Mark Jamieson

Mark Jamieson

Lecturer

Programme Leader

Department of Social Sciences

Mark is interested primarily in anthropological approaches to the study of kinship, economy, religion, language and land rights in small-scale societies.

Qualifications

  • MA
  • PhD

Areas Of Interest

  • Social anthropology
  • Linguistics
  • Economy in small-scale societies
  • Ritual and systems of belief
  • Land rights
  • Counterfeits and reproductions
Mark Jamieson

OVERVIEW

Mark is interested primarily in anthropological approaches to the study of kinship, economy, religion, language and land rights in small scales societies.

His own research on this topic has primarily been conducted in Nicaragua where he has conducted extensive research over three decades in Miskitu and Creole speaking communities. He is also interested in the "social lives of things" and has worked on counterfeits, copies and reproductions, focusing in his own research on bootleg 1950s rock and roll records and present-day Teddy Boy and Hepcat cultists who collect these.

Mark is a recent (2020-21) Leverhulme Trust Fellow and is using the time afforded by this fellowship to write a book on the influence of the cocaine trade among the Miskitu-speaking people of the Pearl Lagoon basin of Nicaragua on pre-existing notions surrounding belief and the practices of reciprocity, brideservice, matrilocality and social processes.

PUBLICATIONS

  • Displacement and the ‘loss’ of language and identity in two villages in eastern Nicaragua. (2020) In ‘Creating social order in displaced communities’ (ed.) Robert Layton. Canon Pyon: Sean Kingston Publishing, pp.125-145.
  • (with Lynda Boothroyd et al.) Television consumption drives perceptions of attractiveness in a population undergoing technological transition (2019). In Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Dec. 19, 1-21.
  • Cocaine money, cement houses and new residential arrangements in a coastal Miskitu village. (2019) In ‘Indigenous struggles for autonomy: the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua’ (ed.) L. Baracco. New York. Lexington Books, pp.181-199.
  • Theodicy and Lovindeer’s ‘Wild Gilbert’ on Nicaragua’s Mosquito Coast (2018) Suomen Antropologi: Journal of the Finnish Anthropology Society, 43: 88-91.
  • (with Jean-Luc Jucker et al.) Nutritional status and the influence of TV consumption on female body size ideals in populations recently exposed to the media. (2017) Scientific Reports 7 (8438): 1-9.
  • (with Jean-Luc Jucker et al.) Television exposure predicts body size ideals in previously media-naïve populations. (2016) In British Journal of Psychology 107 (4): 752-767.
  • (with Steven Lyon and Michael Fischer) Persistent cultures: Miskitu kinship terminological fluidity. (2015) In Structure and Dynamics 8 (1), 1-16
  • (with Isobel Scott et al.) Human preferences for sexually dimorphic faces may be evolutionarily novel. (2014) In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, 14388-14393.
  • Territorial demarcation and indigenous rights in eastern Nicaragua: the case of Kakabila. (2011). In National integration and contested autonomy: the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua (ed.) L. Baracco. New York: Algora Publishing, pp.283-307.
  • A journey into symbolic disorder: Miskitu reactions to Mestizo Catholic ritual in Nicaragua. (2010). In Ethnography 11: 409-424.
  • (with Neisy Theodore Schwartz) Las fiestas de Santo Domingo como rito subversivo: percepciones miskitas de rituals mestizos en Bluefields y Managua. (2010). In Wani 60: 42-55.
  • Mother scorpion: women’s politics and affinal relations among the Miskitu and other ‘brideservice societies’. (2010). In History and Anthropology 21: 173-189.
  • Bloodman, Manatee Owner and the destruction of the Turtle Book: Ulwa and Miskitu representations of knowledge and economic power. (2010). In Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 16: 31-45.
  • Máscaras y locura: expresiones rituales de la transición hacia la adultez entre adolescentes miskitos. (2010). In Wani 57: 15-24.
  • Contracts with satan: relations with ‘spirit owners’ and the economy among the coastal Miskitu of Nicaragua (2009). In Durham Anthropology Journal, 2: 44-53 (online).
  • Contratos con los dawanka y los procesos productivos entre los miskitos de las comunidades costeras de la RAAS. (2009). In Wani 56: 15-24.
  • Sorcery, ghostly attack and the presence and absence of shamans among the Ulwa and Miskitu of eastern Nicaragua. (2008). In Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 14: 554-571.
  • (with Danilo Salamanca). El trabajo de científicos sociales en la CIDCA y en Wani. (2007). In Wani 51: 33-38.
  • Estilos de habla e idiomas sécretos entre los niños de una comunidad miskita. (2007). In Wani 50, 75-90.
  • Language and the process of socialisation amongst bilingual children in a Nicaraguan village. (2007). In Durham Anthropology Journal (online).
  • Compasión, enojo y corazones rotos: ontología y el rol del lenguaje en el lamento miskito (2007). In Wani 49: 6-20.
  • ¿Miskito o criollo? Identidad étnica y economía moral en una comunidad miskita en Nicaragua. (2007). In Wani 48: 6-24.
  • In search of the last ‘wild’ Apaches of the Sierra Madre. (2006). In Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 12: 237-239.
  • Miskitu or Creole? Ethnic identity and the moral economy in a Nicaraguan Miskitu village. (2003). In Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 9: 201-222.
  • La reproducción de desigualdades internas y la economía del camarón en una comunidad miskita. (2002). In Wani 31, 30-37.
  • Ownership of sea shrimp production and perceptions of economic opportunity in a Nicaraguan Miskitu village. (2002). In Ethnology 41: 281-298.
  • Miskitu, Sumo y Tungla: variación lingüística e identidad étnica (2001). In Wani 27: 6-12.
  • Masks and madness: ritual expressions of the transition to adulthood among Miskitu adolescents (2001). In Social Anthropology 9: 257-272.
  • "It's shame that makes men and women enemies": the politics of intimacy among the Miskitu of Kakabila (2000). In Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 6: 311-324.
  • Compassion, anger and broken hearts: ontology and the role of language in the Miskitu lament (2000). In The anthropology of love and anger (eds.) J. Overing and A. Passes. London: Routledge, pp.82-96.
  • El inglés y la variedad de miskito en la cuenca de Pearl Lagoon (1999). In Wani 24: 22-32.
  • The place of counterfeits in "regimes of value": an anthropological approach (1999). In Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 5: 1-11. Republished in 2001 in Inventory 4(2): 12-25.
  • Poverty among Nicaragua's indigenous peoples (1998) – Washington: Inter-American Development Bank. See www.iadb.org/sds/doc/IND-MJamiesonE.PDF
  • Linguistic innovation and relationship terminology in Nicaragua's Pearl Lagoon (1998). In Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 4: 713-730. 

MODULES

The courses Mark teaches and leads presently are Research Methods in the Social Sciences (SY5005) and the Applied Research Project in Social Sciences (SY6002).