Ethnomethodolagy is considered in relation to conventional sociology; especially with regard to the epistemological critique of conventional sociology made by ethnomethodology. The pretheoretical assumptions of conventional sociology are analogous to the pretheoretical assumptions of natural science. Conventional sociology sees itself as identifying the causes of the social order. Its assumptions are (1) that the social world is analogous to the physical world in its givenness, its already-thereness, and (2) that the perceived orderliness of the social world is explicable by social laws analogous to physical laws of the natural world. The consequences of these assumptions are (1) a programme of investigation whose aim is a hypothetico-deductive explanation, and hence a division of the world into cause and effect, and (2) as a result, the reification and ‘scientification' of the social world. Ethnomathodologists take the social order to be an ongoing accomplishment of its members. Within the ethnomethodological framework, the documentary method, typification, and some features of members' accounting practices are considered. Brief consideration is given to the potential problems for ethnomethodological research. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

This study seeks to provide an analysis of some of the features which underly any ethnographic description. First, it focuses on the daily routine of a community medical clinic in a large city in Western Canada, then it "looks back" on the methodological and theoretical issues inherent in the production of any ethnography. A daily routine known as "chart rounds" (a review of patients' medical histories) is examined in detail. That description itself then becomes a topic of inquiry in its own right. The analysis rests on field observations conducted over a year and a half within the research setting. During this period the researcher was privy to medical examinations, to chart rounds, and to much of the ongoing routine of the Clinic. I was also able to tape-record various aspects of its organization. Most of the material which I have analyzed consists of transcriptions taken from tape recordings of doctor-patient interviews and of chart rounds. Some of the issues which will be given special attention are (1) the beginning of the ethnographic report and the relationship of this section to the subsequent sections of an ethnography; (2) how it is that ethnographic descriptions are necessarily based in a set of common sense relevancies; (3) the use of 'talk' in interaction and as a source of data for "discovering" the self-organizing features of the settings and occasions from which this talk is collected; and (4) the relationship between ethnographic description and the researcher in the research setting. The research reported here is to be seen as exploratory and tentative. It is not intended as a -manual for ethnographic researchers, but as an attempt to explicate some of the organizational features in the construction of an ethnographic description. No doubt it raises many more questions than it answers, but its purpose will be satisfied if it is able to generate some debate about the organization of ethnographies. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

