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Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Role Of Farmer Knowledge In Agroecosystem Science: Rice Farming And Amphibians In The Philippines, Catherine R. Propper, Lisa J. Hardy, Brittni D. Howard, Rica Joy B. Flor, Grant R. Singleton Sep 2020

Role Of Farmer Knowledge In Agroecosystem Science: Rice Farming And Amphibians In The Philippines, Catherine R. Propper, Lisa J. Hardy, Brittni D. Howard, Rica Joy B. Flor, Grant R. Singleton

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Rice (Oryza sativa) agriculture provides food and economic security for nearly half of the world’s population. Rice agriculture is intensive in both land and agrochemical use. However, rice fields also provide aquatic resources for wildlife, including amphibians. In turn, some species may provide ecosystem services back to the farmers working in the rice agroecosystem. The foundation for understanding the complexity of agroecosystem–human relationships requires garnering information regarding human perceptions and knowledge of the role of biodiversity in these rice agroecosystems. Understanding farmer knowledge and perceptions of the ecosystem services provided by wildlife in their fields, along with their …


A Landscape Perspective On Climate-Driven Risks To Food Security: Exploring The Relationship Between Climate And Social Transformation In The Prehispanic U.S. Southwest, Colleen Strawhacker, Grant Snitker, Matthew A. Peeples, Ann P. Kinzig, Keith W. Kintigh, Kyle Bocinsky, Brad Butterfield, Jacob Freeman, Sarah Oas, Margaret C. Nelson, Jonathan A. Sandor, Katherine A. Spielmann Jul 2020

A Landscape Perspective On Climate-Driven Risks To Food Security: Exploring The Relationship Between Climate And Social Transformation In The Prehispanic U.S. Southwest, Colleen Strawhacker, Grant Snitker, Matthew A. Peeples, Ann P. Kinzig, Keith W. Kintigh, Kyle Bocinsky, Brad Butterfield, Jacob Freeman, Sarah Oas, Margaret C. Nelson, Jonathan A. Sandor, Katherine A. Spielmann

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Spatially and temporally unpredictable rainfall patterns presented food production challenges to small-scale agricultural communities, requiring multiple risk-mitigating strategies to increase food security. Although site-based investigations of the relationship between climate and agricultural production offer insights into how individual communities may have created long-term adaptations to manage risk, the inherent spatial variability of climate-driven risk makes a landscape-scale perspective valuable. In this article, we model risk by evaluating how the spatial structure of ancient climate conditions may have affected the reliability of three major strategies used to reduce risk: drawing upon social networks in time of need, hunting and gathering of …


Growing Relations: An Ethnographic Study On Rice, Vanilla, And Yams In Madagascar, Tyler Macintosh May 2020

Growing Relations: An Ethnographic Study On Rice, Vanilla, And Yams In Madagascar, Tyler Macintosh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

I examine the various ways in which the rice, wild yams, and vanilla that grow in northern Madagascar feature in the lives of numerous people including rural community members, representatives of the Malagasy government, and foreigners, focusing especially on the distinctive networks of relationships entailed by each of these plants. Each case presents interesting dilemmas from which we can gain insight into the everyday lives and hardships faced by rural Malagasy. Rice is a staple crop which both feeds and employs many Malagasy. More importantly it is at the base of everyday life, sustaining and creating important social ties. Wild …


Oppression And Dispossession Out Of Fields Of Plenty: Colonialism And Indigenous Agricultural Transformation, Brandon R. Katzung Hokanson Apr 2020

Oppression And Dispossession Out Of Fields Of Plenty: Colonialism And Indigenous Agricultural Transformation, Brandon R. Katzung Hokanson

Student Publications

Colonial encounters generate incredible degrees of societal transformation. Such transformations most often occur at the expense of the colonized majority and ultimately serve as means to benefit the colonizer minority. A specific case where this kind of unbalanced societal change can be observed is colonialism-induced transformations to indigenous agriculture. In this paper I use both ancient and modern examples of colonial encounters —Roman Gaul and French West Africa—to show that a number of conclusions can be drawn on how colonialism impacts indigenous agriculture. I argue that in both Roman Gaul and French West Africa, colonial-induced changes to agriculture brought forth …


