On January 19, 1972, the first cadre of the Ejército Guerrillero de los Pobres (EGP) â a political-military organization that used guerrilla warfare to combat violent state repression during Guatemalaâs civil war â entered the Ixcán jungle in the mountains of El Quiché province. At the groupâs outset, it counted few women among its ranks; but by the end of its first ten years in operation, female membership had increased vastly. My thesis explores these guerrillerasâ lives and experiences from a gendered perspective. I argue that because their society was deeply patriarchal, facing sexist prejudices was a part of their daily existence; however, most did not join the EGP for specifically gendered reasons. Furthermore, during their armed activism, they continued to face sexism at times from their comrades and the communities with which they worked. However, they also attempted to change certain misogynistic attitudes and practices, as well as defied traditional gender roles through the revolutionary tasks they fulfilled. Overall, my thesis not only contributes to the existing scholarship on female insurgentsâ experiences, but it also serves as a building block for future comparative studies on the ways Latin American uprisings have been affected by, and have affected, womenâs oppression and rights.

<p> Latin America is a region that has gone through and is still going through a lot of violent conflict. Both Mexico and Colombia have several similarities that stem from grand corruption. The vast systemic grand corruption is evidenced by the use of state violence, including massacres, other human rights violations, structural violence, the repression of the media, the repression of minorities, controversial land acquisitions, and the collusion of organized crime and the state, leading to state capture. The high levels of impunity, weak structures, and weak judicial systems have contributed to the continuation of systemic corruption and state violence. The research below explores the causal link between grand corruption, state capture, and state terror. It also explores the role of weak institutions, structural violence, and other factors that play an important role in 4 diverse case studies of state capture and state terror both in Mexico and Colombia.</p>

<p> The Centro Latino at Fuller Theological Seminary seeks to equip Hispanic pastors with the &ldquo;tools to draw on their faith to create a better world&rdquo;, which is a core component of holistic mission. Through comparative case studies, the first phase of this research examines the journeys of sixteen graduates of Centro Latino to explore the factors which impacted their capacity to implement holistic mission strategies in and with their ministries. As part of this process, this study reviews the roles played by culture, context and theological education in helping or hindering their efforts. The second and third phases of the research involves collaborating with the research subjects to develop and carry out a pilot program of continuing education activities through Centro Latino designed to increase their capacity to carry out holistic mission. Using a theoretical framework which integrates research on the impact of theological education on ministry practice, research on the Hispanic context and corresponding strategies for spiritual and practical formation for holistic mission, this study analyzes the results of the pilot program to arrive at recommendations for Centro Latino in particular and Hispanic theological education programs in general for equipping evangelical/Pentecostal Hispanic immigrant pastors for holistic mission. </p><p>

No description available.

<p> Archaeological excavations by the Proyecto Arqueol&oacute;gico-Paleoetnobot&aacute;nico R&iacute;o Jama (PAPRJ) in the Jama River Valley of northern Manab&iacute;, Ecuador, have established a cultural chronology spanning over three millennia of prehispanic occupation. One of these occupations, the Tabuchila Complex of the Late Formative Period (1000 &ndash; 500 BCE), remains poorly understood. Excavations at three sites in the Jama Valley in the 1990s recovered ceramic, lithic, obsidian, paleobotanical, archaeofaunal, and human skeletal remains from Late Formative Tabuchila contexts, with the goal of orienting Late Formative occupation of the northern Manab&iacute; region to its contemporaries in western lowland Ecuador. </p><p> This study employs modal ceramic analysis to recognize and catalogue formal and stylistic variation within the recovered Tabuchila ceramic assemblage. Through this analysis the Tabuchila assemblage is compared to other studies of Late Formative Chorrera assemblages to understand how Tabuchila represented a regional variant of and contributor to the formation of the Chorrera ceramic tradition. In addition, a sovereignty-based theoretical approach explores how this ceramic assemblage reflects deeper processes of emergent social complexity and early attempts at establishing inequality in northern Manab&iacute;&rsquo;s regional mound center of San Isidro. Results and discussions of the analysis examine a community connected with its Middle and Late Formative contemporaries across the western lowlands and engaged in feasting activity in the vicinity of the central mound of San Isidro.</p>

