Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Lessons From Cideci Las Casas : The Potential For Non-Directive Learning Spaces In The United States, Gideon Mausner

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of my project was to observe the informal, non-directive and communal learning space of CIdeCI Las Casas in San Cristobal, Chiapas and consider its potential applications in the United States of America. The following paper presents the results of this project in five sections. In the first section I examine the meaning of modern education and its primary vessel, the school. In the second section I give a detailed background of CIdeCI: its history and purpose and its place within the cultural and political realities of Chiapas. In the third section I share my experiences and observations from …

The Material Remains Of World War Ii On Viti Levu: A Historical Archaeological Inventory, Allison Young

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

World War II was a global conflict that dramatically changed many aspects of society in the late 1940’s. It transformed the landscape of many locations, leaving behind a vast and diverse material record. Although the battles of the conflict never reached Fiji, a British colony in the South Pacific, the war greatly impacted the island group. Fiji was under threat of Japanese invasion for the majority of 1942 and part of 1943, which resulted in a build up of military forces and defensive installations. In the later years, Fiji was used as a forward base for the Allied forces, which …

L’Identité Dans La Musique Occitane : La Conservation De L’Art Pour Exprimer La Culture = Identity In Occitan Music : Expressions Of Culture Through The Preservation Of Art, Christina Lambert

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project focused on how identity is expressed and preserved through Occitan music, and what exactly that identity means to whom that identity belongs. The researcher studied and listened to many different bands and artists, all of who had unique styles and sounds. While conducting research on the history of Occitania and of its music, the researcher interviewed several musicians and others who worked with the Occitan culture. These interviews and research led to a greater understanding of Occitania, and of the people who are fighting to keep it alive. By attending traditional dances, concerts, and book readings, the researcher …

Changing Dress And Changing Perceptions: A Look At Traditional Muslim Dress In A Small Coastal Town, Maggie Gilligan

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study took place in the Kenyan costal town of Lamu. It focused on the cultural clothing of the Muslim women found on the East African coast, clothing known specifically as the buibui, hijab, and the ninja. Through interviews and observation it was found that the women use the buibui to express their individual and group identity in the community, including their degree of modernity, their social status, age group, and religiousness. The fashion of the buibui reaches all the residence of Lamu and is an area of tension between the conservative and liberal peoples.

Herbs, Qur’An, And Mashetani: Practice, Use, Perception, And Integration Of Traditional Medicine In Bodo, Elan Ebeling

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study examines the practice, use and perception of traditional medicine in the rural village of Bodo, on the south coast of Kenya. This paper surveys the different types, treatments, and education of traditional medical practitioners, as well as assesses the accessibility of both traditional and conventional medicine facilities. Secondly, it addresses the perceptions of different community members of illness and healthcare, and, in the light of recent attempts to integrate traditional medicine into the national healthcare system, examines how these perceptions work in conjunction with accessibility to influence the use of healthcare.

“For They Shall Inherit The Earth”: Seeking Solutions For Durban’S Street Children, Allison La Fave

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As a visiting white, American female, I could not help but be struck by Durban’s highly visible population of young African boys in the streets and on the beachfront. Although my experiences at a student-run homeless shelter and in the Housing Unit of Boston Legal Services have made me well aware of urban poverty and racial inequality, I was nonetheless shocked to see the extent to which young people bear the brunt of the problem in one of Africa’s most “developed” young democracies. Interested in what, if any, measures were being taken to curb the problem, I began to investigate …

The Ethical Limitations Of South Africa’S Education Market, Ethan Chang

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In response to the centrally controlled Bantu Education system, the resistance movement advocated a decentralized system of educational governance that included local voices in the running of schools. In 1996, the government satisfied the movement’s demands by including local school governing bodies (SGBs) as apart of the South African Schools Act (SASA). Attached to the powers of SGBs however was a right not advocated by the movement: the ability to set school fees. SGBs’ authority over school fee policy has transformed their role in school governance from democratic platforms for local voices into efficient cost and budgeting centers. As a …

The Heart Of Forgiveness, In Light Of Unforgettable Hurt: A Multi-Faceted Perspective On Reconciliation In Northern Uganda, Barbara Vi Thien Ho

