Anthropology Commons^™

Christians’ Cut: Popular Religion And The Global Health Campaign For Medical Male Circumcision In Swaziland, Casey Golomski, Sonene Nyawo

Anthropology

Swaziland faces one of the worst HIV epidemics in the world and is a site for the current global health campaign in sub-Saharan Africa to medically circumcise the majority of the male population. Given that Swaziland is also majority Christian, how does the most popular religion influence acceptance, rejection or understandings of medical male circumcision? This article considers interpretive differences by Christians across the Kingdom’s three ecumenical organisations, showing how a diverse group people singly glossed as ‘Christian’ in most public health acceptability studies critically rejected the procedure in unity, but not uniformly. Participants saw medical male circumcision’s promotion and …

Scaling Up The Self, Scaling Down The World: Self-Objectification And The Politics Of Carbon Offsets And Personalised Genomics, Joshua Reno

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

Two global initiatives, the Genographic Project and the Carbon Lottery, share an ambition to make abstract, global processes—human evolution and climate change—comprehensible and engaging to non-specialists. Despite their differences, they both do so by means of self-objectifications that scale up the selves of participants and scale down complex, spatio-temporal models of human-world relations. Based on the author’s auto-ethnographic experience as a participant in both initiatives, it is argued that carbon calculators and personalised genomics involves a pragmatics of scale that evaluates and compares users on the basis of their relative expression of, or deviation from, a standard. Furthermore, this is …

2 Theory For A Bioarchaeology Of Community: Potentials, Practices, And Pitfalls, Ann M. Kakaliouras

Anthropology

This chapter is an exploration of theory and practice that could be useful for the articulation of a “bioarchaeology of community.” “Community” is a more complex and vexing concept than meets the eye, and its meaning has changed significantly over the past few centuries. This chapter reviews the varied meanings of community in the recent past, evaluates archaeological understandings of community, and explores current uses of social theory in bioarchaeology. Lastly, I lay out a potential theoretical and ethical roadmap for bioarchaeologists who wish to investigate past communities.

Abundant Exotics And Cavalier Crafting: Obsidian Use And Emerging Complexity In The Northern Lake Titicaca Basin, Elizabeth A. Klarich, Abigail Levine, Carol Schultze

Anthropology: Faculty Books

Book Abstract:

Using case studies from around the globe—including Mesoamerica, North and South America, Africa, China, and the Greco-Roman world—and across multiple time periods, the authors in this volume make the case that abundance provides an essential explanatory perspective on ancient peoples’ choices and activities. Economists frequently focus on scarcity as a driving principle in the development of social and economic hierarchies, yet focusing on plenitude enables the understanding of a range of cohesive behaviors that were equally important for the development of social complexity.

Our earliest human ancestors were highly mobile hunter-gatherers who sought out places that provided ample …

Foreword, Deborah Lapidus

EnviroLab Asia

No abstract provided.

Indigenous People, Development And Environmental Justice: Narratives Of The Dayak People Of Sarawak, Malaysia, Elizabeth Weinlein '17

EnviroLab Asia

Focusing on the indigenous people of Sarawak, this article explores the authors learned biases as well as the dispelling of myths through hands on experiences in Malaysia. Over the period of a couple days, it becomes apparent that the indigenous people in Sarawak are not victims of systems of oppression, but survivors who continue to fight for their land rights and livelihoods.

2017-2018, Csusb

Anthropology Department newsletter

No abstract provided.

We Call It Pulling A Thread: Deconstructing Femininity At The Molly Brown House Museum, Emily J. Starck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite making up around half of the global population, women are consistently underrepresented in museums. Where women's experiences are present in exhibitions and programming, they are often misrepresented within an entrenched heteronormative and patriarchal framework. Through this thesis, I show how Denver's Molly Brown House Museum works to upset traditional narratives through their dynamic interpretation of the life of their namesake, Margaret Tobin Brown. Using new museology, feminist anthropology, and performance theory, I analyze data from staff interviews and tour participant observation to explore how the museum deconstructs popular understandings of historical femininity. Through visitor surveys, I measure the extent …

Can You See Me? Ethnography Of Women's Experiences With Homelessness In Denver, Colorado, Taylor L. Morrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Following the economic crisis in 2008, the United States, and Denver in particular, saw a considerable rise in the number of people considered homeless. Despite an increase in the population, little anthropological research has been done to understand the experiences of street-embodied individuals and the services available to them. Through participant-observation, life-history interviews, and photovoice, I closely studied the lives of two women experiencing homelessness and used interpretive phenomenological analysis to analyze the data. Analyzed through Foucault's biopolitics, technologies of the self, and panopticism, as well as Goffman's presentation of the self, I make the case that the homeless experience …

Doing Good In Guatemala: Perceptions Of Voluntourism In San Juan Comalapa, Samantha Grace Hagan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of host community perceptions of volunteer tourism in the context of a small community in the highlands of Guatemala called San Juan Comalapa. Voluntourism acts as a bridge between development aid and traditional tourism and therefore voluntourism organizations should act as both roles in the community. In this research I found that voluntourism organizations, particularly one organization called Long Way Home, can lean more towards one role than another in the eyes of members of the host community. Based on these findings I recommend that these organizations embrace these dual roles and engage the community …

Interpreting American Indian Cultural Heritage: Visitor's Educational Experience At Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site, Kara Lynn Underwood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following research and analysis explore the various methods in which American Indian heritage is interpreted at Rock Ledge Ranch Historic Site in Colorado Springs, CO. Attention was given to the distinctive ways this space acts as an educational institution that displays and interprets Colorado's cultural heritage through object-centered learning and participatory education. The goal for this research was to discuss ahistorical biases that have existed in museums for centuries, while encouraging dialogue and discourse about the appropriate methods for interpreting American Indian cultural heritage. Through the presentation and examination of visitors' educational experiences using observations, questionnaires, and informal interviews …

