In Bolivia, indigenous women's desires to give birth in an atmosphere of respect and cultural autonomy, as well as physicians' and politicians' attempts to mold the nation along racial lines, shaped the development of obstetric medicine. Based on oral histories of midwives, nurses and obstetricians, this study uses midwifery as a lens to examine the connections between nation-state formation and the development of obstetric medicine in Bolivia between 1900 and 1982. Putting midwives at the center of a study about nation-state formation reveals complexities that many male-centered studies miss: indigenous, mixed-race, and white Bolivian women played central roles in state projects and, through their embodiment of different forms of womanhood, influenced debates about Bolivian national identity. This study also engages groundbreaking feminist studies of the 1970s and '80s which showed that U.S. and European male physicians created obstetric medicine by pushing female midwives out of the practice. These physicians typically accused midwives of ineptitude and defined childbirth assistance as a scientific medical procedure that should not be practiced by women. While that pattern holds true in Bolivia to some extent, it does not explain the power dynamics that shaped childbirth assistance in Bolivia. Over the course of the twentieth century, Bolivian physician's desires to modernize childbirth assistance and childrearing practices intertwined with the efforts of Bolivia's elite to overcome what they considered the country's "Indian Problem."

This paper is about modeling the perceived social impacts of three proposed marine protected areas (MPAs), each designed to protect coral reefs. The paper argues that shared perceptions of these impacts have resulted in divergent community-level responses to these MPA proposals. The study is uniquely situated in the Bahamas where the government has approved setting aside 30 No-take MPAs (including three under study here) to protect the coastal marine environment. The paper is based on 572 interviews conducted during eight Weld trips with members of six traditional settlements in the Exuma Islands and Cays in the central Bahamas. Overall, 34% of the census population of these settlements was interviewed at least once. Key Findings are that an MPA can impact in either positive or negative ways (a) community agency by the process of siting, (b) community resilience by eliminating or supporting some components of their traditional adaptations to social and natural environments, and (c) community identity by precluding or protecting customary marine access. MPA impacts to local communities determine whether those communities will support or resist proposed MPAs.

These three talks present a summary of key findings from socio-ecological research conducted in Buen Hombre, the Dominican Republic.

These photographs offer illustrations of the people, places and resources in the six communities visited during the Bahamas Biocomplexity project.

This presentation is focused on the importance of plants at Pipestone National Monument. This presentation highlights key findings from the original ethnobotany study.

Meteorologists working for the state government in Ceara, Northeast Brazil claim that the kinds of forecasts they can currently produce are not useful for subsistence farmers, who lack resources to act on forecast-based decisions. I argue that scientific predictions do have meaning and consequences in rural communities. Official forecasts inform policies that affect farmers; therefore, farmers hold government accountable for predictions, even if they do not directly influence the farmers' own decision-making.My investigation takes the discussion beyond notions of "usefulness" as I demonstrate that prediction is more than a projection of the future based on the past and the present. In prediction discourse, people create understandings of their place in the social world, including their relationship to government. While government discourse constructs farmers as "non-users" and removes its responsibility to them, traditional "rain prophets" motivate farmers with optimistically-framed predictions and encourage autonomy from government.Prediction is a meaning-making endeavor―not just of ecological and atmospheric processes, but of who people are and how they live. Drawing on linguistic theories of performance and performativity, I analyze strategic language use within a cultural models framework, taking into account the emotions and motivations associated with experiences of living in a particular environment (both natural and material), and how these are crucial to understanding the meanings of prediction. Through prediction, people test the limits of their knowledge, judgement and faith. My examination of the connections between cultural models of 'prediction' and 'lie' explains how traditional predictions motivate farmers and build solidarity in opposition to exclusionary systems of government and science.This research furthers our understanding of how locally marginalized groups engage with government and the knowledge systems it privileges. After tracing constructions of "rain prophet" and "scientist" in the media, I show how rain prophets both oppose themselves to and align themselves with media representations of science, as they establish their authority and challenge meteorologists' expertise. Meanwhile, meteorologists work to authenticate science as the only legitimate authority. Thus, in prediction performances, meteorologists and rain prophets position themselves within local and global discourses about science and traditional knowledge.

