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This study investigates the transition from hunting and gathering economies to mixed economies involving both agriculture and hunting and gathering. Specifically, the problem of when, why, and how the transition to agriculture occurred in the arid-semiarid river basins of southeastern Arizona is explored. Modern environmental conditions are described, and the nature and sources of climatic, biotic, and fluvial systemic variability are considered. Anthropological and ecological models of hunter-gatherer adaptations to arid environments are used to reconstruct the general subsistence economy of preagricultural societies in the region, and to portray the process of the spread of agricultural production strategies. Two models of the transition are presented, one involving the adoption of agriculture by indigenous hunting-gathering societies, and the other involving the arrival of immigrant societies already practicing agriculture to a significant degree. Previous studies of the transition to agriculture in the American Southwest are reviewed, and new data are presented from excavated Late Archaic (ca. 3000-2000 BP) sites in southeastern Arizona. These data show that agriculture appeared by at least 2800 BP in this area, and that it spread rapidly across the American Southwest. It was already an important subsistence strategy and was associated with semisedentary village sites that have no known predecessors in the archaeological record. It is concluded that the adoption of agriculture, with its associated storage technology, is an important strategy by which human populations can mitigate some of the risks associated with foraging in an environment characterized by predictable seasonal variation in resource availability and unpredictable, climatically-induced fluctuations in the productivity of wild resources over time.

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This study looks into communicative processes and media practices among members of a subaltern social movement. The aim is to gain an understanding of how these processes and practices contribute to symbolic cohesion in the movement, how they develop and are socialized into practices, and how these processes and practices help challenge hegemonic groups in society. These questions are explored through a qualitative study, based on fieldwork and interviews, of a subaltern social movement. The empirical object of the study is the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), which was founded in 1984 to promote agrarian reform and defend the rights of rural workers in Brazil.   At the macro-level, the discussion addresses social realities marked by the meta-processes of globalisation, neo-liberalisation, and mediatisation. Against this background, the experiences of MST militants and of the movement as a whole help us to understand how different communicative processes play a role in the ways people experience globalisation, neo-liberalisation, and mediatisation in their daily lives. Departing from an understanding of communication as a process that structures practices (mediated and non-mediated), this study questions the media-centric understanding of communication, arguing that media practices are created through appropriation processes.   The results show that communicative processes are crucial to reinforcing values and symbologies associated with the rural worker identity. There is also a high level of reflexivity about media practices and an understanding that they must serve the principles of the collective. As a consequence, the movement seeks to maintain control over media, routinely discussing and evaluating the adoption and use of media. The interviews show ambivalence towards the alleged dialogic and organisational potential of digital media and to the adaptability of these media to the MST’s organisational processes. Through observation, it is possible to conclude that media have an instrumental function, as opposed to a structural function, in the processes of social transformation engendered by the MST. / This study looks into communicative processes and media practices among members of a subaltern social movement. The aim is to gain an understanding of how these processes and practices contribute to symbolic cohesion in the movement, how they develop and are socialized into practices, and how these processes and practices help challenge hegemonic groups in society. These questions are explored through a qualitative study, based on fieldwork and interviews, of a subaltern social movement. The empirical object of the study is the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), which was founded in 1984 to promote agrarian reform and defend the rights of rural workers in Brazil. The results show that communicative processes are crucial to reinforcing values and symbologies associated with the rural worker identity. There is also a high level of reflexivity about media practices and an understanding that they must serve the principles of the collective. As a consequence, the movement seeks to maintain control over media, routinely discussing and evaluating the adoption and use of media. The interviews show ambivalence towards the alleged dialogic and organisational potential of digital media and to the adaptability of these media to the MST’s organisational processes.

