Digital Commons Network^™

A Racism Without Race: A Moroccan Case Study Of Race Denial, Leila Chreiteh

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This article aims to articulate the ways in which race and race relations are conceptualized in Morocco. Using the concept of racialized discourse as the preconceptual theoretical field for race and racist expressions, the author analyzes the different converging factors which influence the performance of “Moroccan-ness” and how subjectivity can be influenced by a State-driven communal linguistic episteme. Through its insistent hyper-nationalist campaigns, the Moroccan State has deployed racist expressions as a means of face-keeping and sociopolitical management, which have become naturalized through its reproduction in individual subjectivity and interpellation. However, from the independent research conducted by the author, the …

Un Análisis Post-Colonial: La Encarnación De La Pérdida Histórica En La Manifestación De Depresión En Personas Mapuche En El Contexto Urbano, Haley Case

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta investigación buscaba evaluar las manifestaciones cualitativas y simbólicas de la depresión en la población Mapuche de la región de Santiago a través de la aplicación de teoría que aborda del sufrimiento social y la violencia estructural. Métodos etnográficos se fueron utilizados por la realización de observaciones y entrevistas semi-estructuradas con personas involucradas en la comunidad Mapuche y el sistema de salud biomédico en las comunas de La Pintana y Lampa en la Región Metropolitana. Según la cosmovisión Mapuche, la salud tiene base fundamental en la armonización del cuerpo, alma, espíritu y mente de un ser humano con su familia, …

Flip Cup: Problems Related To Alcohol Consumption In Modern China, Helen Lamm

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The habits and attitudes surrounding the consumption of alcohol, in any culture, are just another lens through which we can look to better understand social life. The hierarchical social systems in China, which dictate common behavior, are unique. Much work has been written on the topic of guanxiand face: the defining factors for China’s ubiquitous, self-affirming system of relationships. Drinking culture is perhaps more interesting to travel bloggers than academics, but I believe that China’s drinking culture is a direct practice in guanxi production. The darker side of China’s drinking culture is anexercise in preserving face.

The gap in …

Reconciliation As A Form Of Cultural Catharsis: The Role Of Theater In Revitalizing Kosovo-Serbian Relations, Sarah Edwards

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The current state of Kosovo-Serbian relations is one of frozen conflict; Serbia does not recognize Kosovo independence and relations between the two communities are relatively stagnant in spite of the ongoing EU mediated political dialogue in Brussels. Thus, this paper aims to re-imagine traditional processes of reconciliation and conflict transformation between the two entities by situating it within the cultural realm of society and viewing theater as a transformative practice. In doing this, I ask in what ways theater can effectively engage with and foster processes of reconciliation between Kosovo and Serbia, while specifically analyzing two joint productions between Prishtina …

Uso, Impacto Y Futuro Del Mapudungun En La Comunidad De Chapod, Tierney Marey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study analyzes and investigates the current vitality and use of mapudungun, the endangered indigenous language of the Mapuche people, in the small rural community of Chapod in Southern Chile. This research then looks at a particular context within a larger global frame of mass language decline and extinction. With increasing numbers of languages becoming extinct linguists and other invested bodies are examining in more detail the state of the world’s languages and the impact of their decline, particularly in terms of cultural identity. As such this study specifically investigates the level of use and knowledge of the language within …

Instead Of Silence: Chinese Nicaraguans And The Formation Of Identity Across Two Cultures, Lisa Lee

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project studies the ways in which Chinese Nicaraguans have developed their identity while living in a country that is not their motherland. It investigates the divided history and experiences between the Chinese Nicaraguans that lived in the Atlantic coast and those that lived in the Pacific side. Also, it researches how the experiences of Taiwanese immigrants differed from those of the Chinese Nicaraguans who came from mainland China. By examining interviews done with Chinese Nicaraguans today, the essay will compile the long and unknown history of the Chinese Nicaraguans, as well as their many experiences of belonging and displacement …

The Vibrant Traditions Of Masaya: El Mestizaje As A Culture, A Process, And A State Of Being, Isabelle Lee

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

“The only constant in life is change.” What this old adage leaves out is that the processes that catalyze these changes can occur in vastly different ways which impact the product. In the case of the history of Masaya, Nicaragua, today’s dominant culture of mestizaje is the result of the arrival of the Spaniards to the Americas and the process of racial and cultural blend that followed between Spanish, indigenous and African peoples. But in this mixing process, Spaniards held disproportionate power: most of the changes they imposed were made through violent and deceptive imposition. Yet indigenous and African people …

Interaction Between Human Experience, Landscape , And Coffee Production In The Blue Mountain Region Of Jamaica, Shohei Yoshida

