Guatemala’s Ladino and Maya Migra Landscapes: The Tangible and Intangible Outcomes of Migration
Michelle J. Moran-Taylor
International migration reorganizes livelihoods in the developing world. As globalization and transnational processes increase, these phenomena penetrate and affect peoples’ lives and places in myriad forms. Using ethnographic material, this cross-cultural and cross-regional study examines the impact of social and economic remittances in Guatemalan sending communities. The article reveals the divergent ways—tangible and intangible—in which migra landscapes (the landscapes of migration) unfold in Ladino and Maya townships in Guatemala’s Oriente (East) and Occidente (West).
Key words: transnational migration, development, social and economic remittances, Guatemala
Maine: On the Cusp of the Forest Transition
James M. Acheson
Deforestation is a serious problem in many parts of the world. Recently, deforestation is being reversed in some areas, a process called the “forest transition.” This article describes the historic changes occurring in Maine’s forests, and discusses the implications of those changes. Large scale deforestation occurred as land was cleared for agriculture in the southern and central parts of the state; the forests in the north were heavily harvested by industry. Recently, a turnaround of sorts has occurred in the condition of the forests, and the latest [2005] forest inventory is quite optimistic. However, it is difficult to argue that a forest transition has occurred because improvements made by some forest landowners are counterbalanced by declines in forest conditions due to the activities of other landowners. As a result, the amount of forested land is likely to fall again as the acreage of agricultural land reverting to forest is overwhelmed by a larger amount of land being converted to housing and development. Moreover, forest quality is poor with almost 79 percent of Maine’s forest land in saplings or pole timber. In comparative perspective, the factors that are linked to deforestation and reforestation in Maine are quite different from those identified in the literature on the forest transition.
Key words: forest transition, Maine, deforestation, forest landowners, forest history
Ambivalence toward Formalizing Customary Resource Management Norms among Alaska Native Beluga Whale Hunters and Tohono O’odham Livestock Owners
Maria E. Fernandez-Gimenez, John U. Hays, Jr., Henry P. Huntington, Regis Andrew, and Willie Goodwin
Indigenous communities are increasingly asked to develop formal resource management plans, which often require them to codify implicit, norm-based management systems. We compare the experiences of two indigenous groups that attempted to develop such management plans for beluga whales and arid rangelands, respectively. In both cases, progress was slow or plans did not meet design criteria such as clearly defined spatial and social boundaries. We found that the social and cultural costs of formal planning may outweigh the benefits for some indigenous communities. Community members favored education as a solution to current management challenges, an approach that resonates with traditional ways of perpetuating norms.
Key words: common pool resources, common property, co-management, community-based resource management, natural resource planning
Economic Costs of Serious Illness in Rural Southwest China: Household Coping Strategies and Health Policy Implications
Li Jian
Today, some 10 million Chinese peasants fall below China’s official poverty line annually because of illness. Currently, more than 80 percent of China’s rural residents do not have any health insurance, and most of those who do still have to pay up to 90 percent of their medical costs. Despite the grave situation, very little is known about the strategies rural Chinese utilize to cope with the economic costs of illness. In this paper, I examine how households in a rural village in Southwest China contend with economic impacts of serious illness, and I discuss how development agencies can help to alleviate the situation. I first describe the study site and my research methods. Next, drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, I analyze 10 strategies rural households use to cope with the economic costs of serious illness. In the last section, I discuss the implications of this case study for health policy makers and development agencies in China and elsewhere in the developing world.
Key words: coping strategies, rural health, health policy, development, China
Building Peace in Angola: The Role of the Exhumation Process in Kuito
Nanette Barkey
Angola endured more than 40 years of nearly constant war and is now in the process of building peace. The city of Kuito paid an especially heavy price when 20,000 to 30,000 people lost their lives there during an 18-month siege (1993-1994) and were buried in hastily dug graves scattered around the city. The exhumation of the bodies and their reburial in a special cemetery have allowed for proper mourning of the dead, offering the living the opportunity to move forward with their lives. The power of the exhumations in Kuito differs from recent cases in which countries have dug up the dead in search of truth and/or justice. Instead, the reburial and mourning of those who died in Kuito’s siege was central to a process of individual and collective reconciliation. At the same time, the deceased took their rightful place as national martyrs and, thus, transformed the image of Kuito as a city of the dead to one in which the living have put the past in its proper place. In this article, I describe Kuito’s exhumation process, place it in the larger context of the Angolan war, and use it to expand the role of exhumation in scholarship on societies transitioning from war to peace.
Key words: war, reconciliation, Angola, peace, recovery
Coping with Payola: Field Ventures from Mindanao
Timothy Austin
Based upon on-site observations and field interviews in the northwest coastal region of Mindanao of the southern Philippines, this paper presents a typology of bribery and extortion. The manner in which payola is paid under-the-table in the routine life of locals is discussed along with how such activity appears to be approaching normality. Of concern is how a payola-abundant landscape affects the fieldworker. Several of Donald Black’s propositions are given further clarification.
