Anthropology Commons^™

An Ethnographic Exploration Of The Lived Experiences With Gynecologic Cancers, Norma Naser Aldeen

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This thesis stays close to conversations with nine women who spoke about living with and through gynecologic cancers, from moments of finding out, through treatment, and into what follows. These encounters unfolded primarily through digitally mediated exchanges across Baalbek, Beirut, and other translocal settings shaped by distance and movement. Rather than approaching illness as a bounded biomedical event, this thesis attends to how gynecologic cancer is narrated as something that lingers—pressing into everyday life through bodily sensations, altered rhythms, and ongoing recalibrations of care, responsibility, and what remains possible.

Across these encounters, care rarely appears as a stable system …

A Matter Of Detail: An Interview With Andrew Brandel, Sandra Laugier, And Perig Pitrou, Andrew Brandel, Sandra Laugier, Perig Pitrou, Gloria Fall, Tomas De Oliveira, Anna Wood, Maddalena Canna

Transatlantic Forum

This interview centers on A Matter of Detail, a collaborative volume that brings anthropology and philosophy into conversation through a shared concern with the concept and practice of detailing. Structured in three movements, the discussion begins with broad, conceptual questions about the aims of the book, including its refusal of a teleological and Eurocentric history of “detail” and its proposal to approach detail not as a fixed object but as a dynamic mode of attention. The editors reflect on how detailing operates across disciplines, not as the accumulation of facts, but as a way of articulating what matters and to …

Can Palm Logs Float? Evaluating The Physical Viability Of Raft Transport For Rapa Nui Moai, Carl Philipp Lipo, Terry L. Hunt

Anthropology Datasets

Recent suggestions that palm log rafts may have transported moai statues on Rapa Nui require evaluation of whether fresh palm wood can provide sufficient buoyancy for multi-ton cargo. This analysis integrates experimental flotation tests, structural analyses of palm stem anatomy, and buoyancy calculations using modern palm analogs to reconstruct the extinct Rapa Nui palm. Fresh palm logs sink when placed in water because of their internal structure: stems consist of approximately 20% liquid by volume, contained within thousands of water-filled vascular tubes, surrounded by a thin, brittle cortex. This yields effective densities of 800-1,200 kg/m³ that approach or exceed seawater …

A Fijian Barkcloth In The May Weber Ethnographic Study Collection, Delaney M. Bahns

Department of Anthropology

This report examines an object in the May Weber Ethnographic Study Collection, a barkcloth attributed to the Fiji Islands. The report discusses the attribution, as well as the distinction of the object as Fijian masi kesa. The report discusses the techniques used to make bark cloth, as well as past studies of bark cloth in the Pacific Islands. It also examines the gendered context of masi, as well as the issue of cultural intellectual property in recent uses of masi motifs for commercial purposes.

Research Journal 2026: People And Places, José A. Rivera Ph.D

Faculty Publications

José Rivera narrates his life history from adolescence into college years, university teaching, research career, publications, and ends with post-retirement service as a giving back to community. For most of his term as an academic, his research focus was on community-based organizations that he terms “peoples’ institutions”: acequia associations and mutual help societies. For data, he conducted field work in New Mexico and the American Southwest as well as internationally, primarily in Mexico, Peru, Spain and the Philippines. While at these locations, he interviewed people, collected maps, researched archives, and took photographs as ethnographic evidence of people and places. His …

Corrigendum To “Decolonizing Knowledge As Epistemic Justice: Key Conceptual Tendencies From The Global South” [Tanzania Journal Of Sociology, Vol. 11, Issue No.2, December 2025: 113 - 128], Richard Sambaiga

Tanzania Journal of Sociology

This article registers corrections done to a reference section of "Decolonizing Knowledge as Epistemic Justice: Key Conceptual Tendencies from the Global South” [Tanzania Journal of Sociology, Vol. 11, Issue No.2, December 2025: 113 - 128]

Penggunaan Teknologi Tradisional Bubu Pada Masyarakat Nelayan Di Desa Oemongkong Kecamatan Jerowaru Kabupaten Lombok Timur, Aidal Adi Surya As

Multikultura

This study examines a traditional maritime technology in the form of a fish trap known as bubu, which is used by fishing communities in Pemongkong Village, East Lombok, to catch blue swimming crabs (Portunus pelagicus). The focus of the discussion is on the design of the bubu and the methods of its use by local fishermen in Pemongkong Village. The research was conducted using a literature review method, with data sources derived from various written references and scientific publications. The results indicate that the use of bubu by these fishermen is more economically beneficial and environmentally friendly. …

