Anthropology Commons^™

Geographies Of Textile Authenticity: Marking Tongan Temporal And Social Relationships In Diasporic Cultural Production, Ping-Ann Addo

Pacific Studies

This study examines the production of traditional ngatu (bark cloth) and synthetic ngatu pepa among Tongan women, focusing on how these textile practices mediate cultural identity across diasporic spaces.

How The Tā-Vā Theory Of Reality Constructs A Spatial Exposition Of Samoan Architecture, Albert L. Refiti

Pacific Studies

This essay deals with a spatial exposition of Hufanga ʻOkusitino Māhina theory of tā-vā in which I argue that traditional Pacific concepts are recharged and extended by Māhina to create a new branch in Pacific Thought. I show that there is a consistency in the tā-vā theory of reality if one were to diagram its main tenets and, by doing so, enables the exposition of parts that sketch-out an overall form of theory. I also argue that doing theory is important to Pacific Thought because it allows for traditions and customs to be coiled-up into concepts allowing them to be …

Introduction: Tā-Vā (Time-Space): The Birth Of An Indigenous Moana Theory, Maui-Tāvā-He-Ako, Tēvita O. Ka‘Ili, Hūfanga, ‘Ōkusitino Māhina, Kula-He-Fonua, Ping-Ann Addo

Pacific Studies

An introduction to the special issue of the Pacific Studies Journal themed, "TĀ-VĀ (TIME-SPACE): THEORY OF REALITY".

Time, Space, And Culture: A New Tā-Vā Theory Of Moana Anthropology, Hūfanga, ‘Ōkusitino Māhina

Pacific Studies

This paper is primarily concerned with the formulation of a tā-vā theory of Moana anthropology. It does so by investigating the narrower conflicting formal and substantial relationships between Moana cultures as a form of social activity and Moana anthropology as a type of disciplinary practice in the broader complex interplay of temporality and spatiality. As a way forward, the paper calls into question the Moana phenomenon, exploring the formality, substantiality, and functionality of things within and across nature, mind and society, in the wider context of the tā-vā theory of reality. On this philosophical basis, the formulation of a tā-vā …

Tā-Vā Kāinga, Time-Space Relationships Theory Of Reality And Tongan Students Journey To Academic Achievement In New Zealand Tertiary Education, Telesia Kalavite

Pacific Studies

Tongan students’ academic achievement results when the different contexts of kāinga tā-vā, time-space relationships intersect or interact disharmoniously or harmoniously within and between the Tongan and Western cultures, especially between the students and the bureaucracy (puleʻanga), their families (fāmili), church (siasi), and wider group (their fonua/kāinga). Furthermore, inflexibility or flexibility within the two cultural relationships in terms of tā (time) and vā (space) by all parties could release social tensions, which can, if left to their own devices, provide obstacles to critical learning, or by mediating them through sustained harmony, can consequently …

Takohi: Drawing In Tongan Thinking And Practice, Hūfanga, ‘Ōkusitino Māhina

Pacific Studies

This original essay critically examines takohi as drawing in Tongan thinking and practice, which is connected with the intersecting or connecting and separating kohi (lines) and va (spaces) across the three divisions of Tongan art, notably tufunga (material) and nimamea’a (fine) arts. The word kohi is the older form of tohi, both of which mean “line.” Kohi, like tohi, is an expression of ta (time). By virtue of the indivisibility of ta (time) and va (space) in reality, as in nature, mind, and society, takohi (drawing) is equal to ta-va (time-space), with ta (time) spatially-composed and va (space) as temporally-marked. …

Circles Of Self: Tā-Vā Expressed In Traditional Samoan Dance, Culture And Self, Dianna M. Georgina

Pacific Studies

This study examines the tā-vā (time-space) theory and its application to Samoan cultural expression, particularly through the lens of the traditional Samoan dance.

