This study examines the system of family care for orphaned children in sub-Saharan Africa with the example of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Applying a retrospective research design - the case-control design - to the study of orphaned children, the research attempts to explain why some orphans leave their relatives and enter orphanages while the other larger group is taken in by members of the extended family Two groups of children are compared: orphans staying at the sites of orphanages and orphans from a similar background that continue to live with family members. All children in the sample have lost one or both of their parents and are between 8 and 20 years old. A total of 880 children have been interviewed. Children in orphanages and children in family care are compared with respect to three sets of risk factors: (a) demographic risk factors, (b) social risk factors, and (c) experiences of violence and discrimination in the family The data analysis suggests that among the indicators that were examined, experiences of violence and discrimination are most important in predicting the outcome variable. Some of the demographic characteristics also figured prominently as predictors. Surprisingly, the social characteristics appear to be less relevant in differentiating between cases and controls. Orphans at high risk to leave the family include (a) maternal orphans, (b) children that lost their parent(s) at a young age, (c) orphans from families with few adult relatives, (d) orphans without sibling support, (e) orphans without access to essential social services, in particular schooling, and (f) children that suffer violence, discrimination or other forms of abuse by a family adult. The cultural phenomenon of children accused of sorcery ('enfants dits sorciers') is especially disturbing. With more than 50% of the children in orphanages and 20% of the children in family care accused of sorcery by family members, the research confirms earlier impressions that the belief in sorcery is becoming a most significant factor in child abandonment in the Democratic Republic of Congo / acase@tulane.edu

African-American women are disproportionately represented in the HIV/AIDS statistics in the south. This phenomenological research study explored and describes the sexual decision-making experiences of nine Louisiana African-American women ages 25--44. The research questions focused on the decision-making process with a new male sex partner. Participants retrospectively shared their lived experiences in the previous 12 months supported by Black Women's Standpoint Theory Semi-structured interviews were conducted with questions designed to uncover the complexity of the decision-making processes. Definitions of sexual intimacy, the role of spirituality, and the concept of connectedness were also explored along with the emotional and physiological feelings, meanings, and thoughts associated with their sexual decision-making experiences. Themes were identified through data triangulation as follows: the decision to have sexual intercourse, considerations involved in sexual decision-making, perceived risks for HIV/AIDS infection, and factors prompting safer-sex behaviors. Other considerations related to sense of self, the role of socialization, physical and emotional expectations, influence of alcohol, and condom use are discussed. The data supports inconsistent or no condom use during sexual intercourse with a man whose HIV status was unknown placing more than 50% of the women at high risk for HIV infection. HIV risks were higher among the women with minimal or no consistent spirituality and a diminished sense of connectedness to family and friends. Implications for HIV prevention, social work research, practice, and education are discussed / acase@tulane.edu

Autobiography is the writing of a self, viewed as distinct from others. Ethnography, on the other hand, is writing about the other, especially writing about those who are considered radically different, notably illiterate peoples. These two genres are often opposed, but in this dissertation, I show how they are combined in works by francophone women writers. Focusing on texts by Taos Amrouche, Leila Houari, Fatima Mernissi, Mai Thu Van, Helene Cixous, and Evelyne Wilwerth, I consider how women who belong to cultural groups that have, in general, been the object rather than the subject of representation contest these generic boundaries, and as a result, fixed categories of self and other. Their reconfiguration of identity has often culminated in the production of autoethnographies, a hybrid genre that amalgamates the concerns of autobiography and ethnography. Julia Watson has defined autoethnography as 'an ethnographic presentation of oneself by a subject usually considered the 'object' of the ethnographer's interview' (35). I will argue that francophone women writers employ autoethnography as a strategy to write themselves as subjects embedded in specific cultural contexts The ethnographic interview has traditionally been a research tool used to gain data about cultural differences. Yet the interview has the potential to be more than a methodological tool. The interview process involves interrogation, exchange, and performance in a face to face meeting between people. In the two-part structure of this dissertation, I explore the dynamics of the interview process in relation to autobiography and ethnography. In the first section, autobiography is examined as a process by which the self is interrogated and in a sense, interviewed through its concrete experience with otherness. In the second section, I evaluate the interview's role in ethnographic and autoethnographic representations, and consider how selfhood is paradoxically drawn out in the process of describing otherness. In other words, I examine otherness in the self and selfhood constructed within the other / acase@tulane.edu

