Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

On The Micropolitics And Edges Of Survival In A Technocapital Sacrifice Zone, Peter C. Little

Faculty Publications

This article explores the industrial sacrifice zone of Endicott, New York, which in 1924 became the birthplace of International Business Machines Corporation and quickly established itself as an industrial launching pad for the production and innovation of modern computing technologies. Drawing on ethnographic research and taking a micropolitical ecology approach, I consider industrial decay and community corrosion key agents for understanding the sedimentary record of neoliberal “technocapitalism” [Suarez-Villa, Luis. 2009. Technocapitalism: A Critical Perspective on Technological Innovation and Corporatism. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press]. In particular, I explore here how the flip-side of local narratives of deindustrialization and economic …

Measuring Vapor Intrusion: From Source Science Politics To A Transdisciplinary Approach, Peter C. Little, Kelly G. Pennell

Faculty Publications

Investigation of indoor air quality has been on the upswing in recent years. In this article, we focus on how the transport of subsurface vapors into indoor air spaces, a process known as ‘vapor intrusion’, (VI) is defined and addressed. For environmental engineers and physical scientists who specialize in this emerging indoor environmental exposure science, VI is notoriously difficult to characterize, leading the regulatory community to seek improved science-based understandings of VI pathways and exposures. Yet despite the recent growth in VI science and competition between environmental consulting companies, VI studies have largely overlooked the social and political field in …

Sustainable Science And Education In The Neoliberal Ecoprison, Peter C. Little

Faculty Publications

As part of the general ‘greening’ of prisons in the last decade of neoliberalization and the formation of institutionalized programs to provide science and environmental education opportunities for the incarcerated, the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP), a partnership between Evergreen State College and the Washington State Department of Corrections, has become the most vibrant partnership in the US to mesh the cultures and institutions of environmental science and corrections. Drawing attention to the SPP’s anchoring mission, which is ‘to bring science and nature into prisons,’ this article looks at environmental science education in the contemporary prison in light of recent …

Environmental Justice Discomfort And Disconnect In Ibm's Tainted Birthplace: A Micropolitical Ecology Perspective, Peter C. Little

Faculty Publications

The ‘‘toxic time bomb’’ of the so-called ‘‘green’’ high-tech industry is no longer a secret. Today, ‘‘[h]igh-tech pollution is a fact of life wherever the industry has operated for any length of time, from Malaysia to Massachusetts’’ (Siegel and Markoff 1985, 163), and so is resistance to high-tech toxic disaster. Since at least the late 1970s, electronics workers, academics, and environmental justice and labor rights activists have ‘‘challenged the chip’’ industry (Smith, Sonnenfeld, and Pellow 2006; see also Pellow and Sun-Hee Park 2003). Their struggle exposed not only the toxic externalities of microelectronic modernization, but also the emergence of redgreen …

Reflections On Sudanese Languages Of War And Peace, Richard A. Lobban

Faculty Publications

This pap er started as a casual reflection and was not especially scholarly in style, mainly following the 2009 Sudan Studies Association conference theme of war and peace.(1) It just sought to explore some linguistic concepts of war and peace in some Sudanese languages for which I had dictionaries at hand. I had no a priori views or hypotheses and was motivated mainly by my curiosity into Sudanese linguistics. As this survey has evolved, patterns emerged about these concepts that nudged me to look more at the context and etymology . The result is incomplete, but hopefully heuristic . A …

Ending Slavery In Sudan, Richard A. Lobban

Faculty Publications

As amazing and anachronistic as it mat seem, slavery has been revived in the Sudan.

Report To The Metropolitan Museum Of Art: Department Of The Arts Of Africa, Oceania And The Americas, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

In this report I will begin by presenting (Part I) the background to the project, since the work performed during the fellowship period was a continuing part of a larger endeavor, begun in 1993. This sketch will be followed by (Part II), a characterization of my activities and their results at the Museum, and (Part III), a discussion of work remaining to be accomplished and plans for the future. Thirteen appendices (Part IV) will provide detailed information of various kinds that might be useful in whatever applications Museum staff choose to pursue resulting from this work.

Women In The Invisible Economy In Tunis, Richard A. Lobban

Faculty Publications

This chapter turns to the theoretical and empirical aspects of the women's presence, or absence, in the economy of the greater metropolitan area of Tunis. It takes off from an earlier work 1 that focused on the informal economy in Tunis in general. However, this study is guided by the assumption that there is an integrated and unitary economy overall. While the overt public economic presence of women is not great in Tunis, this study of the invisible economy require s a model that articulates the role for both men and women. As described in the introduction, this research recognizes …

Sacred Texts And Introductory Texts, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

A survey of 118 introductory anthropology textbooks published in the period 1929-1990 examines the ways in which Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa has been presented to college undergraduates. In contrast to Derek Freeman's claim that her conclusions about Samoan sexuality and adolescence have been reiterated (approvingly) in an "unbroken succesion of anthropological textbooks," it appears that this work has been ignored almost as often as it has been cited. Criticesms of Mead, although relatively few and almost entirely methodological, have also been incorporated into texstbooks, both before and following Freeeman's 1983 book, Margaret Mead and Samoa. Whether …

Yesterday's Maps, Today's Tragedies, Richard A. Lobban

Faculty Publications

Attitudes and consciousness about Africa are much shaped by the borders between its nations, peoples and other resources. Thus, the history of the cartography of Africa informs us not only about the continent's past, but much of what constitutes its present and, perhaps, its future.

