archives@tulane.edu / This dissertation investigates the site of El Tesoro, Hidalgo, Mexico during the Early Classic period Chingú phase (A.D. 200-500). Archaeological evidence, including material culture and burials, has previously indicated that this site was settled by a group of people with affiliations both to Teotihuacan, in the Basin of Mexico, and the Valley of Oaxaca, the Zapotec homeland in southern Mexico. I argue that the Chingú-phase occupation of El Tesoro is best understood as a creolized community of Zapo-Teotihuacanos that were likely related to members of the Oaxaca Barrio of Teotihuacan who migrated into southern Hidalgo during Teotihuacan’s expansion into that region. Evidence to support this argument comes from a variety of datasets presented herein, including: qualitative and quantitative analysis of ceramic attributes, artifact distribution and spatial patterning, ceramic compositional and provenance studies, and inter-site burial comparative analysis. Ceramic attribute analysis showed that El Tesoro’s potters recreated vessels from the Valley of Oaxaca, although with some divergence in style, and from Teotihuacan, but that they also created new, hybridized vessels that combined elements from both traditions. Artifact distribution maps indicated that Zapotec-style and Teotihuacan-style pottery overlapped throughout the site, suggesting that these vessels were used by the same people and in the same contexts, possibly side-by-side and interchangeably. X-ray diffraction and neutron activation analysis conducted on a sample of sherds recovered from surface collection at El Tesoro indicate that Zapotec-style and Teotihuacan-style pottery vessels were constructed on local clays, using similar past recipes. Finally, comparison between mortuary practices at El Tesoro and two locations in Teotihuacan, the Oaxaca Barrio and La Ventilla B, supported the results of the ceramic analysis, showing a hybridization of burial traditions at El Tesoro that replicated aspects of typical Teotihuacan and Zapotec burials, but in a novel way. Based on these datasets and analyses, I argue that the Chingú-phase population at El Tesoro should be considered a creolized group with affiliations both to Teotihuacan and the Valley of Oaxaca, and that they likely settled in southern Hidalgo during Teotihuacan’s expansion into that region and are an offshoot population of the Oaxaca Barrio of Teotihuacan. / 1 / Haley Holt Mehta

This thesis proposes the samba enredo, a complex narrative composed by Rio de Janeiro samba schools for the annual Carnaval parade, as a vital primary source for understanding the construction of Afro-Brazilian identity in contemporary Brazilian society. Next, I provide an analysis of one specific samba enredo presented by the samba school Unidos da Vila Isabel in the 2012 Rio Carnaval, which portrays the cultural link between Angola and Brazil. I argue that the narrative Vila Isabel constructs is a thoughtful, albeit incomplete, alternative to the more common link drawn between Yoruba culture and Afro-Brazil. Furthermore, I ascertain that this samba enredo, and the academic sources used to compose it, lack a clear definition of the religious dimension of Angolan heritage in Afro-Brazilian culture because they place Central African conversions to Catholicism in the context of slavery and do not cite the impact that Catholicism makes in Angola before the context of slavery and the Diaspora encounter in colonial Brazil.

