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Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons

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The College of Wooster

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Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Social and Cultural Anthropology

Deep Roots In Eroding Soil: Building Decolonial Resilience Amidst Climate Violence And Displacement In A Louisiana Bayou Indigenous Community, Lia Mcgrath Kahan Jan 2022

Deep Roots In Eroding Soil: Building Decolonial Resilience Amidst Climate Violence And Displacement In A Louisiana Bayou Indigenous Community, Lia Mcgrath Kahan

Senior Independent Study Theses

The Pointe-au-Chien Indigenous community of coastal Louisiana is fighting for survival as climate change and socio-political factors threaten to displace them from their ancestral home. This project takes an ethnographic and historical approach to exploring how colonization and climate change have influenced Pointe-au-Chien tribal members’ ability to stay on their ancestral land. Climate projections estimate that the bayou this community has lived alongside of for generations will soon be unrecognizable, leading to potential displacement and devastating cultural loss. Due to the increasing severity of climate change, it is crucial to look to the experiences of frontline Indigenous communities to support …


You Can’T Build A Canoe Online: Activism And Identity In Indigenous Taiwan, Adam King Hinden Jan 2022

You Can’T Build A Canoe Online: Activism And Identity In Indigenous Taiwan, Adam King Hinden

Senior Independent Study Theses

The Republic of China is the current government occupying the island of Taiwan –– a multiethnic land that has been populated by diverse groups for thousands of years. Today, these groups continue to face a range of adversities on behalf of the colonial government. Further, the island’s internet is dominated by Western social media platforms that exclude native modes of communication. Through ethnographic surveys and interviews, this study explores how indigenous Taiwanese activists understand their own identities, strategies of activism, and relationships to social media platforms to interrogate dominant postcolonial frameworks. It comes to two separate yet linked conclusions regarding …


Intangible Cultural Heritage In Asia: Traditions In Transition, Ziying You, Patricia Anne Hardwick Jan 2020

Intangible Cultural Heritage In Asia: Traditions In Transition, Ziying You, Patricia Anne Hardwick

All Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.


Piracy In A Contested Periphery: Incorporation And The Emergence Of The Modern World-System In The Colonial Atlantic Frontier, P. Nick Kardulias, Emily N. Butcher Oct 2016

Piracy In A Contested Periphery: Incorporation And The Emergence Of The Modern World-System In The Colonial Atlantic Frontier, P. Nick Kardulias, Emily N. Butcher

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This article uses world-systems analysis to examine the role that pirates and privateers played in the competition between European core states in the Atlantic and Caribbean frontier during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Piracy was an integral part of core-periphery interaction, as a force that nations could use against one another in the form of privateers, and as a reaction against increasing constraints on freedom of action by those same states, thus forming a semiperiphery. Although modern portrayals of pirates and privateers paint a distinct line between the two groups, historical records indicate that their actual status was rather fluid, …


Reawakening In Bundelkhand: Cultural Identity In Orchha And The Effects Of Tourism On Its Creation, Preservation, And Loss, Brenton David Kalinowski Apr 2016

Reawakening In Bundelkhand: Cultural Identity In Orchha And The Effects Of Tourism On Its Creation, Preservation, And Loss, Brenton David Kalinowski

Black & Gold

The purpose of this study is to explore the roots of the cultural identity of the Indian town of Orchha today, and with that context in place, to analyze the influence tourism has had in Orchha in the past twenty years. In particular, how tourism has created new cultural identity, how it has influenced a movement towards the preservation of cultural identity, but also how it has threatened loss of cultural identity. The research was conducted using a combined historical and ethnographic approach, using both archival research and ethnographic techniques. Throughout the study, and as this paper shows, the medieval …


“You Can’T Change What You Were”: Liminality And The Process Of Role Exit Among Former Amish, Kathryn Foster Jan 2016

“You Can’T Change What You Were”: Liminality And The Process Of Role Exit Among Former Amish, Kathryn Foster

Senior Independent Study Theses

Aside from reality television, which often depicts former Amish as raucous partiers, many documentaries and memoirs portray ex-Amish as runaways, leaving in the night with nothing but the clothes on their back. As the gap between “the world” and the Amish closes, how accurate is this portrayal of leaving the Amish for the roughly 15% who choose to leave? How do ex-Amish negotiate the transition from Amish to English (non-Amish) life? This study, based on interviews with former Amish, explores the difficult decision to leave the Amish church as well as the challenges of transitioning into English life and negotiating …


From Fried Bologna Sandwich To Butternut Squash Prosciutto Flatbread: Examining Food Culture As A Multivocal Dominant Symbol In The Wessex, Ohio Restaurant Foodscape, Clare T. Carlson Jan 2016

From Fried Bologna Sandwich To Butternut Squash Prosciutto Flatbread: Examining Food Culture As A Multivocal Dominant Symbol In The Wessex, Ohio Restaurant Foodscape, Clare T. Carlson

