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Item Being big, becoming small : conversations with Māori women about weight loss surgery : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Anthropology at Massey University, Albany, Aotearoa, New Zealand(Massey University, 2019) Joensen, ClareWeight loss surgery is increasingly being used to combat obesity, resulting in recipients becoming more visible in society. This in turn facilitates the normalising of what once would have been considered a radical medical procedure and the proliferation of discourse that more often than not measures success against models of slimness and appearance and underplays the downsides of surgery. Through the use of a narrative phenomenological approach, this research explores the experiences of surgery recipients, specifically Māori women, and asks the question; ‘how does the embodiment of radical change impact on relationality, interiority, conviviality, and ‘being in the world’?’ Through learning from Māori women, this research also explores how being Māori shapes experience both before and after surgery and in doing so, contrasts to literature which frames experiences of indigenous women through a Foucauldian lens of colonialism. I argue that, as Māori, these women are supported by the collective – significantly so – but also have to grapple with and push back negative discourses that leak into their world. I also argue that life post-surgery is entangled with both liminality and potentialities; precarious, unsettled and unsettling, while being simultaneously imbued with hope and focused towards an extending future. Surgery does transform bodies through enabling tremendous weight loss but also transfigures far more than it is designed to do.Item Wie is ek? : a study of Afrikaner identity in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Anthropology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand(Massey University, 2018) Finlayson, KrisAfrikaners have had a tumultuous history since the Dutch arrived in what is now known as Cape Town. Using Barth’s (1969) concept of ethnic boundary construction and maintenance, this research examines the state of Afrikaans identity in a New Zealand diasporic context. The research employs a novel approach to interview data collection, using a modified version of Wengraf’s (2017) biographic narrative interview method in conjunction with a dual-participant interview method. This approach allows a multiplicity of subjective viewpoints, exploring Afrikaner perceptions, their experiences, how they see themselves fitting into their Afrikaans community and how this community fits into New Zealand society. The findings from this study show that Afrikaners refer to a representation akin to a Barthian model of Afrikaner. Through interviews, participants implied this presentation which was then constructed into an analytic model for the study. The model they indicated consists of four key characteristics: heritage, faith as a cultural value, language and a conservative worldview. Participants referred to themselves against this model in order to ascertain how ‘typical’ they are regarding shared community behaviour and perspectives. The study then discusses this Afrikaner identity in a New Zealand socio-cultural context. It discovers that even though New Zealand and Afrikaner-South African societies are vastly different, New Zealand’s socially liberal worldview allows an easy transition for today’s comparatively diverse Afrikaners. This transitional process and ethnic boundary modification was found to impact Afrikaner identity in varying ways, particularly related to areas of personal security, new relationship formation and hospitality, manner of speech, and how they perceived what members of New Zealand society think about Afrikaners.Item Entanglements and disentanglements : a posthuman approach to mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Antioquia, Colombia : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Anthropology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University, 2016) Robertson, Thomas JonathanThis research uses qualitative research techniques and posthuman theories to investigate the dynamic relationship between artisanal and small-scale gold miners and mercury in the context of Antioquia, Colombia. This is done to contribute to understandings of, and inform potential solutions for, the global environmental problem that is mercury pollution from artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM). Miners come to know mercury through practices, and through these practices, mercury comes to be co-constitutive of an informal ASGM industry. Mercury provides an easy yet profitable mode of gold extraction with limited capital expenditure. Eliminating the use of mercury means a re-constitution of ASGM as a formal industry with higher levels of capital investment, new actors and a shift to a more representational approach to knowing materials. The use of toxic mercury and an increase in the enforcement of mining legislation are framing miners as illegal. Formal, responsible mining is becoming a dominant reality, and informal miners who resent being labelled illegal are working to transition to this reality. Miners’ experiences of this transition vary greatly, and this variation can be explored through the lens of ecological habitus. Many miners are using mercury elimination to perform good citizenship by mining responsibly, introducing a performative aspect to formalisation. Nevertheless, miners still face significant challenges to formalisation. As a result, many miners have had to become subcontractors for large-scale mining companies, entering exploitative relationships with which mercury, through its absence, is complicit. Taking this approach towards understanding the relationship between miners and mercury has helped to resolve the conflict between material and social deterministic views of the practice of mercury use, and linked mercury to a wider political context, which is a necessary consideration for a collaborative