Musical instrument makers in the state of West Virginia in the United States pursue “singing,” lively instruments that capture ideals of musical tone and “re-enchant” their work and lives through relationships with craft materials and the forest landscape. Suitable tonewoods that grow in the region, such as red spruce (Picea rubens), intersect with makers’ desires to craft instruments in the style of famed makers such as the C.F. Martin Company and the Gibson Company as well as provide instruments imbued with a sense of place. While the demand for and symbolic import of instruments made with local wood seems to grow, the availability of the requisite tree species is dominated by resource materialities and temporalities of large land-owners and timber producers that privilege timber harvest in short cycles that clash with the needs of musical instrument crafters. As a result, makers also look to other global forests, such as those of the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, as sources for tonewood capable of becoming a singing instrument. Employing a theoretical framework that emphasizes the relationality of human actors and nonhuman materials, I argue that the work of instrument makers is rendered meaningful in part by a co-constructive process of becoming both instrument and maker. I show how this relationship extends to the forest environment, spiritual and philosophical discourse, and transnational networks that continually re-enchant the work of musical instrument makers in a region questioning the future and sustainability of economic and environmental processes. I join efforts to explore and analyze the political ecology of musical instruments through the affective material relationships and global flows of craft materials placed in an environmental locus of local, regional, and national imaginaries and the futures and failures of capitalist modes of production. By presenting narratives collected through ethnographic apprenticeships, interviews, and archival research, I argue that these makers navigate unique approaches to the forest environment, the global exchange of sonic craft materials, and meaning of their work through the craft of musical instruments.

This dissertation examines how resilience against disaster is produced on a daily basis by Emergency Managers and private sector continuity professionals working in New York City. Drawing on ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews, it uses disaster anticipation as a case study in inter-organizational reliability and the interplay between materiality and culture in the processual reproduction of social life. I find that disaster risk managers conceptualize disasters as situations of abrupt mismatch between available material resources and the exigencies of critical tasks and routines. They use three interrelated types of strategies to anticipate these crises: (1) conducting persistent active monitoring and routine intervention in the organizational environment; (2) planning for the consequences, rather than triggers, of disasters; and (3) building a creative capacity to preserve or restore access to resources critical for the reproduction of social and organizational routines. Taken together, I argue, these strategies shed new light on how organizations collaborate across boundaries to build resilience against unexpected shocks. The empirical data provides a lever into deeper puzzles in sociology: how can we account for both the durability of social structures and sudden social change? In other words, what can we learn about the way social life is reproduced by better understanding the work of professionals employed by the state and major corporate firms to proactively manage the events that threaten to punctuate that continuity? This research advances the literature on organizational reliability, as well as the material turn in institutional theory, drawing attention to the role of material resources in the production and reproduction of cultural schemas.

Em levantamentos realizados no acervo do Centro de Arqueologia de São Paulo, nas coleções relativas aos sítios arqueológicos localizados na região do triângulo histórico de São Paulo e adjacências, foram identificadas 29 contas de vidro e de material orgânico em três contextos do século XIX: a Praça das Artes, o Solar da Marquesa de Santos e a Casa n.°1. Através da análise das técnicas de produção, são levantadas informações sobre cronologia e origem desses artefatos. Em uma pespectiva contextual global, essas miçangas dialogam com outras de contextos africanos ou da diáspora africana, tal como o Cais do Valongo, no Rio de Janeiro e Kindoki, no Congo. São Paulo no século XIX era uma cidade com forte presença da população africana. Eles estavam nas ruas, praças, pontes, chafarizes, mercados e igrejas, com seus batuques e capoeiras, formando verdadeiros territórios negros através de materialidades, identidades e agências. As contas e miçangas delimitavam hierarquias sociais internas a esses grupos e participavam da construção da paisagem negra da cidade de São Paulo. / The Archaeological Center of São Paulo have collections related to archaeological sites located in the region at the São Paulo downtown and its surroundings. Between them, 29 glass and organic beads were identified in three 19th century contexts: the Praça das Artes, the Solar da Marquesa de Santos and the Casa n.1. Through the analysis of the production techniques, information about the chronology and origin of these artifacts is collected. From a global contextual perspective, these beads dialogue with others from African or African diaspora contexts, such as the Cais do Valongo in Rio de Janeiro and Kindoki in the Congo. São Paulo in the 19th century was a city with strong presence of African population. They were in the streets, squares, bridges, fountains, markets and churches, with their batuques and capoeiras, shaped the territories black through materialities, identities and agencies. The beads and miçangas delimited social hierarchies internal to these groups and participated in the construction of the black landscape of the city of São Paulo.

