Ethnographic Evidence Research Articles

Beyond Buddhism and animism: A psychometric test of the structure of Burmese Theravada Buddhism.

Anthropologists and religious scholars have long debated the relationship between doctrinal Theravada Buddhism, so-called ‘animism’, and other folk practices in southeast Asian societies. A variety of models of this relationship have been proposed on the basis of ethnographic evidence. We provide the first psychometric and quantitative evaluation of these competing models, using a new scale developed for this purpose, the Burmese Buddhist Religiosity Scale. Having tested existing hypotheses in our first study (n = 2285) we formulated an alternative model, which was then tested in our second study (n = 3377). We argue that this model provides support for a two-dimensional distinction between great and little traditions, shedding light on decades-old theoretical debates. Far from being in conflict, the transnational religious tradition of the literati and the variegated religious practices of locals appear to be reflected in two complementary dimensions of religiosity. This distinction has been heretofore neglected in psychometric research, but arguably merits attention beyond Buddhism, in the psychology of religion more generally. Our findings suggest that, insofar as research on religiosity relies on doctrinal pronouncements denigrating little traditions as mere superstition, it may be blinded to a crucial dimension of religious life.

Cercetări efectuate la Băile Figa în anii 2016–2019 și considerații privind deslușirea valențelor unui peisaj salin hibrid / Research carried out at Băile Figa during 2016–2019 Revealing the potential of a hybrid saltscape

Cercetări efectuate la Băile Figa în anii 2016–2019 și considerații privind deslușirea valențelor unui peisaj salin hibrid / Research carried out at Băile Figa during 2016–2019 Revealing the potential of a hybrid saltscape

Weapons of Resistance: The Material Symbolics of Postclassic Mexican Spinning and Weaving

Material culture studies demonstrate how objects may act to communicate information regarding social identity. In this study we consider ethnohistorical, ethnographic, and archaeological evidence for Postclassic spinning and weaving as symbols relating to female ideology in ancient Mexico. We then relate a contextual interpretation of texts and images to contemporary symbolism, particularly associated with members of the female earth/fertility deity complex depicted and described in precolumbian and early colonial pictorial manuscripts. For our case study we analyze decorative imagery found on baked-clay spindle whorls from Postclassic Cholula, Mexico. This collection is representative of an iconographic system relating to female ideology. Whorls, as well as other spinning and weaving tools, paralleled male-oriented weapons to create a symbolic equivalence or, as we argue, a usurpation of the male symbols within a female worldview as a form of resistance to male domination. We conclude that the symbolic system used on spindle whorls and in other aspects of female practice created a communication network understood by Postclassic women.

Collective mindfulness in a regenerating organization: Ethnographic evidence from Roskilde festival

Collective mindfulness has mainly been empirically studied in large, well-established organizations while few researchers have looked at collective mindfulness in non-permanent organizations. We addressed that gap by conducting an ethnographic study of the regeneration of the Crowd Safety Organization at Roskilde Festival, an annual outdoor music festival. Our findings show that the Crowd Safety Organization regenerated a mindful organization consisting mainly of volunteers by establishing clear roles across four hierarchical layers of the organization and clearly communicating and enforcing role expectations. Furthermore, we found that Weick and Sutcliffe’s (2015) five subprocesses of collective mindfulness were unequally distributed across the four hierarchical layers of the Crowd Safety Organization. In particular, at the bottom of the organization we found no evidence of mindfulness in three of the five subprocesses, including reluctance to simplify interpretations, commitment to resilience and deference to expertise. Collective mindfulness is often conceptualized as a stable phenomenon but scholars have suggested that collective mindfulness varies over time and space. By studying collective mindfulness in a non-permanent organization, we cast further light on how organizations manage variations in collective mindfulness.

