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The focus of the dissertation is on the performances and activities of praisesingers and the ways in which these activities act as powerful texts of culture and politics in The Gambia and the West. I reexamine ideas about culture and cultural representation through attention to a tradition of Mandinka praisesingers, known as jali. Jaliya is the institutional name of the craft. Jali are important cultural brokers in local and transregional contexts. Though their activities they help negotiate the meaning of Africa for various audiences. The thematic counter-parts explored through ethnographic contexts focus on various meanings of culture. Challenging traditional notions of culture, understood as a moral or bounded system, this dissertation formulates a more expanded notion of the meaning of culture--one that can account for global cultural flows. Throughout the thesis the dichotomy that often exists between metropolitan theories and local contexts is challenged through attention to a complexly intertwined world; theory is not just produced in the West and exported elsewhere. Rather notions of "culture" and "the cultural" are produced in dialogue with and across imaginary geographies. Central to this project is attention to how the categories of analysis are produced. Such themes as performance, music and ideology, formation of national culture, the construction of professional identity, and local/global cultural economies are linked in an exploration of the inventiveness of and contestations over notion of culture and cultural production. I then link these themes to various social and political histories. African and its diaspora helps to construct meaning in global centers and for various communities. Several themes emerge in the dissertation that build from existing studies of Mandinka praisesingers. No longer can anthropologists imagine a world to be "discovered" as some might have previously thought. Indeed jali have become the focus of studies but mainly in terms of their particular practices rather than a focus on meanings and implications of their activities. This dissertation focuses on how their activities help to constitute notions of culture and various subjectivities. By extension I explore how are gender, caste, class intimately linked in their activities?

The requirements of European Unification, along with broader processes of globalization, including immigration, are reshaping economic and welfare priorities and reconfiguring the relationship between citizens and the state in Italy. The reorganization of the Italian welfare state around the principle of subsidiarity combines neoliberal restructuring with a commitment to social solidarity and cohesion and privileges the family as the social formation best suited to mediate between state, market, and citizens. As the state retreats from some of its former social welfare responsibilities, it simultaneously extends its reach into matters of reproduction and family-making. Biopolitics in the time of subsidiarity encompasses concerns over birth rates, the population, the rights of the unborn, and the proper composition of the family. This dissertation examines the terms of social cohesion in post-welfare Italy and the central role that matters of reproduction and the family play in its reformulation as a moral and cultural problem. I focus on three discursive sites: the politics of life; the assertion of the heteronormative family as an urgent and legitimate site of political intervention; and the parameters for the "appropriate" integration of migrants into Italian society. I draw on ethnographic inquiry with associations and individuals engaged in reproductive and migrant health and politics in Milan. Tracing the policies, practices, and discourses that seek to govern in the name of social cohesion sheds light on new citizenship projects and logics of inclusion/exclusion in the post-welfare moment and underscores the continued salience of gender, sexuality, and reproduction to processes of state building.

What are the differences in communicative patterns of Puerto Rican and Anglo, staff who work together in a service organization? This study examines this question through an ethnography of communication within a career counseling center staffed by Anglos and Puerto Ricans at all levels of the organization. The analytical tool and organizing schema for this paper is a theoretical framework called cultural communication system. The system is comprised of three elements: forms of talk, norms of talk and cultural identity. Each of these three elements informs the others, and analysis of all three together reveals what is cultural about the communication system in use. This study found two distinct forms of meetings within the organization, one that was dominated by Anglo speakers and produced a linear flow of communication back and forth between participants and leader that took on an arrow-like shape. The other was dominated by Puerto Rican speakers and the cross-talk among participants produced a circular flow of communication that took on a web-like shape. Conversational analysis revealed that the arrow-like meeting was governed by the norm of a leader-enforced “one speaker at a time” rule. Such a norm promoted individual ownership of ideas that were presented through sole speaker status, with the purpose of persuading others of their value. The web-shaped meeting was governed by a group-sanctioned norm of “anyone can speak at any time,” resulting in overlapping talk that co-produced utterances and ideas. This norm promoted co-production of ideas through overlapping talk, with the purpose of moving the group toward consensus and cooperation. Coded in participant talk about these meetings was a Puerto Rican cultural identity uncomfortable and silenced in leader-directed meetings but exhilarated and productive in collaborative meetings. Salient symbols such as “respeto” and “same level” coded a cultural identity of a collective and egalitarian “we,” a “self in others,” oriented to feelings, whose communication is primarily emotive, spontaneous and indirect and gives respect and consideration to others. The Anglo cultural identity coded in such symbols as “leader” and “roles” is that of a functional and performative “I” embedded in action, who uses rational, controlled, and direct communication in order to get the job done and to advance individual interests.

