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Anthropology

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University of Richmond

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Do Muslim Village Girl’S Need Saving?: Critical Reflections On Gender And The Suffering Child In International Aid, Rania Kassab Sweis Jan 2017

Do Muslim Village Girl’S Need Saving?: Critical Reflections On Gender And The Suffering Child In International Aid, Rania Kassab Sweis

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In her chapter, "Do Muslim Village Girl’s Need Saving?: Critical Reflections on Gender and the Suffering Child in International Aid," Dr. Rania Sweis poses the following questions: What does it mean when powerful actors in western based international NGOs recognize the Muslim village girl as the ultimate savable victim'? What gendered and racialized logics arc at play in this category's strategic deployment, and what arc their tangible effects for both NGOs and village girls who receive aid'? She argues that large-scale international aid projects that aim to speak for, uplift and save Muslim village girls in Egypt and other countries …

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From Porciones To Colonias: Curriculum Development In K-12 Education--Methodology And Program Development, Edna C. Alfaro, Margaret E. Dorsey, Sonia Hernandez, Russell K. Skowronek Jan 2014

From Porciones To Colonias: Curriculum Development In K-12 Education--Methodology And Program Development, Edna C. Alfaro, Margaret E. Dorsey, Sonia Hernandez, Russell K. Skowronek

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The 2012 National Endowment for the Humanities- sponsored “From Porciones to Colonias: Inserting the “Hispanic” in a Hispanic Serving Institution through Curriculum Innovation” brought together faculty at the largest Hispanic Serving Institution in Texas, the University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA), and public school teachers to create place-based curriculum. Using the natural landscape and cultural history of one of the most dynamic borderlands in the world as the main classroom laboratory, faculty housed in the CHAPS program (Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools) challenged elementary, middle, and high school teachers in the sciences, social sciences and humanities to create in their …

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An Introduction To The Cultural Anthropology And Preservation Of The Rio Grande Valley, Margaret E. Dorsey, Miguel Díaz-Barriga Jan 2014

An Introduction To The Cultural Anthropology And Preservation Of The Rio Grande Valley, Margaret E. Dorsey, Miguel Díaz-Barriga

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Anthropology is the study of human behavior and culture, and anthropologists in the United States divide their research into four sub-fields of study: physical anthropology; archaeology; linguistic anthropology; and cultural anthropology. North American anthropology draws its impetus from the foundational work of Franz Boas, a professor at Columbia University who lived along the Arctic Circle on Baffin Island, Canada for one year in the late nineteenth century where he kept copious notes of the language, life ways and customs of the Inuit. The following year, Boas collaborated with several museums conducting fieldwork along the North Pacific Coast setting the tone …

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Schooling Passions: Nation, History, And Language In Contemporary Western India (Book Review), Christopher Bischof Feb 2011

Schooling Passions: Nation, History, And Language In Contemporary Western India (Book Review), Christopher Bischof

History Faculty Publications

Schooling Passions is an anthropological work that explores the everyday production of local, regional, and national senses of belonging in the elementary schools in the locality of Kolhapur near the southern boundary of the state of Maharashtra, India. Kolhapur was an independent kingdom until 1949 and traces its origin to Shivaji Bhosale, a seventeenth-century hero-warrior who founded the Marathi nation. Equipped with a knowledge of Marathi and significant expertise in nationalism, citizenship, education, and gender, Véronique Benei conducted fieldwork at five schools in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the expectation that education would be less nationalistic there than …

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Objects Of Desire: Photographs And Retrospective Narratives Of Fieldwork In Indonesia, Jennifer W. Nourse Jan 2011

Objects Of Desire: Photographs And Retrospective Narratives Of Fieldwork In Indonesia, Jennifer W. Nourse

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This discussion of my fieldwork, memory, and experience begins with a nod to Handler and Gable’s essay (this volume) in which they ask what anthropology can contribute to the study of social memory. I take Gable and Handler’s insights about the false dichotomy between memory and history (since, they argue, all history and memory are perspectival) and consider ways in which fieldwork photographs demonstrate the same point. I suggest that my photographs became the repositories for individual interpretations of a host of broader issues related to the nation-state and its agenda. This agenda was reflected in ways the photographs were …

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The Power Of Definition: Brazil's Contribution To Universal Concepts Of Indigeneity, Jan Hoffman French Jan 2011

The Power Of Definition: Brazil's Contribution To Universal Concepts Of Indigeneity, Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This article builds on discussions about the potential benefits and difficulties with developing a universal definition of indigenous peoples. It explores the spaces made available for theorizing indigeneity by the lack of a definition in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted in 2007. Specifically, this article addresses the challenge presented by the diversity of groups claiming indigenous status in Brazil. To what extent do distinct cosmologies and languages that mark Amazonian Indians as unquestionably indigenous affect newly recognized tribes in the rest of Brazil who share none of the indicia of authenticity? This article theorizes …

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A History Of Resilience Is A History Of Resistance, Melissa Ooten Jan 2011