Shaftesbury's Atlantis, Andrew Agha Apr 2020

Shaftesbury's Atlantis, Andrew Agha

Theses and Dissertations

This research posits that seventeenth century natural philosophy as purported by the Royal Society of London had a major impact on the way the First Earl of Shaftesbury directed the settlement of the English colony Carolina. When Carolina was first settled in 1670, the colonists were ordered by Shaftesbury and his Lords Proprietors of Carolina cohort to test experimental exotic crops like cotton, sugarcane, grapes, olive trees, and indigo, but since those crops did not produce exportable surpluses, they have been labeled as failures. Instead, this study recognizes those failures as integral components to the scientific process of experimentation. That …


German Immigration And Its Ties To Landscape Change In Nebraska, Lindsey Labrie Mar 2020

German Immigration And Its Ties To Landscape Change In Nebraska, Lindsey Labrie

Honors Theses

This thesis uses a multidimensional approach to frame the different waves of German immigration within the context of land use change in Nebraska. By recounting the historical challenges and struggles Germans faced in their homelands, this thesis provides similarities between historical immigration patterns throughout the state. Observing the timing of these movements of people paints a clearer picture of how these immigrants might have helped change the farming and cultural landscapes of Nebraska. Knowing and recognizing historical immigration in Nebraska cultivates a deeper appreciation for the current relations between immigrants and Nebraska’s physical landscape.


The Interwoven Existences Of Official Catholicism And Magical Practice In The Lived Religiosity Of A Transylvanian Hungarian Village, Cecília Sándor Mar 2020

The Interwoven Existences Of Official Catholicism And Magical Practice In The Lived Religiosity Of A Transylvanian Hungarian Village, Cecília Sándor

Journal of Global Catholicism

During the last five years I have been doing field research in a Transylvanian Hungarian village, Sânsimion (Hu: Csíkszentsimon). I present my research on this religiously homogenous, Catholic community’s worldview. Based on interviews conducted with members of the village’s various age groups, I map religious and magical knowledge passed down through the generations, using the theoretical frame of collective memory and religious transmission. Second, I highlight two different but coexisting “constructions of reality” in this rural community. By “constructions of reality,” I mean interpretations of reality expressed in narrative discourses and local magical practices that are closely and inextricably interwoven …


Mf004 Aroostook Oral History Project, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine Jan 2020

Mf004 Aroostook Oral History Project, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History Finding Aids

The Aroostook Oral History Project, 1971-1972, which resulted in a collection of 119 cassettes (now digitized), totaling 73 hours. Interviews of more than 150 people were conducted by Helen K. Atchison covering a wide range of topics including early county history, early farming and machinery, the Aroostook War, railroading, lumbering, potato farming, maple sugar making, folk songs, folklore, folk medicine, politics, town meetings, cross-border migration, smuggling, Indians, sporting camps, schools and schooling, tall tales, superstitions, and many other aspects of the county's cultural heritage. Twenty tapes recorded in French and two tapes recorded in Swedish have not been abstracted and …


Mf015 Curran Family Homestead Project, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine Jan 2020

Mf015 Curran Family Homestead Project, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History Finding Aids

A series of student interviews done for Edward D. “Sandy” Ives’ class focused on the Curran Family Homestead, a living history museum in Orrington, Maine. Interview topics include: memories of Alfred, Eddie, and Catherine Curran; dairy farming in East Orrington during the first half of the twentieth century; MA Crook and Sons Hillside Dairy; relationship between the Kimball family and the Currans; swimming in the Fields Pond in the summer; tobogganing on the Curran property in the winter; a genealogy of the Curran family; growing up in Orrington and spending time on the Curran farm; daily management of the farm; …


Mf019 Foxfire Bicentennial Project, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine Jan 2020

Mf019 Foxfire Bicentennial Project, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History Finding Aids

Part of a nationwide project coordinated by E. Wigginton, founder of Foxfire, of interviews with the elderly about their lives and their hopes and fears for the future of the nation.


Mf176 Maine Ethnographic / Barry H. Rodrigue Collection, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine Jan 2020

Mf176 Maine Ethnographic / Barry H. Rodrigue Collection, Special Collections, Raymond H. Fogler Library, University Of Maine

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History Finding Aids

This collection contains items deposited by Barry H. Rodrigue that contains the sub-collection, Ashland Family Collection.