Since the 1970s, Aboriginal people have been more likely to live in Canadian cities than on reser... more Since the 1970s, Aboriginal people have been more likely to live in Canadian cities than on reserves or in rural areas. Aboriginal rural-to-urban migration and the development of urban Aboriginal communities represent one of the most significant shifts in the histories and cultures of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. The essays in Aboriginal Peoples in Canadian Cities: Transformations and Continuities are from contributors directly engaged in urban Aboriginal communities; they draw on extensive ethnographic research on and by Aboriginal people and their own lived experiences.
The interdisciplinary studies of urban Aboriginal community and identity collected in this volume offer narratives of unique experiences and aspects of urban Aboriginal life. They provide innovative perspectives on cultural transformation and continuity and demonstrate how comparative examinations of the diversity within and across urban Aboriginal experiences contribute to broader understandings of the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state and to theoretical debates about power dynamics in the production of community and in processes of identity formation.
The essays in this groundbreaking anthology, Keeping the Campfires Going, highlight the accomplis... more The essays in this groundbreaking anthology, Keeping the Campfires Going, highlight the accomplishments of and challenges confronting Native women activists in American and Canadian cities. Since World War II, Indigenous women from many communities have stepped forward through organizations, in their families, or by themselves to take action on behalf of the growing number of Native people living in urban areas. This collection recounts and assesses the struggles, successes, and legacies of several of these women in cities across North America, from San Francisco to Toronto, Vancouver to Chicago, and Seattle to Milwaukee. These wide-ranging and insightful essays illuminate Native communities in cities as well as the women activists working to build them.
Feminist Fields offers a rich and varied portrait of both the current work in feminist anthropolo... more Feminist Fields offers a rich and varied portrait of both the current work in feminist anthropology and future possibilities for dialogue between feminism and anthropology. Contributors to the book present critical analyses of a broad range of ethnographic topics: national feminism, gender and identity formation, cultural continuity, ethnographic authority, ethics and representation, empowerment and resistance. Here, young practitioners alongside more established scholars share their theoretical insights, bringing them to life through first-person narratives and stories. Throughout, there is a clear sense of the intellectual inspiration to be had from the practice of feminist anthropology and its emphasis on the power of thoughtful reflexivity in fieldwork and writing practices. Also recognized is an urgent need to bring forward the perspectives of those whose knowledge has been forgotten, ignored, or actively silenced.
Interest in disaggregating diabetes into numerous subtypes is growing as patients and providers r... more Interest in disaggregating diabetes into numerous subtypes is growing as patients and providers recognize the limitations of standard diabetes typologies. As anthropologists, we draw attention to how ‘subtyping’ may reduce stigma derived from the connection between obesity and ‘type 2 diabetes’. We highlight the complexities that drive diabetes and argue that an exclusive or dominant focus on diet and obesity obfuscates other underlying risks. Yet, we warn that subtyping may promote unnecessary pharmaceuticalization, especially for other subtypes of diabetes that may be associated with stress and inflammation. We call upon providers to continue to closely attend to patients’ lived experiences. While we recognize the shortcomings of the existing classificatory scheme, patients’ outcomes and prognoses are often more closely connected to the social and medical support they receive than to the underlying metabolic classification.
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Conte... more Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.
First Story Toronto – a community organization dedicated to the Indigenous histories of Toronto, ... more First Story Toronto – a community organization dedicated to the Indigenous histories of Toronto, Canada – is steward to a collection of items mostly made and collected during the 20th century. With origins in the Anglican Church Women, the collection reflects a time when policies and actions of the state and churches internalized colonial processes within Canada. Yet the donation of the ACW material to a Native woman and housing advocate in 1976 hints at the shifting political and cultural contexts of this collection. Native crafts were used by Indigenous women in the city in displays of both Indigenous sovereignty and multiculturalism. Recently, the collection has been taken up by another group of Indigenous women in the Memory, Meaning-Making and Collections project. Handling sessions with artefacts and ‘talking circles’, initially designed to research the role of objects in collective memory and life-history processes, have been appropriated by the participating seniors toward th...
American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 2014
This article examines community-based approaches to the prevention and management of diabetes in ... more This article examines community-based approaches to the prevention and management of diabetes in the indigenous urban community of Toronto. A critical perspective of the concept of cultural capital in health promotion is provided to move beyond a functional representation of culture in addressing health inequalities and the production of health. Community-based programs are contextualized within the historical, cultural, and social relations of indigenous community-building, approaches to service delivery, and regional and national bureaucratization of indigenous resources.
