Description: This presentation presents a research study conducted at UNT. The UNT Libraries partnered with the Department of Anthropology at UNT to conduct ethnographic research of how UNT students use the electronic library services.

Description: This article explores the role of social capital. Investments in public libraries in developing countries have been made based on the idea that libraries contribute to societal democratization. Yet scholarly understanding of the relationships between public libraries and democratization is sharply limited. In this article the authors review historical studies of national public library systems that cast doubt on widely held assumptions that a positive relationship necessarily pertains between the establishment of public libraries and democracy. Based on this historical review and on sociological theories of social capital (e.g. Bourdieu 1986), the authors develop a theoretical framework intended to facilitate systematic investigation of the contributions public libraries may make to democracy. Using comparative historical and ethnographic methods, the authors analyze the relationship between public libraries and democratic systems of government in Namibia, Nepal, and Malawi, and find that in all three cases public libraries were established mainly during democratic regimes. However, they were not necessarily established by democratically elected governments directly, but rather because democratic regimes proved to be relatively open to the influence of diasporas and global civil society. The authors only find evidence of public libraries contributing to societal democratization, as the authors conceptualize the process, in Nepal ...

Description: This article discusses the authors fieldwork with the Bishnois. Abstract: Although Rajasthan is the "desert" state in the North West of India, it has been a fertile ground for interreligious interactions for the last several centuries, welcoming or battling the new groups entering South Asia. This article presents the author's fieldwork done with the Bishnois, a Rajasthani community that transcends the boundaries of Hinduism and Islam. Although Bishnois are now considered a caste-group within the Hindu community, they were classified with Muslims in 1891 Census of Marwar. The author notes that despite the several common elements of Hindu and Muslim practices and ideas in this community, at present the Bishnois reject any connection with Islam. The article concludes that this "Hinduization" can be contextualized with similar process taking place with several other "liminal" communities.

Description: This article discusses an image that appears on the front cover of Newsweek magazine that depicts President Barack Obama in the cosmic dance pose of the Hindu deity Lord Nataraja (some have called it the Obama-Raja posture). Within a matter of hours after Newsweek depicted this image on its website, several Hindu organizations, Hindu websites, Hindus on social media sites, started reacting to this portrayal of one of their major gods.

Description: This article discusses environmentalism and ways in which dharmic methods can help save the planet. While most Americans are familiar with the terms such as "yoga" and "Bollywood," Indian perspectives toward the ecology seem to be largely unknown.