Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

On The Micropolitics And Edges Of Survival In A Technocapital Sacrifice Zone, Peter C. Little

Faculty Publications

This article explores the industrial sacrifice zone of Endicott, New York, which in 1924 became the birthplace of International Business Machines Corporation and quickly established itself as an industrial launching pad for the production and innovation of modern computing technologies. Drawing on ethnographic research and taking a micropolitical ecology approach, I consider industrial decay and community corrosion key agents for understanding the sedimentary record of neoliberal “technocapitalism” [Suarez-Villa, Luis. 2009. Technocapitalism: A Critical Perspective on Technological Innovation and Corporatism. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press]. In particular, I explore here how the flip-side of local narratives of deindustrialization and economic …

Measuring Vapor Intrusion: From Source Science Politics To A Transdisciplinary Approach, Peter C. Little, Kelly G. Pennell

Faculty Publications

Investigation of indoor air quality has been on the upswing in recent years. In this article, we focus on how the transport of subsurface vapors into indoor air spaces, a process known as ‘vapor intrusion’, (VI) is defined and addressed. For environmental engineers and physical scientists who specialize in this emerging indoor environmental exposure science, VI is notoriously difficult to characterize, leading the regulatory community to seek improved science-based understandings of VI pathways and exposures. Yet despite the recent growth in VI science and competition between environmental consulting companies, VI studies have largely overlooked the social and political field in …

Sustainable Science And Education In The Neoliberal Ecoprison, Peter C. Little

Faculty Publications

As part of the general ‘greening’ of prisons in the last decade of neoliberalization and the formation of institutionalized programs to provide science and environmental education opportunities for the incarcerated, the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP), a partnership between Evergreen State College and the Washington State Department of Corrections, has become the most vibrant partnership in the US to mesh the cultures and institutions of environmental science and corrections. Drawing attention to the SPP’s anchoring mission, which is ‘to bring science and nature into prisons,’ this article looks at environmental science education in the contemporary prison in light of recent …

A Study Of Cape Verdeanness In Postcolonial Cape Verdean Poetry, David Joseph Alpert

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Cape Verdeanness is another name for Cape Verdean cultural identity. Postcolonial Cape Verdeanness refers to Cape Verdeanness as it has expressed itself since July 5, 1975, the first day of Cape Verdean independence. Postcolonial Cape Verdeanness has previously been described at length in the social sciences scholarship. Postcolonial Cape Verdeanness has previously been implicitly rather than explicitly represented in descriptions of postcolonial Cape Verdean poetry in the scholarly literature.

This study is a first of its kind consideration of postcolonial Cape Verdeanness. It is also the first time Cape Verdeanness of any kind has been explicitly represented by means of …

Environmental Justice Discomfort And Disconnect In Ibm's Tainted Birthplace: A Micropolitical Ecology Perspective, Peter C. Little

Faculty Publications

The ‘‘toxic time bomb’’ of the so-called ‘‘green’’ high-tech industry is no longer a secret. Today, ‘‘[h]igh-tech pollution is a fact of life wherever the industry has operated for any length of time, from Malaysia to Massachusetts’’ (Siegel and Markoff 1985, 163), and so is resistance to high-tech toxic disaster. Since at least the late 1970s, electronics workers, academics, and environmental justice and labor rights activists have ‘‘challenged the chip’’ industry (Smith, Sonnenfeld, and Pellow 2006; see also Pellow and Sun-Hee Park 2003). Their struggle exposed not only the toxic externalities of microelectronic modernization, but also the emergence of redgreen …

Generational Differences: A Look At Dialectic Formation In Cranston, Rhode Island, Michaela Delgallo

Honors Projects

In most dialects, the pronunciation of the words bear and beer is different. However, dialects found in Charleston, SC and New Zealand merge the vowel sounds found in these words. In both locations, it appears that there is a sound change in progress, resulting in different pronunciations among generations. Cranston, RI may also have this merger and may be undergoing a sound change as well.
To explore this possibility, acoustic recordings and analyses have been made of 18 participants from Cranston. Each participant produced different pairs of words that contained the vowels heard in beer and bear. Three different …

Food Inequality And Social Justice, Jim Almo

Honors Projects

Inequality in regular access to healthy food is a complex social justice issue in the United States. The health ramifications of poor food access and the unaffordability of healthy food choices are a consequence of economic systems based on a hierarchy of race, gender, and class structures. This research explores this inequality through the medium of three organizations that are challenging this systemic violence toward marginalized peoples. City Meal Site, Big Train Farm, and The Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island serve different populations with the unified goal of getting healthy food into the hands and mouths of people through …

Metallurgy In The Roman Forts Of Scotland: An Archaeological Analysis, Scott S. Stetkiewicz

Honors Projects

Investigates the presence of metalworking in thirty-seven Roman forts in Scotland during the Flavian, Antonine, and Severan occupations largely through analysis of published documentation concerning relevant archaeological excavations.