This essay focuses on rural-to-urban migration by Indigenous peoples (aka American Indian, Native... more This essay focuses on rural-to-urban migration by Indigenous peoples (aka American Indian, Native American, Aboriginal, and/or Indian) in the United States and Canada, with an emphasis on the 20th century. Attention is paid to historical mobility, migration trends, processes of migration, and mobility characteristics of urban Indigenous communities. Keywords: indigenous peoples; borders; demography and population studies; colonialism; imperialism; crimes against humanity; ethnic cleansing
Throughout the Americas, most Indigenous people move through urban areas and make their homes in ... more Throughout the Americas, most Indigenous people move through urban areas and make their homes in cities. Yet, the specific issues and concerns facing Indigenous people in cities, and the positive protective factors their vibrant urban communities generate are often overlooked and poorly understood. This has been particularly so under COVID-19 pandemic conditions. In the spring of 2020, the United Nations High Commissioner Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples called for information on the impacts of COVID-19 for Indigenous peoples. We took that opportunity to provide a response focused on urban Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada. Here, we expand on that response and Indigenous and human rights lens to review policies and practices impacting the experience of COVID-19 for urban Indigenous communities. Our analysis integrates a discussion of historical and ongoing settler colonialism, and the strengths of Indigenous community-building, as these sha...
Racial/ethnic identity is contingent and arbitrary, yet it is commonly used to evaluate disease r... more Racial/ethnic identity is contingent and arbitrary, yet it is commonly used to evaluate disease risk and treatment response. Drawing on open-ended interviews with patients and clinicians in two US clinics, we explore how racialized risk is conceptualized and how it impacts patient care and experience. We found that racial/ethnic risk was a common but poorly defined construct for both patients and clinicians, who intermingled concepts of genetics, biology, behavior, and culture, while disregarding historical or structural context. We argue that racializing risk embodies social power in marked and unmarked bodies, reinforcing inequality along racial lines and undermining equitable health care.
Since the 1970s, Aboriginal people have been more likely to live in Canadian cities than on reser... more Since the 1970s, Aboriginal people have been more likely to live in Canadian cities than on reserves or in rural areas. Aboriginal rural-to-urban migration and the development of urban Aboriginal communities represent one of the most significant shifts in the histories and cultures of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. The essays in Aboriginal Peoples in Canadian Cities: Transformations and Continuities are from contributors directly engaged in urban Aboriginal communities; they draw on extensive ethnographic research on and by Aboriginal people and their own lived experiences.
The interdisciplinary studies of urban Aboriginal community and identity collected in this volume offer narratives of unique experiences and aspects of urban Aboriginal life. They provide innovative perspectives on cultural transformation and continuity and demonstrate how comparative examinations of the diversity within and across urban Aboriginal experiences contribute to broader understandings of the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state and to theoretical debates about power dynamics in the production of community and in processes of identity formation.
The essays in this groundbreaking anthology, Keeping the Campfires Going, highlight the accomplis... more The essays in this groundbreaking anthology, Keeping the Campfires Going, highlight the accomplishments of and challenges confronting Native women activists in American and Canadian cities. Since World War II, Indigenous women from many communities have stepped forward through organizations, in their families, or by themselves to take action on behalf of the growing number of Native people living in urban areas. This collection recounts and assesses the struggles, successes, and legacies of several of these women in cities across North America, from San Francisco to Toronto, Vancouver to Chicago, and Seattle to Milwaukee. These wide-ranging and insightful essays illuminate Native communities in cities as well as the women activists working to build them.
Feminist Fields offers a rich and varied portrait of both the current work in feminist anthropolo... more Feminist Fields offers a rich and varied portrait of both the current work in feminist anthropology and future possibilities for dialogue between feminism and anthropology. Contributors to the book present critical analyses of a broad range of ethnographic topics: national feminism, gender and identity formation, cultural continuity, ethnographic authority, ethics and representation, empowerment and resistance. Here, young practitioners alongside more established scholars share their theoretical insights, bringing them to life through first-person narratives and stories. Throughout, there is a clear sense of the intellectual inspiration to be had from the practice of feminist anthropology and its emphasis on the power of thoughtful reflexivity in fieldwork and writing practices. Also recognized is an urgent need to bring forward the perspectives of those whose knowledge has been forgotten, ignored, or actively silenced.
