Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Not Just Playing With Toys: Enculturation And Identity In A Historic Village In Northeast Pennsylvania, Amarah Karlick

Anthropology and Sociology Student Research

The archaeology of early industrial communities can yield material evidence of the pervasive, interrelated impacts of industrialization on work and domestic life. Archaeologists and historians investigating industrial communities have increasingly pivoted from a focus on great men and firsts in technological development to the local sociocultural contexts and consequences of industrialization. Here, I use the study of toys from Stoddartsville, a milling village in northeast Pennsylvania, to examine the lived experiences of children during the mid-nineteenth century. I suggest that children learned powerful lessons about identity, especially gender, as they played with toys at Stoddartsville. These lessons cemented the social …

Anth201: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (Fall 2023), James Tolleson

Open Educational Resources

Cultural anthropology emerged to study the differences among human beings (and between human and non-human beings). This course will cover the foundations of the discipline, including a critical perspective on anthropology’s ties to European colonialism and the rise of global capitalism. Students will come away with an understanding of how cultural anthropologists study culture, defined as “a set of beliefs, practices, and symbols that are learned and shared. Together, they form an all-encompassing, integrated whole that binds people together and shapes their worldview and lifeways” (Brown, McIlwraith & Tubelle de González 2020, 6). We will also pay close attention to …

Identificación De La División Del Trabajo Entre Los Géneros A Través Del Análisis Iconográfico, Sarah Kauffmann

Segundo congreso internacional de iconografía precolombina. Barcelona, 2023. Actas.

El presente trabajo se enfoca en la metodología para identificar los roles y actividades realizadas por determinado género en la sociedad maya prehispánica. Códigos especiales en la iconografía son utilizados para representar y diferenciar los dos géneros. Varios medios se explorarán como las estelas, dinteles, cerámicas y figurillas. A través de la iconografía se identificará las actividades, vestimenta y postura para interpretar la división del trabajo.

This present study focuses on the methodology for identifying the roles and activities realized by both genders in the pre-Hispanic Mayan society. Special iconographical codes are used to represent and differentiate men and women. …

Black Feminist Citational Praxis And Disciplinary Belonging, Bianca C. Williams

Publications and Research

What does a Black feminist citational practice look and feel like? This contribution to the #CiteBlackWomen colloquy focuses on two arguments: First, that Black feminist citational praxis is one of the major interventions Black women scholars contribute to the academy; and second, that anthropology’s neglect and erasure of Black feminist anthropologists relates to disciplinary (un)belonging. I explore how citation and “disciplinary belonging” influence hiring practices, doctoral training, intellectual genealogies, and what is valued as anthropological knowledge.

Improving Networking Supports For Women In The Workplace, Karen E. Pennesi, Javier Alvarez Vandeputte, Zsofia Agoston, Rawand Amsdr

Anthropology Publications

This report describes findings from research on networking activities and strategies among women in executive and leadership positions in Canadian organizations. The project was carried out by graduate student researchers in collaboration with the Women's Executive Network. Networking is defined as the creation and maintenance of a community of diverse interests, through in-person and online engagements, that can be mobilized for the benefit of oneself or other members of one’s network. We found that the shift to primarily online networking activities due to COVID-19 removed some existing barriers related to age, gender and location, while introducing others related to family …

Cooking Up Inequality: An Ethnographic Study Of Racial Hierarchies In Miami's Restaurant Industry, Judith C. Williams

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Racial inequality is a significant problem in the US Restaurant Industry. In Miami, a tropical tourist destination with a majority Latinx population, restaurants serve as a site of multiculturalism, and are promoted by officials as a place where visitors can enjoy ethnic food and culture. However, these same locations of diversity are also spaces where whiteness is normalized as superior and racial hierarchies ensue. Previous studies have documented racism in the restaurant industry but fail to address the intersectional complexities that arise when race is layered with gender, class, nationality, language, and sexual orientation.

