Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Concept Of Ibn Al-Balad, Sawsan Messiri

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Manila’S Black Nazarene And The Reign Of Bathala, Antonio D. Sison

Journal of Global Catholicism

A consideration of how the dynamics surrounding Manila's Black Nazarene express crucial themes in the Filipino psyche. The article specifically addresses the importance of "felt-experience" (pagdama) in devotion to the Black Nazarene as well as its connections to indigenous Filipino religion.

Catholicism In Context: Religious Practice In Latin America, Gustavo Morello Sj

Journal of Global Catholicism

A critical problem to study Catholicism in the context of Latin American modernity, is that the conceptual tools we use to study religion were designed to understand the transformations that modernity provoked in European religiosity. Studies on the religion of Latin Americans have largely explored the religiosity of the population through surveys that measure attendance, adherence and affiliation. While some anthropologists have explored religious practices among particular groups, we do not know how ordinary, urban Latin Americans practice religion. To fill this gap, a group of researchers from Boston College, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Catholic University of Córdoba, and …

Fraternity, Martyrdom And Peace In Burundi: The Forty Servants Of God Of Buta, Jodi Mikalachki

Journal of Global Catholicism

During Burundi's 1993-2005 civil war, students at Buta Minor Seminary were ordered at gunpoint to separate by ethnicity—Hutus over here, Tutsis over there! They chose instead to join hands and affirm their common identity as children of God. The forty students killed were quickly proclaimed martyrs of fraternity. Their costly solidarity defused the cry for reprisals and continues to inspire Burundians and others on the path of reconciliation. Drawing on fifty interviews with survivors, parents of martyrs, neighbors, religious leaders and other Burundian intellectuals, this essay examines how Burundian Catholics understand the significance of the Buta martyrdom to their …

Editor's Introduction, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Sons Of Disobedience And Their Machines: How Sin And Anthropology Can Inform Evangelical Thought About Ai, Gregory S. Mckenzie

Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal

The purpose of this paper is to further discussion about artificial intelligence by examining AI from the perspective of the doctrine of sin. As such, philosophy of mind and theological anthropology, specifically, what it means to be human, the effects of sin, and the consequent social ramifications of AI drive the analysis of this paper. Accordingly, the conclusions of the analysis are that the depravity of fallen humanity is cause for concern in the very programming of AI and serves as a corrupted foundation for artificial machine cognition. Given the fallen nature of human thought, and therefore, fallen AI thought, …

Visual Displays In Space Station Culture: An Archaeological Analysis, Justin St. P. Walsh, Alice C. Gorman, Wendy Salmond

Art Faculty Articles and Research

We offer an archaeological analysis of the visual display of “space heroes” and Orthodox icons in the Russian Zvezda module of the International Space Station (ISS). This study is the first systematic investigation of material culture at a site in space. The ISS has now been continuously inhabited for 20 years. Here, focusing on the period 2000–2014, we use historic imagery from NASA archives to track the changing presence of 78 different items in a single zone. We also explore how ideas about which items are appropriate for display and where to display them originated in earlier Soviet and Russian …

La CampañA «Con Mis Hijos No Te Metas» En CóRdoba, Argentina: Reflexiones Acerca Del Uso Del Espacio PúBlico Por Parte De Iglesias EvangéLicas Conservadoras En La PolíTica Local, Romina Chain

Conexión Queer: Revista Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Teologías Queer

In September 2018, in Cordoba, Argentina, citizens witnessed the launching of a campaign in a public transport line with the inscription «#Con mis hijos no te metas.» It was enacted against the Comprehensive Sex Education Law (ESI) and sponsored by the Christian Church Cita con la Vida. This article analyzes the incidence of conservative evangelical churches in local politics based on this campaign in public. It concludes that in the religious field, conservative evangelical churches dispute the monopoly of the Roman Catholic Church —primarily political and social power— through the use of public space.

