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Social and Cultural Anthropology

Theses/Dissertations

2011

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

A Darker Shade Of Blue: From Public Servant To Professional Deviant; Law Enforcement's Special Operations Culture, Louis Scott Silverii Dec 2011

A Darker Shade Of Blue: From Public Servant To Professional Deviant; Law Enforcement's Special Operations Culture, Louis Scott Silverii

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The culture of law enforcement is an all or nothing proposition with no gray area where membership into this society is concerned. You are either “on the job” or you are not. Even references among officers to “the job” indicate there is only one job. Likened to a secret handshake, that initial phrase if answered correctly opens the door to instant fraternal acceptance, get out of violation passes, and the many other assumed privileges of brotherhood. Manning (1980) describes the powerful mystification of policing as the “sacred canopy”. He further asserts that “the police role conveys a sense of …


The Path To Peace: Conflict Theory And Northern Ireland’S Troubles (1968-1998), Ruairi Wiepking Dec 2011

The Path To Peace: Conflict Theory And Northern Ireland’S Troubles (1968-1998), Ruairi Wiepking

Master's Theses

This paper is a qualitative historical analysis of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Over a period of approximately thirty years, sectarian violence in Northern Ireland dominated the headlines of newspapers in both the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Despite this violent history, Northern Ireland has enjoyed relative peace and stability since the passage of the Belfast Agreement in 1998. This paper aims to better understand why and how Northern Ireland endured a generation of brutal sectarian violence and emerged into a new era of peace and mutual understanding. In doing so, this paper incorporates theories from peace and conflict studies …


Shifting Notions Of Citizenship In The Netherlands: Exploring Cultural Citizenship And The Politics Of Belonging Through Neighbourhood Spaces In Rotterdam, Jennifer Long Dec 2011

Shifting Notions Of Citizenship In The Netherlands: Exploring Cultural Citizenship And The Politics Of Belonging Through Neighbourhood Spaces In Rotterdam, Jennifer Long

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Notions of citizenship in the Netherlands are increasingly shifting away from liberal models of civic citizenship that, in theory, promote diversity, pluralism and, multicultural understandings of citizenship and are moving, instead, towards a mono-cultural and assimilationist understanding of national identity and belonging. This trend, known in the literature as the ‘culturalization of citizenship’ constitutes the primary topic of this project.

In this dissertation, I argue that official and populist discourses concerning non-western Muslim immigrants in Dutch society today work to inscribe difference onto “foreign” (“allochthonous”) residents of the Netherlands while upholding an idealized notion of “Dutch identity”. My research revealed …


Consequences Of Contact: An Evaluation Of Childhood Health Patterns Using Enamel Hypoplasias Among The Colonial Maya Of Tipu, Amanda R. Harvey Dec 2011

Consequences Of Contact: An Evaluation Of Childhood Health Patterns Using Enamel Hypoplasias Among The Colonial Maya Of Tipu, Amanda R. Harvey

Master's Theses

Located in western Belize, Tipu was occupied from 1541-1704. This Colonial Maya population from a Spanish visita mission church was analyzed to investigate health disturbances associated with European contact. Dental defect called enamel hypoplasias were scored to assess childhood health. Standard methods of scoring (Buikstra and Ubelaker 1994) were employed to assess frequency, severity, and type of episode in the permanent anterior dentition. For analysis, 325 individuals were placed into age groups of subadults (6-17 years), younger adults (18-35 years), and older adults (36-50+ years). The population was also considered for differences by sex and tooth type.

Results showed a …


Ancestral Analysis Of The French Colonial Moran Cemetery, Biloxi, Mississippi, Danielle Nicole Cook Dec 2011

Ancestral Analysis Of The French Colonial Moran Cemetery, Biloxi, Mississippi, Danielle Nicole Cook

Master's Theses

The Moran site (22HR511) in Biloxi, Mississippi, dates from 1719 to 1723 and is the earliest known French Colonial cemetery in the United States. Historical records suggest that those interred likely represent immigrants from Western Europe as well as Africa who were relocated in an effort to colonize the Louisiana Territory. Given the variety of cultural backgrounds at the site, an ancestral analysis of the 25 individuals uncovered has been conducted. Traditional markers such as cranial and tooth morphology and metrics, and enamel composition, were evaluated in all individuals, and DNA was analyzed in five. Stable isotope levels were also …


