Anthropology Commons^™

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, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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, …

Ritual (And Myth) Transformations In The Gran Chaco, Rodrigo Juan Villagra Carron

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

Based on the inspiration Peter Gow takes from Lévi-Strauss' canonical formula or double twist and his concept of ensemble, this article aims to illustrate by analogy how the rituals of female initiation, such as the Yammana of the Enlhet-Enenlhet, or male initiation, such as the Debylytá of the Yshiro, exemplify a regional system of "transformation of transformations." In this sense, Gow uses Lévi-Strauss' formula to analyse the myths of the peoples of southeastern Peruvian and western Peruvian-Brazilian Amazonia as a "very specific type of mythic transformation caused by the presence of thresholds, whether cultural or linguistic." The records of …

Desire, Difference, And Productivity: Reflections On “The Perverse Child” And Its Continued Relevance, Christopher Hewlett

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

This article is concerned with the relationships through which children have been born, raised, and made into Amahuaca people over the past 75 years, and within contemporary Native Communities on the Inuya River since their formation beginning in the 1980s. The process of making children into kin among Amahuaca people is similar to that described throughout much of lowland South America. The production, preparation, and sharing of proper food (manioc, plantains, fish, and game) as well as manioc beer are central aspects of sociality and the formation of specific kinds of bodies. While the processes of sharing substances, demonstrating care, …

Review: Of Mixed Blood, Luis Felipe Torres

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

The review revises the most inportant concepts of the book Of Mixed Blood.

Between Cocama And Modernity In The Ucamara (Peruvian Amazon), Marta Krokoszyńska

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

Combining a contemporary ethnographic perspective with a review of historical records, the article extends Peter Gow’s re-reading of the ex-Cocama phenomenon in the Western Amazon. It argues that the foundation of the Amazonian Peruvian town of Requena at the beginning of the 20th century took place during an important historical moment in the region. Within the post-rubber boom context, schools became a particularly important idiom that enabled Requena’s growth as the centre of education and modernity. The paper investigates relations between the widespread desire for education in the Ucamara region, and Cocama descendants’ and other “ribereño” ex-Mainas peoples’ specific notions …

Reproductive Inequality In Humans And Other Mammals, John Ziker, Karl J. Mertens

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

To address claims of human exceptionalism, we determine where humans fit within the greater mammalian distribution of reproductive inequality. We show that humans exhibit lower reproductive skew (i.e., inequality in the number of surviving offspring) among males and smaller sex differences in reproductive skew than most other mammals, while nevertheless falling within the mammalian range. Additionally, female reproductive skew is higher in polygynous human populations than in polygynous nonhumans mammals on average. This patterning of skew can be attributed in part to the prevalence of monogamy in humans compared to the predominance of polygyny in nonhuman mammals, to the limited …

Contrasting Responses Of Atlantic And Pacific Tropical Cyclone Activity To Atlantic Multidecadal Variability, Huanping Huang, William D. Collins, Christina M. Patricola, Yohan Ruprich-Robert, Paul A. Ullrich, Alexander J. Baker

Faculty Publications

This research assesses the influences of Atlantic Multidecadal Variability (AMV) on global tropical cyclones (TCs) using two large ensembles of idealized global climate model simulations with opposite signs of AMV forcings superimposed (i.e., AMV+ and AMV–). We first detect TCs and then compare TC activity by basin in the two AMV experiments. We find contrasting responses of Atlantic and Pacific TC frequency to the AMV anomalies. Compared to AMV–, AMV+ significantly increases TC frequency in the North Atlantic, including those making landfalls. The increase is explained by warmer sea surface temperature, higher relative humidity, increased relative vorticity, and weaker vertical …

The Music Of Democratic Kampuchea: Revolution Songs As Public Pedagogy, Anissa Jade Lesh

