Outward Appearance, Inward Perceptions: Preservation of Identity among K’ichee’ Women offers a look into the changing patterns of identity and regional Maya clothing among the female members of a rural K’ichee’ Maya municipality located in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. It provides a brief framework of the history and importance of Maya clothing in Guatemala as well as in the context of the rural Maya community. Building upon a loose theoretical framework based on works by Irma Otzoy (1992, 1996a, 1996b), Clifford Geertz (1997), and Paul Connerton (1989), the current study was aimed at examining the connections that exist between one municipality’s female regional style of clothing and the redefining of sacred spaces for cultural and identity preservation and an analysis of historical memory related to material culture. This descriptive study was conducted among a sample of K’ichee’ Maya women (N=18) over a two month period in 2010. Qualitative data were collected using an open-ended semi-structured interview guide. Major themes that emerged from the data were the vital roles that female community members play in the preservation of local culture and the changing and adaptive nature of material culture. The findings suggest that local identities and culture change alongside the changes occurring in municipal traje use, and pride and respect for local origins is preserved through performative ritual / text

There's an interesting phenomenon happening on the South Coast of British Columbia, Canada- particularly on southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. Groups of women, couples and families are going back to the roots of craftsmanship to build their own houses. These houses are not your typical timber framed home. These cob homes are made from a mixture of clay, sand and straw. The author draws upon data collected through interviews with nine participants. Through the examination of why people live in or build with cob, the author shows the importance of this material in relation to community and connectivity, as well as environment and health. Two professionally produced audio documentaries and two magazine-style articles contribute to wider public knowledge and understanding of the physical and mental sensations and beliefs of the participants, as well as their understanding of how others perceive cob builders and dwellers to be.

My dissertation emerges from a curiosity about the mundane objects and machines with which we live and it pauses in Britain’s kitchens to ask what we might learn from looking in the fridge. Considered by many to be a rather ordinary and unremarkable appliance, the refrigerator forms a virtually ubiquitous backdrop to routine activities of feeding, provisioning and storing, but rarely is it brought into explicit focus. This study traces the ‘career’ of the mechanical refrigerator and is based upon interviews and archival work in Britain. I unravel intersecting histories and geographies of cooling, discuss a global trade in ice, explore changing understanding of the nature of heat and cold and show how varied ideas and technologies contributed to achieving the creation of artificial cold. The means by which these techniques were translated into the home is central to my discussion and I show how the domestication of refrigeration also played a role in the reconfiguration of associated practices, such as freezing, shopping and eating. I consider the process of normalisation through which refrigerators shifted category from novel products to essential appliances and argue that in many ways the refrigerator has now become integral to the constitution of domestic space. My research follows the lifecourse of the refrigerator and its journeys through multiple sites and spaces, enabling me to analyse diverse refrigerator knowledges and practices from repair shops and recycling facilities to scrap yards and museums, in addition to the home. Although using a refrigerator is frequently dismissed as something ‘self-evident’ or ‘obvious,’ I argue that fridge practices are not innate but learned. I explore ways in which these knowledges travel and pay particular attention to the translation of scientific and technical knowledges into domestic contexts. The ‘reach’ of the domestic refrigerator is considerable and I use one of the more notorious moments in its career, when refrigerators were implicated in global climate change, as a way to show how day to day activities like chilling milk and lettuce can have far-reaching effects at a range of scales.

In the estate sale, actors (shoppers and estate sale workers) form notions ofpersonhood and pollution through objects such as half-used bottles of perfume, floral dishes, and family photographs. Actors use these objects to create the gender, personality, religion, hobbies, and occupation of the objects' former owners. The context of the estate sale contributes to these notions of personhood. Estate sales usually occur after a death, almost everything this person has owned is priced for sale, and the estate sale is held within the house of the deceased.This study draws on Mary Douglas' work on pollution as "matter out of place." In the estate sale, pollution takes on various forms (in association with death and illness, the body, the identity of their previous owner, and physical dirt) and degrees, which affect how "out of place" an object is, as well as how actors react to this object. These four forms of pollution are then linked back to the objects' previous owner due to actors' perceived lack of anonymity of this person. Suggestions are made as to how these forms of pollution extend and refine Douglas' continuum of purity and pollution, and how they link to notions of gendered personhood.

