The first part of this thesis examines how Navajo cultural philosophy views raiding, warfare, and warriors. Navajos understand raiding and warfare as controlled evils that should only be used for defense and protection. Anything human, environmental, or spiritual that poses a threat to Navajo individuals and/or society is considered an enemy. Likewise, anyone who provides protection against these potential harms may be considered a warrior. The second part of this research tests Clifton Kroeber and Bernard Fontana's hypothesis regarding indigenous warfare in respect to the Navajo. These scholars theorize that indigenous men used warfare as a means to re-establish their social worth which had presumably diminished as a result of some cultural shift in equity between the sexes. Their hypothesis is somewhat accurate as it pertains to Navajo warfare. Warfare, understood as protection, provides several outlets for men, women, and medicine people to bolster their self-esteem and social worth.

The United States Marine Corps occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934. During that period, Marine brutality became a key issue in the debate between those who supported the Occupation and those who opposed it. By studying the conflicting perspectives on Marine coercion, the author hopes to access the complex field of political and social forces which governed perceptions of the Occupation. Supporters of the Occupation considered Marine coercion to be a "necessary," though unpleasant, accessory to U.S. expansion. Within this discursive framework, the victims of Marine brutality were ignored, and Haitians were reduced to a homogenous "type" of inferior colonized person. In contrast, those who opposed the Occupation emphasized the physical harm done to the victims of Marine violence and asserted the uniqueness of Haitian culture. Using this strategy, dissenters effectively countered the dehumanizing power of the discourse of U.S. expansion by undermining the logic of "necessary" Marine coercion.

This thesis addresses and critically reviews American Indian protest art as a legitimate art genre. Brief discussions of the Studio (the first formal American Indian art school), the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), and the American Indian protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as irony, satire, and humor in Indian art are included. The concept of the "Indian" identity as a motivating factor of the art, and the redundant use of stereotypical imagery as it relates to cultural conflicts are addressed. Descriptive interpretations of the art of David Bradley, Alex Jacobs, and Stan Natchez, and the three fundamental elements of this art style are presented in detail.

This thesis is based on 31 interviews and one focus group conducted with Jewish bisexual women and men in the San Francisco Bay Area. While there is much academic discussion and theory about interlocking oppressions of race, class, gender, and sexuality, I explore the complex ways that these systems weave together with religious and ethnic identification in the lives and speech of study participants. Interviewees discuss their multiple and shifting identities, difficulties that they encounter in conceptualizing the intersection of their ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation, and demonstrate the ways that these identifications intermingle in their speech and stories in spite of these difficulties. They compare the liminal status of both Jewish and bisexual identifications on the boundary of privilege, and their decisions about passing or acting in solidarity with the oppressed. Participants' experience and practice of both Jewishness and bisexuality are changed and influenced by each other.

Western political thought is Eurocentric in world view. Since Western thought has been accepted as universal, there is the need to respond to this situation. This thesis will examine egalitarianism from a perspective of North American tribal society. It is my hypothesis that since the discovery of the Americas, indigenous people continue to have a contradictory experience of egalitarianism. Although certain elements of equality were common to the thinking of indigenous people and Western man, Western nations oppressed indigenous people through egalitarian policies.

This thesis studies a particular aspect of the Argentinan novel Facundo: Civilizacion o barbarie by Domingo F. Sarmiento. The author associates the red color of certain flags with, according to his opinion, the wild and violent nature of non civilized people. All this takes place during the l8$\rm\sp{th}$ century, when Argentina is being shaped as a nation and Sarmiento is taking part in that process. The book is a political propaganda against the Argentinan dictator Rosas in a way and this link between the red color and some peoples' barbarism is elaborated in order to express the same idea about this dictator and the red color of his political symbols. This technique has very close connections with the Orientalism of other texts. This research tries to show, through a deep study of some national flags, that many of the references to flags and their history in the book are biased comments subordinated to his enlightened project.

