This thesis focuses on the aesthetics of the sense of touch – haptic aesthetics – in contemporary Canadian diasporic literature. My reading of diasporic embodiment will discuss three contemporary novels, Anne Michaels’s Fugitive Pieces (1996), Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For (2005), and David Chariandy’s Soucouyant (2007), for what these novels suggest about the incoherent nature of cultural boundaries and the alternative possibilities for embodiment and community formation through an analysis of the sense of touch. Set in the urban and suburban spaces of Toronto, Ontario, these narratives represent diasporic bodies and experiences less through concrete acts of social, historical, or biomedical identification, and more so through creative tactile and affective gestures of agency and community. I explore the ways in which diasporic subjects in these novels negotiate their biomedical, sociocultural, and geographic positions through haptic metaphoric processes of what I call “skin diving.” / Graduate / 0401 / 0352 / 0422 / nbirchbayley@gmail.com

<p>This doctoral thesis examines how modernisation affects and is affected by existing local culture and identity. It is about the relation between the social and mental barriers experienced, expressed and manifested in the social culture of local community, and modernisation’s dynamic powers over time. The thesis deals with different time periods from the 1800’s until today with regard to expressions and consequences of modernity. People during the societal transformation of Sweden in the 19th and 20th centuries are culturally depicted from a micro-perspective.</p><p>An overall perspective for the analysis of modernity uses the concepts of basal and variable modernity, borrowed from the historian of ideas Sven-Eric Liedman. The perspective makes possible the separation between on the one hand the structural modernisation within the fields of economy, technology and natural sciences, and on the other hand the cultural modernity manifested in conceptions of the world, politics, existential viewpoints, aesthetic expressions and social culture. Within the first-mentioned fields, where basal modernity dominates, a uniform and cumulative developmental pattern emerges as well as an almost self-propelled continuity toward the next innovation or stage of development. Within the latter fields, however, a non-uniform pattern emerges, where modernisation is constantly the object of alternative interpretations and attitudes. This variable modernity is characterised by a cultural struggle between conflicting ideologies and strategies in relation to ongoing modernisation. Different individuals and groups position themselves between acceptance and resistance, progressiveness and the critique of civilisation, the preservation of traditions and the will to change. In this course of events new affinities and identifications, but also new dissociations and antagonisms are created in local social contexts. Modernity leads both to the obliteration of boundaries and to the emergence of new social and mental boundaries. This process can also lead to existing geographical borders being charged with a new ideological content so their importance is revitalised.</p>

This doctoral thesis examines how modernisation affects and is affected by existing local culture and identity. It is about the relation between the social and mental barriers experienced, expressed and manifested in the social culture of local community, and modernisation’s dynamic powers over time. The thesis deals with different time periods from the 1800’s until today with regard to expressions and consequences of modernity. People during the societal transformation of Sweden in the 19th and 20th centuries are culturally depicted from a micro-perspective. An overall perspective for the analysis of modernity uses the concepts of basal and variable modernity, borrowed from the historian of ideas Sven-Eric Liedman. The perspective makes possible the separation between on the one hand the structural modernisation within the fields of economy, technology and natural sciences, and on the other hand the cultural modernity manifested in conceptions of the world, politics, existential viewpoints, aesthetic expressions and social culture. Within the first-mentioned fields, where basal modernity dominates, a uniform and cumulative developmental pattern emerges as well as an almost self-propelled continuity toward the next innovation or stage of development. Within the latter fields, however, a non-uniform pattern emerges, where modernisation is constantly the object of alternative interpretations and attitudes. This variable modernity is characterised by a cultural struggle between conflicting ideologies and strategies in relation to ongoing modernisation. Different individuals and groups position themselves between acceptance and resistance, progressiveness and the critique of civilisation, the preservation of traditions and the will to change. In this course of events new affinities and identifications, but also new dissociations and antagonisms are created in local social contexts. Modernity leads both to the obliteration of boundaries and to the emergence of new social and mental boundaries. This process can also lead to existing geographical borders being charged with a new ideological content so their importance is revitalised.

