Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Institution
- Keyword
-
- Neoliberalism (3)
- Conservation (2)
- Consumption (2)
- Environmental governance (2)
- Rational actor (2)
-
- "Mal de la terre" (1)
- Adult scurvy (1)
- Anthropology (1)
- Archaeology (1)
- Artisanal fisheries (1)
- Biodiversity conservation (1)
- Biomass Energy -- Analysis (1)
- Catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) (1)
- Collective action (1)
- Combinatorics (1)
- Complex adaptive systems (1)
- Decision-making (1)
- Deforestation (1)
- Demography (1)
- Dental retention (1)
- Developing-world (1)
- Ecuador (1)
- Embodiment (1)
- Excess (1)
- Fossil Fuels -- Analysis (1)
- Fossil Fuels -- Waste Management (1)
- Geographic Information Systems (GIS) (1)
- Karen (1)
- Life (1)
- Ligration (1)
Articles 1 - 13 of 13
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Trading Fat For Forests: On Palm Oil, Tropical Forest Conservation, And Rational Consumption, Cindy Isenhour
Trading Fat For Forests: On Palm Oil, Tropical Forest Conservation, And Rational Consumption, Cindy Isenhour
Anthropology Faculty Scholarship
The longstanding butter vs margarine debate has recently become more complex as the links between margarine, industrial palm oil plantations, and tropical deforestation are made increasingly clear. Yet despite calls for consumers to get informed and take responsibility for tropical deforestation by boycotting margarine or purchasing buttery spreads made with sustainably-sourced palm oil, research in multiple contexts demonstrates that even the most aware, engaged, and rational consumers run into significant barriers when trying to reduce their environmental impacts. This paper supplements important critiques of neoliberal conservation at the site of extraction or intended conservation (Carrier and West 2009; Igoe and …
Introduction: Moving Beyond The 'Rational Actor' In Environmental Governance And Conservation, Nicole D. Peterson, Cindy Isenhour
Introduction: Moving Beyond The 'Rational Actor' In Environmental Governance And Conservation, Nicole D. Peterson, Cindy Isenhour
Anthropology Faculty Scholarship
In this brief introduction, we examine the themes and issues that link the three papers in this special section. In each case, neoliberal conservation practices appear to be predicated on a certain kind of individual subject with certain kinds of motives and behaviours-the rational actor. Taken together, these three papers challenge three assumptions of rational actor models, including that individuals are self-interested and attempt to maximise their own benefits, that they only respond to economic incentives, and that economic markets are free, mutual, and rational. Together these articles promote greater attention to how individuals are conceptualised in conservation efforts, and …
Book Review Of 'Evolutionary And Interpretive Archaeologies' Edited By Ethan E. Cochrane And Andrew Gardner, Liane Gabora, Carl P. Lipo
Book Review Of 'Evolutionary And Interpretive Archaeologies' Edited By Ethan E. Cochrane And Andrew Gardner, Liane Gabora, Carl P. Lipo
Anthropology Faculty Scholarship
Evolutionary and Interpretive Archaeologies, edited by Ethan E. Cochrane and
Andrew Gardner, grew out of a seminar at the Institute for Archaeology at
University College London in 2007. It consists of 15 chapters by archaeologists
who self-identify themselves as practitioners who emphasize the benefits of
evolutionary or interpretive approaches to the study of the archaeological
record. While the authors' theoretical views are dichotomous, the editors' aim
for the book as a whole is not to expound on the differences between these two
kinds of archaeology but to bring forward a richer understanding of the
discipline and to highlight areas of …
Combinatorial Structure Of The Deterministic Seriation Method With Multiple Subset Solutions, Mark E. Madsen, Carl P. Lipo
Combinatorial Structure Of The Deterministic Seriation Method With Multiple Subset Solutions, Mark E. Madsen, Carl P. Lipo
Anthropology Faculty Scholarship
Seriation methods order a set of descriptions given some criterion (e.g., unimodality or minimum distance between similarity scores). Seriation is thus inherently a problem of finding the optimal solution among a set of permutations of objects. In this short technical note, we review the combinatorial structure of the classical seriation problem, which seeks a single solution out of a set of objects. We then extend those results to the iterative frequency seriation approach introduced by Lipo et al. (1997), which finds optimal subsets of objects which each satisfy the unimodality criterion within each subset. The number of possible solutions across …
Continuity And The Open Whole: A Comparison Of Recent (Peircian) Ethnographies, Joshua Reno
Continuity And The Open Whole: A Comparison Of Recent (Peircian) Ethnographies, Joshua Reno
Anthropology Faculty Scholarship
A comparison of Eduardo Kohn's "How forests think: Toward an anthropology beyond the human" and David Pedersen's "American value: Migrants, money, and meaning in El Salvador and the United States" which explores their relationship to the continuist ontology of the philosopher Charles S. Peirce and its implications for contemporary anthropology.