Les mots-clés de l’énoncé de cette thèse : « De la Négritude d’Aimé Césaire au Tout-Monde d’Édouard Glissant, analyse d’un retournement discursif », soit Négritude, discours, retournement puis Tout-Monde, enfin créolisation cernent deux paradoxes et paradigmes fondamentaux. Le rapport des sociétés de la Caraïbe à l’Occident cartésien; celui des épigones, réunis autour de Confiant, Chamoiseau, des fils contre Césaire, le père. Tout se joue autour d’une question de sémioanthropologie et rhétorique. Consultons l’analyse césairienne des oxymores et néologismes, comme départementalisation. On y remarque l’importance accordée aux procédés argumentatifs, du Discours contre le colonialisme pour un exemple, centrés autour du binaire des affrontements, symbolisé par la rhétorique du Blanc/blanc/Noir/noir ou la sémiotique de Greimas revisité par Bremond. A la suite de M. Rinn, nous suivrons le trajet d’un actant-type du rôle de patient victime des effets de la question coloniale à son renversement en agent, acteur de son destin. A cette structuration antithétique se substitue une poétique de la Relation, métaleptique ou allégorique, avec Glissant, de même qu’au niveau collectif, il remplace l’État-nation, rempart à la globalisation selon Césaire, par la nation-relation, ouvert au Divers des rapports de périphérie à périphérie. Les choix communs du poète Césaire, du philosophe Glissant, orientent notre méthode vers une poétique qui propose aussi une structuration de la thèse autour des notions propres à Ricoeur d’amont, d’aval des civilisations et de recréation de ces ensembles engloutis. Le dialogisme du niveau dramatique s’en inspire également. Avec le baroque du Trickster, on passe au retournement de la dialectique du mal par les nombreux effets du rire, lieux favoris de la beauté du monde, où les différences s’ajoutent au lieu de s’annuler. / In this thesis title: "From Aimé Césaire's Negritude to Edouard Glissant's Tout-Monde, an analysis of a discursive reversal", the keywords – Negritude, discursive, reversal, Tout-monde, and creolization – set out two fundamental paradoxes and paradigms. These are the relationship between Caribbean society and Cartesian West ; and that between the disciples gathered around Confiant and Chamoiseau, the sons, against Césaire, the father. The central question is one of semio-anthropology and rhetoric; think of the Cesairian analysis of oxymorons and neologisms such as "départementalisation". We can observe the importance given to the argumentative process in the example of the discourse against colonialism, which centers around these binary confrontations, and is symbolized by the rhetoric of the White/white/Black/black or the semiotic of Greimas as reinterpreted by Bremond. Following on from M. Rinn, we will trace the journey of an actant-type from the role of patient as victim of the effects of the colonial issue to a reversal into the role of an agent who is an actor in his own destiny. This antithetic structure is replaced by the poetics of the Relationship – be it metaleptic or allegorical – for Glissant who, even at the collective level, replaces the nation-state, a bastion of globalization according to Césaire, by the relationship-nation, open to the diversity of interactions between its peripheral elements. The common choices made by Césaire, the poet, and Glissant, the philosopher, lead us to structure our thesis around Ricoeur's original notions of the early and latter stages of civilizations and the recreation of lost cultures. These also inspire the dialogic of the dramatic level of these works. With the cunning of the Trickster, we move to a reversal of the dialectic of evil by various effects of humor, where the beauty of the world is best expressed, where differences are agglutive rather than reductive.

Dans une période de ralentissement de la production théorique littéraire en France, la Poétique de la Relation d’Édouard Glissant apparaît comme une proposition novatrice qui renouvelle la conception de la littérature. Elle est le résultat d’une pensée qui suppose une prise de position épistémologique majeure, car elle produit dans le champ de la théorie littéraire un nouveau type de discours. Nous l’appellerons discours poético-théorique du littéraire car il est le reflet de la place que la poésie prend dans la proposition de l’auteur comme un moyen privilégié pour une réflexion sur le littéraire. Bien que Glissant veuille éviter tout système de pensée, son discours poético-théorique s’organise pour décrire et expliquer des phénomènes littéraires. La thèse actualise les interprétations et les usages jusque-là connus des concepts glissantiens et les met à l’épreuve d’un corpus d’auteurs des Amériques. L’étude d’Écue-Yamba-O d’Alejo Carpentier, l’analyse comparée de Hijo de Hombre d’Augusto Roa Bastos et de Texaco de Patrick Chamoiseau ainsi qu’une lecture de Sartorius. Le roman des Batoutos d’Édouard Glissant cernent de plus près les modalités par lesquelles se confirment l’adéquation et la productivité des outils que la Poétique de la Relation apporte réellement au domaine des études littéraires.Dans une période de ralentissement de la production théorique littéraire en France, la Poétique de la Relation d’Édouard Glissant apparaît comme une proposition novatrice qui renouvelle la conception de la littérature. Elle est le résultat d’une pensée qui suppose une prise de position épistémologique majeure, car elle produit dans le champ de la théorie littéraire un nouveau type de discours. Nous l’appellerons discours poético-théorique du littéraire car il est le reflet de la place que la poésie prend dans la proposition de l’auteur comme un moyen privilégié pour une réflexion sur le littéraire. Bien que Glissant veuille éviter tout système de pensée, son discours poético-théorique s’organise pour décrire et expliquer des phénomènes littéraires. La thèse actualise les interprétations et les usages jusque-là connus des concepts glissantiens et les met à l’épreuve d’un corpus d’auteurs des Amériques. L’étude d’Écue-Yamba-O d’Alejo Carpentier, l’analyse comparée de Hijo de Hombre d’Augusto Roa Bastos et de Texaco de Patrick Chamoiseau ainsi qu’une lecture de Sartorius. Le roman des Batoutos d’Édouard Glissant cernent de plus près les modalités par lesquelles se confirment l’adéquation et la productivité des outils que la Poétique de la Relation apporte réellement au domaine des études littéraires. / At a time when a slackening in the theoretical literary production could be observed in France, Edouard Glissant’s Poetic of Relation can be seen as an innovative proposal that renews the conception of literature. It is the result of a thinking which implies a fundamental epistemological standpoint, since it is at the origin of a new type of discourse in the domain of literary theory. We shall call it the literary "theoretico-poetical" discourse, as it mirrors the importance taken by poetry in the author's work as a privileged means of reflexion on the literary. Though Glissant wants to avoid any system of thought, his theoretico-poetical discourse is organised to describe and explain literary phenomenon. This thesis brings up to date the interpretations and use of Glissantian concepts commonly accepted today and apply them to a corpus of authors from the Americas. The study of "Écue-Yamba-O" by Alejo Carpentier, the comparative analysis of "Hijo de hombre" by Augusto Roa Bastos and "Texaco" by Patrick Chamoiseau as well as a reading of "Sartorius. Le roman des Batoutos" by Edouard Glissant identifies more closely the processes confirming the consistency and the productivity of the tools that the Poetic of Relation really brings to literary studies.

