Browsing by Author "Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee member"
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Item Open Access Consumer acculturation and reacculturation experience: Taiwanese returnees' negotiation of roles and identity through dress(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Zarubin, Tracy, author; Yan, Ruoh-Nan, advisor; Ogle, Jennifer, committee member; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee memberThe purpose of this interpretive study is to qualitatively analyze the process of consumer acculturation and reacculturation through consumption practices related to dress by which Chinese women from Taiwan negotiated their roles and identity in their home culture (Taiwan), host culture (United States) and upon returning to their home culture (Taiwan). This study focuses on these womens' experiences as they moved across cultures, specifically looking at their perception of home and host culture, dress strategies, cultural value orientation, and how these influenced their consumer acculturation and reacculturating outcomes. Based on the findings of this study, a consumer acculturation model for returnees has been developed. This model reflects these womens' experiences as they transitioned across two different cultures, highlighting factors that contributed to the outcomes of assimilation, maintenance and resistance. This study found that the reacculturation process was a much harder transition than acculturating to a host culture because participants were undergoing a major role transition from student to working professional and they had no expectations of what this life would be like, making it difficult to adjust. Also, segregation was altogether not an outcome. This research provides new insights into the complex and dynamic process of consumer acculturation and reacculturation of women as they transition from home to host and back to home culture.Item Open Access Consuming ideals: an archaeological investigation of the Social Hygiene Movement in Colorado(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Griffin, Kristy Kay, author; Van Buren, Mary, advisor; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee member; Payne, Sarah, committee memberHistorical investigations of the Social Hygiene Movement (1890s-1930s) tend to focus on the urban origins of the concerns that sparked much of the resulting reform efforts. Furthermore, archaeological investigations that address artifacts associated with the Social Hygiene Movement often focus on either an urban or a rural setting, and usually only examine a single aspect of the movement rather than considering the impact of the totality of the movement’s ideology on American consumer behaviors. As a result, little is known about the materialization of the Social Hygiene Movement in the archaeological record and the differential appearance of associated artifacts at urban relative to rural sites. This project seeks to define Social Hygiene Movement-associated artifact types and undertake a comparative analysis of the occurrence of these artifacts at two urban and four rural sites in the state of Colorado in an effort to better understand the early material expressions of the movement in rural regions of the United States. This study was designed to 1) explore the assumption that artifacts related to health, hygiene, and cleanliness should appear at rural sites later than at urban sites, 2) determine if the Social Hygiene Movement manifested differently in rural regions relative to urban areas as evidenced in the archaeological record by types of consumer products purchased, and 3) if differences do exist, provide information about what other contextual and ideological factors may have caused the divergence. This project concludes that rural residents were likely aware of the emerging health, hygiene, and cleanliness ideals from nearly the beginning of the Social Hygiene Movement. However, differences in the frequency and types of products purchased suggest that consumer choices were informed by a shared system of rural values developed in opposition to the hegemonic rhetoric of Progressive Era reformers. The evidence presented in this study indicates that rural residents did not alter their hygienic practices and consumer behaviors to be in-line with urban standards, but rather selected the ideological aspects of the SHM that reinforced their rural identities and incorporated the products and practices which complemented their daily realities and social norms. The results highlight the importance of utilizing material studies in conjunction with historical research to achieve more nuanced understandings of the origins of the Social Hygiene Movement and question commonly-held assumptions based on the dominant discourse often evidenced in documentary sources.Item Open Access Disasters in the media: a content analysis of the March 2011 Japan earthquake/tsunami and nuclear disasters(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Stomberg, Danielle R., author; Long, Marilee, advisor; Christen, Cindy, committee member; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee memberThis cross-cultural study analyzed online newspaper stories about the March 2011 Japan earthquake/tsunami and nuclear disasters from two nationally representative newspapers: the NYTimes.com in the United States and the Yomiuri Shimbun in Japan. This study investigated stories published between March 11, 2011, and April 15, 2011. These online news stories were examined to determine their use of disaster myths, past disasters, media hype, and directly quoted sources. Results show that few disaster myths were used overall; however, there was a difference in the number of panic flight myths used in the newspapers studied. References to past disasters were also measured on whether or not they were in the story. It was more common that stories did not mention a past disaster when reporting about the March 2011 Japan earthquake/tsunami and nuclear disasters. The NYTimes.com used more past disasters in its stories than did the Yomiuri Shimbun; Chernobyl was the most frequently mentioned past disaster. Results also show that there was no evidence of a nuclear crisis media hype in the newspapers during the time period analyzed. The study also investigated differences in the use of sources by the two newspapers. Counter to