Anthropology Commons^™

The Literary Fictioning Of John Gregory Bourke's Imperial Nostalgia, Toni K. Mcnair

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Nineteenth-century Army Captain and American ethnographer John Gregory Bourke (b. 1846 - d. 1896) meticulously described and documented a vast amount of information on military life, geography, ecology, and people on both sides of the Mexican-American border, offering observations and opinions of American, Mexican, Mexican-American, Apache, Pueblo, Zuni and Plains Indian cultures. Because of his ethnographic studies of Mexican-Americans along the Rio Grande, cultural studies scholars, José E. Limón and José David Saldí­var have identified John Gregory Bourke as complicit in the U.S. government's imperialist project. Referring to Renato Rosaldo's anthropological theory of imperialist nostalgia, These authors declare Bourke's work …

Mestizaje: Piro Indian And Spanish Vecino In Socorro, Texas From 1744 To 1813, David Camarena

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research examined culture on what is now the U.S./Mexico border, among Piro Indians and Spanish citizens (vecinos) in the community of Socorro, Texas between 1744 and 1813. The purpose was to better understand the process of mestizaje as experienced by Piro Indians as they participate in larger hegemonic Spanish civil and ecclesiastical institutions. Using archival materials along with secondary sources, this thesis reconstructs the antecedents that ultimately led the primary Indian community to transform into a Hispano settlement along the banks of the Río Grande. Pressured by vecino encroachment, participation in the Spanish wage-labor system, several environmental catastrophes in …

Heal Project Process Report: Arrival At A Charrette To Effect Change At Sjsu, Marina L. Corrales

Master's Projects

This report documents the process the evaluation team, student evaluators from the Department of Anthropology at San Jose State University (SJSU), led by Professor Charles Darrah, went through to develop a modified charrette to link research with ideation. The team‘s work was funded through a Healthy Eating Active Living Local Partnership Grant ("HEAL Grant") made to SJSU by Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region in the fall of 2007 and included a series of research projects with the goal of changing policies and the built environment at SJSU in ways that support health and wellness. Work was collaborative in that the …

Shrouded Sins: An Exploration Of Child Sex Trafficking In South Africa, Jennifer L. Kennedy

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Sex trafficking is a global $32 billion industry that affects hundreds of thousands of lives. A large portion of this industry belongs to child sex trafficking; a growing phenomenon that violates our children's dignity, rights and freedom. Although affecting every nation in the world, this industry has a strong hold in the Republic of South Africa. This country serves as an area of origin, transport, and destination, implicating itself in the broad child trafficking networks that reach nearly every nation, including our own. This paper seeks to explore the many facets of the child sex trafficking industry in South Africa.

La Mujer Se Va Pa’Bajo: Women’S Health At The Intersections Of Nationality, Class, And Gender, Mary Alice Scott

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This research utilizes an intersectionality framework to examine the complexity of social location and its effects on women's health. By examining connections among the state, processes of globalization, and the production of health inequalities for poor women in a rural community in southern Veracruz, Mexico, the research highlights the nexus of nationality, class, and gender. Four interconnected contexts are explored: (1) women's increasing paid and unpaid labor in the context of a poverty of resources brought on by sustained economic crisis; (2) the maintenance of reproductive labor as the responsibility of women; (3) the development of migrant "illegality" and its …

The Place Of The Person In Lis Research: An Exploration In Methodology And Representation, David H. Michels

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In this exploratory study, the researcher reflects on personal experience as a student at an academic library over the course of one year of PhD study. Data were gathered using an autoethnographic methodology, and the reflections on these data are presented in the form of three two-minute video clips narrated with accompanying poems. This study assumes that the different paradigms and theories about information behaviour affect how the individual is understood within this system. These reflections raise questions about the influences our models have at ground level of the library profession and the people libraries claim to serve.

