CSAS 09 Paper Abstracts, by first author’s first name

(name- affiliation-session-title-abstract)

Aaron Stumberg and Crystal Patil, University of Northern Iowa, 3-12

Catchment Analysis of Hartman Reserve

Hartman Reserve is a 300-acre nature center and state preserve located in Black Hawk County, Iowa. An area bordering the Cedar River and rich in wildlife, Hartman Reserve had never been subjected to professional archaeological scrutiny until 2008 when the University of Northern Iowa conducted test excavations along the bluff. This effort yielded both historic and prehistoric materials and the initial analysis of the prehistoric artifacts, including ceramics and lithics, has begun to provide information to help better understand the Woodland era in northeastern Iowa, especially the role played by the reserve’s prehistoric inhabitants in regional cultural traditions. Through reconstructing the environment of the Cedar River Valley during the Woodland era we will perform catchment analysis and evaluate the resources available for utilization. Discussion will include the significance of such resources and their ability to attract inhabitants. The primary means of analysis will be performed using GIS mapping of site 13BH164 as well as the surrounding area and resource zones.

Agnes Loeffler, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, 2-10

Microscopy and the quest for diagnostic certainty: disease classification in surgical pathology

Pathology, the epistemological core of allopathic (bio-)medicine, is not an overtly social practice, and thus nearly invisible in medical anthropological literature. In medical and popular culture, however, it is perceived as the ultimate authority: the locus at which diagnostic mystery is resolved and certainty established. I will draw pathology into medical anthropological discourse by analyzing its role in medicine from a cognitive point of view. I chose this approach because pathology is centrally concerned with classification (of diseases). In accord with schema theory, diagnostic names are performative: by summarizing salient criteria, they become templates for therapeutic action. The relationship of a named object with the uses to which it is put is well theorized in the cognitive literature, however, the interpretation of the signs a name summarizes is usually not reflected upon or problematized. In this paper, I focus on three problems inherent in the interpretive acts of surgical pathology: 1) Everything seen under the microscope must be named, but in practice not everything is classifiable. How do pathologists approach diagnostic dilemmas? 2) How reproducible is a diagnosis on the same piece of tissue, i.e. how accurately can pathologists use their classificatory schemes? 3) What criteria other than microscopic appearance are considered in diagnostic interpretations? With data from the academic literature, interviews with pathologists, and my readings as a pathologist-anthropologist of diagnostic reports, I explore interpretive practice in surgical pathology, thereby engaging it with the discourse on the social creation of clinical "facts."

Alan R. Sandstrom and Pamela Effrein Sandstrom, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, 1-2

Commitment and Ethnographic Research: The Work of Fieldwork among the Huastecan Nahua in Mexico

Our ethnographic research in a single Nahua community of 600 people has extended over more than three decades. One would think that by now we must know everything about this tiny slice of humanity and yet whole new cultural vistas open with each return trip. The value of long-term field research depends on the depth of cultural information sought, and the degree to which the group is willing to collaborate. Little-noted advantages to the long-term research commitment is that it allows the ethnographers time to grow intellectually and thus produce more sophisticated analyses, and it counters the postmodernist critique that anthropologists are simply after quick and easy data to further their careers. Long-term researchers devote their lives to the people they study. One major disadvantage with this research strategy is that it is easy to lose the creative estrangement that gives cross-cultural ethnography so much of its power to elucidate sociocultural phenomena.

Alexander Markovic, University of Illinois at Chicago, 3-13

“Authenticity for Sale: Musical Performance and Romani Identity in southeastern Serbia”

Since Ottoman times Romani musicians in the Balkans have cultivated diverse musical repertoires in order to monopolize entertainment niches among all local ethnic groups. Since the 1990s, rising local unemployment, transnational migration, and global “world music” markets have impacted Romani musicians’ performances in southeastern Serbia. In this paper I argue that musicians in Vranje strategically link musical practices and local Romani identity to secure clientele and augment their earnings in response to changing opportunities and new potential audiences. In doing so, they attempt to market “authentic” Romani identity and “local” music in order to improve their economic and social status.

Alice Kehoe, Univeristy of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 2-3

“We Have Been Here for 10,000 Years”: Issues Over First Nations’ Prehistories

The Montana Blackfeet tribal website proclaims, “We Have Been Here for 10,000 Years.” As an archaeologist, I cannot endorse this claim, because the archaeological record does not include data that would identify ethnic or linguistic affiliation older than perhaps 700 years. I discuss how archaeologists working with Blackfoot nations, including one who is Blackfoot, deal with the claim.

Alison D. Goebel, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 3-11

“Mixed” Relationships in the Small City: Race, Gender, and Small City Urbanity

Long a legal and cultural taboo in the United States, interracial romantic relationships have become increasingly more visible and unremarkable within the last forty years. Yet stigmatization and resistance continues. Drawing on more than 14 months of ethnographic research in one small deindustrializing, multiracial city- Mansfield, Ohio- I examine the dominant discourses used to make sense of “mixed” relationships (the preferred local term). Using research with participants and observers of mixed relationships, I explore how white Mansfielders imagine white womanhood in heterosexual relationships and white racial “darkening” in both straight and gay/lesbian relationships. I argue that these discourses both contest and reaffirm middle class whiteness and white masculinity. I contextualize my analysis in Mansfield’s space and history and argue that the socio-spatial specificity of small cities produce racial, class, and gender projects that differ from those found in global cities.

Allan Meyers, Eckerd College, 3-17

Cultural Appropriation of Bullfighting in Rural Yucatan, Mexico

One mechanism by which indigenous cultures in Mesoamerica have persisted is appropriation, where local groups assert control over foreign customs imposed by a dominant society. This study explores cultural appropriation in the bullfighting tradition of rural Yucatan, Mexico. Spaniards imposed the well-known, if controversial, event in colonial times, and the region’s Maya-language population reinvented it to better suit their worldview. Two fundamental acts of ancient Maya creation, the setting down of the cosmic hearth and the raising of the World Tree, are acknowledged at each event. Likewise, certain key elements of the contest may be linked to a precolumbian ritual associated with prosperity and social responsibility. Unlike bullfights in Spain, those of rural Yucatan reflect a much higher social tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. They suggest remarkable cultural tenacity in the face of modern globalizing forces.

Amber R. Clifford-Napoleone, University of Central Missouri, 3-2

Crossing the Disciplinary Line: Anthropology, Cultural Studies, and the Study of "Jazz"

The paper “Crossing the Disciplinary Line” examines and challenges the disciplinary boundary between anthropology and cultural studies. Historically the relationship between anthropology and cultural studies has been contentious, and this is exemplified in the study of “jazz.” While scholars in cultural studies utilize anthropology, they continue to avoid the appearance of “using anthropology” to study the cultures of jazz. The avoidance of anthropology in cultural studies, which stems from a widespread misconception that anthropology has remained static since its origins, gives cultural studies scholars a convenient scapegoat for the inherently canonical moves in jazz studies. At the same time, jazz is increasingly appearing in academic anthropology as a topic of study, but these studies are focused on the ethnomusicology of jazz sounds, improvised performance, and what anthropologist of jazz Alessandro Duranti calls “the acquisition of jazz aesthetics.” Anthropologists’ avoidance of new jazz studies stems from an oversimplified conception of cultural studies, and the belief that jazz scenes are now essentially dead: in other words, because the historical peoples and cultures of “jazz” cannot “speak,” anthropologists are reticent to study them. Using the concept of hybridity, autoethnography, and her own work on jazz cultures in Kansas City, the author will explore this disciplinary fragmentation and suggest a field of possibilities exists in the blending of anthropology and cultural studies.

Amy Kordeck, Indiana University Northwest, 3-3

Material Culture, Purchasing Power, and Restructuring Tradition

Consumer capitalism, and in general the act of shopping, is often discredited in anthropology as a purging of some ideal authentic via Benjaminian critique. The topic of shopping, however, may be viewed as a radical choice, elevating the status of the often denigrated, mundane activity. In this sense, shopping is a commodity much like Mauss’ gift– it is form that implicates every aspect of social life, such that kinship, time, and political economy are brought together in a single medium. This paper examines shopping in Gozo through this and other lenses. Through a descriptive account of Gozo’s 18-20 year old female shoppers with whom I spent my field season, I use shopping’s social implications to examine the difference of cultural interpretation. The influences of transnational ideals from a variety of sources are further analyzed, and their affects on the rational and radical economic choices become symbolic of greater cultural and social ideals in and of Gozitan space.

Amy Stringwell, Illinois State University, 1-6

The Effects of Budget Cuts on Illinois Museums and Historic Sites

In this paper I examine the effects that recent changes in the Illinois State budget have had on local museums and historic sites. I examine if these changes are more due to the current economic downturn, or if these types of closings are cyclical or political, concerning policies on acquisition, collection and repatriation of objects and antiquities. I demonstrate this through participant observation and interviews with professionals at seven sites and museums: the David Davis Mansion, Dixon Mounds, the McLean Country Historical Museum, the Field Museum, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, Dixon Mounds, and Cahokia Mounds. I focus on what museums are doing to increase patronage, and discuss what changes in marketing or advertising have taken place. I argue that, ironically, decreased state funding can also have some important positive effects, as budget cuts to smaller museums will often cause local community support to increase. This can sometimes ameliorate the disparities and arbitrary funding decisions made at the state level.

Andrea Abrams, Centre College, 3-6

Holy Gender Politics: Womanist Theology in Theory and Practice

First Afrikan Church in Atlanta, Georgia is a middle class Afrocentric religious community in the proces of creating an identity and nurturing a culture that privileges African ways of knowing and being. This paper concentrates upon the womanist theological rhetoric of the leadership and its influence on the consciousness of the membership. The church leadership is in the process of developing a pedagogy which centers feminist theology as a way to combat the sexist and patriarchal tendencies found within both Afrocentrism and the Christian church. The paper investigates how successfully the church is able to integrate Womanist ideology into an Afrocentric space and reconcile the long-standing tensions between feminism and black nationalism. As has been notes by many feminists of color, nationalists and black empowerment movements have embraced patriarchal ideology and privileged maleness. Accordingly, the perspectives and needs of Black women have been considered less important and some organizations have even articulated an antipathy for feminist ideology. So how does womanism exist within this space and will it be able to flourish? I argue that it exists because of the highly educated leadership and congregation, who acclimated to progressive ideologies within academia, are better able to tolerate it within the church. However, to tolerate is not to embrace the ideology or engage in feminist infused practices and behaviors. Therefore, this paper also scrutinizes the extent to which Womanist theological teachings have influenced male-female dynamics within the lives of church members.

Andrea Rissing, Grinnell College, 2-14

Women Farmers and Feminism: Gender's Impact on Alternative Farming Methods

This paper explores the relationship that Iowan women farmers perceive between their gender self-identity and chosen agricultural practices. Drawing on my ethnographic work on 13 women farmers in Iowa during summer 2008, I investigate the extent to which a woman attributes her agricultural practices (ie, conventional or alternative) to her gender, and what factors may influence this. Informed by Lila Abu-Lughod and Gayatri Spivak’s approaches, I use a feminist anthropological theoretical perspective in order to balance my subject’s voices and explanations with my etic analysis. While some women staunchly say that being a woman has no influence on how they farm, others feel that traditionally feminine traits, such as nurturing and acting as caretakers, have positively influenced their practices. Overall, the paper argues that the personal process of accepting one’s gender as a main or partial explanation for one’s farming methods is an irrefutably individual one, and is linked to a person’s education, spiritual beliefs, and personal background.

Andrew Flachs, Oberlin College, 2-4

The Capabilities Approach: Navigating Cultural Politics in Human Rights Discourse

This paper explores the percieved incompatibilities between human rights discourse and traditional values in the Middle East and North Africa. After reviewing relevant literature and concepts, it posits that this conflict is the result of social, political, and economic factors within a historical context and suggests using capabilities approach forwarded by Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen as a tool for better understanding and implementing human rights in the region. Rather than see culture as an adversary, this approach explains the potential of culture and religion in resolving ideological conflicts, especially for ambiguous human rights. This paper presents veiling as an example of a vaguely defined human right and posits that the capabilities approach is uniquely equipped to navigate its role in cultural politics.

Angela C. Ghionea, Purdue University, 1-3

The Role of Human Prints and Divine Traces in Persuasive Rituals

Whereas an extensive research has been done on the role of religious relics, the special topic of body imprints as visible proofs of the invisible world remains highly neglected. My objective is to investigate the role of prints (such as footprints, handprints) that were handled by practitioners of magic, medicine and religions along with the history of humankind. The research argues that prints were employed in a rational way in order to reinforce the set of beliefs associated with them. Reciprocally, human body and its traces were used to persuade divine forces to act on their behalf through occult rituals. The study shows that for the livings, the solely solid evidence of the existence of these supernatural characters (gods, fairies, and demons) was their visible traces. In conclusion, this study brings new contributions by investigating the relation between the human self-perception and the need for self-persuasion that God(s) really existed.

Angela Glaros, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2-2,

Turning the Song, Turning the Tables: Politics and Musical Performance in Skyros, Greece

This paper draws on my research on the performance of "traditional" vocal music on the Greek island of Skyros, in order to understand how Skyrians use musical performance to enact a politics of community. A small island with approximately 3,000 inhabitants, Skyros enjoys a reputation for “tradition” in expressive arts and music—including the unaccompanied “table songs” (traghoudia tis tavlas) that Skyrians perform at celebratory feasts. These songs employ Byzantine musical modes, intricate melodies and evocative poetry, as well as an antiphonal call-and-response form in which a secondary singer or group of singers repeats the refrain (pountos). This practice, which Skyrians call “turning the song” (yirisma), resonates with other antiphonal vocal forms in Greece, as well as with widely held cultural values of reciprocity, hospitality, and commensality. Moreover, such values coalesce around the table, a space in which Skyrians perform ideals of communal participation in eating, drinking, talking and singing. As many Skyrians consider their table songs and older ways of life to be equally “endangered," I extend the concept of “turning the song” to the ways in which they frame “traditional” vocal music as a form of knowledge that links past and present. I compare Clean Monday (Kathara Dheftera) festivities and saint's day feasts (panegyria) on Skyros to illustrate how musical performances in these settings enact—or fail to enact—an intersubjective politics of community that "turns the tables" on the perceived demise of Skyrian "tradition."

Anna Musun-Miller, IUPUI Museum Studies, 2-12

Red Speech Bubble: Comics and Disenfranchised Voices in the Museum

Comic books have long been a means of entertainment for a large portion of society, but they are also a vehicle for the perpetuation of stereotypes in a medium that often goes unexamined. In particular, non-Native artists have a long history of using Native stereotypes to sell their comic books, but very few artists have been criticized for doing so. Native American peoples have over the last few decades taken up the production of comic books, trying to change public perceptions of what it means to be Native. Museums have very rarely displayed or critically examined comic books, although many museums are concerned with stereotypes and Native peoples. By not examining comics as social commentary, museums are marginalizing not only the customer base which consumes comics but also the artists which produce comics by making the value judgment that they are not worth exhibiting.

Ashley Ransburg, The University of Toledo, 3-15

Role of the Environment in Shaping Supermarket Competitiveness

This paper investigates the extent to which cultural and societal factors including class, stratification, labor-management relations, consumerism, and local environmental account for differences in efficiency between two Kroger grocery stores. The study was initiated based on the observations of the author as an anthropology student and current, three year employee of Kroger. In the study, two Kroger stores were chosen and compared: one considered to be highly efficient and profitable and the other less efficient and profitable. Data collection for the project included in-depth interview with rank-and-file workers, store, and district managers; employee satisfaction surveys; observation of department head meetings, cultural council meetings, and other in store meetings between workers and supervisors. As data analysis is ongoing, results from the study will be presented. This study is important because it enhances our understanding of workplace relations from an industrial anthropological perspective.

Aubrey Thamann, Purdue University, 3-2

An Interdisciplinary Ethnographic Study of Funeral Directors in Indiana

In the West, we have a unique relationship with death—a terrible fear as well as a deep fascination. This has been reflected in the way we think about and interact with funeral directors. There is very little academic work centering on those in the United States who deal with death on a daily basis. An interdisciplinary ethnographic look at funeral workers does not seem to exist at all. In this paper, I will discuss several important questions. Death has been called the ultimate equalizer, but is this true? In a seemingly male-dominated field, men must cross stereotypical borders and become nurturers. How do they negotiate these borders? Why is funeral directing a male-dominated field? Why do more women not become funeral directors? Are there racial or ethnic issues involved in the funeral trade? Are perceived racial and class divisions more important to people than religious affiliation in terms of mourning rituals, or are there multiple factors involved in choosing a funeral home? I also want to discover how those who work within the space between life and death negotiate this liminality in terms of identity both as individuals and as part of their communities. What do the death practices of smaller ethnic, religious, and class communities in the US tell us about the larger cultural context of a national identity? By utilizing different disciplinary approaches such as psychology, history, and anthropology, I hope to create an interdisciplinary ethnographic study of the American funeral home that will answer these questions.

Audrey Ricke, Indiana University, 3-16

Politics and Performance: Creating Community Bavaria Style of Munich's Oktoberfest

Munich’s Oktoberfest preceded the formation of Germany and has endured numerous plagues and wars. While on the surface Oktoberfest may seem like just one big celebration of beer, a more in-depth review of the festival reveals how it creates community while providing a means through which the politically dominant can assert their power. An analysis of the Oktoberfest parades and beer tents reveals that the festival serves as a symbol of unity that operates on a regional level as a way for Bavaria to illustrate its power within the nation and on a local level for Munich’s breweries and their landholders to display and perpetuate their economic power. As an event set apart from daily routine, it provides a space of liminality wherein the shared performance of Bavarian identity at the festival creates community (Turner 1969). This very process of community formation is also one of performing politics through the manner in which regional identities are represented and consumed.

Azizur R. Molla, Grand Valley State University, 1-6

Public Health Risks Associated With Indoor Radon Gas in Rural Pennsylvania

With its history of coal mining, Tioga County PA’s radon level indicates a high geological potential of radon gas. I collaborated with Mansfield University students to conduct a study of radon gas and people’s knowledge of its health affects in this rural county of about 1,000 square miles (97% of which is undeveloped) with a population of about 41,000 (98% white, mostly Republican, 84% rural) in northern Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Plateau. With one of the highest unemployment rates in Pennsylvania, more than 13% of households are below the poverty line. In this paper, I use the findings of the study to analyze the relationship between indoor radon levels and socioeconomic status of the households, the spatial distribution of indoor radon gas, and to assess the degree of public awareness about the danger of indoor radon gas. I also explore some socioeconomic variables that influence people’s knowledge about radon gas and its impact on health. Finally, I deal with the public policy implications of the findings of this study as an example of collaborative anthropology which engages significant public issues and problems and discuss my experiences as a Bangladeshi in this collaboration with students, officials, and the public of the county.