Masters Theses

The Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) which ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 utilized a variety of methods to ensure control over the country and its people. Among these methods were the creation and dissemination of revolutionary songs which extolled the virtues of the CPK, instilled fear, and provided explicit instructions on how to serve the Ângka (the organization). While scholars unanimously recognize the use of music as public pedagogy during the regime, there are very few works which explore the songs, their lyrics, or how the music itself reflected their intended sociopolitical purpose. Through the transcription, translation, and analysis …

Tsenacommacah’S Role In The Survival Of Jamestown, Brandon J. Hewitt

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

How was a small, unprepared, sick group of 105 English settlers in 1607 able to settle squarely in the middle of a native confederacy whose numbers surpassed 15,000 individuals? This work will attempt to answer this question. At the same time, it will explain how a small group of Englishmen could quickly expand and become the first thriving English colony in North America despite being in the middle of Tsenacommacah, home of the Chesapeake Algonquian chiefdom. This research will place the focus on the Powhatan chief's decision-making processes regarding economics and politics as the reasons the English were able to …

The Coralhydro2k Database: A Global, Actively Curated Compilation Of Coral Δ18o And Sr/Ca Proxy Records Of Tropical Ocean Hydrology And Temperature For The Common Era, Rachel M. Walter, Hussein R. Sayani, Thomas Felis, Kim M. Cobb, Nerilie J. Abram, Ariella K. Arzey, Alyssa R. Atwood, Logan D. Brenner, Émilie P. Dassié, Kristine L. Delong, Bethany Ellis, Julien Emile-Geay, Matthew J. Fischer, Nathalie F. Goodkin, Jessica A. Hargreaves, K. Halimeda Kilbourne, Hedwig Krawczyk, Nicholas P. Mckay, Andrea L. Moore, Sujata A. Murty, Maria Rosabelle Ong, Riovie D. Ramos, Emma V. Reed, Dhrubajyoti Samanta, Sara C. Sanchez, Jens Zinke

Faculty Publications

The response of the hydrological cycle to anthropogenic climate change, especially across the tropical oceans, remains poorly understood due to the scarcity of long instrumental temperature and hydrological records. Massive shallow-water corals are ideally suited to reconstructing past oceanic variability as they are widely distributed across the tropics, rapidly deposit calcium carbonate skeletons that continuously record ambient environmental conditions, and can be sampled at monthly to annual resolution. Climate reconstructions based on corals primarily use the stable oxygen isotope composition (δ18O), which acts as a proxy for sea surface temperature (SST), and the oxygen isotope composition of seawater (δ18Osw), a …

Comparing True Maternal And Paternal Care In Pair-Living, Ex-Situ Varecia Rubra (Red Variegated Lemurs) Contextualized Among Other Primate Cooperative Breeders, Payton Elizabeth Zuver

Dissertations and Theses

Observations of variegated lemurs in the wild have revealed a cooperative breeding strategy including extensive male care to young, primarily in the form of infant guarding. This thesis presents an analysis of the first quantitative assessment of true paternal and true maternal care from pair-housed, ex-situ red variegated lemurs (V. rubra) housed at the Lemur Conservation Foundation's Myakka City Lemur Reserve in western Florida. This study aims to answer specific research questions: How do paternal and maternal care compare when resources are abundant, and paternity is certain? Is male care instinctual? Is it driven by energetic necessity? If …

To Open A Clearing: Cultivating Spaces Of Endurance In The Upper Amazon, Brunno De Melo Meirelles Douat

Masters of Environmental Design Theses

To effectively challenge the policies of extraction implemented by late liberal regimes, the Waorani communities from Upper Amazon have devised spatial strategies to defend their traditional territory. By re-examining the concept of the contact zone and unfolding settler and Indigenous literature, spatialities, and worldviews, this thesis suggests the concept of forest Clearings as a means to explore spatial forms of endurance.

