Digital Commons Network^™

Field Study Impact Assessment In Highland Guatemala, Adriana Smith, Dr. John Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I felt at home walking down the cement block street through Nahualá’s town center. It was good to be back in the small highland community in Guatemala where I had spent nearly every summer of my undergraduate career. It had been 10 years since the first group of anthropology students had come to study in these communities and since then, BYU students have been visiting every year for several months at a time. My interaction in years past with the K’iche’ has always left me wondering what they thought of me living in their homes, eating their food, and asking …

A Guest In Someone Else's House : The Construction Of Asian Americans As Foreigners, Deepa Ranganathan

Theses, Dissertations, and Projects

Social workers, like many people, wrongly tend to think of Asian Americans as beings exempt from the problems of racism. The social work profession considers "race" to be a property inhering almost solely in African Americans. Meanwhile, the profession assigns the property of foreign "culture" primarily to Asian Americans. This thesis uses the work of Critical Race Theory (CRT) scholars to show that social workers, in presuming that Asian Americans are a class of people who are essentially foreign, are actually reproducing a form of exclusionist racism that Asian Americans have faced for generations. A partial solution to this problem …

Rev. George Brittaine And Joris-Karl Huysmans And Sensitive Subject/Object Matters: Literary Representations Of Cultural Change?, Lauren Clark

Journal of Franco-Irish Studies

No abstract provided.

Voices From The Table: Assessing The Dynamic Cultures Of The Food Insecure And The Food Secure, Abigail Maurer

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Food insecurity rates continue to rise in the United States, which creates a greater disparity between those who are food secure and those who are food insecure. Existing literature indicates that such a disparity is affected directly and indirectly through cultural, socioeconomic, and geographic factors.

The objectives of this project were designed to place culture as a central construct for understanding food insecurity and security. The objectives include (1) identifying common attitudes, beliefs, values, and patterns of participants’ food culture, whether food insecure or secure; (2) gaining a deeper understanding of the unique cultures that exist within food secure and …

Promontory Culture: The Faunal Evidence, Lindsay Deanne Johansson

Theses and Dissertations

Following excavations in the Promontory Caves and at several open sites in the Provo River Delta region, Steward (1937) characterized the Promontory culture as large game hunters. He based this on the high number of bison bones recovered within the Caves. Excavations at additional Promontory sites along the Wasatch Front contain faunal assemblages which differ significantly from those in the caves, showing that people living at open sites relied more heavily on small game, waterfowl, and aquatic resources than large game. These differences have been mostly attributed to Steward's sampling strategy and lack of screening, but faunal material recovered during …

Built On Friendship: A Study Of Formal And Informal Business Culture In Carbondale, Illinois, Sarah E. Depuy

Honors Theses

Business practices in urban centers have garnered much of the research and interest by anthropologists, sociologists, and economists with very little focus on small business communities in rural areas. In this paper I explored the social connections and relationships between business owners in the region of Southern Illinois and their communities and the ways in which they integrate their public and private lives. To do this, I interviewed members of the formal, semi-formal, informal, and online business communities in Carbondale, Illinois. For my analysis, I used a variety of sources including Claudia Strauss' Partly Fragmented, Partly Integrated: An Anthropological …

Community College Mission Influence On Culture : An Organizational Analysis., E. Gerome Stephens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Strong agreement of mission and culture has been found in more effective colleges (Fjortoft & Smart, 1994). For leaders, the culture of an organization provides the context for which decisions about organizational change processes can be made (Malm, 2008). The purpose of this study was to explore the culture present within a community college through the lens of institutional mission implementation and to examine the perceived relationship of the mission statement to culture by those within the organization. Using qualitative methodology, this research explored the mission of a state community college system in the Midwest and studied the existing culture …

Spanish-Speaking Parents' Negotiation Of Language And Culture With Their Children's Schools, Ronda L. Bickmore

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Latinos are now the largest public school minority population in the U.S. Because of a shift in the states, cities, and counties where Latinos are choosing to live, many schools that did not previously serve substantial numbers of Latinos are doing so now. Additionally, many of the Latinos in these new settlement areas are recent immigrants who speak little or no English. This qualitative study examined how immigrant Latino parents who speak little or no English supported their children in the English-speaking school system of the U.S. It specifically examined how 12 Spanish-speaking parents negotiated language and culture with their …

