This dissertation investigates Cape Breton fiddle music from a popular culture perspective. It introduces a conception of musical groove comprising two interrelated components: a social component wherein individual musical actors retain their own identities and relationships with the music while also uniting collectively in their response to the music, and a sonic component consisting of an acoustical repeating of a rhythmic idea that forms the metrical underpinning for a piece of groove music. Each of these two components is informed and mediated by the other. Cape Breton fiddle music is considered here as a form of groove-based popular music, similar to other groove musics. The two dimensions of the groove are analyzed in turn, revealing aspects of social identity, political and commercial representation, and processes of intercultural syncretism that have resulted in the evolution of the music within the pop culture mainstream. The dissertation is divided into two large sections. The first section concerns the social component of the Cape Breton fiddle groove, considering aspects of cultural representation, social identity, globalization and perceived external threats, and intersections with popular culture. The second section examines the sound of Cape Breton fiddle music as a form of groove-based music by first proposing a general model for the analysis of groove-based musics, and then applying the model to the Cape Breton fiddle context. The social and sonic components of Cape Breton fiddle grooves are treated as mutually reinforcing components of the same cultural product. Explorations of social identity and cultural representation of Cape Breton fiddle music determine those aspects of the sonic dimension of the music with the most social salience. In turn, analyses of the sound of Cape Breton fiddle grooves influence the understanding of the contemporary and historical socio-cultural community. Cape Breton fiddle music is therefore used here as a case study for combining the powerful modes of inquiry from the disciplines of music theory and ethnomusicology, leading to a richer and more nuanced understanding of musical traditions and cultures in general.

This dissertation demonstrates how changes in spatial boundaries map on to changes in the boundaries of national belonging through an ethnography of linguistic and spatial practice in a divided landscape. In Israel, as in many places around the globe, new forms of segregation have emerged in recent years, as violence and the fear of violence become increasingly bound up with the production of social difference and exclusion. In Wadi Ara, a valley in the north of the country where my fieldwork was based, segregation between Jewish and Palestinian citizens has dramatically increased since the fall of 2000, as the place of Palestinians in a Jewish state is being reconfigured. In this dissertation I focus on the changing movements and interactions of Jewish Israelis in Wadi Ara as they articulate with changes in the ways difference, belonging, and citizenship are organized on a national scale. I examine how increased hostility, fear, and distrust have become spatialized; how narratives of the past shape contemporary geographies; how competing ways of interpreting and navigating the landscape are mediated; and how particular forms of encounter are framed. My central argument is that through daily linguistic and spatial practice people in Wadi Ara do more than just make sense of shifting boundaries; they bring these boundaries into being and, in the process, they enact both self-definition and exclusion, reflecting and circumscribing the changing place of Palestinians in Israel. The dissertation is based on 19 months of fieldwork between 2002 and 2006.

This dissertation identifies two distinct stages of YHWH’s kingship in ancient Israel: an earlier warrior king with a limited sphere of geographic influence, and a later, Judahite creator king with universal power and absolute rule. After identifying these stages, this dissertation proposes the historical context in which the change to YHWH’s kingship occurred. Articulating this change is informed by the anthropological method of cultural translation and studied via a suitable historical analogue: the change in Marduk’s kingship and the external pressures that lead to the expression of his universal kingship in the Enuma Elish. The Babylonian changes to Marduk’s kingship form a suitable analogy to articulate the changes to YHWH’s kingship in the Levant. Therefore Judahite scribes suppressed the early warrior vision of YHWH’s kingship and promoted a more sustainable vision of a creator and universal king in order to combat the increasing threat of Neo-Assyrian imperialism begun under the reign of Tiglath-pileser III.

This dissertation identifies two distinct stages of YHWH’s kingship in ancient Israel: an earlier warrior king with a limited sphere of geographic influence, and a later, Judahite creator king with universal power and absolute rule. After identifying these stages, this dissertation proposes the historical context in which the change to YHWH’s kingship occurred. Articulating this change is informed by the anthropological method of cultural translation and studied via a suitable historical analogue: the change in Marduk’s kingship and the external pressures that lead to the expression of his universal kingship in the Enuma Elish. The Babylonian changes to Marduk’s kingship form a suitable analogy to articulate the changes to YHWH’s kingship in the Levant. Therefore Judahite scribes suppressed the early warrior vision of YHWH’s kingship and promoted a more sustainable vision of a creator and universal king in order to combat the increasing threat of Neo-Assyrian imperialism begun under the reign of Tiglath-pileser III.