The goal of this dissertation is to present a new perspective on the economic, political, and social implications of food procurement in Early Formative Period (1600 – 900 BC) Mesoamerica. The dataset consists of archaeobotanical remains recovered through water flotation from the Formative Period site of Cantón Corralito, located in Chiapas, Mexico (1600-900 BC). The stratigraphic record covers the Locona through Ocós, Cherla, and Cuadros phases. The site is significant because Mokaya people were influenced by Gulf Coast Olmec culture as early as the Ocós phase (1250 – 1150 BC) with increasing contact in the Cherla phase (1150 – 1000 BC). Previous research at the site suggested that Olmec individuals, possibly from the Gulf Coast site of San Lorenzo, resided at Cantón Corralito in the latter part of the Early Formative Period during the Cuadros phase (1000-900 BC). It has been hypothesized that trade and resource extraction led Olmec traders to migrate into the region and establish Cantón Corralito as an administrative center amidst the local Mokaya peoples. My primary objective was to identify and interpret the distribution of botanical remains recovered from Cantón Corralito. I focused on discovering the degree of dependence upon both wild and domesticated resources by the inhabitants at the site. My second goal was to gain insight into how these food resources reflect the socio-political system and to investigate how food resources might reflect social complexity. Identifying the resources at Cantón Corralito involved analyzing the characteristics of the botanical remains and then identifying botanical categories using a Mesoamerican archaeobotanical comparative collection at the University of Cincinnati. Cantón Corralito's 34 soil samples yielded 147 seeds and 50 seed fragments; twenty eight samples had carbonized seeds. The carbonized archaeobotanical remains were the focus of the study because only carbonized seeds are considered indicative of ancient human-plant interaction. Of the 13 carbonized seed types identified at Cantón Corralito, six were identified as food resources, four as possible food resources, and three as environmental remains. All but one of the botanicals identified as either a food resource or possible food resource would have been collected from the environment. There is some suggestion of special plant procurement and even possible management in two wild plant species, Potentilla sp. and Solanum hispidum, which would have come from an area of higher elevation. The only domesticated resource identified was maize. Five statistical indices were used to identify the level of utilization for each resource at Cantón Corralito: absolute counts, ubiquity measurements, ranking, relative abundance, and seed density. Analyzing the combined results of these index measurements allowed for the interpretation of the significance each resource carried within the total food package. Wild resources within the Solanaceae family were a significant part of the domestic food suite at Cantón Corralito and possibly an essential ingredient in medicine. Non-local botanicals, such Potentilla sp. and Solanum hispidum, may have been relied upon. The presence of maize at the site contributes to the body of evidence supporting the use of domesticates and maize in particular during the Early Formative Period in the Mazatán zone. The presence of maize also opens up a dialogue about how food can contribute to understanding social identity both within and between groups. Maize appeared to be specifically identified with elite contexts at Cantón Corralito. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Anthropology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2010. / May 28, 2010. / Olmec, Mokaya, Archaeobotany, Mesoamerica, Subsistence Practices, Early Formative Period, Social Identity, Food Symbolism / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary D. Pohl, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robinson A. Herrera, University Representative; Lynne A. Schepartz, Committee Member; Glen H. Doran, Committee Member.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka vilken betydelse etniska föreningar i Norra Botkyrka har och vilka funktioner de bör fylla, enligt deras representanter.  Bakgrunden är att svenskt föreningsliv och folkrörelser är bland de starkaste i världen och dess nytta för demokratin ofta lyfts fram av offentliga sektorn. Att de ska kunna stärka demokratin bygger dock på att de kan agera självständigt och få utrymme att arbeta utifrån sina egna principer. Därför är det centralt att undersöka vad dessa civilsamhällesorganisationer själva vill och vad företrädare för dem uppfattar vara deras roll och funktion. Botkyrka och dess föreningsliv tjänar som exempel på detta.  För att undersöka denna betydelse har jag gått igenom ett antal tidigare forskningsrapporter kring dels etniska föreningar och dels det civila samhället i stort och beskrivit de kategoriseringar som använts i dessa rapporter. Jag har också genomfört ett 40-tal intervjuer med aktiva i etniska föreningar, tjänstemän och politiker.  Resultatet är att företrädarna anser att föreningarna har en väldigt central betydelse för både lokalsamhället och för de enskilda medlemmarna inom en rad områden. Som servicegivare; att guida och tolka åt sina medlemmar och att på andra sätt ge dem bättre möjligheter att åtnjuta sina rättigheter, för att stärka demokratin; som röstbärare, stärkare av ett politiskt självförtroende och att ge en positiv bild av den etniska gruppen generellt och slutligen som motvikt till det omgivande samhället; att erbjuda en alternativ identitet och alternativ till vissa samhälls- och familjestrukturer.  Mina slutsatser är att de kategorier som skapats specifikt för etniska föreningar har varit mindre användbara för att tolka min empiri än mer generella kategoriseringar för det civila samhället i stort. Filip Wijkströms grundläggande kategorisering i röst och service som jag använt mig av har fungerat väl, men har haft vissa brister. För det första har ingen förening passat in i den ena av dessa kategorier, istället har samtliga mina informanter menat att deras förening bör och har bägge dessa funktioner. Lisa Kings första tre kategorier bidra till social integration, ekonomisk betydelse och produktion av samhällsservice å ena sidan och fjärde kategori politisk eller demokratisk roll å andra sidan har varit värdefulla för att bryta ner Wijkströms kategorier och förklara dessa funktioner närmare. Kings femte kategori motvikt var så pass viktig för mina informanter och samtidigt skild från röst och service att den fick utgöra en egen i sorteringen av min empiri.  Även Roberto Scaramuzzinos beskrivning av den offentliga sektorns normativa syn på etniska föreningar som ideella konsulter och producenter av välfärd återfinns i mitt material, där mina informanter protesterar mot dessa förväntningar. Liksom Robert Putnam och Markku T Hyyppäs teorier om socialt kapital som funktion. Föreningsföreträdarna anser att deras föreningar står för detta sociala kapital och att det är en viktig mekanism för flera av de nyttor som företrädarna anser att föreningarna ger och bör ge till medlemmarna och samhället i stort.

