New issue of Durham Anthropology Journal online

Recently, the summer issue of Durham Anthropology Journal was published online. Here some articles:

Edward Croft (Aberdeen University):
Dutton Higher Status Behaviour and Status Ambiguity: A Discussion of Exaggerated Higher Status Identity at Oxford University

Croft did fieldwork at Oxford University focussing on the university's largest evangelical group: the Christian Union:

Using Eidheim's research into the Lapps of Northern Norway as a further example, the article will further argue that when a group is ambiguous about its status it will react by projecting an exaggerated version of the apparently higher status. The article will note, in this regard, that the experience of Oxford University is highly 'liminal' and ambiguous with regard to whether a student is a child or adult. Following this, it will be demonstrated that an exaggerated adult identity is found to a great extent amongst students at Oxford University.

>> read the whole article

Sue Cooper (University of Durham):
A Rite of Involvement?: Men's transition to fatherhood

Men are striving to be involved with the process of pregnancy and childbirth and society - an ethnography amomg young fathers in times of social change:

The aim was to identify core values and beliefs regarding fatherhood that are being transmitted through some of the rituals that men participate in before and during pregnancy, labour and birth. Qualitative data was obtained from interviews with fathers-to-be throughout their partners' pregnancy and after the birth of their child.

>> read the whole paper

Oranutt Narapruet (University of Durham):
Freedom from the Cage: A Second Chance for Mental Health Care in the Czech Republic?

On field research in the changing mental health care system in the Czech Republic:

Whenever I think of the Czech Republic, I always imagine how beautiful it is, but I guess we don't see what really goes on behind that whole façade'. The question of `why?' is a good one. Why had the government banned the use of `cage beds' in its mental institutions? Why were `cage beds' even allowed to exist in the first place? What were the real reasons behind the use of `cage beds'? What do mental health professionals and the wider public truly think, and hope for, now that the ban has been established? And, more importantly, what does the future hold for the Czech psychiatric system, its staff, the community, and the patients themselves?

>> read the whole paper

>> Overview over Durham Anthropology Journal
Volume 13(2)