Anthropology Commons^™

Volume 26, Issue 2 (Special Issue) -- Full Contents

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Displacement, Social Justice, And The Right To The City: A Review And Critical Reflections In The 21st Century, Tara Fitzgerald, Brij Maharaj

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

This paper aims to review the literature and themes relating to displacement, social justice, and the right to the city in the 21st century. Displacement, in its various forms, is central to understanding the human rights abuses and livelihood implications when urban rights are revoked, forcing inhabitants to the periphery, and is the focus of this paper. Whereas the city’s services, resources, and opportunities should be a collective right advanced by local authorities for all who occupy urban space, displacements lead to resettlement and impoverishment, especially as livelihoods are disrupted. Urban renewal, through mega-projects, clean-up campaigns, and speculative gentrification processes, …

Economic Development In Legacy Cities: Current And Emerging Challenges And Opportunities, Neil Reid, Sujata Shetty, Jane Adade

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

As manufacturing employment has declined in the traditional manufacturing regions over the past decades, many communities have experienced population loss and overall economic decline. Local economic development professionals have had to grapple with long-term structural changes in the economy as well as short-term jolts. To gain insights into the changing landscape of economic development, we interviewed economic development practitioners in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The interviews focused on their perception of current and emerging challenges and opportunities with respect to economic development in their respective communities. Having identified the major challenges and opportunities, we asked them to articulate the …

The Adaptation Wedge: Capacity-Building Scenarios For India’S Cities, Jagan Shah

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The increasing frequency and severity of floods, heat waves, and storm surges impacting global cities, combined with the growing morbidity in public health, necessitates prompt and effective climate action. Adaptation and mitigation require adequate and appropriate institutional, technical, and societal capacities—all of which are in short supply in most low- and middle-income country cities that are experiencing growth while suffering vulnerabilities. Although national governments are alerted to climate risk and the imperatives of planning, financing, and managing climate transitions, their responses to capacity constraints and approaches to capacity building display neither urgency nor scale. We use a scenario-building methodology to …

Higher Education On The Texas Blackland Prairie: Trinity University's Civil War Era, Sarah Beth Kaufman

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Research

The article provides a model for other southern colleges and universities founded during the Civil War era to clarify how they, too, benefited from the slave economy. It describes how Trinity University's founders were able to accomplish their institution's unlikely survival and enrich their own positions by creating a valuable new educational commodity. It also explores the historiography of nineteenth-century higher education.

How Do Grandparents Invest In Grandchildren?, Donna Syme

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Kin selection theory explains hour individuals can increase inclusive fitness through tradeoffs and investment of care in children. Most research focuses on direct care methods, such as meeting physical needs of children, rather than indirect methods of care such as financial and emotional support. The roles of grandparents are important and are felt at every age level in grandchildren. This relationship has beneficial effects including past knowledge, support, mentoring, and direct care and indirect care methods. Recent studies have been conducted to see what physical and mental benefits are gained by investing in grandchildren in a variety of social conditions. …

Paths Of Least Resistance: A Geospatial Analysis Of The Integration Of Mississippian Communities In The Northwest Arkansas Ozarks, Joseph Jilek

Anthropology Undergraduate Honors Theses

During the Mississippi period (ca. AD 1050-1500), native groups occupying bluff shelters in the Northwest Arkansas Ozarks constructed three similarly sized mound-and-plaza centers: Goforth-Saindon (3BE0245), Collins (3WA0001), and Huntsville (3MA0022). Similarities in size and number of mounds suggests none rose to a position of power over the other and each integrated a separate community. Previous research hypothesizes that communities in emergent complex societies such as these are best defined by those who you interact with regularly, with mound centers less than a day’s travel from each other likely integrating the same communities. This study uses least-cost analysis, generating likely travel …

Introduction: Urban Historical Archaeology Of And As Dissonance—An Invitation For Collaboration, Kelly Britt

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Policing, Power, And Protests: Landscapes Of Surveillance In Private And Public Spaces In Lower Manhattan, Kelly Britt

