<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>

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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.

The migration of nearly one million Cubans to the United States since 1959 was triggered primarily by complex revolutionary changes in Cuba, and the United States' response to such changes, which included, among other measures, encouraging the migration. In addition to ostensibly humanitarian reasons, every administration from Eisenhower to Reagan has, in one way or another, welcomed refugees from Cuba in order to attain political objectives against Fidel Castro's revolution. Although those objectives have varied through the years, at least two have remained constant: (1) to destabilize Castro's government by draining it of vital human resources (e.g.: physicians, teachers, technicians) and (2) to discredit the revolution through the flight of thousands from a "Communist" to a "free" country. Castro, on the other hand, has also used the migration as an escape valve to rid Cuba of internal enemies, and unproductive citizens. / This study analyzes the political dynamics at work during the migration by focusing on the unusual events and episodes that have made it in many ways unique: The Unaccompanied Children's Program, the Camarioca boatlift of 1965, the airlift of 1965-1973, and the Mariel boatlift of 1980. A comparative perspective is provided through analysis of the Haitian and Central American refugee crises of the late 1970s and early 1980s. In addition, the following events affecting Cuba-United States relations are also discussed at some length: The Cold War, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Missile Crisis, and the dialogue between Cuba's revolutionary government and the Cuban exile community. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-01, Section: A, page: 0285. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.

This dissertation examines the life and works of Venezuelan writer Arturo Uslar Pietri. / Although regarded by many to be among the best contemporary writers in Latin America, and certainly among the most prolific, Arturo Uslar Pietri has not enjoyed the recognition in the United States that he has enjoyed in Latin America. For this reason, it is the intention of this study to provide an introduction to the life and works of such a distinguished writer. / The research is divided in three chapters. The introductory chapter presents a biographical sketch of Arturo Uslar Pietri accompanied by a brief description of a number of his better known writings. / The succeeding chapter consists of an annotated bibliography of the works written by Uslar Pietri. The bibliographical entries are divided into nine categories. These are: novels, short stories, theater, poetry, essays, biographies, articles, introductions, and anthologies. The list includes only the compositions that were uncovered during the investigation. / The concluding chapter is also an annotated bibliography. However, the entries that appear in this chapter include works of criticism on Arturo Uslar Pietri's writings. It consists primarily of books and articles. / Arturo Uslar Pietri is mostly known for his short stories and historical novels that depict the life in Venezuela from the time of the conquest to the present time. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-06, Section: A, page: 2174. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

This dissertation examines the origin of myth in Garcia Marquez's novel, Cien anos de soledad. While the major critics of the novel have noted a strong dependence thereof on Biblical intertextualities, the present study focuses on possible Indigenous sources of what has already been defined as cosmogonical. In addition, several motifs which have been defined previously as "mythified" are examined and compared to Indigenous Colombian rituals. The work of explorer Alexander von Humboldt is also addressed herein as applicable to the wider comprehension of the novel. While this work is not necessarily an Indigenous source, the vast references to such cultures justify its inclusion in this study. Likewise, the Popol Vuh is examined as a potential source of myth within the novel. The main Colombian sources indicated in this study are as follows: Chibcha (Muisca); Tairona (Kogi); and Guajiro (Wayu). Although the Guajiros are the only indigenous group specifically mentioned in the novel, the role of the Tairona and Chibcha were so potent in the framework of the chronicles that their inclusion in this work is inevitable. The cosmogonies which particularly parallel the action of the novel are the Chibcha and Guajiro. Religious rituals of the Chibcha and Guajiro are also examined here are possible antecedents of certain of the actions, the origins of which have as yet been unidentified. Meanwhile, the philosophical origins of the novel's "death within death" motif are juxtaposed to documentation of certain Kogi beliefs, which bear striking similarities. On account of the large number of nearly exact parallels between the novel and various Indigenous elements, the mythical content of the novel is viewed as intertextualized Indigenous, rather than Biblical, myth. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: A, page: 1377. / Major Professor: Roberto G. Fernandez. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-01, Section: A, page: 0302. Adviser: Jeffrey L. Gould. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed Feb. 8, 2007)."

<p>El agotamiento de la Izquierda: subalternidad y soberanía is a comparative project that examines the concept of political sovereignty in a variety of cultural texts in Latin America, including novels, essays and film. The dissertation defines sovereignty as an antagonistic space where the institution of nation-states and the development of capitalist modernization coincide. The dissertation examines basically four cases of social conflict in recent Latin American history where the concept of sovereignty is called into question: the Mexican Revolution (1910-20), the Cuban Revolution (1953-59), national populism in Argentina (1946-55) and the Popular Unity government in Chile (1970-73). The thesis argues for a new understanding of the relation between sovereignty and subalternity and also the relationship between literature and speculative late capitalism as an effect of the exhaustion of the interstate notion of sovereignty.</p> / Dissertation

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.