Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Seeing Life Through The Eyes Of Swahili Children Of Lamu, Kenya: A Visual Anthropology Approach, Rebecca Gearhart

Rebecca Gearhart Mafazy

“On Marriage Equality” (Review Of Jay Cee Whitehead's The Nuptial Deal: Same-Sex Marriage And Neo-Liberal Governance [University Of Chicago Press, 2011]), Margot Weiss

Margot Weiss

Opposition And Complementarity Of The Sexes In Ndumba Initiation, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

In this analysis of the juxtaposition of gender opposition and complementarity by Terence Hays, two important ceremonies of the unique culture of the Ndumba Highlanders are examined. Hays observes both gender ceremonies: the 'unmanra which is the male ceremony and the kwaasi which is the female ceremony. By observing these two ceremonies, Hays determines that the males and females believe they are opposed by their natures, but are also interdependent. By examining this culture's expressions of gender opposition, conversation, and complementarity, Hays believes understanding can then be realized.

’Reinvigorating The Queer Political Imagination’: A Roundtable With Ryan Conrad, Yasmin Nair, And Karma Chávez Of Against Equality, Margot Weiss

Margot Weiss

Intellectual Inquiry Otherwise: An Interview With Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, Margot Weiss

Margot Weiss

Silent Subversions, Derek Dubois

Derek M Dubois

Explores the concept of spectatorship in relation to gender in the earliest period of film history in the United States known as the silent era. Argues that a new mode of spectatorship emerges for women during the 1920s, which employs to advantage the extra-diegetic components of spectacle in theater design, new customized genres for female filmgoers, fandom, and exotic male film stars, such as Rudolph Valentino. Focuses primarily on feminist film theory and on cultural studies as methodological models.

A Historical Background To Anthropology In The Papua New Guinea Highlands, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

This work is a historical background of the early days of how and why anthropological fieldwork was conducted and includes the viewpoints of those who were actually there. Hays, like many others, made his region choice of the Papua New Guinea Highlands based on his imense interest and literature reviews of which happened to be in the literature of the Highlands with works by L.L. Langness, Kenneth E. Read, and James B. Watson. Hays also called upon conversations he had with David Cole and Kerry Pataki-Schweizer for his precise location choice. Hays discusses the early ethnographers during the colonial period …

Initiation As Experience, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

In honor of Kenneth E. Read, Terence Hays' essays of The New Guinea Highlands and their culture are a memory brought to the surface by Read's descriptive imagery of his experience witnessing a boy named Asemo who entered into manhood. Hays remembers his own experience of observing a right of passage in Ndumba in 1971 of five young boys. Hays infers the level of importance this culture puts on rights of passage and the shift in behavior exuded by those who are terrorized by the act. Hays remarks how what he saw before him were five very different boys from …

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

Terence Hays

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 …

Delineating Regions With Permeable Boundaries In New Guinea., Terence Hays

Terence Hays

Hays sets out the linkages among communities and societies as they form networks and regions in New Guinea. Hays reminds us of the long standing concern within the recent literature from New Guinea that supports the "primitive isolates" notion that is still with us. The "my people" syndrome still plagues the legions of researchers who seek to study a small distinct population that is largely uncontaminated by outside influences and remains primitive. He paints the picture of this primitive society by describing New Guinea topographically as a land of inaccessible mountain valleys, impenetrable swamps, and remote rain forests which make …

Oceania - From Tobacco In Culture And History: An Encyclopedia, Vol 2, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

The earliest historical record of tobacco use in Oceania dates back from 1616 on islands off the northwest coast of New Guinea. Tobacco cultivation may have been introduced to the philippines by the Spanish as early as 1575, but it was after large-scale cultivation began to flourish in Europe in the 1590's that the use of tobacco, if not always its cultivation, rapidly spread, with introductions by the Dutch in Java in 1601 and almost immediate diffusion throughout what is now Indonesia, with Halmahera becoming a center of cultivation and export (as was Java) by 1616.

Tairora - From The Greenwood Encyclopedia Of World Folklore And Folklife, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

Encyclopedia entry regarding the geography, history, and culture of Tairora located in the Kainantu District of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papau New Guinea.

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

Terence Hays

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.

A Pacific Island Collection In Rhode Island, Terence Hays, Mary Conaway, Susan Yeaw

Terence Hays

Collections of artifacts and specimens from Pacific Island cultures are found throughout Rhode Island. The largest and most systematically collected is in the Museum of Natural History in Roger Williams Park, Providence. The items were acquired by Rhode Island citizens over about a 150 year period from the early 1800's to the 1950's. They are from the 3 culture areas of the Pacific: Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. All form of matter including wood, shell, fiber, bone and skin, ivory, pottery, stone, and human hair are part of the artifact assemblage. The specimens (not studied for this project) include birds, lava, …

'Pigs Of The Forest' And Other Unwritten Papers, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

Hays recounts his ethnographic observances while studying the peoples of the Papua New Guinea Highlands during a feast. During the feast, Hays plays the dutiful observer and note taker waiting off to one side. He notes that he and his wife, were the first "red people" both the children and adults have ever seen on a daily basis and finds himself the object of interest and stares. The children were excited whenever they received attention from he and his wife which Hays always found compelling. One of the children that was there that day was a young boy who Hays …

They Are Beginning To Learn The Use Of Tobacco, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

European colonization attracts laborers whose performance was enhanced by their employers through the use of drugs. Tobacco provided Europeans a way to manipulate populations engaged in new work activities in the non-Western world. Hays argues that control of native labor was the result of control of an addictive American commercial product.

