Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Resilience Of Agro-Pastoral Communities In High Altitude Central Tibet: Zooarchaeological And Stable Isotope Investigations At Bangga, 3000–2200 Bp, Zhengwei Zhang

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Our understanding of the development of high-altitude adaptations worldwide has been enriched by recent anthropological research. Study of life on the Tibetan Plateau—dubbed “the Roof of the World”—has highlighted specific challenges of seasonal availability of food and extreme weather systems. Recent archaeological studies have revealed that pastoralism has a long history of resilience on the extreme high altitude Tibetan Plateau. However, specific risks to early flocks on the Tibetan Plateau and ways that herders managed their animals to mitigate these have not been well explored. Dated to 3000–2200 Cal BP, the archaeological settlement of Bangga represents one of the earliest …

Finding Peace: Aging, Solidarity, And Min-Iren, Aaron Hames

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an ethnography of elderly life in Japan. Aging populations present serious challenges to societies in the provision of care and support for the elderly. As household sizes shrink and kin disperses, networks of support and informal care premised on familial involvement may no longer suffice. States encounter budgetary strains as the proportion of workers to elderly skews toward the latter. In Japan, these problems are present and have been exacerbated by shortages of professional care workers and long-term facilities for the elderly. However, the elderly have proved strategic and adaptive in relation to population aging in other …

Schisms And Boundaries: Islamic Organizations And Sectarianism Between South Asia And Spain, Guillermo Martín-Sáiz

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the September 11 attacks, numerous researchers—from security experts and political scientists to sociologists and anthropologists—have discussed how Islamic organizations establish within mosques across Europe and spread sectarianism among Muslims in the region. While these researchers have provided valuable insights, the dynamics that characterize the relationship between these mosques and organizations and the resulting sectarianism seem far from self-explanatory and remain rather unclear.

This dissertation focuses on how the intersections between global and local phenomena—the so-called War on Terror and Clash of Civilizations on the one hand, and urban transformations and gentrification on the other—shape support for—and opposition to—Islamic organizations …

Relations Of Reproduction: Men, Masculinities, And Pregnancy In Dakar, Senegal, Richard Powis

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Around the world, global health initiatives aim to empower women by encouraging men to be more engaged husbands and fathers. In some forms, this means men attending prenatal exams and taking up a more equitable share of domestic responsibilities. In much of West Africa, spaces associated with women’s work or “issues” are sharply gender-designated, meaning that even if men are open to engaging, they may not be welcome. This dissertation research is an ethnographic exploration of the experiences of expectant fathers in Dakar, Senegal, the ways in which they not only navigate these gendered spaces, and how they renegotiate their …

Vulnerable Agents: Ugandan Children's Experiences With Hiv Rehabilitation And Reintegration, Colleen Walsh Lang

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Rompiendo Alambres: Immigrant Youth Navigating School And Life In St. Louis, Julia Campus Macias

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project focuses on educational and life trajectories of Central American youth in St. Louis, Missouri, who have immigrated unaccompanied from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. By tracking and telling their stories, I hope to amplify these young immigrants’ voices, and complicate others’ perceptions of their place and worth in this country. Current immigration policies and enforcement practices have made the entry process more punitive, restrictive and deadly. The immigrant experience, especially for young people, confronts many state institutions, chief among them the educational system. Institutions like schools become entry points for immigrants but can also be spaces for …

Consuming Local, Thinking Global: Building A Halal Industry In A World Of Made In Italy, Lauren Virginia Crossland-Marr

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Consumers today seek guidance on how to decipher where their food comes from. As a result of this demand, food certifications have materialized in stores across the globe. Walking through oneճ local grocery store, one is bombarded with certifications that range from ҭade inӠto organic to kosher. Research on forms of food certifications have emphasized the process of making these certifications legible to consumers in markets abroad, overlooking the impact of local concerns in building certifications. This study aims to determine the impact of local cultural foodways on certification schemes meant for global markets. Building on existing work in the …

