Anthropology Commons^™

Science, Symptoms, And Support Groups:Adhd In The American Cultural Context, Kealy D. Fallon

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a cultural analysis of the behaviorally- and psychiatrically-defined disorder ADHD, socio-historically contextualizing it in the United States and exploring ethnographically how people affected by it talk about and organize their experience of its symptoms.

Abuse And Discrimination Towards Indigenous People In Public Health Care Facilities: Experiences From Rural Guatemala, Alejandro Cerón, Ana Lorena Ruano, Silvia Sánchez, Aiken S. Chew, Diego Díaz, Alison Hernández, Walter G. Flores

Anthropology: Faculty Scholarship

Background

Health inequalities disproportionally affect indigenous people in Guatemala. Previous studies have noted that the disadvantageous situation of indigenous people is the result of complex and structural elements such as social exclusion, racism and discrimination. These elements need to be addressed in order to tackle the social determinants of health. This research was part of a larger participatory collaboration between Centro de Estudios para la Equidad y Gobernanza en los Servicios de Salud (CEGSS) and community based organizations aiming to implement social accountability in rural indigenous municipalities of Guatemala. Discrimination while seeking health care services in public facilities was ranked …

Immune Function In Amazonian Horticulturalists, Aaron D. Blackwell, Benjamin C. Trumble, Ivan Maldonado Suarez, Jonathan Stieglitz, Bret Beheim, J. Josh Snodgrass, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

Background—Amazonian populations are exposed to diverse parasites and pathogens, including protozoal, bacterial, fungal, and helminthic infections. Yet much of our understanding of the immune system is based on industrialised populations where these infections are relatively rare.

Aim—We examine distributions and age-related differences in 22 measures of immune function for Bolivian forager-horticulturalists and US and European populations.

Subjects and Methods—Subjects were 6,338 Tsimane aged 0–90 years. Blood samples collected between 2004–2014 were analysed for 5-part blood differentials, C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and total immunoglobulins E, G, A, and M. Flow cytometry was used to quantify naive …

Beyond Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Learned Information In Forodhani Park, Jaimie Lynn Mulligan

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This ethnographic study examines Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Mji Mkongwe (Stone Town), Zanzibar, and how ecological knowledge shared by locals on the island is formed and is shared among locals in a park setting. Using a framework of political ecology, this study specifically highlights ecological pressures of local population growth, global climate change on a local scale, and local economic changes as the key drivers for the creation and cultural importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge. To discover both the ecological pressures and the examples of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, I conducted semi-structured, open-ended interviews in Forodhani Park, a public park on …

Bending And Binding: What Builds And Bounds The Ashtanga Yoga Community, Rosealie P. Lynch

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This thesis is an examination of how Ashtanga practitioners engage one another over issues of authority and community boundaries as they define and defend their commitment to a shared tradition. My analysis is grounded in ethnographic research from interviews with 10 Ashtanga yoga practitioners and in multi-sited participant observation conducted in Mysore, India at the Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute (KPJAYI) and in various Ashtanga yoga practice settings in northwestern Virginia, U.S.A. In each chapter, I draw on practitioners’ practice narratives to analyze the relationship of an individual practitioner to her community and the importance of membership in …

Barriers To Transitional Housing Access Among Homeless Male Adults In The City Of Portland, Alexander T. Raines

Student Research Symposium

From 2011 to 2014, there were 191 confirmed deaths among homeless persons living in Multnomah County, approximately 88% of which were among adult men (over the age of 18). This alarming statistic in no way-shape-or-form represents the demographic makeup of Multnomah County’s homeless population, with a 2015 point-in-time count finding males over the age of 24 comprising just 52% of Multnomah’s homeless. Among these individuals the average age of death was just 43.3 years old; for comparison, the standard life expectancy for a man born in Multnomah County is 76.6 years old. This pattern of vulnerability among homeless men may …

Transnational Ties Within Azorean Multigenerational Kinship Groups: Multi-Connectedness And Icts, Ana Gherghel, Josiane Le Gall

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

This article analyzes the influence of ICTs use on transnational connections and on their perpetuation over time within multigenerational kinship groups dispersed in several countries. Evidence from a multi-sited ethnographic research dedicated to migration from the Azores archipelago (Portugal) to the province of Quebec (Canada) provides information about factors explaining transnational practice over several decades. Our data indicate an overall intensification of transnational contacts due to increasing accessibility of new technologies. However, this process takes place in a family environment characterized by multi-connectedness, a capacity to maintain multiple active ties with siblings living in various countries and using multiple modalities. …

Speaking In Tongues: Language And National Belonging In Globalizing Europe, Uli Linke