This dissertation demonstrates how changes in spatial boundaries map on to changes in the boundaries of national belonging through an ethnography of linguistic and spatial practice in a divided landscape. In Israel, as in many places around the globe, new forms of segregation have emerged in recent years, as violence and the fear of violence become increasingly bound up with the production of social difference and exclusion. In Wadi Ara, a valley in the north of the country where my fieldwork was based, segregation between Jewish and Palestinian citizens has dramatically increased since the fall of 2000, as the place of Palestinians in a Jewish state is being reconfigured. In this dissertation I focus on the changing movements and interactions of Jewish Israelis in Wadi Ara as they articulate with changes in the ways difference, belonging, and citizenship are organized on a national scale. I examine how increased hostility, fear, and distrust have become spatialized; how narratives of the past shape contemporary geographies; how competing ways of interpreting and navigating the landscape are mediated; and how particular forms of encounter are framed. My central argument is that through daily linguistic and spatial practice people in Wadi Ara do more than just make sense of shifting boundaries; they bring these boundaries into being and, in the process, they enact both self-definition and exclusion, reflecting and circumscribing the changing place of Palestinians in Israel. The dissertation is based on 19 months of fieldwork between 2002 and 2006.

This dissertation investigates Cape Breton fiddle music from a popular culture perspective. It introduces a conception of musical groove comprising two interrelated components: a social component wherein individual musical actors retain their own identities and relationships with the music while also uniting collectively in their response to the music, and a sonic component consisting of an acoustical repeating of a rhythmic idea that forms the metrical underpinning for a piece of groove music. Each of these two components is informed and mediated by the other. Cape Breton fiddle music is considered here as a form of groove-based popular music, similar to other groove musics. The two dimensions of the groove are analyzed in turn, revealing aspects of social identity, political and commercial representation, and processes of intercultural syncretism that have resulted in the evolution of the music within the pop culture mainstream. The dissertation is divided into two large sections. The first section concerns the social component of the Cape Breton fiddle groove, considering aspects of cultural representation, social identity, globalization and perceived external threats, and intersections with popular culture. The second section examines the sound of Cape Breton fiddle music as a form of groove-based music by first proposing a general model for the analysis of groove-based musics, and then applying the model to the Cape Breton fiddle context. The social and sonic components of Cape Breton fiddle grooves are treated as mutually reinforcing components of the same cultural product. Explorations of social identity and cultural representation of Cape Breton fiddle music determine those aspects of the sonic dimension of the music with the most social salience. In turn, analyses of the sound of Cape Breton fiddle grooves influence the understanding of the contemporary and historical socio-cultural community. Cape Breton fiddle music is therefore used here as a case study for combining the powerful modes of inquiry from the disciplines of music theory and ethnomusicology, leading to a richer and more nuanced understanding of musical traditions and cultures in general.

This thesis constitutes a site for New Zealand-born Samoans to explore issues of ethnic identity. The emphasis is on the process of the Samoanising of christianity, and hegemonic identity discourses of not only the dominant society but of island-born Samoans and elders, and how this contributes to New Zealand-born Samoan self perceptions. A socio-historical overview provides an understanding of the process in which New Zealand born Samoans have been positioned. The stories and narratives of a group of New Zealandborn Samoans concerning their life experiences provide valuable insights into their 'identity journeys'--the construction of ethnic identity through experimenting with subject positions over time, as a result of challenges to their percieved self-identities. For some, this journey ends with a secured identity--a self-satisfying ethnic identity as a New Zealand-born Samoan--others remain in a perpetual state of conscious or subconscious identity confusion. More specifically the thesis seeks to provide an understanding and an interpretation of the way fa'aSamoa, church, and life in New Zealand impacts on life choices and on the construction of the self, and secured identities. The identity journey is analysed as a ritual and a series of rites of passage in order to expose the structure of identity confusion, and to examine the dichotomy of chaos and conflict within an apparently ordered society, experienced by New Zealand-born Samoans during their identity journeys.The thesis is therefore underpinned by Samoan conceptual frameworks involved in this identity journey, and aims to consciousness-raise and emancipate by exposing, understanding and reclaiming the links between fa'aSamoa, church, and a New Zealand born Samoan identity.The thesis represents an 'ie toga, because like a fine mat being woven, the strands of Samoan history, fa'aSamoa and Samoan contemporary lifeways, and their interaction with 'others' interconnect to inform Samoan identity. It is thus presented with respect, gratitude, deference, recognition and obligation, a tangible symbol of an alliance and an exchange with all Samoans and others. As the wellspring of my Samoan identity, in its creativity in design and fineness of weave, I hope that this 'ie toga will be received as a source of identity, history and wealth.

