Matching Items (8)
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- All Subjects: Cultural Anthropology
- Creators: Gaughan, Monica
- Creators: Rush, James
- Status: Published
Description
This dissertation explores the history of ancestral rituals and the related political controversy in the Song China (960-1279). Considering the pivotal role played by ancestral rites in shaping Chinese identity and consciousness, this study contributes to a better understanding of how ancestral ritual has been politicized in Chinese history as a specific cultural apparatus to manipulate politics through theatrical performance and liturgical discussion. Through a contextual analysis of a variety of Song scholar-officials and their ritual writings, including memorials, private letters, and commentaries on the ritual Classics, this study demonstrates that Song ritual debates over the zhaomu 昭穆 sequence--that is, the positioning of ancestral temples and spirit tablets in ancestral temples with preparation for alternation or removal--differentiated scholar-officials into separate factions of revivalists, conventionalists and centrists. From a new perspective of ritual politics, this study reveals the discursiveness of the New Learning (xinxue新學) community and its profound influence on the Learning of the Way (Daoxue 道學) fellowship of the Southern Song (1127-1279). It examines the evolution of the New Learning fellowship as a dynamic process that involved internal tension and differentiation. Daoxue ritualism was a continuation of this process in partaking in the revivalist approach of ritual that was initiated by the New Learning circle. Nowadays, the proliferation of ritual and Classical studies crystallizes the revitalization of Confucianism and Confucian rituals in China. Taking zhaomu as a point of departure, this project provides a lens through which modern scholars can explore the persistent tension between knowledge and power by rethinking the modernization of ritual and ritual politics in contemporary China.
ContributorsCheung, Hiu Yu (Author) / Tillman, Hoyt C (Thesis advisor) / Tillman, Hoyt (Committee member) / Mackinnon, Stephen (Committee member) / Rush, James (Committee member) / Bokenkamp, Stephen (Committee member) / West, Stephen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This dissertation project addresses one of the most critical problems in the study of religion: how new formations of religion are constructed and constituted. My work builds on the recent revisions of the secularization theory, which demonstrates the alternative and hybrid ways people seek out religion in modernity. To this end, my project examines the emerging popularity and phenomenon of international meditation centers in Thailand, focusing on encounters between international meditation center teachers and their international students. Through participant observation and in-depth interviews at these sites throughout Thailand, my project explores the social processes of religious change and adaptation, and the construction of religious meaning. I detail the historical conditions that led to the formation of persisting ideas of Buddhism by tracing the continuities between Orientalist interpretations and modern-day spiritual seekers. My work contributes to a greater understanding of the most recent articulation of this engagement and interaction between Buddhism and the international community and adds to the burgeoning scholarship that reconsiders the relationship between religion and modernity. I investigate this relationship in regard to international meditation centers in Thailand through three angles: promotional materials concerning meditation in Thailand, experiences of international meditators, and teachings of international meditation center teachers. I contextualize this ethnographic analysis with an evaluation of the relationship of Buddhism to discourses of modernity and Orientalism as well as a historical inquiry into the rise of lay meditation in Thailand. Throughout I argue that international meditators' engagement with meditation in Thai temples constitutes a hybrid religiosity where the decontextualized practice of meditation is mixed with both non-religious and other religious beliefs and practices. Social discourses and practices involving meditation, even in a Buddhist country, demonstrate the deconstruction of traditional religiosity in modernity and the rise of hybrid religiosity. Through the decontextualization of meditation and the discourse of the practice having no religious boundaries, meditation becomes mixed with tourism, therapy, healing, as well as other religious and secular practices. This research contributes to studies of Theravada Buddhism as well as modern, global religions and the contemporary intersection between religion and tourism.
ContributorsSchedneck, Brooke (Author) / Schober, Juliane (Thesis advisor) / Rush, James (Committee member) / Fessenden, Tracy (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
There is no doubt that globalization has been a force in history , and especially in the past one hundred years. This is extremely evident in the implications of global epidemics. The global response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) revealed tensions between nation states and international health organization such as the World Health Organization) collectively called "Global Health Governance"). The issue was sovereignty. SARS showed us that there was more state-centric resistance to the Post-Westphalian world than previously thought. Where infectious diseases are concerned, however, the eventual compliance of states with the WHO shows reluctant but tacit compliance with international intervention.
