scholarly journals A SHOSHONEAN PRAYERSTONE HYPOTHESIS: RITUAL CARTOGRAPHIES OF GREAT BASIN INCISED STONES

2018 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Hurst Thomas

The prayerstone hypothesis, grounded in Southern Paiute oral history, holds that selected incised stone artifacts were votive offerings deliberately emplaced where spiritual power (puha) was known to reside, accompanying prayers for personal power and expressing thanks for prayers answered. Proposing significant and long-term linkages between Great Basin incised stones and overarching Shoshonean cosmology, this article explores the prayerstone hypothesis in the context of the 3,500 incised stones documented from the Intermountain West, an assemblage spanning seven states and seven millennia. Employing object itinerary perspectives, it becomes possible to develop ritualized cartographies capable of matching oral Shoshonean traditions with specific geographic indicators. The results demonstrate that many (but not all) such incised stones are consistent with the votive emplacement of prayerstones. Multiple constellations of prayerstone practice operated across the Great Basin for more than 5,000 years and carried forward, without perceptible break, among several (but not all) Numic-speaking populations of the ethnohistoric interval. The diversity and antiquity implied by the prayerstone hypothesis suggest dramatically more complex cultural trajectories than those of Lamb's (1958) widely accepted model of a single, late, and simultaneous Numic spread across the Great Basin.

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Ed A. Muñoz

While there has been an explosion of scholarly interest in the historical and contemporary social, economic, and political status of U.S. Latinx individuals and communities, the majority focuses on traditional Southwestern U.S., Northeastern U.S., and South Florida rural/urban enclaves. Recent “New Destinations” research, however, documents the turn of the 21st century Latinx experiences in non-traditional white/black, and rural/urban Latinx regional enclaves. This socio-historical essay adds to and challenges emerging literature with a nearly five-century old delineation of Latinidad in the Intermountain West, a region often overlooked in the construction of Latina/o identity. Selected interviews from the Spanish-Speaking Peoples in Utah Oral History and Wyoming’s La Cultura Hispanic Heritage Oral History projects shed light on Latinidad and the adoption of Latinx labels in the region during the latter third of the 20th century centering historical context, material conditions, sociodemographic characteristics, and institutional processes in this decision. Findings point to important implications for the future of Latinidad in light of the region’s Latinx renaissance at the turn of the 21st century. The region’s increased Latino proportional presence, ethnic group diversity, and socioeconomic variability poses challenges to the region’s long-established Hispano/Nuevo Mexicano Latinidad.


2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-118
Author(s):  
Laurita Marconi SCHIAVON ◽  
Daniela Bento SOARES

Abstract Sports development involves important aspects that collaborate towards the achievement of a high level sports performance. Parental support is one such fact to be considered in Long Term Athlete Development (LTAD), capable of benefiting or harming athletes if not adequately administered. This study registers and discusses the importance of parental support in female Artistic Gymnastics, from the perspective of Brazilian gymnasts who have participated in the Olympic Games. The method used was Oral History with the technique known as oral testimony. The participants of the study were the ten Brazilian gymnasts who represented Brazil in the Olympic Games from when the country first participated in this championship, in 1980, up to the best Brazilian classification in Athens (2004), totaling ten gymnasts (a sample comprising 100% or the research universe). Testimony analysis was conducted through crossanalysis. The study shows unanimity among the gymnasts in regards to the importance of parental support in the sports development process. In addition to reinforcing the results found in the literature, the testimonies provide details of the relationships between the gymnasts and their families for deeper reflections around the subject, a distinguishing feature of studies with oral testimonies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin H. Welker ◽  
David A. Byers

Historically, domestic dogs(Canis familiaris)have been documented as central features of Intermountain West and Great Plains Native American camps. Some of these dogs were bred specifically for largeness and stamina to haultravoisand to carry pannier-style packs. Ethnographic accounts frequently highlight the importance of dogs in moving through the Intermountain West and the plains, reporting loads as heavy as 45 kg (100 lbs). We calculated body mass from skeletal morphometric data and used these to estimate prehistoric and historic dog load capacities for travois and pannier-style packs in the Intermountain West, Great Plains, and Great Basin. Specimens of large dogs recovered from sites in the Birch Creek Valley in Idaho and on the Great Plains indicate the animals could carry weights comparable to ethnographically recorded loads. Further, direct dating of the Birch Creek dog specimens indicated that dogs of this size have been present in the Intermountain West for more than 3,000 years. These data have important implications for our understanding of prehistoric mobility in the Intermountain West and the plains and suggest that the use of dogs in transporting cargo may have begun as early as 5,000 years ago.


