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Merits And Motivations Of An Ashéninka Leader, Hanne Veber

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Recent approaches to life history studies emphasize the power of biography in processes of social construction, highlighting the individual—storyteller and social being—as creative and created in relation to others. Situated in collective meaning systems and their dynamics, autobiographical narration is transformed into agency as it provides definitions of situations and encodes models for action. This essay discusses alternative interpretations of the autobiographical narrative of an Ashéninka leader, Miguel Camaiteri, in Peru's Upper Amazon, focusing on the exposition of his motivations for becoming an indigenous activist and contemplating the way his self-presentation is contingent upon the political agenda he is pursuing …

Roma In Vojvodina: Expressions Of Cultural Identity Through Performance, Jane Kaufman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper begins to cover some of the ways Roma cultural identity is expressed through performance in Vojvodina. The way Roma music and dance is seen in Vojvodina is highly influenced by the “circus” image and very little scholarly writing on Roma folklore exists to challenge this image. Roma musicians in rap/hip-hop groups incorporate elements of Roma traditional music and Roma language into rap/hip-hop to confront this stereotype and in performance these influences can interact, challenging stereotypes and revealing current values and traditions.

A Critical Analysis Of The Current Status Of The Fijian Language, Stephanie Roberts

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As the country of Fiji strives to keep up in the throws of modernity of the 21st century, it simultaneously attempts to grip onto its culture that distinguishes it from the rest of the world. Linguistically, Fiji is categorized into three general divisions (although each being greatly influenced since the 19th century). English, Fijian and Hindi serve as the three “official” languages of Fiji; as components of one country, they play significant roles in the formation of national identity. Language is a necessary element of culture, and was therefore studied in order to promote cultural identity for the people of …

Les Actions Et Motivations Des Gens Qui Transmettent Et Maintiennent Encore La Langue D’Occitan, Rita Dainko

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Ce projet sur l’Occitan est conçu par hasard, à l’autre côté de l’océan. C’était à Miami University en Ohio où mon professeur de français et moi nous asseyions pour discuter mon application pour SIT, avant de l’envoyée. Étant vu qu’il fallait remplir les trois lignes désignées dans le dossier d’inscription pour l’ISP, nous essayions de trouver un sujet qui me plaisait et qui pouvait également remplir le critère d’un cours à mon université, pour que je puisse obtenir l’unité de valeur pour lui. Comme je veux être professeur de français, l’éducation bilingue m’intéresse beaucoup, et je suis passionnée des sujets …

Settlement Patterns In The Lower Mississippi River Valley, Carl Philipp Lipo, Robert C. Dunnell

Anthropology Datasets

No abstract provided.

Environment As Social And Literary Constructs: An Exploration Of The Relationship Between The Environment And Mahafaly Oral Literature, Eugenie Cha

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

There was a time, long ago, when a small lake or reservoir had formed in a remote area whose location still remains a mystery today. One day, a king was passing through this region. He desperately needed water and searched and searched, but to no avail. Finally, he found this lake and was able to quench his thirst, and thus prevented himself from dying of dehydration (Avimary).

This story is one of many that are present within the canon of oral literature in Madagascar today. It originated from a small town called Ampanihy, which lies in the southwestern region of …

Endangered ? Yambetta In Its Speech Community, Carolyn Benbow

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project is a study on the village of Yambetta and its efforts to keep its local language of Yambette. It looks into the organisation YALICO and the role of the local language within Yambetta’s speech community. Through observation and interviews, this study found that Yambetta is a living language not in immediate danger of dying out, and that the efforts of the Summer Institute of Linguistics through the local linguistic committee in Yambetta village is improving the chances that Yambetta will continue to be a living language. This was important because around half of the world’s languages are estimated …

Tumuge' Påpa' (Writing It Down): Chamorro Midwives And The Delivery Of Native History, Christine Taitano Delisle

