Digital Commons Network^™

Sri Lanka’S Post-Tsunami Recovery: Cultural Traditions, Social Structures And Power Struggles, Michele Ruth Gamburd, Dennis B. Mcgilvray

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 26, 2004 killed over 220,000 people and affected two million more in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and other Indian Ocean nations. As the world reels under the impact of more recent disasters in Haiti, Peru and Pakistan, we consider lessons learned about postdisaster relief and recovery from the aftermath of the tsunami in Sri Lanka.

The tsunami waves caused by an undersea subduction earthquake off the coast of Sumatra devastated 70% of Sri Lanka’s coastline and killed 35,000 people. Days after the disaster, Dennis McGilvray joined forces with Michele Gamburd to organize an …

Community Development For A White City: Race Making, Improvementism, And The Cincinnati Race Riots And Anti-Abolition Riots Of 1829, 1836, And 1841, Silas Niobeh Crowfoot

Dissertations and Theses

This project is an historical ethnography and a cultural history of the anti-black race riots and anti-abolition riots in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1829, 1836, and 1841. It is also a case history in an urban and commercial/early industrial context of the idea that violent social practices such as riots, as well as law and the customary practices of everyday living, are deployed as race making technologies, actually constructing racial categories. By extending this constructivist concept to the conversion of space to place through the human ascription of meaning, this study also examines racial violence as a strategy for place making …

American Belly Dance And The Invention Of The New Exotic: Orientalism, Feminism, And Popular Culture, Jennifer Lynn Haynes-Clark

Dissertations and Theses

Belly dance classes have become increasingly popular in recent decades in the United States. Many of the predominantly white, middle-class American women who belly dance proclaim that it is a source of feminist identity and empowerment that brings deeper meaning to their lives. American practitioners of this art form commonly explain that it originated from ritual-based dances of ancient Middle Eastern cultures and regard their participation as a link in a continuous lineage of female dancers. In contrast to the stigmatization and marginalization of public dance performers in the Middle East today, the favorable meaning that American dancers attribute to …

The Effects Of Ageism Climates And Core Self-Evaluations On Nurses' Turnover Intentions, Organizational Commitment, And Work Engagement, David Michael Cadiz

Dissertations and Theses

It is estimated that by 2018, workers age 55 or older will compose nearly a quarter of the labor force (Tossi, 2009). The aging workforce is dramatically affecting the nursing workforce. Indeed, the nursing workforce is expected to face staffing shortages of epidemic proportions because of the impending retirement of nurses who are Baby Boomers (Buerhaus, et al., 2006). Moreover, the nursing shortage is exacerbated by younger nurses' greater willingness to turn over (Aiken et al., 2001). Consequently, investigating how the workplace context affects retention of nurses is important. The present study sought to address the nursing shortage concern through …

Women In Glaciology, An Historical Perspective, Christina L. Hulbe, Weili Wang, Simon Ommanney

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Women's history in glaciology extends as far back in time as the discipline itself, although their contributions to the scientific discourse have for all of that history been constrained by the sociopolitical contexts of the times. The first Journal of Glaciology paper authored by a woman appeared in 1948, within a year of the founding of the Journal, but it was not until the 1980s that women produced more than a few percent of Journal and Annals of Glaciology papers. Here international perspectives on women's participation in the sciences are presented in order to establish an economic and sociopolitical context …

Symbolic Structures As Systems: On The Near Isomorphism Of Two Religious Symbols, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many symbolic structures used in religious and philosophical traditions are composed of “elements” and relations between elements. Similarities between such structures can be described using the systems theoretic idea of “isomorphism.” This paper demonstrates the existence of a near isomorphism between two symbolic structures: the Diagram of the Supreme Pole of Song Neo-Confucianism and the Kabbalistic Tree of medieval Jewish mysticism. The similarities of these two symbols in form and meaning are remarkable in the light of the many differences that exist between Chinese and Judaic thought. Intercultural influence might account for these similarities, but there is no historical evidence …

What’S Missing In Theories Of The Residential Energy User, Mithra Moezzi, Loren Lutzenhiser

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

Residential energy use has been envisioned in varied ways, each highlighting different factors and capturing a partial truth. This paper outlines assumptions of core theories about household energy use. It gives an abbreviated list of major empirical findings framed by these theories. It then identifies a new set of "blind spots" created by overly-simple reliance on models and by data shortcomings that in combination may block development of a more sophisticated understanding of energy use. Policies and program strategies, in turn, can become oriented toward simplistic approaches to change. We point to the need for improved interpretation and elaboration of …