University of Technology, Sydney. Institute of International Studies. / Within Borneo, the indigenous Iban pua kumbu cloth, historically associated with headhunting, is steeped in spirituality and mythology. The cloth, the female counterpart of headhunting, was known as women’s war (Linggi, 1999). The process of mordanting yarns in preparation for tying and dyeing was seen as a way of managing the spiritual realm (Heppell, Melak, & Usen, 2006). It required of the ‘women warriors’ psychological courage equivalent to the men when decapitating enemies. Headhunting is no longer a relevant cultural practice. However, the cloth that incited headhunting continues to be invested with significance in the modern world, albeit in the absence of its association with headhunting. This thesis uses the pua kumbu as a lens through which to explore the changing dynamics of social and economic life with regard to men’s and women’s roles in society, issues of identity and nationalism, people’s relationship to their environment and the changing meanings and roles of the textiles themselves with global market forces. By addressing these issues I aim to capture the fluid expressions of new social dynamics using a pua kumbu in a very different way from previous studies. Using the scholarship grounded in art and material culture studies, and with particular reference to theories of ‘articulation’ (Clifford, 2001), ‘circulation’ (Graburn & Glass, 2004) and ‘art and agency’ (Gell, 1998; MacClancy, 1997a), I analyse how the Dayak Iban use the pua kumbu textile to renegotiate their periphery position within the nation of Malaysia (and within the bumiputera indigenous group) and to access more enabling social and economic opportunities. I also draw on the theoretical framework of ‘friction’ and ‘contact zones’ as outlined by Tsing (2005), Karp (2006) and Clifford (1997) to contextualize my discussion of the of the exhibition and representation of pua kumbu in museums. Each of these theoretical frameworks is applied to my data to situate and illustrate my arguments. Whereas in the past, it was the culture that required the object be made, now the object is made to do cultural work. The cloth, instead of revealing hidden symbols and meanings in its motifs, is now made to carry the culture, having itself become a symbol or marker for Iban people. Using an exploration of material culture to understand the complex, dynamic and flowing nature of the relationship between objects and the identities of the producers and consumer is the key contribution of this thesis.

Summary: "The ignorance which, generally speaking, prevails regarding the true character of the aboriginal population is not wonderful, simply because we know that there is no other branch of knowledge of which men are so thoroughly ignorant as the study of man himself. the constitution of man, mental as well as bodily, forms as yet no part of the ordinary course of education; and men are sent forth into the world to meet, deal, and to treat with one another, in total ignorance of each other�s character. it is not, under such circumstances, to be wonderer at, that, even in civilized life, disputes, quarrels, and troubles should exist; how much less so when the two extremes, the savage and the civilized, are brought into contact with one another."(1) With these words Dr. Martin, in 1845, outlined the need for special training for those who had to deal with native races, whether as missionaries, administrators, or merely as settlers amongst them. All those who came into contact with the Maoris had, of necessity, to study their ways to a certain extent, and some naturally, were more proficient in this than were their fellows. Wherever there was one who, through his understanding of the native character and the strength of his influence, was able to guide both Maori and Pakeha in their relations with one another, there the two peoples lived in peace. Dissension arose through the ignorance of either party of laws of the other, or because those laws were deliberately flouted. Training in the study of man, as suggested by Martin, would have dispelled this ignorance and inculcated a spirit of tolerance which could have eased much of the friction that ensued. Where it was essential to compromise on conflicting points, or where the weaker of the two parties was forced to conform to the ways of the other, then again this training would have indicated the best procedure to be adopted. But no system of schooling at that time included a study of anything like anthropology, which was then an unthought-of science, and the only hope of harmonious race relations lay in the possibility that certain of those in responsible positions amongst both Europeans and Maoris would have enough wit to discern the right course--Introduction.

