Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons^™

Attentional Blindness Of The Clinical Gaze, Lily Anderson-Chavarria

Clinical Research in Practice: The Journal of Team Hippocrates

This article presents the case of Mr. C, a patient who received over 65 imaging tests without any pathology ever being found. The case is well-explained by a social science concept known as the clinical gaze, a socio-cognitive process of assigning pathological explanations to diseased bodies. This article provides some historical context for the concept and applies it to the case of Mr. C. When viewed through a social science lens, the excess imaging underwent by Mr. C transforms from something seemingly irrational to an almost inevitable outcome of the modern medical diagnostic process.

Journeys Of Emancipation, Struggle, Or Both? Accounts From Professional Egyptian Migrant Women In Germany, Adam Eddouss

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the migration experiences of a group of professional Egyptian migrant women living in Germany. By employing a qualitative approach, primarily through semi-structured interviews, and guided by migration literature, this research attempts to move away from the oversimplistic approach that migration is an ‘either or’ reality. Mainstream migration scholarship, specifically that focusing on migrant women, tends to focus on depicting migration within an emancipation-struggle binary, presenting migrant women either as victims or as heroines. This work, antithetically, describes how migrant women experiences can be complex, highlighting, both instances of strength and struggle. Grounded in the words of the …

Groove Goes The Distance: An Initial Inquiry Into Jazz Music In Egypt, Farida Gohar

Theses and Dissertations

Jazz music has been a historically contentious site of social, cultural, and political signification. From the violent subjugation that characterized its origins and aspirational freedom that animated its practice, to its transformation into a distinctly “American” music instrumentalized by the US State Department to counter Soviet influence, jazz’s capacity for the inscription of meaning is vast and regularly cause for debate. The particular configuration of jazz music in Egypt is no less complicated although seldom studied. This thesis ventures an initial mapping of the dynamics and negotiations that historically defined the initiation of “Egyptian” jazz, as well as the ones …

An Ethnographic Exploration Of The Lived Experiences With Gynecologic Cancers, Norma Naser Aldeen

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This thesis stays close to conversations with nine women who spoke about living with and through gynecologic cancers, from moments of finding out, through treatment, and into what follows. These encounters unfolded primarily through digitally mediated exchanges across Baalbek, Beirut, and other translocal settings shaped by distance and movement. Rather than approaching illness as a bounded biomedical event, this thesis attends to how gynecologic cancer is narrated as something that lingers—pressing into everyday life through bodily sensations, altered rhythms, and ongoing recalibrations of care, responsibility, and what remains possible.

Across these encounters, care rarely appears as a stable system …

A Matter Of Detail: An Interview With Andrew Brandel, Sandra Laugier, And Perig Pitrou, Andrew Brandel, Sandra Laugier, Perig Pitrou, Gloria Fall, Tomas De Oliveira, Anna Wood, Maddalena Canna

Transatlantic Forum

This interview centers on A Matter of Detail, a collaborative volume that brings anthropology and philosophy into conversation through a shared concern with the concept and practice of detailing. Structured in three movements, the discussion begins with broad, conceptual questions about the aims of the book, including its refusal of a teleological and Eurocentric history of “detail” and its proposal to approach detail not as a fixed object but as a dynamic mode of attention. The editors reflect on how detailing operates across disciplines, not as the accumulation of facts, but as a way of articulating what matters and to …

Can Palm Logs Float? Evaluating The Physical Viability Of Raft Transport For Rapa Nui Moai, Carl Philipp Lipo, Terry L. Hunt

Anthropology Datasets

Recent suggestions that palm log rafts may have transported moai statues on Rapa Nui require evaluation of whether fresh palm wood can provide sufficient buoyancy for multi-ton cargo. This analysis integrates experimental flotation tests, structural analyses of palm stem anatomy, and buoyancy calculations using modern palm analogs to reconstruct the extinct Rapa Nui palm. Fresh palm logs sink when placed in water because of their internal structure: stems consist of approximately 20% liquid by volume, contained within thousands of water-filled vascular tubes, surrounded by a thin, brittle cortex. This yields effective densities of 800-1,200 kg/m³ that approach or exceed seawater …