Tatau: Symmetry As Conflict Mediation Of Line– Space Intersection, Sēmisi F. Potauaine

Pacific Studies

From a Tongan context, tatau (symmetry) also means mirror image, image, copy, likeness, same, and equal, among other things. My theoretical inquiry into tatau revolves around the tā-vā (time-space) theory of reality, which basically recognizes the philosophical fact that all things in reality stand in eternal relations of exchange, giving rise to order or conflict. By extension, the theory also takes into account the historical fact that because of these never-ending exchange connections, order and conflict are of the same logical order in that order is a form of conflict.

Samoan Cultural Perceptions Of Tā-Vā, Unasa L. F. Va‘A

Pacific Studies

This study examines the historical development and cultural significance of tā (time) and vā (space) concepts across Polynesian societies, with particular emphasis on Samoan cultural frameworks.

Vol. 40 No. 1/2 (2017): Pacific Studies Full Issue, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Pacific Studies is published two times a year by The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies, Brigham Young University Hawai‘i #1979, 55–220 Kulanui Street, Lāʻie, Hawai‘i 96762, but responsibility for opinions expressed in the articles rests with the authors alone. Subscription rate is US$40.00 yearly, payable to The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies. The Jonathan Nāpela Center for Hawaiian and Pacific Studies (formerly The Pacific Institute) is an organization funded by Brigham Young University Hawai‘i. The Center assists the University in meeting its cultural and educational goals by undertaking a program of teaching, research, and …

Concepts Of Tā-Vā (Time-Space) In The Art Practice Of Samoa-Aotearoa Artist Shigeyuki Kihara, Pamela Rosi

Pacific Studies

My paper considers concepts of tā-vā (time-space theory of reality) in the interdisciplinary art practice of Pacific Islander Shigeyuki Kihara, whose art is internationally acclaimed for its beauty, social criticism, and Moana identity linked to ties of community. With creative examples, I explore how Kihara’s constructions of tā-vā (a) reclaim Samoan histories and identities by subverting western fantasies of “dusky maidens” and a timeless South Seas Paradise; (b) challenge western binary norms of heterosexuality and gender from the traditional space (vā) she occupies as a fa‘afafine; and (c) embody Samoan deities to honor Moana spirituality and epistemologies. …

Tatau: Symmetry, Harmony, And Beauty In The Art Of Sēmisi Fetokai Potauaine, Kolokesa Uafā Māhina-Tuai

Pacific Studies

Tatau: Symmetry, Harmony, and Beauty in the Art of Sēmisi Fetokai Potauaine is generally informed by the tā-vā (time-space) theory of art and Tongan ethnography. This paper will look specifically at the body of works created by Potauaine for his exhibition Tatau: Fenāpasi ‘oe Fepaki / Tatau: Symmetry, Harmony, and Beauty held at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, from July to October 2010. This exhibition and its associated catalog of which I was cocurator and coeditor, respectively, included ten multimedia works ranging from tufunga tākupesi (graphic designing), tufunga tātongitongi (sculpture), and tufunga tākohikupesi (sculptural …

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 …

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 …

Here There Be Herders: Comparative Archaeological Survey Of Bronze Age Monumental Landscapes, Charles Ronkos

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Within our global understanding of the human story, nomadic pastoralists are often featured as marginal, or at best ancillary, to a narrative on sedentary civilizations of increasing complexity. Research on these groups has been limited by this conception, and by a minimal signature in the archeological record. However, revolutionary technological and methodological advances in the field have allowed for increased complexity in current research on the emergence of pastoralists in antiquity. As a region with an extensive nomadic pastoral history, and as a nation reviving its interest in the past, Mongolia is ideal for such studies. However, for large swaths …

Pluralism And Religious Education In Bali: How Lack Of Implementation Of Educational Reform Threatens Indonesian Identity In The System Used To Construct It, Nikolai O. Birch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Indonesia’s education system was developed with the construction of the Indonesian as a cohesive people in mind. In doing so, the system adopted the practice of mandatory religious education as a means of developing the character of the Indonesian student through religion, a component imperative to the nation’s statehood. In the years and decades following, the education system, and subsequently its program of religious education, has been reformed and changed many times. This research attempts to look at how and why this changed system has struggled to implement these changes in the classroom, and why pluralism has been included in …