Barbara Crass, Universityof Wisconsin- Oshkosh & Manitowoc, 2-3

Swan Point- 14,000 Years of Occupations

Swan Point, one of a group of multicomponent sites in the Shaw Creek drainage of the Tanana Valley in central Alaska, is currently the oldest known site in Alaska at about 14,000 calibrated years B.P. Five culture zones (CZ1a, CZ1b, CZ2, CZ3, and CZ4) are identified at Swan Point, illustrating changes in people, environment and lifestyle. The earliest occupants (CZ4) are Eastern Beringians who utilized toolkits similar to those seen in Western Beringian sites such as Dyuktai Cave. The latest occupants (CZ1a) are protohistoric and historic hunters, trappers, and now, archaeologists. These culture zones will be described, with the most attention focused on the earliest culture zones, CZ3 and CZ4.

Baron Pineda, Oberlin College, 3-17

Indigenous Experience at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples

Based on fieldwork at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues that met for the first time in 2002, this paper explores the theoretical and methodological issues that arise when doing ethnographic fieldwork about indigenous participation in international meetings of this kind. In particular I address the ways in which ideas about culture, identity and cultural difference are invoked by different actors at these meetings including indigenous representatives, members of the Permanent Forum, members of NGOs and representatives of UN agencies.

Bill Guinee, Westminster College, 2-9

A New Methodology for Narrative Sequence Analysis

Narrative sequence analysis examines the order in which information is presented within a narrative. Earlier attempts have shown how a narrative fits into a presupposed performative or structural pattern. After briefly reviewing these approaches, I will report on a new methodology that I am currently developing collaboratively with Russ Bernard, Selcen Phelps, and Gene Johnsen. This methodology analyzes and looks for patterns in the order in which observed narrative motifs, in a given genre, appear in a substantial sample of stories. The fact that the sequence of personal experience narratives differs from the order of the lived events being recorded is taken as meaningful. Rather than assuming that this difference is accounted for by sloppy narrative practice, we consider the possibility that the speakers are rearranging events strategically to achieve an effect. As an initial project, we are analyzing several hundred brief narratives as related in Alcoholics Anonymous discussion meetings.

Bill Wedenoja, Missouri State University, 1-5

Applying Anthropology (with the help of students) in a Jamaican Community

Nine years ago I decided to offer a short-term study tour to Jamaica to provide a cross-cultural learning experience for anthropology majors. The ‘Bluefields Project’ has evolved considerably since then, with the focus shifting from students to the community, and from education to service-based research. Working for the community has led me in many new and unexpected directions, all satisfying, and has repositioned me as an applied anthropologist with an emphasis on community development. The program has grown in numbers, with thirty people ‘on the ground’ at various times last summer, and now involves undergrads, grad students, faculty and professionals from several agencies and institutions, as well as different disciplines. This paper will review projects we have undertaken, including community organization, ecotourism, environmental protection, computer education, oral history, heritage preservation, and hydrology. I will also discuss the on-going process of defining our roles in the community. One persistent question has been, what do anthropology majors have to offer?

Bjorn Westgard, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Hennepin County Medical Center, 2-6

SPECTACULAR HEALING: PERFORMING ETHNIC POLITICS THROUGH TRADITIONAL MEDICINE IN SENEGAL

Over the last two decades in Senegal, the minority Sereer population has gained national and international recognition through several spectacles of traditional medicine that have been covered in national and international media. Located near the geographic center of the nation, local politicians have parlayed these prominent displays into further arguments about the centrality of Sereer culture within the Senegalese nation. Many of these pleas have drawn on local and communal knowledge, while also being used to opportunistically garner larger portions of the national budget. In the eyes of many in central Senegal, such uses of Sereer tradition aim to correct several decades of increasing Wolof cultural dominance and to redress decades of neglect with regard to national investments in local infrastructure. Yet Sereers have struggled to reconcile the constraining local affinities that make traditional healing possible with more gainful adaptations of seeing and sorcery exhibited in mediatized performances. These negotiations have taken place through healing practice, local forums, national media, academic conferences, and activities of the governmental and non-governmental development community. Through these multiple reconciliations between communal and mobile forms of traditional medical knowledge, people in central Senegal have worked to simultaneously refashion a communal but translocal ethnicity and polity.

Brian G Lane, University of Cincinnati, 3-12

A Paleoethnobotanical Study of Precolumbian Subsistence in the Middle Ohio Valley

Brian G. Lane and David L. Lentz The first paleoethnobotanical investigations at Twin Mounds Village (33Ha24) have produced new data on subsistence adaptations. Samples were retrieved through implementation of a systematic recovery strategy using water flotation applied to all excavated contexts within a deeply stratified midden. This investigation focuses on role of plants in subsistence practices and the other economic adaptations in the pre-Columbian Middle Ohio River Valley. A considerable time depth at the site allows for a glimpse into plant use activities that range from Early Archaic to Late Woodland times. Analysis of botanical remains through the use of light and electron microscopy has revealed the presence of several economic species, including Amaranthus sp., Chenopodium berlandieri, and Juglans sp.

Brian Montes, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2-6

"Un Pueblo en Marcha": Performance and Protest among Maya Speakers of Felipe Carrillo Puerto

In 1847 a group of Maya, known today as the Cruzo’ob or Chan Santa Cruz Maya, took part in one of the largest and most successful indigenous uprisings in the Americas, The Caste War of Yucatán. Led by indigenous leaders Jacinto Pat, Manuel Antonio Ay, and Cecilio Chí, the rebellion nearly drove the ruling aristocracy (Spanish Creoles) from the peninsula. In 1901, however, General Bravo, under the authority of Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, set out to recover the Yucatán Peninsula. Another battle ensued and by 1910 the Cruzo’ob, for reasons presently contested, retreated into the jungle dedicating their lives to the reverence of a holy “talking cross” and to Yucatan’s Caste War. This presentation examines the performances of two events, the ritualistic guarding of the “talking cross” and the annual celebration of Yucatan’s Caste War that takes place throughout the municipality of Felipe Carrillo Puerto in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Through an analysis of the guarding of the cross and an analysis of the annual celebration of Yucatán’s Caste War, I demonstrate how both of these events mobilize networks of social action that have transformed the political landscape of Felipe Carrillo Puerto.

Brian Mrozek, Loyola University Chicago, 2-15

The Ogham Script.

The paper I am sending to be reviewed for submission addresses my research on the ancient Celtic alphabet of "Ogham". Research discussed on this topic involves an in-depth definition of Ogham, the origin of the script, the Celtic trees in regards to Ogham, the structure of the alphabet, and the Ogham stone inscriptions found in Ireland. Ogham, pronounced "OH-am", was an alphabetic writing system used for the Old Irish language in Celtic Ireland, Wales, and Britain dating from around the third to sixth centuries CE. The Ogham alphabet is a phonetic system consisting of fifteen consonants and five vowels, and after the sixth century CE accrued five more letters. Most of the occurrences of Ogham are found as stone inscriptions and are sepulchral in nature. The names of the letters of this alphabet are thought to have originated from twenty trees held to be sacred to the ancient people of the area. This theory is skeptical, however, because some geographical evidence may oppose this idea.

Brian R. Selmeski, USAF Culture & Language Center, 2-7

Into the Wild Cross-Cultural Yonder: Anthropology and the Transformation of Air Force Professional Education

The US Air Force has embarked on a bold and wide-ranging effort to enhance cross-cultural learning for all uniformed personnel through the quality enhancement plan, an integral part of academic re-accreditation. This presentation will briefly describe the plan (developed by anthropologists), then examine the reactions of Air Force leaders, Air University administrators, faculty and regional accrediting officials. By examining multiple perspectives within the institution, the key limitations and points of contention become more visible. These include conceptual matters (e.g., what is culture?), philosophical issues (e.g., what do we need this for?), practical concerns (e.g., how do we squeeze this into an already full curriculum?) and methodological-epistemological questions (e.g., how do we know when we’ve succeeded?). How the plans’ architects engaged these constituents and navigated their issues reveals not only the plans strengths/weaknesses, but also how it is part of a larger effort to transform professional military education.

Bryce Peake, Brandeis University, 3-3

Sounding Identity in Gozitan Restaurants

Much like landscape, soundscape is a medium for human expression. People inscribe it with meanings by marking it with instrumental, vocal, and even ambient aural sounds, as well as using- or avoiding in some instances- certain aural representations. In this paper, I examine the current state of soundscapes in Gozo, Malta, in which sound is used to negotiate, refute, and promote various identities amongst various audiences. The primary focus lies in examining the effects of globalizing forces, such as tourism, on the perception of identity and the ways in which “the authentic” is used to contest both globally and locally conceived notions of the “Gozitan” through sound. As groups seek to redefine themselves, they alter globalized sounds to fit their own uses and notions of identity, and thus, what is “Gozitan” is voiced in different ways by different people for different situations.

Caroline Haggerty, Kenyon College, 3-16

When Worlds Collide: Differing Interpretations of Catholicism in a Rural Honduran Community

Ethnographic research conducted from January to May 2008 in the rural village of Pueblo Nuevo, northwest Honduras revealed unanticipated divisions within the Catholic community. Pueblo Nuevo is a mestizo town primarily composed of recent migrants among whom interpersonal bonds are fluid. Central to ongoing processes of building social networks is the debate over Catholic identity. Most Pueblo Nuevo residents grew up Catholic yet differ strikingly on how that affiliation is interpreted. This paper outlines the factions based on those differences, which range from orthodox Catholicism, to an inculturated version of the faith, to syncretic Catholicism combining indigenous and European elements. Attention is paid to how basic disagreements about Catholicism are enacted and negotiated in daily life and dramatically highlighted during Holy Week. The above relationship of Catholicism to social dynamics is contrasted with the situation in the more demographically stable, socially homogenous community of Petoa 1.5km to the south.

Catherine Page

IUPUI Museum Studies

2-12

Trustees of the Sacred: Protecting, Maintaining, and Interpreting Sacred Sites

What sort of standards and practices should museum professionals employ with Native American sacred places? How should museums and other public institutions handle disagreements about land usage? I will select three to five sacred sites in North America, examining these places from the perspective of the Native American cultures to which they are sacred and paying close attention to the folklore surrounding the sites. I will look at land usage, particularly cases where conflict has arisen. I will use my conclusions from all of the above areas to synthesize some standards for museum professionals to use when working with sacred places.

Ceara Horsley, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, 1-1

Patrimony and Paternalism? A Quantitative Analysis of NAGPRA Notices of Intent to Repatriate

Since the controversial inception of NAGPRA in 1990, there has been much published literature both for and against the act, but very little quantitative analysis of the actual repatriations, particularly the ethnographic items. Are some artifacts more likely than others to be repatriated? Are some institutions more or less likely to repatriate? Are there any trends in the tribes to which artifacts are repatriated? To answer these questions, this study categorizes and statistically analyzes the 16, 023 artifacts, the institutions and the tribes in the 2007 NAGPRA Notices of Intent to Repatriate published in the Federal Register. The study then compares this data to long term trends in the institutions and tribes, as well as number of notices published in the Federal Register from the inception of the act. This qualitative picture of trends in NAGPRA notices of Intent to Repatriate provides one means through which we may approach questions of compliance.

Christopher Fennell, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 3-11

Aversive Racism and Perverse Incentives in 19th Century Illinois

In addition to overt acts of racism and racial violence, African-American communities in the late 19th century combated various forms of aversive and structural racism that diverted economic opportunities away from them and presented challenges for households to overcome. This presentation will examine such dynamics using examples from archaeological and historical analysis of three communities in Illinois: the Equal Rights settlement outside Galena, New Philadelphia, and Brooklyn. Research concerning such communities can expand our understanding of how social networks, racism, and developing markets influenced the ways in which individuals and households made choices in shaping their natural, social, and built environments and in developing social and cultural traditions and economic strategies. Civic engagement in such research projects also significantly aids the members of current-day communities to enhance the recognition and visibility of their African-American heritage and accomplishments and to combat facets of structural racism they are experiencing today.

Christopher Sheklian, University of Chicago, 3-13

Redemptive Projects and Revolutionary Politcs

Events such as the World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle in 1999 suggest a persistent global interest in revolutionary politics and while the long-dominant strand of thought for most would-be revolutionaries has been Marxism, there has been no dearth of alternatives. What I will argue is that the redemptive promise of Marxism is what has given it such incredible affective purchase as a revolutionary project. Moreover, I would like to suggest that the ability of any revolutionary politics to attract adherents and thrive depends largely upon this redemptive aspect of the project. To this end, the paper will construct a broad Weberian ideal-type of “redemptive project,” drawing upon Weber’s own work with religion and the theodicy question to discuss the affective attachment of revolutionary politics as a redemptive answer to the problem of evil in the world. I will look comparatively at Weber’s discussion of religion, Marxism, anarchism, and the green movement as different “redemptive projects” in order to elucidate the emotional relationship of the various projects to their adherents. The paper also suggests the value of a Weberian ideal-type as a heuristic that operates in a space that is simultaneously cognizant of anti-essentialist critiques of grouping “religion” with “politics” in order not to suggest politics as secularized religion but rather to ask how such varying projects produce similar affective relationships. Finally, I would like to use the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle ethnographically as an example of a redemptive project to ask about the possibilities of revolutionary politics today.

Claude F. Jacobs, University of Michigan-Dearborn, 3-1

Race, Religion, and Rhetoric: The Language Community that Prophet Jones Built in Detroit

James Francis Marion Jones, born in 1907 in Birmingham, Alabama, began preaching at the age of six and became a member of Triumph the Church and Kingdom of God in Christ, an African American Holiness denomination. In 1938 he moved to Detroit where by 1944, as Prophet Jones, he had established his own church, Universal Triumph, the Dominion of God. Until his death in 1971 he was one of the city's best known yet most controversial religious leaders. Prophet Jones' influence spread beyond the borders of Michigan and he is reported to have established churches in fifteen other staes, Liberia, and the Caribbean. His Detroit congregation occupied a building that could accommodate 2,000 people, making it one of the city's largest places of worship, and there were both television and radio broadcasts of the services. It was through these broadcasts that Prophet Jones became known for his preaching, and recordings of his sermons were made. In creating a religious movement Prophet Jones also created a language community with its own linguistic style and lexicon. Using Prophet Jones' sermons along with archival material this paper examines Universal Triumph as a language community set apart by its religious discourse not only from other religious groups but also from significant segments of the rest of Detroit's African American population.

Clementine Fujimura, U.S. Naval Academy

2-7

On Being Motivated and Other Challenges for Teaching Culture in a Military Academy

This paper explores the way in which the culture concept is being taught at the United States Naval Academy within the contexts of both training and education. Over the years, USNA has struggled to graduate midshipmen who are cross-culturally competent due to constraints of time and a focus in the curriculum on science and engineering at the expense of language and cultural studies. In 2008 a committee was formed to bring culture to all levels of the yard. In so doing the culture concept has had to be modified dependent upon its presentation in a variety of contexts from plebe summer training, to training in the dormitory (hall) to discussion in the academic classroom. This paper discusses the pros and cons of the implementation of “culture across the curriculum” in a military academy.

Costadina Aneziris, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2-10

Experiences of Living with Sickle Cell Disease and Treating Pain

As part of a larger qualitative project focusing on the experiences of living with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD), we interviewed patients attending UIC’s Adult and Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease clinics. For this project, we focused on childhood and current experiences and perspectives associated with living with this particular genetic disease. However, for this presentation, we present data that speaks to a number of themes centering on treatment and coping options. On one end of the continuum, some patients strictly followed the advice of a healthcare professional and at the other end, some patients chose alternatives. From an analysis of more than 12 interviews, we noticed that experience seems to play an important role in pain crisis detection and coping. We hope that what we have learned from participants will help future generations. To conclude, we’ll suggest a number of ways that knowledge transfer (practitioner-patient; patient-patient, media-public) can be improved.

Daniel C. Schneider, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2-10

Born With It: Photographic Images of Life with Sickle Cell Disease

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a genetic disease affecting an estimated 70,000 people in the USA. Approximately, 1,000-2,000 infants are born with SCD annually. In the USA, the disease disproportionately affects African, African American, and South Asian populations which, based on the USA’s history of racism, undoubtedly alters the SCD experience. Undoubtedly, this disease affects the lives of the sufferers in multiple ways (socially, politically, economically, and emotionally). We report on the Photo-Voice portion of the larger qualitative study that was conducted to understand the SCD experience. Pediatric patients were asked to narrate a series of photos they took that were supposed to represent their lives and living with SCD. We analyze the themes symbolically captured in the photographic images by the patients, including coping mechanisms, effects on social relationships, socioeconomic effects of chronic disease, and an analysis of the dynamics of biomedical treatment of Sickle Cell Disease.

David A. McDonald, Indiana University, 2-2

Discussant for Panel: "Performing the Political"

This dual session explores the interrelationships of expressive cultural practices and modalities of power relations. The first panel examines the staging of South Caucasus political identities within the Eurovision Song Contest; the performance of gender politics in traditional vocal music on the Greek island of Skyros; the Burning Man Arts Festival as a rite of passage that pushes participants to political action; and the power dynamics of honorific speech and social greetings in encounters between Wa Buddhists and Han Chinese authorities (Kipp, Glaros, Larkin, Liu). The second panel examines the transformations of the Yucatan political landscape through commemorations of indigenous Maya uprisings; children’s participation in indigenous cow branding rituals and their staged representations in highland Peru; the performance of minority Sereer identity in "spectacles" of Senegalese traditional medicine; and the interpretations and responses of rural villagers to the Chinese state’s “humane” family planning project (Montes, Grim-Feinberg, Westgard, Chen).

David Perusek, Kent State University Ashtabula, 2-10

Cancer, Culture, and Consciousness

From folk beliefs about how cancer spreads within the body and why "they" have yet to find a cure, to the cultural dimensions of personal condolances and the class dimensions of media templates for "living with the disease", this paper examines ways in which culture and culture bearers frame the experience of cancer for patients and their families in the United States.Based on participant-observation in the life of a family beset by 2 cancer diagnoses and a premature death by cancer in the space of a year, the paper also examines the hegemonic language of warfare and holocaust that shapes cancer discourse and finds it afflicting the afflicted.

