15 research outputs found
Paralegal work: a community-based approach to fisheries law enforcement ni Negros Occidental, Philippines
Get PDFFishery management, Legal aspects
Identity, the Avatar, and Communities in Star Wars the Old Republic and Related Digital Worlds
No full textThe author has granted permission for their work to be available to the general public.It is perhaps reductive to say that identity is complex and the way we interact with technology makes it more so. In this thesis, I seek to understand how certain digital worlds affect our identities. To accomplish this goal, I conducted an ethnographic study within Star Wars: The Old Republic, a massive multi-player on-line role-playing game, where individuals create and interact with online personas. Following other research on single player worlds (Waggoner 2009), my research examines the idea of identity by splitting it into three parts the physical, the digital, and the liminal spaces between physical and digital identities. I argue that Waggoner's ideas of identity can be applied to the players of Star Wars the Old Republic. Further I suggest that the concept of projective identity (Gee 2003, Waggoner 2009) provides a productive approach for understanding how players express themselves in such a place. I contended that projective identity is what emerges from the liminal spaces between a players physical and virtual identity, and that it is created with intention and influence from both. In what follows, I first introduce the world of The Old Republic before reviewing other research on digital worlds and theories of identity specific to my project. Then I move onto cover the results of my methods reflecting on what was planned and the actual implementation. After that I present my results and discussion of them before offering some tentative conclusions.Anthropolog
Les aventures extraordinaires du Jamon Serrano à Cracovie
No full textThe author presents a method for translating culturemes (specific cultural notions of a country or cultural field). Her method consists of five steps: to study the content and the fonction of a cultureme X in the culture of origin and in the text of origin; to check whether that cultureme is known in the culture of arrival and whether a word for it exists in the culture of arrival; if that word exists and it can be applied in the given translated situation, it should be applied; if such a word does not exist or if it exists, but cannot be applied in the given situation, the translator should apply one of the following techniques: translation, explanation, generalisation, replacement by an equivalent, transcription, catachresis, forging of a neologism. The author applies this method to the Spanish lexeme ‘jamón serrano’ that is one of the ingredients in the recipe for a stuffed trout published in "El Pais Semanal" of September 4th, 2005. Making her students work on the translation of that recipe into Polish for seven years, the author is able to track a history of the presence of this Spanish product and of its name in Polish reality and language
Ethical Embodied Experience: Belonging through Tex-Mex Vegan Food
No full textThe author has granted permission for their work to be available to the general public.In this thesis I explored how belonging is experienced in the commercial production and consumption of plant-based Tex-Mex food in South Texas, a region and cuisine largely associated with animal-based food traditions. Through multi-sensory ethnography, semi-structured interviews, and autoethnography I examined the experience of food actualized through all sensory avenues in two Tex-Mex vegan restaurants in San Antonio. Participants included both the producers and consumers of vegan Tex-Mex food. Interviews and observations paid close attention to senses including sight, taste, smell, texture, and sound. Chefs, kitchen staff, and consumers in plant-based Tex-Mex restaurants: 1) intentionally elicited a multilayered sense of belonging to place and community through food; 2) validated their sense of belonging through multiple senses, including taste, touch, sight, smell, and sound; and 3) justified the omission of animal products in the food in terms of community-related health, animal rights, and environmental concerns.Anthropolog
Defining Success: A Comparison Study of Jambi's Community Forests in Response to Rapid Deforestation by Agribusiness
No full textThe author has granted permission for their work to be available to the general public.Tropical forests play an essential role in the most basic of Earth's systems. However, due to anthropogenic forces, these resources are degrading at an alarming rate. Deforestation negatively affects the local and global environment as well as indigenous communities' livelihoods. The main sources of deforestation in Jambi are illegal logging, large-scale agricultural plantations (agribusinesses), and clearance fires. First mentioned in a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) document in the 1970s, community forests have become increasingly important to mitigate and reverse the destructive effects of deforestation to the environment and the local populations. First, I include a history of Indonesia's indigenous people's struggle against outside actors (colonizers, government, private corporations) appropriating Indonesia's natural resources. Then, I compare two villages in Jambi, Guguk and Baru Pelepat, to explore factors that influence a community forest's "success" in combatting deforestation by agribusiness. I define "success" as per the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization's "8 Conditions of a Successful Community Forest," and in order to further the research, I included social equality, gender-inclusive communication, high biodiversity and sustainable forest management as conditions for success. My results have revealed that the main characteristics of a successful community forest are legally bound participatory mapping, outside assistance (from non-government organizations), gender equality, strong desire to protect the environment, strict enforcement of village rules and similar goals within villagers and technology.Political Science and Geograph
Partners for the Plate: An Evaluation of Partnerships between Institutions and Nonprofits to Address Food Insecurity
