Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Anthropological Research (anthropological + research)
Selected AbstractsBridging Psychiatric and Anthropological Approaches: The Case of "Nerves" in the United StatesETHOS, Issue 3 2009Britt Dahlberg Psychiatrists and anthropologists have taken distinct analytic approaches when confronted with differences between emic and etic models for distress: psychiatrists have translated folk models into diagnostic categories whereas anthropologists have emphasized culture-specific meanings of illness. The rift between psychiatric and anthropological research keeps "individual disease" and "culture" disconnected and thus hinders the study of interrelationships between mental health and culture. In this article we bridge psychiatric and anthropological approaches by using cultural models to explore the experience of nerves among 27 older primary care patients from Baltimore, Maryland. We suggest that cultural models of distress arise in response to personal experiences, and in turn, shape those experiences. Shifting research from a focus on comparing content of emic and etic concepts, to examining how these social realities and concepts are coconstructed, may resolve epistemological and ontological debates surrounding differences between emic and etic concepts, and improve understanding of the interrelationships between culture and health. ["nerves," cultural models, metaphor, psychiatry, embodiment] [source] Lingual cortical mandibular defects (Stafne's defect): an anthropological approach based on prehistoric skeletons from the Canary IslandsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2002John R. Lukacs Abstract While posterior lingual mandibular depressions (Stafne's defect) are often discussed in clinical reports, they are rarely the subject of anthropological research. This situation is paradoxical since osteologists and skeletal biologists are in a position to enhance understanding of the trait's aetiology by systematically recording the trait in recent and prehistoric skeletal collections. This report reviews anthropological studies of cortical defects of the mandible, recommends a protocol for recording observations in trait variation, and presents new data for the prevalence of Stafne's defect,lingual cortical defects of the mandibular corpus. Among the Guanches of Tenerife in the Canary Islands (Spain), the prevalence of lingual cortical defects is 3.32% (15/452), males are more frequently affected than females, and there is a tendency for individuals with antemortem tooth loss to display larger lesions than individuals without antemortem loss of teeth. Defects of the left side are somewhat more variable in position than defects located on the right. In comparative perspective, prevalence of lingual cortical defects among the Guanches is high, given the overall 1.07% prevalence reported for archaeological series (Finnegan & Marcsik,1980), but is similar to figures reported for the Avar period sample from Hungary 3.73%. Prospects for the use of lingual cortical defects as non-metric traits of value in population distance studies remain uncertain since variation in trait expression may have a high environmental component. However, if human osteologists routinely include observations of lingual mandibular cortical defects in their analysis of skeletal collections, the data required to elucidate factors responsible for the trait's cultural, ecological, temporal and geographical patterning will more rapidly become established. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Gender and Migration in the Central Valleys of OaxacaINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 1 2008Jeffrey H. Cohen In this paper, we examine the gendered nature of international and internal migration that originates in the central valleys of Oaxaca, Mexico. Our goals are to define migration patterns and outcomes for Oaxacan women from the central valleys region and note the differences that mark migrant men and women. We use ethnographic data from anthropological research in 12 of Oaxaca's central valley communities to argue that local concepts of what defines correct behaviour (for both men and women) are critical to the outcomes and the differences that exist in the practices of migrant men and women. Dans cette étude, nous examinons le caractère sexospécifique de la migration interne et internationale prenant sa source dans les vallées centrales d'Oaxaca au Mexique. Nous nous efforçons de définir les schémas migratoires et ce qui en résulte pour les femmes originaires de la région des vallées centrales d'Oaxaca, en notant les différences entre les migrants hommes et femmes. A cet effet, nous utilisons des données ethnographiques recueillies dans le cadre de recherches anthropologiques menées dans douze communautés des vallées centrales d'Oaxaca, et en tirons la conclusion que les concepts locaux de comportement correct (à la fois pour les hommes et pour les femmes) revêtent une importance fondamentale dans l'appréciation des différences existant entre les pratiques des migrants et des migrantes. En este articulo, se examinan las cuestiones de genero en la migración internacional e interna que se originan en los valles centrales de Oaxaca, México. Ello con el objeto de definir los patrones migratorios y los resultados de los mismos para las mujeres de Oaxaca provenientes de los valles centrales y observar las diferencias existentes entre las mujeres y hombres migrantes. En ese quehacer utilizamos datos etnográficos provenientes de un estudio antropológico efectuado en doce comunidades del valle central de Oaxaca para argumentar que los conceptos locales de lo que ha de definir un comportamiento correcto (tanto como para los hombres como las mujeres) son fundamentales de cara a los resultados y diferencias que existen en