Native commentators on Taiwan's recent industrialization consider culture a key factor of the nation's modernization drive. Indigenous writers present Chinese culture as not only economically fit, but also morally superior. Such presentations, I argue, have unspoken ideological goals. Legitimation of the government, paternalistic claims on citizens and workers by the state and employers, and the rhetorical war against communism are some of the tacit agendas I discuss.

The community mediation movement has arisen in response to criticisms of the American judicial system. Advocates claim it can counter the role of law in reproducing ideologies that disadvantage subordinate groups, such as women. But this potential relies in part on the ideological positions of the mediators themselves. This study evaluates the counter-hegemonic potential of community mediation in regard to a gendered social power structure through an ideological analysis of sixteen male volunteer community mediators in Tucson, Arizona. Arguing against a narrow economic or gender reductionist analytical approach, this study relies on a neo-Gramscian perspective to uncover the multiple factors that determine this ideology. What emerges is a gender ideology that at once contains a "feminist" critique of social power structures yet is filled with contradictions. This implies that the community mediation movement must continue to struggle if it is to become a genuinely counter-hegemonic movement.

The concept of 'race' is examined from its earliest uses in European languages through the era of 'racial' sciences in the nineteenth century. The meanings acquired by the word 'race' are shown to be related to scientific thinking which has since been discredited. The history of efforts to discredit or eliminate the concept in science by twentieth-century anthropologists and others is shown to be complete, but the persistence of the word in public discourse is noted. Ethnographic examples of the problematic nature of the concept are introduced. Results of a study of American college students' understandings of the word are examined, and implication and recommendations for future efforts to discredit its use are presented.

This paper reconsiders the relation between what is studied, here homelessness, and the way of study, here anthropology. We will arrive at the notion of moral regulation which is useful in thoughts of the complex implications of otherwise seemingly disparate phenomena: homelessness and anthropology. Along the way we touch on order and morality. It is suggested that the professionalization of anthropology might be an active detriment to cogent anthropological analysis.

This thesis challenges the notion that China was a dowry society. The majority of the population before 1949 practiced indirect dowry, which is the goods originated from the groom's family as brideprice and terminated in the new conjugal household as dowry, after a possible deduction by the bride's father. In post-revolutionary China the brideprice component of indirect dowry was elaborated as a result of change in social and economic structures. In post-revolutionary China, brideprice prevails in rural areas and "thoussaou" dominates in urban areas. Household structure, unit of production, patrilocality in addition to women's labor value contribute to the different practices. Household structure may determine the form of marriage transaction in spite of the existence of other factors. The strong correlation between women's high labor value and brideprice does not hold true every time. Neolocal residence and nuclear family should be advocated if brideprice is to be eliminated.

This thesis explores the contemporary environmental movement termed deep ecology. Deep ecologists attempt to understand root causes of the present environmental crisis by investigating values and beliefs that Western industrial nations hold about human relationships to nature. Deep ecologists envision a future society based on egocentrism rather than an anthropocentric orientation. The lifestyles they endeavor to create and propagate are based on the belief that all living things are intrinsically valuable. Deep ecologists borrow ideas from religious traditions around the world expressing parallel notions about the value of non-human life. This thesis will investigate the contributions of two of these traditions, Taoism and Transcendentalism. The paper will also include ethnographic examples of deep ecology living derived from the field experience of the author. There will be a discussion of deep ecology's relevance to ecological anthropology, to understand the potential impacts that both disciplines can have on each other.

With the backing of major donor agencies and non-governmental organizations, microenterprise development programs (MDPs) continue to proliferate throughout the world. These have the intention of harnessing the entrepreneurial skills which have been identified in the informal sector in order to improve standards of living. Making financial credit accessible is the primary method used by MDPs in order to reach their goals. From an anthropological perspective, this bid for social change raises issues concerning the suitability of a credit-centered mechanism that neglects the implications of social innovations which have endemically addressed the same issue of inaccessibility to capital resources. Most importantly, associational relationships which go beyond credit will determine the viability and appropriateness of such a program--especially when a group lending approach is used. Anthropologists can greatly enhance the effectiveness of MDPs by identifying the group dynamics of prospective program participants and by emphasizing a "people-centered" approach in general.

