Anthropology Commons^™

Beyond Burial - Transforming Death: A New Ritual Of Farewell And The Ecological Return Of The Body To Nature, Chang Xie

Masters Theses

Burial and funeral culture have been shaped by human self-awareness and reflect an anthropocentric worldview. The modern funeral industry's multi-billion-dollar enterprise is based on the principle of protecting, sanitizing, and beautifying the corpse to promote the idea of human exceptionalism. However, this practice overlooks the natural process of decay and the potential beauty in returning the body to the earth, with which the body shares the same chemical basis as the earth itself. Modern science has provided Eco-friendly green burial methods, such as soil modification, ice burial, and water burial, making it suitable to contribute to natural ecology using human …

City As Cemetery, Siqiao Zhao

Masters Theses

The traditional funeral service industry has enormous environmental and financial costs. In contrast, green burial, and Natural Organic Reduction (NOR), accelerate the human body’s degradation and reduce toxic substances in the land, assuming responsibility for our burden on the earth. They provide a gateway between us and the processes of nature and ask us to set aside self-consciousness to accept our oneness with the universe. By gifting our bodies back to the earth, where decomposition enriches soils and nurtures the growth of other life forms, we honor those who have transitioned to another state by continuing the cycle of renewal. …

Gendered Crafts In The Great Salt Lake Desert: A Comparative Analysis Of Late Holocene Cordage And Coiled Basketry, Marion Coe

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Research

Perishable artifacts are invaluable tools for reconstructing past lifeways of hunter-gatherers, and when preserved in arid settings, they can inform on dynamic interactions between communities and the environment. Many such materials were recovered from early archaeological surveys in Utah and Nevada but were largely excluded from contemporary analyses because of small sample sizes, their fragmentary nature, and insecure proveniences. This synchronic reanalysis of cordage and coiled basketry from 10 late Holocene sites in the Great Salt Lake Desert utilizes newer approaches to perishables analysis so as to collect data more conducive to statistical comparisons of subsistence and craft traditions absent …

Sex And Parental Status Impacts Human-To-Pet Attachment And Caregiving Attitudes And Behaviors In A Japanese Sample, Shelly Volsche, Felix Frailey, Namiha Ihara, Hiroshi Nittono

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Japan currently displays many signs of a second demographic transition, which is marked by subreplacement fertility, a focus on self-fulfillment, and changes in family, residence, and marriage patterns. Concurrently, increased pet-keeping and related spending have occurred. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether the emergence of pet parenting can be documented in Japan. Previously documented in the United States and India, pet parenting is defined as the human investment of money, emotion, and time in companion animals that is like parental investment in children. We collected 615 online survey responses from pet owners (female = 48.1%, male …

An Exploration Of Palauan Fishing Methods And Fisheries: A Study For The Conservation Of Dugongs, Mia Glover

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dugong (Dugong dugon) is an important marine mammal in Palau. However, current population dynamics are not well understood. This study aimed to connect scientific data with local knowledge by examining the social implications of changing fishing methods and their impact on dugong population dynamics in the face of climate change and fisheries commercialization. Through interviews with local fishers, it was found that destructive fishing methods like trawling and long lining have led to habitat loss and degradation for dugongs. These tactics, driven by economic factors, have disrupted the delicate balance between human activities and the preservation of dugong habitats, …

Vol. 46 No. 1 (2023): Pacific Studies Front Matter, The Jonathan Nāpela Center For Hawaiian And Pacific Islands Studies

Pacific Studies

Front Matter for the Vol. 46, No 1-Jun 2023 edition of the Pacific Studies Journal.

What’S Good: Sharing Food And Meaning-Making Among Commensals, Lucor Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To explore how systems of meaning are formed and reformed over an individual’s lifetime in the context of food, meals, and commensality, this research applies a critical phenomenological lens to food-centered life histories centered on the life experiences of childhood, adulthood and the diffusion of food knowledge within a food centric community between individuals within age cohorts and across generations. Through reflective interviewing community members within Denver metropolitan area anti-hunger organization, this research is able to provide insight into several secondary questions, including: Is childhood a formative space for the cementation of these systems of meaning and value and do …

Talanoa Digital Storytelling As A Culturally Appropriate Method In Palliative Care Health Research: An Evaluation Of The Narratives Of Pacific Families Caring For Older Loved Ones At End Of Life, Ofa Dewes, Kylah Williams, Suamalie Naisali

