scholarly journals ‘It’s part of who I am’: Tā’aloga ma fa’asinomaga ma fa’aSāmoa - Sport, identity, and culture in the lives of Samoan-New Zealanders

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Josh Connolly
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Culturally Embedded ◽  
New Zealanders

<p>Samoan-New Zealanders have become increasingly prominent within New Zealand sport since the mid-20th century. Despite the apparent desirability of players with Pacific Island heritage their presence is also met with resistance and apprehension in both professional and amateur settings. Discourse that frames the relationship between Samoan-New Zealanders and sport often does so in terms that rely on stereotypes and the naturalisation of sporting ability and participation suggesting that they are ‘built’ for sport. This thesis offers a counternarrative to such discourse exploring the ways in which sport, particularly rugby, is a culturally embedded practice for Samoan-New Zealanders. I argue that for Samoan-New Zealanders sport exists as an example of Marcel Mauss’s fait social total or Total Social Phenomenon (TSP) by virtue of the range of cultural institutions and practices that find expression within it. As such it is deeply and uniquely immersed within the fa’aSāmoa or Samoan culture. This thesis is based on seven months of ethnographic fieldwork, participant observation, and talanoa conducted in Wellington, New Zealand. It seeks to explore the ways in which sport is a culturally embedded practice as a means of interrogating the notion that Samoan-New Zealanders are ‘born to play sport’.</p>

scholarly journals ‘It’s part of who I am’: Tā’aloga ma fa’asinomaga ma fa’aSāmoa - Sport, identity, and culture in the lives of Samoan-New Zealanders

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Josh Connolly
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Culturally Embedded ◽  
New Zealanders

<p>Samoan-New Zealanders have become increasingly prominent within New Zealand sport since the mid-20th century. Despite the apparent desirability of players with Pacific Island heritage their presence is also met with resistance and apprehension in both professional and amateur settings. Discourse that frames the relationship between Samoan-New Zealanders and sport often does so in terms that rely on stereotypes and the naturalisation of sporting ability and participation suggesting that they are ‘built’ for sport. This thesis offers a counternarrative to such discourse exploring the ways in which sport, particularly rugby, is a culturally embedded practice for Samoan-New Zealanders. I argue that for Samoan-New Zealanders sport exists as an example of Marcel Mauss’s fait social total or Total Social Phenomenon (TSP) by virtue of the range of cultural institutions and practices that find expression within it. As such it is deeply and uniquely immersed within the fa’aSāmoa or Samoan culture. This thesis is based on seven months of ethnographic fieldwork, participant observation, and talanoa conducted in Wellington, New Zealand. It seeks to explore the ways in which sport is a culturally embedded practice as a means of interrogating the notion that Samoan-New Zealanders are ‘born to play sport’.</p>

scholarly journals TRANSFORMING EARTH INTO HOUSES: A METHODOLOGY FOR DOCUMENTING CONSTRUCTION PROCESSES AS AN APPRENTICE IN THE IRANIAN DESERT, SOUTH KHORASAN

2020 ◽  
Vol XLIV-M-1-2020 ◽  
pp. 953-960
Author(s):  
E. P. Ferrari
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Arid Environment ◽  
Architectural Drawings ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Mud Bricks ◽  
The Village ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
South Khorasan

Abstract. This article presents a methodology for recording and documenting building processes using an anthropological approach. The village of Esfahak, in the region of South Khorasan (Iran) is situated in an arid environment scarce in water and trees. These conditions have resulted in the development of building forms that are almost entirely made out of earth. For centuries houses have been erected by local master masons utilizing only mud bricks and without the use of any architectural drawings. This research seeks to document how building processes unfold and are implemented in the village, for both restoration and new constructions. The researcher undertakes ethnographic fieldwork examining the relationship between villagers and their architecture. This approach is based on participant observation, engaging the local community to study how buildings were and are conceived, constructed, inhabited, maintained and restored. Moreover, the research employs an apprentice-style fieldwork method to access building sites. Thus, the researcher learns by doing with masons as a way to embody local knowledge, and not merely through passive observation. The work on site, given its processual nature, is documented through audio-visual recordings from both an external and first-person perspective. The use of head-mounted cameras facilitates review and discussion of building processes with the masons allowing for an in-depth understanding of this craft practice.

