Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons^™

Bankruptcy Stigma: A Socio-Legal Study, Michael D. Sousa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For as long as the institution of bankruptcy has existed, legal commentators have debated whether it is appropriate for debtors to experience some social stigma upon filing for personal bankruptcy--that is, whether it serves the goals of bankruptcy law for debtors to feel shame. While this issue has been extensively discussed as a theoretical matter, to date no legal commentator or scholar has examined the question as an empirical matter: do debtors in fact associate feelings of shame with filing for bankruptcy, and, if so, why (or why not)? This article, for the first time, undertakes precisely this inquiry. Specifically, …

Representing Race Responsibly: A Case Study Of The Social Responsibility Paradigm In Colorado Museums, Angela Rueda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although museums have moved towards more reflexive practice, misrepresentation continues to be a concern. How then can museums successfully represent racial and ethnic groups that have historically been marginalized or misrepresented? In this thesis I argue that with greater integration of the social responsibility paradigm--which argues that museums can be agents of social change-- museums may be able to improve representation. During the summer of 2013, I conducted field research that explored how the social responsibility paradigm was or was not being enacted at The History Colorado Center and Museo de las Americas. This thesis offers a critical analysis of …

"As Our Elders Taught Us To Speak It": Chinuk Wawa And The Process Of Creating Authenticity, Kylie N. Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chinuk Wawa (also called Chinook Jargon) began as a trading language of the Pacific Northwest in the late eighteenth century. As it developed, it became the major heritage language of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, an intertribal nation located in Oregon. Now, as older speakers of the language pass on, there is an effort by the Grand Ronde to revitalize this language not only on the Grand Ronde Reservation, but also in nearby Portland, Oregon. However, revitalization can be a complicated process, as tribal leaders attempt to define Chinuk to maintain its traditions while adapting its vocabulary for …

Redefining, Crafting, And Re/Presenting Contemporary Ethnicities: Honduran National Identity, 1994–2006, Cordelia A. Frewen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, Fourth World populations, including those in Honduras, have been steadily gaining partial recognition of cultural rights; yet often official discourses of national identity continue to subsume cultural traditions of indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. Honduras's heterogeneous ethnic pluralism has historically been combined to promote a more cohesive national identity of a homogenized, mayanized, indo-Hispanic mestizaje. Exclusion and mis- or under-representation of indigenous groups is reinforced by popular imagination, particularly in the cultural heritage and tourism sectors. Firmly situated within regional Latin American and global trends, over the past two decades, official discourse on …

Navigating The Paradox Of Fear: Collaborative Research Exploring Resettlement And Vulnerability With Displaced Women In Colombia, Emily E. R. Braucher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In April of 2008, the Colombian Constitutional Court issued a report based on women's testimonials that identified gender-specific risks associated with forced displacement as result of armed conflict. This study explores the coping strategies employed by Colombian women to address socio-economic vulnerability and improve living conditions during resettlement in Bogotá. Specifically, the research tracks the process of adaptation during the struggle to achieve economic stability. The findings suggest that a prevailing culture of fear influences multiple aspects of adjusting to the city and constricts the participants' access to new social networks. Lessons gathered from the participants using collaborative anthropological methods …

Rescued, Rehabilitated, Returned: Institutional Approaches To The Rehabilitation Of Survivors Of Sex Trafficking In India And Nepal, Robynne A. Locke

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite participating in rehabilitation programs, many survivors of sex trafficking in India and Nepal are re-trafficked, ‘voluntarily’ re-enter the sex industry, or become traffickers or brothel managers themselves. This thesis discusses the challenges of institutional rehabilitation from a critical theory perspective. Drawing from three months of participant observation, interviews, and focus groups with rehabilitation professionals, this thesis will show that there has been a recent, positive shift in the discourse of survivor rehabilitation at the institutional level. However, a focus on individual rather than holistic change, the structure of the rehabilitation process, and a lack of assessment tools has made …

Where Have All The Utopias Gone? Ritual, Solidarity, And Longevity In A Multifaith Commune In New Mexico, Linda Prueitt Hansen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Utopian experiments creating new forms of community have dotted the globe throughout human history. Despite grandiose visions, a majority of communal experiments have faded quickly into oblivion. A wealth of scholarship has focused on reasons why communes typically fail. My research of an ecumenical commune in northern New Mexico examines what has facilitated its perpetuation for over 42 years. I participated in this community for different periods of time for over three years. With the assistance of a resident oral historian, I was able to expand my study into a diachronic view that spanned decades. I conclude that there are …

Los Caminos Del Enfermo En Una Comunidad K’Iche’ De Guatemala: Una Contribución Del Análisis De Redes Al Estudio De Los Comportamientos De Búsqueda De Atención En Salud, Alejandro Cerón