A Fijian Barkcloth In The May Weber Ethnographic Study Collection, Delaney M. Bahns

Department of Anthropology

This report examines an object in the May Weber Ethnographic Study Collection, a barkcloth attributed to the Fiji Islands. The report discusses the attribution, as well as the distinction of the object as Fijian masi kesa. The report discusses the techniques used to make bark cloth, as well as past studies of bark cloth in the Pacific Islands. It also examines the gendered context of masi, as well as the issue of cultural intellectual property in recent uses of masi motifs for commercial purposes.

Research Journal 2026: People And Places, José A. Rivera Ph.D

Faculty Publications

José Rivera narrates his life history from adolescence into college years, university teaching, research career, publications, and ends with post-retirement service as a giving back to community. For most of his term as an academic, his research focus was on community-based organizations that he terms “peoples’ institutions”: acequia associations and mutual help societies. For data, he conducted field work in New Mexico and the American Southwest as well as internationally, primarily in Mexico, Peru, Spain and the Philippines. While at these locations, he interviewed people, collected maps, researched archives, and took photographs as ethnographic evidence of people and places. His …

Corrigendum To “Decolonizing Knowledge As Epistemic Justice: Key Conceptual Tendencies From The Global South” [Tanzania Journal Of Sociology, Vol. 11, Issue No.2, December 2025: 113 - 128], Richard Sambaiga

Tanzania Journal of Sociology

This article registers corrections done to a reference section of "Decolonizing Knowledge as Epistemic Justice: Key Conceptual Tendencies from the Global South” [Tanzania Journal of Sociology, Vol. 11, Issue No.2, December 2025: 113 - 128]

Penggunaan Teknologi Tradisional Bubu Pada Masyarakat Nelayan Di Desa Oemongkong Kecamatan Jerowaru Kabupaten Lombok Timur, Aidal Adi Surya As

Multikultura

This study examines a traditional maritime technology in the form of a fish trap known as bubu, which is used by fishing communities in Pemongkong Village, East Lombok, to catch blue swimming crabs (Portunus pelagicus). The focus of the discussion is on the design of the bubu and the methods of its use by local fishermen in Pemongkong Village. The research was conducted using a literature review method, with data sources derived from various written references and scientific publications. The results indicate that the use of bubu by these fishermen is more economically beneficial and environmentally friendly. …

The Effect Of The Socioeconomic Variety In Greater Cairo On Transport Mode Choices, Rafik Yanni

Theses and Dissertations

In the last decade, Egypt has experienced a noticeable upgrade in its infrastructure investment, implementing a lot of transport projects, especially in the Greater Cairo region. In a city with over 20 million residents, variations lie in socioeconomic elements like income, age, gender, and neighborhood, which shape people’s choice of mobility modes based on their culture and lifestyle. The questions then become: whom are these new projects targeting? What are the barriers to using these services? And is there any willingness to change commuting habits if conditions changed? This thesis investigates how the socioeconomic variety in Greater Cairo metropolitan region …

Inventing New Pilgrimage And Religious Tourism In Lombok, Indonesia, Ujang Mahadi, Moch. Khafidz Fuad Raya, Aibdi Rahmat, Jonsi Hunadar, Rindom Harahap

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In the contemporary Muslim world, especially in Indonesia, the boom in religious tourism is increasingly widespread after the discovery of the grave sites of saints (wali) or people who are considered holy. More than that, pilgrimage is increasingly popular when these sites display natural views and multifaceted aspects, thereby adding to the intimacy of Islamic meditation and veneration rituals. This article focuses on five holy tombs in Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara), considered tombs of Muslim saints. Using ethnography with observational techniques and unstructured interviews, we explore the construction of veneration and the marketing efforts of pilgrimages to the …

Conceptualising Sacred Grove Tourism For Future Research Models - A Research Note, Debasish Batabyal, Rupa Sinha Dr., Kareem M. Selem Dr.