The foundation for this study rests upon the military ideology of Revolutionary America, which had as its guiding principle, the conviction that standing armies in peacetime were a liability. To many Americans a standing army represented an ever present threat to their rights as citizens. As a consequence, responsibility for the security of the nation was placed upon the idealised notion of the citizen soldier. This was a citizen, who it was supposed, would, when the need arose, voluntarily renounce his own personal priorities for the sake of the nation. Reality, however, proved otherwise, for citizen soldiers rarely achieved what was expected of them. Yet as this study's examination of the Congressional debates of the 1790's makes clear, the notion of the citizen soldier proved to be extremely resilient. Despite a catalogue of failings, the country's reliance on the state militias for a significant proportion of its military capability persisted. This served to severely handicap the effectiveness of the American military establishment during the War of 1812. Primarily, the effect that the militias had upon the effectiveness of the military establishment is found within the various interactions of citizen soldiers with the regular army. Although these interactions are categorised and analysed within the context of this study, all of them revolve around the issue of consent. Militiamen demanded from the federal government that once they had consented to serve, it was beholden upon the federal government to ensure that they were properly equipped and supplied, as well as being directed towards some worthwhile objective. Yet despite the considerable importance these interactions had upon the military establishment, and their utility in understanding many of its failings, historians of the conflict have failed to adequately consider them. Instead, they have tended to either denigrate the militias' obvious failings, or eulogise their achievements, rather than examine why the militias were capable of performances at both extremes.

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This dissertation investigates the works of two Black female writers: Flora Nwapa(African and Nigerian) and Zora Neale Hurston (African American). Although theycome from different geographical regions, both writers use the same rchetypal patterns to create strong female protagonists. By characterizing protagonists in their novels from an African religious cultural perspective, both authors dismantle the stereotypical images of how black women are typically portrayed in fiction. Using Jung's theory of the collective unconscious and archetypal criticism the study finds that both authors create black female protagonists who are wise, resilient, decisive, courageous, independent, and risk-taking; the women who, through their self-discovery journeys, are neither defined by nor in oppositional relationships with the males in their lives. The study compares how the qualities of two archetypal goddesses, Uhamiri of the Igbo cosmology and Oya of the Yoruba cosmology, are personified through the personalities of the two female protagonists in Nwapa's Efuru and Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, respectively. Using strong mythical females as templates, this research explores the ways in which the authors have defined their female characters, thus providing an alternative strategy for defining and analyzing black female characters in fiction. The study asserts that literary interpretation of Africana women should include the cultural realities associated with the African religious framework in order to capture the full essence of their humanity. In addition, African feminist thought, unlike Western feminist theory, provides a more realistic model of discourse on Africana women's selfidentity. Examining Africana women from these perspectives, as opposed to analyzing them based on European standards, is an effective method of discrediting stereotypical images that continue to plague the portrayal of black women in fiction. When black women in fiction are explored from this vantage point, the literary work sends a message of cultural authenticity and preservation that elevates Africana women, expanding their functions and positions in society beyond traditional roles.

This dissertation explores Buddhist architecture in America from the nineteenth century through the present day. It examines significant examples of Buddhist architecture with respect to the spiritual beliefs of the practitioners who created them. Its goal is to understand these structures from the point of view of human experience. Given the large number of Buddhist structures that exist in the U.S., the narrative navigates the major contours of its development. It follows in isometric fashion the parallel history of Buddhism’s emergence in America that started with the California Gold Rush and its influence on the New England Transcendentalists. Proceeding chronologically through the twentieth and early twenty-first-centuries, the historical sweep of Buddhism’s architectural presence in America is articulated by exploring important structures in depth with respect to Buddhist belief, human emotion, socio-political contexts, and religious faith. A number of hermeneutic binaries are employed throughout the history presented here. Space and Place, East and West, Interior and Exterior, and Spirit and Matter are the major motifs implemented to explicate the buildings and environments under investigation. The overwhelming feeling pervading the discourse and design of Buddhist architecture and its co-extensive belief system is that of the heart. The human proclivity to attach personal meaning and deep emotion to a space or a place is at the express core of the Buddhist structures that house Buddhist practices. As a result, the study’s methodology is inspired by Yi-Fu Tuan’s humanistic geography, whose work explores the relationship between environment and human subjective experience. The study finds that ritual, lineage, and heritage work in tandem with heart, home, and the human body in the construction, understanding and experience of Buddhist architecture. It argues that traditional forms and practices derived from each community’s home culture infused a sense of shelter and protection onto these buildings. Buddhist belief and its associated architecture assuaged the new and sometimes hostile setting of the United States. As the first study of its kind, this dissertation opens the field of Buddhist architecture in America as a distinct branch of scholarly inquiry.

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