Shady Grove Site (22qu525) Quitman County, Mississippi: Analysis Of Demographics And Mortuary Practices, Stacy Ann Scott Dec 2011

Shady Grove Site (22qu525) Quitman County, Mississippi: Analysis Of Demographics And Mortuary Practices, Stacy Ann Scott

Master's Theses

The Mississippian Period (A.D. 1000-1500) is distinguished by reliance on stable agriculture, sedentary ranked populations, and production of prestige goods. Sociopolitical structure was based on kinship, wealth, and power, and can be revealed through the local mortuary programs. This thesis explores the mortuary practices observed at an ossuary at Shady Grove (22QU525), a small mounded center in Quitman County dating to the Early Mississippian Period, based on demographics, burial mode, cemetery location, and associated grave goods.

The Burial 43 ossuary, excavated in 2010 contained stacked bundle burials of at least 78 individuals. All age groups and both sexes were present. …


Bringing The Outside In: An Examination Of Non-Governmental Aid Organizations In Buenos Aires, Elisabeth B. Tilstra Dec 2011

Bringing The Outside In: An Examination Of Non-Governmental Aid Organizations In Buenos Aires, Elisabeth B. Tilstra

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.


"Not If, But When": Sex, Risk, And Trust In Timing Gardasil Vaccine Decisions, An Exploratory Study Among Healthcare Providers And Middle-Class Parents In The U.S., Kathleen Marie Brelsford Nov 2011

"Not If, But When": Sex, Risk, And Trust In Timing Gardasil Vaccine Decisions, An Exploratory Study Among Healthcare Providers And Middle-Class Parents In The U.S., Kathleen Marie Brelsford

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation research explores how values regarding sexuality, morality, responsibility, protection, trust, and risk — expressed through parent, daughter, and healthcare provider relationships and interactions — inform parental decisions regarding the Gardasil® vaccine. In particular, the research examines the competing and conflicting meanings that parents and providers ascribe to vaccination and how actors position the vaccine within a wider set of negotiated, value–laden discourses. Because these narratives are situated within a larger structural field that shapes the landscape in which providers and parents interact, relevant historical and structural factors, including vaccine policy, cost, and compensation are discussed.


The Maghreb Maquiladora: Gender, Labor, And Socio-Economic Power In A Tunisian Export Processing Zone, Claire Therese Oueslati-Porter Oct 2011

The Maghreb Maquiladora: Gender, Labor, And Socio-Economic Power In A Tunisian Export Processing Zone, Claire Therese Oueslati-Porter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study is about Tunisian women's work and lives in the present era of economic neoliberalism. The focus is women in the city of Bizerte, Tunisia, both those who work in Bizerte's export processing zone (EPZ), as well as those who work outside it. This study is a qualitative examination of formal and informal employment, set inside and outside of women's traditional political and economic domain, the home. Through ethnography of women's work and lives, this study's purpose is to contribute evidence against conflating women's "empowerment" with incorporation into global production. However, this study also lends itself to considerations of …


Shaping Topographies Of Home: A Political Ecology Of Migration, Carylanna Kathryn Taylor Oct 2011

Shaping Topographies Of Home: A Political Ecology Of Migration, Carylanna Kathryn Taylor

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Even from afar, transnational migrants influence how their households and communities of origin use natural resources. This study depicts the circulation of people, funds, and ideas within transnational families that extend from a Honduran village to the United States. Developing a "political ecology of migration" approach, I show how these circulations can reshape resource use practices and the socio-economic and bio-physical topographies of emigrants' former homes. The project advances anthropological thought by linking rich literatures on political ecology and transnationalism through a multi-method ethnography of transnational families. The study is also relevant to emigrants, community members, and practitioners interested in …


Dengue Fever In Tegucigalpa, Honduras: Use Of The Explanatory Model In A Sample Of Urban Neighborhoods To Contextualize And Define Dengue Fever Among Community Participants, Jose Enrique Hasemann Oct 2011

Dengue Fever In Tegucigalpa, Honduras: Use Of The Explanatory Model In A Sample Of Urban Neighborhoods To Contextualize And Define Dengue Fever Among Community Participants, Jose Enrique Hasemann