Subjectivities Of Struggle: Charting Inscriptions Of Violence And Refusal On The “Cuerpo Territorio” Of Peru’S Defensoras, Natalia Guzmán Solano

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Subjectivities of Struggle: Inscriptions of Violence and Refusal on the ‘Cuerpo Territorio’ of Peru’s Defensoras” calls into question the colonial assumptions underpinning contemporary understandings of extractivism. The sixteen months of ethnographic research I conducted with the defensoras (women ecoterritorial defenders) of Cajamarca is situated at the fraught extractive frontier where social conflict paralyzed the expansion of a large-scale mining project and generated a coalitional struggle against extractive-led economic development. This dissertation conceptualizes extractivism as a modern/colonial product of power and knowledge that has feminized the land and inhabitants from the time of the European invasion of the Americas. While recent …

The Social Dynamics Of Antibiotic Use In A Large American Medical Complex, Katharina Rynkiewich

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Based on 18 months of anthropological fieldwork, 35 in-depth interviews, and over 360 hours of participant observation with two specialty physician groups, my dissertation is an analysis of the social dynamics involved in antibiotic decision making, prescription, and use at a large North American medical complex in a Midwestern city. Due to the global problem of antimicrobial resistance, hospitals have been particularly interested in reducing antibiotic overuse and misuse. Though the use of antibiotics has long had an impact at the population level, physicians often advocate for additional antibiotic coverage in the individual patient. I examine a policy aimed at …

Horse Power: The Merry-Go-Round Of Kentucky's Transforming Thoroughbred Racing Industry, S. Carolyn Barnes

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores Thoroughbred training and racing in central Kentucky’s “horse country,” the most culturally and economically invested horse racing region in the United States. In recent decades, public interest in horse racing has waned and this sporting industry has intensified the use of biomedical interventions, including pharmaceuticals. This is fueling rising ethical concerns about the welfare and treatment of racehorses and calls for reform, including federal oversight and regulation of the sport. Given these changes and pressures, I have sought to understand what it is like to live and work in this agrarian world. Supported by the Wenner- Gren …

The Ontogeny Of Complex Tool Use Among Chimpanzees Of The Goualougo Triangle, Republic Of Congo, Stephanie L. Musgrave

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Various factors are hypothesized to have contributed to the flourishing of technology during human evolution, including high-fidelity social learning, a propensity for prosocial helping, and sex differences in foraging tool use. In this research, we examined the role of these factors on the development of complex tool-using skills among wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in the Goualougo Triangle, Republic of Congo. These apes exhibit among the most complex tool behaviors of any nonhuman animal, including the flexible use of multiple tool types and the manufacture of tools from specific raw materials, according to a particular design. Specifically, we drew upon …

Marriage, The Market, And Gendered (In)Securities In Kibera, Kenya, Elizabeth Ashley Wilson

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Based on more than two years of anthropological fieldwork, 157 household surveys, and 40 in-depth interviews, my dissertation research examines a conjugal form in Kenya known as “come-we-stay” marriage, or long-term intimate cohabitation that is often not seen as legitimate neither by the law nor kinship networks. Whereas various opinion leaders, from clergy to feminist organizations, have hailed come-we-stay as an affront to moral decency and women’s rights (respectively), women and men with whom I have conducted research in Nairobi’s Kibera slum emphasize the complexity of the issue and highlight the social, economic, and intimate challenges and benefits of their …

Sinning Men, Sinful Places: Spatial Politics Of Moral Transgressions In The Franco-German Borderland, Oguz Alyanak

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Where do Muslim Turkish men who live in Strasbourg go after work? What are the kinds of places they socialize? Is it home? Is it the mosque? Or is it elsewhere, like coffeehouses, or wherever the car takes them in Strasbourg, and beyond, such as nightclubs, drinking alleys, bistro-casinos and brothels in Kehl and other neighboring German cities? And if it is the latter, and it rarely should be, as the imams would warn the pupils attending religious conversation circles, and the Friday sermons, how do these men justify their presence in these spaces? How do they reflect on their …