las practicas de hombres y mujeres migrantes. [source] Struggling To Be Happy , Even When I'm OldJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2002Margaret Gullan-Whur My thesis seeks to reduce what may be a natural human antipathy to ageing and/or the elderly by working with one distinctive and consistently approved feature of some older people. This feature is a bold and cheerful struggle within a self-chosen project. The argument opens by distinguishing short-term gratification from lasting, fulfilling happiness, and showing the link between gratification and dependence. Three kinds of struggle (non-voluntary, part-voluntary and positive) are then outlined and exemplified. Gerontological and anthropological research suggest that attitudes to struggle are fixed early in life, and while in the past they mitigated for or against successful survival, they now influence happiness and coping in later life. I argue that the negative effects of the first two kinds of struggle - which are often misguided, grudging or ,no-win' struggles - are responsible for the rigidity, narcissism and resentment disliked in some older people. Self-respect, contrasted with self-righteousness, is shown to accrue only from the positive (voluntary and congenial) struggle that seems at any age to deflect or compensate for depression, disappointment, loneliness and illness. [source] Race, Ethnicity, and Racism in Medical Anthropology, 1977,2002MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2008Clarence C. Gravlee Researchers across the health sciences are engaged in a vigorous debate over the role that the concepts of "race" and "ethnicity" play in health research and clinical practice. Here we contribute to that debate by examining how the concepts of race, ethnicity, and racism are used in medical,anthropological research. We present a content analysis of Medical Anthropology and Medical Anthropology Quarterly, based on a systematic random sample of empirical research articles (n =283) published in these journals from 1977 to 2002. We identify both differences and similarities in the use of race, ethnicity, and racism concepts in medical anthropology and neighboring disciplines, and we offer recommendations for ways that medical anthropologists can contribute to the broader debate over racial and ethnic inequalities in health. [source] Practicing Anthropology in a Time of Crisis: 2009 Year in ReviewAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 2 2010Keri Vacanti Brondo ABSTRACT, The breadth and reach of practicing anthropologists in 2009 suggests that anthropology has entered a new phase of advanced engagement at local, national, and international levels. In this article, I review thematic areas in which practicing anthropologists made significant contributions in 2009, including fiscal crisis and business anthropology; U.S. race relations, civil rights, and policy reforms; human rights, environmental change, and displacement; global health and human rights; and war and peace. New areas of expansion are also discussed in the arenas of public archaeology, museums and heritage, and engaged scholarship. Innovations in anthropological research and communicating ethnographic findings with the broader public are reviewed. [source] Cultural Models and Fertility Timing among Cherokee and White Youth in Appalachia: Beyond the ModeAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 4 2009Ryan A. Brown ABSTRACT Much anthropological research and theory concerns how group differences in behavior, subjective experience, and ways of seeing the world (i.e., cultural differences) are created and maintained. Both within and outside the United States, there are dramatic group differences in fertility. In the United States, American Indian groups exhibit some of the highest and earliest fertility. We used ethnographic data as well as structured card-sort and questionnaire data to compare cultural models of childbearing among Cherokee and white youth in Appalachia. The critical difference between Cherokee and white youth was not a modal difference in ideal ages for first childbirth but, rather, the degree of latitude for the timing of having children vis-à-vis other major life events. Group differences in modal norms are often posited as the critical axis of group distinction. In many cases, group differences in the intrapopulation variability among multiple norms may play a more critical role. [source] Anthropology in the Public Sphere, 2008: Emerging Trends and Significant ImpactsAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 2 2009Melissa Checker ABSTRACT The themes, trends, and significant events of 2008 demonstrate that anthropology has established a new foothold in the public sphere,one that makes the most of novel forms of communication to reach far beyond the ivory tower to disseminate knowledge widely and freely. This review focuses on six topical areas of robust anthropological research in 2008 that also addressed some of the year's most pressing problems and issues, including the following: (1) war and peace; (2) climate change; (3) natural, industrial, and development-induced disaster recovery; (4) human rights; (5) health disparities; and (6) racial understanding, politics, and equity in the United States. It concludes by addressing some emerging issues in 2009 that especially require anthropological attention and insight, if we are to move beyond "business as usual."