This thesis is about an organised group or ‘squad’ of young men in Port Vila, the capital of the Pacific Islands nation-state of Vanuatu, and their practices of place making in the rapidly developing context of ‘town’. The young men studied are second-generation migrants and thus first-generation born and raised ‘urbanites'. Based on twenty months of fieldwork, this thesis examines how these young men are transforming Freswota Community - the residential area in which they live - from a place with no shared and relevant social meaning into a place imbued with greater collective significance. First, I demonstrate how these young men experience themselves as ‘unplaced’, a condition which entails two aspects. They are displaced from the social structure and kinship systems within which their parents previously ordered their lives and from which they have drawn their social identity. Additionally, the young men experience themselves as marginalised from the formal education and employment structures of town. Following this, I show that it is through practices of place making, which they refer to as ‘planting roots’, that these young men are emplacing themselves in the Freswota area. ‘Planting roots’ includes such processes as developing their own shared history, naming roads, building topogeny and developing their own community social structure and social order. I argue that these processes are leading to the emergence of a new phenomenon: primary town emplacement. By coming into relationship with Freswota land, these young men are not only transforming it from virtual no-place into some place, they are also transforming themselves from ‘unplaced’ persons into emplaced ‘Freswota men’. I conclude that this is generating a new locative identity: it is now the Freswota community rather than their parents’ home island places that is emerging as their primary location of belonging and the source both of their sense of self and their social identification. A central aim of this thesis is to draw attention to the positive and creative ways in which unemployed young men, usually criticised and stigmatised as delinquents in newly and rapidly urbanising contexts, are actively engaged in developing their community and their relationships in order to live more viable and socially productive lives.

The centrepiece of this thesis is a comparative study of the stone rows of Dartmoor and northern Scotland, a rare, putatively Bronze Age megalithic typology. It is argued that these should be defined as cairn-and-rows monuments that ‘symbolise’ long mounds, and avenues in the case of Dartmoor — a circumstance that ‘explains’ the interregional similarities; other aspects of their semantic structures are also analysed using rigorous semiotic theory. An evolutionary approach is taken, drawing on biological theory to explain the active role of these monuments in social evolution, and to understand the processes at work in producing long term change in monument traditions. New theory is developed for analysing such archaeological sequences, and for understanding and explaining material culture in general. The concepts of adaptation and environment in archaeological theory to date are criticised, and environmental construction theory, and aspects of the Extended Phenotype theory, are forwarded as alternatives. The local sequences are contextualised by examining European megalithic origins, tracing the long mound ‘concept’ back to the Bandkeramik longhouses. The question of diffusion or convergence is tackled by examining the mechanisms at work during the transitions from longhouse to long mound and then to the cairn-and-rows; the explanations forwarded for the social function of the monuments is integrated with mechanisms for explaining their spread (or ‘diffusion’). It is argued that all of these related forms — longhouses, long mounds, and the cairn-and-rows — are implicated in a process of competitively asserting ancestral affinities, which explains the constraint on cultural variation, and thus the formation of remarkably stable monument traditions, and the convergence between Dartmoor and northern Scotland in the Early Bronze Age.

This thesis investigates stylistic diversity in European 1:50 000 state topographic maps and explores the extent to which national conditions, such as socio-economic, cultural, and demographic characteristics, are intrinsically expressed in their symbolization of the national landscape. The separation of the topographic map from its assumed objectivity and the poststructuralist handling of maps as ‘texts’ provide the point of departure for the theoretical framework, which includes a discussion of the role of aesthetic judgment and the nature of style in cartography, and subsequently develops a new language paradigm for understanding national differences in cartographic expression. The methodology involves the construction of a typology for the classification of the legend symbologies of 1:50 000 paper topographic maps from 20 different European national mapping organizations. In addition to providing a quantitative assessment of the symbols devoted to each type of feature, this incorporates a qualitative classification of their appearance according to the criteria of colour, visual hierarchy, ‘white’ space, and lettering in the search for supranational styles. Although it was possible to group countries using a cluster analysis based on the proportion of symbols within each class, the findings reveal much stylistic diversity in European 1:50 000 state topographical mapping, which is demonstrated further in the graphical appearance of each symbology. Tests of association between the symbol classification data and various national statistics suggest a very general reflection of national conditions and do not support some more plausible links, but nevertheless imply the influence of specifically national circumstances. In order to understand the possible influences of wider geopolitical factors on the design and production of state topographic maps, recent initiatives in Latvia and Slovenia were examined and interviews were conducted with those involved. The findings suggest that even with fundamental changes such as the achievement of political independence, the legacy of former styles of topographic cartography persist, especially concerning how the landscape is classified. The development of national styles in state topographic maps appears to be a process in which only broader, more permanent supranational characteristics, such as functional dependencies within core-periphery systems, may be reflected more accurately.

