Cultural Reference

A facial expression indicating disgust, wry irony, displeasure, pain, or some level of emotional or physical discomfort.

Usually refers to hair tufted or tied into a ball or bun at the top of the head. Can also refer to feathers, ribbons, or other forms of head dress at the crown of the head.

The commonly used title of an ordained Catholic priest. In the Catholic Church, a priest is a man who is authorized to perform as a mediator between his congregation and the Christian god. His authority enables him to conduct liturgies and masses, and serve in both a spiritual and administrative capacity within the sphere of the Church’s influence and authority.

A Franciscan is a Christian who belongs to the Franciscan order, which is a Catholic sect that follows the teachings and guidance of St. Francis of Assisi. Preaching a life of repentance, poverty, and service to the poor by attempting to explicitly follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, Saint Francis's teachings began spreading in Rome and its surrounding regions in the 12th century, and grew increasingly popular across Europe after his death in the 13th century. The Franciscan order has a distinct view of nature as a manifestation and mirror of the divine. Even the plants and animals are brothers and sisters to be cherished, because all life retains the ability and duty to praise the Christian God. Because of this relatively open and welcoming practice, the Franciscans were integral in establishing and maintaining colonial outposts at the fringes of Western empires, specifically the Spanish empire in the Americas. Thus, as early as the fifteenth century, the Franciscans, along with the Spanish military, established outposts that brought together military and religious rule in order to control and convert indigenous peoples throughout the Americas.

The influence of Franciscan missionaries is still felt in many Christian establishments in the U.S. Southwest, and has a particularly strong presence in churches located on Native American reservations.

The condition of having little or no protection from the natural elements. Severe and prolonged exposure to heat, cold, thirst, or hunger can lead ultimately to death.

The manner in which a book is put and held together, especially in the area of its spine.

A portable, usually handheld, illumination device. Typically, a flashlight consists of a stem, comprised of a hard casing that doubles as a handle and as the housing for batteries that power the flashlight, and a head, a bulbous protuberance topped by a durable lense. It is within the head that the lightbulb is fixed. Depending upon the size of the bulb and the batteries powering it, the beam produced by the flashlight is powerful, diffuse, focused, or intermittent.

A scholar working within the discipline of anthropology, which is the study of humans. As a discursive field of studies, anthropology can be broadly divided into four areas: Cultural Anthropology (Ethnology), Physical Anthropology (Evolutionary Anthropology), Linguistics, and Archaeology. Each area can be divided into sub-categories. For example, physical anthropology covers zoology, evolution, and ecology, each of which can be further broken down into subfields of specialization.

The cultural or biological process of reduction resulting in the eventual disappearance of a language, tradition, cultural group, or species. Although extinction is often linked to a group's failure to "adapt,", extinction usually occurs due to violent and coercive external influences on the practice, group, or species under consideration. For example, the forced acquisition of colonial languages and social and religious practices, or modern development practices and associated resource extraction, lead to the loss of socio-cultural environments and habitats necessary for the perpetuation of cultural identities, practices, and even memory, or the loss of an entire species.

An adjective that suggests an almost triumphant sense of celebration.