Mobile Bodies is a dance ethnography about the interface of arts performance, sociality and labor migration. Based on intensive apprenticeship in Mande Dance undertaken in Bamako, Mali this dissertation considers the creative ways in which professional and aspiring Malian dancers garner social recognition as they perform in local, national, and transnational arenas. How do bodies in motion - while dancing and migrating internationally - serve as strategic sites for re-negotiating social capital at home? Elaborating on Sheller’s “embodied theory of citizenship” (2012), this dissertation brings to light the work of Malian performance artists as they negotiate and articulate their social belonging through their dancing, music-making and acting. Trained by the State but (thanks to neoliberal reforms) left to their own devices to make work, find patrons, and make a living, Malian artists creatively and strategically shift the focus of their skills from nation-building to self-making. What sorts of possibilities for social belonging emerge as artists dance off of national stages and onto transnational ones? Can the work of Malian migrant dancers offer insights into modes of social belonging that are largely performatively (rather than discursively) constituted? Moreover, as a project methodologically focused on distilling ethnographic insights from rigorous dance training, this work brings together academic analyses of the sociality of dancing with on-the-ground lessons about the mechanics and aesthetics of performance. As a result, this project highlights the incisive ways in which scholarly practice is informed by performance practice. / Anthropology

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This thesis explores traditional Aboriginal healing practices as they relate to health issues by asking the research question "How do urban-based First Nations peoples use healing traditions to address their health issues?" The purpose of this thesis was to explore the healing traditions of urban-based First Nations peoples. The objectives were to describe the use of Aboriginal healing traditions, discuss how these traditions addressed health issues, and explore the link between such traditions and holism in nursing practice. Critical ethnography was the qualitative research method used for this thesis. Data collection consisted of eight individual interviews, participant observations over a period of four months, and field notes. The three major categories that emerged from the data analysis were (a) the following of a cultural path, (b) the gaining of balance, and (c) the circle of life. The theme of healing holistically emerged. Healing holistically includes following a cultural path by regaining culture through the use of healing traditions; gaining balance in the four realms of the spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical self, and sharing culture between Aboriginal peoples and non-Aboriginal health professionals, as part of the circle of life. Implications for practice include incorporating the concepts of balance, a holistic outlook, and healing and culture into the health care of diverse First Nations groups. Healing holistically is an ongoing process that continues throughout the lifespan. This process can contribute to empowerment for Aboriginal peoples through an enhanced state of health reached by using traditional healing and understood through a critical ethnography approach.

In recent years, Aboriginal peoples in remote and northern regions of Canada have become increasingly involved in mining activities. In order to take advantage of the significant benefits that mining can offer, Aboriginal communities conclude Impact and Benefit Agreements (IBAs) with mining companies and occasionally with governments. IBAs, usually confidential, reinforce the involvement of Aboriginal communities in mining projects and guarantee the communities that they will receive benefits that will compensate them for any potential harmful impacts resulting from such projects. The benefits can vary significantly among IBAs, but in general, such an agreement offers business and employment opportunities and opportunities for sharing in the profits of the mining operations, as well as income from royalties and significant economic spin-offs. Not all the outcomes of the operation of a mine and the implementation of an MA are positive. There are also certain risks involved, and both the environment and the Aboriginal communities can be affected. For example, pollution can have an impact on water, wildlife and flora; revenues generated by the IBA may not be equally distributed; social structures can break down; and traditional and mixed economies may be disrupted. If these impacts are not fully managed, they can have serious consequences for susceptible Aboriginal communities, both during the operation of a mine and after its closure, and they can compromise the sustainability of Aboriginal communities. IBAs are currently not adequately formulated to minimize the cultural and socio-economic risks to Aboriginal communities from both mining projects and the agreements themselves. Moreover, it must be noted that, as yet, no formal decision-making framework for managing these risks has been built into IBAs. This study consists of two components. In the first, a review of available documentation on IBAs, particularly the Raglan IBA (Nunavik, Northern Quebec), leads us to question whether these agreements actually further the establishment of sustainable Aboriginal communities. Because of the numerous gaps in IBAs, they may be unable to contribute to the achievement of this objective. For example, IBAs do not fully cover the socio-economic development and economic diversification of Aboriginal communities affected by mines, particularly after their closure. Moreover, IBAs do not always attach the necessary importance to management of the socio-economic and cultural risks posed by their implementation and by mining operations. In the second component of the study, we apply a risk-management decision framework to the Raglan mine and IBA as a case study. Of the frameworks available to us, we decided to base our approach on the Health Canada Decision-Making Framework for Identifying, Assessing and Managing Health Risks. Although this framework was not designed for purposes of managing the cultural and socio-economic risks associated with mines and IBAs, it nevertheless provided us with information that will be useful in work on existing and future risk-management approaches. Based on our study, we consider it essential that a formal framework be put in place to manage the consequences and risks posed by mines and IBAs to Aboriginal communities. We believe that if a formal decision-making framework was incorporated into the Raglan MA and other similar agreements, and if risks were minimized and benefits maximized, mining operations and IBAs could be instrumental in the building of sustainable Aboriginal communities, even after mines have closed.