ContributorsLaw, Stephanie (Author) / Rush, James (Thesis director) / Green, Monica (Committee member) / Lundry, Christopher (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2012-05
Description
Under-representation of women doctors in medical work force despite their overwhelming majority in medical schools is an intriguing social issue for Pakistan raising important questions related to evolving gender relations in Pakistani society. Previous research on the broader issue of under-representation of women in science has focused primarily on the structural barriers to women’s advancement. It does not account for the underlying subtle (and changing) gendered power relations that permeate everyday life and which can constrain (or enable) the choices of women. It also does not address how women are not simply constructed as subjects within intersecting power relations, but actively construct meaning in relation to them. It raises interesting questions about the cultural shaping of subjectivities, identities and agency of women within the web of power relations in a society such as Pakistan.
To analyze the underlying dynamics of this issue, this dissertation empirically examines the individual, institutional and social factors which enable or affect the career choices of Pakistani women doctors. Based on the ethnographic data obtained from in-depth, person centered, open ended interviews with sixty women doctors and their families, as well as policy makers and the stake holders in medical education and health administration in Lahore, Pakistan this dissertation seeks to address the complex issues of empowerment and agency in the context of Pakistani women, both in individual and collective sense.
Participation in medical education is ostensibly an empowering act, but dissecting the social relations in which this decision takes place reveals that becoming a doctor actually enmeshes women further in the disciplinary relations within their families and society. Similarly, the medical workplaces of Pakistan are marked by entrenched gendered hierarchies constraining women’s access to resources and their progression through medical career. Finally, the political implications of defining work in medicine, and devaluing care in capitalist economies is explored.
To analyze the underlying dynamics of this issue, this dissertation empirically examines the individual, institutional and social factors which enable or affect the career choices of Pakistani women doctors. Based on the ethnographic data obtained from in-depth, person centered, open ended interviews with sixty women doctors and their families, as well as policy makers and the stake holders in medical education and health administration in Lahore, Pakistan this dissertation seeks to address the complex issues of empowerment and agency in the context of Pakistani women, both in individual and collective sense.
Participation in medical education is ostensibly an empowering act, but dissecting the social relations in which this decision takes place reveals that becoming a doctor actually enmeshes women further in the disciplinary relations within their families and society. Similarly, the medical workplaces of Pakistan are marked by entrenched gendered hierarchies constraining women’s access to resources and their progression through medical career. Finally, the political implications of defining work in medicine, and devaluing care in capitalist economies is explored.
ContributorsMasood, Ayesha (Author) / Tsuda, Takeyuki (Thesis advisor) / Wutich, Amber (Committee member) / Gaughan, Monica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
According to traditional Chinese medicine, the month following childbirth is an important period marked by an imbalance of two opposing forces that together make up one’s health and wellbeing. A set of specialized practices called zuoyuezi (sitting the month) aid both the woman’s recovery and restoration of the balance, and require the help of someone else, usually the woman’s mother or mother-in-law. While studies conducted on the practice’s psychosocial and physical benefits have produced varied results, zuoyuezi continues to persist in Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan. Since the late twentieth century, professional zuoyuezi centers have become very popular as a commercial health care business. While the month experiences of Taiwanese and Chinese women have been widely studied, there is little research on physicians’ opinions regarding the practice, especially in Western medical settings. Taiwanese physicians, who have been trained in the Western medical tradition, present interesting case studies as both experts in Western medicine and citizens in traditional Taiwanese society. The purpose of this project is to observe how Taiwanese physicians negotiate primarily cultural practices with their professional training, and whether there is a conflict between physicians’ beliefs about zuoyuezi and physicians’ personal experiences with the practice. Twenty-seven semi-structured interviews of Taiwanese physicians were conducted at two sites in Taiwan regarding their perspective and understanding of zuoyuezi and their personal experiences with it. Following qualitative analysis, the findings showed that physicians used their Western medical training to explain the traditional worldview that holds zuoyuezi. Secondly, physicians acknowledged the benefits of zuoyuezi and the influence of culture as two primary factors in its continued existence. Finally, physicians incorporated zuoyuezi into their personal lives while modifying the traditional practices. Overall, Taiwanese physicians did not appear to have direct conflict with the cultural practice, zuoyuezi, using their medical expertise to rationalize its existence while becoming active participants and co-creators in the practice.
ContributorsChou, Cecilia (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Gaughan, Monica (Committee member) / Ellison, Karin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
In this dissertation, I examine how social perceptions of physical disability shape interactions in healthcare. Drawing upon the lived experience and insights of Diné (Navajo) individuals with physical disabilities, family members, and Diné
on-indigenous healthcare workers and service providers, I explore the interrelationship of social perceptions of physical disability with understandings of identity and performance of personhood. Embedded within discourses and critiques of ableism/disablism, narratives highlight the interconnection of constructs of personhood and productivity.