This thesis examines media representations and audience reception processes through a detailed study of media reporting and public understandings of asylum and refugee issues. It is based on sixty interviews in which refugees seeking asylum, professionals working with them and members of the general public were invited to comment on their own memories and beliefs using pictures from the TV coverage. The pictures used are included in a detailed thematic content analysis of national and regional broadcast news. Public understandings are systematically compared to the content of media reporting. In particular it explore people’s memories and beliefs of national and regional broadcast news. The content analysis revealed that the national news represents asylum in unsubstantiated and problematic ways whilst the regional news has a more balanced approach to representation of the issue. The thesis explores the diversity of audience reactions and the different ways in which people may accept or reject the media representations. However it also draws attention to the themes which recurred in all of the interviews and argues that there is strong evidence of media effects. The thesis highlights factors in media coverage which are particularly influential. It demonstrates how language, structures, and images may influence audience responses and examines how media representations may structure patterns of misinformation. The audience were poorly informed on asylum and refugee issues. In addition attention is drawn to viewers’ everyday relations and experiences. Some interviewees use specific knowledge to reject news reports. The research provides comprehensive and fruitful insights of cultural differentiation linked to ‘race’/ethnicity, gender, class and geographical location. The thesis concludes by arguing for a media studies schema which connects questions about audience reception with questions about media production and content as well as the construction of broader relations within society enabling researchers to contribute to current debates about power, control and social conditions.

In Malaysia, ethnic and cultural tension and conflicts have escalated in the past 5 years bringing undesirable impacts on the nation’s economy and, most importantly, on inter-ethnic relationships. In line with the government’s 1Malaysia effort to produce a more integrated society, this study proposes the need to construct a shared Malaysian identity, starting from the classroom, which is facilitated by teachers through the use of Malaysian short stories. This proposition, amidst the differences in cultural, religious and beliefs systems, aims to close the ethnic and cultural divide and cultivate widespread inter and intra cultural awareness. The study is grounded in the notion of hybridity in the Third Space espoused by Bhabha (1994) and ameliorated and geared towards the classroom context by the works of Gutiérrez (1999, 2004, 2008). The inquiry was designed using primarily qualitative research instruments employing non-participant classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with 7 English Language teachers, and group interviews with 6 groups of students from 4 different schools in Kuala Lumpur. A one-day workshop was also conducted with the 7 teachers to introduce new Malaysian short stories and also for the purpose of sharing experiences in teaching literature in English. This data source was then supported by secondary quantitative data derived from self-completion questionnaires administered to the students of the teachers involved in this study. The findings from the analyses of the results show various attitudes, beliefs and teaching and practices in the English language classroom in response to the notion of constructing a shared identity in the Third Space. The notion of the hidden curriculum is also investigated to determine how it can be usefully theorized towards identity construction in the classroom. On the one hand, students mainly accepted the shared identity concept as a basis for classroom practice, whilst teachers had a range of views about this idea. In the conclusion, the thesis explores the implications of the classroom practices adopted by the teachers in this study as part of the process of constructing a shared Malaysian identity. It also examines the plausibility of and barriers to creating an awareness of the Third Space through the use of narratives produced by local writers, both as a medium for developing the skills to access the Third Space and also as the container of messages about Malaysian society and identity. Finally, this study suggests the way forward for realizing the country’s aspiration of a unified society and becoming a full-fledged developed country, which can possibly start in the classrooms.

In Guinea-Bissau (GB) the Guinea baboon (Papio hamadryas papio) is threatened by hunting pressure. Along with local extinctions, these practices may be inducing long-term genetic changes and disrupting underlying social structure. In this study, the bushmeat trade in GB was evaluated for the first time and the effect of hunting practices on the genetic diversity and population structure was investigated. By following the bushmeat trade at urban markets, we found baboons to be the third most traded primate species. Male baboon carcasses were sold at a price 60% higher than any other primate due to their larger body mass. Semi-structured interviews conducted with hunters revealed a preference towards male baboons and recent difficulty in finding this primates species. Non-invasive DNA sampling in southern GB and two different genetic markers (fourteen microsatellite loci and a fragment of the mitochondrial control region) suggested substantial levels of genetic diversity and recent genetic contact between different populations. However, geographic distances had a weak effect on population structure and the genetic discontinuities found were not related with landscape features. A contact zone was identified. Here, gene flow seems to be unidirectional and admixed individuals were in higher proportion. Hunting pressure may have induced recent contact between genetically differentiated individuals, which now co-exist in the same social unit. Additionally, the sex-specific patterns of gene flow and the composition of social units were compared with a non-hunted Guinea baboon population, using a molecular sex determination protocol and thirteen microsatellite loci. GB displayed a lower ratio of males within social units, which are formed in some cases by unrelated individuals. The clear female-biased dispersal pattern displayed in Senegal was less intense in GB, where gene flow seems to be mediated through both sexes. The aforementioned contact zone resulted from male immigration. Male baboon dispersal in GB could be the result of flight behaviour or a consequence of an altered sex ratio induced by hunting practices. The GB baboons displayed signs of a disrupted population and its future conservation requires specific actions to reduce or eliminate this activity.