Urban annexation of the rural:kebunculture in Malaysia

‘Kebunculture’ is a distinctive, emergent form of rural sensibility and social‐economic relations in Malaysia. As a contribution to theories of ‘planetary’ or thoroughgoing urbanization, the ethnographic evidence presented in the article illustrate a case of urban annexation of rurality, in whichkebun(orchards) are detached from the social organization of rural villages and incorporated into urban‐centered Malay society.Kebun, as productive land with non‐rice crops, have traditionally been associated with rural kampung (village). In the late twentieth century, thoroughgoing urbanization, driven by both rural‐to‐urban migration and in situ urbanization of rural kampung, simultaneously produced a social disintegration of Malay kampung and increasingly urban‐oriented Malay society. Thekebun, which previously was an ancillary part of kampung social ecology has become dissociated from kampung and instead operates as an annex of urban‐centered social lives.Kebunare also distinctively individuated rather than communal socio‐economic projects. In both reserve lands and kampung areas, urban‐based Malays and rural‐to‐urban return migrants are involved in kebun projects, through which they engage with nostalgic notions of rurality, but without the social entanglements of kampung social relations. At the same time, throughkebunprojects, urban Malay subjects enter into new social relations, albeit ones marked by commodification.

Regulation and Contraband Trade in the Bangladeshi Borderland: Whose Weapons?

ABSTRACT The article presents an ethnographic evidence on the informal economic activities of the cattle traders on the border area of Bangladesh surrounding Indian state of West-Bengal. On the basis of fieldwork and in-depth interviews, the article shows how the powerful traders manage to accrue wealth for themselves with the collusion of state officials from the trading activity while the small traders and carriers manage to earn their share of benefit. The study also indicates the paradox of state behavior while regulating the trading activity: on the one hand the state demonstrates its inability to facilitate the trade across the border on the other hand the state is collecting tax from the traders. By drawing on the theoretical debates on informal economy, the analysis demonstrates that the strong presence of the state in regulating the trading activity puts the limit on the maneuvering space of the influential traders while harassment of the small traders by border security forces and increasing death toll of the carriers compromises the position of the weak in this trading site. Therefore, the study argues that the trading activity neither constitutes as a “weapon of the weak” nor as a “weapon of the strong”-rather it reflects an ambiguous character. Second, despite hostile border security environment and absence of any formal regulatory arrangements, the cross-border cattle trade remains efficient, highly organized and deeply rooted business in the border area of Bangladesh.

Pliny’s Presses: the True Story of the First Century Wine Press

Summary In a much-quoted passage of the “Natural History”, Pliny describes several wine press mechanisms. This description is of great historical importance, since it is the only such textual description of a vitally important class of technologies used for the production throughout the Roman Empire of both wine and olive oil, dietary staples in the ancient Mediterranean. Pliny’s text has been quoted and used as the basis for discussions of Roman farming and technological history for many decades. Yet it has never been properly understood in the light of related and recently published archaeological evidence, and close attention has never been paid to developing a precise translation, or to Pliny’s painstaking grammatical construction and word choices. A thorough and critical re-examination of the text reveals that modern scholars have routinely misinterpreted Pliny’s account of ancient press technology. In this paper, a new translation is offered, which more accurately aligns with archaeological and ethnographic evidence and which attempts to strip away the layers of modern interpretation, to rediscover previously ignored or misunderstood elements, and to restore the original sense of Pliny’s passage.

Who is the community? Governing territory through the making of ‘indigenous communities’ in Cambodia

For years, the Cambodian state has signed away indigenous peoples’ land to large-scale plantations. At the same time, the state has set up an intricate titling process that would allow indigenous peoples to officially register their land and protect it against dispossession. The Bunong ethnic minority from Bu Sra in Northeast Cambodia started to engage in such a land titling process around ten years ago. When they tried to register as an ‘indigenous community’ with the Ministry of Interior, it became apparent that defining the boundaries of a community is a highly political matter. Bunong villagers, non-profit organization staff and state bureaucrats all engaged in politics of ‘community’ and space-making in this ongoing struggle over territory.Arguing that the process of recognition of community and territory is strongly contested and involves contrasting ontologies of community, place and belonging, I focus on the incommensurability between Bunong notions of legitimate claimants/claims and actual titled communities and territories that legalization produced. I give ethnographic evidence of generational power dynamics, NGO involvement and fraught mapping processes by drawing on concepts of hegemony, consent and refusal. Problematizing the making of indigenous communities for the sake of titling, I discuss the practical and theoretical implications of this process of recognition.

