This research concerns the nature of the process of land fragmentation in rural Poland which resulted in the appearance and persistence of a specific type of peasant land tenure which can be described as the "dwarf farm pattern." The investigation is focused primarily on South Poland, a region which was the former Austrian partition section of Poland known as Galicia (Galicja). The general approach of this study is characterized by two main features. First, this is a macro-study. Second, its frame of reference is primarily historical. Traditional explanations of dwarf farm development have centered on the role of rising population growth in combination with a Polish peasant inheritance ideology calling for the division of the farm among all its heirs. This explanation is both overly simplistic as well as misleading, as it tends to overlook other critical historical and ecological factors. Rather, it is my assertion that the dwarf farm pattern emerged as an unexpected and unwanted adaptation to a previously existing socio-economic structure which was faced with a severe demographic and economic crisis. The fact is that the Galician peasant was fully aware of the impending disaster in dividing the farm. But the alternatives were even more bleak. The lack of non-agricultural employment in the face of an economy which failed to industrialize exerted pressure upon the peasants to divide the land. Labor intensification on a smaller piece of land was the best possible alternative to their economic dilemma. In sum, it was not the "mindless application of inheritance rules" which caused the dwarf farm pattern, but rather the economic imperatives of poverty. In addressing this last question, it is necessary to understand the peasant inheritance ideology much more thoroughly than has often been the case. For example, the very assertion of the existence of a partible land inheritance ideology is questionable at best. In fact, the Galician peasant showed a very strong aversion to dividing the land. In many areas of Galicia, the principle of non-division of the farm was dominant. The ideal inheritance ideology was rather to give the farm to one son, who then had the obligation of "paying off" his other siblings as their share in the farm. The decision to subdivide the land was taken only when this solution proved no longer feasible.

The Micronesian island group of Belau, long-identified by the United States as an important strategic area, became part of a United Nations trusteeship administered by the U.S. immediately after World War II. Although the United States promised to promote self-government within the trusteeship, U.S. officials have consistently designed and implemented policies with the intention of maintaining permanent access to Belau's land, reefs, and waters far military purposes. Women have emerged as major actors in debates surrounding Belau's political status and as opponents of U.S. military proposals in national and international arenas. Drawing from nearly two years of field research, 1987-1989, that concentrated largely on the experiences of two women and their family history, extensive recorded conversations provide key texts for examining gender and politics at the intersection of historical patterns of ranked matrilineal clan relations, newly-instituted electoral politics, and consideration of U.S. military proposals. By focusing on the structure and negotiations of clan relations, on extensive exchange events among relatives, and on national political activities, I investigate how men and women have worked together in various political arenas and examine how categories of "women" and "politics" in Belau have been constructed in specific socio-cultural and historical contexts. Feminist and poststructural conceptions of power have been central in choices to emphasize specific dialogues and particular interactions in this interpretive, discourse-centered ethnography. I explore how power circulates in local arenas, emphasize the multiplicity of discourses and subjectivities operating at any given time, and contextualize the confrontations through which this ethnography has been produced. This ethnographic experiment, therefore, addresses relations of power not only in content but also in the process of the research and writing itself.

<p> While ethnohistory has been extensively employed by historical anthropologists in tracing cultural changes among various indigenous peoples at the time of European contact, it has been largely ignored by anthropologists of the ancient Near East. Traditional historians were largely concerned with historical people, places, and events, not with ethnographically describing a culture. Using two case studies, this thesis will demonstrate the value of ethnohistorical methods to areas of study where such methods have largely been ignored, namely gender and sexuality studies, religious studies, and ANE studies. The first case study examines how gender was socially constructed in the case of high class celibate nadi?tum &ldquo;nuns&rdquo; in Old Babylonian period Sippar. The second case study examines third-gender categories and non-heteronormative sexuality in Inanna's cultus. The role of etiological myths in the construction of gender and sexuality will be of particular interest in both case studies. </p>

