Digital Commons Network^™

Comfortable With Their Bodies: Menstruation, Culture And Materialism In America, Sally Phipps

Anthropology Honors Theses

This study analyzes the intersection of multiple cultural themes and discourses present in discussion of the alternative menstrual hygiene product, the menstrual cup. Through the qualitative research methods of first-person interviewing and autoethnography, the study forms the characteristics of the American menstrual cultural model and how the model upheld by menstrual cup users differs from it.

The study finds that access to alternative channels of information and an innate or learned acceptance of the body and bodily processes were indicators of whether or not an individual would be receptive to the cup. The mainstream consciousness was unlikely to foster bodily …

Black Students' Classroom Silence In Predominantly White Institutions Of Higher Education, Mahajoy A. Laufer

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

This qualitative study explored Black students' silence in classrooms at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) of higher education in the northeast United States. Fifteen student interviews revealed that teaching material centered on European-American culture and history influenced their silence. Participants perceived devaluing of people of color in course material and perceived that professors used and allowed racist language and opinions to pervade the classroom. Students negotiated the tension of having discordant views from the mainstream and at times, between other students of the same racial and cultural group. They often elected to speak out against perceived discrimination and remained silent in …

Looking At Me, Are You? Social Status And The Veil, Angelika Böck

Journal of International Women's Studies

In this article I discuss the dialogical method which is used to study the idea of perception among individuals, especially to understand the question of perception toward the veil in Yemen in 2007. Furthermore I elaborate on my exploration of “portrayal” as an art form which lies at the basis of my approach. To be occupied with matters of the veil means to deal with questions of image and gaze. Therefore I also try to give a basic overview on this topic. The article ends with a short description of a corresponding experiment I carried out in Germany one year …

Designing Culturally Compatible Internet Gaming Sites, Sudhir H. Kale

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Rising e-commerce volumes the world over provide opportunities to global marketers to expand their markets using the Internet. While Internet casinos have had their share of failures, the industry still rakes in three times the revenues as web pornography. Converging web technology allows for Internet gaming operators to expand their markets all over the world. However, appealing to consumers in different countries and regions requires adaptation of websites to the cultural milieu of the various target markets. This paper reviews existing literature on culture and website design and goes on to discuss the impact of culture on designing Internet gaming …

As Seen On Twitter: African-American Rhetorical Traditions Gone Viral, Tiffani Long

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This communication research study identifies the presence of the African-American rhetorical traditions of call-response, signification, tonal semantics, and narrative sequencing used in communication on the online social media network, Twitter. The objective of this study is to provide insight into the culture and community of Twitter. Additionally, the research demonstrates how traditional oral rhetorical traditions survive in the digital world. Over a 15-day period, tweets were collected by the author using a computer screenshot feature. Using a coding rubric, three coders, including the author, coded the collected tweets for the four rhetorical traditions. Resulting from this procedure, the coders concluded …

From Teams To Communities Of Practice, Stephen D. Ashton

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation documents the qualitative study that was conducted with the Ambassador Pilot Program team at Thanksgiving Point Institute; a non-profit farm, gardens, and museum complex and informal learning institution; from the summer of 2011 to the fall of 2012. The Ambassador team was tasked to develop an employee training program. Over time the team members were given more freedom to direct their own course and set their own objectives. To the co-directors of the program it seemed the Ambassadors began to embrace some characteristics common to a community of practice (CoP); however, it remained to be seen how the …

Idealization And Desire In The Hundred Acre Wood: A.A. Milne And Christopher (Robin), Laura Bright

Laura E Bright

Argues that A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner represent the conscious rejection, unconscious reproduction, and re-imaging of the author's traumatic Victorian childhood.

'Ditto': Law, Pop Culture And Humanities And The Impact Of Intergenerational Interpretative Dissonance, Marett Leiboff

Marett Leiboff

Building on Julius Stone's remark that jurisprudence is law's extroversion (or extraversion), this essay explores the consequences that flow from the loss of a shared humanities discourse by lawyers. In adapting the concept of extraversion to those things about us in the world, the essay considers the finding of an empirical study, Law's Gens Project, which revealed a profound, almost seismic shift in what different generational groupings of lawyers know, based in the humanities, placing this point of rupture squarely in the 1970s. Drawing on allusions and cultural references used in judgments, this project reveals how these cultural markers affect …

How Parents Use Television To Enrich Their Children's Cultural Identity: The Case Study Of Shalom Sesame And Jewish Life, Elizabeth Michele Spezia

Theses

A small-scale ethnographic case study of young children's learning from television in southern Illinois provides understanding about the frameworks used for interpreting media use in family life. The research consisted of in-home interviews about patterns of using the media, observations, and family diaries of children's viewing behavior to examine family engagement with a prosocial television program, Shalom Sesame, depicting Jewish culture, Hebrew language, holidays, and the land of Israel. Family responses to the program are identified in terms of appeal, use, and overall fit with Jewish identity and tradition in the homes. Data analysis reveals that quality educational program features …

Never Put Your Head Down Unless You Pray: The Stories Of African American Men In The Wisconsin Prison System, Julia Marie Kirchner

