Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons^™

Collaborative Research To Assess Visitor Impacts On Alaska Native Practices Along Alagnak Wild River, Douglas Deur, Karen Evanoff, Adelheid Hermann, Alexanna Salmon

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

As one of the region’s famously productive salmon rivers, the Alagnak’s banks historically were lined with villages of both Yup’ik and Alutiiq residents, and archaeological data document millennia of human occupation.

Negotiating Ethnosexual Difference In The Armenian Transnation, Nelli Sargsyan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Since heteronormativity is an inextricable part of the ethnonationalist ideologies and discourses of Armenianness, conformity and transgression are communally policed both in the Republic of Armenia, as well as in the Armenian diaspora, albeit in different ways. In the diaspora it is through public silence regarding Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) and queer self-identified Armenians that hetero-belonging is managed. In the Republic of Armenia, on the other hand, it is managed through hate speech promoted by public figures and through mass media. In both cases the anxiety that the issue of non-heteronormativity points to in the public outcry is that …

The Anti-Abortion Legislation In Nicaragua : Gender Hierarchies And Ideologies In Reproduction, Ilona M. Flores

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This research examines the anti-abortion legislation that was passed in Nicaragua in 2006. The methods of investigation involve participant/observation and collaboration, semi-structured interviews, and content analysis. Through examination of the legal and medical implications of criminalizing therapeutic abortions, this research demonstrates that the anti-abortion law attempts to enforce traditional gender roles. The abortion debate inspired many questions of morality and motherhood, and that access to therapeutic abortions meant denying `normal' gender roles. While some women internalized these notions, others did not. However, Nicaraguans use the conceptual framework of `salir adelante' as a way to practice agency.

From The Philippines To The Field Museum: A Study Of Ilongot (Bugkalot) Personal Adornment, Sarah E. Carlson

Honors Projects

Abstract: The Philippine Collection at The Field Museum contains over 10,000 objects, including hundreds of objects of personal adornment. As an intern at The Field Museum in the summer of 2012, I got to experience the collection first-hand and began examining six ornaments from the Ilongot peoples of the Philippines. At the beginning of the 20^th century, the Ilongot wore ornaments to visually communicate social meaning about themselves, their villages, and their relationships. The Ilongot were a headhunting society with fearsome warriors who beheaded their enemies. These hunters wore delicately crafted earrings and headdresses to mark their masculinity and …

Seeing Life Through The Eyes Of Swahili Children Of Lamu, Kenya: A Visual Anthropology Approach, Rebecca Gearhart

Scholarship

This research offers a first look at Swahili children in Lamu town on Lamu Island, Kenya by providing an overview of the kinds of activities in which they engage and the aspects of Swahili society that are particularly focused on them. Swahili children’s culture is characterized by identifying the beliefs, practices, and values that shape Swahili children’s lives, from an anthropological perspective. The paper features photographic images that six Swahili youth produced and selected for this study during the summer of 2011, which provide personal insight into the children’s lives and experiences. Collaborative research methods were especially designed to empower …

The Devil Made Her Do It: Understanding Suicide, Demonic Discourse, And The Social Construction Of 'Health' In Yucatan, Mexico, Beatriz M. Reyes-Foster

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In the state of Yucatan, Mexico, the suicide rate more than doubles the Mexican national average. This article uses ethnographic data to argue that 1) local understandings of suicide in Yucatán reflect a logic of health among Yucatec Maya people hinging on the belief that spiritual, bodily, and spatial balance must be maintained in order to prevent “illness,” understood as bodily and spiritual suffering; and 2) that Yucatec Maya users of Mexico’s public health system readily adapt the biomedical model to existing paradigms that comingle spiritual, mental, and bodily health due in great part to the inherent contradictions in both …

A Joining Of Hands: Form, Function, And Diversity At A Buddhist Monastery In Batesville, Mississippi, Tanna Tan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Buddhism is a religious tradition that spans the globe, and has erupted in popularity in the United States since the 1960s. This is a study of Thã­ch Nhat Hanh's "mindfulness" practice center, Magnolia Grove Monastery, in Batesville, Mississippi. Participant observation and interviews are implemented to understand the local concerns of its practitioners, and how they deal with these concerns. "Mindfulness" practice is made locally relevant to its practitioners through what I term "localization processes." these processes enable members at the site to negotiate different meanings of this tradition amongst themselves. An individual's "localization process" consists of several "boundaries" or elements …

