Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons^™

Anthropology In A Rural Archive: A Study That Moves Along And Against The Archival Grain, Julian W. Mcdaniel

Masters Theses

Anthropologists have long engaged with archival materials in order to provide historically accurate information that might assist in the production of ethnographic projects. Archives are unique institutions where historical data can be found that contributes valuable information about particular groups of people; however, archives themselves are again and again being controlled by a higher power, particularly that of the State, and this act of ownership contributes to acts of omission that misconstrue historical narratives as well as descriptions of the people and places depicted within an archive. In this project, I engage with an archive located in a rural town …

“And They Wrote It All Down As The Progress Of Man”: Relationships Between Environment, Extractive Industries, And Appalachian Agency, Emma V. Kelly

Masters Theses

The landscape of Central Appalachia has shaped and been shaped by its residents for thousands of years. The advent of industrialized extractive industries greatly shifted the nature and the extent of these processes, with capitalistic domination being asserted over the environment. While this shift towards industrialization was a widespread phenomenon, it undertook a unique trajectory within Appalachia, a region which occupies a distinct position within the national perspective. Although geographically established by the Appalachian Regional Commission, Appalachia is more than a politically defined set of counties: It is an incredibly diverse sociocultural region that exists on varying planes of marginalization …

Standing Their Ground: Resisting Black Erasure In Knoxville, Tn Through The Citizens Cemetery Project, Tatianna Griffin

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I examine ongoing efforts by Knoxville, Tennessee’s Black community to resist the erasure of their history and sense of place through community and volunteer efforts to reclaim and restore Good Citizens (Citizens) Cemetery. Citizens Cemetery is Knoxville’s oldest Black cemetery, interring nearly six thousand enslaved Africans and their descendants, but today is severely dilapidated due to decades of neglect. Through this project, I explore how framing volunteer opportunities as a critical service-learning program and how Black community efforts to reclaim and restore Citizens combat erasure of Knoxville’s Black community’s history and sense of place. I also explore …

Queering Disasters: Embodied Crises In Post-Harvey Houston, Thomas T. Tran

Masters Theses

This project addresses how neoliberal expansion complicates disaster recovery for queer communities in an urban context looking specifically at how disasters, disease, and marginalization operate as interlocking systems of oppression for queer people in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. This research draws upon anthropological studies of disasters, urban studies, critical medical anthropology, and queer theory to employ a queer political ecology that combines understandings of disasters and diseases as socio-political and ecological phenomena with queerness as a set of culturally constructed vulnerabilities that carry embodied effects. Starting from the understanding that disasters more heavily impact groups that already …

Exploring The Fourth Reality: Cultural Anthropologists' Reflections On Expert Witnessing For Asylum Cases, Mary Ruth Wossum-Fisher

Masters Theses

This thesis seeks to contribute to the small but growing literature on anthropology and expert witnessing by conducting ethnographic research with anthropologists who have worked as expert witnesses. The goal of this project is to illuminate how anthropologists reflect on the production of knowledge, ethics, and their identity in the realm of expert witnessing. Through twelve online questionnaires and six follow-up interviews, this research discusses how ten anthropologists and two political scientists conceived of the “Fourth Reality,” or “the reflexive awareness of the expert witness as an expert witness” (Phillips 2017: 42) throughout the asylum process. This thesis covers: 1) …

Queer Spaces, Religious Places: Sharing Risk And Making Kin Within A Queer Church Amidst A Pandemic, Sadie V. Counts

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to explore the effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic on a queer, Christian congregation of the Metropolitan Community Church in Knoxville, TN and the impacts of the pandemic queer kinship and intimacy within the church setting. The thesis explores the ways in which queer kinship manifests within the church and how those relationships have been disrupted and altered by COVID. It also compares the long-term effects of the AIDS epidemic on the church congregation and they ways in which they may be experiencing COVID in a similar manner. Finally, the project explores the ways that intimacy has …

Operational Jakarta: The Problem Of Representation, Kevin Patrick Jeffers

Masters Theses

As the twenty-first century unfolds with newly formed degrees of hypercomplex interactions and reactions amongst space, time, economy, politics, social dynamics, and cultural paradigms, we are observing new typologies of urbanism that are different in kind, rather than degree, from the previous “urban” upon which the vast majority of present theoretical and practical discourse has been based. The techniques, strategies, and methodologies of the twentieth-century no longer serve to adequately represent or to explain the phenomena of today’s incipient mega-cities. A new vocabulary must be developed. A new way of seeing is required in order to understand and therefor to …

Slave Subsistence Strategies At Thomas Jefferson’S Monticello Plantation: Paleoethnobotanical Analysis And Interpretation Of The Site 8 (44ab442) Macrobotanical Assemblage, Stephanie Nicole Hacker

