Anthropology Commons^™

Indigenous Knowledge And Traditional Knowledge, Margaret Bruchac

Department of Anthropology Papers

Over time, Indigenous peoples around the world have preserved distinctive understandings, rooted in cultural experience, that guide relations among human, non-human, and other-than human beings in specific ecosystems. These understandings and relations constitute a system broadly identified as Indigenous knowledge, also called traditional knowledge or aboriginal knowledge. Archaeologists conducting excavations in Indigenous locales may uncover physical evidence of Indigenous knowledge (e.g. artifacts, landscape modifications, ritual markers, stone carvings, faunal remains), but the meaning of this evidence may not be obvious to non-Indigenous or non-local investigators. Researchers can gain information and insight by consulting Indigenous traditions; these localized knowledges contain crucial …

How To Use A Ouija Board--A Step By Step Guide, Ellie Piersol

Louise Pound: A Folklore and Literature Miscellany

No abstract provided.

The Pedophile Prophet? Breathing A Culturally Relative Point Of View Into A Controversial Cultural Debate, Samuel S. Thompson

What All Americans Should Know About Women in the Muslim World

This work focuses on a controversial topic within women studies of the Islamic world, the very young marriage of Mohammad's second wife Aisha. The work attempts to meet the issue on level ground and explain that while this may seem as a spark on conflict between non-Muslim cultures and the Islamic world this marriage was not altogether that uncommon for the time.

The Spars Pandemic 2025-2028: A Futuristic Scenario To Facilitate Medical Countermeasure Communication, Emily K. Brunson, Hannah Chandler, Gigi Kwik Gronvall, Sanjana Ravi, Tara Kirk Sell, Matthew P. Shearer, Monica L. Schoch-Spana

Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research

Effective communication about medical countermeasures—including drugs, devices and biologics—is often critical in emergency situations. Such communication, however, does not just happen. It must be planned and prepared for. One mechanism to develop communication strategies is through the use of prospective scenarios, which allow readers the opportunity to rehearse responses while also weighing the implications of their actions. This article describes the development of such a scenario: The SPARS Pandemic 2025-2028. Steps in this process included deciding on a timeframe, identifying likely critical uncertainties, and then using this framework to construct a storyline covering both the response and recovery phases of …

Cultural Appropriation In Contemporary Neopaganism And Witchcraft, Kathryn Gottlieb

Honors College

This thesis examines the discourse surrounding cultural appropriation in contemporary witchcraft and neopaganism, particularly online. The aim of this thesis is to look at how cultural appropriation became such a central topic in the witch and neopagan community and to see what can be learned about the community as a whole from this discourse. Definitions, neutralization techniques, and the development of alternative practices and terminologies are all discussed, as well as how cultural appropriation relates to the history of witchcraft as a whole. Seven witch/neopagan members of the popular blogging platform tumblr.com were interviewed for this study to examine how …

Architecture Of Disillusion: A Qualitative Study Of Nihilism, Phenomenology, & Spirituality Among Black Men In Detroit Hip Hop, Weston E. Matthews

Anthropology Senior Theses

My objective was to investigate the relationship between nihilism among young black men of the inner-city and their creative impulse towards the creation of hip hop music. Using ethnographic methods, I interrogate the interplay between nihilistic dispositions among black men in the city of Detroit and the urge towards creating music as a way of constructing and renegotiating one’s own sense of “meaning” in life. Additionally, I seek to address the moral implications of nihilism in the social spheres of the black inner-city, utilizing Neitzsche’s conceptual distinction of active vs. passive nihilism to discuss the disillusionment with and reimagining of …

In The Presence Of Evil: Demonic Perception Narratives, Victoria Jaye

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports

I offer a new classification system for organizing, understanding, and validating the inhuman demonic encounter by organizing it through the senses the experience is activating. A demonic or inhuman spirit, which can be used interchangeably, is a spirit in that they exist without bodies, possess abilities greater than that of humans (rendering them inhuman), are hyperintelligent, react negatively to Christian religious iconography, and are malevolent in their behavior towards humans.

The system I have created is organized by the sensory perceptions of the narrative (i.e. sight, sound, smell, and feeling of the demonic presence) then is divided further by the …

Chapter 1, Background Of The Study, Alan C. Swedlund

Research Report 07: The Genetic Structure of an Historical Population: a Study of Marriage and Fertility in Old Deerfield, Massachusetts

No abstract provided.

The Ufo Contact Movement From The 1950'S To The Present, Christoper Bader

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

"Since the beginning of the UFO movement in the late 1940s, beliefs about what the aliens are like and the purpose of their visits to Earth have changed numerous times. The first claims of extended contact with alien beings in the early 1950s were entirely different in form and content from the current, frightening UFO abduction tales. This article will trace the UFO movement from its origin in 1947 to the present, explaining how its prevailing paradigms have changed."

So Far, Yet Home? The Impact Of Colonization And Globalization On The Philippine Family, Kathleen Nadeau

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper looks at the changing role of the Filipino family from precapitalist to present times. After exploring the issue of how the precolonial and precapitalist family changed in response to colonization, it focuses on the question of how the underlying structure of the modern family has changed as a result of the impact of global capitalism. The paper ends with a brief reflection on some of the implications of changed family relations, structures, and roles for the moral fiber of the family and economy.