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No description available.

No description available.

With the encroachment of the United States military onto Apache lands many Apache men joined the military due to intolerable reservation conditions and the unique economic opportunity of enlisting as scouts for the military. This thesis attempts to better understand the relationships among military personnel, Apache scouts, and nonmilitary Apache people. By examining the material remains of a scout camp located on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation (FAIR), and integrating these findings with oral history and information collected from White Mountain Apache consultants, a better understanding of historical Western Apache life can be delineated. This thesis examines these lifeways and interactions by applying a theoretical framework adopted from Steven Silliman's practical politics, Richard White's concept of the middle ground, and Western Apache landscape knowledge and stories.

This dissertation pools time-series and cross-section data among Canadian provinces to examine: (1) whether provincial welfare generosity (health, social services, and education expenditures), power resources and political parties (unions and left, centre, and right political parties), and political democracy (voter turnout and women in government) affects population health; (2) whether the effect of leftist politics channels through or combines with provincial welfare generosity to affect population health; and (3) whether provinces cluster into distinct political regimes which are predictive of population health. Data is retrieved from the Canadian Socio-Economic Information Management System (CANSIM) II Tables from 1976 to 2008 and Canadian Parliamentary Guides from various years. Population health is measured using total, male, and female age-standardized mortality rates. Estimation techniques include Prais-Winsten regressions with panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE), a first-order autocorrelation correction model (AR1), and fixed unit effects. Hierarchical cluster analysis is used to identify how provinces cluster into distinct regimes. Primary findings are three-fold. First, provincial welfare generosity has a significant impact in lowering mortality rates, net of other factors, such as demographic and economic variables. Second, the political power of left and centre political parties and women in government have significant negative effects on mortality rates. Whereas left political parties and women in government combine with provincial welfare generosity to improve population health, the effect of centre political parties is channeled through provincial expenditures. Third, provinces cluster into three distinct regimes based on left political party power and women in government: 1) leftist (Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Manitoba); 2) centre-left (Ontario and Quebec); and 3) conservative (Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland). Compared to the leftist regime, centre-left and conservative provinces have significantly higher mortality rates; however, provincial welfare generosity accounts for most of the observed inter-provincial differences in population health.

No description available.

No description available.

Of the various regional languages in France, Occitan, a language spoken in the southern third of the country, is facing some major problems, namely those of the creation of a written standard — a process which began only in the late 19th century — and the splintering of the Occitan movement into several distinct dialect groups. One of these dialects, Gascon, has long been considered the black sheep of the Occitan dialects, due in part to its peculiar phonology, lexicon and its literature, which developed in a much different manner than the other Occitan dialects for a number of reasons. Gascon is also the most widely misunderstood of the varieties of "Langue d'Oc", often being confused as being either a separate language, a very corrupt form of French (a patois), or simply a very distant relative to Occitan. This thesis attempts to explain the rationale for a Gascon language movement by examining its historical and social development and the shifting cultural identity over time. The linguistic traits specific to Gascon will be discussed, as well as the differences between it and the other forms of Occitan. Finally, a brief discussion of the present state of Gascon and the regional movement(s) will conclude this overview of one of the many regional or minority languages of France.

This dissertation pools time-series and cross-section data among Canadian provinces to examine: (1) whether provincial welfare generosity (health, social services, and education expenditures), power resources and political parties (unions and left, centre, and right political parties), and political democracy (voter turnout and women in government) affects population health; (2) whether the effect of leftist politics channels through or combines with provincial welfare generosity to affect population health; and (3) whether provinces cluster into distinct political regimes which are predictive of population health. Data is retrieved from the Canadian Socio-Economic Information Management System (CANSIM) II Tables from 1976 to 2008 and Canadian Parliamentary Guides from various years. Population health is measured using total, male, and female age-standardized mortality rates. Estimation techniques include Prais-Winsten regressions with panel-corrected standard errors (PCSE), a first-order autocorrelation correction model (AR1), and fixed unit effects. Hierarchical cluster analysis is used to identify how provinces cluster into distinct regimes. Primary findings are three-fold. First, provincial welfare generosity has a significant impact in lowering mortality rates, net of other factors, such as demographic and economic variables. Second, the political power of left and centre political parties and women in government have significant negative effects on mortality rates. Whereas left political parties and women in government combine with provincial welfare generosity to improve population health, the effect of centre political parties is channeled through provincial expenditures. Third, provinces cluster into three distinct regimes based on left political party power and women in government: 1) leftist (Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Manitoba); 2) centre-left (Ontario and Quebec); and 3) conservative (Alberta, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland). Compared to the leftist regime, centre-left and conservative provinces have significantly higher mortality rates; however, provincial welfare generosity accounts for most of the observed inter-provincial differences in population health.