Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons^™

2020 Mlk Keynote Address: Michelle Alexander Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Michelle Alexander, Rosanne Somerson, Matthew Shenoda

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

2020 MLK Series Keynote Michelle Alexander brings audiences profoundly necessary and meaningful insights on the practice of mass incarceration that plagues the US justice system, as well as eye-opening conversation on how we can end racial caste in America. Lecture Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at 5:30pm, RISD Auditorium, 17 Canal Walk, Providence, RI.

In her acclaimed bestseller The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Alexander peels back the curtain on systemic racism in the US prison system in a work that the New York Review of Books describes as "striking in the intelligence of her …

Victim Silencing, Sexual Violence Culture, Social Healing: Inherited Collective Trauma Of World War Ii South Korean Military “Comfort Women”, Mijin Cho

VCU Phi Kappa Phi Award Winners

The unresolved reconciliation process for WWII South Korean military “comfort women” presents a case of nationally inherited collective trauma, in which South Koreans far removed in time and space from the historical tragedy feel its implications and obligations for reparations and social healing. In examining the South Korean comfort women redress movement and systemic concealment of WWII military sexual slavery, this study investigates a pattern of victim silencing, characterized by institutional patriarchy and ineffective government involvement, from 1945 to 2019. Following the South Korean government’s formal rejection of the 2015 agreement with Japan regarding a final and irreversible conclusion to …

Behind The Exhibit: Exploring The Processes Of Indigenous Rights Representation At The Canadian Museum For Human Rights, Madison Caroline Dillard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Focusing on the representation of Indigenous human rights at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, this study examines how museums can represent, educate, and advocate for Indigenous human rights. The study is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out at the museum in July 2019 and the literature on anthropology and human rights, decolonizing museum practices, and museums as spaces for human rights dialogue. The study shows how museums can change their history of racist and inaccurate representation of Indigenous people. Through extensive and “deep collaboration” between Indigenous partners and museum staff, Indigenous culture, history, and rights …

Beyond Interventions: A Case Study Of The Denver Art Museum’S Native Arts Artist-In-Residency Program, Madison Sussmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Denver Art Museum’s Native Arts Artist-in-Residency Program is an inter-departmental project dedicated to the collaboration between the museum, artists, and visitors. The residency and the physical studio were established to formalize artist involvement in the museum. There is no written mission statement for the program, but visitor engagement is central to the organization of the program and experience of the artist. This thesis explores the question: What can the experiences of the artists and museum professionals involved in the Native Arts Artist-in-Residency program tell about the residency’s contribution to critical museology and decolonization? Through exploring the definitions of critical …

Tracing Biometric Assemblages In India’S Surveillance State: Reproducing Colonial Logics, Reifying Caste Purity, And Quelling Dissent Through Aadhaar, Priya Prabhakar

Scripps Senior Theses

Tracing Biometric Assemblages in India’s Surveillance State seeks to understand the historical conditions that rendered the nation-state of India as having the world’s largest biometric surveillance system: Aadhaar. Surveillance practices used by the British Raj mirrors the current social order of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as they use surveillance to similar ends in today’s political economy, through the intersecting forces of neoliberalism and ethnonationalism. This thesis is an exploration into how India’s current surveillance regimes cultivate biometric surveillant assemblages through Aadhaar. Contrary to claims that Aadhaar was created to empower the poor, I argue that these surveillance regimes …

Beyond Extractivism And Governmentality: The Postneoliberal State, Development, And The Circulation Of Oil Rents Among Indigenous Peoples In The Ecuadorian Amazon, Karla Monserrath Encalada-Falconí

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

This dissertation explores the experiences of an indigenous community from the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon during the implementation of extractivism, development, and redistributive projects. Drawing on twenty months of ethnographic fieldwork in the community of Playas del Cuyabeno and in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, I question the common assumption that indigenous peoples radically reject extractivism and state-imposed modernizing agendas. In contrast, this study shows how indigenous peoples negotiate resource extraction in their territories and navigate the partial failures of postneoliberal redistribution and the contradictory agendas of economic development projects—specifically the aim of the postneoliberal Ecuadorian government’s project to redistribute rents …