The Spanish Anarchist Movement (1868–1939) was one of the most novel social movements of its era. Its unconventionality has kept it from being adequately analyzed by conventional historical, sociological and political approaches. Spanish anarchism's unique use of an activist interpretation of the concept of culture and its focus on the cultural character of the practices of everyday life as the critical site for revolutionary social change are better analyzed through an anthropological approach that privileges this locus. This study, based on almost two years of field research, is an ethno/oral history of the Spanish Anarchist movement as it was enacted and has been remembered and forgotten in one Spanish village with a notable anarchist past. I conducted research in relevant archives throughout Spain and collected local tellings of the town's anarchist past from both anarchist and non-anarchist survivors from the movement's 1930s heyday and also from younger town residents. As a resident myself, I noted other ways in which the anarchist past has been inscribed, literally and figuratively, in the town's cultural landscape. In the course of my research the affinity between anthropology and anarchism proved to be more than just a nice fit between a method of study and an object of study and therefore while this study began as anthropology it ended up being also about anthropology. Since both endeavors drew from the same intellectual and scientific paradigms and addressed the same sociopolitical conditions, I have conjoined a history of anarchism with a history of anthropology in order to offer a reconsideration of both. Finally in working from present-day recollections and understandings of the anarchist past I have investigated the historical legacy of the movement, providing new insights into both how the movement operated daring its heyday and how it exists today as a contemporary phenomenon. This study contributes to current debates about contested histories, collective memory, cultural identity, social theory and social resistance.

For Native Americans throughout the United States, economic development often comes in the form of energy exploitation; these projects involve large-scale disturbance of the environment, relocation of the occupants and the release of toxic by-products. How does one group of Native Americans, the Navajos of the southwestern United States deal with environmental issues in such disrupted circumstances? As part of the objectives of this dissertation, I will describe the traditional and modern Navajo environmental beliefs on several development subjects; the effects of these developments on the Navajo people and their lands; and the internal conflicts these issues generate for the Navajo people. The goal of this research is to analyze how contemporary Navajos perceive their environment and their relations to it. How does development, upon which they are heavily dependent, affect how they negotiate these perceptions? In addition, how do Navajos assess their own well being and relationships within the context of development? Specifically the dissertation will emphasize the following research objectives: (1) What is the traditional environmental model used by the Navajo people and how do they view the current degradation of their lands from development using this perspective? (2) What is their assessment of their own well being concerning present environmental concerns and relations with outside institutions and governments concerning development? (3) What are the internal conflicts that arise out of their current environmental debate, and what are the forces that continue to generate these conflicts? (4) Are there different routes available for resolving the tensions and contradictions that exist within Navajo society because of their development and environmental perspective? The theoretical basis of this study is derived from Gregory Bateson's analysis of human knowledge, communication, culture and experience. This dissertation also builds on the works of Native American anthropologists who study the importance of place. The methodology used in this study has relied on a variety of standard ethnographic methods used throughout the social sciences such as formal and informal interviews, life histories, and literature reviews.

The present work tackles the problem of colonial state formation and the system of encomiendas in the island of San Juan during the first eleven years of Spanish colonization, mainly from 1509 to 1520. My contention is that the implementation of the system of encomiendas, a colonial set of servile relationships between the Spanish conquistador and the native islanders became a fundamental moment in the development of the colonial state in San Juan. The encomienda was both a form of labor exploitation linked to an intensive gold mining enterprise as well as a disciplinary apparatus designed to inculcate and thus re-educate the indigenous populations of the island according to catholic dogma and a European value system. While this institution has historical precedents in the Iberian Peninsula, it was significantly transformed during its implementation in the Caribbean. The encomienda became a transitory hybrid structure that incorporated aspects of indigenous forms of social stratification in order to function. If the state is defined broadly as more than an administrative bureaucratic apparatus, and is understood instead as a complex set of structured practices, then the encomienda can be considered both chronologically and politically a foundational base upon which the colonial state in the Spanish colonies of the Caribbean unfolded. This process was contingent upon the correlation of forces between colonizers and native polities since conquest was above all expressed through violent territorial expansion, which indigenous peoples in the island of San Juan resisted initially. My work is both a theoretical and cultural-historical reflection on this process. I have drawn my conclusions from a detailed analysis of the pertinent anthropological and historical literature, as well as from both published and unpublished primary 16th century documents.

The dissertation is a historical ethnography of Manuel Quintín Lame's Indian thought and social movement (La Quintinada, 1910–1921; the Lamismo, 1922–1967) in southwest Colombia based on multi-layered historical, ethnographical, and textual analyses of archival documentation and ethnographic interviews. It examines Lame's Indian thought as an oppositional subaltern thinking and a critique of the genocidal violences of civilization and the evils of colonialism. It also examines the way in which Lame's thought was channeled into a modern politics, historical consciousness, insurgency, supra-ethnic mobilization, a long-term Indian militancy filtered by religious beliefs, messianic hopes of redemption, justice and freedom, and the affirmation of the Indians' saber (knowledge and wisdom). Lame and his followers saw their condition of subordination and oppression as the result of relations of domination rooted in to the sixteenth-century Conquest of the Americas and the “usurpation” of Indian land, which were prevalent in the modern nation and aggravated by the “betrayals of freedom.” The continuity of civilizing violences operates as the connecting cord between the colonial and modern eras, and as a referent of Lame's thought and visionary leadership, patterns of insurgency and militancy, strategies of resistance, memory revitalization and ritualized forms of land repossession. The dissertation is focused on the way in which Lame and his followers made sense of their struggle, crafted their demands, and responded to and subverted broader hegemonic narratives in the face of complex relations of power, wounded attachments and economic exploitation. It documents fragmented and silenced voices that were forced to inhabit the language of the conqueror, were inscribed into specific forms of subjection, constructed as criminal, deviant, or lacking political and historical agency. The narrative is organized around the symbolic dialogue between the local actors' voices and Bartolomé de Las Casas's critique of the Conquest and ideals of justice, Simón Bolívar's reflections on freedom, and twentieth-century state agents, politicians, and intellectuals' views of whiteness as civilization and racial and social perfectibility.