This thesis constitutes a site for New Zealand-born Samoans to explore issues of ethnic identity. The emphasis is on the process of the Samoanising of christianity, and hegemonic identity discourses of not only the dominant society but of island-born Samoans and elders, and how this contributes to New Zealand-born Samoan self perceptions. A socio-historical overview provides an understanding of the process in which New Zealand born Samoans have been positioned. The stories and narratives of a group of New Zealandborn Samoans concerning their life experiences provide valuable insights into their 'identity journeys'--the construction of ethnic identity through experimenting with subject positions over time, as a result of challenges to their percieved self-identities. For some, this journey ends with a secured identity--a self-satisfying ethnic identity as a New Zealand-born Samoan--others remain in a perpetual state of conscious or subconscious identity confusion. More specifically the thesis seeks to provide an understanding and an interpretation of the way fa'aSamoa, church, and life in New Zealand impacts on life choices and on the construction of the self, and secured identities. The identity journey is analysed as a ritual and a series of rites of passage in order to expose the structure of identity confusion, and to examine the dichotomy of chaos and conflict within an apparently ordered society, experienced by New Zealand-born Samoans during their identity journeys.The thesis is therefore underpinned by Samoan conceptual frameworks involved in this identity journey, and aims to consciousness-raise and emancipate by exposing, understanding and reclaiming the links between fa'aSamoa, church, and a New Zealand born Samoan identity.The thesis represents an 'ie toga, because like a fine mat being woven, the strands of Samoan history, fa'aSamoa and Samoan contemporary lifeways, and their interaction with 'others' interconnect to inform Samoan identity. It is thus presented with respect, gratitude, deference, recognition and obligation, a tangible symbol of an alliance and an exchange with all Samoans and others. As the wellspring of my Samoan identity, in its creativity in design and fineness of weave, I hope that this 'ie toga will be received as a source of identity, history and wealth.

This thesis constitutes a site for New Zealand-born Samoans to explore issues of ethnic identity. The emphasis is on the process of the Samoanising of christianity, and hegemonic identity discourses of not only the dominant society but of island-born Samoans and elders, and how this contributes to New Zealand-born Samoan self perceptions. A socio-historical overview provides an understanding of the process in which New Zealand born Samoans have been positioned. The stories and narratives of a group of New Zealandborn Samoans concerning their life experiences provide valuable insights into their 'identity journeys'--the construction of ethnic identity through experimenting with subject positions over time, as a result of challenges to their percieved self-identities. For some, this journey ends with a secured identity--a self-satisfying ethnic identity as a New Zealand-born Samoan--others remain in a perpetual state of conscious or subconscious identity confusion. More specifically the thesis seeks to provide an understanding and an interpretation of the way fa'aSamoa, church, and life in New Zealand impacts on life choices and on the construction of the self, and secured identities. The identity journey is analysed as a ritual and a series of rites of passage in order to expose the structure of identity confusion, and to examine the dichotomy of chaos and conflict within an apparently ordered society, experienced by New Zealand-born Samoans during their identity journeys.The thesis is therefore underpinned by Samoan conceptual frameworks involved in this identity journey, and aims to consciousness-raise and emancipate by exposing, understanding and reclaiming the links between fa'aSamoa, church, and a New Zealand born Samoan identity.The thesis represents an 'ie toga, because like a fine mat being woven, the strands of Samoan history, fa'aSamoa and Samoan contemporary lifeways, and their interaction with 'others' interconnect to inform Samoan identity. It is thus presented with respect, gratitude, deference, recognition and obligation, a tangible symbol of an alliance and an exchange with all Samoans and others. As the wellspring of my Samoan identity, in its creativity in design and fineness of weave, I hope that this 'ie toga will be received as a source of identity, history and wealth.

This thesis constitutes a site for New Zealand-born Samoans to explore issues of ethnic identity. The emphasis is on the process of the Samoanising of christianity, and hegemonic identity discourses of not only the dominant society but of island-born Samoans and elders, and how this contributes to New Zealand-born Samoan self perceptions. A socio-historical overview provides an understanding of the process in which New Zealand born Samoans have been positioned. The stories and narratives of a group of New Zealandborn Samoans concerning their life experiences provide valuable insights into their 'identity journeys'--the construction of ethnic identity through experimenting with subject positions over time, as a result of challenges to their percieved self-identities. For some, this journey ends with a secured identity--a self-satisfying ethnic identity as a New Zealand-born Samoan--others remain in a perpetual state of conscious or subconscious identity confusion. More specifically the thesis seeks to provide an understanding and an interpretation of the way fa'aSamoa, church, and life in New Zealand impacts on life choices and on the construction of the self, and secured identities. The identity journey is analysed as a ritual and a series of rites of passage in order to expose the structure of identity confusion, and to examine the dichotomy of chaos and conflict within an apparently ordered society, experienced by New Zealand-born Samoans during their identity journeys.The thesis is therefore underpinned by Samoan conceptual frameworks involved in this identity journey, and aims to consciousness-raise and emancipate by exposing, understanding and reclaiming the links between fa'aSamoa, church, and a New Zealand born Samoan identity.The thesis represents an 'ie toga, because like a fine mat being woven, the strands of Samoan history, fa'aSamoa and Samoan contemporary lifeways, and their interaction with 'others' interconnect to inform Samoan identity. It is thus presented with respect, gratitude, deference, recognition and obligation, a tangible symbol of an alliance and an exchange with all Samoans and others. As the wellspring of my Samoan identity, in its creativity in design and fineness of weave, I hope that this 'ie toga will be received as a source of identity, history and wealth.