No description available.

This thesis explores the question of what factors shaped Rwandan ethnicity in the late 1950s and early 1960s; in particular, how and why was ethnicity transformed into ‘political tribalism’ in decolonising Rwanda? The Rwandan genocide in 1994 and the subsequent post-genocide peace-building have drawn our attention to the problems of ethnicity and nationalism. While ethnicity and nationalism in Africa have been a matter of debate amongst the primordialist, instrumentalist and constructivist schools, it has become more or less accepted knowledge that ethnicity in Africa was constructed by dynamic interactions between Europeans and Africans in particular colonial contexts. This constructivist approach may have advanced our understanding of ethnicity in pre-colonial and colonial Rwanda, but our perception of Rwandan ethnicity in the 1950s and 1960s has not benefited from this academic trend. Instead, the literature on this issue, most of which was written several decades ago, tends to take a primordialist approach towards the Rwandan Revolution and the ethnic conflict that emerged at the end of colonial period. By theoretically adhering to a constructivist approach, and relying on John Lonsdale’s ‘political tribalism’ model in particular, the thesis argues that to take a nuanced hybrid-constructivist approach is essential, because primordial ethnic conflict was not the cause of the Revolution and other historical events, but the other way round. Ethnicity in Rwanda was not simply invented by the Europeans during the colonial period, nor was it so primordial that the conflict between the Tutsi and the Hutu was inevitable; in fact, several conflicts (and not always along ethnic boundaries) existed, and even some alternatives were suggested for ethnic cooperation. Ethnicity went through a dynamic transformation into ‘political tribalism’ through interactions between Rwandans and non-Rwandans, as well as through relationships amongst different groups of Rwandans. Various domestic factors – including intra-Tutsi leadership rivalry, the alliance among the political parties and the inter-ethnic power struggle – affected the process of the Revolution, and politicised ethnicity. External factors, such as factions within the Belgian administrations as well as the heated debates in the Cold War-era United Nations, also provided opportunities for Rwandan ethnicity to become politicised. Contingency, the mass movement of people, violence and the processes of revolution and decolonisation had a synergistic impact on the spread of ‘political tribalism’ over Rwanda. Primordial perceptions on ethnicity, as well as interpretations of the past, and visions for the future held by each actor, were factors that shaped ethnicity and forced the ethnic split into the foreground. In this sense, Rwandan ethnicity cannot simply be understood through the dichotomised debate of primordialists and constructivists. Rather, it was a more dynamic process of ethnic transformation with unaccomplished alternatives and inter/intra-group relationships, strongly bound by the historical and political contexts of the time. ‘Political tribalism’ and interpretations of the past have influenced and, even today, continue to influence post-colonial Rwandan politics.

archives@tulane.edu / 1 / Monica M. Lebron

In the period 1880 to 1919, the organized labor and woman suffrage movements in the United States brought together and reframed for public discourse some of the most divisive and fundamental questions facing the nation, questions concerning the relationship of race, class, and gender to citizenship and national belonging. Concurrent with the expansion of these social movements, the states of Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin were transformed as the promise of cheap and productive farmland and the opportunity to develop autonomous ethnic communities led to the influx of large numbers of immigrants. This region underwent significant change at the same time that debates over women’s public roles intensified and focused attention on the presumed inability of racialized “others” to responsibly perform the duties of citizenship. Through their public activism, immigrant women helped shape these debates and put forth for public consideration their perspectives on important issues of the day. In contrast to historical analyses that portray foreign-born women as politically indifferent, this dissertation demonstrates that immigrant women in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin expressed strong and public support for women’s right to vote and for labor’s right to organize. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, women's rights activists reframed the movement's ideological underpinnings and attempted to recast gendered perceptions concerning women’s appropriate role in public life, efforts that at times served to widen class and racial divides. White native-born female activists embraced maternalism as a means of justifying their increased presence in the political realm, an ideology that elevated women’s public status while simultaneously reinforcing middle- and upper-class ideals of domesticity. My findings reveal that through their work for woman suffrage and in support of organized labor, immigrant women sought to advance alternative understandings of gender, ethnicity, and citizenship. Foreign-born women, more so than their native-born counterparts, articulated their desire for the ballot in the language of equal and natural rights and directed their activism not only in support of women’s political equality but also toward highlighting the patriotism and political fitness of all members of their ethnic community. During labor disputes, women strike activists at times embraced militant motherhood by integrating maternal duties and identities into a confrontational style of public activism. With their words and actions, immigrant women expanded “motherhood” to include public, at times violent, activism in support of class interests. Female strike activists often paid a price, however, for openly asserting their rights to economic justice. The dominant society’s opinion makers excoriated immigrant women for taking a public stand and racialized immigrant groups on the basis of immigrant women’s perceived transgression of gender norms. Historians have analyzed immigrant women’s labor activism in large urban areas such as New York City and Chicago, but we know little about how and why immigrant women chose to become politically active in a setting dominated by rural and small urban communities and how these actions shaped emerging regional institutions and attitudes. Analyses of immigrant women’s political activism in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin expands our understanding of the gendered ideologies that encouraged or constrained women’s public work and the processes of racialization that shaped public opinion toward immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Abstract not available

