In the past decades, immigration policies have been refined to broaden eligibility to deportation and allow easier removal of unwanted foreign nationals. Yet how people respond to a given set of policies cannot be fully anticipated. Studying the ways people interpret, understand and experience policies allows for a better understanding of how they work in practice. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in London, this thesis examines experiences of deportation and deportability of migrants convicted of a criminal offence in the UK. It finds that migrants' deportability is experienced in relation to official bodies, such as the Home Office, the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, Immigration Removal Centres and Reporting Centres, and becomes embedded in their daily lives, social relations and sense of self. The lived experience of deportation policies emphasizes the material and human costs associated with deportation and highlights its punitive and coercive effects. Deportability marks migrants' lives with chronic waiting and anxiety. As a result, migrants awaiting deportation make use of four coping strategies: enduring uncertainty, absenting and forming personal cues (Ågård & Harder 2007), and also re-imagining their futures. In turn, migrants' understandings of their own removal appear incompatible with open political action and with the broader work of Anti-Deportation Campaign support groups. Resistance is thus enacted as compliance with state controls (such as surveillance and immobility), which are perceived as designed to make them fail, rendering them ever more deportable. By enduring this power over them, migrants are resisting their removal and fighting to stay. The thesis concludes that the interruption of migrants' existence in the UK is effected long before their actual removal from the territory. It is a process developing from the embodiment of their deportability as their present and future lives become suspended by the threat of expulsion from their residence of choice

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This thesis presents an ethnographic account of British volunteering. While volunteering has been researched from multiple disciplinary perspectives, few studies are concerned with the in-depth analysis of the experience of volunteering. This thesis deploys anthropological theory and methods to seek such an analysis. Amongst volunteers, organisations and policy-makers the idiom of the gift and gift exchange is commonly employed to define volunteering and the social benefits it is said to create such as social capital, community, and civil society. Yet gift exchange theory, which has developed largely in anthropological studies of non-western societies, posits that a gift demands a reciprocal gift to fulfil its social roles. By examining volunteering as a social act of ‘giving’, the thesis seeks to problematise volunteering in contemporary western society from such a non-western point of view. The research explores the ambiguities and contradictions that inhere in ‘giving without a return’, in a modern urban setting where most of the social relations established through volunteering could be equally well provided through paid workers and social services. Following reviews of the gift and British Social Policy, I explore volunteering under five themes; volunteering motivations, volunteering relationships, the perception and function of money and professionalism, and volunteering’s significance for social solidarity. The in-depth analysis reveals that volunteering does not fit into a traditional model of gift exchange. It exists in an ambiguous zone between exchange and the gift, commercial market and one-sided giving, public and private: it conflates spheres which are conventionally conceived of as being in opposition. Within a complex organisational context, there is a constant process of negotiation of meaning. The idea of volunteering is as mystified as that of the perfect gift or of money, and the study of volunteering needs to explore the processes through which it is appropriated, culturally and in practice.

This thesis investigates the notion of sacred promise, a grounded devotional category for Ethiopian Orthodox Christians. It is based on ethnographic research among urban parishes seeking to gather the often dispersed memberships of local Orthodox communities in Dessie, a city of a quarter million residents in north-central Ethiopia. The central thesis contends that the spaces and methods of engagement by Ethiopian Orthodox Christians are organized by the internal dynamics of archetypal promises. I consider the wide spectrum of social and ritual activities contained within the domain of “church” to be consistent with a developed socio-theological genre of “covenant”. Covenant is narratively defined as a dialogic of bestowal and responsibility and it is also expressed in performative, material, and associative dimensions. Starting from an investigation of the liturgical praxis of temesgen (the ethic of thanksgiving), each chapter explores variations of covenant: as unifying events of human/divine manifestation (e.g. feast days); as the honour of obligation within individual stances of paying respect on an interpersonal and meta-relational level, at church and during visits to mourning houses; and through customs of reciprocity by confraternities and the blessings such practices confer on the givers and receivers. Lastly, pilgrimage presents a context where personal commemorative events transform into “traditions” due to their ability to sustainably influence broader communal commitments. Analysed collectively, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians creatively distil a core monotheistic precept through their everyday devotional acts. Rather than interpreting covenant as exclusively an ethno-historical idea of “chosen peoples”, this research advances a meta-argument concerning the processual nature of creation within tradition. Presenting an original perspective on the rupture/continuity paradigm within the anthropology of Christianity, I trace how this doctrinal principle originated through an inventive merging of culture and ideology, demonstrated through the synthesis of Old and New Testament in ritual and allegory and by local conditions of religious heterogeneity within Ethiopia.