The Effect Of The Socioeconomic Variety In Greater Cairo On Transport Mode Choices, Rafik Yanni

Theses and Dissertations

In the last decade, Egypt has experienced a noticeable upgrade in its infrastructure investment, implementing a lot of transport projects, especially in the Greater Cairo region. In a city with over 20 million residents, variations lie in socioeconomic elements like income, age, gender, and neighborhood, which shape people’s choice of mobility modes based on their culture and lifestyle. The questions then become: whom are these new projects targeting? What are the barriers to using these services? And is there any willingness to change commuting habits if conditions changed? This thesis investigates how the socioeconomic variety in Greater Cairo metropolitan region …

Inventing New Pilgrimage And Religious Tourism In Lombok, Indonesia, Ujang Mahadi, Moch. Khafidz Fuad Raya, Aibdi Rahmat, Jonsi Hunadar, Rindom Harahap

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In the contemporary Muslim world, especially in Indonesia, the boom in religious tourism is increasingly widespread after the discovery of the grave sites of saints (wali) or people who are considered holy. More than that, pilgrimage is increasingly popular when these sites display natural views and multifaceted aspects, thereby adding to the intimacy of Islamic meditation and veneration rituals. This article focuses on five holy tombs in Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara), considered tombs of Muslim saints. Using ethnography with observational techniques and unstructured interviews, we explore the construction of veneration and the marketing efforts of pilgrimages to the …

Conceptualising Sacred Grove Tourism For Future Research Models - A Research Note, Debasish Batabyal, Rupa Sinha Dr., Kareem M. Selem Dr.

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Sacred groves or woodlands are known in tourism settings, they require a long historical process, and their classification as a unique tourism element is expanded in academic literature. To explore the characteristic features of sacred grove tourism, this research note reviews existing studies of tourism. Moreover, this research note seeks to uncover interesting socio-religious, cultural, and conservation dimensions that could guide policy-making in nature-based tourism. A comprehensive review of the tourism literature was conducted to determine whether sacred groves were included as a tourism feature. This research analysed previous studies on nature-based, religious, and cultural heritage tourism to formulate a …

Queer Of Color Critique And The Politics Of Epistemic Agency: Rural Educators Desettling Curricular Expectations, C.A. Langerud, Madelaine Adelman, Daniel D. Liou

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

The purpose of this research is to use queer of color critique (QOCC) as an analytical framework to explore rural K-12 educators’ epistemic agency. The research focuses on educators’ engagement with a national initiative by an advocacy organization to distribute LGBTQ+ and racially diverse books to K-12 schools. The analysis centers on the educators’ praxis of epistemic agency against settled expectations associated with including queer and trans People of Color’s (QTPOC’s) stories in their schools. Our findings on educators’ epistemic agency center on three areas of knowledge and activity. First, educators demonstrate their ability to be aware of their local …

Review: Mountains Of Blame: Climate And Culpability In The Philippine Uplands., David Gowey

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

No abstract provided.

Airbnb And The End Of The Local, Nadia Beyersdorf

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how second-home ownership and self-catered tourism reshape community life in Tenby, Wales. While gentrification research often focuses on permanent displacement, less attention has been given to the movement of temporary residents that erodes local culture, social ties, and transforms everyday relationships in coastal towns.

From Progressive Politics To Media Censorship: Analyzing The Trajectory Of Lgbt Rights In Taiwan And China, Sabrina Malec

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

Hosts, Scouts, And Female Indentured Sexual Servitude In Contemporary Japan, Caroline Norma, Seiya Morita

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article sweeps away glossy abstractions obscuring the indenturing of women in sexual servitude in Japan. These abstractions were generated by anthropologists writing in English in the first two decades of the 21^st century who inverted the relationship between perpetrator and victim to suggest that female customers exploited hosts. To overturn this view and expose the ‘gendered reality that [i]s really going on’ in Japan, this article differently explains from a feminist perspective how present-day host and scout businesses indenture Japanese women in sexual servitude. This role is one of both procuring victims as well as keeping young women …

Reclaiming Presence: An Anthropological Study Of Digital Disconnection And Meaning-Making, Leslie De Paz

