Anthropology Commons^™

When Nurture Becomes Nature: Ethnocentrism In Studies Of Human Development, David F. Lancy

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This commentary will extend the territory claimed in the target article by identifying several other areas in the social sciences where findings from the WEIRD population have been over-generalized. An argument is made that the root problem is the ethnocentrism of scholars, textbook authors, and social commentators, which leads them to take their own cultural values as the norm.

Perspectives On The Interpreting Program At Logan Regional Hospital And Access To Health Care Throughout The Spanish-Speaking Community Of Cache Valley, Danielle Babbel

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Language barriers can greatly affect patient-physician interactions, and thus have implications for individual health outcomes. This study uses surveys distributed to Spanish speakers throughout Cache Valley to solicit their views on the interpreting program at Logan Regional Hospital. The surveys reveal whether or not language related issues prevent individuals from seeking medical attention as a part of a routine check up as well as for illness care. Survey results indicate how well known the existence of the interpreting program is throughout the target community, and if the availability of a qualified interpreter increases the likelihood that individuals will seek medical …

"All The World's A Stage": Parental Ethnotheories And Children's Extracurricular Activities, Mary Annette Grove

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the United States, educators, parents, policy makers, politicians, the media, researchers, and practitioners in many academic fields have taken an interest in outcomes for children aged 6 to 14 who participate in extracurricular activities outside of school time. Very little research examines parents' beliefs about and behaviors surrounding their children's participation in extracurricular activities. Yet, it may be parents' beliefs that guide choices about and persistence in extracurricular activities. This study used a phenomenonlogical and qualitative approach toward understanding parents' ideas and beliefs about their child's participation in extracurricular activities. These ideas and beliefs or parental ethnotheories are what …

Japanese Demon Lore, Noriko T. Reider

All USU Press Publications

Oni, ubiquitous supernatural figures in Japanese literature, lore, art, and religion, usually appear as demons or ogres. Characteristically threatening, monstrous creatures with ugly features and fearful habits, including cannibalism, they also can be harbingers of prosperity, beautiful and sexual, and especially in modern contexts, even cute and lovable. There has been much ambiguity in their character and identity over their long history. Usually male, their female manifestations convey distinctivly gendered social and cultural meanings.

Oni appear frequently in various arts and media, from Noh theater and picture scrolls to modern fiction and political propaganda, They remain common figures in popular …

Status And Prospects For The Wisconsin Dairy Goat Sector, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The Wisconsin dairy goat industry is a diverse, vibrant and robust sector that has grown rapidly over the last decade. Goat milk output has increased several-fold in the last ten years, and retail markets for goat cheese appear to be increasing at double-digit annual rates. The most recent data shows just over 200 licensed farms in Wisconsin in 2009. According to 2006 numbers, Wisconsin dairy goat farms were milking an average of 118 does that produced 1,416 lbs. On average, Wisconsin dairy goat farms were both larger and more productive on a per animal basis than farms in any other …

Fairy Tale Films, Pauline Greenhill, Sidney Eve Matrix

All USU Press Publications

In this, the first collection of essays to address the development of fairy tale film as a genre, Pauline Greenhill and Sidney Eve Matrix stress, "the mirror of fairy-tale film reflects not so much what its audience members actually are but how they see themselves and their potential to develop (or, likewise, to regress)." As Jack Zipes says further in the foreword, “Folk and fairy tales pervade our lives constantly through television soap operas and commercials, in comic books and cartoons, in school plays and storytelling performances, in our superstitions and prayers for miracles, and in our dreams and daydreams. …

Exploring Desert Stone, Steven K. Madsen

All USU Press Publications

The confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers, now in Canyonlands National Park, near popular tourist destination Moab, still cannot be reached or viewed easily. Much of the surrounding region remained remote and rarely visited for decades after settlement of other parts of the West. The first U.S. government expedition to explore the canyon country and the Four Corners area was led by John Macomb of the army's topographical engineers. The soldiers and scientists followed in part the Old Spanish Trail, whose location they documented and verified. Seeking to find the confluence of the Colorado and the Green and looking …

