In this paper, the author looks at the impact of the policy of federal recognition on a Los Angeles basin Native community: the Gabrielino Tongva. The first section, the literature review focuses on the difficulties of defining “indigenousness” in the academic and political realms, as well as looking at Native scholars’ conceptualization of this unique and multifaceted identity. After a consideration of the theoretical framework of the study, the crossroads between anthropology and public policy analysis, the author presents the tools she used in her study, namely: participant observation, key-informant interviews, and the analysis of published documents and personal files. The section ends with a review of ethical concerns pertaining to doing research with indigenous people. The historical section comprises an analysis of archives and published works about the Tongva and the federal recognition process. Starting by a brief report of major policies that have impacted Native American rights in the U.S. and the evolution of government relations with indigenous communities, the author looks at the legacy of the Tongva people in L.A. today, paying special attention to past efforts at obtaining federal recognition and political divides within the tribe. The analysis is structured according to the different levels of recognition that the author perceived through her research. “Capital R”, or federal recognition is explored through its impact on the individual and the group, and followed by an account of current efforts towards community recognition – “lower-case r.” The paper ends on recommendations for future policies and a personal reflection about the research and its results.

In this thesis I analyze semi-structured interviews I conducted with fifteen young French and American business students and professionals in order to uncover cultural models relating to work, while paying particular attention to the acceptance or rejection of neoliberal ideas. To contextualize the analysis, I first review the history of neoliberal ideology along with its arrival and political and institutional influence in both countries. In the U.S., the neoliberal transition was rapid and dramatic under the Reagan administration, which constitutes a critical institutional juncture and a shift in the dominant paradigm of governance. In France, in contrast, neoliberal policies have been implemented reluctantly and incrementally, suggesting traditional French values relating to the state and its role in regulating the economy remain largely intact. In line with these historical patterns, the Americans I spoke to primarily conceptualize work as a commodity, accepting the definition of work as defined in the market; while the French interviewees conceptualize work as personal fulfillment and occupational citizenship, emphasizing the human and psychological essence of work and the need for moral regulation of the market economy, perceived as immoral and anarchic. Overall, the Americans much more readily accepted neoliberal ideas and policy directives and towards which the French were far less welcoming. In particular, I argue that the traditional role of the French state as responsible for the wellbeing of its citizens presents a major obstacle to neoliberal ideology, historically on an institutional level as well as in the minds of the French interviewees.

According to the firsthand account of James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, it appears that piracy in the state of British Malaya in the mid-1800s was community-driven and egalitarian, led by the interests of heroic figures like the Malayan pirate Si Rahman. These heroic figures share traits with Eric Hobsbawm’s social bandit, and in this case may be ascribed as social pirates. In contrast, late 20th-century and early 21st-century pirates in the region operate in loosely structured, hierarchical groups beholden to transnational criminal syndicates. Evidence suggests that contemporary pirates do not form the egalitarian communities of their colonial counterparts or play the role of ‘Robin Hood’ in their societies. Firsthand accounts of pirates from the modern-day pirate community on Batam Island suggest that the contemporary Southeast Asian pirate is an operative in the increasingly corporate interest of modern-day criminal organizations.

Diss. Helsinki : Helsinki Universitet. 2008.