African Drumming: An Examination Of Drumming In Ghana, Its Intentions, And Application In Music Therapy Practice, Marti Bowles

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Drumming is a phenomenon that is found in many cultures throughout the world. Although each culture has a different use and intention in which drumming is incorporated, there are many common elements that overlap between the various groups. Because of the versatility of drumming, it is widely used as a therapeutic intervention in music therapy. Understanding the uses and intentions of drumming in other cultures can help music therapists to broaden their understanding of drumming. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the value of African drumming and to see how it relates to the use and intent of …

You Can't Think Your Way To God, James K.A. Smith, David Neff

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Notions Of Spirits As Agents Of Mental Illness Among The Akan Of Ghana: A Cultural-Psychological Exploration, Annabella Opare-Henaku

Theses and Dissertations

The study explores lay conceptualizations of mental illness among the Akans of Ghana as influenced by their cultural worldview. Akan, the largest ethnic group in Ghana, is noted for the use of supernatural attributions for various health-related issues. The supernatural attributions are based on Akan ontological belief that the universe is unitary such that there is no clear distinction between physical and spiritual occurrences. This worldview guides Akans in how they deal with a wide range of issues including their mental health. Clinicians and other mental health professionals who rely solely on biomedical approaches to mental health fail to meet …

American Beisbol: How Cultural Differences Help Explain Different Approaches To Game Playing, Derek Jackson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis project is to examine the effect of culturally derived game strategies on the success level of players in the game of baseball. Specifically, I look at both the influence of how various Latin American cultures teach the game in order to better ensure success of players at the MLB level versus how the game is taught in the United States and Japan. In this way I develop a feedback model in which these game strategies perpetuate a cycle of enculturation that further reinforces cultural/ethnic identities. In order to accomplish this goal I look at the …

From A Northern Home To A Southern School: Cultural Imperialists Or Just Stubborn Yankees, Janel Janiczek Smith

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the cultural influences on the lives of northern teachers in southern schools. During the 1860s, white, northern, middle-class women traveled to southern homes to begin and maintain schools for the recently freed slaves. Each woman carried with her an independent set of cultural systems that predetermined her perspective for educating the African American students. Furthermore, the northern relief agencies, Freedmen's Bureau agents, southern white citizens, and southern freedmen all had their own opinions for the education of the students. Although much time has elapsed between the 1860s and 2013, the same topics …

Across The Red Steppe: Exploring Mongolian Music In China And Exporting It From Within, Thalea C. Davis

Masters Theses

Mongolian music culture as it exists in China is a unique entity unto itself as it features a base of traditional Mongolian practice and also includes aspects of Chinese music and culture. As the world becomes more interconnected and as China continues to display a markedly Han society to the world at large, Mongolian musicians and Mongolian-music enthusiasts in China maintain and evolve their musical culture in a nebulous middle-ground between Mongolian and Han-Chinese culture. How Mongolian music culture in China came to be and its ultimate function in global society are the key questions being investigated in this thesis. …

Seattle's Seafaring Siren: A Cultural Approach To The Branding Of Starbucks, Briana Kauffman

Masters Theses

Many corporate brands tend to be built on a strong foundation of culture, but very minimal research seems to indicate a thorough analysis of the role of an organizational's culture in its entirety pertaining to large corporations. This study analyzed various facets of Starbucks Coffee Company through use of the cultural approach to organizations theory in order to determine if the founding principles of Starbucks are evident in their organizational culture. Howard Schultz' book "Onward" was analyzed and documented as the key textual artifact in which these principles originated. Along with these principles, Starbucks' Website, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube page …

Life In The Balance: Judicial Review Of Abortion Regulations, Khiara Bridges

Faculty Scholarship

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, scholars have been preoccupied with the test that ought to be applied to abortion regulations. Debate has swirled around the question of whether laws that burden the abortion right should be reviewed with strict scrutiny, rational basis review, or some other multi-factor or categorical test and at what point during pregnancy these tests are appropriate. Moreover, since Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which the Court replaced Roe’s trimester framework with the undue burden standard, commentators have questioned the propriety of this new test. This Article argues that the most important change …

