Marcia Mikulak | University of North Dakota (original) (raw)
Papers by Marcia Mikulak
Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Oct 5, 2012
Journal of Anthropological Research, Dec 1, 1999
Humanity & Society, Feb 1, 2011
Some current cultural anthropologists define race as a social construct, yet explorations of the ... more Some current cultural anthropologists define race as a social construct, yet explorations of the socio-historical constructions that give form and structure to racial identities perpetuating notions of "race" are rarely discussed. This study explores the theory of racial formations proposed by Michael Omi and Howard Winant as it applies to Brazil's racial project, arguing that Brazil's rhetoric on race and national identity during the late 19th to early 20th century culminated in a racial project ultimately known as democracia racial. As a result, I propose that Brazilian racial consciousness is symbolically pluralistic, encompassing race, social class, and social position, generating a particularly virulent, yet silent form of racism. I expand upon racial formation theory through analysis of my fieldwork carried out in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerias, in 2004. This analysis illustrates how contemporary Brazilian social structure and daily cultural discourses on race, skin-color, racial identity, and social marginalization reflect the nation's early racist ideology, yet contest its reality. Informants discuss self-identifications of skin-color, the meanings attributed to color tonalities, and the impact racism has on their daily lives. REFLEXIVE STATEMENT For the majority of my childhood and adolescent years, I lived near Sacramento, California, growing up in a military family; however, between the ages of three and seven, my father was stationed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during the Getulio Vargas era in the early to mid-1950s. The four years that I spent in Brazil not only made a strong impression on me, but also provided me with a lifelong connection to Brazil, the people, and the Portuguese language. As an undergraduate student during the late 1960s and 1970s, I had strong relationships with a variety of impressive African American jazz musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, and one of my first strong romantic relationships was with a Black musician. My memories of the civil rights movement and of the treatment that I received as a young white women in a relationship with a Black man has remained with me, and has led me to question the root causes of racism, inequality, and violence in mid-to late 20th century America. During my doctoral research in anthropology in Brazil with street and working youth, I was once again in Rio de Janeiro (1998 to 2000) where I became aware of the "racial" demographics that describe the majority of street and working youth. The prevalence of darker-skinned Afro-Brazilian children and youth who work the streets of Brazil's metropolitan areas struck me as significant, and I wondered why so little social science research had focused on racial issues in Brazil. Since my field work continues to explore the intersections between human rights, racism, violence, and identity, this article grew out of my doctoral research with
Field school students to work with Brazil’s indigenous people The University of North Dakota is p... more Field school students to work with Brazil’s indigenous people The University of North Dakota is partnering with the Global Citizens Network (GCN) to offer students an opportunity to study abroad in Brazil during spring 2012 to gain in-depth knowledge and understanding of the country’s indigenous Xukuru people (pronounced “Shoo-koo-roo”). “We are excited about this multifaceted learning experience for students at UND,” said Marcia Mikulak, associate professor of anthropology. “We’ll be working to increase student understanding of and respect for Xukuru culture and community life while cultivating and promoting the values of peace, justice, respect and cross-cultural understanding within a global perspective.” Mikulak is collaborating with Ray Legasse, the University’s program director for International Programs, and GCN, a nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis, on the development of a new UND field school for students from across disciplines. GCN’s mission is to partner with di...
Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 2012
Global Visions Film Series: Earth “Earth” is an engrossing look at the planet on which we live, t... more Global Visions Film Series: Earth “Earth” is an engrossing look at the planet on which we live, traveling from pole-to-pole and presenting spectacular footage of the vast diversity of animal life that shares the fragile eco-systems of this planet. The film achieves its powerful cinematography by filming the habitats from the eyes of the animals living in them while drawing us in as we view the young of species both large and small, familiar and unusual. Indeed, forty-two animal species are shown in the movie “Earth,” and the apparent indifference of nature’s unending need for survival and reproduction are shown in terms of both the human tendency to make predators into villains and prey into victims. However, a deeper look will reveal an order that supersedes these simplistic perspectives, revealing the continual cycle of renewal and survival common to earth’s history. The film is about more than just life and death though. It is about the breathtaking beauty and the unending variat...
