Anthropology Commons^™

Church And State In Rwanda: Catholic Missiology And The 1994 Genocide Against The Tutsi, Marcus Timothy Haworth

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

During the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, over one million Tutsis were killed by the government of Rwanda and Hutu extremists. In this study, I address two questions: (1) did the Church, as an institution, offer a convincing counter-narrative to the dominant ideology of racialized ethnic identities of twentieth century European colonialism in the present-day nation-state of Rwanda? If it did not, why not? And, (2) what role, if any, did the Church, as an institution, play, in promoting a “social imagination” that valued religious identity, or truths, over the dominant European colonial ideology, and later the nationalistic narrative of …

Cherchant Toujours La Paix: Le Systeme Endogene De La Resolution Des Conflits À Batoufam, Becky Sigman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This dissertation will explore two subjects: an internship done with the chiefdom of Batoufam and a research project about the endogenous system of conflict resolution in Batoufam. The first part will illustrate the internship done at the museum of the chiefdom. Here will be described the institution, the work accomplished, and an analysis of the experience. In the second part will be asked the research question “what is the endogenous system of conflict resolution of Batoufam and how has it adapted in the context of the imposition of westernization?” After doing a literature review and explaining the methodology of the …

Binding Ideologies: An Investigation Of Language Attitudes And Ideologies In The Moroccan Publishing And Book Sector, Ashley Coyne

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The interaction between author and reader is not as simple nor as direct as may at times be assumed. There are “gatekeepers” and middle men who mediate the transmission of ideas from writer to reader; these institutions and their ideologies determine the final product that will (or will not) be presented to readers. In Morocco, this author-reader interaction is further complicated by the language ideologies which pervade the realm of Moroccan literature. As Moroccan publishers and booksellers are the “gatekeepers” who arguably engage the most in language politics, this study examines their role in facilitating or inhibiting the Moroccan author-reader …

Participatory Development And Menstrual Health Management In South Africa: A Case Study Of Project Dignity, Natalie Geismar

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Menstrual health management (MHM) poses a significant public health concern in many South African communities. Though the national government is beginning to devote attention and resources to MHM, civil society organizations play a critical role in providing menstrual health products and education to female-bodied individuals who may otherwise lack access. This study examines the praxis and impact of Project Dignity, a nongovernmental organization which distributes washable, reusable sanitary pads and panties to students in public schools. The researcher collected qualitative data through participant observation as well as interviews and focus group discussions with Project Dignity’s staff and intended beneficiaries. Using …

The Mountain Stands: An Autoethnographic Inquiry Into Zulu Christians' Approaches To Spiritual Health, Makayla Lagerman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Spiritual health is a vital component of individual wellness that can be described in many ways; most commonly, it is thought of as the connectivity of the inner spirit to others, the world, transcendental beings, and more. From personal experience, I know that the state of my spiritual wellbeing can greatly impact my physical and mental health. For this reason, actively considered how to think about spiritual health for one of the first times in my life.

This project sought to explore Zulu Christians’ approaches to spiritual health in concurrence with my own. This was done by interviewing one Swazi …

Political Or Ap®Olitical? Ap Economics Teachers, Neoliberalism, And The Political Classroom, Min Cheng , '18

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

"How does one speak objectively, ifwe're talking about someone's comments about sexually assaulting someone? How am I supposed to be like, 'oh, you know, you gotta understand, he's just saying that.' When somebody's not able to condemn white supremacy stuff, how am I supposed to be like 'well, you know, you're entitled to your opinion on that.' Or infowars stuff, where we got people that are denying that shooting massacres actually happened. Like how do I objectively deal with this ifit's nonsense?" —Mr. Holton

In this qualitative study, I find that progressive public school teachers of AP Economics experience …

From The Margins To The Center: Queer And Trans Teachers Of Color In K-12 Public School, Esteban Cabrera-Duran , '18

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

Interviews with nine self-identified queer and trans teachers of color (QTToC) address how teachers both work within and resist the reproductive function of schools. Findings suggest that QTToC enter the profession with a set of values and conunitments. The pedagogies of these teachers can have a trans formative effect on the academic outcomes of students and prepare them to be critical of ideologies and systems of oppression. To fulfill this role and conunitment, teachers must have the support of the school context and culture. This thesis adds to the growing body of literature on QTToC and presents a more optimistic …

Unmasking Hybridity In Popular Performance, Hannah M. Harder

Student Publications

This paper explores cultural hybridization in popular music and the eroticization of the exotic eastern aesthetic. Using musicology and anthropology as tools, the paper examines varying perspectives of the artists, audience and marginalized groups. Although cultural appropriation has been used recently as a blanket buzzword in mainstream dialogue, it does provide a platform to discuss complex issues on gender, race and sexuality that has been muddled by colonial mentalities.