scholarly journals Taking Up the Practice: Conversion and Buddhist Identity in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hugh P Kemp
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Pure Land ◽  
Ideal Society ◽  
Informal Interview ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
New Zealanders

<p>In a similar fashion to other Western nations, Buddhism is gaining traction in New Zealand. This thesis seeks to answer the question "why do New Zealanders convert to Buddhism?" Implicit within the question is "how do New Zealanders become Buddhists?" My chief concern however, is to address the subsequent question "what identity do convert-Buddhists construct for themselves as New Zealanders?" Employing qualitative sociological methodologies (formal and informal interview with participant observation) I demonstrate a variety of pathways New Zealanders take as they journey towards and embrace Buddhism. While initially using the word "conversion", I demonstrate that this is not a word (or concept) with which the interviewees easily identify. Rather, "taking up the practice" is a more readily accepted conceptual field of the transformation one undertakes from being "not-Buddhist" to becoming "Buddhist". Using methodology informed by narrative analysis, I conceptualize the content of interviews around four factors informed by Weltanschauung - worldview - and explore their inter-relationships: practice/ritual (PR), selfhood (SH), belief (BL) and involvement (IN). I demonstrate that having "taken up the practice of Buddhism" interviewees continued to find meaning chiefly in practice/ritual and involvement. I then locate the interviewees' auto-narratives within a larger socio-historical narrative, that of Arcadia. I take a position on Arcadia, arguing that it is not only a seedbed for a clearly recognizable myth that shapes New Zealand worldview, but it also serves to be fertile socio-cultural soil into which Buddhism is readily planted. The Buddhist practitioners whom I interviewed, in the main, believed New Zealand to be a "good place to practise Buddhism". I explore this notion by drawing on Arcadian images, and by identifying four socio-cultural locales where Buddhism can be seen to be taking on parochial New Zealand characteristics.One articulate interviewee has envisaged New Zealand as a Buddhist Pure Land. I develop the potential of this idea, arguing that the notion of the ideal society, embedded within Arcadia and the Pure Land offer to practitioner-Buddhists a "home" in New Zealand landscapes and social context. In the use of arguments informed by the field of semiotics, I appropriate the current international marketing slogan of "100% Pure" New Zealand, to conceptualise that Buddhist practitioners may indeed seek to create a "100% Pure Land". It is in a new "imaginative order" that practitioner Buddhists in New Zealand will continue to create their own identity and find a turangawaewae, a place of identity in which to stand.</p>

scholarly journals "Sister Akua, they say you should dance": negotiating roles in participant observation

1970 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Graveling
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The Core ◽  
Participant Observer ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Southern Ghana

Relationships, and specifically the relationship between the fieldworker and the research subjects, are at the core of the process of all anthropological and ethnographic research and to a very large extent determine the outcomes of the research. In addressing the question of how far a participant observer should attempt to "become" a member of the group she is studying, we must also recognise the complexity of individual and social identities assumed or attributed to her. When the distinction between aspects of "self" and "other" is blurred, the fieldworker can be simultaneously (but not fully) "insider" and "outsider" in different facets of her identity and in different relationships. Drawing on experiences of recent ethnographic fieldwork among members of churches in a village in southern Ghana, this paper explores aspects of identity that contribute to this ambivalent status of the fieldworker. It considers the extent to which the researcher has control over her research roles and the implications of this in terms of access, acceptance, data collection, and obligations and responsibilities of the researcher to her informants.

THE AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND CORPS IN EGYPT BEFORE LANDING AT GALLIPOLI IN 1915

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (72) (4) ◽  
pp. 86-96
Author(s):  
V.V. Mikhailov
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
World War I ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Army Corps ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
History Of ◽  
Gallipoli Peninsula ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
New Zealanders

The history of the Australian and new Zealand corps (ANZAC) in preparation for the landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula in the Egyptian training camps is studied. The relationship between the rank and file of the corps is analyzed. The study examines the living conditions and relationships of Australians and new Zealanders with the local population in and around Cairo. The study examines the training of corps units in training and exercises, the attitude of soldiers and officers to the quality of training of corps troops, as well as the participation of troops of the Australian-new Zealand army corps in the repulse of the Turkish offensive on the Suez canal in February 1915. An overview of the actions of the landing command to concentrate ANZAC forces in Mudros Bay (Lemnos) before the start of the landing at Gallipoli is given. The article makes extensive use of archival materials of the Australian War Memorial and British archives, the official history of Australia’s participation in world war I, diary entries and letters of Australians and new Zealanders who participated in the first convoy from Australia to Alexandria (Egypt), Russian and foreign research on the initial stage of the Gallipoli operation of the allied forces of the Entente against the Ottoman Empire..

