Anthropology Commons^™

Performing El Rap El ʿArabi 2005-2015: Feeling Politics Amid Neoliberal Incursions In Ramallah, Amman, And Beirut, Rayya S. El Zein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study is about politics in Arabic rap. Specifically, it is about affective dynamics and material negotiations during rap concerts in three cities in the Levant. I analyze Arab hip hop culture in the context of three different but related histories of cosmopolitan, middle class growth, and gentrification. Using an ethnomusicological framework rooted in participant observation and performance theory, I compare concert conditions, audience behavior, and accessibility of music production in Ramallah, Amman, and Beirut.

In Chapter One, I elaborate the discursive and theoretical frameworks that have pinned the political valences of Arab youth, Arab artists, and Arab rappers in …

Transnational Indigenous Migration: Racialized Geographies And Power In Southern Highland Ecuador, Victoria Stone-Cadena

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines the shifting landscape of social and economic inequalities in the remittance-dominated region of southern highland Ecuador, focusing on the transformations brought about by increased international migration since the early 2000s. The broader question is whether or not transnational migration has facilitated political and social upward mobility among indigenous communities. More specifically I ask: in what ways does indigenous identity figure in contemporary international migration practices, how does transnational indigenous migration complicate bounded notions of rural indigenous life, and how might the strategies employed by indigenous migrants transform social and economic inequalities in two small towns in the …

Post-Apartheid Citizenship And The Politics Of Evictions In Inner City Johannesburg, Anthony Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, this ethnographic study examines the phenomenon of eviction within the context of the post-apartheid constitutional right to housing and legal protections against evictions. Rather than view evictions as a singular event, evictions are treated as a lived experience intrinsically linked to the historical, political, and economic life of inner city Johannesburg and more broadly South Africa. I address how South Africa’s constitution creates both a platform for housing advocates to contest evictions and also allows property owners to evict tenants. To analyze evictions, I collected data through participant observation, media sources, archives, interviews, and legal …

Declining City, Born-Again Citadel: Faith-Based Organizations And The Reconstitution Of Inequality In Postindustrial America, Michael J. Boyle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the context of the hegemonic neoliberalism of recent decades, faith-based organizations (FBOs) have flourished as mechanisms for addressing poverty and other varieties of social need. For all of the contributions of contemporary anthropological research to the study of FBOs, however, most analyses have stressed the potency of FBOs and elided the agency of recipients. The present dissertation aims, through a multisited study of Evangelical FBOs in the postindustrial American city of Plainfield, to focus on the latter theme. Owing to the traditional behaviorism of American culture and also its Evangelical reproduction in FBO settings, the pursuit of charity thrusts …

Left Of Maidan: Self-Organization And The Ukrainian State On The Edge Of Europe, Emily S. Channell-Justice

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the intersection of processes of Europeanization and decommunization in Ukraine during a time of war and upheaval. Through the lens of leftist and feminist activists, it explores how political action was renegotiated during and after the mass mobilizations of 2013-2014, known as Euromaidan or Maidan. I use the concept of “self-organization” to consider ways these activists have engaged with a dominant national ideology, which draws from specific political ideas about Europe and communism. I trace how self-organization has roots within socialist-era political forms, how it was enacted during the Maidan mobilizations, and its path since the end …

Mccardell, James (Fa 905), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 905. Project titled: “Fishing Beliefs.” Project includes note cards with brief descriptions of fishing beliefs in Indiana, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Note cards include a brief description and informant’s name.

Eakles, Elaine (Fa 902), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 902. Project titled: “Folk Remedies and Cures From Plants.” Project includes note cards of folk medicine beliefs from the Penny Royal Region in Kentucky. Note cards include a brief description, informant’s name, and the motif index number.

Perkins, Larry (Fa 903), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 903. Project titled: “Farm Implements and Hand Tools.” Project includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of non-mechanized farm implements in Barren County, Kentucky. Sheets include a brief description, informant’s name, and a photo of the implement or hand tools.

Harmon, Mike (Fa 901), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 901. Project titled: “[Moonshine]” Project includes information by two anonymous informants about moonshining in the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky. Interviews include a brief description of informant’s basic life history, terms, tales, songs, and an illustration of a still.

Berry, Diana R. (Fa 904), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 904. Project titled: “Christmas Folk Beliefs.” Project includes note cards with brief descriptions of Christmas beliefs in Jefferson County and Warren County, Kentucky. Sheets include a brief description and informant’s name.

Higginbotham, Rudy (Fa 896), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 896. Project titled: “Collection Project of Traditional Farm Implements.” Project includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of non-mechanized farm implements in Russell County, Kentucky. Sheets include tool name, brief description, informant’s name, and a photo of the implement.

Long, Sandra Kay (Fa 898), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 898. Project titled: “A Study of Old Watermills in Taylor County.” Project includes survey sheets with descriptions of watermills in Taylor County, Kentucky. Sheets include a brief description, location, mill terms, informant’s name, and a photo or illustration of the watermill.

Dailey, Jan, B. 1950 (Fa 899), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 899. Project titled: “A Collection of Mormon Folklore.” Project includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of stories, jokes, anecdotes and songs gathered from members of the Mormon Church living in Maryland. Sheets include a brief description and informant’s name.

Caswell, Galena (Fa 900), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 900. Project titled: “[Folk remedies]” Project includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of folk remedies of the Penny Royal region in Kentucky. Note cards include a brief description, informant’s name, and motif reference.

Phillips, Charolette (Fa 897), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 897. Project titled: “The Barns of North Central Taylor County.” Project includes brief descriptions of different types of barns in north central Taylor County, Kentucky. Descriptions include barn type, location, and barn function.