The exacerbation of Ebola outbreaks by conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The interplay between civil unrest and disease transmission is not well understood. Violence targeting healthcare workers and Ebola treatment centers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been thwarting the case isolation, treatment, and vaccination efforts. The extent to which conflict impedes public health response and contributes to incidence has not previously been evaluated. We construct a timeline of conflict events throughout the course of the epidemic and provide an ethnographic appraisal of the local conditions that preceded and followed conflict events. Informed by temporal incidence and conflict data as well as the ethnographic evidence, we developed a model of Ebola transmission and control to assess the impact of conflict on the epidemic in the eastern DRC from April 30, 2018, to June 23, 2019. We found that both the rapidity of case isolation and the population-level effectiveness of vaccination varied notably as a result of preceding unrest and subsequent impact of conflict events. Furthermore, conflict events were found to reverse an otherwise declining phase of the epidemic trajectory. Our model framework can be extended to other infectious diseases in the same and other regions of the world experiencing conflict and violence.

Race, criminalization, and embedded discrimination in immigration court

Purpose As the US criminal justice system and immigration system increasingly interconnect, even immigration policy that is facially race-neutral may involve biased practices. The purpose of this paper is to examine how institutional racism in criminal legal processes creates particular barriers for many individuals of Latin American and/or African descent facing deportation proceedings in US immigration courts, particularly in assertions regarding gang affiliation. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on ethnographic observation. The work utilized a grounded theory approach. The observation took place at public master calendar hearings at a Midwestern immigration court between 2013 and 2015, yielding over 400 pages of fieldnotes that were coded and analyzed for patterns. Findings Non-citizens in the USA, including lawful permanent residents, are subject to deportation if labeled “criminal.” Racial profiling and criminalization of communities of color create heightened risk of deportation. Assumptions that common tattoos or urban fashion indicate criminality, reliance on Facebook posts to “prove” gang membership, and the use of arrest records as evidence of criminality even if charges were dropped all put immigrants of Latin American and/or African descent at heightened risk. Research limitations/implications The ethnographic method used has strong validity but weaker reliability and generalizability. Practical implications This paper can help analysts, policymakers and advocates consider how to adapt systems to increase equity. Originality/value This research provides direct examples and ethnographic evidence of how race and cultural bias in criminal legal processes and immigration policies can affect people in deportation proceedings.

Non solo acqua e farina. L’uso collettivo dei forni da pane a Sezze (LT) nel ‘900: una chiave di lettura etnoarcheologica

The aim of this paper is to summarize and reassess techniques and dynamics laying behind bread making for better understand the impact of this behaviour on the ancient social sphere. Within this frame, the analysis of ethnographic evidence is a valuable term of comparison with the archaeological record. The emerging picture from the pivotal case study of Sezze, shows that bread baking went well beyond simple subsistence purposes and was deeply affected by the community’s own social structure.