This article addresses the struggle of the Xukuru do Ororubá indigenous people in rural Pernambuc... more This article addresses the struggle of the Xukuru do Ororubá indigenous people in rural Pernambuco, Brazil as they organize to stop historical violence against them and work to regain their constitutional right to their ancestral lands. Since Portuguese colonization and throughout Brazil's nation-building, the Xukuru have been particularly at-risk for human rights abuses. With the creation of the United Nations in 1945 and the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) in 1948, member states have often provided rhetorical validity to human rights documents and conventions – rhetoric that is often ignored upon return to their sovereign territories. It is well understood that international human rights documents are based on constructed realities that historically validated Western European notions about the rights of individuals (Said 1994, 1979; Ignatieff, 2001; Niezen, 2003). As a member of the United Nations and a signatory of international human rights documents, Brazil has turned a blind eye to human rights norms as applied to indigenous peoples whose rural locations leave them vulnerable to persecution. This article: 1) situates the Xukuru Nation's rural location and presents a brief history of Portuguese colonial contact with Brazil's Indigenous peoples; 2) briefly discusses the Indian movement in Brazil as a background for the contextualization of the Indigenous Xukurus' fight for the return of their ancestral lands in the Serra do Ororubá, in the state of Pernambuco in the late 20 th and early 21 st centuries; and 3) articulates the human rights abuses perpetrated against them by the Brazilian Nation-State. Brazil's Nordeste (Northeast) region is comprised of nine states that include Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Pernambuco (and small islands off the NE coast), Alagoas, Sergipe, and Bahia. Stereotypes about the Nordeste are based on historical lore about Salvador da Bahia, sugar plantations, slavery, cangaceiros (bandits), bandeirantes (slave hunters and explorers), and the latifúndios (captaincy colonies) and their autonomous and privately owned Captain-majors (wealthy landed elites) appointed by the Portuguese Crown. Despite historical droughts, sugar cane, agriculture and cattle ranching are common occupations to this day. The Brazilian Nordeste is notoriously described as a region that is riddled with poverty and plagued by intense droughts, but rich in historical lore of both African and Indian peoples. The Portuguese first landed on the coast of Bahia in 1500, and found the continent inhabited by indigenous peoples. Estimates vary regarding the population of Brazil's Indians in the 1500s, ranging from 500,000 to over two-million indigenous people who spoke over 100 diverse languages (Silva, 2008; Skidmore, 1999). Bahia, one of Brazil's most famous cities, is part of Brazil's Nordeste. As one of the oldest colonial cities in the Americas, Bahia was the first colonial capital of Brazil, and was a major sea port for the exportation of sugar and importation of slaves from Africa. Recife, another historic colonial city, and the current capital of Pernambuco is about 120 miles (193km) from Pesqueira (population 66,153). Pesqueira is the closest city to the Xukuru whose land lies adjacent to
International Journal of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education
Review of Mary Bucholtz's White Kids: Language, Race, and Styles of Youth Identity, New York:... more Review of Mary Bucholtz's White Kids: Language, Race, and Styles of Youth Identity, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Sage - Encyclopedia of Anthropology , 2005
Since the Industrial Revolution, most Western societies have come to consider childhood as a time... more Since the Industrial Revolution, most Western societies have come to consider childhood as a time of innocence rooted in biological processes that gradually progress from infancy, childhood, and adolescence into adulthood. In this concept, all youth are defined as minors who are dependent upon adult guidance and supervision; accordingly, youth are denied legal rights and responsibilities until they reach the age that legally defines adulthood. Progressive social scientists view childhood as a concept dependent upon social, economic, religious, and political environments. Rather than see childhood as a time of nonparticipation and dependence, social constructionists see childhood as an expression of society and its values, roles, and institutions. In this sense, childhood is conceptualized as an active state of participation in the reproduction of culture. Indeed, constructionist views of childhood state that childhood is not a universal condition of life, as is biological immaturity, but rather a pattern of meaning that is dependent on specific sets of social norms unique to specific cultural settings.
Suzanne Anderson Al ice Brekke De nnis Elbe rt Hesham El-Rewini Cara Halgren Phyll is Johnson Rob... more Suzanne Anderson Al ice Brekke De nnis Elbe rt Hesham El-Rewini Cara Halgren Phyll is Johnson Robert Kel ley Denise Korniewicz Paul LeBel Kathryn Rand Lori Reesor Dan Rice Joshua Riedy Bru ce S m ith W ilbur S tolt W ayne Swisher Kathleen Tiemann Joshua Wynne 75 50 50 50 50 50 50 25 25 0 50 100 0 100 75 75 100 0 Ernest Anderson Slavka Antonova Abdallah Badahdah Mary Baker Gail Bass Pam ela Beck Albert Berger Apri l Bradley John Brid ew ell Van Doze Mary Drewes Jane Dunlevy Jon Jackson Sue Jeno Jared Keengwe Kim berly Ke nv ille Adam Kitzes Yvette Koepke So izik La gue tte Marcia Mikulak Sarah Mosher Doug Munski Eric Murphy Gra ce O nch wari Donald Poochigian Lana Rakow Amebu Seddoh Richard Shafer Curt Stofferahn Anne W alker 100 100 0 100 100 75 100 50 100 50 75 50 75 100 100 50 75 75 100 100 50 100 75 75 100 100 75 50 100 75 George Bibel James Casler Em ily Che rry Stephanie Christ ian Paul Drechsel Tracy Evanson Da na Ha rse ll Jim Haskins Bre nda K allio Mo hamm ad Kh avan in Jef...