Sticky Points In Modeling Household Energy Consumption, Loren Lutzenhiser, Mithra Moezzi, David Hungerford, Rafael Friedmann

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

A variety of approaches have been proposed to explaining individual household energy consumption, its variation, and its potential reduction. Some focus on technology, some on costs, and some on a combination of behaviors, attitudes, intentions, and norms. All try to make sense of a problem that, from a modeling perspective, involves hundreds of potentially important factors, yet is supported by highly inadequate or at best selective data. While there is value in "doing the best one can" with the resources at hand, building a defensible science requires a cold hard look at the quality of theory, research and data. This …

Historical Archaeology’S "Trip" To Crater Lake, Douglas C. Wilson

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article is an overview of the archaeological survey of the 1865 wagon road that ran from Jacksonville in southern Oregon to Fort Klamath, just south of Crater Lake National Park.

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet November 2009, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The November 2009 Monthly packet includes the November agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held October 2009

“A Caretaker Responsibility”: Revisiting Klamath And Modoc Traditions Of Plant Community Management, Douglas Deur

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Conventionally, the Klamath and Modoc Indians of south-central Oregon and northeastern California are depicted as hunter-gatherers, who took no active role in the management of plant communities. In the course of a multi-year ethnographic effort, however, tribal elders have identified a complex of interrelated plant management practices that are consistent with contemporary definitions of plant cultivation. These include the management of black huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) yields in subalpine environments, the management of marsh-edge environments for yellow pond lily (Nuphar polysepalum), the tending of ‘‘epos’’ or yampah (Perideridia spp.) digging sites, and the selective harvest of tree cambium, sap, and wood …

The Diagram Of The Supreme Pole And The Kabbalistic Tree: On The Similarity Of Two Symbolic Structures, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper discusses similarities of both form and meaning between two symbolic structures: the Diagram of the Supreme Pole of Song Neo-Confucianism and the Kabbalistic Tree of medieval Jewish mysticism. These similarities are remarkable in the light of the many differences that exist between Chinese and Judaic thought, which also manifest in the two symbols. Intercultural influence might account for the similarities, but there is no historical evidence for such influence. An alternative explanation would attribute the similarities to the ubiquitousness of religious-philosophical ideas about hierarchy, polarity, and macrocosm-microcosm parallelism, but this does not adequately account for the similar overall …

Holism And Human History, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper uses a systems-theoretic model to structure an account of human history. According to the model, a process, after its beginning and early development, often reaches a critical stage where it encounters some limitation. If the limitation is overcome, development does not face a comparable challenge until a second critical juncture is reached, where obstacles to further advance are more severe. At the first juncture, continued development requires some complexity-managing innovation; at the second, it needs some event of systemic integration in which the old organizing principle of the process is replaced by a new principle. Overcoming the first …

Cultural Responses To Climate Change In The Holocene, Richard Prentice

Anthós

Variable Holocene climate conditions have caused cultures to thrive, adapt or fail. The invention of agriculture and the domestication of plants and animals allowed sedentary societies to develop and are the result of the climate becoming warmer after the last glaciation. The subsequent cooling of the Younger Dryas forced humans to concentrate into geographic areas that had an abundant water supply and ultimately favorable conditions for the use of agriculture and widespread domestication of plants and animals. Population densities would have reached a threshold and forced a return to foraging, however the end of the Younger Dryas at 10,000 BP …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet May 2009, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The May 2009 Monthly packet includes the May agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held May 2009.

Portland State Magazine, Portland State University. Office Of University Communications

Portland State Magazine

PSU’s alumni magazine, published 2-3 times a year. In this issue: A Professor’s pollution research places him in an elite academy; a new grant allows students and faculty to champion sustainable solutions; through willpower and scholarships, Caressa Sims is the first in her family to earn a university degree; for 20 years, alumnus Steve Amen has shown Oregonians Oregon; and more.

Ethnic Place Making: Thirty Years Of Brazilian Immigration To South Framingham, Massachusetts, Laura Aldea Skorczeski

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past thirty years, Massachusetts has become a hub of Brazilian immigration. Within Massachusetts, the town of Framingham has the highest concentration of Brazilian residents; one census tract in the southern part of this Boston suburb is an astounding 57.4 percent Brazilian. The presence of the Brazilian population in downtown Framingham, also referred to as South Framingham, has transformed the area into a landscape of Brazilian ethnicity.