[Keywords: practicing anthropology, public anthropology, 2009 trends, anthropological impacts] [source] Introduction to "The Impact of the Hurricanes of 2005 on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of the United States"AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 4 2006J. ANTHONY PAREDES In this introduction, I briefly compare anthropological notice of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 to that of the more powerful Hurricane Camille in 1969 and note pertinent developments in the intervening 36 years, especially the emergence of an anthropological specialty in the study of natural disasters. An overview of the collection follows with comments on particular strengths of each article and suggestions for some of their wider implications for research and public policy. I conclude with a consideration of possible avenues for further anthropological research on hurricanes in general and questions on recovery from Katrina, Rita, and ensuing floods specifically, thus providing a wide-angle perspective on this "In Focus" endeavor,impacts of hurricanes, disaster anthropology, and both short-term and long-term culture change. [source] The Islam of anthropologyTHE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Christopher Houston Research on ,Muslim societies' is a controversial topic in the present, particularly given the US army's current employment of anthropological experts in war zones under military occupation. In 2006 the UK Foreign Office, too, sought to include anthropologists in its worldwide research project entitled ,Combating Terrorism by Countering Radicalization', with grants given outside the normal process of research funding and differently assessed. In this article, I immodestly argue for how the discipline of anthropology should apprehend and analyse Islam in the present political context. The paper claims that anthropological research provides an antidote to the Islamophobia of much talk about Islam in the Australian public sphere, an Islamophobia originating not only from the right but from some leftists and feminists as well. [source] The origins, early development and status of Bourdieu's concept of ,cultural capital'THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2005Derek Robbins Abstract The paper examines the context of the first introduction of the concept of ,cultural capital' in the sociology of education analyses undertaken in the early 1960s and published by Bourdieu in collaboration with Jean-Claude Passeron in ,Les étudiants et leurs études' (1964a) and Les Héritiers (1964b). It first considers the cultural contexts within which Bourdieu's thinking about culture originated , both in relation to his social origins and in relation to his intellectual training. It then examines the extent to which Bourdieu's early anthropological research in Algeria was influenced by his knowledge of American acculturation theory. It concludes that Bourdieu sought to use acculturation theory in a distinctive way , one which he articulated more confidently as he explored the relationship between agency and structural explanation in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The specific educational researches which stimulated the articulation of the concept of ,linguistic' or ,cultural' capital belonged to the period in which Bourdieu was only just beginning to refine his post-structuralist philosophy of social scientific explanation. To use these concepts now involves deploying them reflexively in accordance with Bourdieu's later thinking rather than at face value as they were first developed during the period in which he and Passeron were ,apprentice' researchers. [source] ECONOMIC RESTRUCTURING AND URBAN FOOD ACCESS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLICANNALS OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL PRACTICE, Issue 1 2009Howard Rosing The article describes how economic restructuring in the Dominican Republic during the 1980s and 1990s established the basis for urban food access challenges during the 2000s. Primarily based on research in Santiago, the second largest Dominican city, the article provides insights into how export-oriented development strategies, expanding trade liberalization, domestic political struggles, and patriarchal relations influenced access to food for low-income residents. During the early 2000s, many Santiago residents were engaged in an elaborate, androcentric exchange network that linked gendered income-generating strategies to credit-bearing food merchants who were, in turn, conjoined to a sequence of brokers all of whom were eventually linked to domestic and international producers by credit relations. Analysis of these findings illustrates how and why this exchange network existed, the importance of credit relations to its maintenance, and the ways in which government and U.S. food policies influenced urban provisioning patterns among the most economically and socially vulnerable population of Santiago. I argue that the rapidly changing social and spatial configurations of Latin American and Caribbean cities calls for innovative applied anthropological research into the processes that structure access to food resources by food insecure groups. By focusing on household food procurement in conjunction with exchange relations for a key staple, the article highlights practices and policies that enable and constrain food access for such groups. The article provides empirical data relevant to scholars and practitioners concerned with understanding the structural origins of the present-day food crisis in developing countries. [source] Facing Risk: Levinas, Ethnography, and EthicsANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS, Issue 2 2007Peter Benson This article examines methodological and ethical issues of ethnographic research through the lens of Emmanuel Levinas's philosophy. Levinas is relevant to a critical analysis of ethnographic methods because his philosophy turns on the problematic relationship between self and other, among other important problems that define and guide contemporary anthropological research, including questions of responsibility, justice, and solidarity. This article utilizes Levinas's philosophy to outline a