Reflections On Sudanese Languages Of War And Peace, Richard A. Lobban

Faculty Publications

This pap er started as a casual reflection and was not especially scholarly in style, mainly following the 2009 Sudan Studies Association conference theme of war and peace.(1) It just sought to explore some linguistic concepts of war and peace in some Sudanese languages for which I had dictionaries at hand. I had no a priori views or hypotheses and was motivated mainly by my curiosity into Sudanese linguistics. As this survey has evolved, patterns emerged about these concepts that nudged me to look more at the context and etymology . The result is incomplete, but hopefully heuristic . A …

Silent Subversions, Derek Dubois

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

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.

Hiding Hiroshima, Adam T. Fernandes

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Explores the representation of nuclear weapons in Japanese anime and US live action cinema in the 1980's, using methods from cultural studies. Examines, specifically, the silences and contradictions of the selected films to reveal the cultural ideologies of Japan and the United States during the time in which the films were produced. Analyzes the Japanese animated films, Barefoot Gen, Barefoot Gen 2, and Grave of the Fireflies, and the American live action films, The Day After, Testament, and Miracle Mile.

"You're Tearing Me Apart"! Investigating Ideology In The Image Of Teens In The 1950s, Danielle Bouchard

Honors Projects

Using cultural studies as a critical paradigm and ideological analysis as methodology, argues that gender, sexuality, and the nuclear family are core issues treated in two films and one television program from the 1950s featuring American teenagers. Focuses on the classic juvenile delinquent film, Rebel without a Cause, the quintessential clean teen film, Gidget, and the television series, Leave It to Beaver.

Ethnographic Field Research Methods, Edicta Grullon

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Presents ethnographic research methods along with characteristics (evidential and non-evidential "identities") of an anthropologist that may affect his/her access to information and the quality of data collected. Offers several examples from experiences of field researchers. Considers Muslim North Africa as a region demanding attention to its specific cultural realities. Explores ethics and the role of the ethnographer.

Tattoo World, Agnieszka Marczak

Honors Projects

Presents a holistic look at the world of tattoo. Covers the history of the practice of tattooing in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific. Discusses such major issues as tattooing in relation to the body, authenticity, commodification and meaning, functions, medical and legal concerns, the impact of technological developments on the practice, and the increase in popularity of tattooing in recent decades.

Language, Gender And Identity In The Works Of Louise Bennett And Michelle Cliff, Nicole Branca

Honors Projects

Examines the writings of two female, Jamaican authors, Louise Bennett and Michelle Cliff. Bennett flourished during the period of de-colonization and independence for Jamaica, while Cliff came into prominence after Jamaican independence. Shows how both writers played an important role in helping Jamaica establish a national identity by focusing on multiple dimensions of what it means to be Jamaican, including issues of language, gender, and identity.

San Francesco D'Assisi E Santa Caterina Da Siena. La Loro Influenza Sulla Letteratura, La Cultura, La Religione E L'Arte Italiana Dei Primordi, Ann-Frances Hamill

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Examines the works and thoughts of two Italian saints: Saint Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) and Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380). Explores the common ideological denominator in the works of these major figures and analyzes their impact on Italian society and culture.

Slashing The Complacent Eye: Luis Bunuel And The Cinema Of The Surrealist Documentary, Caroline Francis

Honors Projects

Contextualizes Spanish surrealist filmmaker, Luis Bunuel's, 1933 surrealist documentary, Land without Bread, in its artistic, historical, and political foundations. Creates the first English language exploration of the term, "surrealist documentary," that is equally contextualized between the politics and methods of the surrealists and the beginnings of the ethnographic film tradition.

Ending Slavery In Sudan, Richard A. Lobban

Faculty Publications

As amazing and anachronistic as it mat seem, slavery has been revived in the Sudan.

Report To The Metropolitan Museum Of Art: Department Of The Arts Of Africa, Oceania And The Americas, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

In this report I will begin by presenting (Part I) the background to the project, since the work performed during the fellowship period was a continuing part of a larger endeavor, begun in 1993. This sketch will be followed by (Part II), a characterization of my activities and their results at the Museum, and (Part III), a discussion of work remaining to be accomplished and plans for the future. Thirteen appendices (Part IV) will provide detailed information of various kinds that might be useful in whatever applications Museum staff choose to pursue resulting from this work.

Women In The Invisible Economy In Tunis, Richard A. Lobban

Faculty Publications

This chapter turns to the theoretical and empirical aspects of the women's presence, or absence, in the economy of the greater metropolitan area of Tunis. It takes off from an earlier work 1 that focused on the informal economy in Tunis in general. However, this study is guided by the assumption that there is an integrated and unitary economy overall. While the overt public economic presence of women is not great in Tunis, this study of the invisible economy require s a model that articulates the role for both men and women. As described in the introduction, this research recognizes …

Sacred Texts And Introductory Texts, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

A survey of 118 introductory anthropology textbooks published in the period 1929-1990 examines the ways in which Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa has been presented to college undergraduates. In contrast to Derek Freeman's claim that her conclusions about Samoan sexuality and adolescence have been reiterated (approvingly) in an "unbroken succesion of anthropological textbooks," it appears that this work has been ignored almost as often as it has been cited. Criticesms of Mead, although relatively few and almost entirely methodological, have also been incorporated into texstbooks, both before and following Freeeman's 1983 book, Margaret Mead and Samoa. Whether …

Yesterday's Maps, Today's Tragedies, Richard A. Lobban

Faculty Publications

Attitudes and consciousness about Africa are much shaped by the borders between its nations, peoples and other resources. Thus, the history of the cartography of Africa informs us not only about the continent's past, but much of what constitutes its present and, perhaps, its future.

