Celebrity is one of the most central shaping and distorting forces in our society. My PhD thesis interrogates the nature of fame in contemporary culture that actively promotes individuality, image, consumerist lifestyles, and the constructed nature of the self. Celebrity culture is marked by a confusion of realms between public and private, talent and manufacture, and image and the ‘real self.' The thesis examines representations of success, failure and death in celebrity culture during the period between the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 and the end of year 2010. The thesis provides an analysis based on feminist thought through reading individual celebrities' narratives. The emphasis is on looking at fame as a process of success and failure, as represented in auto/biographies and the media. The thesis considers how media representations change the perception of celebrities and also how celebrities themselves affect these representations through confessional discourse, autobiographies, self-promotion, and image construction. Therefore, the thesis will analyse how success, failure and death are represented through individual celebrities' narratives, using case studies to examine both confessional and biographical/autobiographical discourses and media discourses. The emphasis is on tabloid media and an examination of the continuities between success, failure and death, revealing how representations of celebrity rely on narrative, sensationalism and the personal realm instead of facts, objectivity and the public sphere. The thesis pays particular attention to the analysis of the gendered nature of celebrity autobiographies with the aim of revealing how modern celebrity autobiographies confuse traditional gender boundaries. There is a new, decidedly negative side to celebrity culture, particularly evident in the media's emphasis on failure, scandal and death, reactions to which often take a nasty, bullying tone. The methods used by celebrities to deal with fame are varied and compelling and may offer us insights into how lives are negotiated in contemporary society.

In the south-eastern Volta Region of Ghana, a form of female religious affiliation to local shrines commonly known as trokosi, has been the subject of a campaign consisting of Christian-based NGOs and various government agencies that has successfully criminalised the practice and organised ‘liberations' and rehabilitations of the initiates. Protagonists of the abolition campaign argue that trokosiwo are illegitimately initiated to specific shrines based on an offence committed by another lineage member, acting as a perpetual figure of restitution. They also argue that the practice constitutes a form of ‘female ritual slavery' by translating the term trokosi as “slave of the gods” and arguing that the socio-economic status and social relations of the trokosiwo indicate their ‘slavery'. The highly publicised abolition campaign stimulated a counter-campaign, led by a neo-traditional organisation, that argued that the female shrine initiates are Queen-Mothers (rather than slaves), role-models to their lineage (rather than figures of restitution), and are socially privileged. Central to these contestations has been the figure of the fiasidi, particularly those initiated to shrines in one locality, Klikor. Abolitionists define fiasidiwo as being a variant of trokosi, despite some key differences. Those that contest this representation justified their position by highlighting the socio-economic position of fiasidiwo in Klikor's three shrines and pointing out the critical ways it differed from the representation of the Trokosi Slave. Members of the Klikor shrines also became political actors in the debates that ensued, by developing a close alliance to the neo-traditionalist organisation and creating their own organisation to network with similar shrines. This thesis considers the debates around trokosi and fiasidi at the national level and explores in detail the meaning attached to fiasidi and her position in the Klikor shrines and community. At its core, is an ethnography of the three shrines, their ritual specialists and initiates. I explore the way in which meaning is ascribed to the fiasidi, through narratives of the past, through the symbolism of key rituals and through the structured interactions between petitioners and ritual specialists. A concluding section then considers the intersection between these meanings and the contested terrains of religion in the debates about the Trokosi Slaves.