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My dissertation emerges from a curiosity about the mundane objects and machines with which we live and it pauses in Britain’s kitchens to ask what we might learn from looking in the fridge. Considered by many to be a rather ordinary and unremarkable appliance, the refrigerator forms a virtually ubiquitous backdrop to routine activities of feeding, provisioning and storing, but rarely is it brought into explicit focus. This study traces the ‘career’ of the mechanical refrigerator and is based upon interviews and archival work in Britain. I unravel intersecting histories and geographies of cooling, discuss a global trade in ice, explore changing understanding of the nature of heat and cold and show how varied ideas and technologies contributed to achieving the creation of artificial cold. The means by which these techniques were translated into the home is central to my discussion and I show how the domestication of refrigeration also played a role in the reconfiguration of associated practices, such as freezing, shopping and eating. I consider the process of normalisation through which refrigerators shifted category from novel products to essential appliances and argue that in many ways the refrigerator has now become integral to the constitution of domestic space. My research follows the lifecourse of the refrigerator and its journeys through multiple sites and spaces, enabling me to analyse diverse refrigerator knowledges and practices from repair shops and recycling facilities to scrap yards and museums, in addition to the home. Although using a refrigerator is frequently dismissed as something ‘self-evident’ or ‘obvious,’ I argue that fridge practices are not innate but learned. I explore ways in which these knowledges travel and pay particular attention to the translation of scientific and technical knowledges into domestic contexts. The ‘reach’ of the domestic refrigerator is considerable and I use one of the more notorious moments in its career, when refrigerators were implicated in global climate change, as a way to show how day to day activities like chilling milk and lettuce can have far-reaching effects at a range of scales.

This thesis is an attempt to assess the degree of differentiation between two regions, Otago and Southland, to be found in the styles of four types of artefact; Bird-spear points, One-piece fish-hooks, Composite hook points, Adzes. In order to assess the significance of these differences the comparison has been made not only between the two regions mentioned above but also with a set of samples from the northern North Island used as a bench-mark. The data has been collected in the form of non-metrical (presence/absence) and metrical (continuous or ratio-type) variables specific to each artefact type. The method of analysis of the data is concerned with the study of the relative frequencies of these ranges of variables. This is supported by Chi� and Student�s T tests. As well as seeking to establish the degree of differentiation between the material cultures of the regions the interpretation also seeks to distinguish between causal factors for these differences (for example, variations in functional requirements, differing or limited access to material types, etc.).

An interdisciplinary approach to the study of change and retention in Maori material culture during the protohistoric is recommended. The principal disciplines involved are history, ethnology, ethnography and archaeology. Each exploits a different research resource and together in synthesis they can offer a more comprehensive understanding of culture change. This study concentrates on the material culture subsystem of Maori culture; yet it can only be effectively studied if the relationship between this subsystem and others is unravelled. Hence the need for an interdisciplinary methodology. �Classic� Maori material culture is briefly outlined in Chapter One. Historical aspects of the protohistoric period are discussed in Chapter Two. Chapter Three outlines the various potential sources of interdisciplinary input in a study of contact period Maori material culture change and assesses contributions made to this study by other researchers. Chapter Four summarizes the major themes of retention and adaptation in relation to particular aspects of post-contact Maori material culture change in the protohistoric period are outlined in Chapter Five. This study has taken a generalized approach to a problem which has a number of different regional manifestations. A framework is provided within which detailed regional assessments can be made. Such studies will be the most effective way of testing whether the hypotheses derived from this research are adequate to explain the changes, retentions and adaptations in Maori material culture during the protohistoric period.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2008. / Principal faculty advisor: J. Ritchie Garrison, Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Bristol, 2002. / This CD version includes both the author's thesis and the accompanying Chart A that was inserted in a pocket inside the back cover in the printed version. At head of title: University of Bristol, Faculty of Arts, Department of Archaeology. Includes folded chart ("Chart A") in pocket attached to inside back cover. Includes bibliographical references (p. 465-501). Also available in printed format and via the Internet.