Denene De Quintal, University of Chicago, 1-1

Native American Museums in Southern New England and Authenticity

This paper focuses on the part the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center plays in creating an “authentic” Native American identity in Southern New England. As one of the largest Native Museums in the world, the museum has become the epicenter for people who want to understand the cultures of Native people. The museum’s cultural education classes try to explain Northeastern Native cultures and connect them to the larger Native American community. Native programming also tries to build connections with other Native communities and establish the Mashantucket Pequot as a part of the larger Native community. Although the Pequot Museum is the largest and one of the wealthiest Native Museums in the Northeast, it has not been able to quell opinions that Native Americans in Southern New England are “inauthentic.” The absence of Mashantucket tribal members and the inexperience of museum workers create the perception that Native people in Southern New England have lost their culture. In contrast, smaller institutions such as the Tantaquidgeon Museum and Tomaquag Indian Memorial have been able to validate the continuous presence of Native Americans in the Southern New England. They may have less money, but this decreases their dependence on non-Natives and Natives from outside of Southern New England to represent them. They are able to share their own stories about their tribes’ presence in Southern New England. These museums have been successful in maintaining the history of local Native communities as well as reaffirming the presence of Native people in Southern New England.

Derek Brereton, Adrian College, 1-2

Campsteading and the Domestic Frontier: Rusticating New Hampshire

Campsteading is characterized by the ownership through six to eight generations of property and rustic pine cabins by single American families. This combines intergenerational continuity, emplacedness, a rooted sense of self, and consequent influences on landscape quality and open space preservation. Campsteading amounted to a domestic colonization, for the properties chosen were previously regarded as waste. It derived from American transcendentalism and Civil War exhaustion, and is related to the arts and crafts and back-to-nature movements through which some responded to the industrial revolution. In turn, campsteads have been seminal in driving the local environmentalist movements in central New Hampshire. This paper sketches out the morphogenic relations between these social trends, and locates campsteading as an important facet of social change and resistance in America.

Donald H. Holly Jr., Eastern Illinois University, 2-9

Unearthing Halloween

On Halloween 1979, students at Eastern Illinois University excavated a time capsule that had been buried a decade earlier and replaced it with one of their own. Twenty five years later on Halloween 2004, some individual(s) laid flowers, charms, coins and other items at the gravesite of a suspected 18th century vampire in the town of Exeter, Rhode Island. This paper conveys the results of material analyses of both events. Although these events share little in common other than a date, the study of them underscores the common power of archaeology to contribute new and different interpretations of the past.

Douglas Caulkins, Grinnell College, 3-16

Cultural Hybridity in the Welsh and Irish Diasporas

Theories of cultural hybridity suggest that diasporic cultures will constitute a “third space,” closely resemble neither the host culture nor the culture of origin. Exploring this idea in a multi-site study of identity in Wales, Ireland, and their American diasporas, we asked informants to evaluate the behavior in a set of 21 scenarios or brief narratives that capture important cultural themes. The responses were collected from two sites in Wales, two in Ireland, two Welsh-American communities (in Iowa and the New York/Vermont border) and in one Irish-American community in Nebraska. We assessed the degree of agreement among the sites using cultural consensus analysis. While the profiles in the Welsh-American communities closely resemble the Welsh sample, those in the Irish-American community show little similarity to Ireland. The “third space” characterization is supported in the Irish case, but not in the Welsh case.

Douglas Midgett, Un iversity of Iowa, 2-9

Mann Gulch: Ethnology, reconstructed history, oral sources, inference

Norman Maclean’s account of the 1949 Mann Gulch wildfire in Montana in 1949 has provided source material for various interpretations and prescriptive analyses of small group behavior and leadership from a number of disciplinary perspectives. The initial event, described in Young Men in Fire, in which 12 Forest Service smokejumpers lost their lives, has suggested approaches to understanding group responses to crisis situations that have drawn the attention of business organization analysts, designers of employee training programs, and student of cognition and creative thinking. Because these scholars, struck by the completeness of Maclean’s account, have used his rendition as “ethnography” of an event, and because we often use the same resources as he did to do ethnographic reconstructions, I want to examine the manner in which we assemble these reconstructions and how we make inferences about what happened and, more importantly, how and why.

Duane Kahler, University of Central Missouri, 3-2

The Straight Edge

“The Straight Edge” is an analysis of an extant, vibrant subculture in the underground hardcore punk rock scenes across the United States. Straight Edge subculture is directly connected to a music scene that developed in the early 1980s in response to the cultural norms of the “rock and roll lifestyle.” Individuals in this subculture make a personal pact to abstain from alcohol, smoking, drugs, and promiscuous sex. Despite media biases and misconceptions about Straight Edge, the subculture continues to develop as both a musical and cultural antithesis to commonly held stereotypes about punk rock fandom. Through ethnographic research and participant observation, this author will present personal accounts of members of the Straight Edge community, provide insight into the emic meaning(s) of Straight Edge, examine the development of Straight Edge as a subculture, and discuss how stereotypes about Straight Edge have stigmatized the Straight Edge community.

Ehren Lichtenwalter, Andrews University, 2-15

In the Middle of Nowhere and at the Crossroads of Everywhere: Abatement and Change at Tall Hisban, 332-63 BCE

The purpose of this study is to fine-tune the resolution on our picture of Tall Hisban in Jordan during the Hellenistic Period. In order to do this, I will approach the settlement using LaBianca's abatement framework--an appropriate approach considering the occurrence of abatement at Tall Hisban during the Hellenistic Period, lasting from 332-63 BCE. The specific components contained in the abatement framework (accumulating hazards, lost opportunities, hyperintegration, myopic policies, underdevelopment and food shortages, and epidemics) will be considered alongside existing archaeological, historical, and anthropological evidence in order to construct a clearer picture of what might have brought about the period of abatement. In addition, this study will hypothesize what the effects of abatement at Hisban might have been--that is how abatement impacted the settlement's agricultural, social, economic, political, and cultural interactions. Specifically, the study will focus on the social and cultural relations that occurred within the settlement and in the periphery during the period of abatement. My study will draw on field reports from Tall Hisban and historical accounts pertinent to the region and period under study. Essentially, this is a study of how a simple hilltop settlement in the Transjordan hinterland evolved in the face of changing circumstances.

Elise Berman, University of Chicago, 3-10

Culture and Uses of Immaturity: Marshallese Children as Moral Liars

Anthropologists generally agree that childhood differs across cultures. At the same time, however, we recognize that people everywhere identify a portion of their population as immature, i.e., not yet fully capable. What value, if any, do children carry in society as a function of their immaturity? I tackle this question by examining how children act as moral subjects in a village in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. In the Marshalls, good people are Christian people and Christian people do not lie. But, children are not even considered capable of being Christian until they reach a certain state of maturity. As I will show, because children are not seen as responsible for their words, they can lie without being considered bad people or bad Christians. An ideology of children as immature and not-capable, therefore, paradoxically gives children the ability to do things that adults cannot, in turn giving them a unique role to play in social life. Through acting in ways only available to the immature, Marshallese children affect kinship ties, social relations, and people’s reputations. Hence, I suggest that cultures, in different ways according to different ideologies of childhood and immaturity, make use of children’s paradoxical status: children are influential precisely because they are not seen as such.

Elizabeth Sobel and Chris Cotter, Missouri State University, 1-5

A Collaborative Study of the Role of Long Island, WA, in Chinookan Identity and Culture

In 2006, we began collaborating with the Chinook Nation to study the role of Long Island, Washington, among the Chinookan people from pre-contact through modern times. The project was designed to serve cultural heritage preservation goals of the Chinook Nation and answer anthropological questions about indigenous cultural persistence. Our methodology involved archaeological field work, oral history interviews, and archival research. The results indicate that Long Island has remained significant in Chinookan culture and identity from the pre-contact through modern eras. However, the basis of that significance has shifted over time. While the Island’s immediate economic importance has diminished, its political and symbolic importance have increased. These findings highlight the critical link between continuity and change in Native cultural survival; change at one level facilitates continuity at other levels. The Chinook Nation may now use the results in support of several efforts, including their century-long quest for federal recognition.

Emma Lawler, Grinnell College, 3-7

Gendered Bodies as Sites of Opression and Empowerment

This paper explores ways that the body is a space of negotiation of social and individual power, looking specifically at how women’s bodies simultaneously experience oppression and empowerment. A book of personal narratives written by 29 women from Grinnell College will be used as ethnographic data of personal narrative about bodies and one’s own body. Comaroff and Comaroff (1992) set up a paradigm of the body as “template and tool”; that will be applied to and analyzed by the content of the narratives. Within these narratives, I will look for and identify two primary theoretical orientations of the body-- the body as symbol and agent – to demonstrate the fluidity in these orientations as they are personally experienced in women’s understandings of their own body. These college student women’s narratives bear witness to the ways in which women’s bodies are a form of speech (Ellmann 1993). The form of ethnography, personal narrative, is especially important here as an acknowledged place of agency and voice, placing the narratives as a political action. I examine the ways that the narratives mirror and discuss the body as speech.

Eric Hartzold, Illinois State University, 3-15

Material Consumption and American University Students

In this paper I present results from a ongoing research project of material consumption by midwestern American college students conducted by a university faculty member and me. Through interviews, surveys, and artifact analysis we examine how students view their relationship with everyday consumable items, and attempt to determine how they cognitively and behaviorly define notions like appropriate use, waste, recycling, and disposability. The design of the research, the obstacles encountered, and preliminary findings are reported. We discuss and compare our findings in relation to broader global environmental issues—such as the barriers and dilemmas faced by a well-intended consumer forced to live in a materialist consumer culture. Finally, we describe how this project articulates with ongoing environmental agendas at the university, and how it will be used for further work.

Erin Kenny, Drury University, 1-5

International Service-Learning: A Thoroughly Gendered Case Study from Jamaica”

In recent years, educators are increasingly concerned with developing teaching models that help students become more intentional and integrated in their learning: international service-learning in study abroad programs may assist students in developing habits of mind that prepare them to make informed personal, professional, and civic decisions throughout their lives. Anthropologists are uniquely suited to lead these learning initiatives, and to both tailor and implement content-based, service-learning rubrics that collaborate with local civic leaders and correspond to the needs of local communities. In this cautionary case study, I discuss challenges and learning outcomes from a summer, 2008 study abroad trip in Bluefields, Jamaica, as well as reflecting briefly on the nature of cross-cultural gender challenges in the field and the potential rewards of leading such a trip as a feminist anthropologist. I also suggest that students themselves (as peer educators) may ultimately be the best ambassadors in a campus community for promoting and developing integrated service-learning programs.

Evin Rodkey, University of Illinois at Chicago, 3-13

Transnationalism of a Different Color: Negotiating Deportation in the Dominican Republic

Globalized labor has created transnational communities that connect the U.S. and other nations (Basch, et al. 1994; Goldin 1999). However, each year thousands of these migrants are returned to their country of birth after facing deportation for conviction of a crime. Many of these deportees migrated to the U.S. as children and became long-term residents. Changes to immigration law are subjecting even legal permanent residents with minor criminal convictions to deportation. My ethnographic research explores the economic and social strategies these deportees use to survive in the Dominican Republic after spending a near-lifetime in the U.S. Furthermore, I investigate the increasing influx of deportees into Dominican neighborhoods and the social and economic impact this has on the local communities. As former long-term U.S. residents, the unique transnational experiences of these deportees demand greater attention if we are to fully understand the range of transnational movement produced by globalization and the outcomes of the deportation system that connects the U.S. and communities abroad. After a U.S. upbringing and an arrival in the country of birth marked by a criminal record, the circumstances of these deportees challenge our current characterizations of transnational livelihoods. By examining the economic and social strategies deportees use in the country of birth, this research brings to light the myriad ways deportees construct their lives after deportation, advancing our understanding of transnationalism.

Gaelyn Aguilar, The University of Akron, 2-1

Maravatío Resounding

Building upon my interest in transnationalism, and extending my interest in performance into that of performing what José Limón calls “an archaeology of subjugated knowledges and practices,” I have just begun a research initiative linking Maravatío, Mexico with Akron, Ohio. The preliminary stage of this project took place this October in Maravatío, where I co-facilitated a remapping of the town. Inspired by “Situationist International” and the psycho-geographical movement of the 1960s, this two-day workshop brought together a collective of individuals interested in identifying the multitude of historical, social, and personal layers/narratives of Maravatío, a place of transnational significance. Tapping into the conceptual impulse behind derivé—the act of “dropping one’s usual motivation for movement and action” in order to (re)discover space and place—we took GPS coordinates of three sites in Akron, Ohio where Mexican transnationals gather, and transposed them onto a map of Maravatío in order to build interconnections among geophysical, political, and social relationships. As we walked our remapped route, we interacted with whomever/whatever we encountered, and documented what we experienced through a range of media, including photography, audio, paper and pen. Maravatío Resounding is a reflection of my growing interest in applied work that engages issues that are in dialogue with the social sciences and humanities. Recent projects come from disparate moments and geographic locations, and reflect an ethos that connects cultural production with community engagement. My presentation will focus on how I am utilizing such projects to facilitate such an ethos.

George Calfas, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 3-12

Look before you Dig: Non-intrusive measure to Archaeology

Recent field work conducted at the National Historic Site of New Philadelphia Illinois has utilized ground-based electric resistivity and fluxgate magnetometer in combination with high resolution thermal imaging from a low altitude aerial platform. This poster presentation will show the correlation between the non-intrusive in-ground and aerial surveying techniques and the cultural materials found at the New Philadelphia site. The town site is currently situated beneath 42 acres of agricultural and prairie landscape; inserting units based only on walkover surveys and oral histories could often yield mixed results. The use of these additional remote sensing techniques has increased the confidence level for an excavation unit being placed at the location of cultural material and building foundations. The research team has been able to increase their work efficiency and effectiveness by placing excavation units at mapped anomalies that were displayed on one or more of these remote sensing surveying methods.

Gerald L. Carr, University of Michigan, 3-17

Making "Heritage" in the Yukon

In the Yukon Territory of Canada, land claims and self-governing agreements have settled many issues for indigenous First Nations, but the discussions of heritage, and the control of heritage, remain ambiguous. But what is meant by heritage? How were aboriginal beliefs and practices in the Yukon transformed into this object of contemplation, this set of identity-marking practices, and charged node in the network of local power relations? When did heritage become something that could be owned, threatened, lost, or revitalized? In this paper I develop a genealogy of the concept of heritage as negotiated and deployed in the Yukon. From the local, grassroots efforts in the 1970’s that eventually led to the landmark Umbrella Final Agreement in 1993, to the current debates about indigenous rights and world heritage in the UN system, a dialectic of globalization and localization is apparent in this example from the heritage wars.

Grace M. Varghese, Westminster College, 3-11

Interplay between Caste and Race in India

The Hindu caste system influences and is influenced by class, power and race. In particular there is significant overlap between class stratification and race. This paper explores how phenotypical variations (race) plays an important part in the Indian caste system by creating boundaries, such as marriage groups, and even creating expected images of people associated with a certain Varna. I will address the Indian association between skin tone and Varna, inclining Indians to expect Brahmans to have the fairest skin. This leads to Sanskritization where most members of Indian society want to have fair skin to be like the Brahmans, and raise the status of their caste.

Greta Kliewer, Kansas State University, 3-3

Maltese Bread: Changing Symbol of the Island's Identity

Food and culture – it is nearly impossible to separate these aspects of the way people live. The way we prepare, consume, and talk about food says a lot about who we are, and distinguishes us as human. On the island of Gozo, Malta, the production of hobz tal-Malti (Maltese bread) has become a symbol not only of sustenance, but also identity. Breadmaking has been transformed from a social activity in traditional bakeries to an isolated activity in homes and supermarkets. Some Maltese believe this change has resulted in the detriment of their cuisine, and consequently the culture from which it originated. For this reason, cultural tourism projects in Malta are seeking to preserve the physical and cultural traditions of producing Maltese bread. This single examination of a staple in Gozitans’ diet functions as a window into the dynamic relationship between the way people live and the food they eat.

Heather Stanislowski, Univeristy of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 2-15

The Beauty of Bog Bodies

Ever since the recorded discovery of a bog body in 1640, these enigmatic and miraculously preserved mummies have plagued the minds of archaeological researchers. Who are they? How did they die? Over the centuries we have tended to inscribe our own beliefs and customs on these remains and their fascination lies in the remains themselves as well as in the bogs where they are found. This paper will draw on recent approaches to the archaeology of the body, focusing on elements of personal ornament and clothing found on or near the bodies, which are not in fact always nude. Analyzing these additional clues may provide us with new insights into the bog bodies and why they continue to intrigue us today.

Heidi Savery, Binghamton University, 1-5

The Management and Marketing of Jamaica’s Past: Community Archaeology and Heritage Tourism

Recent trends in tourism indicate that consumers are largely interested in connecting with culture and heritage, both their own and others. A priority has been set in Jamaica’s national agenda to seize opportunities arising from international trends surrounding heritage interests in tourism. The development of heritage resources into products of tourism requires a more inclusive, relevant view of the past. One community on Jamaica’s south coast has recently launched a heritage initiative. Through its community archaeology component, the area’s cultural resources are being explored and interpreted by a wide variety of stakeholders. Such collaboration is just the type of positive vehicle needed to achieve the sustainable development outlined by Jamaican cultural policies and tourism action plans. Further collaboration with tourism interests and development will hopefully result in more creative, multi-dimensional presentations of the knowledge surrounding these tangible pieces of the past combined with sustainable local development. The most valuable kind of heritage is the product of self-representation.

Hyunhee Kim, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 3-11

Contesting Law: The Conflicts of Korean Immigrants in New York City

This paper investigates how Korean immigrants construct, challenge, and reinforce the boundary between legality and illegality, based on an ethnographic research on the Korean immigrant community in New York City. The paper illustrates that Korean immigrants’ perceptions of and relationships with legality are shaped and influenced by their racial experiences. Korean greengrocers in New York City experienced the labor conflict with Latino workers in recent years. In this conflict, the Korean greengrocers were accused of violation of state labor laws by overworking and underpaying predominantly Latino workers. The labor conflict was highlighted as an “ethnic” conflict between Koreans and Latinos in the news media and reinforced the racial image of Korean entrepreneurs as exploiting other minorities as in the Black-Korean conflict. I emphasize that the incorporation of Koreans to the U.S. economy as small entrepreneurs has structured the relationships of the Koreans with other racial minorities. Furthermore, the place of Koreans in the U.S. economy has affected their perceptions and use of law. I argue that while the Korean greengrocers contest the labor laws as a means of disciplining Korean immigrants, they reinforce the hegemony of law by accepting the discourse of “illegal aliens” and supporting existing racial and class hierarchies. My research shows that Koreans’ boundary-making between legality and illegality is contingent on and reflects their position in racial politics.

