Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 30 of 170

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

If You Don't Fit In, Poem 1/1/2016, Charles Kay Smith Jan 2016

If You Don't Fit In, Poem 1/1/2016, Charles Kay Smith

Charles Kay Smith

Can those who stand awry their culture best serve society?


Linguistic Identity Among New Speakers Of Basque, Ane Ortega, Jacqueline Urla, Estibalitz Amorrortu Jan 2015

Linguistic Identity Among New Speakers Of Basque, Ane Ortega, Jacqueline Urla, Estibalitz Amorrortu

Jacqueline L. Urla

The increase in Basque speakers in the last 30 years has been due in large part to ‘new speakers’ or euskaldunberri, a term that will be used here to refer to those who have learned the language by means other than family transmission. While very significant in numbers, to date this group has not been the object of much study. Little is known about their attitudes and motivations, how they perceive themselves as Basque speakers, or their language use and transmission patterns. Acquiring answers to these questions is of strategic importance for developing an effective evidence-based language policy for the …


Participatory Design Ethnography In The Learning Commons: Initial Research Findings, Krista Harper May 2014

Participatory Design Ethnography In The Learning Commons: Initial Research Findings, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Presentation on initial findings from research at the UMass Amherst Learning Commons using participatory design ethnography and Photovoice. In this Spring 2014 project, I guided students through a semester-length research study of students' perspectives on and practices in the library.


Youth Participation In Changing Food Systems: Toward Food Justice Youth Development, Krista Harper, Catherine Sands, Diego Angarita, Molly Totman Mar 2014

Youth Participation In Changing Food Systems: Toward Food Justice Youth Development, Krista Harper, Catherine Sands, Diego Angarita, Molly Totman

Krista M. Harper

We present results from a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project in which young people from Holyoke studied the school food system in order to make positive interventions in their school district. We used the Photovoice research method, placing cameras in the hands of youth so that they themselves could document and discuss their concerns and perspectives (Wang, et al., 1996). The research was designed to gain insight about the students’ knowledge of food, nutrition, and community food systems. The research also illuminated students’ impressions of public policy, active citizenship, and community building that have arisen out of food justice …


Review Of Reclaiming Basque By Kathryn Woolard, Jacqueline Urla Jan 2014

Review Of Reclaiming Basque By Kathryn Woolard, Jacqueline Urla

Jacqueline L. Urla

Book Review of Reclaiming Basque by Kathryn Woolard. American Ethnologist February 2014.


Community Commons: An Analysis Of The Gullah Communities Of South Carolina, Elizabeth Brabec Jun 2013

Community Commons: An Analysis Of The Gullah Communities Of South Carolina, Elizabeth Brabec

Elizabeth Brabec

Descended from slaves brought to the southeast United States between the early 17th and mid 19th centuries, the Gullah-Geechee of South Carolina and Georgia in the United States, have developed distinctive, culturally-expressive creole communities. Juxtaposed against their ancestor’s plantation slave villages, present-day settlements reveal deliberate creations of community and strong connections to place. The Gullah concept of place and community also includes an understanding of the land as commons that is at odds with the dominant culture in the United States.Under slavery the Gullah lived in rigidly geometric settlements. Although this was the only settlement pattern the slaves had experienced, …


Participatory Visual & Digital Methods, Aline Gubrium, Krista Harper Apr 2013

Participatory Visual & Digital Methods, Aline Gubrium, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Table of contents and introduction of Participatory Visual and Digital Methods by Aline Gubrium and Krista Harper. Available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book editions from Left Coast Press .


Photovoice/Fotovoz: Como Começar, Krista Harper, Ana Isabel Afonso Feb 2013

Photovoice/Fotovoz: Como Começar, Krista Harper, Ana Isabel Afonso

Krista M. Harper

Como começar uma pesquisa participativa utilizando o metódo Fotovoz (Photovoice).


Genetic Diversity Of Ixodid Ticks Parasitizing Eastern Mouse And Dwarf Lemurs In Madagascar, With Descriptions Of The Larva, Nymph, And Male Of Ixodes Lemuris (Acari: Ixodidae), Marina B. Blanco, Mostafa A. Elfawal, Lance A. Durden, Lorenza Beati, Guang Xu, Laurie Godfrey, Stephen M. Rich Feb 2013

Genetic Diversity Of Ixodid Ticks Parasitizing Eastern Mouse And Dwarf Lemurs In Madagascar, With Descriptions Of The Larva, Nymph, And Male Of Ixodes Lemuris (Acari: Ixodidae), Marina B. Blanco, Mostafa A. Elfawal, Lance A. Durden, Lorenza Beati, Guang Xu, Laurie Godfrey, Stephen M. Rich