My dissertation is grounded in a thick ethnography of restaurants as social and material sites in Prishtina, the capital of Kosova. I argue that Kosovar food culture is characterised by its peasant, Ottoman and socialist past. Yet, in the current phase of state-building, Kosovars are constantly seeking to appropriate different ideas, models and practices to construct, reproduce, negotiate and affirm their social and national identity. My ethnography is phenomenologically rooted and dialogically conducted as an embodied approach to the study of commensality, conviviality, sociality and performance in gastronomic ‘third places.’ I look at both spatial and placial aspects of the foodscape as materialised in restaurants. In chapter one, I focus on the Kosovar society in general and Kosovar food culture in particular. Here, I canvas a general foodview of Kosova with particular focus in its socialist past. Then I move to chapter two to discuss relevant literature in the anthropology of food, and my methodology. In chapter three, I focus on ‘banal gastronationalism’ and ‘culidiversity’ as produced, practiced and consumed in restaurants. I also argue that local tradition is represented in the process of appropriating, negotiating and performing culture. In chapter four, I analyse the ways in which ‘village’ food, ‘fast food’ and ‘our food’ have become objectifications of morality, modernity and ideology. This chapter provides a view of foodways, food ideologies, food movements and local coping strategies. In chapter five, I turn to discuss café culture. I argue that cafés play a crucial role in the formation, production, reproduction and exchange of identification capital, public sphere and community building. In the final chapter, I conclude by summarising my thesis and argue that anthropology of postsocialism may benefit from the study of food and restaurants.

Milk contains lactose as source of energy, which is digested by intestinal lactase, an enzyme that declines after weaning. The genetic trait of lactase persistence (LP) evolved together with the development of milking and pastoralism in the Old World as an adaptation to milk consumption in adults. The spread of this trait is one of the best examples of positive natural selection in humans. However, the specific mechanisms conferring selective advantages to LP are unknown. Milk drinking was introduced in the last 500 years to South America. To better understand the relationship between milk drinking, LP, growth, reproduction, and survival, this thesis explores the nature and extent of this dietary adaptation in the pastoralist communities of central–northern Chile, a population of mixed Amerindian and European ancestry, thus with persistent and non–persistent individuals. Data collected during 10 months of fieldwork consisted of questionnaires about reproduction and diet, DNA samples, and measurements of stature and weight of 450 participants. The lactase gene enhancer region was sequenced in all samples, and the European 13,910*T was the only LP–associated variant found. Phenotypes of 41 participants were established using hydrogen breath tests, showing strong association of this variant with phenotype. The frequency of LP in this population (0.38) is similar to that of non–pastoralist admixed populations of South America. To evaluate the effects of population structure, DNA analysis was used to study ancestry and relatedness. Controlling for these and other variables, the associations of LP and milk consumption with fertility, mortality, height and weight were assessed. We found no effect of LP on fertility, but a significant effect of LP on BMI and of BMI on fertility. These results suggest additional studies to evaluate the relationship between LP, BMI and fertility as an hypothesis of one of the possible routes to the positive selection for lactase persistence.

This study explores the potential of Bourdieu’s sociology for re-orienting the sociology of professions. Despite differences in methodology and theoretical priorities, neither classical theories nor the contemporary studies completely break with the view that professions are autonomous and elite occupational groups driven by the common objective of achieving monopoly over given service markets. This unifying and externally oppositional view does not provide an adequate framework for understanding the internal dynamics or the embeddedness of professional areas of practice within the social world. This study argues that Bourdieu’s sociology could help address some of these difficulties by enabling us to re-define professions as historically constituted, semi-autonomous fields structured around struggles over specific capitals that are instrumental both in their specific production and in internal struggles over authority and power. An examination of architecture as a case study suggests that the architectural profession can be thought of as a field driven by the ideals of design originality and a field ridden with permanent conflicts between its autonomous ideals and external demands, between creative and symbolic capital on the one hand and technical-managerial capital on the other, and between the competing narratives of its realities. The architectural field is divided and its dominant representation is contested, but architects are also united by their shared experiences and belief in architectural ideals. The study gives us an insight into the architectural universe and suggests that a field approach yields an understanding of its complexities not permitted by the notion of profession. However, as an exploratory investigation based on in-depth interviews, this is a first step in instigating a field mode of thinking on professions and needs to be supplemented with further research on architecture and the applications of the field concept to other professions.