Interest in disaggregating diabetes into numerous subtypes is growing as patients and providers r... more Interest in disaggregating diabetes into numerous subtypes is growing as patients and providers recognize the limitations of standard diabetes typologies. As anthropologists, we draw attention to how ‘subtyping’ may reduce stigma derived from the connection between obesity and ‘type 2 diabetes’. We highlight the complexities that drive diabetes and argue that an exclusive or dominant focus on diet and obesity obfuscates other underlying risks. Yet, we warn that subtyping may promote unnecessary pharmaceuticalization, especially for other subtypes of diabetes that may be associated with stress and inflammation. We call upon providers to continue to closely attend to patients’ lived experiences. While we recognize the shortcomings of the existing classificatory scheme, patients’ outcomes and prognoses are often more closely connected to the social and medical support they receive than to the underlying metabolic classification.
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Conte... more Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.
First Story Toronto – a community organization dedicated to the Indigenous histories of Toronto, ... more First Story Toronto – a community organization dedicated to the Indigenous histories of Toronto, Canada – is steward to a collection of items mostly made and collected during the 20th century. With origins in the Anglican Church Women, the collection reflects a time when policies and actions of the state and churches internalized colonial processes within Canada. Yet the donation of the ACW material to a Native woman and housing advocate in 1976 hints at the shifting political and cultural contexts of this collection. Native crafts were used by Indigenous women in the city in displays of both Indigenous sovereignty and multiculturalism. Recently, the collection has been taken up by another group of Indigenous women in the Memory, Meaning-Making and Collections project. Handling sessions with artefacts and ‘talking circles’, initially designed to research the role of objects in collective memory and life-history processes, have been appropriated by the participating seniors toward th...
American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 2014
This article examines community-based approaches to the prevention and management of diabetes in ... more This article examines community-based approaches to the prevention and management of diabetes in the indigenous urban community of Toronto. A critical perspective of the concept of cultural capital in health promotion is provided to move beyond a functional representation of culture in addressing health inequalities and the production of health. Community-based programs are contextualized within the historical, cultural, and social relations of indigenous community-building, approaches to service delivery, and regional and national bureaucratization of indigenous resources.
This essay focuses on rural-to-urban migration by Indigenous peoples (aka American Indian, Native... more This essay focuses on rural-to-urban migration by Indigenous peoples (aka American Indian, Native American, Aboriginal, and/or Indian) in the United States and Canada, with an emphasis on the 20th century. Attention is paid to historical mobility, migration trends, processes of migration, and mobility characteristics of urban Indigenous communities. Keywords: indigenous peoples; borders; demography and population studies; colonialism; imperialism; crimes against humanity; ethnic cleansing
Throughout the Americas, most Indigenous people move through urban areas and make their homes in ... more Throughout the Americas, most Indigenous people move through urban areas and make their homes in cities. Yet, the specific issues and concerns facing Indigenous people in cities, and the positive protective factors their vibrant urban communities generate are often overlooked and poorly understood. This has been particularly so under COVID-19 pandemic conditions. In the spring of 2020, the United Nations High Commissioner Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples called for information on the impacts of COVID-19 for Indigenous peoples. We took that opportunity to provide a response focused on urban Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada. Here, we expand on that response and Indigenous and human rights lens to review policies and practices impacting the experience of COVID-19 for urban Indigenous communities. Our analysis integrates a discussion of historical and ongoing settler colonialism, and the strengths of Indigenous community-building, as these sha...
Racial/ethnic identity is contingent and arbitrary, yet it is commonly used to evaluate disease r... more Racial/ethnic identity is contingent and arbitrary, yet it is commonly used to evaluate disease risk and treatment response. Drawing on open-ended interviews with patients and clinicians in two US clinics, we explore how racialized risk is conceptualized and how it impacts patient care and experience. We found that racial/ethnic risk was a common but poorly defined construct for both patients and clinicians, who intermingled concepts of genetics, biology, behavior, and culture, while disregarding historical or structural context. We argue that racializing risk embodies social power in marked and unmarked bodies, reinforcing inequality along racial lines and undermining equitable health care.
The Lancet Commissions are widely known as aspirational pieces, providing the mechanisms for cons... more The Lancet Commissions are widely known as aspirational pieces, providing the mechanisms for consortia and networks of researchers to organize, collate, interrogate and publish around a range of subjects. Although the Commissions are predominantly led by biomedical scientists and cognate public health professionals, many address social science questions and involve social science expertise. Medical anthropologist David Napier was lead author of the Lancet Commission on Culture and Health (2014), for example, and all commissions on global health (https://www.thelancet.com/global-health/commissions) address questions of social structure, everyday life, the social determinants of health, and global inequalities.