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As the prospect of a peace agreement in northern Uganda becomes more likely, there is no greater time than now to address reconciliation and reintegration of formerly abducted persons (FAPs). Rather than focus on the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and reception centers, however, the study utilized focus group interviews, informal and non-formal interviews and secondary sources to gain a deeper understanding of how the community approaches reconciliation and reintegration. The study takes a critical look at Acholi community’s traditional approaches to justice and reconciliation in order to understand its strength and weaknesses in providing true reconciliation and a positive …

Seeing Is Believing: How The U.S. Government And American News Networks Spun The Iraq War, Sarah Schenter

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The American public was doubly deceived into compliance with the Iraq War – first by the government, then by the news media, which disseminated and amplified the Bush administration’s misleading rhetoric and accepted as fact the “evidence” of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq that was used as the main justification for going to war. This paper first provides a background history of the role of American news media in armed conflict up until the Iraq War, starting with the Revolutionary War. The media was a powerful political actor ever since the beginning of United States history. With the evolution …

Vital Correspondence: Analyzing Local And International Media Coverage Of Armed Conflict, Marissa Moran

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The atrocities of armed conflicts such as those in Israel’s Gaza Strip and the Darfur region of Sudan are not reaching and affecting Westerners as clearly and potently as they should, considering the technological capabilities of today’s international news media. In this paper, I will argue that media coverage of armed conflict in the developing world is stifled by the politics of international and transnational news media organizations and the unique challenges and limitations to local news organizations at the site of conflict. Private interests, financial constraints, and physical and political limitations cause global media to emphasize mainly the violent …

The Perseverance Of Aboriginal Australian Time Philosophy And Its Impact On Integration Into The Mainstream Labor Force, Kelly Adams

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study demonstrates that Aboriginal Australian time philosophy has survived the impact of European colonization through applying anthropological inquiry into time perception to functional attitudes towards work ethic. By doing so I highlight time perception as one of the “root causes” of Aboriginal socio-economic disadvantage in the barrier it poses to Aboriginal labor force participation. The Native Title Act put pressure on the mining industry to set high targets for Indigenous employment and in the process has given Aboriginal communities the opportunity to become “active initiators” of their relationship to time by forcing industrial compromise through resistance to adopt the …

Remembering The Roots: Political Consciousness In The Quilombo Pitanga De Palmares In A Modernizing Society, Matthew Glenn

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Without a doubt, history affects greatly our modern realities. Yet, modernity proposes that we forget those things that make us different in order to be part of a society that is falsely seen as more advanced. One would expect that no one would understand better the need to remember history than quilombolas, people that live in communities with strong ties to their African ancestry. Whereas Brazilian culture makes it easy for the majority of citizens to forget their past by denying their racial background, an idea identified by academics and activists as “racial democracy”, quilombolas live in a reality that …

O Último Peixe Ideas About The Future In Coastal Trairí, Marycate R. Brower

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper uses ethnographic methods, including semi-formal, semi-structured interviews, but especially participant observation and informal conversation, to attempt to understand the realities of the coastal population of the Municipality of Trairí, Ceará, Brazil, as the traditional fishing communities of Guajiru, Fleixeiras, and Emboacca react to international and national economic policies, tourism, and land speculation that are enacted through the lens of neoliberalism. This study corroborates the statements of community members as they relate their ideas about the present conditions of pescadors artesanais as they deal with increasing and ever-changing government policies that regulate and limit their craft, a lobster population …

Reserved Women: The Implementation And Efficacy Of A Reserved Seat Quota For Women In The Tibetan Parliament In Exile, Carolyn Griffiths

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

By studying a specific example of a system which requires women to be part of the government, policy makers can better understand how to use tools such as a quota to improve the lives of women. I researched whether and how women gain political agency through the quota system implemented by the Tibetan government in exile. I used in-depth interviews from both parliamentary members and those affected by the decisions made by the Tibetan Government in exile to discover the social climate surrounding the quota system. I gained an understanding of how the condition of women’s lives has changed as …

Tuberculosis Por Los Ojos De La Vida Aymara: La Correlación Entre Estilo De Vida Y Tuberculosis En Los Aymara Del Norte De Chile, Sam Percy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Background: Explanations for disparities in health between groups of people are complex, and based in differences in genetics, environment, access to medical care, socioeconomic, educational, and cultural factors. In short a person’s lifestyle is inextricably related to a person’s health and their propensity to contract disease. Members of the indigenous group Aymara who live in Arica, Chile have 6 times the rate of morbidity from Tuberculosis (TB) as non-Aymara and 9 times the rate of mortality from the disease. This study examined if there was a link between the rate of TB amongst the Aymaran people and the way Aymarans …