“Tell Me, Bambi Or Yogi Ever Hunt You Back?” The Windigo Myth: A Metaphor For Imperialism And Mental Illness, Christine Carlough

Senior Capstone Theses

The Canadian indigenous myth of the windigo, originating from Algonquian-speaking tribes of the subarctic Northeast like Ojibwe and Cree, is a manifestation for a multitude of fears. This myth originated hundreds of years ago in order to explain the horror and lack of understanding of a mental illness, which would later be known as Windigo Psychosis. Windigo Psychosis is a culture-bound syndrome for an insatiable desire to consume human flesh. A culture-bound syndrome is recognizable and unique only within a specific society or culture, so in other words, Windigo Psychosis is specific to this area in Canada due to a …

Puerto Rico: Necrópolis, Yarimar Bonilla

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Risking Rescue: The Politics Of Precarity In Mediterranean Crossing, Eleanor Paynter

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Over the course of Europe’s recent refugee crisis, the role of Search and Rescue (SAR) has changed dramatically, first forming a critical part of (inter)national responses to the crisis, and now occupying an antagonistic position, as countries have closed their ports to NGO-operated vessels and the European Commission (EC) has ceased naval Search and Rescue operations. As a result, migrants crossing the Central Mediterranean face different and increased risks, including dying at sea, being held by European authorities, or being apprehended closer to Libya and sent to a Libyan detention camp.

In response to these shifts, groups that continue SAR …

La Comunicación Intercultural Entre Pacientes Bolivianos Y Trabajadores De Salud En Buenos Aires, Argentina / Intercultural Communication Between Bolivian Patients And Health-Care Workers In Buenos Aires, Argentina, Lilly Snellman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Según la Ley de Migraciones 25.871 de 2004, los inmigrantes en Argentina tienen el mismo derecho a la atención médica que los argentinos nativos. El sistema de salud argentina es uno de los más inclusivos en el mundo, pero todavía hay barreras al acceso para comunidades e individuos marginados. Muchas veces los migrantes bolivianos son discriminados en la sociedad argentina por sus rasgos raciales, bajo nivel socioeconómico y diferencias culturales. Tres clases importantes de barreras para el acceso a la atención médica para los migrantes son las económicas, estructurales y comunicativas. En este estudio, decidí enfocarme en las brechas de …

Disability And Migration: How Systems Of Violence Intersect With The Production And Experience Of Disability For Migrants In Morocco, Frances Condon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This project investigates the perspectives and experiences of physically disabled, chronically ill, or bodily-impaired migrants from south of the Sahara living in Rabat, Morocco. Increasing interest in disabled migrants’ rights from international organizations risks erasing those being ‘protected’ if it does not attend to the intersections of race, class, citizenship, and gender as they relate to the production and experience of disability for migrants. Produced by and for the (white) global North, I argue that traditional Euro-American disability studies scholarship is ill-equipped to address the issues faced by disabled migrants in post-colonial contexts. In addition to being ineffective, the uncritical …

The Making And Silencing Of “Axé-Ocracy” In Brazil: Black Women Writers’ Spiritual, Political And Literary Movement In São Paulo, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

In this article, I will focus on two influential writers from the south of Brazil, Cristiane Sobral who currently lives in Brasília, from Rio de Janeiro, and Conceição Evaristo who currently lives in Rio de Janeiro state, from Minas Gerais. I got to know them in São Paulo in 2015 at a public event: the “Afroétnica Flink! Sampa Festival of Black Thought, Literature and Culture.” I will include references to some of their younger contemporaries such as Raquel Almeida, Jenyffer Nascimento, and Elizandra Souza, all of whom reside in São Paulo, in order to illustrate the Black Brazilian women writers’ …

The Female Worker: An Analysis Of Women Residing Along The Moroccan-European And U.S.- American Borderlands, Marlen G. Renderos

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My independent research project is a comparative study focusing on women experiences among the Mexican-U.S. borderlands and Moroccan-European borderlines. For the Mexican-U.S.American context, I will focus on females maquiladora workers and stay-at-home wives. For the Moroccan-European context, I will focus on the mujeres mulas – women mules. My paper will discuss the ways in which society and governments run under a male-dominated lens contributing to the placement of women in vulnerable positions.