Pacific Studies

Talanoa is a Pacific concept of dialogue and storytelling that was used as a framework for producing our digital stories. This article sets out an evaluation of a workshop-based process for talanoa digital storytelling (DST) where aiga (family) carers created their own short autobiographic films and injected their voices into the social and public health discourse and knowledge production. Five digital stories were created. Participants were drawn from a cohort of 33 aiga carers in a study investigating the end of life circumstances of Pacific Peoples dying in advanced age, and the experiences faced by their aiga who carry out …

A Review Of Theropithecus Oswaldi With The Proposal Of A New Subspecies, Dagmawit Abebe Getahun, Eric Delson, Chalachew Mesfin Seyoum

Publications and Research

Theropithecus oswaldi darti, as currently understood, is the oldest Theropithecus taxon in the fossil record and the earliest subspecies in the Theropithecus oswaldi lineage. Theropithecus oswaldi darti is typified at the site of Makapansgat in South Africa, and a similar form (T. o. cf. darti) is usually recognized at Hadar, Dikika, some Middle Awash localities, and Woranso-Mille in Ethiopia. This taxon is also tentatively believed to occur in Kenya at Kanam and Koobi Fora and in Member C of the Shungura Formation in Ethiopia. While there is a general consensus that the East African ‘darti’ specimens are …

The Lingering Ache: Temporalities Of Oral Health Suffering In United States-Mexico Border Communities, William A. Lucas, Heide Castañeda, Milena A. Melo

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Recent scholarship theorizes temporalities as an important part of the migration experience, with temporal insecurity being a crucial element of (im)mobility and inequality via the phenomenon of waiting. In this article, we examine how temporalities and experiences of waiting influence health status and access to care, using ethnographic data to articulate how temporalities impact resources and how a doxa of waiting is enacted, placing some groups at heightened risk of illness and pain compared to others. Drawing upon a sample of 100 immigrant families with mixed legal status living in United States-Mexico border communities, we focus on an understudied area …

From Atoll To Mainland: Aging Micronesians In The Context Of Migration, Juliana Flinn

Pacific Studies

A case study of the atoll of Pollap, part of Chuuk State in the Federated States of Micronesia, analyzes changes in the process of aging over the past forty years, in particular as a result of migration of Micronesians to Guam, Hawai‘i, and the mainland United States. Forty years ago, most elderly aged at home surrounded by family to care for them, valued for their knowledge, advice, and even some productive activities. With migration, however, many elderly now live abroad with grown children. Some migrated as young people, found jobs, acquired good English skills, and have made homes in the …

Introduction, Marama Muru-Lanning, Hilary Lapsley

Pacific Studies

This special issue of Pacific Studies focuses on well-being amongst indigenous Pacific elders. Well-being is a widely used concept, but research is lacking on how well-being is understood in Oceania. This issue involves studies on the well-being of elders from Rotuma, Papua New Guinea and Pollap, as well as Māori and Pacific peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Our collection emphasizes two pou, or posts, supporting well-being amongst Pacific elders. The first, aging in place, has a Pacific twist, where homeplaces are whenua, ancestral places of deep connection imbued with cultural and relational significance. Vā, meaning relational space, is a related concept. …

Vol. 46 No. 1 (2023): 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, Lā ‘ie, 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, …

Aging And Well-Being On Rotuma In Historical Perspective, Alan Howard, Jan Rensel

Pacific Studies

In this article, we present a historical overview of the conditions affecting the experience of aging among Rotumans on their home island. We draw on an array of cultural, social, and personal data derived from censuses, fieldwork, and archival sources covering more than one hundred years on Rotuma, which we divide into three segments for comparison: a baseline period (1903–60), the transition to modernity (1960–99), and the twenty-first century (2000–19). Among the changes that have affected the welfare of the elderly on the island are medical conditions, household size and composition, economic changes, and the proportion of older people on …

Fraught Aging And Frayed Social Networks, Laura Zimmer-Tamakoshi

Pacific Studies

This article looks at the challenges of aging in Gende society and why the Papua New Guinea government should consider a safety net for more vulnerable populations. It begins with an overview of how the Gende used their exchange system over many generations to deal with periods of extreme uncertainty and inequality. Investing in a moral economy that encouraged gender equality and expansive kin relations and obligations, the Gende weathered tribal warfare that drove them off their traditional lands long ago. Moving into sparsely populated mountains in what is now Madang Province, Gende became middlemen in trade routes connecting the …

Kaumātuatanga: Kōrero Of Māori Elders From Three Tai Tokerau Tribal Groups, Marama Muru-Lanning, Hilary Lapsley, Tia Dawes, Keri Mills