With the advent of facial transplantation some academic authors have suggested that faces are significant for humans and that identities are located corporeally within faces and therefore transplantable. However, there has been little evidence to support these claims, particularly from a qualitative, theoretically informed social science background. Responding to this hiatus, in this thesis I set two interconnected research objectives: • to examine socio-cultural values associated with human faces in predominantly Western societies using secondary sources; • to explore the relationship between acquired facial ‘disfigurement’ and embodied identity shift using a narrative methodology. The first objective was addressed in full through an analytical review of largely Western secondary sources. It has become clear that faces, as part of bodies, are imbued with a variety of socio-cultural meanings on multiple levels. Individually people experience the world through their body and their face, making it a significant site for perception and sense making. On a societal level, faces and facial appearance have been associated with social reproduction (Giddens, 1991). For example, inaccurate and harmful historical associations between facial appearance and moral character still pervade British society. And, utilising the concept of faciality (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p.168) Twine (2002), Dudley (2002) and Benson (2008) have illustrated that the faces of people in sub-sections of society, generally those with very little power, can be conceptualised negatively and used to serve the interests of powerful elites. In terms of the second objective, most facial ‘disfigurement’ research has been completed using quantitative methods, resulting in partial knowledge and the disconnection of persons. Through the use of a phenomenological epistemology, embodiment position and a narrative methodology I have put the experiences of the 13 participants at the heart of the research. The analysis chapters focus on the participants’ embodied identities before, during and after an acquired facial ‘disfigurement’. In terms of conclusions, I have found that faces are important however, identities are not located within them but created and reshaped through embodied life experiences. I have also found that the relationship between embodied identity shift and acquired facial ‘disfigurement’ is one of contested negotiation between wider socio-cultural facial values, transitional/liminal identity states during and after the event(s) and the aim of previous identity restoration.

Hick’s pluralist assumption has remained the most knowable model of religious pluralism in the last few decades. Many have, from the perspectives of various major world religions, questioned his notion that the teachings of all religions are derived from the same Absolute Truth and that salvific-end is one, yet little attention has been paid to the traditions that he graded as unauthentic and non-valuable according to his soteriological and ethical criteriology. The purpose of this thesis was to demonstrate the exclusiveness of Hick’s model by describing a tradition called “Chinese Folk Religion” that does not fit into his definition of ‘authentic religion’. As the study suggested, his understanding of the world religious situation is over-generalised and simplified, and his particular criteriology does not treat all traditions fairly or pluralistically. As a response, this thesis proposed a more inclusive theory that also integrates the currently disregarded tradition into the interpretation.

This thesis examines a variety of theoretical issues relating to ethnicity, multiculturalism and racism in New Zealand. It is argued that whilst the country’s history has been replete with anti-Asiatic racisms, it is necessary to transcend the timeless notion of racism as colour discrimination and to instead, situate past and present anti-Asiatic racisms within the nation’s temporally specific positions in modernity. Through an orientation to time and diachrony, the research considers if a liberal policy of multiculturalism is conducive for contemporary New Zealand society. In view of academic debates suggesting that a ‘practical’ version of multiculturalism exists alongside the country’s constitutional biculturalism, it is argued that the de facto version of multiculturalism exhibits the characteristics of commercial and conservative multiculturalisms which fail to address the problem of racism. A liberal form of multiculturalism, it is maintained, will not produce the best outcome for New Zealand because it is insensitive to indigenous rights and will remain mutually exclusive from biculturalism. This research then concludes with a discussion on the likely future of cosmopolitanism in New Zealand, both as a theory and how it might possibly work in practice without immolating the hegemony of biculturalism.

Factors contributing towards falls in older age during overground walking have been widely studied. Stepping behaviour, balance and head posture control during stair negotiation in young adults (YA) and older adults with either lower (LROA) or higher (HROA) risk of falling during midstair negotiation have not been investigated. The aims of the thesis were threefold. Firstly, age-related changes in gaze behaviour were investigated. The main finding was that older adults fixate stair edges for longer than YA. Secondly, the effect of manipulating visual information on stepping parameters and balance control was compared between YA, LROA and HROA. For stair ascent, stepping and balance control was preserved in LROA and HROA and highlighted stair edges led to increased foot clearance in all groups. For stair descent, HROA demonstrated smaller foot clearance than LROA and highlighted stair edges improved balance in LROA and HROA. Thirdly, head posture was studied in YA, LROA and HROA. Compared to walking, LROA and HROA demonstrated more variable head posture than YA. Overall the findings suggest that adults use visual and probably proprioceptive information about stair edge locations to negotiate stairs and HROA benefited from highlighted stair edges. HROA should be included in future stair negotiation studies.