Evolution of legal deposit in New Zealand

IFLA Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 379-390
Author(s):  
Jhonny Antonio Pabón Cadavid
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
National Library ◽  
Electronic Resources ◽  
Digital Heritage ◽  
Print Publications ◽  
Web Harvesting ◽  
New Zealanders

The evolution of legal deposit shows changes and challenges in collecting, access to and use of documentary heritage. Legal deposit emerged in New Zealand at the beginning of the 20th century with the aim of preserving print publications mainly for the use of a privileged part of society. In the 21st century legal deposit has evolved to include the safeguarding of electronic resources and providing access to the documentary heritage for all New Zealanders. The National Library of New Zealand has acquired new functions for a proper stewardship of digital heritage. E-deposit and web harvesting are two new mechanisms for collecting New Zealand publications. The article proposes that legal deposit through human rights and multiculturalism should involve different communities of heritage in web curation.

scholarly journals Taking Up the Practice: Conversion and Buddhist Identity in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hugh P Kemp
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Pure Land ◽  
Ideal Society ◽  
Informal Interview ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
New Zealanders

<p>In a similar fashion to other Western nations, Buddhism is gaining traction in New Zealand. This thesis seeks to answer the question "why do New Zealanders convert to Buddhism?" Implicit within the question is "how do New Zealanders become Buddhists?" My chief concern however, is to address the subsequent question "what identity do convert-Buddhists construct for themselves as New Zealanders?" Employing qualitative sociological methodologies (formal and informal interview with participant observation) I demonstrate a variety of pathways New Zealanders take as they journey towards and embrace Buddhism. While initially using the word "conversion", I demonstrate that this is not a word (or concept) with which the interviewees easily identify. Rather, "taking up the practice" is a more readily accepted conceptual field of the transformation one undertakes from being "not-Buddhist" to becoming "Buddhist". Using methodology informed by narrative analysis, I conceptualize the content of interviews around four factors informed by Weltanschauung - worldview - and explore their inter-relationships: practice/ritual (PR), selfhood (SH), belief (BL) and involvement (IN). I demonstrate that having "taken up the practice of Buddhism" interviewees continued to find meaning chiefly in practice/ritual and involvement. I then locate the interviewees' auto-narratives within a larger socio-historical narrative, that of Arcadia. I take a position on Arcadia, arguing that it is not only a seedbed for a clearly recognizable myth that shapes New Zealand worldview, but it also serves to be fertile socio-cultural soil into which Buddhism is readily planted. The Buddhist practitioners whom I interviewed, in the main, believed New Zealand to be a "good place to practise Buddhism". I explore this notion by drawing on Arcadian images, and by identifying four socio-cultural locales where Buddhism can be seen to be taking on parochial New Zealand characteristics.One articulate interviewee has envisaged New Zealand as a Buddhist Pure Land. I develop the potential of this idea, arguing that the notion of the ideal society, embedded within Arcadia and the Pure Land offer to practitioner-Buddhists a "home" in New Zealand landscapes and social context. In the use of arguments informed by the field of semiotics, I appropriate the current international marketing slogan of "100% Pure" New Zealand, to conceptualise that Buddhist practitioners may indeed seek to create a "100% Pure Land". It is in a new "imaginative order" that practitioner Buddhists in New Zealand will continue to create their own identity and find a turangawaewae, a place of identity in which to stand.</p>

scholarly journals Afterglow: Belonging, diversity, and emotional expression in barbershop singing in Wellington, New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joshua Ellery
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Emotional Expression ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
History Of ◽  
Auto Ethnography

