Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons^™

Creating Community: A Qualitative Study To Identify Factors Impacting Community In A University Learning Community Cohort, Maura B. Denny

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the role of `community' within a university campus Learning Community (LC). With a cohort-based structure, an LC exists to enhance student learning through peer cooperation and participation, however the scope of what constitutes community within these cohorts is not currently understood. This study investigates the roles of individual reciprocity, communication, need, time, and physical environment in community building, utilizing qualitative interviews and observations of a 30 member LC over the course of two academic years and a four-week study abroad experience in Panama. Through this, the vital roles of the orientation period and programming staff are revealed …

A Sense Of Home: A Cultural Geography Of The Leschenault Estuary District: Report, Sandra Wooltorton

Research outputs 2013

Executive Summary

In 2012, a project was implemented to determine the place-based social values of the people of the Leschenault Estuary district. The project included a historical study, a literature review, a survey with quantitative and qualitative questions, targeted community engagement (five focus groups, six individual interviews) and a photo-elicitation study with a group of high school children.

Research Question

What is history of the relationship between people and place in the Leschenault Estuary District, and what is the relationship in 2012? What were, and what are the place-based social values of the population?

Constructing A Healthcare Assets Map In Rural Appalachia: An Analysis Of Healthcare Services And Perceived Health Threats, Catherine Myers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using data gathered over the course of two months through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with health providers (n=19) and community members (n=20), this research analyzes patient access to health care resources and describes community members' and health care providers' perceptions of pressing health concerns in their area. The results of this research show the types of health care resources in the county, the similarities and differences between health providers' and community members' perceptions, and how the unique characteristics of this community influence health care access and health disparity.

Working From Within: Observations Of Non-Governmental Efforts To Decrease Social Marginalization In Buenos Aires, Elisabeth Tilstra

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

This essay is a modification of an excerpt from the senior thesis written for the Chancellor’s Honors Program at The University of Tennessee. The complete project—titled “Bringing the Outside In: An Examination of Non-Governmental Aid Organizations in Buenos Aires”—first examines the political and economic history of Argentina as a context from which to understand the current stage of actors in the social sector. Then, drawing from my fieldwork in the slums surrounding urban Buenos Aires, it introduces the twelve organizations I studied that work with issues of poverty and development, exploring organizational elements that aid or limit a nonprofit’s efficacy. …

African Irregular Migrants In Malta: Exploring Perceptions And Renegotiating The Socio-Cultural Siege Of Malta, Hannah E. Durick

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

This paper discusses the influx of African irregular migrants seeking asylum in Malta and how their arrival and growing presence in Malta is perceived by the Maltese. Since becoming an EU Member State in 2004 Malta has been overwhelmed by the number of irregular migrants arriving on its shores while en route to continental Europe. Due to its proximity to the North African coastline Malta becomes a frequent, albeit unintentional, destination for African migrants who are rescued in Maltese waters and subsequently placed in a closed detention facility until their legal status is determined in a court of law. Although …

Women's Mobilization In Latin America: A Case Study Of Venezuela, Brianna Russell

Master's Theses

Abstract

I examine the following elements in regards to women’s mobilization in Latin America and Venezuela from the late 1950s to the present: (a) the influence of the state and economy on times when women mobilized (b) class division within the movement (c) women’s demands during different time periods (d) the ways in which women were successful in working towards gender equality. This thesis reviews the literature on women’s mobilization in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century. I find that women mobilized across class lines with the masses to end dictatorships. Women demobilized during transitions to …

Religious Groups And The Freshman Experience, Tess Culton

ISU Ethnography of the University Initiative

This study examined the benefits provided to first-year students by religious based organizations on university campuses, with an emphasis on the campus of Illinois State University. It also looked at the relationship between the university and these groups. Individuals involved with these groups, both freshmen and adults affiliated, were interviewed. There was also a great deal of observation of group meetings and discussion with university representatives.

Hunger In America, Kamay Tu

Anthropology 100: Feast and Famine In a Global World Poster Assignment

Hunger in America is becoming more and more an issue. Although the advance from hunting and gathering to farming and agriculture should solve this issue, it hasn't. The question is why?

Life Cafe: Food Conservation And Health, Michelle Panko

Anthropology 100: Feast and Famine In a Global World Poster Assignment

Challenges of Health and Conservation in Las Vegas

• Las Vegas is a very large and busy city, with locals operating on a very hectic agenda often times resulting with a need for instant gratification.
• Because of this, many food industries in Las Vegas tend to distribute unhealthy foods in large Quantities.
• According to the Springs preserve NV blog, Las wastes produces 9,000 tons of trash a day.

Modernization, Sexual Risk-Taking, And Gynecological Morbidity Among Bolivian Forager-Horticulturalists, Jonathan Stieglitz, Aaron D. Blackwell, Raúl Quispe Gutierrez, Edhitt Cortez Linares, Michael Gurven, Hillard Kaplan

ESI Publications

Sexual risk-taking and reproductive morbidity are common among rapidly modernizing populations with little material wealth, limited schooling, minimal access to modern contraception and healthcare, and gendered inequalities in resource access that limit female autonomy in cohabiting relationships. Few studies have examined how modernization influences sexual risk-taking and reproductive health early in demographic transition. Tsimane are a natural fertility population of Bolivian forager-farmers; they are not urbanized, reside in small-scale villages, and lack public health infrastructure. We test whether modernization is associated with greater sexual risk-taking, report prevalence of gynecological morbidity (GM), and test whether modernization, sexual risk-taking and parity are …

Why Chinese Neo-Confucian Women Made A Fetish Of Small Feet, Aubrey L. Mcmahan

Grand Valley Journal of History

Abstract for “Why Chinese Neo-Confucian Women Made a Fetish of Small Feet”

