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This case study examines some of the cultural and educational implications of the intersection of a Western world view and a Yupiaq world view in a remote Yupiaq Eskimo village on the Kuskokwim River in southwestern Alaska. The study examines how the contemporary Yupiaq people have adapted their belief system, educational practices and subsistence lifestyle to accommodate a mix of Western and indigenous cultural traditions and technologies. It involves the documentation of Yupiaq practices in a traditional fish camp and science education in a school setting. The most important vehicle for data gathering was the role of participant-observer, because it was congruent with the way Yupiaq people learn. In addition to patient observation, emphasis was placed on document analysis, informal conversations, and interviews as the primary sources of data from the fieldwork. The study addresses the aspirations of Yupiaq people for self-determination and self-reliance by providing a pedagogical framework which attempts to meld Western and Yupiaq knowledge generation and use, based on the data gathered in the field. Special attention is given to the generation and application of scientific knowledge in a manner suited to the maintenance of Yupiaq cultural traditions and world view in a contemporary world.

This dissertation is about the architecture of the Swahili peoples living along the eastern coast of Africa. Specifically, it explores the links and relationships between oral traditions, rituals and the built environment of the Waswahili (sing. Mswahili) or the 'people of the coast'. The 'ambiguous' and 'anomalous' identity of the Waswahili raises important questions on the definition and the understanding of Swahili architecture. To understand Swahili architecture, one must, first, understand the language and identity of the Waswahili. This dissertation makes use of new sources for the interpretation of the built environment of the Waswahili as depicted in the standing 18th century buildings in Lamu town, the oldest living town on the eastern coast of Kenya. Designated on UNESCO's World Heritage List, Lamu has a unique architecture that has often been misinterpreted and misunderstood, and such studies often lack authenticity. This dissertation is an attempt to bridge the gap between the identity and the built environment of the Waswahili and to portray Swahili architecture through oral discourse.

The results of an ethnohistorical study of Lethbridge, Alberta led to my questioning current presumptions in the Canadian social inequality literature that social class, income, educational attainment, gender and ethnicity are principal factors in shaping social inequality in Canada. The ethnographic evidence suggests that membership criteria associated with locally-defined, historically-evolved groups mark who has political influence (a specific form of social power), and where the ensuing social inequalities lie in Lethbridge. A theoretical framework describing how historical circumstances lead to the redefinition of which socially-defined characteristics become local status markers is presented as the underlying theoretical orientation of this thesis. The framework does not preclude the possibility that social groups other than those studied in this thesis use social class, occupation, income, education, gender and ethnicity as status characteristics or group membership criteria. The framework is my attempt to clarify the often-unclear relationship among social inequality concepts. A mail-out social survey (N=238) was used to empirically test the hypothesis that Lethbridge group membership is a better predictor than social class, income, educational attainment, gender and/or ethnicity of who has political influence in Lethbridge community decision-making. Data was analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), bivariate correlation, and multiple regression. Mixed levels of support were found for the Lethbridge group hypotheses, with the "fits in" and "local trade/business people" receiving considerable support; North/South/West sider, and religious affiliation receiving some support; and Old-timers receiving no support. In contrast, the only social inequality hypothesis to receive more than minimal support was level of education. It is concluded that status characteristics are more fluid, local and historically negotiated than assumed in the social inequality literature. Suggested directions for future theoretical and empirical work include refinement of the relationships among social inequality variables and further empirical tests of the theoretical framework proposed here.