Drawing from a 13-month ethnographic study …

Gender Difference In Longitudinal Social And Personal Factors Related To Frequency Of Alcohol Consumption Of South Korean Adults: A Fixed-Effects Model, Baksun Sung

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Student Research

The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal social and personal factors related to frequency of alcohol consumption by South Korean adults focused on comparisons between the men and women. Data came from the 2005-2016 Korea Welfare Panel Study. A fixed-effects model was used to examine the longitudinal correlations between dependent and independent variables. According to the present results, first, life satisfaction except for health satisfaction and marital status were not associated with alcohol consumption patterns by men. On the other hand, higher frequency of alcohol consumption by women is negatively associated with various life satisfaction variables and …

Redefining Gender & Gender Expression Through Self-Perceptions & Self-Reflections, Deborah O. Ade

Publications and Research

As societies evolve policies are developed to recognize and formalize these changes. One current context for change is New York City and the concept that has undergone significant change is gender. Many individuals no longer identify with the traditional binary distinction of male or female. Subsequently, new gender categories have emerged (e.g., bi-gender, pan gender, androgynous). Indeed, a total of 31 gender categories have been recognized by the NYC Commission of Human Rights. The goal behind this acknowledgement is to encourage equitable treatment and respect of all individuals within the workplace. NYC businesses that do not accommodate individuals identifying with …

Reflecting On Pasuc Heritage Initiatives Through Time, Positionality, And Place, Scott R. Hutson, Céline Lamb, Daniel Vallejo-Cáliz, Jacob Welch

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper reports on heritage initiatives associated with a 12-year-long archaeology project in Yucatan, Mexico. Our work has involved both surprises and setbacks and in the spirit of adding to the repository of useful knowledge, we present these in a frank and transparent manner. Our findings are significant for a number of reasons. First, we show that the possibilities available to a heritage project facilitated by archaeologists depend not just on the form and focus of other stakeholders, but on the gender, sexuality, and class position of the archaeologists. Second, we provide a ground-level view of what approaches work well …

The Myth Of Neutrality: Linguistic Influence In The Integration Of Nonbinary Identities In English And German, Zoe A. Philippou

Student Publications

Grammatical structures that differ among languages can affect the way people of different cultures think, speak, and behave. Because of its close ties with identity, language also has the ability to manipulate the way people view themselves and others. Ethnographic research among English and German speakers shows that these differing grammatical structures affect the integration into society of nonbinary, intersex, and agender individuals through a grammatical predisposition for gender neutral language. As such, the means of increasing social integration of these groups also differs between linguistic and cultural borders.

Gender, Family, And Community Attachment In A New Destination, Erin Trouth Hofmann, Claudia Méndez Wright, Emma Meade Earl

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

As new immigrant destinations in the USA have become home to more settled immigrant populations, they are also becoming less male-dominated and attracting more women and families. But this process is occurring unevenly, with some new destinations much more attractive to women than others. The factors that might lead a destination to attract or retain women are not well understood. We draw on interviews with long-time Latin American residents in a non-metropolitan community in Utah with a fairly high proportion of women immigrants to analyze the ways in which gender and other factors relate to community attachment in this specific …

Morality At The Margins: Youth, Language, And Islam In Coastal Kenya [Table Of Contents], Sarah Hillewaert

Sociology

This book considers the day-to-day lives of young Muslims on Kenya’s island of Lamu, who live simultaneously on the edge and in the center. At the margins of the national and international economy and of Western notions of modernity, Lamu’s inhabitants nevertheless find themselves the focus of campaigns against Islamic radicalization and of Western touristic imaginations of the untouched and secluded.