The thesis is a case study of two traditional family farms that were settled in Oregon in 1850 and 1915. The study embraces the theory that material culture reflects customs and values. The material culture indicators within the study are the architectural structures of the Oregon farms. The study filters the architecture through theoretical and historical data of both Oregon and the Upland South. The farms are recorded with oral history, photographs, architectural descriptions, and evolutionary settlement patterns. The filtering process results in two constructs that correlate the commonalities of both the Oregon farms and the Upland South architecture. The results point out that, with the disappearance of vernacular architecture on family farms, it follows that historic traditional cultures vanish. / Graduation date: 1993

Cette thèse traite d’une série de dynamiques identitaires qui marquent le pays Hausa nigérien contemporain. Elle est fondée sur trois missions d’enquêtes ethnographiques, conduites au Niger entre janvier 2006 et décembre 2008. La prise en compte de l’extrême mobilité des populations au Niger a également conduit à effectuer un travail de terrain auprès de la communauté nigérienne implantée en Belgique. Notre approche est une ethnographie attentive aux dynamiques de matérialisation des identités, aux pratiques et aux objets par lesquels les personnes et les communautés qui se revendiquent « hausa » rendent effective une telle affirmation. Il s’agit également d’interroger, dans leur rapport aux dynamiques de l’identité, les flux migratoires, commerciaux et médiatiques qui traversent les espaces urbains et ruraux du Sahel nigérien. Notre recherche vise à saisir la dynamique d’hausaisation (expansion de la langue hausa et des pratiques perçues comme hausa) qui marque les paysages identitaires du Niger. Cette dynamique est analysée au travers des stratégies de reconversion identitaire de migrants touaregs, le plus souvent de basse classe, implantés dans les villes de Sud. Elle est également illustrée par le peuplement de l’un des quartiers périphériques de Niamey. Cet espace présente, en effet, la caractéristique d’être pris dans une dynamique d’hausaisation qui soit à la fois bien avancée et relativement récente. Enfin, ces dynamiques sont analysées par le prisme du « réveil islamique » qui, depuis la fin des années 1970, marque le pays Hausa. Il s’agit notamment de montrer comment ce réveil islamique est fonction de la place occupée par le kasar hausa au sein des géographies globales de l’islam contemporain.

Quanzhou Kaiyuan Monastery is an important Buddhist monastery on the Southeast coast of China, in Fujian. It was founded in the seventh century and survives with artifacts from every imperial dynasty stretching back more than one thousand years. Today it is the home of more than eighty monks and the site of a vibrant tradition of devotional life. The following chapters examine Kaiyuan monastery from multiple points of view (time, space, inhabitants and activities, discourse and relations with the state) in order to produce a multi-dimensional portrait considering the contributions of each element to the religious and institutional life of the monastery. In shedding light on monastic Buddhism in contemporary China, this study contributes to a small but growing body of knowledge on the revival of religion in post-Mao China. The study begins with a historical survey of the monastery providing the context in which to understand the current recovery. Subsequent chapters chronicle the dual interplay of secular and non-secular forces that contribute to the monastery's identity as a place of religious practice for monastics, laypersons and worshipers and a site of tourism and leisure for a steady stream of visitors. I survey the stages of recovery following the Cultural Revolution (chapter four) as well as the religious life of the monastery today (chapter five). Other chapters examine how material culture (chapter six) and memorials to auspicious events and eminent monks (chapter seven) contribute to the identity of the monastery. Chapters eight and nine consider how Kaiyuan balances demands to accommodate tourists while remaining a place of religious practice.

The Canadian firm of Jacques & Hay was in business for fifty years, during which the company, if The Globe (Toronto) is to be believed, furnished the Province of Canada. This was a stunning and largely undocumented success. Jacques & Hay was one of the largest employers in the province and dominated the cabinet-making trade from 1835 to 1885. In 1871, Jacques & Hay employed 430 men and 50 women in a vertically-integrated operation that included a sawmill, two factories and a showroom. Jacques & Hay produced abundant furniture at reasonable prices. The availability of such household furnishings greatly enhanced domestic life in nineteenth-century Canada, providing scope for a more elaborate social life and allowing more people to achieve a greater sense of comfort and decency in their living arrangements.

The emergence of desktop ‘3D printing’ is not only a technological development, but equally a social and economic phenomenon that actively (and often contentiously) co-produces the material and ideological infrastructures it occupies. Reflecting wider momentum toward digital-material convergence, the current “revolution” in desktop digital fabrication is fundamentally attributable to the efforts of decentralized Maker and DIY communities who, connected through digital networks, practice citizen-led technological experimentation and occupy novel spaces for innovation and entrepreneurship. Employing hybrid qualitative methods that include Critical Making, this research explores the following themes: rhetoric versus reality, the divisive notion of ‘digital craft’, perceptions of authenticity, as well as cultural momentum manifested in decentralization, convergence, stratification, and iteration. An overarching theme emerges: 3D printing is a fluid phenomenon – in literal, metaphorical, technological and cultural ways.