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project elucidated the explanatory model of dengue fever held by members of urban communities in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The study was conducted over a four-month period from May-August of 2011, and it was divided into two stages. The first stage of the project consisted of volunteer participation with dengue fever surveillance brigades in the three communities with the highest incidence of dengue fever during the beginning of 2011. This initial stage employed participant observation as its research method. The second stage was conducted in a different community within Tegucigalpa. The primary research methods employed during the second stage of the …


Model Socialist Town, Two Decades Later: Contesting The Past In Nowa Huta, Poland, Kinga Pozniak Sep 2011

Model Socialist Town, Two Decades Later: Contesting The Past In Nowa Huta, Poland, Kinga Pozniak

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This work examines people’s experiences of the postsocialist transformation in Poland through the lens of memory. Since socialism’s collapse over two decades ago, Poland has undergone dramatic political, economic and social changes. However, the past continues to enter into current politics, economic debates and social issues. This work examines the changes that have taken place by looking at how socialism is remembered two decades after its collapse in the Polish former “model socialist town” of Nowa Huta. It explores how ideas about the past are produced, reproduced and contested in different contexts: in Nowa Huta’s cityscape, in museums, commemorations, and …


The Holistic Complementary Structure Of Western Bio-Medicine And Traditional Healing And Achieving Complete Health, Candace Gail Oubre Aug 2011

The Holistic Complementary Structure Of Western Bio-Medicine And Traditional Healing And Achieving Complete Health, Candace Gail Oubre

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Achieving complete health requires a deep understanding of complementary cultural competency sensitivity between physician and patient. This may include but is not limited to access to preventative health care resources, access to health educational resources and access to cultural healing resources, for example, shamans, Ayurvedic physicians, and herbal healers. Advocates of cultural competency emphasize great importance on knowledge of the patients' cultural background; however, the transcendence of this knowledge can be explained further through complementary cultural competency sensitivity. This is when the cultures of the physician and patient complement each other in terms of understanding what is in the patients' …


"Motorbike Guide For Westerners": Entrepreneurial Development And The Creation Of A Cultural Tourism Product In Transitional Vietnam, Karl Russell Kirby Aug 2011

"Motorbike Guide For Westerners": Entrepreneurial Development And The Creation Of A Cultural Tourism Product In Transitional Vietnam, Karl Russell Kirby

Masters Theses

Vietnam is undergoing economic transition from a command economy to an economy with greater market characteristics. Transition is fundamentally reshaping the country through economic liberalization and increased exposure to foreign markets. The Vietnamese are developing institutions necessary for market growth and international tourists are arriving in ever-larger numbers. This research project is a case study of businesses that provide guided motorbike tours and evaluates the businesses based on two criteria: as a study of institutional growth during economic transition and as an examination of tourism production through guide interpretation. The author interviewed and observed sixteen guides in Vietnam—from Dalat in …


Temporalidades Múltiples En La Encrucijada: Representaciones Artísticas De Lo Afro En Latinoamérica Y El Mundo Hispánico Durante La Actual Etapa De Globalización, Eduard Arriaga Jul 2011

Temporalidades Múltiples En La Encrucijada: Representaciones Artísticas De Lo Afro En Latinoamérica Y El Mundo Hispánico Durante La Actual Etapa De Globalización, Eduard Arriaga

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Nowadays talking about national, racial or gender identities and its representations is quite difficult due to current global-local dynamics of cultural formation. In that sense, approaching to these issues requires the use of comprehensive theories and complex tools in order to forge a better understanding. My dissertation explores the artistic representation of ‘afro’ in the Hispanic world (or the culture built upon the legacies of Africans and African-descendants in the New World and especially in the Caribbean) during the current stage of globalization. In my dissertation, I argue that afro-artistic contemporary representations are overcoming traditional ones -bound to race as …


A Review Of Museum Literature And A Personal Critique. Museology: The Evolution Of A Socially Conscious Institution, Mckenna N. Friend Jun 2011

A Review Of Museum Literature And A Personal Critique. Museology: The Evolution Of A Socially Conscious Institution, Mckenna N. Friend

