Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons^™

Truth, Justice, And The American Way: Negotiating Identity Among Superhero Cosplayers At International Comic Book Conventions, James Scanlan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cosplay performances in convention spaces, and the increasing commercialization and commodification of both, remain largely unexplored domains that are rapidly expanding into global phenomena. The influx of capital internationally and the growing popularity of cosplay and conventions offers the opportunity to document and describe processes of performance, identity construction, and negotiation of the global phenomena within local contexts (“glocalization”) in non-Western spaces. I conducted ethnographic research at more than half a dozen research sites throughout Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and South and Central America, photographing convention spaces and cosplayers and conducting interviews with cosplayers. By focusing …

Winter Texans: A Study Of Community And Belonging In An Overlooked Border Identity In The Lower Rio Grande Valley, Belinda D. Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study centers around a population of retired Anglos who migrate to South Texas border towns in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (locally known as The Valley) from October through March each year. Many travel in recreational vehicles (RVs) and hail from the United States and Canada to set up home in one of The Valley’s RV parks. They are called Winter Texans by themselves and locals. Scholarly research focused on Winter Texans explores how they are motivated to move because of lower costs of living (Murray 2020), how they travel for medical reasons, and their use of Mexican health …

Cultivating Atmosphere In Independent Coffee Shops: Reflections On How Atmospheres Are Created Through Sensory Experiences, Brooke Bierhaus Sutton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Affective atmosphere is a fundamental component to the allure of coffee shops that is cultivated through sensory experience. In this thesis I examine how the sensory experience of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch, create atmospheres in coffee shops. I ask, “how do coffee shops cultivate an affective atmosphere?” Through an exploration of material culture, design, affect, and the intentional production of third places, I illustrate the ways in which independent coffee shops have their own unique identities and atmospheres. By using memoir and reflexive analysis of my decade in global coffee culture, as well as an extensive literary review, …

Constructing Trust Among Large-Scale Organizations: An Archaeological Case Of Collective Action From Tlaxcallan, Mexico, Marc Daniel Marino

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within nation-states, agencies, cooperatives, and other groups seeking to coordinate in the management of resources, conflicting interests can hinder cooperation and preclude joint action. Increasing transparency in resource management policies and facilitating communication among groups can reduce cooperative dilemmas by building trust. Developments in collective action research have demonstrated that increased communication and transparency among participants can build trust because future outcomes and behaviors can be predicted based on observations of past actions. Archaeology provides case studies to explore some of the earliest attempts by nation-states to reduce tensions caused by competing factions. This dissertation explores one such case study …

Where One Puts Wood On The Fire: The Political Economy Of P’Urépecha Urban Neighborhoods At The Site Of Angamuco, Michoacán, Kyle Ryan Urquhart

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to understand the political and economic relationships in the organization and use of neighborhood public space at the archaeological site of Angamuco in Michoacán, Mexico. Ethnohistoric sources describe multiple distinct social classes for the P’urépecha people at the time of European contact, but they are ambiguous about the exact political and economic relationships among them. There is some description of how these different interest groups articulated at the level of the city-state, but there is not much information on the internal dynamics of neighborhood or district-level subdivisions of the city-state. The discovery of the remains of a …

Holocaust Education In Arkansas: An Exploration Of Policy Process And Implementation, Toby Klein

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Holocaust was the attempted extermination of the Jewish people--a fact previously considered to be common knowledge. However, recent national surveys find that Arkansas students have the lowest levels of knowledge of the Holocaust in the United States. A recent law mandated the teaching of the Holocaust for 5-12th grade public school students in Arkansas, however, little is known about the policy process and implementation of such a mandate. Given the magnitude of the gaps in the literature on this topic, this dissertation uses a three article format to address specific gaps and make specific contributions to the literature by …

Gender Neutral Parenting: Raising A Generation Outside The Gender Binary, Toni Noelle Martinez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, the social and cultural reality remains organized around the gender binary. The binary legitimizes itself on the widely held belief that gender is determined by biology and, therefore, is “natural.” By exploring and firmly placing gender as a cultural construct, this thesis looks at the possibilities of fracturing the binary. Borrowing from Stephan Hirschauer (1994) and Judith Butler’s (2004), this thesis theorizes what a gender neutral world could look like and examines how Gender Neutral Parents contribute toward a gender revolution. Gender Neutral Parents, a community that is mostly found online, represent a small group that …

Hallucinogenic Neoshamanism As Antimodernism: Development And Ethical Considerations, Ethan Thompson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Humans have been using hallucinogenic plants and fungi for thousands of years. Historically, people around the world have made use of these substances to aid in their spiritual development. Studies of the usage of hallucinogens in indigenous societies often use the term “shamanism” to characterize the associated system of belief and ritual practices. In popular understanding, shamanism is a religious system that features highly ritualized performances in which a practitioner (shaman) utilizes an altered state of consciousness to gain access to realms inhabited by spirits with the intent of recruiting their help to resolve a problem, cure a patient, correct …