Jack Glazier, Oberlin College, 3-17

Grand Delusion: An Anthropologist Looks at the Jefferson Davis Bicentennial

Jefferson Davis, first and only president of the Confederacy, was born in what is now the tiny hamlet of Fairview, Kentucky on June 3, 1808. A century later, plans were set for the construction of the monument that now dominates Davis’s birthplace. About two thirds the height of the Washington Monument, the Davis obelisk was completed in 1924, with funds from the state of Kentucky and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. Local Klansmen burned a cross at the dedication. Now operated by the Kentucky Department of Parks, the monument and surrounding park are the site of a Davis celebration every June 3rd that in the recent past has featured a Civil War battle reenactment, a Miss Confederacy contest, a film showing, “Warriors of Honor” (an encomium to General Robert E. Lee), and a place to gather for celebrants of the “Lost Cause.” Marking the bicentennial of Davis’s birth, the celebration in early June 2008 extended the events of the annual commemorations. This paper focuses on the public management of the bicentennial by the state, which walks a narrow line between preserving a legitimate historical site and preventing the use of the park to rally support for extremist causes. Nonetheless, the bicentennial and recent annual commemorations perpetuate Confederate ideology, portraying Davis as a faithful Constitutionalist and purging the question/issue of race from any consideration of the causes or consequences of the Civil War.

Jack Thornburg, Benedictine University, 1-8

Market-led Development Versus Basic Needs and the Public Good: The Role of Common Property in St. Lucia

This paper examines the failure of market-led development to provide adequate access to the basic needs of those in St. Lucia in the Caribbean and more generally in the Third World. The past several years has witnessed a shift in development focus from state intervention in the development process to a reliance on direct foreign investment in such areas as tourism and off-shore assembly. The hoped-for outcome of such direct investments is an increase in employment opportunities and state revenue. For several years the government has pushed for greater privatization of common property arrangements known as family land where land is owned jointly by descendents of the original landowner. Such joint ownership has given access to land resources to many low income individuals under conditions where land is scarce and expensive. It is the contention of this paper that the cyclic nature of market-led development along with its vulnerability to international economic downturns suggests that family land is significant as a resource by providing access to land for those experiencing economic difficulties. The state, therefore, should treat family land as a “public good” since family land tenure has the potential to accommodate many more people than a privatized system of individual holdings. This paper will examine the condition of family land in the context of the uncertainties engendered by market-led modernization and argue that family land needs to be supported as a “social security” resource. Within this context the paper will discuss James Scott’s “moral” economy and the issues of social justice in calling for a new “people-centered” form of development.

Jacquelyn A. Lewis-Harris, University of Missouri-St. Louis, 1-1

Navigating Cook's Return: negotiating the presentation of early Hawiian and Pacific artifacts

Relationships between indigenous populations and local cultural institutions while often positive, can also be laden with perceived social injustice concerns. This paper addresses cultural anthropology's role in the mediation between Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders community and a Honolulu based museum. Central to this conversation was the return and display of Pacific Island objects collected by Captain James Cook on the 1768-79 voyages. How do you encourage formerly disenfranchised Hawai'ian and Pacific Islanders to participate in an exhibition that glorifies early European exploration of their homelands? How do you negotiate between the many layers of perceived and real social stratification between "the locals", the descendants of plantation owners, pakia and ruling elite as well as Hawai'ian and Pacific royalty? Issues of ownership,representation and the agency of private-public institutions in object interpretation, were interlaced with social justice concerns of status, cultural alienation, identity and Hawi'ian sovereignty. This was the first time that the Pacific Island community had been so intricately involved in exhibition and event planning at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, a private institution founded by Anna Cook. The work of Ivory(1999,)Herle(2002),and Bonshek(2002)address the importance of Pacific Islanders inclusion in museum interpretation,exhibition planning and addressing community concerns in museums. Referencing their research,I will also discuss the community education programs designed to address the social justice issues connected to the exclusion of the Hwaiian homeland population and other disenfranchised Pacific Islanders. The positive results of reflective negotiations in addressing the inherent justice issues in this project will provide a guideline for reproducing this approach in other communities with similar social and cultural dynamics.

James A. Johnson, University of Pittsburgh, 2-12

Archaeology and the Social Prison: Transnational subjects and the governance of knowledge

Over the past 20 years, archaeologists have had to rethink the ways in which they communicate with indigenous communities and, more generally, present information to the general public about the past. Despite the development of better lines of communication between some archaeologists and native communities, the more deeply embedded problems of how the archaeological record is interpreted and how such interpretations are then presented to and represented in museums persist. Recently, it has been suggested in essays from a volume edited by Thomas Killion that these problems include: 1) truth versus validity, 2) claims of one past versus many (multivocality) and 3) Western science as asymmetrical relations of power (Bray 2008; Zimmerman 2008). It is suggested in this paper that these problematic aspects of archaeological interpretation can be productively (re)investigated through alternative models that re-conceptualize power as not only existing in asymmetrical relations but instead, more generally, human social action. In the proposed paper, I draw upon models of locality and community to critically examine data gleaned from a small collection of bone and antler tools from the Swiss late Neolithic (3800-3250 BC) to confront issues of power and representation in not only contemporary museum practice, but also in the deconstruction and (re)formation of archaeological knowledge and truth claims.

James W. Dow, Oakland University, 3-8

How Evolution Created God

The easiest way of understanding religion is through the eyes of a believer. However, a non-believer often cannot accept this vision because it refers to beings and forces that he or she cannot independently verify. Religion is even more of a puzzle to the scientist, who is taught to believe only in a reality that can be observed and tested. Yet, religion exists in the minds and hearts of people. How did it get there if it was not implanted by a divine being? Natural selection is the only process that science knows of that can produce a brain that experiences religion. The the nature of this selection process is still unclear. One way of discovering it is through mathematical and agent-based simulation. This paper will present an agent-based model for the natural selection of unreal beliefs and the potential for further simulation using mathematics.

Jami Beach, Wichita State University, 2-4

Community Mosques: A glimpse into a Midwestern Islamic society

This is an informational paper based on personal experience during several visits to different local community Mosques. It has been prepared with an objective of providing first hand insight into a Midwestern Islamic society’s differences and similarities. Included is a detailed description of the buildings, people, and insights that were experienced throughout my research, along with a comparison between the different local communities that were studied.

Jamie Zuehl, Vanderbilt University, 3-6

Cheap Jeans, Cable TV, and Costumbre: Competing Discourses on Womanhood in a Mayan Community

Eating disorders are generally considered "diseases of civilization" associated with Western obsessions with thinness. However, recent scholarship finds populations in developing countries increasingly at risk. This study examines body image among adolescent K’iche’ Maya women in Je'l Juyub', Guatemala, where new media and commercial influences are intersecting with indigenous cultural orientations that formerly did not emphasize narrow beauty definitions. Utilizing cognitive tests and round-table discussions among a sample of 35 K’iche’ adolescent girls, this study explores how K’iche’ girls grapple with competing discourses on womanhood and beauty. Though preferences continue for “normal” body types seen as healthy, weight and shape concerns linked to celebrity images are growing in tandem with commercial markets for diet and style products. The study highlights issues for eating disorders research in transitional communities encountering Western media and the commoditization of beauty.

Janet Eads, Illinois State University, 1-6

An Anthropological Perspective on Great Ape Captivity and Biomedical Research

As is well known, the living African Great Apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas) are our closest living relatives. And the placement of apes in zoos, and their use for entertainment value or medical research, is also common knowledge. In this paper I examine how—and why—humans have exploited these animals in spite of the many obvious morphological similarities and overlapping patterns of social behavior. I also ethnographically explore the “ape rights movement,” a loose confederation of individuals and organizations advocating the granting of technical legal human rights to many non-human primate species. I argue that those who choose to exploit apes for perceived greater human good are not simply “speciests,” nor are ape rights advocates the sole occupiers of the moral high ground. Rather, to be truly ethical beings we need to take into account our ability to tolerate cognitive dissonance, and to realize that culture—the acceptance as natural of illogical and even counterproductive beliefs—is also part of what it means to be human.

Jason Shepard, Missouri State University, 2-13

Towards a Typology of (Im-)Migrants in the US

Recognizing the possibility that a typology can easily become a stereotype that obfuscates, or worse, the tendency of public rhetoric and often policy to treat the diversity of migrants within the United States as a monolithic group that somehow exists beyond shared origins outside of the United States makes the development of a typology a necessary danger. Individuals cannot simply be classed as migrants and treated as a uniform entity. The structure of different migrant families, their motives for migrating, and the work, communities, and lives that they leave and come to must be considered if effective and sensitive policies and programs are to be developed for migrants and the evolving and escalating nature of migration is to be understood. A flexible and overlapping typology of migrants is a foundational step in this process. All typologies, taxonomies, and other systems of classification are artificial constructs, so, in an effort to avoid arbitrary or useless divisions, the question becomes one of utility. To create a typology distinctions must be made. What is the utility of each distinction? How do conceptual boundaries help elucidate a scenario or dynamic, what do they reveal and what might they obfuscate? It is with these concerns in mind, that this limited and provisional typology of contemporary migrants into the U.S. will be proposed. Far from being an exhaustive list, the typology is intended as an opening line in a dialog to produce a usable classification system that will aid in policy development, promote pluralism by raising awareness, and assist in the effective planning and efficient administration of programs and projects aimed at migrant and immigrant populations. Refinements and additions are needed, especially where such efforts can be supported by case studies and well developed theoretical models.

Jennifer Baldwin, Wheaton College, 1-4

The Evidence of Trauma: Substantiating a Theory of Personhood, Citizenship, and War-acquired Disability

With large numbers of soldiers returning with war-acquired disabilities, there is a critical need to understand the veteran’s disability experience, as well as the space that these soldiers, their bodies, and their lives occupy within the nation. Biomedical renderings of war-acquired disabilities fail to capture the social and embodied meanings associated with the experience of such disabilities. Trauma
theory offers a framework for structuring the experience of disabilities considered traumatic to both body and subjectivity. By attending to the body as an analytical category and site of embodied and discursive practices, this paper examines what counts as evidence of war-acquired disabilities and trauma when seeking to understand the veterans’ experiences of war-acquired disabilities, provide care to this population, and advance disability rights.

Jennifer Rideout, Jenna Ely, and Elizabeth Sobel, Missouri State University, 3-12

Contact-Period Shifts in Native American Exchange Systems: Obsidian Evidence From the Lower Columbia

European contact affected major shifts in Native North American exchange systems. Anthropologists widely argue that among Northwest Coast peoples, these shifts involved increases in the intensity, geographic scope, and elite monopolization of exchange. However, this dominant model is based largely on ethnographic and historical studies; a lack of relevant archaeological research precludes rigorous evaluation of the model. We begin to redress this gap through an archaeological analysis of remains from Cathlapotle, a Chinookan town site along the Columbia River (WA state), inhabited AD 1400-1830. Our study focuses on artifacts made of obsidian, an exotic stone Native peoples imported to Cathlapotle. We test the dominant model by comparing pre-contact and post-contact obsidian artifacts in terms of abundance, distance to geographic sources, and differential household access. Our findings lead us to refine the traditional model of contact-period exchange dynamics, and of related social and political processes, for at least this area.

Jennifer Thompson, Westminster College, 3-7

Social Boundaries: In Group and Out Group Status According to Body Modification Artists

This paper explores the creation and maintience of in group/out group boundaries and relationships through the process of body modification in a small town, midwestern tattoo shop. I will examine the structural and ethnosemantic categories that tattoo artists use to identify and understand themselves and various types of customers. I will also examine how the artists think about and categorize the various types of people without tattoos.

Jens Kreinath, Wichita State University, 2-4

Veiled Politics: How Women’s Veiling Challenge Turkish Secularism

In times of globalization and communication technologies, the media play a crucial role for public discourses and political decision processes in negotiating local issues. One such issue that in recent times drew public media attention was the debate on the appearance of veiled women in public institutions of Turkey As one of the most obvious and rigidly achieved markers of this project of modernity and secularism in Turkey, clothing reform forbid the display or wearing of any form of religious symbols in public office. From its rise to power, the wives of AKP politicians pushed the sensitive ‘button’ of veiled politics by presenting themselves ‘covered’ by head scarves during official state acts. The aims of your paper should be two: first, to voice the different religious and political agendas involved in the negotiations over the secularism of Turkish politics, and, second, to analyze the role of public media in commenting upon these legal and political negotiations in creating a public discourse. How have the media created a public discourse about this contentious issue, and how are these imaginaries used by various political agents constituted attempts to (in-)form public opinion?

Jessica Gergely, University of Lethbridge, 3-3

Performing Gozitan Festivals: Authenticity and the Effects of Tourism

Gozo’s open door culture is not something recently created; but is something that is in the line of being exploited by tourism since joining the European Union. Women still run lace out front of their door steps with other women in their village. A wandering tourist can also still see men carving wooden “bobbins” (spools for lace) and tailor-men working in their small shops off the beaten track. Gozitans give off a warm welcome and do not mind if the wandering tourist stops for a moment to watch. They understand it is Festa that is what has brought them to Gozo. Festa is a week long celebration of a community’s patron saint. But after the smoke clears from the celebratory fireworks tourists vacate the host community and return to an area of the island after fulfilling their desire of an “authentic” Maltese Festa experience. As the tourists disappear from the streets the local Festa continues early into the morning hours. My photo essay takes a look at Festa from a local view point and a glimpse of Gozo daily life.

Jessica Hopper, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, 3-3

Navigating the Space of Language: Authorized Language and Symbolic Power in Gozo

In examining the concepts of authoritative language and symbolic power we often look to one legitimate language placed at the top of a hierarchy that serves to marginalize all others, and in so doing, marginalizes its speakers. We look at subversive moments of resistance to challenge this structure, but more often than not, it would seem, this hierarchical structure of language is the one that prevails. It is important, therefore, to examine language spaces that serve as a counterpoint or a place where the hierarchy isn’t so black and white. The situational context of the dual language system of Malta provides just such juxtaposition, within which to study authoritative language, symbolic power, and strategies of condescension, as it is a place where the normal rules of language hierarchy do not apply. My research and field experience in Malta indicates that while English may be given primacy on a global level, the local reality gives legitimacy to Maltese. While strategies of condescension in the use of English abound, there are still ways to negotiate moments of power and meet in the middle.

Jim Sauls and Bryan Alvarez, Illinois State University, 3-15

“Hey, What’s That Big Grey Building Over There?”: The Changing Role of the Library in the Lives of University Students

ABSTRACT (150 words or less): In this paper, we present preliminary results of an ethnographic study of a Midwestern university library. This research is a collaborative effort between two undergraduate students, a faculty member, and a university librarian. Library administrators commissioned this study because of the changing nature of student research needs and study habits within today’s abundant information environment, and the need of a university library to keep abreast of these changes. While it is no surprise that “the book”—and students’ relation to it—is in a dynamic state of flux, the library as a repository of information and center for social-intellectual activity has been remarkably constant, in spite of many cosmetic changes and the advent of new media. We report our research design and our preliminary findings, and discuss them in relation to similar studies of university libraries at other institutions. We also connect our findings to larger social and pedagogical issues, such as how students use new information technologies for their academic work. This research is the beginning of an ongoing project, which will be used by this particular library to guide reforms and renovations.

Joe Fishburn, College of Wooster, 3-1

Religious Dimension of the Alien Contact Experience

Millions of people have claimed to have been contacted or abducted by aliens since the 1950s, yet this "exotic" Western Phenomenon is often overlooked as undeserving of serious scholarly study. The purpose of this project is to understand how personal narratives of alien abduction and contact shape the social and cultural reality of the witness. By focusing on religious aspects of the alien experience, Ihope to convince others that this phenomenon serves the same function as a religious experience, but is understood within a rational and secular cultural context. The alien contact experience serves as a religious experience as it touches on humanity's most fundamental concerns, and involves aliens in human creation, human existence, and the future of humanity. The contactee integrates aliens into understandings of ultimate reality and significant life-changing experiences.

Joel Zovar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2-12

Collas, Colonials, and Lacunae: Representations of Indigenous Political Agency in Bolivian Museums

Bolivia is a country whose majority population is Indigenous. This population has historically been oppressed and has occupied the lowest stratum of the social, political and economic hierarchy. Therefore, it is not surprising that museums do not address the agency of Indigenous peoples during the transformative colonial and republican periods (1533-1930) of the nation’s past and, instead, relegate the powerful, and political, Indian to prehistory. In this paper, I examine three museums in the department of La Paz: the Museo Nacional de Arqueología, the Museo de Tiwanaku, and the Museo de la Revolución. Each differs in terms of the voice of authority scripting the exhibitions, which vary in temporal focus. I examine the ways in which Indigenous peoples are represented, and interrogate the impact of lacunae in historical representations on the cumulative presentation of Indigenous identity. I suggest that omissions and misrepresentations in museums today have their origins in the Colonial and republican periods in which an “ideological space” precluded the category of the politically solvent Indigene and, instead, shifted Indigenous political identity solely to prehistory in order to legitimize the state. This “ideological space” remains unchallenged in Bolivian museums, suggesting the continuation of a colonial fiction that reduces contemporary Indigenous political momentum to an historical anomaly without antecedents much beyond the 1952 Agrarian Revolution, effectively severing the public’s perception of Indigenous political roots in antiquity. The implications of this situation on contemporary Bolivian Indigeneity are considered, especially in light of dramatic social activism, violence, and racism in the years leading up to and following the election of Bolivia’s first Indigenous president in 2005.

John Michels, University of Illinois at Chicago, 3-13

The Gentrification of the Canadian Countryside: Responses to Rural Development in the Almaguin Highlands

The deregulation of global capital, or neoliberalism (Harvey 2006), has led to the gentrification of portions of the Canadian countryside adjacent to large cities, creating new opportunities for capital investment by transforming working class spaces into residential and commercial zones (Smith 1998). It recasts the countryside from a place of work to a place of leisure (White 1996) as changing national priorities and international trade agreements make farming and industry less profitable; simultaneously, recreation and tourism emerge as development priorities. These changes generate tensions between tourists, farmers, developers, new residents, and long-term residents over proper uses and meanings of rural space. This shift from timber, mining and farming to touristic and recreational consumption indicates a shift from ‘extractive’ to ‘attractive’ models of development (Luke 2003). My fieldwork in the Almaguin Highlands in Ontario explores these issues, where as a result of a highway development/bypassing project and a rapidly changing rural economy, the social landscape is undergoing significant transformations. In response to these transformations, residents in the Almaguin Highlands have adopted various strategies to cope with the challenges they are facing in this new economy.

Jon Wagner, Knox College, 3-8

Economics, Narrative Cognition, and the Lower Paleolithic Revolution

Although popular lore has pictured the invention of fire, the wheel, or writing as pivotal innovations in the evolution of humanity, and paleoanthropologists have emphasized the transformative role of toolmaking, culture or symbolic expression, less attention has been given to the role of economics. This paper suggests that the replacement of hand-to-mouth feeding by an economic system in which food acquisition, distribution and consumption became discrete events, separable in space/time and regulated not by appetite but by social norms, was a key transition that has received surprisingly little attention in the literature. This transition in social behavior was a necessary concomitant of the life history changes evident in the fossil record of erectine hominids, and its role in the evolution of human behavior and cognition is sufficiently profound to give it the status of a major behavioral revolution.

