American Indians express national identity and sovereignty often in a context of misrecognition and domination. The dominant culture frequently mythologizes, or depoliticizes, Native Americans to maintain its hegemony. The mythologization of the Nez Perce Indians has been overwhelmingly laudatory from Lewis and Clark onward, yet it frequently distorts Nez Perce/white history, denies the Nez Perces coevalness, and effaces dual U.S./Nez Perce identity and sovereignty After providing an overview of Nez Perce history and culture, Chapter One discusses the role Thomas Jefferson, the Journals of Lewis and Clark, and press coverage of the 'Nez Perce War of 1877' had in establishing the Nez Perces as exemplary American Indians. Chapter Two analyzes a book-length poem about the Nez Perces by Robert Penn Warren. Warren critiques U.S. empire-building and late 20th century American malaise, seeing in the Nez Perces an ideal nation. But Warren's idealization of the Nez Perces effaces living Nez Perces and participates in the imperialist project he critiques Chapter Three examines Nez Perce orature to discern national and political identity. Mythic literature creates a tribal identity grounded in a specific place that emphasizes relations in the natural world, explaining the Nez Perces' contemporary vigilance to prevent the devastation of salmon. The work of Nez Perce poet Phil George demonstrates a dynamic political identity against experiences of colonization and cultural misrecognition. George's poetry undercuts the idealization of the Nez Perces by Robert Penn Warren and other Euroamerican commentators Chapter Four examines 'Chief Joseph Days,' a festival where nonIndians and Nez Perces assert differing versions of local history and identity in a contested geographic area. Indian performances assert legitimacy of origin and legal/spiritual ownership of this place, providing an alternative to versions of the area's pioneer past asserted through the performances of whites The Epilogue argues that assertions of sovereignty ultimately move Indians from the realm of the mythical to the real; that it is imperative that we recognize and accept 'difference'; and that we should view the unique relationship of Indians to the United States as a challenge to live with our neighbors, both locally and globally, with tolerance and justice / acase@tulane.edu

Expanding industrialization compels the Maya to acquire Spanish as the language of national or international currency. Bilingual parents may choose to teach their offspring only Spanish and thus trigger an intergenerational language shift. This study traces in detail several economic and language transitions taking place in four Kaqchikel towns of central Guatemala: Santa Catarina Barahona, San Antonio Aguas Calientes, San Andres Cevallos and Santiago Zamora. Past language and ethnic policies affecting the Maya are explored in Colonial documents while data from over four hundred household surveys include fluency levels and use patterns in both Spanish and Kaqchikel. Comparisons of fluency levels by demographic characteristics reveal the rate and contour of language shift; comparisons with indicators of traditional versus modern economic involvement reveal broader cultural trends. Concepts from social network theory are used to explain relative degrees of shift in the communities. Practical applications of findings and directions for further research are suggested / acase@tulane.edu