Engaged Scholar Journal: Community-Engaged Research, Teaching, and Learning
Until recently, the specific and unique ethics considerations of research with the large and dive... more Until recently, the specific and unique ethics considerations of research with the large and diverse populations of Indigenous peoples living in cities have not been adequately addressed. With its emphasis on respect, responsibility, and beneficial outcomes for research participants, community-based participatory research (CBPR) has been described as intrinsically ethical, and in many cases, consistent with a generalized understanding of Indigenous moral values. Through a retrospective reflection on community-engaged research in the urban context of Toronto, this essay examines critically transformations in the conceptualization of ethical research and of CBPR with Indigenous peoples. Historical analysis of urban Indigenous community epistemologies is presented as a dynamic process which informs ethical practice in the production of both community and of knowledge. Community-initiated and implemented research highlights the complexities in urban Indigenous authority-making, complica...
Throughout the Americas, most Indigenous people move through urban areas and make their homes in ... more Throughout the Americas, most Indigenous people move through urban areas and make their homes in cities. Yet, the specific issues and concerns facing Indigenous people in cities, and the positive protective factors their vibrant urban communities generate are often overlooked and poorly understood. This has been particularly so under COVID-19 pandemic conditions. In the spring of 2020, the United Nations High Commissioner Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples called for information on the impacts of COVID-19 for Indigenous peoples. We took that opportunity to provide a response focused on urban Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada. Here, we expand on that response and Indigenous and human rights lens to review policies and practices impacting the experience of COVID-19 for urban Indigenous communities. Our analysis integrates a discussion of historical and ongoing settler colonialism, and the strengths of Indigenous community-building, as these shape the urban Indigenous experience with COVID-19. Mindful of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, we highlight the perspectives of Indigenous organizations which are the lifeline of urban Indigenous communities, focusing on challenges that miscounting poses to data collection and information sharing, and the exacerbation of intersectional discrimination and human rights infringements specific to the urban context. We include Indigenous critiques of the implications of structural oppressions exposed by COVID-19, and the resulting recommendations which have emerged from Indigenous urban adaptations to lockdown isolation, the provision of safety, and delivery of services grounded in Indigenous initiatives and traditional practices.
Settler Colonial Biogovernance and the Logic of a Surgical Cure for Diabetes, 2018
What are the social implications of the surgical treatment of diabetes? How should this question ... more What are the social implications of the surgical treatment of diabetes? How should this question be addressed through the lens of Indigenous studies and consideration of settler colonial biopower?
Racial/ethnic identity is contingent and arbitrary, yet it is commonly used to evaluate disease r... more Racial/ethnic identity is contingent and arbitrary, yet it is commonly used to evaluate disease risk and treatment response. Drawing on open-ended interviews with patients and clinicians in two US clinics, we explore how racialized risk is conceptualized and how it impacts patient care and experience. We found that racial/ethnic risk was a common but poorly defined construct for both patients and clinicians, who intermingled concepts of genetics, biology, behavior, and culture, while disregarding historical or structural context. We argue that racializing risk embodies social power in marked and unmarked bodies, reinforcing inequality along racial lines and undermining equitable health care.
Racial/ethnic identity is contingent and arbitrary, yet it is commonly used to evaluate disease r... more Racial/ethnic identity is contingent and arbitrary, yet it is commonly used to evaluate disease risk and treatment response. Drawing on open-ended interviews with patients and clinicians in two US clinics, we explore how racialized risk is conceptualized and how it impacts patient care and experience. We found that racial/ethnic risk was a common but poorly defined construct for both patients and clinicians, who intermingled concepts of genetics, biology, behavior, and culture, while disregarding historical or structural context. We argue that racializing risk embodies social power in marked and unmarked bodies, reinforcing inequality along racial lines and undermining equitable health care.
Papers are now invited for the following panel:
Food as medicine: biosocialities of eating in he... more Papers are now invited for the following panel:
Food as medicine: biosocialities of eating in health and illness
*ASA 2018, University of Oxford, 18-21 September 2018
*Convenors: Heather Howard (Michigan State University), Narelle Warren (Monash University), Anna Lavis (University of Birmingham), and Karin Eli (University of Oxford)
This panel examines food as medicine at the convergence of material, imagined and biosocial aspects of healing. It explores medicalized transformations of commensality, experiential liminalities of feeding spaces and technologies, and productions of agency and sovereignty in healing through food.
