Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Egyptianization: Tackling Faulty Narratives With Respect To Ancient Nubian And Ancient Egyptian Relationships, Antony Schultz

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

The study of Ancient Nubia has been beset by barriers to accurate information. One such barrier, Egyptocentrism, negatively impacts the narrative of Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Nubian relationships by solely placing focus on Egypt without regard to Nubia. Egyptocentric thought, such as the idea of “Egyptianization”, and the theory of Egypt in a vacuum are two of the most poignant narratives perpetrated by scholars. Egyptianization implies the assimilation of Egyptian traits and downplays Nubian identity, agency, and culture. It suggests that Nubians lacked a distinct culture of their own and relied upon Egypt for their identity and ability to nation …

One Day At A Time, Four Decades Apart: An Analysis Of The Doxic, Mimetic, And Diagnostic Performances In The Original And Rebooted Pilots Of The Classic Norman Lear Show, Katrina Frank

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

In the modern era, it has become easier than ever to watch serial shows, whether they air on primetime television or are released on subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) services. However, the lack of Latinx representation in these shows is severely lacking. This is why shows like the rebooted Norman Lear classic One Day at a Time are so important to the audiences it reaches. Shows with Latinx actors and storylines can impact the way their Latinx audience members view themselves and break the stereotypes associated with them (Contreras 2021).

By analyzing several scenes from both the 1975 and 2017 pilot episodes …

Squaring The Circle: Talking About Accessibility At Discovery World, Ariel Butler

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, museums have made a concerted effort to consider accessibility and the needs of the broader community in their programming. This thesis analyzes how Discovery World, a science and technology museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, can better accommodate diverse learning styles and disabilities in their 2023 Summer Camp program through a case study of implementation. The thesis analyzes the impact of the plan to improve accessibility and inclusivity in the classroom for children in grades 1-8, focusing on how staff conceptualize the ideal setup and aims to provide valuable insights to enhance inclusivity and accessibility in informal educational settings. …

Dancing Mi Cultura: The Production Of Ethnic And National Identity In Midwestern Mexican-Americans Through The Performance Of Ballet Méxicano Folklórico, Katrina J. Frank

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies how Mexican Americans living in the northwest suburbs of Chicago produce connections to their Mexican heritage and culture through the performance of ballet Mexicano folklórico. Through ethnographic interviews of current and former folklórico dancers, as well as participant observation of adult folklórico dance practices, I contextualize the experiences of the interviewees using the anthropological theories of habitus, continuous and discontinuous selves, double-consciousness, liminality, and collective effervescence, as well as the works of Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Foucault, and Frantz Fanon, with the discussion of folklórico as an art, and the concept of institutional use of dance as …

Ghost Town Living: Presenting The Past On Youtube, Alannah Ray

Theses and Dissertations

Cerro Gordo is a privately-owned historic mining town in California, and the YouTube channel Ghost Town Living, with over 1.6 million followers, documents the current owner's goal of preserving and restoring the town for visitation. This thesis explores how Cerro Gordo and Ghost Town Living can be understood together through the lenses of museology, digital anthropology, and archaeology. Based on a site visit, analysis of digital media, and interviews with staff and people connected to the site, I explore the intersection between heritage sites and social media, and more widely, changing perceptions of American heritage, including who has the right …

Soul Quest Church Of Mother Earth: Ayahuasca Decriminalization And The Struggle Of An Institution To Become A Church, Tarryl Janik

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the process by which Soul Quest Church of Mother Earth Inc., an ayahuasca church, in Orlando, Florida, seeks to become a legal church in order to be exempted from the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 which classifies DMT, the psychedelic by-product of the boiled ayahuasca vine and chacruna leaf, as an illicit substance. The three-year study charts the process by which Soul Quest undertakes to demonstrate their practice and belief in terms that will conform to the State’s idea of what “church-ness” looks like and how sincere belief should be demonstrated in terms the law will find …

Let Go And Let God: An Ethnographic Study Of Overeaters Anonymous, Subjectivity, And Extreme Eating Distress, Abby Forster

Theses and Dissertations

Academic discussions regarding eating disorders have been dominated by two frameworks: biomedical and feminist. While the former explains eating disorders as a product of individual pathology, the latter asserts the cause is culture. An aspect of culture that is often suggested is neoliberalism. This ethnographic study utilizes the term “eating distress” to acknowledge the localized idioms that occur outside of the bounds of biomedical settings. The research documents the experiences of many members of Overeaters Anonymous dealing with eating distress within a social context in which their body types are stigmatized. The dissertation examines the relationship between subjectivity, Overeaters Anonymous, …

