First Nations foodways have been altered through systemized efforts of colonization and were effectively reduced in part from the creation of stores and through limiting reserve systems. The current research seeks to understand the dietary choices and changes among three generations of Fist Nations women. Research takes place in a remote First Nation community in Northern Ontario. The differing food practices among the three generations of women highlight transformations resulting from a traumatic history. Decreases in the consumption of traditional, land based foods, as well as the practices around these foods (procurement, preparation, knowledge exchange and social engagement) alter the experiences of the younger generations. The conversations/exchanges around food take place within the culturally significant space of the teepee. The teepee is a core element. These exchanges have a tremendous bearing on the overall wellness of these women and their efforts to reclaim and remain culturally resilient.

First Nations foodways have been altered through systemized efforts of colonization and were effectively reduced in part from the creation of stores and through limiting reserve systems. The current research seeks to understand the dietary choices and changes among three generations of Fist Nations women. Research takes place in a remote First Nation community in Northern Ontario. The differing food practices among the three generations of women highlight transformations resulting from a traumatic history. Decreases in the consumption of traditional, land based foods, as well as the practices around these foods (procurement, preparation, knowledge exchange and social engagement) alter the experiences of the younger generations. The conversations/exchanges around food take place within the culturally significant space of the teepee. The teepee is a core element. These exchanges have a tremendous bearing on the overall wellness of these women and their efforts to reclaim and remain culturally resilient.

Recent excavations uncovered numerous small rooms constructed on top of the Danta Acropolis at El Mirador, Guatemala. The characteristics of the settlement and the material items indicated that it was a late occupation and lacked the features associated with large Maya polities and Classic Maya culture. This thesis focused on describing the continuities and changes that occurred from the Late Classic to the Terminal Classic at El Mirador based on the ceramic assemblage and architecture. Significant continuity and stability of the pottery making community is reflected in the ceramic assemblage. Additionally, it was desirable to gain an understanding of how the Terminal Classic occupation at El Mirador differed from other Maya cities. The comparisons show that on a general level, despite being a small settlement, El Mirador participated in many of the cultural patterns that characterize the Terminal Classic period. Two levels of ceramic production are postulated for the Late Classic period, one sustaining production of fine wares (polychromes) and the other sustaining production of basic production (utilitarian wares). The people inhabiting El Mirador in the Terminal Classic period were materially less well-off, and did not pursue activities associated with high culture as their counterparts did in larger cities. Nevertheless, they were not culturally isolated and they had access to trade items and small quantities of prestige goods.

Land is a critical element in the formation of, maintenance and continuance of Native identity to tribes in North America. Since time immemorial, Native people have occupied these landscapes in a manner than can perhaps be best described as "persistent." Native views of the land can differ significantly from those of a Western, or Anglo-American tradition. And when managers of these lands come from a Western tradition, dissimilar views on how these lands should be used can become very problematic for Native people. This research examines how five tribes (Pueblo of Acoma, the Hopi Tribe, Pueblo of Laguna, Navajo Nation and Pueblo of Zuni) view their identity and future cultural continuity as their ancestral homelands are inundated by competing uranium mining interests that threaten to destroy the Mount Taylor landscape of northern New Mexico.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

This thesis explores the different methods of gender segregation in both the home and public realm in Kuwait. The main forms of segregation exists both physically, in the form of a wall barrier, and mentally, in the way people are raised in Middle Eastern traditional and cultural norms. The goal of this thesis is to analyze the living patterns in terms of age, clan, and gender and to create a new design method for a home where it incorporates old traditional Middle Eastern home architectural styles. The new design method enhances the living environment, increases access to outdoor spaces, and improves living conditions of the servants living and working in the home.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Climate change and global commodity demands have increased access to and feasibility of extracting natural resources in Arctic regions. As a result, Nunavut is now poised to compete on the global market for oil, gas, minerals, and precious metals. The impacts of increasing resource exploration and development activities on nearby communities therefore require study. In particular, new methodologies are needed to explore how adjacent communities can harness the economic potential of resource extraction toward goals of self-sufficiency, sustainability, and cultural continuity while minimizing the associated risks. Using the predominantly Inuit community of Pond Inlet, Nunavut, as a case study, this thesis uses an article format to introduce the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development’s ‘nation building’ conceptual framework, as well as a post-colonial theory to explore resource development in the Canadian Arctic context. The nation building framework is a well-established and validated approach to understanding economic development in Indigenous society that has been refined and used in hundreds of case studies over the past three decades. Based on interviews with residents and regional decision-makers, it was found that the community of Pond Inlet currently lacks the self-determination and effective institutions needed to implement local strategies for prosperity due to a number of complex factors, including educational and capacity deficiencies; infrastructure needs; as well as a centralized decision-making structure that poorly matches local culture and serves to alienate residents. As a result, the anticipated resource boom in Arctic Canada is in danger of indirectly repeating the colonial legacy of assimilation, this time justified by contemporary economic reasons, instead of providing the region with an inclusive, balanced economic development approach in line with local ideas for development and cultural continuity.This thesis follows the article format and is organized into four chapters: Chapter 1 is an introductory chapter. Chapter 2 is the first of two articles in the thesis titled: Community and Economic Development in Arctic Canada (CEDAC) – Understanding factors that contribute toward self-determined sustainable community development. Chapter 3 is the second of two articles in the thesis titled: Community and Economic Development in Arctic Canada (CEDAC) – Mining in Nunavut: A new path to prosperity or re‐paving old paths of colonial rule? Chapter 4 concludes the thesis.

