Showing papers in "Human Organization in 2009"

Experience-based Measures of Food and Water Security: Biocultural Approaches to Grounded Measures of Insecurity

Abstract: Insecure access to food and water are experienced by millions of people around the world. Not only does insecure access to food and water represent a violation of basic human rights, it is a major threat to the physical and mental health of individuals and communities. There is, therefore, great need for tools to identify those who are food and water insecure and the severity of their insecurity. We argue here that measures of food and water insecurity must not only reflect biological requirements but also the biocultural nature of food and water needs. In this paper, we present case studies from Tanzania and Bolivia that detail the steps used to adapt or create experience-based measures and validate these measures using a suite of established approaches. We also show that, by broadening our understading of insecurity to include respondents' experiences, the full range of health impacts—including psychosocial stress and mental health—become apparent. We conclude by noting limitations of the biocultural ap...

Blurring Boundaries: The "Real" and the "Virtual" in Hybrid Spaces

Abstract: This chapter introduces a sequence of four papers that focus on the theme of knowledge and information flow in hybrid and virtual sites of interaction. As the Internet and the World Wide Web proliferate, people live increasingly hybrid lives where the physical and the digital, the real and the virtual, interact. In this world, online and offline identities may overlap and interdigitate, erasing prior boundaries in social, cultural, linguistic, political, and economic domains. My central argument proposes that we are witnessing an underlying process of technology-spurred blurring, resulting in major shifts in the cultural landscape of the 21st century. Providing context for the papers, I argue that the blurring of boundaries and the fusion of the real and the virtual in hybrid settings may require rethinking conventional ethnographic methods in the future, and beyond that, the actual problem space for anthropology. To frame the papers methodologically, I suggest that we are in a process of experimentation ...

Fisheries co-management and legal pluralism: how an analytical problem becomes an institutional one.

Abstract: This paper addresses two issues pertaining to legal pluralism in capture fisheries, particularly with regard to the South. First there is the problem of analysis. If legal pluralism is a common phenomenon, how is it to be discerned and understood? Secondly, there is the matter of institutional design: given the pervasiveness of legal pluralism, which management institutions are better suited to represent and resolve inter-legal system differences? The authors argue the case of co-management. Drawing on examples and insights from a comparative research project in South Asia, four basic types of legal pluralism and co-management are distinguished. The authors conclude that co-management is a process that brings legal systems, and their constituent organizations and groups, together within a single framework. For fisher organizations, which frequently have distinct legal perspectives, co-management is an essential path to legitimacy. For the state, other legal systems are a resource that management can draw upon.

Homeless Women's Personal Networks: Implications for Understanding Risk Behavior

Abstract: The goal of this exploratory study was to examine the composition of homeless women’s personal networks in order to better understand the social context of risk behavior in this vulnerable population. Twenty-eight homeless women residing in temporary shelters in Los Angeles County provided detailed information about their extended personal networks. Women named 25 people with whom they had contact during the past year, and then were asked a series of questions about each one of these named network members. Results indicate that the personal networks of homeless women are larger and more diverse than suggested by previous research. About one-third of women’s relationships were with high-risk individuals (i.e., people perceived to drink heavily, use drugs, or engage in risky sex). However, most women also reported having relationships that could be characterized as both “low risk” (e.g., involving individuals perceived as not drinking heavily, using drugs, or engaging in risky sex) and “high quality” (e.g., long-term, emotionally close, or supportive), although these relationships tended to be rather tenuous. Our results suggest a need to assist homeless women in strengthening these existing low-risk/high-quality relationships, and extending the diversity of their networks, in order to increase women’s exposure to positive role models and access to tangible support and other needed resources.

anthropological Perspectives on Disasters and Disability: an introduction

Abstract: Natural disasters and disasters that directly derive from human actions, both evolving and sudden, trace the structural fault lines of the societies that they affect. Disaster outcomes disproportionately impact those with the least access to social and material resources: women and children, and people who are elderly, disabled or impoverished. Using a disability conceptual framework, the essays in this volume focus on disasters within their social and environmental ecologies, with particular attention to the ways in which conventional disaster planning and responses ensure that existing social inequalities will be perpetuated as consequences of disasters. We argue that by foregrounding the needs of those with the fewest resources, an applied anthropology of disaster points to potential benefits to all when disaster preparedness, response, and recovery plans include the expertise of disabled people.

