Attacking Nicely: Car Saleswomen Adapt to an Incompatible Role

This is an account of the way car sales women see their world, forge a place for themselves in the masculine environment, and change from novices into successful salespersons. It explores situational approaches evolved by women to deal with ethical issues in the workplace. Although women's values about fair exchange are altered, at the same time they change the way the work is done, making the workplace less hostile. Using categories such as "Innocents,”"Ladies,”“Tough Guys," and "Reformers," this study shows how women adapt to an incompatible status and raises important questions for the future of men, women, work and society

The Meaning of Animals

This research examines the social construction of animals by a rural Allegheny culture using a linguistic approach based on estimating the set of attributes associated with the words they used to describe animals. We asked 268 respondents to free-associate with the nouns, chicken and deer when seen in a context of other words related to nature. Their responses were coded and the frequencies of of words and word groupings were tabulated for sub-samples of differing age, gender and occupation. Response words were categorized into seven typologies including two affective types. The results indicate that except for possibly the very young, the social meanings of chicken and deer did not vary with gender, age or occupation. The respondents interpretation of living chicken was indistinguishable from that of unprepared food. Their interpretation of deer was broader and primarily one of interaction with a lesser adversary

Why dance? The motivations of an unlikely group of dancers

This article explores the motivations of adult amateur tap dancers to gain insight into how they construct their social reality, what is the significance of this activity to the dancers, and how does it relate to the dance “culture” more broadly. The research was done as a participant observer amongst a group of primarily middleaged women in six different locations over a period of five years. These amateur tap dancers are strongly motivated in spite of their minimal talent and the lack of support they might experience when compared to professional dancers. Their often-labored explanations, while unable to enunciate the essence of the sensation they experience, describe what they are doing as a group ritual of emotional renewal. By examining what is said and not said, I additionally uncover social constraints that shaped their explanations. Performance emerges as a game in which the amateur challenges the socially constructed norms of legitimacy in art culture. This “scary” feat of performing is worth the effort because of its innate thrill and the expectation of applause from an audience largely outside the group

The Hobby Farm

On the family farm, the romance of farming and emotional ties to the land are in opposition to economic forces that arise from the inherent vulnerability and inefficiency of small scale operations in a market dominated by agribusiness. Some small farmers, however, have developed strategies to keep their farms in business. This paper focuses on how two of these strategies, capitalization on the popular vision of the small farmer and the dual career, combine to affect the fate of farms that can no longer entirely support themselves. These farms tend to evolve into “hobby farms” as they call themselves, marginally commercial farms that have a cheery recreational outward appearance. Most family farms provide a minority of the income of the families that operate them. They are stabilized and sometimes subsidized by their owners’ off-farm occupations. At the same time, the need for farmers to be creative in the production of their work has caused them to seek out niche markets where the small size of their farms is an advantage. In the presence of sufficient off-farm income, they frequently remain as farms retaining their title and acreage but with only minimal output. The small remaining animal herds are often characterized as pets for the family to play with

The Experience of Existing: small family farms in the Northeast United States

The institution of small-scale family farming dominates the agricultural landscape in both Europe and the Unites States. Characteristically, in addition to the small size of these farms, the farm family supplies the bulk of the needed labour. The continued existence of this institution in the face of growing highly capitalised agribusinesses has puzzled many. This study explores this question through the eyes of small family farmers in the northeast of the United States. It identifies three categories of factors that farmers see as why and how they continue to farm in this traditional fashion. The first category encompasses a love for farming and deep sense of place connected to the farm land. The second category encompasses self-sufficiency and the occupational diversity of farm life. The third category encompasses the ability of small farms to exploit small markets unsuited to large businesses and the role of government in preserving these small markets. This study concludes that the most important of the three categories to perpetuating the small family farm is the love of farmers for farming

Population genomics of the Viking world.

The maritime expansion of Scandinavian populations during the Viking Age (about AD 750-1050) was a far-flung transformation in world history1,2. Here we sequenced the genomes of 442 humans from archaeological sites across Europe and Greenland (to a median depth of about 1×) to understand the global influence of this expansion. We find the Viking period involved gene flow into Scandinavia from the south and east. We observe genetic structure within Scandinavia, with diversity hotspots in the south and restricted gene flow within Scandinavia. We find evidence for a major influx of Danish ancestry into England; a Swedish influx into the Baltic; and Norwegian influx into Ireland, Iceland and Greenland. Additionally, we see substantial ancestry from elsewhere in Europe entering Scandinavia during the Viking Age. Our ancient DNA analysis also revealed that a Viking expedition included close family members. By comparing with modern populations, we find that pigmentation-associated loci have undergone strong population differentiation during the past millennium, and trace positively selected loci-including the lactase-persistence allele of LCT and alleles of ANKA that are associated with the immune response-in detail. We conclude that the Viking diaspora was characterized by substantial transregional engagement: distinct populations influenced the genomic makeup of different regions of Europe, and Scandinavia experienced increased contact with the rest of the continent

Defining Fish

This research examines the social construction of the roles and meaning of domestic fish (i.e. fish that are household pets, in personal collections, used as living decorations and incidentally as food) through interviews, participant observations and textual studies. It examines how these roles and meanings are assigned through social ritual. Fish are among the most silent animals and seem ready to assume without dispute whatever identity humans wish to give them at any moment. Humans create fanciful identities for their fish in order to serve their human needs. This paper focuses on the roles that are commonly assigned to fish and the limited likelihood that fish could ever fulfill them. It finds an epistemic gap that raises ethical questions about the way humans treat their fish

Why Dance? The Motivations of an Unlikely Group of Dancers

This article explores the motivations of adult amateur tap dancers to gain insight into how they construct their social reality, what is the significance of this activity to the dancers, and how does it relate to the dance “culture” more broadly. The research was done as a participant observer amongst a group of primarily middle-aged women in six different locations over a period of five years. These amateur tap dancers are strongly motivated in spite of their minimal talent and the lack of support they might experience when compared to professional dancers. Their often-labored explanations, while unable to enunciate the essence of the sensation they experience, describe what they are doing as a group ritual of emotional renewal. By examining what is said and not said, I additionally uncover social constraints that shaped their explanations. Performance emerges as a game in which the amateur challenges the socially constructed norms of legitimacy in art culture. This “scary” feat of performing is worth the effort because of its innate thrill and the expectation of applause from an audience largely outside the group

Wildlife Managers: Boundary Workers Between the Human Community and the Wilderness

This research focuses on wildlife managers, such as game wardens and land management supervisors, who as government agents,manage the boundary between humans and the wilderness while at the same time holding a personal stake in controlling the wilderness areas of the United States. Looking through the eyes of these managers, the paper examines their childhood socialization and education to the belief that as wilderness stewards they should govern from a perspective that maximizes their own personal enjoyment of the wilderness, including the tradition of hunting. Other hunters and animal-rights advocates contest methods of control exercised by wildlife managers. This paper examines wildlife managers' solidarity amid conflict, their motivations for choosing their work and the important role they play in the central struggle over the interpretation of wilderness and life-and-death environmental issues, such as the regulation of animal population levels. It demonstrates how their solidarity as a work group mitigates the conflicts they face at the price of marrowing their perspective on non-human animals