Review Of ‘Competitive Irish Dance: Art, Sport, Duty’, Christie L. Fox

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Anthropology And Ethnography: Contributions To Integrated Marketing Communications, Claudia M. Wright

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Student Research

This paper explores the ways in which anthropological research, specifically ethnography, can be useful in an Integrated Marketing Communication approach. Starting from a brief description of the different ways in which the discipline of anthropology has studied consumption, the paper turns to review how it can serve effectively to understand both the corporate as well as the consumer culture. Furthermore, the role that the anthropological discipline plays for Integrated Marketing Communication strategies is presented along with some examples of how different firms have used it. This paper is an approach to understanding ethnography not only as a market research methodology, …

The Persistence Ofagriculture At The Rural-Urban Interface: Does The Cost Of Health Insurance Make Adifference?, S. Inwood, J. Sharp, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, J. Clark

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Needs Ofsage-Grouse Local Working Groups: Final Technical Report, L. R. Belton, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, T. A. Messmer

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Over the last several decades, biologists have grown increasingly concerned about declines in populations of two species of sage-grouse (Centrocercus spp.), a bird whose range covers a vast portion of eleven western U.S. states and two Canadian provinces (Stiver et al. 2006). This chicken-sized bird inhabits sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) habitats on public and private land across its range. Recent declines in population numbers of this bird across its range have generated concern among landowners and state wildlife officials that the bird may be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Sage-grouse local working groups (LWGs) have emerged as a centerpiece …

Folklore And The Internet: Vernacular Expression In A Digital World, Trevor J. Blank

All USU Press Publications

Folklore and the Internet is a pioneering examination of the folkloric qualities of the World Wide Web, e-mail, and related digital media. It shows that folk culture, sustained by a new and evolving vernacular, has been a key, since the Internetýs beginnings, to language, practice, and interaction online. Users of many sorts continue to develop the Internet as a significant medium for generating, transmitting, documenting, and preserving folklore. In a set of new, insightful essays, contributors Trevor J. Blank, Simon J. Bronner, Robert Dobler, Russell Frank, Gregory Hansen, Robert Glenn Howard, Lynne S. McNeill, Elizabeth Tucker, and William Westerman showcase …

Bringing Together Local Culture And Rural Development: Findings From Ireland, Pennsylvania And Alaska, M. A. Brennan, Courtney G. Flint, A. E. Luloff

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The developmental trajectories of communities are routinely explained by reference to economic history, human capital deficits, or the structure of local labour markets. The role of local culture in understanding community development or in interpreting empirical research has received less attention. We believe culture plays an important independent role in shaping community debate and action. Framing community as an interactional field emphasises the opportunities created when people who share interests come together to address local problems. Interaction and local culture are essential parts of community and community development. Appreciating community uniqueness and local culture helps in the interpretation of study …

Where Is 'Community' In Community Based Forestry?, Courtney G. Flint, A. E. Luloff, James C. Finley

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Community-based forestry and community-based natural resource management have become increasingly common terms in both the scientific and popular press. However, as with so many other concepts currently in vogue, rarely do studies invoking them incorporate either a grounded theoretical understanding or practical inclusion of the central term: community. Community emerges through communication and interaction among people who care about each other and the place they live. In its purest form, community is marked by its multiple and often conflicting perspectives. This article draws upon recent research experience with the Ford Foundation's community-based forestry initiative to illustrate the importance of solidly …

The Folklore Muse, Frank De Caro

All USU Press Publications

Folklore—the inherently creative expression, transmission, and performance of cultural traditions—has always provided a deep well of material for writers, musicians, and artists of all sorts. Folklorists usually employ descriptive and analytical prose, but they, like scholars in other social sciences, have increasingly sought new, creative and reflexive modes of discourse. Many folklorists are also creative writers, some well known as such, and the folk traditions they research often provide shape and substance to their work. This collection of creative writing grounded in folklore and its study brings together some of the best examples of such writing.