Analyzing The Mediating Effects Of Social Capital And Sense Of Community Between International Student’S College Sports Fan Identification And Acculturation, Kibaek Kim

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to the number provided by the International Institute of Education (IIE), there are over one million international students enrolled in the United States. Although the number of international students is increasing, the incremental rate started to decrease after reaching its peak in the 2017-2018 academic year. While previous studies focused on the role of leisure activities, such as physical activity participation, to analyze how international students can receive social support from their communities to better acculturate in the U.S., this study focused on the role of spectator sports on providing social support and its effect on international student’s acculturation. …

Mvskoke-Nene Momis Komet Yvkvpvkkeyetos/We Keep Walking The Mvskoke Path: A Reflexive And Phenomenological Ethnographic Study Of The Ceremonial Beliefs And Practices Of A Modern Mvskoke Community In Florida, Christopher B. Bolfing

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an ethnographic investigation of the intersection between cosmology, worldview, ethnoecology, and traditional religious performance, particularly in terms of the relationship between subjective experience and intersubjectivity. It is a study of how people come to understand the world – an attempt to understand understanding. I explore the acquisition of social, cultural, and ecological knowledge through participation in the traditional religious ceremonialism of a Mvskoke ceremonial community, called the Busk. I write about living people and living religious traditions, but I am also a member of this community and, therefore, I am also telling my own story. Reflexivity, then, …

Geospatial Analysis Of Registered Sex Offenders: A Case Study From Pulaski County, Arkansas, Maggie Rose Bridges

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this case study was to analyze the spatial distribution patterns of the residences of registered sex offenders in Pulaski County, Arkansas to determine the impact of state enforced residence restrictions. Density and clustering factors were used to identify census tracts of the study area with high and low concentrations of offenders. These zones were then compared to identify which characteristics were similar and dissimilar between high and low concentration zones. The results indicate that there is a non-random distribution of registered sex offenders in the study area. The findings also indicate that the residence restrictions placed on …

Social Acceleration In The Marketplace: Three Essays Exploring The Intersection Of Culture And Consumption, Sarah Grace

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Consumer culture is fast. Goods, services, people, ideas, and values – the material and nonmaterial aspects of culture – are moving more quickly throughout the marketing system than ever before. Such acceleration effects diverse stakeholders: people, public, and planet. This dissertation explores the phenomenon of ‘social acceleration’, and specifically, the ‘acceleration of the pace of life’ which examines the feeling that time is going faster in modern societies as a result of “the increase of action episodes per unit of time” (Rosa 2013, 80). This project develops an understanding of how meanings in marketing are socially constructed in relation to …

Caring Against The Carceral: How Families Mediate The Social Death Of Incarceration, Jessica Claire

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Incarceration, especially in the United States, is deeply related to issues of racism, poverty, and citizenship. These particular experiences are the result of a history of biopolitical control affecting Black and brown communities and have a quintessential origin in enslavement. Those who are incarcerated are isolated, dishonored, and powerless as a result of the criminalization of race and poverty. These observations led to questions surrounding the particular impact families may have on the experiences of those who are incarcerated. Families of Incarcerated Loved ones, or FOILs, mediate incarceration through intentional socialization which has the potential to counteract the realities of …

Born-Again On Sundays: Exploring Narratives Of Belief And Performances In A Belizean Methodist Church, Katharine Serio

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

If you are only at church services on Sunday and do not actively practice your religious faith every day, are you “born again” every day? Reverend Rebecca Lewis of Wesley Methodist Church in a small town in Belize preaches active participation in the church and encourages her congregation to attend all religious events, pray rigorously, and read the Bible actively, but how does the congregation listen to her and react to her sermons? “Born-Again on Sundays” is an ethnographic account that draws on anthropological theories of belief and vernacular religion, performance and narrative, and poverty and reflexivity to explore the …

Under The Radar: The Everyday Resistance Of Anarchist Punks In Bandung, Indonesia, Steve Moog

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Amidst a current resurgence of hypernationalism across the globe, resistance movements and counterhegemonic ideologies are becoming increasingly visible and more common elements of broader socio-political discourses. While high-profile protests have ignited public interest in resistance movements—turning relatively unknown groups such as Antifa and Black Bloc into household names—little attention has been paid to the behind-the-scenes networks undergirding many of these organizations. Translocal do-it-yourself (DIY) punk rock networks are spaces in which alternative and subversive ideologies are enacted through the everyday implementation of anarchist philosophies and DIY ethics. Here, ‘under the radar’ modes of resistance are found in the lived realities, …