What Does One Do With White People Who Stay?, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

This article is a retrospective of Terence Hays and his early ethnographic experiences with the Ndumba and with those who had almost no contact with Europeans. Hays draws on other works by those who also played the "pioneer" role in their field work and discusses how the society has handled the impact from the first contact of the "true pioneers" who had arrived almost 20 years prior to Hays and the others. Many of the Highlanders already were drawing on their previous experiences with the Europeans to deal with them as a constant in their lives. Hays notes that even …

Problems And Strategies In The Decipherment Of Meroitic, Richard A. Lobban Jr.

Faculty Publications

This article offers a preliminary report on the evolution of the study of Meroitic language and on developing a strategy for expanding its translation from one or two dozen words to some greater number. The strategy is complicated by the essential absence of bilingual texts. Thus, this strategy seeks to synthesize a bilingual environment for the study of Meroitic inscriptions. The first part of this article will review the position of Meroitic in African language systems and discuss why so little progress has been made in the decipherment of Africa's oldest written language after Egyptian hieroglyphics.

"The New Guinea Highlands" Region, Culture Area, Or Fuzzy Set?, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

The criteria for delineating "the New Guinea Highlands," a fundamental category in Melanesian anthropology, are variable, vague, and inconsistently applied, with the result that there is little clarity or agreement with regard to its characteristics and its membership. So far as the literature is concerned, "the New Guinea Highlands" is a fuzzy set. The common resort to notions of "cores," "margins," or "fringes" is an attempt to preserve an essentialist approach but inevitably leads to the same confusion. The continued use of "the Highlands" as an analytic or theoretical construct carries the costs of misleadingly implied homogeneity, with marginalization of …

Democracy In Cape Verde, Richard A. Lobban

Faculty Publications

The news from Africa usually carries headlines about natural disasters, coups, civil wars, human tights abuses and famine. Despite these tragic cases there is also a bright side the upsurge of a new movement of democratization.

"No Tobacco, No Hallelujah" , Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

According to myths and legends told by some peoples of New Guinea, tobacco is an ancient and indigenous plant, having appeared sponotaneously in a variety of ways. In other instances, the plant and the custom of smoking it are said to have been established by local culture heroes, while still other traditions prosaically cite adoptions from neighboring groups. On the basis of oral history alone, then, one might conclude that New Guinea tobacco appeared in widely scattered locations in the mythic past, and its distribution at the time of European contact is explainable as simple diffusion within the region.

Interest, Use, And Interest In Uses In Folk Biology, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

In this work on folk biological taxonomy, Terence Hays the author, calls upon various works of previous field studies conducted over a long-term period including those by Bulmer, Everyman, Hunn, Brown, and Hymes. Hays looks back to works by Ralph Bulmer and his co-workers where taxonomies of five or six levels deep were not surprising. Hays points out that this is a stark contrast to Everyman, Alexander Portnoy's study regarding the simplicity of Westerners folk systems and then posits why "the folk" classify their environment in great detail. Hays brings to light that it has much to do with the …

Sacred Flutes, Fertility, And Growth In The Papua New Guinea Highlands, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

Since Read's (1952) classic study of the nama cult of the Goroka area, ethnographers in the Papue New Guinea Highlands haved focused considerable attention on what I shall refere to as a "sacred flute complex" around which men's cults are organized. The flutes have been seen as acore symbol of male hegemony, and their associated riges and dogma as key factors in the perpetuation of "antagonistic" relations between the sexes, for which that region has long been known. In specific cases ethnographers have provided ingenious and persuasive analyses of the symbolic aspects of sacred flutes (e.g., Herdt 1981, 1982; Gillison …

Folktales From Habi'ina, Katnantu District, Eastern Highlands Province, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

The people of Habi'ina village live on the northern slopes of Mount Piora in the Dogara Census Division of the Kainantu District, Eastern Highlands Province. Like other Papua New Guineans, they possess a rich oral literature and tell each other stories for a wide variety of reasons. All stories are called huri, but several different types can be distinguished.

Urban Research Strategies, Richard A. Lobban

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to outline the contemporary state of the art in urban studies with a focus on theory and topics of current urban research. Discussion moves then to methodological approaches in urban studies and finally some commentary is devoted to strategic research choices given prevailing needs, funding and interests.

A Genealogical And Historical Study Of The Mahas Of The "Three Towns," Sudan, Richard A. Lobban Jr.

