This dissertation is an ethnographic work describing how foodways have become central to identity negotiation in a Maya village that has recently been impacted by evangelical conversion and tourism. This village is in the region of Quintana Roo, Mexico best known for its involvement in the Caste Wars of Yucatán and historic resistance to assimilation to Mexican identity. However, in recent years, the demand for inexpensive labor in the hotel zone of the Caribbean coast of Quintana Roo has led to improved infrastructure and transportation to these villages. With this improved infrastructure has come increased outside interaction including the establishment of evangelical churches and day labor buses. These combined influences of religion and labor changes have led to new ways of negotiating identity that had not previously existed in village life here. Because life in this village had always centered on subsistence farming and its associated food getting and food making tasks, the option for wage labor and evangelical religion have provided a support system for those unable or unwilling to participate in traditional forms of subsistence. The new social structures are often negotiated using food and foodways as a declaration of belonging or resistance. My work provides vignettes describing these processes of identity negotiation at the national, regional and familial levels. / text

No description available.

This thesis analyzes the history of caste system and explains the theories of the birth of caste in Indian civilization. After defining the caste system in historical and cultural manner. examines the birth of and spreading of Dalit movement or low caste mass movement during the 19th and 20th century with the influence of British rule.

Originally submitted as author's thesis, Agra University, 1963. / Includes bibliographical references.

abstract: At the heart of every eusocial insect colony is a reproductive division of labor. This division can emerge through dominance interactions at the adult stage or through the production of distinct queen and worker castes at the larval stage. In both cases, this division depends on plasticity within an individual to develop reproductive characteristics or serve as a worker. In order to gain insight into the evolution of reproductive plasticity in the social insects, I investigated caste determination and dominance in the ant Harpegnathos saltator, a species that retains a number of ancestral characteristics. Treatment of worker larvae with a juvenile hormone (JH) analog induced late-instar larvae to develop as queens. At the colony level, workers must have a mechanism to regulate larval development to prevent queens from developing out of season. I identified a new behavior in H. saltator where workers bite larvae to inhibit queen determination. Workers could identify larval caste based on a chemical signal specific to queen-destined larvae, and the production of this signal was directly linked to increased JH levels. This association provides a connection between the physiological factors that induce queen development and the production of a caste-specific larval signal. In addition to caste determination at the larval stage, adult workers of H. saltator compete to establish a reproductive hierarchy. Unlike other social insects, dominance in H. saltator was not related to differences in JH or ecdysteroid levels. Instead, changes in brain levels of biogenic amines, particularly dopamine, were correlated with dominance and reproductive status. Receptor genes for dopamine were expressed in both the brain and ovaries of H. saltator, and this suggests that dopamine may coordinate changes in behavior at the neurological level with ovarian status. Together, these studies build on our understanding of reproductive plasticity in social insects and provide insight into the evolution of a reproductive division of labor. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Biology 2012

Orientador: Thomas Patrick Dwyer / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-20T06:07:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alves_MarianaFaiadBatista_M.pdf: 870201 bytes, checksum: a7bd17a397e50ebd65ea19210ac601ba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: A Índia possui uma indústria de Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TICs) de alcance global. Esta dissertação busca entender a trajetória do sucesso indiano por meio de uma análise de seus protagonistas, que são membros de uma elite que está em contato intenso com o Ocidente desde os tempos em que o país era uma colônia britânica, ao mesmo tempo em que possuem um papel importante no hinduísmo por serem parte da casta mais alta do sistema hierárquico. A elite protagonista da indústria de TICs é, em sua maioria, Brâmane, em contato intenso com o Ocidente: uma identidade marcada pela contradição. Aspectos particulares da identidade desta elite colaboram para o sucesso da Índia na indústria tecnológica e, por isso, buscamos analisar dois destes aspectos: o impacto do sistema de castas no desenvolvimento da indústria de TICs e o contato da elite Brâmane com o Ocidente / Abstract: India has an Information and Communication Technologies industry (ICTs) of global reach. This dissertation seeks to understand the trajectory of Indian success through an analysis of its protagonists, who are members of an elite in constant contact with the West since the time when the country was a British colony, at the same time they have an important role in Hinduism for being part of the higher caste of the hierarchical system. The protagonist elite of the ICTs industry is mostly Brahmin, in intensive contact with the West: an identity marked by contradiction. Particular aspects of this elite's identity collaborate to India's success in the technology industry and, this study sought to analyze these two aspects: the impact of the caste system on the development of ICTs industry and the contact of the Brahmin elite with the West / Mestrado / Sociologia / Mestre em Sociologia

The village has been the significant social unit on the Indian subcontinent for thousands of years. To maintain its integrity it has developed a set of interlocking structures, some of which are unique to the subcontinent, which are very resistant to change. The Indian national government passed legislation which provided for the formation of new structures of political allocation without providing the basis of support for changing the other related structures existing within the village. This thesis attempts to show why this particular change, advocated by the state and national governments, failed. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