Social Categories And Health Care Outcomes: African American Women And Hiv Survival In The Urban South, Alyson J. O'Daniel

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This ethnographic research examines the daily life and institutional conditions under which low-income Black women in urban North Carolina perceived and attended to HIV health-related needs. I focus specifically on the interplay among women’s living conditions, programmatic service needs, and their strategies for navigating the local system of care to explore and refine the categorical label “low income.” I found that there were significant differences among study participants in terms of their monthly incomes and financial resources, housing quality and status, and personal experiences with incarceration and substance abuse. The economic differences among women translated into social differences within the …

Building Sustainable Societies: Exploring Sustainability Policy And Practice In The Age Of High Consumption, Cindy Isenhour

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is an attempt to examine how humans in wealthy, post-industrial urban contexts understand sustainability and respond to their concerns given their sphere of influence. I focus specifically on sustainable consumption policy and practice in Sweden, where concerns for sustainability and consumer-based responses are strong. This case raises interesting questions about the relative strength of sustainability movements in different cultural and geo-political contexts as well as the specific factors that have motivated the movement toward sustainable living in Sweden.

The data presented here supports the need for multigenic theories of sustainable consumerism. Rather than relying on dominant theories of …

Down On The Farm: A Photo Essay Of The Indiana Farmer, Elizabeth Schaible

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Female Conceptualization Of Sexual Addiction And The Role Of Addiction Treatment, Megan Douglass

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Beginning with the diagnosis of nymphomania in the 19th Century, there has been widespread and continued interest across the mental health and bio-medical realm of what constitutes normality of female sexual behavior, and of the boundary at which sexual desire is deemed to be excessive, and thus abnormal. However, research questions that specifically investigate the subjective female voice and perspective in considerations of so-called hypersexuality or sex addiction remain understudied. This research project proposes to examine the cultural pathways and systemic foundations which have historically in the West problematized female sexuality by investigating women's own perceptions of sexual addiction and …

Perceptions On The Social Status Of Papiamentu In Contrast To Its Offical Significance In Aruba And Curacao, Keisha Wiel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many creole languages have been studied by linguists and anthropologists alike in order to gain a better understanding as to their formations and social status within their respective cultures. Theories such as the Language Bioprogram hypothesis created by Derek Bickerton researched explicitly the genesis of creoles, primarily the creoles in Guyana and Hawaii. Although many creole languages are the main vernaculars of many cultures, they are often seen as having a lower status than the official language, usually a European language. Papiamentu, a language spoken in Aruba, Curacao, and Bonaire, has carried a prestige that many other creoles do not …

A Kachina By Any Other Name: Linguistically Contextualizing Native American Collections, Rachel Elizabeth Maxson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Museums collect and care for material culture, and, increasingly, intangible culture. This relatively new term for the folklore, music, dance, traditional practices, and language belonging to a group of people is gaining importance in international heritage management discourse. As one aspect of intangible cultural heritage, language is more relevant in museums than one might realize. Incorporating native languages into museum collections provides context and acts as appropriate museology, preserving indigenous descriptions of objects. Hopi katsina tihu are outstanding examples of objects that museums can re-contextualize with native terminology. Their deep connection to Hopi belief and ritual as well as their …

Domestication Alone Does Not Lead To Inequality: Intergenerational Wealth Transmission Among Horticulturalists, Michael Gurven, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, Paul L. Hooper, Hillard Kaplan, Robert Quinlan, Rebecca Sear, Eric Schniter, Christopher Von Rueden, Samuel Bowles, Tom Hertz, Adrian Bell

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

We present empirical measures of wealth inequality and its intergenerational transmission among four horticulturalist populations. Wealth is construed broadly as embodied somatic and neural capital, including body size, fertility and cultural knowledge, material capital such as land and household wealth, and relational capital in the form of coalitional support and field labor. Wealth inequality is moderate for most forms of wealth, and intergenerational wealth transmission is low for material resources and moderate for embodied and relational wealth. Our analysis suggests that domestication alone does not transform social structure; rather, the presence of scarce, defensible resources may be required before inequality …

Understanding Gender-Based Violence: Evidence From Kilimanjaro Assessment Of Rombo And Moshi Rural, Jane L. Saffitz