Pacific Studies

This essay explores the evolving significance of the Chamorro phrase tuge' påpa'—"write it down"—as both a command and a cultural imperative in the life of a Chamorro woman and scholar. Anchored in personal history and critical scholarship, the essay examines how writing becomes a medium for engaging with, preserving, and reshaping Chamorro identity, history, and resistance in the face of colonial narratives. Drawing from research on i pattera siha—prewar Chamorro nurse-midwives trained under U.S. Naval Administration—this work blends ethnography, historiography, and family memory to challenge dominant American colonial discourse. Using the motif of “working hands,” it underscores the …

Vol. 30, No. 1/2 (2007): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies Brigham Young University–HawaiʻI

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 30, No 1/2-March/June 2007 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal. Special Issue: Women Writing Oceania: Weaving the Sails of Vaka

Niudity (I-Iv), Teresia Teaiwa

Pacific Studies

The "Niudity" poem sequence by Teresia Teaiwa explores the layered metaphor of the coconut (niu) to reflect on identity, vulnerability, and postcolonial femininity in Oceania. The poems interweave bodily imagery with cultural symbolism—where the coconut’s husk, shell, and flesh represent stages of exposure, resilience, and inner worth. In playful yet poignant verse, Teaiwa deconstructs the idea of nudity into niudity—a state shaped not just by nakedness, but by misrecognition, resistance, and cultural disguise. Her fictional dictionary entries parody colonial linguistic authority while empowering indigenous reinterpretation. The final poem subverts expectations with sharp commentary on exploitation, voice, and …

Vol. 30, No. 1/2 (2007): Pacific Studies Full Issue; Special Issue: Women Writing Oceania: Weaving The Sails Of Vaka, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies Brigham Young University–HawaiʻI

Pacific Studies

Pacific Studies is published two times a year by The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i #1979, 55–220 Kulanui Street, Lāʻie, Hawai‘i 96762, but responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles rests with the authors alone. Subscription rate is US $26.00 yearly, payable to The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies. The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies (formerly The Pacific Institute) is an organization funded by Brigham Young University Hawai‘i. The Center assists the University in meeting its cultural and educational goals by undertaking a program of teaching, research, …

Cultural Diversity In The Southern Caddo Region, James E. Corbin

Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State

The earliest expression of Caddo culture in the southern portion of the Southern Caddo region is well known. That Alto phase Caddo culture had any effect on coeval societies and the subsequent cultural development in the area cannot be demonstrated. What happened after ca. A.D. 1100 has been much discussed, but the realities of that subsequent cultural development are unknown. It can be argued that what followed was a part of a larger cultural phenomenon of regionalization of societies within the broader Caddoan area. Some researchers have argued that. at least in the extreme southern portion of the Caddo area, …

Reviews And End Matter

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

International Bead & Beadwork Conference, Jamey D. Allen and Valerie Hector (eds.) (2007), reviewed by Karlis Karklins

Navajo Beadwork: Architectures of Light, by Ellen K. Moore (2003), reviewed by Kate C. Duncan

Made of Thunder, Made of Glass: American Indian Beadwork of the Northeast, by Gerry Biron (2006), reviewed by Dolores Elliott

Lubāna ezera mitrāja Neolīta dzintars (Neolithic Amber of Lake Lubāns Wetlands), by Ilze B. Loze (2008), reviewed by Aleksandar Palavestra

The Bead Goes On, by Koos van Brakel (2006), reviewed by Karlis Karklins

The Meaning Of Folklore, Simon J. Bronner

All USU Press Publications

The essays of Alan Dundes virtually created the meaning of folklore as an American academic discipline. Yet many of them went quickly out of print after their initial publication in far-flung journals. Brought together for the first time in this volume compiled and edited by Simon Bronner, the selection surveys Dundes's major ideas and emphases, and is introduced by Bronner with a thorough analysis of Dundes's long career, his interpretations, and his inestimable contribution to folklore studies.