Social Sciences

This paper explores the relatively recent critical literature published on the history, theory, culture, and politics of museums. The report shall focus on comparing and contrasting curatorial methods as well as the before-and-after effect of the so-called “paradigm shift”—the shift from museums that are object-centered to visitor-centered [1]. This project emphasizes museums of Natural History and Anthropology, either by selecting literature that already references them or by applying the valid information in other articles. This emphasis allows for close evaluation of the exhibition of human evolution, cultural material, and Native Americans. How and why would a museum emphasize science over …


Breasts Are For Feeding: An Anthropological, Archaeological Examination Of Breastfeeding, Blaize A. Uva Jun 2011

Breasts Are For Feeding: An Anthropological, Archaeological Examination Of Breastfeeding, Blaize A. Uva

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.


The Ecology Of San Luis Obispo: A Children's Book, Heidi Van Campen Jun 2011

The Ecology Of San Luis Obispo: A Children's Book, Heidi Van Campen

Social Sciences

San Luis Obispo is one of the most loved places in the world by its residents and visitors. Located halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo is the heart of California's Central Coast. However, this paper is not about the present-day cities or residents. It is an ecological history; the story of life and land over time.

Historians tend to treat nature as the setting for history, rather than a participant. Ecology is a history written knowing that we shape our environment and it shapes us.

This is a story of the ecology of San Luis Obispo.


Urbanization, Obesity, And The Protective Effect Of Traditional Food Behaviors In Fiji, Danielle Christine Krause Jun 2011

Urbanization, Obesity, And The Protective Effect Of Traditional Food Behaviors In Fiji, Danielle Christine Krause

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.


Broken English And Fixed Stereotypes: The Portrayal Of Asian Americans In The Popular Media, Alice C. Huang Jun 2011

Broken English And Fixed Stereotypes: The Portrayal Of Asian Americans In The Popular Media, Alice C. Huang

Honors Theses

Since the arrival of East Asian people to the United States of America in the nineteenth century, their portrayal in the popular media has largely consisted of stereotypes: John Chinaman, Charlie Chan, Fu Manchu, Geisha Girl, etc. To investigate if there are changes in the representation of Asian Americans in the popular media, two types of research methods were utilized: content analysis and surveys. With over 300 surveys distributed electronically on the Union College campus, 56 responses were received. The survey was composed of 30.4% Asian Americans and 69.6% Caucasian Americans. The surveys had some interesting trends, which indicate that …


Illuminating Distinction: Rural Modernization And The Invention Of The Countryside In Cajamarca, Perú, Jade Severson May 2011

Illuminating Distinction: Rural Modernization And The Invention Of The Countryside In Cajamarca, Perú, Jade Severson

Senior Theses

The district of La Encañada, located deep within the Andean sierra north of the city of Cajamarca, is in a state of transition. As the beneficiary of a 2006 collaborative project between ITDG-Soluciones Prácticas and the European Union, nine of the district’s communities received a solar panel stipulated for placement on each community’s local centro educativo, a school serving students at both the primary and secondary grade levels. Investment in solar panels was intended to complement a much more integral project designed to harness the resources available in the district and to thus empower peasant men and women and their …


Waking Up To The Present: Vipassana Meditation And The Body, Craig Geffre May 2011

Waking Up To The Present: Vipassana Meditation And The Body, Craig Geffre

Senior Theses

Using ethnographic methods I examine the process of learning vipassana meditation, a form of meditation in which the practitioner focuses on their bodily sensations, and the ways in which learning this form of meditation affects the practitioner's daily life. I employ reflexivity alongside an ethnography of the particular to capture my experiences as the student of a Thai Theravada Buddhist monk who teaches at a temple in Portland, Oregon. Through this process I have found that learning vipassana meditation pervades numerous aspects of daily life, extending beyond direct instruction and meditation practice, bringing about perceptual changes in reality as learned …


A Question Of Comfort: Race, Whiteness, And The Creation Of Diverse, Inclusive, And Engaged Learning Environments, H. Elizabeth Braun May 2011

A Question Of Comfort: Race, Whiteness, And The Creation Of Diverse, Inclusive, And Engaged Learning Environments, H. Elizabeth Braun

