This is a study about the ways in which pictures can be interpreted and the ways in which they are interpreted; the latter, specifically, in a relatively remote part of Peru. Chapter II reviews an assortment of picture tests which bring to light differences in the ways pictures are perceived. Chapter III examines the specific cultural context in which a fairly informal picture test was administered. Chapter IV presents some results and asks what cultural and situational factors may have contributed to the variety in interpretations evident. The drawing of firm conclusions is precluded by the absence of any systematic approach to the interpretations or to the pictures themselves, and it is this which the second half of the study attempts to remedy; by providing a theoretical framework for the assessment of verbalized responses to pictures. Chapter V offers a definition of "picture" and locates it within a typology of indices. It also examines the notion of "visual resemblance", eventually adopting the view that any picture is infinitely ambiguous. Chapter VI introduces two methodological necessities consequent on this ambiguity: a stipulation as to the identity and the taxonomic specificity of any signified object; and a stipulation as to the spatial extension of its signifier. No other methodological content is presented. Chapter VII classifies types of verbalized responses in terms of their visual motivation, and the degree to which they interrelate the stipulated pictorial units. Chapter VIII acknowledges that signification may continue beyond the representational level. Further, postrepresentational, types of responses are classified in terms of the nature of the link maintained with the representational signified.

Previous studies in child language socialization have adopted the approach of studying how children become competent members of their social groups through the use of language. This study began as an attempt to study child language socialization within selected Tucson U.S. Mexican households within this prevailing paradigm. During the course of fieldwork, it was found that the complexities of Borderlands structural and hegemonic relationships could not be adequately addressed within a theoretical assumption of homeostatic and monosemic communities. The ambiguities of "Mexican-ness" do not provide a consensually agreed upon or collectively implicit framework for language socialization. Instead, fluid domains are contested and negotiated as language socialization is construed as a constitutive process of "selfhood" for the child. Rather than replicating and reproducing previously transmitted information, certain parents and caregivers were found to actively engage in constructing an ethos for their own childhood experiences. Multivocality within multiple interactive spheres was identified as parents and caregivers often alternated between symbolic resistance and opposition, and accomodation. Additionally, an affective base for language socialization is postulated. An "emotion of minority status" that is structurally constituted and embedded within regional hegemonic relations is presented as a formative backdrop for children in this population. The essential methodology involved lengthy ethnographic observations coupled with audiocassette recordings of naturally occurring speech. Caregivers were supplied with tape recorders and cassettes and were asked to record interaction within the households, specifically at mealtime, bed time and homework sessions. In-depth open-ended interviews were taped with parents, and in some cases, grandparents, regarding their own perceptions of child-rearing, language habits, and value orientations. Extensive household histories, detailing residential, labor and family history, were also collected.

Life is the common denominator for all beings. Unless individuals are taught to be careful about how they deal with it, great harm could be caused to the whole ontological order. Life therefore is a public property for which precepts had to be established to guard against any misuse. This guarantees that life and its processes are used to everyone's advantage. The Community has put itself in position as the monitor of the processes of life. To it belongs the right to distribute, regulate and even withdraw life as different situations would warrant. The community is both the promulgator and the judge over vital matters. The individuals are taught to be conscientious in dealing with life. In making choices the individuals have to be conscious of the historical experiences of the community and be disposed to being influenced by it. Hence the Community becomes the Conscience and Guide. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.Th. (Religious Studies)

Life is the common denominator for all beings. Unless individuals are taught to be careful about how they deal with it, great harm could be caused to the whole ontological order. Life therefore is a public property for which precepts had to be established to guard against any misuse. This guarantees that life and its processes are used to everyone's advantage. The Community has put itself in position as the monitor of the processes of life. To it belongs the right to distribute, regulate and even withdraw life as different situations would warrant. The community is both the promulgator and the judge over vital matters. The individuals are taught to be conscientious in dealing with life. In making choices the individuals have to be conscious of the historical experiences of the community and be disposed to being influenced by it. Hence the Community becomes the Conscience and Guide. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.Th. (Religious Studies)