Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Donkey Trail: A Difficult New Migrant Pathway To The U.S. Border, Andrew M. Gardner, Deeipendra Giri

All Faculty Scholarship

In this article, we convey a migration synopsis -- a summary of a single migrant's experience and journey from India to the United States. While comprising only a single example, it illuminates some of the significant challenged that migrants encounter on these new and circuitous pathways into the United States. We offer this somewhat raw form of "ethnographic data" simply as a singular reference point for public conversations about the changing nature of transnational migration and global mobility.

Deities’ Rights?, Deepa Das Acevedo

Faculty Articles

A brief commotion arose during the hearings for one of twenty-first-century India’s most widely discussed legal disputes, when a dynamic young attorney suggested that deities, too, had constitutional rights. The suggestion was not absurd. Like a human being or a corporation, Hindu temple deities can participate in litigation, incur financial obligations, and own property. There was nothing to suggest, said the attorney, that the same deity who enjoyed many of the rights and obligations accorded to human persons could not also lay claim to some of their constitutional freedoms. The lone justice to consider this claim blandly and briefly observed …

Textures Of The Ordinary: Doing Anthropology After Wittgenstein [Table Of Contents], Veena Das

Philosophy & Theory

Textures of the Ordinary: Doing Anthropology After Wittgenstein is an exploration of everyday life in which anthropology finds a companionship with philosophy. Based on two decades of ethnographic work among low-income urban families in India, Das shows how the notion of texture allows her to align her ethnography with stunning anthropological moments in Wittgenstein and Cavell as well as in literary texts from India. Das poses a compelling question – how might we speak of a human form of life when the very idea of the human has been put into question? The response to this question, Das argues, does …

Changing The Subject Of Sati, Deepa Das Acevedo

Faculty Articles

Charan Shah's 1999 death was widely considered to be the first sati, or widow immolation, to have occurred in India in over twenty years. Media coverage of the event focused on procedural minutiae-her sari, her demeanor-and ultimately, several progressive commentators came to the counterintuitive conclusion that the ritually anomalous nature of Charan's death confirmed its voluntary, secular, and noncriminal nature. This article argues that the "unlabeling" of Charan's death, like those of other women between 1999 and 2006, reflects a tension between the nonindividuated, impervious model of personhood exemplified by sati and the particularized citizen-subject of liberal-democratic politics in India.

Chai And Conversation: Crafting Field Identities And Archaeological Practice In South Asia, Teresa Raczek, Namita S. Sugandhi

Faculty and Research Publications

In this article, we present examples from four research projects in India that were influenced by the values and ethics of decolonized and participatory research, and shaped by engendered perspectives. Each project built on earlier experiences that forced us to critically examine the ways we engaged with participants, crafted our field identities, and formed relationships. Using insights from linguistic anthropology and attending to intersectional inequalities and the construction of epistemic authority, we showcase how conducting an ethnography of communication and employing tactics of intersubjectivity influenced archaeological outcomes. We argue that close attention to context of communication, identity expression, and intersectional …

An Exploration Of Attitudes Toward Dogs Among College Students In Bangalore, India, Shelly Volsche, Miriam Mohan, Peter B. Gray, Madhavi Rangaswamy

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Conversations in the field of anthrozoology include treatment and distinction of food animals, animals as workers versus pests, and most recently, emerging pet trends including the practice of pet parenting. This paper explores attitudes toward pet dogs in the shared social space of urban India. The data include 375 pen-and-paper surveys from students at CHRIST (Deemed to be University) in Bangalore, India. Reflecting upon Serpell’s biaxial concept of dogs as a relationship of affect and utility, the paper considers the growing trend of pet dog keeping in urban spaces and the increased use of affiliative words to describe these …

An Exploration Of Attitudes Toward Dogs Among College Students In Bangalore, India, Shelly Volsche, Miriam Mohan, Peter B. Gray, Madhavi Rangaswamy