Culture Matters: Individualism Vs. Collectivism In Conflict Decision-Making, Volker C. Franke, Rebecca Lefebvre

Faculty Articles

Does culture matter in decision-making? Existing literature largely assumes that the cognitive processes that inform decision-making are universally applicable, while only very few studies indicate that cultural norms and values shape cognitive processes. Using survey based quasi-experimental design, this research shows that subjects with higher levels of individualism tend to be more rational in their decision processing, while those with higher levels of collectivism tend to be more dependent and less likely to betray the interests of members of more central ingroups in favor of less central ingroups. Furthermore, the results indicate that in conflict settings that seem familiar, individuals …

When Pregnancy Is An Injury: Rape, Law, And Culture, Khiara M. Bridges

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines criminal statutes that grade more severely sexual assaults that result in pregnancy. These laws, which define pregnancy as a “substantial bodily injury,” run directly counter to positive constructions of pregnancy within culture. The fact that the criminal law, in this instance, reflects this negative, subversive understanding of pregnancy creates the possibility that this idea may be received within culture as a construction of pregnancy that is as legitimate as positive understandings. In this way, these laws create possibilities for the reimagining of pregnancy within law and society. Moreover, these laws recall the argumentation that proponents of abortion …

Artistic Representations Of The Sea And Coast: Implications For Sustainability, Laura Stocker, Deborah Kennedy

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

This article explores artistic representations of Australian seas and coasts, and the power of art to sustain seas and coasts. Research into artworks at the National Gallery of Australia was supplemented with a study of other local public and private works. A number of substantive themes emerged in viewing the paintings; the sea and coast has been represented as: sea country, sovereign territory, sublime spaces, a Romantic space of yearning, a psychological journey, a literal journey, a site of social and political comment, social places, ecological places and a site for industry. We discuss these themes, reflecting on the various …

Enhancing The Relevance And Effectiveness Of Water Safety Education For Ethnic And Racial Minorities, Matias Ignacio Golob, Audrey R. Giles, Kyle M. Rich

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

In this paper we explore the ways in which culturally based beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours influence participation in and the development and delivery of water safety education programs. We examine existing data pertaining to ethnic and racial minorities’ drowning rates and argue that these groups’ high rates of drowning are related to a failure to understand and account for non-Eurocentric beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, and issues of social exclusion. We then summarize health communication strategies and provide real-life examples of these strategies at work in water safety education. Finally, we identify four overarching promising practices to enhance the relevance and …

Embodying Mallorquinness Through Performativity And Narration Of Mallorquin Dance, Linda Dankworth

Journal of Tourism Consumption and Practice

The Mallorcan dancers' sense of embodying Mallorquiness as stylistic qualities of their stage performances, produces in them a sense of representing a double identity: one for themselves in social contexts performing improvised dances as a contemporary image to each other, and another that is more ancient and projects the romantic nationalism associated with the dances' origins in stage presentations for tourists. It is the stage presentations that are a focus of this paper, where an ancient identity is created in the visual imagery of the Mallorcan dancers’ performances as a reconstruction of their past. This paper explores the relationship between …

Cultural Inheritance And Fertility Outcomes: An Analysis From Evolutionary And Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Li Zhang, Dudley L. Poston Jr., Michael S. Alvard, Christopher Cherry

L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs Publications

Taking evolutionary and interdisciplinary perspectives, this study views the reproductive result as an evolutionary outcome that may be affected by parental characteristics through cultural inheritance. We hypothesize that inheriting more cultural traits from parents leads to a greater resemblance between fertility outcomes of the offspring and their parents. In societies that experience a demographic transition, a greater resemblance can be indicated by a higher level of fertility of the offspring and a sooner transition from union formation to childbearing. We operationalize inheriting cultural traits from parents as reporting a religious affiliation the same as those of their parents. Through analyzing …

