This thesis addresses general questions about the relationship between the making of gender, the politics of national and ethnic identities, local - global articulations and the process of cultural transformation amongst Muslim Tausug and Sama communities in Sulu, the Southern Philippines. Specifically, I am concerned with the meaning, and experience, of the bantut, transvestite / transgender, homosexual men in Sulu. There is a long tradition of transvestism and transgendering in island Southeast Asia, where transvestites were considered to be sacred personages, ritual healers and/or, as in Sulu, accomplished singers and dancers who performed at various celebrations and rites of passage: embodiments of, and mediatory figures for, ancestral unity and potency. More recently, however, transvestites have emerged as the creative producers of an image of beauty defined in terms of an imagined global American otherness. This thesis is an attempt to understand and explain this phenomenon. In particular, I explore the relation between the collective endowment of the bantut as the purveyors of beauty, and their symbolic valorisation as impotent men and unreproductive/defiling women: those who are seen to have been overexposed to and transformed by a potent otherness. What is ultimately at stake, I argue, (and what is being asserted through the symbolic circumscription of the bantut) is local persons' autonomy over the process and consequences of cultural and political transformation in the face of the exclusionary violence of state enforced assimilation. However, the thesis is also concerned with the expressed transgenderal projects of the bantut themselves, a project which is variously about status and gender transformation, the elation and pleasure they experience in the production and performance of beauty, and the attempt to overcome the prejudice of the local populace, whilst establishing relationships that are based on mutuality and shared respect. What this thesis demonstrates is that there is nothing ambiguous about ambiguity, sexual or otherwise. Rather, it is the specific product or effect of different historical relations of power and resistance through which various cultural subjects are created and re-create themselves.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

This dissertation analyzes the prolonged transition of South Africa’s Reformed churches from bastions of apartheid towards protagonists of racial reconciliation. At the center is the unification process of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) and the Uniting Reformed Church of Southern Africa. The two institutions are rooted in the same tradition, with broadly similar doctrines, yet they worship separately in the old racial categories of apartheid. This is not for lack of effort. After 1994, the DRC shifted from proclaiming divine divisions between races, nations and ethnicities to urging inclusivity in the name of Jesus Christ. The limited success so far to integrate the long divided churches reveals an intricate story of religious actors trying to reframe identities and adjust normative frameworks. The story mirrors South Africa’s greater struggle to transcend its past. Part I of this dissertation considers the nationalist civil religion with which the churches bolstered segregation, and its legacy in contemporary South Africa. By drawing comparisons with other religious-nationalist movements, the study shows the impact of religion in sustaining ethnic conflicts with its everyday structures of separation. Through a qualitative study of South Africa’s Reformed churches, Part II investigates what happens with such structures after a conflict dissipates. To what extent have the churches been able to untangle their attachments to particular ethnic and racial identities? An assessment of their unity discourse and its implementation among five communities in the Free State and Western Cape displays a complex role of religious ideas and practices in deepening and mitigating social divisions. At stake here are recently adopted beliefs in inclusivity along with the pressure to adapt to a rapidly pluralizing religious landscape in which the churches’ authority is no longer a given. They have to cooperate across the color line if they wish to retain relevance in society. This study thus highlights dynamics of principles and pragmatism, and of reconciliation and justice. Where historically white congregations are gradually coming to terms with the need to partner with their black neighbors, the latter now prioritize economic equality over reconciliation. This has not made the churches’ search for unity any easier. / 2017-08-11T00:00:00Z

