Digital Commons Network^™

The State Goes Home: Local Hyper-Vigilance Of Children And The Global Retreat From Social Reproduction, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

In an early scene in The Terminator, the Cyborgian Arnold Schwarzenegger walks into an L.A. gun shop and asks to see the wares. The shopkeeper lays out Uzis, submachine guns, rocket launchers, and other sophisticated means of overkill, nervously understating, "Any one of these will suit you for home defense purposes." The situation is likewise in the growing child protection industry. In keeping with the shopkeeper's sly comment, these businesses feast on an all-pervasive culture of fear, while creating a mockery, alibi, and distraction out of what they are really about - to remake the home as a citadel through …

The Nature Of Nature: South Floridian Children And Their "Environmental Experience", Kristina Baines

Publications and Research

To investigate how schoolchildren in south Florida think about their natural environment, children were observed participating in several school-organized environmental field trips. Their attitudes about, interactions with and knowledge concerning various aspects of their natural environment were observed. This study explores how these children interpret natural phenomena using their cultural tools and focuses on the interpretation of commonly-observed responses to nature. Responses discussed include: the blurring of lines between the natural and non-natural, separation and binary thinking, and fear and aggression. Reference is made throughout the study to various theoretical frameworks, including cultural-ecological perspectives, ideas from structural anthropology and other …

International Standards In Ecuador's Amazon Oil Fields: The Privatization Of Environmental Law, Judith Kimerling

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Both Sides Of The Looking Glass: Librarian And Teaching Faculty Perceptions Of Librarianship At Six Community Colleges, Devin Feldman, Susan Sciammarella

Publications and Research

Librarians and teaching faculty often have different perceptions of the roles of the library and the librarian in undergraduate education. A study surveying six community colleges reveals that there is much room for improvement in the interrelationship between librarians and teaching faculty. More effective communication and mutual respect would enhance the educational experience for students and provide a richer learning environment.

Mostly Monogamous Moms? An Essay On The Future Of Lesbian Legal Theories And Reforms, Ruthann Robson

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Globalization, Human Rights And Critical Race Feminism: Voices From The Margins, Penelope Andrews

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Pitchman In Print: Oral Performance Art In Text And Context, Joseph Ugoretz

Publications and Research

Oral performance art, patterned performative speech for an audience, is perhaps the oldest and most ubiquitous human art form. Specific instances of this art include the performances of griots and guslars, troubadors and shamans, as well as rappers and riddlers, preachers and politicians. While this art form is by definition oral, it is also the case that, frequently, literary art has represented oral performance art. There is written art which depicts oral art, which describes it, appropriates it, criticizes and co‑opts it.

In this dissertation, I define oral performance art as constituting a separate and unique artistic genre, one which …

Two Takeovers In Wild Hamadryas Baboons, Larissa Swedell

Publications and Research

Hamadryas baboons exhibit a multi-level social structure in which several one-male units, each consisting of a ‘leader’ male and one or more females, comprise a band’ and two or more bands comprise a troop. Cohesion of each one-male unit is maintained by aggressive herding by its leader male [1]. Here I describe the consequences of 2 takeovers in a band of wild hamadryas baboons. I report evidence of infant mortality following takeovers, changes in female reproductive condition within 2 weeks after takeovers, and the reacquisition of a female by a deposed leader male, none of which has been previously reported …

Keepers Of The Mystery, Maitreyi Villamán-Matos

Publications and Research

This is a preliminary study of Fiestas de Cruz (Feast of the Holy Cross) in the Dominican Republic.

Dominican Migration To The United States, 1970- 1997: An Annotated Bibliography, Sarah Aponte

Publications and Research

This is an annotated listing of books, scholarly articles, and chapters on Dominican migration providing an important reference guide for the study of Dominican migration from the 1970s to 1997 (with a 1998 addendum).

Directory Of Dominicanists, Norberto P. James

Publications and Research

This Directory of Dominicanists, compiled by the Wellesley-based Dominican poet and educator Norberto P. James, constitutes the CuNY Dominican Studies Institute's first step in a long-term effort to identify a critical mass of U.S.-based scholars working on Dominican topics. The Directory intends to serve as a vehicle for Dominicanists to connect and to give the scholarly community a clearer sense of the growing cadre of academics dedicated to the study of the Dominican experience.

Representations Of New York City In Latin Music, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Plot Surveys For The Study Of Ethnobotanical Knowledge: A Brunei Dusun Example, Jay H. Bernstein, Roy Ellen, Bantong Bin Antaran

Publications and Research

This paper describes a technique for using plot surveys to measure individual informants' ethnobotanical knowledge of forests, as applied to the Dusun community of Merimbun in Brunei. Two knowledgeable but non-literate Dusun informants enumerated marked plots of both recent and old secondary growth mixed dipterocarp forest near the village. They were able to provide names (other than life-forms or the most general basic and intermediate categories) for 86-97% of species growing in the plots. Between 152 and 170 plant names were elicited by the surveys. In all cases, about 88% of the names were at the basic naming level and …

Dominican Studies: Resources And Research Questions, Luis Alvarez-López, Sherrie Baver, Jean Weisman, Ramona Hernández, Nancy López

Publications and Research

This collection of bibliographies, research reports, listings of resources, and discussions of research question, gathers the results of various projects sponsored by the Dominican Studies Institute.

Three Film Reviews, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Reviews of Advertising Missionaries, directed by Chris Hilton and Gauthier Flauder; Chastie (Paradise), a film by Sergey Dvortsevoy; and Wilbert: Street Kid in Nicaragua, a video by Bent Erik Kroyer.