My dissertation, 'Marrying in and out of Whiteness: Twentieth-Century Intermarriage Narratives,' examines shifting American perceptions of race, ethnicity, and whiteness through the formula of the intermarriage story. In each chapter, I do a comparative study of black/white interracial marriage and WASP/white ethnic intermarriage stories. Through this intertextual analysis, I reveal how at different points throughout the twentieth century, white and nonwhite ethnics launched a collaborative deconstruction of white dominant culture ideals, while at other historical moments these groups have turned against each other in their efforts to better the conditions of their respective cultural communities. I argue that the narratives shift from stories of marrying into whiteness during the early twentieth century---when whiteness was equated with citizenship, privilege, ideal beauty, and personal safety---to stories of marrying out of whiteness after World War II---when whiteness becomes associated with repression, emptiness, imperialism, materialism, and the absence of community. In addition, I analyze why the mid-century era (from the onset of World War II to the Civil Rights Movement) is integral in reversing the formula of American intermarriage texts to stones which idealize 'otherness' and deconstruct 'whiteness.' I discuss a range of texts, including works by authors Israel Zangwill, James Weldon Johnson, Anzia Yezierska, Flannery O'Connor, Nella Larsen, George Schuyler, Helen Barolini, Bernard Malamud, Margaret Mitchell, Alice Walker, and Philip Roth / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation uses a combination of modern and postmodern interpretative approaches to identify, describe, and analyze the narratives presented within ERACE, an organization which uses the emergent method of dialogue to promote interracial communication. The analysis of the narratives revealed information about the participants' understanding of both the organization and of racism. Based on concepts of narrative thinking and organizational representation, a 'meta-story' was postulated. This 'meta-story' serves as a model for showing relationships between the individual narratives, and for demonstrating the fluidity and constant evolvement of the organization. In doing so, the model moves the interpretation of the findings from a static, functionalist approach to partially achieving what Jeffcut (1993) calls a 'polyphonic, open-ended, creative dialogue,' as an interpretation and representation of the organization. Weick's (1995) concept of sensemaking, Bateson's (1972) Four Orders of Learning, and the theory of social constructivism are presented as ways of understanding the process of this research as well as the experience of dialogue within the organization. Some implications for social work education and future research point to continued emphasis on narrative, the addition of the concept of dialogue as a mechanism of social learning in organizations, and further exploration of the growing phenomena of interracial dialogue organizations / acase@tulane.edu

This study explored the theoretical assumptions postulated by Gilligan (1982) that; (a) there exists two different moral decision-making orientations, the ethic-of-justice and the ethic-of-care, (b) that these orientations are gender related and c) that the face-to-face interview is sensitive to the context of the ethic-of-care as well as the ethic-of-justice. Thirty (15 males and 15 females) African-American college seniors participated in the study. The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and Gilligan's interview were utilized to explore the possible relationship between sex role and moral decision-making The findings affirm (a) that there exists two distinct moral decision-making orientations; negate (b) that these orientations are gender related and affirm (c) that the face-to-face interview is sensitive to the context of the ethic-of-care as well as the ethic-of-justice. The overwhelming preference for the ethic-of-care orientation for 25 subjects with only 5 subjects preferring the ethic-of-justice was supported by the unanimous classification of androgyny for all subjects on the BSRI. An unexpected finding suggests that moral decision-making orientation may be more related to the context of moral conflict being concerned with intimate or non-intimate relationships than gender or sex role for this population / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation examines the articulation of macro and micro processes in relation to the pan-Maya movement in Guatemala. I argue that the form of the pan-Maya movement is not determined solely by its internal structures, as theories of nativism and revitalization would suggest, nor solely by global processes, as a world system approach would predict. Rather, the pan-Maya movement is shaped through the articulation of national, local, and global systems The pan-Maya movement operates at a national level in Guatemala, and the actions of the Guatemalan state, particularly its security forces, restrict the range of pan-Mayanist activism. Nonetheless, pan-Maya activists have taken advantage of changes in the post-Cold War global political economy to colonize a space for themselves in the competitive Guatemalan political arena. Pan-Maya leaders promote an ideology of cultural and ethnic pride, hoping to unite the diverse Maya groups into an effective political constituency. The cultural goals of pan-Mayanists fall outside of the confrontation between the Guatemalan Left and Right, and thus are largely seen by political and military leaders as innocuous The urban-based, educated leaders of the pan-Maya movement have been seen by many analysts as far removed from the realities of daily life in Maya communities. In comparing local cultural forms in Patzun and Tecpan to the national ideology of pan-Mayanism, however, I find many points of convergence. I explain these findings by postulating the existence of certain essential paradigms of Maya culture, shared by urban pan-Mayanists and rural Maya agriculturalists alike. These persistent paradigms provide the foundation for cultural innovation at the local as well as the national level, and result in the pan-Maya ideology being consistent with local cultural strategies The fact that culture can provide the basis for mobilization at various levels of aggregation is particularly relevant to the field of development. The pan-Maya movement shows that cultural issues can act to vertically integrate segments of a population, thus allowing development strategies formulated at a national level to harness cultural energy through grassroots participation / acase@tulane.edu

