Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-02, Section: A, page: 1007. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1978.

This dissertation is an exploration into the attitudes of National Thai police cadets toward police corruption in Thailand. The dependent variable of the study is the cadets' stated willingness to engage in police corruption. The main objective of this dissertation is to assess factors associated with the likelihood of cadets engaging in police corruption in the future. The methodology employed in the study is survey research. Data for the study have been collected by questionnaires distributed to all members of the National Thai Police Academy (1189 cadets) during the period June-July 1990. / Hypotheses based on four different perspectives on police corruption:--the police subculture perspective, the police cynicism perspective, the deterrence perspective, and the normative perspective were proposed to explain police corruption. It was hypothesized that both exposure to police subculture and police cynicism should be positively associated with the cadets' likelihood of engaging in corruption, and deterrence and norm (belief in the wrongfulness of such behavior) should have negative relationships with police corruption. / According to the results of a multiple regression analysis, two perspectives, the police cynicism perspective and the normative perspective, provided significant explanatory variables predicting willingness to engage in police corruption. Police cynicism showed a positive relationship with cadets' stated likelihood of engaging in police corruption. The normative perspective also proved to be significant to the understanding of attitudes toward corruption. The results of the study indicated an inverse association between conception of wrongfulness and the likelihood of engaging in police corruption. The study's results did not support the police subculture perspective. Police subculture did not show a positive relationship with cadets' stated willingness of engaging in police corruption. The deterrence perspective also failed to gain empirical support as an explanation of police corruption. None of the four deterrence variables showed significant negative relationships with police corruption as expected. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-06, Section: A, page: 2279. / Major Professor: Leroy C. Gould. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Folklore, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: A, page: 0288. Adviser: Henry H. Glassie. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 8, 2007)."

The persuasive speeches of the Zhanguo ce, "The Intrigues of the Warring States," are considered by many to have been written for the purpose of training Warring States political advisers in the rhetorical style of the Zongheng rhetorical school. In contrast to earlier Chinese persuasive styles, the persuasions of the Zhanguo ce were apparently crafted to incorporate manipulative techniques in order to improve the effectiveness of the presentations. This thesis analyzes persuasive speeches from Zhanguo ce in order to identify the types of rhetorical devices used by Warring States rhetors. It also evaluates another reputed Warring States text, the Guiguzi, that openly advocates the use of psychological manipulation in persuasions. Lacking evidence that the received Guiguzi is a valid Warring States text, this thesis compares the Guiguzi teachings and Zhanguo ce persuasions to identify similarities that may indicate general Warring States attitudes toward using psychological manipulation in political persuasions.

This dissertation uses the writings of sailors, traders, and diplomats, American missionaries, and Hawaiian chiefs, as well as anthropological theories and ethnographic insights about Hawaiian culture to examine the cultural milieu created by western sojourners in Hawaii, contestation over the interrelated issues of morality, sexuality, religion, economics, and politics that occurred with the arrival of American evangelists, and the ways in which Hawaiian chiefs and commoners negotiated a delicate and calculated path between the embattled imperialist forces in their islands. This study places Hawaiian experiences within the broader outlines of American social, religious, and expansionist history. It offers a distinctly new interpretation of imperial relations in Hawaii, one that others may choose to build upon. In the past two decades, scholars of postmodernism and subaltern studies have devised new approaches to examining western imperialism in Africa, India, and China. However, only a handful of scholarly works have focused on western imperialism in Hawaii. Following trends in colonial scholarship and anthropological theory, particularly the work of Marshall Sahlins, this study uses an ethnographic approach to explain how Hawaiians viewed the religious, social, political, and cultural changes that resulted from the presence of foreigners in their kingdom and their responses to the challenges of imperialism. As such, this dissertation is highly interdisciplinary and draws upon the secondary literature in anthropology, missiology, colonialism, and Native American history. The issue of Hawaiian sovereignty has received national attention in recent years. Most scholars date the loss of Hawaiian independence to the moment in 1893 when U.S. Marines helped dethrone Queen Lili'uokalani. In reality, the forces that led to the annexation of the islands to the United States began with Captain James Cook's 1778 arrival in Hawaii. By focusing on the complex relations between two polarized groups of foreigners---American missionaries and western traders, sailors, and diplomats---and Hawaiian chiefs and commoners, this study reveals how the combined effects of western economic, religious, cultural, and political imperialism, cultural disintegration, native factionalism, and chiefly miscalculation created the context for the loss of Hawaiian political and economic control after 1839, much earlier than previously asserted in the literature.

Idealized presentations of female behavior prescribed by Ban Zhao (A.D. 45-120) and later male Confucians defined women in the role of inner helpers, thus confining them to the domestic arena. Close scrutiny of data however reveals a cluster of new values for Song women evident through personal cultivation and devotional practices both "within" and "without" the inner sphere. This dissertation offers a preliminary investigation of Song women's practices such as bodily and spiritual cultivations as well as their devotional and philanthropic activities. It examines why and how these specific inner and outer practices evolved into regnant womanly practices that ultimately becarne exemplary behaviors during the Song period. Through the lens of female daily practices, this study also investigates the diverse interactions between genders in the Song era. The first part of this dissertation explores Song women's bodily and spiritual observances within the inner quarters. Song women performed bodily cultivations through various forms of ascetic behaviors, including fasting, vegetarianism, the abstinence from slaughtering living beings, and seclusion in their daily lives, which can be deemed gendered practices. Spiritual cultivation through religious practices such as sutra recitation and other related observances functioned not only as accessible avenues of female spiritual pursuits, but also served as alternative conduits for Song women's literary aspirations. Part Two first discusses the gender discourse and the tension between the norms and historical reality during the Song. The last two chapters examine Song women's practices such as their religious offerings and involvement in community public works and philanthropy outside the domestic realm. In contrast to women's inner practices, women's outer sphere endeavors put their personal cultivation and volition into practice, and also extended their influential financial autonomy beyond the domestic arena into the greater society. This study concludes that despite deviations from conventional Confucian values, these inner and outer womanly practices were perceived as paragons of female virtues. Lastly, it suggests a negotiated process in the workings of gender in the Song culture.

