Anthropology Masters Theses

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/8003

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 21

Divine sustenance: Krishna Prasadam in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2011-08) Berger, Nicole Catherine
This thesis is an ethnographic study of the role of prasadam--sanctified food that has been ritually offered to the god Krishna--among the Honolulu branch of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), popularly known as the Hare Krishnas. Taking prasadam as the starting point, this thesis broadens from an examination of the meaning-laden exchange and consumption of prasadam to the social, spiritual, and political dimensions of prasadam distribution and production. It traces the connections facilitated by prasadam both within and outside of Honolulu's ISKCON community, with a particular focus on the utopian image of self-sustaining farm communities in ISKCON ideology. The thesis contextualizes these issues within the framework of the politics of food, farming and land in Hawaiʻi, illustrating the way in which Honolulu's ISKCON community is located in the particular context of Honolulu, and the ways in this branch of a transnational religious organization is made local.
Vessels of kastom: canoes and canoe builders of Lamen Island
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2012-08) Van Allen, Joel B.
This work is divided into three chapters, each addressing the various perspectives that inevitably converge in the construction of kastom and canoes on Lamen Island. Chapter 1 tackles the nature of construction itself from a philosophical and metaphysical vantage point that can metaphorically address the inherent paradox created by kastom as a discursive practice; furthermore, it follows the construction of kastom through its ontological development from mind to mouth to materiality--a process referred to in subsequent chapters as materialization. Chapter 2 moves beyond notions of construction to examine the various ways in which aspects of local identity are reconstructed in relation to kastom. The analysis expands outward from the somatic metaphors central to Lamen Island canoe construction, to the gendered roles and motifs that, both literally and figuratively, ensure a canoe's structural integrity. Subsequent sections move the analysis from metaphor and motif outward again, into the cultural and social processes of sanctification that allow the tradition of canoe building to survive, with the final two sections of the chapter expanding further still to examine how sanctification works within the context of kastom as both indigenous science and modern magic, using two very different canoes as examples of shared historical entanglements and practices of international resource harvesting. Chapter 3, above all, catalogues the technical and material construction of a Lamen Island canoe, detailing the entire process from initial tree selection to the canoe's maiden voyage. Throughout the construction, aspects of Chapters 1 and 2 are encountered and considered; however, the perspective shifts to that of my own as a foreign researcher, enlisting a more reflexive accounting of my relationship to both the project and the people participating in it, and forcing considerations of my own role in articulating kastom. Finally, Chapter 4 concludes the work by revisiting the "continuing dialectic" between Lamen Island and the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, including the role of its indigenous fieldworkers, my role as a foreign researcher, and the Centre's greater role in representing both national solidarity and kastom to the international community. I suggest a solution for bridging the liminal gap between centralized and idealized representations of kastom and the peripheral performance of kastom as practical, everyday life.
Explaining Maya monumental architecture
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2012-05) Sack, Nancy
The task of archaeologists is to infer the cultural processes at work in the (often distant) past, based on an examination of the artifactual, biological, and environmental evidence of human civilizations that remains today. Ancient monuments, like other cultural constructions, can reveal clues about the societies that created them, provided researchers ask suitable questions and devise appropriate strategies for discovering the answers. Initial archaeological surveys of monumental buildings are typically designed to answer "what" types of questions: investigators describe, measure, and map the structures they uncover. The next generation of research generally deals with "how" questions, for example, how were monuments built? How long did it take to construct them? How much labor was required? How did the buildings function? Eventually, archaeologists begin to explore the more difficult "why" questions. Why did ancient societies begin to construct monuments? Why did monumental construction persist, in some cases for hundreds of years? Finally, why did monument building decline and disappear?
Purse seine and eurydice: a history of leprosy and coercion in Hawaiʻi
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2012-12) Ritter, David James
In 1865, the Hawaiʻi Board of Health adopted quarantine as the primary means to arrest the spread of leprosy in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. In Practice, preventing infection entailed the dramatic expansion of medical authority during the 19th century and included the establishment of state surveillance networks, the condemnation by physicians of a number of Hawaiian practices thought to spread disease, and the forced internment of mainly culturally Hawaiian individuals. As such, efforts to eradicate leprosy came to overlap with a broader imperial program of social control. Now a tourism destination, however, the history of leprosy presented at Kalaupapa is a didactic morality tale that focuses on the life of Saint Damien de Veuster, who died during his mission work there. As such, leprosy is reinvented as an issue of personal morality that silences both the coercive function of the colony and the voices of those interred in the past.