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Human attention is increasingly at risk in an unregulated digital ecosystem where overconsumption shapes neurological function, social interaction, and the ways people make meaning of everyday life. Dominant discourse around digital overuse tends to medicalize the problem, framing it as individual addiction or clinical dysfunction. In this thesis, I argue that such framing obscures what a cultural phenomenon is fundamentally, one in which people are actively questioning their relationship with technology, building awareness, and developing practices that help them slow down and reclaim agency within algorithmically mediated environments. This study draws on 22 semi-structured interviews with Gen Z and millennial …

Entre Nos: A Three-Part Study Exploring The Experiences Of The American Association Of Hispanics In Higher Education Members, Monique Posadas

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Membership and participation in national associations or professional societies are the cornerstone of academic and career advancement in higher education. These organizations allow faculty and career professionals to connect and grow their networks. However, like other social structures, they can also reflect, reinforce, and reify exclusionary colonial, hegemonic norms. Professionalization for people of color in the academy, through formalized organizations and societies, was grossly delayed, despite the emergence of “mother societies” at the turn of the century. Academics of color took matters into their own hands to build professional networks. While associations are assumed to be academic and professionally rich …

Hegemonic Microtonality: Decolonizing The Soundscape Of Music Theory Pedagogy, Ash K. Wetty

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how Western music theory pedagogy—long organized around tonal and twelve-tone equal-temperament frameworks—structures both what is taught and how students are trained to listen. Through a literature review tracing the historical construction of tonal universality in undergraduate curricula, the project argues that dominant models of music theory reproduce broader epistemic hierarchies inherited from Western conservatory traditions. Situating these histories within my own experience as a student navigating institutional listening norms, the thesis combines critical self-reflection with ethnographic research conducted across five liberal arts institutions, including the CBB consortium and JanPlan research at Wesleyan University and Amherst College. Rather …

Below The Rows, Beyond The Roots: An Art Exhibition Depicting Agriculture Across The Globe, Maggie Enoch

Honors Theses and Capstones

In Below the Rows, Beyond the Roots, artist Maggie Enoch creates multimedia works inspired by her exposure to diverse agricultural systems and perspectives while studying geography and sustainable agriculture/food systems around the world. By integrating complex histories with the contemporary realities of farming, Maggie paints vivid pictures of the power of food in this five-piece exhibition.

The Theological Tradition Of The Orthodox Church In The Aspect Of The Formation Of Military Leadership In Ukraine, Olga Dobrodum, Andrii S. Zborchyi, Tetyana Kondratyuk-Antonova, Oleksandr L. Kolomiiets

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Analysis of the Orthodox theological tradition as a moral foundation for military leadership in the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the full-scale war. The study moves beyond pragmatic managerial models, exploring Orthodox categories such as service (diakonia), sacrifice, and spiritual warfare. Drawing on patristic heritage and modern theologians, the authors examine leadership motivation, the role of faith in professional resilience, and the integration of Orthodox anthropology into military training. Special emphasis is placed on the Orthodox Church of Ukraine's chaplaincy as a key mechanism for actualizing these values while addressing challenges like secularism and multiconfessionalism.

The Open Secret: Drugs And Fishing In Georgia, Makala L. Collins

Honors College Theses

Substance use and overdose deaths have been disproportionally disrupting families and communities in rural America. Increasing rates of drug use in these areas can be traced to the outsourcing of blue-collar work to outside of the United States, which economically restructured these areas by decreasing the profitability of generational industries. This is the story playing out in Georgia’s commercial shrimping industry and the communities it used to support. This research uses qualitative data collected over the past ten years to understand the perceptions and impacts of drug use on Georgia’s shrimping community. Using a lens of critical medical anthropology, environmental …

The Vagabond Way: A Qualitative Study Of Intentional Non-Participation In Structured Society, Lorena E. Black

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study analyzes intentional vagabondage as both a philosophical position and a lived critique of structured society. Using qualitative fieldwork conducted at Fairlawn Family Church in Fort Pierce, Florida—including ten semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and grounded theory analysis—the study examines how individuals who voluntarily disengage from formal systems of housing, labor, and legality construct meaning, identity, and stability beyond institutional boundaries. The analysis identifies three central themes: rhythm, referring to the patterned routines that sustain mobility; reciprocity, which characterizes social exchange and support networks; and refusal, expressed as a deliberate rejection of societal expectations. While many participants describe their paths …

Chapter 1: A Brief Introduction: Rhombus Motifs In Textiles, Billie J. A. Follensbee, Lois Martin

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Presents a brief introduction to rhombus motifs in textiles.

