Humanities

Blake, Deanna (Utah Valley University)
Faculty Advisor: McPherson, Kate (Utah Valley University, Honors Program); Hunt, John (Utah Valley University, History); Snedegar, Keith (Utah Valley University, History)

On December 30, 1460 Richard of York, father of both Edward IV and Richard III, fought and died at the battle of Wakefield alongside his son, Edmond Earl of Rutland. Accounts of the time then say he was pulled of his horse and beheaded. The Lancastrians then put his head on a spike with a paper crown on top. They placed it where everyone could see then handed his body over to be buried at Pontefract. His son, Edward IV, took the throne soon after. Several years into his reign, in the year 1475, Edward IV had his father and brother's remains moved to the Church of St. Mary and All Saints in Furthering. It is known that the event, full of ceremonies and processions, was an important political move. The ceremony was elaborate.

The court Edward IV had around him at the time was full of tension. His marriage to Elisabeth Woodville drove a wedge between him and his mentor, Richard duke of Warwick. This would soon turn his brother George duke of Clarence, who wanted power for himself, to ally with Warwick. Edward IV was attempting to show unity between the queen and Warwick at the time of the reburial, even having them walk next to each other holding hands during the procession to the church.

The shaky political ground at the time put much into question. Edward IV took the throne from Henry VI. Many would see this as seizing power taken for the York's after the forced abdication of Richard II. Others saw it as a usurpation. There were other varying thoughts on the matter. In the end, Edward's legitimacy as king was in question. He did what he could to codify the idea of his reign.

The reburial of his father, Richard of York, was one of the many ways he did this. His end goal was to make his father into a king in his death. The event was extravagant. Many attended. Edward IV gave his father such an elaborate funeral possession it could be seen as one of the greatest events of Edward IV reign when it comes to peaceful affairs. He and his affinity said Henry VI was a usurper, Richard of York was the rightful king, therefore Edward was the rightful heir, as opposed to Edward of Westminster. Giving the man a funeral and burial fit for a king would help the people to believe it as well.

Richard's burial was given with all the deference of a king. Edward drew on other monarchies and the duchy of burgundy for inspiration for the event. The event began with a procession that started on the 24th of July. The Duke was dressed in elaborate garbs and coved with a cloth made from gold material with an ermine furred mantle, as a king would be. Candles were lite under the hearse alongside a silver angel wearing a gold crown to represent Richard of York's right to be king. The procession of lords led by the youngest of his sons, Richard Duke of Gloucester, later Richard iii, traveled from Pontefract to Fotheringhgay on 29th. Along the way, the people flocked to watch from all over the country. When they reached Fotheringhay members of the colleges joined the

The aim of this project is to preserve and document the ideas, stories and history of individuals who experienced the Rwandan civil war, and record and analyze how these experiences shaped their subsequent life paths. The civil war in Rwanda and genocide that accompanied it are perhaps the most horrifying examples of brutality and violence displayed in the latter half of the twentieth century. The genocide, which is believed to have claimed the lives of more than 800,000 Rwandans in just 100 days was observed by the world at large with minimal intervention or action. In the years following the war, the few stories that publicized the events of 1994 tend to highlight death and destruction rather than the determination and resolve of those who fought to not only survive, but thrive in the aftermath of this calamity. It is these untold stories that the project focuses on. The best method for recording and uncovering these untold stories is oral history. The oral history interviews for this project take the guided life history approach, using several broad questions to encourage a discussion of the events that occurred during the civil war and how the war impacted post-war lives. The duration of interviews range between 30 minutes and 1 hour. Upon the completion of an interview, it is transcribed and returned to the participant as a written record of their experiences. After conducting all the necessary interviews, the transcribed accounts will be analyzed and comparing for similarities and trends, leading to broad conclusions based on the findings. The histories collected thus far have been incredible. The experience has been humbling as individuals speak candidly about the traumas of the war and the impact the war has had on their lives over the last two decades. The responses have been overwhelmingly positive, as individuals speak about the strength, charity and love that developed within them as a result of the tragedies experienced during the war.