The Scholar And Her Servants: Further Thoughts On Postcolonialism And Education, Nita Kumar

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

The hypothesis of the paper is twofold. By juxtaposing the two subject-positions of mistress and servant, moving between one and the other to highlight how each is largely constructed by the interaction, we illuminate the questions of margin and centre, silence and voice, and can ponder on how to do anthropology better. But secondly, to the work of several scholars who propose various approaches to these questions, I add the particular insight offered by the perspective of education. Because one of the subject-positions is that of ‘the scholar’, someone professionally engaged in knowledge production, the new question I want to …

Cross-Chronotope Alignment In Senegalese Oral Narrative, Sabina Perrino

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

While oral self-narratives are often presumed to be deictically anchored as ‘past’ by default, speakers routinely create more complex and varied temporalization effects, including tropic effects that are this article’s focus. One of the most well-known tropic temporalization effects is the so-called ‘historical present’, where speakers use non-past deixis to frame ‘past’ events. This juxtaposition of temporalization effects can be used to align the spatio-temporal universe of the story (the denotational text) and the here-and-now storytelling event (the interactional text) as ‘coeval’, as if they were part of the same spatio-temporal or ‘chronotopic’ frame. This article examines a Senegalese oral …

Unintelligibility As Discourse Accessibility In A Senegalese Ethnomedical Encounter, Sabina Perrino

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

‘Unintelligibility’ is not an on–o¢¥ phenomenon, but rather a processual, bydegrees, and phase-relative phenomenon, as recent literature has demonstrated. With these facts in mind, this article approaches ‘unintelligibility’ in terms of discourse ‘accessibility’, emphasizing especially how ‘access’ is regulated in multiple ways (not only through language), and how it centrally involves changes in participation structure. Using a Senegalese ethnomedical encounter as my focus, I examine how the verbal and nonverbal regulation of accessibility helps bring into play forms of mediation, where the interactant conferring access o¢¥ers to the patient both expert knowledge and contact with incorporeal beings. During a divination …

Participant/Observer Vol. 1. No. 1 Winter 2007, Anthropology Department

Participant/Observer

A Newsletter for Friends of the Western Michigan University Department of Anthropology

Table of Contents:

• Violence in Kenya is topic of Anthropologist’s Research
• Letter from the Chair
• Meet the Newest Member of the Anthropology Department: Kristina Wirtz
• WMU Archaeology Students Excavate at Fort St. Joseph During Field School
• Questions for a Faculty Member. . . Dr. Robert Anemone
• Archaeology Grad Student Works in Bolivia
• Anthropology Students Make Energy Headlines
• The Development of a Web-Based, Role-Playing Simulation
• In The Spotlight: Vin Lyon-Callo
• Anthropologist is Fulbright Scholar
• Department News

Navigating Hiv, Pregnancy, And Childbearing In South India, Cecilia Van Hollen

Anthropology - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Play, Laughter And Humor In Captive Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes), Jason M. Wallin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Play is ubiquitous in mammals, and argued to occur across many taxa includ­ing birds, non-avian reptiles, and invertebrates. Laughter is common in human inter­actions, and growing evidence from chimpanzees, rats, and dogs may mean it is also common among mammals (at least). Humor in non-humans is less well studied, though theoretical work and anecdotes exist. This study examined play, laughter, and humor using a longitudinal dataset of narrative shift reports collected over more than 1,300 days in a unique family of non-human animals, chimpanzees who use Ameri­can Sign Language to communicate. Play was more common when young males were present …

The Past Is How We Present It: Nationalism And Archaeology In Italy From Unification To Wwii, Andrew P. Mcfeaters

Nebraska Anthropologist

Between the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, Italian archaeology was greatly influenced by nationalism. The political use of archaeology by the Italian government can be seen in the years following unification and even more so when Benito Mussolini came to power, determined to make a new Italy modeled after the Roman Empire. He planned to do this by enforcing the adoption of ancient Roman culture, but also by resurrecting the Roman past through various archaeological projects to remind the Italians of their heritage. This goal guaranteed a nationalistic approach to the …