Journal of Anthropological Research, 2003
... Nairobi. Of these, Drs. William Jankowiak, Penny Swartz, and Emmanuel Babatunde are especiall... more ... Nairobi. Of these, Drs. William Jankowiak, Penny Swartz, and Emmanuel Babatunde are especially thanked. Jane Garry, Editor for Anthropology, Greenwood Publishing Group, is warmly thanked for her support of our book project. ...
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 2010
This volume is the latest in Blackwell's popular series of readers in social and cultural an... more This volume is the latest in Blackwell's popular series of readers in social and cultural anthro-pology. Previous readers in the series include volumes on linguistic anthropology, anthropol-ogy and law, and feminist anthropology, and like these earlier volumes, ...
... Bianca Premo offers her insight into uses and limits of theoretical models used to study the ... more ... Bianca Premo offers her insight into uses and limits of theoretical models used to study the history of children else- where in the world for scholars of Latin America. She suggests that Philippe Ariès's seminal work often has been misconstrued to condemn pre-modern and early ...
The AAG Review of Books
Book Review
Journal of Anthropological Research, 2003
... Nairobi. Of these, Drs. William Jankowiak, Penny Swartz, and Emmanuel Babatunde are especiall... more ... Nairobi. Of these, Drs. William Jankowiak, Penny Swartz, and Emmanuel Babatunde are especially thanked. Jane Garry, Editor for Anthropology, Greenwood Publishing Group, is warmly thanked for her support of our book project. ...
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
This article explores the life history of Marileia, a favela woman and mother of five children, s... more This article explores the life history of Marileia, a favela woman and mother of five children, several of whom work the streets in Curvelo, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and is drawn from research carried out between 1997-2000 in Brazil. Ethnography exposes the multiple realities coexisting ...
Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Oct 5, 2012
Journal of Anthropological Research, Dec 1, 1999
Humanity & Society, Feb 1, 2011
Some current cultural anthropologists define race as a social construct, yet explorations of the ... more Some current cultural anthropologists define race as a social construct, yet explorations of the socio-historical constructions that give form and structure to racial identities perpetuating notions of "race" are rarely discussed. This study explores the theory of racial formations proposed by Michael Omi and Howard Winant as it applies to Brazil's racial project, arguing that Brazil's rhetoric on race and national identity during the late 19th to early 20th century culminated in a racial project ultimately known as democracia racial. As a result, I propose that Brazilian racial consciousness is symbolically pluralistic, encompassing race, social class, and social position, generating a particularly virulent, yet silent form of racism. I expand upon racial formation theory through analysis of my fieldwork carried out in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerias, in 2004. This analysis illustrates how contemporary Brazilian social structure and daily cultural discourses on race, skin-color, racial identity, and social marginalization reflect the nation's early racist ideology, yet contest its reality. Informants discuss self-identifications of skin-color, the meanings attributed to color tonalities, and the impact racism has on their daily lives. REFLEXIVE STATEMENT For the majority of my childhood and adolescent years, I lived near Sacramento, California, growing up in a military family; however, between the ages of three and seven, my father was stationed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during the Getulio Vargas era in the early to mid-1950s. The four years that I spent in Brazil not only made a strong impression on me, but also provided me with a lifelong connection to Brazil, the people, and the Portuguese language. As an undergraduate student during the late 1960s and 1970s, I had strong relationships with a variety of impressive African American jazz musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area, and one of my first strong romantic relationships was with a Black musician. My memories of the civil rights movement and of the treatment that I received as a young white women in a relationship with a Black man has remained with me, and has led me to question the root causes of racism, inequality, and violence in mid-to late 20th century America. During my doctoral research in anthropology in Brazil with street and working youth, I was once again in Rio de Janeiro (1998 to 2000) where I became aware of the "racial" demographics that describe the majority of street and working youth. The prevalence of darker-skinned Afro-Brazilian children and youth who work the streets of Brazil's metropolitan areas struck me as significant, and I wondered why so little social science research had focused on racial issues in Brazil. Since my field work continues to explore the intersections between human rights, racism, violence, and identity, this article grew out of my doctoral research with
Field school students to work with Brazil’s indigenous people The University of North Dakota is p... more Field school students to work with Brazil’s indigenous people The University of North Dakota is partnering with the Global Citizens Network (GCN) to offer students an opportunity to study abroad in Brazil during spring 2012 to gain in-depth knowledge and understanding of the country’s indigenous Xukuru people (pronounced “Shoo-koo-roo”). “We are excited about this multifaceted learning experience for students at UND,” said Marcia Mikulak, associate professor of anthropology. “We’ll be working to increase student understanding of and respect for Xukuru culture and community life while cultivating and promoting the values of peace, justice, respect and cross-cultural understanding within a global perspective.” Mikulak is collaborating with Ray Legasse, the University’s program director for International Programs, and GCN, a nonprofit organization based in Minneapolis, on the development of a new UND field school for students from across disciplines. GCN’s mission is to partner with di...
Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 2012
Global Visions Film Series: Earth “Earth” is an engrossing look at the planet on which we live, t... more Global Visions Film Series: Earth “Earth” is an engrossing look at the planet on which we live, traveling from pole-to-pole and presenting spectacular footage of the vast diversity of animal life that shares the fragile eco-systems of this planet. The film achieves its powerful cinematography by filming the habitats from the eyes of the animals living in them while drawing us in as we view the young of species both large and small, familiar and unusual. Indeed, forty-two animal species are shown in the movie “Earth,” and the apparent indifference of nature’s unending need for survival and reproduction are shown in terms of both the human tendency to make predators into villains and prey into victims. However, a deeper look will reveal an order that supersedes these simplistic perspectives, revealing the continual cycle of renewal and survival common to earth’s history. The film is about more than just life and death though. It is about the breathtaking beauty and the unending variat...
This article addresses the struggle of the Xukuru do Ororubá indigenous people in rural Pernambuc... more This article addresses the struggle of the Xukuru do Ororubá indigenous people in rural Pernambuco, Brazil as they organize to stop historical violence against them and work to regain their constitutional right to their ancestral lands. Since Portuguese colonization and throughout Brazil's nation-building, the Xukuru have been particularly at-risk for human rights abuses. With the creation of the United Nations in 1945 and the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR) in 1948, member states have often provided rhetorical validity to human rights documents and conventions – rhetoric that is often ignored upon return to their sovereign territories. It is well understood that international human rights documents are based on constructed realities that historically validated Western European notions about the rights of individuals (Said 1994, 1979; Ignatieff, 2001; Niezen, 2003). As a member of the United Nations and a signatory of international human rights documents, Brazil has turned a blind eye to human rights norms as applied to indigenous peoples whose rural locations leave them vulnerable to persecution. This article: 1) situates the Xukuru Nation's rural location and presents a brief history of Portuguese colonial contact with Brazil's Indigenous peoples; 2) briefly discusses the Indian movement in Brazil as a background for the contextualization of the Indigenous Xukurus' fight for the return of their ancestral lands in the Serra do Ororubá, in the state of Pernambuco in the late 20 th and early 21 st centuries; and 3) articulates the human rights abuses perpetrated against them by the Brazilian Nation-State. Brazil's Nordeste (Northeast) region is comprised of nine states that include Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Pernambuco (and small islands off the NE coast), Alagoas, Sergipe, and Bahia. Stereotypes about the Nordeste are based on historical lore about Salvador da Bahia, sugar plantations, slavery, cangaceiros (bandits), bandeirantes (slave hunters and explorers), and the latifúndios (captaincy colonies) and their autonomous and privately owned Captain-majors (wealthy landed elites) appointed by the Portuguese Crown. Despite historical droughts, sugar cane, agriculture and cattle ranching are common occupations to this day. The Brazilian Nordeste is notoriously described as a region that is riddled with poverty and plagued by intense droughts, but rich in historical lore of both African and Indian peoples. The Portuguese first landed on the coast of Bahia in 1500, and found the continent inhabited by indigenous peoples. Estimates vary regarding the population of Brazil's Indians in the 1500s, ranging from 500,000 to over two-million indigenous people who spoke over 100 diverse languages (Silva, 2008; Skidmore, 1999). Bahia, one of Brazil's most famous cities, is part of Brazil's Nordeste. As one of the oldest colonial cities in the Americas, Bahia was the first colonial capital of Brazil, and was a major sea port for the exportation of sugar and importation of slaves from Africa. Recife, another historic colonial city, and the current capital of Pernambuco is about 120 miles (193km) from Pesqueira (population 66,153). Pesqueira is the closest city to the Xukuru whose land lies adjacent to
International Journal of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education
Review of Mary Bucholtz's White Kids: Language, Race, and Styles of Youth Identity, New York:... more Review of Mary Bucholtz's White Kids: Language, Race, and Styles of Youth Identity, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
Sage - Encyclopedia of Anthropology , 2005
Since the Industrial Revolution, most Western societies have come to consider childhood as a time... more Since the Industrial Revolution, most Western societies have come to consider childhood as a time of innocence rooted in biological processes that gradually progress from infancy, childhood, and adolescence into adulthood. In this concept, all youth are defined as minors who are dependent upon adult guidance and supervision; accordingly, youth are denied legal rights and responsibilities until they reach the age that legally defines adulthood. Progressive social scientists view childhood as a concept dependent upon social, economic, religious, and political environments. Rather than see childhood as a time of nonparticipation and dependence, social constructionists see childhood as an expression of society and its values, roles, and institutions. In this sense, childhood is conceptualized as an active state of participation in the reproduction of culture. Indeed, constructionist views of childhood state that childhood is not a universal condition of life, as is biological immaturity, but rather a pattern of meaning that is dependent on specific sets of social norms unique to specific cultural settings.