Findings show that social perceptions of physical disability are closely linked to broader cultural norms surrounding concepts of health/illness. I offer a critical analysis of contemporary impacts of colonization and historical trauma on the physical, emotional, sociocultural and economic wellbeing of Diné people and those who fill service provision roles for this diverse population. Situated within broader contexts of defining constructs of ‘Whiteness’ and ‘Indigeneity’, the role of culture and discourses regarding stereotypes are particularly prominent factors in shaping relationships.
This interdisciplinary ethnography brings together contributions from Anthropology, Disability Studies, and Indigenous paradigms. Placing a particular emphasis on the social dynamics in two urban centers in the state of Arizona, this ethnography centers on analyzing areas of medical practice that work well, as well as gaps in the provision of healthcare services, with a particular focus on systemic and infrastructural barriers. These concerns are shared not only by Diné individuals with
physical disabilities and family members, but also by non-indigenous service providers and healthcare professionals.
on-indigenous healthcare workers and service providers, I explore the interrelationship of social perceptions of physical disability with understandings of identity and performance of personhood. Embedded within discourses and critiques of ableism/disablism, narratives highlight the interconnection of constructs of personhood and productivity.
Findings show that social perceptions of physical disability are closely linked to broader cultural norms surrounding concepts of health/illness. I offer a critical analysis of contemporary impacts of colonization and historical trauma on the physical, emotional, sociocultural and economic wellbeing of Diné people and those who fill service provision roles for this diverse population. Situated within broader contexts of defining constructs of ‘Whiteness’ and ‘Indigeneity’, the role of culture and discourses regarding stereotypes are particularly prominent factors in shaping relationships.
This interdisciplinary ethnography brings together contributions from Anthropology, Disability Studies, and Indigenous paradigms. Placing a particular emphasis on the social dynamics in two urban centers in the state of Arizona, this ethnography centers on analyzing areas of medical practice that work well, as well as gaps in the provision of healthcare services, with a particular focus on systemic and infrastructural barriers. These concerns are shared not only by Diné individuals with
physical disabilities and family members, but also by non-indigenous service providers and healthcare professionals.
ContributorsVarvarezou, Dimitra (Author) / Maupin, Jonathan N (Thesis advisor) / Gaughan, Monica (Committee member) / Williams, Deborah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Much of the anthropological and Islamic studies focus in recent years has addressed the shifting forms of Islamic piety across Muslim majority societies. The analysis of this shift in Islamic practice and belief has enveloped the changing sensibilities around technologies, social strata, democracy, law, and everyday life. In light of these transformations, after the fall of the Indonesian New Order in 1998, the performances of Islamic devotional songs (salawat) by Habib Syech bin Abdul Qadir Assegaf (Habib Syech) began bringing millions of people together across Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Although salawat has typically been performed in remembrance of the birth of Prophet Muhammad (mawlid) in localized celebrations. The performances of salawat by Habib Syech, on the other hand, occur fifteen or more times a month with crowds swelling to tens of thousands across multiple nation-states. Habib Syech’s salawat performances furthermore appeal to and bring together diverse Muslim populations that have historically been more divided. Habib Syech’s gatherings reveal how popular forms of piety are shifting in conjunction with profound societal changes in Indonesia and other Muslim communities. In untangling the popularity of Habib Syech’s gatherings, it was not until I became entangled in the rhythm of salawat that baraka, often translated as blessings, emerged as a slippery, elusive, and living helping propel the popularity of this phenomena. The guttural cries of my interlocutors (baraka, baraka, baraka) resonate and summon a methodology that takes the visible and invisible together in understanding the concept and life of baraka. I, like my interlocutors, began hunting baraka as an alternative, living concept that challenges understandings of Islam in Indonesia driven by Islamic civil organizations, prescriptive vs everyday Islamic piety, and Western interpretations of the world as disenchanted. This dissertation is an exploration of new opportunities for understanding religion in the modern world that emerge from the ethnographic field through the life of baraka.
ContributorsEdmonds, James Michael (Author) / Talebi, Shahla (Thesis advisor) / Bennett, Gaymon (Committee member) / Haines, Charles (Committee member) / Rush, James (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
Contact tracing was deployed widely during the COVID-19 pandemic to attempt to stop the spread of SARS Co-V-2. This dissertation investigates the research on contact tracing from a scientometric perspective and looks qualitatively at how case investigators and contact tracers conducted public health practice during the pandemic. Through approaching the public health practice of contact tracing from both a broad, top-down angle, and an on the ground experiential approach, this dissertation provides insight into the issues facing contact tracing as a public health tool.
ContributorsWhite, Alexandra C. (Author) / Jehn, Megan (Thesis advisor) / Hruschka, Daniel (Committee member) / Gaughan, Monica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022