phenomenology of the "doing" of fieldwork, emphasizing the contingency of face-to-face encounters over controlled research design. This account provides a basis for going beyond the polarized opposition between objective and subjective ethnographic approaches. Levinas allows for an ethically informed ethnography premised upon an acknowledgement of risk and uncertainity over researcher control or reflexivity. Providing a handful of concrete examples, the article argues that critical self-reflection about the fundamental face-to-face dimension of fieldwork is central to ethnography's ethical possibilities. [source] Experience, Coherence, and Culture: The Significance of Dilthey's 'Descriptive Psychology' for the Anthropology of ConsciousnessANTHROPOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS, Issue 1 2002C. Jason Throop This paper explores Dilthey's "descriptive psychology "and its significance for the anthropology of consciousness. To do justice to the complexities of Dilthey's project a significant portion of the paper is devoted to an exposition of the basic tenets of his"descriptive psychology." Most notably, his views on"experience,""aconsciousness,""introspection,"and"objectified mind"are discussed before turning to examine his concept of the"acquired psychicnexus." After outlining these basic tenets the paper turns to explore how Dilthey's "descriptive psychology"can serve to shed light on current anthropological research on the experience of pain. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of the contemporary relevance of Dilthey's project as it explores how his ideas may further inform current theoretical perspectives in anthropology about the relationship between consciousness, culture, and experience. [source] Front and Back Covers, Volume 26, Number 5.ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 5 2010October 2010 Front and back cover caption, volume 26 issue 5 Front cover RETHINKING SUICIDE BOMBING The body is a key focus for anthropological research and analysis. The cover photographs highlight the way multiple aspects of life, including political life, are mapped onto the body, and the emergence of a collective, as well as individual, identity through these experiences. The front cover shows a young Palestinian boy staring at an Israeli guard's gun, inches from his face, while waiting at the Abu Dis checkpoint in East Jerusalem. Although the scene is calm, the photograph captures an implicit violence (any step out of line can and will be punished) and reveals the daily reality of political and structural violence in the lives of Palestinians. In this image, the child can be seen as an individual who may experience personal trauma as a result of these daily encounters with violence. But he can also be seen as representing a collective Palestinian body which, under the occupation, is humiliated and forced into a childlike position, with daily decisions, including over movement, entirely in the control of Israeli forces. In her article in this issue, Natalia Linos calls on anthropology to offer a critical analysis of suicide bombing and examine the central role of the body in this act. She posits that in a context of political and structural violence that encroaches on both individual and group identity, suicide attacks may be considered an extreme form of reclaiming the violated body through self-directed violence. Through suicide attacks in public spaces, the body may be used to contest physical barriers imposed by an oppressor, resist power imbalances, and reclaim authority over one's body as well as geographical space. Back cover ASSEMBLING BODIES The back cover shows a South African ,body map', on display at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) until 6 November 2010 as part of the exhibition ,Assembling bodies: Art, science and imagination', reviewed in this issue. This self-portrait by Babalwa depicts her life as an activist and epitomizes the ethical and political negotiations that surround definition and treatment of particular bodies in contemporary South Africa. Babalwa was a member of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), which successfully campaigned for the widespread availability of antiretroviral treatment therapies. Her self-portrait is one of a series of life-sized body maps made by members of the Bambanani Womens Group in 2003, as part of a project documenting the lives of women with HIV/AIDS. The body maps and associated narratives trace the co-existence of multiple ways of understanding and experiencing bodies and disease in these women's lives. The imagery , referring to family and friends, political life, biomedical science, anatomical details, moral pollution and religious beliefs , suggests many bodies existing within a single corporeal form. In addition to revealing individual subjectivities, the body maps also highlight the shifting dynamics of sociality. Behind each self-portrait is the outline of another shadowy form, a reminder of the help received and the potential for future support. [source] Covers, volume 25, Number 6, 2009ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 6 2009Article first published online: 26 NOV 200 Front and back cover caption, volume 25 issue 6 ANTHROPOLOGY IN CHINA In China the history of anthropology is tightly linked to the discovery and documentation of ethnic diversity within the state. The 16th Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences was held in China in summer 2009 in the southwestern state of Yunnan, where this diversity is most pronounced. Participants were encouraged to visit model communities, enjoy music and dance performances by the minorities, and admire their colourful costumes, as in this picture, which shows how VIP guests were welcomed to the closing ceremony of the Congress. Yet just a few weeks earlier, at