Digital Commons Network^™

Cultural Competence In Urban Affairs And Planning, Tom Angotti, Marly Pierre-Louis, Laxmi Ramasubramanian, Sigmund Shipp, Angela Tovar

Publications and Research

In the Fall of 2009, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO) undertook the Centro Cultural Competence Initiative (CCI) with the support of a one-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). The goal of the CCI is to address the need for culturally appropriate work in a variety of professions by training students to be culturally competent practitioners. In the Fall of 2010, the Urban Affairs and Planning Department at Hunter College joined CENTRO as a partner in this initiative. Full time Professors Sigmund Shipp, Laxmi Ramasubramanian, and Tom Angotti worked …

”Tag, You’Re It!”: Using Social Media “Tags” To Help Solve The Problem Of Church Classification In Sociology Of Religion, Steven Losco

Pitzer Senior Theses

Edited Abstract for presentation:

Categorizing humans and human activity can be difficult. In my own research on evangelical church styles in Los Angeles, I found that the services defied discreet categories. I turned to the social web for inspiration on how to categorize the services and landed on blog post “tags” as something that could give me a flexible and dynamic way to “define” the church. Briefly, tags are a set of words or phrases that users categorize anything from blog posts, books on GoodReads, website bookmarks, etc, in other words: metadata. What makes tags so potent as definition is …

Gringotenango : The U.S. Retirement Migration To Antigua, Guatemala, Katherine Wilnelia Platt

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation documents the migration of U.S. retirees to Antigua, Guatemala. Antigua is a charming Spanish colonial city in the middle of the Guatemalan highlands with beautiful volcano views, cobblestone roads, the presence of Mayan and Ladino cultures, and an eternal spring climate. The physical and cultural beauty of Antigua allows U.S. citizens to enjoy a permanent vacation-like retirement experience. Antigua, however, is located in a country whose recent history is characterized by 36 years of civil war, and current events are stressed by new violence criminal activities. Despite the beauty of Antigua, this colonial city is an odd retirement …

Cuba For Cubans? Contradictions In Cuban Development Since 1990, Martin Carriel

Honors Projects

Not long ago, eighty-five percent of Cuban trade was conducted through the the Soviet Union's Council of Mutual Economic Assistance and the US maintained a strict economic embargo. Today, most Cuban trade is conducted with countries as diverse as Venezuela, China, and Canada, and despite the economic embargo, the US is the largest source of food for Cuba. The fall of the USSR in the early 90s forced Cuba into restructuring its trade, with widespread repercussions throughout Cuban economic, political and social systems and the ideology behind them. World-systems theory offers a theoretical framework that allows an understanding of the …

Food And Identity: A Case Study Of Roman Soldiers And Native Civilians In Roman Britain, Aaron Michael Bobik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Food is a universal medium through which identity is expressed. In cultures both past and present, food represents a direct way to communicate many aspects of identity such as ethnicity, nationality, status, age, and gender. In archaeology, while the nutritional and economic roles of food have been a topic of study for decades, the relationship between food and identity is a research area largely in its infancy. In my thesis, I explore general aspects of identity in the past, and in particular, I utilize a case study of four archaeological sites (Segontium (Caernarfon), Portchester Castle, Wavendon Gate, and Dragonby) to …

"Like An Ox Yoke": Challenging The Intrinsic Virtuosity Of A Grassroots Social Movement, Donna Chollett

Anthropology Publications

Since the 1980s, neoliberal globalization fostered an upsurge of grassroots social movements in Latin America that sought alternatives to increasing poverty and social exclusion. Social movement scholars often interpret these movements as morally noble models of democracy given their claims to social justice and equity. My research examines the forced seizure of a closed Mexican sugar mill and establishment of a cooperative, worker-run factory by a grassroots movement whose cultural politics aimed at creating more democratic processes. Yet in 2009, after 11 years of success, movement leaders declared the mill bankrupt and shut it down. The façade of unity presented …

Schooling And The Everyday Ruptures Transnational Children Encounter In The United States And Mexico, Edmund T. Hamann, Víctor Zúñiga

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Using examples of students in Mexico who used to attend US schools and examples from Georgia of students who used to and might again attend Mexican schools, this chapter considers how an unremarkable, quotidian activity—the act of attending school—can become means for transnationally mobile children to experience shock, disconnection, and a reiterated sense of dislocation if schools are incompletely responsive to learners' biographies.

