Inference Of Cultural Transmission Modes Based On Incomplete Information, 2015 University of Central Florida
Inference Of Cultural Transmission Modes Based On Incomplete Information, Bryan Wilder, Anne Kandler
Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints
In this paper we explore the theoretical limits of the inference of cultural transmission modes based on sparse population-level data. We approach this problem by investigating whether different transmission modes produce different temporal dynamics of cultural change. In particular we explore whether the distributions of the average time a variant stays the most common variant in the population, denoted by tmax, conditioned on the considered transmission modes are sufficiently different to allow for inference of underlying transmission modes. We assume time series data detailing the frequencies of different variants of a cultural trait in a population at different …
Tacit Cultural Knowledge: An Instrumental Qualitative Case Study Of Mixed Methods Research In South Africa, 2015 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Tacit Cultural Knowledge: An Instrumental Qualitative Case Study Of Mixed Methods Research In South Africa, Debra Rena Miller
College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Notwithstanding the dramatic expansion of mixed methods research, research methodologies, methods, and findings are culturally situated. Problematically, studies conducted outside the global north often embrace canonical methodologies aimed at understanding concepts more explicit than tacit. Learning about the needs of researchers and participants in South Africa may bring to light taken-for-granted assumptions in Anglo-American orientations of mixed methods. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore aspects of tacit cultural knowledge that contextualize mixed methods research in South Africa.
In-person interviews among South African professors as well as a corpus of books, sections, journal articles, and theses informed the …
Transportation And Sanitation Drivers Of Land Use/Land Cover Change: Loss Of The Jamaica Bay Wetlands, 2015 CUNY Hunter College
Transportation And Sanitation Drivers Of Land Use/Land Cover Change: Loss Of The Jamaica Bay Wetlands, Margaret Joy Cytryn
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis presents an analysis (1830-2014) of the historical events of land use/land cover change in the Jamaica Bay estuary, identification of the agents of change, and a perspective on the potential drivers of transportation and sanitation in land use/land cover change.
Giving A Voice To The Powerless: Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation As A Tool For Inclusive Development Through Microfinance, 2015 SIT Graduate Institute
Giving A Voice To The Powerless: Participatory Monitoring & Evaluation As A Tool For Inclusive Development Through Microfinance, Evan T. Burke
Capstone Collection
The greatest experts on the situation of the marginalized peoples of the world are the marginalized communities themselves. This paper explores how participatory monitoring & evaluation can be a powerful tool for giving voices to marginalized communities, ensuring that the voices of beneficiaries and local stakeholders are heard and inform sustainable project design. It analyzes a participatory monitoring and evaluation methodology implemented for women’s credit cooperatives in Gujarat, India by the Human Development & Research Centre, and examines lessons to be learned to design evaluations facilitating inclusive development.
Strategies for the monitoring and evaluation of microfinance have evolved along with …
Towards A Unified Theory Of Play: A Case Study Of Minecraft, 2015 Bond University
Towards A Unified Theory Of Play: A Case Study Of Minecraft, James Hooper, Penny De Byl
Penny de Byl
Researchers in the fields of game design, childhood development, learning, and movement studies discuss the concept of play. However, the term has been frequently redefined resulting in a divergent understanding of the concept. This paper presents a Unified Theory of Play that aims to provide a holistic examination of the domain that will enhance understanding of play by delivering a tripartite framework for critical analysis of a variety of computer games. Minecraft is presented herein as a case study analysis using the proposed framework.
Conduits Of Communion: Monstrous Affections In Algonquin Traditional Territory, 2015 The University of Western Ontario
Conduits Of Communion: Monstrous Affections In Algonquin Traditional Territory, Ian S.G. Puppe
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
This project investigates the legacies of shifting land tenure and stewardship practices on what is now known as the Ottawa Valley watershed (referred to as the Kitchissippi by the Omamawinini or Algonquin people), and the effects that this central colonization project has had on issues of identity and Nationalism on Canadians, diversely identified as settler-colonists of European or at least “Old World” descent and First Nations, Métis and Inuit (Lawrence 2012).