This paper explores the source of the traditional practice of Chinese footbinding which first gained popularity at the end of the Tang dynasty and continued to flourish until the last half of the twentieth century.[1] Derived initially from court concubines whose feet were formed to represent an attractive “deer lady” from an Indian tale, footbinding became a wide-spread symbol among the Chinese of obedience, pecuniary reputability, and Confucianism, among other things.[2]^,[3] Drawing on the analyses of such scholars as Beverly Jackson, Valerie Steele …

Subsistence In The Shrinking Forest: Native And Euro-American Practice In 19th-Century Connecticut, William A. Farley

Graduate Masters Theses

Southeastern Connecticut in the 19th century represented a setting in which Native Americans living on reservations were residing in close proximity to Euro-American communities. The Mashantucket Pequot, an indigenous group who in the 19th century resided on a state-overseen reservation, and their Euro-American neighbors both utilized local and regional resources in order to achieve their subsistence goals. This thesis seeks to explore the differences and similarities of the subsistence practices employed by these two groups. It further seeks to examine the centrality of forest landscapes to both Mashantucket and Euro-American subsistence, and to interpret the importance of the reservation to …

A Comprehensive Study Of Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, And Comparison, Per Maximilian Gasseholm

Social Sciences

Today complimentary medicine is being increasingly sought out. Ayurveda and TCM, are among the oldest systems of medicine and have been developed for over thousands of years in India and China respectively. This paper details the philosophies, medical theories, anatomy, diagnosis, and treatments of both of these systems, including a comparison. Both of these modalities of healing operate with a microcosm – macrocosm paradigm. This makes them fundamentally similar, and compatible with each other. Ayurveda uses Tridoshic theory to apply treatments ranging from diet, massage, meditation, yoga among other therapies to bring Vata, Pitta, and Kapha into balance. TCM is …

Cross-Cultural Cannibalism Throughout Human History, Melissa Cochran

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

"She Of Gentle Manners": An Examination Of The Widow Pomeroy's Table And Tea Wares And The Emerging Domestic Sphere In Kinderhook, New York, Megan E. Sullivan

Graduate Masters Theses

Following the American Revolution, the new gender ideologies of Republican Motherhood and the Cult of Domesticity gained in popularity that associated men with the public sphere and relegated women to the private domestic sphere. Women were now tasked with the important job of raising the future citizens of the fledgling Republic. The quality of family and home life took on extra importance, and the elaboration of meals and the ceramics used in these rituals changed accordingly. This thesis analyzes the table and tea wares from an archaeological assemblage located in upstate New York that dates to the turn of the …

Urbanism In The Northern Levant During The 4th Millennium Bce, Rasha El-Endari

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The development of urbanism in the Near East during the 4thmillennium BCE has been an important debate for decades and with recent scientific findings, a revival of this intellectual discussion has come about. Many archaeologists suggested that urban societies first emerged in southern Mesopotamia, and then expanded to the north and northwest. With recent excavations in northern Mesopotamia, significant evidence has come to light with the finding of monumental architecture and city walls dated to the beginning of the 4th millennium BCE, well before southern Mesopotamian urban expansion. These discoveries reflect important administrative systems and stratified sociopolitical structures within these …

Transgressing Sexuality: An Interdisciplinary Study Of Economic History, Anthropology, And Queer Theory, Jason Gary Damron

Dissertations and Theses

This interdisciplinary thesis examines the concept of sexuality through lenses provided by economic history, anthropology, and queer theory. A close reading reveals historical parallels from the late 1800s between concepts of a desiring, utility-maximizing economic subject on the one hand, and a desiring, carnally decisive sexological subject on the other. Social constructionists have persuasively argued that social and economic elites deploy the discourse of sexuality as a technique of discipline and social control in class- and gender-based struggles. Although prior scholarship discusses how contemporary ideas of sexuality reflect this origin, many anthropologists and queer theorists continue to use "sexuality" uncritically …

How Do Latino Groups Fare In A Changing Economy? Occupation In Latino Groups In The Greater New York City Area, 1980-2009, Stephen Ruszczyk

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

Introduction: This study examines demographic and socioeconomic factors of racial/ethnic groups in New York City between 1980 and 2009 – particularly the Latino population.

Methods: Data on Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, reorganized for public use by the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, IPUMSusa. Cases in the dataset were weighted and analyzed to produce population estimates.

Results: Trends from 1990 continued in 2000, with numbers of Puerto Ricans in production dropping to only 14% of that group. More than a fifth of Puerto Ricans worked in management and professional …

University Scholar Series: Jan English-Lueck, Jan English-Lueck

University Scholar Series

Unique and Medically Diverse Health Culture in the Silicon Valley

On October 24, 2012 Dr. Jan English-Lueck spoke in the University Scholar Series hosted by Provost Ellen Junn at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Dr. Jan English-Lueck is the associate dean of the College of Social Sciences and a distinguished anthropologist. She has written ethnographies detailing the lives of California's alternative healers and China's scientists. She is also the author of several books on Silicon Valley that explore how working in Silicon Valley shapes our communities, families, and bodies.

Babette's Feast And The Goodness Of God, Thomas J. Curry

Journal of Religion & Film

This article attempts to answer the preeminent question Babette’s Feast invites viewers to consider: Why does Babette choose to expend everything she has to make her feast? Of the critical studies made of the film, few have considered analytically crucial the catastrophic backstory of Babette, the violence of which is implied and offscreen. Appreciation of the singularity of Babette’s own personhood and the darker aspects of her experience, and not only how she might act as a figure of Christ, are key to understanding the motivating force behind her meal and its transformative effect: That through the feast Babette lays …