Since the establishment of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve in the Zona Maya of Quintana Roo in 1986, the communities in the “buffer zone” of the reserve have been subjects of several initiatives to change or to alter their livelihood practices. These initiatives and programs come from a particular perspective that is not necessarily compatible with the local Maya worldview, and embodies a clash of viewpoints so characteristic of globalization and localizations. In addition to biodiversity conservation programs, the region is heavily influenced by the tourism boom from Cancún to Tulum. Today, the Mayas of central Quintana Roo are caught between the discourses and practices of tourism and biodiversity conservation both of which are transforming their everyday life. The consequences are not only economic and environmental, but also extend to issues of negotiating culture, identities, and ‘being Maya’ as well as of inclusion and exclusion of local indigenous communities within the Mexican national space. The general aim of this dissertation research project is to make a multi-sited ethnography of Mexican environmentalism and conservation policies as well as conflicts over the management of natural resources in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve and the Zona Maya, in central Quintana Roo, Mexico, between Mayan communities (descendents of the rebels of the 19th century Caste War of Yucatan), local environmental NGO's, Mexican natural resource managers, and the United Nations Development Program. The use of what I call a critical anthropo-geography perspective is intended to highlight this work as mainly anthropological but with a focus on socio-spatial relations by incorporating insights from cultural geography. I assess how these actors, with different understandings of place, nature, and sustainability negotiate the future of the area through the implementation of biodiversity conservation projects that aim to provide alternative practices to maintain and manage the natural resources of the region specifically in regard to traditional milpa agriculture and hunting. The contestation of these meanings are key to understanding recent development of the Zona Maya. I also examine how Mayan notions of local knowledge of their environment through participant observation and surveys to assess how it changes as they incorporate or resist new conservation practices. The purpose is to identify not only seemingly irresolvable conflict but also areas of consensus, while identifying factors that contribute to the discourse dynamics between these groups. In addition, I will examine how knowledge and ideas about place, nature, and sustainability are produced and reproduced. Finally, my research will assess the ‘impact’ of the biodiversity conservation projects on local populations with regards to ethnic, gender, and class relations and how they are included or excluded from the development process and how this process is contested by the local population.

This study probes reasons for a relatively high diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children in the United States and a relatively low diagnosis of the disorder in England. The study's first research objective was to assess the degree to which the behavior of children in both societies could be labeled as expressive of the symptoms of ADHD. A research protocol was created in which mostly nondiagnosed children were evaluated for those symptoms. A second research objective was to investigate the environmental (including cultural) contexts affecting the observed behaviors. In England, two primary sites were researched: a publicly funded primary school in Oxfordshire, England, and a specialist school for severely dyslexic children. In the United States, a publicly funded middle school was the site at which the research was conducted. It was decided to work with preadolescent 10- and 11-year-old children. In all, intensive day-to-day research was conducted for approximately 15 months, and over 100 children were observed. Analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data suggests that there is no difference in the behavior of the children in the two societies. That analysis further suggests that the behaviors characterized as symptomatic of the disorder are widespread among nondiagnosed children. Furthermore, the major influences on variations in those behaviors were found to be environmental factors, particularly teacher in the room. Still further, no relationship was found between levels of expression of the symptomatic behaviors and school achievement. Nor was there a relationship between those levels of expression and sex, although males are much more likely to be diagnosed for the disorder than females. Therefore, it was concluded that it is the culturally mediated perception of the behaviors rather than their actual expression that apparently leads to the large difference in diagnosis for ADHD in the two societies. In short, ADHD is a socially constructed disorder. It was further concluded that the apparent variation in perception could potentially be explained by different social orientations in the two countries. Data showed England to be more cooperatively oriented, while the United States seemed more individually oriented. Students in both countries are encouraged to seek to achieve at levels as high as they are capable of. However, in England, that individual excellence is encouraged to be directed to the benefit of the whole society, while in the United States, that excellence inures to the individual's benefit. Thus, in England, to label a child as disordered carries the potential of losing that individual as a contributor to the commonweal, while in the United States, labels are used to help individuals improve their educational opportunities. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)