Ayahuasca is a psychedelic brew originating from the Amazon in South America. Commonly associated with religious use among indigenous and mestizo populations, ayahuasca has made its way to the United States, where it is currently criminalized as a Schedule I drug. Nevertheless, a church in the United States provides ayahuasca to its members as both a sacrament and tool for healing through spiritual retreat weekends. Based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with church members, volunteers, and staff in 2023, this thesis examines how members perceived the healing they experienced during multiple ayahuasca ceremonies and interactions with church volunteers and staff. By examining their personal experiences and the extra-drug variables of set and setting, I argue that members received guidance about the next steps in life from the ayahuasca experience itself and from the post-ceremony integration process led by the church. Members often saw this guidance as a path toward mental healing. In addition, members’ ayahuasca experiences were influenced by their intentions for drinking the brew and the overall supportive setting provided by volunteers and staff members. This thesis contributes to the growing body of literature on the renewed interest in psychedelic use for therapeutic purposes in the global north by analyzing ayahuasca use in the unique setting of a spiritual retreat in the United States.

Curanderismo is a holistic form of traditional medicine primarily used by Latin American populations and Hispanic communities in the United States. This type of care focuses on several aspects of health including physical, emotional and spiritual (supernatural). Hispanics are the largest ethnic minority population in the United States and yet healthcare access to this population remains limited by various barriers including lack of insurance, legal status, language, poverty, and other structural factors. Within this context, exploring the perceptions and role of traditional medicine, like curanderismo, as a form of healthcare becomes crucial in understanding and addressing the unique healthcare needs of diverse populations. This research uses the ethnographic method of semi-structured interviews contextualized with participant observations to explore the views and experiences of Hispanic young adults on curanderismo, in efforts to understand how Hispanic individuals perceive and navigate their health care choices while retaining aspects of their cultural background. My findings indicate that the term “curanderismo” does not accurately represent how Hispanic young adults in the United States identify the practices associated with curanderismo. I argue that there are stigmas associated with curanderismo that reflect structural barriers to care that contribute to healthcare disparities within the Hispanic community and further argue that elder female figures have a significant influence on the continuation of curanderismo among Hispanic young adults.

This ethnographic study examines how Filipino restaurants in Greater Orlando leverage traditional foodways and interior design to gain and sustain customer followings. Data elicitation techniques such as participant observation, semi-structured interviews, photography, and mapping help build a general portrait of these niche out-to-eat venues in central Florida. Collected findings suggest that Filipino restaurants in Greater Orlando are extremely varied from the type of eatery they are, the mode of consumption and their interior design choices. Dine-in, takeout from turo-turo stores, or fast food are the many ways one can get food. Most of the time the interior design of the restaurant features traditional Filipino cultural symbols including signs, religious items, slogans, or mascots. All in all, this research aims to create a look into these restaurant foodways and interior design choices.

Religion and religious ritual has been linked to providing individuals and entire communities with the ability to cope in the aftermath of life-changing traumas. This thesis explores the intersection of coping and ritual in the aftermath of the recent persecution of the Yezidi people. The methodology utilizes qualitative interviews and participant observation which was conducted in Ainkawa, Lalish and Bashiqa during fieldwork that took place in July 2017. A sample of 25 Yezidis who remain displaced in Northern Iraq were asked to describe their experience of coping in the aftermath of the Sinjar Massacre. I argue that the introduction of a baptismal ritual extended to adult women became a medium to reclaim identity. This allowed women who were abducted to symbolically re- declare themselves as Yezidi, cope with the trauma, reintegrate into the community and reclaim their identity through ritual, which presents healing in a framework that is largely relatable.

Historically speaking, many of the social skills necessary to prepare young people for their transition into adulthood occurred through informal tacit learning systems. While an observed practice, scholarly analyses of the role of narrative as an educational tool in the social practices of multigenerations of cultural sharing females is nonexisitent in academic literature. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the role of narrative in the intergenerational transmission of life learning among Jamaican females from a basket weaving community. Narrative inquiry was the research method used to capture the lived experiences of Jamaican females from a basket weaving community. The conceptual framework for this study was narrative learning (storytelling) along with an adult development life cycle model and informal adult learning theories. The sample population included females age 18 to 69 years old from a Jamaican basket weaving community. Data collection involved informal and semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Reflexivity and peer review guided the data analysis process. An interpretative content analysis included open, axial, and descriptive coding. The results of this study confirmed that intergenerational relationships still exist and flourish among Jamaican females in a basket weaving community. Findings from this study can be used to improve female mentoring relationships, implement intergenerational partnerships between individuals and community-based organizations, and contribute toward social change for disenfranchised women and girls through the expansion of nontraditional adult and Other Education programs.