What does it mean to be young, modern, and Muslim here? How are these denominators imagined and enacted in daily encounters? Documenting the everyday lives of Lamu youth, this ethnography explores how young people negotiate cultural, religious, political, and …

The Influence Of Gender On Female Business Owners In Ho Chi Minh City, Abby Busis

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Ho Chi Minh City is commonly referred to as a developing business hub, largely due to the rapidly increasing number of private enterprises. Since the implementation of the Doi Moi in 1986, Vietnam’s private business sphere has grown tremendously, and women have played a large role in this development. Today, women own just under a quarter of formal enterprises in Vietnam, but this impressive statistic does not consider the many challenges these women have faced.

Through in-depth interviews with female business owners themselves, along with an online survey, this study determines how gender influences these business owners’ professional experiences. Gender …

Humeri Spatulate Tools Associations And Function In Chaco Canyon, Nm, Sara L. Anderson

Anthropology Department: Theses

In the two papers that comprise this thesis, I will be discussing Bone Spatulate Tools (BSTs) specifically those made of artiodactyl humeri found within Chaco Canyon, NM. These archaeological tool types permit the investigation of androcentric biases by way of legacy data acquired using the Chaco Research Archive (CRA). By redressing these archaeological biases, I hope to resuscitate an understudied tool type and highlight their function and importance in Chacoan toolkits. In chapter two, I investigate women and gendered activities by examining Humeri Spatulate Tools (HSTs) that are found at Chacoan great and small house sites. In this study, I …

A Qualitative Study Of The Experience Of Miscarriage From Patients And Providers In The Rural U.S., Rebecca L. Upton

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty publications

This qualitative study examines how female patients in rural communities in the Midwest, who experienced at least one miscarriage, perceived their experience of pregnancy loss. Qualitative data were collected from 10 women who did experience at least one loss in addition to 10 participants who were providers or partners of the women were interviewed. The Socio-Ecological model informed the methodology and thematic analysis. Open-ended qualitative interviews provided the basis for the analysis. Transcribed narrative data were analyzed using standard coding procedures and MAXQDA software. Women who experienced miscarriage discussed how they made meaning of the experience within the context of …

Invisible Intersex: How Discourse Serves To Perpetuate Violence, Zoe A. Philippou

Student Publications

Critical discourse analysis surrounding intersex individuals makes it is clear that the violence against intersex individuals stems from a sense of othering due to the silence surrounding the public discussion and representation of intersex individuals. Additionally, the current discourse serves to create a circular argument of blame instead of serving to decrease the violence done upon intersex individuals. This research serves to explore the discourse surrounding intersex individuals and propose social and institutional ways of working to end the stigma surrounding intersexuality.

Consumer Choice And Beads In Fugitive Slave Villages In Nineteenth-Century Kenya, Lydia Wilson Marshall

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty publications

This study analyzes the consumption of European glass beads at two fugitive slave villages in nineteenth-century Kenya, Koromio and Makoroboi. The consumer choices of Koromio and Makoroboi residents reveal a strategic and symbolic material language. Specifically, the inter-household distribution of European glass beads reflects considerable variation in the performance of female identity. This distribution suggests varying norms of feminine adornment. Some of these norms likely originated in runaways’ natal communities; others may have developed during enslavement. The variability in adornment practices additionally points to women’s improvisation amid shifting gender relations in these nascent fugitive slave communities.

Gender East And West: Transnational Gender Theory And Global Marketing Research, Katherine Sredl

School of Business: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Much of the prior scholarly research on global gender and marketing tends to focus on development. The post-socialist space does not fit neatly into this paradigm, given the diversity of its legacy of ideology, industrialization, feminist thought, and the post-socialist experience of privatization, democratization, European Union expansion, and, in some cases, war. This chapter uses the history of feminist thought in Yugoslavia and Croatia to highlight the contribution the post-socialist space brings to global gender and marketing research: questioning the role of the state in securing rights and questioning assumptions about individualism in a neoliberal era. I argue for an …

The Most Beautiful Of All: A Quantitative Approach To Fairy-Tale Femininity, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Feminist folklorists have long asserted that women’s bodies are represented in fairy tales differently than men’s bodies, in normative and sexist ways. By using computational approaches to analyze a corpus of canonical fairy tales, I assess these claims and establish that women’s bodies are depicted in distinctive ways in fairy tales. This finding is important for scholars interested in fairy-tale studies, gender studies, and computational approaches to folklore studies.