Theses and Dissertations

Prior research on offender narratives has not examined culture as a factor in how prisoners explain their crimes. This qualitative ethnographic research project explores the self-constructions of African American male prisoners using both participant observation with active gang members on the street and discourse analysis of over 300 letters written by incarcerated men. Focusing primarily on six prisoner consultants, this study investigates the claims that offenders make about themselves in reference to their identity. These convicted felons justify their crimes as rational under the circumstances prevalent in segregated inner cities. In reference to economic crimes such as drug dealing and …

South Carolina's Model For Initiating Hispanic 4-H Clubs, Robert Lippert, Kellye Rembert

The Journal of Extension

Over the past 5 years, through the initiative of several county Extension agents, South Carolina 4-H has established a successful model for bringing Hispanic youth into our program. We have found the most effective method is to initiate contact and establish partnerships with the principals and ESOL instructors in the local schools. Through this collaboration, we have started several Hispanic 4-H clubs throughout the State with further expansion in process.

An Undergraduate Seminar On Irish Musical Culture In Ireland And The Irish Diaspora In America, Including The Influence Of Irish Music On Appalachian Folk Music Culture, Frieda Eakins

Masters Theses

The following project establishes a concise, yet multifaceted design for a seminar on Irish musical culture. While it was initially developed as a course for its author to teach in the undergraduate, on-ground classroom, this project provides a framework adaptable enough for use by other instructors and/or for additional music seminars. This project is unique in its two-fold purpose in that the design and resources are directed to assist the instructor with streamlining course curriculum preparation, while the course content specific to the project when utilized offers students in the undergraduate college classroom a better understanding of Irish musical culture …

Cultural Anthropological Research In The Business Environment, Caitlin Farmer

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Montesquieu's Theory Of Government And The Framing Of The American Constitution , Matthew P. Bergman

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Don't Do What Australia Has Done, R. Nillsen

Professor Rodney Nillsen

The paper describes and analyses the environment in Australian universities since the changes initiated under the Labor government in 1988 by John Dawkins. It looks at the role and interplay of ideas in the changing intellectual culture in universities, in particular the common effect of the ideas of both liberal economics and postmodernism, and the tensions between corporate values and open enquiry. It raises the issues of the extent to which universities should have a distinct set of values from wider society, and the basis upon which universities should exist as distinctive institutions.

Women, Education & The Diaspora, Dr Williams Emeka Obiozor

Dr Williams Emeka Obiozor

Educating the woman is a challenge to many governments in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria where successive governments have made efforts to promote and support women education and bridging the gender gap in the education, labor and economic sector. This position paper examined issues and challenges of women regarding education and the Diaspora: An experience coming from a Nigerian-American who spent more than a decade living and working in the United States of America. Motivations for leaving an individuals’ homeland are as varied as the immigrants themselves, especially women who leave for opportunity, some for adventure, education, marriage and some to …

Silent Subversions, Derek Dubois

Derek M Dubois

Explores the concept of spectatorship in relation to gender in the earliest period of film history in the United States known as the silent era. Argues that a new mode of spectatorship emerges for women during the 1920s, which employs to advantage the extra-diegetic components of spectacle in theater design, new customized genres for female filmgoers, fandom, and exotic male film stars, such as Rudolph Valentino. Focuses primarily on feminist film theory and on cultural studies as methodological models.

Sound Symbolism, Onomatopoeia, And New Guinea Frog Names, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

Brent Berlin has recently proposed the use of r sounds as a substantive universal in the names given to frogs and toads, a tendency that he attributes to onomatopoeia. A data set from over 200 New Guinea languages is analyzed. Berlin's proposal regarding r sounds recieves strong support, but an even more significant pattern is found with respect to g sounds. Onomatopoeia is a possible motivation for both of these patterns.

Oceania - From Tobacco In Culture And History: An Encyclopedia, Vol 2, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

The earliest historical record of tobacco use in Oceania dates back from 1616 on islands off the northwest coast of New Guinea. Tobacco cultivation may have been introduced to the philippines by the Spanish as early as 1575, but it was after large-scale cultivation began to flourish in Europe in the 1590's that the use of tobacco, if not always its cultivation, rapidly spread, with introductions by the Dutch in Java in 1601 and almost immediate diffusion throughout what is now Indonesia, with Halmahera becoming a center of cultivation and export (as was Java) by 1616.

Tairora - From The Greenwood Encyclopedia Of World Folklore And Folklife, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

Encyclopedia entry regarding the geography, history, and culture of Tairora located in the Kainantu District of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papau New Guinea.

Folktales From Habi'ina, Katnantu District, Eastern Highlands Province, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

The people of Habi'ina village live on the northern slopes of Mount Piora in the Dogara Census Division of the Kainantu District, Eastern Highlands Province. Like other Papua New Guineans, they possess a rich oral literature and tell each other stories for a wide variety of reasons. All stories are called huri, but several different types can be distinguished.