Commodifying Indigeneity: How The Humanization Of Birth Reinforces Racialized Inequality In Mexico, Rosalynn A. Vega

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This article examines the humanized birth movement in Mexico and analyzes how the remaking of tradition—the return to traditional birthing arts (home birth, midwife‐assisted birth, natural birth)—inadvertently reinscribes racial hierarchies. The great irony of the humanized birth movement lies in parents’ perspective of themselves as critics of late capitalism. All the while, their very rejection of consumerism bolsters ongoing commodification of indigenous culture and collapses indigeneity, nature, and tradition onto one another. While the movement is quickly spreading across Mexico, indigenous women and their traditional midwives are largely excluded from the emerging humanized birth community. Through ethnographic examples, the article …

Cardiovascular Disease And Type 2 Diabetes In Evolutionary Perspective: A Critical Role For Helminths?, Michael D. Gurven, Benjamin C. Trumble, Jonathan Stieglitz, Aaron D. Blackwell, David E. Michalik, Caleb E. Finch, Hillard Kaplan

ESI Publications

Heart disease and type 2 diabetes are commonly believed to be rare among contemporary subsistencelevel human populations, and by extension prehistoric populations. Although some caveats remain, evidence shows these diseases to be unusual among well-studied hunter-gatherers and other subsistence populations with minimal access to healthcare. Here we expand on a relatively new proposal for why these and other populations may not show major signs of these diseases. Chronic infections, especially helminths, may offer protection against heart disease and diabetes through direct and indirect pathways. As part of a strategy to insure their own survival and reproduction, helminths exert multiple cardio-protective …

War Of The Worlds: Music And Cosmological Battles In The Balinese Cremation Procession, Michael B. Bakan

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Abstract

This article explores processional action as a form of cosmological intervention in Hindu-Balinese cremation processions, focusing on the multiple and intersecting functions of a particular type of Balinese instrumental music ensemble: the gamelan beleganjur. It explores the alternately “enlivening and protective aspects” (DeVale 1990, 62) that underlie the use of beleganjur music in the ngaben, or cremation ritual, showing how beleganjur’s sonic power and rhythmic drive serve to combat malevolent spirit beings, strengthen and inspire processional participants in their efforts to meet challenging ritual obligations, and grant courage to the souls of deceased individuals embarking on their …

Myatt, Jerry (Fa 895), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Collection 895. Project titled: “Farm Tools.” Includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of non-mechanized farm implements in Monroe County, Kentucky. Sheets include a brief description, terms, informant’s name, and a photo of the tool.

Boswell, Robert H. (Fa 894), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 894. Project titled: “Italian-American Folklore.” Includes survey sheets with descriptions of traditional Italian stories and tales told by Italian-Americans in New Jersey. Sheets include a brief description, informant’s name, and the motif class.

Conner, John (Fa 891), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Collection 891. Project titled: “Development of Tobacco.” Project includes brief descriptions of different types of tobacco, terms, beliefs, and implements used in its cultivation in McLean County and Shelby County, Kentucky. Sheets include a brief description; when discussing implements, an illustration is included.

Mitschele, Jeff (Fa 892), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 892. Project titled: “[Ghost Stories]” Project includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of ghost stories. Sheets include a brief description, informant’s name, and the motif index number.

Dick, Martha (Fa 893), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 893. Project titled: “Proverbs.” Project includes Survey index cards with brief descriptions of proverbs. Copies include a brief description, informant’s name, and the motif index number.

Gruszka, Joseph (Fa 890), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 890. Title: “Lithuanian Beliefs and Christmas Ornaments.” Includes note cards with brief descriptions of Lithuanian customs and beliefs by Cook County, Illinois residents and illustrations of Christmas customs. Note cards include a brief description of the belief and informant’s name.

Phillips, Gary (Fa 887), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 887. Title: “Ghost in Human Form Guards Treasure.” Includes motif sheets with brief descriptions of each variation and constant trait of the parent form of the ghost story distinguished in the lists of traits and variable forms. Sheets include a description of the tale variation and corresponding motif index number.

Harrison, Annette B. 1950 (Fa 889), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 889. Title: “Our Goodman.” Includes sheets with brief descriptions of each variation of the ballad “Our Goodman” and the constant trait of the ballad’s archetype in the lists of traits and variable forms used in Ohio County, Kentucky. Sheets include a text of the ballad variation and corresponding motif index number.

Early, Laura (Fa 888), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folkilfe Archives Project 888. Title: “Spirit of the Ohio.” Project includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of buildings in Meade County, Kentucky. Sheets include a brief description of each building.

Hester, Rhodes (Fa 886), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 886. Title: “Collection of Information on Old Farm Machinery.” Includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of non-motorized farm machinery and tools used in the Pennyroyal Region of Kentucky. Sheets include a term or name, brief description, informant’s name, and a photo of the implement.

Contributors To Indian Catholicism: Interventions And Imaginings, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

Contributors to Indian Catholicism: Interventions and Imaginings, the inaugural issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism.

Authority, Representation, And Offense: Dalit Catholics, Foot Washing, And The Study Of Global Catholicism, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

In reflecting on a sharp scholarly exchange at a conference, this article explores issues of authority, representation, and offense in global Catholic and South Asian Studies. Focusing on the act of foot washing by Dalit Catholics, the article examines how scholarly offense is linked to particular claims of representational authority. The article also puts this discussion within the context of contemporary debates about Western portrayals of Indian culture and society.