In the early Middle Ages, when settlers began to leave Scandinavia to find new homes for themselves and their families, they began a process that impacted their lives dramatically. Research on modern population movements has demonstrated that migration-induced stresses change the lives of immigrants, and shape how they adapt to their new homes. Migration affects societies and people in a number of ways: it changes family and household organisation; gender relations and roles shift; and general social and cultural structures are altered through the integration of different practices and beliefs. While the identification of the societal changes caused by migration has been the focus of research in a number of fields, it has yet to be directly addressed in archaeology. This thesis seeks to examine the ways in which various social identities were displayed through funerary rituals and the associated material culture in the Norse North Atlantic, and to identify how these changed through the course of migration. The analysis is conducted by comparing burial data collected from two regions of Norway, representing the homeland of the migrants, and Scotland and Iceland, representing two critical destination points. Approximately 500 graves are catalogued and assessed using multivariate statistics. Six case studies, selected from the study areas, are used for comparative purposes. The analysis of the overall data-set and the case study sites indicates that there are key differences between the homeland and the communities of the Viking diaspora. Moreover, the results indicate that the circumstances of migration, such as location, resource availability, and the presence of a local population, results in society changing in different, yet significant, ways: gendered burial practices are altered; new manifestations of traditional rites appear; and migrant identities emerge.

This thesis constitutes an attempt to conceptualise the partition and independence of India and Pakistan in terms of rupture and novelty. The event or transition, which formally occurred in August 1947, is analysed as a rare moment of openness and undecidability. It is argued that a study of the so-called transfer of power—and of the inclusion of the notions of 'Partition‘ and 'Independence‘ as key elements of Indian and Pakistani nation building—ought to contain a recognition of the active labour by the political elites to overwrite the abyssal and ambiguous character of becoming independent and postcolonial. A second argument is that this overwriting was, necessarily, partial, i.e. it left certain groups and subject positions to populate the margins and the in-betweens of citizenship and national identity. The principal implication of the thesis‘ pro-posed theorising is that we need to adopt a new approach to the study of the partition of British India and the ensuing nation and state building; an approach that is sensitive to the constitutive contingency, and the forceful closure of it, which was contained in the moment of transition. In doing the above, the thesis critically engages with literature on the various and multi-layered levels of violence that were inscribed into the politics of belonging. Special attention is, in some parts, devoted to the Indian case. Partly in order to contest some of the sedimented assumptions regarding how to conceive the events in the late 1940s and the early 1950s; partly as a consequence of the primary material that underpins much of the reasoning. In order to demonstrate the above-mentioned uncertainty—both regarding the future trajectory of statehood and what independence actually signified—that the political elites, but also other sections of the two societies, was confronted with, the thesis is to a significant degree the product of archival research carried out at the National Archives of India and at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. It, in addition, draws on a close reading of the Constituent Assembly debates in both India and Pakistan.

No description available.

Recently there has been more critical attention given to the violent role of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) in the unfolding of settlement and colonial laws in western Canada. However, few have offered a comprehensive analysis of the violent encounters that are recorded (and missing) in the archival records and correspondence of the NWMP, and other secondary sources. Similarly, few researchers have utilized the ‘past’ experiences of Aboriginal peoples to try and understand the ongoing chasm today between non-indigenous settlers and Aboriginal peoples of Canada. In making the “marginal central” (Fitzpatrick 1989), and simultaneously challenging the dominant colonial narrative, I offer a socio-historical analysis of western Canada during the NWMP era (1873-1905), to show how it was (and still is), like other colonial frontiers, a violent space and time. I explore this argument by situating the violent encounters between the NWMP, white settlers, and Aboriginal peoples within the colonial relations that were structured to maintain the marginalization and dispossession of Aboriginal peoples. Failing to recognize and resist this part of western Canadian history, and the underlying logic behind it, is denial and limits the rationality and potential of non-indigenous Canadian populations to work for, and even conceive of, achieving an authentic reconciliation with Aboriginal peoples.

No description available.

Colonization has had a detrimental impact on Indigenous peoples and communities. Colonization has and continues to remove Indigenous peoples from full participation in Canadian society, which has forced some Indigenous men to search out other avenues in order to gain power, respect, and economic capital to survive. It is the direct result of colonial-shaped socio-political histories and ideologies that have led to the creation and proliferation of urban Indigenous street gangs. This dissertation examines 16 Indigenous male ex-gang members and their perceptions of masculinity, identity, and how this is supported through their involvement within a street gang. Relational accountability was the methodology utilized to engage and support the men through the course of the research process. It was from the focal point of relational accountability that photovoice methods could be modified to accommodate the lived realities of the men during the time of the study. Overall, fifteen individuals participated in the study, with nine engaging in photovoice methods to document and explain how they understood and practiced masculinity. The nine men, who completed photovoice, had their photographs and narratives brought together to create Brighter Days Ahead, to give back to the organization STR8 UP and help inform the broader community about the multiple issues that Indigenous youth face in the Canadian Prairies. The role of masculinity was integral for the men’s inclusion into street gangs. Connell’s concept of hegemonic masculinity and Bourdieu’s concept of habitus helped to create a framework to understand why some Indigenous men see street gangs as a viable option to practice masculinity. By examining the men’s histories, with a focus on their relationships’ with parents, siblings, family, peers, and social institutions, a more robust understanding the linkages to street gang involvement is created. The street gang epitomized the ideal “man”— tough, independent, emotion-less, and powerful, as it were these individual’s whom they would target for their recruitment. Analysis of the men’s narratives and photographs revealed how violence and trauma impacted their notions of maleness. It was through violent and traumatic experiences that the men would create a “mask” that they would wear to help them engage in hyper-violent behaviours within multiple fields and protect them from further victimization. This study directs our attention to focus future research on: 1) the impacts of colonization as both a historical and contemporary factor in the lives of Indigenous peoples; 2) the importance of relational accountability within the research process; 3) the potential of photovoice methods in expanding street gangs research; and 4) the need for gang prevention and intervention programming to focus on the concept of masculinity in order to deter gang involvement amongst Indigenous males and build healthier stronger communities.

