A Study of Selected Demographic Factors Associated with Population Change in Incorporated Rural Communities of South Dakota

The United States Census Bureau usually divides the population of any large geographical area into three broad categories – urban, rural farm and rural non-farm. Demographers have performed much investigation in the former two areas; however, the research relative to the rural non-farm population segment lacks the intensity that characterizes investigations of the urban and rural farm populations. Recently, there has been an awareness of this fact and the North Central Regional Committee on Community Adjustment to Social Change has initiated a large scale investigation of the changes and adjustments that are taking place within the communities of the region. By following some of the procedures by this committee, it is the intent of this thesis to provide a detailed demographic analysis of the rural non-farm population. South Dakota is cooperating in this regional study and this thesis will contribute to the analysis of data for South Dakota’s rural non-farm populations. This thesis will concentrate solely upon the demographic factors that are associated with population change. It is, of course, impossible to completely separate social and cultural factors from a study of population change; however, their importance will be de-emphasized for the purposes of this investigation

The relationship between members\u27 perceptions of self, the church, and their listening skills

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An Application Of the Massacre Model To A 700 Year Old Mystery

During the 1978 field season, the University of South Dakota\u27s Archaeological Laboratory was contracted by the Corpsof Engineers, Omaha District, to remove what were thought at that time to be several burials from the end of the fortification ditch. The steep-sided area had been made unstable by a looter\u27s hole. As a consequence of stepping-back the excavations so that the area could be stabilized, the remains of nearly 500 people in one large bone pile were exposed. Paramortem paleopathology of the massacre victims (Zimmerman, Gregg and Gregg 1981) indicated that every individual had been badly mutilated and many had been dismembered. Mutilations included scalping on virtually all of the victims, removal of hands and feet from many victims, skull fractures, decapitation, and other mutilations that frequently accompany massacre. The discovery of the Crow Creek bone pile demanded are interpretation of the culture history of the Middle Missouri River region. Although the fortification systems around some sites indicated at least some level of conflict, few suspected intensities so great as that discovered at Crow Creek. The simple questions of how the massacre occurred, why it was carried out, and who perpetrated the incident dominated archaeological inquiry. Interpretations of the cultural processes leading to the massacre have only recently been addressed. An archaeological model of the massacre has been proposed (Zimmerman and Bradley 1985) which suggests that competition for arable lands was at least a contributory factor to the massacre. Zimmerman and Stewart (1985) examined the ecological model and found that it showed little of how a massacre actually happens. They proposed instead a natural history model to account for both the causes and processes of massacre which used five stages and was derived from analysis of five massacre episodes. In this paper, that model is used to build a scenario of what might have happened at the Crow Creek site in the early 14th century

Retirement Patterns of Elderly Farm Operators

Gerontological literature abounds with studies of retirement and has successfully refuted many of the prevailing myths and misconceptions about the negative effects that retirement was purported to have upon health, self-esteem and life satisfaction. Atchley (1971) concluded that a large majority of retirees generally expressed satisfaction with retirement. Heidbreder (1972) and Streib and Schneider (1971) also found mostly positive attitudes expressed by professional, white-collar and blue-collar workers and a majority in each occupational group reported that they were pleasantly surprised with their ease of adjustment to retirement. These and other studies, however, relied almost exclusively upon surveys of urban populations. The elderly farm population has been somewhat ignored by researchers in the field of gerontology and this study is designed to shed some light on this group\u27s attitudes toward and patterns of retirement. The purposes of this study are two-fold: (1) identify and compare farm operators\u27 retirement attitudes and practices to the findings of research on non-farm occupations; and (2) identify patterns of retirement exhibited by elderly farm operators

To Dehumanize and Slaughter: A Natural History Model of Massacres

The phenomenon of massacre appears as a blight on the history of mankind, and history is replete with numerous examples. Despite their apparent barbaric nature, however, massacres have probably been more common in the contemporary world. A concept of massacres is often evaluative based principally on public perception. Newspaper headlines detailing the gore of My Lai and Sabra-Shatilla captivated and titillated readers throughout the world. Reported, but not documented, examples of mass murder in Cambodia, Uganda and Afghanistan also attested to its prevalence. What combination of factors - sociological, psychological, political, or economic - produce this extreme form of group behavior? What are the underlying causes of massacres? Do they follow a common pattern or is each unique? Providing answers to these questions will be the purpose of this paper