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

In contemporary Europe, the problematic concept of the nation has been recuperated to fasten subjects to political space. Under the impact of globalization, marked by increasing rates of human mobility and concurrent security concerns, European Union states have begun to push for cohesive measures to reclaim their national sovereignty. Revised immigration laws and refugee policies are publicly supported, presumably to keep the nation safe. At the same time, European countries advocate for openness and permeable borders to attract foreign capital investment. In the national interior, Islamophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments have come to coexist with the outward dissemination of promotional images …

Social And Scientific Implications Of Genetic Testing In The Digital Age, Yaruska A. Ordinola

Senior Honors Projects

From Mendel’s law of inheritance in the 19th century through Watson and Crick’s revolutionary observations of the double helix in the 20th century, genetics has been a fascinating and continuing topic of discussion in the field of science (Collins & McKusick, 2001). Major studies like the Human Genome Project (HGP), initiated in 1990 and completed in 2003, provided a starting point from which scientists could more thoroughly investigate the human condition on a genetic level. Arising from this study, personal genomics is considered a blooming field in genetics- in which rapidly developing technological advances are able to provide easier and …

Environmental Conservation As An Instrument Of National Political Economy: Culture, Livelihoods, And Territorial Rights Of The Emberá Of Panama, Sara M. Taylor

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper argues that areas of environmental conservation in the Panama Canal Watershed Zone were originally designed to fit an economic utility rather than to protect habitat. As a result there was an exclusion of forest-based communities in policy design and implementation, creating lasting impacts on indigenous Emberá territorial rights, livelihood opportunities, and traditional cultural practices. Based on recent fieldwork and a review of relevant secondary literature, this paper discusses how Emberá communities in in Chagres National Park have adapted their culture and livelihoods to accommodate environmental regulation and explores what prospects the Emberá see for future generations if they …

Lullaby For The Burning Ear: How Intersectional Feminism Can Help Decolonize The Latino Consciousness, Donovan E. Hernandez Garcia

Senior Theses

People exist with their own religions, cultures, and practices, which illustrate the ingenuity of humanity. Yet, because of major events that altered the fate of the Americas, a certain societal structure was created to maintain power. Due to colonization, the prolonged exposure to numerous cultures, and the continuation of oppressive systems, people have been forced to band together based on similar characteristics, be it race, gender, or sexual orientation, creating divisions within society. It is because of such colonial mentality, subliminal and apparent, political and cultural movements, such as Feminism and intersectionality, have been created to combat the harmful effects …

Young, Urban, Professional, And Kenyan?: Conversations Surrounding Tribal Identity And Nationhood, Charlotte Achieng-Evensen

Educational Studies Dissertations

By asking the question “How do young, urban, professional Kenyans make connections between tribal identity, colonialism, and the lived experience of nationhood?,” the researcher engages with eight participants in exploring their relationships with their tribal groups. From this juncture the researcher, through a co-constructed process with participants, interrogates the idea of nationhood by querying their interpretations of the concepts of power and resistance within their multi-ethnic societies. The utility of KuPiga Hadithi as a cultural responsive methodology for data collection along with poetic analysis as part of the qualitative tools of examination allowed the researcher to identify five emergent and …

The Baller Biface Cache: A Possible Clovis Site In Hitchcock County, Nebraska, Alan J. Osborn

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Twenty-six Clovis implement caches are known from western North America. In cases where time-sensitive artifacts (e.g., Clovis projectile points or mammoth ivory rods) or adequate information about their provenience and geological context are absent, assigning temporal and cultural affiliation has been challenging. Such is the case with a cache of eight large bifaces, four of which were donated by Albert E. Baller in the early 1900s to the University of Nebraska State Museum. The cache was discovered along with debitage within a small tributary of the Republican River in south-central Nebraska. The four donated Baller bifaces have been curated since …

Working For Food Stamps: Economic Citizenship And The Post-Fordist Welfare State In New York City, Maggie Dickinson

Publications and Research

In the United States, the number of people receiving state-subsidized food aid has risen dramatically since 2001. This increase complicates the well-worn story that the post-Fordist welfare state has been continuously cut back in the neoliberal era, indicating instead that it is expanding to subsidize poor workers’ participation in the formal labor market. In New York City, welfare office workers operationalize policies that ease access to food assistance for poor workers who can demonstrate that they are formally employed. Meanwhile, workfare programs punish the unemployed and marginal workers by making them work for food stamps. This conservative, paternalistic welfare regime …

Traditions And Proficiency Abroad - Spain (Tapas) Program: A High School Study Abroad Program For District 128, Michaela Kendzior

Capstone Collection

As colleges begin to internationalize campuses and global competencies continue to become a demand in the workforce, secondary schools should also aim to internationalize the curriculum and offer international education opportunities to their students. In an effort to do this, I have created the Traditions And Proficiency Abroad - Spain (TAPAS) Program for Community High School District 128 in Illinois. The TAPAS program is a 20-day summer intensive cultural and language immersion program created to maximize learning potential in D128 students. While the program’s focus is on Spanish language and culture education, the orientation and instructional activities have been designed …