Laurie R. Godfrey

The ixodid ticks parasitizing small-bodied nocturnal mouse and dwarf lemurs (Primates, Cheirogaleidae) in Madagascar are poorly documented. At Tsinjoarivo, a high-altitude eastern rain forest, mouse and dwarf lemurs were parasitized by ixodid ticks. At Ranomafana, a montane southeastern rain forest, dwarf lemurs hosted a species of Ixodes, whereas mouse lemurs were parasitized by Haemaphysalis lemuris. Ixodes specimens represent all active stages, and females are morphologically consistent with previous descriptions of Ixodes lemuris females, the only described stage in the literature. Morphological comparisons and genetic analysis using fragments of COI gene confirm that all Ixodes ticks from Tsinjoarivo and Ranomafana forests …


Concepts Of Place And Identity In The Iron Age Of Idalion, Cyprus: An Analysis Of Architectural Repetition, Rebecca M. Bartusewich Jan 2013

Concepts Of Place And Identity In The Iron Age Of Idalion, Cyprus: An Analysis Of Architectural Repetition, Rebecca M. Bartusewich

Rebecca M Bartusewich

No abstract provided.


The Tyranny Of Narrative History, Heritage, And Hatred In The Modern Middle East, Neil A. Silberman Jan 2013

The Tyranny Of Narrative History, Heritage, And Hatred In The Modern Middle East, Neil A. Silberman

Neil A. Silberman

Narrative is the heart of heritage interpretation, and modern Middle Eastern narratives of national histories tell distinct and conflicting tales. This paper highlights some major genres of archaeological and historical storytelling and analyzes the symbolic messages they convey. A closer look at the juxtaposition of competing story forms reveals a complex intertwining, in which one nation or ethnic group’s “period of desolation” is simultaneous with their rivals’ “Golden Age.”


Heritage Interpretation As Public Discourse: Towards A New Paradigm, Neil A. Silberman Jan 2013

Heritage Interpretation As Public Discourse: Towards A New Paradigm, Neil A. Silberman

Neil A. Silberman

No abstract provided.


Imperfect Isolation: Factors And Filters Shaping Madagascar’S Extant Vertebrate Fauna, Karen E. Samonds, Laurie Godfrey, Jason R. Ali, Steven M. Goodman, Miguel Vences, Michael R. Sutherland, Mitchell T. Irwin, David W. Krause Jan 2013

Imperfect Isolation: Factors And Filters Shaping Madagascar’S Extant Vertebrate Fauna, Karen E. Samonds, Laurie Godfrey, Jason R. Ali, Steven M. Goodman, Miguel Vences, Michael R. Sutherland, Mitchell T. Irwin, David W. Krause

Laurie R. Godfrey

Analyses of phylogenetic topology and estimates of divergence timing have facilitated a reconstruction of Madagascar’s colonization events by vertebrate animals, but that information alone does not reveal the major factors shaping the island’s biogeographic history. Here, we examine profiles of Malagasy vertebrate clades through time within the context of the island’s paleogeographical evolution to determine how particular events influenced the arrival of the island’s extant groups. First we compare vertebrate profiles on Madagascar before and after selected events; then we compare tetrapod profiles on Madagascar to contemporary tetrapod compositions globally. We show that changes from the Mesozoic to the Cenozoic …


'Calling The Question': The Politics Of Time In A Time Of Polarized Politics, Elizabeth L. Krause, Anurag Sharma Jan 2013

'Calling The Question': The Politics Of Time In A Time Of Polarized Politics, Elizabeth L. Krause, Anurag Sharma

Elizabeth L. Krause

In this paper, we examine the role of time in shaping decision-making processes in a town meeting, a type of legislative body common in many New England towns. Town meetings are one of the oldest and most democratic institutions of local governance in the United States, and they provide a rich arena in which to investigate how large groups of people convene and make decisions together. A mixed-methods approach enabled our team of researchers to gain insight into the processes and dynamics that played out in one town meeting. We analyze the tensions between democratic values of “taking time” vs. …


On Dialogue Studies, Donal Carbaugh Jan 2013

On Dialogue Studies, Donal Carbaugh

Donal Carbaugh

The study of dialogue is a way to open several intellectual arenas for investigation while at the same time offering insights into multiple scenes of practical yet culturally diverse human practices. This article reviews several such arenas including studies of dialogue as a culturally distinctive form of communication, dialogue as an approach to understanding social practices, dialogic ethics, as well as dialogue as an integrative view of not only cultural practice but also natural environments. Throughout, dialogue studies are cast as a broad field with distinct disciplines within it, as holding deep value for understanding diversity in peoples’ practices, as …