Jonathan E. Reyman (first paper), Illinois State Museum, 1-1

Avoiding Spiritual Danger: the Illinois State Museum and Kohanim Project

NAGPRA alerted museum professionals to potential problems of personal danger such as spiritual contamination from the presence of human remainsin a museum or other institution. But it is not just Native Americans who must contend with this issue. Kohanim, members of the Jewish priestly class, also must deal with it. The Chicago Rabbinical Council has had an ongoing conversation with the Illinois State Museum about human remains at the museum’s facilities, and at other museums and institutions within the state that might be visited by Kohanim, including school children. The context of this conversation, the limits of the prohibition, and the implications for Kohanim and Native Americans, and possibly others, are discussed.

Jonathan E. Reyman (second paper), Illinois State Museum, 2-3

Pueblo Oral Histories and The Feather Distribution Project

Native American oral history is generally given equal empirical weight with scientific evidence to determine legitimacy of NAGPRA repatriation claims. Oral history certainly has value but not equivalent to scientific data. The Feather Distribution Project provides wild turkey, macaw, and parrot feathers free-of-charge to all 31 Pueblo villages in New Mexico and Arizona, 8,000,000+ feathers to date. The project is applied anthropology but is based on archaeological and ethnographic data. Ancient Ancestral Pueblo peoples ritually sacrificed turkeys and buried them with elaborate grave goods, sometimes greater in number and richer in content than contemporary human burials. Presentations to Pueblo villages about the project and the turkey burials elicit surprise that such practices occurred, denial of knowledge about them, but interest in them – one example of archaeological evidence exceeding native oral histories in richness of detail and time depth. Further implications of the archaeological record for Pueblo oral histories are discussed.

Joseph M. O'Neal, St. Edward's University, 2-14

Back to the Future: Saving the World One (Garden) Plot at a Time

This paper presents an ethnography of permaculture practicioners in Austin, Texas. Permaculture refers to sustainable gardening and farming, but it also provides a blueprint for transforming society from overconsumption and waste to one characterized by rationality, permanence, sound nutrition, locally produced food, and opting out of the consumer culture by choosing a sustainable lifestyle. Although permaculture writers and scientists often look to tribal societies for inspiration, the anthropological literature actually provides few extended studies of sustainability of subsistence activities. This study argues that permaculture fits best into the paradigm of revitalization movement.

Joseph Weiss, University of Chicago, 2-13

Rural Migrations and Pan-Native Selves: Native Rural-Urban Migration and Identity in Vancouver, B.C.

The urban Native population of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia has grown over the last half a century from 239 in 1951 to almost 50,000 in 1996, a trend mirrored in most major Canadian cities. This demographic explosion can be attributed primarily to a regular flow of Native peoples moving from rural reserve territories to urban centers (Frideres and Gadacz 2005:159-164). In this paper I interrogate the effect this essentially migratory process has on practices of and claims to Nativeness in urban contexts. Does movement away from reserves destabilize spatial associations between reserve territory, band affiliation, and a sense of Native identity? What conditions of possibility for new forms of Nativeness does this, and has this, long-term migration created? If, as Cole Harris claims, reserves have been the locus of Native space in British Columbia since the beginnings of colonization, bearing on every facet of First Nations life in the province (Harris 2002:xxi), what sorts of claims to “Native space” originate out of urban relocation? Focusing on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, I offer an example in which the destabilization of Native spatial identity that rural to urban migration creates has contributed to the emergence in the Downtown Eastside of claims to a “Pan-Native space” that organizes around a sense of common Nativeness rather than territorial or band affiliation.

Julie Fairbanks, The University of Akron, 2-1

Public, Social, Civic? Artistic Engagements in the Northwest Caucasus

How do artists see their roles in society? On whose behalf and to whom do they speak? For whose benefit and to what ends do they work? Based on fieldwork in the northwest Caucasus region of southern Russia, this paper explores the perceptions of local artists regarding their roles in society. On one hand, artists in Russia work on behalf of citizens and society, promoting communal revitalization, inter-communal dialogue or their own and their colleagues’ professional development. On the other hand, they also work in the name of the state. In fact, the line between these categories is often indistinct, as artists and writers maintain connections to other members of their communities and to the government as they create, perform and organize. Their situation is at once shared with artists in other parts of the world and uniquely shaped by the legacies of the Soviet Union, where social and public were often synonymous and the state was the primary sponsor of creative production. In the context of ideological and economic shifts in Russia, the paper examines the ways artists and writers are finding their places in the new milieu.

Junjie Chen, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2-6

Performing the Family Planning Project in Post-socialist China: State Productions, Village perceptio

Based on fieldwork in and around a village in northeastern China, this paper explores how villagers’ reproductive experiences have been entangled with ongoing processes of globalization and state transformations in post-socialist China. Over the past quarter-century, China has been notorious for its stringent birth policy. However, around the turn of the new millennium, the Chinese state became preoccupied with constructing an internationally acceptable image of modernity and has attempted to soften the image of its strict population policy as part of this broader effort. As a significant component of the nation's eager participation in the capitalist world economy, the government recently revised its national birth control policy—to provide rural women (the state claimed) with more "high-quality services" for their reproductive health. With this policy adjustment, the Chinese state hopes that rural citizens will become receptive to a more "scientific and progressive notion of childbearing," thereby producing “civilized” rural subjects who nevertheless remain willing to accept state-imposed birth control measures. This paper examines the ways in which the local government showcased its “humane” family planning project in a public event in summer 2005, and explores how villagers interpret such presentation as “sheer performance” and respond to the state’s recent birth policy through their actual reproductive practices. In so doing, this paper provides a case study of how global forces and state transformations are intertwined in complicated ways to control the human body by regulating reproduction.

Kaitlin Korbitz, University of Northern Iowa, 3-7

Body, Identity and Enculturation within the Tattoo Art Community

The emergence of body modification-specifically tattoo art and piercing- as a form of social deviance has transformed into a current cultural phenomena in the past decade. An ancient ritual, tattoo art and body piercing has symbolic as well as social significance and value in many cultures ranging from African signs of fertility and maturity to signifying Japanese criminals. Entrenched in symbolic significance and reflections personal as well as societal beliefs, the practices of body modification have spiked and plummeted in popularity in the United States. This study is designed to derive the social and personal implications of body art in the Cedar Valley area as well as explore tattoo and body piercing art forms in general. From understanding the weight of social standards in a smaller community (Cedar Falls) one can juxtapose the formation of identity and the effects of deviance of those practicing body modifications.

Kalimara Otto-Gentry, Grinnell College, 2-9

"Have You Seen Her?": Gendered Discourse and Agency in WNBA Game Commentary

This paper explores the influence of WNBA sports commentary in framing how the television audience both views and interprets the game of womens basketball and the womens basketball player. This research builds on a study done by Vande Berg and Projansky (2003) of the WNBA inaugural season in 1998 that compared WNBA games to NBA games in terms of the types of narratives, or brief story lines, which appear in the sports commentary. Ultimately, their study identified gendered narratives that were specific to WNBA games. For my research, I drew upon the list of narratives first identified by Vande Berg and Projansky (2003) and used that modified list as the template for coding and analysis. The data analyzed consisted of transcriptions of eight nationally televised WNBA games of the 2008 season. My findings indicate that despite progress from its beginnings, almost 11 years later, gendered narratives in WNBA game commentary remain a prevalent feature of sports commentary. The WNBA player is inaccurately framed by the commentary as having a tiered identity, as a woman first and an athlete second. These gendered narratives present the player in the televised game in primarily nonathletic roles as heterosexual romantic partners and as mothers.

Karolyn Last, Illinois State University, 3-15

“I Don’t Know” By Itself Is Just Not Enough: Saving Face Through Obfuscation

In this paper I argue that people from different walks of life have very occupation-specific ways of linguistically expressing doubt or lack of knowledge. In particular, I look at how one single notion—“I don’t know”—is manifested by members of four different professions: physicians, journalists, professors, and students. Data is presented from interviews with participants, using situation-specific questions, as well as from observation. I show that each group has their own ways of expressing this idea, usually without specifically saying the actual phrase “I don’t know.” I argue that obfuscation occurs in most cases for at least two reasons: (1) speakers generally desire to save face or pride, and (2) speakers in each of these roles are placed in a position such that admission of lack of knowledge could have dire social or professional consequences (e.g., a failing grade for a student, or a patient’s loss of confidence in a doctor). I relate this to general theories in sociolinguistics, such as performance and politeness and speech act theory.

Kasia Minor, College of Wooster, 3-7

The College of Wooster's Students' Understanding of Organ Donation

This paper is the result of my Independent Study rsearch with the student population at The College of Wooster, a private liberal arts college in Ohio. My research explores whether or not College of Wooster students believe in donating their organs and how this relates to how these students view the world. My results revealed important differences in their responses based on race, ethnicity, and religious beliefs. Overall, their responses reflect their perceptions of the role of a responsible individual in the contemporary world.

Kate Grim-Feinberg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2-6

Rituals and Staged Performances of Cow Branding in a Peruvian Agricultural Community

This research addresses how children in an agricultural community in highland Peru learn to position themselves within networks of power as they participate in two annual events organized and mandated by local families, the community, and the state. Early June cow branding rituals (herranzas) are rooted in pre-Hispanic mountain cults, and coincide roughly with national Farmworker Day (Día del Campesino, June 24), in which children portray themselves as farmworkers, performing the herranza along with other local customs and dances in the town square. Through an analysis of video and audio recordings, photographs, and ethnographic data from participant observation conducted in rural Ayacucho, Peru in June 2008, this paper examines how people negotiate the control and transmission of embodied knowledge in an indigenous agricultural ritual and a staged representation of that ritual, and how these events teach children to conceptualize their relationships with their families and community; their animals, plants, and “guardian” mountains, and their nation.

Katerina Friesen, Wheaton College, 2-17

“Prayer and Feasting: Ritual Modification and Transformation among the Kalanguya-Ikalahan”

The Kalanguya-Ikalahan are an indigenous people’s group from the mountains of Northern Luzon, the Philippines. The Christians of the Kalanguya-Ikalahan community in which I conducted my research are currently renegotiating the rituals (baki) practiced by their traditionalist forefathers and mothers. This paper explores two contrasting community responses to the now seldom-practiced baki: Christian prayer services (gimong), and recently initiated modified rituals. For the latter, I discuss attempts by aspiring tribal elders to mobilize a cultural movement through the revival of pre-Christian traditional ritual symbols and procedures. Apparent gaps and contradictions in these newly modified rituals significantly alter earlier ceremonial meanings and purposes, considered by the older elders as the essential elements of baki rituals. Therefore, despite the aspiring elders’ purposeful adherence to and preservation of ritual symbols and structures, the rituals they conduct fall short of reproducing past ritual meanings. I propose that conversely, the Christian prayer services maintain and generate cultural meanings significant to the entire community. Though they do not utilize past forms, community members consciously connect Christian prayer services to old and new meanings. They see the services not simply as a replacement of “traditional” cultural practices, but as a way of continuing, transforming, and redirecting their culture. I thus argue that people create and maintain culture through their choices for change, and that culture is defined more through these choices than by past forms and practices.

Katherine Lauth, Oberlin College, 3-6

Resistance in the Hills: Intersections of Gender, Sense of Place, and Activism in Southern West Virginia

The coal industry has dominated West Virginia’s natural and cultural landscape for the past 150 years. Since the development of the railway system, outside interests have exploited the state’s land and people to gain control of the region’s rich coal reserves. Technology has accelerated the process of extraction and decreased the need for human labor, most recently with the practice of mountaintop removal (MTR). Infiltrated water supplies and dust caused by blasting have led to increased health problems for coalfield communities, and the environmental damage is threatening the region’s subsistent way of life. The majority of the population is directly or indirectly dependent on the coal industry for income, making opposition uncommon. However, there are environmental justice groups organizing against MTR, and the majority of the activists involved are women. There are several reasons for this trend, ranging from the practical to the political. Women’s social roles are more often confined to the home, giving them more time to interact with community members and organize. In addition, more women, and especially single women and widows, are not reliant on the industry for their livelihood. Similar to women’s participation in other environmental justice movements, many activists claim that their roles as mothers and caretakers call them to activism. This paper examines why women have organized in greater numbers than men, considering the gendered social roles of Appalachia, women’s relations to the coal industry, and senses of place.

Katherine Wiley, Indiana University, 1-8

Transitioning from Slavery to Citizenship: Negotiating Civil, Political, and Social Rights in Mauritania

Slavery was officially declared illegal in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in 1980. Since that time, although many groups have argued that remnants of this institution persist, the Haratin (former slaves) have been negotiating their civil, political, and social rights in the larger polity. When considering this process, it is useful, therefore, to employ T. H. Marshall’s (1998[1963]) rights-based model of citizenship; however, the Haratin example challenges some of Marshall’s premises, particularly his disregard for how factors including race and ethnicity affect people’s experiences of citizenship and his implication that rights are gained in a particular order and a peaceful fashion. Renato Rosaldo’s (1997) model of cultural citizenship is also a useful tool in considering how Haratins supported their claims for rights; however, their experience also challenges some of the premises of this model, particularly its assumption of homogeneous ethnic groups. This paper, then, will consider how the Haratin experience of claiming civil, political, and social rights up through the 1980s not only complicated some elements of Marshall’s and Rosaldo’s models of citizenship, but also how it has contributed to the redefinition of the meaning of full citizenship in Mauritania.

Kathleen C. O'Brien, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 3-6

Gender and the Politics of Evangelical Indigenous Religiosity in highland Ecuador: Implications for Feminist Anthropology

My paper utilizes preliminary field research to explore the ambiguous relationship between feminism and global Christianity (and the narratives of modernity they each entail) in the context of a multi-generational indigenous evangelical movement in highlands Ecuador. I posit that the efforts of some local leaders of the second generation of converts to re-interpret the Bible and missionary doctrine to square both idealized indigenous and Christian gender relations with Western feminist ideas of “gender equality” point to the emergence of a particular kind of indigenous feminism not adequately addressed by either feminist anthropology or the anthropology of Christianity. By “indigenous feminism” in this case I refer to an “underground” kind of feminism wherein women who may not self-identify as feminist further a critique of male domination informed by indigenous epistemologies as well as a deep commitment to being good Christian subjects. I suggest that these challenges emerging from within the unlikely space of evangelical Protestantism and the various “modalities of agency” they entail (see Mahmood 2005) offer important interventions to feminist theory. They enable a further complicating of the analytical category of feminism to account for the various manifestations and challenges of indigenous Third World women’s activism and experiences.

Kathryn Fay, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1-5

Collaborative Communities and Boundary Dissolution in CyberSpace

Research at the National Historic Site of New Philadelphia, Illinois, has gone far beyond the typical practice of archaeology by attempting to become fully engaged with the local and descendant communities. As a new phase in this initiative, changes are being implemented to the project website in order to reorganize currently published information and to provide a more accessible location for forthcoming research results. This initiative is bringing the New Philadelphia website into the “new world” of interactive internet programs by creating a more user-friendly and collaborative space for the exchange of information and ideas. This increased accessibility will allow for greater personal participation in this community-based project. This paper will present the current stage of this project, as well as the proposed ideas of all those collaborating, including archaeologists, historians, genealogists, descendants, and local community members.

Katie Szymanski, Illinois State University, 1-6

Certified Organic: An Anthropological Study of the Organic Movement in Central Illinois

This paper is a study of how organic certifications are affecting small organic farmers in central Illinois, and asks whether organic codes and regulations benefit or hinder them. The recent demand for safe “certified organic” food has led to an increase in regulations on how food is made and distributed. However, this is a complex process for consumers, producers, and regulators alike. For example, what exactly makes food certifiably “organic,” and how does industrial agriculture now affect what was once a relatively small niche of the agricultural market? I examine such questions ethnographically by conducting interviews with (1) small organic Illinois farmers, (2) consumers of locally supplied food, (3) consumers of non-locally supplied food, and (4) private certified organic organizations. I will also talk to participants and organizers of local farmers markets. I argue that these previous local and grassroots movements will now have to become more knowledgeable and aware of global trends and markets to effectively compete in an increasingly competitive “organic” arena.

Katja Pettinen, Purdue University, 1-3

Practices of Thinking and Feeling

Various concepts have been brought forth in social theory In order to address limitations of a mind – body dichotomy, one of them being the term embodiment. On a most general level, the term embodiment can be used to refer to the overall presence of the body, and bodily knowledge in the realm of the social. In this paper, I explore notions of embodiment, bodily knowledge, and a semiotic notion of mindbody, in the context of such daily practices as bicycling. I consider the use of bicycle as a form of transportation where mindbody is a central instrument of movement. In such physical operations we can consider how this movement is operated through bodily kinesthetic knowledge - knowledge that is inherently embodied - not simply by superficial “cognitive decisions.”

Kay Shelton, Northern Illinois University, 2-5

Social Networking in Facebook: Sharing Comfort and Thoughts Following Tragedy

The ways in which many college students interact are changing in the United States and elsewhere. Through social networking Web sites such as Facebook, college students can now communicate to 50,000 friends or more, all at the same time. As people connect their social lives more through technology, college students and others turned to social networking sites such as Facebook in times of tragedy, to share messages of comfort and solidarity. Following one tragedy, the leadership at one university considered tearing down the building where it happened. Hundreds of students gathered on Facebook, organized, protested, and presented a petition to the administration. The university then gathered opinions in forums open to everyone on campus about the building’s fate. One student-run newspaper reporter lamented that only handfuls of students attended the public forums yet over 5,000 students sent e-mail messages with their opinions. Instead of images of students holding picket signs of the past, with recent technologies, students participated in university activities without a physical presence, yet affected the outcome. The university administration reversed its decision about the building. This study will explore the use Facebook by college students and others following campus shootings and terrorist attacks. Lenses for the study include unobtrusive observation on publicly available sections in Facebook with a theoretical framework based upon L. S. Vygotsky’s Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). Unfortunately, tragedies are a part of the human experience and implications for college administrators and other leaders will be explored.