La Minga As A Model Of Food Justice? : A Thesis On The Motivations And Practices Of Immigrant And Native-Citizen Growers At La Minga Cooperative Farm In Prospect, Ky., Tyler Austin Short

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Progressive and radical stakeholders in the local food system call for forms of agricultural production and distribution that dialectically oppose the dominant paradigm of corporate-controlled agribusiness. This ethnographic research engages with the question of whether La Minga is a model of food justice. I collected ethnographic data from May 2015 to March 2016 via informal conversations and semi-structured interviews with members of the farm as well as secondary data gleaned from literature on anarchism, political economy, and food and agriculture. La Minga serves as a small-scale example of immigrants and native-citizens exercising their human right to produce healthy, culturally-appropriate food …

Impromptu Domesticity: Housing Adaptations By The Marshallese In Springdale, Ar, Kera Lathan

Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study analyzes the relationship between people and their spatial environment through the lens of cultural practices and experiences. By using theories of cultural identity and activity patterns to compare spatial usage in two differing circumstances, this study will help to better understand the spatial needs of Marshallese living in Springdale, Arkansas.

The analysis uses two in-depth interviews to establish a base of qualitative data to understand the unique needs of this specific population. Through constructs such as spatial fluidity, sharing culture, and ability to adapt to new spatial practices, the two cases are compared to one another in order …

Regionalizing Institutional Food At Uri, Lauren A. Breene

Senior Honors Projects

In recent years a demand for locally sourced food has arisen among students, faculty, and staff at the University of Rhode Island. Having now recognized this demand the hour is upon us to organize and create a movement that is as enlightened as it is revolutionary. Published material regarding regionalizing institutional food, however, is fragmented and difficult to apply to URI. The aim of this project is to collect and analyze the existing research in order to produce a cohesive text written in the context of URI. The paper details the motivation behind this movement in the form of a …

Prevalence Of Sexual Harassment And Assault In Uri Stem Graduate Students, Ivy Burns, Holly Dunsworth

Senior Honors Projects

There are many barriers for women in STEM careers (science, technology, engineering, and math); one, often untalked about, barrier is the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault. In the summer of 2014 the paper “Survey of Academic Field Experiences (SAFE): Trainees Report Harassment and Assault” by Clancy, et. al. was released and shed light on an issue facing many young women and men in science. According to the SAFE survey, a shocking amount of sexual harassment and assault was experienced by the, primarily female, researchers and very few knew how to report an incidence of assault. With this project I …

Roman Britain In The Northeast: The Excavation And Interpretation Of Arbeia, South Shields, Eleanor Shotton

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The research goal of this project was to understand the impact that the Roman Empire had upon the indigenous ‘traditional society’ of the northeastern British peoples at Arbeia, located in modern day South Shields. Within that broad goal, the focus was to determine if the influence of the Roman Empire cultivated a unique homogenization of Romano-British culture, or if both societies maintained their own cultures and lived side-by-side with little cultural interaction or meshing with one another, other than trading goods, etc. To seek out the answer to this research question, I conducted literary research on Roman fort practices and …

Sourcing The Sherds: An Analysis Of The Coarse Earthenware Ceramics From Trents Plantation In Barbados, Sara Mcnamara

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Trents, originally known as Fort Plantation, was one of the five initial plantations established by the English in 1627. Since 2012, three different loci at Trents have been excavated: an outbuilding to the main house (Locus 1), enslaved laborers’ living quarters (Locus 2), and a cave site (Locus 3). Locus 1 is well stratified with clear divides between material dating to the pre-sugar era in the early 17th century and the following period from mid-17th to early 18th century. 18th and 19th century deposits cap this locus. Locus 2 dates from the mid-17th to early 19th century. Distinct floor areas …

The Poppy: Contextualising A Seemingly Timeless Symbol In History, Materials And Practice, Emily Barrett

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

the poppy, a blood red flower, is the British nation’s symbol of remembrance. For over one hundred years, the poppy has been worn on the lapels of numerous generations as an act of respect for the military men and women that lost their lives serving the nation during times of war. The tradition ultimately began with World War I and since that time the poppy, its meaning and its use, is often viewed in a timeless manner; it transcends time to unite the past and the present. However, the poppy is not an unchanging, static and bounded symbol. This research …

Collective And Individual Identities Of Soldiers At The Florence American Cemetery And Memorial, Christiana Chmielewski

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The Florence American Cemetery and Memorial, located outside of Florence, Italy, is the final resting place of 4,402 American soldiers who died during World War II while fighting in the Tuscan region after the liberation of Rome in June 1944. In addition to those buried, 1,409 soldiers are commemorated on the Wall of the Missing. By joining the military, these men (and women) became a part of the larger military family. Such a process ensured that their individual identities would become intertwined with that of a collective military identity. However, it was their biological kin, the family that remained in …