Pacific Studies

An ongoing transdisciplinary research program from James Henare Research Centre, University of Auckland/Waipapa Taumata Rau highlights kaumātua voices to investigate the well-being of Māori elders. Our kaupapa Māori research involves noho wānanga, overnight meetings with kaumātua of a particular rohe (area), and pays attention to locality and histories, as well as the direct emerging themes from conversations and interviews. This article examines participants’ understanding of kaumātuatanga, that is, what it means to be a kaumātua, or Māori elder, in three rohe in Te Tai Tokerau, the northern region of Aotearoa/New Zealand: Patuharakeke, Ngātiwai and Te Hiku o te Ika. We …

Umm Huwaiwitat: A Neolithic Site Near Petra, Jordan, Daniel Plekhov, Cristiano Nicosia, Luiza Osorio G. Silva, Sarah Newman, Felipe Rojas

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Studies of the rural landscapes around the Nabataean/Roman city of Petra in Jordan have tended to assume a developmental trajectory based on that of the urban centre. Recent archaeological investigations at the site of Umm Huwaiwitat, however, shed light on the longer-term histories of human occupation and land use in the region north of Petra. Excavation has revealed Late Neolithic deposits formed by the burning of animal dung and the disposal of ash. These deposits underlie walls, today serving as agricultural terraces, which date to at least the Early Bronze Age. Umm Huwaiwitat therefore provides a microcosm of the long-lived …

The Anti-Plantation Uprising: Indigenous Kinship, Territories, And Communal Politics In Guatemala, 1966-1982, Sergio G. Palencia Frener

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Indigenous Maya in Guatemala lived through one of Latin America’s most intense conflicts during the second part of the twentieth century. This research focuses on Maya politics, kinship relations, and interethnic experiences in multifarious mobilization through social democratic parties, rural unions, and cooperatives (1966-1974), and the intricacies of Maya indigenous participation in peasant organizations and insurgencies during the war escalation (1976–1982). This work reassesses Maya indigenous communal politics beyond Cold War dichotomies and situates the villages as central loci to grapple with the complexity of indigenous history during the Guatemalan war. Through research in Akateko, Kaqchikel, K’iche’, and Ixil territories, …

The Politics Of Expertise And The Articulation Of Authority In Democracy: Cognitive Style And Intelligibility In The Education Of Problem-Solving And Professional Decision-Making In The Domain Of Law, Michael W. Raphael

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Computational complexity refers to the representational aspect of problem-solving. This representational aspect is commonly understood to describe the regularities that organize the definition of the problem-situation, the qualities that designate its difficulty, either in terms of the process of arriving at a definition of the problem or in the process of arriving at a solution. It is for this reason, that it is commonly said that “representational design precedes computational efficacy.” The point of this maxim is to serve as a reminder that an efficient use of resources begins with the design of near decomposability, the specification of the properties …

Reimagining The Inner Ear: A Morphometric Modeling Approach For Establishing Shape Change In The Evolution Of The Human Otolith System, Christopher M. Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Our sense of balance is among the most central of our sensory systems, particularly in the evolution of human positional behavior. The peripheral vestibular system of the inner ear comprises the organs responsible for this sense; the semicircular canals (detecting angular acceleration) and otolith organs (utricle and saccule; detecting linear acceleration, vibration, and head tilt relative to gravity). The vestibular organs are often considered a single system, with most research focusing on the semicircular canals. The otolith organs, by comparison, remain largely unexplored despite their central role in balance. Consequently, this lack of knowledge limits understanding of vestibular functional morphology …

The Sociolinguistics Of Code-Switching In Hong Kong’S Digital Landscape: A Mixed-Methods Exploration Of Cantonese-English Alternation Patterns On Whatsapp, Wilkinson Daniel Wong Gonzales, Yuen Man Tsang

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

This paper examines the prevalence of Cantonese-English code mixing in Hong Kong through an under-researched digital medium. Prior research on this code-alternation practice has often been limited to exploring either the social or linguistic constraints of code-switching in spoken or written communication. Our study takes a holistic approach to analyzing code-switching in a hybrid medium that exhibits features of both spoken and written discourse. We specifically analyze the code-switching patterns of 24 undergraduates from a Hong Kong university on WhatsApp and examine how both social and linguistic factors potentially constrain these patterns. Utilizing a self-compiled sociolinguistic corpus as well as …

Marginal To Whom? Reflections On Gow’S "Purús Song", Magnus Course

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This paper constitutes a personal exploration of the impact of the work of Peter Gow on my own attempts to think through specific ethnographic problems, both in the Mapuche communities of Southern Chile and the Gaelic communities of Western Scotland. I focus in particular on how Gow’s lesser-known essay “Purús Song” inverts received wisdom about the relationships between center and periphery, and between nation-state and Indigenous people. I see this as one iteration of Gow’s broader aim of letting ethnographic realities transform theoretical complacencies.