From the Meiji period on, the social minority group referred to in Japan as burakumin was constituted as what might be called a “subnational” group. In other words, it acted as a supplement to the nation and national identity, a group of people attached but not necessarily belonging to what was conceived as the Japanese nation. With various shifts, this pattern remains in place and guides politics into the 1920s and then through the 1960s and in the 1980s. Subsequently, however, the beginning of a potentially major transformation can be observed. This change is linked to Japan’s movement into a globalized nation in the 1980s; it is then that the “subnational” turns into a kind of “micronational”—a repository of minor national-esque practices. The supplement thus becomes a surplus, opening the nation into a variety of little “nation-like” enclaves that are propagated as local communities and encouraged to act on their own and manage themselves. Similarly, the subnational burakumin—who were previously construed as subhuman—become micronational local community residents. Simultaneously, because of their historical experience and familiarity with segregation and self-governance, the burakumin become potential experts on local community initiatives. Only by looking at local histories of buraku communities rather than large histories of the nation can one acknowledge such transformations. / À partir de la période Meiji, le groupe social minoritaire désigné communément au Japon sous le nom de burakumin s’est constitué en ce que l’on pourrait appeler un groupe « sous-national ». En d’autres termes, il représentait un ajout à la nation et à l’identité nationale, et représentait un groupe certes attaché à ce qui était conçu comme étant la nation japonaise mais n’appartenant pas forcément à celle-ci. Après divers changements, ce schéma reste en place et oriente la politique à travers les années 1920 et ensuite les années 1960 et 1980. Cependant par la suite, on peut observer les prémisses d’une transformation potentiellement majeure. Ce changement est lié à l’évolution du Japon en une nation globalisée durant les années 1980. C’est alors que le « sous-national » devient en quelque sorte le « micronational », un cadre de pratiques quasi nationales. L’ajout devient un surplus et crée à travers la nation diverses petites enclaves simili-nationales qui s’affichent comme des communautés locales encouragées à agir seules et à s’administrer par elles-mêmes. De la même façon, les burakumin sous-nationaux (préalablement compris comme sous-humains) deviennent membres de communautés locales micronationales et simultanément, de par leur expérience historique et leur familiarité avec la ségrégation et l’auto-gouvernance, des experts potentiels en ce qui a trait aux initiatives communales. Plutôt que par les grandes histoires de la nation, c’est en regardant les histoires locales des communautés buraku que l’on reconnaîtra de telles transformations.

This thesis explores manga in two kinds of production system in Japan. It examines similarities and differences between the professional manga industry and the amateur dōjinshi world in relation to the boys' love genre in three different perspectives: production, genre, and markets. First, I explore employment opportunities for women in the professional manga industry and develop a comparison with women in the amateur world. I then shift to the boys' love genre itself. The analysis of the emergence of this form of expression in the amateur world and its move into the professional manga industry allows a better understanding of basic characteristics of such narratives and exposes whether or not it may be considered a real genre based on Rick Altman's theory of genre. Finally, the readers and fans of boys' love manga, also referred to as fujoshi, are studied in relation to the economic systems associated with these two kinds of manga production. The goal of these three chapters is to understand the interactions between the two industries as well as with their readers as a coherent system where professional mangaka, amateurs and fans all play an important role in the production of manga in Japan. / Cette thèse traite des manga dans deux systèmes de production au Japon. Elle présente des ressemblances et disparités entre l'industrie du manga professionnel et le secteur amateur, connu pour ces dōjinshi, en lien avec le genre boys' love dans trois différentes perspectives : la production, le genre et les marchés. Le premier aspect abordé concerne les possibilités d'emploi pour les femmes dans l'industrie du manga professionnel et les compare avec les femmes engagées dans le monde amateur. Le second aspect abordé dans cette thèse concerne le boys' love comme forme d'expression dont l'émergence au sein du secteur amateur suivi de son transfert dans l'industrie professionnelle permet une meilleure compréhension des caractéristiques fondamentales de ces récits. Il s'agira de démontrer si l'on peut considérer le genre boys' love comme étant un genre au sens où l'entend Rick Altman dans sa théorie des genres. Cette thèse abordera finalement le lectorat des manga, principalement du genre boys' love, les fujoshi, en relation avec les systèmes économiques ayant cours dans l'industrie professionnelle et dans le monde amateur. La visée de ces trois chapitres est de démontrer les liens entre ces deux différentes facettes du manga en plus du rôle du lectorat dans cette équation pour mettre en évidence la cohérence de ce système au sein duquel les mangaka professionnels, les amateurs et les fans jouent tous un rôle important dans la production de manga au Japon.

