Brown, Susan Love

By comparing research from several disciplines and subfields such as history, anthropology, and environmental archaeology, an alternative theory for the cause of Captain James Cook's death on February 14, 1779 developed. One of the basic needs of human beings is food. In 1779, food played an integral part in Hawaiian culture. The population in Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii was at maximum potential and was supported by a large-scale agricultural system known as the Kona Field System. There were 284 men on Captain Cook's third expedition and they relied on the Hawaiians for their food provisions. The economic production of the Kona Field System was affected by several external factors. Environmental conditions, limited farming technology, population density, and sociopolitical organization were causes of food shortages and famines in Hawaiian prehistory. The death of Captain Cook was an indirect result of food scarcity that was caused by a combination of these external factors.

Early studies concerning the participation of women in social movements have been shown to lack portrayals of women as agents of change. This thesis examines a political anthropology of action or agency within the context of gender, including a discussion on the characterization of women in Mexican politics, to analyze the structures of opportunity that have allowed Soledad Torrez Chay, a rural Mayan woman, access to resources, power, and leadership. Aspects of Soledad's life history illustrate her understanding of the economy, politics, and history of Mexico. This research fills gaps in previous analyses that have focused on women as victims of oppression and exploitation.

Because the film genre categorized as "family" has become a larger segment of the film industry in the last decade, family films have become an abundant source of cultural information about children and family structure. This study examines from a cognitive perspective how preadolescent children and their parents are portrayed in mainstream Hollywood films during the 1990's, how these film narratives reflect the durability of core cultural models, and elements of negotiation and change. The portrayal of family relationships and the conceptualization of a child are affected by cultural models surrounding nurturance, self-reliance, success, nostalgia and the future orientation of our culture. Salient issues include the perceived disintegration of the family and the nature of the relationship between fathers and their children. A significant number of films focus on the family from the father's perspective, emphasizing his need to enrich his life beyond the workplace and develop close familial relationships.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving in the United States (MADD) and the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina each formed out of a loss of its children and organized under the identity of the mother in order gain access to the political arena. Transformed into political movements, both groups of mothers were able to effectively bring about changes in public policy, and therefore, society as a whole. Additionally, they were able to transcend traditional cultural norms, by redefining the role and identity of the mother. By exploiting opportunities that propelled them into positions of power, the women fundamentally changed the concept of power itself, to include components of the traditionally female realm, which has historically been absent from the way in which power has been perceived.

The playwright can be both a public intellectual and an agent for social change. In this creative dissertation, consisting of a series of essays and a full-length play, I demonstrate an alternative view of aging women to combat the pejorative images now current. Drawing on dramatic portrayals from the past 100 years and current information on aging in the United States, I explore the dominant viewpoint on aging women. Combining the structures of spiritual quest and rite of passage with an appreciation for the ritual that celebrates such events, I have written a play, The Crones Among Us, from a female viewpoint. Presenting female characters as subjects rather than objects, the play provides an alternative view of women on the other side of fifty. Using the archetype of the crone, the play affords a more empowering view of women as they age in a society which has privileged youth and beauty.

This dissertation explores the intersection of Paradise, art making, concepts of beauty and the social conventions that influence artists. My exploration occurs within the landscape genre, specifically the landscape photograph. For the purpose of contextualizing this analysis the dissertation is designed as an illustrated book where word and image occupy places of equal importance. Photographs are used as primary source material in this investigation. The work of six accomplished American photographers has been selected so that a lineage may become apparent in the portrayal of a pictorial vision of Eden. All the photographers chosen for the project made/make art that is centered on the paradisiacal landscape, an ideal that is interpreted by each individual photographer according to their gender, socio-political influences, personal spirituality and cultural orientation. The review begins in the 1860's with the work of Carleton Watkins, one of the first photographers of the western American landscape and continues with Timothy O'Sullivan. The review will segue into Modernism with Ansel Adams and Laura Gilpin and ends in latter part of the 20th century with two contemporary American photographers, Linda Connor and Marilyn Bridges. This particular analysis is structured upon a universal image of paradise as a garden and how that image has become culturally imprinted upon humans. The visual manifestations of Eden seen in nineteenth and twentieth century painting and photography are constructed throughout history. They represent use of art as means towards creating utopias. With this impulse to escape or change the status quo I have examined the connection of the appreciation of beauty to ethical transformation.

This study examines American cultural values through the lens of family storytelling. It addresses: (a) the role of family stories in the transmission of cultural values, (b) the existence of shared American cultural archetypes, motifs and themes, (c) the existence of shared national values, and (d) the role of storytelling in promoting peace. Since September 11, 2001, American leaders and journalists have repeatedly emphasized the distinction between the American Weltanschauung and that of the terrorists and their supporters, particularly with regard to an orientation to life and death, and tradition and progress. As dynamic folklore, family stories are the ideal instruments with which to tease out deep-rooted values. Stories are rich repositories of cultural schemas, the bricolage of information and attitudes that form our identities. They are also replete with symbols that reflect shared, unconscious understandings. Unlike many other cultural products, moreover, family stories are relatively unaffected by government or corporate agendas. What is more, they typically resonate with Americans. For this study, I examined 54 family stories collected from 12 native-born informants of diverse backgrounds according to four modes of analysis: archetypes; motifs; themes and subjects. The analyses revealed that the primary relevant archetypes, motifs, themes and subjects present in these stories are unlucky accidents/survivors; tricksters/heroes; death/rebirth, and family feuds. National values that emerged from the stories tend to reflect many of the values that are historically attributed to Americans, including an emphasis on achievement, individualism, and, in particular, progress. In addition, the stories reveal a certain tension between past- and future orientation in American culture. Finally, storytelling both reflects and comprises the social drama characterized by Turner as breach/crisis/redress/integration that leads to communitas. This study attempts to help promote communitas by demonstrating how we can begin to connect with others through the common values found in our stories.