Managing Complexity: Ecological Knowledge and Success in Puerto Rican Small-Scale Fisheries

Abstract: This paper examines the interrelationship between Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) and success in the small-scale fisheries of Southeastern Puerto Rico (SE PR). Using mixed qualitative-quantitative ethnographic methods over 18 months of fieldwork, I investigated what constitutes success for small-scale fishers and what role LEK plays in helping them achieve success. SE PR fishers' models of success are geared towards socially beneficial goals such as resource sustainability and social household reproduction rather than towards profit maximization. For SE PR fishers, to be successful is to manage social and ecological complexity enough so they can make a living from fishing. Their LEK enables them to do precisely that and find predictable catches of fish in a heterogeneous, rapidly changing coastal and marine environment; at the same time, drawing on their LEK, they question and evaluate the actions of competing stakeholders for access to coastal and marine resources. Shared cultural models of success, as ...

From 3D Space to Third Place: The Social Life of Small Virtual Spaces

Abstract: Massively multiplayer online (MMO) environments are an emerging computer technology that makes possible new kinds of distributed communities and online sociability. What distinguishes MMOs from other Internet media is that they take face-to-face conversation as their primary metaphor for user interaction, rather than, say, the page or the bulletin board. Because they simulate 3D spaces and contain thousands of people who do not know each other, MMOs constitute public spaces, although virtual ones. As such, they can be studied in ways analogous to those of public places in the physical world. Inspired by the work of William H. Whyte and Ray Oldenburg on sociability in real-life public places, we take a similar approach toward the study of MMOs. We ask the question: what makes some virtual public spaces in MMOs successful "third places" while other similar places fail? Through our virtual ethnography of dance clubs and corner bars in three MMO environments, we find four features of virtual public spaces tha...

The Effects of Problem Drinking and Sexual Risk Among Mexican Migrant Workers on Their Community of Origin

Abstract: Although the financial remittances sent by male Mexican migrant workers residing in the United States can result in higher standards of living for their families and home communities, out-migration may lead to increased migrant problem drinking and sexual risk behaviors, which may in turn impact these same communities of origin. Based on semi-structured interviewing (n=60) and participant observation in a migrant sending community in central Mexico and a receiving community in the Northeastern United States, this paper explores the effects of out-migration on HIV risk and problem drinking among United States-based migrants from a small agricultural community in the Mexican state of Puebla. We argue that problem drinking and risky sexual behaviors among these migrant workers have had significant consequences for their home community in terms of diminished remittances, the introduction of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and loss of husbands or kinsmen to automobile accidents. Moreover, although rumor and gossip between the two communities serve as a form of social control, they may also contribute to increased problem drinking and sexual risk.

Can Formal Education Reduce Risks for Drought-Prone Pastoralists?: A Case Study from Baringo District, Kenya

Abstract: This article addresses an increasingly important but under-researched and controversial topic in anthropology, the role of formal education in pastoral societies. Only minimal research on the benefits and costs of education for pastoralists has been conducted, in part because, until recently, formal education has not been widespread among herding communities. It argues that education should figure prominently in discussions of contemporary pastoral risk management strategies since engagement in labor markets currently is a critical component of pastoral livelihoods, and this is facilitated by education. Through a case study of the Maasairelated Il Chamus people of Baringo District, Kenya, a group that has experienced rapid gains in education over the past 20 years, the paper assesses two related questions: (1) does formal education actually reduce risks for pastoralists; and (2) what social and economic conditions facilitate positive roles for herder education? By building on data from two different time ...

Socioeconomic barriers to biogas development in rural southwest China: An ethnographic case study

Abstract: The household biogas system has a potential to offer significant health, economic, and environmental benefits to millions of households in rural China. In 1997, the Chinese legislature declared biogas as a national energy development agenda, and the Chinese government subsidies for biogas have been increasing since then. Nevertheless, only about 12 percent of rural households utilize biogas. In poor regions, the figure is much lower. At present, biogas counts for merely 1 percent of energy consumption in rural China. In this article, drawing on my ethnographic fieldwork, I examine the socioeconomic barriers to biogas development in rural Southwest China. My central question is: what are the factors that prevent farmers from utilizing biogas and how can development agencies help remove such barriers? Anchored in anthropological insights on technology adoption, this study first identifies main barriers to biogas adoption through a villagewide survey. Then, I examine such barriers in their socioeconomic cont...