Focusing on historical and contemporary political and social issues related to Algonquin Provincial Park and its establishment, this project explores; 1) Competing claims levied by First Nations Peoples, local …
Reinventing The Role Of Children And Youth In Post-Conflict Peacebuilding, 2015 SIT Graduate Institute
Reinventing The Role Of Children And Youth In Post-Conflict Peacebuilding, Amirah M. Alias
Capstone Collection
This paper underlines the roles of children and youth in post-conflict peacebuilding and the reinvention of their roles from participants of peacebuilding to active facilitators of post-conflict peacebuilding. The reinvention is based on the re-interpretation of the traditional roles of children and youth in post-conflict peacebuilding and the analysis of children and youth peacebuilding programs. The re-interpretation will suggest that children and youth take on a more active role, if not, a leadership role in peacebuilding programs conducted for children and youth. This paper will look at the historical and contextual information about Nigeria's inter-religious conflict and a youth peacebuilding …
Welfare Queens To Childcare Queens: The Political Economy Of State Subsidized Childcare In Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2009-2012), 2015 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Welfare Queens To Childcare Queens: The Political Economy Of State Subsidized Childcare In Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2009-2012), Anika Yetunde Jones
Theses and Dissertations
Through the privatization of childcare in Wisconsin, thousands of impoverished, under-educated and low skilled African-American women became micro-enterprising entrepreneurs. In 2006 through the instituting of Wisconsin Shares (Shares), Wisconsin’s low-income childcare program, the average family daycare provider in Milwaukee County earned over $50,000 a year (Pawasarat and Quinn 2006). Drawing on neoliberal ideas of micro-enterprising entrepreneurship, these women were successful, but this success appeared to not align with the architects of Shares. Loic Wacquant (2009, 2012) argues that neoliberalism should not be viewed as market strategies or exercises, but rather, it should be viewed as a quintessential political project that …
Kin Selection, 2015 University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Kin Selection, Raymond Hames
Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications
When Hamilton (1964) published his theory of inclusive fitness it had no immediate impact in the social and behavioral sciences, even though ethnographers knew kinship to be a universally fundamental factor in human social organization, especially in egalitarian societies in which humans have spent nearly all their evolutionary history. In many ways, it was a theory that perhaps anthropologists should have devised: Anthropologists knew kinship fundamentally structured cooperation, identity, coalition formation, resource exchange, marriage, and group membership in traditional societies. It was not until 1974 with the publication of Wilson’s Sociobiology (1975) and especially Richard Alexander’s The Evolution of Social …
Three Research Essays On Human Behaviors In Social Media, 2015 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Three Research Essays On Human Behaviors In Social Media, Jiao Wu
Theses and Dissertations
Social Media (SM) has grown to be one of the most popular Internet technologies for individual users and has fostered a global community. For instance, recent statistics reveal that monthly active users of Facebook are almost 1.5 billion by Mar 2015. At the same time, 20% of internet users in the US are expected to have Twitter accounts. This figure has grown from 15.2% in 2012, and is expected to rise to 24.2% by 2018 (Twitter 2015).
People like spending their time on SM to track the latest news, seek knowledge, update personal status, and connect with friends. It is …
When The Dead Are Not Silent: The Investigation Of Cultural Perspectives Concerning Improper Burials In Northern Uganda, 2015 University of Tennessee - Knoxville
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 …
Breastfeeding With The Bronson Mothers’ Milk Bank, 2015 Western Michigan University
Breastfeeding With The Bronson Mothers’ Milk Bank, Marykate Bodnar
Masters Theses
Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo is home to one of only 15 certified breast milk banks in the United States. Women have shared breast milk for centuries through wet nurses, but this institutionalized and regulated version of sharing is distinct from previous forms. Breastfeeding has become a symbol of successful motherhood; donor milk adds a new dimension to this aspect of idealized motherhood. This study explores how the milk bank works: its organizational structure within a hospital, how donors are selected, and how recipients qualify for donor milk. It is grounded in Feminist and Medical Anthropology literature. Using semi-structured interviews …
Canning Jars And Patterns Of Canning Behavior: A Study Of Households On The Hector Backbone, New York. 1850-1940, 2015 Western Michigan University
Canning Jars And Patterns Of Canning Behavior: A Study Of Households On The Hector Backbone, New York. 1850-1940, Jayne Ann Michaels
Masters Theses
Typically, late 19th or early 20th century domestic sites contain fragments of a common item: canning jars. Such is the case regarding 21 sites along the Hector Backbone in New York State. These sites, investigated by the Finger Lakes National Forest Farmstead Archaeology Project, produced a rich sample of over 250,000 artifacts and thousands related to canning.