Dans la perspective d’une anthropologie ontologique, la thèse vise à mieux comprendre les continuités et les transformations au sein des rites de passage chez les Inuit du Nunavik, depuis leur conversion au christianisme jusqu’au contexte actuel. Les rites de la grossesse, de l’accouchement, et de la naissance, y sont décrits en détail, tout comme le processus de dénomination de l’enfant, puis les rites de la première fois. Cette ethnographie mobilise une démarche comparative régionale, et s’appuie sur plusieurs collaborations avec des institutions du Nunavik. Les séquences de ces rites de passage sont dès lors analysées à la fois comme des temps forts de la construction de la personne, et comme des témoins de la résilience manifestée par la culture inuit. Au cœur de la socialisation de l’enfant, ces rites apparaissent en effet avoir contribué à transmettre certains principes culturels grâce auxquels différents éléments de la cosmologie chrétienne ont pu être adaptés et incorporés. Ces rites auraient alors participé de l’actualisation de la cosmologie inuit au XXe siècle, et en particulier de la réorganisation des relations que les humains entretiennent avec différents êtres non-humains. En transmettant jusqu’à aujourd’hui les principes ontologiques fondant ces relations, après y avoir intégré plusieurs éléments de la tradition chrétienne, ces rites suggèrent de considérer l’importance du rôle socialisateur des êtres non-humains – fœtus, défunts, animaux, esprits – dans l’éducation enfantine, et appellent une réflexion sur l’extension de la notion de personne aux êtres non-humains. / Using ontological anthropology as a theoretical framework, this thesis aims to better understand the continuities and transformations in the rites of passage among the Inuit of Nunavik, since their conversion to Christianity until today. The rites of pregnancy, childbirth, and birth, are described in detail, as well as the naming process of the child, and the rites of the first time. This ethnography uses a regional comparative approach, and is based on several collaborations with some institutions of Nunavik. The sequences of these rites of passage are therefore analyzed both as a highlight of the construction of the person, and as witnesses to the resilience shown by the Inuit culture. At the heart of the socialization of children, these rites indeed appear to have contributed to convey certain cultural principles by which different elements of the Christian cosmology could be adapted and incorporated. These rites would thus have been instrumental in updating the Inuit cosmology of the twentieth century, and more precisely in reorganizing of relationships that humans have with various non-human beings. Passing on, until today, the ontological principles underlying these relations, and after incorporating several elements of the Christian tradition, these rites suggest the importance of acknowledging the socializing role played by many non-human beings – foetuses, deceased, animals, spirits - in early education. It therefore implies to address a sensitive question, that is, the extension of the notion of person to non-humans beings.

In this paper I examine the distribution and movement of population during the Middle Horizon, using archaeological data of the Cajamarca region. I present excavation data from the El Palacio site which was a Wari administrative center in the Cajamarca Valley. There we found exotic elements in the form of architecture, funerary chambers and polychrome ceramics, while evidence of cultural fusion was unclear. Although Cajamarca was under direct dominion of the Wari state, local material culture such as ceramics appear to have continued without great change. If any parallel relation between material culture and language can be assumed, it would be reasonable to think that, during Middle Horizon in Cajamarca, multiple languages co-existed or that people were bilingual both in the local language and the official language of the Wari state. / En este artículo se analizan la distribución y movimiento de poblaciones sobre la base de datos arqueológicos y se toma como ejemplo el caso de la región de Cajamarca durante el Horizonte Medio. Se presentan los datos de excavaciones del sitio arqueológico de El Palacio, el que habría sido un centro administrativo wari en el valle de Cajamarca. En este complejo existen diversos elementos foráneos que se manifiestan en forma de arquitectura, cámaras funerarias y cerámica polícroma, pero no hay evidencias claras de una fusión cultural. Si bien hay indicios de que Cajamarca estuvo bajo control directo por parte del Estado wari, su cultura material, como la cerámica, parece haber persistido sin sufrir grandes cambios. Si se plantea que hubo un paralelismo entre cultura material y lengua, es posible postular que, durante el Horizonte Medio en Cajamarca, se dio una situación de concomitancia de lenguas múltiples o un sistema bilingüe en el que coexistieron un idioma de carácter autóctono y, por parte de Wari, una lengua oficial.