Chapter 4: The Grid Patterns In The Vestments And Headdresses Of Female Statuary From The Classic Period Cultures Of Central Veracruz, Chantal D. Huckert

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

This chapter focuses on grid designs appearing on female clothing in Late Postclassic Nahua sources, in Maya sources, and on the Late Classic figurines of Central Veracruz. This study examines cross-hatched lattice patterns based on repetitions of rhombus and quincunx motifs associated with the sentient Mesoamerican Earth complex. The attached catalog presents a clear reference to these motifs and their variants, while the rest of the chapter is divided into two sections and addresses the general cross-hatched lattice pattern and the associated motifs. The first section discusses the all-over grid design, dotted or not, on the clothing of Mexican highland …

Chapter 5: The “Dotted-Grid” And “Dotted-Diamond” Motifs On Skirts: Fertility And Power During The Epiclassic And Early Postclassic Periods In Central And Western Mesoamerica (600 To 1200 Ce), Juliette Testard

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Discusses gender, apparel, and attributes with respect to the Epiclassic shift in politics and ideology, the grid, hatched, and rhomboidal patterns in central Mexican imagery during the Epiclassic, and the dotted-grid and dotted-diamond motifs on female figurines during the Epiclassic and Early Postclassic Periods.

Chapter 7: Symmetries Of Cloth And Corn In The Ancient Americas: Pattern Generation, Botany, And The Maize Matrix In Mexico And Peru, Lois Martin

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Discusses pattern generation, botany, and the maize matrix in Mexico and Peru.

East To West: Cultural Attitudes And The Perceptions Of Death, Hannah F. Ahmed

Undergraduate Research Posters

Death is a universal human experience, but cultures teach people to interpret it in different ways. These interpretations influence how individuals understand dying, how they cope with loss, what support looks like, and what meaning death makes in their lives. Eastern, spiritual, and religious traditions emphasize death as a natural transition or return to divinity rather than an endpoint, and as something one must prepare for. In these contexts, people often grow up hearing stories, prayers, and teachings that situate death within a broader journey. Because of this, death becomes something familiar and speakable rather than distant or frightening (Naderi-Afif …

An Ideological Target Through The Archaeological Archive: The Islamic State’S Destruction Of Palmyra And Its Impact On Local Syrian Identity, Tristen A. Leone

Pomona Senior Theses

This paper investigates how Palmyra's multicultural archaeological archive incited ISIS's destruction of the site during the Syrian Civil War through an analysis of sepulchral and religious architectural structures and onomastic practices. In contributing the cultural heritage scholarship, this paper places the motives of Islamic extremist groups in conversation with intellectual discourse around the multicultural identities of the Ancient Near East during the Roman Imperial Period. Further, through anthropological methodological frameworks and the photographic archive of excavation efforts at Palmyra, I aim to center modern local communities' experiences of living on and near an archaeological site like Palmyra. In consulting modern …

(Dis)Orientations: Finding Rhythm Within Queer Nightlife In Los Angeles, Frances Bright Currie

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines how queer individuals in Los Angeles perceive, inhabit, and reshape their experiences in queer cultural spaces. Through this project, I trace the evolution of queer nightlife in Los Angeles (from early gay counterspaces, through the collectivist politics of the Queer Nation, to post-gay assimilation and contemporary “inclusive” queer nightlife) in order to examine how queer space has been shaped and reshaped by a recurring tension between the utopian promise of universality and inclusion and the material realities of exclusion. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, queer theory, and approaches to memory and the archive, I argue that queer nightlife …

“Beejagalu Namma Jeevana” (Seeds Are Our Life): Women Farmers’ Relational Practices Of Care, Labor, And Life Within Regenerative Systems In South India, Sara F. Mehkri

Scripps Senior Theses

“Beejagalu Namma Jeevana” (Seeds are Our Life): Women Farmers’ Relational Practices of Care, Labor, and Life within Regenerative Systems in South India, examines the role of women farmers in regenerative agricultural systems in Kanakapura, Karnataka, through ethnographic fieldwork with GREEN Foundation (GF) and its farmer networks. It argues that regenerative agriculture in this context is produced through care-based multispecies assemblages that reconfigure relationships between labor, knowledge, and ecological life, generating resilient socio-agroecological systems and expanding forms of human capability.

Drawing on twenty semi-structured interviews with women farmers, participant observation, and historical analysis of agrarian change in South India, this thesis …