Anthropology Commons^™

"Where The Land Ends": Knowing And Governing The Limits Of Argentina's Soy Boom, Geneva Smith

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation is about how agricultural biotechnology was invoked in Argentina to rebuild the state and the economy after the 2001 economic crisis, which I approach by making visible the social lives of those experiencing the unintended consequences of a large-scale agrarian transformation. My starting point is to try to understand the paradoxical way that a leftist political project, Kirchnerismo, relied on and promoted an export driven soy boom as a way to rebuild the state after the 2001 economic crisis. While I do give significant attention to the high level state and industry practices, my goal is to examine …

Lgbtqc: Queer Perspectives On The Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities, Robert Burke

Anthropology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Cities are broadly conceived to be queer utopia when compared with rural spaces. While the Quad Cities of Illinois and Iowa fit this simplistic model in some ways, the region has several unique characteristics that warrant their own investigation. I argue that the social climate of the Quad Cities is generally perceived as welcoming and inclusive by the LGBTQ+ community. However, despite an assortment of community-building institutions, some find socialization and partner-seeking a bit difficult. Many advocate for investment in a variety of physical LGBTQ+ “third places” (public gathering places), which would yield a variety of benefits for this community. …

A Way Of Life: Trauma And Resilience Among Muslim Sexual Minorities In Cape Town, South Africa, Afshan Kamrudin

Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

Ask any Cape Town Muslim “what is Islam?”, and the first words that will come out of their mouths will be, “Islam is a way of life”. Among Muslim sexual minorities, the answer is resoundingly the same. Stating that Islam is a way of life indicates there are prescribed rules and codes of conduct that one must follow in order to be a Muslim. As such, the experience of these prescriptions and expectations are culture specific and context-dependent. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the ways in which Muslim sexual minorities living in Cape Town, South Africa experience …

How Choreometrics Reflects Self-Identity And Self-Concept Through Cultural Dance: A Developing Method, Naowarat Buddee

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Abstract

This arts-based autoethnography research aims to analyze the researcher’s personal reflections of cultural embodied experiences through the connection of Thai cultural dance movements, cultural patterns, and expressive behaviors in Thai cultural contexts. These also reflected the researcher’s personal-identity and self-concept. As cultural dance has impacts on social structures and human behaviors both physically and psychologically in social interactions throughout the developmental lifespan, the researcher was inspired by the concept of Choreometrics to look closely at personal dance experiences in relation to Thai culture. This autoethnography is a case study of the researcher who identifies as Thai and reflects her …

Ecologically Driven Changes In Subsistence Strategies: An Examination Of Bone Cross-Sectional Geometrical Properties In Hunter-Gatherers From Australia And Early Agriculturists From Belize, Ethan C. Hill

Anthropology ETDs

The primary purpose of this dissertation was to examine how changes to ecological context can urge subsistence level populations to adopt new subsistence strategies. This was accomplished by using metrics of bone strength to infer temporal behavior change in Holocene (10,000 BP – present) skeletal samples from southern Australia and southern Belize. The first paper, An Examination of the Cross-sectional Geometrical Properties of the Long Bone Diaphyses of Holocene Foragers from Roonka, South Australia, was written in collaboration with Osbjorn Pearson, Arthur Durband, Keryn Walshe, Kristian Carlson, and Frederick Grine. We compared long bone data for 69 individuals at Roonka …

Relations Of Reproduction: Men, Masculinities, And Pregnancy In Dakar, Senegal, Richard Powis

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Around the world, global health initiatives aim to empower women by encouraging men to be more engaged husbands and fathers. In some forms, this means men attending prenatal exams and taking up a more equitable share of domestic responsibilities. In much of West Africa, spaces associated with women’s work or “issues” are sharply gender-designated, meaning that even if men are open to engaging, they may not be welcome. This dissertation research is an ethnographic exploration of the experiences of expectant fathers in Dakar, Senegal, the ways in which they not only navigate these gendered spaces, and how they renegotiate their …

Vulnerable Agents: Ugandan Children's Experiences With Hiv Rehabilitation And Reintegration, Colleen Walsh Lang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Variability Among Later Stone Age Hunter-Gatherers, Mica Jones

