Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Celebrating Hmong: A Minute Ethnography Of Hmong Americans In Minneapolis, Madison Baczuk

Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

The Hmong people are a culture that originated in Southern China. However, many Hmong people fled to the U.S (among other nations) with the conclusion of the Vietnam war. Like other Asian cultures, the Hmong people are collectivist and give priority to family members of greater age and of the male gender. The Hmong celebrate birth, marriage, and death through sacred rituals and traditions that honor their ancestors. The Hmong language is in danger of extinction due to globalization. Yet, globalization also brings the general public greater knowledge and exposure to the wonderful culture of the Hmong people.

Examining The Cross-Cultural Competence Of United States Christian Missionaries Engaged In Developing Indigenous Leaders: A Mixed Methods Study, Craig W. Goodman

Dissertations

For the past two millennia, missionaries have crossed from one culture to another to bring the Christian message to all cultures of the world. Questions about the effectiveness of these mission efforts have been asked and researched by many; however, one key question remains unanswered: what personal attributes help a person to be more competent at crossing cultures as they interact with people from other cultures? Although cross-cultural competence has been studied in a variety of fields over the past 50 years, the models and assessments used have never been applied to Christian missionaries.

To address this deficiency, this parallel …

Mummy Cave; North Fork Shoshone River; Park County, Wyoming, Timothy Andrews

Conspectus Borealis

Mummy Cave represents the silence of the Sheepeater Shoshone. Little evidence of human occupation can survive this close to the river. The bank is low and rocky, with a thin deposit of alluvial soil, from the present shoreline to the angle of the ridge, where the ruddy breccia and tuff rise acutely, providing a rockface where the erosive action of the frigid mountain water could lap over eons at the igneous wall to form a shallow overhang. Camp placement in this proximity to a river was likely common, making use of a broad level riverbank to live close to water …

Night Of The Witch: Alternative Spirituality, Identity And Media, Andreana Tarleton

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis works to understand the relationships witches and conjurors have with the film and television depictions of them. Employing the method of film critique, I argue that the witch stands as a cultural symbol in the US of women and femmes with power, and that their stories serve as lessons to these populations about what it means to be an acceptable woman or femme, while simultaneously creating and perpetuating stereotypes of magic practitioners. Then, using the combination of hashtag ethnography, in-person and video interviewing and internet surveys, I argue that #witchblr and #witchesofcolor, as well as the space of …

Processing Emotional Expression In The Dance Of A Foreign Culture: Gestural Responses Of Germans And Koreans To Ballet And Korean Dance, Zi Hyun Kim, Hedda Lausberg

Journal of Movement Arts Literacy Archive (2013-2019)

Artistic dance differs between cultures with regard to the formal movement repertoire and methods to represent dancer's emotions. The present study explores how differently the spectators perceive the dance scenes of their own and foreign cultures. We showed German and Korean participants sad and happy dance scenes of the French ballet Giselle and Korean dance Sung-Mu. To learn the perceived thoughts and feelings of the participant from the dance scenes, we analyzed the frequency of their hand movements and gestures, which were accompanied by verbal descriptions of the participant's appreciation immediately after observation of the dance stimuli. The videotaped …

Posthumanism: Anthropological Insights By Alan Smart And Josephine Smart, David Shaw

The Goose

Review of Alan Smart and Josephine Smart’s Posthumanism: Anthropological Insights.

An Ethnographic Exploration Of Pokémon Go, Ketzia Abramson

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The mobile app game, “Pokémon GO” became a worldwide phenomenon immediately following its initial release in the summer of 2016. Now, more than a year later, despite its fall from social domination and decline in popularity, POGO is still at the forefront for better understanding the future of communication and socialization in today’s ever growing digital age. This ethnographic study, aided by field research, observations, and literature review of both the app itself as well as the ‘Poké-verse,’ provides an in-depth analysis of how and why a mobile gaming app that utilizes no new forms of technology (augmented reality combined …

Animate Planet: Making Visceral Sense Of Living In A High-Tech Ecologically Damaged World By Kath Weston, Kelly Shepherd

The Goose

Review of Kath Weston's Animate Planet: Making Visceral Sense of Living in a High-Tech Ecologically Damaged World.

Chinese Communication Studies: Three Paths Converging, Wenshan Jia

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

This contribution presents the possibilities for anthropological and neo-Marxist media within the hugely expanding sector of Chinese communication studies. China has sourced mostly from the American positivist tradition but is increasingly ­taking on board European critical thinking but it also needs to absorb some of the depth and diversity of indigenous scholarship existing in Chinese.

