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Full-Text Articles in Anthropology
A Comparison Of Neo-Hobbesian Social Contract Theory And Anthropological Accounts Of Socio-Political Complexity, Benjamin Lee
A Comparison Of Neo-Hobbesian Social Contract Theory And Anthropological Accounts Of Socio-Political Complexity, Benjamin Lee
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Social contract theory continues to be a leading theoretical framework in political philosophy. It argues that an individual's moral and political obligations are generated by, and dependent upon, an agreement or contract between that individual and the other individuals within their society. Notable scholars who have championed this theory include Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Rawls, and Gauthier. This thesis focuses on reviewing the descriptive aspects of Hobbes’ social contract theory, by revising an already revised account provided by Gregory Kavka. Once this revision is complete, it will be argued that the descriptive aspects of Hobbes’ account of social contract are in …
Pompeiian Mill-Bakeries: Spatial Organization And Social Interaction, Madeleine Rubin
Pompeiian Mill-Bakeries: Spatial Organization And Social Interaction, Madeleine Rubin
Undergraduate Honors Theses
This thesis examines bread production and the daily lives of those who worked in mill-bakeries during the first century CE. Bread was the staple food across the ancient Mediterranean; however, there is little textual evidence about those who produced the bread that fed the Roman Empire. The most significant body of evidence relating to the lives of mill-bakers is the archaeological remains of mill-bakeries from the city of Pompeii, preserved by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. This thesis analyzes the spatial organization of bread production within these mill-bakeries and applies the methodologies of spatial syntax – a …
The Diy Ethic In Richmond, Virginia’S Underground Music Community, Calvin Sloan
The Diy Ethic In Richmond, Virginia’S Underground Music Community, Calvin Sloan
Undergraduate Honors Theses
This project seeks to examine Richmond, Virginia’s underground music community through the analytical perspective of sociocultural anthropology. I argue that Richmond’s underground music community is guided by a governing ideology I refer to as the “DIY ethic”. The application of the DIY (Do It Yourself) ethic helps to explain the community’s unique practices, including moshing and the formation of new, niche genres. This ethnographic approach includes interviews with community members and my own firsthand observations of music venues and other subcultural spaces. This research is part of my undergraduate honors project at the College of William & Mary.
Asking For Forgiveness: Negotiating The Creation Of Memory Through Public Memorialization, Alyssa Castronuovo
Asking For Forgiveness: Negotiating The Creation Of Memory Through Public Memorialization, Alyssa Castronuovo
Undergraduate Honors Theses
The practice of spatializing culture, or “examining space through theories of embodiment, discourse translocality, and effect,” localizes the global and separates hegemonic narratives of space from how it is actually utilized by the people who interact with it. Setha Low argues that this perspective is especially useful to the anthropologist committed to challenging the discipline’s historically eurocentric approach to studying culture. She writes that a spatial focus “[draws] on the strengths of studying people in situ, producing rich and nuanced sociospatial understandings.” This project began with an interest in theorists such as Edward Soja, Michel de Certeau, and Henri Lefebvre, …
Cultivation Through Excavation: Performing Community And Partnership In The Historic First Baptist Church Project, Eleanor S. Renshaw
Cultivation Through Excavation: Performing Community And Partnership In The Historic First Baptist Church Project, Eleanor S. Renshaw
Undergraduate Honors Theses
This thesis explores the relationships and partnerships developing around the First Baptist Church -- Nassau Street Archaeology Project in Colonial Williamsburg. Exploring the defining of "descendant community" and the contributions of tourists through the lens of Erving Goffman's stages and participant frameworks, this project looks at the past, present, and future of this project.
Silver, Ships And Soil: Gift-Giving In Medieval Icelandic Sagas, Emma Eubank
Silver, Ships And Soil: Gift-Giving In Medieval Icelandic Sagas, Emma Eubank
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Through applying anthropological theory to gift exchange in medieval Icelandic sagas, we can uncover a wealth of information about the construction and reinforcement of gender, power, and value. This study incorporates Mauss, Sahlins, and Graeber alongside other theorists to analyze how the narrators of Egil's Saga, The Saga of Grettir the Strong, and Gisli Sursson's Saga perceived a past Iceland.