Kinship And Religious Identities In Medieval Central Asia (8th-13th C. Ce): Tracing Communities Of Mortuary Practice And Biological Affinity, Elissa Anne Bullion

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ethnic, political, and religious upheaval has cascading impacts on social identity. Kinship and religious ritual are two sources of social identity that are particularly salient in periods of change. Their practice provides access to and protection of important social, economic, and ideological resources that help groups negotiate times of uncertainty. During the medieval period (8th-13th c. CE), Central Asia saw the invasion of Arab armies, the rise of Turkic political dynasties, and the spread of Islam. This period yielded a Turko-Islamic culture that pervades modern dialogues on Central Asian history and culture. The local and regional social systems that sustained …

Wild Primates In Documentary Films: Biodiversity, Behavior, And Pedagogical Applications, Crystal Marie Riley Koenig

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The representation of wild primates in the nature documentary genre could have important implications for conservation and education. However, no prior research has looked at the content of this genre or its use in education. To fill this gap, the current research included a content analysis of all available documentaries focused on wild primates (n = 210) and a survey of 219 college-level anthropology instructors, with an emphasis on determining how primate biodiversity was portrayed, whether primate behavior was realistically depicted in documentaries, whether mistakes and inaccuracies were common, and how college instructors use primate documentaries as resources in their …

“There Is No Care Here”: The Conflictual Ethics Of Kin And Bureaucratic Care In Botswana, Arielle Justine Wright

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

How do people make sense of “care” when it fails? My dissertation examines the ethical debates that are provoked by the limitations of care in the setting of home-based care and associated safety net programs in Botswana. The organization of care is negotiated across domestic and public domains, often incorporating concerns about kinship ties, dependency, and labor in the welfare state. Based on 16 months of ethnographic research, I demonstrate that the ethical evaluation of care varies between differently-positioned stakeholders engaged in providing chronic care. Economic conditions and socio-political ideologies shape the ethics of care by way of setting the …

For One Drop Of Blood: Virginity, Sexual Norms And Medical Processes In Hymenoplasty Consultations In The Netherlands, Sherria Ayuandini

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hymenoplasty is a medical procedure done to alter the shape of the hymen membrane. Dutch women of predominantly Muslim migrant ancestry resort to the surgery to maintain the appearance of premarital virginity. This dissertation research studies hymenoplasty as a social phenomenon. It asks: how do the interconnecting issues of gender, religion and migration play out during interactions between doctors and Dutch patients of migrant ancestry in the medical and institutional context of hymenoplasty in the Netherlands? Findings were collected from 2012 and 2015 through participant observations of 70 hymenoplasty consultations in medical establishments in the Netherlands. These observations were complemented …

Population Genomics Of A Baboon Hybrid Zone In Zambia, Kenneth Lyu Chiou

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hybridization is increasingly recognized as a common, important process shaping the evolution of organisms including humans. Across hybrid zones, the genomes of incipient species are mixed and recombined through hybridization and backcrossing, creating conditions ideal for evaluating the actions of natural selection on gene variants in novel genomic contexts. This dissertation aims to increase our understanding of hybridization using a Zambian baboon study system in which two species, Kinda baboons (Papio kindae) and grayfoot baboons (Papio griseipes), hybridize despite exhibiting pronounced differences in body size and behavior. Using genome-wide genotypic data prepared using double-digest RADseq, I scan for genomic regions …

Coexistence Of Confamilial, Folivorous Indriids, Propithecus Diadema And Indri Indri, At Betampona Strict Nature Reserve, Madagascar, Lana Kerker Oliver

