The research presented here examines core decision making orientations of top executives of small and medium-sized corporations in two national cultures--the United States and Ghana (Africa). The purpose is to understand how these executives arrive at the actions they initiate on behalf of their organizations; whether the approaches differ significantly, and, if they do, in what ways. The study adopts a behavioral approach and is undergirded by the proposition that executives, when faced with a decision problem, have preferences for particular types of decision procedures. The study deals directly with individual and group differences among executive decision makers. Two human information processing (HIP) metaphors--rational and intuition--are used to develop a number of hypotheses. Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey instrument adapted from the Taggart & Valenzi (1990) HIP survey, and from the works of Heller & Wilpert (1981) and Hofstede (1980). Questionnaires were mailed to three hundred and twenty U.S. executives. Thirty-one percent of the executives completed and returned the survey instrument. One hundred and eighty Ghanaian executives were personally contacted in eight cities with the survey instrument. The response rate among these executives was forty two percent. Survey questionnaires were analyzed using analysis of variance procedures on the rational and intuitive index scores. T-tests were conducted on the "decision centralization scores". The results suggest that there were differences in the decision making orientation of United States and Ghanaian executives with regard to the rational metaphor. The differences were, however, not in the direction predicted. Executive respondents in Ghana, more than executives in the United States, appeared to have greater orientation to decision information processing using logic, planning and ritual. No significant differences were found in relation to executives' orientation to the intuitive metaphor in the two countries. As was suggested in the literature, executives in Ghana preferred more centralized decision making than executives in the U.S. There was evidence of association between "decision centralization" and the intuitive mode. The implications of the results of the study are that the biocomputer functions of the executive brain are already in action in practice, and research and theory building must provide clarifications equally for the two modes of executive thinking. Secondly, decision information processing (using the rational and intuition metaphors) appears to be influenced less by culture-specific decision approaches than by culture-general organization perspectives. Third, the study should also be interpreted as a learning process in "the transferability of western-based concepts and methodologies" to other cultures, such as Ghana (Adler, et al., 1989:67).

In principle, mediators claim to empower disputants--but do they in practice? My approach to this question is based upon three interdependent assumptions: (1) mediation is a process of communication, (2) forms of life (identities, relationships, cultural patterns) are reflexively reproduced in communication, (3) empowerment is the appropriate elaboration or transformation of disputant forms of life. I apply this perspective to three cases by using Pearce and Cronen's theory of the Coordinated Management of Meaning. The first major finding of this study is that the mediators enacted their neutrality by allowing disputants to elaborate whatever autobiographical and relationship narratives were already in progress. This enactment of neutrality was empowering in the one case where disputants began with a positive connotation of their relationship; it was not empowering in the two cases where the disputants had negative interpretations. The second finding is that the mediators constructed disputants as two kinds of person: expressive individuals who talked in terms of moral-laden narratives, and utilitarian individuals who talked in terms of concrete proposals. In two of the cases, the mediators attempted to facilitate negotiation by separating the disputants' dysfunctional narratives from their proposals. In both of these cases, the strategy was disempowering because it did not aid in the transformation of the dysfunctional narratives. In the third case, the disputants were empowered: their narratives were positive and productive, and the mediators did not attempt to bracket them and separate them from the negotiation. The third finding of this study is that mediators constructed "success" less in terms of their ability to work constructively with disputant definitions of episode, relationship, and autobiography, and more in terms of the disputants' ability to reach an agreement. This definition of success makes the disputants responsible for their own empowerment, while mediator responsibility is limited to the proper enactment of the mediation episode. The results of this study carry implications for research. Since the final test of mediation values is their successful enactment in face-to-face interaction, we need more critical studies of the patterns of discourse in actual cases. There are also implications for mediation practice: mediators can take more responsibility for the empowerment of disputants by learning constructive ways of working with disputant forms of life.

Sororities are social organizations on college campuses categorized by selective membership and exclusive social events for active members. This research focuses on how sorority members' ideas about beauty relate to their appearance management behaviors in order to gauge how sorority culture contributes to their understanding of physical beauty. Ethnographic data collection took place at a university in the southeastern United States. I conducted 17 semi- structured interviews with members of different sororities and participant observation at sorority recruitment events. There's a common thread that connects every interview: beauty and appearance carry importance. Sorority culture encourages women to put "effort" into their physical appearance to represent themselves and their chapters to their perceived beauty standard. There is clear connection between ideas about health, beauty, and aesthetics in this community. The positive association between health and beauty contributes to personal and societal beauty ideals that are felt by most sorority members. I argue that moralization occurs– where women consider physical health and beauty as synonymous, discouraging and excluding those who do not fit the sorority's beauty standard, who are thus perceived as "unhealthy" as well as unattractive. These ideals influence body modification behavior. By understanding how the social environment contributes to the perceptions of beauty and ideal bodies, this Thesis contributes to a greater awareness of the motivations of sorority members to engage in beauty enhancement.

Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, and its aftermath significantly changed the local cultural industry's funding infrastructure. Philanthropic foundations in the United States (US) have provided financial support to local artists, educators, cultural managers, and institutions after the storm for over four years. Based on semi-structured interviews with eight participants and fieldwork, this study provides insight into the colonial and neoliberal policies that progressively stripped the cultural industry's public funding infrastructure and ushered in a US-led "impromptu Institute of Culture." This study proposes that Puerto Rico's cultural industry was founded on a vulnerable system shaped by colonialism, resulting in a financial deterioration mitigated by autonomous organizing. Furthermore, I explore how artists, educators, cultural managers, and museum professionals experience the post-Hurricane Maria cultural industry to inform a critical evaluation of US foundations' roles within a Puerto Rican context. Through an application of disaster anthropologists' vulnerability framework and critical philanthropy literature, I provide an analysis of Puerto Rico's cultural industry, its historical and post-Hurricane Maria development, and a view into an alternative future.

This thesis examines how a Patient-Centered Medical Home addresses, implements, and provides medical and social resources and services within the Florida U.S. safety-net system, and how patients and providers perceive health care interactions between each other. The safety-net clinics seek to fill the care gap for millions of uninsured low-income U.S. residents who cannot afford private insurance, are unemployed, self-employed, undocumented, or their low income exceeds the qualification threshold, and they face barriers in accessing expensive medical care in the U.S. I have conducted ethnographic research at Grace Medical Home, a safety-net clinic in Central Florida, which included five months of primary data collection via participant observation, informal interviews, and 22 semi-structured interviews with healthcare providers, volunteers, and patients. My secondary data analysis focused on health policies and guidelines. Based on the study findings, I argue that safety-net clinics are vital in addressing health care gaps for the uninsured, and are in the position to provide comprehensive services by integrating social care (e.g., transportation, housing, food) together with medical services, including mental healthcare. The generative labor approaches evident at my research site are valuable in mitigating structural vulnerabilities and remaining barriers in the delivery of social care. An example of generative labor of healthcare providers is assisting a patient that is applying for the prescription application program (PAP) which provides free medications to patients for a year. This can be a complicated process but the assistance from a healthcare provider mitigates these complexities by utilizing the provider's expertise of the PAP process. However, the safety-net clinics must navigate complicated and challenging state and government policies. The interview narratives also show that care is conceptualized beyond medical and social needs, with the goal of restoring dignity in care, fostering relationships, and offering Christ-centered, non-judgmental care. In my discussion, I apply critical medical anthropology approaches through an analysis of the health care structures, health inequalities, and the political economy of health care for vulnerable people. This study is significant to anthropology and public health because it demonstrates the implementation of integrative, comprehensive medical and social care in addressing social determinants of health within the Florida safety-net system. It also advances our understanding of the way care is conceptualized at a faith-based safety-net clinic. As patient-centered care is becoming the gold standard in recent decades, this study also contributes an ethnographic analysis of how a safety net clinic achieves the goal of providing this form of care.

In the last few decades, narratives of diversity and international declarations have directed higher education to become more inclusive. In Mexico, new intercultural universities incorporate indigenous knowledges, skills, languages, and values into Western-style curriculum or create new curriculum that centers local elders and community needs in degree completion requirements. As a public university located in Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico, Universidad de Oriente's objective is to stimulate regional development, yet their mission is to protect and preserve Yucatec Maya language and culture. These opposing priorities generate tensions: is Universidad de Oriente really a school "for the Mayas" or is it yet another iteration of exclusion in the colonial project of the Americas? This tension mirrors the experiences of its students; those who have greater difficulty are also those situated on the colonized side of history geographically, financially, linguistically, and racially/ethnically. In this project, I investigate how students navigate barriers and overcome challenges that stand between them and completing their bachelor's degrees at Universidad de Oriente. The first half of this dissertation introduces problems of dropout and situates Universidad de Oriente within international, national, and regional historical contexts, diversity and interculturality narratives, and educational policy. The second half is an analysis of ethnographic data describing students' experiences during and after COVID-19 lockdowns. I examine tensions inherent in the dual identities of university as driver of regional economic development and as preserver of Maya language and culture, and how these are reflected in the Tourism Development and Maya Language and Culture degree programs. I demonstrate geography and distance are critical factors and situate these within coloniality of power and world systems theory. I argue locating coloniality of distance within terrains of access is indispensable for understanding student challenges and a useful framework for identifying factors leading to student attrition during and after COVID-19 lockdowns.