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Vaccines At The Intersection Of Religion And Politics, Charles Downey

Master's Theses

Vaccine hesitancy – a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite their availability – is a rising threat to global health and has increased in recent years in higher income countries. This is a complex phenomenon with the potential to undo decades of progress toward eradicating communicable diseases. The recent COVID-19 pandemic introduced a new wave of vaccine hesitancy, with evangelical Christians as leading actors in the movement away from vaccines in the United States. The present study investigated factors related to vaccine hesitancy and sources of health-related information among members of evangelical Christian churches in and around Hattiesburg, …

On An Unshakeable Foundation: An Archaeological Investigation Of The Postemancipation Black Community Of Bass Street, The Church They Built, And The Lasting Identity They Formed In Nashville, Tennessee, Clélie Elizabeth Cottle Peacock

Master's Theses

The Bass Street Community lived along the northern base of St. Cloud Hill in Nashville, just below the Civil War-era Union fortification, Fort Negley. The fort was built and defended by conscripted free, enslaved, and self-emancipated Black/African Americans and soldiers from the U.S. Colored Troops; some of whom stayed, built residences, founded a church, and established a shared community identity. The objects they left behind reflect a time of transition in the postemancipation urban South.

The former Bass Street Community enclave is a subset of the Fort Negley archaeological site (40DV189). My thesis examines artifacts from the Bass Street Baptist …

Remembering, Forgetting, And Artifact Deposition In Late Prehistoric Florida, Andrew Bowen

Master's Theses

Material culture plays a fundamental role in memory processes. Artifacts are an important means of both connecting with and cutting ties with a real or imagined past. They can be reminders or symbols of connection to other people, places, things, powers, or memories, making them key components within networks and relations. The way materials are deposited or destroyed often follows specific customs or responds to environmental factors. Specific situations, like interactions with outside groups or socio-political changes, prompt particular depositional events. During the Mississippi period, such circumstances were prevalent throughout the Southeast. By treating artifacts in specific ways during deposition, …

An Ethnography Of Frostbite Among Unsheltered People In Portland: Safety, Governance, And The Manufacture Of Vulnerability, Muireall Brown

University Honors Theses

This thesis provides an applied anthropological ethnography of frostbite among unsheltered people in Portland, Oregon. I conducted the research over the course of three months between May and August 2024 in collaboration with Hygiene4All, a local nonprofit. The research consisted of participant-observation, six semi-structured interviews, and a review of unpublished data from Hygiene4All. I argue that the conceptualization of safety operating within some parts of Portland's governance structures actually makes unsheltered Portlanders more vulnerable to frostbite: governance bodies actively participate in constructing this vulnerability along the lines of disability, isolation, and displacement. I discuss uneven governance and the biopolitical conflicts …

Contributing Factors That Affect The Perception Of Canis Lupus, The Grey Wolf, In Idaho, Karl Michael Prokop

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Human-wildlife coexistence has become a hot topic of late, especially in the case of the grey wolf, where there are generally two distinct camps; those that strongly support wolf conservation and those that strongly support wolf eradication. This research explores the factors influencing a person’s perception of the wolf. Some previous research suggests that formal education may be one important factor, where more formal education leads to more positive perceptions of the wolf. Other factors, such as geographic location (e.g., urban versus rural), have also been proposed as important contributors to wolf perception. While studies of these factors have been …

Mission And Editorial Policy

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Spaces Of Progress And The Challenge Of “Mindfulness” In A Postcolonial World, M. Satish Kumar

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Progress implied both change and improvement in the colonial and postcolonial world. Such a concept of progress came to be enshrined in specific geographical places. The notions of development and underdevelopment in the postcolonial context thereafter supplanted this idea. Over time, while the structures of colonial domination dissolved, those of embedded regional inequalities came to be deeply entrenched, thereby urging for Thich Nhat Hanh’s approach to “mindfulness” in a “postcapitalist,” postcolonial world. The key question is whether postcolonialism has reached an impasse in its delivery and deployment of ideas across the widening gulf between the spaces of progress and stagnancy. …