Kellie J. Hogue, Indiana University, 3-6

“She is a rough and wild creature”: Narratives of Native Female Resistance in the Jesuit Relations

While some native women sought to receive instruction, baptism, and a new name from their encounter with the Jesuit priests who visited them, a significant number of native women actively resisted conversion. Labels such as “proserpina,” “megera,” “warrior woman,” “tigress,” and “she-devil,” were applied to females who found creative ways to avoid the influences of an imposed religion that could sever the close bonds of a kin relationship with a husband, mother, sister, or brother. One woman whose husband had converted and threatened to leave her unless she received instruction was characterized as a “rough and wild creature.” What types of acts did native women engage in and how were these acts interpreted as formal or informal resistance? What kinds of strategies did native women utilize to promote and sustain the maintenance of cultural values in the context of a contact experience that insisted upon the erasure of native identity? What were the consequences of the acts and strategies of resistance for native women? As part of a larger survey that explores the experiences of native women recorded in the Jesuit Relations, this paper draws upon anthropological theory and ethnohistorical methods to examine accounts of native women attempted to reject Christianity.

Kevin Courtwright, University of Central Missouri, 2-9

The legacy of Roosevelt's Tree Army

"The Legacy of a Roosevelt’s Tree Army" is a discussion of on-going archaeological work on a Civilian Conservation Corps camp of the 1930s. The CCC functioned as a means to provide work for unemployed men, and to preserve natural resources, during the Great Depression. During the years that the CCC camp near Warrensburg, Missouri, existed, it created hope for the future of Johnson County, and remains today a vital though ignored artifact. Preliminary investigations into the history and documentation of this camp reveal a complex association between the camp and the surrounding community, and demonstrate the importance of the site to local and regional history. Though initial information about this camp was limited, through archival research and the collection of historical documents, a clearer picture of the lives of the men in the camp emerged. The researcher will also discuss plans for archaeological excavation at the CCC camp site.

Kristen Waymire, Wichita State University, 2-4

The Dynamics of Gender Ideology of Hamas

The West has often approached Hamas within an Orientalist perspective. As Said established in his seminal work, Orientalism is a form of discourse that is based on and maintained by the distinction made between “the Orient” or “the Other” and “the Occident” (Said 1979: 2). It is seen as monolithic and static. However, careful analysis reveals that the movement is flexible and fluid. Hamas actually provides its own discourse that offers an ever-changing framework of identity formation. By one merely labeling the group as a "terrorist" organization, the potential for comprehensive analysis is not only undermined but is reduced to focusing on the group’s actions and doctrinal aspects of its charter. Although some scholars have begun serious in-depth studies and research into the Islamic Resistance Movement as a dynamic group within a broader context of socio-economic and cultural factors influenced and generated by the Nakba and subsequent Israeli occupation, the gender ideology of Hamas as well as other Islamic movements has been greatly ignored. As Islah Jad, a Palestinian scholar who is an associate professor at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank as well as one of the founders of the Women Studies Institute at the university, states in her article entitled "Between Religion and Secularism: Islamist Women of Hamas" that not only has the gender ideology of Islamic movements been sketchy but that also the women militants and their role(s) have been neglected in the study of Islamic movements (Jad 2005:172).

Lance Larkin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2-2

The Politics of the Burning Man Arts Festival: The Art of Performing a Gift Economy

The Burning Man Arts Festival is an intense, experiential, annual celebration of art that provides a blank slate where thousands of artists create unique and imaginative artwork. Focusing more on the existentialism and experience of the viewer rather than the permanence of the art, Burning Man is one of the largest temporary collections of art in the world. This city-sized exhibition occurs in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada for one week, where day temperatures reach 100+ degrees and dust storms often sweep across the large open space. Commercialism is not allowed at the event so all materials for survival (food, water, living accommodations, etc.) must be brought by participants. The harsh desert environment combined with the communal sharing of artistic expression influences people to think beyond materialism, encouraging the “gifting” of their skills and services to build community amongst strangers. The anti-commercial event and the harsh environment pushes some participants to question capitalism and the expected reciprocity of gift-giving beyond the boundaries of the event. As a result, after Hurricane Katrina some participants returned – bringing skills of living in inhospitable surroundings and an attitude of gift-giving without the politics of reciprocity – to help people rebuild in New Orleans. When examined as a rite of passage, the liminal performance of the festival resulted in a space where Burning Man attendees questioned assumptions that only bureaucratic organizations can help others. Re-incorporation to our consumer society motivated them to roll up their sleeves and get to work.

Lanette Mullins, Ivy Tech Community College, 3-15

The Changing Face of American Educational Institutions

There has been a growing trend among recent high school graduates and non-traditional students to choose a community college rather than a traditional 4-year institution. This growing trend has made Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana (colleges are throughout the state) the largest college in the state of Indiana, as well as the lowest tuition. Students can achieve an Associate degree with transferable credits to most colleges in Indiana. The purpose of this investigation/study was to examine this growth and why high school graduates are moving toward faster technical degrees, rather than the longer traditional 4-year degree. 100 Ivy Tech Community College, Northwest Region, Valparaiso Campus students from Liberal Arts course were served to discern demographic information: age, economic background, educational background, high school GPA, career choice, and gender. Students were then asked focus questions about why they chose a community college/technical college v. a traditional 4-year institution. All survey's were anonymous Preliminary research suggested that recent high school graduates sought out Ivy Tech not only because of the cost, but because with the technical degrees offered, students are in the workforce much sooner, allowing them to achieve financial goals, rather than slower traditional methods. Also, it allowed them to pursue an education while in their current career or jobs. This trend of the last decade points to economic changes and concerns for current high school graduates, but also a change in interest - specifically that students are more interested in the career and financial security that that career offers, rather than the prestigeiousness of the institution from which such degrees would have been traditionally received from. Further, this suggests that the traditional 4-year institution may be less attractive to future high school graduates thus, possibly setting a trend in a powerful movement to community colleges.

Laura Blum-Smith, Oberlin College, 2-13

Nations and Immigrants: Immigration in American and Canadian National Identities

Although America and Canada have each been called a "nation of immigrants," this characterization is now contested by recent scholarship. Nonetheless, "nation of immigrants" reveals something profound and complex about American and Canadian history as well as their respective national self-conceptions. Both countries have had complicated relationships to their incoming foreign populations. A mix of pride and guilt has shaped the discourse about current issues related to "racial," ethnic, cultural and linguistic difference. This paper examines American and Canadian immigration policy and discourse and compares the way the interplay between immigrants and national identity has evolved over time. By doing so, it attempts to understand some of the current tensions and debates about the way that the concepts of "nation" and "belonging" are imagined in each country.

Laura Yakas, Kenyon College, 3-16

The Traditions of Holy Week and the Perceptions of the Community, in a rural Honduran town

This cultural anthropology field study was conducted from January to May 2008 in the two rural towns of Pueblo Nuevo and Petoa, in Santa Barbara, Honduras. These two towns are within ten minutes walk from one another. Petoa has been a settlement since early pre-colonial times, whereas Pueblo Nuevo is a recently developed town right off the highway that connects the two largest urban centers in Honduras. Both Pueblo Nuevo and Petoa are mestizo, or communities of integrated Spanish and indigenous decent, however Petoa, having a longer history, has a population with very strong familial bonds and ties to the area. Contrastingly, Pueblo Nuevo is newer, and the population more transient, and less established. To gather information I employed snowball sampling, unstructured, semi-structured, and structured interviews. The focus of this research was the celebrations and traditions of Holy Week. There were conflicts between two types of traditional celebrations that took place simultaneously, those of the “church” and those of the “town” - which local people informed me were different. There were typical Catholic ceremonies and processions undertaken by the delegates of the churches and devout Catholic community members, and traditions that have supposed indigenous roots and involve dance, costume, and the disorderly behavior. Through discussion with informants, reasons for these conflicts were explored, and the purpose of this paper is to convey the nature of the two conflicting traditions, as well as the opinions and perceptions people have about them and the future of Holy Week.

Lauren Anaya, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1-4

Where’s the “Proof”?: the Absence of "Evidence" as a Theoretical Construct in Legal Anthropology

Conversations about evidence are notably absent from legal anthropological projects that focus on what happens in the courtroom. This is peculiar when one considers the emphasis placed on evidence by legally-trained persons, especially in the courtroom venue. Using published journal articles and books, I will investigate theoretical claims regarding the concept of evidence proffered by legal anthropologists. I will also interrogate various uses of evidence by legal anthropologists who are doing work in the courtroom, with a specific emphasis on the role played by evidence in the production of knowledge. I argue that legal anthropologists need to give serious consideration to the concept of evidence and reevaluate the role that evidence plays in their own work. By engaging with evidence, legal anthropologists will be better able to communicate with law-makers, judges, lawyers, and other legally-trained persons. Such communication is necessary if we want our work to be read.

Lauren E Miller, Indiana University, 2-1

Volunteerism and Capoeira

Having arisen out of African martial, musical, and dance traditions and taking root in the fertile soil of Brazil´s senzalas (slave quarters), the Afro-Brazilian martial art capoeira has today become an international phenomenon. The art attracts a diverse group of practitioners with respect to age, religion, race and nationality. However, a certain subset of this population is taking their participation to extremes. They are not only learning the traditional language of capoeira, Portuguese, but going on pilgrimages to Brazil for upwards of a year or more. This work takes as its focus the negotiation of legitimacy between local and foreign capoeiristas in its traditional home, Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. Bourdieu has shown that legitimacy is achieved within social fields based on an individual´s propensity to act in accord with preset standards. In this line of reasoning, legitimacy in capoeira would be confered to those individuals who most closely adhered to the proper form. However, in practice, other characteristics are far more important within the capoeira community. According to both foreign and local capoeiristas, charismatic factors trump skill and form. And while these two groups agreed on the importance of most charismatic factors, interviews with 25 capoeiristas revealed one glaring and unexpected exception. Brazilians and foreigners differed significantly in their feelings about the importance of doing volunteer work in Brazil, which is the primary focus of this paper.

Laurie Rush, US Army, 2-7

Archaeologists Working with the Military

During the early years of the US invasion of Iraq, the US Military was criticized in the global press for damaging Mesopotamian archaeological sites like Babylon. In order to prevent further damage, deploying personnel need to be educated about these properties. The only people qualified to provide this information are archaeologists, many of whom trained originally as anthropologists. In September of 2008, the Senate ratified the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property during Times of Armed Conflict. This treaty law further obligates the Department of Defense to minimize damage to archaeological sites within their areas of responsibility anywhere in the world. Cooperation between archaeologists and the military is critical if we are to meet these goals, and the potential benefits, not just for host nation citizens but for the global community, will far outlast the times of conflict.

Leslie Cofie, Case Western Reserve University, 2-13

The Health Phenomenon of Black Immigrants in the US

Research findings have consistently demonstrated that racial/ethnic minority groups, particularly African-American, in the U.S. have poorer health outcomes in comparison to white American groups. Moreover, existing evidence reveals that black immigrants have better health status than U.S.-born blacks. Proposed explanations for why black immigrants have better health status than African-Americans include (1) immigrant selectivity hypothesis, (2) the context of immigration, and (3) identity formation. However, these justifications offer incomplete understanding of the unique characteristics of black immigrants that help generate the higher health status within this population, compared to African-Americans and other subsequent generations of black immigrants in the U.S. A structural-constructivist approach is used to explore alternate explanations that will further expound the reasons for the superior health status experienced by black immigrants. This paper suggests that protective factors shielding black immigrants from negative health outcomes are shaped by the constrains of their current social structure. Further research is needed to determine why these protective factors have either deteriorated or disappeared in later generations of black immigrants.

Linda L. Giles and Monica Udvardy, Illinois Wesleyan University, 2-12

Doing the Right Thing: Museums, Mijikenda Ancestor Statues, and Repatriation--A Case Study

This paper will examine the roles of museums in acquiring, exhibiting, and repatriating Kenyan Mijikenda memorial statues (vigango). We examine how American museums acquired vigango (which are usually stolen from Mijikenda families). We then discuss the reactions of museum personnel when confronted with evidence of vigango theft, including that of two musuems which were asked to repatriate two stolen vigango whose Mijikenda owner was documented. The evolving role of the National Museums of Kenya in requesting and implementing this repatriation, including providing assistance to the victimized family, will also be examined. Lastly, we will discuss the reactions of other American museums to this repatriation, including voluntary offers to repatriate vigango in the promotion of social justice.

Lisa Bintrim, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1-2

We're From the West, and We're Here to Help: Discourse in Volunteer Narratives

International volunteers are one of the most visible and enduring forms of foreign development assistance in Africa. Yet both the concept of international volunteering and the volunteer experience are largely absent in the anthropology of development. Anthropologists have yet to grapple with “international volunteer” as a social and discursive category as they have done with such related categories as “development worker” and “tourist.” Preliminary research on volunteering in Malawi, however, suggests that the international volunteer is a problematic category. Local community members and Western volunteers may have competing constructions of the volunteer identity, including what the criteria are for being a volunteer (as opposed to another category of foreigner) and what discursive meanings are attached to international volunteers. In this paper, I will explore “international volunteer” as a discursive category by examining how the volunteers construct their identities and experiences in narratives. Through an analysis of published narratives from Western volunteers, I will demonstrate how these narratives employ discourses of morality, Africa, and development. Moreover, I will argue that the discourse and rhetoric of volunteer narratives closely reflect that of pre- and postcolonial missionaries. Thus, I will suggest a link between Western constructions of the international volunteer and the historical Western hegemony in African development.

Mackenzie Loyet, Knox College, 1-1

The Maasai Interpretations of the Laetoli Footprints and the Effects of Future Tourism Development in Laetoli, Tanzania

Many historically significant sites throughout Tanzania are currently being threatened by a number of elements: natural erosion, climate fluctuations, vandalism, and simple neglect. In an effort to improve the cultural heritage management and conservation of the Laetoli footprints, the Antiquities Division of Tanzania has proposed the development of a new, on-site museum and research center. In this project, a series of interviews was conducted with Maasai individuals living around the Laetoli area to investigate the positive and negative effects of the future museum. It was found that while a new museum will bring more visitors and income to the region, it will also force many Maasai to move away. Opinions were mixed over this conflict, with roughly half the interviewees excited for the development and half displeased to leave the area. Overall, this Laetoli problem reflects a greater conflict between Maasai communities and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority.

Mary Benedetto, The University of Akron, 2-1

Como Caracoles; Barcelona Street Artists Leave Their Trail

In this paper I will be addressing how the laws governing and prosecuting the placement of art in public spaces in Barcelona, Spain have historically affected and are still affecting street artists, their works, and the once-legendary community of art makers in Barcelona. Having recently interviewed a small but important number of the most prominent street artists still living in Barcelona I have a deepening understanding of how the political and cultural milieu of Barcelona is imprinting itself into the larger notion of what it means to be an urban-based artist circa 2008. Some of the main topics I will be addressing include why street artists are still choosing to do art in Barcelona despite toughening laws and what should be allowable in public space. Given the visual specificity of my ethnographic research, I plan to weave in insights from the field of visual anthropology, as well.

Meghan Sarah Harrison, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, 1-8

Seeing the light in CSI: co-construction in law, science, and society

Based on my field research in a county courthouse, this paper focuses on interactions thought to be influenced by the CSI effect. The CSI effect can be described as conflict derived from inaccuracies between media portrayals and real-time procedures. In particular, the CSI effect plays a large role in discussions of evidence which require laboratory analysis, like DNA. While the CSI effect is commonly described in negative terms, this research demonstrates its presence also plays an important role in adapting court house proceedings to shifting social perceptions of legal procedure. Because of this, conflicts caused by the CSI effect can be interpreted as a positive sign. Such contention marks the ability for county courthouses to reflect concerns and meanings created in the daily life which exists outside of courtrooms. The shifting interpretations of evidence, miscommunications, and arguments surrounding the CSI effect are invaluable for understanding how law, science, and society are engaged. For DNA evidence, the CSI effect demonstrates how people actively engage differences in knowledge to provide their personal positions with greater power.

Melinda Bernardo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1-4

Who's a Jew? Standards of Evidence and The Jewish Agency for Israel

Who is a Jew? While it is an age-old question, it is one that continues to drive heated debate. This paper is an effort to challenge the seeming naturalness of the category of Jewish, one which is frequently relied upon by the Jewish Agency for Israel, known in Hebrew, the Sochnut. In this paper I will evaluate the Agency's standards of evidence for Jewishness in relation to its decisions about the allocation of programming resources for its Zionist education and immigration information projects. I will argue that despite the Agency's seeming concern with Jewishness, its primary interests lay elsewhere.

Melony Stambaugh, Northern Kentucky University, 2-5

Connecting the Dots: Interlocks Creating Networks in Social Services

Social Networks in Non-profit organizations are formed through the interlocking of key members of the organization. Through these interlocks or connections, a network is formed linking the organizations to each other and creating the means to create bases of power, move money, and collaborate on projects. This paper shows examples of how a network can be structured and diagrammed.

Meredith L. Johnson, Indiana University, 2-17

Embodied Revitalization: Dance, Performance, and Cultural Revivalization in the Chickasaw Nation

American Indian cultural revitalization movements, like all cultural movements, work to create, maintain and negotiate notions of individual and group identity. These notions of “us-ness” are intensely tied to the ways the past, and the activities from which the past is evoked, are engaged. As one of 23 woodland groups residing in Oklahoma, the Chickasaw have actively and self-consciously engaged with the preservation and revitalization of cultural traditions in order to make cultural knowledge meaningful for every Chickasaw. Current cultural revitalization efforts focus on a variety of activities including language acquisition, sports activities, art and craft classes, and stomp and social dances. As an ongoing traditional cultural practice in many woodland communities Stomp and Social Dances are heavily imbued with individual and group identity. As a physical activity specific to woodland cultures it offers an opportunity to examine the link between revitalization and the body. For the Chickasaw, who maintain non-ceremonial public stomp and social dance grounds on tribally owned land, the preservation and performance of these dance forms is open to every tribal member. Currently, the Chickasaw not only organize monthly stomp dance activities on tribal land but also maintain a social dance performance troupe, the Chickasaw Dance troupe. This paper focuses on the range, limitations, and negotiations of Chickasaw Stomp and Social Dance revitalization by examining the bodily discourse of individual participants and how the very act of participating in this group cultural practice transforms a physical sense of Chickasaw-ness to a group sense of cultural continuity.

Michael Ryan, Binghamton University, 1-8

From pueblo street fighting to martial art;

To know how to fight with the machete, knife and the walking stick was a necessary part of Venezuelan male socialization up until the 1950’s when the use of this type of knowledge declined. Recent government sponsored promotion of local culture as part of an oppositional modernity to North American hegemony, has meant these once marginalized practices are now undergoing a renewed popularity. However, the ideologies and practices of these arts that treat the world as a hostile place, and the necessity of keeping ones knowledge of the art secret still shapes the practice and transmission of the art today. Drawing on a state sponsored workshop of local stick fighting methods foregrounds a process where the ideologies and perceptual schemas of looking at and acting in the world are shaped through physical training. Describing how local forms of stick fighting are taught as a martial art, I want to foreground how such concepts as the teacher –student relationship, keeping a 'closed habitus' or developing an attitude of ‘trading a blow for a blow’ are marginalized in favor of mass drills, invented rituals and diluted techniques geared towards producing a healthy body and loyal citizen.