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Sacred groves or woodlands are known in tourism settings, they require a long historical process, and their classification as a unique tourism element is expanded in academic literature. To explore the characteristic features of sacred grove tourism, this research note reviews existing studies of tourism. Moreover, this research note seeks to uncover interesting socio-religious, cultural, and conservation dimensions that could guide policy-making in nature-based tourism. A comprehensive review of the tourism literature was conducted to determine whether sacred groves were included as a tourism feature. This research analysed previous studies on nature-based, religious, and cultural heritage tourism to formulate a …

Queer Of Color Critique And The Politics Of Epistemic Agency: Rural Educators Desettling Curricular Expectations, C.A. Langerud, Madelaine Adelman, Daniel D. Liou

Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education

The purpose of this research is to use queer of color critique (QOCC) as an analytical framework to explore rural K-12 educators’ epistemic agency. The research focuses on educators’ engagement with a national initiative by an advocacy organization to distribute LGBTQ+ and racially diverse books to K-12 schools. The analysis centers on the educators’ praxis of epistemic agency against settled expectations associated with including queer and trans People of Color’s (QTPOC’s) stories in their schools. Our findings on educators’ epistemic agency center on three areas of knowledge and activity. First, educators demonstrate their ability to be aware of their local …

Review: Mountains Of Blame: Climate And Culpability In The Philippine Uplands., David Gowey

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

No abstract provided.

Airbnb And The End Of The Local, Nadia Beyersdorf

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how second-home ownership and self-catered tourism reshape community life in Tenby, Wales. While gentrification research often focuses on permanent displacement, less attention has been given to the movement of temporary residents that erodes local culture, social ties, and transforms everyday relationships in coastal towns.

From Progressive Politics To Media Censorship: Analyzing The Trajectory Of Lgbt Rights In Taiwan And China, Sabrina Malec

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

Hosts, Scouts, And Female Indentured Sexual Servitude In Contemporary Japan, Caroline Norma, Seiya Morita

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article sweeps away glossy abstractions obscuring the indenturing of women in sexual servitude in Japan. These abstractions were generated by anthropologists writing in English in the first two decades of the 21^st century who inverted the relationship between perpetrator and victim to suggest that female customers exploited hosts. To overturn this view and expose the ‘gendered reality that [i]s really going on’ in Japan, this article differently explains from a feminist perspective how present-day host and scout businesses indenture Japanese women in sexual servitude. This role is one of both procuring victims as well as keeping young women …

Reclaiming Presence: An Anthropological Study Of Digital Disconnection And Meaning-Making, Leslie De Paz

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Human attention is increasingly at risk in an unregulated digital ecosystem where overconsumption shapes neurological function, social interaction, and the ways people make meaning of everyday life. Dominant discourse around digital overuse tends to medicalize the problem, framing it as individual addiction or clinical dysfunction. In this thesis, I argue that such framing obscures what a cultural phenomenon is fundamentally, one in which people are actively questioning their relationship with technology, building awareness, and developing practices that help them slow down and reclaim agency within algorithmically mediated environments. This study draws on 22 semi-structured interviews with Gen Z and millennial …

Entre Nos: A Three-Part Study Exploring The Experiences Of The American Association Of Hispanics In Higher Education Members, Monique Posadas

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Membership and participation in national associations or professional societies are the cornerstone of academic and career advancement in higher education. These organizations allow faculty and career professionals to connect and grow their networks. However, like other social structures, they can also reflect, reinforce, and reify exclusionary colonial, hegemonic norms. Professionalization for people of color in the academy, through formalized organizations and societies, was grossly delayed, despite the emergence of “mother societies” at the turn of the century. Academics of color took matters into their own hands to build professional networks. While associations are assumed to be academic and professionally rich …