Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons^™

Rain Rituals As A Barometer Of Vulnerability In An Uncertain Climate, L. Jen Shaffer

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Researchers and aid agencies, seeking to improve their understanding of local climate change responses, adaptation, and vulnerability, frequently interact with communities around the world who strongly emphasize their religious beliefs and practices. Dismissal and misunderstandings of these local perspectives can slow assessments of local climate vulnerability and development of adaptive capacity. In this paper, I show how analysis of rain ritual failure exposes the multiple stressors Ronga communities in southern Mozambique face, and as such, serves as a proxy measure for climate vulnerability at the local level. Oral histories and targeted interviews with participating elders, local chiefs, and community members …

“I Am More Than My Addiction”: Perceptions Of Stigma And Access To Care In Acute Opioid Crisis, Heather D. Henderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research is to analyze the stigmatization of opioid addiction within the framework of emergency care from an ethnographic perspective. Interviews with those who have been swept up in the current opioid epidemic indicate that stigma, or a shame or dishonor, and socioeconomic insecurity emerge often as common themes in their emergency care experiences. In many cases, socioeconomic insecurity most intensely translates into a lack of access to healthcare and emergency rooms across the country often function as primary care for uninsured populations. The central field site selected for this study was the emergency department of an …

Honoring The Dead: Digitizing Abuse & Neglect At The Asylum For Insane Indians, Kennedi Ford

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Perhaps because of the nature of the asylum and the relatively short length of time in which it was open, documents and records pertaining to the Canton Asylum for Insane Indians are hard to come by.

Approximately 1,000 files have been gathered and are in the process of being edited and published online. My participation is part of a Capstone project for Dakota State University’s General Beadle Honors Program. During my work with the Honoring the Dead digital archive project, I have edited, uploaded, transcribed, and gathered metadata for 6 documents. In addition to digitizing, I analyzed the documents for …

Improving Canadian Indigenous Health: Diabetes & Cardiovascular Disease, Sukhmeet S. Sachal

Western Research Forum

Background:

This abstract explores improving health outcomes for Canada’s Indigenous peoples. The increased prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and diabetes in this population makes this a public health problem because diabetes has long-term complications that affect the cardiovascular system and can result in disability and premature death.

Methods:

A literature review using specific search terms was performed to find 36 relevant articles. Search databases for the primary and secondary information were CINAHL and PubMED, respectively.

Results:

The results were classified into five groups: (1) Previous Genetic Protection; (2) Current Day Risk; (3) Diet; (4) Barriers in Developing and Maintaining …

Sex Differences In Political Leadership In An Egalitarian Society, Christopher Von Rueden, Sarah Alami, Hillard Kaplan, Michael Gurven

ESI Publications

We test the contribution of sex differences in physical formidability, education, and cooperation to the acquisition of political leadership in a small-scale society. Among forager-farmers from the Bolivian Amazon, we find that men are more likely to exercise different forms of political leadership, including verbal influence during community meetings, coordination of community projects, and dispute resolution. We show that these differences in leadership are not due to gender per se but are associated with men’s greater number of cooperation partners, greater access to schooling, and greater body size and physical strength. Men’s advantage in cooperation partner number is tied to …

Management Of Biodiversity: Creating Conceptual Space For Indigenous Conservation, Nicholas Herriman

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

Indigenous people have, in recent decades, become increasingly involved in environmental conservation. Notwithstanding, some social science research has critiqued as problematic or untenable ideas (notably “Indigeneity” and “conservation”) that putatively underpin Indigenous conservation. But does the critique accurately characterize actual Indigenous conservation projects? And can we create conceptual space for Indigenous conservation? Based on experience participating in and observing Indigenous conservation projects, it appears that, partly by emphasizing human management of biodiversity, the projects avoided pitfalls identified by the critique. Future social science analysis might remain relevant by addressing the idea of management of biodiversity.

Epistemological Ruptures: Flashback On Fieldwork Dilemmas While Doing Research On Friends At Home, Israel Aguilar

The Qualitative Report

While doing fieldwork at home and/or with people who are familiar can yield new knowledge, researchers using ethnographic techniques ought to first assume the role of apprentice and enact vulnerability before they can represent findings that represent what really happened. Doing otherwise can tarnish relationships or jeopardize a study. The history of narrative within ethnographic research is discussed as an introduction to the author’s own personal narrative, which is in the form of a flashback that illustrates the journey he embarked on in 2010 when he initiated dissertation research in his hometown of south Texas. It is here where he …

Linking Ecotourism Livelihood Strategies To Post-Displacement Homemaking In Internally Displaced Communities In Southern Nepal, Sophia Graybill

Sustainability and Social Justice

National park creation and ecotourism development often cause the internal displacement of local communities and shifts in traditional lifestyles. Loss of the physical and intangible home is frequently accompanied by changes to livelihood strategies that, for generations, supported a critical social order, set of power dynamics, and means of producing life meaning for people. Therefore, communities affected by displacement and confronted by rapid modernization often experience protracted risks and instability. This paper draws on information from thirty interviews in four communities surrounding the Royal Chitwan National Park in Southern Nepal to analyze how resettlement and ecotourism development have affected the …

"They Chase Us Like Dogs": Exploring The Vulnerabilities Of "Ladyboys" In The Cambodian Sex Trade, Jarrett D. Davis, Glenn Miles