Alternative Epigraphic Interpretations Of The Maya Snake Emblem Glyph, Christopher Tyra Savage

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to demonstrate that the Maya snake emblem glyph is associated with religious specialists, instead of geographic locations, as emblem glyphs are typically understood to be. The inscriptions and the media on which the snake emblem glyph occurs will be analyzed to determine the role or function of the "Lord of the Snake." Temporal and spatial data has also been collected to aid in understanding the enigmatic glyph. The snake emblem glyph has recently been identified as originating from a broad area containing the sites of El Peru and La Corona in Guatemala, and Dzibanche, Mexico, a departure …

Houses Great And Small: Reevaluating The 'House' In Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, Carrie Heitman

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

In recent years, a growing number of archaeologists have explored the potential of expanding Lévi-Strauss’ concept of house societies to better understand specific archaeological contexts. Looking specifically at the classificatory distinction between “great houses” and “small houses” within Chaco Canyon (A.D. 850–1180), I suggest this theoretical model might yield new insights with regard to four symbolic dimensions of house construction: the use of wood, directional offerings, resurfacing practices, and the bones of ancestors. Using Puebloan ethnographic literature and cross-cultural comparisons, I suggest a house model analysis may serve to integrate anomalous “ceremonial” dimensions of house construction in an effort to …

Book Review - Hart, W. (2002) Never Fade Away, James Kent Knaack

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of, Mark Whitaker. Learning Politics From Sivaram: The Life And Death Of A Revolutionary Tamil Journalist In Sri Lanka, Michele Ruth Gamburd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "Learning Politics from Sivaram: The Life and Death of a Revolutionary Tamil Journalist in Sri Lanka," by Mark Whitaker.

Ancient Egyptians Queens Names, Lisa Sabbahy Dr.

Faculty Journal Articles

Throughout ancient Egyptian history proper name changes in terms of their content and grammatical form. This article is the study of the names of ancient Egyptian queens from the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the beginning of the New Kingdom. The study analyses their name by content and by grammar. The names are compared to contemporary non-royal names, and the question of whether or not queens assumed throne names is addressed.

Cultural Identity And Continuity At The Missions Of New Spain: Examining The Native American Experience At The Spanish Missions Of Texas, William E. Altizer

Nebraska Anthropologist

The Roman Catholic missions of New Spain were an essential component of the Spanish colonial enterprise, and the effects of the missionization process on the Native American populations of the Americas were profound. How did these native populations respond to the new imperatives of colonization and religious conversion? In what ways were they able to maintain their cultural identity under the mission system? This paper examines the ways in which archaeology can address these questions of cultural continuity, with particular emphasis on the eighteenth-century Spanish missions of San Antonio, Texas.

Cooperative Conservation: Increasing Capacity Through Community Partnerships: Cultural Site Stewardship Program: Quarterly Progress Report, Period Ending December 31, 2006, Margaret N. Rees

Cultural Site Stewardship Program

• The Cultural Site Stewardship Program now has 249 enrolled site stewards, an increase of 732% since program inception in 2004.

• Four training classes were held in 2006, adding 72 new stewards.

• Site Stewards reported 55 significant impacts during the 12-month period compared to 25 impacts during the same period last year.

Murambi Et Moisson De Crânes Ou Comment La Fiction Raconte Un Génocide, Josias Semujanga

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article shows how literary fiction is able to narrate the event of genocide so as to shatter the rational explanations of the world that are the accepted framework for discourse. It studies two texts written on the Rwandan genocide: Murambi by Boubacar Boris Diop and Moisson de crânes by Abdourahman Waberi.

Anadromous Fish And The Lenape, Marshall Joseph Becker

Anthropology & Sociology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.