“Your Picture Looks The Same As My Picture”: An Examination Of Passing In Transgender Communities, Alecia D. Anderson, Jay A. Irwin, Angela M. Brown, Chris L. Grala

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Transgender people remain one of the groups most susceptible to discrimination in the U.S. Previous studies have examined the discrimination and stress transgender people face, but few studies have examined trans identities using existing sociological theories of marginalized groups and identity formation. Using the theories of Dubois and Cooley, this study explores identity formation in conjunction with the phenomenon of passing among transgender people residing in Nebraska. Results suggest that while trans people do pass as a mechanism for subverting discrimination, there are other factors that influence an individual’s choice and strategy to pass or not. The current investigation lends …

Local Strategies For Economic Survival In Touristically Volatile Times: An Indonesian Case Study Of Microvendors, Gendered Cultural Practices, And Resilience, Kathleen M. Adams

Anthropology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article utilizes a qualitative ethnographic approach to examine the economic survival strategies pursued by Indonesian souvenir artisans and handicraft microvendors in touristically turbulent times. Resilience-oriented approaches have offered promising frameworks for understanding regions', destinations', and communities' capacities to adjust and adapt to challenges: this article complements these broader approaches by offering a fine-grained analysis of individual strategies for finding creative solutions to the economic challenges thrust upon them. My approach melds a constructivist approach accentuating local peoples' creative responses with gender-aware and practice-oriented approaches. These findings draw from data collected over three decades of ethnographic research in the Toraja …

Imagining Intersectional Anti-Rape Messaging At An Organization In Cape Town, South Africa: Visible And Invisible Subjects, Maslen Bode Ward

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Less than one month ago, South Africa held the first ever Summit on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide to assess the most effective ways to approach solving the country’s high rates of gender-based violence. My study aims to consider anti-rape messaging and advocacy under an intersectional framework, using one organization in Cape Town as a case study. I examine how anti-rape messaging in South Africa has failed to consider intersectional identities in their imagined conceptions of survivors and perpetrators. I explore the potential for intersectional anti-rape messaging and the role of race, class, gender, culture, and language in the distribution, audience, …

Anti-Queer Microaggressions Towards Queer Black Men, Camisha D. Fagan, Anna Smedley-López

McNair Poster Presentations

Microaggressions are reoccurring derogatory messages that degrade and/ or discredit one’s identity. While invisible and unknown to many, they remain visible and apparent to those impacted by them. The research questions for this project are: (1) What microaggressions do Queer Black men experience within larger society? (2) To contrast with larger society, what microaggressions do Queer Black men experience within Black communities? By conducting focus groups, I will examine the intersectional microaggressions that Queer Black males experience in their own community, as well as document microaggression that they experience in larger society. After conducting my focus groups, I will be …

Geographic Variation In Sex Ratios Of The Us Immigrant Population: Identifying Sources Of Difference, Erin Trouth Hofmann, E. Miranda Reiter

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper describes geographic variation in the sex composition of the foreign-born population in the US since 1990, and uses Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition to identify key sources of variation in regional sex ratios. We use data from the 1990 and 2000 US Censuses, and from the 2007–2011 American Community Survey, to create estimates of the size and characteristics of foreign-born populations at the level of Consistent Public-Use Microdata Areas. We find substantial local- and region-level variation in population sex ratios, with the highest sex ratios in the South and Midwest. This variation is partly explained by differences in the age- and …

Building Brand Kurdistan: Helly Luv, The Gender Of Nationhood, And The War On Terror, Nicholas S. Glastonbury