This study defines and characterizes etno-racial self-identification patterns of the Peruvianpopulation employing the Encuesta Nacional de Hogares (Enaho) 2012. For this purpose, we have employed a module with questions recently added to this survey, in order to approach empirically to the notion of identity, combining the dimensions of native language, self-acknowledgment and the notion of indigenous population. The results are based on a latent classes analysis employing, at the same time, the information in this questions in order to identify four possible etnoracial identities. These identities are intertwined in the self-acknowledgment process with certain ancestors and customs, and also the one based on language. With the methodology and  the  data  collected,  we  haven’t  found  evidence that point that ethnic identities are multiple and fluent. The ethnic identities show certain heterogeneity in terms of the dimensions they are composed. / Este estudio define y caracteriza los patrones de autoidentificación etnorracial de la población peruana haciendo uso de la Encuesta Nacional de Hogares (Enaho) 2012. Para ello utilizamos un módulo con preguntas recientemente incorporado a la encuesta, el cual nos permite aproximarnos empíricamente a la noción de identidad integrando las dimensiones de la lengua o idioma materno, el autorreconocimiento y la noción de pueblo indígena. Los resultados se basan en un análisis de clases latentes usando simultáneamente la información de estas preguntas, las cuales permiten identificar hasta cuatro posibles identidades etnorraciales entretejidas en el autorreconocimiento con ciertos antepasados y costumbres, así como el que está basado en la lengua. Así, con las herramientas metodológicas usadas, y con la actual modalidad de recolección de datos, no se encuentra evidencia que indique que las identidades étnicas son múltiples y fluidas. Las identidades étnicas muestran cierta heterogeneidad en términos de las dimensiones que las componen.

No description available.

Why do activists in some environmental incompatibilities experience a high intensity of violence, while protesters in other environmental conflicts do not? To answer the query, this thesis presents a novel theoretical argument where it is stated that the type of legal claim posed by activists impacts the intensity of violence that they receive. Due to a ‘relational citizenship’-mechanism, activist claims that are similar to secessionist demands are suggested to negatively provoke state elites’ security provision, with the consequence of a higher intensity of violence, ceteris paribus. From the theoretical argument, a hypothesis is derived, predicting that higher intensity of violence is expected for environmental mobilisations that pose identity-territory rights claims, than environmental mobilisations that pose universal rights claims. The hypothesis is tested on two local-level gold mining conflicts in the Colombian departments Tolima and Cauca between 2009-2014. The cases are selected with a most similar case design and are analysed with a structured focus comparison methodology. The analysis of the cases lends tentative support for the prediction that environmental movements that pose identity-territory rights claims experience a higher intensity of violence than environmental movements that instead apply universal rights claims.

I interviewed twenty-four International students from the following countries: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Spain. Hereafter I shall refer to the respondents as Hispanic International students. My primary interest was to learn the way in which Hispanic International students defined themselves in view of ethnic definitions imposed on them by the administrative system in the U.S. First, Hispanic International students defined themselves primarily by their nationality. The second finding dealt with the usage of language. The Hispanic International students spoke Spanish with relatives and friends. They spoke English when a non-Spanish speaker joined the conversation. The third finding was related to the problems and adaptations encountered by Hispanic International students.

