Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [193]-204).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 469-503).

No description available.

This thesis deals with issues of gender, power, and history in Koriak women's lives in northern Kamchatka. The Koriak represent one of the indigenous populations of Russia's north. They migrate with the reindeer over vast, rugged tundra territory, and live by the products the animals and the land yield. This cultural order has increasingly been threatened by encroachments of first the Soviet, and now the Russian, state. Today, the Koriak are marginalized within the powerful model of the nation state, and their lives are marked by dissolution and despair. / I conducted my research in two villages, Tymlat and Ossora, situated at the northeastern shore of the Kamchatka peninsula. In particular I worked with Koriak women whose various discourses of love, erotics, and desire I examine in this thesis. I adopt a wider framework of history, state power, and marginalization to analyze their practices of femininity and sexuality. In order to exemplify the Koriak experience of everyday life in northern Kamchatka I draw on women's narratives to elucidate various strategies of gender and cultural positionings in the life-world of Tymlat and Ossora. Moreover, I explore Koriak descriptions of Soviet history as a critical commentary on Soviet and Russian descriptions of historical processes in northern Kamchatka.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008.

This thesis explores the ways in which gender and contemporary anthropology interact, with the special emphasis on the areas frequently referred to as "poststructuralist" or "postmodern." More specifically, I look at one aspect which postmodern approaches and feminist theories have in common: questioning of the dominant narratives. This questioning then leads through a series of constructed realities (or hyperrealities) to the realization of the importance of the concept of difference(s) in all its aspects. The ethnographic examples are from the Republics of Slovenia (primarily concerning feminist groups and scholars) and Macedonia (the region of Prespa, in the southwestern part of the country). In both countries the fall of communism has created a sort of a power hiatus, filled with questions about identity, the future and ways to organize the newly emerging societies (since both countries became independent in 1991). In that regard, both countries are hyper real. After the Introduction, I outline the debates surrounding "postmodern" approaches in anthropology, different theoretical assumptions, as well as the area(s) where these approaches can inform anthropological research. I start with the overview of the working definitions of "postmodernism" and the attitudes towards it that characterize current anthropological theory, continuing with what I regard to be the most illustrative examples of it being misunderstood and misrepresented, and concluding with the meeting point of postmodern anthropology and the study of gender. In the following chapters I present the results of my field research in Macedonia and in Slovenia, concluding with the theoretical implications of contemporary anthropological approaches to the study of gender, as well as the reasons for presenting it as basically a social construct. In Conclusion, I point out at the fact that gender studies seem to be the only area where postmodernism and anthropology interact in the most positive way, primarily through the full exploration of the concept of difference(s).

This research investigates contemporary conceptual understandings of Hollywood and Community, seeking to understand how the two, independently and in relation to each other, are made real for the participants ("insiders") engaged in the American film and television industry. The ethnographic field research was conducted over a period of eighteen consecutive months and supplemented by return visits over three of the years that followed. Data collection took place in locations where "Hollywood" was performed, primarily in Los Angeles, California, but also in the State of Utah and Cannes, France. I used anthropological methods, such as interviews and participant-observation, as well as what I term a "working methodology" that required working in a variety of short-term jobs as a means to access the population of study. This working methodology provided unique insight into the critical element of positionality in Hollywood and situated me as an "insider" at times in my own research. This exploratory research concentrates on "locating" Hollywood in a discussion that seeks to capture the invisible complexity of a map that is both literal and imagined: a "place" made up of social and economic networks, marked spaces, and historical connections to a literal landscape. The research suggests that Hollywood is perceived to be a community and, that community membership is defined by work and co-constructed through a dynamic of insider/outsider interaction. An individual's relationship to, and perception of, the Hollywood community is heavily influenced by her position as well by discursive tropes of Hollywood recognized by "insiders". The presentation of data is organized around examples that index Hollywood, in particular for "insiders": Hollywood-speak, time as it is perceived in the setting of Hollywood, and the material culture that is locally called "S.W.A.G.". The idea of Hollywood -- whether as an industry, an institution, or a myth -- has proven its staying-power over time, so too has the idea of Community. Both may prove to be intangible with the specifics up for debate among scholars, but both can also be expected to remain in public discourse and popular imagination for a long time to come.

This research explores the relationship between testosterone and conceptions of masculinity and maleness in North America. The purpose of this study was to discover how men's experiences and enactments of their own masculinity and maleness add dimensions to cultural tropes of masculinity. Aging men (ages 39-75) and transgender men (male-identified, though not born biological men), illuminate the extent to which masculinity and maleness are a cultural achievement, enacted in concert with both cultural mores and individual desires. The research is based on over 27 months of fieldwork, in and around Boston, Massachusetts, using the methods of participant observation, semi-structured interviewing, and discourse analysis. I interviewed of 21 aging men and 24 transgender men. Men responded to semi-structured questions on their identity, experiences of living within their bodies, and understandings of testosterone as an object, commodity, and metaphor. Part commodity, part multi-faceted symbol, testosterone at once establishes, maintains, and enforces a coherently embodied gender. This comparative research suggests that we cannot fully understand the complexity of experiential gender identity without first unpacking the multiple elements of identity (e.g., cultural ideals, individual performances, and biological bodies) which come together in a single human being. This dissertation exposes cultural ideals of masculinity, and shows how men work with, and against, these ideals in constructing their own identities. This research shows that men have enduring and particularistic relationships with their own bodies which both reflect and challenge dominant stereotypes of the male body. I articulate strategies for aging men and transgender men to simultaneously identify and disidentify with cultural masculinity, demonstrating the shifting relevance of cultural masculinity in men's actual gendered lives. This work coins the term "maskulinity," the act of men utilizing cultural notions of masculinity to pass as men at will. I argue that in their acceptance and rejection of cultural masculinity, men in turn modify U.S. understandings of masculinity. This dissertation illuminates striking similarities between aging men and transgender men, showing how these men live in and through their bodies.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Australia, 2006. / At head of title, vol. 2: SPIRT Project : Report to the Commissioner of Police. "This collaborative project has been made possible through a SPIRT grant: Strategic Partnerships with Industry, Research and Training Scheme."--p. 4.