This study investigates adolescents' relationships with food and other community and household members' perceptions of youth and their food consumption to understand the multifactorial dynamic processes which create nutritional outcomes among urban and rural youth in central Tanzania. Youth are an important and demographically large population in developing countries. The identities created during this distinct stage of cultural production can be reflected in youths' food consumption and relationships with food. Nutrition likely affects how youth transition through a variety of states, including their growth and development stages, primary to secondary to higher education, child to parent, or unemployed to employed. Food and nutrition are in transition in many developing countries such as Tanzania. Here, many adolescents experience undernutrition, in addition to increasing access to low-nutrient, high-calorie foods and increased risk for overweight and obesity during their lifespan. Little data exists in these contexts regarding food security, food consumption and nutritional outcomes. This study utilizes a biocultural approach which constructs adolescence as a socially distinct and culturally variable period between childhood and adulthood with unique roles and responsibilities. This framework draws upon political economy theory, with influences from political ecology, evolutionary theory and an adaptive perspective to investigate youths' relationships with food within the larger context of their lives, households and communities. This study explores the ways that gender, poverty and locality affect youth and their relationships with food through qualitative and quantitative methodology. A mixed-methods approach is used at two field sites in central Tanzania: rural Haydom Ward and urban Singida Municipality. Methods employed in this study include semi-structured interviews, pile sorts, focus groups, a quantitative survey, food frequency questionnaire, anthropometry, and participant observation. Qualitative data help to gain an in-depth understanding of adolescent health and nutrition in urban and rural areas of Tanzania, and provide a foundation for a quantitative survey, which aims to provide an overview of adolescent food consumption, nutritional status, and health-related behaviors on a larger scale. Youth food consumption and nutrition in central Tanzania is imbedded within a web of social, biological and environmental processes and influenced by gender, population density, school enrollment, household structure and poverty. Food security risks and consumption patterns vary by field site, where seasonality and drought negatively impact rural adolescents' health and food consumption patterns, while lack of money and increased food cost affect urban adolescents more. Boys are especially vulnerable; they report consuming less food and exhibit poorer nutritional status than girls. School attendance offers unique challenges to food consumption. Urban schools do not offer breakfast or lunch, so most students go the entire day without a meal. In rural areas, schools may provide food through mandatory `contributions' required for student enrollment, but these enrollment requirements can act as a barrier for poorer households. Additionally, rural schools are often far from students' homes, forcing many to live at the school in rented poor-quality shacks far from markets and potable water sources. Parents and other community members view adolescents as essential members of the household who perform important tasks in the household and community. They also construct youth as problematic, and link food insecurity to culturally problematic behaviors where food insecurity leads adolescents to migrate to larger urban areas. Here, they may experience extreme poverty, engage in transactional sex, and abuse alcohol and drugs. Adolescent food consumption is imbedded within multifactorial challenges related to education, globalization, and household and community relationships. Strategies to address adolescent health or livelihood issues in Tanzania and elsewhere must engage a holistic approach where all aspects of adolescents' lives are considered.

In recent years, Florida has acquired a reputation as fertile ground for human trafficking. On the heels of state and federal anti-human trafficking legislation, a host of organizations have risen to provide a range of services. In this thesis, I discuss findings from 26 interviews conducted with law enforcement, service providers, legal representatives and trafficked persons to contextualize the variability in the way anti-trafficking work is conceptualized by stakeholders across the state. Additionally, I explore how conflicting organizational policies on the local, state, and federal levels impact stakeholder collaboration and complicate trafficked persons' attempts to navigate already complex processes of social/health services and documentation. Lastly, I provide policy recommendations that attempt to address the major issues associated with anti-trafficking work identified through the analysis of participant interviews.

People connect digitally through social media, fusing their relationships with meaning in a non-space of relational potential--a translucent and fluctuating enclave where the self becomes elastic. This thesis explores how I have formed bonds in virtual space through ritual interaction. Looking at the ways I learned to use technology through the progression of a close personal relationship, I suggest that social media use is a performance of identity--a virtuality that exposes how people negotiate the digital enclosure of contemporary society. My story is one of digital nativity and reclaiming love through virtual performance. I show how these performances have had a profound impact on my understanding of self-in-relation-to-other. Finally, I put forth a theory of Real Virtuality, suggesting that virtual reality has escaped the confines of the machine. Thus, digital conversations penetrate offline social situations in ways that have stirring consequences for people in the digital age.

