This study developed an informative model of a nasal cavity of a Neanderthal and Anatomically Modern Human (AMH) hybrid based on the morphological measurements and nonmetric features of nonhuman primate hybrids. This study examined morphometric measurements and nonmetric traits of the interior nasal cavity of two species of baboons (olive and yellow) and their first generation hybrids to determine how hybridization affects the internal anatomy of the nasal cavity. The nasal cavity was chosen because the nasal cavities of Neanderthals and AMH are recognized as uniquely different in size and shape. This study found that functionally different regions within the baboon nasal cavity are altered in size and shape in response to hybridization. Changes in size and shape due to hybridization occurred in three regions, at the rhinion, choana, and mid-nasopharynx. In regions of more complex physiological function, the mid-bony cavity and the posterior nasopharynx, no size or shape response was observed, except a wider lateral recess. Males and females responded differently to hybridization; males showed heterosis and females showed heterosis in most areas, though dysgenesis in the inferior meatus. The opposing male and female trends may contribute to the greater sexual dimorphism observed in hybrids compared to parental taxa. This study found that frequencies of nonmetric traits in the baboon hybrid nasal cavity were no different from frequencies in parental taxa, nor were regional frequency differences observed because anterior and posterior nonmetric traits occurred at the same frequency. However, males expressed a significantly higher frequency of nonmetric traits than females. Assuming Neanderthal and AMH hybrid nasal cavities follow the trends observed in the baboon hybrid model, the Neanderthal and AMH hybrid nasal cavity would have a different shape and larger size at the rhinion, choana, and mid-nasopharynx, while the mid-bony cavity and posterior nasopharynx remained unchanged compared to parental taxa. However, because Neanderthals and AMH have been diverged for a longer time period, the traits of the nasal cavity may be very different in parental taxa due to adaptations to local conditions, which may result in hybrids with traits from one parent or the other. Further, an analysis of different hybridization scenarios between Neanderthals and AMH, based on observed hybridization in baboons and paleoanthropological evidence, suggests rapid gene swamping of the Neanderthal population by AMH during hybridization, as other authors have also concluded.

This thesis explores both what feminism looks like in a digital age, as well as how the Internet and technology inform the ways in which feminists interact, build communities, and form identities. I found that online feminist spaces are built as communities of validation and support, education and empowerment, as well as spaces of radicalization and contention. Ultimately my thesis leads toward a new understanding of feminist activism that incorporates the unique characteristics and abilities of online feminism.

This thesis studies online video game live streamers. The study aims to explore the interrelationship of play and labor within streaming. Through this exploration, the study also enquires about the emerging platform economy. Streamers share their gameplay with viewers, interact through the accompanying live chat and subside mainly on donations from their audience. Streaming turns the leisure activity of gaming into a part-time or full-time subsistence pursuit. Twitch.tv, like other social media platforms, exists within the platform economy, inhabiting novel positions both in contexts of the global economy and in relations to laborers and consumers. Achieving the studies’ aim is done via methods of ethnographic interviewing, digital participant observation, and endeavoring into streaming. In fulfilling the thesis purpose, contemporary anthropological theories of play, labor, and the platform economy are utilized by the author in analyzing the ethnographic material. The main results of the study showcase the economic realities of streamers in Sweden. The conditions streamers exist within are characterized by spatiotemporal dislocation of labor, the commodification of play, mental struggles, and the platform economy's embedded precarity. The work contributes to the sub-fields of digital anthropology, new media studies, digital play & labor, and studies of the platform economy. Studying streamers aids the production of emic knowledge within these crucial disciplines of understanding.