Terra Nullius: The Effects Of Australia’S Colonial History On Sense Of Place, Anna Beyette

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Australia’s history of colonization of Aboriginal communities continues to affect not only the indigenous population of Australia, but also non-Aboriginal Australians. This study focuses on how Australia’s complex history of colonization and its lasting effects influence the ability of Non-Aboriginal Australians to connect to place. One potential effect of colonization is “settler-guilt” or the complex feelings of guilt, remorse, and shame felt by “settlers” at their privilege derived from the racist, violent, and genocidal treatment of indigenous people and communities due to the colonization of indigenous lands and the legacy of colonization. This study asks whether settler-guilt exists in Australia, …

“Goooooal!”: An Exploration Of The Dutch-Moroccan Footballer Experience, Kate J. Freeman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study seeks to explore how fans of the Dutch national football team, Oranje, engage with the portrayal of Dutch-Moroccan footballers who are navigating between the paradigms of “success story” and “problematic immigrant.” In the climate of the seemingly tolerant country of the Netherlands, we hypothesize that fans of Dutch football interpret and perpetuate the concept that minoritized men have to maintain a flawless performance based on conditions determined by the majority in order to ascertain a higher position in society. By employing Krippendorff’s theory of content analysis (Krippendorff, 2004), we explore the language used to describe three Dutch-Moroccan footballers …

Los Vacíos Y Las Ausencias: Una Mirada Sobre La Presencia De Los Afrodescendientes En Las Clases De Historia Nacional En Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sasha Mothershead

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Argentina, un país donde los presidentes pronuncian frases como “en Argentina no existen los negros; ese problema lo tiene Brasil” y “en Sudamérica todos somos descendientes de europeos,” tiene una tradición de invisibilización y negación de los afrodescendientes. Históricamente, el sistema de educación ha tenido un papel en la reproducción de este discurso hegemónico; la escuela formal, por ejemplo, fue uno de los primeros lugares para la “argentinización” de los nuevos inmigrantes y la construcción intencional de una identidad nacional blanca. Debido a este legado pernicioso, la investigación actual se enfoca en la presencia y visibilidad del afro a dentro …

Los Efectos De La Minería En La Salud: El Movimiento Social Aymara En Torno Al Cerro Márquez, Maya Hajny Fernandez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

With the political and social state of Chile’s history, mining has been present for hundreds of years, affecting the land and the indigenous populations in the country. This study asked how mining in the town of Ticnamar would affect the community, what positive and negative results mining activity has, what the most important elements of the social movement against mining are and how all of these elements influence health. The study sought to learn and study the impact of and the motivations that mining could have in the community of Ticnamar, and how it is perceived by the community. More …

La Ciudad Versus El Campo: La Calidad De Vida De Los Adultos Mayores Aymara Entre Arica Y Putre, Clare Rogowski

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The elderly population in Chile is increasing rapidly. In indigenous villages in the interior of Chile, like Putre, the younger generation is leaving to pursue education and employment opportunities in cities, in this case Arica. In many cases no one stays to take care of the elders. As the elderly begin to grow older and require greater support, the younger generation seeks to move their family members to the city so that they can care for them. While this provides for greater connection to family and access to medical care for the elderly relatives, the elderly loses their connection to …

La Incorporación De La Dimensión Intercultural Para Pacientes Quechuas En El Centro Comunitario De Salud Mental De Calca, Caroline Parker