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Derivatives of a thousand-year-old music and healing ritual from Italy’s Salentine peninsula, known as tarantism, are recognized in different forms and appear in various locations throughout the world. Tarantism was designed to heal women, known as tarantate, from spider-bite poisoning through the repetitive rhythms and sonorous melodies of pizzica music. This project seeks to understand the importance of the tarantate and their voices to the tarantism ritual and to the people of Apulia, Italy. In previous scholarship, the voices of these women were often overlooked in favor of more tangible items, such as the ritual’s music instruments. In spite of this underrepresentation, my ethnographic and archival research reveals that the tarantate are valued as cornerstones of Apulian cultural heritage. In analyzing the efforts of the Club per l’UNESCO di Galatina to preserve tarantism through festivals and reenactments, I demonstrate how modern-day cultural sustainability efforts can be used to reclaim voices that are essential to local traditions yet traditionally underrepresented in scholarly literature. Documenting the importance of the tarantate and analyzing their roles in local heritage reclamation efforts requires an inherently multi-disciplinary lens. At the center of this study lies ethnographic research that catalogs the activities of the Club per l’UNESCO di Galatina and the perspectives of the Apulian people as local practices develop to preserve tarantism. A theoretical framework in gender studies, cultural heritage, and voice studies is necessary to problematize the role of the women at the center of the ritual. Knowledge of history, social systems, and religion are required to understand the setting and impetus for tarantism in Apulia. Finally, my background in musicology informs analysis of the ritual’s sound-based foundation. Research and analysis in each of these areas contributes to a holistic reinterpretation of how sonic cultural heritage can be sustained and how underrepresented voices can be understood in traditions around the globe. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2019. / March 25, 2019. / Cultural Heritage, Gender, Italy, Music Sustainability, Tarantism, Voice / Includes bibliographical references. / Sarah J. Eyerly, Professor Directing Dissertation; Celia Caputi, University Representative; Michael B. Bakan, Committee Member; Frank Gunderson, Committee Member.

Uppsatsen syftar till att uppmärksamma hur mening upprättas inom den sociala organiseringen av krogen Bar Abrovinsch. Utifrån intervjuer med de två krögare som tillsammans äger och driver Bar Abrovinsch samt observationer från samma krog, undersöks hur diskursiva praktiker formas då värden knutna till krogens verksamhet aktualiseras. För att göra detta tar studien hjälp av Laclau & Mouffe´s diskursteoretiska begreppsapparat genom en uttolkning av Winther Jørgensen & Phillips (2000). Undersökningen fokuseras kring de attityder och praktiker som artikuleras i intervjusvar med de två krögarna samt i krogens materiella estetik utifrån observationer.

I denna uppsats undersöks hur plats görs och hur platskänsla uppstår i stockholmsförorten Årsta. Materialet består av promenadintervjuer med sex årstabor. Promenadintervjun som metod är viktig för undersökningen, då den ger en ny typ av kunskap om relationen mellan människa och plats. Materialet har sedan analyserats med hjälp av Actor-network theory, samt teorier om plats och platsidentitet. Undersökningen visar hur en rad aktörer så som platsens avgränsade- men samtidigt centrala läge, utformningen av platsen och en relativt homogen befolkning får effekten att informanterna upplever Årsta som en småstad i staden.

No description available.