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This dissertation analyzes the political-economy of agrarian social relations and uneven development in La Libertad, Chontales, Nicaragua. It locates the development of agrarian structures and municipal politics at the interstices of local level processes and supra-local political-economic projects, i.e., an expanding world market, Nicaraguan nation-state and class formation, and U.S. imperialism. The formation and expansion of private property in land and the contested placement of municipal borders forms the primary locus for this analysis of changing agrarian relations. Over the course of the century explored in this dissertation, the uneven development of class and state power did not foster capitalist relations of production (i.e., increasing productivity based on new investment, development of the forces of production, proletarianization) and did not entail the disappearance of peasant producers; rather, peasant producers proliferated. Neither emerging from a pre-capitalist past nor forging a (classically) capitalist present, classes and communities were shaped through constant movement (e.g., waves of migration and population movements, upward and downward mobility) and structured by forms of accumulation rooted in extractive economic practices and forms of dependent-commercial capitalism on the one hand, and the politics of state - including municipal - formative dynamics on the other. The proliferation of peasant producers, both constrained and made possible by these processes, depended upon patriarchal relations (through which family labor was mobilized and landownership and use framed) and an expansive frontier (through which land pressure was relieved and farm fragmentation mitigated), although larger ranchers and landlords depended upon and benefited from these as well, albeit in different ways. The social relations among different classes and strata were contradictory, entailing forms of dependence, subordination, and exploitation as well as identification and affinity. In the context of the Sandinista revolution, these ties created the basis for a widely shared counterrevolutionary political stance across classes and strata while these class and strata distinctions conditioned the specificities and experiences of opposition. / Anthropology

In this study I utilize ethnographic research to explore how professionals working within non-profit organizations in the field of aging implement and navigate shifts in old age policy. I consider how these shifts are informed by changes in the political economy as well as the construction of knowledge about older adults through mainstream gerontology and the media. I explore how groups, such as older adults and caregivers, are produced and reproduced through policy, defined both as an exercise of power and the everyday practice of practitioners. This study is based on a combination of methods, including a year of participant observation and semi-structured interviews with members of an elder advocacy organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Participant observation took place primarily in the offices of this organization. I attended meetings and events in other locations in Philadelphia, which usually dealt with other non-profit or government groups. Thirteen interviews with staff members at this organization, as well as with individuals in additional organizations in the field of aging, provided insight into the constraints and opportunities created by federal and state aging policy for those that work "on the ground." The interviews explored the goals of these programs, organizational understanding of the target population, and external factors that affect the trajectory of these programs. I argue that, (1) aging is increasingly depoliticized through the concept of "successful aging," which professionals alternately reproduce and resist; (2) this process facilitates the roll-back of social welfare programs, and; (3) that this "aging system" creates constraints and contradictions for those who work within it, which are rooted in the effort to simplify and define population groups or make them "legible," in order to utilize government and private resources. / Anthropology

This dissertation examines the effects of return migration on Nikkei (of Japanese descent) sending communities in the Soconusco Region (Acacoyagua), Chiapas, Mexico and Lima, Peru. Massive numbers of Nikkei Latin Americans have been returning to Japan in the last two decades filling a shortage in low-skill labor. The Nikkei mass exodus is indicative of the global economic pattern that has caught Latin American countries in a downward economic spiral resulting in joblessness and class polarization. For many, transnational migration is the only viable option for economic survival. This research illustrates how Nikkei are strategically making home, shaping family and defining selves through return migration. Nikkei Latin Americans (those who go and those who stay) approach return as Ganbatteando (doing one's best) embracing and making-their-own the Japanese concept of Ganbarimas. This study examines the local impacts of a global phenomenon broadening the traditional anthropological approach on spatially localized groups to address identity-formation as a discursive phenomenon situated in-between, across and outside, yet still connected to fixed or bounded locations or nations. I explore how Japanese in Latin America reconcile their Japanese roots with their embedded experience in their Latin American birthplace as well as their newest and current experiences in Japan to construct variable, changing and unique identities. Nikkei, situated in and creating a temporal and spatial borderzone are forming, reforming, and transforming home, family and identity as their local communities and marriage options, are depleted. By incorporating non-Nikkei-but-Nikkei-enthusiasts, Nikkei are sustaining and reinforcing endogamous marriage at a time when the emigration of large numbers of marriageable-aged Nikkei make that otherwise impossible. In this process, they are making intimate choices: reasserting ethnic strongholds in the homes of their choice, shifting and strategically broadening kinship and community boundaries, and at the same time more strictly regulating inclusion and exclusion. Nikkei are eating potato chips with chopsticks at the same time that non-Nikkei in Latin America are frying sushi. / Anthropology

This study examines the efficacy of new liberal policies designed to recognize cultural difference and improve integration of ethnic communities in Georgia, an emerging democracy in the Caucasus. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in the city of Tbilisi over nine months in 2009 to investigate public opinion and observe changes in heritage-related endeavors. The liberal policies are part of a reform initiative of president Mikheil Saakashvili and reflect his reimagining of the Georgian nation in civic terms rather than ethnonationalist ones. I recognize the unique and ambitious nature of this project and believe that Georgia's leaders are keenly aware of the constraints on their small nation in the context of late capitalism. The project, which I call the Multiethnic Georgia project, is thus a response to these conditions by deploying multiethnic identity as a resource and thus a way to reconfigure Georgia's relationships with its global partners. The Multiethnic Georgia project is problematic on a few levels. At its outset, the project responds to neoliberal pressure rather than to people's desire for a national concept change. Also, average Georgians (not including minorities) believe these kinds of social management paradigms are unnecessary. They claim they have always been tolerant and that social leveling mechanisms will only exacerbate the friction between people. In this sense, ordinary Georgians as well as more educated observers, touch on a problematic feature of the Western recognition paradigm, which arose to prevent ethnic conflict but does not deal with underlying structures that create social inequality. This project seems to be inculcating a superficial approximation of multicultural coexistence. I call attention to Georgian inter-culturalism instead, which exists in the form of unique social practices that show interdependence, flexibility and openness, as well as local norms of civility, and is a better platform from which to construct a recognition and ethnic integration project. / Anthropology

The client for this study, the Entheogenic Research, Integration, and Education (ERIE), was interested in the use of anthropological methods to examine the experiences of people who use psychedelics beyond the clinical setting. Through collaborative discussions with the client, we decided that the central questions guiding this research are to understand the various reasons why people consume psychedelic substances across the United States as well as examine the self-reported influences of psychedelics in various areas of participants' life and identity. Participants were recruited using stratified sampling and were given a confidential, online survey that also provided an option to arrange a semi-structured interview. In total, there were 103 completed survey responses and 25 interviews. The results of this research indicate that the reasons for participants' psychedelic use often change over time from strictly recreational or out of curiosity to intentions based on therapeutic and psychospiritual development. Additionally, the majority of both survey and interview participants believed their psychedelic use to have had a transformative influence on their health and well-being, perception of nature, identity, spirituality, and creative expression of art and music. Another theme uncovered in this research is the impacts of punitive drug laws on psychedelic use such as creating barriers to availability, fear of arrest and incarceration, and lack of social support due to the stigma associated with psychedelic substances.