Understanding Violence Against Foreigners In Cape Town: Conceptions Of Autochthony And Xenophobia In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Mary L. Casey

Student Publications

Examining the correlation between the history of colonialism and structures of Apartheid in South Africa and the current xenophobic violence experienced by Black African immigrants settling in Cape Town. This thesis explores theories of autochthony and belonging in the context of Cape Town, Black South African relationships and ownership of land, access to resources and opportunities for employment, and the continued disenfranchisement of Black South Africans in the wake of Apartheid. These components of the issue of xenophobia in Cape Town are factored into an analysis of how and why violence persists against immigrants in the city.

Leisure In The “Land Of The Walking Dead”: Western Mortuary Tourism, The Internet, And Zombie Pop Culture In Toraja, Indonesia, Kathleen M. Adams

Anthropology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This chapter offers a critical analysis of the burgeoning cottage industry of cyber- and actual Toraja zombie tourism. Various studies have chronicled tourists’ fascination with cadavers, and with touring the purported haunts of the undead (c.f. Light 2009; Linke 2005; Stone 2011a), yet the ways in which new death-oriented leisure zones not only arise but become fetishized remain understudied. This chapter responds to the recent call for new research on the relationship between the media and dark tourism sites (Stone 2011b:327). Data derived from fieldwork in the Toraja highlands of Indonesia and web-based sources demonstrate the role of both the …

Investigación Arqueológica: Sitio Buen Suceso, Comuna Dos Mangas, Provincia De Santa Elena. Informe Preliminar., Sarah M. Rowe, Guy S. Duke

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Preliminary report on the 2017 excavation season at Bun Suceso, a Valdivia site located on the coast of Ecuador. Report submitted to the Region 5 Office of the Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural, Guayaquil, Ecuador.

The Burdens They Carry: How Black College Students Resist And Internalize Received Messages About Race And Racism, Lydia E. Koku , '18

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

At predominantly white institutions, black college students' understandings of their campus climate are complicated by their experiences of racial microaggressions and racial battle fatigue. In addition to navigating discriminatory encounters with peers, faculty and staff, black college students must contend with systemic inequality. Although prevalent research notes that positive racial socialization practices can prepare young people to think about, address and cope with racism, few studies have qualitatively explored black college students' perceptions of their socialization, and particularly, whether or not they were adequately prepared to experience and conceptualize racism in college. My thesis addresses these gaps by considering how …

Classroom Cannibal: A Guide On How To Teach Ojibwe Spirituality Using The Windigo And Film, Brady Desanti

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper is intended as a pedagogical guide on how to teach elements of Ojibwe religious and philosophical beliefs using the windigo and its depictions in the films Wendigo and Ravenous. The windigo complex is exceedingly complex and remains an enduring component to the cultures of Ojibwe and several other Algonquian-speaking communities in the United States and Canada. While the windigo enjoys exposure in a variety of popular entertainment sources, film remains one of the most useful methods to incorporate in the classroom to help students comprehend how an anthropophagus “monster” directly relates to Ojibwe ideas of personal balance, …

The Multi-Vocal Trailscape Of The Natchitoches Trace: A Trail Of Tears, Trade And Transformation, Jade L. Robison

Landscapes: the Journal of the International Centre for Landscape and Language

This paper demonstrates how individuals have inscribed the Natchitoches Trace trailscape with meaningful narratives via oral traditions, historical accounts and material evidence, and considers how descendent populations curate their heritage in such a landscape. Beginning at the mouth of the Missouri River near St. Louis, the Natchitoches Trace stretches southwest through the Ozark region in Missouri and Arkansas, and onto Natchitoches, Louisiana. Created by pre-Columbian groups for trading purposes, the trail was later utilised by early European pioneer families for westward expansion. The 1830 Indian Removal Act forced the repurposing of the trail as a route of exile for displaced …

Leading From The In-Between: Disability, Leadership, And Identity, Xochitl Mendez

Lesley University Community of Scholars Day

The daily lives of individuals challenged with physical disabilities shed light on the intersections, as well as the friction, between the identities we forge as individuals, and the social identities of the public space. In this interdisciplinary presentation, I will explore the fault lines between the social concepts of disability and the personal realities and specifics of biology and adaptation.