Trading Fat For Forests: On Palm Oil, Tropical Forest Conservation, And Rational Consumption, Cindy Isenhour
Trading Fat For Forests: On Palm Oil, Tropical Forest Conservation, And Rational Consumption, Cindy Isenhour
Anthropology Faculty Scholarship
The longstanding butter vs margarine debate has recently become more complex as the links between margarine, industrial palm oil plantations, and tropical deforestation are made increasingly clear. Yet despite calls for consumers to get informed and take responsibility for tropical deforestation by boycotting margarine or purchasing buttery spreads made with sustainably-sourced palm oil, research in multiple contexts demonstrates that even the most aware, engaged, and rational consumers run into significant barriers when trying to reduce their environmental impacts. This paper supplements important critiques of neoliberal conservation at the site of extraction or intended conservation (Carrier and West 2009; Igoe and …
Toward A New Theory Of Waste: From "Matter Out Of Place" To Signs Of Life , Joshua Reno
Toward A New Theory Of Waste: From "Matter Out Of Place" To Signs Of Life , Joshua Reno
Anthropology Faculty Scholarship
This paper offers a counterpoint to the prevailing account of waste in the human sciences. This account identifies waste, firstly, as the anomalous product of arbitrary social categorizations, or ‘matter out of place’, and, secondly, as a distinctly human way of leaving behind and interpreting traces, or a mirror of culture. Together, these positions reflect a more or less constructivist and anthropocentric approach. Most commonly, waste is placed within a framework that privileges considerations of meaning over materiality and the threat of death over the perpetuity of life processes. For an alternative I turn to bio-semiotics and cross-species scholarship around …
Navigating Over Space And Time: Fishing Effort Allocation And The Development Of Customary Norms In An Open-Access Mangrove Estuary In Ecuador, Christine M. Beitl
Navigating Over Space And Time: Fishing Effort Allocation And The Development Of Customary Norms In An Open-Access Mangrove Estuary In Ecuador, Christine M. Beitl
Anthropology Faculty Scholarship
Fisheries are increasingly understood as complex adaptive systems; but the cultural, behavioral, and cognitive factors that explain spatial and temporal dynamics of fishing effort allocation remain poorly understood. Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a visualization tool, this paper combines catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) and ethnographic data about the Ecuadorian mangrove cockle fishery to explore patterns in fishing effort and the social production of fishing space. I argue that individual decisions about where, when, and how to fish result in spatial and temporal patterns in effort allocation, ultimately regulating open-access fisheries that typically operate on a first-come, first-serve basis. These emergent patterns …
From Biopower To Energopolitics In England's Modern Waste Technology, Joshua Reno, Catherine Alexander
From Biopower To Energopolitics In England's Modern Waste Technology, Joshua Reno, Catherine Alexander
Anthropology Faculty Scholarship
Two energy-generating technologies in Britain which transform waste into a resource are compared. One is the (in)famous Combined Heat and Power incinerator in Sheffield, the other a forgotten biological digester in Devon utilizing anaerobic microbes. Both sites are early exemplars of experimental and biopolitical waste disposal technologies—incineration and anaerobic digestion—now regarded as leading alternatives for reducing the United Kingdom’s dependence on landfill and fossil fuel; both sites also inspired public resistance at critical moments in their development. The analysis here relates how activists and technicians struggle to demonstrate competing truths about alternative energy. Through comparison, it becomes clear that, beyond …
Household Ecology And Out-Migration Among Ethnic Karen Along The Thai-Myanmar Border, Daniel M. Parker, James W. Wood, Shinsuke Tomita, Sharon Dewitte, Julia Jennings, Liwang Cui
Household Ecology And Out-Migration Among Ethnic Karen Along The Thai-Myanmar Border, Daniel M. Parker, James W. Wood, Shinsuke Tomita, Sharon Dewitte, Julia Jennings, Liwang Cui
Anthropology Faculty Scholarship
Local migration in developing-world settings, particularly among rural populations, is an important yet understudied demographic process. Research on migration in such populations can help us test and inform anthropological and demographic theory. Furthermore, it can lead to a better understanding of modern population distributions and epidemiologic landscapes.
Adding Environment To The Collective Action Problem: Individuals, Civil Society, And The Mangrove-Fishery Commons In Ecuador, Christine M. Beitl
Adding Environment To The Collective Action Problem: Individuals, Civil Society, And The Mangrove-Fishery Commons In Ecuador, Christine M. Beitl
Anthropology Faculty Scholarship
Research on the commons suggests a more robust understanding of human-resource interactions is needed to strengthen theories about collective action and sustainable governance. I combine ethnographic and fishery data to explore how resource characteristics and institutions influence people’s behavior toward common pool resources in coastal Ecuador. This comparative study of the commons at two levels (mangroves and the cockle fishery) highlights how trust, communication, and social obligation depend on social histories of resource systems and types of collective action problems, largely explaining why local institutions encourage individuals to uphold mangrove forest conservation but have little effect on cooperation in fisheries.
Adult Scurvy In New France: Samuel De Champlain's "Mal De La Terre" At Saint Croix Island, 1604-1605, Thomas A. Crist, Marcella H. Sorg
Adult Scurvy In New France: Samuel De Champlain's "Mal De La Terre" At Saint Croix Island, 1604-1605, Thomas A. Crist, Marcella H. Sorg
Anthropology Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
2014 Film Series: The Human Dimensions Of Climate Change, Cindy Isenhour, Jennifer Bonnet
2014 Film Series: The Human Dimensions Of Climate Change, Cindy Isenhour, Jennifer Bonnet
Anthropology Faculty Scholarship
In the spring of 2014, Cindy Isenhour and Jen Bonnet coordinated the inaugural Human Dimensions of Climate Change film series, sponsored by the Department of Anthropology, Native American Programs, the Climate Change Institute, and Fogler Library. Each week for three weeks a different film was shown, followed by discussion with campus scholars. A library exhibit accompanied the series and highlighted a wide range of resources related to the topic, http://www.library.umaine.edu/displays/HumansClimate.htm.