Institutional legitimacy and co-management of a marine protected area: implementation lessons from the case of Xcalak Reefs National Park, Mexico.

Abstract: This paper is an exploration of the relationship between a conservation intervention and the quest for local institutional legitimacy and conservation success through co-management. More precisely, this paper will employ the case of Xcalak Reefs National Park (PNAX) to illuminate the interaction between contextual and procedural elements of co-management implementation, how these variables affect the production of legitimacy in the minds of local resource users, and how resultant attitudes can subvert both management devolution and resource conservation. The failure to produce co-management will be related to the mismatch inherent in attempts to map co-management onto a histories and institutions that do not align with the morality and practicalities necessary for its implementation. The case reiterates the necessity for conservation managers and practitioners to have an understanding of local history and context. Lastly, Xcalak demonstrates the dangers for the success of conservation and development prog...

Feral Hogs: Invasive Species or Nature's Bounty?

Abstract: Invasive species have been identified as an international conservation crisis. Federal land managers have been mandated to control invasive species on their lands and to restore native species. Such action can have consequences for local communities that have incorporated the non-native species into their culture and economy. Previously managed by local stockmen as free-ranging livestock, feral hogs are now perceived by conservation professionals and advocates as an invasive species that threatens native plants and animals. We use the public scoping process associated with a proposed feral hog (Sus scrofa) management plan for a National Park Service managed biological preserve to examine how the scientific conceptualization of hogs as an invasive species undermines traditional claims to natural resources. We then offer some potential models of how elements associated with traditional stockmen culture might augment scientific management.

Implications of Tenure Insecurity for Aboriginal Land Use in Canada

Abstract: In Canada, Aboriginal peoples are succeeding at regaining portions of their traditional land base. Accomplished through the signing of historic treaties and the negotiation of comprehensive land claims agreements, nearly seven percent of Canada's entire land base is now under the administrative authority of Aboriginal governments. Notwithstanding these accomplishments, it remains unclear whether such territorial gains coincide with a heightened sense of tenure security. Together with the Little Red River Cree Nation of Alberta and the Little Salmon/Carmacks First Nation of the Yukon Territory, we set out to learn how First Nation members perceive their access to traditional lands to be changing over time and by generation. Findings indicate that despite various tenure reforms, First Nation members remain concerned that their traditional territories are susceptible to the interests of others. Given that perceptions of tenure security informs the basis by which people exploit resources, these conditions cou...

Demography, Territory, and Identity of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil: The Xavante Indians and the 2000 Brazilian National Census

Abstract: Brazilian census data show a remarkable increase in the population self-reporting as "indigenous" between 1991 and 2000 but do not readily enable that increase to be analyzed in terms of the nearly 200 specific indigenous societies or ethnicities that exist in Brazil. In this article, we investigate some instances and implications of how the 2000 Brazilian National Census employed categories conceived for the national population to register one specific people—the Xavante of Mato Grosso, Central Brazil—with their own inherent social arrangements and morphologies. We do so by comparing census data corresponding to Xavante Indigenous Reserves with an independently collected set of demographic data for the same year. Although we found census data to adequately represent basic characteristics of the Xavante population (population size and age and sex distributions), we also found they reclassified and transformed Xavante households and thereby denatured Xavante sociality of its demographic and sociocultural complexity. The Xavante case is an example of how national demographic censuses not only capture data regarding indigenous peoples but also help shape those data by contributing to how indigenousness is perceived. Our findings suggest that the Brazilian National Census should seek to be more sensitive to indigenous realities and thereby to assess more accurately fundamental aspects of indigenous societies.