Reviewing the kilns and stoneware ceramics of Angkor
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014-05) Wong, Charmaine
This study reviews selected literature on Angkorian stoneware ceramics and kilns within the present day borders of Cambodia. Despite the relative youth of Angkorian ceramic and kiln research, this field of study has grown exponentially in the last decade as more kiln and ceramic sites have been found and excavated. As research is conducted at the various sites, new information is produced and interesting avenues of research have been pursued. The purpose of this thesis is to summarize previous research on Angkorian stoneware ceramics, and discuss key debates, issues, and future research paths.
The evolution of social hierarchy in Leeward Kohala, island of Hawaiʻi: an evolutionary ecological approach
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2014-05) DiNapoli, Robert John
Among the prehistoric island societies of Polynesia, those of the Hawaiian Islands have long been singled out as a locus for the evolution of complex hierarchical polities (e.g., Johnson and Earle 2000; Kirch 1984; Sahlins 1958; Service 1971). At the time of European contact in 1778, Hawaiian society was divided into two distinct social ranks: a small hereditary elite and a large class of commoners (Ii 1959; Kamakau 1991; Malo 1987). This stratified social organization was characterized by marked differences between commoners and elites, especially in terms of elite control over land and resources. This hierarchical social organization was further differentiated within the elite class, with several ranks of chiefs (ali'i), priests (kahuna), and land-managers (konohiki). Hawaiian social hierarchy was also mirrored in their tiered territorial land division (ahupua'a) system and ritual architecture (heiau). In this way, Hawaiʻi is distinct among ancient Polynesian societies (Kirch 2010; Hommon 2013). The existence of this hierarchical social organization begs an important evolutionary question: why would such a large proportion of a social group accept such a marked lower status position in society? For prehistoric Hawaiʻi, this specifically translates into questions surrounding what led to the evolution of multiple ranks of ali'i, the existence of the konohiki land-managers, and why such a large group of people, the maka ̔āinana (commoners), would accept their subordinate role in society. Research on Hawaiian social organization has tended to emphasize the coercive powers of chiefs in bringing about social change (e.g., Earle 1997; Hommon 2013; Kirch 2010b). However, while not often appreciated in Hawaiian archaeology, such social hierarchies always involve a complicated interplay of both coercion, competition, and cooperation (Boone 1992; Bourke 2011). Because the level of social hierarchy seen in prehistoric Hawaiʻi was unique in Polynesia, this leads us to ask--what environmental circumstances and evolutionary mechanisms led to the emergence of cooperative hierarchical groups in ancient Hawaiʻi? Exploring answers to this question is the topic of this thesis.
Mutual intelligibility between certain Polynesian speech communities
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1962) Ward, Jack H.
This paper looks at groups of speakers of one language that exhibit variations in speech from region to region or between social levels. When these variations serve to reduce intelligibility one may say that two dialects of a language are thereby revealed. As these differences become still more numerous and crucial across time and space, intelligibility is more and more limited until such a small degree of communication takes place that it can be said that for all practical purposes the speakers are using different languages. Mutual intelligibility is examined between groups.
Acculturation of Samoans in the Mormon village of Laie, Territory of Hawaii
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1956) Pierce, Bernard Francis
Acculturation of Samoans in Laie. This study is concerned with Samoans living in the community of Laie on the Island of Oahu, and with their adjustment to the culture of that cosmopolitan community.
Melanesian masks in the Bishop Museum
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1961) Kaeppler, Adrienne L, 1935
This paper looks at masks in the context of the society which produced it. Photographs and descriptions of ceremonial masks from the Papuan Gulf, New Ireland, New Britain, New Caledonia and New Hebrides on display at the Bishop Museum are examined.