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The hunting and gathering way of life is the most enduring and resilient in human history. However, the ways that a wild food-based subsistence system affects people’s social and economic organization are often oversimplified and variability is poorly understood. In general, there’s been a tendency, particularly among non-Anthropologists, to assume that hunter-gatherer societies are static and that historic groups represent an earlier, simpler way of life. This is particularly true in Africa, where small, highly mobile groups are common ethnographically. However, dramatic rainfall fluctuations over the last ~30,000 years significantly altered resources available to hunter-gatherers in diverse environments of northern …

The Function Of The Hukou System In Post-Revolutionary China & Its Autonomous Regions, Joseph Kramer

Master's Theses

Over the course of more than two millennia the Hukou System has shifted in scope and purpose. In dynastic times it served as a mechanism of tax acquisition. In more recent years it has functioned as a method of census and land distribution. Today it holds a duplicitous function serving as both an economic and social control mechanism. The Hukou achieves this through controlling movement through a passport like system of internal registration. In simpler terms, think of the Hukou as an internal passport regulating movement while simultaneously holding all of your biometric data which is surveilled and controlled by …

Tiny Homes As A Method To Increase Equitable Housing: Tiny Homes Detroit And Kalamazoo, Katie Kozlowski

Honors Theses

This thesis assesses the relative merits of housing programs such as Tiny Homes Detroit for other places where equitable and affordable housing is in short supply such as Kalamazoo, MI. For context, prior to information on Tiny Homes, and Tiny Homes in Detroit, information about the forces that shaped the contemporary housing crisis in both Detroit and Kalamazoo are provided. Topics in these preliminary sections include information on Redlining, Subprime Mortgages, Equitable Development, and Gentrification. For a variety of factors summarized in the thesis, Tiny Home Communities are a possible solution that, on a micro scale, can provide the most …

What Western Tourism Concepts Obscure: Intersections Of Migration And Tourism In Indonesia, Kathleen M. Adams

Anthropology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Classic Anglo-European definitions of tourism as recreational travel have hindered more nuanced locally-grounded understandings of travel phenomena elsewhere in the world. Moreover, contemporary global labor and educational mobility have produced novel travel forms and behaviors that straddle the Western categories of “tourist” and “migrant.” The purpose of this analysis is to examine Toraja (Indonesia) perspectives on travel which can be instructive for correcting the binary divides between tourism and migration that have long plagued dominant Western models of travel. Drawing from data culled from long-term qualitative fieldwork and online research, I convey three ethnographically-grounded stories of Toraja migrants on return …

Hinduism As A Political Weapon: Gender Socialization And Disempowerment Of Women In India, Aindrila Haldar

Master's Theses

There is a growing use of religion as a political tool to control Hindu women in India, contributing to a rise in gender inequality. Immediate authoritative patriarchal domains such as household and politics, continuously speak of “protecting” Hindu women by disregarding their voices and needs. Consequently, potentially creating a loss of agency among women. This research will use inductive reasoning to understand the position of Hindu women in modern Indian society. Particularly, through the understanding of the involvement of religion in the political and household sphere. Hindu women are highly influenced by the expectations of what being an ”ideal” woman …

A Leadership Change. A Culture Shift...And A Police Riot: The Story Of How The Highest College Going High School In San Francisco Became The Lowest Graduating School In The District, Emmanuel Padilla

Master's Theses

Thurgood Marshall Academic High School, located in San Francisco’s Bayview, Hunters Point, scored the third lowest in the most recent Academic Performance Index (API) Report. Based on the median household income, the Bayview is a low-income community and according to San Francisco data, is a high crime neighborhood. The odds are against Marshall to provide exceptional service to their students, but it once did. In 2001, Marshall had the highest college-going rate in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). Today, only 20% of its student body would be considered college ready. This study will look into what happened to …

Horse Power: The Merry-Go-Round Of Kentucky's Transforming Thoroughbred Racing Industry, S. Carolyn Barnes

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores Thoroughbred training and racing in central Kentucky’s “horse country,” the most culturally and economically invested horse racing region in the United States. In recent decades, public interest in horse racing has waned and this sporting industry has intensified the use of biomedical interventions, including pharmaceuticals. This is fueling rising ethical concerns about the welfare and treatment of racehorses and calls for reform, including federal oversight and regulation of the sport. Given these changes and pressures, I have sought to understand what it is like to live and work in this agrarian world. Supported by the Wenner- Gren …