Dreaming And Reality: A Neuroanthropological Account, Charles D. Laughlin

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

In what sense is dreaming real to people of different cultures? How do they come to conclude that dreaming is real, and how do they use dreams to expand their knowledge and control of real events? The reader is introduced to dream anthropology and shown that there are universal patterns to how dreams are experienced, expressed, and used by societies. The distinction between monophasic and polyphasic cultures is described, the latter being the majority of societies that consider dreaming as being in some sense real. Neuroscience supports the notion that there is a natural realism behind the experience of reality …

Comparing The Teaching Of Culture In Esl/Efl Classrooms, Daniela Silva

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present research is interested in investigating if culture is approached in efl and esl classrooms. If it is, we want to know the differences in curriculum (textbooks and syllabi), especially as it pertains to cultural knowledge, in an efl class in Brazil, compared to an esl class in the united states. We will also investigate the classroom practices for incorporating culture into the English language classrooms in those contexts. Finally, we will check which cultural teaching approaches are evident in those efl and esl classrooms. Although it is difficult to define precisely what is meant by the term "culture", …

Same Fight, Different Player: An Insight Into Culture, Information Sharing, And Team Performance, Cecily Mccoy-Fisher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations among culture, information sharing, and performance among culturally-homogeneous NATO Officer teams. Forty-eight teams participated from five countries, namely, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and USA. Teams of four participants were randomly assigned to a role and the task was an interdependent computer-based mission using an adapted version of Neverwinter Nights™ (Bioware, 2003), where they had to communicate among teammates and with non-human players to find weapons caches and other mission objectives. Not one individual had all of the information needed to perform the tasks; thus, they needed to share information with …

Sages, Savages, And Other Speech Act Communities: Culture In Comparative Law, Monica Eppinger

Saint Louis University Law Journal

This Article re-examines the possible utility of the concept of culture in comparative law. It reviews some limits and misuses of the concept of culture and introduces a components approach to using it in comparative analysis. First presented at a Symposium inspired by Laurence Tribe’s The Invisible Constitution, the Article takes up a key question emerging from Tribe’s work: How does a constitution constitute? Two conceptual tools from anthropology and sister disciplines, performative speech acts and performance theory, lend insight into how discourse produces literal meaning and, in parallel, produces and reproduces speech act communities. Having introduced a components …

Constitutions, Culture, And History, Michal Jan Rozbicki

Saint Louis University Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Kony2012: The New Face Of Citizen Engagement, Nicole Audette

Exchange: The Journal of Public Diplomacy

This paper breaks down the nongovernmental components of public diplomacy and examines the evolution of new public diplomacy. It discusses the rise of nonstate actors and the importance they play in changing international diplomatic engagements. It explores the rising prominence of both soft power and public relations on the global stage, highlighting the importance of strategic relationships and effective communications. The case study, used to exemplify the power of new public diplomacy, examines how Invisible Children’s KONY2012 campaign used public diplomacy to harness successfully the power of the American people to influence governmental foreign policy. The author shows that Invisible …

Political Culture Of Post-Soviet Economic Change: The Case Of Financial-Industrial Groups, Jeffrey K. Hass

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Beneath the seeming chaos and conflict of Russia's post-socialist experience were structured dynamics of contentious reconstruction of fields (collective relations of power and culture institutionalized as authority and definitions of "normal"). This essay argues that the Russian experience was driven in no small part by contention over remaking core meanings and authority of field relations, practices, and boundaries. Contention over field reconstruction emerged as three groups' interests and taken-for granted meanings of normality collided: those of Soviet-era managers, a new class of financial entrepreneurs and elites, and state elites and officials. Post-socialism has been a story of competing elite culture …

Perception And Decision At The Threshold Of Tort Law: Explaining The Infrequency Of Claims, David M. Engel

Journal Articles

Although numerous studies have confirmed that tort victims rarely litigate and that most simply "lump" their losses, we lack an understanding of why this should be so. Why do the vast majority of injured persons choose inaction over action? Explanations relying on rational actor theories on the one hand or cultural determinism on the other have been sharply challenged by recent studies of mind, culture, and cognition, particularly with respect to individual responses to physical trauma and disablement. This article, drawing on a broad interdisciplinary literature dealing with injury victims, proposes a new model of perception and decision by persons …