Masters Theses

In today's coffee industry, individual farmers’ identities are hardly visible from the products we buy. Each coffee farmer has different lifestyles and methods of coffee farming. Such information about farmers can make each cups of coffee potentially unique in consumers’ experience. However, there are barriers which make consumers blind from the identities of the farmers making their coffee. I will explain about the barriers, and introduce the way to make consumers associate individual farmers' identities with each cup of coffee they drink. This thesis mainly consists of two parts: a theoretical part and a poetry part. There is a small …

Femicide In Buenos Aries: Social Change Through Interpersonal Education, Mckinley Bleskachek , '16

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This paper explores the trajectory of social thought concerning femicide, particularly as it relates to the 2015 #NiUnaMenos movement in Buenos Aires. Through framing gender as a social construct, this paper illuminates the connection between cultural, structural and personal violence. In this framework, individual murders become a social phenomenon. The critical consciousness fostered by the #NiUnaMenos movement reveals the potential of interpersonal education to effect social change.

Bali's Eclectic Image: A Touristic Island Paradise And A Prevalently Modern Nation, Kristy L. Garcia

Student Publications

This body of work is meant to address the way in which Bali's present external image as a “touristic island paradise” contributes to its environmental, political, and social issues being faced. By explaining how the island’s public image can be altered to that of both a “touristic island paradise" and a "prevalently modern nation", am helping to prevent of these issues from furthering. Understanding how Bali's present image can be restructured requires first a consideration of its basis in colonization, colonial-discriminatory stereotypes/ mindsets, and how these mind-sets have affected foreign perspectives of the Balinese people today. Through analyzing examples of …

Culture And Military Effectiveness: How Societal Traits Influence Battle Outcomes, Eric Stephen Fowler

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

What must states do to ensure victory on the field of battle? Conventional scholarship claims that a number of material and institutional factors significantly affect a nation’s ability to generate military power. Recent studies suggest that other factors, including levels of education, civil-military relations, and western culture also play an important role. This new line of logic is important because these factors tend to be glaringly absent from rigorous concepts of military power. The principle finding of this study is that culture matters and that it matters more than originally thought. Culture is admittedly complex, intangible, and difficult to count, …

Past Meets Future: Combining Gis, 3d Technologies, And Legacy Data To Reanalyze Ceramics At Copan, Honduras, Stephanie Sterling, Heather Richards-Rissetto, René Viel

UCARE: Research Products

The archaeological site of Copán—a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Honduras—was a primary center for cultural and economic exchange in the Maya world from the fifth to ninth centuries. Our research investigates the sociopolitical climate of the city immediately preceding this collapse. This poster presents the results of a pilot study intended to evaluate the potential of using a combination of digital technologies and legacy data to reanalyze a subset of diagnostic ceramics from select sites outside of Copan’s urban core. Our methods involved:

(1) Applying photogrammetry to generate 3D models for approximately 30 potentially temporally-diagnostic ceramic types

(2) Digitizing, …

Chinookan Villages Of The Lower Columbia, Henry B. Zenk, Yvonne P. Hajda, Robert T. Boyd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Villages were the center of Chinookan life, filling the role that tribes did for Native people in other parts of North America. Every village of any size or significance had a recognized leader or chief, and constituted a named local group with which its members identified themselves. Although the villages themselves are long vanished, early travelers, missionaries, and settlers have left us eyewitness accounts of what some were like. The names and approximate locations of many more can be reconstructed from historical sources and information shared by later generations of lower Columbia River Native people.

As contributors to the recently …

The Complaint: An Analysis, Saeed Hydaralli

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

The Reflexive Initiative is an authoritative intervention in the practice and tradition of reflexive social theory. It demonstrates the importance of the reflexive imperative, not only in the investigation of everyday life but across a wide range of human sciences and philosophical perspectives. Forty years after the publication of On the Beginning of Social Inquiry, the chapters in this collection range from re-appraisals of earlier essays on topics such as ‘reunions’, ‘rethinking art’ and ‘expats’ to contributions emphasising the opening of radical dialogues with other reflexive traditions and perspectives. These include psychoanalysis, Lacan, Hegel, Rene Girard, Daseinanalysis, dialectical method, critical …

A Concomitant Of Conflict And Consensus: Case Of A Chieftaincy Succession In Ghana, Kaderi Noagah Bukari

Peace and Conflict Studies

Ghana is often seen as peaceful, but is faced with many chieftaincy conflicts that result mainly from succession to the throne (skin or stool) for traditional political power. Ghana has more than 230 chieftaincy disputes dotted across many parts of the country. However, the Bulsa Traditional Area (Buluk) of Ghana has had a stable and resilient chieftaincy succession despite conflicts arising out of the selection of chiefs. In the selection of chiefs, the adoption of a voting system is said to lead to consensus based decision-making which is largely responsible for the non-violent nature of the Buluk chieftaincy …