The Caretaking Of Eve Online: Institutional Ethics And Enactments At Ccp Games, Joshua William Rivers

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography examines the Icelandic video game developer CCP Games, the makers of EVE Online—a massively-multiplayer online game (MMO) that takes place in a star cluster far, far away. Through my exploration of CCP Games as an institution over the span of fourteen months, I highlight how corporations are culturally-situated, enacted entities. Simultaneously, I demonstrate that these culturally-located actors who serve as the architects of our digital infrastructures undertake such efforts from their situated vantage points, thereby embedding particular ethical commitments into the digital landscapes they craft and within which we live our social lives. Created with the intent to …

Function And Aesthetic Value: An Analysis Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's Thai Royal Silver Collection, Aislinn Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes 45 objects from the Thai Royal Silver collection currently housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM). Of these, 41 were donated by a single donor, Dr. Louis Schapiro, who collected the objects during his time working as Medical Advisor for the King of Siam in 1931-1932. Following his death, his son Mark held onto the objects until 1969, when they became a part of the MPM’s collection. The chosen objects include boxes, bowls, and other types of vessels. Through researching this collection, the following questions guided the direction for this thesis: How did the silver industry begin …

The Case Of The Benin Bronzes: Exploring Repatriation In U.S. Museums, Kendra Voelz

Theses and Dissertations

The Benin Bronzes are a grouping of an estimated 10,000 works made from brass, ivory, wood, clay, as well as other materials. These objects originated from the royal palace in Benin City, located in present day Nigeria in Africa. Within the last five years, beginning in 2017, discussions surrounding the repatriation of these artifacts from museums around the world have been reignited to a high degree where institutions are actively working towards researching and, in increasing numbers, repatriating the material to Nigeria. Through video and written interviews this thesis examines the thoughts and opinions of 11 professionals in museums across …

Practice, Community, And Algorithms: How Youtube Creators Learn Through Making, Morgan E. Forbush

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I answer the following questions: How do YouTube content creators learncontent creation through their practice and participation in communities of practice? How do these communities help creators form identity? And, lastly, how do the YouTube’s automated systems shape creators’ practice and impact their identity? To explore these questions, I observed a community of new creators to understand how creators learned about content creation from others. I interviewed 11 YouTube creators that ranged in size of viewership and experience to understand how they personally adapted their content to the platform of YouTube as they create videos. I find …

Incipient Games: Restoring The Past Through Play In Historical Reenactment, Luke Konkol

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an ethnography of an historical reenactment group which stewards a living history village portraying the nineteenth-century “Wisconsin frontier.” It analyzes productions from improvisations, to scripted vignettes, to a “whodunit” mystery game. Across their practice, reenactors are met with a host of challenges including ‘authenticity,’ balancing constructionism and objectivism, visitor engagement, educating the public, and the bleeding together of period techniques and modern thinking. Such challenges push against the boundaries of analyzing the project of reenactment (or larger social life) as theatre. Given terms like “play-acting” and “role-playing” in the space of reenactment, this thesis examines this phenomenon …

"Making God's Love Manifest": American Expressions And Productions Of Charisma In Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi's Global Following, Karen Margaret Esche-Eiff

Theses and Dissertations

While situating it in a changing American religious landscape marked by increasing participation in metaphysical religion, this dissertation examines the appeal of contemporary Indian godperson, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma), to Americans. Although replete with portraits of individual Indian spiritual leaders’ charisma, the anthropology of religion literature seldom addresses the processes whereby such figures’ charisma gets produced. Drawing on thirteen months of multi-sited ethnographic research conducted between 2015-2016, this dissertation uses Max Weber’s theory of charisma to answer the following questions: what extraordinary capacity do American devotees attribute to Amma; what is the process whereby they and she co-produce this …

Object: Tbd A Reflective Essay On The Nature Of The Yet-To-Be-Decided Object In Exhibition Design, Anirudh Shaktawat

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

In the year 2018 the Field Museum in Chicago, in response to the contemporary demands of inclusivity and decolonization, declared that it will redesign its Native American Hall. The developers and curators, in collaboration with Native American communities and curators from Chicago and elsewhere, came up with a list of 6 ‘truths’ about the community. By basing the show on these truths, the aim was to create a plan for an exhibition that can re-educate the public and dispel stereotypes associated with Native Americans. Within the abstract space of the exhibition plan many spots were labeled OBJECT: TBD (to-be-decided), which, …