A Pacific Island Collection In Rhode Island, Terence Hays, Mary Conaway, Susan Yeaw

Terence Hays

Collections of artifacts and specimens from Pacific Island cultures are found throughout Rhode Island. The largest and most systematically collected is in the Museum of Natural History in Roger Williams Park, Providence. The items were acquired by Rhode Island citizens over about a 150 year period from the early 1800's to the 1950's. They are from the 3 culture areas of the Pacific: Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia. All form of matter including wood, shell, fiber, bone and skin, ivory, pottery, stone, and human hair are part of the artifact assemblage. The specimens (not studied for this project) include birds, lava, …

Missionaries - From Tobacco In Culture And History: An Encyclopeida, Vol. 1, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

For centuries, many missionaries have reflected the ambivalent and sometimes shifting views held by their peers back home, with their actions shaped by local circumstances as well as moral debates. In other cases, missionaries-most notably Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, and members of various evangelical sects of Protestantism-have long been opposed to smoking. Today, most missionaries around the world at least publicly speak out against tobacco use because of associated health risks. Whether only by example or as direct interoducers or suppliers, missionaries joined other colonial agents in the spread and support of tobacco use historically, regardless of what their common …

"Myths Of Matriarchy" And The Sacred Flute Complex Of The Papua New Guinea Highlands, Terence Hays

Terence Hays

In Hays study of the "Myths of Matriarchy" in the Papua New Guinea Highlands, he draws upon Joan Bamberger's "Myths of Matriarchy" from 1974. He seeks to address whether Bamberger's analysis of South American objects can illuminate those from the area he is studying, that of the Highlands of New Guinea. Hays notes that there is a long argued idea that the "sacred flute complex" was manifested from and contributed to the mutually antagonistic gender relations of the societies in which that area is known for and that once upon a time women brandished the flute and bullroarer instruments and …

Utilitarian/Adaptationist Explanations Of Folk Bioglogical Classification, Terence E. Hays

Terence Hays

Attempts to explain the complexity of folk biological classification systems may benefit from utilitarian or adaptationist arguments, focusing on the utilitarian or adaptive value of the behavioral consequences of folk distinctions among organisms. To adequately assess such perspectives it is necessary to resolve a number of theoretical, methodological empirical problems, which are identified and outlined in this paper as a first step toward the construction of such theories of ethnobiological classification.

Village Literacy: Adult Education In Northeastern Kenya, Jodi Heidorn

Senior Honors Theses

The underdevelopment of effective adult literacy programs in Northern Kenya is a problem that must be addressed to meet the needs of a changing generation of nomadic pastoralists. Existing programs must be reevaluated in order to increase their efficiency and incorporate the unique aspects of local cultures into their design. This paper explores the broadening definition of literacy and discusses how there are in fact multiple literacies in any given culture. Next, it examines the history of education in Kenya and the barriers that may be unique to adult literacy programs in Northern Kenya. Also, it examines how changes in …

Schooling, Political Participation, And The Economy, Filipe R. Campante, Davin Chor

Research Collection School Of Economics

We investigate how the link between individual schooling and political participation is a ected by country characteristics. Using individual survey data, we nd that political participation is more responsive to schooling in land-abundant countries, and less responsive in human capital-abundant countries, even while controlling for country political institutions and cultural attitudes. We propose an explanation that centers on how individuals allocate the use of their human capital. A relative abundance of land (used primarily in the least skill-intensive sector) or a scarcity of aggregate hu- man capital increases both the level of political participation and its responsiveness to schooling, by …

Evaluation Of Comadres De Salud-A Culturally Sensitive Obesity Prevention Intervention For Latinas, Martina R. Gallagher

International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings

Title: EVALUATION OF COMADRES DE SALUD-A CULTURALLY SENSITIVE OBESITY PREVENTION INTERVENTION FOR LATINAS

Authors: Martina R. Gallagher, PhD, MSN1, RN, Tracey Ledoux, PhD, RD2,

McClain Sampson, PhD3

Affiliations: 1School of Nursing, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 2Texas Obesity Research Center, Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston, 3College of Social Work, University of Houston

Purpose: The aim was to conduct a formative assessment of a community-based obesity prevention intervention, “Comadres de Salud” (Kin Sisters in Health). Based on the Social Cognitive Theory, Comadres de Salud is a multicomponent intervention aimed at improving diet and physical …

Review Of The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture And Deviance At Nasa, Peter F. Meiksins

Peter Meiksins

Reviews the book "The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture and Deviance at NASA," by Diane Vaughan.

Understanding The Culture Of Ahiska Turks In Wheaton, Illinois: A Case Study, Omer Avci

The Qualitative Report

This study focuses on the cultural characteristics of Ahiska Turks in Wheaton, Illinois in the United States. By trying to understand the culture of the participants, I sought to shed light on how the Ahiska Turks managed to cope with the hardship they experienced and yet preserved their ethnic identities. In this multicase study, I interviewed six male Ahiska Turks. As a result of my analyses, eight themes emerged: family, religion (i.e., Islam), language (i.e., Turkish), communal life, endogamy, authoritarianism, oppression against the preservation of culture and identity, and education for upward mobility. The Ahiska Turks’ agrarian way of life, …