predictions, the Yomiuri Shimbun did not use more official sources than the NYTimes.com. The results suggest that culture played a role in the two newspapers covered the disaster. A closer investigation into each of the variables investigated in this study and the role of culture in reporting about disasters may be warranted in future research.Item Open Access Happiness in Gielinor: modelling social play and well-being in online third places(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2023) Nixon, William Cody, author; Snodgrass, Jeffrey G., advisor; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee member; Steger, Michael, committee memberAs the world slowed during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, many remained in their homes and avoided social contact outside of performing essential activities. In lieu of everyday social connections with friends and family, people turned to online worlds to satisfy basic needs like that for social belonging. Internet-based social interactions allowed for the expansion of many online social spaces, particularly those facilitating leisure activities (such as online video games) and social connection (social media outlets, messaging applications, etc.). To examine the effects of a pandemic-related "online social migration," ethnographic fieldwork and psychological anthropological interviews (including free list and pile sort elicitations) were conducted within the world of Gielinor, home to the players of the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) Old School Runescape, with a focus on how players interacted with others and the impact of the game environment's normative "culture" (in the sense of socially learned understandings about the proper and best way to enjoy this game). By inhabiting this competitive, supportive, and encouraging virtual world environment, players placed significant value on their in-game social connections, and these relationships were found to be crucial not only within the game world but also in players' real-world lives. Further, this game environment allowed for gamers to foster a sense of well-being and happiness in the absence of real-world third places (such as bars and coffeehouses) and in-person social interactions, suggesting the emerging importance during this health crisis of online third places.Item Open Access Home, half a world away: the cultural logic of acculturation among Indian international students at Colorado State University(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Van Oostenburg, Max, author; Snodgrass, Jeffrey, advisor; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee member; Harman, Jennifer, committee memberIn this thesis I contend that Indian international students at Colorado State University strive to adjust to life in the United States in accordance with a cognitive "model" of what being well-adjusted entails. This model of being well-adjusted is culture-specific and reflects a negotiation between Indian cultural values and the challenges of life as a CSU student. This cultural logic of adjustment configures subjective well-being in a context-specific way, meaning individuals who are more able to map onto the cultural model of being well-adjusted are likely to experience better subjective well-being than those who are unable. I suggest that accounting for the cultural patterning of acculturation is a step towards a more nuanced understanding of the adjustment process of international students. Additionally, this approach provides a more emic picture of the dynamics of subjective well-being among groups of international students.Item Open Access "Indians don't get transplants": dialysis patient experience and political economic barriers to transplantation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2020) Reedy, Julia, author; Magennis, Ann, advisor; Browne, Katherine, committee member; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee member; Long, Marilee, committee memberThe Oglala Lakota people of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation have been plagued with poor kidney health due to political economic factors such as poverty, discrimination, unemployment, and limited food access. This poor health, exemplified in high rates of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), has created a population of patients that face daily challenges associated with dialysis treatment. Many of these patients would prefer kidney transplantation as treatment for their ESRD; however, a multitude of structural, institutional, educational, and biological barriers create obstacles that most find too difficult to overcome. This thesis explores the lived realities of dialysis patients on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the structural challenges these patients face in accessing kidney transplantation. With dialysis patients often overlooked in terms of research and healthcare initiatives, this research provides the platform for patients to tell their stories, share their experiences, and advocate for their right to health and dignity. This applied anthropological research seeks to tackle the real-world issues of transplantation access among the Oglala Lakota population living on Pine Ridge. Therefore, the goal of this research is to both identify existing barriers as well as posit solutions that will help with the mediation of these barriers to improve access to kidney transplantation. Drawing on ethnographic methods such as participant observation and semi-structured interviews, this research attempts to provide an insider's perspective to dialysis challenges and the experiences of patients suffering from end-stage renal disease. This research focuses on three primary areas of interest. The first seeks to illuminate the dialysis patient experience, daily activities and limitations, and emotional responses to an end-stage renal disease diagnosis. This line of research serves as a window into the lives of dialysis patients, providing an emic or insider's perspective into the difficulties and challenges these individuals face. The second primary area of interest examines systems of belief and support present on the reservation represented by traditional Lakota belief systems and Christianity. Each of these systems functions to support patients during periods of hardship, but also plays an influencing role in healthcare decision-making. The