Жертвенные комплексы в курганах бронзового века (по материалам могильников Ергенинской возвышенности)

Introduction. The article examines sacrificial complexes within Bronze Age mounds of the Ergeni Upland. The archaeological culture represented by the investigated mounds is characterized by cattle sacrifice where a cow’s head and limbs symbolized a whole carcass of the sacrificial animal. A majority of the complexes contained fragmented or whole incense pots. The goal of the research is to analyze the sacrificial complexes and reveal key features of theirs essential for the reconstruction of Early and Middle Bronze Age cattle sacrifice rites. Results. The paper investigates materials from seven mound groups located in the Ergeni Upland. It concludes that mounds equipped with sacrificial altars constitute 15 % of the total number of mounds (17 of 112) and identifies somewhat basic features of such altars that tend to cluster in two groups: group one is characterized by the use of cattle bones only, and group two adds incense pots to such bones. The work attempts to attribute the presence of sacrificial altars to certain burial patterns within each mound. So, it reveals that sacrificial complexes are most frequently associated with burials of men. Special attention is paid to the presence of cattle skins placed into burials, according to participants of excavations, with animal heads and limbs. Indirect indicators of the presence of cattle skins were traced in two sacrificial altars only. The paper compares outcomes of the research of the Ergeni Upland’s sacrificial complexes to studies of similar structures within East Manych mounds, draws ethnographic and historical evidence related to such sacrificial practices that might have stemmed from the worship of the ox / cow as the primal forefather / foremother, protector of sentient beings, also tied to the fertility cult.

Summaries

Summaries

Home, Again: Refugee Return and Post-Conflict Violence in Burundi

Conflict between returning refugees and nonmigrant populations is a pervasive yet frequently overlooked security issue in post-conflict societies. Although scholars have demonstrated how out-migration can regionalize, prolong, and intensify civil war, the security consequences of return migration are undertheorized. An analysis of refugee return to Burundi after the country's 1993–2005 civil war corroborates a new theory of return migration and conflict: return migration creates new identity divisions based on whether and where individuals were displaced during wartime. These cleavages become new sources of conflict in the countries of origin when local institutions, such as land codes, citizenship regimes, or language laws, yield differential outcomes for individuals based on where they lived during the war. Ethnographic evidence gathered in Burundi and Tanzania from 2014 to 2016 shows how the return of refugees created violent rivalries between returnees and nonmigrants. Consequently, when Burundi faced a national-level political crisis in 2015, prior experiences of return shaped both the character and timing of out-migration from Burundi. Illuminating the role of reverse population movements in shaping future conflict extends theories of political violence and demonstrates why breaking the cycle of return and repeat displacement is essential to the prevention of conflict.

Ethnographic evidence for the presence of the coconut crab Birgus latro (Linnaeus, 1767) (Anomura, Coenobitidae) on Flores Island, Indonesia

Abstract Although occurring elsewhere in Indonesia, the coconut crab — the only member of the genus Birgus — has yet to be documented on the island of Flores or adjacent islands in the Lesser Sundas. In the Lio region of Flores, however, people in the district of Mego describe a very large entirely terrestrial crab occasionally encountered between 2 and 7 km from Flores’ south coast and sometimes even further inland. Ethnographic evidence is presented showing how this crab, locally called ‘kepi’, generally corresponds to the coconut crab in regard to morphology, habitat, and behaviour. Because local people prohibit the killing and consumption of kepi, other factors possibly accounting for the reputed rarity of large land crabs possibly corresponding to Birgus are also discussed, and the case is further used to comment on the value of local knowledge for international zoology.

Navigating Contact: Tradition and Innovation in Australian Contact Rock Art

In this paper, we look at the ways in which rock art encapsulates and expresses the tension between tradition and innovation in northern Australia during the period of European colonization. The appearance of new motifs and techniques for producing rock art in the recent past sits alongside the continuation of "traditional" practices reflecting thousands of years of artistic expression. Using case studies from Arnhem Land, we reflect on both ethnographic and archaeological evidence in order to interrogate the ways in which innovation impacted upon and was used by Indigenous groups to navigate contact. Our findings suggest that technological conservatism and the resistance to new technologies by Aboriginal communities is both considered and partial, with the overriding logic being about minimizing the disruption of specific values conceptualised as traditional, rather than eliminating or avoiding all outside influence.