<p> This dissertation presents an analysis of the reconstruction of urban folk arts as cultural heritage in China. Focusing on material culture and folk performances revived in two Beijing folklore markets, the dissertation discusses the neoliberal marketization that coincides with urban commercial zoning in China since the 1980s. The dissertation examines the intertwined cultural and economic dimensions of collective nostalgia, urban marketization and heritage developmentalism. Based on ethnographic and archival research in Beijing from 2010 to 2015, the dissertation addresses China&rsquo;s collaboration with UNESCO in world cultural heritage program. It looks closely at the process of cultural heritage marketization, which is geared toward a developmental agenda. Such a heritage construction appears in conjuncture with the rise of the new Chinese cultural industry and cultural entrepreneurship, reconfiguring the sociopolitical role of folk arts and folk artists in China. </p><p> Through the ethnographic lens, the dissertation focuses on depicting the everyday life in contemporary Beijing surrounding folklore marketplaces. In particular, it describes material engagements established by connoisseurs and collectors in two major folklore markets, the Shilihe and the Panjiayuan market, demonstrating a new Chinese folklore connoisseurship that ascends and reconfigured in contemporary Beijing. This dissertation argues that the desire, and the collective effort, to overcome the post-Mao social and cultural transformation have materialized in the revival of folk traditions as marketized cultural heritage. It contends that the ascending cultural market propels the hope of national rejuvenation while bringing about a new form of possessive individualism alongside the process of privatization.</p>

<p> A central feature of Christianity is the observable historical fact that the gospel of Jesus travels across cultural and geographic boundaries, influencing and transforming each new culture and place it touches. Postcolonial migration, urbanization, and the simultaneous development of global communication and transportation technologies have radically increased the frequency and duration of cross-cultural contact worldwide. </p><p> This study explores hybrid identity construction in a multicultural church in the Paris Region in order to understand the influence of the gospel within transnational French-speaking networks. I found that French hegemony, historically rooted in the colonial project, contributes both to the cohesion of multicultural churches and to the cross-cultural spread of the gospel within French-speaking networks. </p><p> Cultural hybrids serve as bridge people within transcultural, transnational, French-speaking networks. They maintain identities and social networks on both sides of given cultural, linguistic, geographic, and national frontiers. Unique hybrid identities offer equally unique opportunities to influence for Christ on both sides of a given boundary. </p><p> Cultural hybridity can be a privileged in-between space where the distinct nature of Christian faith becomes manifest. When observing one&rsquo;s original culture as an outsider and taking on a new culture as an insider, both cultures are relativized. This critical posture unmasks totalistic ideologies and sends the cultural hybrid in search of a coherent identity, which participants found in Christ and his church. </p><p> While transnational French-speaking networks and cultural hybridity contribute providentially to the spread of the gospel, they can also be pursued as strategic resources for the mission enterprise. Transnational French-speaking social links can be intentionally followed across missional boundaries. These networks take many forms, each pregnant with unique opportunities. Cultural hybrids can lead strategically between diverse peoples for specific missional purposes within transcultural and transnational French-speaking networks. Hybrid leadership stands on a two-way bridge, bringing diverse peoples across in both directions for reconciliation, for cross-cultural collaboration, and to announce the good news where Jesus is not yet known.</p><p>

<p> My research examines how the writers of the <i>Granada Pioneer</i>, a newspaper published in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II, used the editorial column of that publication to shape the community identity of that camp. The newspaper was published by Japanese America internees living in that camp, but their readership was composed of Japanese American internees and also non-interned non-Japanese Americans. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, I found that the internee writers were using the editorial column to shape a community habitus within the internment camp while at the same time attempting to reshape the imagined community of "America" within the minds of all their readers. In addition, I found that though the internee writers were subject to administrative censorship, they were able to circumvent that censorship by reprinting editorial columns from mainstream newspapers and thus express sentiments that they themselves were not permitted to published. </p>