<p> This project explores the phenomenon of urban agriculture and the benefits of access to horticultural space in a low income community in the city of Santa Ana, California. Based conducted over a one year period, the author utilized participant-observation, conducted 20 personal interviews, coded 120 pages of field notes, analyzed original data on plant species, used demographic data, and food distribution data at the garden. Conclusions drawn from the research include that community gardens can be utilized as spaces which promote social cohesion, a place of food distribution, a place to grow medicinal plants, and a place to grow culturally important plants. This work contributes to the literature on urban gardens by developing an original concept called cultural plant memory&mdash;a theory that treats plants as public symbols, which can enact personal and shared cultural values, memories, and customs. This thesis demonstrates the potential of these spaces and aids in the promotion of horticultural space in urban areas.</p>

<p> A thematic study grounded in transnational and transatlantic studies of modern and postmodern literatures, this dissertation examines five contemporary Irish poets&mdash;John Montague, Padraic Fiacc, James Liddy, Seamus Heaney, and Eavan Boland&mdash;whose separation from Ireland in the United States has produced a distinct body of work that I call, "the poetics of return." As the biological heirs of the Civil War generation and the intellectual heirs of the Irish high modernists, these poets are some of the leading lights of the renaissance in Irish literary arts after midcentury. </p><p> This dissertation argues that an important aspect of this era has been its reevaluation of narratives of political and artistic exile; those created by nationalists and republicans, on the one hand, and modernists such as James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, on the other. Drawing on the criticism of Patrick Ward and Seamus Deane, I argue that the atomization of the critical vocabulary of exile has enabled modern poets greater means to consider the cultural anxieties surrounding their separation from Ireland. Accordingly they have become less interested in the meaning of leaving Ireland and more interested in the meaning of return. This project engages a range of scholarly literature devoted to the Irish poets and poetry of the last half century and reevaluates a number of standard readings and assumptions.</p>

<p> What is the most effective problem solving method at the environmental policy table in the context of a radical diversity of worldviews? I answer the question in the dissertation by developing a theory that accommodates diversity in policymaking. My line of reasoning is as follows. </p><p> In Chapter One, I survey the diverse discourse about Global Climate Models in detail. I demonstrate that a radical diversity of worldviews is expressed in the discourse. In Chapter Two, I advance a model of language that is an accurate foundation for discourse in policymaking. In Chapter Three, I consider the best policymaking strategy in view of the language model: idea-based policymaking. I then demonstrate that the policymaking strategy is weakly theorized. I introduce a theory of its operation at the end of Chapter Three, and develop it in detail in Chapters Four and Five. Because there is not currently a model, I consider an analogue model in play and explain the analogy in Chapter Four. I apply the analogue to the policy table in Chapter Five and fully develop an operational theory to explicate the problem solving method in policymaking. </p><p> The force of the dissertation's contribution is made in Chapters Three to Five. Chapters One and Two are a ground of the argument. </p><p> In Chapters Three to Five, I argue that idea-based policymaking is a promising form of policymaking practice because social learning is the operative problem-solving mechanism. In social learning: (1) the worldviews of the actors are leveraged in discourse and (2) power relations are dynamically distributed among actors (Hajer). The result is a fortified problem solving operation. This is because in (1) the heterogeneous problem solving resources of the group members are distributed and in (2) social learning shifts power relations by dislodging, mediating, and subsuming a new power regime. </p><p> In summary, the dissertation is a contribution in applied philosophy. I comprehensively demonstrate that an effective policymaking method will manage the incommensurability of worldview and stipulate a problem solving method that engages the basic condition of policymaking&mdash;radical diversity&mdash;rather than denies it.</p>

<p> Respite care is a social support service that gives parents of people with intellectual disabilities a short break from the constant stress of giving care&mdash;an outside provider temporarily fills the caregiving role. Utilized by families of various socio-cultural backgrounds, little research to date examines respite efficacy holistically in different contexts. Through ethnographic research in the homes and communities of three families over six months of service utilization, meaningful patterns have emerged regarding the planning, perceptions, use, and expected outcomes of respite care. Findings include that parental satisfaction is associated with how parents make plans, if they find the care provider trustworthy, and how completely they and their adult children are able to achieve respite plans. In sum, service efficacy depends largely upon the degree to which parents feel in control of the entire respite experience.</p>