Anthropology Commons^™

Aboriginal Fractions: Enumerating Identity In Taiwan, Jennifer A. Liu

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Notions of identity in Taiwan are configured in relation to numbers. I examine the polyvalent capacities of enumerative technologies in both the production of ethnic identities and claims to polit- ical representation and justice. By critically historicizing the manner in which Aborigines in Taiwan have been, and continue to be, constructed as objects and subjects of scientific knowledge production through technologies of measuring, I examine the genetic claim made by some Taiwanese to be ‘‘fractionally’’ Aboriginal. Numbers and techniques of measuring are used ostensibly to know the Aborigines, but they are also used to construct a genetically unique Taiwanese identity …

Emplacement And Displacement: Perceiving The Landscape Through Aboriginal Australian Acrylic Painting, Fred Myers

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Aboriginal Australian acrylic paintings have long been considered representations of mythologically invested landscape. This understanding has been made problematic by recent writings on ‘dwelling’. As common usage of the term ‘landscape’ seems to prioritize vision, to suggest that the acrylic paintings are landscapes only strengthens the suspicion that they are artifacts of displacement or distancing, rather than examples of the emplacement emphasized in this ‘dwelling perspective’. However, this paper will demonstrate that the relationship between acrylic painting and the land is more complex than such an interpretation. It will argue that the Aboriginal objectification of their relationship to the land …

Review Of Psychological Anthropology: A Reader On Self In Culture, Claudia Strauss

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

Robert LeVine has not only conducted an important body of child development research and trained many students (of whom I was one). He has also written and edited several volumes that introduce students to psychological anthropology. His latest reader fills a real need: I am aware of no other collection of current work in psychological anthropology for undergraduates. Aside from a few quibbles and some annoying typesetting errors, Psychological Anthropology: A Reader on Self in Culture is a first-rate compilation that demonstrates the relevance and excitement of psychological anthropology.

Body Size And Pubertal Development Explain Ethnic Differences In Structural Geometry At The Femur In Asian, Hispanic, And White Early Adolescent Girls Living In The U.S., Daniel L. Osborne, C.M. Weaver, L.D. Mccabe, G.P. Mccabe, R. Novotny, M.D. Van Loan, S. Going, V. Matkovic, C.J. Boushey, D.A. Savaiano

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Variation in structural geometry is present in adulthood, but when this variation arises and what influences this variation prior to adulthood remains poorly understood. Ethnicity is commonly the focus of research of skeletal integrity and appears to explain some of the variation in quantification of bone tissue. However, why ethnicity explains variation in skeletal integrity is unclear.
Methods: Here we examine predictors of bone cross sectional area (CSA) and section modulus (Z), measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and the Advanced Hip Analysis (AHA) program at the narrow neck of the femur in adolescent (9–14 years) girls (n …

It's A Birth Not A Procedure: An Ethnographic Study Of Intrauterine Fetal Death In A Labor And Delivery Unit Of An American Hospital Setting, Catherine Mcleod Griffin

Wayne State University Dissertations

Life transitions such as birth and death constitute a significant area within anthropological studies of ritual. It is important to investigate how individuals, groups, and communities organize around these events. Birth and death can be considered as rites of passage that mark key life transitions (van Gennep 1909/1960). Thus birth and death related rituals need to be investigated within the social and cultural context of American hospital settings to better understand the social organization of life, death, and personhood. In the American hospital setting, a reproductive loss at any gestational age receives the medical diagnostic label of an intrauterine fetal …

Exploring Sacred Objects And Their Meanings In Catholic Mexicano Households: Domestic Religious Practices In San Antonio, Mary E. Durocher

Wayne State University Dissertations

Anthropological literature in the study of material culture argues that person/object interactions are important to the construction and maintenance of social relations and personal identity both in the present and through time. It is through relationships and interactions with things that people come to "know who they are" (Tilley (2007). This line of thinking has led some Latino studies scholars to propose that the retention of traditional aspects of culture, such as religious practices, often serves as a way of negotiating personal or cultural identity in an ever changing social milieu (Sandoval 2006, Aponte and De La Torre 2006). This …

Zen Communication - A Cross Cultural Approach To Mindfulness, Appropriate Response, And Flow In Dyadic Interactions, Gregory Husak

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study examined the question of how the qualities that arise from the practice of traditionally East Asian disciplines such as Zen and related martial arts might be effectively applied to dyadic interactions. Long-form interviews of about 40 minutes each were conducted with academics who have studied these topics and with expert practitioners who have extensive direct experience. Most subjects had significant cross-cultural experience, having studied and/or practiced in both the U.S. and in Japan. Detailed analysis of transcripts of these recorded interviews indicated that, in particular, the seated Zen meditation practice known as zazen generates personally transformational qualities that …

Technology, Mining Methods And Landscapes Of A Placer Mining District In Fairbanks, Alaska, 1900-1930, John P. Baeten

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Placer miners in Alaska’s interior were part of the last great gold rush in North America. As word of gold in the Fairbanks Mining District traveled down the Yukon River, a wave of miners from the Klondike placer fields in Dawson, along with a assortment of speculators and inexperienced green horns from the Lower 48 converged on the confluence of the Tanana and Chena rivers hoping to strike it rich. The steamers coming from Dawson were integral; they carried miners with experience working the frozen subarctic placer deposits of the Klondike. These miners encountered new environmental challenges that required the …

The Aché And Guaraní: Thirty Years After Maybury-Lewis And Howe’S Report On Genocide In Paraguay, Richard Reed, John Renshaw

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

No abstract provided.

