Anthropology Commons^™

The Headbangers Of The Himalaya: An Investigation Of Nepal’S Rock And Metal Scene, Samuel White

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The goal of this research endeavor was to generate findings which unveil information about the culture, the bands, and the lives of the musicians and fans who make up the Nepali rock and metal scene. The community is rather esoteric and information regarding certain bands and their musicians’ background is limited to broad, outdated articles published online. Thus, most of the information regarding the scene can only be obtained if one truly immerses themselves within it. I was fortunate enough to make friends which granted me a firsthand look into the Nepali rock and metal scene. The general questions which …

El Significado Cultural De La Platería Mapuche Contemporánea, Anna Frankel

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Mapuche silver jewelry (rüxan) is one of the best known symbols of the Mapuche people and is an important aspect of their history and cultural tradition. Silver jewelry production reached its peak in the mid-19th century, but declined drastically with the Chilean invasion and annexation of Mapuche territory in 1883. Despite this loss, Mapuche rüxan and rüxafes (silversmiths) exist to this day.

I analyzed the modern use and relevance of mapuche jewelry to understand why this tradition has survived the repression and poverty the mapuche people have faced. I asked the question: What are the roles of silverware in the …

Riding On Giants: Elephant Tourism In Chitwan National Park, Joshua Jacoves

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For the nearly 100 Asian Elephants (elephas maximus) in and around Chitwan National Park, life revolves and often depends around their interactions with humans. Since the advent of elephant tourism for the masses in around the 1980s, the elephants in and around the park have had a dramatic shift in their ways of life. This shift has also affected those who work intimately with these animals, the mahouts, or elephant keepers / riders, have also seen a complete shift in their role and livelihood. For those involved with this industry elephants are seen through different lenses; as an investment, as …

“Yo También Puedo” - Una Investigación De Pensamientos Y Opiniones Sobre Redes De Apoyo Y Historia De Violencia Intrafamiliar Contra Mujeres Mapuches Rurales, Shira A. Lyss-Loren

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper is an exploration of the rural Mapuche women’s opinions and history of intrafamilial violence. Through small group personal interviews this study seeks to consider the multiple lived experiences and opinions of rural Mapuche women as it relates to intrafamilial violence against women and the social and government support systems available to both prevent it and support victims. Intention of this investigation was not to seek out personal stories of violence, instead focusing on community-wide held perceptions, opinions, and beliefs about where violence in their community comes from, how its perpetrated, and how it is responded to or prevented. …

Step By Step: Understanding Perceptions Of Time And Space In Nepal, Lillian Norton-Brainerd

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Time and space are part of everyone’s daily life; however, these concepts are rarely explicitly discussed. Hegemonic interpretations of time and space are part of capitalist, colonialist structures, thus understanding alternative perceptions is important to resisting these structures. To understand perceptions of time in Nepal, I spent a month in Gre, a small village near Langtang National Park. I interviewed villagers and spent time observing how people spend their time, talk about time, and give directions to physical places. While there is not one perception of time and space, I learned how time and space influence each other. Geography and …

Constructed Memories: A Study Of How The Arts And The National Museum Operate Within Power Structures And State Interests In Postcolonial Morocco, Evan Antonakes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Moroccan national museum as an institution has a long and complicated history. A product of colonialism, the state has historically used the museum, and the art housed within it, to construct narratives of progress and images of modernization. Doing so is largely at the expense of contemporary artists who have long been neglected by the state and failed by the museum. This paper will communicate how museums, art, and the state intersect in postcolonial Morocco. The paper will examine the inner workings of the Mohammed VI National Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat, attempting to contextualize the …

The Hands That Weave Stories, Elanna Hawkins

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

There is a narrative encoded in carpets of Morocco, and I set out with the initial intention to learn how to “read” them—thinking that a Western sense of language is present from the symbols and patterns in the rug. As I progressed in my research and met the skilled women artisans, I realized that I needed to rethink how a story that doesn’t necessarily require a written format can be told to relate to these cultural totems of Morocco. Through in-person experience and online research, I discovered many designs and backgrounds unique to specific regions and areas. Rugs can tell …

Iskay Simipi Yachay: El Papel De La Educación Intercultural Bilingüe En La Preservación Y Valoración De La Lengua Quechua En Perú, Tori Wiese

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Perú es un país multicultural y multilingüe, con una historia rica, especialmente con respecto a sus poblaciones indígenas. Específicamente, Perú tiene una población grande de quechua hablantes que viven principalmente en la región andina en el país. Más de tres millones de personas hablan quechua en Perú—el 13 por ciento de la población del país. Con un número tan significativo, el peligro que rodea al quechua puede no ser aparente, pero sin embargo existe. Durante su historia, Perú como un país sofocó la lengua quechua a favor de la lengua castellano. Esta represión de la lengua quechua también incluye la …

