SARAH J. WILLE, while a student at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, received funding in November 2004 to aid research on 'The Social Role of Objects: Investigating Artifact 'Life Histories' at Chau Hiix, Belize,' under the supervision of Dr. K. Anne Pyburn. Analysis of Maya ceramics and other artifacts addressed specific questions concerning the function and meaning of an elaborate, site-center deposit near an important civic-ceremonial structure, while also considering the social role of deposited objects. Research provided a clearer picture of Later Classic period (ca.

JERRY WEVER, then a student at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, received a grant in July 2001 to aid research on 'Shaping Creolization and Folklorization Processes: Expressive Culture and Creole Identity in St. Lucia and Seychelles,' supervised by Dr. Laura R. Graham. The dissertation fieldwork project was successfully completed in April 2003, accomplishing the devised research plan.

BRANDON C. WHEELER, then a student at State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York, was awarded a grant in January 2005 to aid research on 'Alarm Calling Behavior of Tufted Capuchin Monkeys at Iguazu national Park, Argentina,' supervised by Dr. Andreas Koenig. Alarm calls (i.e. vocalizations produced when predators are detected) are of interest for several reasons. First, alarm calling appears to be altruistic and benefits for the caller are not immediately obvious. Second, alarms of some Old World monkeys have been argued to be semantic signals similar to human words.

DEAN H. WHEELER, then a student at University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was awarded a grant in February 2005 to aid research on 'Elite Management of Intensive Agricultural Production: A Comparison of Two Late-Terminal Classic Maya Polities,' supervised by Dr. Oliveir de Montmollin. A full coverage systematic regional survey in the Upper Grijalva Basin, a Mayan setting in Chiapas, Mexico on the southwest periphery of the Maya lowlands, collected data on two neighboring Late-Terminal Classic (A.D.

BRUCE WHITEHOUSE, then a student at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, received funding in September 2004 to aid research on 'Transnationalism among Sahelian Migrants in Brazzaville, Congo,' supervised by Dr. Daniel J. Smith. This project examined the causes and consequences of the migration flow between the contemporary states of Mali, in West Africa, and the city of Brazzaville in Congo, Central Africa. The study considered this migration stream both in contemporary and historical contexts, and situated it as one component of a multilocal and transnational social space.

Preliminary abstract: This project analyzes the impact of human-induced climate change in an indigenous community in the highlands of Bolivia, focusing on local people's perceptions, reactions, and adaptations in the face of spatial and environmental changes that are mainly induced by global forces beyond their control. This region is particularly vulnerable due to high rates of rural poverty, reliance on subsistence agriculture with little irrigation, and dependence on surface water fed by rapidly melting glaciers.

KATYA WESOLOWSKI, while a student at Teachers College of Columbia University in in New York, New York, was awarded a grant in November 2001 to aid research on capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian martial art, under the supervision of Dr. Charles Harrington. Wesolowski carried out ethnographic fieldwork in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, among capoeira groups with national and international representation. Additional funding awarded in November 2002 provided for a four-week trip to Angola to participate in a capoeira event in Luanda.

EMILY WENTZELL, then a student at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, received a grant in October 2007 to aid research on 'Sexual Dysfunction and Changing Masculinities in Mexico City,' supervised by Dr. Marcia Inhorn. Understandings of decreased erectile function as the medical pathology 'erectile dysfunction' (ED) have become dominant worldwide. However, 'sufficient' erection is not a biological norm, but a cultural standard co-produced with social ideals of manly sexuality and health.