Anthropology

Tan Sack Lectures
Fridays at Noon
Waldo 201A

May 11th - Clare Cady (OSU, HSRC): "Not Even Ramen: College Students and Food Insecurity"

According to the US Census Bureau (2010), 15% of US citizens are considered to be living below the poverty line, with 5.4% of American families dealing with issues of Food Insecurity (USDA, 2010).  Despite prevalent assumptions that because college students are paying for school they do not need assistance, there are students who struggle to feed themselves and their families.  This lecture examines the invisible population of college students in poverty, outlining ways in which students enter into poverty, and how food insecurity affects student success.  The Oregon State University Human Services Resource Center and Emergency Food Pantry will be used as a case study to outline one campus’ response to the issue of food insecurity on campuses.

May 18th - Steve Ortiz (OSU, SOC) : "Stories from the Field: Reflecting on Ethnographic Work with Wives of Professional Athletes"

In this reflective account of my long-term ethnographic work with wives of professional athletes, I discuss the complexities of selected issues, strategies, and methods that defined the collaborative process of collecting data in a world of women who are married to public men, and who fiercely guard their privacy and do not easily trust outsiders. Over a four-year period, I conducted intensive interviews with each wife and participated in their everyday lives. These experiences allowed me to gain unique insight into the dilemmas, anxieties, stressors, and crises in their individual lives as they unfolded. Through their sincere and candid sharing and by observing them in numerous situations, I came to understand the expectations and demands placed on them, the depth of their sacrifices, and the value they gave to marital and family stability. The heartfelt stories these wives shared with me painted a rather disturbing portrait of the sport marriage in our contemporary society.

May 25th - Shane Macfarlan (OSU): "Labor Exchange and the Social Market for Male Relationships in Dominica"

Smallholder farmers rely on labor exchange to generate agricultural work when cash is rare and credit unavailable. Reciprocal altruism, biased by genetic kinship, has been implicated as the mechanism responsible for labor exchange; however, few empirical tests confirm this proposition. Competitive altruism could be operating if people differ in ability and use this information as a criterion for partnership selection. Labor exchange data is presented from a smallholder, Dominican village over a ten-month period within the village's primary cash economic opportunity, bay oil production. Results indicate competitive altruism better explains variation in labor exchange relationships and group size than reciprocal altruism and kinship, suggesting the presence of a biologic market for male exchange relationships. Bay oil laborers vary in altruistic behaviors, causing reputations for altruism to emerge. Men with reputations as high quality altruists generate larger labor groups in bay oil production compared to poor quality ones. Larger groups induce bargaining wars, causing men to compete through altruistic acts, which allows high quality individuals to discriminate potential partners for labor exchange relationships. Men with better reputations achieve more same-sex reciprocal partnerships, but not a greater incidence of conjugal partnership, suggesting male altruism is intra- not inter-sexually selected. Results are contextualized through the lens Afro-Caribbean sociality, social capital, and risk.

June 1st - Daniel Jaffee (WSU): "Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival" THIS TALK WILL BE HELD IN THE MU JOURNEY ROOM.

Fair trade is a fast-growing alternative market intended to create greater economic justice for small commodity farmers around the world.  But is it working?  This presentation examines the social, economic, and environmental benefits--as well as the contradictions--generated by access to fair trade markets, focusing on a case study of indigenous coffee farmers in Oaxaca, Mexico.  The talk also explores the changing politics of the fair trade movement as corporate firms play an increasing role in certification, illuminating the complex relationship of this alternative market to the global economy.

June 8th - NO SPEAKER, DEAD WEEK