Este trabalho busca compreender, através do exame de alguns pontos da sócio-história do Brasil, posicionamentos diferenciados quanto à origem da variedade brasileira do português. Para tanto, considera as interpretações construídas pelos teóricos a partir dos escassos dados referentes ao processo de colonização brasileiro, à catequização, à demografia, à língua geral, à miscigenação e à consolidação da língua portuguesa no Brasil nos três primeiros séculos da história do país; discute a evolução dos sucessivos posicionamentos adotados por estudiosos ao longo do período de formação e consolidação do português brasileiro, particularmente quanto à sua receptividade ao aporte africano; revê a motivação para o debate sobre a questão da língua brasileira e para a eleição do índio, em detrimento do negro, como herói literário. A pesquisa dá relevância à compreensão do conceito de discurso simplificado, particularmente pidgins e crioulos, pela proeminência desses conceitos nas principais hipóteses que explicam a origem do português brasileiro, crioulização e deriva. Contrapondo a leitura de expressivos autores da área, ressaltamos a importância dos processos sócio-históricos na formação da variedade brasileira do português / This paper seeks to understand, by means of an examination of some points of the socio-history of Brazil, differentiated viewpoints as to the origin of the Brazilian variety of Portuguese. To that end, the study considers the interpretations constructed by theorists from the scarce data on the process of colonization of Brazil, the catechization of Indians, demography, the Brazilian língua geral, miscegenation and the consolidation of Portuguese in Brazil in the first three centuries of the history of the country; it discusses the evolution of successive positions adopted by scholars over the period of formation and consolidation of Brazilian Portuguese, particularly regarding their receptivity to the African contribution; it reviews the motivation for the debate on the issue of the Brazilian language and for the election of the Indian, in detriment of the negro, as literary hero. The research gives relevance to the understanding of the concept of simplified discourse, particularly pidgins and creoles, due to the prominence of these concepts in the major hypotheses explaining the origin of Brazilian Portuguese, creolization and drift. Opposing the reading of well-known authors in the area, we emphasize the importance of socio-historical processes in the formation of the Brazilian variety of Portuguese

While trade relations between French colonists and indigenous peoples in New Orleans are well documented, there have been few in depth studies utilizing archaeological sites in the city to illuminate the ways in which such relations shaped the day to day lives of the peoples involved. This work has attempted to elucidate trade practices between these groups by utilizing archaeological data uncovered at 810 Royal Street during excavations from 2015 through 2018. A collection of hand-built ceramics typically associated with indigenous peoples found in French colonial contexts on the site may help explicate the nature of trade occurring within the city and the ways in which this trade was reflective of larger patterns of urban colonial adaptation and creolization. This work seeks to illuminate the motivations behind such trade and the ways in which economic motives and individual self-interests drove colonists to undermine the original French designs for the city.