Esta pesquisa pretende contribuir para o entendimento da formação e da manutenção de uma fronteira cultural no contexto do médio Amazonas, durante o período pré-colonial tardio. O objeto de estudo insere-se no âmbito do ápice demográfico na Amazônia central, decorrente da convergência de movimentos populacionais em larga escala, associados à expansão das duas últimas grandes tradições culturais pré-coloniais: a Polícroma da Amazônia e a Inciso-Ponteada. Tal período foi descrito ressaltando a ocorrência de fortes conflitos em um processo de reconfiguração cultural. Através de uma abordagem que considera as fronteiras como processos históricos, propomos que na região do baixo rio Urubu (AM), a partir do ano 1000 d. C., a penetração de elementos exógenos faça de contrapeso à formação de um estilo local, a tradição Saracá, capaz de incorporar tais elementos e naturaliza-los sobre a base de uma ideologia de persistência cultural. Portanto, a hipótese com a qual trabalhamos vira ao avesso a visão tradicional, ao sustentar que à base da formação dessa fronteira persistente tenhamos que admitir o desenvolvimento e a afirmação de uma política interacionista. Com o objetivo de testar tal hipótese, investigamos o contexto de uma casa, localizada no sítio arqueológico Bom Socorro (Itacoatiara-AM); partindo do pressuposto que o âmbito doméstico possa ser altamente informativo das relações que se instauram entre o nível local e o nível regional. A escavação de tal estrutura possibilitou inserir a variabilidade artefatual dentro da dimensão social de uma comunidade circunscrita. Os resultados apontam para um período de ocupação do sítio entre 1430 e 1650 AD, quando, a interação entre diferentes grupos na região tem levado a formação de grandes assentamentos, compostos por casas comunais dispostas segundo fileiras paralelas. No setor central da maloca foi encontrada uma área de consumo de alimentos, possivelmente associada ao âmbito político-convivial. As cerâmicas desse contexto condensam toda a variabilidade estilística regional, revelando a ocorrência de relações sociais que perpassam as fronteiras culturais. O estudo das relações estilísticas entre a cerâmica Saracá e os outros conjuntos demostra que essa tradição local compartilha muitos traços diagnósticos também com os estilos mais antigos; inclusive, é evidente uma forte semelhança iconográfica com a arte rupestre regional. Tais elementos apontam para a produção de um estilo local fortemente embasado na tradição, que possivelmente reflete a intenção de reificar uma fronteira social. / This research aims to understand the formation and maintenance of a cultural frontier in the context of Middle Amazonas, during the late pre-contact period. The scope of this research is focused on the demographic peak period of central Amazonia, due to large population movements, along with the spread of the two last important traditions of pre-contact period: Polychrome and Incised and Punctate. This period has been characterized by heavy conflicts in a context of culture change. If we consider the frontier as an historical process, we argue that in this region, from 1000 AD onward, exogenous cultural elements are coexistent with a local style, Saracá tradition, which was able to include these items on a pre-existing ideological conservativism. Because of this, we argue the opposite of customary approach, stressing that at the very basis of this cultural frontier a cultural interchange has been developed and strengthened. In order to test this hypothesis, from the standpoint that domestic context is highly informative, we studied a communal house of Bom Socorro archaeological site (Amazonas state, Brazil). The excavation of this domestic structure made possible the contextualization of this artefactual variability in the social dimension of a small community, showing the connections of different cultural traditions with extra-frontier social bonds. Results point to an occupation period which extends between 1430 and 1650 AD, when the interaction between different groups lead to formation of large settlements made by large communal houses placed in parallel lines. In the central area of the house a feeding area has been recovered, possibly associated to a political or religious function. Ceramic production from this context is a synthesis of the entire regional stylistic variability, pointing to social relationships crossing cultural frontiers. The study of stylistic relationship between Saraca ceramics and other groups demonstrates that this local tradition shares many specific traits with the oldest stylistic assemblages. A strong iconographic relationship with regional rock art is also evident. All these elements point to the production of a local style deeply rooted into the tradition, maybe reflecting the aim of stressing a real social frontier.

