Emotion, Cognition, and Action

1. Emotion, Cognition, and Action Understanding Environmental and Health Issues in the United States

2. Entering Anthropology from the Applied Perspective • What problems do I want to solve? What do I care about? • Health care access • The experience of vulnerable people • Sustainability • How can I address these issues?

3. Project 1:Rangelands and Ranching Culture • The problem: What leads to sustainable vs. unsustainable rangeland management? • The issues: • Ranchers’ LEK and rangeland management practice • Decision-making and the influence of policy and global markets • Ranching culture and landscape and its relationship to rangeland politics • The work: • 2002: General Interviews • 2003: Participant Observation • 2005: Participant Observation, Depth Interviews, Decision Modeling • 2012: 5-year follow-up Interviews

4. Decision Making and Cultural Models • Decision-making models link: • Policy • Market • LEK • Personal preferences • Cultural patterns • Cultural models identify: • Worldview differences • Valuation of knowledge systems • Cultural storylines and pictures that make sense to people • Emotional attachments • Why care? • Fosters cross-cultural understanding • Identifies counter-productive forces in policy, market, etc. http://img.mailchimp.com/2008/02/15/9qqoqe09t39d0ktta8cq06b1j0/ConflictCircleWiresCrossed(2).jpg Can we make sense out of this in a way that assists in mediating conflict for group decision-making?

5. Do you feel that participating in the program compromises your independence? YES NO Do you value the feeling of independence more than any benefits that you could acquire? Is participating in the program more expensive than not participating in it? NO YES YES NO DON’T Would you have to change your management plan to participate in the program? YES Given the monetary and labor costs, would you make more money if you participated in the program than if you sold independently? NO YES NO Would participating in the program increase your profits? Is the convenience and/or lowered risk worth the lost profits? NO YES YES HARRIS RANCH NO Is getting information back on your calves worth the lost profits? YES NO Do you believe that such partnerships are where the cattle industry is headed, and that it is good to proactively get involved? YES NO HARRIS RANCH DON’T Do you believe Harris Ranch is the best option to accomplish this? YES NO Changing patterns of production… Participation in Harris Ranch Program

6. Land Use, Landscapes, and Environmental Health • What questions were not addressed? • Settlement and land use patterns over time • Understanding LEK in place • The complex relationship between: • Specific policies at certain places • Decisions about land use and management • Environmental health • GIS and ethnographic work • Mental maps • Social and natural history of landscape • Cultural and individual memory and knowledge

7. Project 2:The Pagan Health Survey Project The average Pagan: Female and White. She may be from anywhere in the country. • The problem: How do Pagan people interact with the biomedical health care system and other forms of treatment? • The issues: • Pagan worldviews about health, healing, and wellness • Pagan choices and practices related to health • Problems in access to and successful integration with the biomedical health care system • The work: • 2005-2012: General Participant Observation • 2010: Survey and Interview Schedule • 1,598 participants in survey • Depth interviews with nine clergy and health care practitioners She is between the ages of 36 and 50, and has been a Pagan for 17 years. She is middle class and college-educated. She is almost as likely to self-identify as non-heteronormative as she is to self-identify as “woman” and “straight/ heterosexual.”

8. Healing This became an introduction for doctors, nurses, and other practitioners to their patient… … and a point to rally around for Pagans, helping them recognize their solidarity. Number of responses in parentheses.

9. The Role of Spiritual Leaders:When a priest/ess is called for help Percent This became a point of discussion with health care practitioners, giving voice to Pagans’ experiences of prejudice and discrimination. It became a rallying point for Pagan mental health professionals to organize.

10. Pagan health survey project, 2 years later: mental health • Recognize mental illness • Talk to people about finding help • Offer referrals to Pagan-friendly mental health professionals • Can differentiate between mental illness and Pagan beliefs/practices • Are culturally competent • Can relate to Pagan patients

11. Pagan health survey project, 2 years later: Health care access Who lacks health insurance?

12. Project 3:Paganism and Sustainability • The problem: How does ritual emplacement and enactment of nature spirit belief relate to sustainable behavior in daily life? • The issues: • How Pagans use ritual to emotionally link people to place and teach them about nature • How ritual shapes and reflects Pagan beliefs about nature • How ritual relates to individual commitment and behaviors in non-ritual space and time • The work (coming 2012-13): • 8 seasonal festivals: Druidic and Wiccan • 4 major Druidic and fairy-centered large-scale rituals • Interviews • Survey

13. Contract Projects: Have Methods, Will Travel • Service to community, especially to non-profits: • Organizational analysis • Program design • Evaluations • Long-term vision: • Serving community • Serving students • Serving the discipline Explaining Evaluations

14. The big questions What constructs the human experience, individually and collectively? How can we get people to think “good” thoughts and do “good” things? How do we define “good”? How do people think of new ideas and choose to behave in new ways? Why sometimes and not others?