Suzanne Anderson Al ice Brekke De nnis Elbe rt Hesham El-Rewini Cara Halgren Phyll is Johnson Rob... more Suzanne Anderson Al ice Brekke De nnis Elbe rt Hesham El-Rewini Cara Halgren Phyll is Johnson Robert Kel ley Denise Korniewicz Paul LeBel Kathryn Rand Lori Reesor Dan Rice Joshua Riedy Bru ce S m ith W ilbur S tolt W ayne Swisher Kathleen Tiemann Joshua Wynne 75 50 50 50 50 50 50 25 25 0 50 100 0 100 75 75 100 0 Ernest Anderson Slavka Antonova Abdallah Badahdah Mary Baker Gail Bass Pam ela Beck Albert Berger Apri l Bradley John Brid ew ell Van Doze Mary Drewes Jane Dunlevy Jon Jackson Sue Jeno Jared Keengwe Kim berly Ke nv ille Adam Kitzes Yvette Koepke So izik La gue tte Marcia Mikulak Sarah Mosher Doug Munski Eric Murphy Gra ce O nch wari Donald Poochigian Lana Rakow Amebu Seddoh Richard Shafer Curt Stofferahn Anne W alker 100 100 0 100 100 75 100 50 100 50 75 50 75 100 100 50 75 75 100 100 50 100 75 75 100 100 75 50 100 75 George Bibel James Casler Em ily Che rry Stephanie Christ ian Paul Drechsel Tracy Evanson Da na Ha rse ll Jim Haskins Bre nda K allio Mo hamm ad Kh avan in Jef...
Journal of Anthropological Research, 2003
... Nairobi. Of these, Drs. William Jankowiak, Penny Swartz, and Emmanuel Babatunde are especiall... more ... Nairobi. Of these, Drs. William Jankowiak, Penny Swartz, and Emmanuel Babatunde are especially thanked. Jane Garry, Editor for Anthropology, Greenwood Publishing Group, is warmly thanked for her support of our book project. ...
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 2010
This volume is the latest in Blackwell's popular series of readers in social and cultural an... more This volume is the latest in Blackwell's popular series of readers in social and cultural anthro-pology. Previous readers in the series include volumes on linguistic anthropology, anthropol-ogy and law, and feminist anthropology, and like these earlier volumes, ...
... Bianca Premo offers her insight into uses and limits of theoretical models used to study the ... more ... Bianca Premo offers her insight into uses and limits of theoretical models used to study the history of children else- where in the world for scholars of Latin America. She suggests that Philippe Ariès's seminal work often has been misconstrued to condemn pre-modern and early ...
The AAG Review of Books
Book Review
Journal of Anthropological Research, 2003
... Nairobi. Of these, Drs. William Jankowiak, Penny Swartz, and Emmanuel Babatunde are especiall... more ... Nairobi. Of these, Drs. William Jankowiak, Penny Swartz, and Emmanuel Babatunde are especially thanked. Jane Garry, Editor for Anthropology, Greenwood Publishing Group, is warmly thanked for her support of our book project. ...
The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
This article explores the life history of Marileia, a favela woman and mother of five children, s... more This article explores the life history of Marileia, a favela woman and mother of five children, several of whom work the streets in Curvelo, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and is drawn from research carried out between 1997-2000 in Brazil. Ethnography exposes the multiple realities coexisting ...