No abstract

America’s unique response to the global COVID-19 pandemic has been both criticized and applauded across political and social spectrums. Compared to other developed nations, U.S. incidence and mortality rates were exceptionally high, due in part to inconsistent policies across local, state, and federal agencies regarding preventive behaviors like mask wearing and social distancing. Furthermore, vaccine hesitancy and conspiracy theories around COVID-19 and vaccine safety have proliferated widely, making herd immunity that much more challenging. What factors of the U.S. culture have contributed to the significant impact of the pandemic? Why have we not responded better to the challenges of COVID-19? Or would many people in the U.S. claim that we have responded perfectly well? To explore these questions, we conducted a qualitative and quantitative study of Florida State University faculty, staff, and students. This study measured their perceptions of the pandemic, their behaviors tied to safety and community, and how these practices were tied to beliefs of individualism and collectivism. We found that collectivist orientations were associated with a greater likelihood of wearing masks consistently, severe interruptions of one’s social life caused by the pandemic, greater concern for infecting others, and higher levels of trust in medical professionals for behavioral guidelines surrounding the pandemic. These associations largely persist even after adjusting for political affiliation, which we find is also a strong predictor of COVID-19 beliefs and behaviors.

As climate change has become a global issue, it is important to assess its impacts on not only our modern day resources, but also our archaeological resources. An archaeological approach to climate change sheds light on themes of resilience, natural and cultural relationships, public outreach, social inequalities, and interdisciplinary perspectives (Hudson et al. 2012). In this paper, we organize fifteen archaeological and historical sites within the southeastern United States in a way that highlights their status regarding current climate change effects and their preservation needs. Tying these sites to these five themes, we show how consideration of southeastern archaeology can contribute to the global narrative on climate change.

Toward the end of the 18th-century, the newly independent United States deliberated solutions to the “problem” in which Natives occupied lands that Euro-American settlers desired. The Civilization Fund Act was implemented in 1819 as one of the solutions, and it supported groups, like missionary organizations, to instruct Natives in Western culture. Charity Hall, a Presbyterian mission to the Chickasaws, was created as a result of the Act and can offer information regarding Native American accommodation and contestation to Western practices. While historical records provide ample information about the workings of Charity Hall, archaeological studies aim to make up for the lack of the Chickasaw voice in these records.