The objective of this thesis is to explore the potential of these common artifacts to yield important information about these Backbone households. Specifically, my questions include: when did these households adopt canning and who were they?
The intentional decision to include …
An Ethnography Of Taste: Craft Beer Culture In Hattiesburg, 2015 University of Southern Mississippi
An Ethnography Of Taste: Craft Beer Culture In Hattiesburg, Yingkun Hou
Master's Theses
This thesis studies the craft beer culture in Hattiesburg in order to answer the research question: Is taste what draws people to this culture? Beyond conducting classic participant-observation, I deployed the method of sensory activated participant-observation in my fieldwork. In so doing, this research centers the perspective and the data collected on the senses, especially the taste of craft beer. The purpose of this research is to add to our knowledge of the anthropology of the senses and contribute to the literature on the anthropology of taste.
The Culture Of Sustainability At Southern Miss, 2015 University of Southern Mississippi
The Culture Of Sustainability At Southern Miss, Amy J. Ball
Honors Theses
The sustainability movement has been studied in general before, but little research has been done on topic of the sustainability movement at universities. This study aims to contribute to the larger conversation on sustainability by looking at the ideas and motivations behind participation in the movement among students at the University of Southern Mississippi. This is done primarily through interviews performed by the researcher with a number of students in a club on campus dedicated to spreading knowledge of and participation in sustainable activities, known as the Sustainability Advocates. Background information about the sustainability movement on campus is provided by …
Sounding Identity: Soundscapes, Music, And Technoculture In The Chinese Diaspora Of Panama, 2015 University of Tennessee - Knoxville
Sounding Identity: Soundscapes, Music, And Technoculture In The Chinese Diaspora Of Panama, Corey Michael Blake
Masters Theses
Present in Panama since the 19th 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 …
Philosopher's Stone: The Faustian Geist Of Development, 2015 University of Southern Mississippi
Philosopher's Stone: The Faustian Geist Of Development, Salikyu Sangtam
Dissertations
The present study juxtaposes scientific rationality with polyphonic rationality in respect to societal development. This is done to illuminate how scientific rationality provides a narrow and truncated view of development. In order to explicate the exclusion of polyphonic rationalities/knowledges in favor of scientific rationality, several development scholarships are examined along with an episode of developmental scheme and two episodes of development programs. This is done to expound (note: ‘→’ = influences) how scientific rationality → scholarships → organizational/institutional schemes, such as the MDGs → actual applications of development schemes, such as transmigration and compulsory villagization. The present inquest, …
In Search Of Flavour-Nutrient Learning: A Study Of The Samburu Pastoralists Of North-Central Kenya, 2015 University of Bristol
In Search Of Flavour-Nutrient Learning: A Study Of The Samburu Pastoralists Of North-Central Kenya, Jeffrey M. Brunstrom, Peter J. Rogers, Kevin P. Myers, Jon D. Holtzman
Faculty Journal Articles
Much of our dietary behaviour is learned. In particular, one suggestion is that ‘flavour-nutrient learning’ (F-NL) influences both choice and intake of food. F-NL occurs when an association forms between the orosensory properties of a food and its postingestive effects. Unfortunately, this process has been difficult to evaluate because F-NL is rarely observed in controlled studies of adult humans. One possibility is that we are disposed to F-NL. However, learning is compromised by exposure to a complex Western diet that includes a wide range of energy-dense foods. To test this idea we explored evidence for F-NL in a sample of …
Community Gardens In Knoxville: Insight Into Challenges Facing Community Garden Initiatives, 2015 University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Community Gardens In Knoxville: Insight Into Challenges Facing Community Garden Initiatives, Angelia D Rateike
Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects
No abstract provided.
Media Representation Of Islam And Muslims In Southern Appalachia, 2015 East Tennessee State University
Media Representation Of Islam And Muslims In Southern Appalachia, Saundra K. Reynolds
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Southern Appalachian attitudes about the religion of Islam and Muslim adherents are influenced largely by mass media's representations. With more than 80% of Appalachia’s population following Protestant Christianity, exposure to Islam in daily life is limited. Media outlets offer the greatest exposure to information about the religion and its adherents. This thesis examined the region's media representation of Islam and Muslims to determine what images are most often portrayed. Research following a twoyear span of reporting in Southern Appalachia studied substance, word frequency, imagery, and editing used in articles that focused on Islam and Muslims. Through the use of content …