Colorado College Anthropology Majors' Senior Capstones    2016 - 2021
	To view full capstone go to Tutt Library Digital CC:   https://digitalccbeta.coloradocollege.edu/thesis-capstones
Year	Last name	First name	Title	Abstract
2021	Bai	Tianyi	Ethnicity and Religion: The Hui in Zhengzhou	This project examines Chinese secularism and the minzu (ethnicity/nationality) framework. In tracing the genealogy of Chinese secularism through three figures, Kang Youwei, Chen Duxiu, and Mao Zedong, I argued that it is deeply intertwined with generations of indigenous efforts for national independence, in which religion was reified as a state component and consequently produced as a new regime of state surveillance. Chinese secularism aims to make modern, national subjects as well as regulate religious subjects. I also argued that the minzu framework is a modality of secularism that is meant to manage difference, which produces the only minzu majority, the Han as normalized Chinese subjects described in civilizational terms in contrast to all other minzu minorities. In this way, I position the Hui group in Zhengzhou in this context of Chinese secularism and minzu framework and conducted online interviews with seven Hui interlocutors to examine the effects of these state-directed projects. In the conversations with seven Hui individuals, I argued that the Hui’s internal heterogeneity shows the limitation of and the homogenizing powers of the minzu framework, which makes the Huis’ difference salient from the Han and produces the Hui’s marginalization as an effect. In addition, in my interlocutors’ discourses, religion, especially Islam, is characterized as backward, peripheral, and addictive, which have led many young, urban Huis to detach themselves from their supposed religious and ethnic identity and to eliminate their differences from the Han.
2021	Chen	Angelina	Making New Citizens: Theater, Liminality, and Political Awakening of Migrant Children in Shenzhen, China
2021	Cusanello	Victoria	A Review of Evolutionary Medicine: Evolutionary Insights into Female Reproductive Healthcare
2021	Fixico	Tyrien	The Integrity of the Sacred: Intersections of Self-Commodification and Identity Reclamation in American Indian Fashion.
2021	Gaspar	Monique	Maya Q’anjob’al or Akateko?  Conversations on the Continuity of Maya Languages	The focus for this research project will be tracing the roots of Maya language revitalization efforts in Guatemala and in the United States. Despite existing efforts to revitalize Maya languages, I question how formal processes to institutionalize a language may be more detrimental than productive to its usage and maintenance. In my research, I use intimate ethnographic and auto-ethnographic methods to provide a different perspective of the language/dialect debate for the Q’anjob’al and Akateko languages specifically. I discuss how ideologies impact the continuity of these particular languages which share commonalities with other Indigenous linguistic communities.
2021	Lechini	Julieta	"Derechos de Piso": The Roofless Path Towards the Uruguayan Citizenship
2021	Sharma	Ankita	The Effects of the Presence of Carers on Spider Monkeys in Wildlife Rehabilitation Spaces	Nineteen endangered Geoffrey’s Spider Monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi) are currently housed at Wildtracks, a wildlife rehabilitation center in Sarteneja, Belize. As spider monkey reintroduction programs have so far been unsuccessful, assessing whether prolonged human care is detrimental to their release prospects is important. To understand the influence of care-giving on natural behaviors, I examined whether having human carers in proximity to the monkeys at and around feeding times was affecting the monkeys’ behavior. I hypothesized that the presence of humans would decrease spider monkey social and self-directed behaviors while increasing the frequency and intensity of their interactions with carers. For the study, I performed a group scan over forty-five-minute intervals for three hours each day over 32 days and recorded the monkeys' behavior and the intensity of their interactions with humans according to a 5-point scale. I examined relationships between intensity and frequency of interaction, percent of life spent in care, time spent at Wildtracks, age, and sex. Results suggest that an increased time spent in rehabilitation care has minimal impact on whether monkeys solicit greater or more intense periods of interaction with humans. However, in looking at monkeys’ behavioral changes around humans, affiliative behaviors with other monkeys and self-directed behaviors decreased. This trend, however, is less prominent in later life stages. This may indicate that age serves as one mitigating factor for how much a monkey is disrupted by caretakers. This research can aid in understanding best practice in human and primate interaction in wildlife rehabilitation spaces.
2021	Story	Sydney