Cultural Discourse Of Dwelling: Environmental Comunication As A Place-Based Practice, Donal Carbaugh Jan 2013

Cultural Discourse Of Dwelling: Environmental Comunication As A Place-Based Practice, Donal Carbaugh

Donal Carbaugh

In this essay we contribute a response to intellectual and practical problems by using and developing a perspective on environmental communication that is reflexively grounded in place and that explores human relations with nature, while embracing cultural and linguistic variability in these processes. Our goals are to introduce a way to think through communication to places, and further to link that understanding to issues of engaged environmental action, to deeply seated notions of identity, and to the affective dimension of belonging that place-based communication often brings with it. Our way of doing this is to theorize and study cultural discourses …


Beyond The Plaza: Barcelona’S Okupa Squatters At Work In The Wake Of La Crisis, Justin Helepololei Nov 2012

Beyond The Plaza: Barcelona’S Okupa Squatters At Work In The Wake Of La Crisis, Justin Helepololei

Justin AK Helepololei

As ongoing, financial crisis has kept millions in precarity - and over 40% of Spain's youth unemployed - mass mobilizations of the country's indignados have continued to fill the country's streets and plazas. Nearly one year after the original 15M demonstrations, city-wide occupations have triggered a profusion of more localized and issue-based assemblies. Beyond the plazas, squatter-activists of Barcelona's decades-old “okupa movement” have helped to facilitate the continuation of these dialogues by offering space within dozens of pre-existing squats and even opening new sites to host such interactions. Leveraging decades of experience and skill in re-appropriating spaces, squatters create room …


Sustainability 'Wars' In A New England Town, Elizabeth L. Krause, Anurag Sharma Aug 2012

Sustainability 'Wars' In A New England Town, Elizabeth L. Krause, Anurag Sharma

Elizabeth L. Krause

A research project into large group decision-making in a New England Town Meeting surprised us with the degree to which sustainability came to be the axis around which political debate revolved. We identified two very different yet overlapping conceptions of sustainability: one emphasized fiscal responsibility; the other asserted the merits of environmental stewardship. Each of the two conceptions had proponents, with strong views about what constituted good versus bad governing practices, each with a strong sense of what was good for the town. In this paper, we sort out those meanings. We seek to understand and expose the contours of …


Reclaiming Basque: Language, Nation And Cultural Activism, Jacqueline Urla Jan 2012

Reclaiming Basque: Language, Nation And Cultural Activism, Jacqueline Urla

Jacqueline L. Urla

Introduction (excerpt)


Discourses Of Development: Narratives Of Cultural Heritage As An Economic Resource, Neil A. Silberman Jan 2012

Discourses Of Development: Narratives Of Cultural Heritage As An Economic Resource, Neil A. Silberman

Neil A. Silberman

No abstract provided.


Reclaiming Basque: Language, Nation And Cultural Activism, Jacqueline Urla Jan 2012

Reclaiming Basque: Language, Nation And Cultural Activism, Jacqueline Urla

Jacqueline L. Urla

Table of Contents


Pottery In The Landscape: Ceramic Analysis At The City-Kingdom Of Idalion, Cyprus, Rebecca M. Bartusewich Jan 2012

Pottery In The Landscape: Ceramic Analysis At The City-Kingdom Of Idalion, Cyprus, Rebecca M. Bartusewich

Rebecca M Bartusewich

The ancient site of Idalion, Cyprus has a landscape dominated by two acropoleis containing sacred sites. The plain below is the location of domestic occupation. I have petrologically analyzed 45 ceramics from the domestic area and one sacred area and found that while the sacred spaces dominate the landscape, ceramics were not produced/chosen differently for the sacred area over the domestic area. The visual proximity of the sacred and the everyday seems to indicate cohesion in the social and natural landscape. The preliminary petrological analysis of pottery from Idalion has shown, thus far, that the sacred and profane are intertwined.*


Heritage Interpretation And Human Rights: Documenting Diversity, Expressing Identity, Or Establishing Universal Principles?, Neil A. Silberman Jan 2012

Heritage Interpretation And Human Rights: Documenting Diversity, Expressing Identity, Or Establishing Universal Principles?, Neil A. Silberman

Neil A. Silberman

No abstract provided.