This dissertation consisting of three case studies, examines how the intersection of biomedicine and indigenous medicine in South Africa has formed and reformed indigenous medical practice over the past century. South Africa, like many other countries, has emerged from colonialism with the need to reassert its indigenous practices. In the case of medicine, this reformation is of particular importance because the last several decades have seen the development of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Yet the contemporary discourses and policies surrounding indigenous medicine have much in common with their colonial predecessors. This research is interested in the way medicine has been constituted in a post-colonial context. In particular, how has the intersection of indigenous and biomedicine reconfigured and respatialized medicine in South Africa?The ways the colonial government acted to regulate indigenous medicine in essence simplified the practice and divided it into subcategories- `natural' medicine (e.g. herbs), `modern' medicine (e.g. stethoscopes) and `supernatural,' (e.g. throwing bones). The natural was the only category of practice legal in the country. Even as the government structure changed, and the previously disadvantaged eventually came to lead the country, these categories still persisted. As such, when a crisis like HIV/AIDS strikes and the need to enroll the help of the indigenous healers becomes clear, calls for their regulation, as a way to gain their assistance, are made. Although the current call does not aim to limit the number of healers, there are similar public health goals of rooting out the `bad' indigenous healers.Overall three major findings emerged: First, colonial regulations are re-introduced in a post-colonial context as discourses, which are then reinstated as policies; second, policy over the past century tends to view indigenous medicine in a simplified form (i.e. as plant-based and natural); and third, there is a constant tension between biomedicine and indigenous medicine where biomedicine works to extend its spaces of practice into the indigenous realm.

This thesis presents a novel six-transistor SRAM intended for advanced microprocessor cache application. The objectives are to reduce power consumption through scaling the supply voltage and to design a SRAM that is fully process-variation-tolerant, utilizing separate read and write access ports as well as exploiting asymmetry. Traditional six-transistor SRAM is designed and its strengths and weaknesses are discussed in detail. Afterwards, a new SRAM technology developed in the division of Electronic Devices, Linköping University is proposed and its capabilities and drawbacks are illustrated deeply. Subsequently, the impact of mismatch and process variation on both standard 6T and proposed asymmetric 6T SRAM cells is investigated. Eventually, the cells are compared regarding the voltage scalability, stability, and tolerability to variations in process parameters. It is shown that the new cell functions in 430mV while maintaining acceptable SNM margin in all process corners. It is also demonstrated that the proposed SRAM is fully process-variation-tolerant. Additionally, a dual-V t asymmetric 6T cell is introduced having wide SNM margin comparable with that of conventional 6T cell such that it is capable of functioning in 580mV.

Much of the academic literature and many health promotion materials related to Aboriginal peoples and food reflect and propagate a problematic view of authentic Aboriginal cultures: that they are frozen in time and are in need of protection. This prevailing view ignores the reality that all cultures, and their cuisines, evolve and adapt through creativity and resilience. Most food research focusing on Aboriginal peoples centers around narrowly defined “traditional foods,” and little attention has been paid to what they themselves consider to be “traditional foods,” or the socio-cultural significance of contemporary food patterns. Because others have often paternalistically assumed to know what is in their best interests, Aboriginal peoples’ perspectives have seldomly been heard on such matters. The purpose of this project was to hear the voices of Aboriginal peoples about the meanings and values of foods in their contemporary diets. Participants, who self-identified as being Aboriginal persons, living in or near Terrace, British Columbia, were asked to take pictures of everyday foods, which were used in open-ended, semi-structured, photo-elucidated interviews. Themes identified in preliminary analysis were further discussed in a group interview. Analysis of these interviews showed support for some key issues documented in the academic literature, such as barriers that exist in accessing and using locally gathered foods. However, particiants also contested some of the assumptions implicit in research and health promotion materials, such as the dichotomization of gathered foods as “healthy” and store-bought foods as “unhealthy.” Analysis showed that the meanings participants ascribe to food are context dependant; for example, different partcipants might consider a particular food a luxury, staple or “poor food,” depending on their backgrounds. Analysis also revealed that there are debates about what foods are considered to be “traditional.” The findings of this research urge us to reconsider some of the assumptions that inform research and health promotion activities targetting Aboriginal peoples. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2010-06-03 17:08:42.632

No description available.