Tibetan Carpets…Or Are They? An Analysis Of The Carpet Industry In Kathmandu, Nepal, Swetha Ramaswamy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project focuses on the Tibetan Carpet Industry started in Nepal during the 1960s with help of the Central Tibetan Administration, His Majesty’s Government of Nepal, and support from the Swiss. By the 1990s, the Industry was central to Nepal’s economy, providing means of employment for many Nepalese, and no longer needed external support. Since the 1990s, however, Tibetan Carpets are struggling to compete on the international market. My objective is to analyze Tibetan Carpets as they exist in Nepal’s capitalist market. Using Karl Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism, I explore the dynamics between capitalist producer, proletariat worker, and consumer …

Ending Violence…Creating Peace? Rediscovering The Connections Between The Women´S Movement And A Culture Of Peace In Nicaragua, Sami Poindexter

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My project, Ending Violence…Creating Peace?: Rediscovering the Connections between the Women’s Movement and a Culture of Peace in Nicaragua, explores, both in theory and practice, the relationships between the Nicaraguan women’s movement and building a culture of peace. Through an extensive literature review that covered everything from history to feminist and peace theories and from reconciliation and peacebuilding to the militarization of society. Through the process of the literature review, I was fully able to make the theoretical connections between feminism and peace which then allowed me to establish a framework for my research and fieldwork. To investigate the links …

Graffiti En Managua: Una Expresión Democrática De La Juventud Nicaragüense, Katie Laroque

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Semiotics, or the philosophical study of signs and symbols, makes us rethink the familiar and the things we take for granted. If someone walks to work everyday on the same street, after time he will probably stop thinking about the graffiti on the corner. Graffiti is probably something that most of us take for granted, or hardly see anymore, but I argue that its role in society must be rethought. What does graffiti on the wall represent? It is a manifestation of the ideas and beliefs of the artist, as well as a reflection of his artistic talent. When several …

Campesinos/As Cultivating Soil: Promoting And Adopting Sustainable Agriculture In Jinotega, Nicaragua, Emily Grady

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study seeks to answer the question: What pedagogies and theoretical and practical concepts and processes effectively facilitate a transition to sustainable agriculture among campesinos/as in rural Nicaragua? From the perspective of both the facilitators and the participants, what makes these methodologies effective and why is this change important? The Cuculmeca, an organization that promotes the sustainable use of the environment and the participation of communities in their own development, has been promoting sustainable agriculture in Jinotega since 1992. The organization has developed a series of pedagogical strategies that tend to facilitate an enduring transition to sustainable agriculture, and in …

“Leur Rêve Et Leur Vie Sont Ailleurs:” University Student Attitudes Towards Migration And Domestic Opportunity In Morocco, Annie Seibert

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research project attempts to assess how migration fits into Moroccan university student perceptions of upward mobility and to what extent these perceptions relate to domestic opportunity and youth unemployment. The project likewise evaluates the extent to which emigration plays a role in university students’ personal aspirations and the reasons behind their desires to leave home or to remain in Morocco. Research data was acquired primarily through surveys conducted at the universities in Rabat, Casablanca, and Kenitra, and was supplemented by in-depth interviews with students from these universities and with organizations working in the areas of youth, development, and/or unemployment. …

Global Discourse, Local Context: Counter-Terrorism And Human Rights In Morocco, Christine Sargent

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Human rights and terrorism are two of the most frequently invoked, powerfully deployed, and hotly contested paradigms of our time. They are, first and foremost, words. They are words that attempt to describe concepts, values and actions. Human rights are understood as the fundamental “civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights that all human being should enjoy” beyond the non-negotiable, fundamental right to life (United Nations). The concept of terrorism seeks to categorize and comprehend what has been perceived as a uniquely transnational, increasing phenomenon of violent, ideologically driven attacks targeting civilians. Accordingly, counter-terrorism is normatively understood to consist of …

‘They Have To Know That They Are Moroccan’: A Sending Country’S Perspective On The Second Generation Of Emigrants Abroad, Olivia Paquette

