Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons^™

Views From The Road: An Inquiry Into The Meaning Of Development In Lower Mustang, Tracy Pecher

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

By considering the new road that connects the urban center of Pokhara to the previously isolated region of Lower Mustang, this paper examines the impacts of development in the area. I focus on the varied perspectives of three sets of individuals in the area: the founder of an NGO focused on agricultural development, youth from villages surrounding Jomsom, and a Canadian woman who settled in small village with her Thakali husband. I combine these personal accounts with an analysis of development on a broader scale, discussing a range of themes including conceptions of culture, education, and poverty. I emphasize that …

Pabean Sangsit: A Cultural Study Through The Lives Of One Family, Sylvie Kovnat

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The objective of this Independent Study Project was to investigate life in Bali as a cultural and religious minority. I had already spent nearly two months with my family in Bedulu, a typical Hindu Balinese family, and I was curious to see how other people in Bali live. I decided to spend the ISP period in Pabean Sangsit, living with a Muslim family with Bugis roots. The main question I wanted to answer through this study was: What is life like in Bali for the religious and cultural minority? I decided to look into religion, culture, and daily activities to …

Introduction: Environmental Justice Movements For A Post-Capitalist World, Devon Peña, Kathryn Blackmer Reyes

NACCS Annual Conference Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Issue 56, Spring 2010, Society Of Bead Researchers

The Bead Forum: Newsletter of the Society of Bead Researchers

The Application of X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Spectrometry in the Characterization of Glass Degradation in Beaded African Art, by Maria Fusco and Robert J. Speakman.

It's Enouch To Make You Die Laughing, Michael I. Niman Ph.D.

Michael I Niman Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

Is Duty-Bound Good Enough? Considering Archaeological Ethics Beyond Codes And Laws, Angela M. Labrador

Angela M Labrador

As archaeologists we are bound by professional codes and legal statutes, which typically presume the primacy of the archaeological record and grant us some level of authority over it. Some scholars have critiqued this normative core by questioning who the archaeological record serves and to what greater goods archaeologists should contribute. Such critiques have led to wider acknowledgement and consideration of the social responsibilities that archaeologists have toward various stakeholders. However, in practice, archaeologists often become de facto managers of stakeholders, complicating the archaeologist’s own position as stakeholder and the multiplicity of moral codes that the stakeholders bring to the …

The Birds And The Bees: Sex And Personnel Security, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses gender identity and sexual activity as they relate to security personnel in the context of espionage.

Conference Proceedings 3rd International Scientific Conference On “Energy Systems With It” At Alvsjö Fair In Association With Energitinget March 16-17 2010, Dr. Erik Dahlquist, Dr. Jenny Palm

Dr. Erik Dahlquist

2010 “The Energiting” is performed for the 12th time. The International Scientific conference is arranged for the 3rd time. The organisers are Swedish Energy Agency, Mälardalen University and the Research School for Energy Systems with LiU, KTH, UU and CTH. The first topic will be “Energy systems” covering use of renewable energy sources, energy conversion and process efficiency improvement with new technologies, as well as societal aspects of the introduction of new technologies. The second topic is “Energy and IT”. This covers energy and load management, interaction between production, distribution and “consumption”, usage of data for decision support and control, …

The Social Strategy Game: Resource Competition Within Female Social Networks Among Small-Scale Forager-Horticulturalists, Stacey L. Rukas, Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan, Jeffrey Winking

ESI Publications

This paper examines social determinants of resource competition among Tsimane Amerindian women of Bolivia. We introduce a semi-anonymous experiment (the Social Strategy Game) designed to simulate resource competition among women. Information concerning dyadic social relationships and demographic data were collected to identify variables influencing resource competition intensity, as measured by the number of beads one woman took from another. Relationship variables are used to test how the affiliative or competitive aspects of dyads affect the extent of prosociality in the game. Using a mixed-modeling procedure, we find that women compete with those with whom they are quarreling over accusations of …

Brazilians In The United States 1980—2007, Laird Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This report examines demographic and socioeconomic factors concerning Brazilians in the United States between 1980 and 2007.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: The wave of migration from Brazil which began in the 1990s in all likelihood will continue into the future, economic fluctuations in the U.S. notwithstanding. In part this is due to the relatively high rates of educational attainment …

Learning Sustainable Development: Chimeneas De La Esperanza, Miriam V. Mollan Gundersen

Social Sciences

Social inequality and environmental degradation are motivating informed young people into action and connecting impoverished regions of the world with students in more developed nations. This Social Sciences senior project is to analyze an alternative development model designed by a group of Californian university students. The project, named Chimeneas de la Esperanza, is designed to help impoverished Nicaraguan women start a ceramics business. The major hurdle of this mission is to establish a market for the ceramics product. Energy efficient ceramic stoves and smoke ventilating chimneys would benefit the community and avoid an impacted crafts market. The project encompasses ideas …

The Politics Of Snow, Michael I. Niman Ph.D.

