Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons^™

Are You Man Enough? A Look At The Attitudes Of Young Male Professionals On Notions Of Masculinity And Male Gender Norms In Modern India, Sanggeet Mithra Manirajah

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Indian society has traditionally adhered to very strict gender roles and norms that dictate the appropriate behaviors and attitudes of men and women in the private and public sphere. In the advent of a rapid urbanization and globalization, these rigid notions of appropriate masculine and feminine behaviors are changing in large metropolitan cities of India. This study explores the attitudes of young Indian male professionals regarding masculinity and masculine gendered norms in Bangalore, the epitome of metropolitan and modern India. Being a man is hinged to the notion of being the head of the family, and the appropriate traits to …

Redefiniendo Los Límites De La Colección: La Revolución Del Museo Contemporáneo El Caso Del Museo Antropológico Y De Arte Contemporáneo De Guayaquil, Camila Pacheco-Fores

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La etimología de la palabra museo encuentra sus raíces en latín, de museum, que viene del griego mouseion, como mouseios: la casa de las musas (mousa).[1] En siguiendo esta epistemología, podemos entender los principios del museo, y su rol histórico en la sociedad. Las 9 musas fueron una gran parte de la mitología griega y representaron la inspiración en la literatura, la ciencia, y las artes: ellas eran las fuentes de todo conocimiento. Entonces, uno podría decir que el primer museo fue el templo, la casa de las musas. Este repositorio conservó esculturas y …

The Teaching Of The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade And It’S Lasting Implications On The African Diaspora, Mara Meyers

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Objectives

i. Gain an understanding of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade from the Ghanaian perspective

ii. Understand the ways in which the history of slavery and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade are a part of Ghanaians identities today

iii. Acquire knowledge regarding Ghanaians understandings of the African Diaspora

iv. Explore Ghanaians views on the history of slavery as compared to African Americans perspectives on slavery

4. Methodology: For this research I used a versatile approach. I observed and taught two Social Studies classes at a school in Cape Coast, both of which were of relevance to my topic. I also interviewed, both …

“Queering The Rainbow Nation”: An Analysis Of 11 Gay And Lesbian Capetonians’ Perceptions Of Lgbt Identity In Cape Town And The South African Government’S Commitment To Lgbt Equality, Ryan Sasse

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The South African government has made vast strides in the fight for LGBT equality, strides that are unparalleled by any other nation on the African continent. Unfortunately, the lack of hate crime legislation within the country—as well as the government’s unwillingness to address the nation’s resulting violence—often overshadows the accomplishments that have been made over the last few years. Keeping in mind that “[f]eminist research goals foster empowerment and emancipation for women and other marginalized groups, and feminist researchers often apply their findings in the service of promoting social justice for women,” we can see how the LGBT community is …

Cameras And Incense: Negotiating Religious Dance On Tourist Bali, Emma Brandt

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The small island of Bali has become famous throughout the world as a center of arts and culture. Tourists visit the island in droves each year to collect traditional paintings, carvings, and fabrics, and to watch performances of dances, gamelan, and puppet shows, all of these based in a Shivaite Hindu tradition that has absorbed elements of Buddhism and Islam, as well as bits and pieces from the religions of China and other erstwhile visitors to the island. Bali, a strongly Hindu island in one of the world’s largest Muslim countries, has achieved a worldwide fame perhaps greater than the …

Fractioned, Fissured, And Framed: Considering Public Versus Private Constructions Of Muslim Women’S Identities In Indian Partition Literature, Mccaulay Singer-Milnes

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This Independent Study Project examines the depiction of Muslim women in Indian Partition literature as a means of understanding the relationship between public and private identity. It analyzes the manners in which female Muslim characters respond to and negotiate modes of categorical identification, namely religion, surrounding Partition. Furthermore, this study juxtaposes these generalized accounts present in literature with individual responses from interviews with Muslim women living in New Delhi today. The women spoke regarding their conceptions of Islam and the manner in which they incorporate faith into their overall negotiation of private identity. The project finds that Partition, one of …

Through Women’S Eyes The Development Of Lijiang And Nakhi Cultural Change, Wyatt Gordon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper is an analysis of the current state of Nakhi minority culture as practiced by Nakhi women living in the city of Lijiang and its surrounding areas. This analysis presents a historical assessment of the cultural, economic, historical, and political factors that have lead to the creation of the Lijiang Old Town that we see today and the current state of Nakhi culture surrounding that development. As well, this paper presents a field assessment of the current state of Nakhi cultural practice in light of the internalized discourses of the Chinese state and the indigenous discourses of the Nakhi …

Language Shift And Development: A Case Study Of Zhongdian Southern Khams Language Vitality, Simon Peters