Lay Latitude: Latter-Day Saint Women's Agency In Northwest Arkansas, Andrew Tompkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The question of women’s agency in gender-traditional religions has been the subject of much scholarly attention over the past four decades, but little research has been done focusing specifically on Latter-day Saint women and their identities and roles within the structure and practice of the Church. In popular media representations, Latter-Day Saint women are often depicted as submissive or surviving, either powerless pawns or resistant warriors. However, many Latter-day Saint women find fulfillment and empowerment within and because of, rather than outside or in spite of, the institutional Church. In this thesis, I explore women’s agency in Northwest Arkansas’ Greendale …

Death On The Horizon: Osteoethnography Of The People Of Akhetaten, Alissa Michelle Bandy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to define and implement osteoethnography. Osteoethnography is the analysis and description of an ancient culture through the bioarchaeological and archaeological evidence, utilizing cultural anthropological theories and techniques. An osteoethnographic narrative is presented in this dissertation, which describes the embodied lives of the people of the 18th Dynasty Egyptian city of Akhetaten, now known as Amarna, founded in 1355 B.C.E. by the Pharaoh Akhenaten. Osteoethnography looks at how people are shaped by and shape their environment, how culture impacts health, and how culture informs the lives of its practioners. Osteoethnography employs life course theory, and …

The Archaeology Of Mississippian Vulnerability And Resilience In The New Madrid Seismic Zone, Michelle Megan Rathgaber

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work examines the vulnerability and resilience of Mississippian people in the Central Mississippi Valley to the large-scale New Madrid seismic zone earthquakes of the late15th to early 16th century. This is done using the theory of eventful archaeology/anthropology to look at cultural materials both before and after an event (such as an earthquake and sand blows) to look for evidence of changes to the schema and resources on which a society relies. If changes are present, the event can be labeled as such, if there are no changes, it means that the society affected did not see the event …

Dynamics Of Land Use, Environment, And Social Organization In The Sasanian Landscape Of Eastern Iraq—Western Iran, Mitra Panahipour

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding human-environment interactions has been one of the main challenges in archaeological studies over recent years. Past research on the Near Eastern territorial empires in general, and the Sasanian Empire in particular, primarily emphasized the dominant role of human on landscape transformation. In addition, politically centralized schemes such as agricultural intensification and expansion of water supply systems have been at the center of most of the discussions and remained the main hypothesis of the Sasanian land use practices.

This dissertation investigates population’s diverse responses to environmental variability during the Sasanian period (224-651 CE) across a landscape in eastern Iraq—western Iran. …

Archive And Repertoire Of The Esala Perahera Performance In Sri Lanka, Hashintha Jayasinghe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the archive and the repertoire of the Esala Perahera in Sri Lanka and charts the ideological and cultural implications of the performance. The archival analysis begins with the interrogation of the historical chronicles and the recorded history of the performance in the Sinhala and English texts. Thereafter, travel literature and the dissemination of cultural knowledge on the Perahera are discussed. The study of the repertoire and the photographic archive explores key performances in the Esala Perahera in 2016 and 2017. Postcolonial theory, theories on cultural anthropology, and performance theory are used to analyze the archive and the …

Mental Health On Trial: An In-Depth Look At The Criminalization Of Mental Illness In The United States Criminal Justice System, Addison Elise Shemin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The criminal justice system was created to identify, incarcerate, and rehabilitate men and women that have broken the law. However, over two million people with mental illnesses are placed into jails every year. The lack of proper psychological evaluation and diagnosis coupled with misunderstood evidence and economic hardship has produced a system that treats these men and women as criminals rather than someone suffering from an illness. When an individual with mental health issues comes into contact with the criminal justice system they are often improperly evaluated by first responders, wrongfully convicted, and inappropriately sentenced. The lack of proper psychological …

The Archaeology Of Leetown Hamlet: Households And Consumer Behavior In The Arkansas Ozarks, Victoria Ann Jones

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The hamlet of Leetown, located within Pea Ridge Military Park is the focus of this thesis. The Leetown hamlet played a role in the Battle of Pea Ridge and eventually disappeared before Pea Ridge National Military Park’s establishment in the 1960s. Shortly after the establishment of the Park, archeological investigations began. The resulting archeological investigations from 1962 to 2017 provided a glimpse into the lives of the families of Leetown hamlet within the rural Ozarks. This is an archeological investigation that focuses on establishing the date and function of the buildings within the hamlet as well as the consumer and …

Counter-Revolution And Egypt’S Lower Middle Class, Keith Glenn Whitmire

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Egyptian lower middle class has been declining since the 1970s. Yet since the 2011 uprising and coup d’état the lower middle class has sat in the midst of an economic and political counter-revolution carried out by the police, the military, and Egypt’s intelligence services. In particular, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has responded to Egypt’s economic crisis in 2014 and onward by engaging in a program of austerity has sped the decline of the Egyptian lower middle class significantly. The Egyptian lower middle class is in increasing danger of becoming merely educated working poor. Therefore this dissertation will examine the …