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this project, I set out to understand the relations that Morocco has with its second-generation population abroad, the children of emigrants from Morocco who were born and are living in a foreign nation. As citizens of Morocco and as members of Moroccan families, who nonetheless have lived their lives in another country and may perhaps identify themselves in many ways other than Moroccan, I wondered what role these individuals had in the eyes of the Moroccan state and in the eyes of their relatives who live in Morocco. My questions extended to the very categorization of this group that …

“Voter Sans Voter?”: A Study Of Voter Participation In Bamako, Samantha Mclean

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Democracy, as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary is: “a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.” Democracy, as defined by Abraham Lincoln is: “of the people, for the people and by the people.” Democracy, as defined by one Malian citizen is: “une systeme qui permit un citoyen de dire ceux qu’il pense.” For some, the word evokes images of liberty and freedom, for others, images of deep rooted corruption and failure to serve a people. However, no matter how …

Black & Red The Impacts Of Development On Culture: A Case Study Of Dogon People Of Sangha, Mali, Kathleen Remington

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For my Independent Study Project (ISP) I focused my research on struggling to understand the relationship between development and culture in an isolated community. I chose to study the Dogon people located in Sangha, Mali and spent 17 days studying and living among them. By conducting a series of interviews daily, I explored the land and the hearts of the people in order to obtain a meaningful understanding of their culture as well as, to acquire first hand knowledge of the ongoing development.

My paper begins by analyzing general definitions and discourses of both culture and development. I then detail …

Mental Health In Mali: An Analysis Of The Expression Of Major Depressive Disorder Across Different Cultures, Ashley Morris

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Introduction (excerpt) What other differences exist between illnesses across different cultures? Are the differences only found in the manifestation of symptoms or are there also biological differences? How does one conceptualize mental health issues, such as depression, here in Mali? Is there a stigma against mental health patients in Mali? What facilities, treatments, and medicines are available in Mali to treat mental disorder? After a little more background research I found that the topic of mental health in the developing world has been largely ignored until very recently. As cross-cultural studies in every academic discipline become increasingly more prevalent, anthropology …

What Should We Be Doing To Reduce Or End Campus Violence?, Jason A. Laker

Faculty Publications

Over the last several years, there have been a number of high-profile incidents of violence on college and university campuses. These have precipitated discussions and new initiatives on campuses and within our professional organizations intended to prevent and respond to violence.

A Coincidental Trip To Cambodia, Rebecca Otis

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In a timely coincidence, Henry Alford’s recent travel article, “Banishing the Ghosts in Cambodia,” recently tantalized this reader with visions of a destination vacation in mind. Written for the travel-inspired readership of the New York Times, Alford’s version of Cambodia as a newly reborn hotspot for far flung Westerners approaches the point of lulling his decidedly non-Cambodian audience into pleasantly myopic vision of a plush Cambodian phoenix fully risen from its mired ashes. Amidst the outcropping of chic resorts and beautiful beaches reincarnated from the elegant, pre-Khmer Rouge moment of Cambodia’s forgotten past, Alford banishes the ghosts of Pol Pot’s …

A Curse Not Limited To Cambodia, Chandra Lekha Sriram

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Brinkley’s piece draws welcome attention to the virtual farce of hybrid justice now underway in Cambodia, although the emphasis of the piece on the prevalence of corruption de-emphasizes a broader point: human rights protections are not respected in Cambodia, and serious accountability for the abuses by the Khmer Rouge or any subsequent abuses are unlikely, not merely because leaders are corrupt, but because the wide scale culture of impunity makes the protection of human rights and functional rule of law virtually impossible.

Not Just Mexico’S Problem: Labor Migration From Mexico To The United States (1900 – 2000), Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz

Anthropology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

U.S. President Barack Obama has vowed to “help countries like Mexico… do a better job of creating jobs for their people” as part of his plan to curtail undocumented immigration to the United States (Organizing for America). This idea – that the root cause of undocumented migration from Mexico to the U.S. is economic underdevelopment in Mexico – has currency in both popular and political discourse. But is it accurate? In this article, I synthesize historical, theoretical, and ethnographic scholarship to provide a transnational perspective on twentieth century labor migration from Mexico to the United States. These data show that …

The Cost Of Violating Design Affordances And Conventions., Jeremiah Still, Veronica Dark

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.