Masters Theses

Throughout the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, millions of enslaved Africans and African Americans were crucial to the success of plantations in the American South, but despite their numbers little exists in the written record to provide an accurate history for the African American slave community. However, archaeological and historic research shows that even under the constraints of slavery, enslaved African Americans were active in forming their own families and communities, countering ill-treatment and nutritional deprivation, maintaining their cultural and spiritual identities, and establishing ways to enhance their well-being. The research presented in this study emphasizes the utility of studying carbonized …

Cell Phone Ethnography: Mixed Methods And The Brand Consumer Relationship, Robert Nathaniel Dove

Masters Theses

Overall, the goal of this study is to identify and differentiate the various motivations and cultural influences that can be used to explain consumer behavior. In doing so, this study hopes to facilitate the development of new and innovative marketing strategies, providing a new research design for the ethnographer’s toolkit. More importantly, this model can give shape to new constructs and new variables for further empirical testing in the field through quantitative and qualitative methods. By blending the two approaches, using qualitative interpretive anthropological analysis by field study with quantitative sentiment analysis adapted from market researcher Jeffery Breen’s (2012) methodology, …

When The Dead Are Not Silent: The Investigation Of Cultural Perspectives Concerning Improper Burials In Northern Uganda, Adrianne S Kembel

Masters Theses

This thesis presents the findings of a qualitative examination of the effects of improper burials and the associated cultural impacts on the Acholi population of northern Uganda. Since independence in 1962 Uganda has experienced several internal conflicts, including the notorious struggle between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan government. This conflict, which disproportionately affected the Acholi ethnic group, resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and culturally inappropriate burials. These burials are particularity problematic because the Acholi maintain continual ties to the dead through ancestor veneration with proper burial being one of the most important conciliatory rites. In the …

Sounding Identity: Soundscapes, Music, And Technoculture In The Chinese Diaspora Of Panama, Corey Michael Blake

Masters Theses

Present in Panama since the 19^th century, the Chinese diaspora in Panama City, Panama represents an empowered community of individuals who identify as both Chinese and Panamanian. These Chinese Panamanian hybrid identities emerge within sonic environments through an engagement with transnational media and digital technologies, notably within retail stores. Specifically, music surfaces as an especially important sonic marker of the Chinese Panamanian hybridity. Within the mall of the Panamanian Chinatown of El Dorado, an interesting mixture of both Chinese and Latin American popular music genres sounds throughout the various stores. This mixture of music genres demonstrates Chinese Panamanian agency …

Mechanisms For Social Influence, Jeremy David Auerbach

Masters Theses

Throughout the thesis, I study mathematical models that can help explain the dependency of social phenomena in animals and humans on individual traits. The first chapter investigates consensus building in human groups through communication of individual preferences for a course of action. Individuals share and modify these preferences through speaker listener interactions. Personality traits, reputations, and social networks structures effect these modifications and eventually the group will reach a consensus. If there is variation in personality traits, the time to reach consensus is delayed. Reputation models are introduced and explored, finding that those who can best estimate the average initial …

Cobb Creek Church: Changing Perspectives In A Serpent-Handling Congregation In East Tennessee, Michael Noel Reid

Masters Theses

In the last year, the traditional practice of handling venomous snakes in Pentecostal church services has returned to the forefront of popular media attention. With the death of renowned handler Randy “Mack” Wolford in West Virginia in May, the news has been rife with stories of the century-old tradition. New, younger groups of handlers have also been instrumental in raising attention to the practice. One congregation in particular has been a key focus for media outlets around the nation. The Cobb Creek Church of God has been featured in The Tennessean, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, …

The Relationships Between Internalized Heterosexism, Spirituality, And Mental Health In Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Young Adults, Jon Raymond Bourn

Masters Theses

Minority stressors like internalized heterosexism have been found to be related to suicidality among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals (e.g., Savin-Williams & Ream, 2003). Additional research is needed, however, to better understand the factors that may serve as moderators (i.e., protective factors) in the relationships between minority stressors and negative mental health outcomes, such as depression and suicidality (e.g., Szymanski et al., 2008). The current study attempted to examine the relationships between internalized heterosexism and two negative mental health outcomes associated with suicide, psychache (defined as unbearable psychological pain) and depression, in a sample of LGB young adults. Given …

(Re)Conceptualizing Death: Examining Attitudes Toward Death At The Anthropological Research Facility, Kiley Nicole Compton

Masters Theses

The Anthropological Research Facility (ARF), commonly known as the “Body Farm,” provides a unique research setting in which researchers work intimately with human remains in various stages of decomposition. While the ARF, and forensic anthropology, is well documented in popular culture, little academic research has been conducted to investigate the sociocultural phenomena associated with working with human remains.