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I examine how two confamilial and ecologically similar indriids, indri (Indri indri), and diademed sifakas (Propithecus diadema) maintain coexistence in Betampona Nature Reserve (BNR), an eastern lowland rainforest in Madagascar. These two species occur sympatrically throughout much of their species ranges and are similarly-sized folivorous primates. As anatomic folivores, they present an opportunity to investigate how niche differentiation and resource partitioning allow two sympatric primate species with similar feeding patterns to coexist. I examined coexistence strategies and the general behavioral ecology of each species by examining their activity patterns, dietary profiles, home range use, and daily path …

The Maternity Ward As Mirror: Maternal Death, Biobureaucracy, And Institutional Care In The Tanzanian Health Sector, Adrienne Elizabeth Strong

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As public health policies continue to encourage women to give birth in biomedical care facilities, this research provides insight into the sequences of events leading to deaths in these settings from the unique perspective of the healthcare providers and administrators themselves, in addition to that of women and their communities. While the term maternal mortality implies biological processes and clinical practices, this dissertation focused on sequences of events at the hospital, and on historical, institutional, and political economic structures that shaped maternal risk in this region through 23 months of mixed-methods, ethnographic fieldwork in the Rukwa region of Tanzania and …

How Do The Largest And Smallest Baboon Species Compete For Reproductive Success In A Natural Hybrid Zone?, Monica Mcdonald

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines hybridization between two of the most divergent baboons, the kinda baboon (Papio kindae) and the grayfooted chacma baboon (P. ursinus griseipes), which differ markedly in body size and in some social behavior. Preliminary research revealed hybridization between males of the smaller species (kinda) and females of the larger species (grayfoots), but not the reverse. Using behavioral, phenotypic, and genetic data collected from a single hybrid group in Kafue National Park from May 2012 to July 2013, I evaluated whether a similar asymmetry was borne out in this group and whether phenotypic markers of species assignation matched genotypic …

The Violence Of Abstraction: Learning To Live With Type-2 Diabetes In Everyday Life, Jenny Epstein

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The impetus for this project grew out of my experience working as a pharmacist in a federally-funded ambulatory-care clinic In Tacoma, WA. Many people seen at the clinic struggled with type-2 diabetes (T2DM) and over time, I began to see this condition not only as a biological disorder, but also as a complex symptom of both macro-level social history and micro-level daily activities. I also began to see how the emphasis on medical abstraction in the form of measuring, monitoring and scheduling into daily routines, while necessary to control T2DM, created a gap between lived experience and the broader social …

A Quantitative Genetic Analysis Of Craniofacial Variation In Baboons, Jessica Lynn Joganic

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an explication of baboon craniofacial variation and its genetic basis. Intraspecific variation is the result of input from and complex interactions among genetic information, functional demands, and developmental processes. The relative effect of each of these on craniofacial variation, as well as the degree of inter-trait covariance, determines whether traits can respond to selection and what that response might look like. Using a sample of pedigreed baboons, I quantify craniofacial variation to address specific questions regarding the distribution and magnitude of phenotypic, genetic, and environmental variation patterns. In addition, I identify regions of the genome containing genetic …

Interrogating The Superlative Sufferer: Experiencing Obstetric Fistula And Treatment Seeking In Niger, Alison Heller

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Niger is considered the poorest country in the world and has the world’s highest total fertility rate. This confluence of extreme poverty and pronatalism (in principle and in practice) situates Niger as a prime site for exploring maternal morbidities, particularly experiences of obstetric fistula, a birthing injury caused by prolonged obstructed labor that results in chronic incontinence of urine and/or feces. This fieldwork was carried out over the course of one year (in addition to two summers) at four fistula centers with one hundred women with fistula as well as thirty-eight family members, husbands, and fistula professionals. In this dissertation …

A Line In The Sand: Archaeological Evidence For The Interactions Of Settled Farmers And Mobile Pastoralists In The Late Bronze Age (1950 - 1500 Bc) Murghab Alluvial Fan, Turkmenistan, Lynne Marie Rouse