Cette thèse examine la façon dont les villageois de la lagune de Lau rurale, dans la province de Malaita, aux îles Salomon, font l'expérience de l'usage des téléphones portables. J'examine l'impact réciproque exercé par la technologie de téléphonie mobile récemment adoptée vis-à-vis des technologies de l'information et de la communication (TIC) déjà en vigueur localement. Je m'interroge également sur l'incidence que la place marginale de Lau dans l'économie capitaliste peut avoir sur l'adoption et l'usage des téléphones portables. En outre, j'analyse les principales controverses locales autour de l'adoption et de l'utilisation des téléphones portables, la conceptualisation par les indigènes du fonctionnement des technologies numériques, la moralité associée aux téléphones portables ; j'explore enfin ce pour quoi ils sont et/ou ne sont pas destinés à être utilisés. Je me concentre ainsi sur les deux fonctions principales des téléphones portables à Gwou'ulu : d'un côté, on les emploie comme des téléphones, et de l'autre comme des dispositifs pour visionner des films. En 2014, sur environ 250 adultes habitant à Gwou'ulu, 100 possédaient un téléphone portable à titre individuel, et un plus grand nombre de villageois partageait l'usage de téléphones portables avec d'autres.Mon approche théorique approfondit l'analyse technographique permettant d'étudier les technologies numériques et la consommation des médias numériques. La technographie (c'est-à-dire l'ethnographie des technologies) est une approche pluridisciplinaire qui combine l'étude des conditions historiques, économiques, politiques, religieuses, environnementales et matérielles constituant les possibilités qui à la fois limitent et facilitent les choix des individus lors de l'adoption de nouvelles technologies, y compris les téléphones portables. Mon analyse se fonde sur l'observation participante et sur des entretiens semi-directifs menés avec les locaux et centrés sur la question de leur utilisation des téléphones portables.Les conclusions de ma recherche démontrent que la vie au village se situe dans une période de transition sociale et s'achemine vers une nouvelle forme de numérisation technologique. Ma thèse souligne comment, dans la lagune de Lau, les téléphones portables transforment les TIC d'un secteur public à un secteur privé. Elle démontre aussi qu'un usage largement individualisé des téléphones portables nourrit les incertitudes locales relatives à la façon dont les téléphones portables, en tant que téléphones et que dispositifs permettant de visionner des films, contribuent à transformer les relations sociales à la fois au sein du village et entre les villageois et leurs proches installés en ville. J'avance l'idée que les téléphones portables et leurs diverses fonctions (de la télévision à la calculatrice de poche) sont mieux décrits comme des objets super-composés, parce que les téléphones portables embrassent et troublent un grand nombre de relations sociales et de valeurs culturelles qui sont les caractéristiques déterminantes d'un groupe donné dans un lieu donné. / This thesis explores the experiences of villagers in the rural Lau Lagoon, Malaita Province, Solomon Islands, as they adopt mobile phones. I discuss how the adoption of mobile phone technology affects and is affected by existing information-communication technologies; how and to what extent Lau adoption of mobile phones is circumscribed by the marginal place of the Lau in globalized capitalist economies; and I elaborate on the main controversies that surround the adoption and use of mobile phones, local conceptualizations of how digital technologies work, their morality, what they are meant to be used for and for what they are not to be used. Specifically, I focus on the two primary functions of mobile phones in Gwou’ulu: the mobile phone as (1) telephone and (2) as movie-watching device. Theoretically, I rework approaches to technography for an investigation of digital technology and media consumption with a focus on mobile phones—in 2014 of the approximate 250 adults living in Gwou’ulu, 100 owned a personal mobile phone and many more shared a mobile phone. Technography, or ethnographies of technology, offers a strategic multi-disciplinary combination that examines the historical, economic, political, religious, environmental and material conditions that constitute the realm of possibilities that constrain but also facilitate particular sets of choices made by individuals in response to the adoption of new technologies such as mobile phones. My methods for data collection are a combination of participant observation and open ended interviews on individual mobile phone usage. My findings show village life in a transition period of technological and social digitization. They highlight how, in the Lau Lagoon, mobile phones shift information-communication technologies (ICTs) from the public to the private realm and how an individualized consumption of mobile phones fuels uncertainties as to if and how mobile phones, as telephone or as movie-watching devices, transform social relationships among village residents as well as relationships between villagers and their urban relatives. I argue that mobile phones and their diverse functions—from telephony to movie player to calculator—are best described as super-compositional objects because they encompass and agitate so many of the social relationships and cultural values that are otherwise the defining features of a particular group of peoples in a particular place.