Exploiting Borders: The Political Economy Of Local Backlash Against Undocumented Immigrants, Jamie Longazel, Benjamin Fleury-Steiner

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

Four years prior to Arizona's passage of one of the most far-reaching pieces of anti-Latino immigrant legislation signed into law in decades,3 demands to "seal off the border"4 were being made thousands of miles from the U.S.-Mexico divide. In 2006, Hazleton, Pennsylvania, passed equally harsh legislation aimed at keeping undocumented immigrants out of their community. During this time, commentators described the local backlash in Hazleton and other small cities across the United States as akin to "the opening of a deep and profound fissure in the American landscape" 5 wherein "all immigration politics is local." 6 Yet, as the so-called …

Pilgrimage: Communitas And Contestation, Unity And Difference - An Introduction, Michael A. Di Giovine

Anthropology & Sociology Faculty Publications

In this introduction to Tourism's special issue, 'Pilgrimage: Communitas and Contestation, Unity and Difference,' guest editor Michael A. Di Giovine explores the intellectual history of the anthropological theory of communitas — which Victor Turner has argued is a foundational element of pilgrimage — and its broader application to tourism research. Communitas denotes a spontaneous sensation of mutual communication and unity that arises among pilgrims, which transcends the quotidian markers of social structure, such as class, status, education, employment, or political affiliations. While the theory has proven to be foundational in the social scientific study of pilgrimage and, later, (secular) tourism, …

Yogic Diffusion The Effects Of Yogic Practice And Philosophy On Beliefs About Complementary And Alternative Medicine, Jacqueline Marie Siven

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research is a qualitative study that aimed to anthropologically explore the effects of consistent long-term yogic practice on the acceptance and practice of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among yoga practitioners at a South Florida yoga center. I wished to determine, through in-depth interviews, whether or not yogic practice affects acceptance of CAM. The main objective was to interview individuals from a single yoga center that have practiced yoga at least once per week for at least one year concerning their beliefs about CAM, yoga, and health. This project will begin to fill the gap in social science, in …

Personal Narratives Of Women's Leadership And Community Activism In Cherkasy Oblast, Martha Kichorowska Kebalo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Ukraine's women's movement is part of a complex social field characteristic of formerly Soviet countries, but it also emerges from its own specific political history. Post-Soviet period, (neo-) nationalism, feminism and (neo-) socialism are significant forces shaping women's collective behavior. Their activism resonates with the pre-Soviet liberation struggle while it is shaped also by practices from the recent Soviet past. It also is sensitive to external pressures, including the agendas of Western aid and the Ukrainian diaspora.

This study accepts the emergence of non-state women's organizations as indicative of an incipient movement and examines this field of social activism in …

[Introduction To] Power, Culture, And Economic Change In Russia: To The Undiscovered Country Of Post-Socialism, 1988-2008, Jeffrey K. Hass

Bookshelf

Utilising cutting-edge theory and unique data, this book examines the role of power, culture, and practice in Russia’s story of post-socialist economic change, and provides a framework for addressing general economic change.

No other book places power and culture as centrally as this, and in doing so it provides new insights not only into how Russia came to its present state under Putin, but also how economies operate and change generally. In particular, the importance of remaking authority and culture -- creating and contesting new categories and narratives of meaning -- is shown as central to Russia’s story, and to …

So Far, Yet Home? The Impact Of Colonization And Globalization On The Philippine Family, Kathleen Nadeau

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper looks at the changing role of the Filipino family from precapitalist to present times. After exploring the issue of how the precolonial and precapitalist family changed in response to colonization, it focuses on the question of how the underlying structure of the modern family has changed as a result of the impact of global capitalism. The paper ends with a brief reflection on some of the implications of changed family relations, structures, and roles for the moral fiber of the family and economy.

The Power Of Definition: Brazil's Contribution To Universal Concepts Of Indigeneity, Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This article builds on discussions about the potential benefits and difficulties with developing a universal definition of indigenous peoples. It explores the spaces made available for theorizing indigeneity by the lack of a definition in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in 2007. Specifically, this article addresses the challenge presented by the diversity of groups claiming indigenous status in Brazil. To what extent do distinct cosmologies and languages that mark Amazonian Indians as unquestionably indigenous affect newly recognized tribes in the rest of Brazil who share none of the indicia of authenticity? This article theorizes …

Adolescence Is An Ocean: A Biocultural Investigation Of Youth Food Consumption In Tanzania, Elizabeth J. Danforth

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates adolescents' relationships with food and other community and household members' perceptions of youth and their food consumption to understand the multifactorial dynamic processes which create nutritional outcomes among urban and rural youth in central Tanzania. Youth are an important and demographically large population in developing countries. The identities created during this distinct stage of cultural production can be reflected in youths' food consumption and relationships with food. Nutrition likely affects how youth transition through a variety of states, including their growth and development stages, primary to secondary to higher education, child to parent, or unemployed to employed. …