This study traces the development of public baths in Campania from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD. Previous studies contextualize these baths within either the Hellenizing process of Southern Italy linking them to developments in Greece or precipitately linking them to new modes of monumental Roman architecture, viewing them as an active agent in visually, culturally, and socially asserting Roman hegemony over subjugated Italic peoples. Neither of these methods address the active participation of indigenous peoples in selecting which social and cultural institutions and material culture they choose to use nor do they address how this cultural interaction can lead to ingenious new architectural forms. The form and function of the public baths in Campania are placed within this context of dynamic cultural interaction. I argue that the synthesis of features, such as heated communal immersion pools, the variation of bathing methods available to users, and space for moderate exercise is an indigenous contribution to the standard Greek Hellenistic public bath structure. Both the social customs of the Campanians and domestic bath architecture predating the first public baths in the area are analysed to demonstrate how these affected the form and the function of public baths in Campania. The physical evidence is then examined in three chronological periods: 200 BC to 89 BC; 88 BC to 27 BC; and finally, 26 BC to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. The architectural development of the baths is then placed within the broader framework of the socio-political events occurring in the area during the developmental period of the baths. / Classical Archaeology

Body dissatisfaction has become commonplace, however, it has been associated with several detrimental outcomes, including eating disorders, depression, and suicidality. Despite having larger Body Mass Indexes, African American women have reported more satisfaction with their bodies than Caucasian American women. Anxious attachment has been found to relate to body dissatisfaction; however, this study was the first to explore whether this relationship differs across ethnic groups. American societal beliefs about attractiveness and ethnic identity were also explored as potential moderators of the relationship between anxious attachment and body dissatisfaction. Purposive sampling was used to identify students from colleges with diverse ethnic representation for recruitment. Participants were 233 Caucasian American and 108 African American women recruited from ethnically diverse colleges in the Northeast and Southeast United States. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression and one-way analysis of covariance. Past findings regarding ethnic differences in body dissatisfaction were replicated as were findings regarding ethnic differences in attachment styles and the relationship between anxious attachment and body dissatisfaction, even after controlling for negative affect. Results of the primary analyses indicated no moderation by ethnicity of the relationship between anxious attachment and body dissatisfaction. Beliefs about attractiveness was found to moderate this relationship for Caucasian American but not African American women, and there was a trend for the moderation of the relationship between anxious attachment and body dissatisfaction by ethnic identity for the African American women in this sample. Implications for prevention and therapeutic interventions are discussed.