The Endurance Of Tell Qarqur: Settlement Resilience In Northwestern Syria During The Late Bronze And Iron Ages (Ca. 1200 – 700 Bc), Eric Robert Jensen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the material culture, paleobotanical, and faunal remains excavated at the site of Tell Qarqur, Syria, recovered from occupational levels dating from the end of the Late Bronze Age to the Iron II period (from approximately 1200 to 700 BC). Based on archaeological evidence and ancient textual sources, many ancient Near Eastern kingdoms and polities endured social and political turmoil during the late 13th and early 12th centuries BC. Most likely caused by an unknown hostile group or groups, the destruction of monumental scale architecture and the disruption to the people of Qarqur’s agricultural and animal husbandry practices …

The Spatial Agency Of The Catacombs: An Analysis Of The Interventions Of Damasus I (305-384), Natalie A. Hall

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Damasus I (305-384) ascended to the office of the Bishop of Rome after a bitter and bloody battle with Ursinus in 366 CE. The violence was a culmination of doctrinal squabbles and power contests which erupted in the Roman church over the course of the fourth century. Damasus engaged in a substantial program of physical renovation and enlargement of martyr sites and personally penned numerous epigrams both extolling the virtue of the honored dead and the patronage of the bishopric. Scholarship related to Damasus and his works is typically narrowly focused, considering motive(s) for his actions, his use of specific …

Got Breadfruit? Marshallese Foodways And Culture In Springdale, Arkansas, Diana Kay Chen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding human food choices is essential in the examination of cultural knowledge and decision-making among members of any ethnic group. Ethnographic and cognitive anthropology methods, including a novel calculation of cognitive salience, were used in this study to explore the domain of traditional Marshallese foods in Springdale, Arkansas. Springdale is home to the highest population of Marshallese people outside of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI); the population is expected to rise as people continue to migrate from the RMI because of global climate change and other factors such as family ties. Studies of traditional foodways are increasingly crucial …

For Wintonbury: An Expansion Of Narrative And Painting, Cassaundra Kayla Sanderson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In March 2017, I began planning the narratives of what would become my Thesis Exhibition. One year later marked my installation of the exhibit: For Wintonbury, located at the Fine Art Center Gallery at the University of Arkansas.

A merging of the visual arts and literary fiction, For Wintonbury offers a more immersive experience in storytelling. The painted scenes, drawings, three-dimensional compositions, and short stories each serve their own purposes in presenting partial glimpses into the longer narratives of Wintonbury. Through multiple media and entry points, the viewer is given the choice in which sequence and manner to take in …

Social Organization And Environmental Patterning At Tel Abu Shusha: An Integrated Spatial Approach To Survey Archaeology, Seth Price

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tel Abu Shusha, located in the Jezreel Valley of Palestine, is a large-scale archaeological site possibly identified as the cities of Biblical Gaba or Roman Gaba Hippaeon/Gaba Philippi. Surface archaeological survey of the surrounding area, conducted by the Jezreel Valley Regional Project during 2017, revealed extensive assemblages of visible settlement features dating primarily to middle and late Islamic periods. This research seeks to answer questions of settlement decision-making and societal organization, by integrating archaeological, textual, environmental, and geospatial data sources. In addition to visual interpretation, Kolmogorov-Smirnov nonparametric tests are used to gain insight on environmental settlement preferences; Ripley’s K analysis …

Interpersonal And Ideological Kindness: A Biocultural Approach, Sally Averitt-Hubbard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In accordance with Richard Dawkins’ materialist “selfish gene” theory of human behavior, altruism is a subject matter that is treated conservatively by biologists, whose understanding of the human version of altruism tends toward mutualistic and sometimes reputation-based explanations of charity, kindness, and helping. Trivers (1971) first stated that non-kin altruism could evolve if altruistic behavior is balanced between partners over time, implicating a strictly mutualistic domain for kindness. But kindness herein is defined, beyond mere mutualism or reciprocity, as “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.” Further, kindness tends to have an action-oriented dimension, as in Goetz et al.’s …

Digital Palace Of Nestor: Assessing Mycenaean Palatial Complex Construction Of Socio-Political Status And Navigation Through Architecture, Caleb Ward

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Because architecture necessitates the conscious planning of space, its consequences for navigation and socio-political status are equally deliberate and have indirect effects. This research combines experiential and spatial syntax techniques to gain a deeper understanding of how Mycenaeans shaped space to construct status and navigation in the Palace of Nestor at Pylos. Using a digital reconstruction of the palace ensured the most accurate experiential data by utilizing a whole, albeit virtual, version of the site. Without employing a digital reconstruction, the only experiences with the site would occur in the ruinous, actual site preventing complete experiences with how the site’s …