The migration towards the center uprooted the great clans from their local areas and encouraged the rise of local ruffians to power during the late T'ang. This historical background shaped the social and political climate of the Wu regime in South China, which had been characterized by its military flavor. By enhancing the civil administration and adopting various ways of recruiting the literati and encouraging the cultural growth, Hsu Chih-kao and his successors were able to achieve complete bureaucratization of the regime, which in turn diminished the military influence and revitalized the neglected cultural tradition of their domain. South China thus became a haven of culture, and its role was particularly important as the cultural development in North China was subsequently devastated by civil wars and foreign invasions during the Five Dynasties. After the collapse of the Southern T'ang, the preservation of culture in South China allowed it to become a major source in shaping the cultural features of the Sung. Compared with other states, the Southern T'ang enjoyed considerable peace and stability, and scholar-officials had a peaceful and comfortable environment in which to develop a special style of living. Some tastes and habits had a great impact on the daily life of the Sung scholar-officials. However, cultural polices adopted by the Southern T'ang caused the decline of national strength, for many military clans who underwent the process of civil transformation were eventually deprived of the military vitality necessary to defend the country. Also, because of the cultural inferiority, some of the Sung rulers and scholar-officials were eager to seek revenge by humiliating and oppressing the "subsidiary" officials from the south. Although the Sung adopted repressive and discriminatory measures when appointing "subsidiary" officials, some were in fact employed by the new dynasty due to the heavy demand for qualified officials. Eventually, the "subsidiary" officials could improve their prospects for promotion and favorable treatment by taking the civil service examinations. Their literary ability and knowledge of rituals also enabled them to gain imperial favor, which was vital to strengthening their position in the Sung bureaucracy.

The recent discovery of Chinese medical manuscripts in a tomb dated to the second century BC in Ma-wang-tui, Ch'ang-sha, has revealed extremely interesting new information on the subject of ancient Chinese childbirth practices. The scrolls contain detailed advice concerning a proper and auspicious treatment of the placenta, an astronomical chart for choosing the perfect location for the burial of the placenta, and a description of the custom of exposing the newborn infant on the earth directly after birth. This paper offers a translation of these paragraphs and an interpretation based on a Japanese medical text that reflects Chinese medieval practices, basic knowledge of Chinese cosmology, society and religion and also general cross-cultural patterns for the treatment of the placenta that have been established through an anthropological research into placenta-related practices, beliefs and mythology from many different traditional cultures.

During the twentieth century, Soviet Armenian society has been witness to numerous situations in which national identity has become an expression of cultural paradox. From the 1940's to the 1990's, Armenia has been in a transitory state, oscillating between seemingly contradictory categories of East/West, capitalism/communism, traditional/modern, past/present and death/survival. Despite this state of flux, Armenian self-representations insistently point to a collective identity that defines itself as firmly rooted, fixed in space and enduring in understandings. This project explores stories and histories, especially anecdotes collected in the course of fieldwork in Soviet Armenia conducted over two extended periods from 1987 to 1992. What was sought were mechanisms that lend to culture the malleability to bend and twist without radical rupture, allowing culture to reinvent itself endlessly in the face of social pressures and to allow space for new cultural constructions of meaning. I chart the deeply contradictory symbolic structure of Soviet Armenian society as an instrument by which these reworkings are achieved. In so doing, it becomes clear that contradiction does not lead to cultural paralysis. On the contrary, the articulation of contradiction within a narrative mode allows for mediation of difference in a manner that is non-divisive. Further, I trace the modern history of Armenia to reveal the ways in which Armenians manage the affects of Sovietization, of the Diaspora and repatriation, and of Armenian independence and emergence into a new geo-political matrix. Special attention is given to the Soviet Nationality Policy of the 1920's and 1940's and to the disastrous earthquake of 1988, both of which have led to a renewed sense of nationalism and of peoplehood among the Armenians. In tracing symbolic repertoires, I reveal the transitory character of meanings and their implicational associations as culture repositions itself and renegotiates contradictions in new settings.

Investigating the concepts of qi and mai and their functions in the oldest extant, recently excavated, second century BCE practice-oriented guides to pulse taking, moxibustion, and needling practices, this thesis aims to show the prominent influence of water imagery and suggests a way to conceptualize its significance. These texts can be seen as transitional in the development of acupuncture, whose later practice would involve use of metal needles and be almost exclusively associated with the cosmological concepts of yin yang and wu xing and circular movements of qi that reached popularity in the Qin and Han dynasties and attested in the oldest and most famous Chinese medical compilation, also of the Han, the Huangdi neijing . In contrast, the paradigm of water, with its unidirectional free flows, is what informs these early medical manuscripts' understanding of qi and mai and their physiological movements.