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Current Faculty Research Projects

Education, Science, and Entertainment: Interpreting a Controversial Museum Exhibition

S. Elizabeth Bird

This project explores public response to the controversial exhibition BODIES, shown at the Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, which included 20 full body specimens and 250 organs and body systems, all preserved through the “plastination” process. The project: a) explores the controversy, especially in terms of the history of the public display of real human bodies and body parts, and the ethical issues presented within anthropology; b) analyzes public response to the exhibition, posing such questions as the possible positive effects on health behaviors, as opposed to an equally possible “sensational” impact; and c) discusses the issues raised by such exhibitions, in terms of the changing role of museums in both education and popular culture.

The accompanying photo shows M.A. student Jess Ambiee conducting visitor surveys at MOSI.

Examining Household Level Change in the Middle to Late Woodland Transition:
The View from Kolomoki

Tom Pluckhahn

This study, funded by a grant from the National Geographic Society, seeks to understand changes in household size, structure, and economy in the transition from the Middle to Late Woodland periods, between 350 and 750 A.D. The focus of the study is the site of Kolomoki, a multi-mound ceremonial complex in the lower Chattahoochee River Valley of southwestern Georgia. Previous excavations at Kolomoki in 2002 revealed the remains of a well-preserved pit house (pictured here in the later stages of excavation) dating to the Middle Woodland period. The goal of the current study is to excavate a house from the Late Woodland occupation at Kolomoki. If successful, this would be one of the first diachronic studies of household change for the Woodland period in the Southeast and would provide considerable new insight on the development of complex societies in the region. Excavations will be continue in the summer of 2007 with a University of South Florida archaeology field school.

For information on participating in the project, please email Dr. Pluckhahn at tpluckha@cas.usf.edu

Palmarejo Community Archaeological Project

Christian Wells and Karla L. Davis-Salazar

With funding from the National Geographic Society and various agencies at USF, the Palmarejo Community Archaeological Project examines the ways in which ancient and modern agrarian communities in northwest Honduras manage scarce resources to deal with food and water insecurity caused by globalization processes.

Located roughly 15 km from San Pedro Sula (the second largest and fastest growing city in Honduras), the rural population of the Palmarejo Valley has experienced increasing demands on its natural resources, as non-resident, land-owning urbanites expand and modernize their cattle ranches and farms in the valley. The contemporary situation mirrors the prehispanic past, as ancient residents of Palmarejo were subject to the urbanization processes of neighboring La Sierra, the capital of the Naco Valley. We are using the archaeological case of Palmarejo, which provides us with a long-term perspective on human-environmental relations in the valley, to shed light on some of the ways in which farming intensification (e.g., crop specialization) and extensification (e.g., farming on marginalized lands) speed soil erosion, reduce crop yields, and diminish water sources. The greater goal of this effort is to work with local farmers to develop sustainable landscape management strategies that address their needs as they are increasingly pulled into a global market economy.

Northwest Florida Archaeology

Nancy White

Nancy White continues USF's long-term research program in the prehistoric and historic archaeology of the 6-county Apalachicola Valley area. In 2005 and 2006 the emphases are upon the earliest and latest prehistoric cultures and also more recent historic times. M.A. student Dan Tyler is studying the Paleo-Indian occupation of the valley by mapping sites and recording the Clovis points and other artifacts of local residents who generously share information on their collections. Doctoral student Jeff Du Vernay is expanding investigations at the Yon mound and village site in the middle valley to relate the late prehistoric chiefdom here to other Fort Walton-period temple mound sites. With these and other students, White is recording oral histories of elderly white and black residents who can fill out the picture of life at the turpentining and logging camp sites recorded during previous archaeological surveys. There is little written history of the hard life deep in the piney woods that supported the industries prominent in this region in the early twentieth century.

In the accompanying photo, doctoral student Jeff Du Vernay is doing fieldwork in northwest Florida; the late prehistoric Yon mound (8Li2) looms in the background, and the village associated with it lies partly under the dirt road.

Heritage Research Lab News

Antoinette Jackson
The Heritage Researcher newsletter (PDF)

Sulphur Springs Community Heritage Project

Dr. Antoinette Jackson and graduate students in her Fall 2006 “Issues in Heritage Tourism” course developed and launched a community based project known as the Sulphur Springs Heritage Project. This project represents an initial step in an ongoing partnership between USF and the Sulphur Springs community to develop heritage resources aimed both at stimulating tourism and at enhancing general public knowledge about the rich and diverse history of one of Tampa’s once thriving spring communities.

Multicultural Guide to the Tampa Bay Area Project

Graduate students in Dr. Jackson’s Fall 2006 “Issues in Heritage Tourism” course worked directly with members of the Arts Council of Hillsborough County to develop a multicultural resource guide. The primary goal of the guide is to promote Tampa as the destination of choice to a diverse population of potential convention promoters and participants by identifying and marketing the diverse array of businesses and cultural heritage sites in the Tampa Bay area.

Final project summary PDF here.