Research documents that breast cancer is the leading cause of death in Latina females. The exact numbers are unknown, but studies reveal that Latinas with breast cancer underuse recommended follow-up chemotherapy, decreasing their rates of survival. Although several factors may be responsible, cultural influences are a possible barrier. However, there is a gap in the literature about how culture affects decisions about breast cancer treatment. This focused ethnographic study examined the role of cultural beliefs and perceptions in the decision-making process for Latina women about whether or not to receive chemotherapy following a breast cancer diagnosis. Drawing from Douglas' cultural theory of risk, archived in-depth interview data from 20 Latina breast cancer survivors were open coded into 56 primary codes which were then categorized into hierarchical trees of overarching themes and subcategories. Unique elements of the patterns observed in these data were analyzed and interpreted to explain how culture may influence Latina breast cancer patients to underuse recommended chemotherapy. The results of this qualitative analysis revealed that various cultural factors including social role-related themes, avoidance of information and communication, as well as employment and immigration status influenced the treatment decisions of Latina women. Analysis suggested that these cultural factors influenced both the amount and quality of information Latina women had available to make these decisions, as well as how they processed information to reach their decisions. Results of this study can accelerate social change by drawing increased attention to cultural differences in medical decision making, by informing the communication process between medical providers and their Latina patients, and thus eventually increasing survival from breast cancer among Latinas.

This thesis focuses on the transmission and role of poetry and song within the Somali community in London’s King’s Cross, which has developed since 1991 as Somalis have fled from violence in their homeland. I explore the relationship between past and present, continuity and change within Somali oral artforms, and the role of song and poetry in transmitting cultural knowledge. I also consider the potential of sound archives – specifically the British Library’s World and Traditional Music section, which neighbours the Somali community in King’s Cross – to support the continuation of oral tradition and impact upon individual and collective memory processes within diasporic communities. I demonstrate the ongoing role of poetry and song in mediating and communicating relationship with place and negotiating multiple subjectivities among Somalis in the diaspora, presenting examples of Somali community members in King’s Cross renewing, constructing and expressing sense of belonging to different locales and group identities through composing, listening to, discussing and performing song and poetry. With “proactive archiving” (drawing on Edmonson’s “proactive access” 2004: 20) at the heart of my methodology, I elucidate the relationship between song as an archival form and the place and practice of ethnomusicology sound archives, demonstrating the challenges and benefits of engaging diasporic communities with archival recordings. I consider the dynamism of the Somali oral network and the ongoing mobility and change experienced by Somali residents of King’s Cross, which stands in notable contradistinction to the permanence and fixity of the British Library, and I call for a move forward from the notion of proactive archiving to one of sustainable archiving – an approach that would empower community members to record and archive their personal musical heritage in a systematic and ongoing way.

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