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Beer Party And Watermelon: The Archaeology Of Community And Resistance At Ccc Camp Zigzag, Company 928, Zigzag, Oregon, 1933-1942, Janna Beth Tuck

Dissertations and Theses

In March 1933, the administration of United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated a national relief program aimed at alleviating the disastrous effects ofthe Great Depression. The Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) began as one of these programs designed to employ young men from all over the country and put them "back to work". The CCC provided these young men with training, a monthly stipend, and basic supplies such as food, clothing, and accommodations. After 1942, CCC camps were closed and many of these sites were abandoned or destroyed, leaving little historical documentation as to the experiences ofthe people involved. This …

One Size Fits All: The Interplay Of Kanga, Makawa Swahili Poetry, And Taarab In The Communication Of Zanzibari Women, Rose K. Ong'oa-Morara

Student Theses and Dissertations

The strategic location of the Swahili people along the East African coast has placed them in the way of several newcomers, both local and foreign, who have come to the coast for various economic and political purposes. For this reason the Swahili have had to make adjustments to accommodate the newcomers, often having to redefine their Swahili identity. They have used various tools in this redefinition process including music, dance, and clothing. This dissertation explores the use of a clothing item known as kanga in this process. Kanga is a rectangular multicolored cotton cloth with printed messages along its lower …

Sustainability In Practice: A Study Of The Sustainable Behaviors Of Students At The Univeristy Of Tennessee At Chattanooga, Audrey Glor

Honors Theses

Sustainable behaviors, such as recycling, are increasingly important as the world's population continues to rise. While many attempts have been made at various institutions, recycling on a grand scale has yet to become a social reality. This study was designed to look at the three broad factors influencing an individual's recycling behavior: social pressure, knowledge base, and convenience. It was hypothesized that social pressure would have the greatest influence on an individual's recycling behavior, while not overlooking the importance of the other two factors. A questionnaire was employed to collect data from a sample population at the University of Tennessee …

Cultural Mapping With A View Towards Discipleship In Cayambe, Ecuador, Kathryn L. Northey

Senior Honors Theses

God is a global God. He has a desire for all the nations to hear His Word. This is realized through discipleship. To effectively create disciples, it is necessary that the missionary understands the culture. Cultural mapping is a systematic way to observe and grow to understand a culture. It is beneficial to see how a model is applied to grasp this concept. This thesis examines the example of the culture of Cayambe, Ecuador, to see cultural mapping at work in an actual ministry. It will use the four layers of culture as presented by Donald K. Smith in his …

Social Behaviors Of Modern And Indigenous Peoples Impacting The Ecology Of The Amazon Rain Forest In Brazil, Josef W. Schaffer

Earth and Soil Sciences

Human induced disruption of the environment is prevalent in every culture. In Brazil, the effects of massive deforestation have become apparent since the nineteen eighties. However, along with deforestation, and a coinciding loss in an economic resource for the country, is a significant loss of natural habitat and species extinction. The Amazon in Brazil contains a large proportion of the world’s species diversity that is threatened by the socio-economic activities of modern Brazilian culture. Historically and presently, indigenous groups have contributed to insignificant levels of ecological disruption and are themselves threatened by the activities of modern Brazilians. The effects of …

Cross Group Analysis Of The Job Market, Emily M. Hedge

Agribusiness

No abstract provided.

A Tri-Disciplinary Analysis Of Religion, Alicia Wallace

Social Sciences

This paper analyzes religion using a multi-disciplinary approach. Studying the Social Sciences exposes one to an opportunity not just to learn a single discipline, but three, and this unique learning experience can teach one to look at the world’s phenomena with a multi-perspective view. Using a tri-disciplinary approach when exploring topics can broaden ones outlook on how there are many ways to explore and investigate a topic in greater detail. By using Anthropological, Sociological and Geographical theoretical perspectives one can understand a topic more fully by using a multi-perspective approach when exploring this diverse world culturally, socially and physically.