Entanglements of health, illness, and eating offer a critical lens onto the social, material, and imagined dimensions of gastro-politics. Imbalanced diets, lack of appetite, 'overindulgence', food contamination, and malnutrition are among the iniquitous aspects of eating implicated in the diagnosis of disorder, disease, and their concomitant marginalized biosocialities. In turn, food is also reconfigured as medicine; it is used in the restoration of health and the management of chronic conditions, as well as to resocialise marginalized bodies and identities into bio-political realignment with social hierarchy, citizenship, responsibility, and choice. This panel examines food-as-medicine at the convergence of material, intangible, social, imagined, and biological aspects of healing. The papers will consider medicalized transformations of intimacy, commensality, and power in feeding and eating. They will trace experiential liminalities of 'recovery' through feeding spaces and technologies, elucidating contradictions and reconfigurations of agency/disempowerment, body sovereignty, and liability in processes of healing through food. Representing diverse ethnographic foci and locales, analyses will theorise food as medicine as experienced by people with neurological conditions, people who have had bariatric/metabolic surgery, and people with eating disorders and other mental health conditions, among others. Together, these accounts will emphasize the intangible, haptic, and biopolitical dimensions of food as medicine, interrogating how 'recovery' may be induced through forced, relearned, assisted, and measured forms of ingestion. Alongside their papers, panellists will present items that experientially convey textures and temporalities of food-as-medicine, including meal replacements, timers, scales, and measuring cups, highlighting the sensory aspects of these medicalized materialities.
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The interdisciplinary studies of urban Aboriginal community and identity collected in this volume offer narratives of unique experiences and aspects of urban Aboriginal life. They provide innovative perspectives on cultural transformation and continuity and demonstrate how comparative examinations of the diversity within and across urban Aboriginal experiences contribute to broader understandings of the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state and to theoretical debates about power dynamics in the production of community and in processes of identity formation.
The interdisciplinary studies of urban Aboriginal community and identity collected in this volume offer narratives of unique experiences and aspects of urban Aboriginal life. They provide innovative perspectives on cultural transformation and continuity and demonstrate how comparative examinations of the diversity within and across urban Aboriginal experiences contribute to broader understandings of the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state and to theoretical debates about power dynamics in the production of community and in processes of identity formation.
Food as medicine: biosocialities of eating in health and illness
*ASA 2018, University of Oxford, 18-21 September 2018
*Convenors: Heather Howard (Michigan State University), Narelle Warren (Monash University), Anna Lavis (University of Birmingham), and Karin Eli (University of Oxford)
* The deadline for paper proposals is 20 April 2018. To propose a paper, please follow this link:
https://nomadit.co.uk/asa/asa2018/conferencesuite.php/panels/6798
This panel examines food as medicine at the convergence of material, imagined and biosocial aspects of healing. It explores medicalized transformations of commensality, experiential liminalities of feeding spaces and technologies, and productions of agency and sovereignty in healing through food.
Entanglements of health, illness, and eating offer a critical lens onto the social, material, and imagined dimensions of gastro-politics. Imbalanced diets, lack of appetite, 'overindulgence', food contamination, and malnutrition are among the iniquitous aspects of eating implicated in the diagnosis of disorder, disease, and their concomitant marginalized biosocialities. In turn, food is also reconfigured as medicine; it is used in the restoration of health and the management of chronic conditions, as well as to resocialise marginalized bodies and identities into bio-political realignment with social hierarchy, citizenship, responsibility, and choice. This panel examines food-as-medicine at the convergence of material, intangible, social, imagined, and biological aspects of healing. The papers will consider medicalized transformations of intimacy, commensality, and power in feeding and eating. They will trace experiential liminalities of 'recovery' through feeding spaces and technologies, elucidating contradictions and reconfigurations of agency/disempowerment, body sovereignty, and liability in processes of healing through food. Representing diverse ethnographic foci and locales, analyses will theorise food as medicine as experienced by people with neurological conditions, people who have had bariatric/metabolic surgery, and people with eating disorders and other mental health conditions, among others. Together, these accounts will emphasize the intangible, haptic, and biopolitical dimensions of food as medicine, interrogating how 'recovery' may be induced through forced, relearned, assisted, and measured forms of ingestion. Alongside their papers, panellists will present items that experientially convey textures and temporalities of food-as-medicine, including meal replacements, timers, scales, and measuring cups, highlighting the sensory aspects of these medicalized materialities.