Michael Todd Gross, Western Michigan University, 2-10

Obstetric Fistula: An Evolutionary and Biocultural View

Obstetric fistula is a maternal health condition that occurs at alarming levels in Nigeria. Indeed, one million females may be affected there (one in sixty women). Obstetric fistula is ultimately a product of the unique evolutionary history of the human species. The evolution of bipedal locomotion necessitated a narrow pelvis, while the evolution of a large brain resulted in encephalization. Consequently the human species is unique among the higher primates in experiencing a high rate of obstructed labor due to disproportion between the maternal pelvis and the fetal head. During obstructed labor involuntary uterine contractions continue, applying pressure between the fetal head, the soft tissues of the pelvis (i.e. the vagina, rectum, and bladder), and the mother’s pelvic bone. With the blood supply cut off, these tissues undergo necroses, and within days a vesicovaginal fistula (VVF) or rectovaginal fistula (RVF) has formed. Women with VVF or RVF continually and uncontrollably leak urine or feces down their legs and onto their clothes. As a result of the offensive odor they often face severe social ostracism, with the remainder of their life course being dramatically altered. Fistula occurs at a distinct intersection between ultimate and proximate biological forces and local cultural beliefs and practices. The widespread practice of early childhood marriage, purdah (wife seclusion), kunya (modesty or shame that surrounds childbirth), poor nutrition, endemic diseases, a crumbling Nigerian health care system, and the unique evolutionary course of the human species all contribute to the prevalence of this appalling condition in Nigeria.

Monica Santos, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1-4

Examining Evidence in the Anthropology of Performing Arts

This paper discusses the use of “evidence” in the Anthropology of Performing Arts. It takes off from Anya Peterson Royce’s discussion on an anthropological approach to the study of the performing arts. In her book, The Anthropology of Performing Arts: Artistry, Virtuosity, and Interpretation in a Cross-Cultural Perspective (2004), Royce seems to favour the use of biographical accounts and interviews with individual performance artists in the fields of dance, music and mime, as well as descriptions of healing rituals, to elaborate on and understand cultural constructions of concepts such as (but are not limited to) aesthetics, virtuosity and artistry. This paper examines this evidence in terms of the authority it seems to draw from, as well as the implications of the use of such evidence in doing cultural anthropology.

Muhammed Bilal Kenasari, Wichita State University, 2-4

Social Tension and Fear in Turkey: Exemplified by Imam Hatip Schools

Imam Hatip Schools originated during the first Turkish parliament’s reign. They are founded to teach religion as well as other subjects (mathematics, science, philosophy, foreign language etc.) all together in one school (Aksit 1991, Pak 2004). This, in turn, raised parallel to the Turkish urbanization. It changed rural conservativeness to urban conservativeness. I will argue that the Imam Hatip schools are the best example in producing modern Islam. However, Turkish secularists claim that they are the biggest threat for Turkish laicism, and they build a block against Turkish modernism. In my paper I will propose that this form of modernism raised through the Imam Hatip Schools goes beyond the horizon of these Turkish secularists who think only in binary confrontational terms and polemics. Based on my own experiences with Imam Hatip Schools I will provide some ethnographic insights in the working and organization of this educational institution.

Myrdene Anderson (first paper), Purdue University, 1-3

Making Sense of Senseprints

The emergence of our species left traces including literal and figurative 
footprints from 3 1/2 million years ago and handprints from 30,000 years ago. Beyond touch and sight, other senses configure the relationships between the human creature and its natural and cultural matrix. Language and culture enumerate the senses, among which language itself may be overlooked for its transparency. Other evidence elaborates the mutual mindprints between our lineage and its Umwelt 
inferred from various modeling systems. Contemporary discourse relies on metaphors 
informing our understanding of ourselves-cum-Umwelt, 'footprint' paramount among them. Indeed, the popular reference 
'ecological' or 'carbon' footprint indexes the habits of hands, minds, and money, not feet, 
and may have reached a saturation point regarding its capacity to nuance 
signification.

Myrdene Anderson Purdue University, and Devika Chawla, Ohio University, 1-7

Paths Not Taken, Cascades Aborted, and the Residual Life

The coauthors have collaborated for several years on a project braiding
 biography, autobiography, ethnography, and autoethnography.
 Specifically, Anderson and Chawla, inspired by 
Gregory Bateson, have
 indulged themselves in analyzing their mutual metalogues and other texts 
written by themselves and others,
 whereby the younger scholar might probe the life of the elder scholar,
 and to some extent, vice-versa. In the resulting open Rorschach of a
 life and lives, the role of memory, the issues of 
disclosure, and the
 compulsion to make sense, all conspire to problematize the project
 itself. In this paper, we ruminate and posit that 
any life narrative will be riddled
 with absences that, through markedness, might be foregrounded as
 presences. Insofar as one can bring into consciousness any paths not
 taken, any deflection from a compelling process, or any editing of voice
 not just for rhetorical purposes, but primarily for comprehension—these
 elasticities fuse absences and presences. Consequently, an infinitude of
 Peircean possibilities, probabilities, and actualities compete for
 articulation in a finite space-time.


Nataliya Semchynska-Uhl, Purdue Univesity, 1-3

Perspectives of Absence: Suggestive Representations of Virual Presence

Sometimes the absence of something (or somebody) can be as significant as its presence or may be even more noteworthy. The absence of something that should be present in the complete picture manifests stronger actualization of the absent object/subject in our minds. The absence of certain symptoms may help to diagnose a patient. The beep instead of a profanity word does not make it disappear from the context. A bag on a theatre seat or a jacket on a cubicle chair represents the virtual presence of a physically absent person. The choice of the objects which can function as such representations is culturally appointed and depend on certain traditions. There are some cross-cultural as well as ethnic specific objects which can be used in the representative function. Footprints and traces epitomize a type of representative objects. Humans are able to reconstruct the event flow decoding footprints.

Natasha Kipp, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 2-2

Eurasia and the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is a most paradoxical performance competition. Despite its name, the contest is not about music. It is about music as a popular-based political tool for visibility and acceptance within the more powerful unit of "Europe". Included for the first time in this competition was Azerbaijan, making 2008 the first year to feature all three newly independent republics of the South Caucasus-Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. While each country only represents itself, the relations between them acnnot be ignored and are often revealed, at least through the voting process. Due to serious territorial issues in Eurasia, I hypothesize that it is informative to analyze the three 2008 entries of the South Caucasus individually, and more importantly, as a unit. While we can see the choices and hear the statements of their government officials, Eurovision offers a glimpse into the feelings of its performers and voting public.

Nicholas Timmons, Kansas State University, 2-9

Afaan Oromoo Proverbs: Patterns Creating Worldview

Afaan Oromoo proverbs contain a bipartite poetic structure which makes them resilient storehouses for cultural information. This paper will trace how the poetic structural patterns of Afan Oromoo proverbs serve to create and recreate a worldview within Afaan Oromoo culture. It will use proverbs collected by both myself and Enrico Cerulli and will draw from three main works: The principles of meaning introduced by Donatus Nwoga to view Afan Oromoo Proverbs in a cultural context, the poetic analysis of Hausa proverbs by Tae-sang Jang to analyze their poetic structure, and the interactional theories used by Joyce Penfield, Mary Duru, and Frank Salamone to show how Afan Oromoo proverbs are used to perpetuate and manipulate behaviors and core values. This paper supports the hypothesis, proposed by Edward Sapir, that language shapes worldview. It suggests that a catalyst of this process is the poetic structures that create memorable phrases which are spoken frequently and passed on through generations.

Nilda Vargas, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1-4

Evidence of Human Rights Violations in Colombia

In recent years, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have expressed alarm about human rights violations against indigenous and afro-descendant communities in Colombia. These rural communities were forcibly displaced near the rain forest and the Arturo River on the Pacific Coast in the department of Chocó. The communities' narratives are evidence of how their culture has been affected by becoming an internally displaced population(IDP). This paper addresses why land and territory displacement is a violation of human rights, and how forced land displacement disrupts the ability of these communities to nurture their relationships as a community. This paper will examine how land and territory are significant in these individuals lives.

Nina Corazzo, Valparaiso University, 2-1

Public Eyesores: Displacements by Tadashi Kawamata

Japanese-born installation artist Tadashi Kawamata has become notorious internationally for his messy architectural accretions superimposed on various urban landscapes. He takes detritus like unfinished lumber, found objects, and scraps of metal from construction sites and crafts messy, higgelty-piggelty, flimsy squats in trees or onto buildings chosen for their cultural, historical, sociological, and/or sociological significance. This paper will explore how these unsightly works address urban poverty through their juxtaposition with public sites signifying privilege and power.

Pauline Spiegel, Indiana University, 1-7

Discovering the State in the Footsteps of Opposition: Participation and De-Legitimation in a Controv

During the conflict over the installation of a new Interstate in Southwest Indiana, the responsible government agency, the Indiana Department of Transportation, deployed its resources to generate the ideal of the state as a corporate, unified, and unassailable whole to represent a “state idea” (Mitchell 1991, Abrams 1988 [1977]). Protestors, however, fought back. In this paper I argue that there is no better way to track INDOT’s state-making efforts than to follow the objections of the highway opponents whom I was observing. Opponents perpetually engaged in trying to discredit INDOT’s process as it prepared the last and final environmental research report. Thus, while the government worked to construct the route in a manner that would support its own legitimacy, at the same time the opponents of the route attacked the legitimacy of the government’s position wherever they could. I follow the actions of opponents of new Interstate 69 (I-69) as they found and exploited cracks in state discourse. Activists argued that the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT)’s images and statements about the highway were simply wrong on a number of counts. When highway opponents pointed out where individual interests were personal, funds had been misused, or facts distorted, they were disrupting the boundary that the state maintained between its own interests and those of constituents. Activist statements disassembled and pointedly took apart the ambiguously encompassing entity that the state made for itself.

Phyllis Passariello, Centre College, 1-7

Our 'Other' Ourselves: Corpses and Alloanimals

Cross-culturally, the human corpse presents the living with a ‘brute fact’ requiring action. Dealing with the corpse activates dynamic behaviors between humans and their environment, which includes alloanimals, thus potentially leading into transspecies ideologies and interactions. These beliefs and behaviors can be part of the process toward meaningful resolution or at least mediation of the universal demands of mortality. Perhaps being human necessitates a ‘bio-moral’ attitude toward human remains. And, in some cultures, building walls against mortality includes as well a biomoral transference to alloanimals and even to their remains. In a parallel realm, this transference elicits special beliefs and behaviors regarding our alloanimal ‘shadow selves.’ This paper is a cross-cultural, ethnographic look at ancient and contemporary mortuary ritual, as well as related issues of animism, totemism and other transspecies connections, with specific reference to cultures of the Amazon Basin.

Rebecca Chan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2-12

From Pre-Contact to Present: Graffiti Mitigation at Bandelier National Monument

Graffiti mitigation within America’s National Parks raises various ethical dilemmas revolving around question of ‘What to preserve and for whom?’. By tracing the development of cultural resource management in the United States, specifically focusing on the National Park Service, this paper argues that graffiti mitigation at Bandelier National Monument reflects visitors’ expectations regarding the “authentic” National Park experience. Rather than creating a contrived, theme park-like environment, the author argues that Bandelier should be thought of as a palimpsest of a history of occupation and management reflecting cultural and social expectations and values from the pre-contact era to present. Therefore, in order to justify its practices, it is vital for the Park Service to incorporate this concept into Bandelier’s public interpretative programs and literature. These are issues that are not only relevant to the management of Bandelier National Monument, but are concerns that must be addressed from a theoretical and practical platform throughout the realm of cultural resource preservation and management.

Rick Feinberg, Kent State University, 3-8

Radial Frames of Reference in Polynesia: Taumako Systems of Spatial Orientation

Bennardo (2002) has argued for the dominance of a radial frame of reference in Tonga, one of the island groups where Polynesian languages and cultures first emerged. He makes his case by calling upon several lines of evidence: linguistic, psychological, and ethnographic. Although his conclusions for the most part seem compelling, he acknowledges the preliminary nature of his findings and calls for comparable studies elsewhere in Polynesia. This essay is conceived as a response to Bennardo’s call—it aims to elucidate the construction, conceptualization, and representation of space on Taumako, a Polynesian-speaking community in the eastern Solomon Islands. I argue that the Taumako embrace several distinct but overlapping systems for talking and thinking about space, and that the particular system employed in any instance is contextually driven. While concurring with Bennardo that Taumako systems of spatial representation are largely radial in orientation, however, I have reservations about calling their frame of reference “absolute.”

Ripan Malhi, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2-3

Genetic and Cultural Identities

Recent advances in molecular genetic technology have made it possible to assess the biological ancestry of individuals and populations. This technology has promoted the development of “Biogeographic Ancestry” tests by companies and has sparked debate in the academic community. The implications of these tests and technology will be discussed.

Robert R. Sands, Air Force Culture and Language Center, 2-7

Introduction to Culture, an Air Force Perspective

In March 2009, the Air Force will launch a first of a kind Distance Learning Introduction to Culture course to eligible enlisted Airmen. Hosted by the Community College of the Air Force and Air University, the course will be accessible to Airmen stationed anywhere in the world and will provide the foundational course in the development of cross-cultural competency in the Air Force. The concept of designing an introduction to culture course for a military population offers a unique opportunity to marry the theoretical (and culture general concepts) with a uniquely derived applied perspective of Airmen to promote a cultural competency that can immediately benefit a deeper and more meaningful awareness and sensitivity to foreign cultures. This paper will explore the concept of culture as it is presented in this course and how it initiates the development of cross-cultural competency.

Robin Konscak, College of Wooster, 2-17

Modernity, Tradition, and Rights: A conflict of the ages as viewed through Xhosa ritual circumcision

My paper focuses on the influence of modern globalization on traditional indigenous rituals and the tensions or conflict that results. Specifically I am looking at the ritual of ukweta. Ukweta is a circumcision ritual for amaXhosa males in South Africa aged 15 to 25 and is designed to prepare them for adulthood as well as unify and strengthen Xhosa identity. It involves seclusion with other initiates at a circumcision school, a local Xhosa surgeon, and no anesthetics. Traditionally, it is taboo for circumcised men to share anything about the ritual with those who are not circumcised. However, anthropologists have been able to gather sufficient information about the makeup of the ritual despite it being forbidden. Because I am concerned with the effects of globalization rather then the specifics of the ritual itself, my key interests are gathering first hand information that lends itself to the larger discussion of indigenous rights in a global society. Having had the opportunity to interview Xhosa men who have undergone ukweta, my paper provides a thorough, first-hand understanding of the complexities facing indigenous tradition in a modern world.

Rowan Steineker, Westminster College, 3-16

Social Relationships and Interactions Among the Residents of the “Presbyterian Manor”

Closed communities in which members have almost constant social contact with each other but limited social contact with outsiders, produce unconventional constructions of social relationships. This study examines the basic social interactions and relationships within the closed community of a nursing home facility. In particular, the focus is on how differentiated care-levels form basic social structures among residents and limiting the interactions between them. Despite these divisions the residents construct social relationships such as friendship very broadly and inclusively although their extensive social contact causes the expression of these relationships to be characterized more by physical togetherness than verbal communication. The research yielded in this study is based on a three-month field research project in which a variety of methodologies including participant observation, interviews, and surveys were used to collect data.

Rupal Satra, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2-10

The Space Around Sickle Cell Disease

Sickle Cell Disease (SDC) is a genetic blood disorder that is characterized by abnormally shaped red blood cells that loses their plasticity and overall ability to perform proper physiological processes. Subsequently, there are various health related issues that arise from early childhood that incur social, economic, and cultural implications. SCD is predominantly found in people, or descendants, from tropical regions where malaria was common such as South Asia and Africa. In the US, it has been estimated that 1,000 children are born each year with sickle cell disease, in which one in twelve African-Americans has sickle cell trait. Although there are have been many advancements in treating SCD symptoms, researchers have yet to discover a cure. As a result, children regularly endure visits to clinics, hospitals, and emergency rooms where they consistently interact with health care professionals to receive treatment. The following are narrative accounts given by pediatric sickle cell patients describing the physical space of a sickle cell clinic. From these reports, we can extrapolate and analyze patterns that elucidate their experiences living with SCD such as socio-economic effects, treatment perceptions, and practitioner-patient relationships.

Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz, University of Illinois at Chicago, 3-13

Transnational Labor, Local Strategies: Immigrant Busboys in Chicago

In spite of the evidence that Mexican immigrants in the United States have an iconic image as “hard workers” with “good attitudes,” the ways in which immigrant workers themselves reproduce and resist this image remains under-examined. Based on a year-long ethnographic study, my paper provides a micro-level look at how a group of immigrant busboys cultivate an image of themselves as “the best workers we have” at a Chicago-area restaurant. By promoting norms of hard work, willingness to work, teamwork, reciprocity, and flexibility, these workers struggle to attain a measure of financial security and social esteem in spite of their status as illegal immigrants. This paper focuses on the agency of undocumented workers as they combat economic uncertainty, nurture dignity and self-esteem, and cultivate and help sustain markets for their labor.

Sarah Baird, Centre College, 2-13

From Mineshaft to Mountaintop: Exploring Appalachian Folk Medicine

An examination of Appalachian folk medicine from a native anthropologist perspective, From Mineshaft to Mountaintop: Exploring Appalachian Folk Medicine delves into the inner-workings of modern day folk medicine practices and practitioners, the intersection of folk medicine with 21st Century modern medicinal trends and the future for folk medicine in Appalachian culture. Three specific sites are used for a comparative study: Asheville, NC, Clay County/Perry County, Kentucky and Johnson City, Tennessee.

Shan Fruehan Sandberg, University of Chicago, 3-2

The Five Stages of Romance: The Emergence of a Dating Culture Among Young Adults in Japan

Over the past decade, anthropologists studying marriage and other forms of romantic relationships in many different places around the globe have documented a trend away from an emphasis on social obligation and the reproduction of kinship systems toward a more “companionate” model of relationships based on notions of individuality and the concept of romantic love. In Japan, these shifts have been accompanied by the rise of a “dating culture” over several decades that differs in marked ways from more traditional courtship practices. Although some researchers have argued that such a dating culture has not fully developed in Japan, drawing on examples from popular culture (such as magazine articles, self-help books, and television dramas) and my own interviews with unmarried young women in Tokyo, I document some of the features of this dating culture and examine young women’s understandings of both casual dating and more serious romantic relationships. I argue that many young people in Japan today conceptualize their early adulthood as a period of romantic exploration during which they will form relationships with a series of people. In closing, I examine some of the implications of this and other changes in premarital relationships for the “marriage postponement” (bankonka) and “marriage drought” (kekkon kanbatsu) that have been alarming social critics and policymakers in Japan.