Couvrant Les Yeux, Les Oreilles Et La Bouche: How The Musée Royale De Batoufam Preserves Tradition And Culture For Multiple Audiences And Perspectives, Julia Hirsch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Museums are important to study as a way of representing, preserving, and teaching culture. In this study, I wanted to explore how James Clifford’s exhibitionary complex, about the interactions of the viewer, the museum, and the represented culture, applies in the unique case of Musée Royale de Batoufam, a living site museum full of art and rich with tradition. In studying this, I examined the way different audiences use the museum and how the museum can preserve the idea of the coexistence of modernity and tradition, which is integral to Batoufam life, for all audiences. In conducting 20 interviews with …

Forjando Un Feminismo (No) Transgeneracional: Una Examinación De La Memoria Y La Construcción De Identidades En El Movimiento Estudiantil Feminista Del 2018-19, Isabel Guarnieri

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The student feminist movement of 2018-19 was dubbed Chile’s “third wave” of feminism. Media outlets framed it not only as a push to address violence against women and establish a non-sexist education system, but as a revolt against the neoliberal system that generates gender-based inequality – a legacy of the military dictatorship. This paper sought to investigate the processes by which the activists of the 2018-19 student feminist movement constructed a transgenerational movement through the mobilization of memory, as well as to interrogate the intergenerational perspectives surrounding the effectiveness of this mobilization, recognizing feminism’s continuities and the importance of remembering …

Multicultural Narratives: Language As A Site Of Struggle For Amazigh Rights Activism In Morocco, Joyce Lee

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Moroccan constitutional monarchy’s officialization of the Amazigh language in 2011 was its response to a building coalition for Amazigh rights, which simultaneously narrowed and broadened the scope of the Amazigh Rights movement. This study’s purpose was to analyze Tamazight as it has currently manifested in the urban space of Rabat as a site of struggle for Amazigh people. The questions the study attempts to answer are: a) Has the Moroccan government found success in its chosen goal of standardization of the Tamazight language in schools? b) Do Amazigh activists share this same goal? c) Whose needs do the goals …

Radical Moves: Negotiating Community And Transformation With (Some Of) Sit/South Africa’S Students Of Color, Kavita Sundaram

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Finding its foundations in inquiries of community, knowledge(s), relational truths, and radical transformation, this project wonders specifically how students of color from the School of International Training (SIT)/South Africa: Multiculturalism and Human Rights Spring 2019 semester abroad in Cape Town experience, negotiate with, and envision the potential futures of community/ies in and around the program. My research operates within a socioprogrammatic context which is highly racialized, seeking to listen to, document, and place in conversation the perspectives of our students of color. My meditations ground themselves in the individual and collective narrative(s) of our students of color, explored primarily in …

Z4, A Slow Puncture: An Autoethnographic Exploration Of Language, Embodiment, And Meaning-Making, Charlotte Rose Samuels

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In my ISP, I explored language as it relates to the ways in which people living in Cato Manor make sense of HIV/AIDS in their community. With 7.1-7.2 million people living with HIV (PLWHIV) in South Africa, individuals across the country are either infected or affected by illness. KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), the province with the highest rate of HIV, is also the province that was surveyed with the disproportionately highest internal stigma rates for PLWHIV. High prevalence of HIV, particularly in KZN, calls for a constant contextualization of life in the presence of illness.

Throughout the world, metaphor and symbolism is …

La Comida, La Identidad Y La Migración: Un Caso De Estudio De Inmigrantes Femeninas Y Su Relación Con La Comida, Susanna Morales

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta corta investigación se enfoca en cómo la comida, la migración y la identidad se entrecruzan dentro de la vidas de las mujeres involucradas en el Sindicato de las Trabajadoras del Hogar de la ciudad de Cochabamba. La mayoría de ellas han migrado del campo a Cochabamba en búsqueda de un trabajo. El enfoque está en cómo ellas recuerdan sus pueblos y cómo su identidad se expresa a través de la comida. Mi pregunta de investigación es la siguiente: ¿Cómo se entrecruza la comida, la migración e identidad en la vida de una inmigrante femenina? Respondo a estas preguntas usando …

The Guthi System Of Nepal, Tucker Scott

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this research is to understand the role of the guthi system in Nepali society, the relationship of the guthi land tenure system with Newari guthi, and the effect of modern society and technology on the ability of the guthi system to maintain and preserve tangible and intangible cultural heritage in Nepal. This research took place in three different sections of Kathmandu. The methodology behind this research was a combination of historical analysis of the traditional role of the guthi system in Nepal along with three case studies of guthi organizations with different assigned functions. These case studies …

