuses with the structure of her novels; in The Waves, imagery is the dominant piece, the interludes that serve to interrupt the story, while in To the Lighthouse, nature overcomes the Ramsay house in the “Time Passing” section. Nature becomes defined as that which is outside of civilization’s order, moving beyond definition. Woolf incorporates aspects of Roger Fry’s formalism to compliment her use of nature-oriented imagery, which purposefully calls attention to the form and not to the content, creating a peculiar effect in the reader. A reader, entering a sublime state brought on by the formal elements, experiences a slower rate of perception of the “real” and civilized world, allowing her reader to slip into the world of the imagination where knowledge and questions that have yet to be developed in the collective knowledge bank suddenly appear. The content and/or language serve to illuminate thematic issues and enhance the sublime state in the reader, while the form is responsible for activating the sublime state altogether, readying the senses for a hyper-perception. Thus, this paper argues that the structure of Woolf’s novels serve to relocate the boundaries of perception outside of the finite knowledge of civilization to the infinite unknown, in other words the sublime.
Multiple interrelated factors have forced migration throughout history. This study considers how resource scarcity relates to conflict, how scarcity and conflict can propel migration, and how intercultural tensions relate to conflict in sending and receiving countries.
This study further considers a possible link between climate change and conflict considering the predictions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the posited links between climate change, resource scarcity, resource abundance and dramatic weather events.
Understanding of future climate change as it relates to conflict necessitates an examination of historic migration forces. This study, conducted from June to August 2009, reviews literature drawn from a cross-disciplinary examination of scholarly research and organizational white papers and reports from geography, political science, conflict resolution, intercultural communication and anthropology.
No direct link between climate change and conflict was confirmed in the literature but a clear connection between resource scarcity, conflict, and migration was established, as was the prominence of intercultural and political discord in resource scarcity and migration circumstances. Environmental change is likely to force migration into adjacent developing countries that are already tapped for resources rather than to countries further away which may have better capacity to handle migration, and this heightens the potential for resource-related conflict.
The existence of some commonality amongst migrational push and pull factors allows us to learn from history and present day situations. However, research findings reveal a need to develop integrated migration adaptation and mitigation strategies that address the correlative aspects of migration and conflict forces.
Keywords: Climate Change, Global Warming, Migration, Intercultural Conflict, Resource Scarcity
My photo essay is titled, “Downtown Proud.” I took pictures of the abandoned and decaying buildings of a once booming business area in Wichita Falls, Texas. I am able to show the stark contrast of past and present business buildings with older pictures depicting their heyday. This is a social problem in many cities around the country. The allure of building the new and discarding the old instead of repairing it has become the new norm of the consumer society. My photo essay addresses this issue in the form of business structures.
Passionflowers (genus Passiflora) are vines, lianas, and trees known for their incredible morphological diversity, stunningly
beautiful flowers, and edible fruits. Passionflowers utilize a variety of different pollinators including bats, hummingbirds,
butterflies, bees, and wasps (figure 2). Passionflower butterflies also use Passiflora as host plants, and the relationship between these two groups of organisms is a classic example of co-evolution. The genus is currently composed of five subgenera: Astrophea, Decaloba, Deidamioides, Passiflora, and Tetrapathea. Due to its economic importance, subgenus Passiflora has been the focus of most scientific research in the genus while the equally fascinating and species rich subgenus Decaloba has been largely ignored. In addition, recently published revisionary
studies of Passiflora have included at most 35 species from Decaloba. There are many rare species in the subgenus that are
currently recognized as threatened or endangered, and it is the largest lineage in the genus possessing species found in both the New and Old World. Presented here is a preliminary phylogenetic analysis of the subgenus based upon the gene
sequences of trnL-F (Jorgensen et al., 2006).
During the Third Reich, prisoners within the Nazi concentration camp system were victims of an unconventional type of attack- a tool of genocide that strives not only for the death of the body, but for the death of the soul. Coined "Excremental Assault” by Holocaust survivor Terrence des Pres to explain the systematic subjugation of prisoners to filth as a policy deliberately aimed at humiliation and debasement, this tool became a daily exercise of Nazi totalitarian power. Within the camp system, this extreme “means to an end” sought not only to destroy the physical, but to destroy humanity and strip away dignity and self-worth. Even behind this madness there was method and reason. Exploring the concept of “death in life,” this work will illustrate the uniqueness and effectiveness of this extreme tool of genocide both psychologically and sociologically demonstrating how it contributed to the execution of such cruel and sadistic Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust.