No full textThe author has granted permission for their work to be available to the general public.My academic project examined the ways that a nonprofit organization and a local institution can partner to serve as an intervention for food insecurity. Using SA Youth and The University of Texas-San Antonio Honors College Guided Experience program as an example, this project analyzed the partnership to determine what value projects like these could hold as an intervention for food insecurity. I evaluated the project's ability to meet the stated need of the local nonprofit organization, but I also evaluated the university's ability to support the nonprofit organization. In addition, I also examined the potential for projects like these to address social issues. The evaluation concluded that the project was successful from the perspective of the nonprofit organization as well as from the university's multiple perspectives. There was less success in addressing food insecurity, as the projects limited scope and inability to collect more robust community data.Anthropolog
Growing Resistance: Community Gardens as Counter Spaces
No full textThe author has granted permission for their work to be available to the general public.As the COVID-19 pandemic keeps many away from public indoor spaces there is increase in both the number of and the interaction with community gardens. Thus, I argue that these spaces are becoming increasingly important for anthropological study because of their expansion and potential to create sociopolitical change. While various fields from geography to food studies have examined gardens in the context of food access, I will address gaps in the literature by studying the capacity of garden spaces to collectivize like-minded individuals and provide an alternative to capitalism. Drawing on my ethnographic research, I argue that community gardens, like Gardopia Gardens in San Antonio, function as anti-capitalist counter spaces (Lefebvre 1991). This designator is deserved as these spaces: challenge the urban/rural divide, help individuals become both increasingly self-sustaining and community oriented, provide an alternative food source to grocery chains and big agribusinesses, queer the student/ teacher dichotomy, value communal relationships through the practice of commoning, deny profit in favor of donations, and have the potential to change both individual and group mindset through educational practices. Within this discussion I also examine the motivation of unpaid volunteers and the importance of nonhuman actors to further argue that community gardens are anti-capitalist as they challenge capitalist notions of labor and the domination of more-than-humans. The aim of this research is to highlight these creative spaces and their productive capacity to create systemic change in the United States' food system.Anthropolog
Placekeeping as Social Equity: Heritage and Gentrification In San Antonio, Texas
No full textThe full text of this item is not available at this time because the author has placed this item under an embargo until December 11, 2028.This research project examines the relationship between art found along streetscapes in San Antonio, Texas, gentrification, and spatial equity. It centers placekeeping, wherein groups actively resist top-down changes from commercial and governmental forces in an effort to maintain group identity and self-governance in their neighborhoods. As the process of gentrification increases in San Antonio, Texas, people organize to resist changes in housing and the aesthetic changes on streetscapes that gentrification affects. Drawing from space and place theory as well as value theory, this project explores the relative value of streetscape aesthetics as markers of place and the effects of changes on the streetscape for community stakeholders. Spatial equity is at stake when residents and places face gentrification. This project advances anthropological theory by focusing on placekeeping practices, substantively adding to space and place literature.Anthropolog
Captive nature: exploring the influence of zoos on visitor worldview, knowledge, and behavior
No full textThe author has granted permission for their work to be available to the general public.Zoological parks are a complex place of human-animal, animal-environment, and human-environment interactions; as the global population becomes more urbanized, zoos are one of the only places in which urban dwellers can learn about and experience the "natural" world. Zoos now act as key purveyors of public conservation education, shaping the ways in which visitors understand and situate themselves within local and global conservation issues and natural environments. Zoos educate the public on these and other topics through the implementation of informal education programs (IEPs) within their institutions, but the effectiveness of these programs in positively altering visitor knowledge, attitude, and behavioral is not well understood. Through interviews, questionnaires, and participant observation conducted at the San Antonio Zoo I explored (1) how zoo visitors interacted with and perceived of a zoo animal species, the white-cheeked gibbon; (2) how zoo visitor perceptions of animals were influenced by visitor-animal interactions in various zoo contexts (e.g. within and outside of IEPs); (3) what zoo visitors were learning about animal and conservation within these various contexts; and (4) the effectiveness of an IEP in inspiring zoo visitors to actively participate in conservation initiatives. I framed my inquiry into visitor and zoo animal relationships within post-humanist theories and explored visitor perceptions of animals, the environment, and conservation through the lens of virtualism, resulting in a novel view of visitor experience and learning within the zoo setting. In this thesis I discuss the results of this research and their implications for conservation education efforts within zoos.Anthropolog
A mother that protects you: Community performance, identity, and values within the contrade and Palio di Siena
No full textThe author has granted permission for their work to be available to the general public.In this thesis, the Palio horse race and the contrade (neighborhood) structure of Siena Italy are examined. Using thick description and grounded theory, ideas of residency, age, and identity construction are investigated among the contradaioli of Siena. It is of interest to see how these factors affect identity performativity on an individual and societal level. The value and increasing role of contradaioli women will also be discussed, as it is a topic that contradicts initial perceptions of women as a suppressed group. Although residency status within the contrada was previously known as the focal point of identity, over time its significance has shifted to account for a modern world with increased population mobilization. Residency patterns found to exist in Siena are reflected in the type and level of labor contributions made based on how far they lived from their contrada. Despite the initial perception that gender was the main factor that impacted participation and labor contributions, it was revealed that it was not the only significant variable and, in fact, age and residency was a more prominent dynamic to consider.Anthropolog