The influence of authoritarianism, social dominance, and ingroup identification on ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination in a minimal group paradigm were investigated in this study. Possible effects of majority and minority group size interactions with these constructs were also examined. It has been previously shown that right-wing authoritarianism (Altemeyer, 1981) and social dominance orientation (Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle, 1994) influence ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination in Tajfel's (1978) minimal group paradigm (McFarland & Ageyev, 1992; Perrault & Bourhis, 1999; Sidanius, Pratto, & Mitchell, 1994). Majority and minority group status also influence behavior in minimal groups (Gerard & Hoyt, 1974; Otten, Mummendey, & Blanz, 1996; Sachdev & Bourhis, 1984; Simon & Brown, 1987). Based on motivational differences between authoritarianism and social dominance, individuals higher in authoritarianism were expected to display greater ingroup favoritism than those lower in authoritarianism, regardless of group size. Social dominance was expected to interact with group size such that individuals higher on this dimension in minority groups would identify less with the ingroup, as opposed to those in majority groups who would identify more, and display less favoritism toward the ingroup than those in majority groups. To create minimal groups, participants completed an estimation task and were told that their scores indicated they were either "overestimators" or "underestimators." Three conditions were established: Neutral (group size was unspecified), majority (one group was identified as being numerically large), and minority (one group was identified as being numerically small). Trait ratings (Thompson & Crocker, 1990) and Tajfel's (1978) resource allocation task were used to measure ingroup favoritism. Participants overall displayed ingroup favoritism on both dependent measures, although parity was used most on the Tajfel (1978) matrices. Neither authoritarianism, social dominance, nor any interaction between these constructs and group size significantly affected trait ratings. On the matrices, authoritarianism led to favoritism on only one of the six pull scores and did not interact with group size. Social dominance led those in the neutral condition to display greater ingroup favoritism. Contrary to predictions, social dominance led those in majority groups to select parity over favoritism, but did not affect those in minority groups. Finally, ingroup identification mediated the relationship between social dominance and ingroup favoritism on the trait ratings for those in neutral and minority groups, though not in the predicted direction. Those in minority groups gave more positive trait ratings to the ingroup rather than to the majority outgroup as their identification with the ingroup increased.

This researcher seeks to examine the characteristics of those minority students, at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI), who frequently use retention program services versus those who do not frequently use retention program services. Frequent use of retention program was considered to be every other week or more. Infrequent user of retention program was considered once a month or less often. Data analysis revealed many similarities between the groups relating to grade point average (GPA), marital status, and housing status. Despite the similarities between the groups, there were some differences, although not significant. The mean age of the frequent users was two years older than the infrequent users. The frequent users also scored higher on the American College Test (ACT) and on the "Desire to Succeed" Scale (t (57) = 2.61,^ < .05) than the infrequent users. However, the GPA's between the groups were commensurate despite one group's frequent use of retention programs. Other differences were noted in circle of friends both in high school and college and level of academic preparedness from high school. Further areas of research and limitations were discussed.

Statistical evaluation of the number of Hispanics in the United States in a given year varies. However, all data suggest that the Hispanic population will become the largest ethnic minority in the United States in the new millennium. This research illuminates for health care providers and interpreters cultural factors to consider in the delivery of patient-centered and efficacious care for the ethnic patient, specifically the Latino. The research project answered the question What culture-related factors impact effective communication between Mexican patients and American medical nurses in the Daviess County, Kentucky area? The project focused on the interpersonal aspects of culture and communication that occurred during the communication process of sharing ideas, information, and feelings. Previous studies focused on health care communication cast in the traditions of medicine, psychology and sociology. This project adds research results to a communication process described by clinically based medical journals that only anecdotally refer to communication patterns and concepts. Cultural background may give insight into why and how patients and their family make decisions related to care. By recognizing personal philosophy, values, biases, attitudes and religious beliefs, which are based on culture, a person can facilitate effective communication. This data provides medical practitioners and interpreters insight into the cultural, medical, and communication concepts and characteristics that exist among the Latino patients, the interpreter and themselves. Through this understanding the health care professionals may gain practical application to provide better care and service to Latino patients, enhanced patient compliance, and possibly awareness about themselves and their own worldview. The research provides additional support to Edward Hall's theory that states that the way people act and react during communication is based on past experiences and cultural beliefs. This study, conducted at a local health department, utilized a questionnaire and participant observation based on a new cultural paradigm. The paradigm combines parts of the frameworks established by Harris and Moran (1996) and Kielich and Miller (1996): orientation (ethnic identity), religion, time orientation, relationships (gender, age, status...), language (verbal and nonverbal), education, values and norms, and beliefs and attitudes (especially toward health). The questions also added another component, acculturation. The design involved a written questionnaire for the nurses who provided care through the Green River District Health Department, a written questionnaire in the native language of the Latino patient, a written questionnaire for the interpreter, and participant observation of the medical examination. The research methodology controlled for variability by including only native-born Mexican patients. The project focused on one particular ethnicity with three interpreters and five Mexican patients. This study indicates that several cultural factors impact communication among Latino patients and American medical practitioners. Overcoming the language barrier should be the first step in diminishing the communication gap. However, cultural aspects of communication outlined in the research need addressing to achieve intercultural communication success. The data reveals new ideas for intercultural communication research in the areas of medicine. By combining the disciplines perhaps a better product will be developed—a synergistic approach to health care communication.