third research focus explores the myriad barriers that inhibit access to kidney transplantation among the Oglala Lakota people. The distal and proximal barriers imposed on patients can be categorized as structural, institutional, educational, or biological, affecting patients in different areas and at different times in their lives. Using critical medical anthropology and structural vulnerability as the theoretical basis for data interpretation, the different structural levels of the healthcare system are examined. Each of these levels provides explanatory power regarding the regulation, influences, and pressures applied by the larger system on the individual. The critical medical anthropology approach also demonstrates a clear mismatch between the ideal transplantation process and the real-world capabilities of Oglala Lakota patients. To mediate identified barriers and align these mismatched systems, I provide specific recommendations for policy and practice that can be implemented to improve patient health and facilitate access to transplantation for those who seek it.Item Open Access Masculinity in a nineteenth century western mining town: gendered relations of power in a red-light district, the Vanoli Sporting Complex (5OR30), Ouray, Colorado(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Burnette, Richard T., author; Van Buren, Mary, advisor; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee member; Orsi, Jared, committee memberThe historical artifact collection recovered from the Vanoli Sporting Complex site (5OR30), a brothel district adjacent to the Second Street red-light district in Ouray, Colorado, in the United States, has stimulated a number of anthropological questions regarding the social processes enabling the rapid growth and long-term sustentation of sporting-male commerce in Colorado mining towns in the latter-half of the nineteenth-century. Potentially representing the real economic engine responsible for the viability of tenuous western mining towns, prostitution was tacitly accepted by moral Victorian elites, underscoring the entrenched nature of masculine ideologies and customs. The class-based regulatory structures adopted to exploit and control the illicit commerce would have an alienating influence over the lives of prostitutes, significantly altering the relations of power forged between men and women in these urbanized mining towns. Ironically, the pervasiveness of long-standing homocentric paradigms in western historical literature has continued to mask the socio-cultural and economic significance of masculine social institutions in numerous industrial sub-regions emerging in the mining west. Benefiting from the advances made in the discourse on gender and power, this archaeological study assesses the changing life ways of prostitutes within a brothel district, providing a unique perspective on gendered relations of power in a western mining context.Item Open Access Peer support trumps drug cocktails: cultural views of treatment options for persons with bipolar and depressive disorders(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Batchelder, Greg, author; Snodgrass, Jeffrey, advisor; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee member; Dik, Bryan, committee memberIn this thesis I propose that participants of a peer-support group for depression and bipolar disorder cognitively "model" their conditions in culture-particular ways. Specifically, I suggest that these patients embrace a particular clinical storytelling process that helps them to regulate their daily personal habits and bodily states, while seeing as ineffective and even potentially detrimental the drug regimens more commonly favored in U.S. psychiatry. I argue that patients' fixing of control and responsibility for cure are on the clinical encounter and on their own practice is cultural: involving shared in socially transmitted understandings of how mental health and healing work, a particular reaction to a biomedicine more dominant in U.S. society. Further, I show that being "consonant" or in sync with the shared cultural model I call "managing the disorder" correlates with improved symptomology. I suggest that this improvement may be the result of social support and reduced stress due to the feelings of belonging to the group- a process referred to in the literature as "cultural consonance"- as well as the actual strategies which participants employed in addition to, or in some cases, instead of, their medications. Marijuana use and religion/spirituality were also sometimes mentioned as factors which contributed to helping patients manage their disorders. For this project, these themes were explored in the academic literature, through participation in the peer-support group, in semi structured interviews, and quantitatively through survey data. I suggest that studies of this type may contribute to understanding and evaluating treatment models among various cultural groups.Item Open Access Political dimensions of livelihood transformation of the Indigenous Ata Modo people in Komodo National Park, Indonesia(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Afioma, Gregorius, author; Galvin, Kathleen A., advisor; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee member; Stevis, Dimitris, committee memberThis paper examines the political dimensions of the livelihood changes of the Indigenous Ata Modo people in Komodo National Park (KNP), Indonesia. Established in 1980, KNP is well-known as the natural habitat of the renowned Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis). What is less known is that KNP is also the home of the local communities of Ata Modo. The Ata Modo people have changed their livelihoods from hunting, gathering, and farming to fishing and the tourism economy in response to processes of enclosure, dispossession, and dissolution of the protected area through various interventions from colonial times to recent years. Political economy critique tends to overlook the local dynamic, while the institutional framework of livelihood analysis tends to depoliticize livelihood adaptation as the economic survival mechanism. Using the framework of political ecology, this paper explores the political dimensions of livelihood transformation and the subject-making process of the Ata Modo people. Through livelihood adaptations, I emphasize the individual and collective