Anthropology Faculty Research

Conversations in the field of anthrozoology include treatment and distinction of food animals, animals as workers versus pests, and most recently, emerging pet trends including the practice of pet parenting. This paper explores attitudes toward pet dogs in the shared social space of urban India. The data include 375 pen-and-paper surveys from students at CHRIST (Deemed to be University) in Bangalore, India. Reflecting upon Serpell’s biaxial concept of dogs as a relationship of affect and utility, the paper considers the growing trend of pet dog keeping in urban spaces and the increased use of affiliative words to describe these relationships. …

Vision, Voice, And Cinematic Presence, Constantine V. Nakassis, Amanda Weidman

Anthropology Faculty Research and Scholarship

Anxieties around the appearance and audition of the female body and voice in Tamil cinema reveal a semiotic ideology of the image that does not fit neatly within the idea of cinema as representation. Instead, this ideology takes filmic images to be acts that performatively presence the actresses and singers who animate them, in other words morally charged acts for which such animators are held accountable. Drawing on linguistic anthropology and film theory, this article explores vision-image and sound-image as distinct modes of performative presence, noting the division of semiotic labor between them as well as their interaction and interdependence. …

Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale: A Charismatic Authority And His Ideology, John P. Cibotti

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale’s militant and masculinist discourses were embraced by Punjabi Sikhs because of his presence as a charismatic authority, a concept first developed by sociologist Max Weber to understand the conditions surrounding and personal qualities of a figure which attracts followers. The rebellion he led in Punjab resulted from his radical exploitation of issues concerning the Sikh community. Religion was wielded as a tool, legitimizing Sikh violence as commanded by the Gurus. Radical interpretations of Sikh scripture and folklore were initially preached to rural, less educated crowds. While his sermons brought out their frustrations with the government, …

Book Review: Kirin Narayan, Everyday Creativity: Singing Goddesses In The Himalayan Foothills (Kirin Narayan), Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Ethnographic Investigations Of Commercial Aquaculture As A Rural Development Technique In Tamil Nadu, India, Brittany L. Kiessling

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1960s, international aid organizations and governments have invested millions of dollars in promoting aquaculture as a way to stimulate local economies and improve food security. India is one such country, incorporating aquaculture research and extension programs as part of their development plans as early as 1971. India’s aquaculture promotion efforts gained momentum in 2004, following the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. The government sees aquaculture as a post-disaster development tool and a method to increase community resilience in rural areas of India.

Aquaculture currently constitutes nearly half of global seafood production today. Due to this importance, and the …

Evidence For Patterns Of Selective Urban Migration In The Greater Indus Valley (2600-1900 Bc): A Lead And Strontium Isotope Mortuary Analysis, Benjamin Valentine, George D. Kamenov, Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, Vasant Shinde, Veena Mushrif-Tripathy, Erik Otarola-Castillo, John Krigbaum

Dartmouth Scholarship

Just as modern nation-states struggle to manage the cultural and economic impacts of migration, ancient civilizations dealt with similar external pressures and set policies to regulate people’s movements. In one of the earliest urban societies, the Indus Civilization, mechanisms linking city populations to hinterland groups remain enigmatic in the absence of written documents. However, isotopic data from human tooth enamel associated with Harappa Phase (2600-1900 BC) cemetery burials at Harappa (Pakistan) and Farmana (India) provide individual biogeochemical life histories of migration. Strontium and lead isotope ratios allow us to reinterpret the Indus tradition of cemetery inhumation as part of a …

Strategic Deployments Of "Sisterhood" And Questions Of Solidarity At A Women's Development Project In Janakpur, Nepal, Coralynn V. Davis

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

Sovereign Silence: Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act And Sex Work In Sonagachhi, Simanti Dasgupta

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

Drawing upon ethnographic work with a grassroots sex workers’ organization in Calcutta, Durbar Samanwaya Samiti (Durbar), this article analyzes the relationship between subalternity and silence. I discuss how sex workers, especially new entrants, use silence as a subaltern strategy to resist state and non-state surveillance intended to oppose trafficking. The increased surveillance is a direct result of the global anti-trafficking narrative, led mainly by the United States, in which developing countries, like India, adopt measures to avoid being downgraded in the United States’ Trafficking in Persons Report. I contend that these national and international efforts have led to a quandary …

New Matriarchs: Louisville, Kentucky (Fa 768), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and representative photographs for Folklife Archives Project 768. The collection details the lives of seven women from around the globe (India, Syria, Mexico, Uganda, Russia, Argentina, and Somalia),all recent immigrants to Louisville, Kentucky.