This study deals with the ethnopolitical mobilization among the Sami in Sweden during the first half of the 20th century. The investigation focus on why this mobilization took place, the demands the Sami made, and the strategies used to achieve these goals. Opposition towards the Swedish Sami policy was the most important reason for the political mobilization among the Sami. Both the formation of the Sami policy at the central administrative level, and the implementation of the policy at the regional and local level by the Lapp administration were criticised. During the first half of the period of investigation the Sami protests focused on policy decisions at central government level. During the later half of the period, it was the actions of the Lapp administration that triggered Sami activity. The central demands brought forward by the Sami movement concerned the position of the Sami in Swedish society. At the beginning of the period the Swedish Sami policy was based on the so called "Lapp shall remain Lapp" ideology. The Sami were looked upon as a reindeer herders by nature, who were weak and could not protect themselves against civilization, which was viewed as a threat to the cultural survival of the Sami. Therefore, they were to be protected by being segregated from the surrounding society. Only the reindeer herding Sami, however, were considered to be Sami which meant that a majority of the Sami population was not included in the Swedish Sami policy. A cultural boundary was drawn, which separated the Sami population into two large segments. Because of this, the main demands of the Sami movement were that the Sami should be granted an equal position in the Swedish society and that the Sami policy should include more aspects than just reindeer herding.Two main strategies were adopted by the Sami leaders to achieve the goals of the Sami movement. The first was to try to create a network of local Sami societies within a national Sami organization. As in Swedish society group interests were represented by a number of different organizations, Sami organizations were a precondition if the Sami were to be able to hold a dialogue with the Swedish authorities. However, during the period of investigation the Sami movement failed in its attempts to form a national Sami organization, which weakened the movement. The second strategy was directed at achieving more limited gains through goal-oriented actions, where the Sami were mobilized for shorter periods behind different demands. This second strategy was more successful during the period of investigation. However, ultimately the creation of a national Sami organization, was found to be a requirement if the Sami movement was to be able to influence the Swedish Sami policy. The formation of Svenska Samernas Riksförbund (National Union of the Swedish Sami) in 1950 was therefore an important step for the Sami movement.

This dissertation is a study of the changing living conditions for the Sami in Swedish Såpmi (Samiland) throughout the twentieth century with an analysis based on a gender and ethnic perspective. At the turn of the century, the Sami lived as nomadic reindeer herders and were primarily self- sufficient. This changed as the reindeer herders shifted from a self-sufficient lifestyle to a money economy tor a variety of reasons. Over time they became more integrated in the dominant Swedish society and even more dependent on it. Reindeer herding has become increasingly mechanized since the I960's with rationalizations as a result. Even in to the 1990's the industry was the object of streamlining ettorts. A process of masculinization has also occurred and today's reindeer herding is a distinctly male coded profession. Women do not regularly participate in the daily work of reindeer breeding and their ability to have any direct influence on the herding districts (sameby) is limited. This is also largely true in terms of the Sami Parliament, the Sami popularly elected body. The Sami population has experienced unfavorable special legislation and regulation from the State. The population was divided into several different categories with different rights. Sami women were marginalized two-fold and subordinated, partly because of their ethnic affiliation (as Sami) and partly because of their sex (as women). This continues to be true today. The analysis of gender division of labor shows that a married couple had their own autonomous areas of power within the household. The wife was however still subordinate to her husband in his role as master of the family. The older reindeer herding society was not noted for its equality. There was a distinct hierarchy based on sex, age, and social status. Division of labor in modern reindeer breeding is in principle based on the same normative system as the older nomadic society. The study of the ethnic processes in Såpmi shows among other things that from a Sami perspective, a person is Sami who is related to other Sami and whose actions are based on a Sami identity. It is also clear today that there are many different Sami identities, that an individual person draws from a number of such identities and that it is the context that determines which of these are active in any given situation. The Sami identity is sex-based, i.e. there is a difference between a "male Sami" and a "female Sami." Sami women, unlike Sami men, cannot be politically active while also being active based on their sexual identity. Were they to do so, they would be excluded by definition from their ethnic group. Sami women must therefore subordinate themselves as women to be "genuine" Sami. They thereby contribute to their own marginalization and help maintain their own subordinated position in the Sami society. / digitalisering@umu