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Guest Editor's Note, Rajiv Thakur

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Notes On The Future Possibilities Of Engaged Anthropological Research: Why Decolonizing Anthropology Needs Black Diasporic Feminist Theory And Methodologies, Meryleen Mena

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

While in the past decade there have been more ethnographic accounts that shed light on minoritized stories and demystify the specific challenges that women and femmes experience during their research, much is desired to prepare students and junior scholars from marginalized identities for fieldwork research. Reflecting on a moment of precarity in the context of pre-impeachment São Paulo, I explain why the integration of Black diasporic feminist thought, method, and praxis is critical to further decolonizing efforts in anthropology. Beyond reflection, this narrative calls for sustained politically active engagement to establish an anthropology of liberation.

Author Biographical Notes

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

The Decline Of Republican Democracy And Rise Of The Techno-Authoritarian State: Reading Dystopian Novels In Hindi Literature, Manindra Nath Thakur

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

In the past few decades, the nature of capitalism has changed fast as it has lost its philosophical justification based on the principle of the common good. There have been many avatars of the idea of the “common good”: “white man’s burden to civilize the world,” “welfarism,” and “neoliberal concept of freedom of choice.” Capitalism now seems to have moved in a new direction, however, and it has failed to produce any further philosophical justification for its existence as a mode of production despite generating unprecedented economic inequality. Consequently, there is a rising tension between capitalism and democracy in societies …

Border Soundscapes: Latinidad, Belonging, And Sense Of Place In The Paso Del Norte Region., Josã© Manuel Flores Fuentes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores the acoustic ecologies of the Juárez-El Paso border, investigating how soundscapes shape and reflect the cultural identity, sense of belonging, and sense of place within this unique transnational region. Guided by the theoretical lenses of belonging (Kohut, Tajfel, Turner, Hooks), sense of place (Feld & Basso), and habitus (Bourdieu), the research takes a phenomenological approach, informed by Merleau-Ponty's concepts of perception and Ceraso's notion of embodied listening. The study analyzes soundscape samples through Krause's categories of biophonies, geophonies, and anthropophonies, uncovering how these sounds contribute to the development of Latino identity and cultural cohesion in the borderlands.Focusing …

Integrated Public Archeology: Innovative Three-Dimensional Modeling And Digital Storytelling Techniques For Historic Preservation And Outreach, Bryce James Drachenberg

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the integration of digital methodologies in public archeology to enhance public engagement and historic preservation. Focusing on digital storytelling and three-dimensional modeling, the research demonstrates how tools like photogrammetry and ArcGIS StoryMaps can democratize archeological knowledge and involve wider audiences. A case study of Cane Hill, Arkansas, showcases the practical application of these techniques. The study highlights the creation of three-dimensional models and their integration into interactive StoryMaps, discussing the benefits, challenges, and future directions of digital public archeology.

Social Identity And Personhood At An Early Byzantine Cemetery: Late Antique Child Burials At Syedra, Turkiye., Mekenzie Riley Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bioarchaeological studies of children in the past have proliferated in recent years and illustrate the informational depths accessible through investigations of mortality, age, and health and disease. Alongside analyses of childhood stress and mortality, the mortuary treatment of children provides critical insight into the social structures and identity formation processes that individuals or groups are subject to in life. This thesis will investigate the intersections of childhood, gender and sex, space, and mortuary treatment as seen in a Byzantine cemetery comprised primarily of children at the site of Syedra, Türkiye through bioarchaeological and proteomic analysis. Specifically, it seeks to explore …

Sex Work, Antitrafficking, And Mobility, Simanti Dasgupta

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

With the HIV/AIDS epidemic gripping the world in the 1990s and the resurgence of the antitrafficking discourse in the 2000s, the sex work/abolitionist debate took center stage. Proponents of sex work uphold the labor and livelihood paradigm based on consent; the abolitionists, on the other hand, dismiss sex work as work to posit prostitution as the paradigmatic example of patriarchal violence toward women. The latter routinely conflate sex work with trafficking, and the former sharply demarcates them. Above all, this debate poses a stubborn ideological divide among feminists with serious policy implications for both the worker and the victim, nationally …