Patterns Of Reconciliation Among Captive Gelada Baboons (Theropithecus Gelada), Larissa Swedell

Publications and Research

Animals that live in groups are frequently exposed to conflict situations and must in some way maintain group cohesion. One mechanism that appears to restore social relationships after they have been disrupted by conflict is reconciliation. This study investigated reconciliatory behavior in the gelada baboon, Theropithecus gelada. The subjects were 11 adult geladas, housed in a large outdoor enclosure at the Bronx Zoo/Wildlife Conservation Park, New York. Five-minute focal animal samples following spontaneous aggression were compared with 5-min matched-control samples. The results of this study were: (1) geladas reunited in a friendly way after aggression; (2) former opponents were attracted …

The Deculturation Of The Brunei Dusun, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Music, Identity, And Images Of India In The Indo-Caribbean Diaspora, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

Examines the role of one set of fragments in the identities of a diasporic population which is at once unique, and uniquely representative.

Holocaust-Denial Literature: An Additional Bibliography, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

This bibliography is a supplement to an earlier one that was published in the Bulletin of Bibliography. Holocaust denial is a body of literature that seeks to prove that the Jewish Holocaust did not happen. This bibliography includes both works about Holocaust denial and works of Holocaust denial.

Genealogical Resources On Chinese Names: An Annotated Bibliography, Sheau-Yueh J. Chao

Publications and Research

This annotated bibliography provides coverage of materials from the period between 1980 and 1995 and also includes important works of historical value published before 1980. The Wade-Giles system is used for the transliteration of Chinese materials. English publications that include Chinese characters transliterated by the author have those transliterations retained in the bibliographical annotations.Certain materials may have been omitted because the author is unaware of their existence or availability here in the United States.A great portion of the Chinese-language publications was found in the collection of Columbia University's C V Starr East Asian Library.

Knowing Each Other Through Aids Video: A Dialogue Between Aids Activist Videomakers, Alexandra Juhasz, Juanita Mohammed

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Higher-Order Categories In Brunei Dusun Ethnobotany: The Folk-Classification Of Rainforest Plants, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Devil, Not-Quite-White, Rootless Cosmopolitan: Tsuris In Latin America, The Bronx, And The Ussr, Marc Edelman

Publications and Research

This autobiographical essay reflects on experiences with antisemitism in New York City, Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Soviet Union. It analyzes this material in relation to ethnographers' emotional life and subjectivity and the larger historical and political contexts of fieldwork.

Bliss: The Man And The Classification, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

This paper discusses the career of Henry Evelyn Bliss, founder of the Bibliographic Classification, which is currently being revised. Dissatisfied with the current classification systems, Bliss devised his own, which was based on a main class order that provided for collocation of related classes. Although not currently used in the United States, the Bibliographic Classification continues to be utilized by approximately 50 libraries in the United Kingdom. Advantages and criticisms are presented for Bliss's system, which is often praised in library science textbooks, yet seldom used as the trend in libraries has been to either the Dewey Decimal or the …

A Tale Of Two Sisters: Gender In Taiwan's Small-Scale Industry, Anru Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Invention Of "African Rhythm", Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

"African ryhthm" was invented in the 1950s when, thanks to pioneering research by the Reverend A. M. Jones, Alan Merriam, Gilbert Rouget, Erich von Hornbostel, and John Blacking, among others, "African music" was construed as an essentially rhythmic phenomenon. Three decades and a sizable body of empirical research later, it is easy to see that an overriding ideology of difference (between "Africa" and the "West") motivated these early efforts. This essay reinvents "African rhythm" not by denying its own ideological construction but by engaging in an imaginary dialogue with earlier researchers in an effort to concretize that which was missing …

Licuala Palms In Brunei Dusun Ethnobotany, Jay H. Bernstein, Roy F. Ellen

Publications and Research

Several species of Licuala occur in the Merimbun area of Tutong district, Brunei Darussalam. One kind of Licuala, called benjiru by the local Dusun population, is often collected for sale as a vegetable. While Licuala is not generally considered an important economic plant, overharvesting in the Merimbun area suggests that conservation measures may be needed to protect it from local extinction. Besides benjiru, other kinds of Licuala recognized by the Dusun are called silad and ukang. The three kinds of Licuala do not have one overall name in the Dusun language, but constitute a covert category at the "intermediate" ethnobotanical …

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender, Polly Thistlethwaite, Daniel C. Tsang

Publications and Research

The proliferation of publications in the lesbian, Gay, bisexual, and transgender press has allowed the weaving of a well-informed network of previously isolated individuals and communities, empowering and unifying lesbian, gay, and other sexual minorities," Dan Tsang and Polly Thistlethwaite wrote in the introduction to the 'Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender' section of Katzes' 1995 edition of Magazines for Libraries. This title review of the queer periodicals of the day was intended to serve as a guide and justification for 'mainstream' libraries' collection building. The number and range of titles in Thistlethwaite and Tsang's collaborative entries (1989, 1992, and …

Becoming Gentlemen: Women's Experiences At One Ivy League Law School, Lani Guinier, Michelle Fine, Jane Balin, Ann Bartow, Deborah Lee Stachel

Publications and Research

In this Article we describe preliminary research by and about women law students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School—a typical, if elite, law school stratified deeply along gender lines. Our database draws from students enrolled at the Law School between 1987 and 1992, and includes academic performance data from 981 students, self-reported survey data from 366 students, written narratives from 104 students, and group-level interview data of approximately eighty female and male students.' From these data we conclude that the law school experience of women in the aggregate differs markedly from that of their male peers.

Australian Social Science, Aboriginal Peoples, And Criminal Law, Sidney Harring

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.