Food Insecurity and HIV/AIDS in Low-Income Households in Urban Zimbabwe

Abstract: Contemporary Zimbabwe illustrates the complex ways in which economic, political, social, environmental factors, combined with high levels of illness and early mortality as a result of HIV infection, produce a food crisis. In both rural and urban areas, people are increasingly dependent on national and international food aid agencies for survival. The criteria used by relief agencies to define vulnerability, however, provide little or no flexibility in dynamic and fluid situations. Drawing on research conducted in the east Zimbabwe city of Mutare, we describe the combined impact of drought, unemployment, and inflation on food security and the policy context affecting access to food. In particular, we describe the experiences of primary caregivers of people living with HIV/AIDS in low-income salaried households, who are ineligible for food aid, and the mechanisms they use to meet basic household needs. By drawing attention to the potency of the combination of economic, political, and natural disasters, we i...

Disciplinary-Professional Relations in an Era of Anthropological Engagement

Abstract: This essay is devoted to exploring the nature, roles, and relationships of the anthropological discipline and its professions over time and their implications for matters of policy and practice in American society. The interdependence of discipline and profession in the emergence of anthropology is considered first, setting the stage for reflecting upon several matters: (1) lessons drawn from the history of British colonialism and other engagements; (2) the difference between problems of others and problems for others; and (3) a contemporary case involving disciplinary-professional-boundary tensions. This discussion raises the question of whether anthropology is approaching the issue of engagement with contemporary problem contexts as innovatively and creatively as we might, considering all that we know of our history and the challenges facing us today.

The Politics of Patronage and Live Reef Fish Trade Regulation in Palawan, Philippines

Abstract: Recent critiques of decentralized approaches to fisheries management have focused on problems related to poor governance. This paper aims to extend such critiques by considering in greater depth local perceptions of governance in the Philippines. Specifically, it deals with a set of regulations addressing the live reef fish trade in the Calamianes Islands. The paper shows how the entire process of implementing a closed season, the fishers' critique, and the subsequent overturning of these regulations exposes the way personalized politics is understood and practiced within Philippine society. Firstly, a background about the live reef fish trade is provided, and how the regulations were proposed and developed is described. The majority of the paper then analyses local opposition to the regulations in terms of local understandings of politics. The paper argues that when negative sentiments towards governance and governments are widespread among local residents, this may hinder successful co-management.

Making Scents of Smell: Manufacturing and Consuming Incense in Japan

Abstract: The academic discourse on smell is characterised by a set of "myths," or "mode of signification," that cover a broad range of cultural, historical, linguistic, moral, physiological, racial, religious, sexual, social, and symbolic olfactory phenomena, and that include, in particular, smell as an undervalued sense, the articulation of smell, and its association with ritual practices. These myths frame the discussion of the processes by which incense is produced in Japan, as well as of the various challenges facing a manufacturer with regard to consistency of raw materials, kneading blended materials, and drying formed incense sticks. The article then concentrates on a group of incense manufacturers located on the western coast of Awaji Island in the Inland Sea of Japan, and suggests that it is access to, and successful management of, olfactory knowledge that enables a subcontracted supplier to become independent by producing his own incense brands. It concludes by tracing connections between smell, transiti...

Disability, Destitution, and Disaster: Surviving the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake in Japan

Abstract: On the morning of January 17, 1995, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck the port city of Kobe, Japan. 6,400 people died and over $80 billion in property damage occurred. Among those rendered homeless was a small group of people with severe disabilities. Over the next decade, this group leveraged discourses surrounding civil society, disability, poverty, and the role of government in natural disasters, to become one of the most powerful and vocal proponents of disability rights in Japan. What lessons can we learn to make disability advocacy a leading, rather than trailing, element of social policy?

Variation in drug and alcohol use among agricultural laborers: Watermelon Men in the rural south.

Abstract: Agricultural workers in general face the impact of daily structural and symbolic violence, which can lead to excessive use of drugs and alcohol. "Watermelon Men" who dedicate themselves to watermelon harvesting have high use levels owing to the way that accommodations and work are organized over a labor-intensive short season. This article combines data from a risk assessment of 681 individuals in a winter home-base community and multi-site ethnography that generated interviews with 140 individuals to discuss factors that lead to excessive drug and alcohol use during peak season in high-wage crops such as watermelon.