agency in navigating their access and control over the resources around the park. This research is based on the ethnographic materials I collected during 2016-2022. Through the study of Indigenous Ata Modo's agency and their engagement with various regimes of conservation in KNP, I argue that the Indigenous Ata Modo's livelihood adaptation is an act of positioning in relation to the power dynamics of conservation and neoliberal conservation and ecotourism project. While continuously marginalized by the fortress and neoliberal models of conservation, the Indigenous Ata Modo continue to define and build their livelihoods through everyday and spectacular acts of resistance, occupation, and incorporation. By focusing on the struggle and livelihood adaptations of the Indigenous Ata Modo, this paper contributes to the study of the interlinkage between conservation, ecotourism, and community engagement in development.Item Open Access Rise of social network based seafood industrial cluster and rural community transformation in Zhoushan Islands of China(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Xu, Yue, author; Raynolds, Laura T., advisor; Mao, KuoRay, committee member; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee memberThis thesis reviews the historical, political, and cultural foundations for establishing seafood industrial clusters at Zhoushan Islands, explaining the organizational level management, operation, and regulatory strategies utilized by seafood factory owners to achieve their success. This thesis explores the general labor pattern, the surveillance and hierarchies in seafood factories at Zhoushan Islands, inequalities and social stratification in the nearby local rural community, and the invisible consequences of state-led industrialization and rural transformation policies in the Zhoushan industrial cluster. A theme running through this discussion is how factory owners utilize available political, social, and economic capital from the elite social networks to build their pathway to succeed in operating seafood business, countering barriers, and handling potential risks.Item Open Access Searching for a cure?: a feminist rhetorical queering of mainstream breast cancer discourse online(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Downing, Savannah Greer, author; Griffin, Cindy, advisor; Gibson, Katie, committee member; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee memberThis project is a feminist rhetorical analysis of two main sites of breast cancer communication: Komen and the National Breast Cancer Foundation. In order to better understand messages about breast cancer online and how those messages seek to constitute particular audiences, this project rhetorically queers each organization’s homepage to consider representations of race, class and gender. The intersectional approach critiques the presentation of normalized experiences of breast cancer that rely on traditional femininity and cast breast cancer as a middle to upper class white woman’s disease and points to the potential consequences of such a presentation for those who fall along the margins. Ultimately, the project calls for a remaking of breast cancer discourse to be more inclusive, particularly given the vulnerability of bodies already affected by breast cancer, and demonstrates how seemingly palatable sites that are highly trafficked actually further marginalize already silenced experiences of breast cancer.Item Open Access Sharing recipes for "blendships" and optimal well-being: communicating community on healthy living blogs(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Fedunchak, Aleksandra, author; Sprain, Leah, advisor; Merolla, Andy, committee member; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee memberThis thesis seeks to understand how the discourse on healthy living blogs can function socially, create and maintain an online community, foster a network of social support, and establish meanings of health for blog participants through performing Cultural Discourse Analysis. The four research questions that guide my analysis are: first, what is being accomplished through participation (authoring and commenting) on the sample of Healthy Living Blogs (HLBs)? What, if any, are the social functions of blogging about and commenting on healthy living for the participants? Second, does this network of healthy living blogs exemplify characteristics of a virtual community? Third, what, if any, are the key symbols used to communicate social support? And lastly, what does being "healthy" and "unhealthy" mean to the bloggers and blog participants (what are the discourses used to communicate these meanings)? In my analysis, I find that blog participants engaged in communicative action through the process of "confessing," they communicated sense of being to cultivate online personalities, and they portrayed senses of relating by referring to one another as friends, "blends," and by discussing important "blendships" (i.e., combination of the word blogger and friendship). Additionally, blog participants frequently and willingly exchanged information, provided social support, and offered advice and solutions to one another to foster connectedness, which symbolizes a sense of virtual community. Ultimately, two paradoxes became clear in that bloggers were rewarded with greater amounts of supportive comments ascribing them as strong when they shared weaknesses, and that the overt definition of health as a balance of multi-faceted features was challenged by a strong content focus on nutrition and fitness as primary tools for being "healthy." On the premise that blogging, a discursive practice, is a form of everyday communication, and thus has the ability to build trust and senses of community between individuals, this thesis analyzes how three healthy living bloggers and the blog participants that comment on the blogs, respectively, potentially function to reconceptualize what it means to be healthy.Item Open Access The ecological self: a cognitive anthropological study of identity, body ideology and ecology in American Zen monastic culture(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Graves, Kelly Anne, author; Snodgrass, Jeffrey, advisor; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee member; Mackenzie, Matt, committee memberThis research will examine the unique cultural context of