Contributors to this collection …

The Fierce Tribe, Mickey Weems

All USU Press Publications

In this ethnography that documents the folk nature of popular culture, Mickey Weems applies interdisciplinary interpretation to a subject that demands such a breakdown of intellectual boundaries. The Circuit, an expression of gay culture, comprises large dance events—gatherings, celebrations, communions, festivals. Music and dance drive complex, shared performances—electronic house music played by professional DJs and mass ecstatic dancing that engenders communitas. Other performances, from drag queens and concerts to contests, theatrics, and the individual display of muscular bodies are part of the festivities.

Body sculpting through muscle building is strongly associated with the Circuit, and masculine aggression is both displayed …

Breaking Forms: The Shift To Performance In Late Twentieth-Century Irish Drama, Christie L. Fox

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The People Of Bear Hunter Speak: Oral Histories Of The Cache Valley Shoshones Regarding The Bear River Massacre, Aaron L. Crawford

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The Cache Valley Shoshone are the survivors of the Bear River Massacre, where a battle between a group of US. volunteer troops from California and a Shoshone village degenerated into the worst Indian massacre in US. history, resulting in the deaths of over 200 Shoshones. The massacre occurred due to increasing tensions over land use between the Shoshones and the Mormon settlers. Following the massacre, the Shoshones attempted settling in several different locations in Box Elder County, eventually finding a home in Washakie, Utah. However, the LDS Church sold the land where the city of Washakie sat, forcing the Shoshones …

A Case Against The Federal Marriage Protection Amendment, Nancy Kubasek, Arash Garrossian

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Meaning Of Folklore, Simon J. Bronner

All USU Press Publications

The essays of Alan Dundes virtually created the meaning of folklore as an American academic discipline. Yet many of them went quickly out of print after their initial publication in far-flung journals. Brought together for the first time in this volume compiled and edited by Simon Bronner, the selection surveys Dundes's major ideas and emphases, and is introduced by Bronner with a thorough analysis of Dundes's long career, his interpretations, and his inestimable contribution to folklore studies.

Inra Water Resource Management Research And Educationneeds Assessment Project, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, Sandra Marquart-Pyatt, C. Harris, A. Lovecraft, E. Shanahan, P. Wanschneider

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The Water Resources Research Needs Assessment team received funding in summer 2006 from the Inland Northwest Research Alliance (INRA) Water Resources Steering Committee to conduct a structured needs assessment study. The study was motivated by the desire to allow future INRA research and educational programs to meet better the needs of water resources managers in the five state INRA region.

Logan City Curbside Recyclingprogram Phase Iv Report, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, Sandra Marquart-Pyatt

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Recycling programs in Cache County have undergone several transformations over the past decade. This report concentrates on the most recent program implemented in 2006 and 2007 in selected communities throughout the county. Citizens’ behaviors and attitudes regarding recycling and the curbside program are described in the following.

Logan City Curbsiderecycling Program Phase Iii Results, Sandra Marquart-Pyatt, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, A. Caplan

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This report summarizes the results of a series of survey research projects examining the attitudes and behaviors of Cache County residents regarding recycling programs in 2005. USU researchers were contacted by the Cache County Service District #1, through the Logan Environmental Department, to update information about household recycling attitudes and behaviors, and to present results to various audiences as part of the long-range county solid waste master planning process.