2008 ◽  
Vol 89 (5) ◽  
pp. 1170-1183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca A. Bartel ◽  
Frederick F. Knowlton ◽  
L. Charles Stoddart
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Juliane Fürst

Hippies in the late Soviet Union appeared to many like creatures from a different star. Yet, a closer look reveals that the history of this movement has both short- and long-term precedents, which range from early revolutionary ideals to the generation of beatniks and Beatles fans, who were only slightly older than the wave of hippie youngsters that appeared in the late 1960s all across the Soviet Union. The introduction also situates the topic of Soviet hippies both within the history of the global hippie movement as well as in the context of late Soviet life and reality. A separate discussion is devoted to the methodology of oral history and the role of the subjective authorial voice. The introduction concludes with the overall argument of the book that the worlds of hippies and late socialism were not incompatible but in a bizarre way a good fit to each other that shaped the character of both.


2020 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-196
Author(s):  
William Burns

Paisley, in the West of Scotland, was once the world capital of industrial thread making. Existing scholarship on the thread works has focused on the “great men” of the mill-owning Coats and Clark families, neglecting the experience of female factory workers. This article explores the hidden history of the experience of work-induced illness and disability over the long term, from the perspective of women who worked in Paisley’s thread mills. It draws upon extant oral history interviews and 13 new interviews with former millworkers. There is a particular focus on two work-health interactions: first, repeated exposure to the constant roar of machinery, which resulted in hearing loss; second, piecework - compelling women to work at speed and to engage in repetitive movements and awkward postures in order to increase their earnings - which had a debilitating effect on their joints and limbs in later life. This article examines oral testimony of the long-term health implications for Paisley’s female thread workers and reveals that women engaged in risky work practices not only as victims of the industrial process but with agency in their desire to earn increased wages. This agency was framed within the inevitability of the absorption of risk, and curtailed by mechanical, social and financial factors.


1974 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 1319-1328
Author(s):  
Keith Priestley

abstract Strain measurements at two sites in central Nevada, Round Mountain and Mina, indicate that, in this area of the Basin and Range, strain rates are less than 2 × 10−6 per year. These observations are in agreement with estimated spreading rates and geodetic measurements in the Great Basin. The general agreement between strain-meter observations at Round Mountain and nearby focal mechanism solutions suggests that we are observing strain accumulation in this area. The long-term strain at Mina is more variable, but generally agrees with earthquake focal mechanism solutions. The strain rate, in conjunction with the high seismicity of the Mina area, suggests that strain has already accumulated and is presently being released through inelastic processes.


Human Affairs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 299-313
Author(s):  
Monika Vrzgulová

Abstract For the researcher, long-term qualitative investigation of a given subject matter represents an opportunity to acquire comprehensive knowledge of that subject matter in all of its dynamism and complexity. The author of this paper has been carrying out such research among Holocaust survivors, mainly employing the oral history method. This paper is an impressionistic story, a genre not commonly found in Slovak ethnological literature. It constitutes a first attempt to revisit material emerging from years of collaborative investigation with one particular female survivor. The paper alternates between reflections of selected situations and interpretations of events and processes which resulted from the research partner’s activities between 1995 and 2015.


2017 ◽  
Vol 122 (12) ◽  
pp. 6152-6169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingting Xue ◽  
Guoping Tang ◽  
Lin Sun ◽  
Yuzhen Wu ◽  
Yonglin Liu ◽  
...  

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