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Trastornos mentales afectan a una de cada cinco personas del Perú. Sin embargo, entre las personas que indican una necesidad de atención de salud mental, 69%-85% no buscan servicios. Este problema se amplifica en zonas rurales y comunidades indígenas a lo largo del país. Debido a la falta de servicios en estas regiones, y a la ausencia de investigaciones acerca de la salud mental en comunidades indígenas, investigué los servicios para la salud mental en Calca, una provincia en el sur del Perú con una población substantiva de personas indígenas. Mi pregunta principal es: ¿de qué manera el Centro Comunitario …

¿Un Desarrollo Sostenible? Analizando El Ecoturismo Como Un Modelo De Desarrollo Sostenible Para Disminuir La Pobreza Y Su Impacto En La Cultura De La Comunidad Nativa De Infierno, Emily Pugh

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Este estudio se enfoca en la Comunidad Nativa de Infierno como un modelo de desarrollo sostenible por su actividad de ecoturismo y critica los aspectos sociales que han cambiado con la llegada del albergue Posada Amazonas en el año 1996. A través de un trabajo de campo de dos semanas y haciendo uso de métodos de investigación comunes a la investigación sociocultural, los resultados de esta investigación afirman que la manera en que los comuneros viven, valoran el dinero y se relacionan el uno al otro han cambiado. Por la creación de un área protegida para el ecoturismo, ya menos …

Afro-Cuba Transnational: Recordings And The Mediation Of Afro-Cuban Traditional Music, Johnny Frias

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes the way audio and video recordings and the internet have impacted, shaped, and helped create a transnational Afro-Cuban music scene. My focus will be on the most popular and widely-recorded genres of Afro-Cuban music—rumba and the religious repertoire of Santería, particularly batá drumming—both of which I also perform regularly with other Cuban musicians in Miami. Incorporating interviews, online ethnographic research, and participant-observation as a musician, my research has three main arguments.

First, recordings of Afro-Cuban music helped create a transnational Afro-Cuban music scene by increasing the popularity of these traditions outside of Cuba, including their amateur performance …

Review Of The Practice Of Islam In America: An Introduction, Aisha Ghani

The Journal of Social Encounters

The demand, indeed urgency, within the American Academy for courses on Islam has perhaps never been greater than at current. Yet, the very conditions that create this urgency also produce anxieties for those fulfilling this pedagogical role. The challenge confronting many of us - knowing that our students will enter the classroom with ideas/questions about Islam stemming, in large part, from what they’ve encountered through popular media and the news – is how to carry out this work in a way that both acknowledges this abiding, even if delimiting, contemporary context without allowing our teaching to be subsumed by it. …

Computed Tomography Shows High Fracture Prevalence Among Physically Active Forager-Horticulturalists With High Fertility, Jonathan Stieglitz, Benjamin C. Trumble, Horus Study Team, Caleb E. Finch, Dong Li, Matthew J. Budoff, Hillard Kaplan, Michael D. Gurven

ESI Publications

Modern humans have more fragile skeletons than other hominins, which may result from physical inactivity. Here, we test whether reproductive effort also compromises bone strength, by measuring using computed tomography thoracic vertebral bone mineral density (BMD) and fracture prevalence among physically active Tsimane forager-horticulturalists. Earlier onset of reproduction and shorter interbirth intervals are associated with reduced BMD for women. Tsimane BMD is lower versus Americans, but only for women, contrary to simple predictions relying on inactivity to explain skeletal fragility. Minimal BMD differences exist between Tsimane and American men, suggesting that systemic factors other than fertility (e.g. diet) do not …

The Dynamics Of Men's Cooperation And Social Status In A Small-Scale Society, Christopher Von Rueden, Daniel Redhead, Rick O'Gorman, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

We propose that networks of cooperation and allocation of social status co-emerge in human groups. We substantiate this hypothesis with one of the first longitudinal studies of cooperation in a preindustrial society, spanning 8 years. Using longitudinal social network analysis of cooperation among men, we find large effects of kinship, reciprocity and transitivity in the nomination of cooperation partners over time. Independent of these effects, we show that (i) higher-status individuals gain more cooperation partners, and (ii) individuals gain status by cooperating with individuals of higher status than themselves. We posit that human hierarchies are more egalitarian relative to other …