Haunting Experiences: Ghosts In Contemporary Folklore, Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, Jeannie B. Thomas

All USU Press Publications

Ghosts and the supernatural appear throughout modern culture, in any number of entertainment, commercial, and other contexts. Popular media's commodified representations of ghosts can be quite different from what people believe about them, based on tradition or direct experience. Belief and tradition and the popular or commercial nevertheless continually feed off each other. They frequently share space in how people think about the supernatural. In Haunting Experiences, three well-known folklorists broaden the discussion of ghost lore by examining it from multiple angles in various modern contexts. Diane E. Goldstein, Sylvia Ann Grider, and Jeannie Banks Thomas take ghosts seriously. They …

Folklore/Cinema: Popular Film As Vernacular Culture, Sharon R. Sherman, Mikel J. Koven

All USU Press Publications

Interest in the conjunctions of film and folklore is stronger and more diverse than ever. Documentaries on folk life and expression remain a vital genre, but scholars such as Sharon Sherman and Mikel Koven also are exploring how folklore elements appear in, and merge with, popular cinema. They look at how movies, a popular culture medium, can as well be both a medium and type of folklore, playing cultural roles and conveying meanings customarily found in other folkloric forms. They thus use the methodology of folklore studies to analyze films made for commercial distribution. The contributors to this book look …

The Marrow Of Human Experience, William A. Wilson

All USU Press Publications

Composed over several decades, the essays here are remarkably fresh and relevant. They offer instruction for the student just beginning the study of folklore as well as repeated value for the many established scholars who continue to wrestle with issues that Wilson has addressed. As his work has long offered insight on critical mattersn--nationalism, genre, belief, the relationship of folklore to other disciplines in the humanities and arts, the currency of legend, the significance of humor as a cultural expression, and so forth--so his recent writing, in its reflexive approach to narrative and storytelling, illuminates today's paradigms. Its notable autobiographical …

More Than Meets The Ear: The Culture Behind The Music, Anita Sant

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

More than Meets the Ear: The Culture behind the Music is a traveling exhibit that was designed and created over more than a year's time at Utah State University's museum of anthropology. As one member of a team of interns, I helped decide on an exhibit focus, its audience, content, and design. We started from the ground up as inexperienced undergraduates under the tutelage of the museum's curator, Lara Petersen, and the museum's director, Dr. Bonnie Pitblado.

As the project gradually progressed and was honed to the subject of ethnomusicology, I took on the responsibility of the educational aspect of …

Cache County Recycling And Greenwasteservice Study: Phase I Report, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, J. Ericksen

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This report summarizes the results of a survey project examining the attitudes and behaviors of Cache County residents regarding recycling and greenwaste disposal programs. The surveys were conducted by Utah State University on behalf of the City of Logan and the Cache County Service District No. 1 in the summer and fall of 2004. The purposes of the overall project were to gain a better understanding of the recycling behaviors of county residents, with particular focus on their views towards current recycling programs and feedback on the design of possible new county recycling efforts. In addition, we sought to evaluate …

Once Upon A Virus: Aids Legends And Vernacular Risk Perception, Diane E. Goldstein

All USU Press Publications

Once Upon a Virus explores how contemporary, or "urban," legends are indicators of culturally complex attitudes toward health and illness. Tracing the rich tradition of AIDS legends in relation to current scholarship on belief, Diane Goldstein shows how such stories not only articulate widespread perceptions of risk, health care, and health policy, they also influence official and scientific approaches to the disease and its management. Notions that appear in narratives of who gets AIDS, how and why, are indicators of broad issues involving health beliefs, concerns, and needs.

What Goes Around Comes Around: The Circulation Of Proverbs In Contemporary Life, Kimberly J. Lau, Peter Tokofsky, Stephen D. Winick

All USU Press Publications

In this collection of essays, prominent folklorists look at varied modern uses and contexts of proverbs and proverbial speech, some traditional and conventional, others new and unexpected. After the editors' introduction discussing the history and status of attempts to define proverbs, describing their contemporary circulation, and acknowledging the especially important work of paremiologist Wolfgang Meider, the contributions examine the continuing pervasiveness and idiomatic relevance of proverbs in modern culture.