Clearings emerge within the Amazon in sites where encounters between divergent worldviews embody otherwise modes of existence. Through a series of fieldwork reflections, these Clearings are perceived as spaces where ontological negotiations are more likely to occur, strategies of …

Operation Summer Care: Territories Of The Stewardship-Hospitality Complex, George Papamattheakis

Masters of Environmental Design Theses

Operation Summer Care studies the expanding interest that the hospitality industry takes in the biogeophysical environment. Natural surroundings have long been an essential operational precondition of tourism in the global sunbelt, but contemporary environmental anxieties increasingly motivate different strata of hosts to take a more active role in environmental management. Usually the domain of the state, biogeophysical entities and their spaces—plants and animals, sand formations, wetlands, entire ecosystems and protected areas—are measured, ordered, and managed by actors adjacent to the tourism industry. At the same time, the socio-technical mechanisms of environmental intervention and calculation are conveniently framed as practices of …

Reproductive Inequality In Humans And Other Mammals, Cody T. Ross, Paul L. Hooper, Jennifer E. Smith, Adrian V. Jaeggi, Eric Alden Smith, Sergey Gavrilets, Fatema Tuz Zohora, John Ziker, Dimitris Xygalatas, Emily E. Wroblewski, Brian Wood, Bruce Winterhalder, Kai P. Willführ, Aiyana K. Willard, Kara Walker, Christopher Von Rueden, Eckart Voland, Claudia Valeggia, Bapu Vaitla, Samuel Urlacher, Mary Towner, Chun-Yi Sum, Lawrence S. Sugiyama, Karen B. Strier, Kathrine Starkweather, Daniel Major-Smith, Mary Shenk, Rebecca Sear, Edmond Seabright, Ryan Schacht, Brooke Scelza, Shane Scaggs, Jonathan Salerno, Caissa Revilla-Minaya, Daniel Redhead, Anne Pusey, Benjamin Grant Purzycki, Eleanor A. Power, Anne Pisor, Jenni Pettay, Susan Perry, Abigail E. Page, Luis Pacheco-Cobos, Kathryn Oths, Seung-Yun Oh, David Nolin, Daniel Nettle, Cristina Moya, Andrea Bamberg Migliano, Karl J. Mertens, Rita A. Mcnamara, Richard Mcelreath, Siobhan Mattison, Eric Massengill, Frank Marlowe, Felicia Madimenos, Shane Macfarlan, Virpi Lummaa, Roberto Lizarralde, Ruizhe Liu, Melissa A. Liebert, Sheina Lew-Levy, Paul Leslie, Joseph Lanning, Karen Kramer, Jeremy Koster, Hillard S. Kaplan, Bayarsaikhan Jamsranjav, A. Magdalena Hurttado, Kim Hill, Barry Hewlett, Samili Helle, Thomas Headland, Janet Headland, Michael Gurven, Gianluca Grimalda, Russell Greaves, Christopher D. Golden, Irene Godoy, Mhairi Gibson, Claire El Mouden, Mark Dyble, Patricia Draper, Sean Downey, Angelina L. Demarco, Helen Elizabeth Davis, Stefani Crabtree, Carmen Cortez, Heidi Colleran, Emma Cohen, Gregory Clark, Julia Clark, Mark A. Caudell, Chelsea E. Carminito, John Bunce, Adam Boyette, Samuel Bowles, Tami Blumenfield, Bret Beheim, Stephen Beckerman, Quentin Atkinson, Coren Apicella, Nurul Alam, Monique Borgerhoff Mulder

ESI Publications

To address claims of human exceptionalism, we determine where humans fit within the greater mammalian distribution of reproductive inequality. We show that humans exhibit lower reproductive skew (i.e., inequality in the number of surviving offspring) among males and smaller sex differences in reproductive skew than most other mammals, while nevertheless falling within the mammalian range. Additionally, female reproductive skew is higher in polygynous human populations than in polygynous nonhumans mammals on average. This patterning of skew can be attributed in part to the prevalence of monogamy in humans compared to the predominance of polygyny in nonhuman mammals, to the limited …