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 …

Impacts Of Migration On Mosuo Cultural Identity: A Case Study Of The Mosuo People In Lijiang, Isabel Ullmann

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

China is currently in the midst of the largest labor migration in human history and yet we know very little about the cultural impact on the migrants themselves. For many ethnic minorities, like the Mosuo, who have been isolated from urban, if not Han, influence for much of their history, this migration is sure to result in some cultural disruption. As a matrilineal culture defined by large extended families traced by the matriline, a distinct, non-exclusive sexual-reproductive system, a housing layout that reflects religious beliefs and social structure, and a fluid interplay of the local ddaba religion and Tibetan Buddhism, …

Definiendo La Concepción De La Salud Mental Y Espiritual: La Influencia De La Biomedicina Y La Religión Occidental En La Comunidad Mapuche De La Araucanía, Maya Salvio

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Research Question: In what ways has occidental religions and the biomedical health system influenced the conception of mental health in the Mapuche community in the Araucania?

Objectives: The general objective of this study is to identify the ways in which mental and spiritual health are conceptualized by the Mapuche community and identify the influences of occidental religion and biomedicine in Carahue and Saavedra. The specific objectives are to identify the conceptions of mental and spiritual health among the three predominant ideologies, characterize their perceptions of anxiety and depression (two occidental mental illnesses), identify the relationships between the three ideologies, and …

Nabataean Subadult Mortuary Practices, Courtney Dotson Ewert

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides the beginnings of further research on the correlation between Nabataean mortuary practices and specific biological age ranges. It seeks to answer the question of whether Nabataean infants were absent from, or under-represented, in Nabataean cemeteries. Several quantitative analyses and descriptive statistics were performed, comparing Nabataean adult and subadult burials from fourteen sites. Nabataean cemetery populations were also compared with Walter Scheidel's model life table. These analyses demonstrate that Nabataean burials typically consisted of either a single adult or multiple individuals of various age ranges. Subadults, individuals under the age of 20 years, were rarely found buried by …

Alaska Native Artifacts; Eskimos And Aleuts Of The Bering Sea Rhythm Of The Sea Collection, Marcia Sue Taylor

Masters Theses

“Only his artifacts provide his earthly testimony” (Thiry 1977, p. 5). The purpose of the research is to catalogue Eskimo and Aleut artifacts that comprise an unprovenienced (anonymous) collection in the Anthropology Department at Western Michigan University, and provide a corresponding ethnography. This will be accomplished in two ways: (1) a museum curation project, and (2) an ethnographic study that will focus on cultural synthesis within the parameters of artistic styles of harpoon head artifacts and geography as these pertain to the artifacts and their distribution. Analysis of the collection’s harpoon heads will provide both artistic and inventive evidence of …

Guided By The Spirits: The Meanings Of Life, Death And Youth Suicide In An Ojibwa Community, Seth Allard

Masters Theses

Suicide is a leading cause of death amongst indigenous North American youth. The majority of studies on indigenous youth suicide focus on quantitative data collection and analysis. Qualitative and collaborative methods provide the cultural and historical contexts necessary for a critical understanding of youth suicide in indigenous communities. Through classic ethnographic methods (structured interviews, participant observation) and descriptive analysis, this work highlights the value of qualitative data. Medical anthropology informs an ethnomedical approach toward youth suicide, death, life, health and related concepts. Analyzing the semantics of prevention and intervention aids a critical-interpretive approach to current research and prevention-intervention frameworks and …

Determining The Population Affinity Of An Unprovenienced Human Skull For Repatriation, Jennifer K. Watkins, Samantha H. Blatt, Cynthia A. Bradbury, Gordon A. Alanko, Matthew J. Kohn, Marion L. Lytle, Darryl P. Butt