"Making God's Love Manifest": American Expressions And Productions Of Charisma In Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi's Global Following, Karen Margaret Esche-Eiff

Theses and Dissertations

While situating it in a changing American religious landscape marked by increasing participation in metaphysical religion, this dissertation examines the appeal of contemporary Indian godperson, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma), to Americans. Although replete with portraits of individual Indian spiritual leaders’ charisma, the anthropology of religion literature seldom addresses the processes whereby such figures’ charisma gets produced. Drawing on thirteen months of multi-sited ethnographic research conducted between 2015-2016, this dissertation uses Max Weber’s theory of charisma to answer the following questions: what extraordinary capacity do American devotees attribute to Amma; what is the process whereby they and she co-produce this …

The Nature Of Anti-Asian American Xenophobia During The Coronavirus Pandemic: A Preliminary Exploration Into Envy As A Key Motivator Of Hate, Daisuke Akiba

Publications and Research

Background. The current Coronavirus pandemic has been linked to a dramatic increase in anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate incidents in the United States. At the time of writing, there does not appear to be any published empirical research examining the mechanisms underlying Asiaphobia during the current pandemic. Based on the stereotype content model, we investigated the idea that ambivalent attitudes toward AAPIs, marked primarily with envy, may be contributing to anti-AAPI xenophobia. Methods. Study 1 (N = 140) explored, through a survey, the link between envious stereotypes toward AAPIs and Asiaphobia. Study 2 (N = 167), …

Object: Tbd A Reflective Essay On The Nature Of The Yet-To-Be-Decided Object In Exhibition Design, Anirudh Shaktawat

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

In the year 2018 the Field Museum in Chicago, in response to the contemporary demands of inclusivity and decolonization, declared that it will redesign its Native American Hall. The developers and curators, in collaboration with Native American communities and curators from Chicago and elsewhere, came up with a list of 6 ‘truths’ about the community. By basing the show on these truths, the aim was to create a plan for an exhibition that can re-educate the public and dispel stereotypes associated with Native Americans. Within the abstract space of the exhibition plan many spots were labeled OBJECT: TBD (to-be-decided), which, …

Nationalist Theory And Politicization Of Archaeological Resources: Manifestations In Iraq, Andrew Vang-Roberts

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

Archaeological resources have been used by political regimes to further their own interests across time and space for many decades since the discipline was established as a profession in the late 19th century. Regime-backed 20^th century dictators like Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein, Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak understood that whoever controls a nation’s archeological resources controls the nation’s memory. By controlling collective memory, a regime can assert control over its people. Archeological resources can be used to validate a regime’s control over physical space as well. Educating a population about its archeological past can …

Orphaned Landscapes: Violence, Visuality, And Appearance In Indonesia, Patricia Spyer

Art & Visual Culture

Less than a year after the end of authoritarian rule in 1998, huge images of Jesus Christ and other Christian scenes proliferated on walls and billboards around a provincial town in eastern Indonesia where conflict had arisen between Muslims and Christians. A manifestation of the extreme perception that emerged amid uncertainty and the challenge to seeing brought on by urban warfare, the street paintings erected by Protestant motorbike-taxi drivers signaled a radical departure from the aniconic tradition of the old colonial church, a desire to be seen and recognized by political authorities from Jakarta to the UN and European Union, …

Understanding Religious Tolerance In Yongchang, China, Liming Gao

Honors Theses

The formation of China is a process of national integration and a fusion of different beliefs. However, under Chairman Mao (1949-1976) and specifically during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), people were reeducated to focus on Communism and expel remnants of traditional Chinese culture including the various religions. Although, after the Cultural Revolution, China reinstated its policy of religious freedom, there were still strict laws against religion. Despite such circumstances, Chinese people still practice their religious beliefs. The Yongchang area, located in Gansu Province in the northwest of China is a typical region of Chinese culture. At the same time, compared to …

A Lot On My Plate: Family Dishware Serving Up A History Of Global Commercialization, Grace Thanasiu

Student Projects from the Archives

The “Hearthside” shaped plate was created by the Homer Laughlin China Company sometime between 1963 and 1973. My family owns such a plate, and ours originally belonged to a set of plates that was “purchased” by my grandmother, Mary Ruhlin, with books and books full of redemption stamps. Redemption stamps were literal stamps that stores distributed to customers, who could later redeem them for cash or merchandise at affiliated redemption centers that partnered with grocery stores and businesses; redemption stamps functioned as a precursor to the modern loyalty card! The need for a reputable pottery company like Homer Laughlin to …

Desire And The Work It Does: Alterity And Exogamy In A Kotiria Origin Myth From The Northwest Amazon Of Brazil, Janet M. Chernela