What Does One Do With White People Who Stay?, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

This article is a retrospective of Terence Hays and his early ethnographic experiences with the Ndumba and with those who had almost no contact with Europeans. Hays draws on other works by those who also played the "pioneer" role in their field work and discusses how the society has handled the impact from the first contact of the "true pioneers" who had arrived almost 20 years prior to Hays and the others. Many of the Highlanders already were drawing on their previous experiences with the Europeans to deal with them as a constant in their lives. Hays notes that even …

Problems And Strategies In The Decipherment Of Meroitic, Richard A. Lobban Jr.

Faculty Publications

This article offers a preliminary report on the evolution of the study of Meroitic language and on developing a strategy for expanding its translation from one or two dozen words to some greater number. The strategy is complicated by the essential absence of bilingual texts. Thus, this strategy seeks to synthesize a bilingual environment for the study of Meroitic inscriptions. The first part of this article will review the position of Meroitic in African language systems and discuss why so little progress has been made in the decipherment of Africa's oldest written language after Egyptian hieroglyphics.

"The New Guinea Highlands" Region, Culture Area, Or Fuzzy Set?, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

The criteria for delineating "the New Guinea Highlands," a fundamental category in Melanesian anthropology, are variable, vague, and inconsistently applied, with the result that there is little clarity or agreement with regard to its characteristics and its membership. So far as the literature is concerned, "the New Guinea Highlands" is a fuzzy set. The common resort to notions of "cores," "margins," or "fringes" is an attempt to preserve an essentialist approach but inevitably leads to the same confusion. The continued use of "the Highlands" as an analytic or theoretical construct carries the costs of misleadingly implied homogeneity, with marginalization of …

Democracy In Cape Verde, Richard A. Lobban

Faculty Publications

The news from Africa usually carries headlines about natural disasters, coups, civil wars, human tights abuses and famine. Despite these tragic cases there is also a bright side the upsurge of a new movement of democratization.

"No Tobacco, No Hallelujah" , Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

According to myths and legends told by some peoples of New Guinea, tobacco is an ancient and indigenous plant, having appeared sponotaneously in a variety of ways. In other instances, the plant and the custom of smoking it are said to have been established by local culture heroes, while still other traditions prosaically cite adoptions from neighboring groups. On the basis of oral history alone, then, one might conclude that New Guinea tobacco appeared in widely scattered locations in the mythic past, and its distribution at the time of European contact is explainable as simple diffusion within the region.

Interest, Use, And Interest In Uses In Folk Biology, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

In this work on folk biological taxonomy, Terence Hays the author, calls upon various works of previous field studies conducted over a long-term period including those by Bulmer, Everyman, Hunn, Brown, and Hymes. Hays looks back to works by Ralph Bulmer and his co-workers where taxonomies of five or six levels deep were not surprising. Hays points out that this is a stark contrast to Everyman, Alexander Portnoy's study regarding the simplicity of Westerners folk systems and then posits why "the folk" classify their environment in great detail. Hays brings to light that it has much to do with the …

Narragansett Indian Subsistence Practices During The Late Woodland Through Contact With Europeans, Denise Mowchan

Honors Projects

This project is divided into three sections. Part 1 1s a synthesis of my research on Narragansett Indian subsistence practices before, during and after contact with Europeans. This synthesis is in the form of a model for studying Late Woodland-Contact culture change based on archaeological evidence that a shift in settlement pattern and subsistence practices may have occurred between the Late Woodland and Contact periods. This section was presented at the NEAA meetings in Buffalo this Spring. Part 2 is a review of my proposal for this project. It contains the original steps I intended to follow in conducting my …

Sacred Flutes, Fertility, And Growth In The Papua New Guinea Highlands, Terence E. Hays

Faculty Publications

Since Read's (1952) classic study of the nama cult of the Goroka area, ethnographers in the Papue New Guinea Highlands haved focused considerable attention on what I shall refere to as a "sacred flute complex" around which men's cults are organized. The flutes have been seen as acore symbol of male hegemony, and their associated riges and dogma as key factors in the perpetuation of "antagonistic" relations between the sexes, for which that region has long been known. In specific cases ethnographers have provided ingenious and persuasive analyses of the symbolic aspects of sacred flutes (e.g., Herdt 1981, 1982; Gillison …