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

An archaeological assessment was carried out on an unprovenienced human skull recovered in eastern Idaho, exhibiting cranial deformation and peri-mortem application of a red pigment. A combination of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) identified the major and trace elements present in the red pigment as natural cinnabar. Carbon and oxygen stable isotopes from teeth and bone suggest a mostly C3 plant-based diet with subsidiary consumption of salmon or marine resources, and a regional geographic transition between early life and late adulthood. Radiocarbon dating determined the approximate age of the skull to be between …

Haa 375 World Cities: 500 Years Of Mexico City, Delia Cosentino

Course Website Archive

This exhibition highlights the broad development patterns of the great City of Mexico, from its origins as the island capital of the Aztec Empire to its sprawling contemporary contours. Featured elements include significant architectural additions and other urban structures such as plazas and avenues that help to shift the orientation of the city and its life over time. This Neatline map shows how the traditionally West-facing city which was once contained to the original island in the middle of Lake Texococo grows in all directions over time, especially towards the end of the 19th century with the addition of the …

Paper Wall: The Law As A Tool Of Social Division For Courtroom Officials, Aiden J. Egglin

Student Publications

The legal system is implicit with biases that shape how it runs on a larger scale, even if its individual members are hesitant about discussing racial, gender, etc. bias.

Claiming The Indomitable Wave: Masculinities, Sexualities, And The Realm Of Surfing In Costa Rica, Joseph C. Recupero

Student Publications

Examining the relationship between masculinity, sexuality, and the sport of surfing in the context of Costa Rica. Questions the nature of emergent counter identities in the hyper-masculine realm of the surfing subculture and the ways in which the emergence of counter identities changes the nature of the subculture. Focuses on the anthropology of sport, the anthropology of sexuality, and theories of territoriality.

‘Community Of Schools’: A Case Study Of Development, Participation And Integration In Cato Manor Township, South Africa, Anthony L. Wagner

Student Publications

By the end of the twentieth century, a subfield of anthropology known as critical development studies emerged - in large part due to the work of James Ferguson and Arturo Escobar - as a critique of post-colonial development programs and NGOs of the West that were at work in much of the developing world - most notably sub-Saharan Africa. Development was largely panned by these early researchers as a means by which Western powers habituated problems in the developing world so as to create a profitable industry of development. Contemporary anthropological inquiries have called for an increasingly field-based approach to …

Ignatian Pedagogy Certificate Final Project, Catherine Nichols

Ignatian Pedagogy Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Zooarchaeology Of The Scandinavian Settlements In Iceland And Greenland: Diverging Pathways, Thomas Mcgovern, Konrad Smairowski, George Hambrecht, Seth Brewington, Ramona Harrison, Megan Hicks, Frank J. Feeley, Brenda Prehal, James Woollett

Publications and Research

The Scandinavian Viking Age and Medieval settlements of Iceland and Greenland have been subject to zooarchaeological research for over a century, and have come to represent two classic cases of survival and collapse in the literature of long-term human ecodynamics. The work of the past two decades by multiple projects coordinated through the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) cooperative and by collaborating scholars has dramatically increased the available zooarchaeological evidence for economic organization of these two communities, their initial adaptation to different natural and social contexts, and their reaction to Late Medieval economic and climate change. This summary paper provides …

Medieval Iceland, Greenland, And The New Human Condition: A Case Study In Integrated Environmental Humanities, Steven Hartman, A.E.J. Ogilvie, Jón Haukur Ingimundarson, A.J. Dugmore, George Hambrecht, Thomas Mcgovern

Publications and Research

This paper contributes to recent studies exploring the longue durée of human impacts on island landscapes, the impacts of climate and other environmental changes on human communities, and the interaction of human societies and their environments at different spatial and temporal scales. In particular, the paper addresses Iceland during the medieval period (with a secondary, comparative focus on Norse Greenland) and discusses episodes where environmental and climatic changes have appeared to cross key thresholds for agricultural productivity. The paper draws upon international, interdisciplinary research in the North Atlantic region led by the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) and the Nordic …