The Power Of The Hula: A Performance Text For Appropriating Identity Among First Hawaiian Youth, Cesily Hong

Doctoral Dissertations

Hawaii is an exotic land with a rich history and a culture imbued with meaning, including the performing arts. Such facets of any land need to be understood and preserved for future generations. The most significant aspect of Hawaiian arts is the hula kahiko, a text in motion, which when performed displays the story of Hawaii's past. The hula was forbidden by Protestant missionaries in the 1820's and was reduced to near cultural extinction. As a result, many First Hawaiians do not clearly understand the richness of their own history. Without this understanding, it is difficult for them to have …

The Effects Of Migration On Gender Norms And Relations: The Post-Repatriation Experience In Bor, South Sudan, Marybeth Chrostowsky

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

My dissertation research was a 14-month ethnographic study of the post-repatriation experience of forced migrants in South Sudan. It was designed to determine if alterations to gender norms and relations that refugees experienced during asylum differed as a function of the asylum environments and if these modifications remained intact upon the refugees’ return. The forced migrants in my sample, the Dinka of Bor from South Sudan, encountered two different asylum environments and experiences: Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya and Khartoum, in northern Sudan. After 10-15 years in asylum, these forced Dinka Bor migrants returned to South Sudan. I compared …

Soldiers Of Science--Agents Of Culture: American Archaeologists In The Office Of Strategic Services (Oss), Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

"Scientificity" and appeals to political independence are invaluable tools when institutions such as the American School of Classical Studies at Athens attempt to maintain professional autonomy. Nonetheless, the cooperation of scientists and scholars with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), among them archaeologists affiliated with the American School, suggests a constitutive affinity between political and cultural leadership. This relationship is here mapped in historical terms, while, at the same time, sociological categorizations of knowledge and its employment are used in order to situate archaeologists in their broader social and political context and to evaluate their work not merely as agents …

No Peace In The House: Witchcraft Accusations As An "Old Woman's Problem" In Ghana, Alexandra Crampton

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

In Ghana, older women may be marginalized, abused, and even killed as witches. Media accounts imply this is common practice, mainly through stories of “witches camps” to which the accused may flee. Anthropological literature on aging and on witchcraft, however, suggests that this focus exaggerates and misinterprets the problem. This article presents a literature review and exploratory data on elder advocacy and rights intervention on behalf of accused witches in Ghana to help answer the question of how witchcraft accusations become an older woman’s problem in the context of aging and elder advocacy work. The ineffectiveness of rights based and …

Social Work, Yoga, And Gratitude: Partnership In A Homeless Shelter, Jennifer Davis-Berman, Jean Farkas

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

This narrative explores the personal lessons learned about life and practice from YogaHome, a yoga program for homeless adults. The yoga program, taught in partnership by a social worker/professor of social work (Jenny) and a yoga teacher (Jean) with 17 years of experience, exemplifies the merging of social work and yogic practices , but also illustrates the evolution of these two professionals in their chosen fields as many of their traditional views, values, intentions, and expectations unraveled and led to a re-revaluation of their professional practices, transforming their personal perspectives on life. This reflection is based on the YogaHome program, …

Eat Until You're Full: The Pursuit Of Autonomy And Health Through The Adoption Of Organic Agriculture In Mae Ta, Thailand, Erin Jean Plews-Ogan

Senior Independent Study Theses

This research explores the role that farmers' concerns about health and community autonomy play in the emergence of an organic agriculture movement in the village of Mae Ta in northern Thailand. In the midst of the push for export-oriented and urban-centered development, many rural people have migrated to urban areas for work or adopted contract farming of chemical-intensive cash crops. Yet farmers in Mae Ta chose a unique alternative: sufficiency-based organic polyculture. Why take on such a risk without solid policy and market support for organic agriculture in Thailand? I investigated these questions through six weeks of participant observation and …

How Universal Is The Big Five? Testing The Five-Factor Model Of Personality Variation Among Forager-Farmers In The Bolivian Amazon, Michael Gurven, Christopher Von Rueden, Maxim Massenkoff, Hillard Kaplan, Marino Lero Vie