Publications and Research

In the early 2000s, the Kurdistan Regional Government hired a US-based firm to begin a public relations campaign called “The Other Iraq.” Since that time, it has worked with a number of PR and lobbying firms to build a cultural, political, and financial apparatus that I refer to as Brand Kurdistan. This apparatus aims to prove to Western audiencesthat the Kurds are a liberal exception in an illiberal Middle East, and to build prospects of KRG’s eventual national independence. This article explores the connections between Brand Kurdistan and the gendering of Kurdish nationalism, focusing particularly on Kurdish pop diva Helly …

Seeking Friends With Benefits In A Tourism-Based Sexual Economy: Interrogating The Gambian Sexscape, Mariama Jaiteh

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation engages with the driving motivations behind the actions of all those involved in The Gambia’s tourism-based sexual economy: the Gambian and other West African male and female sex workers, the Global North (habitually European) male and female tourists, the Gambian and expatriate Lebanese bar and restaurant owners, the Gambian state, and the semesters (members of the Gambian diaspora on vacation in The Gambia). It presents thick ethnographic accounts of interactions with Gambians and tourists, as they form temporary couples or friendships for the duration of tourists’ vacations, and sometimes for longer. This ethnography-rich dissertation pays careful attention to …

Women Agricultural Landowners—Past Time To Put Them “On The Radar”, Peggy Petrzelka, Ann Sorensen, Jennifer Filipiak

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

While women own 25% of the acres rented out for farming, little has been done in terms of federal policy that focuses on these women. In this policy analysis, we detail how (1) lack of data on these women landowners and (2) the invisibility of these women to federal natural resource and agricultural agency staff contribute to women nonoperating landowners (WNOLs) not being on the federal policy radar. We discuss how the persistence of these factors continues to marginalize WNOLs in federal agricultural policy, despite the mandate of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agencies to be serving underserved populations such …

How The Demographic Composition Of Academic Science And Engineering Departments Influences Workplace Culture, Faculty Experience, And Retention Risk, Eric E. Griffith, Nilanjana Dasgupta

Anthropology Department Faculty Publication Series

Although on average women are underrepresented in academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments at universities, an underappreciated fact is that women’s representation varies widely across STEM disciplines. Past research is fairly silent on how local variations in gender composition impact faculty experiences. This study fills that gap. A survey of STEM departments at a large research university finds that women faculty in STEM are less professionally satisfied than male colleagues only if they are housed in departments where women are a small numeric minority. Gender differences in satisfaction are largest in departments with less than 25% women, smaller …

Jenyffer Nascimento’S Epic Poetry Of Black Female Empowerment Jenyffer Nascimento: A Poesia Épica De Empoderamento Da Mulher Negra, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

This article presents results of auto-ethnography, literary analysis, and fieldwork research to answer an underlying, perhaps unresolved, concern, relevant to this dossier: how can we produce an ethical dialogue as transnational Black Feminists, among Black Brazilian women, and North American Black women, in an ethical manner, while realizing that one may (not ever) be a part of the “carnival without you in it.” Fertile Earth/ Terra Fertil tells a long overdue epic story to an audience within the poetry: Black women, family members, other times a Black man, Brazil, white women, or “you,” undefined. Joy to pain to chaos, sensuality, …

Very Long Engagements: The Persistent Authority Of Bridewealth In A Post-Apartheid South African Community, Michael W. Yarbrough

Publications and Research

This article examines the persistent authority of the customary practice for forming recognized marriages in many South African communities, centered on bridewealth and called “lobola.” Marriage rates have sharply fallen in South Africa, and many South Africans blame this on the difficulty of completing lobola amid intense economic strife. Using in-depth qualitative research from a village in KwaZulu-Natal, where lobola demands are the country’s highest and marriage rates its lowest, I argue that lobola’s authority survives because lay actors, and especially women, have innovated new repertoires of lobola behavior that allow them to pursue emerging needs and desires for marriage …