Processes of transnational restructuring have significant, if complex, effects on local tradition. Turkey has been greatly effected by such transformations in the performative arenas of public culture which mediate between national and transnational spaces. These changes challenge Turks' notions of identity, giving way not only to concerns about the proper and most appropriate form of representation to advance as images of Turks and Turkey, but the need to negotiate among these varying identities (class, political, historical, aesthetic, professional, and gender) themselves. Domains of public culture often thought of as "traditional" such as folk dance and festival support the dynamics of middle-brow positioning vis-a-vis the global arena. Yet, while powerful, arenas of performance are also problematic when engaged as mediations on and representations of cultural identity. Because it exists only in the state of performance, dance poses particular difficulties to the effort to pin down meaning and intent. The practice of folk dance in Turkey, thus, is especially charged with debate. While folk dance is often assumed to present a virtual representation of the authentic spirit of Turkish culture, it is increasingly being conceived of as an arena capable of promoting further entree into global cultures of artistic expertise. Attempts to reformulate the practice of folk dance in terms of these goals have sparked intense debate. Tensions between people, including members of the state and participants, who support one position or the other reflect broader tensions of contemporary Turkish society.

The dance is a physical embodiment of ritual. The mask is a physical vehicle for the dance, indexing the event in its absence. The structures of dance, exemplified by the mask, are a powerful means of ordering an architectural problem. The project analyzes and maps the physical and covert structures which exist within certain dances of the Northwest Coast Indians and applies these structures to the design of an exhibit space for the masks used in the rituals. By attempting to permeate the built form of the exhibit space with the structures of the dances, it is intended that a new dance will be created in the experience of the designed space.

The issues of domesticity in the contemporary urban realm will be examined in the following manner. I will first investigate the implications of what it means for a 'table' and 'chair' to exist in a space both physically and psychologically. Issues of value and a sense of place as well as the concept of civilization given any cultural context all begin with space defining elements associated with human habitation. As my research challenges the preconceived notions that society makes about modern domestic life, I will build a series of full-scale domestic furnishings that will critically reference my philosophical inquiry about the nature of place. The built forms will symbolize society's condition of mobility as well as function as usable pieces of furniture that inculcate the user to an adaptable sense of home.

The creation of architecture is a process of solving problems. Architecture is complete if and only if it satisfies the competing human needs for liberty and security. Soviet Housing satisfies the need for security in architecture because it is considered as one part of a series of guarantees. By integrating a degree of choice into this existing set of basic guarantees, the need for liberty in architecture can be satisfied as well.

This thesis juxtaposes the comparable development of the written discourse surrounding three twentieth century modern art movements, Surrealism, American Abstract Expressionism and the performance art of Joseph Beuys, with that of cultural anthropology with regard to the role of each as cultural critique. This juxtaposition also examines the multiple layering suggested by the relationship between art, art history and art criticism to both, each other and to broader social and cultural arenas as comparable to that of anthropology to its 'other' as well as its own society. An anthropological analysis of the arts reveals their 'native' hermeneutic tradition and thus challenges anthropology to engage with realms of social discourse where it is not a privileged locus of interpretation. The crisis of representation faced by anthropology at present is compared to the crisis of subject matter which laid the foundation of modern art forty years ago.

The thesis formulates a transformation of the symbolic dimension of architectural forms found on the Iowa farmstead. The persistence of these forms, even in the event of their apparent recent absence of their necessity, can form the foundation of future representational and rhetorical meanings. If any stability or foundation can be found in this problem, it comes from these fragments of an older language and tradition. Through an understanding of these architectural forms and symbolic attachment once adhered to, an architecture derived with reference to historical and mythological authority, and function as an constitutive element, exists. To obtain the goal of rediscovering the truths and developing a new conscience of the symbolism and language of the Iowa Corn Belt farmer, the land and agriculture, the following methods will be employed: (1) Tracing the origins of the traditional symbols and architectural forms. (2) Studying regionalist painter Grant Wood and selected paintings depicting his story of rural society, its values and symbols, both physical and spiritual, during the 1920 and 1930's. (3) Examination of a personal photographic case study which reveals contemporary facts and visions currently in place in Iowa.

AIDS has become the most controversial issue to enter the American public discourse in the recent past. AIDS arouses a passionate response in Houston as elsewhere because it lies at the intersection between competing discourses. Contemporary debates on sexual identity, gay politics, sex education, drug use, and health care are changing the shape of public discourses on sexuality, identity, Christianity, public health, and law. The founders of the AIDS Foundation of Houston recognized the need to create a way of speaking about and understanding AIDS which could challenge unsympathetic points of view. The AIDS Foundation of Houston began its organizing and educational activities in 1981. It has become a key player in local political battles over what course Houston's response to the AIDS epidemic would take. As part of their efforts, local groups like the Foundation use a counter-discourse which portrays PWA's not as dangerous sources of contamination or AIDS victims but honestly represented as caring, responsible people who are actively involved in decision making and shaping public policy. This essay explores several aspects of this counter-discourse including both its oral and written aspects. Volunteers and staff at the AIDS Foundation speak about AIDS with a Foundation "etiquette" which protects the secrecy and dignity of persons with AIDS (PWA's) while loudly insisting on a more caring response by the city and state. PWA's, their lovers, friends, and family publicly talk about what it is like to have AIDS in oral narratives as well as through written autobiography and biography. These narratives express the suffering and passion of people with AIDS while also speaking to the political nature of life-threatening illness. These stories confront negative representations with a language of compassion and acceptance. The AIDS Foundation also has a more conventional form of public discourse which is less emotionally intense but is persistent in demanding improved services and AIDS education. The AIDS Foundation of Houston has been successful in creating alternate forms of AIDS discourses, challenging unsympathetic discourses, expanding local services, and teaching their way of speaking to people from all walks of life.

Mardi Gras has over time produced an abundance of material culture which holds in it and through it a history of New Orleans, for Mardi Gras is one representation of New Orleans' culture. To understand the culture of Mardi Gras one must have some knowledge of its history and development, the theories behind the ideas of Carnival and the carnivalesque, and the environment in which the event takes place. The material culture is presently housed in various archives and exhibits throughout the city. The need has therefore arisen for an institute to house this material culture for public exhibition, preservation, and scholarly analysis. It is the taking of a popular cultural event and interpreting it into the built form.

A discussion of some of the experimental genres used in ethnographic writing today, their origins, and which particular genres are most effective in relaying ethnographic data. This brief study is followed by an original ethnography based on anthropological fieldwork in Senegal, West Africa.

In America, the debate between high modern art and certain aspects of popular culture (most often referred to as kitsch) has been raging since the 1960's. Now, in the 80's and 90's, the dialogue has been extended to include the realm of architecture as well as art. The role of the serious questioning architect is becoming more and more important as he/she attempts to better negotiate and integrate the two coexistant factions through the use of irony, collage, discontinuity and super-adjacency. The vehicle of this architectural discussion is The Elvis Presley Museum and Memorial; a proposed edifice that will be used to help define the evolution of a new, hybrid building form of the late twentieth century, the pop museum. The goal is to design, from a critical and intellectual standpoint, a contemporary museum that will allow for and embody a multiplicity of levels of meaning in order to speak about this subject matter and even more importantly, allow the subject matter to speak for itself. Obviously, at the same time, it must also functionally and aesthetically appeal to the visitors for which it was designed.