Kumain Na Tayo! Exploring The Role Of Food In Communicating Tradition And Instilling Familial Values, Aaron Negrillo

Student Research

As a core part of Asian values, family plays a huge role in developing the individual’s identity. Family strongly contributes to the passing down of traditions and values. The expression of cultural values can be observed through many surface-level interactions such as food and meal rituals. This auto-ethnography explores the link between food and culture, specifically how it serves as a vehicle of communication that passes down traditions and values. The underlying core values of hospitality, respect, and sacrifice stand emerged from the thematic analysis conducted. Overall, food can be understood as a tangible expression of love: creating something for …

Jesse Routte: Using Style To Signify Injustice, Emma Nordmeyer

Race, Ethnicity, & Religion

Jesse Routte, first African-American student to graduate Augustana, made national headlines in 1947 for wearing a turban on a visit to Alabama. In this paper, I explore how Routte's stylistic choices uprooted and questioned the racism of the Jim Crow era.

The Formation Of Queer Consciousness In Gay, Latin, Men: How Experiences Affect The Lives Of Queer Latinos, Daniel Leon-Barranco

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

I am interested in investigating the question: How does experience, in a Latinx environment, affect the “coming out” process for queer, Latinx, men? Additionally, the aim of this research is to discover whether Queer Latinx peoples retain their cultural identity/consciousness or abandon it. This project is relevant to analyze whether Latinx culture impacts peoples to abstain from or retain their cultural identity/consciousness. I also hope that this research can prove whether an amalgamation of standpoint theory and Situated Knowledge can come together to affect the process of (re)claiming identity; as the Latinx man claims their sexual identity. This research aims …

Set In Stone: Recontextualizing The Lithic Assemblage Of A Seventeenth-Century Storage Cellar In Charlestown, Massachusetts, Anna M. Greco

Graduate Masters Theses

Feature 43 is a domestic structure that belonged to the wealthy seventeenth-century merchant community of Charlestown, Massachusetts, and was excavated in the early 1980s as part of the Maudlin Archaeological District. The extant collection has remained in storage for the last thirty years, demanding a recontextualization of the site, both in provenience and in historical context. Primary sources portray an image of a predominantly European settler household; however, a counter-narrative emerges from lithics found within the assemblage. While the ultimate goal is to analyze the patterns of lithic sourcing and production in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the findings hinge on …

Losing Louisiana: Race, Techno-Science, And The Disappearing Geographies Of The Lower Mississippi River Delta, Monica Patrice Barra

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Based on eighteen months of ethnographic and historical research in southeast coastal Louisiana (USA), this dissertation explores the racial histories, engineering and scientific practices, and geophysical processes that have shaped land loss and coastal restoration in the lower Mississippi River Delta. Rather than treating land loss simply as a natural process or matter of environmental restoration, this ethnography examines its cultural, material, and political dimensions, especially for communities of color that have already experienced long histories of loss — of property, livelihood, and political rights. A focus on the geophysical transformations of the river - dictating land growth, sinking, and …

Becoming Legible: The Racial Making Of The Negro Mascogo/Black Seminole People In The Coahuila–Texas Borderland, Rocío Gil Martínez De Escobar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This historical ethnography analyzes the making of the Negro Mascogo/Black Seminole people as part of the production of the Coahuila-Texas borderland. In the quest to become legible to improve their living conditions and maintain a sense of dignity, Negros Mascogos/Black Seminoles use history and racialization as tools of negotiation between themselves and the two nation-states where they live: Mexico and the United States. I analyze the Negro Mascogo/Black Seminole people as a case of racialization that illustrates the ongoing mechanisms of settler colonialism (dispossession, exploitation, and elimination via genocide or assimilation), as they play out in specific socio-historical contexts.

The …