When Brazilians began arriving in South Framingham in the early 1980s, the downtown Central Business District was a blighted landscape. This thesis analyzes how Brazilian identities have become imprinted on the landscape …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet April 2009, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The April 2009 Monthly packet includes the April agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held March 2009

Musket Balls, Lewis & Clark, And The Fur Trade: Isotopic, Elemental, And Historical Analysis, Douglas C. Wilson

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Overview of a study on the chemical analysis of lead objects has been used in archaeology and forensics to tie a particular ore or manufacturer to a particular artifact.

Results of the study were presented at the 62nd Annual Northwest Anthropology Conference, April 9, 2009 at Newport, Oregon.

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet March 2009, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

Faculty Senate minutes from meeting held March 2, 2009. This item contains the agenda, minutes, and attachments for the Faculty Senate meeting on this date. Some issues accompanied by reports from officers of administration and faculty committees.

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet February 2009, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The February 2009 Monthly packet includes the February agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held February 2009.

Diverse Contexts Of Reception And Feelings Of Belonging, Alex Stepick, Carol Dutton Stepick

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The theoretical focus of this paper is the context of reception experienced by migrants in their new homeland. In particular we examine relations between established residents and newcomers or immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, and other Caribbean and Latin American nations in South Florida. Based upon long term fieldwork among late adolescents and young adults, we develop a framework and give ethnographic examples of established resident-newcomer relations that influence the contexts of reception for immigrants in South Florida. These contexts range from positive to negative, vary between national and local settings, and change over time.

Luther S. Cressman, Virginia L. Butler

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Known as the father of Oregon archaeology and anthropology, Luther Cressman conducted pioneering archaeological work in the 1930s through the 1960s and established the broad outlines of Oregon’s ancient human history and occupation by Native peoples. This article provides an overview of his life and work.

Book Review Of, Diane P. Mines. Fierce Gods: Inequality, Ritual, And The Politics Of Dignity In A South Indian Village, Michele Ruth Gamburd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "Fierce Gods: Inequality, Ritual, and the Politics of Dignity in a South Indian Village," by Diane P. Mines.

Curriculum Change 2009-2010, Portland State University

Bulletin & Curriculum Change Documents

No abstract provided.

Bulletin: General Catalog Issue 2009-2010, Portland State University

Bulletin & Curriculum Change Documents

No abstract provided.

Sex Work And Moral Conflict: Enhancing The Quality Of Public Discourse Using Photovoice Method, Crystal Renee Tenty

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis uses an advocacy/participatory framework and moral conflict theory to examine the opposing ideas: and interests of parties involved in the issue of prostitution on 82^nd Avenue in Portland, Oregon. It locates areas of contention within the larger dominant feminist discourse, which views sex work as either a form of violence and exploitation or as a form of legitimate free-contract labor. The thesis shows how the intractable moral conflict between these differing feminist theories and values can be mediated using participatory data collection techniques.

Ethnographic data was collected and analyzed from 11 women working in the sex industry …

Cultural Vulnerability And Resilience In The Arctic: Preliminary Report On Archeological Fieldwork At Cape Krusenstern, Northwest Alaska, Shelby L. Anderson, Adam Freeburg, Ben Fitzhugh

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

While natural scientists track environmental change in response to global warming, less attention has been directed towards human interface with long term Arctic environmental dynamics. Current research at Cape Krusenstern, Alaska, seeks to address this deficit through investigation of human-environmental interactions recorded in archeological and paleoenvironmental data spanning the last 4,000-5,000 years at the Cape, building on the pioneering work conducted at Krusenstern by J. Louis Giddings and Douglas D. Anderson. Systematic survey and use of new mapping technology to record cultural and natural features are methods central to addressing these research questions. Discovery of new archeological features indicates occupation …

Book Review Of, Pei-Chia Lan. Global Cinderellas: Migrant Domestics And Newly Rich Employers In Taiwan, Michele Ruth Gamburd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reviews the book "Global Cinderellas: Migrant Domestics and Newly Rich Employers in Taiwan," by Pei-Chia Lan.

Advocating For Sri Lankan Migrant Workers: Obstacles And Challenges, Michele Ruth Gamburd

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Nearly a million Sri Lankan women labor as migrant workers, the vast majority in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in West Asia. They are poorly paid and vulnerable to a wide variety of exploitative labor practices at home and abroad. Despite the importance of worker remittances to the national economy, and in spite of Sri Lanka’s history of organized labor and active political participation, migrants have received only anemic support from the state, labor unions, feminist organizations, and migrant-oriented nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The article contextualizes Sri Lankan migration within larger-scale economic dynamics (such as global capitalist policies and processes) …