Even from afar, transnational migrants influence how their households and communities of origin use natural resources. This study depicts the circulation of people, funds, and ideas within transnational families that extend from a Honduran village to the United States. Developing a "political ecology of migration" approach, I show how these circulations can reshape resource use practices and the socio-economic and bio-physical topographies of emigrants' former homes. The project advances anthropological thought by linking rich literatures on political ecology and transnationalism through a multi-method ethnography of transnational families. The study is also relevant to emigrants, community members, and practitioners interested in incorporating emigrants and remittances into development and conservation projects. The multi-sited project is anchored in a 380-household Honduran village, located in Cerro Azul Meámbar National Park, and encompasses the movement and practices of its residents and emigrants, including two secondary study sites in the United States. Research began with four focus groups. These formed the basis for 51 household village-wide structured interviews on experiences, practices, and beliefs related to remitting, migration, communication, farming, and natural resource use. I worked closely with four of these families in Honduras and at their emigrant family members' homes in south Florida and Long Island, New York. Through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and diaries tracking remittances and discourse through phone conversations, the multi-sited project traces transnational flows of funds, people, and ideas within the families. The ethnography highlights factors that shape, encourage, or impede emigrants' participation in natural resource management and development activities, as well as unintended socio-economic and environmental consequences of their actions. Study participants spend remittances not only on more commonly documented health, education, housing, and food, but also on a number of areas that directly impact the socio-natural landscape: farm inputs, cattle-ranching, land, labor, firewood collection, and a village-wide potable water project. How money is earned, sent, and spent is affected by emigrants' perceptions of home - perceptions shaped by phone calls, visits, nostalgia, precarious economic and immigration status, plans to return, and dreams of a better future for themselves and their children. Some environmental impacts are directly related to spending decisions, such as the decision to buy agrochemicals. In other cases, impacts arise from nonmonetary relationships, such as lending land. The study's political ecology of migration approach shows how emigrants' remitting and communication practices within transnational family networks translate into material, landscape impacting practices in their households and village of origin. The study contributes to a more nuanced treatment of material practices and places in migration research and provides political ecology with a network based approach to capturing transnational dynamics impacting local livelihoods and landscapes. Ethnographic understanding of these dynamics has the potential to assist researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to take migrants into account in development of interventions and as well as to understand how their practices and beliefs shape and reshape the topographies of their current and original homes.

ABSTRACT Where do we get our ideas about the concept of `race'? The conceptualization of `race' has long been a topic of interest in the social sciences and society in general. The word `race' has been used and defined in different ways and different purposes throughout U.S. history. The definition of `race' therefore is arbitrary, changing according to the situation, but the consequences of how the word `race' is used are concrete and effect peoples lives daily. This research, in accord with much of the literature on the topic, shows that public schools play a major role in the conceptualization of `race'. Furthermore, what children are learning about `race;' in schools is not in an academic fashion but rather through inferences by the media, textbooks, and interactions with friends, teachers and school staff. I have conducted both qualitative (semi-structured interviews) and quantitative (questionnaires) research in order to explore where young adults say that they began to conceptualize `Race'. The results show that public schools, the home and neighborhoods of the young adults are the places that have influenced their `racial' conceptualization the most. I posit that we should provide the most up to date, accurate and pedagogically appropriate information as possible in public schools to aid our children in their process the conceptualization of the concept of `race'.

Burmese refugees are entering the US at record speed. Resettlement agencies focus on immediate needs, and ethnic community-based organizations (ECBOs) fill any service gaps through community-driven programs. The Tampa Bay Burmese Council (TBBC) is an ECBO in Tampa, FL dedicated to the Burmese community. This research explores the reproductive beliefs of the women in the community, paying particular attention to any differences that arise due to beliefs specific to their ethnic group. Findings include the importance of menses for women's health, the preference for both male and female children, a lack of knowledge about family planning methods, a tendency to use family planning only after the ideal family composition is reached, and periods of food and activity prohibitions during pregnancy and the postpartum period. The recommendations offered will be used by the TBBC to apply for grants to fund needed community-based services.