Faculty Publications

The Mahas (a Nubian ethnic group) in the central Sudan have made a fundamental contribution to the Islamization and urbanization of this Afro-Arab nation. Their building of the first permanent structures in the "Three Towns" (Khartoum area) may be claimed as the start of the modern process of Sudanese urbanization. The Mahas leaders who became teachers and advisors to the Funj state were also centrally responsible for the spread of Islam along the Blue and White Niles at their confluence at the "Three Towns" in communities which have been occupied continuously for about five centuries.

Utilitarian/Adaptationist Explanations Of Folk Bioglogical Classification, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

Attempts to explain the complexity of folk biological classification systems may benefit from utilitarian or adaptationist arguments, focusing on the utilitarian or adaptive value of the behavioral consequences of folk distinctions among organisms. To adequately assess such perspectives it is necessary to resolve a number of theoretical, methodological empirical problems, which are identified and outlined in this paper as a first step toward the construction of such theories of ethnobiological classification.

Urbanization And Malnutrition In The Sudan, Richard A. Lobban Jr.

Faculty Publications

The complex and contradictory nature of the process of urbanization is manifest in a wide variety of ways. Inherent within the process are patterns of socio-economic differentiation such as class formation, social stratification and complex division of labor. Topics such as urban health and nutrition demand an anthropological perspective insofar as they are products of human culture and specific relations of production at specific periods. In short, a study of human health would be very limited without an understanding of its anthropological and its epidemiological context. The search for causality and correlation would likewise be frustrated. Remarkably, many inquiries into …

Some Cultivated Plants In Ndumba, Eastern Highlands Province, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

This paper reports on the cultivation and uses of 47 species of minor food crops and other useful plants in Habi'ina village, a Tairora speaking community in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea.

The Law Of Elephants And The Justice Of Monkeys: Two Cases Of Anti-Colonialism In The Sudan, Richard A. Lobban Jr.

Faculty Publications

So often the English language literature accepts the "civilizing" mission and "even-handed" governance of the colonial authorities. My research has shown that such judgments are difficult to support. Since this special commemorative issue of Africa Today is celebrating a quarter century of national independence of the Sudan I have sought to use the case study method to reconstruct something of the perception of colonial rule from the eyes of the colonized rather than colonizer. Although it should go without saying, the British forces arrived in the Sudan as a result of military conquest with battlefields anointed in Sudanese blood. Despite …

Uses Of Wild Plants In Ndumba, Eastern Highlands Province, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

For Papua New Guineans,l as well as for those who wish to understand them better, traiditional knowledge of the local natural environment is a priceless resource. In the face of increasing commitments to a cash economy, however, many communities are rapidly losing their awareness and appreciation of the rich animal and plant worlds which are immediately available to them. As Powell has recently observed (1976), the recorded information regarding traditional plant knowledge and uses has tended to be widely-scattered in the literature and relatively difficult to access, especially for those who stand to benefit the most from it. A recent …

National Integration And Disintegration: The Southern Sudan, Richard A. Lobban

Faculty Publications

The southern Sudan has been torn by internal and external struggles for most of its long history. The area has seldom been unified by its own leaders or by those seeking to impose their rule upon the southerners. One of the greatest experiments in national integration is now underway in that region. Certain progress has been made, but much remains to be done. The struggle for national integration in the huge and underdeveloped Sudan is very difficult, with ethnic and geographical factors weighing heavily. The problem has been complicated by the deep roots of national division planted by British colonialism …

American Mercenaries In Rhodesia, Richard A. Lobban

Faculty Publications

In rather well documented literature the United States' Central Intelligence Agency hired significant numbers of American and British nationals, to mention only the most important, to fight against the victorious Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola. It happens that a similar pattern of recruitment is now underway in Rhodesia although this has not received much attention in the Western press.

"Tribe": A Socio-Political Analysis, Richard A. Lobban Jr., Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Linda Zangari

Faculty Publications

In 1974 we authored an essay entitled "Tribe and Tribalism" which recommended that the term "tribe" be dropped from scientific usage by anthropologists because of its pejorative connotations associated with non-European peoples and because the term is arbitrarily, rather than systematically applied.

Increasing numbers of scholars are putting quotation marks around the word "tribe" or are using the phrase "the so-called tribal societies." Still others are presenting a critical review of the term "tribe" before abandoning it or using it in the text in modified or altered form. The term "primitive" has undergone a similar evolution in recent years.

Guinea-Bissau: 24 September 1973 And Beyond, Richard A. Lobban Jr.

Faculty Publications

On 24 September 1973 history was made in Africa. The first sub- Saharan African nation unilaterally declared its sovereignty from European colonialism following a protracted armed struggle. Most African nations gained their independence from colonial powers by negotiation and peaceful transfer of authority. True enough, this transfer was sometimes linked with prolonged periods of demonstrations, strikes, and nationalist propagandizing, but with the exception of Algeria (and perhaps Ethiopia) there were no wars of national liberation which led to a declaration of independence until Guinea-Bissau. The implications of this move are immense.