Balancing Two Worlds: Female Indo-Fijian Immigrant Youth In Their Public And Private Domains And The Emergence Of The New Hybridity, Nitasha Ali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the last 20 years immigration in Canada has increased due to the relaxed immigration laws. With such an increase it is vital to understand immigrant youth experiences in terms of how they express their national and cultural identity, how they negotiate different expectations of their host and homeland cultures, and how they identify themselves at a personal level. Many immigrant youths are faced with conflict, deriving from pressures of living in a new society and culture as well as pressure from their family and the homeland culture. These conflicts and expectations also have a gendered layer in that female …

Sacred Stones For Sacred Structures: An Examination Of Patterns In The Temples And Twin Complexes At Tikal And Palenque, Meredith Mae Hild

Honors Program Theses

Extensive work in uncovering and reconstructing Classic Maya temples has been completed while the importance of Maya studies has increased during the past centuries. Little has been done, however, in the interpretation of certain Maya structures within the context of Maya thought. That context includes an understanding of the Maya interpretation of their place within the cosmos, an aspect of Maya culture that dictated every individual's daily actions. Researchers have tended to focus on architectural analyses that describe the dimensions and building materials of temples and other monumental structures. This leads to interpretations that are lacking in cultural significance. While …

Ongoing Studies In Rio Grande Valley History, Milo Kearney, Anthony K. Knopp, Antonio Zavaleta

Studies in Rio Grande Valley Regional History Series

Chupacabras, a poem / Milo Kearney -- The Texas Center for Border and Transnational Studies / Antonio Zavaleta with help from others -- History Through World War I : Comparative freedom in the borderlands: fugitive slaves in Texas and Mexico from the age of enlightenment through the U.S. Civil War / Francis X. Galan and Joseph Leon -- Contraband trade in Matamoros and its impact on the northern Mexican economy during the 1820s / Melisa Galvan -- Preparando los festejos para la inauguración del Ferrocarril a Monterrey / Andres F. Cuellar -- Adolf F. Dittman and Brownsville's first motion picture …

Understanding The Subjectivities Of Pastors And Beliefs About The Current American Church Culture, Michael Ellis Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the spiritual subjectivities of pastors in the Mainstream White Middle Class Evangelical Church in the context of American capitalism. The Evangelical church carries extreme amounts of power and influence in shaping the beliefs of individuals in American society. However, very little pointed research of pastors' spiritual subjectivities that guide their teachings and views in this sub-sect of church culture is present in academia. Anthropology, along with other disciplines, often focuses on dominant churches from an etic perspective of politics and power relations without fully considering the spiritual beliefs of pastors. This etic perspective can miss the deeply …

Colorful Dialogue: Talking Towards Civic Engagement, Kate Olson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Noticing a need in the Mankato, Minnesota area to link new immigrants and refugees with the greater Mankato community, the YWCA Mankato started the Walking in Two Worlds program. The Colorful Dialogue, a part of the Walking in Two Worlds program, is a monthly community forum where long-time residents and newcomers, including immigrants and refugees, meet to discuss topics important for community building. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the program as a form of civic engagement. Two main questions shape the research: (1) Is the YWCA program, Colorful Dialogue an effective method of civic engagement? (2) Is …

Pacto Por La Cultura: The Power And Possibility Of Cultural Activism In Ciudad Juárez, Kerry Doyle

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This paper is a qualitative study of Movimiento Pacto por la Cultura , a group of cultural activists that operate in the hyper-violent reality of 21st century Ciudad Juárez. This work looks at Pacto as a case study to explore the possibilities of culture as a tool of activism in a particular time and place, exploring in the ways in which economic development policies, deficiencies in infrastructure, and rising violence both effect and can be affected by cultural processes. Through analysis of the group's original documents and qualitative interviews with organizational members, the paper documents both the successes of the …

Perceptions Of Disabilities Amongst The Tarahumara In Northern Mexico, Carolyn Raynor Trussell

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research focuses on the perceptions of disability amongst the Tarahumara, known amongst themselves as the Rarámuri, in the Sierra Madre region of Northern Chihuahua. This population of individuals has typically lived in isolated areas in communities in the Sierra Madre where medical and specialized educational services were rare. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions, knowledge and beliefs related to disabilities, as well as the access and beliefs related to educational and medical services.