Anthropology: Faculty Scholarship

Introducción: El objetivo de este estudio fue ampliar la comprensión sobre los comportamientos de búsqueda de atención a través del análisis de las transiciones que las personas hacen entre distintas alternativas terapéuticas. Metodología: Una encuesta de prevalencia de enfermedad en 229 unidades domésticas de la comunidad, detectó 92 personas con algún padecimiento agudo, a quienes se entrevistó para establecer las acciones que tomaron respecto a la enfermedad. Las acciones correspondieron a una de las siguientes categorías: esperar, remedios caseros, compra de medicinas, o uso de profesionales (tradicionales, biomedicina o sanación divina). Estas categorías terapéuticas se tabularon en una matriz idéntica …

"In My Heart I Had A Feeling Of Doing It": A Case Study Of The Lost Boys Of Sudan And Christianity, Kathryn Snyder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While members of the southern Sudanese Dinka tribe converted to Christianity in large numbers in the early 1990s, the Lost Boys, a largely Dinka group of young men who were separated from their families during the Sudanese civil war in the late 1980s, had a distinct conversion experience in refugees camps. Using first-person interviews and participant observation with a group of Lost Boys resettled in Denver, and historical and ethnographic data, this research seeks to explain why the Lost Boys converted to Christianity and the role that it played in their identity in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya, and …

A Kachina By Any Other Name: Linguistically Contextualizing Native American Collections, Rachel Elizabeth Maxson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Museums collect and care for material culture, and, increasingly, intangible culture. This relatively new term for the folklore, music, dance, traditional practices, and language belonging to a group of people is gaining importance in international heritage management discourse. As one aspect of intangible cultural heritage, language is more relevant in museums than one might realize. Incorporating native languages into museum collections provides context and acts as appropriate museology, preserving indigenous descriptions of objects. Hopi katsina tihu are outstanding examples of objects that museums can re-contextualize with native terminology. Their deep connection to Hopi belief and ritual as well as their …

Intellectual Property And Access To Medicines: An Analysis Of Legislation In Central America, Alejandro Cerón, Angelina Snodgrass Godoy

Anthropology: Faculty Scholarship

Globalization of intellectual property (IP) protection for medicines has been advancing during the past decade. Countries are obliged to adapt their legislation as a requirement of their membership to the World Trade Organization or as a condition of being part of international trade agreements. There is a growing recognition that, in low-income countries, stronger IP protection is a barrier to access to medicines. At the same time, the number of low-income countries writing national legislation to protect IP for pharmaceutical products is growing worldwide, but little research has been done on the ways in which this process is happening at …

A Clash Of Worldviews: The Impact Of Modern Western Notion Of Progress On Indigenous Naga Culture, Tezenlo Thong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term "progress" is a modern Western notion that life is always improving and advancing toward an ideal state. It is a vital modern concept which underlies geographic explorations and scientific and technological inventions as well as the desire to harness nature in order to increase human beings' ease and comfort. With the advent of Western colonization and to the great detriment of the colonized, the notion of progress began to perniciously and pervasively permeate across cultures.

During the classical colonial period, Western anthropologists, sociologists and others had hypothesized, or at least ardently bought into the notion, that human beings, …

Indigenous Sovereignty In State-Native Conflicts: A Comparative Study Of Process And Outcomes, Christina Farnsworth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, this study was designed to understand how indigenous groups assert their sovereign rights in conflict situations, and how they can be most successful in doing so.

Two instances of indigenous-state conflict were analyzed and compared both to each other and to a baseline of what sovereignty in conflict is, based on the United Nations Declaration. Data to be analyzed and compared was gathered through extensive archival research and interviews with tribal members and other interested parties.

The results documented the interaction between indigenous groups and state/provincial and federal governments …

The Promise And Peril Of Public Anthropology, Ben Feinberg

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Why America’s Top Pundits Are Wrong: Anthropologists Talk Back edited by Catherine Besteman and Hugh Gusterson. University of California Press: Berkeley, 2005. 282 pp.

and

Anthropologists in the Public Sphere: Speaking Out on War, Peace, and American Power edited by Roberto J. González. University of Texas Press: Austin, 2004. 288 pp.

and

Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI’s Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists by David H. Price. Duke University Press: Durham, 2004. 426 pp.

Escaping The Cultural Context Of Human Rights, Andrew Fagan

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Liberal Archipelago: A Theory of Diversity and Freedom by Chandran Kukathas. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003. pp.292

Darkness In Anthropology, Peter Van Arsdale

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An essay covering Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon by Patrick Tierney. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000. 417 pp. and related documents.

Universal Human Rights And Cultural Diversity, Hilde Hey

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of Human Rights: New Perspectives, New Realities, edited by Adamantia Pollis and Peter Schwab. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000. 259pp.

The debate as to whether human rights should be considered universal or culturally relative has come a long way. In 1947, when the Commission on Human Rights considered proposals for formulating a declaration on basic human rights, the American Anthropological Association submitted a statement expressing concern about the universality of the proposed declaration. The association’s main argument was that ideas about rights and wrongs and good and evil that exist in one society are incompatible with the ideas …