La No-Frontera Pano: Etnónimos Como Categorías Alternativas Y Múltiples Entre Matis Y Korubo, Barbara Arisi

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This article is a result of research developed in 2006 about the contact between Matis and Korubo, two Indigenous people that belong to the Panoan speaking family and live in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land, in the Amazonas, Brazil. My intention was to comprehend the relationship between them and not to study them as an “isolated” or an “ethnic” group, away from the other people around them. This article is about social organization and ethnonyms. I conclude that the way Matis use ethnonyms serve to identify the people around them, to identify parts of their own group or parts …

¿Existe Un Warao Genérico?: Cuestiones Clave En La Etnografía Y La Ecología Histórica Del Delta Del Orinoco Y El Territorio Warao-Lokono-Paragoto, Rafael Gassón, Dieter Heinen

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Con frecuencia, la región del delta del Orinoco ha sido considerada como un paisaje prístino que ha experimentado, si acaso, pocos cambios en su geografía natural y humana. No obstante, durante el último siglo, el delta del Orinoco ha sufrido cambios radicales con graves consecuencias para la ecología y la distribución de las poblaciones locales

En este essayo comentaremos algunos de los cambios que han afectado el modo de vida, la distribución de los grupos poblacionales y la composición de los conglomerados Warao en el noreste venezolano a lo largo del tiempo. Finalmente, discutiremos algunos de los cambio ocurridos en …

Warfare And Shamanism In Amazonia, James Andrew Whitaker

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

Book review of Warfare and Shamanism in Amazonia. Carlos Fausto. Translated by David Rodgers. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2012. xv + 347 pp., maps, illustrations, footnotes, bibliography, annex, index. USD $99.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 978-1-107-02006-1

Holocene House Hunting: An Application Of Satellite Image Analysis Towards Locating Prehistoric Archeological Sites In Alaska's Brooks Range, Joseph Keeney

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this study, satellite image analysis was applied to archeological sites at Lake Matcharak in the Brooks Range of Alaska. The Goal was to test whether or not satellite remote sensing, which has been successful in locating large-size archeological features, could be applied to small-size prehistoric features found in Arctic Alaska. Using 1-m resolution IKONOS and 30-m resolution ASTER DEM data, vegetation indices (NDVI and tasseled cap) and slope were generated and stacked into one image. Supervised and unsupervised classifications were then applied to the resulting image to look for spectral/slope characteristics that were unique to known site locations at …

Good Men Grow Corn: Embodied Ecological Heritage In A Belizean Mopan Community, Kristina Baines

Publications and Research

Recent developments in land rights and land use in the Toledo district, Belize has generated anthropological and activist interest surrounding traditional ecological knowledge and practice, and the role of heritage in communities. This study explores the connection between ecological knowledge and practices, and the concurrent construction of heritage, and community health and wellness, broadly defined. Developing and using the concept of “embodied ecological heritage,” this dissertation takes a phenomenological approach to understanding the convergence of ecological heritage and health in multiple realms of everyday life, arguing that lived experience of participating in “traditional”practices is fundamentally connected to wellness in the …

The Use Of Space At The Late Woodland Shady Grove Site (22-Qu-525), Stephen George Harris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Very little previous work has been done at the Late Woodland Shady Grove site. This thesis will examine and reconfirm some of the previous conclusions about this site's placement within the temporal framework of the Northern Yazoo Basin. The Late Woodland and Mississippian occupations of the site used the same space in decidedly different ways. How the use of space has changed through time will be examined from several different perspectives, including geophysical survey and the intra-site distribution of artifacts.

Preterm Birth And The Perception Of Risk Among African Americans, Gwendolyn Simpson Norman

Wayne State University Dissertations

Background: African American women deliver preterm at a rate that is two to three times that of their white counterparts, and after decades of research, this disparity in birth outcomes still remains unexplained. While factors including income, education, neighborhood conditions, infection and stress have all been associated with prematurity, no combination of these factors has explained why the disparity persists. Recently, however, racism-specific stress has emerged as a possible factor contributing to this disparity. This study was designed to learn how preterm birth was explained by African Americans directly impacted by prematurity. Methods: Interviews were conducted with African American women …

Bottigheimer, Ruth B., Fairy Tales: A New History, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

Dancing The Numinous: Sacred And Spiritual Techniques Of Contemporary American Belly Dancers, Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

In this paper, I explore how contemporary American practitioners of belly dance (as Middle Eastern dance and its many varieties are often called in the English-speaking world) conceptualize not only the spiritual dimensions of their dance, but also how the very notion of performance affects sacred and spiritual dance practices. Drawing on interviews with this community, I describe the techniques of sacred and spiritual belly dancers, how these dancers theorize performance, and how the conflicts inherent to patriarchal mind-body dualism are resolved in these practices. My purpose here is twofold: to document an emergent dance tradition and to analyze its …

Queering Kinship In ‘The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers', Jeana Jorgensen

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The fairy tales in the Kinder- und Hausmiirchen, or Children's and Household Tales, compiled by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are among the world's most popular, yet they have also provoked discussion and debate regarding their authenticity, violent imagery, and restrictive gender roles. In this chapter I interpret the three versions published by the Grimm brothers of ATU 451, "The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers," focusing on constructions of family, femininity, and identity. I utilize the folkloristic methodology of allomotific analysis, integrating feminist and queer theories of kinship and gender roles. I follow Pauline Greenhill by taking a queer view of …

Review Of Storytelling Globalization: From The Chaco And Beyond, Jeremy M. Campbell

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.