In the U.S. Virgin Island (USVI) there is a large quantity of residential waste produced with ineffective modes of disposal available. Rather than trash being picked up by trucks on a weekly basis, residents must take their waste to limited waste collection sites. The collection bins at these sites, are not frequently taken to the landfill, resulting in habitual littering around the bins. This litter then reaches the Caribbean Sea via “ghuts” (ephemeral streams) and through storm water runoff. This ultimately results in high quantities of land-based sourced Marine Debris (MD). In an effort to reduce these sources of MD, the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) Masters in Marine & Environmental Science Program (MMES) faculty and students partnered with USVI Department of Education (VIDoE) teachers to find inventive ways for USVI G6-12 students to share what they learn in their classes about MD with the broader USVI community. These community transfer projects (CTP) focused on messaging campaigns to reduce land-based sources of MD. The CTPs were co-developed by MMES students and VIDoE teachers. The CTPs were organized by NOAA Priority Watersheds to have the largest, positive, impact possible. The projects were developed in Fall 2016 and implemented in Spring 2017. We were interested in discovering how developing and implementing CTPs would influence MMES student’s and VIDoE teacher’s attitudes toward MD and their associated personal behaviors. We conducted retrospective, semi-structured interviews asking project leaders about their experiences with the CTPs and how they feel their attitudes/behaviors have changed after participation in their projects. We deductively coded responses based on the following categories: Pre-CTP Attitude and Behavior; Post-CTP Attitude and Behavior; Ideas about the impact of CTPs; and Working with MMES students/VIDoE teachers. We then inductively coded participant responses to verify the deductive codes and ensure researcher triangulation. In general, there was a decrease in negative attitudes toward MD for both MMES students and VIDoE teachers. Additionally, there was an increase in pro-environmental behaviors, largely by VIDoE teachers.

Remarkable in both subject and execution, Los Desastres de la Guerra (Disasters of War) is exceptional in Goya’s oeuvre and in artistic representations of wartime rape. Filled with scenes illustrating the consequences and violence of war, Goya offers an insightful yet ambiguous commentary, particularly in the plates in which rape is presented as a first-hand account; plate 9, No quieren—“They don’t want it”—, plate 10, Tampoco—“Nor do these”— and plate 11, Ni por ésas—“Nor those.” Indicting the French soldiers for the rape of women during the French occupation, the Disasters of War offers offering a brutal and deceptively truthful view on the inevitable and horrible consequences which war and looting wage on women, transforming both viewer and artist into witnesses of the gruesome scenes, implicating both as detached, though unwitting, participants in the sexual violence enacted against these women; the artist in his creation of these rapes and the viewers in their reception of the images. By making the viewer a first-hand witness to these rape scenes, Goya accomplishes greater empathy for the women than other artistic portrayals of rape, however, he also unintentionally sheds a spotlight on the callousness of the viewer, and by extension, the artist himself. Both created and publicly received my men, the scenes of sexual violence shown in plates 9-11 display and discuss the rape of women as a means to an end in which the lives and suffering of these women, fictional or real, are periphery to what acts of sexual violence say about the men who wage war. Although art historians and critics today may consider the beauty of the plate’s compositions, is it at all possible for scenes which portray violence against women, as in the Disasters of War, to be considered beautiful? I would like to address how these images were received when The Disasters of War was released in 1863, considering the plate’s reception by contemporaneous art critics such Enrique Mélida within the context of how rape was understood in the nineteenth century. By comparing They don’t want it, Nor do these, and Nor those to portrayals of rape by Goya and other nineteenth-century artists, in addition to portrayals of rape by female artists, I hope to clarify where Goya’s rape scenes reside on a spectrum of artistic representations of rape, ranging from exploitative to empathetic.

The ancient city of Petra, Jordan, capital of the Nabataean kingdom that flourished during the time of Christ, is famous for its elaborate and monumental tombs. However, while much has been written on the construction and artistic influences of these tombs, little research has been conducted on the wide variety of burial types found inside them. By comparing burial type (principally primary and secondary burials) to tomb façade types, age at death, and gender, I hope to discover more about Nabataean mortuary rituals. This should reveal new insights into the status of women, lifestyle differences between wealthy and poor, and influences of outside religious beliefs from other areas of the Ancient Near East. My advisor and I will analyze frequencies of burial types among different subgroups within Nabataean society, particularly with regards to age, sex and socioeconomic status. Using all available published reports of Nabataean burial excavations, our own experiences excavating in Jordan, and BYU’s extensive collection of Nabataean grave goods and skeletal remains, we will gather data on the rates of primary burial (simple deposition of a corpse into a grave) and secondary burial (defleshing of bodies through exposure after death, after which the bones are gathered and deposited into a grave). After converting this information into a form suitable for statistical analysis, we will then examine relationships between each burial type and gender, age at death, and apparent wealth, determined by type of tomb façade, available inscriptions and richness of grave goods. Unfortunately, most Nabataean burials have been robbed or disturbed in some way, so I will also consider this variable to extrapolate information from what is not present in the archaeological record. This project will examine the cultural and religious origins of both burial types and explore the question of whether secondary burial was performed merely for efficient use of tomb space, or if it had a greater significance in establishing a shared ancestral identity after death. I also hope to provide fresh insights into the Nabataean views on the afterlife and a possible ancestral cult that was the object of reverence or worship.