'A Social, Economic, and Political Study of Blacks in the Louisiana Delta, 1865-1880,' is an investigation of the post-emancipation experiences of former slaves in four parishes in the Louisiana Delta. Carroll, Madison, Tensas, and Concordia are the four parishes studied. The author analyzes the struggle of the ex-slaves to acquire land, carve out niches for themselves and their families in the free market economy of a plantation district, build social, cultural, and political institutions, educate their children, and cope with the negative impact of the counter-revolution in post-Reconstruction Louisiana / acase@tulane.edu

This study explores, describes, explains, and analyzes the experiences of African-American women with breast cancer. The study gives 'voice to African-American' women through the use of oral narratives. Starting from an 'informant as expert' position, nine African-American women with breast cancer tell their stories about their illness episode from the time of their diagnosis to the post treatment period. African-American women in this study have diverse responses to a breast cancer diagnosis, and they seek help for such a diagnosis through informal and formal networks. Religious and spiritual activities in the lives of these women were central to their treatment experience. Critical commonalities, such as help-seeking and caregiving, are described, and the unique experiences related to breast cancer are discussed. The breast cancer experience is thus analyzed using womanist and developmental positions which help to create a larger narrative about African-American women and illness. Implications for social work practice in the areas of policy, education, research, and direct practice are also discussed / acase@tulane.edu

Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted among the Vietnamese refugees of New Orleans from 1983 to 1986. That fieldwork focused on Vietnamese values and community life. The fieldwork was designed to question certain prevailing, rather monolithic understandings of culture and values and to provide an alternative model for the study of culture and values Vietnamese culture, and any culture for that matter, can be fruitfully understood and studied as a 'library' of conflicting values 'texts.' Values are 'texts' for desirable behavior, feeling, thinking, and relating within a culture or community; values are expressions of what a culture thinks it means to be human and what the goal of human life is. Values texts can and do conflict because a culture, far from being a monolithic entity, is historical and in process; a culture is a conversation of texts, a dialogue, as to what it means to be human, not the conclusion of a syllogism The fieldwork revealed that the Vietnamese cultural library contains three significant sets of texts: Confucian, Catholic, and American. The Confucian texts are essentially concerned with proper relationships in the family and community. The Catholic texts are essentially concerned with the proper relationship to the supernatural. And the American texts are more concerned with individual freedom and self-determination. Conflict among sets of texts does exist but, more importantly, conflict exists within each set of texts as well. Vietnamese culture may be understood as a series of conflicts among values associated with the cultural domains of religion, kinship, ethics, aesthetics, gender, and economics / acase@tulane.edu

The Jazz Age witnessed a convergence of social and aesthetic changes that informed the political, social and literary relationships between African-Americans and Jews. Coming into close contact with each other for the first time, African-Americans and Jews struggled to comprehend and represent the other group as their own perceptions and representations of themselves and the other group began to inform representations of 'the other' in popular culture I see the Jazz Age as a transitional period where artists, particularly Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and Fannie Hurst, struggle with their own sense of identity politics as the attempt to 'create' and represent themselves and 'the other' to a wide audience. It is my assertion that the 'New Negro' ethos and continued Jewish assimilation allowed these writers to enter a 'third space' of representation that, unlike W. E. B. DuBois' notion of the 'color-line,' does not 'fix' either the artist of 'the other's' identity, but rather allows for multiple movements that challenged these representations. The patronage system that allowed Hughes and Hurston to survive financially while writing in their early years, also restricted their artistic goals, as did conflicting notions of what constituted 'legitimate' African-American art. In their differing representations of Jews both as a social symbol and a religious group, Hughes and Hurston attempted to work out their own identity politics and, in Hurst's case, engage in a project of 'hybridizing' Judeo-Christian and African/Caribbean originary myths For novelist Fannie Hurst, ambivalent about her own identity as an assimilated Jew, representations of immigrant Jews and African-Americans allowed her to 'write' herself away from being identified too closely with stereotypes of Jews in order to be seen as more 'American.' In exploring these writer's representations and interpretations of 'the other,' I hope to interrogate notions of national and cultural identity and posit the Jazz Age as a time when possible representations of 'the other' informed each group's creation of itself / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation aims to enrich understanding of issues affecting the care and protection of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in sub-Saharan Africa. The social risks and resources of OVC in selected contexts is examined using both quantitative and qualitative data and multiple datasets. Results pertaining to OVC's sexual risk, marginalization, available social support and reasons for limited support are presented. Chapter 1 investigates the onset of sexual behavior and sexual risk among orphans and non-orphans in South Africa. The sample for this analysis consists of 1694 Black African youth age 14-18. The analyses found both male and female orphans significantly more likely to have engaged in sex as compared to non-orphans (49% vs. 39%). Among sexually active youth, orphans reported younger age of sexual intercourse with 23% of orphans having had sex by age 13 or younger compared to 15% of non-orphans. Chapter 2 focuses on a sample of 692 youth-headed households (YHH) in Rwanda age 13-24 and describes their degree of marginalization and available social support. Most youth reported significant caring relationships: 73% reported access to trusted adult who offers them advice and guidance, and most indicated close peer relationships. However, many youth also perceived a lack of community support, with 86% feeling rejected by the community and 57% feeling the community would rather hurt them than help them. Chapter 3 expands upon the results presented in Chapter 2 to gain further insight into the marginalization and limited community support reported by YHH. The socio-cultural factors that influence the level of support Rwandan communities provide to OVC is explored through a triangulation of multiple methods and perspectives. The analyses cast light on the importance of three factors affecting community support and marginalization: stigma, NGO assistance and community discord. Overall, this dissertation enriches understanding of how OVC's vulnerability and social networks impact their care and protection. Data such as this should be used to inform efforts to support OVC. In hopes of achieving this aim, discussion throughout lends particular attention to the programmatic implications of these results / acase@tulane.edu