Nationalist Theory And Politicization Of Archaeological Resources: Manifestations In Iraq, Andrew Vang-Roberts

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

Archaeological resources have been used by political regimes to further their own interests across time and space for many decades since the discipline was established as a profession in the late 19th century. Regime-backed 20^th century dictators like Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein, Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak understood that whoever controls a nation’s archeological resources controls the nation’s memory. By controlling collective memory, a regime can assert control over its people. Archeological resources can be used to validate a regime’s control over physical space as well. Educating a population about its archeological past can …

Care In Crisis: The Ethical, Affective, And Subjective Worlds Of Homeless Service Providers In A Us City, Todd Jonathan Ebling

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the ethical, affective, and subjective worlds of homeless service providers in a US city. While ample studies have been conducted that focus on homeless populations in the United States, very little ethnographic research has been undertaken that focuses on those who interact most with homeless populations—workers in the homeless service sector. Drawing on fifteen months of ethnographic research and forty interviews with staff conducted in 2017 and 2018, I examine the work of care and the complex experiences that workers faced in their attempts to provide care for homeless clients at a nonprofit homeless shelter for men …

Waking The Dead, Speaking To The Living: The Display Of Human Remains In Museums, Emily R. Stanton

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

Artifacts are immensely powerful aids in telling stories from the past, yet it is the dead persons of past eras who accrued a host of ethical and legal issues. This article discusses several perspectives on and problems with the practice of displaying human remains in museums and includes a number of case studies from select museums in the USA and Europe. As a precaution to the reader, this article also features a few images of human bodies on display in museums.

Casas Grandes Ceramics At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Samantha A. Bomkamp

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

Museums across the world hold unprovenienced artifacts with valuable data left unresearched because of their lack of context. The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) holds one such collection of Casas Grandes vessels. The intent of this paper is to present an example of how a museum collection can be contextualized in order to be compared to others of its kind and contribute to the knowledge of a prehistoric culture. Using a coding scheme, this research will present data for: 1) type and time period for each of the Casas Grandes vessels and 2) iconography analysis on the polychromes. With Northwest Mexico …

Digging Through Space: Archaeology In The Star Wars Franchise, Karissa R. Annis

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

Archaeology is a slippery topic when it comes to its public presentation in various media, especially in fictional representations in books, film, TV, and video games. Archaeologists have historically been at odds with some of these productions, and various articles have analyzed these representations before. This article analyzes archaeological representations within the genre of speculative fiction, which includes the subgenera of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. One particular case study, Star Wars, will be examined in depth to see how this representation could be perceived and what that means for archaeologists. There have been various references to archaeology within Star …

The Journey Of A Hopewell Site Artifact: Bear Canine With Inlaid Pearl At The Milwaukee Public Museum, Katrina Schmitz

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

The archaeological excavations conducted by Warren K. Moorehead at the Hopewell site of Ross County, Ohio resulted in the removal of hundreds of thousands of ancient Native American objects. Crafted during the Middle Woodland Period, these objects began a new life in the late 19th century as archaeological artifacts divided into smaller museum collections that were shipped throughout the world. Guided by Arjun Appadurai and Igor Kopytoff’s biographical approaches to museum objects, this article will follow the experiences of one of the Hopewell site artifacts, a bear tooth with an inlaid pearl. Discussed in this article is the creation, original …

Front Matter, Table Of Contents, Contributors

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

No abstract provided.

Head Strong: Gendered Analysis Of Human Representations In Western And Central Continental European Iron Age Iconography, Christopher R. Allen

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

This preliminary study examines potential links between gender and sex representations in Iron Age Continental European iconography. Drawing from multiple examples such as the Glauberg statue, the statue of Bourey, and the Gundestrup Cauldron, this article reviews the different anthropomorphic images in Western European Iron Age contexts to create a method for understanding the role of gender and the human head in anthropomorphic representations. This article will form a foundation for future studies.