Exploring my own experiences with disability, pedagogy, and art, I will further delve on how the social realm (Arendt, 1958) evaluates and judges identity from expected modes of interaction that are often not available to the disabled person. Further, using …

Archbold, Annie And Barbara Dubczak (Fa 379), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 379. A reel-to-reel audiotape recording of a program titled “Documents in Sound: A Sample in Folk Arts,” which was sponsored by the Barren River Regional Arts Council with funds from the Kentucky Folklife Foundation. According to the tape summary, the program includes five separate features, which can be played as individual vignettes or as a full 29-minute program. Features include traditional artists and cover topics such as woodworking, broom making, basket making, weaving, and drawn work.

Analysis Of Marine Sediment By Chemical Signatures And Loss-On Ignition To Discover Evidence Of Ancient Maya Activities At Site 74, Paynes Creek Salt Works, Belize, Kobi Weaver

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis, archaeological sediment chemistry, loss-on ignition and microscopic analysis of marine sediment are used to study Site 74 of the Paynes Creek Salt Works in southern Belize. Site 74 was once an ancient Maya salt work. Due to sea-level rise, sea water and mangrove peat now cover the site. Sediment from the site was exported under permit to the Louisiana State University Laboratory. I prepared and delivered the samples to the Louisiana State University Agricultural Chemistry Laboratory for inductively coupled plasma- atomic emission spectroscopy testing (ICP-AES). ICP-AES measured the amount of 20 elements in the sediment. Maps showing …

Collins, Sara (Fa 1134), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1134. Student paper titled “Ghost Stories on a College Campus” in which Sara Collins gathers together tales of the supernatural. Collins places the stories into four main categories: “true” (classic), “memorate” (personal experiences), “regional” (local), and “other campuses.” Stories were collected by Collins from friends and fellow classmates.

Rain Rituals As A Barometer Of Vulnerability In An Uncertain Climate, L. Jen Shaffer

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Researchers and aid agencies, seeking to improve their understanding of local climate change responses, adaptation, and vulnerability, frequently interact with communities around the world who strongly emphasize their religious beliefs and practices. Dismissal and misunderstandings of these local perspectives can slow assessments of local climate vulnerability and development of adaptive capacity. In this paper, I show how analysis of rain ritual failure exposes the multiple stressors Ronga communities in southern Mozambique face, and as such, serves as a proxy measure for climate vulnerability at the local level. Oral histories and targeted interviews with participating elders, local chiefs, and community members …

Maffenbeier, John, 1905-1978 (Sc 3199), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3199. Correspondence of John Maffenbeier, Newark, New Jersey, relating to collecting and selling Native American artifacts. Some of the correspondence is related to Lost City, an archaeological tourist site in Logan County, Kentucky.

“I Am More Than My Addiction”: Perceptions Of Stigma And Access To Care In Acute Opioid Crisis, Heather D. Henderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research is to analyze the stigmatization of opioid addiction within the framework of emergency care from an ethnographic perspective. Interviews with those who have been swept up in the current opioid epidemic indicate that stigma, or a shame or dishonor, and socioeconomic insecurity emerge often as common themes in their emergency care experiences. In many cases, socioeconomic insecurity most intensely translates into a lack of access to healthcare and emergency rooms across the country often function as primary care for uninsured populations. The central field site selected for this study was the emergency department of an …

Thomas, Fonda (Fa 1133), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1133. Student paper titled “Tombstone Motifs” in which Fonda Thomas documents cemeteries in southern Warren County—specifically Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church, Hardshell Baptist Church, and Old Union Missionary Baptist Church—to describe popular carvings found on gravestones. Thomas, who has familial ties to two of the church cemeteries, describes motifs such as rosebuds, doves, and variations of hands and offers possible theories as to the meaning of each. The collection also includes crayon rubbings of tombstones, which have been placed in a folder separate from the paper.

