Artifact

During the creation of this work, I identified and acquired various contemporary objects relating to branding, consumerism, and fads. Through a process of artificial aging, ranging from abrading, cutting, and sandblasting to burying them in soil and chemical treatments of bleach, salt and ammonia, I made the objects appear as if they had been removed from an archeological site after centuries under ground. I incorporated these apparently ancient contemporary consumer items into new compositions using mostly silver and aluminum. These new objects are created using traditional metal-smithing techniques and bearing a resemblance to classicism in form as well. The designs reference ritual objects from a variety of world cultural and religious traditions combined with a retro-futurism science fiction aesthetic. By combining these new items that look old with fine metalwork that is classical but looks new I am creating an ambiguity of time, place, and tradition in order to transport the observer into a viewpoint that forces questioning of our own place in history. Like all science fiction literature or film, I am using the past and future to speak about contemporary issues. What I am interested in exploring is the functions and purpose of myth, ritual, and religion in past culture systems and identifying, in our modern world of science and reason that has been for centuries becoming increasingly secular, how it is that we have managed to fill the void created by the absence of the old rules. Whatever one chooses to call it, whether it is myth or ritual or religion, it has served an important functional role in the growth and sustainability of all cultural systems. These belief structures provided our ancestors (and many people still today) with a level of perceived objectivity, social cohesion and cooperation, order, stability, hierarchies, and a way to guide the members of cultural systems through the turmoil of birth, the pains of growing, the tension of adulthood, and finally through the mystery of death. What I am interested in identifying is what it is in our modern, secular cultural system that has filled the void created by secularization and replaced the old mechanism with new to provide similar functions. Through the process of ideation and creation of this body of work the major system I have identified as filling the role played previously by myth is that of consumerism, capitalism, and wealth. This question of the new mythic structure in the modern world is not a new question and I am not the first person to identify capitalism and its bi-products as filling this role, but through this body of work and its method of display I aim to bring the concept to a more literal and digestible examination

Preservation Of Coastal Spaces: A Dialogue On Oregon\u27s Experience With Integrated Land Use Management

In the United States, Oregon and California have the longest histories of environmentally progressive land use controls. The focus of this paper is on how Oregon has managed its coastal zone through its implementation of a statewide program that integrates a state and local partnership, which depends on input from local citizens, with a federal law that encourages rational coastal land use and conservation. Our research is heavily based on a literature survey and personal conversations - a dialogue - with numerous long-involved citizens, representatives of non-governmental organizations and state agency personnel

Preservation Of Coastal Spaces: A Dialogue On Oregon\u27s Experience With Integrated Land Use Management

In the United States, Oregon and California have the longest histories of environmentally progressive land use controls. The focus of this paper is on how Oregon has managed its coastal zone through its implementation of a statewide program that integrates a state and local partnership, which depends on input from local citizens, with a federal law that encourages rational coastal land use and conservation. Our research is heavily based on a literature survey and personal conversations - a dialogue - with numerous long-involved citizens, representatives of non-governmental organizations and state agency personnel

The fantasy of masculinity: a study of masculinity in strip clubs across three Midwestern metropolitan areas

This dissertation interrogates the relationship between sex work and masculinity. The project was guided by the following question: how do female strippers and male customers (co-)construct and negotiate masculinities in strip clubs across three Midwestern metropolitan areas? Based on this question and 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork, I make three main arguments. First, I contend that the role of strippers is far from limited to providing opportunities for sexual arousal through physical stimulation or voyeurism. Through a range of interactional labor practices, strippers fulfill the emotional needs of male patrons and facilitate emotional expression, often concerning that which can compromise their masculinity. However, because these interactions are situated within the hypersexualized, masculinized environment of a strip club, male customers are shielded from the fear of being ‘insufficiently’ masculine or failing to adhere to masculine ideals. Second, I argue that much of strippers’ labor revolves around productions of gender, wherein strippers enable and amplify male customers’ enactments of idealized masculinities. Furthermore, I contend that the fantasy customers seek within strip clubs is not necessarily or exclusively sexual; rather, it is a fantasy of masculinity, which compensates for customers’ perceived inadequacies in their masculinity and projects onto the customer an idealized masculine self that can never be realized across all dimensions of patron’s life. Thus, stripping is simultaneously a product and producer of masculinity. Third, I maintain that male customers participate in the (co-)construction of gender by assuming a range of roles in relation to strippers, which are differentially experienced on the basis of class and enable customers to project an idealized masculine self. Thus, dominant masculinities are sustained and enacted in classed ways through the vehicle of sex work. Within these roles, customers engage in manhood acts that are often seemingly innocuous or kind, though they function to claim gender power and privilege for the actor. In sum, strip clubs serve as critical sites of gender negotiation, wherein male customers meet the demands of masculinity and cope with the pressure it exerts

On the Shelf : A Collection of Essays Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Hilton M. Briggs Library

This collection of essays was put together to celebrate the Fortieth Anniversary of Hilton M. Briggs Library. The forty essays contributed by SDSU faculty, staff, and alumni share their experiences and interactions with books and libraries. Editor: Emmeline ElliottPhotographer: Ruby Wilso

The Pacific Historian, Volume 11, Number 2 (1967)

The purpose of The Pacific Historian was to promote, through research and study, an interpretation of life in the Western United States, especially California. The articles dealt with social, cultural, political, and economic aspects of Western regional history.https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/pac-historian/1072/thumbnail.jp

Whose Heritage? Archaeology and Identity in India

This thesis investigates the role of World Heritage sites and archaeology in shaping identities and understandings of the past in India. In particular as the Indian past is increasingly contested, it is contended that archaeology has an important role to play in ensuring that the public are able to critically navigate the issues. The focus encompasses both the broader public and the local communities and draws on public archaeology and identity and subaltern theories in order to consider their perspectives. This begins with a survey of the complex diversity of Indian society and its multiple levels of identity, then charts the expansion of archaeology from indigenous roots through the colonial period to the post-independence era, with particular attention paid to the co-option of the discipline by nationalist and communal movements, and to the development of relevant heritage legislation. Employing a comparative case study methodology, 600 visitors and 60 local residents were interviewed at three World Heritage sites: The Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka and The Buddhist Monuments of Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh, and Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park in Gujarat. The study found that visitors do relate to World Heritage sites in regard to identity, with communal factors playing a clear role, while the sociohistorical background of local residents was a factor in how they related. The way in which visitors learned from the sites was found to correlate strongly with their respective religions, and to depend on the interpretive information provided, while the local communities were not well informed. Visitor appreciation of archaeology was most correlated with educational level and the visibility of excavations, while local communities saw little benefit and generally felt restricted by it. In almost all aspects of the study communal tensions at Champaner- Pavagadh were seen to significantly influence the results, underlining the potential social and political importance of archaeology