The Construction Of Latino Im/Migrant Families In U.S. News Media: Parents’ Responses And Self-Representations, Jason Edward Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Latino im/migrants are often portrayed in negative and stereotypical ways in mainstream U.S. media. This dissertation utilizes Ethnographic Content Analysis to analyze news segments about Latino im/migrants from Fox News, MSNBC and Univisión between 2010 and 2012 and digital storytelling with a group of Latino im/migrant parents in central Florida.

First, I questioned if a Spanish-language news media source constructed Latino im/migrant family-focused stories differently than mainstream English-language sources. Utilizing Critical Race Theory as a theoretical lens, I conclude that English and Spanish-language news stations portray Latino im/migrants in different ways. Fox News portrays Latino im/migrants in a generally neutral …

The Role Of Traditional Knowledge About And Management Of Seaworms (Polychaeta) In Making Austronesian Worlds, Cynthia Twyford Fowler

Faculty Scholarship

This paper discusses how Kodi make their worlds cognitively as well as experientially, and how these worlds relate to sustainability and wellbeing. Kodi construct their cognitive worlds as well as their biophysical landscapes whilst interacting with many other species. This presentation focuses on human-polychaete interactions in order to illustrate world making processes. Seaworm traditions have deep historical roots in Austronesian societies and continue to be crucial for the wellbeing of contemporary communities. World-making processes are evident in what Kodi people say about seaworms and how they move through space relative to seaworms. While Kodi construct time they simultaneously construct space …

Small-Scale Societies Exhibit Fundamental Variation In The Role Of Intentions In Moral Judgment, H. C. Barrett, A Bolyanatz, Alyssa Crittenden, D. M.T. Fessler, S. Fitzpatrick, M. Gurven, J. Henrich, M. Kanovsky, G. Kushnick, A. Pisor, B. A. Scelza, S. Stich, C. Von Rueden, W. Zhao, S. Laurence

Anthropology Faculty Research

Intent and mitigating circumstances play a central role in moral and legal assessments in large-scale industrialized societies. Although these features of moral assessment are widely assumed to be universal, to date, they have only been studied in a narrow range of societies. We show that there is substantial cross-cultural variation among eight traditional small-scale societies (ranging from hunter-gatherer to pastoralist to horticulturalist) and two Western societies (one urban, one rural) in the extent to which intent and mitigating circumstances influence moral judgments. Although participants in all societies took such factors into account to some degree, they did so to very …

Procrastination, Motivation, & Flow, Reginald Desrosiers

Honors Theses

No Abstract.

Pelvic Sexual Dimorphism Among Species Monomorphic In Body Size: Relationship To Relative Newborn Body Mass, Robert G. Tague

Faculty Publications

Females have larger pelves than males among eutherians to mitigate obstetrical difficulty. This study addresses 3 issues concerning pelvic sexual dimorphism using 8 species that are sexually monomorphic in nonpelvic size: Aotus azarae, Castor canadensis, Dasypus novemcinctus, Hylobates lar, Saguinus geoffroyi, Sciurus carolinensis, Sylvilagus floridanus, and Urocyon cinereoargenteus. Using published data to compute the index of relative newborn body mass (RNBM = [newborn body mass/adult female body mass]100%) for 266 eutherian species, A. azarae, H. lar, and S. geoffroyi are characterized as giving birth to relatively large newborns and the other 5 species as giving birth to relatively small newborns. …

"But Our Hands Are Tied": Assessing School Gardening Efforts At Title I Elementary Schools In Pinellas County, Florida, Alexandra Grace Lancey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research was designed to understand current school gardening efforts in Pinellas County, Florida. School gardens have become an important aspect of experiential learning and nutrition education in schools throughout the United States. Many not-for-profit organizations have attempted to increase the prevalence and efficacy of school garden programs as a means of providing educational opportunities and working to curb diet-related health issues in children. Most of these organizations are seen as apolitical in nature, because they access mainly private sector funding sources and volunteer support. This provides flexibility for these social projects, but also takes pressure off of the state …

Incorporating Archaeology Into Local Government Historic Preservation And Planning: A Review Of Current Practice, Douglas Deur, Virginia L. Butler