Maori women in traditional family and tribal life
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1966) Heuer, Berys N. Rose
This thesis endeavors to reconstruct the role of women in traditional family and tribal life by collating and analyzing the many references scattered throughout the ethnographic literature. As it follows the aims of recent monographs, one by Biggs focusing upon marriage, and a second by Vayda, upon warfare, in traditional culture, it will incorporate relevant data from these, particularly in regard to marriage. The period to which this thesis refers extends from 1769, when Captain James Cook rediscovered the islands, to approximately 1840, when New Zealand formally became a British colony.
Gautavai: a study of Samoan values
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1965) Gardner, Louise Camellia
This study assesses the values of adults and children in Western Samoa, in order to understand how values develop. The questions the author tries to answer in order to understand value development are: 1. Are there differences between values of adults and children? 2. In what areas are these differences? 3 . What is the extent of difference between the values of adults and children? 4. How do children learn their values? 5. What factors are involved in the difference between values of adults and children?
The cultural relationships of the Polynesian outliers
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1966) Bayard, Donn T.
This paper looks at the effectiveness of a combined quantitative comparison of lexical and cultural material as a tool to gain Insight into the prehistory of an archeologically untouched area. The Outlier settlements, running south from Nukuoro and Kapingamarangi in the southern Caroline Islands through a cluster of five atolls lying north of the Solomons; these are Nuguria, Takuu, Nukumanu, Ontong Java or Luanglua, and Sikaiana. The curve continues south and east into the Santa Cruz Islands, represented by Pilenl, Taumako, Tikopla and Anuta. Lying somewhat off the curve, to the south of Guadalcanal and San Cristobal, are Rennell and the smaller adjoining island of Bellona. The southern leg of the curve is made up of the islands of Mae, lying between Epi and Efate; Mele and Fila, which are two small islands in Mele Bay, Efate; and Futuna or West Futuna and Aniwa, to the south and east of Eromanga and Tanna. The southernmost Outlier is represented by the Polynesian community on Uvea in the Loyalty Islands; in this study it will be referred to as West Uvea.
Carrying culture and re(creating) nation through Christianity: Minahasan culture and identity in transnational Indonesian churches in New England
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2008) Swazey, Kelli A.
This thesis investigates how individuals from Minahasa, a predominantly Christian region in North Sulawesi, use a Christian ideology to transpose the compartmentalization of national, ethnic and religious identities used in Indonesia to manage diversity, making religious identity the transcendent principle of national and ethnic identification in transnational, multi-ethnic Indonesian churches in New England. Minahasans experience their ethnic identity as based in a Christian ontology, a model that exists in tension with the Indonesian national construction of the relationship between ethnicity, national identity and religious affiliation. This work considers how Minahasan identity construction has historically been located in relationships of Christianity that connected the region with the world beyond the Indonesian archipelago. This history enables Minahasans to realize a dream of religious nationalism in the United States, converging the Christian practices and beliefs that transmit pre-colonial forms Minahasan cultural identity with national identity in ways difficult to achieve within Indonesian borders.
Tuberculosis in Polynesia: a discussion of its occurrence before initial European contact
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2008) Suzuki, Katherine K.
Infectious diseases continue to be of great importance to human societies due to the social, economic, political, and psychological disruptions they cause. In the question of infectious disease in prehistoric populations, a bioarchaeological approach situated within a political-economic context provides a comprehensive and effective framework to assess globally significant diseases, such as tuberculosis. Important aspects of tuberculosis epidemiology can be learned from the reconstruction of past events, especially in areas where tuberculosis has been assumed to be a European introduction. The M. tuberculosis complex is capable of causing skeletal changes which are therefore indicators of this disease in archaeological human remains. In the Pacific region, there have been notably few opportunities to assess pre-European skeletal remains for tuberculosis due to the lack of archaeological remains available for study. The osteological evidence that does exist is ambiguous but suggestive of pre-European presence of tuberculosis. Archaeological data support population densities that may have been sufficient to support an infectious pathogen such as M. tuberculosis. The field of molecular genetics has been successfully applied in the recovery of tuberculosis aDNA and offers methods that can significantly reduce the margin of uncertainty about the presence of tuberculosis in the Pacific. After reviewing the available data, it is determined that the lack of conclusive evidence should not preclude the possibility of pre-European tuberculosis in this region.