Climate-induced resource scarcity is currently cited as one of the most important drivers of human conflict, particularly in the developing world. It is predicted that in the coming years, rising global temperatures may increase aridity in a number of resource-poor regions, precipitating violence, as subsistence populations struggle to maintain livelihoods. East African pastoral communities have long adapted to unpredictable, adverse climatic conditions by modifying behaviours according to their environmental circumstance. A growing concern, however, is whether pastoralists can adapt to prolonged periods of drought, reduced rangeland productivity, and increased livelihood insecurity. A number of studies have argued that pastoralists may rely on violent livestock raids in order to recoup herd losses incurred during drought periods. This thesis investigates the apparent relationship between drought-induced resource scarcity and inter-ethnic conflict amongst three pastoral populations in northern Kenya. Through the analysis of ethnographic data and quantitative applications, this study examines the nature of the relationship between periods of increased drought and escalations in conflict episodes, testing if there is, indeed, a direct relationship between these two phenomena. Furthermore, it builds on the complexity of this relationship by identifying a number of intermediary causal and social effects that may interact and influence the nature of the resource scarcity – conflict relationship. Game theory and socio-ecological resilience models are used as explanatory frameworks, as a way of making sense of these ‘chaotic’ interactions. Ultimately, this thesis presents new theoretical perspectives in understanding resource-based conflicts, tests the adaptive ‘limits’ of subsistence populations, and examines the impact that conflict has on the resilience of pastoral communities.

The persistence of many species of carnivore may depend on their survival outside protected areas where they come into conflict with humans and their livestock. Knowledge of these wildlife populations and of the perceptions and attitudes of the stakeholders in the areas in which they live is of critical importance in the quest for coexistence. The Ghanzi farmlands in western Botswana are a prime example of semi-arid rangeland where humans, domestic livestock and wildlife live side by side with varying degrees of success. But little research has been conducted in the area into either the wildlife or the white Afrikaner minority who own the majority of the land. This study aimed to fill some of these gaps in knowledge by adopting an interdisciplinary approach, and employing methodologies from both the biological and social sciences, to determine the potential for conservation of carnivores in the area. The farm block was found to contain good carnivore species diversity and a reduced, but healthy, naturally occurring prey base. Densities of cheetah and leopard were low, but comparable to, or better than, those reported for other similar environments. A good population of brown hyaena was found to exist in the area which could be of importance to the conservation of the species as a whole. The farming community were supportive of conservation in principle, but generally intolerant of predators that killed their livestock. A wide variety of land management and livestock husbandry practices were apparent, with some farmers prepared to do more than others to actively protect their livestock. Farmers with small stock suffered from greater levels of depredation than those who farmed only cattle, while some species of predator elicited greater feelings of antipathy than others. Some farmers professed a distrust of government interference in their affairs which served to hamper efforts to obtain reliable data on livestock depredation and monitor the lethal control of predators.

This thesis is concerned with how people negotiate periods of socio-economic crisis and prosperity in the town of Trikala, Thessaly, central Greece. Localised understandings of the global economic crisis are analysed in relation to history, social status and concepts of time. The complex interaction between people within global and local economic networks is also emphasised. It is argued that certain historical periods are crucial to Trikalini conceptualisations of the current economic crisis. Specific past events significantly inform understandings of the present crisis through what is termed ‘cultural proximity’. This is the notion that previous times of social and economic turmoil, apparently distant points in time, are embodied within the context of the present. Some past epochs of prosperity and crisis have proved more significant than others in shaping contemporary crisis experience. As accounts of the Great Famine of 1941-1943 are brought to the fore by the current economic crisis, concepts of lineal time and the nationalisation of critical events must be interrogated. How economic crisis affects perceptions of social status, mobility and political accountability in Trikala are also explored. Such perceptions are further informed by the consequences of past local and national level crises and the uneven incorporation of capitalist trends in central Greece. Through the exploration of cultural economic patterns and the social significance of historical events, the impacts of economic crisis in Trikala are explored. By examining accounts of crisis in Trikala, the case is made for understanding crisis trends with global implications within the context of cultural repertoires and historical frameworks. Trikala thus becomes a microcosm through which to conceptualise the current economic crisis in Europe.