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the interactions of mobile pastoralist groups with sedentary farming communities in the Late Bronze Age period (1950 - 1500 BCE) in the Murghab alluvial fan of present-day Turkmenistan. Traditional archaeological and historical studies in Central Asia, focused as they are on urban contexts or centers of dense population, have colored interpretations of mobile-sedentary interaction in prehistory and helped reinforce a view that mobile and settled groups were always at odds with one another. The Late Bronze Age Murghab marks the period and locale of the first sustained interaction between distinct cultural communities of mobile pastoralists and …

Case Studies In Ancient Maya Human-Animal Relations: El Perú, La Corona, And Commensal Mammals, Diana Nicole Fridberg

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ancient Maya of Mesoamerica inhabited a biodiverse landscape filled with animal taxa that provided both physical resources and rich ideological inspiration. To date, faunal studies among the Maya have been more limited than other types of archaeological investigations, leaving much still unknown about how human-animal relations varied across time and space. This study utilizes zooarchaeological, iconographic, ethnohistoric, and ethnographic data to illuminate the use of animals in Late Classic period (600-900 CE) ritual at the sites of La Corona and El Perú-Waka' (henceforth abbreviated as El Perú) in Petén, Guatemala, and to investigate the roles of commensal mammals in …

Urban Herders: An Archaeological And Isotopic Investigation Into The Roles Of Mobility And Subsistence Specialization In An Iron Age Urban Center In Mali, Abigail Chipps Stone

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the relationship between mobility and urbanism in an Iron Age West African city. Isotopic and archaeological evidence reveal complex relationships among mobility, sedentism, and the livestock economy of Jenné-jeno, one of the earliest and best known urban systems in sub-Saharan Africa (occupied ca. 250 BC to AD 1400). Drawing on excavations at the ancient city of Jenné-jeno and those conducted at two neighboring sites (Tato à Sanouna and Thièl), and on serial, intra-tooth isotopic analysis (87Sr/86Sr, 13C, 18O) of cattle, sheep, and goat teeth, this analysis shows that multiple populations involved in animal husbandry, from seasonally mobile …

Bronze Age Potters In Regional Context: Long-Term Development Of Ceramic Technology In The Eastern Eurasian Steppe Zone, Paula Naify Doumani

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the relationship between mobility, social interaction and flows of material technology in Bronze Age Semirech'ye, in southeast Kazakhstan. The work is directed at questions of operational complexity and issues of scale in understanding local and regional material assemblages and craft production in the Bronze Age. The thesis represents the first comprehensive technological analysis of Handmade Steppe Ceramics (HSC) from Semirech'ye. The ceramics date to the Bronze Age (ca. 2400-800BC) and are associated with the work of mobile pastoralists who occupied disaggregated seasonal campsites along the piedmont zone of the Dzhungar Mountains. Pottery data was obtained from newly …

When Life Happens: Theatres Of Hiv And Complexity In South Africa, Jessica S. Ruthven

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines theatre as part of an artistic movement in South Africa to address the social, structural, and emotional repercussions of HIV, as well as a space in which knowledge about HIV/AIDS is actively created, mediated, reproduced, challenged, and presented for public consumption. Although applied theatre has a long history in the country, I focus on innovation in recent theatrical practices that have occurred as artists and members of broader civil society struggle to understand the trajectory of the country's AIDS epidemic and question the scope of popular national HIV intervention campaigns. I use emerging forms of cultural production …

Cattle Ranching As A Cultural Ecology Problem In San Miguel County, New Mexico, Thomas J. Maloney

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Studies of cultural ecology, the adaptations of the people of a culture to a given physical and social environment, have usually dealt with a single ethnic group in a single environment. This study is concerned with an unusual situation, two fairly distinct ethnic groups in a region with large areas of distinctly different physical environments.