Interview With Swati Mehta About Her Ethnic Background (Fa 601), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview conducted by Elizabeth Mosby Adler with Swati Mehta for an oral history and cultural project titled EthniCity: Contemporary Ethnicity in the Inner Bluegrass.

Interview With Nirmala Sathaye About Her Ethnic Background (Fa 601), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview conducted by Elizabeth Mosby Adler with Nirmala Sathaye for an oral history and cultural project titled EthniCity: Contemporary Ethnicity in the Inner Bluegrass. The interviewee discusses her life in India, including her education, family life, and cultural traditions. She also explains doll costumes she has made.

Interview With Veena Bonsal About Her Ethnic Background (Fa 601), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transciption of an interview conducted by Elizabeth Mosby Adler with Veena Bonsal for an oral history and cultural project titled EthniCity: Contemporary Ethnicity in the Inner Bluegrass. Interviewee discusses her life in India and the U.S. as it relates to traditions of language, family, food, clothing, body art, etc.

Ethnicity: Contemporary Ethnicity In The Inner Bluegrass (Fa 601), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Foklife Arhives Project 601. Collection of materials related to Ethnicity, a project documenting ethnic heritage in the inner Bluegrass, sponsored by The Living Arts and Science Center, the Kentucky Folklife Program of the Kentucky Historical Society, and the Lexington Public Library. This collection includes audio and written transcripts of those interviews. Also included are various administrative and program related papers.

“Enemies Of Life In The Name Of Life”: Seed Patents, Gm Crops, And The Global South, Patricia Arenson

Anthropology Department Honors Papers

In the past few decades agribusiness in the global North has developed a booming industry in genetically modified (GM) crops; industry giants have secured patents and aggressively protected them to maximize profits. This new technology has been exported to the Global south, where its introduction has caused a cascade of horrific problems for farmers and non-­‐farmers alike. GM crops and seed patents have exacerbated poverty, accelerated the loss of indigenous knowledge, and threatened to destroy ecosystems through the loss of biodiversity. This honors thesis explores these issues with a focus on the situation in India, where Vandana Shiva has led …

Designing A Base Station For Living Routes In Auroville, India, Vandita Mudgal

Living Routes Student Projects

Living Routes is a Non Governmental organization based in Amherst, MA that sends students overseas for semester long courses affiliated by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The courses comprise of sustainable living practices, ecological studies and a lifestyle that supports nature. These sites are primarily eco-villages spread throughout the world. In some of them Living Routes has its own campus and in others they function from temporary guest houses and hired accommodations.

This LARP Master’s study project worked to develop the spatial design for a campus located in Auroville, India for Living Routes. As the course is more established in …

The (No) Work And (No) Leisure World Of Women In Assi, Banaras, Nita Kumar

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

In the riverside neighborhood (mohalla) of Assi, in the south of Banaras, families of the following professions are to be found: the preparation and retail of foods such as: milk, sweets, tea, paan, peanuts and snacks; clerical work in offices or shops; private professional work, such as priesthood, teaching, boating, cleaning toilets; and crafts, such as masonry, weaving, making and maintaining jacquard machines, carpentry, and goldsmithy. All this work is done by men in the public sphere. In Banaras, the observable and articulated sphere of activity called "work" (kam) largely exists for men only. Men are …

Reports On Achievement Motivation, Barpali, India, Thomas M. Fraser, American Friends Service Committee

Research Report 01: Reports on Achievement Motivation

CONTENT

I. Motivational Research in Community Development . . . . . . 1

II. Measuring Achievement Motivation: Preliminary Study and Proposals for Further Research . . . . . . 8

III. Measuring Achievement Motivation: Correlation of Data on School Children Tested for Achievement Motivation . . . . . . 24

IV. Notes on Entrepreneurial Behavior of Former Mechanical Trainees . . . . . . 44