Rewriting The Balkans: Memory, Historiography, And The Making Of A European Citizenry, Dana N. Johnson Jan 2012

Rewriting The Balkans: Memory, Historiography, And The Making Of A European Citizenry, Dana N. Johnson

Dana N. Johnson

This thesis explores the work of historians, history teachers, and NGO employees engaged in regional initiatives to mitigate the influence of enduring ethnocentric national histories in the Balkans. In conducting an ethnography of the development and dissemination of such initiatives, I queried how conflict and controversy are negotiated in developing alternative educational materials, how “multiperspectivity” is understood as a pedagogical approach and a tool of reconciliation, and how the interests of civil society intersect with those of the state and supranational actors. My research sought to interrogate the field of power in which such attempts to innovate history education occur, …


Visual Interventions And The “Crises In Representation” In Environmental Anthropology: Researching Environmental Justice In A Hungarian Romani Neighborhood, Krista Harper Jan 2012

Visual Interventions And The “Crises In Representation” In Environmental Anthropology: Researching Environmental Justice In A Hungarian Romani Neighborhood, Krista Harper

Krista M. Harper

Participatory visual research, or "visual interventions" (Pink 2007) allow environmental anthropologists to respond to three different “crises of representation”: 1) the critique of ethnographic representation presented by postmodern, postcolonial, and feminist anthropologists, 2) the constructivist critique of nature and the environment, and 3) the “environmental justice” critique demanding representation for the environmental concerns of communities of color. Participatory visual research integrates community members in the process of staking out a research agenda, conducting fieldwork and interpreting data, and communicating and applying research findings. Our project used the Photovoice methodology to generate knowledge and documentation related to environment injustices faced by …


Redefining Need, Reconfiguring Expectations: The Rise Of State-Run Youth Voluntarism Programs In Russia, Julie D. Hemment Jan 2012

Redefining Need, Reconfiguring Expectations: The Rise Of State-Run Youth Voluntarism Programs In Russia, Julie D. Hemment

Julie D Hemment

This article investigates the restructuring of the Russian social welfare system by interrogating Putin-era state-run projects to promote youth voluntarism. Set up in the aftermath of liberalizing social welfare reform, these organizations are interesting hybrids: at the same time as they honor the Soviet past and afford symbolic prominence to Soviet era values, they simultaneously advance distinctively neoliberal
 technologies of self-help and self-reliance. In dialogue with recent studies in the anthropology of neoliberalism and the anthropology of postsocialism, I consider the implications of these intertwined logics. Focusing on the interpretive work undertaken by one provincial voluntary organization, I argue that …


"They Just Happened": The Curious Case Of The Unplanned Baby, Italian Low Fertility, And The ‘End’ Of Rationality, Elizabeth L. Krause Jan 2012

"They Just Happened": The Curious Case Of The Unplanned Baby, Italian Low Fertility, And The ‘End’ Of Rationality, Elizabeth L. Krause

Elizabeth L. Krause

Winner of the Polgar Prize for Best Article, Society of Medical Anthropology ~ Even in a country with super-low fertility rates, at least one-quarter of all babies are unplanned. The finding puzzles policymakers. This article uses Italy’s “curious case” as a jumping-off point to expose assumptions about rationality. It offers a model to dismantle the “conceit” of rationality, drawing on Max Weber’s classic critique and Emily Martin’s contemporary appraisal. It asks: (1) How do assumptions about rationality related to sexuality and reproduction manifest? (2) How do qualitative data challenge rationalist assumptions? and (3) How are cultural logics expressed and what …


Nashi, Youth Voluntarism And Potemkin Ngos: Making Sense Of Civil Society In Post-Soviet Russia, Julie D. Hemment Jan 2012

Nashi, Youth Voluntarism And Potemkin Ngos: Making Sense Of Civil Society In Post-Soviet Russia, Julie D. Hemment

Julie D Hemment

This article tracks the aftermath of international development aid in post-Soviet Russia socialist space by interrogating Putin-era civil society projects. State-run organizations such as the pro-Kremlin youth organization Nashi (Ours) are commonly read as evidence of anti-democratic backlash and confirmation of Russia’s resurgent authoritarianism. Contributing to recent scholarship in the anthropology of postsocialism, this article seeks to account for Nashi by locating it in the context of fifteen years of international democracy promotion, global processes of neoliberal governance and the disenchantments they gave rise to. Drawing on a collaborative ethnographic research project with scholars and students in the provincial city …


Heritage Interpretation And Human Rights: Documenting Diversity, Expressing Identity, Or Establishing Universal Principles?, Neil A. Silberman Mar 2011

Heritage Interpretation And Human Rights: Documenting Diversity, Expressing Identity, Or Establishing Universal Principles?, Neil A. Silberman

Neil A. Silberman

No abstract provided.


Symposium Program: War, Dictatorship & Memory In Spain, Jacqueline Urla Jan 2011

Symposium Program: War, Dictatorship & Memory In Spain, Jacqueline Urla

Jacqueline L. Urla

Program for the Interdisciplinary Symposium, War, Dictatorship and Memory in Spain. Organizers: Justin Crumbaugh, Sara Brenneis and Jacqueline Urla. Oct. 13015, 2011.