Rural communities, often called outports, throughout Newfoundland are currently experiencing important socio-economic changes. External forces, such as the ever-growing oil industry in Alberta and provincial planning based upon centralization, are undoubtedly reconfiguring the life and future of people living in small, isolated outports. For many of them, tourism has become a way to secure their present and future by exploiting their rich historical and natural heritage. A highly successful example of a tourism oriented endeavor in rural Newfoundland is the Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadow in the Northern Peninsula. White Harbour is a small community on the Baie Verte Peninsula of Newfoundland and is used here as an example in a study attempting to understand the reasons behind the lack of tourism-related initiatives, particularly on the part of women. White Harbour has it all: an important archeological site, a museum, rich history, traditions, and a wonderful natural setting. Women in White Harbour, most of them aged 30–60, stay home and do not seasonally migrate to Alberta as many men do. They perfectly understand the potentiality of their place but most do not attempt any tourist-related entrepreneurship. As the study will reveal, there are many, often contrasting reasons why women do not become entrepreneurs. These reasons, which may be personal, cultural, or economic are very different in character and constitute a complex web that often discourages women from starting small businesses like coffee shops, art galleries, or bed and breakfasts. This study aims to uncover some of these difficulties and offers a unique opportunity to reflect upon them. The findings are discussed in light of the latest works on rural communities, women, tourism, and globalization.

The perception of pets as ‘family members’ is an important area of research in the study of human-animal relationships. The objective of this thesis is to assess the ways in which pets are integrated into the home, and to explore how pet owners regard their dogs and cats within their constructed circles of kinship and social bonds. This research also examines a sample of attitudes toward some important issues with pet keeping, from what constitutes responsible pet guardianship to modern issues in animal welfare. Thirty-four participants were recruited, and data was collected through individual qualitative interviews. Data analysis shows the level of integration of the pet into the family has some correlations with the gender of the primary pet caretaker, and shows the impact of individual experiences of participants, particularly in childhood, which strongly influenced preferences of pet type, and their view of the role of animals in the home.

Rural communities, often called outports, throughout Newfoundland are currently experiencing important socio-economic changes. External forces, such as the ever-growing oil industry in Alberta and provincial planning based upon centralization, are undoubtedly reconfiguring the life and future of people living in small, isolated outports. For many of them, tourism has become a way to secure their present and future by exploiting their rich historical and natural heritage. A highly successful example of a tourism oriented endeavor in rural Newfoundland is the Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadow in the Northern Peninsula. White Harbour is a small community on the Baie Verte Peninsula of Newfoundland and is used here as an example in a study attempting to understand the reasons behind the lack of tourism-related initiatives, particularly on the part of women. White Harbour has it all: an important archeological site, a museum, rich history, traditions, and a wonderful natural setting. Women in White Harbour, most of them aged 30–60, stay home and do not seasonally migrate to Alberta as many men do. They perfectly understand the potentiality of their place but most do not attempt any tourist-related entrepreneurship. As the study will reveal, there are many, often contrasting reasons why women do not become entrepreneurs. These reasons, which may be personal, cultural, or economic are very different in character and constitute a complex web that often discourages women from starting small businesses like coffee shops, art galleries, or bed and breakfasts. This study aims to uncover some of these difficulties and offers a unique opportunity to reflect upon them. The findings are discussed in light of the latest works on rural communities, women, tourism, and globalization.

The perception of pets as ‘family members’ is an important area of research in the study of human-animal relationships. The objective of this thesis is to assess the ways in which pets are integrated into the home, and to explore how pet owners regard their dogs and cats within their constructed circles of kinship and social bonds. This research also examines a sample of attitudes toward some important issues with pet keeping, from what constitutes responsible pet guardianship to modern issues in animal welfare. Thirty-four participants were recruited, and data was collected through individual qualitative interviews. Data analysis shows the level of integration of the pet into the family has some correlations with the gender of the primary pet caretaker, and shows the impact of individual experiences of participants, particularly in childhood, which strongly influenced preferences of pet type, and their view of the role of animals in the home.

The representation of Balinese people and culture within scholarship throughout the 20th century and into the most recent 21st century studies is examined. Important questions are considered, such as: What major themes can be found within the literature?; Which scholars have most influenced the discourse?; How has Bali been presented within undergraduate anthropology textbooks, which scholars have been considered; and how have the Balinese been affected by scholarly representation? Consideration is also given to scholars who are Balinese and doing their own research on Bali, an area that has not received much attention. The results of this study indicate that notions of Balinese culture and identity have been largely constructed by “Outsiders”: 14th-19th century European traders and early theorists; Dutch colonizers; other Indonesians; and first and second wave twentieth century scholars, including, to a large degree, anthropologists. Notions of Balinese culture, and of culture itself, have been vigorously critiqued and deconstructed to such an extent that is difficult to determine whether or not the issue of what it is that constitutes Balinese culture has conclusively been answered.