Michael I Niman Ph.D.

‘Snowpocalypse’ isn’t an act of god; it’s a combination of anti-tax southerners and a changing climate, says Michael I. Niman

Gibbs, Marissa (Fa 478), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Collection 478. Taped interviews conducted by Marissa Gibbs about the "Giles Cabin" built by Henry Giles and Janice Holt Giles near Kinfley, Adair County, Kentucky. Also includes a paper about the house. This project was completed as part of a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Sri Lankan Migration To The Gulf: Female Breadwinners - Domestic Workers, Michele Ruth Gamburd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Several waves of Sri Lankan migration have taken place since the country gained independence in 1948. Beginning in the mid-1950s, wealthy, educated, English-speaking elites have migrated to Commonwealth countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom. In addition, since the upsurge in ethnic hostilities in the early 1980s, Tamil-speaking Hindu migrants have left the country, with many settling in Canada. In contrast with these permanent migrants, since 1976 a growing number of Sri Lankans have become migrant workers. The leading destination for this migrant labor force — the majority of whom are women — has been the Gulf.

Domestication Alone Does Not Lead To Inequality: Intergenerational Wealth Transmission Among Horticulturalists, Michael Gurven, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Paul L. Hooper, Hillard Kaplan, Robert Quinlan, Rebecca Sear, Eric Schniter, Christopher Von Rueden, Samuel Bowles, Tom Hertz, Adrian Bell

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

We present empirical measures of wealth inequality and its intergenerational transmission among four horticulturalist populations. Wealth is construed broadly as embodied somatic and neural capital, including body size, fertility and cultural knowledge, material capital such as land and household wealth, and relational capital in the form of coalitional support and field labor. Wealth inequality is moderate for most forms of wealth, and intergenerational wealth transmission is low for material resources and moderate for embodied and relational wealth. Our analysis suggests that domestication alone does not transform social structure; rather, the presence of scarce, defensible resources may be required before inequality …

Comments On The Emergence And Persistence Of Inequality In Premodern Societies, Kenneth M. Ames

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The author discusses the development and persistence of permanent inequality in human societies. He comments on an article which undertakes inequality in premodern societies and proposed that intergenerational wealth transmission is the reason for the evolution and persistence of inequality, mentioning the three categories of wealth including material, relational, and embodied.

Against The State Governance, Governance From Below & Governing Through Terrorism: Analytically Investigating The Technologies Of Power Within The Terrorist Arsenal., Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

Terrorism as a violent and destabilizing act performed by terrorists, meaning loyal followers of political or religious agendas who hold resent and animosity toward a certain authority/ government (Lin, Liou, & Wu, 2007, pg. 149), will be explored and analyzed through the utilization of the governmentality perspective. For the purposes of this paper terrorism governance will refer to the governance/ control/ influence exerted by terrorists and terrorism. The focus of this explorative and analysis paper will be to identify diverse terrorism oriented technologies of governance, and analyze the ways in which these technologies enable terrorist to exert governance both indirectly …

Designing, Producing And Enacting Nationalisms: Contemporary Amerindian Fashion In Canada, Cory Willmott

Cory A. Willmott

Today, generations after the adoption of European styles, Amerindian peoples’ everyday clothing is almost indistinguishable from that of other residents of North America. Until recently their culturally distinct clothing has been mainly reserved for ceremonial occasions such as powwows and religious rituals. This bifurcation of clothing styles and contexts parallels the dichotomy between ‘traditional’ and ‘assimilated’ Native identity that has been imposed by the dominant society. The dichotomy is a double bind: adopting ‘traditional’ identities, Native peoples are cast into a static ahistorical frame, while appearing ‘assimilated’ erases cultural distinctiveness. In both cases, Native peoples cannot effectively stake claims to …

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 …

On Blushing, Lee T. Nutini

Lee T Nutini

Guided by Darwin's writing, an intensive look at one of the most interesting and inexplicable phenomenons of human emotion.