Self-Perceptions Of The French Community In Morocco, Madeleine L. Breunig

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

North-South migration is growing trend; however, this type of migration is overlooked in the literature because it is not viewed as urgent or negative. Migrants from the global North are associated with wealth, and are referred to by the term expatriate, which distinguishes them from migrants, placing them in a more positive light. In Morocco, there is a growing community of Europeans. Among them, the French community stands out as one of the largest migrant groups in Morocco. Their presence is an interesting one, as they have a shared history with Morocco and a common language in Morocco, in theory …

La Construcción De Espacios Para La Memoria: El Rol De Los Actores En Tres Ex Centros Clandestinos De La Ciudad De Buenos Aires, Quentin Bernhard

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En esta investigación, cuento la historia como espacios de memoria de tres ex centros clandestinos en la ciudad de Buenos Aires y noto aspectos importantes de ellos que me conocí a través de entrevistas con trabajadores en los sitios en visitas ambas formales y informales. Analizo el rol de los actores sociales como el gobierno, el barrio y los visitantes en el funcionamiento de cada sitio, y a partir de eso exploro la identidad única de cada uno y cómo construyen la memoria por medio del espacio de memoria.

Este trabajo se base en parte en la cantidad de obras …

La Preservación Y Evolución De La Música Tradicional Andina Y Una Modernización De La Identidad Indígena, Evan Tannenbaum

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La música es una componente clave de la cultura, y en los andes la música siempre ha constituido un gran identificador y definidor del espíritu indígena y autóctona. Pero la música no es estática: es un ser vivo que cambia en conjunto con la sociedad que se representa. Por lo tanto, por estudiar la música, podemos aprender sobre la cultura y como ha cambiado—como ha transformado, modernizando con una globalización de la identidad. Entonces, en esta investigación, exploro la música indígena en los andes, hablando con músicos y musicólogos, además de leyendo y estudiando sobre la música para aprender cómo …

Who And What Is Amazigh? Self-Assertion, Erasure, And Standardization, Alexis Colon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research focuses on the identity of the indigenous peoples of Morocco, or the Amazigh. While this culture has endured different iterations of colonization, self-assertion and activism in favor of preserving culture and improving conditions for Amazigh can often be viewed as controversial to the elites of Morocco. This controversy, however, does not stop Moroccans from proclaiming their Amazigh background or portraying their culture. This paper aims to describe qualitative data taken from numerous interviews on the subject of self-identification of Amazigh and different hopes and expectations for the continuation of the language and culture of Amazigh among common peoples.

Rebuilding Tunisia, One Artist At A Time, Caitlin Kelley

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper argues that Tunisia’s engaged artists are playing a key role in the development of Tunisian civil society and democracy. The bulk of the research is in the form of interviews with five Tunisian artists. Each artist is actively engaged in the project of building a stronger, more democratic society. Through their art, they exercise and protect the political rights won in the 2011 revolution. These artists resist censorship, powerfully and loudly exercise their right to free speech, and help Tunisian society envision a better future for itself. The five artists interviewed for this research represent the type of …

What Lies In The Gray: Creative Analytic Pieces On The Formation And Evolution Of Beliefs In Masxha, Robin Mwai

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of this project was to look at how members of Durban's Masxha township develop their belief systems and ideas about their world. This topic was developed out of a desire to better understand the factors that promote or inhibit individuals from changing their mind about topics relating to their community, society, and culture. I sought to gain a deeper understanding of the specific context of Masxha and the experiences and lives of those with whom I spoke.

To accomplish the goal of learning from lived experiences, this study employed a narrative inquiry approach. Using loosely-structured interviews involving eight …

Where Ethnography Breaks Down: The Ethics, Miscommunications, And Failures Of My Independent Study Project, Natasha Shannon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper will communicate a thick description and self-reflective critique of the research methods I used while conducting short-term ethnographic fieldwork at an NGO (non-governmental organization) in Rabat, Morocco. The research initially sought to answer the following question: How does the culture of a Moroccan NGO interact with the culture of its target client populations, and how does this impact the power dynamics of the NGO’s services? However, the ethical dilemmas of the research caused the question to shift to the following: What went wrong over the course of this short-term ethnography, and why? This paper will address my initial …

Remembering Negdels: Nostalgia, Memory & Soviet-Era Herding Collectives, Maya Sutton-Smith