A sexualidade é uma condição humana presente em todas as fases de vida das pessoas. Neste estudo, objetivei compreender de que forma o tema sexualidade, condicionado culturalmente, é vivenciado na prática da assistência de enfermagem, pelas enfermeiras. Para tanto, adotei como opção conceitual a Antropologia Cultural, uma vez que ela apresenta uma concepção de sexualidade como construção histórica-social-cultural progressiva, singular, dinâmica, flexível e contextualizada, vale dizer, como uma elaboração prória de cada pessoa. A abordagem qualitativa adotada foi o método etnográfico e os dados foram obtidos por intermédio das técnicas do grupo focal e da entrevista semi-estruturada. Emergiram da análise dos dados os descritores culturais, que permitiram a identificação dos sub-temas: construções singulares, tornando-se enfermeira, vivenciando a sexualidade na assistência de enfermagem e descontruções e reconstruções. Acrescentei, nessa análise o capítulo emergindo analogias, que contém um confronto entre a representação do eu-enfermeira e a simbolização das deusas gregas, refletindo a forma como as colaboradoras experenciam o tema da sexualidade no fazer enfermagem. Este estudo viabilizou a expressão dos significados particulares acerca da sexualidade, junto com cada colaboradora; possibilitou perceber que tais significados foram condicionados ao longo da socialização específica de cada uma delas; e mostrou que vivência da sexualideade, na prática da assistência de enfermagem, tem sido singular a cada enfermeira. Isso tem oportunizado semelhanças e diferenças nas experiências, nas emoções e nas expressões vivenciadas no fazer enfermagem em relação a esta temática. Conclui-se ao final, que a interpretação cultural da sexualidade possibilita entender seus significados singulares e a que se relacionam; oportuniza a expressão das diferentes visões de mundo, no complexo contexto cultural da enfermagem; e permite aceitar o sincretismo, concorrendo para uma experiência qualitativamente mais significativa nessa prática e em relação a esse tema, tanto para a enfermeira, quanto para o sujeito do seu cuidado. / Sexuality is a human condition present in all phases of people's life. In this study, I aimed at understanding how the theme sexuality, culturally conditioned, is experienced in the practice of nursing attendance by the nurses. For such, I have adopted as a conceptual option Cultural Anthropology, once it represents a conception of sexuality as historical-social-cultural construction, progressive, singular, dynamic, flexible and contextualized. It is still worth mentioning that is a person's own elaboration. The qualitative approach adopted was the ethnographic method and the data was obtained via techniques of focal group and semi-structured interview. From the data analysis, emerged the cultural reporters, that permitted the identification of the sub-themes: singular constructions, becoming a nurse and experiencing sexuality in nursing attendance, I added, in this analysis the chapter emerging analogies, which contains a confrontation between the representations of the I-nurse and the symbolization of the greek-goddesses, reflecting the way how the collaborators experience the theme of sexuality in performing nursing. This study made viable the expression of the private meanings about sexuality, together with each collaborator; it made possible to perceive that such meanings were conditioned along the specific socialization of each of them and, it showed that the experience of sexuality in the practice of nursing attendance has been particular to each nurse. This has allowed the existence of similarities and differences in the experiences, in the emotions and in the expressions experienced in performing nursing concerning this theme. It is concluded that the cultural interpretation of sexuality makes possible the understanding of its singular meaninigs and what they relate to; it provides an opportunity for the expression of the different views of the world in the complex cultural context of nursing and, it allows for the acceptance of syncretism, running for a qualitatively more significant experience in this practice and, in relation to this theme, both for the nurse and for the person under his/her care.

<p> National parks and protected areas are an integral component of the Mexican government&rsquo;s long-term natural resource conservation strategy. They comprise over 90 million hectares throughout the country. However, the establishment and upkeep of these protected areas often incites conflict both between and among local actors. From poachers taking protected resources to indigenous peoples exercising their rights, protected areas have become a source of political, economic, and moral contention across the globe. In addition, their effectiveness in either ecological or sustainable development terms has been ambiguous at best. </p><p> Tulum, Mexico exemplifies this dilemma. The site of pre-Columbian Mayan architecture, Tulum is now facing explosive economic growth driven largely by an international tourism industry. This fragile ecological site and vulnerable cultural community have the potential to be seriously impacted by mass tourism. Accompanying the myriad social, political and ecologic implications of tourism are real challenges for park managers, who are placed in the delicate position of attending to federal objectives while mitigating on the ground realities. </p><p> This report chronicles nearly two months of ethnographic field work conducted with The National Commission for Natural Protected Areas, a federal government agency responsible for the management and administration of protected areas in Mexico. Preliminary results suggest that effective management strategies of protected areas are constrained due to &ldquo;top down&rdquo; and hierarchical management philosophies and approaches that do not adequately incorporate the multiple challenges faced by local communities, especially in light of the burgeoning tourism pressures. This report recommends the implementation of a participatory applied ecological management framework that adequately includes perspective from local actors. Hopefully, Tulum can come to represent a locality in which internationally-based tourism development can coexist with an increasing capacity for the adaptive management of natural protected areas.</p><p>

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