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The fields of language endangerment and maintenance address language shift overwhelmingly in the context of a local language being replaced by that of a surrounding oppositional dominant cultural group. There are, though, situations in which a local language is competing with the dominant variety of the wider cultural group to which it belongs. How a situation like this is dealt with by linguists and language planners depends largely on the recognition of participant tongues as their own languages or one as a dialect of another. Reversing language shift for a “dialect” is difficult to garnish institutional and financial support for …

The Modern Status And Future Of Dongba Religion, Chris Delacy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

I have amassed data related to the changes undergone by the Dongba religion and its effects on local Naxi culture in the Eya, Baidi, Tacheng/Weixi County, and Lijiang communities. Each district was unique in that their religious practices and participation by the community was radically different as a result of outside influence (or lack thereof) as evidenced by how the religion is passed on through the generations and how the religion is publicly represented through art. As Naxi culture and the Dongba religion have already undergone an incredible amount of changes (especially the declining number of the Dongba religion’s religious …

Dharma And The Free Market: Reconciling Buddhist Compassion With A Market Economy In Post-Socialist Mongolia, Yazmeen Mendez Nuñez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this inductive ethnographic study, I explore the unique social and theological pressures placed on Mongolian Buddhists after the wake of free market transition in Mongolia. It utilizes the Buddhist virtue of compassion as a lens by which the study might examine how Mongolians balance their spirituality and commitment to Buddhist ethics with new roles as rational agents in an emergent free market. In this study I draw on narratives from thirteen subjects as well as extensive participant observation to examine the ways that Mongolian market reform has guided social paradigms of ethic that present ethical contradictions with Buddhist dharma, …

Nunca Han Visitado, No Han Vivido Ecoturismo Comunitario: Una Alternativa Sostenible Y Constitucional De Desarrollo En La Zona De Intag, Jenny Johnston

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Durante mi estudio en Ecuador y a través de todas mis clases, conversaciones, y experiencias, han habido muchos temas nuevos e interesantes. Aunque todas me han enseñado mucho, la experiencia que me impactó más fue mi semana en Intag. Durante toda mi vida siempre tuve una fascinación con el bosque nublado con la combinación de palabras más mística y romántica. La verdad es que antes de llegar en Intag la mi primera vez, no sabía nada sobre el poder de la belleza de los bosques, la naturaleza, y también sobre la lucha en contra de la minería. A través de …

“La Voz De Los Sin Voz:” Teatro Político En Los Movimientos Sociales Chilenos 1973-2013, Dan Katz-Zeiger

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Esta investigación analiza el uso del teatro político en los dos movimientos sociales más grandes en la última siglo, el movimiento contra la dictadura desde 1973 hasta 1990 y los movimientos estudiantiles, empezando en su forma masiva en 2006 y continuando hasta hoy. Con las medias de comunicación en los manos del gobierno, a lo largo de la historia Chilena, el teatro político se usó como una herramienta para propagar una conciencia política en la gente y se hizo un vinculo entre los problemas actuales y la política del gobierno. Muchas instituciones teatrales (facultades, compañías) han existido desde el periodo …

Reviviendo Las Voces Perdidas: El Papel De La Educación Intercultural Y Bilingüe (Eib) En El Sistema Educativo Chileno, Ashlie Busone

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

A pesar del apretón que tiene el sistema capitalista en la implementación educativa de hoy, la tensión de cultura y poder se manifestó tanto en el aula como en el gobierno. En Chile, con un trasfondo de fuerzas de globalización y neoliberalismo, esto especialmente se ve en el intento político de reconciliar la gente indígena y la gente no indígena por el uso del sistema educativo. Con un marco teórico compuesto de las ideas de Freire, Gramsci y Bourdieu, este estudio desea aplaudir y criticar los educadores chilenos en sus esfuerzos de mantener y promover las culturas indígenas en un …

Think Like A Mongolian: Cultivating Community Based Pasture Management, Karen Elizabeth Yoshida Weldon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Since Mongolia’s democratization and move to a free market, the country has been grappling with the best approaches to deal with pasture degradation caused by both climate change and lifestyle changes of nomadic herders. International donors and NGOS have implemented community based natural resource management projects with the missions mitigating the effects of pasture degradation and livelihoods of herding families through building capacity. While studies have been done regarding the effectiveness of these community based conservation projects, minimal research has been done to understand how the traditions, values, and culture of Mongolia herders affect the success of these pastureland conservation …

“Resistencia Es Permanencia”: Concepciones De Resistencia, Territorio Y Recuperaciones De Tierra En Dos Comunidades Mapuche, August Williams-Eynon