"Myths Of Matriarchy" And The Sacred Flute Complex Of The Papua New Guinea Highlands, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

In Hays study of the "Myths of Matriarchy" in the Papua New Guinea Highlands, he draws upon Joan Bamberger's "Myths of Matriarchy" from 1974. He seeks to address whether Bamberger's analysis of South American objects can illuminate those from the area he is studying, that of the Highlands of New Guinea. Hays notes that there is a long argued idea that the "sacred flute complex" was manifested from and contributed to the mutually antagonistic gender relations of the societies in which that area is known for and that once upon a time women brandished the flute and bullroarer instruments and …

"No Tobacco, No Hallelujah" , Terence Hays

Terence Hays

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.

Kuku-"God Of The Motuites", Terence Hays

Terence Hays

When European colonists arrived in Papua New Guinea, tobacco and the custom of smoking already were widespread but not universal. The newcomers quickly filled this void by introducing trade tobacco, which nearly everywhere was rapidly adopted. A "passion" for smoking was especially evident among those to whom tobacco was previously unknown or very new. The chemical properties of nicotine combined with an absence of cultural rules regarding its use to create a new "god."

Sacred Texts And Introductory Texts, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

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 or …

Introduction To Encyclopedia Of World Cultures Volume 2, Oceania, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

No abstract provided.

The ‘Good Girls’ Of Sri Lankan Modernity: Moral Orders Of Nationalism And Capitalism, Caitrin Lynch

Caitrin Lynch

In the Sri Lankan garment industry the term “good girls” refers to moral character and industrial productivity: a good girl both embodies Sinhala Buddhist traditions and is an efficient and productive factory worker. The “good girl” concept symbolizes a conjuncture of nationalist and capitalist gender ideals during this time of ethnic conflict and industrial development in the country. Although the women workers agree with many of the gendered characterizations implied by the term “good girls,” they do not uncritically follow nationalist and capitalist moral scripts. Rather, they mobilize the good girl identity for advantages inside and outside the factory. This …

Bringing Solar Power To Sri Lanka, Caitrin Lynch

Caitrin Lynch

Areas hit by the tsunami in South and Southeast Asia need solar power for a broad range of applications, including water pumping and purification, lighting and vaccine refrigeration in medical clinics, and lighting in the thousands of homes that need to be rebuilt. Given my personal conviction that anthropologists have an ethical obligation to work on the behalf of the communities where they do research, I'm helping to bring solar power to Sri Lankan communities affected by the tsunami.

Economic Liberalization, Nationalism, And Women's Morality In Sri Lanka, Caitrin Lynch

Caitrin Lynch

Economy, Culture, and Civil War in Sri Lanka provides a lucid and up-to-date interpretation of Sri Lankan society and its 20-year civil conflict. An interdisciplinary examination of the relationship between the economy, broadly defined, and the reproduction of violent conflict, this volume argues that the war is grounded not just in the goals and intentions of the opposing sides, but also in the everyday orientations, experiences, and material practices of all Sri Lankan people. The contributors explore changing political and policy contexts; the effect of long-term conflict on employment opportunities and life choices for rural and urban youth; life histories, …

Class And Kinship In Sudanese Urban Communities, Richard Lobban

Richard A Lobban

This article represents some of the results of three field research studies of urbanization in the Sudan. The research has focussed on two urban communities in the Khartoum area, those known as Tuti Island' and Burri al Mahas.2 The first study was conducted as doctoral research in 1970-72; a brief re-study took place in 1975, and most recently research was conducted in 1979-80. This ten-year period was a time during which major economic and demographic change occurred in the urban Sudan.

America And Political Islam, Richard Lobban

Richard A Lobban

I received this book before 11 September 2001 and am reviewing it in the aftermath of that day. One could not imagine a more intense crucible in which to view a work on political Islam. Under the glare of the fiery collapse at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and with bombs falling on Taliban and al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan, the work of an author and a reviewer requires even greater scrutiny.

Pigs And Their Prohibition, Richard Lobban

Richard A Lobban

Little is more central to the study of the modern Middle East than religion. Amidst the differences between the Judaic and Islamic traditions, both are unified about the religious prohibition of swine as a source of food. This taboo is one of the more significant common markers of their ethnicity and religious code.

War Clouds On The Horn Of Africa, Richard Lobban

Richard A Lobban

To review a book published five years ago describing a region in great turbulence is a great challenge. As one of those who has also written on aspects of the Horn of Africa it is tragically clear that the region's hostilities have brought misery and death for thousands. Resting with their remains are countless prophecies and predictions which had sought to analyze the latest events. These remarks may sound like defensive apologies of the author of this book, but I will defend him by assessing the difficulty of interpreting a dynamic and volatile region in the paroxysms of radical change.

From Slave To Pharaoh, Richard Lobban

Richard A Lobban

Egyptologists often see Nubia as entirely dependent on its more powerful and better- known neighbor to the north. From Slave to Pharaoh instead gives the Nubians full credit for building a civilization that came to dominate Egypt, and contended with Assyria, the great superpower of the day, as an equal.

Creating Networks For Survival And Mobility: Social Capital Among African-American And Latin-American Low-Income Mothers, Silvia Domínguez, Celeste Watkins

Silvia Domínguez

In this article, we examine the social networks of low-income mothers, using a conceptual framework that differentiates social networks that offer support from those that yield leverage. This ethnographic analysis pays particular attention to how respondents generate social capital to obtain resources for survival and social mobility. Respondents identified at least three issues beyond resource constraints that work alone or in combination to positively or negatively influence their use of family as sources of social support: physical proximity, reciprocity, and family tensions. We also explore the conditions under which respondents generate social support through friendships and non-profit institutions. We find …