<p> The aim of this thesis is to study the practices and background of Voodoo in New Orleans through a holistic lens. This holistic lens includes researching the history of Voodoo in New Orleans, previous research done on Voodoo practice in New Orleans, contacting current practitioners and performing informal interviews, and participant-observation of New Orleans Voodoo rituals. This work is divided into three sections; the first delves into the history and current state of Voodoo of New Orleans. The second section discusses how Voodoo has influenced other cultural areas in New Orleans. The third section discusses how Voodoo and tourism interrelate with one another. The conclusion of this work addresses how through out history, influences on other areas of New Orleans culture, and tourism, the original ideas of Voodoo in New Orleans has stretched out beyond the original spectacle of Voodoo into the various ways individuals think about Voodoo. This also influences how practitioners view their own practice by reacting to how non-practitioners view Voodoo. It is like the metaphor of the snake eating his own tail, how Voodoo is practiced and then perceived by outsiders keeps feeding into each other.</p>

<p> Rediscovered in the 1930s by the Mantle family, Mantle's Cave contained excellently preserved feather bundles, a feather headdress, moccasins, a deer-scalp headdress, baskets, stone tools, and other perishable goods. From the start of excavations, Mantle's Cave appeared to display influences from both Fremont and Ancestral Puebloan peoples, leading Burgh and Scoggin to determine that the cave was used by Fremont people displaying traits heavily influenced by Basketmaker peoples. Researchers have analyzed the baskets, cordage, and feather headdress in the hopes of obtaining both radiocarbon dates and clues as to which culture group used Mantle's Cave. This thesis attempts to derive the cultural influence of the artifacts from Mantle's Cave by analyzing the feathers. This analysis includes data from comparative cave sites displaying cultural, temporal, or site-type similarities to Mantle's Cave. In addition to the archaeological data, ethnographic data concerning how Great Basin, Southwest, Great Plains, and northern Mexican peoples conceive of and use feathers will be included. Lastly, theoretical perspectives on agency, symbolism, and the transmission of cultural traditions will be used in an effort to interpret the data collected herein.</p>

<p> Land and water use at archaeological sites is a growing field of study within Mesoamerican archaeology. In Mesoamerica, similar to elsewhere in the world, landscapes were settled based partially upon the characteristics of the environment and the types of food and water resources available. Across Mesoamerica, landscape concepts were also important to religious beliefs and ritual activity in a manner that may have had the potential to influence the power dynamics of a site. This thesis focuses on the management of water at the site of Takalik Abaj in Guatemala during the Middle to Late Preclassic periods (c. 1000 B.C. - A.D. 250) in order to analyze potential ritual and political functions of the water management system. Using spatial data within GIS, this thesis examines the flow of water across the site as directed by its topographical features. The archaeological record of Takalik Abaj and comparisons to water management systems at other Mesoamerican sites are also used to investigate the functions of the water management system. Thesis findings suggest that the water management system of Takalik Abaj was multi-faceted and that ritual functions tied to the control of water may have contributed to the identities and power of the elite.</p>

<p> The Temple-Palace-Hidden Reservoir complex at Tikal, Guatemala provides insights into human adaptation to fluctuations in water resource availability for almost three thousand years. This thesis examines the question of why the ancient Maya city-state of Tikal was abandoned. Two hypotheses associated with Tikal's reservoir system address possible reasons for abandonment of Tikal. Both hypotheses address a Late Holocene drought, which would have led to insufficient recharge in anthropogenic and natural water features of Tikal. A multi-proxy investigation of solid sediment cores extracted from these features will be used to evaluate the hypotheses. </p><p> Evidence of a Late Holocene drought at Tikal comes from environmental, paleoclimatic, and paleoenvironmental proxies. A review of the history and geography of the Maya Area is provided to determine, in part, if the reservoirs at Tikal remained undisturbed since the Classic Maya abandonment and a geographic visualization of past monumental architecture within the relevant Temple-Palace-Hidden Reservoir system drainage basin is presented to establish the possible sources of anthropogenic, volcanogenic, and non-volcanic reservoir sediments. Reservoir sediments are dated to using ceramic chronology and AMS radiocarbon dating. </p><p> An integration of environmental proxies including magnetic susceptibility, sediment sort, Munsell color, and particle size analysis are used to illustrate varying shifts from cold and dry to warm and wet climatic periods. At least one of the cold and dry climatic period, possibly occurring during the Terminal Classic (A.D. 800 - 925) at Tikal, was both AMS radiocarbon dated and relatively dated from reservoir sediments.</p>