Esta pesquisa pretende contribuir para o entendimento da formação e da manutenção de uma fronteira cultural no contexto do médio Amazonas, durante o período pré-colonial tardio. O objeto de estudo insere-se no âmbito do ápice demográfico na Amazônia central, decorrente da convergência de movimentos populacionais em larga escala, associados à expansão das duas últimas grandes tradições culturais pré-coloniais: a Polícroma da Amazônia e a Inciso-Ponteada. Tal período foi descrito ressaltando a ocorrência de fortes conflitos em um processo de reconfiguração cultural. Através de uma abordagem que considera as fronteiras como processos históricos, propomos que na região do baixo rio Urubu (AM), a partir do ano 1000 d. C., a penetração de elementos exógenos faça de contrapeso à formação de um estilo local, a tradição Saracá, capaz de incorporar tais elementos e naturaliza-los sobre a base de uma ideologia de persistência cultural. Portanto, a hipótese com a qual trabalhamos vira ao avesso a visão tradicional, ao sustentar que à base da formação dessa fronteira persistente tenhamos que admitir o desenvolvimento e a afirmação de uma política interacionista. Com o objetivo de testar tal hipótese, investigamos o contexto de uma casa, localizada no sítio arqueológico Bom Socorro (Itacoatiara-AM); partindo do pressuposto que o âmbito doméstico possa ser altamente informativo das relações que se instauram entre o nível local e o nível regional. A escavação de tal estrutura possibilitou inserir a variabilidade artefatual dentro da dimensão social de uma comunidade circunscrita. Os resultados apontam para um período de ocupação do sítio entre 1430 e 1650 AD, quando, a interação entre diferentes grupos na região tem levado a formação de grandes assentamentos, compostos por casas comunais dispostas segundo fileiras paralelas. No setor central da maloca foi encontrada uma área de consumo de alimentos, possivelmente associada ao âmbito político-convivial. As cerâmicas desse contexto condensam toda a variabilidade estilística regional, revelando a ocorrência de relações sociais que perpassam as fronteiras culturais. O estudo das relações estilísticas entre a cerâmica Saracá e os outros conjuntos demostra que essa tradição local compartilha muitos traços diagnósticos também com os estilos mais antigos; inclusive, é evidente uma forte semelhança iconográfica com a arte rupestre regional. Tais elementos apontam para a produção de um estilo local fortemente embasado na tradição, que possivelmente reflete a intenção de reificar uma fronteira social. / This research aims to understand the formation and maintenance of a cultural frontier in the context of Middle Amazonas, during the late pre-contact period. The scope of this research is focused on the demographic peak period of central Amazonia, due to large population movements, along with the spread of the two last important traditions of pre-contact period: Polychrome and Incised and Punctate. This period has been characterized by heavy conflicts in a context of culture change. If we consider the frontier as an historical process, we argue that in this region, from 1000 AD onward, exogenous cultural elements are coexistent with a local style, Saracá tradition, which was able to include these items on a pre-existing ideological conservativism. Because of this, we argue the opposite of customary approach, stressing that at the very basis of this cultural frontier a cultural interchange has been developed and strengthened. In order to test this hypothesis, from the standpoint that domestic context is highly informative, we studied a communal house of Bom Socorro archaeological site (Amazonas state, Brazil). The excavation of this domestic structure made possible the contextualization of this artefactual variability in the social dimension of a small community, showing the connections of different cultural traditions with extra-frontier social bonds. Results point to an occupation period which extends between 1430 and 1650 AD, when the interaction between different groups lead to formation of large settlements made by large communal houses placed in parallel lines. In the central area of the house a feeding area has been recovered, possibly associated to a political or religious function. Ceramic production from this context is a synthesis of the entire regional stylistic variability, pointing to social relationships crossing cultural frontiers. The study of stylistic relationship between Saraca ceramics and other groups demonstrates that this local tradition shares many specific traits with the oldest stylistic assemblages. A strong iconographic relationship with regional rock art is also evident. All these elements point to the production of a local style deeply rooted into the tradition, maybe reflecting the aim of stressing a real social frontier.

In den vielfältigen Genres der Musikgeschichte gab und gibt es zahlreiche soziokulturell und politisch bestimmte Grenzen, die entscheidende Auswirkungen auf die Funktion, die Strukturierung und die Darbietungsweisen von Musik haben. Damit ist ein bis heute virulentes Problem benannt: Wie verfestigt sind solche Grenzziehungen, primär zwischen den ›popular‹ und den ›artifiziell‹ definierten Kulturen? Da musikalische Grenzüberschreitungen immer auch auf – partiell gravierende – soziale Spannungsverhältnisse verweisen, können diese nicht aus rein ästhetischer Sicht verstanden werden. / Throughout history, a multitude of musical genres have been shaped by numerous boundaries, set by political and socio-cultural constraints, which have had decisive consequences for the functions, structure, and modes of the presentation of music. This raises a problem still virulent today: how entrenched are such demarcations, primarily those between so-called »popular« vs. »high« cultures? Since transgressions of such generic boundaries always reflect social tensions, sometimes grave ones, these »border crossings« generally have relevance and meaning beyond the merely aesthetic.