Este trabalho busca compreender, através do exame de alguns pontos da sócio-história do Brasil, posicionamentos diferenciados quanto à origem da variedade brasileira do português. Para tanto, considera as interpretações construídas pelos teóricos a partir dos escassos dados referentes ao processo de colonização brasileiro, à catequização, à demografia, à língua geral, à miscigenação e à consolidação da língua portuguesa no Brasil nos três primeiros séculos da história do país; discute a evolução dos sucessivos posicionamentos adotados por estudiosos ao longo do período de formação e consolidação do português brasileiro, particularmente quanto à sua receptividade ao aporte africano; revê a motivação para o debate sobre a questão da língua brasileira e para a eleição do índio, em detrimento do negro, como herói literário. A pesquisa dá relevância à compreensão do conceito de discurso simplificado, particularmente pidgins e crioulos, pela proeminência desses conceitos nas principais hipóteses que explicam a origem do português brasileiro, crioulização e deriva. Contrapondo a leitura de expressivos autores da área, ressaltamos a importância dos processos sócio-históricos na formação da variedade brasileira do português / This paper seeks to understand, by means of an examination of some points of the socio-history of Brazil, differentiated viewpoints as to the origin of the Brazilian variety of Portuguese. To that end, the study considers the interpretations constructed by theorists from the scarce data on the process of colonization of Brazil, the catechization of Indians, demography, the Brazilian língua geral, miscegenation and the consolidation of Portuguese in Brazil in the first three centuries of the history of the country; it discusses the evolution of successive positions adopted by scholars over the period of formation and consolidation of Brazilian Portuguese, particularly regarding their receptivity to the African contribution; it reviews the motivation for the debate on the issue of the Brazilian language and for the election of the Indian, in detriment of the negro, as literary hero. The research gives relevance to the understanding of the concept of simplified discourse, particularly pidgins and creoles, due to the prominence of these concepts in the major hypotheses explaining the origin of Brazilian Portuguese, creolization and drift. Opposing the reading of well-known authors in the area, we emphasize the importance of socio-historical processes in the formation of the Brazilian variety of Portuguese

This dissertation seeks to ethnographically explain an apparent paradox: the tremendous popularity of U.S. country & western (C&W) in postcolonial St. Lucia. The music's reputation as a "white" expressive form contradicts the decolonization ethos of a young, predominantly Afro-creole nation and appears to challenge an emerging St. Lucian postcolonial identity. I show how St. Lucians use C&W to effect significant continuities with Afro-creole culture. Its creolization in the St. Lucian context makes C&W a compelling expression of post-colonial identity. I argue that with considerable genius, St. Lucians have creolized ways to dance to C&W much as they creolized European country and court dances in earlier centuries. In this instance, however, the music was already more creole than is customarily admitted. St. Lucians make U.S. C&W their own by curating songs with a particular Caribbean resonance, creolizing the dance on habanera beats, and syncretizing it with marginalized Afro-St. Lucian folk practices. Denying simplistic cultural imperialism, St. Lucians have reclaimed C&W, highlighting its under-acknowledged but already creole ingredients, merging it with their own Afrocreole folk forms, and transforming it into a music of black social experience. The dialogic continuities are many: storytelling; working-class and real-life themes; social dance context of communal, cross-island exchanges; instruments and genres from Africa, including fiddle and banjo, yodel and drum; updating of the already creolized Kwadril complex; and, perhaps most revealing, the way the dance creolization incorporates the habanera beat. Given these continuities, the popularity of country & western in St. Lucia seems virtually over-determined rather than counter-intuitive. To analyze this specific challenge of cultural decolonization, I develop the concepts of "postcolonial creolizations" and "empire rollover." I trace the varied meanings of the term creole--and suggest that its variability should be the foundation of theoretical potency. I use Bakhtinian notions of intertextuality to examine how expressive forms from different worlds come into dialogue with each other, and show how the conversations eventually produce new creations. I show how postcolonial creolizations prompt us to rethink how power relations get reconfigured in postcolonial contexts. I argue that by attending to ways that postcolonial actors are shaping creolization processes now, we can better understand how colonial and modern imperial forces come together to challenge meaningful decolonization and sovereignty. I call this convergence process "empire rollover." This refers to the uneven processes involved as one form of imperialism gives way to subsequent imperial relations. I use this concept to answer important questions regarding the degree to which power is reclaimed in postcolonial transformation of expressive culture and to what extent creolization is decolonized. I show how the St. Lucia banana industry case epitomizes the phenomena economically wherein colonial-type benefits rollover to a new imperial power (U.S.) and continue to accrue, while advantages gained during decolonization do not. The C&W case, in contrast, shows how St. Lucians use "imperialist" forms in creative, distinctively St. Lucian ways, such that it is not simply an expression of neocolonial relations.