The study focused on the individual and the society to examine how bodily conceptions influence perceptions of others. The target group for …

Bahasa Dan Konstruksi Solidaritas Antaretnis Masyarakat Transmigran Di Nusa Tenggara Barat, Kamaludin Yusra, Yuni Budi Lestari

Antropologi Indonesia

This study is aimed at identifying linguistic features, indexing ethnic identities, and inter-ethnic solidarity in transmigration contexts. Data were collected through interview, documentation and ethnography of various transmigrate communities on Sumbawa island. The data were then analyzed qualitatively with the ethnography of speaking and interaction analysis. The study found that (a) Ethnic identities in the migrant areas can be linguistically identified in four forms: orang aida (to refer to Sumbawa people), orang kalembo ade (for Bima people), dengan batur (for Sasak people) and orang beli (Balinese people). (b) These people were identifiable in the way they articulate particular sounds: orang …

Hegemoni Antonio Gramsci: Sejarah Dan Perkembangannya Dalam Ranah Antropologi, Iklilah Muzayyanah Dini Fariyah

Antropologi Indonesia

This writing is to parse the context of history from Antonio Gramsci’s thoughts regarding the concept of hegemony and positioning that approach in the realm of anthropological studies. The author wants to position Gramsci's argument by outlining the opinions of the theory interpreters and explaining social and political context from the influences of Marxism and communism on Gramsci's thinking. The fundamental concept of Gramschi’s thinking according to the auhor has influenced how post-1970s anthropology conceptualizes ideology, consent and hegemony as key issues that make the concept of culture become more operational in discussing matters of power.

Realizing Virtuality: Tracing The Contours Of Digital Culture, Nicholas Andrew Riggs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

People connect digitally through social media, fusing their relationships with meaning in a non-space of relational potential--a translucent and fluctuating enclave where the self becomes elastic. This thesis explores how I have formed bonds in virtual space through ritual interaction. Looking at the ways I learned to use technology through the progression of a close personal relationship, I suggest that social media use is a performance of identity--a virtuality that exposes how people negotiate the digital enclosure of contemporary society. My story is one of digital nativity and reclaiming love through virtual performance. I show how these performances have had …

Selo Soemardjan Sang Penerjemah: Subjektivitas Dalam Asal-Usul Cara Berpikir Sosiologis Di Indonesia, Geger Riyanto

Antropologi Indonesia

This paper was written against a background of interest to trace the formation of sociological ways of thinking that tend to legitimize power in Indonesia. During the preparation, I found problems in the perspective commonly used in researching the formation process of knowledge; knowledge is considered a form of power. Such approach is problematic because it denies subjectivity – which includes cognitive activity and experiences that are owned only by the existence of the related – absolute in the process of both producing and reproducing knowledge. Yet this criticism isn’t easy to elaborate because the question is, how do we …

Menyudahi Analogi Antropomorfisme: Mendamaikan Biologi, Sosiologi Dan Psikologi Melalui Psikogenealogi Antropologi Kedaulatan Negara, Hizkia Yosie Polimpung

Antropologi Indonesia

Death can be understood merely as a transition from one life to the next or simply as an end of life. These two conceptions are established due to our lack in knowledge about what will happen to us after we die. In order to make any sense, both conceptions require an understanding of death (and also life) as individual matter, that the only death (and life) I experienced is always my own. Nevertheless, in the first conception death does not exterminate one’s self, while in the second conception death exterminate one’s self. However, nonexistence of any access to the first-person …

Dormant Ethnobotany: A Case Study Of Decline In Regional Plant Knowledge In The Bull Run Mountains Of Virginia, Susan Rene Leopold

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation introduces and applies the concept of dormant ethnobotany, a concept that helps explain the socio-economic, cultural and ecological aspects and implications of the transition away from active use of ethnobotanical knowledge and the factors that may lead to its re-emergence. Dormant ethnobotany is the study of relationships between people and plants that are inactive, but nonetheless still alive in memories, the historic record, and folklore and thereby capable of reemergence in support of the transition to a more sustainable society. The dissertation extends the field of ethnobotany from its current roots in the dynamic ethnobotany of indigenous peoples. …

Ritual Effigies And Corporeality In Kaqchikel Maya Soul Healing, Servando Z. Hinojosa

Anthropology Faculty Publications

To treat some cases of soul-loss, Kaqchikel Mayas use ritual effigies of the sufferer. These effigies, called k’al k’u’x, are made by wrapping the sufferer’s clothing around a wooden armature. For the effigy to be a viable ritual surrogate, the ritualist must douse it with water, heat it, and strike it during a soul-calling ceremony. This handling instantiates corporeality in the effigy by kindling normative body states in it, states that must be stimulated in the sufferer’s own body for it to spiritually reintegrate. Such Maya ritual substitution practices are how Kaqchikels deploy ritual surrogation processes that hinge on …

Choque Cultural In Higher Education: The Lived Experiences Of Two Transnational Doctoral Students On The U.S. Mexico Border, Lyn Mckinley

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the experience of transnational students in higher education in a U.S. public university. The setting for the study is the U.S.-Mexico border between Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. While numerous studies examine the experience of transnational K-12 populations in U.S. schools, there is limited research on students in advanced levels of higher education in this context.

The purpose of this study is to provide an in-depth perspective of the experiences of two transnational doctoral students enrolled at the doctoral level at a U.S. university on the U.S.-Mexico border. The …