Jia, Lu, and Heisey (2002) presented an influential meta-analysis of every ­example of communication studies in China at that time. The book chapter which talks about the rise of the discipline and scholarship of Chinese communication as an academic discipline (Jia et al., 2014) summarises …

War Of The Worlds: Music And Cosmological Battles In The Balinese Cremation Procession, Michael B. Bakan

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Abstract

This article explores processional action as a form of cosmological intervention in Hindu-Balinese cremation processions, focusing on the multiple and intersecting functions of a particular type of Balinese instrumental music ensemble: the gamelan beleganjur. It explores the alternately “enlivening and protective aspects” (DeVale 1990, 62) that underlie the use of beleganjur music in the ngaben, or cremation ritual, showing how beleganjur’s sonic power and rhythmic drive serve to combat malevolent spirit beings, strengthen and inspire processional participants in their efforts to meet challenging ritual obligations, and grant courage to the souls of deceased individuals embarking on their …

The Mainstream Misrepresentation Of Muslim Women In The Media, Megan A. Mastro

What All Americans Should Know About Women in the Muslim World

I discuss the widespread misrepresentation of Islamic women in multiple sources of media and its subsequent effects on the general population's perception of this demographic as a whole.

Small Islands, Big Heart: Reproducing The Marquesas Islands Through The Body, Patrick E. Molohon

All Master's Theses

Through the analysis of a Marquesan family in a touristic setting in Tahiti, this thesis explores the notion of the Polynesian body as a site of struggle between the gaze of cosmopolitan French tourists on the exotic other, and the resistance and self-interiorizing of the body by Marquesans. Many contemporary Marquesans choose to migrate to the more urbanized, popular tourist destination of Tahiti, for work, schooling, and medical procedures. Removed from their native land, Marquesans build upon traditional cultural practices and worldviews, while simultaneously actively creating innovative aspects of their experience in the new setting, on and within the body. …

What Is Writing In Undergraduate Anthropology? An Activity Theory Analysis, Boba M. Samuels

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

How students learn to write in the disciplines is a question of ongoing concern in writing studies, with practical implications for academia. This case study used ethnographic methods to explore undergraduate writing in two upper year anthropology courses at a Canadian university over one term (four months). Student and professor interviews, classroom field notes, surveys, and students’ final papers were analysed using a framework drawn from activity theory and informed by genre theory. Four themes emerged from the data: anthropology as school; the familiar vs. unfamiliar; reading; and hidden rhetoric. Findings suggest students approach disciplinary work primarily as students rather …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

I'M A Patient, Not A Problem: An Exploration Into The Roles Assigned In The Doctor-Patient Relationship, Monica C. Stewart

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

November Uri Community Diversity Project 2010, Joseph A. Santiago Mr, Riley Davis Ms, Richard V. Travisano Mr

Richard Travisano

November is National Novel Writing Month. For the first time at the University of Rhode Island November was a month for the URI community to share their stories, poems, art, and photos with the world. The Writing to Model Diversity project intends to connect individuals across cultural boundaries and borders by sharing the stories and experiences that challenge our everyday experiences and the dreams of the future. Built on the efforts of the World Voice series, URI presents a book that shares the stories and culture of the students, faculty, staff, and community members who embrace the idea of becoming …

The Shanti Sena “Peace Center” And The Non-Policing Of An Anarchist Temporary Autonomous Zone: Rainbow Family Peacekeeping Strategies, Michael I. Niman Ph.D.

Michael I Niman Ph.D.

This article utilizes ethnographic methods and government documents to examine the self-policing and peacekeeping strategies of the Rainbow Family, a nonviolent acephalous intentional community that holds massive weeklong gatherings around the globe. It is a case study that examines the efficacy of these methods, comparing them to those traditional police agencies employ under similar conditions. It contextualizes these strategies by examining other utopian and anarchist communities and movements such as Critical Mass bike rides. This study demonstrates how smiling, chanting, listening, social pressure, and social capital all play into forming a more effective and less violent approach toward peacekeeping.

November Uri Community Diversity Project 2010, Joseph A. Santiago, Riley Davis, Richard V. Travisano

November Diversity Project

November is National Novel Writing Month. For the first time at the University of Rhode Island November was a month for the URI community to share their stories, poems, art, and photos with the world. The Writing to Model Diversity project intends to connect individuals across cultural boundaries and borders by sharing the stories and experiences that challenge our everyday experiences and the dreams of the future. Built on the efforts of the World Voice series, URI presents a book that shares the stories and culture of the students, faculty, staff, and community members who embrace the idea of becoming …

November Uri Community Diversity Project 2010, Joseph A. Santiago Mr, Riley Davis Ms, Richard V. Travisano Mr

November Diversity Project

November is National Novel Writing Month. For the first time at the University of Rhode Island November was a month for the URI community to share their stories, poems, art, and photos with the world. The Writing to Model Diversity project intends to connect individuals across cultural boundaries and borders by sharing the stories and experiences that challenge our everyday experiences and the dreams of the future. Built on the efforts of the World Voice series, URI presents a book that shares the stories and culture of the students, faculty, staff, and community members who embrace the idea of becoming …

Holistic Medicine Not "Torture": Performing Acupuncture In Galway, Ireland, Kevin Taylor Anderson

