The present study is a microanalytic analysis of the communicative interaction between Inuit caregivers and their children at 16 and 20 months of age. The caregivers in the study included an older more traditional mother, a younger less traditional mother, and a teenage sibling caregiver. Videotaped samples of naturalistic interaction between the Inuit caregivers and children were coded for communicative intent using the Inventory of Communicative Acts-Abridged (Ninio, Wheeler, Snow, Pan, & Rollins, 1991). Preliminary comparisons between the Inuit data and the results of studies of white middle-class caregiver-child interaction were also assessed. Results of the study demonstrate that there are differences in caregiver-child interaction within the Inuit culture and between the Inuit and the white-middle class culture. The implications of these findings for interactionist theories of language acquisition such as Bruner's Language Acquisition Support System (1981, 1985) are discussed.

"Productions of the body" refers both to produced plays which are "about" the body and to the ideological production of "the body" and of bodies (as well as to the bodily production of ideologies). Embodied performance can be the ideal place to study constructions of the body. The charismatic, live body onstage seems to promise a full presence--a promise it cannot fulfill, because the body onstage is inherently other than/to itself. The plays I examine--Othello, The Blacks, Funnyhouse of a Negro, spell #7, M. Butterfly, and the performance pieces of Karen Finley--exploit the otherness inherent in live performance to (re-)present the social construction and performative re-creation inherent in all body-identities. In particular, I discuss the ways in which these plays show race and gender to be fashioned, performed, and "made up," not only onstage, but in "real" life as well. Yet these plays also insist on the need to invoke "real," "present," and "natural" bodies in the political arena. All of these plays, even as they make explicit the theatricality and textuality which produce the body-as-other, still residually promise of a body prior to and directing its production. This promise of a body which cannot be represented and perhaps cannot be "had" at all, remains, for me, a promise as well as an object of suspicion. This dissertation aims to make the ideologies and occlusions which underwrite this promise as explicit as possible, and yet to preserve and clarify its necessity.

A Overseas Chinese draw upon three strategies to articulate their identities as diasporic subjects: (1) being more American, (2) being more Chinese, and (3) hybridizing and commodifying Chinese culture through trans-cultural performances. Through these performances, overseas Chinese are fundamentally reshaping Chinese culture, creating new transnational linkages, and fostering the circulation of the Chinese transnational imaginary. These three strategies are not mutually exclusive, and they often intersect and supplement each other in unexpected ways. Binary models of identity are no longer effective in analyzing diasporic Chinese cultures. Instead, theories which take into account the complexities of uprooted and deterritorialized subjectivies are better suited to the study of new Chinese cosmopolitanisms. Close attention to both global and local contexts, and especially to how the everyday lives of overseas Chinese connect with these factors, is essential in tracking the Chinese transnational imaginary.

Two powerful Mexican female archetypes, La Virgen de Guadalupe and La Malinche, have had a powerful impact on the identities of Mexican American women for many generations. I will focus on the theories of Octavio Paz, a male Mexican intellectual, and Gloria Anzaldua, a Chicana feminist, among other critics, in order to unmask the limitations that these archetypes have imposed on women of Mexican heritage. In The House on Mango Street , the young protagonist, Esperanza Cordero, observes the women in her family and in her inner-city neighborhood as her only available role models. She observes their inability to defy traditional roles for women of Mexican heritage and experiences the effects of those patriarchal constructions in her own life. This analysis explores how one Chicana adolescent goes from childhood to womanhood while living on Mango Street and her refusal to accept those Mexican archetypes in an effort to construct her identity as a Chicana unwilling to conform to those ideals.

While acculturation is among the most popular concepts in cultural psychiatry and psychology, the conceptualization and measurement of this construct continue to be issues of significant debate. Recent literature supports the development of multidimensional models of acculturation, in contrast to traditional linear or unidimensional models. The current study examined a multidimensional model of acculturation in a multi-ethnic community sample of first-generation immigrants in Montreal. Two cultural orientations - Canadian and Self-Defined Ethnicity - were assessed independently among Caribbean (n=109), Vietnamese (n=97), and Filipino (n=109) participants. These two cultural orientations were examined across three dimensions of acculturation: ethnic loyalty, ethnic behaviour, and situational ethnic identity. Correlational and factor analysis were used to assess the distinctiveness of the three dimensions, and the relationship between the two cultural orientations. For ethnic behaviour and situational ethnic identity, the two cultural orientations were not related to one another. Among the Vietnamese and Filipino groups, loyalty to one's self-defined ethnic group was positively related to loyalty towards Canadians. Factor analysis revealed two independent components, corresponding to the two cultural orientations. Overall, results support both the need to assess cultural orientations independently, and the multidimensional nature of acculturation.

