Annals of Anthropological Practice最新文献

The concept of cultural attachment is in the vernacular in the Appalachian region of the United States and served to stimulate policy attention to the concept when a 765 kV electric transmission line was proposed through Peters Mountain on the border between Virginia and West Virginia. The environmental impact statement of the U.S. Forest Service examined the extent of cultural attachment in the project area using our social science consulting company, which resulted in a rejection of the line in 1995 and an acceptance in 2002 when the proponent changed routes to avoid communities with high cultural attachment. The concept has been noted and used in several other settings and has evolved into a policy tool that accommodates the three pillars of cultural attachment—attachment to land, to place, and to kinship and social networks. We contend that use of the concept as evolving is an appropriate way to consider “endangered cultures.” The use of the concept of cultural attachment in decision making means there is now a track record and precedence that give legal weight to the concept, value to local residents in manifesting their voice, and improved prospects that we can continue to shape life in sustainable and human-affirming ways.

Attempts to understand college student food insecurity have primarily focused on demographic characteristics associated with higher rates of food insecurity, and have recommended improving awareness of and access to resources such as campus food pantries. We argue in this article that this emphasis on individual-level factors and efforts can lead to stigma or shame for many of those using pantries and other programs. Our survey and interview data collected from 2016 to 2019 show that many college students see hunger as tied to their individual failures. We find that an individualistic perspective on the experience of student food insecurity neglects the larger institutional and social contexts, including changes to financial aid, college funding options, food assistance policies, and discrimination. We propose an alternative model for understanding the stigma of student food insecurity that connects language and stereotypes to power differentials affecting access beyond the individual, and thus better addresses the root causes of student food insecurity.

Intentos de comprender la inseguridad alimentaria de estudiantes universitarios suelen enfocarse en las características demográficas asociadas con incidencias altas de inseguridad alimentaria y han recomendado mejorar la información sobre y el acceso a recursos como las despensas de alimentos universitarias. En este artículo proponemos que este énfasis en factores y esfuerzos a nivel del individuo pueden conducir a que muchos quienes usan despensas y otros programas de asistencia sientan estigma o vergüenza por ello. Los datos que recopilamos entre 2016 y 2019 por medio de encuestas y entrevistas demuestran que muchos estudiantes universitarios consideran que el hambre está ligado a fracasos del individuo mismo. Concluimos que al tomar una perspectiva individualista sobre la experiencia de la inseguridad alimentaria estudiantil se ignoran contextos institucionales y sociales más amplios que afectan al problema, incluyendo los cambios en la ayuda financiera universitaria, las opciones de financiación universitaria, las políticas de asistencia alimentaria, y la discriminación. Proponemos un modelo alternativo para comprender el estigma de la inseguridad alimentaria de los estudiantes que conecta el lenguaje y los estereotipos con las diferencias de poder que afectan el acceso más allá del individuo y, por lo tanto, mejor aborda las causas fundamentales de la inseguridad alimentaria de los estudiantes.

High rates of migrant fatalities at the U.S. southern border represent an ongoing mass disaster that is the product of Prevention through Deterrence policies funneling migrants into remote and deadly terrain. Due to a fragmented, underresourced, and overwhelmed medicolegal system in South Texas, the majority of unidentified migrant decedents recovered in the region are buried without proper investigation or genetic sampling. The present study examines the effects that South Texas burial practices have on the ability to recover and identify deceased migrant individuals, in addition to assessing the care and respect with which their remains are treated. Utilizing forensic archaeological and case records data pertaining to 103 burials of unidentified migrant decedents exhumed by Operation Identification at Texas State University across three South Texas counties, the present study reveals problematic patterns with migrant death management practices and generates preliminary recommendations for burial improvement.

Anthropologists have struggled with the issue of how to “give back” to the people who have welcomed us, collaborated with us, and become our friends. Expert witnessing for the asylum cases of members of communities that have opened their doors to us is one way of addressing uneven relationships and power dynamics.  I provide expertise for cases almost exclusively from a place where I have worked for decades in Guatemala, a site of intensive migration.  This contribution discusses the convergence of research and asylum claims, the donations to a scholarship fund I request as compensation, and the realm of the everyday in the construction of legal narratives.