The present essay aims to understand the depiction formulated by the opinion leaders at the Mexican capital’s press about the indigenous population after the Neozapatista Uprising in 1994 and its transformation throughout the years in which the guerrilla movement stood present at the media, until 2003. In this dissertation, I sustain the idea that the approximation between the guerrilla movement and the press resulted in a change in the image that the media constructed and spread, modifying the depiction that had happened until then about the indigenous people by rethinking the preestablished categories inside the Mexican imaginary, in addition to exposing and proposing new perspectives and ways of representation. Therefore, I begin at the idea that the opinion articles published by the press between 1994 and 2003 were able not only to rethink the image of the indigenous people but also to give the uprising a fundamental space that allowed it to have a communicational reach like never before a guerrilla have had, changing the Mexican’s political and social relations To reach such goals we have chosen to analyse two Mexico City’s newspapers, La Jornada and El Universal, which have been selected due to their active participation in representing the indigenous people between the studied time frame, also for being both of them diaries with widespread national recognition for its collaborators and with an important number of daily copies throughout the country. These newspapers also were selected by having opposite ideological positions and editorial lines of work, which allowed the essay to have not only a broader perspective of the facts and its representations, but also helped to show how the different interests changed the light in which the indigenous people were shown. / Este trabajo tiene como objetivo comprender la representación que los líderes de opinión construyeron en la prensa de la capital mexicana sobre los indígenas después del levantamiento neozapatista en 1994, así como su transformación a lo largo de los años en los que el movimiento guerrillero estuvo más presente en los medios de comunicación, específicamente en la prensa escrita abarcando hasta el año 2003. En esta disertación defiendo la idea de que gracias a la aproximación que tuvo el movimiento guerrillero con la prensa, se logró realizar sino un cambio en la imagen que se venía difundiendo sobre los indios, sí un debate importante entorno a la imagen que los medios construían y difundían sobre ellos, modificando la representación que hasta entonces se realizaba de estos al repensar las categorías ya preestablecidas dentro del imaginario mexicano, además de exponer y de proponer nuevas perspectivas y formas de representación. Así, parto de la idea de que los artículos de opinión que publicó la prensa desde 1994 hasta 2003, permitieron no solo repensar la imagen de los indios, sino también dotar al movimiento de un espacio fundamental que le posibilitó tener un alcance comunicacional importante ya que modificó las relaciones políticas y sociales mexicanas Para alcanzar dichos objetivos hemos decidido analizar dos periódicos de la ciudad de México: La Jornada y El Universal. La selección de estos se decidió en base a su participación activa para representar a los indígenas durante el periodo que estudiaremos, así como por ser diarios con un amplio reconocimiento nacional debido a sus colaboradores y a que tienen un número importante de circulación dentro del país. De igual manera estos diarios fueron seleccionados por tener posiciones ideológicas, así como líneas editoriales opuestas, las cuales nos permitirán no solo tener una mejor perspectiva de los acontecimientos que dieron origen a esas representaciones, sino que además estas diferencias nos posibilitarán ver como dependiendo de los intereses de los diarios los indios fueron representados.

The present essay aims to understand the depiction formulated by the opinion leaders at the Mexican capital’s press about the indigenous population after the Neozapatista Uprising in 1994 and its transformation throughout the years in which the guerrilla movement stood present at the media, until 2003. In this dissertation, I sustain the idea that the approximation between the guerrilla movement and the press resulted in a change in the image that the media constructed and spread, modifying the depiction that had happened until then about the indigenous people by rethinking the preestablished categories inside the Mexican imaginary, in addition to exposing and proposing new perspectives and ways of representation. Therefore, I begin at the idea that the opinion articles published by the press between 1994 and 2003 were able not only to rethink the image of the indigenous people but also to give the uprising a fundamental space that allowed it to have a communicational reach like never before a guerrilla have had, changing the Mexican’s political and social relations To reach such goals we have chosen to analyse two Mexico City’s newspapers, La Jornada and El Universal, which have been selected due to their active participation in representing the indigenous people between the studied time frame, also for being both of them diaries with widespread national recognition for its collaborators and with an important number of daily copies throughout the country. These newspapers also were selected by having opposite ideological positions and editorial lines of work, which allowed the essay to have not only a broader perspective of the facts and its representations, but also helped to show how the different interests changed the light in which the indigenous people were shown. / Este trabajo tiene como objetivo comprender la representación que los líderes de opinión construyeron en la prensa de la capital mexicana sobre los indígenas después del levantamiento neozapatista en 1994, así como su transformación a lo largo de los años en los que el movimiento guerrillero estuvo más presente en los medios de comunicación, específicamente en la prensa escrita abarcando hasta el año 2003. En esta disertación defiendo la idea de que gracias a la aproximación que tuvo el movimiento guerrillero con la prensa, se logró realizar sino un cambio en la imagen que se venía difundiendo sobre los indios, sí un debate importante entorno a la imagen que los medios construían y difundían sobre ellos, modificando la representación que hasta entonces se realizaba de estos al repensar las categorías ya preestablecidas dentro del imaginario mexicano, además de exponer y de proponer nuevas perspectivas y formas de representación. Así, parto de la idea de que los artículos de opinión que publicó la prensa desde 1994 hasta 2003, permitieron no solo repensar la imagen de los indios, sino también dotar al movimiento de un espacio fundamental que le posibilitó tener un alcance comunicacional importante ya que modificó las relaciones políticas y sociales mexicanas Para alcanzar dichos objetivos hemos decidido analizar dos periódicos de la ciudad de México: La Jornada y El Universal. La selección de estos se decidió en base a su participación activa para representar a los indígenas durante el periodo que estudiaremos, así como por ser diarios con un amplio reconocimiento nacional debido a sus colaboradores y a que tienen un número importante de circulación dentro del país. De igual manera estos diarios fueron seleccionados por tener posiciones ideológicas, así como líneas editoriales opuestas, las cuales nos permitirán no solo tener una mejor perspectiva de los acontecimientos que dieron origen a esas representaciones, sino que además estas diferencias nos posibilitarán ver como dependiendo de los intereses de los diarios los indios fueron representados.