Scholarship on humour in the Indian context has hardly looked at how performative humour or comedy intersects with the different axes of social stratification to impact caste groups perched at a disadvantageous position. And although English stand-up comedy in the country is gradually being recognized as an important facet of contemporary popular culture, efforts to see how this genre of performative humour aids and abets caste discrimination is still largely missing in the academic discourse. This study is an attempt to address this knowledge gap. By considering English political stand-up comedy as a subgenre of the wider performative art form, it aims to determine how comedians use political humour to critique the dominant understanding of the nation that the Indian State is trying to peddle to its citizens, and more importantly, if caste forms an analytical tool that informs their critique. This study uses a qualitative discourse analysis methodology to study precisely how caste finds representation in the comedians’ critique of the nation. It selects six political stand-up comedians and examines all of their stand-up comedy clips available for viewing on YouTube. By using a range of theoretical concepts, this research attempts to recognize the important connection between caste and political humour in India. It finds that English political stand-up comedy in India is anti-ritualistic as well as hegemonic. Comedians raise difficult, politically charged topics, normalize the critique of important political developments through humour and in doing this, negotiate the boundaries of free speech. They promote new understandings about the nation that is in stark contrast to the dominant ideology. But at the same time, the domain of English political stand-up comedy is not representative of caste questions. Comedians hardly ever talk about caste, and even when they do, it is mostly a passing remark or a hurried reference. Caste is also not represented in the comedians’ identities since most of them hail from upper caste backgrounds. English political stand-up comedy, then, in spite of its democratizing potential, reflects and reproduces the caste bias inherent in the broader national public sphere. These research findings prompt a discussion on caste in popular culture and institute political humour as a legitimate entry point into the sociological analysis of Indian society. / Graduate / 2022-08-06

Au croisement d'une sociologie des migrations et d'une sociologie de la jeunesse, cette thèse s'attache à saisir le sens de l'émigration envisagée par les jeunes de trois quartiers de Dakar. Alors que cet horizon collectif ne se concrétisera que pour bien peu d'entre eux, il s'agit en l'interrogeant d'explorer les contraintes sociales qui enserrent cette jeunesse urbaine et ses aspirations. Mais ce travail met également en relief ce qui différencie ces mondes juvéniles et ce qui leur est commun. L'étude de l'« hypothèse migratoire » montre comment la circulation de représentations communes du « Nord » se traduit différemment selon la position occupée par les jeunes dans l'espace social. En prenant en compte la place des jeunes dans les rapports sociaux – d'âge, de sexe, de caste (« Waaso ») et de classe – structurant la société sénégalaise, l'ethnographie de ces trois quartiers socialement différents dévoile la diversité des hiérarchies et des obstacles que les jeunes doivent contourner pour s'« accomplir » et réussir socialement (« Tekki »). En analysant les tensions créées par ces velléités d'émancipation à l'égard des structures sociales et les différentes formes de rappels à l'ordre exercées par ces dernières (stigmatisations, sanctions mystico-religieuses…), on peut comprendre la prégnance de l'hypothèse du départ : elle permettrait de s'extraire momentanément de rapports sociaux entravant une ascension sociale vécue comme possible, et de se distancier géographiquement pour s'élever socialement au retour. Moins qu'une volonté de bouleverser l'ensemble des structures sociales sénégalaises, l'émigration est envisagée comme le chemin le plus rapide pour obtenir une reconnaissance sociale de la part des différentes catégories dominantes : les plus âgés, les nobles (« géér »), les hommes, les riches. Cependant, seuls les plus armés économiquement et scolairement réussiront à partir. Pour la grande majorité des autres, l'émigration reste une migration « en puissance » (en suspens, différée ou reformulée), continuant d'exister comme la principale voie de réalisation de soi. L'étude montre enfin comment ces jeunes connaissent alors différents destins, qui sont autant d'ajustements plus ou moins réussis de leurs aspirations individuelles et collectives aux institutions clefs de la société sénégalaise.. / At the intersection of the sociology of migration and the sociology of youth, this thesis attempts to examine the meaning of emigration as envisaged by youth from three neighborhoods in Dakar. While only a small number of them will achieve their collective goal of migration, this thesis aims to explore the social constraints these urban youth face, which shape their aspirations. This work also underlines what divides these juveniles’ worlds as well as what unites them. The migratory portion of this study shows how the spread of common representations of the « North » and the reappropriation of heroic images of migrants varies according to the position currently held by the youth and the one they expect to hold when they return to this social space. By taking into account the place of young people in the social relationships that structure Senegalese society, considering age, sex, and caste, the ethnography of these three socially different areas in Dakar reveals the diversity of hierarchies and the obstacles that youth must overcome in order to become accomplished and succeed (« Tekki »). By analysing the tensions created by the desires of emancipation from social structures and various forms of calls to order they encounter (stigmatization, mystic-religious sanctions, etc.), we can understand the strength of youths’ desire to leave, motivated by the belief that this would allow them temporary reprieve from social relations that hinder their social ascent and permit them to distance themselves geographically in order to rise socially upon returning. Rather than a desire to overturn Senegalese social structures overall, emigration is envisaged as the quickest way to gain a social recognition from dominating groups: the elderly, nobles (geer), and the wealthy. However, only the best equipped economically and in terms of education will manage to leave. For the vast majority remaining, emigration remains « potential » migration (unsettled, deferred, or redefined), maintained as the primary means to self-accomplishment. Finally, this study shows how these young people achieve various fates, which represent more or less successful adjustments of their individual and collective aspirations to take part in key institutions in the Senegalese society.

The effects of food quantity on the morphology and development of the paper wasp Polistes metricus Say are studied, and experimental results are compared with predictions of the parental manipulation hypothesis. Food deprivation led to smaller female offspring. By hand feeding larvae we used a technique that counteracts the queen's hypothesized ability to restrict food provisioning. Hand feeding larvae did not result in larger offspring, but their abdomen was wider and heavier and the hand-fed wasps survived longer in a cold test. We infer that hand-fed colonies produced more gynes and fewer workers than did control colonies. Results of a restricted nourishment treatment do not support the differential feeding hypothesis, because in fasting colonies the emergence of all larvae was delayed by a month, and we did not detect discriminatory feeding of particular larvae for faster emergence. Although fasting colonies produced fewer offspring, the sex ratio did not show significant differences from the other groups. These data suggest that Polistes metricus colonies are partly able to respond to different nutritional conditions by allocating excess food to increase the number of gynes at the expense of workers.