Senior Independent Study Theses

This Independent Study explores the restaurant foodscape in the rural city of Wessex, Ohio and examines how two different sets of restaurants in this foodscape identify themselves as emblematic of the city. Restaurants opened in Wessex over the last ten years that have been selected for inclusion on Wessex Food Tours comprise the first set of restaurants examined. These restaurants are a curated set of local businesses that Wessex Food Tours presents to visitors as representative of a rejuvenated, contemporary Wessex. The other set of restaurants examined are those restaurants that have existed in Wessex for over 50 years, but …


Global Flows And The Globalization Of Nothing: Synthesizing The Incongruous, Elliott H. Valentine Apr 2015

Global Flows And The Globalization Of Nothing: Synthesizing The Incongruous, Elliott H. Valentine

Black & Gold

Increasingly pertinent in contemporary society, globalization is a force that promises to change the way people interact with others in almost all aspects of life. As scholars attempt to theorize about such situations, disparate perspectives about the dynamics and possibilities of globalization arise. In order to develop a more comprehensive theory of globalization, this piece engages the theory of global flows and the five “-scapes” as presented in Arjun Appadurai’s Modernity at Large (1996), as well as George Ritzer’s conception of the globalization of nothing as presented in The Globalization of Nothing 2 (2007). A rich synthesis of these two …


'You Are Who We Say You Are': The Politics Of Ethnicity In Post-Genocidal Rwanda And Bosnia-Herzegovina, Stephanie A. Sugars Jan 2015

'You Are Who We Say You Are': The Politics Of Ethnicity In Post-Genocidal Rwanda And Bosnia-Herzegovina, Stephanie A. Sugars

Senior Independent Study Theses

The establishment of peace in post-genocidal states is vital, as the experience of extreme division and violence can scar a population, contributing to violence and inequality moving forward. Existing literature on post-conflict transition and governance argues that two main systems are typically used: consociationalism and assimilationism. While consociationalism argues for heterogeneity in the state and assimilationism for homogeneity, both of these systems use the institutionalization of identity as a step in post-conflict recovery, through such means as proscribing or privileging particular identities. This study posits that this is inherently flawed, as attempts to institutionalize identity ignore its contextually fluid or …


The Shifting Landscape Of Amish Agriculture: Balancing Tradition And Innovation In An Organic Farming Cooperative, Matthew J. Mariola, David L. Mcconnell May 2013

The Shifting Landscape Of Amish Agriculture: Balancing Tradition And Innovation In An Organic Farming Cooperative, Matthew J. Mariola, David L. Mcconnell

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In the context of the recent proliferation of alternative operations and marketing schemes across the agricultural landscape, this article examines an Amish organic farming cooperative in northeast Ohio. Contrary to popular perception, the large majority of Amish are not full-time farmers, and those who do farm typically use conventional, chemical-intensive methods. The adoption of certified organic among the Amish is a pragmatic decision that stems from concerns over the sociocultural effects of losing their agrarian heritage, but it also raises challenges that require a careful balance between market imperatives and cultural traditions. We investigate these challenges and the Amish response …


Eat Until You're Full: The Pursuit Of Autonomy And Health Through The Adoption Of Organic Agriculture In Mae Ta, Thailand, Erin Jean Plews-Ogan Jan 2013

Eat Until You're Full: The Pursuit Of Autonomy And Health Through The Adoption Of Organic Agriculture In Mae Ta, Thailand, Erin Jean Plews-Ogan

Senior Independent Study Theses

This research explores the role that farmers' concerns about health and community autonomy play in the emergence of an organic agriculture movement in the village of Mae Ta in northern Thailand. In the midst of the push for export-oriented and urban-centered development, many rural people have migrated to urban areas for work or adopted contract farming of chemical-intensive cash crops. Yet farmers in Mae Ta chose a unique alternative: sufficiency-based organic polyculture. Why take on such a risk without solid policy and market support for organic agriculture in Thailand? I investigated these questions through six weeks of participant observation and …


Je Voulais Être Homme, Rien Qu’Homme: An Analysis Of The Intersection Of Communism And Masculinity Inthe Negritude Movement, 1930-1939, Kristen Weischedel Jan 2012

Je Voulais Être Homme, Rien Qu’Homme: An Analysis Of The Intersection Of Communism And Masculinity Inthe Negritude Movement, 1930-1939, Kristen Weischedel

Senior Independent Study Theses

The negritude movement of the 1930s was a political and social movement that sought to reclaim African identity and culture whilst rejecting the French expectation of assimilation. This presentation examines recruitment methods of political and social activism, such as the use of propaganda. These forms of activism used both masculine and communist ideologies to advance their goals which ultimately reveal their concerns collectively and as individuals.