the other end of the country in Xinjiang, almost 200 people were killed in the worst ethnic rioting since Liberation 60 years ago. While most economic and educational indicators suggest that socialist ethnic policies have been an impressive success, evidently not all is harmonious. Especially among Tibetans and Uyghurs, policies of recognition and the emphasis on a territorial homeland have fostered aspirations which cannot be satisfied by stepping up support for folklore and building ever larger ethnic museums and theme parks. In these regions, the evidence which power holders present as proof of progress and integration, and even as the accomplishment of an ancient civilizing mission, is interpreted locally in terms of assimilation. These tensions constrain the possibilities for anthropological research, for Chinese and foreign scholars alike. In his contribution to this issue, Chris Hann juxtaposes his impressions of the Congress in Kunming with his experiences of rural fieldwork among the Uyghurs of Xinjiang. [source] Front and Back Covers, Volume 24, Number 4.ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 4 2008August 200 Front cover and back cover caption, volume 24 issue 4 Front cover Front cover: Front cover The front cover of this issue illustrates Vasiliki P. Neofotistos' article on the 2006 film Borat: Cultural learnings of America for make benefit glorious nation of Kazakhstan. In the film, British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen plays Borat Sagdiyev, a Kazakh journalist, who leaves his country on a project funded by the Ministry of Information to travel with his film producer to ,US and A, the greatest country in the world' and make a ,movie film' about American culture, with the putative aim of gaining insights into what makes America great and applying them to Kazakhstan. The film has generated contrasting reactions, ranging from CNN's praise of it as ,most excellent comedy' to lawsuits filed by, among others, residents of the Romanian village in which part of the film was shot. Borat has been condemned as deeply offensive to women, Kazakhs, fraternity brothers and Jews alike. In this issue Neofotistos focuses on some of the lessons that Western audiences could potentially take away from the film, using the notion of the grotesque as a tool to read Borat as an allegory of America that invites us to revisit aspects of our own culture and hence as a highly appropriate film for our times. Back cover Back cover: ,FORTRESS' SOUTH AFRICA? A South African and a foreigner find common ground in Islam. The two men are about to enter a mosque in downtown Pretoria for Friday prayers. Prayers at this mosque provide a meeting ground for Muslim men and women from all over Africa, and from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Foreigners attending the mosque range from diplomats to illegal immigrants. Significant numbers of black South Africans from all walks of life have converted to Islam in recent years. In this issue John Sharp shows that there are many circumstances in which - as in this photograph - South Africans and foreigners from elsewhere in Africa pursue shared interests peacefully. Anthropological field research points to the range of these contexts, which have largely been ignored by commentators attempting to explain the episode of mass ,xenophobic' violence that wracked South African cities and towns in May 2008. Explanations focus on the xenophobic attitudes of ordinary South Africans, and link these attitudes to competition for resources between locals who are poor and their equally poor counterparts from further north. Recent research indicates, however, not only that relationships between poor South Africans and poor foreigners are more complex than most commentators allow, but also that South African xenophobia begins at the top, among the leaders of the ANC government and the black and white elites whose interests it serves. Sharp argues that a newly-issued report on the xenophobic violence by a government-orientated think tank reproduces the dominant xenophobic discourse in its recommendation that the state should construct a ,Fortress SA' with impenetrable borders, while seeking to mask its adherence to official discourse by representing its proposals as a response to the xenophobic attitudes of poor South Africans. As Sharp suggests, anthropological research might offer a more nuanced response to the issues. [source] The "ANRC has Withdrawn its Offer": Paul Kirchhoff, Academic Freedom and the Australian Academic Establishment,AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 3 2006Geoffrey Gray The main focus of examinations of intellectual suppression and censorship of scholars and academics in Australia has been on the post-1945 period, particularly the Cold War. The interwar years have, in comparison, received little attention, resulting in a lack of historical understanding of the development of censorious structures and traditions in Australia. In this paper I discuss the exclusion of Paul Kirchhoff, a German anthropologist, a member of the German Communist Party and a Jew, from undertaking anthropological research in Australia, including its external territories, between 1931 and 1932. Kirchhoff applied for a research grant from the Australian National Research Council (ANRC) which, although awarded, was withdrawn once the Executive Committee was informed by the Australian government that the British MI5 considered him a security risk. His membership of the Communist Party was the reason put forward. This case also underlines the transnational aspect of security services and the international reach of academic anthropology. Kirchhoff was a victim of the ANRC's sympathetic collaboration with the Commonwealth Attorney-General's office to stifle academic and civil freedom. [source] | ||||||||||