Being defined as the first Digital Natives, Generation Y is often subjected by expanding practices and amounts of observation and exploitation of their social media profiles by companies because of their behavioral characteristics such as a higher dependence on technology and using social networking sites to create a sense of belonging. This paper aims to investigate whether Generation Y is concerned that their use of social media is being exploited for profit by large companies and if this practice has behavioral effects on Generation Y. As an appropriate methodology to investigate the research questions, this study is based on an online survey as well as personal semi-structured interviews to enquire about the behavior and attitude of members of Generation Y regarding the exploitation of their social media profiles. Due to the research findings, it can be implied that most of Generation Y is concerned that companies exploit their social networking profiles for profit. Thus, the first research question can be affirmed. The second research question about the behavioral effects of RQ1 can also be affirmed but the extend of behavioral effects is depending on the type of user and their attitude towards data protection on social networking sites. Some users seem to accept the risk of data exploitation as the cost of convenience to stay in contact with their friends and to get entertained. Therefore, the more a Millennials is concerned about his or her online data, the more likely the person will actively protect it and vice versa. / Definierade som de första digitala infödingarna, används Generation Y ofta för att utöka praxis, för mängder observationer samt utnyttjande av deras sociala medie profiler av företag på grund av deras beteendemässiga egenskaper, såsom ett högre beroende av teknik och användning av sociala nätverkssajter för att skapa mening och tillhörighet. Det här dokumentet syftar till att undersöka om Generation Y är oroade över att deras användning av sociala medier utnyttjas för vinstdrivande syften av de stora företagens och om denna praxis har beteendeeffekter på Generation Y. Som en lämplig metod för att undersöka forskningsfrågorna är denna studie baserad på en online-undersökning samt personliga halvstrukturerade intervjuer för att fråga om beteende och attityd hos medlemmarna i Generation Y angående utnyttjandet av deras sociala medier. Baserat på forskningsresultaten kan det antas att de flesta inom Generation Y är oroade för att företagen utnyttjar sina sociala nätverksprofiler för vinst. Således kan den första forskningsfrågan bekräftas. Den andra frågan om beteendemässiga effekter av RQ1 kan också bekräftas, men utsträckningen av beteendeeffekter beror på vilken typ av användare och deras inställning till dataskydd på sociala nätverk. Vissa användare verkar acceptera risken för datautnyttjande som en kostnad för bekvämligheten att hålla kontakten med sina vänner samt att bli underhållen. Därför, ju mer en ”Millennial” är oroad över hans eller hennes online data, desto mer sannolikt kommer personen även att skydda den aktivt och vice versa.

This is the story of how four people invented a whole new world and way of life - and how they attempted to establish it across the globe. Copass, a Parisian startup consisting of four cofounders, aimed to connect hundreds of the world's shared workspaces under their new global federation. But the main objective of this startup, in contrast to most, was not to build capital. It was to build a universe: a future where white-collar workers would be liberated from the shackles of office life to work anywhere in the world, to meet exciting people and to have amazing experiences. Here, workdays were permanently mixed with holidays. Work was fun, workplaces were play-places and workers were adventurers. The ambition of these four cofounders was to turn the way they wanted things to be for them into the way things ought to be for everyone else. To turn their desired lifestyle into a global social movement that enrolled, as they saw it, hundreds of cities and thousands, tens of thousands, even millions of people. In short, they created a company to fulfil a dream. This is an ethnography of that one startup's dream, analysed at length to demonstrate innovative ways of worldmaking employed by an ambitious tech company seeking success. A company dissatisfied with the world that, instead of changing it, decided to create a new one.

