The thesis is about the assertion of identity and the maintenance of solidarity in Carnia - a mountainous area in the north east of Italy. The topic is analysed in relation to three interlocking themes: the social units which embody identity and organise cooperation; the tension between rivalrous assertion and the desire for harmonious cooperation; and the different social fields - economic activity, ritual, communication, property and prestation, kinship, and relationships with natural forces - in which the tension is acted out. Constraints on the possibilities of social organisation arise from formal characteristics specific to each field. The structuring of these social fields both shapes and reflects people's commitment to key institutions: patrilocal domestic group, corporate village, church, state, nation. The corporate village is shown to have an affinity with free choice of marriage partners (at least within the village), linguistic particularism, and state organisation. Recent changes in economic life and communications have transformed local society - leading to widespread despondency, self-conscious modernity, but also emphasis on tradition, and political regionalism. It is felt that social relationships should ideally be characterised by sympathetic cooperation and legitimate authority, but the fear is that they may collapse into - or be redefined as - conflicts involving the dangerous force of envy. Two contrasting strategies enable people to deal with this ambiguity: either use of one's own strength and vitality to exclude or overcome opposition, or identification with potential enviers and an emphasis on self-sacrifice. The strategies chosen by individual people depend on the context as well as on their sex, age, and wealth. But social solidarity requires an overall solution which assigns a legitimate role to each strategy. Implicit in the substantive analyses is a methodological point: that a structuralist approach can make a major contribution to our understanding of European societies.

Traditional sociological analyses has suggested that urbanization leads to decreased family ties and contact. Previous studies, cited in this paper, have explored this phenomenon with varying results. This paper explores the correlation between distance and contact between married adults in Muncie, Indiana, and same and different sex parents. It is hypothesized that both telephone/letter and face to face contact will diminish as distance increases. A second hypothesis explored in this paper suggests that contact is sexually differentiated with mothers being contacted most frequently and fathers least.Analysis of these data shows relatively high levels of contact between married offspring and their parents. The hypotheses in this study were supported: both telephone/letter and face to face contact diminish with increases in distance and contact patterns are affected by the sex of the parent and offspring. Mothers and daughters have the most frequent contact, fathers and sons the least.

This thesis explores representations of Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast within the discipline of Anthropology, with particular attention given to Hul’qumi’num’ speaking nations on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands of British Columbia. Through a critical engagement with ethnography, linguistic, archival and oral history sources, I offer a critique of the harmful concepts of war and slave as mistranslations from Hul’qumi’num’ into English. The consequences of this mistranslation and lack of understanding permeate our social, cultural and political lives and relationships with settler society. By looking at the original Hul’qumi’num’ words, our laws, and our stories about inter-village relations, I will provide a healthy alternative understanding to the apocryphal representations of Coast Salish nations in Anthropology. I will conclude this discussion with revival of traditional Hul’qumi’num’ laws and practices of relationality and coexistence in marriage and exchanges. / Graduate / 0326 / 0740 / 0290 / flowersrachel@gmail.com

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The thesis comprises three major parts and 8 chapters. First of all Part I consists of two chapters: a discussion on the theoretical frame of reference and a brief review of the social changes that have been both causes and consequence of the family changes of the modernisation process of the last few decades. Part II comprising four chapters examines the result of the socio-economic change or modernisation of the last four decades in the family field : a review of the traditional family as an analytical framework; a discussion of the changes in the kinship network and marriage customs; and lastly a discussion on the relationship among family members. Part III comprising of two chapters, sets out the conclusions to be drawn. It examines first dissolution of the family and changing attitudes and values concerning family life next discusses what sort of family policies should be arranged to meet the huge variation and diversity of family life in which conventional values relating to the family no longer appear to work properly.

This thesis is concerned with two discrete but related themes that are of considerable socio-legal significance: South Asian divorce and disputes involving South Asian children. Both themes are explored empirically by means of a qualitative research study conducted in an urban and industrial area of Britain with a high South Asian population. The thesis thus seeks to provide much needed information concerning what are currently two poorly understood social problems. The material is presented in three main sections. The first section provides the wider context to the study including a discussion of the changing face of South Asian social relations and the norms and traditions by which they are governed, together with a description of the values, principles and practices of those charged with the responsibility of dealing with disputes over the arrangements for children. The second section focuses upon the approach taken to the research and presents the empirical findings of the study. This section uses as its basis a series of semi-structured interviews that allow different perspectives on the twin themes to be compared and contrasted. The third and final section draws together the key conclusions of the study and offers an analytical and normative framework with which to understand the material generated. The thesis places a high premium on the historical, institutional and normative dimensions of each of the themes and uses a combination of sociological and legal insights to provide a rounded picture of the nature and range of the problems studied. In so doing, it generates a range of questions that are of crucial relevance for members of South Asian communities and those engaged in research and teaching in the area of race and ethnicity. In addition, the thesis has some important conceptual, moral and practical implications for those practitioners who are involved in the dispute resolution process.

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Substantially the author's Habilitationaschrift, Humboldt Universität, Berlin. / Label mounted on t.p.: Oxford, New York, Pergamon Press. "Corrigenda" slip inserted. Bibliography: p. [469-473].