ESI Publications

The five-factor model (FFM) of personality variation has been replicated across a range of human societies, suggesting the FFM is a human universal. However, most studies of the FFM have been restricted to literate, urban populations, which are uncharacteristic of the majority of human evolutionary history. We present the first test of the FFM in a largely illiterate, indigenous society. Tsimane forager–horticulturalist men and women of Bolivia (n = 632) completed a translation of the 44-item Big Five Inventory (Benet-Martínez & John, 1998), a widely used metric of the FFM. We failed to find robust support for the FFM, based …

Out On The Land: Income, Subsistence Activities, And Food Sharing Networks In Nain, Labrador, Kirk Dombrowski, Emily Channell, Bilal Khan, Joshua Moses, Evan Misshula

Publications and Research

In recent Inuit ethnography, a major concern has been how and to what extent contemporary Inuit participate in and depend on subsistence activities, particularly in the context of increasing wage employment and growing participation in the cash economy. This paper provides an analysis of these activities in the predominately Inuit community of Nain, Labrador. Using social network data and demographic information collected between January and June 2010, we examine the interconnections between subsistence activities—obtaining “country food” through activities such as hunting, fishing, and collecting—with access to the means of obtaining subsistence resources (such as snow mobiles, cabins, and boats), employment …

Claiming Space, Redefining Politics: Urban Protest And Grassroots Power In Bolivia, Carwil Bjork-James

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes the role of space-claiming protests by primarily left grassroots social movements in Bolivia's current political transformation. Space claiming includes mass protests that physically control or symbolically claim urban space through occupations of plazas and roads, sit-ins, blockades, and other measures. As a theoretical construct, space claiming brings together tactics of collective action and meanings of public spaces, and looks at the consequences of their interaction. This dissertation is based on ethnographic engagement and oral interviews with protest participants and their state interlocutors during twelve months of fieldwork and archival research. By using detailed ethnographic evidence--of social life …

Componentes Sociais Da Migração: Experiências Da Província Sul, Zâmbia, Lisa Cliggett

Anthropology Faculty Publications

As suposições comuns atribuem causas econômicas e ambientais às decisões de migração. Este trabalho revela a importância das estruturas do poder local – ao nível da comunidade e da família – para entender a migração. São examinados os processos migratórios na Província Sul da Zâmbia por meio do uso de informações coletadas de dois projetos de pesquisa qualitativa. Até recentemente, quando a seca e as doenças bovinas começaram a devastar a área, a Província Sul era conhecida por suas condições ideais para agropecuária. Até os últimos anos de 1980, os agricultores da Província Sul começaram a migrar para áreas da …

Experiments To Measure The Effects Of Timber Harvesting Equipment On Surface Lithic Scatters, Douglas J. Baughman

All Master's Theses

The importance of cultural resource preservation cannot be overstated; however local economies are at least as important. Due to conservative archaeological site protection practices in Region 5 of the United States Forest Service, the economy of Northeastern California is being adversely affected. In an attempt to help the Forest Service make more informed management decisions and improve the Northeastern California economy, I undertook experiments on the effects of timber harvesting on lithic scatters on Modoc National Forest. The experiments involved placement of 225 glass tiles (proxy lithics) in each of three plots subject to vehicle traffic and log dragging by …

Social Piracy In Colonial And Contemporary Southeast Asia, Miles T. Bird

CMC Senior Theses

According to the firsthand account of James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, it appears that piracy in the state of British Malaya in the mid-1800s was community-driven and egalitarian, led by the interests of heroic figures like the Malayan pirate Si Rahman. These heroic figures share traits with Eric Hobsbawm’s social bandit, and in this case may be ascribed as social pirates. In contrast, late 20^th-century and early 21^st-century pirates in the region operate in loosely structured, hierarchical groups beholden to transnational criminal syndicates. Evidence suggests that contemporary pirates do not form the egalitarian communities of their …

Study Abroad And Identity: The African American Experience, Alicia Ranney

Capstone Collection

Not all students are alike, nor should they be treated as 'one size fits all' in study abroad. Students have different backgrounds, goals, and expectations of what they will gain from an international academic experience. Minority students face different types of challenges in study abroad than their non-minority counterparts.