The thesis explores the impact that dominating Swedish aesthetic norms and beauty standards have on the subjective experiences of Afro-Swedes and their hair. Also, it examines why Afro-Swedes who previously have been straightening their hair have chosen a natural hair style. Moreover, the thesis also discusses which influence Youtube has in encouraging women to 'go natural'. The research is based on semi-structured interviews of seven women. The study is located at the theoretical meeting-point between hair, ethnicity, and the social and agentic body, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, digital anthropology. It explores the social dimension of hair and how hair, as a part of the body, has the capacity to participate in the creation of social meaning and also, enables agency in the social world. It shows that hair practices and styling strategies can be symbolic, social and agentic and that hair can manifest social and cultural order. Also, it opens up for further questions regarding Afro-Swedes and their hair in relation to beauty standards, normativity and representation, on the societal level as well as the individual.

This thesis explores high-end and bespoke menswear, tailoring and fashion, asking the question - why do some men choose to spend large sums of money to have clothes made for them? Using tailors and high-end menswear as a lens, this thesis unpacks how men construct their notion of self in the digital and terrestrial worlds through the clothes that they wear and the identities they perform. Based on twelve months' terrestrial fieldwork in London and twenty-four months' concurrent digital fieldwork with Instagram, this thesis examines notions of dress, performance and the individual across a multi-dimensional fieldsite set within a blended digital and terrestrial landscape. The fieldwork comprised visiting and interviewing tailors, and observing inside their workshops and at their fashion shows. In addition, the analyst-as-client built relationships with tailors, and constructed a digital self within Instagram through the publication of self-portraits and images of clothing. This thesis is presented in four chapters, flanked by an Introduction and Conclusion. These chapters move from an exploration of terrestrial research in the first two, to an analysis of digital research in the latter two. Five major motifs emerge in this thesis: the importance of the anthropology of clothing and adornment within western society; the nature of the individual in a digitised world; the difficulty in conducting western-centric fieldwork without an element of digital analysis; a methodological restructuring of digital anthropology; and the idea that a digital self can acquire agency. This thesis employs a pioneering blended methodology which brings together the fields of digital anthropology, visual anthropology and material culture to question how selves are constructed in a rapidly changing and increasingly digitised modernity. In conclusion, the thesis argues that individuals construct multiple digital selves and a sense of identity (around the notion of 'authentic individualism') that is illusory.

At the Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada, clinicians use full body immersion virtual reality to treat a variety of health conditions, including: traumatic brain injuries, post- traumatic stress disorder, acquired brain injuries, complex regional pain syndrome, spinal cord injuries, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and lower limb amputations. The system is shared between military and civilian patient populations. Viewed by clinicians and the system’s designers as a value neutral medical technology, clinical virtual reality’s sights, sounds, movements, and smells reveal cultural assumptions about universal patient experiences. In this dissertation I draw from reflexive feminist research methodologies, visual anthropology and sensory ethnography in a hospital to centre the body in current debates about digital accessibility in the 21st Century. 40 in-depth interviews with practitioners and patients, 210 clinical observations, and film and photography ground research participant experiences in day-to-day understandings of virtual reality at the hospital. In this dissertation I address an ongoing absence of the body as a site of analytical attention in anthropological studies of virtual reality. While much literature in the social sciences situates virtual reality as a ‘post-human’ technology, I argue that virtual reality treatments are always experienced, resisted and interpreted through diverse body schemata. Furthermore, virtual reality cannot be decoupled from the sensitivities, socialities and politics of particular bodies in particular places and times. The Ottawa Hospital’s Computer Assisted Rehabilitation Environment (CAREN) system features a digitally enhanced walk-in chamber, treadmills on hydraulic pistons, surround sound audio, advanced graphics and user feedback utilizing force plates and a dynamic infrared motion capture system. The CAREN system utilizes hardware and software reliant on specific assumptions about human bodies. For example, these assumptions are echoed in depictions of race, gender, class, and indigeneity. Patients using virtual reality technologies can experience more than one disability or health condition at a time, further disrupting the idea of universal user experiences. As clinicians and patients confront the limitations of body normativity in the CAREN system’s interface design, they improvise, resist, and experience virtual reality in ways that defy design agendas, ultimately shaping patient treatments and unique paths to healing and health. / Graduate