This thesis describes the enchanted, sylvan world of a peasant community from La Macarena, a municipality located in the Colombian Northwest Amazonia. These peasants experience the forest as an animated place, inhabited by different spiritual, animal, and non-human beings with whom they have to deal in order to access some indispensable resources. In this manner, more than a natural place, the forest stands as an intricate network where humans, animals, plants, and spirits have to constantly interact. The value of these social interactions shapes the ways in which peasants use forest resources, engage with particular places, and relate with their neighbours. The enchantment of the forest refers to two different things: firstly, to a set of ontological premises in which places, spirits, and animals are experienced as imbued with agency and personhood. Secondly, to the way in which unequal economic and social forces have been bind together under specific historical conditions in a place as La Macarena. The approach used for describing these sylvan agencies not only concerns the social world of people but also the part of the natural world—i.e. the forest— with which they interact. By so doing, this ethnography deal with how colonialist imageries of landscapes, extractive economies, and political violence shape the way peasants conceive and manage the forest; but also with how some proprieties of the forest—ecology, patterns of resources distribution— shape, constraining or amplifying, how people engage with both their natural and social worlds. Through the examination of peasant economic activities such as fur trade, logging, and hunting, the thesis suggests that the enchantment is not only the result of how society, economy, and history permeate landscapes; instead, that such enchantment is closely linked to the way in which ecology is able to shape peasant ontology. / Cette thèse décrit l'enchantement du monde sylvestre d'une communauté paysanne de La Macarena, une municipalité située dans le Nord-Est de l'Amazonie colombienne. Pour ces paysans, la forêt est un endroit animé, habité par différent êtres spirituels, animaux et non-humains avec lesquels ils doivent traiter afin d'accéder aux ressources qui leur sont indispensables. Ainsi, au-delà du lieu naturel, la forêt représente un réseau complexe à travers lequel des humains, animaux, plantes et esprits doivent constamment interagir. La valeur de ces interactions donne sens aux différentes façons dont les paysans utilisent les ressources de la forêt, agissent dans certains lieux et interagissent avec leur voisins. Ce caractère enchanté de la forêt nous réfère à deux éléments : d'abord, à un certain nombre de prémices ontologiques qui confèrent aux lieux, esprits et animaux une personnalité et un pouvoir d'agir (agency); ensuite, à la façon dont des forces économiques et sociales inégales se sont unies sous certaines conditions historiques dans un endroit tel que La Macarena. L'approche utilisée pour décrire ces actants sylvestres ne concerne pas seulement le monde social des paysans, mais aussi le monde naturel— c'est-à-dire la forêt — avec lequel les paysans interagissent. Ce faisant, cette ethnographie s'attarde à la manière dont les imageries coloniales des paysages, des économies d'extraction et de la violence politique façonnent la conception et la gestion de la forêt par les paysans. Mais aussi, cette ethnographie traite de la manière dont les propriétés de la forêt—son écologie, ses modèles de distribution des ressources—façonne, en limitant ou en amplifiant, l'engagement des paysans avec leur mondes naturel et social. Par l'entremise de cet examen des activités économiques paysannes tel que la traite des fourrures, l'exploitation forestière, et la chasse, cette thèse suggère que le caractère enchanté de la forêt n'est pas seulement le résultat de la manière dont la société, l'économie et l'histoire s'infiltrent aux paysages; mais plutôt, que ce caractère enchanté est étroitement lié à la manière dont l'écologie du monde naturel façonne l'ontologie paysanne.