Open Access Dissertations

Most colleges and universities in the United States today claim that “diversity” is an important institutional value, but it is not always clear what this term means or how “diversity” is actually experienced and understood by students at predominantly white institutions. This ethnographic study examines a predominantly white liberal arts woman’s college in New England, applying data from participant observation, semistructured interviews, autoethnography, and textual data. My research addresses three intersecting areas of inquiry: the experience of students attending a predominantly white institution in relation to issues of race and racial identity, institutional practices related to race, “diversity,” and “culture,” …


Politics By Other Means: Rhizomes Of Power In Argentina's Social Movements, Graciela G. Monteagudo May 2011

Politics By Other Means: Rhizomes Of Power In Argentina's Social Movements, Graciela G. Monteagudo

Open Access Dissertations

The focus of my research has been the reverberations of the 2001 Argentine economic crisis, as they affected and were responded to by women in social movements. This dissertation contributes to studies of globalization by highlighting the unintended consequences of neoliberalism in Argentina in the form of the collective empowerment of women in egalitarian social movements. The negative consequences of neoliberalism are well known, but I found that these policies produced more than misery. They also helped to stimulate a new kind of politics —a set of autonomous movements aimed at democratizing society as well as the state. In response …


Modern Day Utopia: An Examination Of Internal Social Control Among "Rainbow Family", Ashleigh Elain Mckinzie May 2011

Modern Day Utopia: An Examination Of Internal Social Control Among "Rainbow Family", Ashleigh Elain Mckinzie

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis employs ethnographic fieldwork and interviews to examine internal Social control, ideological embeddedness, and resistance to mainstream culture and ideology in a utopian, counter-cultural group called The Rainbow Family of Living Light. Combining theoretical perspectives on emotions and re-integrative and dis-integrative shaming with symbolic interaction, I examine the experiences of Rainbow during a national Gathering in the summer of 2010. Through interviews and observations, I illustrate the rituals, organization of camp, stratification based on work, and solidarity building activities, that Rainbow Gatherers create to resist mainstream ideology and culture. Further, I show that they Rainbow Gatherers redefine deviance in …


The Symbolic Creation Of Cultural Performance At The Walnut Valley Festival, Maggie Colleen Cobb May 2011

The Symbolic Creation Of Cultural Performance At The Walnut Valley Festival, Maggie Colleen Cobb

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Through two years of ethnographic fieldwork and 19 interviews, I synthesize symbolic interaction and a sociological framework of culture to examine the ways in which the Walnut Valley Festival is created and experienced as a unique form of cultural performance, one that is always shifting in response to the emergent cultural creation and reception of attendees. No work to date combines the dimensions of both production and reception of music festivals as a unique form of cultural performance. In bringing back the oftentimes ignored affective dimension in cultural studies, I use Griswold's (2004) metaphor of a cultural diamond, examining the …


Post-Conflict Cultural Revival And Social Restructuring In Northern Uganda, Erin Michelle Cagney May 2011

Post-Conflict Cultural Revival And Social Restructuring In Northern Uganda, Erin Michelle Cagney

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.


Defining American Casual: An Examination Of The American Woman's Steady Shift Toward Informal Attire At Work And On The Streets, Victoria Elizabeth Smith May 2011

Defining American Casual: An Examination Of The American Woman's Steady Shift Toward Informal Attire At Work And On The Streets, Victoria Elizabeth Smith

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.


Exploring The Educator's Perspective When Approached With A Multicultural Classroom, Jodi L. Brown May 2011

Exploring The Educator's Perspective When Approached With A Multicultural Classroom, Jodi L. Brown

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.


Between Structural Violence And Resistance: The Everyday Resistance Of Karen Migrants In Thailand, John Giammatteo May 2011

Between Structural Violence And Resistance: The Everyday Resistance Of Karen Migrants In Thailand, John Giammatteo

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This paper details the lives of eight Karen-Burmese migrants living in Mae Sot, Thailand, a city on the Thai-Burma border and one of the main legal crossing points between the two countries. The study demonstrates the important relationship between structural violence and everyday resistance. It documents how individuals in a legally liminal state can increase their security and it describes just how these linkages occur – that migrants utilize their liminality and “in-between” status and attempt to increase their security to avoid oppression and harassment in daily life. By linking these concepts – resistance and liminality posed against structural violence …