This thesis investigates the reactions and attitudes toward death of those involved in operational and administrative duties at the ARF focusing on how these attitudes influence and are influenced by involvement at the facility. This research also provides a point of departure …

Green In A Sea Of Pink: Environmental Reframing Of Mainstream Breast Cancer, Amy Elizabeth Scanzillo

Masters Theses

As a contested illness, breast cancer has mainstream and alternate narratives that vie to shape related scientific research and legislative policy. The mainstream breast cancer movement (MBCM) shapes the dominant discourse of breast cancer risk, prevention, and cure through the utilization of the conventional biomedical model of knowledge. The environmental breast cancer movement (EBCM) contests the mainstream breast cancer narrative because EBCM activists argue that it supports an unequal power dynamic and does not adequately reflect breast cancer risk and prevention. Through the incorporation of citizen science and the precautionary principle into breast cancer research and policy, EBCM activists reframe …

Chenopodium Berlandieri And The Cultural Origins Of Agriculture In The Eastern Woodlands, Daniel Shelton Robinson

Masters Theses

The development of agriculture in the New World has been a topic of prominent historic interest, but one that has ignored some regions in favor of others. The woodlands of Eastern North America have felt this bias in the investigation of agricultural origins, but this has not prevented the development of theories to explain the emergence of a complex of indigenous agricultural plants in the region. Data collection and technological advances have in large part validated these theories, creating a model for domestication. By emphasizing farming over other cultural practices, however, these theories lack explanatory power with regards to the …

"Motorbike Guide For Westerners": Entrepreneurial Development And The Creation Of A Cultural Tourism Product In Transitional Vietnam, Karl Russell Kirby

Masters Theses

Vietnam is undergoing economic transition from a command economy to an economy with greater market characteristics. Transition is fundamentally reshaping the country through economic liberalization and increased exposure to foreign markets. The Vietnamese are developing institutions necessary for market growth and international tourists are arriving in ever-larger numbers. This research project is a case study of businesses that provide guided motorbike tours and evaluates the businesses based on two criteria: as a study of institutional growth during economic transition and as an examination of tourism production through guide interpretation. The author interviewed and observed sixteen guides in Vietnam—from Dalat in …

Educators' Perspectives And Approaches To Teaching In Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Classrooms, Karmen Melissa Stephenson

Masters Theses

In recent years the Midway School System in Midway, Tennessee (pseudonyms are used for the town, the school, and the participants in this research), has experienced a significant demographic change that has had both social and academic impacts. An influx of Hispanic students, primarily from Mexico, has brought students who are culturally different and for whom English is not the first language into a school that has traditionally been comprised of almost all white English speaking students. In the era of No Child Left Behind and other large scale educational reforms, this demographic change presents many new challenges to educators …

East Meets West: Middle Eastern Muslims In The Southeastern United States, Jessica Lee Winslow

Masters Theses

Muslims of Middle Eastern and Turkish origin, whether longtime immigrants, recent refugees, or students living in America temporarily, are an important part of the changing ethnic and religious landscape in the Southeast U.S. In the aftermath of 9/11, much attention has been shifted upon Islam and the Middle East. Discrimination and a lack of mutual understanding and tolerance between the selected populations and native-born, non-Muslim Americans are persistent problems. The Knoxville Turkish Cultural Center and the Istanbul Center of Atlanta recognize and reflect the contemporary need for intercultural and interfaith awareness, education, and dialogue to promote tolerance. I argue that …

Locating Human Rights In Post-Genocide Reconstruction: Reconnecting The Global, National And Local, Elizabeth Warrick Guyol-Meinrath

Masters Theses

Despite the ever-expanding criticism of the way the international community conducts its aid missions, it remains clear that humanitarian intervention is necessary for the successful rebuilding of post-genocide nations. As such, the interactions of the international aid community with the national governments and local communities of Cambodia, Guatemala and Rwanda are of particular importance to this thesis. By analyzing these relationships and their resulting policies, it becomes clear that peace cannot last if the survivors are unable to relate to the justice and reconciliation measures implemented. Local cultural norms and traditions, as well as input from survivors, must be the …

Bilateral Variation In Man: Handedness, Handclasping, Armfolding And Mid-Phalangeal Hair, Carol J. Loveland

Masters Theses

A study of bilateral variation among individuals from three populations was conducted. One sample consisted of 174 Cashinahua Indians who reside along the Curanja River in the Peruvian rain forest. A second group was composed of 286 students from anthropology classes at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Eighty-six families, including 372 individuals, constituted the third sample.

Four laterality traits - handedness, armfolding, handclasping, and mid-phalangeal hair - were analyzed by population and by individual family.

The most interesting variation occurred in the frequency of right and left handclasping and in the presence or absence of mid-phalangeal hair. The percentage of …