Many postmodern works of literature offer alternative versions of earlier works. These contemporary revisions examine social circumstances and ideological constructs that surrounded the making of the earlier texts. J. M. Coetzee’s Foe, for example, is a revision of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe that focuses on imperialism and patriarchy. Coetzee points out the lack of women in Defoe’s work, and in adventure novels in general, by making a woman the protagonist of Foe. Michael Cunningham’s The Hours also comments on women’s past struggles to write: he depicts a fictional Virginia Woolf as she composes her novel Mrs. Dalloway. Cunningham’s and Coetzee’s works examine ways in which women have been prevented from writing. Both Foe and The Hours show that social and economic conditions influence the writing of literature; the New Historicism provides a framework for examining this influence. The two contemporary novels suggest that upper-class men have traditionally had voices in both history and literature, whereas women were outsiders with no audience. Coetzee and Cunningham present imaginary perspectives in order to question the accuracy of official histories.
This research examines the effects of terror management theory (TMT) and camera angle perspective on jury members. TMT states that humans defend themselves against the anxiety stemming from death awareness (mortality salience; MS) by investing in cultural worldviews, which often results in identification with similar others as well as harsh denigration of criminals. I sought to investigate whether participants‘ rating of a suspect‘s guilt would be influenced not only by MS but also by whether they watched a video of the suspect or the interrogator, which presumably altered their identification with the suspect. Each participant was either primed with mortality salience (MS) or a control before reading a description of a mock crime and then viewing an 80-second video clip of the beginning of an interrogation with the suspect, with the
camera either focused on the suspect or the interrogator for the duration of the clip. Results of two experiments showed that, under MS, participants who watched the suspect-centered video were significantly less certain of the suspect‘s guilt—and less likely to reach a unanimous guilty verdict during deliberation—than those who watched the interrogator- focused video, whereas the converse was true for the control participants. Gender also played a role in the verdicts with females finding the suspect guilty significantly more often than males. Results are discussed and directions for future research are offered.
Guaranteeing a sufficient supply of clean water is one of the biggest environmental problems facing the United States. This problem is dramatically exacerbated in the arid Southwest, where the limited water resources are shrinking, as demand for clean water is increasing. Compounding the problem is the environmental contamination from historic mining activities. Often located near headwaters, abandoned hard rock mines and mine waste piles deposit heavy metals into the streams and rivers of many of the western watersheds. Pollution from historic mining activities further degrades the quality of this limited resource, making the protection of clean water essential to the viability of life in the west.
The town of Rico, Colorado is situated at the headwaters of the Dolores River, a tributary to the Colorado, and is surrounded by abandoned silver, lead, zinc, gold and copper mines. Rico‟s mines have been contaminating the Dolores River for over a century. Despite its isolated location, the environmental history of the Rico region illustrates how actions undertaken locally are determined by state and federal policy decisions. These policy decisions are often influenced by national public
sentiment and economic trends, rather than empirical science, remedial objectives or local needs. This study is part of a growing body of environmental history that focuses on the evolution of environmental policy. By incorporating previously unused official accounts from town records, including board minutes and letters, this study contributes to future research on the history of Rico, and on environmental history in general.
Guaranteeing a sufficient supply of clean water is one of the biggest environmental problems facing the United States. This problem is dramatically exacerbated in the arid Southwest, where the limited water resources are shrinking, as demand for clean water is increasing. Compounding the problem is the environmental contamination from historic mining activities. Often located near headwaters, abandoned hard rock mines and mine waste piles deposit heavy metals into the streams and rivers of many of the western watersheds. Pollution from historic mining activities further degrades the quality of this limited resource, making the protection of clean water essential to the viability of life in the west.
The town of Rico, Colorado is situated at the headwaters of the Dolores River, a tributary to the Colorado, and is surrounded by abandoned silver, lead, zinc, gold and copper mines. Rico‟s mines have been contaminating the Dolores River for over a century. Despite its isolated location, the environmental history of the Rico region illustrates how actions undertaken locally are determined by state and federal policy decisions. These policy decisions are often influenced by national public sentiment and economic trends, rather than empirical science, remedial objectives or local needs. This study is part of a growing body of environmental history that focuses on the evolution of environmental policy. By incorporating previously unused official accounts from town records, including board minutes and letters, this study contributes to future research on the history of Rico, and on environmental history in general.