Pratique musicale issue du contexte esclavagiste des îles Seychelles à partir de la fin du XVIIIe siècle, le moutya est à la fois un chant, une musique tambourinée et une danse. Cette pratique, presque absente sur le terrain, est nommée moutya otantik par les Seychellois. Les entretiens menés avec des travailleurs culturels et des musiciens ont permis de comprendre le concept de moutya otantik, né en parallèle avec celui de l’identité culturelle « créole seychelloise », s’avère une construction politique à la base de la Nation, suite au coup d’État qui a mené à la Révolution seychelloise, en 1977. Cette thèse examine d’abord une représentation d’un moutya otantik présentée par des travailleurs du ministère de la Culture. Elle s’oriente ensuite vers des pratiques qui se sont adaptées et renouvelées, principalement sur scène, lors d’événements officiels ou dans le milieu touristique, ou encore au sein de l’industrie musicale locale. Cette démarche permet d’aborder les processus de créolisation des musiques dites créoles, avec lesquelles le moutya partage des affinités évidentes, et de mettre ainsi le moutya en relation avec d’autres phénomènes culturels locaux et régionaux.Les nouveaux espaces de production et de diffusion sont ici observés par le biais d’études de cas basées sur des expériences individuelles et collectives, ainsi que sur des parcours d’artistes. Des analyses du matériau sonore et des performances musicales visent enfin l’élaboration d’une caractérisation du moutya et démontrent que ce dernier s’exprime aujourd’hui sous diverses formes, dans une interrelation dynamique avec différentes musiques. Dans cette optique, il doit nécessairement être abordé selon une conception élargie et complexe. / Moutya is a musical practice born out of slavery in the Seychelles islands (Indian Ocean) from the end of the 18th century. It is made of singing, drumming and dancing. During our fieldwork, this practice, known as moutya otantik (authentic moutya) by the Seychellois, was hard to find, not to say absent. Interviews with cultural workers and musicians contributed to our understanding of the concept of moutya otantik born in parallel with the “creole Seychellois” cultural identity, as a political construction that served national purposes following the coup that led to the Seychelles Revolution in 1977. This dissertation first examines the representation of a moutya otantik as organized and presented by workers of the Ministry of Culture. It then looks at how moutya has been adapted and renewed when staged and recorded mainly during official events, at touristic venues or within the local music industry. This approach makes it possible to talk about the historical and dynamic processes of creolization that are inherent to creole music, with which moutya shares obvious affinities, and also to connect moutya with other local, regional and, more generally, Creole cultural phenomena. New production and presentation spaces are observed through case studies based on musicians’ individual and collective experiences. Analyses of sound material and musical performances attempt to better define moutya and show that it is now expressed in a diversity of forms and in a dynamic interrelation with different music. In this context, it must necessarily be approached in a broad and complex way.

In restaurants, dance halls, and travel brochures around the world, the word “Cajun” brings to mind a plethora of significations related to flavorful foods, exotic language, and geographical affiliation with South Louisiana— but what exactly is “Cajun” anyway? How has “Cajun” emerged as a community, culture, and identity? Who are the Cajuns today? This thesis rereads “Cajun history” in the larger context of Créole Louisiana, tracing issues of class, language, colonization, racialization, and modernization from Colonial Louisiana through 2020. This is accomplished with the aid of literary analyses, including authors such as Cable, Chopin, de la Houssaye, and Arceneaux, films such as Louisiana Story, and folk stereotype humor in the form of Boudreaux and Thibodeaux jokes. The thesis introduces postcolonial theoretical frameworks of mimicry, fixity, hybridity and créolization as methods for understanding the oft-forgotten historical relationality of identities, cultures, and languages in Southern Louisiana. In the 1970s Caribbean writers such as Édouard Glissant put forward the unfinished and unpredictable creativity of the historical, geographical, and anthropological space of Creole society and culture from the Antillean point of view. In a similar move, my introduction of the theory of creolization to Louisiana history seeks to wrestle back the power of Acadie or even France as the fundamental matrix of non-Anglophone culture, history, and identity in Louisiana. Instead, the complex perspective of Creolité threatens the stability of these origin myths, revitalizing our concept of history, culture, and identity in the localized touchstone of South Louisiana, while understanding that this localized perspective is always already an ongoing production at the borders of culture(s) in contact. Ultimately, I argue that Southern Louisiana since colonization has consistently been a site of créolization, destabilizing claims of Acadianness as the sole figurehead for francophone or franco-créolophone identity in the region. / Graduate / 2021-09-19