The significance of peninsular Siam in the Southeast Asian maritime world
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005) Noonsuk, Wannasarn
Changing traditions and identities: the ecology of the differential responses of Tai and Kinh farmers to governmental agrarian and technological initiatives in Northwest Vietnam
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005) Nguyen, Thao Cong
Doi Moi or renovation is a thorough reformed policy that Vietnam government has promulgated since the 1980s. This policy has had significant impacts on economic growth of the country, especially in agricultural sector. The 1993 Land Law and the introductions of new technology into the field have led to many changes in rural areas in the whole country. BH and DID are two villages in northwestern upland region of the country where Tai and Kinh people live on wet rice as their principal crops. Having different cultural background, these two groups have not adapted to the 1993 Land Law and the introductions of new technologies such as fertilizers, pesticides in similar ways. This study investigates how Tai and Kinh people adapt to new policies, and what are the reasons of their different responses. The study primary evaluates strength and weakness of government agrarian policies.
Measuring variability in prehistoric stone construction on Rapa Nui, Chile
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005) Commendador, Amy S.
We are the weeds: the interplay of policy and culture in the use of introduced plant species as medicine in Hawaiʻi
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004) Abbott, Jon Webster
Weeds are an important source of medicinal plants (la'au) to Native Hawaiian practitioners of la'au lapa'au (Hawaiian botanical medicine). In both Hawai'i and abroad, natural resource management has historically and currently been used to colonize and acculturate indigenous peoples. One specific form of this ecocolonialism is the lack ofNative Hawaiian cultural practitioner input in the decision making processes that affect the management of these culturally essential natural resources. This thesis aims to develop a genuine resolution to the conflict through an exploration of the various cultural perspectives involved, an examination (and contextualization) of the historic and current patterns of natural resource management in Hawai'i (and abroad), and an evaluation and adaptation of successful co-management and indigenous natural resource management models. It is my deepest hope that this thesis will help begin a dialogue between the parties involved and will lead to a genuine stewardship of the 'aina.
Variability in poi pounders from Kauaʻi island, Hawaiʻi
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003-05) McElroy, Windy Keala; Graves, Michael; Anthropology
Hawaiian poi pounders are unique artifacts which have received inadequate attention from the archaeological community. Three varieties of poi pounders are recognized today: the common knobbed form, ring pounders, and stirrup pounders. These artifacts have never been systematically analyzed, and a great deal of variability exists within the three categories. This research utilizes paradigmatic classification to examine stylistic variability in poi pounder morphology. The seriation method is used to illuminate patterns of interaction and transmission through time and space among Hawaiian groups. Functional analyses are carried out to help explain processes of selection and interaction between poi pounders and the environment. The spatial extent of this research is limited to the island of Kauaʻi, which is historically known for its distinctive poi pounder forms.
Miss India USA 2001: Flexible Practices, Creative Consumption, and Transnationality in Indian America
(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2002-12) Vora, Kalindi; Yano, Christine R.; Anthropology
In Miss India USA, an event that represents Indian ethnicity as imagined by the mainstream Indian community, we can find a representation of the true dynamic processes of self-definition that are occurring in Indian America. By looking for evidence that the 'ideal' of Miss India USA is a construction based on the interests of what turns out to be only one voice among many in the community, we can start to look for evidence of other voices in the pageant. These are revealed in the ways that contestants fail to meet the ideal of 'Miss India USA' and instead perform other versions of Indian identity on stage. This thesis argues that discussions of the transnational Indian community as a diaspora homogenize it in a way that hides alternate forms of Indian identity that themselves share transnational affiliations besides those of the mainstream community highlighted by the notion of 'diaspora.' Miss India USA reveals that individuals in diaspora utilize transnational affiliations to create a multiplicity of identities that can only be understood in the context of both these particular affiliations and the locality of the individual. New enunciations of race and ethnicity in the context of America are found in Miss India USA, as are practices of flexible citizenship by contestants who wish to use their cultural capital of 'Indian-ness' to access transnational career opportunities. This thesis argues that by recognizing diaspora as constituted by multiple practices of creativity and flexibility with both ideological and material capital, the nature of events like Miss India USA 2001 as sites of multiple Indian identities and the transnational ties that constitute them can be acknowledged as part of a diaspora.

Browse

Recent Submissions