Intensive analysis of adaptive experiences of five Papago laborers in four different occupational environments.

No description available.

No description available.

This study explores the role of the Yaqui storyteller and the themes of death and beauty in Yaqui stories. Memory and voice bind together the past and present experience of the Yaqui. Theirs is an oral tradition filled with the tragedy and conquests of war, deportation, fragmentation and endurance, of love, witchcraft and cruelty, magic and ceremony. Ancestors are evoked as their adventures are recounted. The eight sacred towns, Ume Wohnaiki Pweplum, are transported, through stories, from the Rio Yaqui in Sonora, Mexico to the barrios and villages of southern Arizona, and a link is maintained between ancient origins and new beginnings. The history of the people, the Yoeme, is preserved, continued, and reinvented through stories.

The purpose of this study is to explore the roles and uses of multiple literacies in the lives of four Lakota and Dakota (Sioux) young adolescents who live and attend school in a predominantly white community in southeastern South Dakota. Significant to this research is a focus on the perceptions of the participants themselves about their literacy experiences both in and out of school. In addition to describing the participants' uses of reading and writing, this study examines the ways in which they construct meaning through other sign systems such as visual art, music, and movement or dance. As ethnographic case study research, this investigation employs data collection techniques such as participant and non-participant observation, use of fieldnotes, in-depth interviewing, and sampling of literacy artifacts. Also reflective of ethnographic research, this study is developed within historical and sociocultural frameworks. In the review of literature and in the collection of data, the influences of different cultures--American Indian cultures, mainstream culture, school culture, and popular culture--are examined to understand their impact on the participants' transactions with literacy. The findings of this study indicate that the participants' uses of literacy reflect the needs and/or issues that are most central in their lives. Most significantly, the participants use literacy to explore and express their self-identity and to examine issues, such as prejudice, racism, and discrimination, that are critical to them. Another important finding of this study is that the participants possess literacy strengths and knowledge that are not fully revealed within the school setting.

A framework for the study of acculturation in terms of the larger historical context was developed through research on the Tarahumara Indians of the Sierra Madre in northern Mexico. A new definition of acculturation based on concepts from symbolic anthropology is presented. Acculturation is defined as a complex process of social interaction based on two sets of cultural symbols. Field research focused on a community of Tarahumaras and Mestizo Mexicans. Spanish and Mexican efforts to integrate the Tarahumaras into a larger political system are examined since acculturation is assumed to be integrally related to these processes. The roles of the principal participants in acculturation: traditional Tarahumaras, nontraditional Tarahumaras, Mestizos and mainstream Mexicans and their relationships to each other were examined. Sierra acculturation processes were mainly analyzed in terms of traditional Tarahumaras and Mestizo symbols, their inherent compatibility, and their use in a number of different social contexts in the community. Mainstream Mexicans are mainly involved in national integration efforts which affected both Tarahumaras and Mestizos. Formal education seemed to be the fastest and most effective means through which Tarahumaras were being integrated into the national structure. Nontraditional Tarahumaras were prominant in putting bilingual Indian education programs into effect in the Sierra. In the community it was found that nontraditional Tarahumaras are significantly linked to traditional Tarahumaras, that in spite of strong cultural barriers, Tarahumaras and Mestizos have developed working relationships with each other and that Tarahumara and Mestizo symbols were used not only in common social interactions, but also in political and economic realms. Rather than 'becoming Mestizo,' Tarahumara cultural identity was maintained through the use of central Tarahumara symbols, by redefining Mestizo symbols in Tarahumara social contexts and by using Mestizo symbols (e.g., the Spanish language) in practical ways. The fact that some of the most politically and economically influential members of the community were Tarahumaras provided additional support to the maintenance of Tarahumara cultural identity. It is concluded that Tarahumaras may change their lifestyle and appearance, but depending on how Tarahumara and Mestizo symbols are used, and in which contexts, Tarahumara cultural identity can persist in the face of national integration efforts.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis concerns the Gwich’in Dene of Northern Canada and the land they inhabit. Based upon fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork (December 2005 – March 2007, April 2008), I elaborate on personal experiences with Gwich’in pedagogy on the land and in the Teetł'it Gwich'in community of Fort McPherson, Northwest Territories, Canada.  These experiences have included travelling, hunting, trapping, fishing, cooking, cutting wood, building cabins, digging graves, searching for a disappearing elder, attending meetings and feasts, living in a Gwich’in household, visiting, storytelling, and making trails.  I further discuss historical and political processes that have taken place outside and, more specifically, in the North.  I attend to the Hudson’s Bay Company fur trade and British explorers, to Anglican and Roman Christian missionaries, to previous anthropologists, to Government initiatives concerning trapping and mineral exploitation, and to the Gwich’in Tribal Council.  Finally, I examine the role of literacy in Gwich’in lies, both historically and in the present day.  I expand on the work of Archdeacon Robert McDonald and Gwich’in women in transcribing the Bible into the Gwich’in language. The Gwich’in emphasise the importance of this Bible for language revitalisation and making sense in life.  I show that Gwich’in have been actively involved in many of these processes and have either challenged or incorporated them. There remains, however, a consistency that underlies Gwich’in understandings in life.  I find the source of this consistency in the connection between pedagogy, history, and literacy.  I argue outsiders and Gwich’in have been reading the land quite differently, and that this has subsequently influenced historical narratives, policy-making, co-management arrangements, and travelling on the land.  These differences are also brought forth in reading and writing texts.  This has become clear in publications written about the Gwich’in that deny or dismiss Gwich’in pedagogy. I have taken a different standpoint, starting with the premise ‘you have to live it’.