This paper seeks to answer the question “does study abroad change the identity of African American students?” and examines the challenges of identity and racism and how those two factors may decrease participation rates of African Americans in study abroad. Students from Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan were surveyed before and …

The Clothing Culture Of Parkland College, Abigail Brooks

A with Honors Projects

An ethnography of the clothing choices of students at Parkland College, a community college in Central Illinois.

The Gamer Tribes: An Ethnography, Sonoma Bryan

A with Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Yogahome: Emotional, Physical And Social Impacts Of A Yoga Program On Community Homeless Shelter Residents, Jennifer Davis-Berman, Jean Farkas

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

This article reports on a qualitative analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with 12 women and 2 men who participated in a community-based yoga program, run by a certified yoga teacher and a social worker, at a homeless shelter in a medium-sized city in the Midwestern United States. This restorative yoga program was developed in the shelter in response to the severe stress of being homeless and the chaotic nature of shelter life. Based on an analysis of transcribed interviews, the following themes were generated and discussed: Yoga as Relaxation, Stress Relief, Pain Relief, and Future Practice. The challenges and …

Population Pressure And Family Planning In The Case Of Sub Saharan Africa's Demographic Transition, Jessica T. Ysunza

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Uphams Corner And "Other" Spaces: Racialized Youth Identities In Boston's Cape Verdean Community, Jessica F. Pires

Honors Theses

While embarking on this thesis project I have begun by viewing Cape Verdean-Americanness and Uphams Corner as linked; to study contemporary Cape Verdean-American lived realities means consulting this neighborhood space, and the area is mutually dependent on its Cape Verdean residents. In the particularly unpredictable world of ethnographic field research, as I focused on the collection of narratives, a new and surprising actor emerged: the neighborhood space, around which crucial tensions revolve. It is vital to understand how neighborhood provides not merely the scenery behind actions but more importantly how, as a conceptual framework, it can also be constitutive of …

Identity On Trial: The Gabrielino Tongva Quest For Federal Recognition, Alice Mirlesse

Pomona Senior Theses

In this paper, the author looks at the impact of the policy of federal recognition on a Los Angeles basin Native community: the Gabrielino Tongva. The first section, the literature review focuses on the difficulties of defining “indigenousness” in the academic and political realms, as well as looking at Native scholars’ conceptualization of this unique and multifaceted identity. After a consideration of the theoretical framework of the study, the crossroads between anthropology and public policy analysis, the author presents the tools she used in her study, namely: participant observation, key-informant interviews, and the analysis of published documents and personal files. …

Physicians As Gatekeepers: Uncovering Barriers And Facilitators To Participation In A Prostate Cancer Prevention Intervention Clinical Trial, Theresa T. Crocker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Clinical trials play an important role in advancing therapeutic and preventive care with many current modalities resulting from prior research. While prior research has described barriers to participation in therapeutic clinical trials, much less in known about barriers related to participation in trials aimed at prevention, prostate cancer prevention in particular. Physicians have been shown to play a critical role in access to trials; however, less is known about the individual and structural factors that influence their participation in prostate cancer prevention trials. This research provides rich ethnographic detail within the context of an ongoing trial. Research participants included physician/investigators …

Las Políticas De Salud Del Banco Mundial, Shiri Noy

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Cultural Politics Of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders And The Diagnosis Of Difference, Travis H. Hedwig

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

This dissertation is based on an ethnographic study of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) and the racial, cultural and political considerations that shape the meaning of diagnosis for Alaska Native individuals and families in Anchorage, Alaska. During the period from August 6, 2010 to through August 5, 2011, I worked with foster families and extended natural families living with and supporting individuals diagnosed with FASD. Documenting the experiences of families in their interactions with clinical, state, tribal and non-profit institutions, I sought to understand how a diagnosis of FASD structures opportunities, outcomes and everyday life experiences across several critical life …

The Health Consequences And Healthcare-Seeking Strategies For South American Immigrant Careworkers In Genoa, Italy, Patti A. Meyer

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

This research on healthcare strategies of home-based, low-wage, immigrant careworkers contributes to the ways medical anthropology, migration studies and social science understand human-economy-family care relationships and health and carework as commodities in today's global economy. It reveals the consequences for workers as they defray the costs of care for the Italian government and contribute to their home economies. This research was conducted in Genoa, Italy, which has the largest percentage of people over the age of 70 in any city of its size in the world and a tradition of sending and receiving immigrant workers. The main question was: Under …