Ethnicity, Climate, And House Types As Mortality Factors In The New Orleans' 1878 Yellow Fever Outbreak, Gabriele Richardson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The following study is first a demonstration that even incomplete health data from 1878 New Orleans’ yellow fever outbreak can be used with modern epidemiological methods and achieve useful and revealing results. Accordingly, this research examines three possible associations between New Orleans’ population exposed to yellow fever and the environment they lived in, using 4,755 yellow fever cases, derived from the New Orleans Board of Health report, Cemetery Burial records, Hospital, Asylum, and prison registers, and New Orleans obituaries. The first relationship addresses the vulnerability to yellow fever for people born in Italy, France, Great Britain, and the German Empire, …

Nicks, Sarah Elizabeth (Fa 1132), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1132. Student paper titled “Quilting: Past and Present” in which Sarah Nicks details the components of traditional quilt making. Nicks discusses piecing together patterns and the various motivations behind quilting. Information was collected by Nicks from family and friends. The collection contains color photographs of handmade quilts, a questionnaire related to quilting practices, and a sample piece of a quilt patch.

Being And Naughtiness: An Account Of Being An Ethnographic-Insider Studying White, Working Class Gym-Users, Andreas Giazitzoglu

The Qualitative Report

In this work, I reflexively outline my experiences of researching white, working class British male gym-users as an ethnographer. During my research process, I adhered to the definition of a level three ethnographic insider, articulated by Giazitzoglu and Payne (2018, forthcoming). Two broad questions guide this article. First, how did I managed to create a third-level insider position in the field, especially through my own embodiment and gym practices? Second, what can others learn from my experiences; particularly in relation to the practicalities of research ethics, data analysis and the emotional consequences of leaving a research-field where one has belonged?

Honoring The Dead: Digitizing Abuse & Neglect At The Asylum For Insane Indians, Kennedi Ford

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Perhaps because of the nature of the asylum and the relatively short length of time in which it was open, documents and records pertaining to the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians are hard to come by.

Approximately 1,000 files have been gathered and are in the process of being edited and published online. My participation is part of a Capstone project for Dakota State University’s General Beadle Honors Program. During my work with the Honoring the Dead digital archive project, I have edited, uploaded, transcribed, and gathered metadata for 6 documents. In addition to digitizing, I analyzed the documents for …

Community Heritage Day - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Fa 1130), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1130. Collection contains flyers and digital photographs taken at the Community Heritage Day event held on 4 November 2017 at the Kentucky Building in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The event—sponsored by the Kentucky Folklife Program, WKU Library Special Collections, the Kentucky Museum, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage grant—invited the general public to bring in items that were “significant to your family or our community story.” Materials were digitized, uploaded onto flash drives, and given to participants for personal, long-term accessibility. Note that Item 29 and Item 30 are duplicate images.

Kentucky Women In Agriculture (Mss 611), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Project 611. Minutes, financial records, conference handouts, and newsletters related to Kentucky Women in Agriculture, an awareness and support group for women farmers in the Commonwealth. Also includes interviews with members and digital images of members.

Book Review: Race And Upward Mobility: Seeking, Gatekeeping, And Other Class Strategies In Postwar America, Marisela Martinez-Cola

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

From the Talented Tenth to Tio Tacos, the language of race and upward mobility has always been complicated, particularly for Black and Brown communities in the United States. As I began to read Román’s engaging book about how race and upward mobility are depicted in novels, plays, films, and TV sitcoms (hereinafter “cultural texts”), the theme song from The Jeffersons kept ringing in my head as well as George Lopez’s observation of how Mexican Americans respond to successful family members. This may have been her intent as she begins her book by comparing George Jefferson and George Lopez. The comparison …

Improving Canadian Indigenous Health: Diabetes & Cardiovascular Disease, Sukhmeet S. Sachal

Western Research Forum

Background:

This abstract explores improving health outcomes for Canada’s Indigenous peoples. The increased prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes in this population makes this a public health problem because diabetes has long-term complications that affect the cardiovascular system and can result in disability and premature death.

Methods:

A literature review using specific search terms was performed to find 36 relevant articles. Search databases for the primary and secondary information were CINAHL and PubMED, respectively.

Results:

The results were classified into five groups: (1) Previous Genetic Protection; (2) Current Day Risk; (3) Diet; (4) Barriers in Developing and Maintaining …