Rompiendo Alambres: Immigrant Youth Navigating School And Life In St. Louis, Julia Campus Macias

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This project focuses on educational and life trajectories of Central American youth in St. Louis, Missouri, who have immigrated unaccompanied from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. By tracking and telling their stories, I hope to amplify these young immigrants’ voices, and complicate others’ perceptions of their place and worth in this country. Current immigration policies and enforcement practices have made the entry process more punitive, restrictive and deadly. The immigrant experience, especially for young people, confronts many state institutions, chief among them the educational system. Institutions like schools become entry points for immigrants but can also be spaces for …

Testing Assumptions On The Relationship Between Humans And Their Environment: Case Studies From Cahokia Mounds, Illinois, Caitlin Gail Rankin

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Many archaeologists argue that studying past human response to climate change can be helpful in informing future strategies to adapt to modern effects of climate change; however, archaeological research is rarely utilized in climate change policy. Much of archaeological research involves forming hypotheses to explain observations of past phenomena. However, the advancement of knowledge requires a back and forth between hypothesis forming and hypothesis testing. I argue that a lack of engagement in hypothesis testing has stalled the advancement in archaeological knowledge on the relationship between humans and their environment. Ultimately, it is this stall in the advancement of knowledge …

Building Communities: Interpreting Oneota And Mississipppian Interaction Through Paleoethnobotanical Analysis At The Morton Village Site (11f2), West-Central Illinois, Kelsey Olivia Nordine

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Archaeological investigations of social interaction at the community level provide insight into the daily lives of past people and the social structures that guide these community-level interactions. This dissertation uses paleoethnobotanical analysis to examine the nature of social identity negotiation and community at the site-level scale, using data from excavations at the Morton Village site (11F2). Morton Village is a Bold Counselor Oneota and Mississippian settlement in the Central Illinois River Valley (CIRV), occupied contemporaneously by both groups in the 14th century and identified as a multiethnic or multicultural village through the presence of two distinct types of ceramic remains. …

The Social Dynamics Of Antibiotic Use In A Large American Medical Complex, Katharina Rynkiewich

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Based on 18 months of anthropological fieldwork, 35 in-depth interviews, and over 360 hours of participant observation with two specialty physician groups, my dissertation is an analysis of the social dynamics involved in antibiotic decision making, prescription, and use at a large North American medical complex in a Midwestern city. Due to the global problem of antimicrobial resistance, hospitals have been particularly interested in reducing antibiotic overuse and misuse. Though the use of antibiotics has long had an impact at the population level, physicians often advocate for additional antibiotic coverage in the individual patient. I examine a policy aimed at …

Consuming Local, Thinking Global: Building A Halal Industry In A World Of Made In Italy, Lauren Virginia Crossland-Marr

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Consumers today seek guidance on how to decipher where their food comes from. As a result of this demand, food certifications have materialized in stores across the globe. Walking through oneճ local grocery store, one is bombarded with certifications that range from ҭade inӠto organic to kosher. Research on forms of food certifications have emphasized the process of making these certifications legible to consumers in markets abroad, overlooking the impact of local concerns in building certifications. This study aims to determine the impact of local cultural foodways on certification schemes meant for global markets. Building on existing work in the …

Subjectivities Of Struggle: Charting Inscriptions Of Violence And Refusal On The “Cuerpo Territorio” Of Peru’S Defensoras, Natalia Guzmán Solano

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

“Subjectivities of Struggle: Inscriptions of Violence and Refusal on the ‘Cuerpo Territorio’ of Peru’s Defensoras” calls into question the colonial assumptions underpinning contemporary understandings of extractivism. The sixteen months of ethnographic research I conducted with the defensoras (women ecoterritorial defenders) of Cajamarca is situated at the fraught extractive frontier where social conflict paralyzed the expansion of a large-scale mining project and generated a coalitional struggle against extractive-led economic development. This dissertation conceptualizes extractivism as a modern/colonial product of power and knowledge that has feminized the land and inhabitants from the time of the European invasion of the Americas. While recent …