The Philosophy Of Spirits Purification In The Ritual Entas-Entas In Wonotoro Village As The Identity Of The Tengger Community, Turita Indah Setyani, Titik Pudjiastuti, Rias Suharjo, Mamlahatun Buduroh, Mu’Jizah Mu’Jizah, Dwi Rahmawanto

International Review of Humanities Studies

This paper examines the Ritual Entas-entas as a purification ceremony for spirits in Wonotoro Village, Tengger. The ritual originates from a manuscript believed to aid in purifying the spirits of deceased family members. This ritual has been passed down orally. However, the manuscript serving as the reference for the ritual can no longer be traced. The issue is, how the sustainability of the Ritual Entas-entas in Wonotoro Village, Tengger? The research aims to demonstrate that the Tengger community possesses a collective memory strength and high adherence to traditional rules as part of everyday religious practice. The research utilizes ethnographic methodology …

The Role Of Salimah Mass Organization In Build The Family Resilience (Case Study In Cimanggis Sub-District, West Java, 2019-2022), Izzah Asy Syahidah, Basuni Imamuddin

International Review of Humanities Studies

Weak family resilience can cause various problems for family or society. Ideally, building family resilience is also needed society support. It will be more efficient if there is a place where people work together, such as a mass organization. One of the organizations that has contributed in building family resilience is Salimah (Muslimah Association). It is a mass organization of Indonesian Muslim women that focuses on providing solutions to improve the quality of women, children, and families. Salimah has many programs aimed at building family resilience. This study aims to examine Salimah’s role in building family resilience in Cimanggis sub-district, …

Tek Seng Bio Temple As A Symbol Of History And Locality Of The Chinese Indonesian Community In Cikarang, Harry Farinuddin, Didik Pradjoko

International Review of Humanities Studies

This article examines Tek Seng Bio (德圣庙) Temple within the context of the temple as the symbol of local history among Chinese Indonesians in Cikarang. Established in 1900 by Tjio Lo Weh (蒋維内) from Fujian, the temple marked the inception of a Chinese settlement in North Cikarang. Unique in its devotion to Lín Tài Shī Gōng/Liem Tay Soe Kong (林太师公) as their main deity, Tek Seng Bio Temple originally functioned as a private familial place of worship. However, its transition to a public worship house faced challenges in 1967, with Presidential Instruction Number 14 imposing restrictions on Chinese religious practices, …

Translation Of Archaisms In English Contractual Documents, Indra Listyo, Myrna Laksman-Huntley, Haru Deliana Dewi

International Review of Humanities Studies

This research investigates the translation of archaisms, particularly here-words and there-words, from English to Indonesian, highlighting the unique challenges they present. Using a descriptive qualitative method, the study is framed by the Skopos theory and ISO 24495-1:2023 - Plain Language principles. The Skopos theory stresses the translation's intended purpose, advocating a functional approach that enhances the target text's communicative efficacy. ISO 24495-1:2023 ensures legal documents are clear, concise, and accessible, maintaining their legal integrity. The research examines a bilingual English-Indonesian contractual document, the Global Master Repurchase Agreement, to analyze the translation of these archaic terms. Findings show that translating archaisms …

Riungan: Representation Of Muslim Betawi Pinggir Through The Practice Of Eating Together (A Case Study Of Kampung Pondok Pucung, Pondok Aren, South Tangerang), Gregorio Surya Abdi Julianto, Yudi Bachrioktora

International Review of Humanities Studies

Riungan is an eating-together event involving the kampung community as a form of religious worship and gratefulness/gratitude to God. Through an ethnography approach, with in-depth interviews and a literature review as a method, this research explores the relationship between the practice of eating together and cultural identity in riungan as held by the Muslim Betawi of Kampung Pondok Pucung. The result of this research shows that riungan has become a space to representation of the cultural identity of the Betawi Pinggir (peripheral Betawi), particularly emphasizing their cultural and Islam heritage. Through the types of food brought and the communal eating …