This thesis explores representations of Italian migrant women in textual renditions of the Italian presence in Britain written and produced by descendants of Italian migrants between 1982 and 2002. The thesis offers detailed critical readings of six texts focusing on the experiences of Italian migrant women in Britain and their identity formation, and is organised according to genre categories including: theatre, romantic fiction and culinary memoir. Through close textual analysis, paying particular attention to key themes of movement, space and place within the context of female migration; the study scrutinizes the identity formation of Italian migrant women by demonstrating how seemingly clear and univocal models of Italian identity can be reconfigured as fluid conceptualizations of identity. It is argued that Italian identity as it is represented in a British context can be considered as a construct constituted by the repetition of a series of stylized acts. It is precisely through the repetition of these acts that Italian migrant women create forms of sustenance and stability for themselves and their families within the host country. This study moves beyond monolithic images of Italian migrant women, broadening the number of perspectives from which they can be viewed, by examining the way in which they are represented as stretching the seemingly fixed boundary between the public and private sphere in an attempt to transgress spatial and identity boundaries.

In October 1875 the Canadian government reserved a tract of land along the southwest shore of Lake Winnipeg for the exclusive use of Icelandic immigrants. This was part of a larger policy of reserving land for colonization projects involving European immigrants with a common ethno-religious background. The purpose of this policy was to promote the rapid resettlement and agricultural development of Aboriginal territory in the Canadian Northwest. The case of the Icelandic reserve, or Nýja Ísland (New Iceland), provides a revealing window into this policy, and the ways in which it intersected with the larger processes of colonization in the region during the late nineteenth century. The central problem that this study addresses is the uneasy fit between "colonization reserves" such as New Iceland and the political, economic and cultural logic of nineteenth-century liberalism. Earlier studies have interpreted group settlements as either aberrations from the "normal" pattern of pioneer individualism or communitarian alternatives to it. This study, by contrast, argues that colonization reserves were part of a spatial regime that reflected liberal categories of difference that were integral to the extension of a new liberal colonial order in the region. Using official documents, immigrant letters and contemporary newspapers, this study examines the Icelandic colonists’ relationship to the Aboriginal people they displaced, to other settler groups, and to the Canadian state. It draws out the tensions between the designs and perceptions of government officials in Ottawa and Winnipeg, the administrative machinery of the state, and the lives and strategies of people attempting to navigate shifting positions within colonial hierarchies of race and culture.

The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the portrayal of American Indians in U.S. textbooks selected for review in Hillsborough County, Florida's 2012 textbook adoption. The study identified which of the textbooks under consideration contained the greatest amount of information dedicated to American Indians. The study then analyzed how that information was portrayed. The exploratory questions that guided this study were, how are American Indians portrayed in five selected U.S. history textbooks? It also addresses the question, under what conditions can Tribal Critical Race Theory help illuminate how American Indians are portrayed in textbooks? The methodology used is a critical case study (Rubin and Rubin, 2005; Janesick, 2004). The Five Great Values, as developed by Sanchez (2007), were used in the organization, coding, and analysis of the data. The theoretical framework that guides this study is Tribal Critical Race Theory (Brayboy, 2005), created in order to address issues from an indigenous perspective. This study found that while overt racism has declined, colonialism and assimilation were still used as models when American Indians were depicted in the five selected textbooks. It also discovered the portrayal of American Indian women to be particularly influenced by the models of colonialism and assimilation. Colonization and assimilation can been seen in the depiction of American Indians as a part of nature, the homogenization of American Indian religion, the portrayal of elders as unnecessary, the exclusion of American Indian role models, and the use of Western socioeconomic models rather than indigenous ones.

Recently there has been more critical attention given to the violent role of the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) in the unfolding of settlement and colonial laws in western Canada. However, few have offered a comprehensive analysis of the violent encounters that are recorded (and missing) in the archival records and correspondence of the NWMP, and other secondary sources. Similarly, few researchers have utilized the ‘past’ experiences of Aboriginal peoples to try and understand the ongoing chasm today between non-indigenous settlers and Aboriginal peoples of Canada. In making the “marginal central” (Fitzpatrick 1989), and simultaneously challenging the dominant colonial narrative, I offer a socio-historical analysis of western Canada during the NWMP era (1873-1905), to show how it was (and still is), like other colonial frontiers, a violent space and time. I explore this argument by situating the violent encounters between the NWMP, white settlers, and Aboriginal peoples within the colonial relations that were structured to maintain the marginalization and dispossession of Aboriginal peoples. Failing to recognize and resist this part of western Canadian history, and the underlying logic behind it, is denial and limits the rationality and potential of non-indigenous Canadian populations to work for, and even conceive of, achieving an authentic reconciliation with Aboriginal peoples.