Japanese Zen as it is practiced, embodied and shared in an American monastic setting. It will look at how this particular “culture of meditation” (defined as the U.S. Zen monastic culture) promoted within these communities may influence the way a person frames their bodies, sense of self and environment. Through this process, I suggest that the experience of self-moves from an ego-centric to a more eco-centric ontology, resulting in a unique environmental worldview that may be related to subjective wellbeing. Using a mixed-methods approach this will be explored through the use of ethnographic grounded theory, surveys and a cognitive test measuring visual processing with the intent of providing a case for how a “culture of meditation” may impact the way we contextualize ourselves within the world around us. An introduction to Buddhism in America will be given, in order to frame the particular Buddhist culture examined in this study, as well as a definition of “meditation” through the vantage of contemporary psychological vocabulary. This study will take a strong interdisciplinary stance. Chapter 3 will examine various theories from psychology, anthropology and ecology as possible frames to interpret the unique cultural and religious identity that is promoted by Zen monastic culture. Then, first hand research conducted at a U.S. Soto Zen monastery in Oregon will be addressed, using an enhanced ethnographic approach to give voice and rigor to the lived experience of how this “culture of meditation” transforms a sense of self and motivates an alternative ecological worldview. Chapter 4 will provide an overview of the methods used, detailing information on participants, setting and an analysis of prior participant observation and Chapter 5 will present and examine the data in each step of the study, providing analyses of the findings and identify the emergent themes. A summary of these analyses and description of the conclusions will be discussed in Chapter 6, as well as the limitations of the research process, applications of the findings and recommendations for future directions. Themes of body, self and environment will be explored throughout the study, with the intention of providing a unique exploration of Zen practice, culture and experience.Item Open Access "The scum of both nations": a Gaelic perception of gender and communities during the conquest of Ulster(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Garl, Olivia N., author; Gudmestad, Robert, advisor; Kreider, Jodie, advisor; Little, Ann, committee member; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee memberThis thesis covers the conquest of Gaelic Ulster from 1555-1653 through a gender lens. Early modern Ulster's history is rift with dynamic, systemic change that has been occluded by previous scholarship. By bringing women out of the footnotes and fragments, this work establishes the importance of surveying colonization and conquest on two levels. It demonstrates how gendered perceptions of the Gaelic Irish isolated their nested identities to serve English constructions of the Other. In addition, it complicates the narrative of English sovereignty in Ulster by describing the complexity of Gaelic rule and its dependence on kinship networks prior to 1600. Gaelic kinship networks, reinforced by marriage alliances and fosterage, utilized regional ties to enforce their autonomy despite increased English presence in Ulster. This work utilizes specific cases to demonstrate continuity and change over time in Ulster's Gaelic and settler communities during this period. Chapter 1 examines the use of marriage alliances and fosterage to reinforce Gaelic power from 1555-1600. It uses the examples of Agnes Campbell and Finola MacDonnell to show the permeable and alterable boundaries of Ulster's warrior society during this time of turmoil. Chapter 2 examines the role of settlers in Ulster's English and Scottish communities from 1600-1641. It explains the process of altering the Irish figure in print culture to serve English ambitions of conquest and how those realities differed in everyday life. Chapter 3 uses the 1641 Depositions to reflect on the drastic change in Ulster as it was superimposed on the 1641 Irish Rebellion. It examines 450 depositions taken in Antrim and Down to analyze what gendered, coded language was used to construct or reconfigure images of settlers and natives, Protestants and Catholics, and victims and rebels.Item Open Access User-driven role-playing in Final Fantasy XIV: immersion, creative labor, and psychosocial well-being(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2019) Tate, Rachel, author; Snodgrass, Jeffrey G., advisor; Kwiatkowski, Lynn, committee member; Diffrient, David Scott, committee memberMassively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) give each user the starring role, drawing them into the game's story and world through their character avatar. Some, however, take role-playing (colloquially, "roleplaying" or "RP") further by constructing deep and complex narratives for their characters and pitting them against others in new and often spontaneous stories that emerge from collaborative efforts. This research looks at the RP community in the MMO Final Fantasy XIV in order to understand how and why RPers choose this form of play in a game already rich with activities. Specifically, I aim to shed light on the relationship between RP and psychosocial well-being. Drawing on perspectives from game studies, media fandom studies, and positive psychology, this research examines RP through a tripartite model of avenues towards well-being: play, flow, and sociality. A mixed-methods approach is used to gather ethnographic data through participant observation and interviews while also sampling broad patterns through a field survey. A cognitive anthropological "cultural models" consensus and consonance methodology allows for the culture of RP to be assessed in its capacity to reinforce and encourage positive experiences for its participants. Findings suggest that RP is a fulfilling activity because of its ability to enhance immersion and flow in the game world and the meaningful social connections that are forged through creative collaboration. However, RPers who are lonely or who become overinvested in the activity are more likely to have negative experiences if they cannot learn to play in an adaptive manner.