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

While the vulnerability of women and girls continues to be the subject of research and concern among social service providers, few attempts have been made to understand the vulnerabilities and lived experiences of transgender persons in the sex industry. Among the studies that have been done, most have focused on sexual health and their likelihood to contract or spread HIV/AIDS, often ignoring other potential vulnerabilities. This study aims to provide a broad baseline of data on the perspectives and experiences of transgendered persons in the sex trade in Phnom Penh, allowing for a more nuanced understanding of their needs, and …

Responding To Purdeková, Simon Turner

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: La Muerte Del Verdugo: Reflexiones Interdisciplinarias Sobre El Cadáver De Los Criminales De Masa, Vincent Druliolle

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Review of La Muerte del Verdugo. Reflexiones Interdisciplinarias Sobre el Cadáver de los Criminales de Masa, ed. Séviane Garibian (Buenos Aires: Miño y Dávila editores, 2016)

Situating Food Insecurity In A Historic Albuquerque Community: The Whorled Relationship Between Food Insecurity And Place, Janet Page-Reeves, Maurice Moffett, Molly Bleecker, Katharine Linder, Jeannie Romero, Carol Krause

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

This article examines conceptualizations of the relationship between food insecurity and place. We use an ethnographically inspired and community-engaged approach to situate our analysis of fluid dynamics at work in a community with high levels of food insecurity. We propose that the relationship between place and people’s experience of food insecurity is recursive, dialectical, and “whorled.” This relationship reflects complex, interconnected, and multidimensional processes with consequences for the health of residents. Our research demonstrates the key nature of the health-place nexus by exploring how food insecurity articulates with place in unexpected ways that go beyond discussions of food, …

After Nature: A Politics For The Anthropocene, Ann Vitous

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

No abstract provided.

Personal History Ethnography In Environmental Anthropology: A Methodological Case Study, Eleanor Shoreman-Ouimet

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

The study of the relationship between humans and the environment and the ways in which humans use, abuse, or protect the environment is in part a study of motivation. Understanding the basis for motivation requires not just understanding individual or community sentiment towards the environment but researching the cultural norms, values and beliefs that underlie and foster cultural perspectives in the first place. But how do we begin to determine where, when and how those cultural norms, values, beliefs get developed, taught and inculcated?

The following paper presents the collection of life hisories as one methodological approach to accessing the …

Early Fieldwork At The Beijing Farmers’ Market, Amy Y. Evrard

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Now that I’ve passed tenure review, published a book, cemented my teaching skills, and learned how to be a productive member of a college committee, I feel confident, self-assured, and filled with certainty about every aspect of my career as a professor. The same certainty extends to research and fieldwork. From choosing a topic to developing research questions to getting a good start in the field—it’s all a piece of cake.

Ha! I wish I felt this confidence. The truth is that passing the tenure phase two years ago, as wonderful as it was, opened up a whole new set …

Towards Queer Space: Bisexual Experiences And Imaginative Geographies, Jacklyn Weier

Theses and Dissertations

Bisexuality has typically gone ignored in human geography. Specifically, geographers of sexualities have not incorporated the perspectives of bisexuals when theorizing about the production of queer or heteronormative spaces. This thesis asks what the experiences of bisexuals are throughout sexualized space and how bisexuals envision bisexual space. It argues that bisexuals, as people with non-binary subjectivities (not straight or gay), offer unique insights that challenge the widespread assumption of tolerant queer space, as well as performative approaches to space production. Bisexuals utilize preexisting models of gay space and their dissatisfaction within dichotomous space to imagine how bisexual space and queer …

A Tale Of Two Paranoids: A Critical Analysis Of The Use Of The Paranoid Style And Public Secrecy By Donald Trump And Viktor Orbán, Andria Timmer, Joseph Sery, Sean Thomas Connable, Jennifer Billinson

Secrecy and Society

Within the last decade, a rising tide of right-wing populism across the globe has inspired a renewed push toward nationalism. Capitalizing on an increasingly chaotic public sphere, leaders are stoking fear in their constituents such that their radical ideologies and hardline policy decisions may be enacted. This article offers a comparative study of two leaders exploiting the vulnerabilities of their respective citizenries: United States President Donald Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán. Drawing from and reimagining Richard Hofstadter’s germane essay, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” we argue that both represent a new manifestation of the paranoid style as …

Deinstitutionalization Of Bulgarian Orphanages: Examining Caregiver Discourses On The Changing Reforms, Sophia Page

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The housing of orphaned children in institutions has been common practice in Bulgaria. The post-communist era ushered in reforms to the orphan care system, under the guidance of the state and the international community. This has shifted care for orphaned children from institutions to alternative care in family-type settings, under a process referred to as deinstitutionalization. These reforms are believed to benefit a child’s development and well-being. New questions arise surrounding the role of the caregiver in implementing these reforms in their care practice, chiefly how caregivers strive to integrate the children into society while facing the persisting limitations of …

Home Garden Diversity Of The Tahuayo Region, Peru, Daniel Bauer, Duncan Taylor, Nelly Pinedo Alvarado

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

We examined cultural and environmental factors affecting species diversity of home gardens in Amazonian Northeast Peru based on 33 surveys conducted in July/August, 2014, in three communities varying in remoteness, demography, ecological zone, and ethnicity. The results support the idea that community variation in home gardens is not influenced by a single factor such as remoteness, but instead is the result of multiple cultural and environmental factors. Similar to other studies of Amazonian home gardens, fruits and medicinal plants make up the bulk of home garden diversity; however, we did not find an association between a tourism and reduced garden …

The Wolf Is Back By Robert Priest, Kelly Shepherd

The Goose

Review of Robert Priest's The Wolf is Back.