Amidst the socioeconomic and political constraints imposed from a dominant Euroamerican society, the Hopi, Native American farmers living in northeastern Arizona, continue to be resilient in maintaining an overall tradition of their foodways. A rise through time in diet-related disease testifies to the biological consequences of a changing diet encircled and catalyzed by social disruption. This change continues to be resisted and negotiated in prophesy and tradition. In this dissertation I present data documenting change in Hopi foodways from such varied sources as dietary surveys of Hopi women and children, food processing surveys of Hopi women, a survey of Hopi storage and agricultural practices, and historic documents. Underlying contradictions at the point where cultural action or inaction and biological change interact. The contradictions and subsequent actions or coping strategies needed to contextualize, explain, and confront these contradictions lie at the heart of a biocultural interface. I present two materialist models, one based in political-economy, the other in adaptation. These models outline conditions under which Hopi foodways have been transformed along with the subsequent consequences of such transformations. This approach seeks explanation and an objective view on a perceived problem related to diet and health. In order to contextualize the issues, I also offer mentalist views, which are embedded in ideology and originate from Hopi explanations of the same change as well as from my own subjective perspectives. The ideal expression of this endeavor is the linking of ideology with biology. This blend of materialist and mentalist paradigms, and the dialectic that emerges, are necessary steps towards an investigation of the biocultural interface. They also serve as a platform for engaging in discussions that can facilitate and confront change. In this dissertation I call for bioculturalism, the dynamic interplay of theory with praxis. This process is an integral part of a needed emerging synthesis in biological anthropology.

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This dissertation investigates the production and reception of a modern transnational pan-indigenous ideology and multi-plex identity, through the acquisition of Danza Azteca expressive cultural practices. My research is situated within the Quetzalcoatl-Citlalli Danza Azteca group, based in Sacramento, California. I argue that through the embodied act of dancing, danzantes are able to access, reconstruct, and express socio-historical memories, feelings, and their sense of space and place, effectively creating a Mexica identity and way of life based in a pan-indigenous ideology, a decolonized consciousness. I explore the expressive cultural practices and the processes that each danzante participates in to create this pan-indigenous ideology and identity. I explore the transformative power and habitus of Danza Azteca, an emergent social movement, and I investigate its ability to act as a vehicle for self-representation for individual danzantes as well as the larger Chicana/o and Native communities in which it is situated. Danza encompasses more than just the physical act of dancing. Danzantes are engaged in the movement, music, as well as the multiple visual representations of danza. A danzante may utilize one or more of danza's expressive cultural practices to produce and express the various manifestations of their multi-plex indigenous identities. Danza is seen not as a dance or a religion, it is viewed among the danzantes as a way of life: as prayer, tradition, heritage, history and dancing identity. I argue that through the expression and reception of danza at Danza Azteca dance events, the indigenous ideology acquired, and the expressive cultural practices shared by the danzantes, grant them the power to construct, produce and express a highly politicized pan-indigenous identity. The production of this pan-indigenous identity and ideology confronts past geo-political and ethnic boundaries and is grounded in the specific socio-political relationships the Quetzalcoatl-Citlalli group is embedded in and the corresponding ideology of the Maestro of the Danza group. I explore how the danzantes connect with socio-historical memories via movement, as well as in Danza art vis-`a-vis the images and symbols on their trajes and armas. I show how danzantes employ Nahua art and symbolism as representations of their gendered, social and cultural identity. I focus upon the body as the site where memories are stored, accessed, and expressed. The performance, experience, and reception of dance is a particularly powerful site for the embodiment, expression and reception of identity and memory. / Anthropology

The point of my research is to reassess themes and notions of cultural imperialism and African perceptions and responses to foreign influences, while at the same time explore traditional cultural patterns, cultural identity, and continuity within the context of an ethno-history. It further brings together and subsumes scholars and Muslim intellectuals of nineteenth and twentieth-century African history from a variety of backgrounds and their learned and unique perspectives on the self-perceptions of African Muslims in the Senegambia. My initial project is to construct a historical and cultural account regarding how Murids in the Senegambia distinguish themselves as a particular group of African Muslims in West Africa based on identity and religious practices. It is significant because it attempts to examine the cultural and traditional identities of Wolof and Murid communities in the Diaspora within the social collective, while at the same time examine the interplay between the Arab cultural influences of Islam in conjunction with African religious customs and practices through the historical experiences of Cheikh Amadu Bamba Mbeke 1853-1927. By combining archival and oral testimonies with historical research, this paper will shed light on the initiatives and creativities of Amadu Bamaba, and how he shaped Wolof culture and continuities that distinctively characterizes the Senegambia. Further, it investigates how the continuity of Wolof history, culture, and identity is directly linked to Cheikh Amadu Bamba himself who is a central figure to Wolof collective identities. Moreover, it reveals how Amadu Bamba's tariqa served as an instrument for Wolof in the Senegambia to not only share essential attributes that constitute their identities as distinct Muslims, but also manifests how their practice of Islam sets them apart from the broader world of the religion itself. Although much of the scholarship of Africa pays particular attention to the legacy of imperialism and how it shaped post- colonial policies, there has been very little research regarding the idiosyncrasies and the ontological nature of conquered people, and how they have shaped alien influences to be compatible with their cultures. / History