Las Nociones O’Dam De Cuerpo Y Persona. Diálogo Interrumpido Entre El Norte De México Y La Amazonía Peruana, Antonio Reyes

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

El presente artículo tiene como objetivo reflexionar acerca de las nociones de cuerpo y persona del pueblo o’dam del norte de México, partiendo de los principios que Peter Gow y otros autores han observado para las poblaciones nativas de la región amazónica. Los cuerpos y las personas no son cosas “dadas” o “naturales”, sino que son el resultado de procesos constantes y complejos que articulan relaciones sociales, cosmologías y significaciones. Para el pueblo yine del río Bajo Urubamba investigado por Gow, el cuerpo y sus deseos se encuentran en el corazón de la economía y sirven como punto de unión …

Indigenous Transformations In The Comunidad Nativa: Rethinking Kinship And Its Limitations In An Expanding Resource Frontier, Evan Killick, Juan Pablo Sarmiento Barletti

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In Of Mixed Blood, Peter Gow sets out an account of the transformations of kinship and the construction of social relations among Indigenous, mainly Yine (Piro), people of the Bajo Urubamba valley in the early 1980s, when Peru’s “Comunidades Nativas” (“Native Communities”) were receiving their new official titles. We revisit Peter’s proposition by comparing it our more recent ethnographic engagements with Indigenous Asháninka/Ashéninka communities in the region. While tracing continuities from his observations, we also show how social relations now play out in different ways, as certain important resources have become scarcer and the need for …

Interviewing Peter Gow — Dundee, June 24, 2017, Ana Maria R. Gomes, Paulo Maia Figueiredo, Pedro Rocha De Almeida E Castro, Roberto R. Romero Jr.

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This interview presents an initial dialogue about Peter Gow’s trajectory as an anthropologist, trying to bring to light particularly the fieldwork experiences and events that it had not been possible to commenton and explore in the published material. Its aim is to understand more closely the particular ways in which Peter Gow had come to arrive at the insights and the analyses presented in his brilliant ethnographies with the Yine/Piro people of Amazonia.

An Amazonianist And His History, Victor Cova, Juan Pablo Sarmiento

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

No abstract provided.

‘One Piro Man I Knew Well’: A Brief Commentary On An Amazonian Myth And Its History, Leif Grunewald

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This is a book review for An Amazonian myth and History, to the special volume to honor Peter Gow.

Civilized Elders And Isolated Ancestors: The Multiple Histories Of Contemporary Amazonia, Casey High

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In this article I consider the impact of Peter Gow’s writing on indigenous histories as a key area of research on Amazonia. Building on his study of kinship as history on the Bajo Urubamba (1991) he presented a regional perspective on the dynamic social categories by which Amazonian people understand their relations with various “others.” Focusing on indigenous agency and modes of thought, Gow challenged certain lines of historical thinking that dominated anthropology at the time. I explore how his ethnographic approach to history has influenced a generation of regional scholarship, including my own work on memory and social transformation …

“Too Many Meanings”: Reading “Piro Designs”, Paolo Fortis, Margherita Margiotti

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This paper explores the notion of painting as meaningful action (Gow 1999) and highlights the productivity of the idea as emerging from, and dovetailing, different strands of thought on the nature of symbols and actions. Bringing together Lévi-Strauss’ intuition on the dynamism and generativity of graphic systems, phenomenological studies on meaning making, and ethnographic analyses of Amazonian theories of corporeality and sociality, Gow has shown how Yine (Piro) designs provide a developmental model that combines ontogenesis and social change. This paper argues for the productivity of this approach in Amerindian studies, in anthropology, and in a dialogue with psychoanalytic theory …

“Helpless”: Reflections On Grief And Sociality In Three Amerindian Societies, Giovanna Bacchiddu, Elizabeth Ewart, Courtney Stafford-Walter

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In this article, we reflect on one of Peter Gow’s key pieces of work, “Helpless,” tracing how his scholarship has informed and influenced our own work, from our experiences in the field to our approaches to analysis. We explore some of the main themes from this piece of writing, including how intersubjectivity is produced by creating relations of mutual dependence—a precondition for sociality. Helplessness is a characteristic of newborn babies as much as it is of those recently bereaved. In both cases, memories of love and care—in short, kinship—are in question. For babies, kin relations have not yet been produced, …