Health-Seeking Behaviors In Rural West Ghana, Cathryn Lynn Perreira

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is the result of an exploratory project that included a six-week period of fieldwork in the rural farming village of Humjibre in the Western Region of Ghana. It examines the health-seeking behaviors I witnessed in this village, and discusses the barriers and facilitators that control those behaviors. It is my intention to demonstrate that there are many factors that influence concepts of health that lead to health behaviors. To fully understand how an individual functions within a medical culture, all the social, cultural, political, historical, and economic factors must be considered. Extensive background research was conducted prior to …

An Xrf Compositional Analysis Of Opaque White Glass Beads From 17th-Century Mission Santa Catalina De Guale, Georgia, Elliot H. Blair

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

Previous analyses of the elemental composition of white glass beads have shown that the opacifier used during glass manufacture is temporally diagnostic, with a transition from tin to antimony to arsenic to fluorine. To date, most researchers using this fact for chronological purposes have focused on British, Dutch, and French contact sites in the northeastern United States and Canada. Many of these studies have relied on expensive, and sometimes minimally destructive, techniques. X-ray fluorescence spectrometry is a widely available, non-destructive technique that can be used to identify glass opacifiers extremely rapidly and inexpensively. This technique was used to analyze 783 …

Flying Woman’S Beaded Cheyenne Cradleboard And Associated Bead Card From Fort Keogh, Montana, William T. Billeck

BEADS: Journal of the Society of Bead Researchers

Glass bead sample cards were sent out in the 19th century by bead dealers and producers to illustrate their products and few are known that include small beads of drawn manufacture. One such card marked New York was acquired in 1882 by Captain Eli Lindesmith, a Catholic priest and Army chaplain at Fort Keogh, Montana. Lindesmith used the card to select seed beads for a cradleboard he commissioned that year from a Cheyenne woman named Flying Woman, the wife of Wolf Voice. This previously undescribed sample card is compared to other 19th-century cards displaying drawn beads in an attempt to …

Life After The Boat: Understanding The Needs Of Refugees Living In Second Reception Centers In Sicily, Russell Manzano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Migration to Italy has drastically increased, with thousands of refugees traveling by sea to Sicily every month. International refugee policy is largely managed through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and although it attempts to regulate refugee assistance, immigration policy within the European Union is complex and continuously fluctuating. Upon arrival in Sicily, authorities send refugees to first reception centers, and then transfer them to second reception centers operated by local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The implementation of Italian immigration policy varies among regions; resettlement agencies often transfer refugees among centers where they receive different economic assistance, thus creating further …

Using Community-Based Research To Improve Bsw Students’ Learning In Community Practice: Bringing The Macro Into Focus For Traditional And Distance Learners, Jessica Lee Lucero, Jen Evers, Jennifer Roark

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This article describes community–university partnership building, course development/management, and evaluation outcomes related to an intensive community-based research project that was integrated in two sections of an undergraduate course on community practice. Pre- and posttest data were collected from 60 BSW students who were enrolled in community practice and who participated in a community-based research project with their state’s fair housing office. The evaluation outcomes focus on changes in professional interest in macro practice, students’ self-efficacy, and differences in students’ learning experiences, based on traditional bricks-and-mortar or distance learning contexts. Results show that students experience increases in self-efficacy related to community …

Wagons, Trains, Trucks, And Bottles: Transportation Networks And Commodity Access In Castroville, Texas, Kellam Throgmorton

Anthropology Student Scholarship

The premise of this paper is that changing modes of transportation significantly affected how residents of Castroville, Texas, acquired commodities, which in turn influenced how they expressed particular ethnic, regional, and class identities through consumption. Castroville residents lived (and continue to live) within a broader world system of commodity exchange. As we strive to understand how identities are reflected in and co-created through the objects we surround ourselves with, it is important to remember that economic relations that extend well beyond the local can structure a community’s access to commodities. Geographic space becomes a meaningful variable when we think about …

Fat Vegan Politics: A Survey Of Fat Vegan Activists’ Online Experiences With Social Movement Sizeism, Corey Lee Wrenn

Dietary Choice and Foods of Animal Origin Collection

The author examines the consequences of stigma strategies in vegan activism as it is experienced by fat vegan activists. The fat politics of veganism in online spaces is examined in data provided by a 2016 qualitative survey of fat-identified vegan activists. Results highlight the subjective experiences of fat vegans, illuminating the meaning of healthism, sizeism, and thin-privilege in vegan social justice spaces. Sizeism is a significant concern for fat vegan activists as respondents report only medium-level feelings of comfort and community, with one in four reporting having experienced fat discrimination in the movement. Most indicate that online vegan spaces feel …

Creating Knowledge, Volume 10, 2017

Creating Knowledge

Dear Students, Colleagues, Alumni and Friends, This may sound like an act of contrition, but it is not. When I meet administrators of other institutions of higher education, it is predictable that the first few minutes of interaction will be devoted to a vigorous display of institutional pride. In that context, my practice has been to let them deliver along traditional marketing lines including glossy brochures with abundant well-staged pictures of buildings, faculty, and diverse students. Once they are done, I kindly commend them and in return, I present to them our latest issue of Creating Knowledge. I know that …

Straits Talk, Char Miller

EnviroLab Asia

No abstract provided.