approach with miners to eliminate mercury. Keywords: Artisanal and small-scale gold mining; ASGM; mercury; Colombia; anthropology; posthumanism; entanglements; politics of materiality; performativity; informality.Item From anxiety to insight : the process of formulating a methodology in practice : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy at Massey University(Massey University, 1983) Martin, Margaret Christina HorowaiAnthropologists do not have a Methodology that acknowledges their subjective experience during fieldwork, as scientific data. Yet an accurate presentation of Anthropology as a science, depends on inclusion of the person (ality) of the Anthropologist. This anomaly is both, the doorway to the creative element that defines Anthropology as a unique discipline in the Humanities, and the stumbling block of science in the twentieth century. George Devereux, a French Anthropologist and psychotherapist, initially explored the dimensions of this problem in the 1930's. His dual career enabled him to envisage a model, in which the anthropologist's integral part in the fieldwork was acknowledged. Although he recorded the development of this model during fieldwork around 1935, it remained unpublished till 1967, and is still largely unknown in the Humanities. The potential value has yet to be explored in the fieldwork situation. The primary aim of this thesis, is to record the experiential process of formulating a Methodology in the practice of fieldwork, using the key concept Devereux proposed: "the subjectivity inherent in all observation is the road to an authentic, rather than fictitious objectivity".(1967). Within the Scientific tradition, Methodology has been regarded as a prescription for doing fieldwork, rather than a distincitve tool for creating this unique basis of Anthropology. The challenge has been to identify the double bind this causes, between theory and practice, and to present a new approach to Methodology, that offers a practical way of being an Anthropologist. The person whose presence, in the final result, is critical if Anthropology is to reflect what it proposes to explore - the essence of humanity in a scientific manner.Item Together in the light : an ethnographic exploration of the Palmerston North Quakers' sense of community and shared understandings : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Social Anthropology at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand(Massey University, 2014) Keyes, IanThe Religious Society of Friends is a Christian denomination whose emergence can be traced back to the teachings of George Fox in the 1640s in England. Since that time the denomination has splintered, from which four branches of Quakerism have emerged. One of these branches is liberal Quakerism, which is the only type of Quakerism found in New Zealand. Liberal Quakers do not have any centralised doctrine or authority figures, and they take the view that practice is more important that one’s belief. This research focuses on the Palmerston North Quakers and specifically answers two sets of questions. The first is whether they have a sense of community, and if so, what gives them that sense of community. The second set of questions centres on what the Quakers shared understanding are in the context of their community boundaries, and what enables these understandings. As well as drawing on analysis from interviews with my research participants, this research also draws extensively on participant observation from Palmerston North and also from other groups in the North Island of New Zealand. All of which enables an understanding of the lived experience of being a Palmerston North Quaker. Underpinning my research is a bricolage of theoretical work. These include community theory from John Bruhn, David Minar and Scott Greer, Patricia Felkins, Susan Love Brown as well as Victor and Edith Turner’s concept of communitas, Randall Collin’s interaction ritual theory and James Fernandez’s work on consensus. The most significant theme to emerge from analysis was the importance of the Quaker’s silent meeting for worship. Whilst it may seem like an uneventful period of time to outsiders, its central importance to the community cannot be emphasised enough. Keywords: Anthropology; Communitas; Community; Consensus; Ethnography; Interaction ritual; Quakers; Religion; Religious Society of Friends; Ritual; Solidarity.Item Anthropological engagement with the Anthropocene: A critical review(Bergahn Journals, 1/09/2015) Gibson H; Venkateswar SThe new geological interval, the Anthropocene, or the ‘era of the human’ refers to the planetary scale of anthropogenic influences on the composition and function of the Earth’s ecosystems and all life forms (Steffen, Crutzen & McNeil 2007). Socio-political and geographic responses frame the unfolding but uneven topographies of climate change (Crate 2011; Moore 2010; Lazrus 2012), while efforts to adapt and mitigate its impacts extend across the social and natural sciences. This paper reviews anthropology’s evolving engagement with the Anthropocene, contemplative of the multifarious approaches to research. The growing body of contemporary thinking (Latour 2005, 2013; Haraway 2008, 2011) encompasses the emergence of multispecies ethnographic research (Kirksey and Helmreich 2010; Fuentes 2010; Tsing 2012; Paxon 2010) highlighting the entanglements of humans with other life forms. Such new ontological considerations are reflected in Kohn’s (2007) “Anthropology of Life,” ethnographic research that moves beyond an isolated focus on the human to consider other life processes and entities as research participants. Examples of critical engagement discussed include anthropology beyond disciplinary borders (Kelman & West 2009), queries writing in the Anthropocene (Rose 2009), and anthropology of climate change (Crate 2011). Although not exhaustive of contemporary anthropology, we demonstrate the diverse positions of anthropologists within this juncture in relation to our central trope of entanglements threaded through our discussion in this review.