Factory, family, and industrial frontier: A socioeconomic study of Chinese clothing firms in Newcastle, South Africa

ABSTRACTThis paper examines ethnic Chinese garment production and Zulu women workers in Newcastle, South Africa - a former border town between white South Africa and the black KwaZulu homeland. The established scholarship, while providing useful explanations for the arrival of ethnic Chinese clothing factories and offering valid critiques of South Africa's industrial policies, pays little attention either to Chinese business practices or their long-term impact on Zulu women workers' lives. Using both archival and ethnographic evidence, this paper argues that in response to harsh business and socioeconomic conditions, both the ethnic Chinese industrialists and Zulu women workers have creatively utilized and reshaped existing familial arrangements to operate factories and maintain stability as a workforce. It highlights the ways in which capitalist production transplants, adapts, and refashions its material and cultural forms on the frontier. In many ways, Chinese industrialists and Zulu women are not passive products but active shapers of the industrial frontier.

From the Earth: Spirituality, Medicine Vessels, and Consecrated Bowls as Responses to Slavery in the South Carolina Lowcountry

ABSTRACTPeople enslaved on the rice plantations of the South Carolina Lowcountry struggled to create community and to protect the health and well-being of themselves and their families. Archaeological comparison of different forms of hand-built, low-fired pottery from the Carolina Lowcountry with practices in West and Central Africa suggests captive workers were using the pottery as necessary receptacles for preparing herbal medicines and for making charms similar to those of the Bakongo in Central Africa. African ethnographic evidence indicates that pottery is linked to conceptions of gender and power, and these ideas were likely incorporated in the ethnogenesis of the Gullah people of Carolina. Historical records and archaeological research suggest the central part of the Cooper River may have been a figurative crossroads for the enslaved people of the region. Archaeological and ethnohistorical research of enslaved people of the Carolina Lowcountry is only beginning.

Cultures of Enthusiasm: An Ethnographic Study of Amateur Map-Maker Communities

Further attention should be paid to contextualizing the spaces and practices of amateur map-making. Doing so will provide further insight into the ways that maps, mapping epistemologies, and mapper identities emerge in the practices of everyday life. In order to deconstruct the map, and ultimately the power of maps, it is necessary to investigate maps from the bottom up as well as the top down. The motivations of amateur cartographers, the contexts in which map-making takes place, and the technological processes involved are all important factors to consider when examining how and why maps are produced. Empirical ethnographic evidence from a study of OpenStreetMap and humanitarian “mapping parties” is presented here to demonstrate how the often overlooked cultures of amateur map-making offer novel perspectives on who contemporary map-makers are and what motivates them to map. It is shown that amateur map-making is a broad category that includes close-knit hobby communities and more diverse groups of enthusiastic volunteers. As cartography continues to open up and become more accessible through a range of digital mapping technologies, studying these shifts will be important for understanding how and why the role of the map in contemporary life is changing.

Purging and the body in the therapeutic use of ayahuasca

Ayahuasca is a psychoactive plant mixture used in ceremonial contexts throughout Western Amazonia. Its use has expanded globally in recent decades and become popular among westerners who travel to the Peruvian Amazon in increasing numbers to experience its reportedly healing effects. Through a review of relevant literature on Amazonian shamanism, combined with the authors’ ethnographic data from shamanic tourism contexts of the Peruvian Amazon and neo-shamanic networks in Australia (collected between 2003 and 2015 – with a total of 227 people interviewed or surveyed, including healers and participants), we demonstrate that purging has been integral to the therapeutic use of ayahuasca across and beyond Amazonia. Therapeutic approaches to ayahuasca point to combined modulations of the gut and the mind, and the bodily and the social, that are expressed through discourse about healing and the body. Relating ethnographic evidence to recent scientific studies that connect the gut to emotional health, we do not approach the gut as merely biological ground on which cultural meanings are imposed, but rather as simultaneously physical and cultural. Based upon our analysis, we argue that ayahuasca purging should not be dismissed as a drug side effect or irrational belief but reconsidered for its potential therapeutic effects.