The subject of this dissertation deals with the relationship between the folk costume tradition and ethnic identity in a region where the majority of people adopted urban dress almost a century ago. I look at the maintenance and expression of the tradition in the village of Cifer in the Republic of Slovakia, which is a part of Czechoslovakia, from 1985 to 1986. I attempted to discover the meaning of folk costume by modifying Barthes' method of the study of fashion which analyzes what is said about fashion in order to discover its meaning. In studying the folk costume tradition, I looked at what people did with folk costume and what they said about it. I concentrated on the role folk costume plays in the expression of ethnic identity, and how culture is reinvented by succeeding generations of Slovak villagers through the use of a material artifact such as folk costume. The results of this research show that folk costume has been fostered by village women who continue to wear folk costume long after the majority of people switched to urban dress. Beside wearing the costume, most of them are the keepers of their family folk costume which is worn on special occasions including performances of the Cifer folk music ensemble. Two other groups are crucial in maintaining the tradition even though they do not wear folk costume on a regular basis. They are the members of the ensemble and skilled craftspersons who make costumes and support folk music presentations. Villagers, both those who wear folk costume and those who do not, are encouraged to participate in the tradition by government officials, representatives of ethnographic institutes and museums, as well as by appreciative audiences. People maintain the tradition because they feel obligated to pass on their Slovak heritage to their children, and they also enjoy performing and other aspects of social life such as travel. The conclusion reached in this research is that the Slovak folk costume tradition will be in existence well into the twenty-first century because of a broad network of culture bearers and their sponsors and supporters.

This dissertation examines the beliefs, values, and behaviors that constitute the "culture of gender" in Belize, Central America. The author begins with an overview of feminist theory and other changes in anthropological theory that have influenced her own understanding of social inequality and culture change. She moves from this to a detailed discussion of the historical and demographic features of gender relations in Belize along with a critique of the historiography of the country. One chapter provides a structural analysis of the position and status of women, which is balanced by a micro analysis of how these structural features affect individual women's lives, focusing mostly on the experiences of Creole, Garifuna, and East Indian women. Three chapters contain oral individual narratives that give specific examples of the constraints women live under. The chapters also emphasize how these women have managed change in the contexts of their personal lives and through their participation in women's groups. The process of gender enculturation is analyzed as an impediment to individual and culture change while women's groups are viewed as facilitators of both individual and structural change.

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A traditional birth attendant (TBA) training program, conducted in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, was evaluated by comparing TBA referral patterns before and after training to determine if trained TBAs were better able to manage high risk situations. Evaluations were based on questionnaires administered to 845 referred mothers and a review of their medical records. Two community groups, one where the TBA training program was offered (intervention) and the other in surrounding communities (non-intervention) where the program was not offered, formed the basis for comparisons. Specific outcome variables included the ability of TBAs to correctly identify complications, the timing of referrals, and perinatal mortality of infants born to mothers referred to the hospital by TBAs. In general, the TBA training program resulted in improvement in the ability of TBAs to refer women with complications in a timely manner but had little impact on the ability of TBAs to identify specific obstetrical complications or on reducing perinatal morality. Over the study period, there was a marked increase in the overall number of TBA referrals in both intervention and non-intervention communities with the greatest change in percent increase of unnecessary referrals. The increase was not likely due to the training program since it occurred in both communities. Changes in the ability of TBAs to correctly identify obstetric complication after the training program were similar in both intervention and non-intervention communities and, therefore, could not be attributed solely to the TBA training program. TBAs in intervention communities referred their patients to the hospital in a more timely manner following the training program than TBAs in non-intervention communities. A multivariate analysis of timely versus late referrals identified a borderline statistically significant improvements in timeliness for intervention versus nonintervention communities for all women as well as for women with specific complications of malpresentation, prolonged labor, and preterm labor. Univariate analyses of perinatal mortality rates showed significant improvement for only those infants of women attended by intervention community TBAs, but there was no significant difference between communities, nor were there significant improvements found in the multivariate analysis. Comparisons of perinatal mortality for specific complications of malpresentation, prolonged labor and preterm labor were also not significant. Improvements in identification of obstetric complication and the reduction of perinatal mortality were noted in both intervention and non-intervention communities. These changes may have resulted from a hospital training program and may have obscured the impact of the TBA training program. In general, there was improvement in all intermediate and final outcome measures following the TBA training program; however, differences between the two communities were not statistically significant at $\alpha$ = 0.05.