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In terms of the pan-Amazonian social paradigm that transforms affines into kin and assimilates them into the consanguineal unit, Eastern Tukanoans must be regarded as exceptional. This paper explores a foundation myth that allows us to better understand relations of self and Other, incest and exogamy, and violence and amity among the Eastern Tukanoan-speaking Kotiria. The narrative provides a heretofore-absent foundation for Tukanoan affinity, revealing complications and nuance in Kotiria notions of alterity and the generative role of Desire in its transformation. It is a synthesis not from nature, but from poesis; not from trust, but from theft; not from …

Pinpointing Patterns Of Violence: A Comparative Genocide Studies Approach To Violence Escalation In The Ukrainian Holodomor, Kristina Hook

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article utilizes the case study of the 1930s Ukrainian Holodomor, an artificially induced famine under Joseph Stalin, to advance comparative genocide studies debates regarding the nature, onset, and prevention of large-scale violence. Fieldwide debates question how to 1) distinguish genocide from other forms of large-scale violence and 2) trace genocides as unfolding processes, rather than crescendoing events. To circumvent unproductive definitional arguments, methodologies that track large-scale violence according to numerically-based thresholds have substituted for dynamics-based analyses. Able to address aspects of the genocide puzzle, these methodologies struggle to incorporate cross-cultural contextual variation or elicit ripe moments for specific, real-time …

Museum Exhibition Assignment, Matthew Reilly

Open Educational Resources

This is a general assignment requiring students to think critically about museum exhibitions in major New York City institutions: The American Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Options are provided for students to visit these spaces virtually or in person.

Constructed Memories: A Study Of How The Arts And The National Museum Operate Within Power Structures And State Interests In Postcolonial Morocco, Evan Antonakes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Moroccan national museum as an institution has a long and complicated history. A product of colonialism, the state has historically used the museum, and the art housed within it, to construct narratives of progress and images of modernization. Doing so is largely at the expense of contemporary artists who have long been neglected by the state and failed by the museum. This paper will communicate how museums, art, and the state intersect in postcolonial Morocco. The paper will examine the inner workings of the Mohammed VI National Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat, attempting to contextualize the …

Narrativas De La Autoconstrucción: Posicionalidades E Identidades En Migrantes Venezolanos En Quito, Ecuador, Vicente Bickel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this project is to explore the identities of the Venezuelan population in Quito, Ecuador. The country itself has received more than a million people from Venezuela, some who have continued their journey and around 500,000 who have stayed in Ecuador. Most migrants left to the unstable political situation in Venezuela which reached its breaking point around 2015, the year in which this population began to enter Ecuador en masse. The central question of this study is: "What is the self-constructed identity of Venezuelan migrants and refugees in the city of Quito, Ecuador and how has their migratory …

Man V.S. Wild: An Analysis Of Language Used Regarding Human-Wildlife Conflict In The Kibale National Park Community, Western Region, Uganda, Sophie Perfetto

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

If humans are to live sustainably and in harmony with wildlife in the vicinity of Protected Areas, policy makers, and government authorities need to make informed decisions with consideration to the needs of local communities. For this to happen, policy makers must understand the perceptions of local communities and take local perspectives into account. As language is at the root of perception, language was studied in the context of its role in shaping local perceptions of human-wildlife conflict and consequential conflict mitigation strategies. Six communities around the Northern region of Kibale National Park, Uganda, were studied, with sites located in …

Cape Town Cartographies: Which Spaces Can The Youth Access? Mapping The Mobilities Of 11 University Of Cape Town (Uct) Students, Sokona Mangane

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

South Africa went through a gruesome system of segregation known as apartheid, from 1948 until 1994 which enforced spatial and racial divisions through limiting access to spaces, places and (im)mobilities. Despite the formal ending of apartheid in 1994, and some changes it brought to the divided and wounded country, the neo-apartheid spatial structure of the regime lives on in some form or other, particularly in Cape Town. This research paper sought to explore the racial segregation in the mother city further, by examining the daily movements of students from the University of Cape Town (UCT), who are part of the …

Cbos As A Tool For Sustainable Community Development: The Case In Kapchorwa, Annie Manges

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this research was to assess the ability of Community Based Organizations, or CBOs, in the Kapchorwa District of Uganda to create long-term and sustainable community development that meets the needs of their community. To provide the necessary context for the study, I conducted a literature review of poverty in Uganda, theory in sustainable and community development, the connection of CBOs to sustainable community development, challenges and strengths for CBOs, and the general context of the structure of and the regulations for a CBO in Uganda.