Videogame Tourism: Spawning The Digital Into The Physical Realm In The British Isles, Heather Rebecca Brinkman

Theses and Dissertations

Video game tourism is in its infancy but growing in popularity. This dissertation is an anthropological study of gamers’ attempts to interact with the physical environments in Scotland that influenced the virtual landscapes to which they have an emotional connection. Seven of the locations I identified as potential field sites provided some form of ethnographic material. I traveled with gamers to these seven sites. While at these sites, I observed and interviewed people that I met as well as did participant observations with those I went with. This project was able to demonstrate that gamers and tourists alike attempt to …

Learning And Expertise Of Equestrians: A Qualitative Assessment Of Combining Humans And Equines In A Sport, Kiley Timler

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the learning and expertise of equestrians. In this work, I use two theories, the first Jean Lave’s concept of apprenticeship or learning by doing. Apprenticeship allows people to gain the knowledge and skill they desire while also being able to become a part of a community. This knowledge and skill are seen as the newcomer becoming the oldcomer. The second theory uses Summerson Carr’s ideas of expertise. She describes expertise through four processes, socialization, evaluation, institutionalization, and naturalization. Overall, she explains expertise as something people do rather than something they possess through performance. Performance allows individuals …

Practical Problems And Moral Discourses: An Ethnography Of Breastfeeding, Tara Ann Gallagher

Theses and Dissertations

Universal and bioactive, breastfeeding is a burgeoning biocultural topic because it incorporates biological and social determinants of human behavior. The topic has amassed media attention framed as part of a bigger imagining of motherhood as an idealized state directed at the female body’s performance. This paper questions media and public policy’s role in the dissemination of culture and the symbolic value of breastmilk. This study examines breastfeeding discourses through the lens of an American, mostly white, Midwestern middle-class social structure. Using participant observation data of two postpartum support groups and semi-structured interviews with six primiparous mothers, my data suggests that …

Heirloom And Hybrid Corn In The American Corn Belt: An Ethnography Of Seed Saving Practices, Rachelle Halaska

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnographic study examines the practices and context of contemporary heirloom corn seed saving practices and projects in the American Corn Belt. It examines heirloom corn conservation and hand pollination practices at Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa in 2015. From there the study extends to interviews with heirloom farmers, breeders and gardeners in Wisconsin and Illinois. The findings indicate that the lines between the mainstream and the margins of corn production are highly blurred, and that there is a considerable amount of cross-pollination of ideas and practices between alternative corn farming and dominant industrial hybrid production in the American …

Sexual Dimorphism And The Shape Of The Proximal Tibia In A Radiographic Sample, Emily Eiseman

Theses and Dissertations

SEXUAL DIMORPHISM AND THE SHAPE OF THE PROXIMAL TIBIA IN A RADIOGRAPHIC SAMPLE

This study investigates the use of radiographs to determine sexual dimorphism in the shape of the tibia. The goal of the research was to identify a small set of markers that would allow researchers to efficiently and accurately determine a person’s sex from a radiograph of the proximal tibia.

The sample consisted of radiographs including 75 females and 46 males ranging in age from 21 to 81. Measurements were taken on 27 points around the area of the knee including the tibia, patella, and femur. The measurements …

Looking For Group: Sociality, Embodiment, And Institutions In World Of Warcraft, Christopher J. Cooley

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography examines the varying degrees of conflict between multiple stakeholders involved in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft (WoW). The game’s designers, like many software developers in the contemporary world, tend to be guided by an ideology influenced by classical liberalism, but also inspired by a utopian view of technology in general. That ideological position has directly affected many aspects of the game, from the largely unregulated in-game economy, to the strong emphasis on individual mastery of the game’s systems to progress through the complete content of the game world. World of Warcraft advertises itself not …

Pena, Pinahua, And Prestige: Shame And Linguistic Insecurity In Upper Balsas Classrooms, Heather Gabrielle Thomas Flores

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography is a topical analysis of the Indigenous Education system in rural Guerrero, Mexico. The purpose of this research is to draw out the correlations between coercive monolingual ‘Spanish only’ language policies implemented during the mid 20th century and the systematic disintegration of the Nahuatl language within what were once monolingual Nahua communities in the Upper Balsas valley. The data presented in this paper is framed and analyzed through language ideologies discourse. The conceptualizations of language held within the cultural ideology allow for the complexities surrounding language loss and revitalization to be taken into consideration within their dynamic and …

Everyday Perseverance & Meaningful Toil: Mapping The (In)Distinguishable Process Of Recovery Post-Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, Louisiana, Monique Hassman

Theses and Dissertations

For nearly a century, anthropological scholarship on disaster has contributed to advancing emergency preparation and management, however examination focusing on survivors’ return and responses in the aftermath of catastrophe, specifically the ways in which residents work to recover—if at all—remains far from comprehensive, especially in urban, post-industrial settings.

Following calamity, what remains? What is disturbed? What becomes reconstructed? Who repairs the tattered social fabric or restores the built environment? And how do these processes transpire? These questions summarize the research interests of this dissertation, which examines the place-making practices not of experts or administrators, but, rather, those enacted by (extra) …