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

During the socialist period Mongolia’s nomadic herders were grouped into collective herding units called negdels. Today, over twenty years after Mongolia transitioned to democracy, herding has been privatized completely and negdels are a distant memory. This study explores the history of negdels by conducting twenty-five oral interviews with herders about their memories of collective herding. This study focuses on a soum in the Mongolian countryside, Bayandelger, while also incorporating interviews with people from Ulaanbaatar. Bayandelger is a unique location for this project because it was selected by the Soviets to receive assistance in an effort to make it a model …

Las Ofrendas A La Tierra En Un Mundo Global \ Offerings To Land In A Global World, Alison Wuensch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta investigación aborda si las ofrendas a la Pachamama en el Cusco responden a la desvalorización de las culturas andinas en un mundo globalizado por el turismo, la globalización, la modernización, y la urbanización. El turismo místico en el Perú ha crecido desde las noventas con la promoción del estado peruano de la cultura viva, y una de las ceremonias andinas más importantes es la ofrenda a la Pachamama. El objetivo era identificar y explicar los efectos del turismo, la globalización, la modernización, y la urbanización en las ofrendas a la Pachamama según los chamanes y la observación. Fui a …

Do Africans Support English Football Teams And Neglect Local African Teams: An Interrogation Of Eight Black African Men In Cape Town, Eddie Mungai

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project unravels the various reasons why black African men have such a strong attachment to English football teams belonging to the English Premier League. It works to find the answer to the hypothesis, which states that black African men exhibit greater fan support for English football teams and neglect the support of the local African teams.

Eight black African men from East, West, Southern, and Central Africa, describe the manifestation of their soccer fandom for the English team they support as well as their favorite local African club team. Based on the observations gathered through participant observations and interviews, …

Humanity Balancing On A Turtle’S Back: Perceptions And Values Of Sea Turtle Conservation Among Different Demographics At Four Sites In The Bocas Del Toro Archipelago Bocas Del Toro, Panama, Roxanne Hoorn

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Being the ancient, world traveling, iconic mega-fauna they are, sea turtles have found their way into cultures and traditions around the world, often holding great prestige. Along with their mystical qualities, sea turtles have also been intricately intertwined in the livelihoods of cultures around the globe, utilized for food, jewelry, income, and more recently, scientific research. The ways in which humans around the world perceive the value of this species varies greatly, often causing conflict between those who wish to protect and conserve sea turtles, and those looking to continue using turtles as either a source of income or food. …

Uso, Impacto Y Futuro Del Mapudungun En La Comunidad De Chapod, Tierney Marey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study analyzes and investigates the current vitality and use of mapudungun, the endangered indigenous language of the Mapuche people, in the small rural community of Chapod in Southern Chile. This research then looks at a particular context within a larger global frame of mass language decline and extinction. With increasing numbers of languages becoming extinct linguists and other invested bodies are examining in more detail the state of the world’s languages and the impact of their decline, particularly in terms of cultural identity. As such this study specifically investigates the level of use and knowledge of the language within …

Exploring Cape Malay Identity Through The Lens Of Food, Allyson Ang

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study explores the construction of Cape Malay identity through the lens of food. Made up of descendants of slaves from India, Madagascar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mozambique, and other places, “Cape Malay” is a very contentious identity. Although people who fall under the label of Cape Malay today are hundreds of years removed from their slave ancestors, there are still distinct remnants of these origins in Cape Malay culture. One of the ways in which this is most evident is Cape Malay cuisine. Cape Malay dishes such as bobotie, samosas, bredie, and beryani have become staples in South African …

Percepciones De La Muerte Y La Espiritualidad Cristiana-Aymara Entre Los Proveedores Del Cuidado A Los Adultos Mayores En Putre, Emma Wright

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Research Question: How does Cristian-Aymaran spirituality influence medical decisions and perceptions of death during the end of life care of Aymaran elders?

Objective: To describe the perceptions of spirituality and death among the providers of end of life care in the commune of Putre in order to determine the role of such beliefs in the medical decisions of Aymaran elders with the goal of improving the methods of care.

Background: Statistically the population of Chile is getting older creating a greater need for end of life care programs. In Putre, specifically, the need for end of life care is particularly …

Dreaming Larger Than Life: Perceptions Of South African Black Wealth And Aspirations Of Success Among Young Adults At Wiggins Secondary School, Mikaela Zetley

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project seeks to understand the aspirations and understandings of success of young adults at Wiggins Secondary School and how their dreams are impacted by their perceptions of black wealth as well as their social environment and experiences. By examining the way the students interact with black wealth, it is possible to better comprehend the influence of black wealth and ideas of middle class-ness on their definitions of success. This will further inform an understanding of the means by which they hope to live out their dreams. Specifically, I also investigate the impact of role models on definitions of success …