The participants in the research were members of CBOs in the Kapchorwa …

The Gap Between Policy And The People: A Case Study Of The Buikwe Fishing Communities, Capri Gutiérrez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

To examine the implementation of Local Government development planning in periphery and hard to reach communities in Uganda, the fishing villages of the Buikwe District were used as a case study. The objective of the study was to explore how Local Government development planning is implemented in the fishing villages to identify gaps. Implementation was broken down into three areas: consultations, needs and services, and service delivery.

The study mimicked the bottom-up approach to decentralized development planning in Uganda, beginning with seven focus group discussions in five fishing villages of Buikwe. Eleven key informant interviews were then conducted with Local …

Building A Feminist Commons In The Time Of Covid-19, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been structured around the idea that human connection and sociality are bad—they are dangerous. This essay suggests that, perhaps paradoxically, rather than isolating to stay healthy, people are forging new egalitarian forms of connection. I argue that COVID-19 has enhanced experiments in what I will call a “burgeoning feminist commons.” These foreground new, horizontal forms of sociality, and they build the grounds of resistance, refusing to separate the time of political organization from that of reproduction. I discuss three such experiments: masked mobs, friendly fridges, and pandemic pods. Each form of connection …

Public Perception Of Forest And Fire Management Policy In Portugal, Jensen Rocha

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The impacts of forest fires are growing as climate change creates more frequent ideal temperature conditions for extreme wildfires. With the devastating fires it experienced in 2017, Portugal stands as an example of the impacts of dangerous wildfires and is working on developing a plan to protect its country from this rising threat. Important in the plan development is the opinion of the many stakeholders involved and the public whom the fires impact. Using an interview and survey approach, this study gathers public and stakeholder opinion on the forest and fire management policy in Portugal to understand what issues in …

A Hidden Emergency: Transgenerational Inheritance In The Next Generation Of Rwandans, Neila Gross

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Cases of physiological and psychological health disorders in the generation succeeding generation of the 1994 genocide are rising at an alarming pace. The presented work herein details a qualitative and quantitative approach to understanding the transmission of trauma from the surviving population of the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi in their offspring using the APA PTSD System Scale-Interview (PSS-I). Several variables including age, gender and background were employed in this study. The results indicate that offspring born of targeted survivors of the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi show increased trends of experiencing PTSD symptoms with children born in 1994 exhibiting the greatest …

Harvesting The Truth About Salt Mining: An Assessment Of The Factors And Demographics That Influence Women To Become Salt Miners, Katwe Uganda, Amelia Simmonds

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Traditional and rudimentary methods of salt mining have been used to harvest salt from Lake Katwe in Uganda for over 400 years. Even though these methods are effective in extracting salt, they are proven to be hazardous to the miners. Though not often acknowledged, the role of women in salt mining operations is significant as they make up half of the workforce in East Africa. Regardless of the health risks associated with the mining sector, the number of women involved in small-scale salt mining increases by the year. The main objective of this study was to gain a better understanding …

Islam And Equality Through Symbolism, Nellie Bowers

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As a Muslim Majority Country governed by laws born out of religious doctrine, Morocco deals with issues of equality and justice that are forcefully related to and intertwined with religion. This paper looks at the intersection of religion and equality, especially in the interpretive context of society and governance. It also considers the difference in religious interpretation affecting religious use and image. Additionally, the religious notion of Tawhid is analyzed in a symbolic context to further understand how God’s nature influences the actions of humans, especially with actions pertaining to social justice and equality. Through ethnographic interview, the perspective on …

Draagmoederschap: Surrogacy In The Netherlands, Olivia Murray

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this paper, I investigated surrogacy in the Netherlands by interviewing four surrogates and one intended parent about their experiences. I found that the participants shared several common experiences and opinions, especially related to why they chose to be surrogates, how surrogates and intended parents negotiate their relationship during and after pregnancy, the tensions of passing on parenthood and merging families, the (non-binding) contracts that surrogates and parents create, Dutch law, and commercial surrogacy. I argue that much of the discourse around surrogacy relitigates many of the arguments made in favor and against sex work, in that it sets surrogacy …