<p>The goal of this study is to examine racial residential segregation in U.S. metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. The study uses 1990-2010 decennial census data to answer a broad theoretical question: is the historical black-white color line being replaced by a black-nonblack or white-nonwhite color line? The results show that black-white segregation is higher than black-nonblack and white-nonwhite segregation in metropolitan areas, nonmetropolitan areas, and the United States as a whole. A multivariate analysis reveals that population size tends to be associated with higher segregation in metropolitan areas and lower segregation in nonmetropolitan areas. As a control variable, diversity seems to play an important role in segregation by U.S. region. The study concludes that further research is needed to examine how the color line might change, especially in nonmetropolitan areas, which experienced rapid minority population growth during the 2000s.

<p> The controversies and political conflicts associated with the Vietnam War led to three resettlement waves of Vietnamese refugees to the United States. Adapting to a new set of American customs and cultural traditions challenged many Vietnamese immigrants who were faithful to their own familiar traditions and were economically and linguistically challenged. In this autoethnographic study, I present the history of my family experience, beginning with my parents' urgent departure from Vietnam as boat people, their struggle to adapt to a foreign country, the development of their family, the cultural and generational clashes experienced by the family, the reunification with extended family members, and establishing a local cultural identity. This study is grounded in personal voice to illustrate the struggles that my Vietnamese family experienced in adapting to American society. It offers a view of Vietnamese immigrants and their second-generation children living in two worlds. The autoethnographic study revealed five social dynamics for Vietnamese American families: (a) escape from civil war, (b) reliance on social support network, (c) family generational conflict between immigrants and their children, (d) loyalty to family and culture, and (e) class conflict in native country. These findings were derived from the vignettes and analyses of a Vietnamese American family living in two worlds: Vietnam and the U.S.</p>

<p> This dissertation commences a critical examination of the issue of historical representation and draw on the fieldwork surrounding Bopiliao Historic District in Taipei to explore how the imagination and authentic sense of heritage influence the designation of historic sites and the way in which people use authenticity to negotiate their position in the progress of place making. The buildings cannot speak for themselves. Historical significance is not a given but something that needs to be interpreted and constantly reimagined. A sentimental yearning for a former time and place is not enough to explain the establishment of this historic district with twists and turns and the ambivalence over it expressed by the host community. </p><p> The first empirical chapter describes the historical background, preservation process, and the status quo of Bopiliao Old Street under the influence of the government-supported film <i>Monga</i>, which causes considerable controversy over heritage and culture representation and affects public image of the site and the host community. The second empirical chapter illustrates how an old urban neighborhood has been narrated, interpreted, and eventually certificated and accepted by the public as cultural heritage based on various social groups' heritage imagination and practice. The third empirical chapter examines how the stakeholders construct and employ the idea of authenticity to justify their viewpoint of cultural heritage and to strive for their position in the progress of place making. </p><p> My research seeks to contribute to the sociological literature on historic representation, heritage interpretation, and the construction of historical authenticity by exploring the increasingly central role played by media, activists and the locals. The tangible heritage is the production of the interaction between historic relics and the host community. Historical representation in the cinematographic media became a stimulus urging civil resistance to the existing official forms and strategy of historic preservation. Tourism continues to highlight the impact as well, for the opinions of the visiting tourists play an important role in reinforcing the image of destination. The contradiction in the sense of authenticity among social groups implies the existence of entirely different images of cultural heritage. The conflict represents the struggle of establishing local identity in contemporary Taiwan society. It is argued that the preserved heritage never denotes a successful end; rather, it is a start of the dialectical place-making process.</p>

<p> By exploring the experience of Armenian Americans who have enrolled in the American higher education system, this study investigated how the Armenian American identity influenced the experience of college students. The research explored the community and cultural wealth that Armenian Americans brought to their universities, which interacted with established institutional resources and structures. Data was collected through semi-structured, open-ended interviews of 21 participants from the Greater Los Angeles area. The major findings of the study include the emergence of the Armenian American student identity (AASI), customization and negotiation of the oncampus experience, and building networks on campus. The overarching metaphor for the AASI became <i> Two Circles. Two Worlds.,</i> refers to the code switching taking place with the Armenian American college student population. This code switching resulted in the two campus acculturative strategies of compartmentalization and integration. The discussion explicated three factors that impacted the selection of these acculturative strategies: (a) on campus presence, (b) campus hospitality and environment, and (c) shared experience. The research concluded with implications for practice within student affairs, administration, and faculty as well as multiple opportunities for future research to provide further insight into this student population.</p>

"No (person) is an island" (Donne J, 1975, p. 87). The importance of social support in the lives of human beings is evident and for immigrant adolescents the role of social networks is important to facilitate their adjustment within the majority culture and to navigate their identity within spaces of belonging. / This study aims to describe how Filipino immigrant adolescents in Cote-des-Neiges, a district in Montreal, organize social support and how this relates to their mental health. This research is a mixed design with a sequential strategy. Firstly, data about social support from an epidemiological survey of Filipino youth are analyzed. Secondly, ethnographic research elaborates the findings from the quantitative part. / The results suggest that social networks play a dual role of both support and conflict for the adolescents and that there is a complex interplay between migratory trajectory and the strategies for organizing social support and negotiating spaces of belonging.