Hostility, terrorism, and capital crime still corrupt man's quality of life. In trying to analyze, or even reconcile, the aggressive or hostile behavior of one person to another, or of one group to another, investigators and authors have cast their findings and arguments into the sphere of objectivity--only to find that subjectivity itself infuses nebulous terminology, a reliance on 'judgment,' and validation only in outcome and not in process. The quest here is to show that hatred is a legitimate emotion for study, that it has historical and philosophical grounds for that legitimacy, and that its study is important to the furtherance of the quality of life. Behavior itself can be measured and analyzed objectively; the motivation behind that behavior, however, whether of terrorism, child abuse, or the setting of policy for international relations, rests in the subjective sphere and thus necessitates newer approaches to analysis / acase@tulane.edu

The purpose of this dissertation was to introduce and test a theory of 'rejection and deflection' (RAD). This theory proposes that majority group members (middle- and upper class Whites) can deflect accusations of being racist by rejecting a subset of their racial in-group (poor Whites); and, as a result of this rejection and deflection process, are more likely to discriminate against the racial out-group. Results from a sample of 166 middle and upper income White participants suggested that: (1) people who were not given the opportunity to reject poor Whites were more likely to recommend a Black job applicant for a high status position than were people not given the opportunity to reject poor Whites; (2) participants tended to distance themselves from poor Whites and attributed more negative qualities and less positive qualities to poor Whites than they did to middle class Whites; and, (3) modern racism (McConahay, 1986) positively predicted rejection of poor Whites. Implications for this research as it relates to the interaction of race and social class are discussed along with directions for future research on RAD theory / acase@tulane.edu

This research explores the relationships between work experience and self-esteem, delinquency, educational attainment, and future income among youths of Mexican descent. Social scientists have addressed the concern that teenage work experience might undermine the emotional well-being of adolescents as well as their investment in education. Despite what appears to be a propensity for early labor market participation among adolescents of Mexican-origin, investigators have focused little attention on the effects of employment vis-a-vis this segment of the population. But the question remains an important one in light of demographic projections for population growth among Hispanics, the majority of whom claim Mexican ancestry, as well as their relatively low rate of high school completion. Using multivariate regression techniques and data from two distinct national surveys, I find that for U.S.-born youths of Mexican descent early work experience lowers self-esteem, increases delinquency, stymies educational attainment, but increases income gains over the long-run. In contrast, among Mexican immigrant adolescents, employment increases self-esteem, reduces delinquency, and enhances high school completion as well as future earnings. That outcomes for the former group more closely resemble those for non-Hispanic White adolescents than Mexican immigrants, suggests that U.S.-born youths of Mexican descent may suffer adverse effects from assimilation processes that Mexican culture appears to nullify / acase@tulane.edu

Data from the Louisiana Tumor Registry for the years 1988-1992 were used to describe the relationship between the rates of five selected cancer sites (leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, breast cancer, prostate cancer and cervical cancer) and urbanization status while controlling for the effects of age, race, sex and socioeconomic status. Population density measurements for each of Louisiana's 64 parishes were used to define urbanization status. The census derived percent of the population below poverty level (SES) was used to define socioeconomic status. The SES variable is race-specific. For each race-sex combination, multiple regression analysis was performed in order to describe the relationship between each selected cancer site and the log of the population density while controlling for the effect of SES. The incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma increased with increasing population density in white males. Breast cancer incidence increased with increasing population density in white and black females. Prostate cancer incidence increased with increasing population density in white males. The rates of leukemia and cervical cancer were not associated with population density. However, the rate of cervical cancer increased with increasing percent poverty in white females even after adjusting for population density. SES was associated with breast cancer in white females, but not after adjusting for population density. It is hypothesized that SES was not statistically significant in black females for breast or cervical cancer because the prevalence of poverty was above the threshold for which the rates of these cancers may be constant / acase@tulane.edu