During the Jim Crow era, streetcar and bus rides in southern cities provided relatively intimate, everyday experiences between blacks and whites. Among the many symbols of black subordination, urban transit segregation stands out as the most participatory form of racial apartheid. Brief depictions of racial confrontations on streetcars and busses appear frequently in most general studies of the Jim Crow era. However, no scholarly work had yet addressed continuity and change in segregated transit in one city over an extended period of time. This study surveys racial practices before, during and after the Jim Crow period in order to explain how race relations on the transit system functioned and changed in one city. New Orleans is an important city in which to base a longitudinal study of transit segregation, especially given the complexity of its tripartite racial structure In surveying such a long period, one gains insight into the more mundane and complex realities associated with urban transit segregation. Following the successful effort to end 19th century segregation, white passengers mainly waged rhetorical violence against black passengers, who rode with whites from 1867 to 1902. Letters and articles published in the daily newspapers recounted individual offenses taken by white passengers against black passengers, who were mainly female. Physical violence increased markedly following the re-introduction of racial segregation in 1902; however, verbal disputes stemming from the mobility of the 'race screens' designating compartments predominated. This study argues that white and black passengers exercised much more agency in racial segregation of public transit than most scholars have acknowledged. White passengers played a greater role in enforcing segregated transit than did the transit employees. Black riders both acquiesced to and challenged racial segregation throughout the Jim Crow period. Black passengers, when traveling on lines with a majority of black riders, often controlled the space. Two radical breaks from tradition receive special attention. A brief experiment in industrial unionism brought track gang workers and other black employees into the street carmen's union. Also, the employment of women operators as well as rural-born males during World War II exacerbated long extant racial conflict / acase@tulane.edu

Existing research in the field of marriage report that African-American marriages are less happy, less stable and different from other marriages. These findings are based on correlates of marital satisfaction that are culturally irrelevant for some African-American couples. The present research explores a conceptualization of marriage from an African-American perspective utilizing successful couples as direct sources of data. More specifically, this study sought to ascertain a definition of a successful marriage according to successful African-American couples as well as factors they attribute to the success of their marriage. It further explored the influence of socio-economic status and level of acculturation on the conceptualization of marriage and the marital experiences of the couples. / To achieve this end the African Self-Consciousness Scale (ASC) was used to attain level of acculturation, a basic demographic scale was used to attain socio-economic status, and an intensive interview utilizing the narrative discourse method was used to explore the conceptualization of a successful marriage and factors contributing to the success of the marriage. Data obtained via the ASC and demographic scale were used to develop a profile of each couple. Data obtained via narrative discourse were subjected to discourse analysis in an effort to identify concepts, themes and trends in the relationships that impacted on the success of the marriage. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-03, Section: A, page: 0949. / Major Professor: Stanley L. Witkin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.