A History Of Resilience Is A History Of Resistance, Melissa Ooten

Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications

As an historian, I’m struck by the emphasis this documentary places on non-humans – be it animals, plants, soil, or mountains – although as a native of Appalachia, that doesn’t surprise me. The film is billed as “America’s first environmental history series: and as such, it gives us a bold, unique template of how to talk holistically about the concept of place and the specific place of Appalachia. While it may be particularly prescient to talk about the broader concept of place through ecology and other facets when analyzing the history of Appalachia, surely it is no less important when …

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Domestication Alone Does Not Lead To Inequality: Intergenerational Wealth Transmission Among Horticulturalists, Michael Gurven, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Paul L. Hooper, Hillard Kaplan, Robert Quinlan, Rebecca Sear, Eric Schniter, Christopher Von Rueden, Samuel Bowles, Tom Hertz, Adrian Bell Feb 2010

Domestication Alone Does Not Lead To Inequality: Intergenerational Wealth Transmission Among Horticulturalists, Michael Gurven, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Paul L. Hooper, Hillard Kaplan, Robert Quinlan, Rebecca Sear, Eric Schniter, Christopher Von Rueden, Samuel Bowles, Tom Hertz, Adrian Bell

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

We present empirical measures of wealth inequality and its intergenerational transmission among four horticulturalist populations. Wealth is construed broadly as embodied somatic and neural capital, including body size, fertility and cultural knowledge, material capital such as land and household wealth, and relational capital in the form of coalitional support and field labor. Wealth inequality is moderate for most forms of wealth, and intergenerational wealth transmission is low for material resources and moderate for embodied and relational wealth. Our analysis suggests that domestication alone does not transform social structure; rather, the presence of scarce, defensible resources may be required before inequality …

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Cosmopolitan Theory And Anthropological Practice In Brazil, Jan Hoffman French Jan 2010

Cosmopolitan Theory And Anthropological Practice In Brazil, Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In relation to the theme of this volume - to inquire into transformations marked by knowledge-making projects and the role played by intellectuals - in this chapter I will focus on Brazilian anthropologists. In considering how impoverished or marginalized communities become integrated into global claims about the human condition, I analyze the efforts of Brazilian anthropologists on behalf of rural black communities in the northeastern backlands in light of cosmopolitan theory.

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Ethnoracial Land Restitution: Finding Indians And Fugitive Slave Descendants In The Brazilian Northeast, Jan Hoffman French Jan 2009

Ethnoracial Land Restitution: Finding Indians And Fugitive Slave Descendants In The Brazilian Northeast, Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This chapter considers how a desire for land and development can lead to a refashioning of ethnoracial identities and identifications. Debates in development studies have centered on culture as an impediment to development. I turn that debate on its head and argue that new assertions of cultural particularity have in certain settings advanced the equity goals of development. The chapter explores the contrasting responses of two neighbouring communities of related African descended, mixed race rural workers who over a 25-year period (1975- 2000), under new laws, were recognized and given land by the Brazilian government. One was identified as an …

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The Tadpole Of Hypsiboas Atlanticus (Anura, Hylidae) From Northeastern Brazil, Filipe A. C. Do Nascimento, Marcelo G. De Lima, Gabriel O. Skuk, Rafael O. De Sá Jan 2009

The Tadpole Of Hypsiboas Atlanticus (Anura, Hylidae) From Northeastern Brazil, Filipe A. C. Do Nascimento, Marcelo G. De Lima, Gabriel O. Skuk, Rafael O. De Sá

Biology Faculty Publications

The tadpole of Hypsiboas atlanticus (Caramaschi & Velosa, 1996) is described from the municipality of Maceió, State of Alagoas, Brazil. At stage 36 the larvae have an overall elliptical body in lateral and dorsal views, oral disc anteroventral, spiracular tube sinistral, and labial tooth row formula 2(1,2)/3(1). The oral disc is surrounded, almost completely (anterior medial gap present) by a single row of marginal papillae. Described tadpoles of the H. punctatus species group can be differentiated by a combined disc oral features. Additional descriptions of H. punctatus (Schneider, 1799) tadpoles from populations throughout South America may be helpful in determining …

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Association For Political And Legal Anthropology, Jan Hoffman French Jan 2007

Association For Political And Legal Anthropology, Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The Association for Political and Legal Anthropology (APLA) is a division of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) dedicated to studying and promoting anthropological approaches to law, political systems, and governmental authority. As anthropological subdisciplines, legal and political anthropology have promoted ethnographic research and theoretical contributions to understanding law's relationship to culture and power. They are also concerned with the cultures of legal and political institutions.

