acase@tulane.edu

Armed, illegal non-state actors control small but important sectors of both Brazil and Colombia. In these two countries, traffickers and large gangs concentrated in urban (and, in Colombia's case, also rural) areas clash heavily with state security forces, dominate significant numbers of the urban poor, and play a large, threatening role in the public's imagination. Some vital research has been done on the political and sociological dynamics within the zones controlled by these actors, but there is less in the literature that deals with the specific activities of community media and their relations with the ruling gangs and with local residents. This dissertation focuses on two community media groups, one in Bogotá, and one in Rio de Janeiro, both of which operate in informal urban slums controlled by gangs. It argues that in both cases these groups provide some checks to manifestations of authoritarian aggression, the infliction of arbitrary violence on residents and the climate of fear promulgated by the armed actors in these communities. These community media groups are able to do this by capitalizing on community resistance, by building informal relations and networks with gang membership, and by mobilizing notions of political legitimacy. / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation is an archaeological study of the ancient settlement of Labna, a Lowland Maya community in the Puuc Region of Yucatan, Mexico. The form, layout, and architecture of Labna are representative of a large number of Maya centers. The architectural core is considered a model for studying ancient Maya social organization and reflects the debate among Mayanists about the mechanisms and principles that held together Maya communities and states. Analysis of form and layout, as well as of function and meaning of built spaces in Labna, indicates a stratified type of community, with an internal composition based on social units integrated by different organizational principles. This conclusion is based on comparisons of archaeological feature clusters on basal platforms, the remains of several types of roofed spaces on top of such platforms, and the presence/absence and location/distribution of underground cisterns for storing rain water (chultuns), and grinding stones for corn (metates). In the site center, architectural style, form, layout, and iconography were important sources for inferring chronological and functional information. Excavations that exposed the building sequence of structures forming the architectural core of the ancient community revealed several stages of development. Continuous growth and reorganization of the public buildings resulted in changes in form and function of built spaces. A diachronic approach for understanding core composition of the ancient community showed the dynamic nature in the layout of public architecture. The final layout of the urban core of Labna was the result of architectural programs conducted by several generations of rulers. The notion of sequential architectural programs and the identification of a particular form of built space as throne rooms provided a way to define temporal periods. The notion that throne rooms were manufactured in a sequential order in palace complexes, when combined with analysis of architectural styles, suggest three major building episodes, each probably related to a ruler. This dynamic perception of the social organization reflected in the layout of the site center is the result of a long term conjunctive study that included archaeological excavations, site and intersite settlement patterns, iconographic, geographical, and architectural approaches. / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation, ""'Superior to all men': Violent Masculinity, Fascism, and American Identity in Depression-era American Literature,"" examines how American authors used modernist techniques and formal experimentation to recast the violent hero during the Great Depression. Using Richard Slotkin's work, I show how this revision of the hero contributed to a critique of frontier narratives, and the traditional, nineteenth-century socio-political ideals they maintained. The hard-boiled male was both a continuation of the hero's dedication to violent action and a subversion of the frontier as a narrative model for modern life. Despite his pulp origins, American modernists used the hard-boiled male prominently in literary critiques of American life throughout the thirties. With this figure, they expanded the experimentation of the twenties to a literary analysis of the national, economic, and political crises of the Depression, and in doing so their works questioned the roles of race and gender at the heart of American life and politics. The critique of heroic narratives gained particular focus with the rise of fascist politics abroad, and these authors increasingly suggested that such narratives produced and maintained proto-fascist discourses in American life. However, I argue that as the fascist threat grew prior to World War II, authors rehabilitated the frontier hero as a counter to fascism and in concert with democratic liberalism, the New Deal, and the Popular Front. I discuss texts by Ernest Hemingway, Dashiell Hammett, William Faulkner, Sinclair Lewis, John Steinbeck, and Richard Wright, as well as films directed by John Ford. / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu

CiTonga speakers in Malawi describe dominant use of the left hand as distasteful and offensive in face-to-face multimodal interactions, communicative exchanges involving both oral-auditory and visual-gestural actions. They observe a left hand taboo on religious and social grounds, linking the right hand to "good" and the left hand to "bad". Despite this widespread perception, ciTonga speakers were often observed using their left hand and eschewing the taboo even in serious situations where politeness is a social imperative. In this study, I aim to resolve this paradox by arguing that the significance of left hand taboo is domain specific. To do this, I collected 101 multimodal interactions--over 50 hours of recording--through participant observation in Cifila and Kavuzi, where ciTonga is spoken as a native language. I analyzed the gestures in two domains of interaction: everyday rituals and ordinary talks. For both domains, flexibility of handedness is determined by a ranking of four different contextual constraints. I proposed a decision matrix to describe how the type and scale of a constraint can explain the permissiveness of left hand use. CiTonga kinesic signs can elevate to taboo status when they violate the handedness convention for interlocutors with distant social relationships, but over-producing deferential signs can create a social imbalance between close affiliates. Selecting an interaction-appropriate hand preference is therefore an integral part of ciTonga communicative competence. A study on taboo in multimodality shows the ways in which domain structure and purpose shape the application of large sociocultural ideologies to spontaneous interactions in daily life. / acase@tulane.edu

The connection between the visual arts and revolutionary social change is the inspiration for this dissertation. In a 1953 interview, Aurora Reyes, Mexico's first female muralist, declared, 'Art is the medium with the greatest potential to penetrate human emotions, and therefore functions as a powerful weapon in the fight for the rights of the common man.' In the following chapters, I identify the ways in which the officially sanctioned visual narrative of Mexican history evolved during the transition from the Porfirian to the Revolutionary State. By tracing the artistic precursors of the revolution, I attempt to illuminate the role of cultural mestizaje and material culture in achieving sustainable social change in early twentieth century Mexico. The transition from Porfirian to revolutionary Mexico did not happen overnight. It required the committed efforts of several generations of artists and intellectuals. This creative cohort worked diligently to construct an alternative form of cultural nationalism that valued the nation's indigenous legacy. By simultaneously tracing the artistic and familial provenance of revolutionary artist Aurora Reyes, I provide a glimpse of the social balancing that defines revolutionary change. In addition to traditional archival sources, this interdisciplinary investigation required an analysis of 'alternative documents.' I consulted photographs, works of art, song lyrics, and poetry in an attempt to describe and explain the effects of cultural mestizaje as a formative influence on Reyes and her cohort. Their attraction to indigenous culture was not cultivated via written communications; therefore, my analysis of the process required a broad range of sources. I hope this work will inspire more historians to look to visual elements of the historic record to help explain social change. / acase@tulane.edu

When I was a young boy I played war with my friends. It was fun and exciting. We would pretend that we were out to fight the bad guys and ultimately win. Looking back at those childhood games after serving in the United States Army for three and a half years, including deployments to Iraq and Kosovo, I had no idea what I was really playing. Playing! It is anything but playing in real war. The things veterans have seen, have done and gone through in war is something that words cannot describe. How do those who have served express what they have experienced while millions back home go on with their normal day activities oblivious to those veteran’s sacrifices? This is the driving question behind my recent works and the impetus for the thesis exhibition title “Thank You.†With this body of work I am attempting to bring attention to the sacrifices of the men and women who have served in order to provide us with our basic freedoms every day. These freedoms are too often taken for granted. We need to have a better understanding of those individuals who have enabled us to enjoy our everyday lives. I want to encourage a better understanding between those who have served and those who have not. I hope to raise awareness about what these brave volunteers sacrifice for us every day. / acase@tulane.edu

acase@tulane.edu