Tattoos: A Marked History, Audrey Porcella

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Counting Girls In - Gender Issues In Science And Mathematics: An Examination Of The Research Concerning Innate And Socio-Cultural Gender Differences In The Fields Of Science And Mathematics In An Effort To Promote More Female Participation, Valerie R. Mackin

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

In today's world, there is an increasing demand for people in the technological fields. Fewer females than males pursue careers in physical sciences, engineering, and computer science in the United States presenting a loss of needed mathematicians and scientists. Gender differences related to mathematics and science is a complex arena of study, involving both innate biological differences combined with socially constructed ideas about gender in society. Through an in-depth investigation from educational, cognitive, and social psychology perspectives one will be able to determine how innate and socio-cultural factors contribute to the shortage of needed mathematicians and scientists in the United …

Rhode Island's Greatest Natural Tragedy, Stephanie N. Blaine

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

The infamous hurricane of 1938 accelerated the ongoing transformation of Rhode Island’s way of life.

The Cultural Effects Of The Narcoeconomy In Rural Mexico, James H. Mcdonald Ph.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

This essay describes the cultural effects of drug trafficking on a town in rural Mexico. A variety of ethnographic scenes reveal the rapidly changing social imagination as new forms of consumption create new opportunities for identity formation. However, because these new consumer forms are expensive, and therefore inaccessible to the majority of community members, a type of cultural exclusion is at work. In this ordinary town, there are extraordinary forms of consumption: large, lavish houses; high-stakes gambling at local cockfights; a new urban-oriented consumer culture; and new farmer entrepreneurs. All were underwritten by narco-activities. These new forms of consumption challenge …

Performance And Imagination: Towards An Anthropology Of The Spectacular And The Mundane, William R. Jankowiak, Gary B. Palmer

Anthropology Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

An Archaeological Perspective On The Andean Concept Of Camaquen: Thinking Through Late Pre-Columbian Ofrendas And Huacas, Tamara L. Bray

Anthropology Faculty Research Publications

Ethnohistoric sources suggest that the indigenous inhabitants of Andean South America saw both people and things as animated or enlivened by a common vital force (camaquen). In approaching the subject of camaquen archaeologically, I attempt to place objects and their materiality at the analytical center, rather than the normally privileged ethnohistoric or ethnographic data, in order to see what new insights into the nature of precolumbian ontologies might be gained from ‘thinking through things.’ In this, I follow recent theories premised on the idea that the traditional segregation of concepts and things may hinder understanding of alternative worlds. The study …

Issue 55, Autumn 2009, Society Of Bead Researchers

The Bead Forum: Newsletter of the Society of Bead Researchers

The Beads of St. Catherines Island, by Elliot H. Blair. • Nineteenth-Century Beaded Iroquois Flat Purses, by Dolores N. Elliott.

Shifting Focus: Redefining The Goals Of Sea Turtle Consumption And Protection In Bali, Audrey Jensen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Many would say that the environment and human culture consists of an evolutionary process, complete with necessary adaptations to current situations and the availability of resources. However, religion is usually thought to be a constant, an entity that grounds the individual believer in a “truth” that transcends time. Ultimately, the boundary between culture and religion is especially hard to decipher, particularly in the daily rituals of the Balinese. While religious beliefs are often rooted in history, they too transform through inevitable reinterpretation. The following paper describes the tremendous environmental and cultural impact of the controversial turtle trade in Bali, specifically …

Forever Home: Funeral, Burial And The Life After This Life In Hue, Vietnam, Molly Bennett

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Hue, Vietnam is home to some of the most elaborate funeral and burial practices in the country. These practices ground and reinforce a plethora of beliefs and customs surrounding ancestor veneration and the communion of spirits. This paper will explore the effects of modernization, increased household incomes, and lack of burial space due to urban growth on the process and corresponding spirituality of the funeral and burial. A series of structured and semi-structured personal interviews with interested citizens and religious leaders alike comprise the majority of the data. Ultimately, this paper will show that while traditional funerals and burials are …