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In recent decades the world has seen a backlash of resistance, especially among First Nations and indigenous populations, to what some characterize as new forms of colonization: the development of globalization, and the spread of neoliberal economic institutions and their guiding principles (Vanden 2007). This work locates the social movements of the Mapuche (an indigenous nation conquered by the Chilean army in 1883), and especially their pursuance of land recovery and territorial sovereignty, among the many such mobilizations occurring in Latin America, including the Zapatista movement in Mexico, the organizing of indigenous groups in Bolivia and the CONAIE (Confederación de …

Out Of This World: An Ethnographic Study Of Mystics, Spirits, And Animist Practices In Senegal, Peter Balonon-Rosen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Although the overwhelming majority of Senegal’s inhabitants consider themselves Muslim, there are still many customs and behaviors throughout the country that derive from traditional animism. In both the metropolitan regions and village settings, animist beliefs and practices are still present despite many influences including Islam and colonialism. Animist practices often work in conjunction with the very schools of thought that deem them forbidden. The purpose of this study is to explore surviving animist traditions in Senegal, their role in the present context, and animism’s relationship with Islam in order to fully understand the Senegalese culture in which these traditions play …

Revenge, Guilt, And Greed: Feast Scenes And Political Order In Shakespearian Society, Ashley Vanderweele

Academic Symposium of Undergraduate Scholarship

Feasts are a time of community unity, a time of imposed order even if chaos abounds. Feasts can be for celebratory reasons, they can be of a religious nature, and as Samuel Pepys points out, they can help mend rifts among people at odds with one another. Even when feasts have celebratory or religious purposes, they may also involve political matters. A monarch, for example, may host a feast to celebrate his wedding, but, while celebrating the joyous royal union, the guests are also celebrating the political union of two kingdoms. Many times a king marries to strengthen his kingdom …

Haki: A Musical Activism Project, Katrina Doyle

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Meaning both “Justice” and “Rights” in Kiswahili, “Haki” is a musical activism project seeking to expose injustices and human rights issues that bury themselves under the surface of Kenyan society. Its mission is to give a voice to the voiceless. To bring awareness to the rights Kenyans have according to their own laws, and what they can do to seek justice. Before songwriting, I researched the four areas – human trafficking, child sexual abuse, police abuse of power, and education inequality – extensively. I sought the expertise of Kenyan NGO leaders and studied many readings. This is a non-traditional ISP. …

Adapting & Appropriating Art From Afar: Negotiating A Global Identity Through Popular Culture, A Study Of Salsa In The Senegalese Context, Elizabeth Bockenfeld

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The following study is essentially an attempt to explore cross-cultural exchange and the resulting (re)creation of different forms of cultural expression. In its broadest sense it aims to explore the quotidian, cultural sides of globalization. It takes for its focus the re-appropriation of salsa music in Dakar, Senegal. Through interviews and participant observation in a number of salsa venues, I explore the various meanings Senegalese salseros put into salsa music and dance. Senegalese salsa is rooted in a very concrete historical background, while also holding meaning for the present. In short, the appropriation of salsa into the Senegalese context serves …

American Beisbol: How Cultural Differences Help Explain Different Approaches To Game Playing, Derek Jackson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis project is to examine the effect of culturally derived game strategies on the success level of players in the game of baseball. Specifically, I look at both the influence of how various Latin American cultures teach the game in order to better ensure success of players at the MLB level versus how the game is taught in the United States and Japan. In this way I develop a feedback model in which these game strategies perpetuate a cycle of enculturation that further reinforces cultural/ethnic identities. In order to accomplish this goal I look at the …

Singing To The Spirits: Cultural And Spiritual Traditions Embodied In The Native American Gourd Dance, Alicia M. Gummess

Honors Projects

In this paper, I provide a brief overview of the history and practice of the Native American Gourd Dance, a traditional ceremony integrating music and dance practiced by Gourd Dance societies in Southern Oklahoma. I examine the reasons behind its popularity and spread to other regions of North America, including the Southwest and the Northern Plains. Gourd Dance performances usually occur in the context of larger ceremonial gatherings called pow wows, in which Native American communities hold dances to celebrate their values and practice their religious beliefs and cultural traditions. Pow wows feature many traditional and more modern Native American …

Fruitful Communities: Evaluating The History And Impacts Of Treepeople’S Fruit Tree Program, Kayla B. Imhoff

Pitzer Senior Theses

TreePeople is a Los Angeles based non-profit organization that uses environmental education, initiatives, and programs to engage with the greater community to work towards the goal of a sustainable future for Los Angeles. The Fruit Tree Program is one of TreePeople’s longest running programs of 29 years, which distributes free bare-root fruit trees to economically disadvantaged communities as a source of fresh fruit and the other environmental benefits that trees offer. This paper is a comprehensive report detailing the history of the program and the impacts it has had on communities across Los Angeles County. Looking at three communities in …

Friends Of The Children: Portland Postsecondary Preparation Recommendations, Hillary Horn Montuori