The present essay aims to understand the depiction formulated by the opinion leaders at the Mexican capital’s press about the indigenous population after the Neozapatista Uprising in 1994 and its transformation throughout the years in which the guerrilla movement stood present at the media, until 2003. In this dissertation, I sustain the idea that the approximation between the guerrilla movement and the press resulted in a change in the image that the media constructed and spread, modifying the depiction that had happened until then about the indigenous people by rethinking the preestablished categories inside the Mexican imaginary, in addition to exposing and proposing new perspectives and ways of representation. Therefore, I begin at the idea that the opinion articles published by the press between 1994 and 2003 were able not only to rethink the image of the indigenous people but also to give the uprising a fundamental space that allowed it to have a communicational reach like never before a guerrilla have had, changing the Mexican’s political and social relations To reach such goals we have chosen to analyse two Mexico City’s newspapers, La Jornada and El Universal, which have been selected due to their active participation in representing the indigenous people between the studied time frame, also for being both of them diaries with widespread national recognition for its collaborators and with an important number of daily copies throughout the country. These newspapers also were selected by having opposite ideological positions and editorial lines of work, which allowed the essay to have not only a broader perspective of the facts and its representations, but also helped to show how the different interests changed the light in which the indigenous people were shown. / Este trabajo tiene como objetivo comprender la representación que los líderes de opinión construyeron en la prensa de la capital mexicana sobre los indígenas después del levantamiento neozapatista en 1994, así como su transformación a lo largo de los años en los que el movimiento guerrillero estuvo más presente en los medios de comunicación, específicamente en la prensa escrita abarcando hasta el año 2003. En esta disertación defiendo la idea de que gracias a la aproximación que tuvo el movimiento guerrillero con la prensa, se logró realizar sino un cambio en la imagen que se venía difundiendo sobre los indios, sí un debate importante entorno a la imagen que los medios construían y difundían sobre ellos, modificando la representación que hasta entonces se realizaba de estos al repensar las categorías ya preestablecidas dentro del imaginario mexicano, además de exponer y de proponer nuevas perspectivas y formas de representación. Así, parto de la idea de que los artículos de opinión que publicó la prensa desde 1994 hasta 2003, permitieron no solo repensar la imagen de los indios, sino también dotar al movimiento de un espacio fundamental que le posibilitó tener un alcance comunicacional importante ya que modificó las relaciones políticas y sociales mexicanas Para alcanzar dichos objetivos hemos decidido analizar dos periódicos de la ciudad de México: La Jornada y El Universal. La selección de estos se decidió en base a su participación activa para representar a los indígenas durante el periodo que estudiaremos, así como por ser diarios con un amplio reconocimiento nacional debido a sus colaboradores y a que tienen un número importante de circulación dentro del país. De igual manera estos diarios fueron seleccionados por tener posiciones ideológicas, así como líneas editoriales opuestas, las cuales nos permitirán no solo tener una mejor perspectiva de los acontecimientos que dieron origen a esas representaciones, sino que además estas diferencias nos posibilitarán ver como dependiendo de los intereses de los diarios los indios fueron representados.