Hustling and Housing: Drug Users' Strategies to Obtain Shelter and Income in Hartford, Connecticut

Abstract: Research has documented illicit drug users' participation in the informal and drug economies as a result of barriers in obtaining legitimate sources of work and income. Less research has explored ways drug users utilize income from various sources to obtain shelter and meet other basic needs. This paper draws on longitudinal qualitative interviews that were conducted with 65 active cocaine or heroin users in various housed or homeless statuses to explore participants' sources of income, work experiences, and strategies to secure housing and other basic needs. Results indicate that most participants did not receive cash welfare benefits, and few had any form of employment. Further, those who received federal housing subsidies often had no income to pay their part of the rent or other necessities. Participants reported engaging in a number of informal, illegal, and bartering relationships with drug using and non-drug using residents in order to obtain shelter and income. Insufficient social welfare and employment opportunities have created a context of scarcity in which drug using and non-drug using residents depend on each other to obtain shelter and other needs in ways prohibited by federal welfare and housing policies. A number of policy changes, including increasing access to and benefits levels of welfare and housing subsidies, employment programs for ex-offenders and tax incentives to increase employment opportunities, may increase drug users' housing stability.

Swap Meets and Socioeconomic Alternatives for Mexican Immigrants: The Case of the San Joaquin Valley

Abstract: Swap meets have a long tradition in California's San Joaquin Valley. These are markets of different sizes and characteristics that have changed and adapted to demographic changes in the Valley. This article has two interrelated objectives. The first is to describe swap meets' main characteristics and how they have changed, paying special attention to changes introduced by Mexican vendors and consumers. The second is to discuss the different strategies implemented by men and women of Mexican origin in order to open a business at the swap meets. This article is based on qualitative data gathered during four months of field work in southern Central Valley. Seventeen swap meets were studied in Kern, Tulare, Kings and southern Fresno Counties.

Contested AIDS stigmatization in southwest China.

Abstract: This article examines the emerging stigmatization of AIDS in a mountainous community of the Nuosu, a minority group in southwest China. The Nuosu did not discriminate against victims of the disease prior to state intervention, but stigma has been introduced by the Chinese state agents' mechanical transplantation of a global AIDS intervention program, which has generated fear of AIDS in the community. This situation developed from state agents' willful ignorance of the local moral world, an attitude cultivated since the beginning of China's socialist nation-building project in the 1950s. By unraveling Nuosu perceptions of AIDS and by delving into local particularities, this article points out the potential problems de-contextualized global disease-control projects may cause in diverse local contexts.

Institutions, Agency, and Illness in the Making of Tourette Syndrome

Abstract: Medical anthropology has increasingly emphasized the importance of agency in the experience of illness As sick people rethink and contest social constructions of their symptoms, they influence both the course of their own illnesses and the larger cultural models within which they exist By shaping the ability of people to exercise such agency, institutions play a powerful role in the making of illness This paper explores this process in the neurological disorder Tourette Syndrome, based on fieldwork among adults with Tourette in Indiana Institutional constraints on time, space, and movement can profoundly affect the ability of individuals with Tourette to manage perceptions of their symptoms As a result, different institutional settings can produce radically different experiences of the disease We can improve our understanding of the making of illness by incorporating such institutional structures into our models In addition, understanding the interactions among institutions, agency, and illness suggests implications for more accommodating and humane institutional design

Describing Tragedy: The Information Access Needs of Blind People in Emergency-related Circumstances

Abstract: Audio description is a technique used for "translating" visual material to aural readers/blind people. In this article, exploratory research on audio description (AD) is presented, which raises important questions in the field of applied anthropology and emergency planning: How does one translate visual material for a non-seeing audience? From the point of view of blind consumers, what constitutes "good" description? What specific information access needs do they have in event of emergencies? Selected results are presented from three telephone focus groups on AD, conducted with 39 blind or visually impaired people nationwide in the United States during September/October 2005. This paper addresses emergency planning, audio description, and the need for more accurate information access for blind people during public warning broadcasts and in delivering the news. Further, it examines existing guidelines for the inclusion of blind people in the provision of emergency information and concludes that successful ...