Kevin Taylor Anderson

This article examines how the aesthetic design of clinics and interactive discourse 5 and rituals construct the social reality of acupuncture sessions as a form of holistic medical therapy. Verbal and nonverbal interactions create an appealing medical environment but also help prevent the emergence of undesired counter-realities (e.g., pain, biomedical intervention). Based on observations of acupuncture sessions conducted in Galway, Ireland, I illustrate how 10 ambiance and aesthetic elements of clinics create a complex medico-cultural environment that balances oppositional associations (Western=non-Western, exoticism=convention, medical alterity=medical professionalism). Patients inter- viewed continually referred to acupuncture as a natural and non-invasive form of medical …

Narratives Of Irony And Failure In Ethnographic Work, Dariusz Jemielniak, Monika Kostera

Dariusz Jemielniak

Organizational ethnography is one of the most valued approaches to qualitative studies of organizations. Much attention has been given to the development of the research process, of which the researcher's identity is an integral part. However, we believe that the analysis of research failures has been much less developed in the discourse of ethnographic methods for the study of organizations. Therefore, we have explored some of the “slips” in ethnographic work, as described in accounts of fellow organizational anthropologists. As the study is qualitative, we have adopted a narrative research method. We have divided the “slips” (i.e., errors) into four …

Holistic Medicine Not "Torture": Performing Acupuncture In Galway, Ireland, Kevin Taylor Anderson

Adjunct Faculty Author Gallery

This article examines how the aesthetic design of clinics and interactive discourse 5 and rituals construct the social reality of acupuncture sessions as a form of holistic medical therapy. Verbal and nonverbal interactions create an appealing medical environment but also help prevent the emergence of undesired counter-realities (e.g., pain, biomedical intervention). Based on observations of acupuncture sessions conducted in Galway, Ireland, I illustrate how 10 ambiance and aesthetic elements of clinics create a complex medico-cultural environment that balances oppositional associations (Western=non-Western, exoticism=convention, medical alterity=medical professionalism). Patients inter- viewed continually referred to acupuncture as a natural and non-invasive form of medical …

Weirdos Riot, Media Gets It Wrong, Michael I. Niman Ph.D.

Michael I Niman Ph.D.

Michael I. Niman is concerned by media treatment of a hippie riot that never happened

Picturing A Colonial Past: The African Photographs Of Isaac Schapera [Book Review], Nancy Howell, David Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Emerging New Human Being, The Culture-In-The-Self, And Ahp's New Multidimensional Intercultural Initiative, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

The emerging New Human Being will need to explore and come to terms with a phenomenon, operating deeply, uniquely, and diversely at a core level of all human beings on the planet. I call this phenomenon the “culture-in-the-Self,” a term coined some years ago by cofounders of Interculture Inc. What we commonly think of as culture is just the surface of this phenomenon, often appearing outwardly in the diverse “forms” of cultural scripts, beliefs, values, behaviors, and customs). I want to call attention to what goes on beneath surface culture(s), and how AHP intends to play a primary role in …

Altered States Of Embodiment: Spirit Possession In Ethnographic And Feature Films, Kevin Taylor Anderson

Kevin Taylor Anderson

Possession and other forms of altered states of embodiment are represented in both feature and ethnographic films, yet result in divergent illustrations. Ethnographic films dealing with possession (a la Rouch, Deren, Adair, Asch) suggest that it is a therapeutic phenomenon, often framed as a means of resistance to dominant socio-political forces. Yet, in feature films the possessed body is rendered as a passive recipient of diabolical forces. In the former case, possession signals empowerment, in the latter disempowerment. In addition to its portrayal as a form of resistance, religious supplicants in such ethnographic films as Rouch’s Les Maitre Fous and …

Altered States Of Embodiment: Spirit Possession In Ethnographic And Feature Films, Kevin Taylor Anderson

Adjunct Faculty Author Gallery

Possession and other forms of altered states of embodiment are represented in both feature and ethnographic films, yet result in divergent illustrations. Ethnographic films dealing with possession (a la Rouch, Deren, Adair, Asch) suggest that it is a therapeutic phenomenon, often framed as a means of resistance to dominant socio-political forces. Yet, in feature films the possessed body is rendered as a passive recipient of diabolical forces. In the former case, possession signals empowerment, in the latter disempowerment. In addition to its portrayal as a form of resistance, religious supplicants in such ethnographic films as Rouch’s Les Maitre Fous and …

The Promise And Peril Of Public Anthropology, Ben Feinberg

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Why America’s Top Pundits Are Wrong: Anthropologists Talk Back edited by Catherine Besteman and Hugh Gusterson. University of California Press: Berkeley, 2005. 282 pp.

and

Anthropologists in the Public Sphere: Speaking Out on War, Peace, and American Power edited by Roberto J. González. University of Texas Press: Austin, 2004. 288 pp.

and

Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI’s Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists by David H. Price. Duke University Press: Durham, 2004. 426 pp.

Towards An Anarchy Of Imagery: Questioning The Categorization Of Films As "Ethnographic", Kevin Taylor Anderson

Kevin Taylor Anderson

No abstract provided.

Towards An Anarchy Of Imagery: Questioning The Categorization Of Films As "Ethnographic", Kevin Taylor Anderson

Adjunct Faculty Author Gallery

No abstract provided.