This thesis investigates how Pakeha-Māori have been represented in New Zealand non-fiction writing during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The chronological and textual boundaries range from Arthur Thomson's seminal history The Story of New Zealand (1859) to James Belich's Making Peoples (1996). It examines the discursive inventions and reinventions of Pakeha-Māori from the stereotypical images of the Victorian era to modern times when the contact zone has become a subject of critical investigation and a sign of changing intellectual dynamics in New Zealand and elsewhere. This thesis is about the history of attitudes to culture-crossers in New Zealand, the use of the term 'Pakeha-Māori', and the images that underlie the thinking of Britons and Pakeha about them. It explores the motives and backgrounds of specific authors and the ways in which they frame New Zealand history. It elucidates the ambiguous and contradictory perspectives of Pakeha-Māori in the literature and analyses its impact on changing public perceptions about them. The study critiques the literature with emphasis on theoretically informed research, historical analysis, and literary insights. Discussion is confined to published texts, with the aim of exploring the multiplicity of Pakeha-Māori images and the processes that gave rise to them. This study is essentially an investigation into how and why historians and other scholars try to draw boundaries between cultures in order to create a satisfactory metanarrative or myth of the 'settlement' of New Zealand and thus to forge a sense of New Zealandness. The cultural and racial categories of 'Māori' and 'Pakeha' are very unstable, however, and a consideration of the 'in-between' or 'culture-crossing' category of 'Pakeha-Māori' can reveal the way in which 'Māori' and 'Pakeha' and a sense of New Zealand and New Zealanders have been constructed. More particularly, consideration of representations of those culture-crossers or race-crossers called Pakeha-Māori can reveal the hopes and fears of Pakeha writers regarding Pakeha, Māori and New Zealand and how Pakeha-Māori have frequently been a barometer or litmus test of public perceptions of relations between Māori and Pakeha in different historical periods.

<p>The aim of this thesis is to shed light upon the construction of identity within the Swedish- Canadian immigrant group during the first half of the 20th century. The most important sources of ethnic and nationalistic influences this study scrutinizes are the homeland Sweden, Swedish-America, Scandinavian-Canada and the Canadian host society. It also examines the interaction with other social identities, such as gender and religion. Theoretically, this dissertation takes its point of departure in Fredrik Barth’s assumptions on cultural boundaries and ethnic grouping, which emphasizes the meeting and confrontation with other groups as a trigger in the development of a new ethnic identity. The study is carried out on three partly interacting levels: the individual, the organizational and the official/ rhetorical level.</p><p>On the individual level, the first generation Swedes in Canada was probably as Swedish as they could be concerning identity, culture and social networks. But as it turned out, the shattered Swedish immigration, the vast and often hardly passable Canadian landscape, together with indirect help from the Canadian government, would prevent an extensive establishment of ethnic organizations. The surplus of single Swedish-Canadian men also affected the transference of Swedishness negatively in the change of generations.</p><p>The intense dialogue with Swedish America, mostly conducted through the Augustana Synod and the Vasa Order, contributed to a new sense of Swedishness. Both these Swedish- American organizations had “Diaspora ambitions” and they relatively soon established a certain cooperation with the pan-Swedish movement in Sweden. Women played an important social, economical as well practical role in both secular and religious organizational life. Many Swedish-Canadians congregations and organizations would have had no future, if not for the women’s commitment.</p><p>Swedish rhetoric on the official level was carried out by men, to men, in a male language and imaginary. In this context the term Swede thus became synonymous with Swedish man. Both outspoken desires from the Swedish homeland and its actual internal development were considered and reformulated in Swedish-Canadian rhetoric. When the nationalistic discourse changed in Sweden, the Swedish-Canadian rhetoric changed in the same direction. Swedes in Canada also responded to ethnic competition, especially from Norwegians, by trying to define how the two related groups differed. Of certain importance was the signals given from the host society. With a general suspicion of foreign elements together with a demand for assimilation, the Canadian government seems to have hastened the integration process of Swedish-Canadians.</p>