Into The Gap: A Mixed Methods Study Of Acculturation, Stress, And Refugee Family Functioning, Kieu Anh T. Do

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Every day, new waves of refugees result from increasing social, political and environmental instabilities around the world. Numerous studies have detailed the various stressors and adjustment issues that refugees face when resettled in a new host society. The majority of these studies focus on individual-level variables and not on the family as a whole. Thus, more studies are needed to understand how refugee families adjust in the resettlement context in order to promote positive outcomes. Studies that have examined family-level functioning often focus on how acculturative differences increase stress in refugee families, contributing to higher levels of familial tension and …

Community Viability And Marine Conservation: Hybrid Resource Management And The Role Of The Coral Triangle Center On Pulau Ay, Indonesia, Jerica Rossi

Capstone Collection

This qualitative research explores the traditional marine resource management system of sasi on Pulau Ay, Maluku, Indonesia and how it has been adapted under modern circumstances to promote conservation. The study was based on interviews with staff of the marine conservation NGO Coral Triangle Center (CTC) and the local Conservation Team, narratives of traditional leader elders, and focus groups with local fisherman. The first section of the findings articulates their perspectives on the historic and current situation regarding sasi and conservation on Pulau Ay. The study then utilizes The Interdependence of Ecosystem and Community Viability: A Theoretical Framework to Guide …

Participation And Perception: Early Exposure, Environmental Attitudes, And Off-Highway Vehicle (Ohv) Recreation In The Boise Metropolitan Area, Michelle Lee Kinney

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Off-highway vehicle use has and is becoming an increasingly popular form of recreation in the Boise Metropolitan region. However, it also has the potential to impact the flora and fauna present on public lands. As OHV use increases, so does the likelihood of impacts on the environments where recreation takes place. In order to effectively manage the resources provided by the landscape, more must be known about the user population. This study sought to determine which elements affect the continued use of OHVs and how OHV recreationists differed in their environmental attitudes by categorizing them into groups according to their …

Trade And Transport In Late Roman Syria, Christopher Wade Fletcher

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite the relative notoriety and miraculous level of preservation of the Dead Cities of Syria, fundamental questions of economic and subsistence viability remain unanswered. In the 1950s Georges Tchalenko theorized that these sites relied on intensive olive monoculture to mass export olive oil to urban centers. Later excavations discovered widespread cultivation of grains, fruit, and beans which directly contradicted Tchalenko’s assertion of sole reliance on oleoculture. However, innumerable olive presses in and around the Dead Cities still speak to a strong tradition of olive production. This thesis tests the logistical viability of olive oil transportation from the Dead Cities to …

Sowing Seeds Of Opportunity: The Convergence Of Agriculture And Acculturation For Refugees In Atlanta, Cameron Owens Dunlap

Symposium of Student Scholars

In 2015, there were 60 million people displaced by conflict and persecution. With refugees and asylees arriving en masse in foreign receiving countries, it is critical that host nations utilize methods of resettlement and integration that are both beneficial and sensitive to the needs of these vulnerable populations. This study documents an innovative win-win approach to community integration that benefits both hosts and refugees alike. Qualitative data was collected through more than 10 sessions of participant observation on community farms and more than 7 semi-structured interviews with program management and refugees to answer the question, what opportunities for these refugee …

Local Disease Concepts Relevant To The Design Of A Community-Based Surveillance Program For Influenza In Rural Guatemala, Alejandro Cerón, Maria Renee Ortiz, Danilo Álvarez, Guy H. Palmer, Celia Cordón-Rosales

Anthropology: Faculty Scholarship

Background

Early detection of emergent influenza strains is a global health priority. However, maintaining active surveillance is economically and logistically challenging. While community-based surveillance is an attractive alternative, design and operation of an effective epidemiological surveillance program requires community engagement that can be linked to public health reporting and response. We report the results of a study in rural Guatemalan communities aimed at identifying opportunities for and barriers to community engagement in disease surveillance.

Methods

Using an ethnographic approach followed by a descriptive cross-sectional survey, we documented local terms and ideas about animal illnesses, including the possibility of animal-human transmission. …

Pregnancy And Childbirth Practices Among Immigrant Women From India: “Have A Healthy Baby”, Rama Cousik, M. Gail Hickey

The Qualitative Report

In India, practices relating to pregnancy, childbirth and child development have been rooted in cultural beliefs and traditions that are based on knowledge contained in ancient Indian texts. Many Indians residing across the globe continue to observe these practices. Some may find it challenging to do so when they are residing abroad, away from familiar surroundings and separated from their extended families. A small body of research exists that shows that migrant Indian women do observe traditional maternal practices based on cultural beliefs, but there is a need to learn more about how this knowledge is acquired, disseminated and preserved. …