<p>Over the last three years, since the development of the Barbershop Harmony Society’s “Everyone in Harmony” inclusivity and diversification initiative, barbershop singing networks have increasingly broken down systems of class, gender and race. Despite a history of conservative and traditionalist musical practice, I argue that participating in barbershop music offers singers in New Zealand opportunities to express themselves and create lasting relationships in increasingly diverse social contexts. In light of this, this thesis explores ideas of belonging, camaraderie, diversity and self-expression in barbershop music in New Zealand, through ethnographic fieldwork conducted with Vocal FX chorus, based in Wellington, New Zealand. This thesis works through these ideas in three ways: I consider historical context and discuss who gets to sing, belong or contribute to barbershop music; I then explore diversity and Māori and Pacific Island influence in barbershop in New Zealand; and I conclude with a discussion of performative emotional expression in the barbershop style, and how that contributes to free and healthy modes of self-expression in a predominantly homo-social male space. These threads combine to display how ideas of belonging – both to an ensemble and to a wider, global style of music – and camaraderie are complex and culturally nuanced concepts in barbershop music contexts. Furthermore, this research displays ways in which established socio-cultural norms in barbershop contexts can be challenged by ensembles working in this musical style. Ethnography, including personal reflection through performative auto-ethnography and memory, informs much of the thesis. I draw on conversations with singers and observations of rehearsals and contests for Vocal FX to narrate many of the ways in which barbershop music works in New Zealand.</p>

scholarly journals Afterglow: Belonging, diversity, and emotional expression in barbershop singing in Wellington, New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joshua Ellery
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Emotional Expression ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
History Of ◽  
Auto Ethnography

<p>Over the last three years, since the development of the Barbershop Harmony Society’s “Everyone in Harmony” inclusivity and diversification initiative, barbershop singing networks have increasingly broken down systems of class, gender and race. Despite a history of conservative and traditionalist musical practice, I argue that participating in barbershop music offers singers in New Zealand opportunities to express themselves and create lasting relationships in increasingly diverse social contexts. In light of this, this thesis explores ideas of belonging, camaraderie, diversity and self-expression in barbershop music in New Zealand, through ethnographic fieldwork conducted with Vocal FX chorus, based in Wellington, New Zealand. This thesis works through these ideas in three ways: I consider historical context and discuss who gets to sing, belong or contribute to barbershop music; I then explore diversity and Māori and Pacific Island influence in barbershop in New Zealand; and I conclude with a discussion of performative emotional expression in the barbershop style, and how that contributes to free and healthy modes of self-expression in a predominantly homo-social male space. These threads combine to display how ideas of belonging – both to an ensemble and to a wider, global style of music – and camaraderie are complex and culturally nuanced concepts in barbershop music contexts. Furthermore, this research displays ways in which established socio-cultural norms in barbershop contexts can be challenged by ensembles working in this musical style. Ethnography, including personal reflection through performative auto-ethnography and memory, informs much of the thesis. I draw on conversations with singers and observations of rehearsals and contests for Vocal FX to narrate many of the ways in which barbershop music works in New Zealand.</p>

scholarly journals Premature Personhoods In A Neonatal Intensive Care Unit In Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Zoe Poppelwell
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Neonatal Intensive Care ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Ethnographic Interviews ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
One Year

<p>The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) provides medical care for some of the most unwell newborns, including those born premature. Infants born prior to 28 completed weeks gestation, classified as extremely premature, often require long admissions and close management. These infants, and those who care for them, occupy a unique position of flux. The extremely premature body is not only a locus for clinical dialogue on the reach of biomedicine, but also for wider debates over the personhood of those born at the edge of viability. This thesis is an ethnographic account of some of the ways in which neonatal personhood was strategically articulated in the NICU at various points of the infant’s stay. These articulations, neither contingent nor dependent on the infant’s clinical position, illustrate a multiplicity of relational personhoods that exist alongside, and sometimes at tension with, individualised dynamics of care and emotion between infants, parents, and staff. I conducted over one year of ethnographic fieldwork, including six months of intensive participant observation at a single urban unit, and over 50 ethnographic interviews across New Zealand with a variety of individuals, such as NICU parents and staff. A portion of this thesis is also comprised of autoethnographic vignettes that account for my own neonatal journey and position in the field.</p>

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