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A Tale Of Two Priests And Two Struggles: Liberation Theology From Dictatorship To Democracy In The Brazilian Northeast, Jan Hoffman French Jan 2007

A Tale Of Two Priests And Two Struggles: Liberation Theology From Dictatorship To Democracy In The Brazilian Northeast, Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Land for the landless, food for the hungry, literacy for the uneducated— not through charitable works, but by forcing the state to take seriously its responsibilities to its poorest citizens. This was integral to the theology of liberation as it was practiced by bishops, priests, and nuns in Brazil beginning shortly after the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Important sectors of the Brazilian Catholic Church were “opting for the poor” at a time when economic development, modernization, and democracy were not considered appropriate or meaningful partners in the repressive environment characterized by the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964-1985).

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Making Identity: Law, Memory, And Race In Comparative Perspective, Jan Hoffman French Jan 2005

Making Identity: Law, Memory, And Race In Comparative Perspective, Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In this essay, I would like to focus on identity formation with respect to one of these groups-the Xoco community-especially the relationship between law, identity, and race. I hope to bring to light, if only in a tentative and suggestive way, the broader significance of such an inquiry by narrating the story of the Xoco in dialogue with some discussions of similar issues in the United States. In particular, I will compare the successful struggle for recognition of the Xoco with similar struggles for recognition in the U.S. by the Lumbee and Mashpee Indians, who have not achieved full legal …

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Mestizaje And Law Making As Interrelated Processes In Indigenous Identity Formation In Northeastern Brazil: “After The Conflict Came The History”, Jan Hoffman French Jan 2005

Mestizaje And Law Making As Interrelated Processes In Indigenous Identity Formation In Northeastern Brazil: “After The Conflict Came The History”, Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This article explores issues of authenticity, legal discourse, and local requirements of belonging by considering the recent surge of indigenous recognitions in northeastern Brazil. It investigates how race and ethnicity are implicated in the recognition process in Brazil, based on a successful struggle for indigenous identity and access to land by a group of African-descended rural workers. This article argues that the relationship between two processes – law making and indigenous identity formation – is crucial to understanding how the notion of mixed heritage is both reinforced and disentangled. It illustrates how these two processes interact over time and how …

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Cultural-Studies Criticism, Peter Lurie Jan 2004

Cultural-Studies Criticism, Peter Lurie

English Faculty Publications

Faulkner’s “career” within cultural studies began, within the history of the cultural-studies movement itself, comparatively late. This is not an especially remarkable point about Faulkner or any one particular writers; as a critical movement, cultural studies was never concerned more with any one figure than another, and was always concerned with an interdisciplinary and interdiscursive focus rather than a writer’s singularity. It is a point worth noting, however, because of the specific ways in which Faulkner’s work seems hospitable to cultural studies’ concerns. From his earliest stages of writing, Faulkner was aware of his work’s position within a field of …

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Dancing For Land: Law-Making And Cultural Performance In Northeastern Brazil, Jan Hoffman French May 2002

Dancing For Land: Law-Making And Cultural Performance In Northeastern Brazil, Jan Hoffman French

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In Mocambo, cultural practices and performances are being reconfigured and retained in new forms and surrounded by new discourses, revealing modes of local self-fashioning and political action. However, our inquiry should not end there. Thomas Abercrombie (1991:99) argues that whatever meanings might adhere to a certain "traditional" cultural form "are today produced and interpreted, within the (semi-open) semiotic systems produced at locally or situationally specific intercultural loci..., which intersect with national and international systems as significantly as with neighboring town groups." In this essay, I suggest that the demands, interests, and desires of the larger society, as manifested in laws, …

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Sawerigading In Strange Places: The I La Galigo Myth In Central Sulawesi, Jennifer W. Nourse Jan 1998

Sawerigading In Strange Places: The I La Galigo Myth In Central Sulawesi, Jennifer W. Nourse

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In this chapter I present an alternative response to Sawerigading. Among the Central Sulawesi Lauje who live in the Kecamatan Tinombo on the Tomini Bay, Sawerigading is not a Bugis hero, but a native son. In what follows I explore his transformation from Bugis into local Lauje hero and what this transformation reveals about the extent of Bugis influence in a Central Sulawesi coastal kingdom which is at the political periphery of South Sulawesi. Most of the people in the community discuss claim to be either Lauje, the indigenous ethnic group, or an immigrant mix of Kaili, Gorontalo or Mandar. …

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Making Monotheism: Global Islam In Local Practice Among The Laujé Of Indonesia, Jennifer W. Nourse Jul 1994

Making Monotheism: Global Islam In Local Practice Among The Laujé Of Indonesia, Jennifer W. Nourse

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper explores the complex interaction between state-sanctioned Islam and local religious practice in Indonesia's periphery. In 1982 in the "county" of Tinombo, Central Sulawesi, immigrant Reform Muslims convinced the regional government to ban a spirit possession ritual performed by the indigenous Laufe people. Reformists claimed that Laujé spirit mediums were possessed by satanic spirits. Insulted by Reformists' claims that Laujé rites were pagan and they themselves were not Muslims, prominent Laujé went to officials in the government asking to rescind the ban. In their arguments, Laujé borrowed the rhetoric of Reform Islam. The ban was rescinded in 1984. Once …

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