Shannon Dosemagen, Univeristy of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 3-13

Taking the Global to the Local: Researching Hip Hop in Milwaukee, Wiscosnin

This paper uses the fieldwork I have conducted as a Master student in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as a starting point for discussing issues of multi-sitedness, multi-vocality and the duality of privilege and neglect in my work. Globalization has been recognized as a powerful force in the shaping of Hip Hop culture, so I instead discuss issues of multi-sitedness within a localized context between the elements and ancillary groups of Hip Hop, the duality of segregation and diversity and the insinuated networks that are inherent to Hip Hop which become necessary in the ethnography of Hip Hop in Milwaukee. I discuss further issues of privilege and neglect within the examples of my role as a researcher and that of graffiti and rap music which explores the use of the term “Hip Hop” and how much of what we consider Hip Hop is now based on public definition.

Sherril R Miller, Purdue University, 1-7, 2-9

Transformative Instructional Communication

Transformative Instructional Communication (TIC) encompasses notions of change and movement from a management communication style in the classroom to that of a transformative, more cooperative system of communication that involves a dialogic, collaborative approach. A rigorous TIC methodology would enable college/university professors to assist first- and second-year college students to develop the critical and analytical thinking skills necessary to succeed in B.A. and B.S. degree programs. In secondary educational settings, TIC would allow teachers and students to engage, learn, and evolve, in more ways than the current public high school system permits. In addition to the acquisition of solid academic skills that would be demonstrated on State-mandated exit examinations, TIC would focus on helping teachers facilitate the development of personhood in high school students, a charge educators have been given in many school system under the guise of character development.

Stacey Enslow, Purdue University, 1-7

Turtle Mound: A Creation of Place and Memory

Members and visitors to an Intentional Community in SE Ohio have developed a reconstruction of an ancient Native American "animal mound". This paper explores this process of creation and the emplacement of ideologies and practices that reinforce memory and identity as intentional, physical acts. I will also explore how mobile communities create a "home" for identity and memory in landscapes that are 'borrowed' - as in the case of campers and festival attendees who use Turtle Mound as a place for scattering ashes of their beloved dead. These physical and affective acts of semiosis, of memory emplacement and reconstruction also effect the community whose homes are part of this landscape, highlighting a discourse between visitors and residents about 'ownership' of ideological and constructed shared meanings. I will also look briefly at the role the 'wilderness' in which Turtle Mound was built contributes to the process of emplacement and affect in community memories and meanings.

Stephanie May de Montigny, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, 2-3

Mark Raymond Harrington and John Reed Swanton: Defining Indianness in the Southeastern U.S.

Like other salvage anthropologists, Mark Raymond Harrington and John Reed Swanton approached Native peoples of the Southeastern United States with the purpose to document, preserve, and compare practices, beliefs, and objects that anthropologists thought were on the verge of disappearing. Harrington, in particular, collected Native objects for George Heye. Through text and photograph, Harrington and Swanton weighted their portrayals of Native groups like the Alabama-Coushatta of Texas and the Coushatta of Louisiana towards elements uncontaminated by European contact. While the resulting depictions pointed to cultural practices that other authors ignored, they neglected the complex processes of cultural contact, power, and cultural hybridization that faced Native peoples at the time. Harrington and Swanton both went beyond the use of existing written descriptions of Native peoples to visit and talk to individuals themselves. In that sense, they were among the pioneers of ethnographic methods. Yet both anthropologists tended to privilege male chiefs and leaders as representatives of their groups and otherwise typified Native men and women rather than depicting diverse and complex individuals. The depictions that Harrington and Swanton created of Native men and women followed, at least in part, European patriarchal views of gender relations. Yet, in spite of these limitations, the work of both scholars constituted methodological innovations and vital contributions to the body of knowledge concerning Native peoples in the Southeast.

Stephen Zolvinski, Miami University, 2-14

Where’s the rice? An exploratory investigation of Northern Thai homegardens

Ethnographers of rural Thai society generally concentrate on irrigated rice as the central feature of farming systems, while overlooking homegardens that provide useful products for, and reflect cultural meanings of households. This exploratory study in a northern Thai hamlet (2001-02) found 10 homegardens to be a rich source of biodiversity as a total of 185 plants were identified. The uses of plant products were documented for tangible and non-tangible dimensions of rural northern Thai culture. The author argues that ethnographers must expand beyond the cultural meanings of rice agriculture, and as this study shows, homegarden studies can contribute to a broader understanding of rural Thai society.

Steven Maas, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2-9

Rhetorics of Practice in Bilingual Classrooms in Wales

From the outside, the two national languages of Wales in Britain-—Welsh and English—-not only seem to co-exist, but to mingle peacefully. My field research, however, reveals local tensions as Welshpersons navigate this multilingual terrain on a daily basis. Teaching at state schools in Wales is hardly a political activity; yet, politics of language and of territorial resources both impinge on schooling environments—making primary schools the hot-point where linguistic, social, and political issues intersect. Questions about identity that Welshpersons raise in letters to the editor, pubs, and chapel vestries are not answered or set aside before they can reach the primary school classroom. Quite to the contrary, these questions take on a new sort of life when they arrive at classroom, lounge, and assembly hall every morning. In rural north Wales, where a high-proportion (60-90%) speak Welsh on a regular basis, teachers wrestle with how to influence pupils and whether they cross into “brainwashing”. This does not stop teachers from using terms like “drowning” for the immersion of children in a Welsh-language environment at these rural schools. This paper analyzes the rhetorics of practice that help to construct and sustain categorial frameworks of belonging via 1) the tacit, but pragmatic communicative choices teachers make during their interactions with children and 2) larger, school-organizational practices. This provides the foundation for interpreting the phenomenological sense in which everyday language practices come to symbolize the substance—life or death—of minority language communities like those in Wales.

Tabitha Kukes, University of Northern Iowa, 2-15

Early Burial Chambers in English Churches: Transition in the cultural meaning of prestige

Burial chambers are found within churches throughout England. Found underneath floors and within altars, they provide an alternate location to churchyards for high status individuals' burials. This paper analyzes how this trend arose in the seventh century and changed over the next 400 years. The focus of analysis is how society conceptualizes status and how this conceptualization is reflected in burial practices. Key variables are the treatment of decedent remains, the location of the burials, religion, and the key figures of King Edward the Confessor and St. Cuthbert.

Teresa Click, Wichita State University, 2-4

From Behind the Veil: Negotiating Images in a Midwestern Town

Without exaggeration it can be stated that in the Mid-Western States there is a strong perceived association between Arabic ethnicity and Islam. Within this context, Arabic and Muslim women are viewed as oppressed, lacking empowerment and marginalized. Wichita, Kansas is unique because of the numerous venues in which an individual is able to study the Arabic art of belly dance. Also unique to this community is the high number of American women studying the art in relation to the number of Arabic and Muslim women. Although the art form since its introduction to the United States in 1895 has been highly influenced by the American film industry and the feminist movement of the 1970's, it is seen as a symbol of Arabic ethnicity and is viewed positively as a protest against the perceived oppression of women by Islam. Based on qualitative interviews, I will explore the reasons why they have chosen to take belly dance classes in a public setting and how they identify with this particular art form. I argue that Muslim women who choose to study belly dance are using this as a symbolic means to negotiate the larger community.

Teresa Ramos, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 3-11

Managing Racism, Maintaining Space: A Student Ethnogrpahy of Racism at Illinois

This paper brings together critical race and women of color feminist theories in order to investigate issues of cultural citizenship at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. My research suggests that cultural citizenship hierarchies are maintained through racial gate-keeping and the development of the anti-racist racist- a person (or institution like the university)- with seemingly conflicting racial logics. It does so through an analysis of “Tacos and Tequila” a racial theme party, hosted by two national Greek Organizations, that mocked Mexican migrants in stereotypical ways. My preliminary research reveals that many racial definitions are made meaningful through a corporate multiculturalism in which diversity’s benefits are defined by the values of individualism, privatization, and liability. Examples of these ideologies are shown in the management of racist actions and the reasons given by the administration to the campus community for learning about “diversity” and tolerance.

Terri Ann Liller, Wayne State University, 1-2

Hidden from View: Locating Aging Lesbians-Methodologies Considerations

Referred to as the most invisible of an already invisible population, older lesbians have been ascribed a triple marginalized status relative to age, gender, and sexual orientation. Methodological considerations arise when conducting ethnographic studies of older lesbians including recruitment of respondents, underrepresentation of working-class and minorities, urban versus rural, the young-old versus those over 65, and the effects living in a heterocentric society has on one’s willingness to participate. Drawing on an anthropological research study of lesbian caregivers conducted during an upper level ethnographic methods course this paper echoes these methodological concerns and expounds on the current state of locating older lesbians. This paper reports on the methods of sample recruitment, explores ways of accessing this hidden population, and postulates the discovery of new methodologies as a conduit for understanding the lived experience of aging lesbians.

Theo Randall, Indiana University South Bend, 3-1

Religious Dynamism among the Lelna of Northwestern Nigeria

The paper examines the religious identity of the Lelna (Dakakari) of northwestern Nigeria. The Lelna represent a highly religiously diverse ethnic group in that some adhere to their indigenous (traditional) religious beliefs and practices, while others are either Christians or Moslems. This religious diversity of the Lelna conforms to Mazrui’s notion of Africa’s Triple Heritage. Mazrui’s Triple Heritage refers to the existence of traditional African, Islamic, and Western elements in contemporary African culture. This particular diversity of religious beliefs and practices of the Lelna occur as a result of both historical and political factors such as Christian missionary activity in the late nineteenth century and the presence of Lelna in a region heavily populated by the predominantly Islamic Hausa. Religious syncretism among the Lelna is discussed as well.

Thomas H. Johnson and Helen Johnson, University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point,, 2-9

The Marker Tree Controversy at Powers Bluff, Wisconsin

Native occupation of Powers Bluff goes back at least 1,000 years. The hill still has sacred value to the Ho Chunk, Ojibwa, Menominee, and Potawatomi. Between 1866 and 1936, an inter-tribal refugee community lived on the hill, now a county park in Central Wisconsin. The community practiced the Drum religion, a revitalization movement in response to white oppression. They also buried on the hill, now covered with maples and oak. Oral tradition claims that some of the trees were purposely deformed to mark graves and trails. This talk will examine both Native oral tradition and other explanations for the "marker trees" at Powers Bluff.

Thomas Walton, University of Minnesota, 3-10

They Don't Die: Doing Psychiatry in Urban Papua New Guinea

This paper offers some preliminary observations on the practice of psychiatry in the city of Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. During the late colonial period, health officials constructed the image of a stress-free native disoriented to the point of disorder by the processes of modernization and urbanization. However, in the postcolonial present, a form of triage has emerged that places psychiatry in a rather marginal position. Here I examine some of the arguments embedded in contemporary psychiatric discourse that recuperate the concept of stress in order to reframe understandings of mental illness as a problem. My initial findings suggest that the viability of psychiatric knowledge depends on the way in which it defines itself in relation to infectious disease and the potential for it to address anxieties about development and productive citizenship.

Tzu-kai Liu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2-2

Encountering Political Authority: Wa Buddhists' Expressions of Respect and "Nested" Social Hierarchy

This paper explores the honorific speech and social greetings in an encountering context where ordinary Wa Buddhists meet significant Han Chinese political authorities in the borderlands of China and Myanmar. The production and reception of the conventional Wa honorific speech provide a prism through which we can view the formation of Wa Buddhists' heightened awareness of relative positionalities under uneven power dynamics between the cultural and the political on China's southwest borders. Meanwhile, this speech genre involves not only public oratory and the moral values of respect and politeness, but also a performative representation of "nested" social hierarchy. Through selective and appropriate uses of pronouns and honorific emblems in the performance, the status of significant Han Chinese officials is marked, and their embodied state power is recognized through cultural expressions of respect. Studying such an encountering context helps account for the specific ways in which social hierarchies and Chinese state power are enacted, imagined, and negotiated.

Vincent G. Jessen, Loyola University Chicago, 3-10

Baybayin

Baybayin is the ancient writing system of the Philippines that dates back to the 16th century. It was widely used throughout the Philippines to write the many languages found on its islands. My research discusses how the writing system originated from other islands located near the Philippines and how it has been used, discontinued, and revived. I discuss the Spanish colonizers and their experience with the writing system and how they used and modified it. In this paper I also discuss the topic of ideology and how it can affect the use of a writing system and lead to its discontinuation. It also discusses how a writing system can be revived over time to become a symbol of culture or even as an ethnic identity. The goal of this paper is to provide information to those unfamiliar with baybayin and create an awareness of the Philippines rich cultural background before Spanish colonization.

Wendy Marie Finley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1-4

When "Evidence" Isn't Enough

In 1987, Tawana Brawley, a fifteen year old black woman, accused six white men of kidnapping and raping her for four days. The case was reminiscent of interracial sexual violence against black women in American spanning as far back as slavery. What followed was a whirlwind of media coverage and a grand jury conclusion that Brawley lied. This paper is not about whether Brawley lied, but instead, is an examination of the role of evidence in the numerous publications about the case. I will evaluate the grand jury report, newspaper articles and legal articles to propounds that this case, which started out as a teenage girl’s alleged rape, quickly became a political discourse. By indexing a preexisting grand narrative of sexual violence against women of color, the Brawley camp used historical context as their evidence. The anti-Brawley camp garnered a different kind of evidence to support the idea that black women are "un-rapeable," which led to their conclusion that Brawley’s charges were a “hoax".

Whitney Neugebauer, Eckerd College, 3-12

Geochemical Signatures at Recently Abandoned House Site in the Puuc Region of Yucatan, Mexico

Recent ethnoarchaeological research in Mesoamerica has proposed a link between rural household behaviors and chemical signatures in the soil. This study explores that relationship at a recently abandoned house site in the Puuc region of Yucatan, Mexico. Interviews with local Yucatec Maya speakers who occupied the site in the 1970s-1980s permit a reconstruction of domestic activities associated with dormitory and kitchen structures. A soils analysis examines the degree to which certain measures, specifically those pertaining to phosphorus and pH, reflect these activities. The evidence suggests that food preparation and consumption areas are not only chemically identifiable in a post-abandonment context but can be distinguished from one another based on separate soil chemistry applications.

William Eastwood, Indiana University, 3-1

Toward a New Belonging: Georgian Baptist Negotiations of Orthodox Power

This paper, based on my dissertation fieldwork in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2007, concentrates on recent church reforms within the largest association of Baptist churches in Georgia, the Evangelical-Baptist Church of Georgia [EBC]. Specifically, I focus on the specific ritual performances and symbolic practices that have followed the EBC’s reform-inspired adoption of several Orthodox traditions, including iconography, the wearing of priestly vestments, and the introduction of a Sunday liturgy, among others. Such changes to Baptist practice attempt to negotiate the dominant power of Georgian Orthodox Christianity, which has for decades assumed a key symbolic role in national politics. In the wake of national independence in 1991 and the increased sensitivity to religious identification in those years, Baptists and other religious minorities faced growing marginalization. Negotiating local power, however, has put the EBC at odds with its own Baptist legacy and Baptist discourses about appropriate worship, which are themselves antagonistic to Orthodox Tradition. By analyzing ritual transformations within the EBC as a tug-of-war between Baptist and Orthodox discourses about appropriate worship, I conclude that instead of a wholesale conversion to Orthodoxy, Georgian Baptists are creating an amalgam of Orthodox symbols and rituals with Baptist sensibilities. What emerge are practices and performances that embody new meanings of national belonging that compete with (hegemonic) cultural expectations of Orthodox practice even while remaining free from the current national ideology that has commandeered Orthodox Christianity in building the Georgian nation-state.

Willie McKether, The University of Toledo, 2-5

From Narrative to Network Data: Collecting and Converting

This presentation describes the process of discovery used to convert interview data into a format readable into Multinet for social network analysis. The author describes the steps used to collect and store interview data in Microsoft Word, the preparation process for exporting the interviews to Atlas.ti for coding, the coding process, and the conversion path that allowed him to export the coded qualitative data from Atlas.ti to SPSS and ultimately to MultiNet for social network analysis. In addition to the network maps generated from narrative interviews, an important methodological outcome of the five-step process is that thematic as well as social network coded data are created in a single file, thus allowing researchers to examine networks in the context discussed by interviewees. This presentation is significant because it describes a replicable conversion technique that can be used by experienced scholars and those unfamiliar with the range of network analysis programs and conversion possibilities.

Xiao-bo Yuan, University of Chicago, 3-1

Miracles in the Everyday: Narratives of Crisis and Intervention in post-Katrina Mississippi

“Hurricane Katrina was not an act of God; the act of God is what we are doing now”—this was a statement made by a Presbyterian hurricane-relief organizer in Mississippi one year after the devastating hurricane. My paper, drawing on fieldwork conducted in Gulfport-Biloxi in 2006, examines the claims of that statement, and addresses the theorizations of causality, authority, and legitimacy in the discourse of Christian groups working on post-Katrina reconstruction. Focusing on several organizations operating in Mississippi, I explore the ways in which Christian volunteers imagined their own roles in these spaces of crisis. I suggest that the proliferation of miraculous narratives in the everyday activity of Christian groups points toward a significant enterprise in the Christian community — that is, the production and exchange of stories that bridge the gap between Biblical text and this-worldly experience. By scrutinizing the construction of narratives of crisis and intervention, my aim is to highlight the unique logics employed by faith-based organizations in authorizing their work to not only reconstruct but reshape communities. I also wish to place these conceptions in the larger context of post-Katrina questions about the limits of state power and the role of religious actors in the public sphere.

Yuen-ki LAI, Purdue University, 3-2

Masculine Lesbians in Hong Kong: Negotiation between Tomboys and Tomboy’s Girls

TB/TBG role-play is common among lesbian couples in Hong Kong. “TB”, an abbreviation for tomboy, is the one who plays a masculine role; “TBG”, an abbreviation for tomboy’s girl, plays a feminine role. If “tomboy” does not exist, the concept of “tomboy’s girl” cannot be formed. Literally, this implies the subordinate position of tomboy’s girls. However, it is just a superficial interpretation. My experience argues that lesbian masculinities are not solely constructed by masculine lesbians, the TBs; instead their counterparts, the TBGs, play an important role in defining and constructing the content and the representation of lesbian masculinities. I argue that TBs’ masculinities are not static but open to negotiation. TBs and TBGs both contribute to the construction of lesbian masculinities.