Anthropology Theses

The process of defining "postsecondary success" is an integral part of preparing for it. Ultimately, postsecondary success begins as a goal within the formal education system because it denotes success after high school. But then we must ask, "What is the goal of that high school education?" In my time as a research intern with Friends of the Children (FOTC), concepts of productivity, access, and knowledge have all been central to answering this question. On one level, the question has a pragmatic answer: FOTC youth should be able to earn a living wage. On another level, the question is much …

Woman Into The Wild: Female Thru-Hikers And Pilgrimage On The Appalachian And Pacific Crest Trails, Lucy L. Bosche

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis follows solo women hikers as they embark upon walking either the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail from beginning to end. By witnessing the ways in which the women hikers navigate the counter-culture of the trails, a critique of American society is revealed. This paper focuses on the differences between trail culture and normative culture, the transformations the hikers undergo, and how the hikes have affected the women’s lives.

La Crisis De Salud En Guatemala: La Biomedicina Y La Medicina Maya En Conflicto, Sophia Willis-Conger

Scripps Senior Theses

Éste ensayo se trata de medicina indígena en communidades Mayas, principalmente en Guatemala, y las maneras en que biomedicina ha infiltrado el país. Los sistemas de salud estan analyizado por lentes feministas, antiracistas, anticlassistas.

Viendo De Camino A Casa: La Construcción De La Identidad Transnacional En La Comunidad Libanesa De Buenos Aires = Looking Homeward: The Construction Of Transnational Identity In The Lebanese Community Of Buenos Aires, Lindsay Miller

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

At the end of the 19^th century through World War I, around three million immigrants entered Argentina. The vast majority left behind homes in Italy and Spain; however, a significant minority population arrived from Greater Syria, specifically from present-day Syria and Lebanon. Today, the descendents of these Syrian-Lebanese migrants make up the third largest community in Argentina. Despite the significant presence of the community, the Syrian-Lebanese community has been largely absent from scholarly work on Argentine ethnic groups.

The objective of this study is to explore the relationship that the descendents of Lebanese immigrants, living in Buenos Aires, have …

Global Futures And Government Towns: Phosphates And The Production Of Western Sahara As A Space Of Contention, Mark Drury

Publications and Research

The study of natural resources lends itself to theorizing the politics of nature and the politics of time. The space of Western Sahara, where both remain highly contested, provides an opportunity to consider the ramifications of resources in political conflict at different historical moments. Drawing from environmental histories of North Africa and the Sahara, as well as the anthropology of time, the author focuses on two historical moments. The first, from 1945 to 1972, concerns the discovery of phosphate deposits during the Spanish colonial period and the implications of this discovery for political authority in the Sahara more broadly. The …

Neoliberal Ideologies And Cultural Models Of Work Among Young French And American Business Students And Professionals: A Study In Institutional Change And Cultural Meaning, Nolan Y. Ferar

Pomona Senior Theses

In this thesis I analyze semi-structured interviews I conducted with fifteen young French and American business students and professionals in order to uncover cultural models relating to work, while paying particular attention to the acceptance or rejection of neoliberal ideas. To contextualize the analysis, I first review the history of neoliberal ideology along with its arrival and political and institutional influence in both countries. In the U.S., the neoliberal transition was rapid and dramatic under the Reagan administration, which constitutes a critical institutional juncture and a shift in the dominant paradigm of governance. In France, in contrast, neoliberal policies have …

Migration For Education: Haitian University Students In The Dominican Republic, Jenny Miner

Pomona Senior Theses

Haitian university students represent a part of the increasing diversity of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic. Using an ethnographic approach, I explore university students’ motivations for studying in the Dominican Republic, their experiences at Dominican universities and in Dominican society, Haitian student organizations, and their future plans. Additionally, I focus on Haitian students’ experiences with discrimination and how they relate to other Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic. I find that most students come to the Dominican Republic due to the difficulty of gaining entrance to affordable Haitian universities and logistical convenience. The university is a unique setting where …

Mujeres Mozonteñas: Liderazgo, Tierra E Identidad En El Pueblo Indígena De Mozonte, Nueva Segovia, Karla Jiménez

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

La desigualdad entre mujeres y hombres es algo contra lo que los movimientos sociales luchan a nivel mundial. En Nicaragua, el machismo es un aspecto que aparenta estar arraigado en la cultura. Sin embargo, algunas mujeres han logrado crear espacios de participación, donde sus derechos e intereses son tomados en cuenta y respetados dentro de una sociedad patriarcal. ¿Cómo se estudia la desigualdad que han tenido las mujeres, junto con la desigualdad que han tenido las personas indígenas, al trabajar con mujeres indígenas? Hay una complejidad que existe al trabajar dentro de un Pueblo Indígena, ya que tienen dos gobiernos …