Increasing rates of overweight, obesity, and related metabolic diseases documented among refugee communities across the United States necessitate greater attention to how processes of integration impact refugee health. These nutritional health trends (e.g., increasing rates of obesity) suggest potential disconnects between refugees' past environments and their conditions after re-settlement, which may contribute to adverse changes in energy balance (diet and exercise). While Bhutanese refugees were among the largest refugee groups entering the US during the five years leading up to this research, very few studies have examined how they have responded to integration and the impact of this transition on their health. Grounded in human adaptability and political economic theories, and adopting a biocultural approach, this dissertation investigates how Bhutanese refugees in “Prospect City” (pseudonym) negotiate changing and unfamiliar structural and sociocultural conditions after resettlement and the consequences for energy balance and nutritional status. The results reveal high rates of overweight and obesity compared to US averages. Age and caste related differences in nutritional status were also found. High rates of overweight and obesity corresponded with an energy imbalance due to over consumption of energy dense traditional foods and limited understanding of the importance of regular exercise. Over consumption of energy dense traditional foods stemmed from several interrelated factors: the abundance of foods in the US, prior experiences with food deprivation, a history of political exile that reinforced desires to preserve cultural food preferences, and joint family efforts to accommodate work-related time constraints by increasing food production and availability. Decreases in exercise appeared to stem from more sedentary lifestyles in the US as a result of work environments and available transportation, coupled with a lack of health knowledge regarding health benefits of physical activity. This dissertation’s findings are being reported to Prospect City’s Bhutanese Community Organization to help develop strategies for improving nutritional health in the community.

Often we see examples of what makes a great leader, yet overlook examples of dark leaders. This thesis explores how dark leaders don’t necessarily draw in blind followers, but rather abuse their power in order to build their vision. In my study of Jonestown I show that followers were genuine in their feelings about Jones as a person and the Peoples Temple’s mission. They should not be dismissed just because they “drank the Kool-Aid.” This thesis explores and evaluates various religious studies theories and their interpretation of the events, popular perceptions, and personal statements from the deceased or surviving members. I conclude that Jones was a revolutionary leader during his time. He tried to achieve equality in the U.S. on multiple platforms, but was ultimately too attracted by power and control. In the end, this matters because given the state of the world today and the rise of dark leaders both through political offices, terrorist groups and other places, we need to have a way to not only protect ourselves from joining them, but also preventing them.

This project examines the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons during the Syrian civil war in 2013 and places the disarmament process in the context of the international nonproliferation regime and the history of United States weapons of mass destruction (WMD) policy. Additionally, I argue that U.S. policy on WMDs does not operate by a fixed set of standards; rather, cultural assumptions about a state and its weapons (such as the USSR, Iraq, Israel and their WMDs) are used to justify nonproliferation action. I present weapons as a mode of Othering that the U.S. and the nonproliferation regime employ to justify the designation of an enemy state. This analysis also examines the “myth of neutrality” of humanitarian intervention and applies these concepts to nonproliferation intervention.

My dissertation research was a 14-month ethnographic study of the post-repatriation experience of forced migrants in South Sudan. It was designed to determine if alterations to gender norms and relations that refugees experienced during asylum differed as a function of the asylum environments and if these modifications remained intact upon the refugees’ return. The forced migrants in my sample, the Dinka of Bor from South Sudan, encountered two different asylum environments and experiences: Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya and Khartoum, in northern Sudan. After 10-15 years in asylum, these forced Dinka Bor migrants returned to South Sudan. I compared the pre-flight and post-repatriation behavior of these two groups of returnees to determine to what extent gendered behaviors could be attributed to each asylum location. I found that various global forces encountered during asylum were instrumental in forging new ways of life by changing gendered livelihood practices and gendered access to status, power, and resources after return. In addition, the resettlement context played an equally critical role in the gendered behaviors after return.

American zoological parks have been sites of intense consumer and scholar interest since their origination in the 20th century. Today, zoos reside at a tenacious hub of ideologies, practices, and priorities contributed to by various stakeholder groups. I propose that the foundational cause of this tension is zoological multiplicity: the theory that through human practices and perceptions, animals can embody multiple identities. Via an exploration of zoological multiplicity in American zoos with specific focus on zoo management, zoogoer, and animal activist stakeholder groups, this project proposes the widespread acknowledgment and understanding of zoological multiplicity as a method to improve animal care and global wildlife conservation projects.