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the Catholic Church influenced and interacted with Cuban society during the Republic. Specific attention was paid to the question posed by a Cuban scholar if the Catholic Church in Cuba was also the Church of Cuba. The Church's Cubanization efforts were studied through its missionary work, its role as provider of social services, and its capacity to promote sociopolitical changes in the island. The results showed a Church increasingly working to become a Cuban institution, without losing its catholicity. It was devoted to affecting Cuban society positively through education and healthcare, as well as through its concern for the well-being of the rapidly emerging working class. The interaction of the Church with the workers, and the role of some laypersons and religious personnel culminated in the development of some projects that influenced the Cuban Constitution of 1940.

Since 1871, approximately 150,000 Syrians and Lebanese have immigrated to Brazil, struggling to preserve their Arabic culture and identity even as they have assimilated to Brazilian society. Previous scholars have acknowledged the role of a variety of community institutions in maintaining Syrian-Lebanese identity but have largely ignored the role of religious institutions in this process. My thesis addresses this substantial gap in scholarship by researching and analyzing the role religion plays in creating and maintaining ethnic self-identification in the Syrian-Lebanese colony. I focus on the Orthodox Church, Melkite and Maronite Catholic churches, and Muslims, examining the varied ways in which each group participates in this process today. I discuss the ways religious institutions have changed in response to Brazilian culture and the expectations of the Syrian-Lebanese colony, as well as the relationships between the various religious groups. In contrast to many previous scholars, who de-emphasized religious institutions in the community or argued that they have lost their relevance in contemporary Arab Brazilian culture, I argue that religious institutions, so important in the creation of identity in Syria and Lebanon, have also served as vital arenas in which Syrian-Lebanese in Brazil create, maintain, and contest self-identification. I further demonstrate that although the role of Syrian-Lebanese religious institutions has lessened somewhat in modern Brazilian society, religious groups, each in their own way, continue to reinforce Syrian-Lebanese identity and culture, struggling to maintain the Arab nature of their churches and mosques, even as they welcome Brazilian converts to their faith.

Cultural factors affecting food preference and tarwi consumption in three departments of the Peruvian Andes were evaluated. This study suggests that tarwi consumption in Peru is location specific. Moreover, the contact between lo capitalino and lo serrano affects peoples food preferences. Andahuaylas, which has the least amount of contact with the capital, was the place where tarwi was eaten openly and proudly. Cusco, even though further from Lima, has many new capitalino businesses because of the tourist industry, resulting in shame at the fact that they still eat tarwi. In Ayacucho, the consumption of tarwi has disappeared. Furthermore, Ayacucho suffered more from terrorism than any other department in Peru. Thus, even secondary factors like civil turmoil and tourism, which act indirectly, still modify food preference and dietary choices. Finally, there are cultural factors not always visible to the naked eye, such as whether a food is inherently cold or hot, male or female, or a food fit only for the poor or acceptable for the middle class.

This research explores the political thought of two Latin American intellectuals and party leaders of the 1930s, Pedro Albizu Campos from Puerto Rico and Plínio Salgado from Brazil. During a decade of economic depression and political turmoil, they elaborated nationalist and revolutionary ideologies, and headed two influential political movements, the Partido Nacionalista de Puerto Rico and the Ação Integralista Brasileira, respectively. The interpretation of these experiences benefited from some recent developments in the European field of fascist studies, and in particular from Roger Griffins ideal type of generic fascism as a palingenetic populist ultra-nationalism and Emilio Gentiles notion of political religion. Albizu and Salgado showed a common core of worldviews and values centered on the belief that they were witnessing the peak of a long-term process of moral and material decadence as a consequence of capitalism and liberalism. On this basis, they each proposed a project of spiritual rebirth (palingenesis) to be carried out through the rejection of the foreign, bourgeois model of development, and through the exaltation of what they considered genuine national traits, in particular, race and religion. The Catholic tradition also provided a repertoire of terms, symbols, and principles that they employed to shape their parties as sectarian and hierarchical organizations, subjected to an authoritarian leadership. The comparison of these two converging political discourses strengthens the call for a transnational study of the 1930s Latin American extreme right.