The representation of Balinese people and culture within scholarship throughout the 20th century and into the most recent 21st century studies is examined. Important questions are considered, such as: What major themes can be found within the literature?; Which scholars have most influenced the discourse?; How has Bali been presented within undergraduate anthropology textbooks, which scholars have been considered; and how have the Balinese been affected by scholarly representation? Consideration is also given to scholars who are Balinese and doing their own research on Bali, an area that has not received much attention. The results of this study indicate that notions of Balinese culture and identity have been largely constructed by “Outsiders”: 14th-19th century European traders and early theorists; Dutch colonizers; other Indonesians; and first and second wave twentieth century scholars, including, to a large degree, anthropologists. Notions of Balinese culture, and of culture itself, have been vigorously critiqued and deconstructed to such an extent that is difficult to determine whether or not the issue of what it is that constitutes Balinese culture has conclusively been answered.

The repatriation of Aboriginal human remains is still a debated issue in some forums. However, among many Canadian museums and other institutions, repatriation of ancestral remains is no longer a debate. It has become part of an obligation institutions have to ‘decolonize’ their collections. While the question concerning whether repatriation is ‘the right thing to do’ has been recognized in most North American museums, trying to decide the best method to return the remains is still undecided. In examining how perceptions of human remains have changed in the Anglo-European, Haida and Ojibway cultures, an explanation of the importance of repatriation emerges. This thesis analyses how changes in perception have impacted the acceptance of repatriation among museums and other institutions and produced a discourse concerned with returning all Aboriginal remains back to Native communities. By analysing the experiences and opinions of 14 stakeholders in repatriation (collected during in-person and telephone conversations as well as open-ended questionnaires) I was able to garner a general opinion on the status of repatriation in Canada. It was found that the current method Canadian institutions employ to repatriate Aboriginal human remains adequately addresses the issue. Flaws are found in all methods of repatriation; however, presently, negotiations based on mediation and not litigation produce more valuable consultation relationships, more cooperation between institutions and Native groups, and a more beneficial repatriation experience.

In a great deal of social scientific literature on gender, female impersonators have been framed as the example par excellence of crossgendering and crossdressing behaviour in the West. Perceived rather dichotomously as either gender transgressive or reinforcing of hegemonic gender norms, female impersonators occupy a very central position within the emerging fields of gay and lesbian, transgendered, and queer studies. Certain schools of feminist thought, dating back to the mid to late 1970s have framed female impersonators as misogynistic gay men who appropriate female bodies and a “feminine” gender from biological women. These theories argue that female impersonators utilize highly stereotypical and overly sexualized images of the feminine, in order to gain power, prestige, and status within the queer community. This study challenges popular feminist perspectives on drag, first on a theoretical level, utilizing advances in contemporary queer theory and secondly on an ethnographic level, based on a year long field study which involved both participant observation and unstructured interviews with several female impersonators and nightclub patrons at a local queeroriented nightclub in a city in southern Ontario, Canada. Aiming to understand the degree to which performers identified with the normative femininity they performed, this study argues for a more complex understanding of what motivates individuals to become drag queens, one that incorporates female impersonators unique subjective understandings of their own gender identities. Overall, this study calls for a more holistic perspective on female impersonation, which does not limit itself to any one theoretical model of drag.

The Community Based Policing model has been adopted by the large majority of policing agencies as another tool on an officer’s duty belt that allows them to do their job more effectively and efficiently. The model is premised on the building and maintaining of relationships of the Police Service and the community it serves. The model argues that Services must ensure that the community is given a voice in the way police enforce the laws. The model encourages that the police and community work together in a partnership that is different from the traditional relationship shared between the two groups under the previous Professional Policing model. This working in partnership means that not only must the police become more open to the community providing direction in the way they do their job, but also that the community must take a more active role in the policing of their areas. This partnership could be considered an exchange of information from both the police and the community. As argued by Marcel Mauss in The Gift, relationships that are on-going and have elements of exchange have obligations. These obligations of giving, receiving and reciprocity ensure that the relationship between the groups is not only maintained, but strengthened. When one of these obligations is not met, however, there are often social consequences. This research attempts to understand the model of Community Based Policing in terms of how it is being applied by Canada’s second oldest police service, the Hamilton Police. With the model encouraging a relationship with the community, issues of gift exchange appear. Through interviews with staff of the Hamilton Police Service, as well as citizens from the community of Hamilton, how these obligations are being met, as well as the effectiveness of the model and its relation to Maussian theory of gift exchange are explored.

In a great deal of social scientific literature on gender, female impersonators have been framed as the example par excellence of crossgendering and crossdressing behaviour in the West. Perceived rather dichotomously as either gender transgressive or reinforcing of hegemonic gender norms, female impersonators occupy a very central position within the emerging fields of gay and lesbian, transgendered, and queer studies. Certain schools of feminist thought, dating back to the mid to late 1970s have framed female impersonators as misogynistic gay men who appropriate female bodies and a “feminine” gender from biological women. These theories argue that female impersonators utilize highly stereotypical and overly sexualized images of the feminine, in order to gain power, prestige, and status within the queer community. This study challenges popular feminist perspectives on drag, first on a theoretical level, utilizing advances in contemporary queer theory and secondly on an ethnographic level, based on a year long field study which involved both participant observation and unstructured interviews with several female impersonators and nightclub patrons at a local queeroriented nightclub in a city in southern Ontario, Canada. Aiming to understand the degree to which performers identified with the normative femininity they performed, this study argues for a more complex understanding of what motivates individuals to become drag queens, one that incorporates female impersonators unique subjective understandings of their own gender identities. Overall, this study calls for a more holistic perspective on female impersonation, which does not limit itself to any one theoretical model of drag.