Treatment Seeking for a Chronic Disorder: How Families in Coastal Kenya Make Epilepsy Treatment Decisions

Abstract: A person-centered case-study approach was used to account for treatment choices made by families of children with epilepsy seizure disorders in Kilifi, Kenya. Observations of individual families and treatment providers suggest that the local cultural system of illness classification and the process of assessing treatment results are fundamental influences on family decisions to seek treatment for childhood seizure disorders. The findings also indicate that the dominance of these two factors shifts throughout the illness experience. Family classification of seizures and cultural perceptions of their causation are primary in initial treatment seeking, while the perception of results of the last treatment sought dominates subsequent treatment decisions. External factors, including pressure from individuals outside the family, and financial and time resources, are described as secondary constraining factors in the decision making process. A model is presented to summarize the decision making process. The model accounts for treatment seeking in families of children with seizure disorders in coastal Kenya but may also help explain how families manage other chronic conditions.

A Case for Certified Interpreters for Participants in the Canada/Mexico Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program

Abstract: The rapid growth of Ontario's greenhouse vegetable industry is largely due to a guaranteed supply of Mexicans who participate in the Canada/Mexico Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (C/MSAWP). Agriculture is a dangerous occupation and, although Mexican farm workers have the right to health care while they are in Canada, they lack access to certified interpretation services in the province's hospital and clinics. This paper draws on the results of a pilot study of 30 Mexican farm workers in southwestern Ontario to demonstrate their need for such services, not only for physical illnesses and injuries sustained on the job, but for the culturally constructed illness of nervios (nerves). It examines the barriers in access to certified interpreters, namely, the Canada Health Act and the differing agendas of primary and secondary stakeholders in the C/MSAWP. Finally, it addresses the wider economic, political, health, and social benefits of providing such services to Mexican farm workers within the context of...

Wading and Jumping into a New Job—Exploring Dynamics of Knowledge Flow for Systems Engineers

Abstract: Engineering companies are growing increasingly concerned with identifying ways to effectively transfer knowledge, both to new employees and between employees who collaborate to develop new products. Effective knowledge capture is difficult in research and development contexts where design knowledge is rapidly changing and often poorly documented. This paper uses a case study at a small engineering company to suggest that effective knowledge transfer must be both relational (asking intelligent questions of mentors who are taxed for time) and procedural (using documentation to record how decisions are made). Cultural consensus analysis identifies two distinct cultural domains regarding effective socialization for new systems engineers. Waders advocate guided introduction, while Jumpers advocate immediate responsibility. These common themes for companies dealing with rapidly changing knowledge offer insights to scholars interested in studying the broader domain of anthropology of work.

Binational Substance Abuse Research and Internal Review Boards: Human Subject Risks and Suggestions for Protections

Abstract: Drug use research that involves transnational populations in their worksite nations and in their countries of origin requires special consideration for human subjects. These populations are exposed to similar, if not greater, research related risks than other vulnerable research subjects. If they are to be protected adequately, Internal Review Boards (IRBs) need to become familiar with transnational populations and the possible risks that their members face when participating in research that targets their drug use behaviors and practices. Addressed in this article are a number of challenges that IRBs in United States universities and research institutes encounter in assuring protections against possible research risks. Specific areas of concern are: the dearth of binational IRB reviews, IRB inexperience with transnational populations, mandatory written consent, limited research ethics training for researchers, the absence of a vulnerable population research advisory board, and the need for measures in case of a breach of confidentiality. The discourse of each one of these problem areas includes a recommendation for rectifying it. The article ends with five suggested measures that IRBs should consider in protecting transnational migrants from research related risks in the United States and in their homeland. The discussion of human subject problems and of the measures introduced to alleviate them are based on the author's experiences with preparing human subjects protocols for his ethnographic substance abuse research in both the United States and Mexico.

In Both Our Possibilities: Anthropology on the Margins

Abstract: There is benefit to be gained from viewing anthropology and its applications as choices and inventions, rather than as strict disciplinary codes and imperatives. The choices we make concerning our profession have expanded with the growth of practice outside academia. By the same token, we are shaped as much by the uses that others have for us and by the human environments in which we find ourselves as we are by our own preferences. Collaboration has become a hallmark of many approaches to practice, and the kinds of collaborations being constructed are different from those usually associated with applied anthropology. In its actions, anthropology is both a science (seeking distance) and an art (seeking engagement).