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Problem, research strategy, and findings: The fate of archaeological sites in cities, towns, and county jurisdictions are greatly affected by the decisions of local governments and planning departments, which usually operate with little formal guidance regarding archaeological site stewardship. What strategies do local governments use to effectively manage archaeological sites in their jurisdictions? Which ones work best? To address these questions, we carried out an exploratory study of mechanisms used by local government planners for archaeological resource protection in 24 states between 2008 and 2015, obtaining information from 69 local governments. We use questionnaires and interviews with local government staff, …

Critical Hip-Hop Graffiti Pedagogy In A Primary School, Wade E. Brown

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Educational reform movements are constantly in the process of trying to improve a fractured educational system. Many scholars contend there is a discrepancy between educational outcomes for White students and students from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Some educators in working class communities of color have begun to infuse elements of students’ social and cultural backgrounds, including popular culture, to create instructional methods that can better engage and pique student interest. Hip-hop Pedagogy is one of the methods, rooted in popular culture, which is being used in classroom settings to increase students’ awareness about the societal constructs and issues in their communities …

Investigating Alternative Subsistence Strategies Among The Homeless Near Tampa, Florida, Matthew Peter Rooney

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Modern homelessness is one of the most pressing social and political problems of our time. Several hundred thousand people experience homelessness in the United States each year, and the U.S. Department of Housing, which attempts to count those people, has admitted that their statistics are conservative estimates at best. A recent archaeological study (Zimmerman et al 2010) examining material culture associated with homeless communities in Indianapolis has suggested that those who are considered chronically homeless have generally abandoned wage labor and are instead pursuing urban foraging as a subsistence strategy. In order to better understand the structures of homeless communities, …

Reconstructing Prehistoric Diets Of Desert People Through Dental Calculus, Michael T. Searcy

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In 2014 I was awarded a Mentoring Environment Grant by ORCA to examine microfossils embedded in the dental calculus (tartar) of individuals who were found during excavations in and around the site of Paquimé, which dates to the thirteenth century A.D. This ancient city is located in the Chihuahuan desert in modern-day Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico. Over the last two years, I have been able to involve students in the extraction, processing, publishing, and presentation of the results of this analysis. While the research is ongoing, preliminary results have positively identified several fascinating foods that were consumed by the ancient …

The Insecure City: Space, Power, And Mobility In Beirut, Kristin V. Monroe

Anthropology Faculty Book Gallery

Fifteen years after the end of a protracted civil and regional war, Beirut broke out in violence once again, forcing residents to contend with many forms of insecurity, amid an often violent political and economic landscape. Providing a picture of what ordinary life is like for urban dwellers surviving sectarian violence, The Insecure City captures the day-to-day experiences of citizens of Beirut moving through a war-torn landscape.

While living in Beirut, Kristin Monroe conducted interviews with a diverse group of residents of the city. She found that when people spoke about getting around in Beirut, they were also expressing larger …

Unpacking Empowerment Discourse Within A Women's Reentry Organization, Amanda Nicole Miller

Theses and Dissertations

Through ethnographic research with a small organization, Jareth, that helps women transition from prison to the community, this work unpacks discourses of empowerment within reentry organizations. I argue that Jareth’s empowerment discourse works on a pragmatic level to help women become employed but it does not work well to completely meet the needs of women offenders because businesses do not want to employ former prisoners and because the general public thinks that prison can meet all of women's needs. I also argue that empowerment defines 'power' and dependence' in particular ways - through appropriate and inappropriate forms of power and …

Cultivating Leaders Of Indiana, Annagul Yaryyeva, Jennifer Sdunzik

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

"Cultivating Leaders of Indiana" was developed to establish connections between the Purdue student body and the Frankfort community. By engaging high school students in workshops that focused on local, national, and global identities, the goal of the project was to encourage students to appreciate their individuality and to motivate them to translate their skills into a global perspective.Moreover, workshops centering on themes such as culture, citizenship, media, and education were designed to empower our project participants to embrace their sense of social value and responsibility not only in their immediate communities but also globally.

Kayapo Media Making: Building On-Site Capacity, Kaitlin Harris

Engagement & Service-Learning Summit

No abstract provided.

Does Grandparental Help Mediate The Relationship Between Kin Presence And Fertility?, Kristin Snopkowski, Rebecca Sear

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

BACKGROUND

Previous research suggests that kin availability may be correlated with reproductive outcomes, but it is not clear that a causal relationship underlies these findings. Further, there is substantial variation in how kin availability is measured.

OBJECTIVE

We attempt to identify whether different measures of kin availability influence how kin affect reproductive outcomes and whether the effect of kin on reproductive outcomes is driven by the help that they provide.

METHODS

Using data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey (1993, 1997, 2000, 2007), we compare the survival of parents and parents-in-law, their co-residence, geographic proximity, contact frequency, and helping behavior …