Key words: bribery, extortion, Philippines, Mindanao, Donald Black
Trajectories of Methamphetamine Use in the Rural South: A Longitudinal Qualitative Study
Rocky L. Sexton, Robert G. Carlson, Carl G. Leukefeld, and Brenda M. Booth
This paper describes trajectories of methamphetamine (MA) use among participants in a longitudinal study in rural Arkansas and Kentucky. Thirty-nine baseline qualitative interviews were conducted with active MA users. Twenty-four participants were interviewed again from 12 to 24 months later. At follow-up, 13 participants reported quitting MA use, six had reduced MA use, and five were using the drug at approximately baseline levels. Two participants had changed modes of administering MA. Health, legal, and family issues, or a combination of these factors, were linked to quitting or reducing MA use. Sixteen participants had made positive changes without drug abuse treatment, one used professional inpatient treatment, and two utilized faith-based programs. Willpower, self-isolation, staying busy, family support, and using substitute drugs were cited as strategies for avoiding MA use. The study findings have important implications for understanding rural MA use careers, guiding future research, and informing intervention strategies.
Key words: methamphetamine, ethnography, southern United States, use patterns
Trajectories of Methamphetamine Use in the Rural South: A Longitudinal Qualitative Study
Rocky L. Sexton, Robert G. Carlson, Carl G. Leukefeld, and Brenda M. Booth
This paper describes trajectories of methamphetamine (MA) use among participants in a longitudinal study in rural Arkansas and Kentucky. Thirty-nine baseline qualitative interviews were conducted with active MA users. Twenty-four participants were interviewed again from 12 to 24 months later. At follow-up, 13 participants reported quitting MA use, six had reduced MA use, and five were using the drug at approximately baseline levels. Two participants had changed modes of administering MA. Health, legal, and family issues, or a combination of these factors, were linked to quitting or reducing MA use. Sixteen participants had made positive changes without drug abuse treatment, one used professional inpatient treatment, and two utilized faith-based programs. Willpower, self-isolation, staying busy, family support, and using substitute drugs were cited as strategies for avoiding MA use. The study findings have important implications for understanding rural MA use careers, guiding future research, and informing intervention strategies.
Key words: methamphetamine, ethnography, southern United States, use patterns
The Mexican-American Sobador, Convergent Disease Discourse, and Pain Validation in South Texas
Servando Z. Hinojosa
This paper examines how Mexican American sobadores (folk manual therapists) provide needed health services to South Texas residents. Operating in a region with high levels of workplace injuries, chronic disease, and low levels of insuredness, sobadores offer a kind of attention that is appealing in terms of cost, accessibility, and cultural familiarity. The latter is particularly evident with respect to two factors: convergent ethnophysiological discourse and pain validation. Injured people can approach the sobador with minimal trepidation, in part, because sobadores and clients have shared ways of talking about the body and disease. Clients can also expect that sobadores will not discount their pain experience. Coming from the same socioeconomic background as many of their clients, Mexican American folk manual therapists can appreciate pain in daily life and what effects it can have on wage earners and heads of households. The empathy shown by sobadores facilitates an informal complex of care that, at times, cuts across ethnic lines. This paper uses an ethnographic approach to explore the vocational significance of sobadores to their largely Mexican-American clientele and examines some vectors of exploration that can yet be pursued into manual medicine.
Key words: Mexican Americans, manual medicine, sobador, ethnophysiological discourse, pain validation
Who Benefits?: Tourism Development in Fenghuang County, China
Xianghong Feng
The Chinese government is making tourism an important rural development strategy. Local governments and outside developers jointly manage and develop natural and cultural resources to increase tourism revenues. The government sells development and management rights to large for-profit corporations. This paper examines one such project in Fenghuang County, Hunan Province, where Yellow Dragon Cave Corporation (YDCC) and the local government of Fenghuang County are jointly promoting tourism. Pleasant climate, stunning views, “colorful” ethnic minority cultures, and the newly discovered and partially restored Ming Dynasty “Southern China Great Wall” are the primary tourist attractions in Fenghuang County. This project impacts 374,000 people, made up of 29 national minorities and representing 74 percent of the local population. Some researchers argue that this public-private partnership successfully produces profits for developers and creates economic growth. The present research uses a power and scale perspective to identify the preliminary socioeconomic impacts of this capital-intensive development model on local communities. Open-ended interviews with residents, government officials, and business representatives are combined with demographic and economic statistics to identify the decision-makers, document the distribution of social power, and identify the flow of costs and benefits through the tourism system.
Key words: Tourism, public policy, sustainable development, China
Professionalizing Human Services: A Case of Domestic Violence Shelter Advocates
Jennifer R. Wies
Recent decades have witnessed a shift in the provision of human services in America in multiple forms, including the work of caring for the elderly, people living with mental/physical disabilities, and other vulnerable populations. Using a case study of domestic violence shelter advocates, this paper explores the professionalization of advocating for and providing human services to victims of domestic violence. The introduction of the rhetoric of “boundaries” allows domestic violence advocates to justify separating their personal lives from their professional advocacy and reinforcing and unequal distribution of power between the advocates and the domestic violence victims. Furthermore, the domestic violence shelter organization acted to promote a message of professionalization to the advocates through an emphasis on credentials and previous work experience in a domestic violence shelter. Additionally, the domestic violence shelter advocates received a strong message in favor of professionalizing their work from the regional community of human service providers. As the local level response to domestic violence becomes increasingly professionalized, service providers negotiate professional expectations while struggling to provide human services to domestic violence victims.
Key words: domestic violence, professionalization, human services, shelters
