The aim of this study was to define a semiotics of poetry, to apply that semiotics to analyze seven poems by L.D. Raditladi and to determine how cultural elements are transformed in Raditladi's poems. The study comprises four chapters. The central problems, aims, central theoretical statement and method were outlined and motivated in the first chapter. The second chapter defined a theory of semiotics based on M. Riffaterre's views about the kinds of indirection in poetry and Y. Lotman's view of symbols. Chapter three analysed the indirection and the use of cultural symbols in seven poems from Raditladi's collection Sefalana sa menate (1984). The different variants of the central ideas of phrases (matrices) were traced in the poems. By using symbols and indirection, the poems do not so much express the ideas and emotions of the speaker and the hidden meanings behind the signs, but rather take the reader on fascinating journeys of meaning generation. The analysis of Raditladi's use of symbols revealed the cultural meaning of each poem. Raditladi's seven poems support the idea that symbols, images and indirection provide vital semiotic clues to a poem's significance. It was also shown that the speaker adopts different stances towards traditional Batswana cultural material, like irony, exaggeration, nostalgia and celebration. / Thesis (M.A. (African Languages))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

This study will examine the integral role of owls in Ainu spiritual belief systems through the means of Ainu oral literature and Ainu material arts. In the past, the indigenous people known as Ainu lived only in northern Japan, including Kurile Islands (“Kurile Ainu”), Sakhalin (“Sakhalin Ainu”), and Hokkaido (“Hokkaido Ainu”). Today, Ainu people live across Japan; however, Hokkaido is considered their spiritual homeland and the majority of the population lives in this northern prefecture. This paper will focus on the group of people called “Hokkaido Ainu”. Before a large number of Japanese migrated to Hokkaido during the Meiji era (1868-1912), Ainu people had lived close to nature through various activities such as fishing, hunting, and gathering. As a result of these daily activities involving nature, the Ainu developed their spiritual belief systems. For example, they believe that various spirits exist in natural phenomena such as plants, insects, and animals. Among these animals, the bear, killer whale and owl are considered in many Ainu societies as the highest-ranked animal kamuy, meaning gods or deities. The Owl God in particular, is believed to be the guardian of the village. In this project, the symbolic representation of the Owl God in four different Ainu traditional folklores and various forms of arts will be carefully examined. The goal of this study is to demonstrate that although the language and physical communities are under threat by Japanese migration and a modern industrial economy, the spiritual belief in the Owl God as the guardian of the village continues to exist in contemporary Ainu works of art. In addition, I will argue that the representation of the Owl God, Kotan-kor-kamuy, is an important symbolic expression of Ainu cultural identity. / Graduate

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This body of work is the result of practice based research, culminating in a collection of five garments featuring pictorial prints, created through digital sublimation printing¹. The accompanying exegesis examines the place of my work within the contextual framework of related knowledge. The exegesis explores two main contextual notions. Firstly, the position of dolls' clothing play as a hegemonic tool in the process of learning to construct identity through self-presentation. This reflects on the practice of enculturing in girls the ability not just to do, but to observe oneself whilst doing. Secondly, the role of garments and fabric as liminal² markers at the transitional space between interior and exterior, domestic and public, self and not-self. My analysis is centered on the creation of original pieces of clothing. The garments are questioned by the issues explored in this exegesis. The research makes an original contribution to the body of knowledge by the nature of the creative work, and its analysis involving contemporary theoretical debate on the nature of fashion. ¹ Sublimation printing is a method of chemically bonding ink to a polyester or acrylic surface such as fabric, using extremely high heat and pressure. In this research project I am bonding images of photographs to polyester and acrylic fabrics. ² In this exegesis I use the word liminal to describe an occupying of an ambiguous space, on the threshold between one thing and another.

The key concept for this multimedia project was to undertake a voyage in art form which set out to examine issues related to the representation and perception of the ancient Rarotongan god Tangaroa, from traditional context to contemporary reconstruction. The essential aim of this project was to define how far from traditional representations this translation could go without disconnecting it from the cultural identity of Rarotongan traditional art. This project also researched previous historical representations of Tangaroa with the intention of isolating key elements of the traditional artistic structure and revisits them from a contemporary perspective. Using historic references of original artefacts and traditional Cook Islands’ patterns I engaged contemporary practices and materials to produce a body of work which explored my personal perspective on how Tangaroa could be reconstructed in art form. To support my research and studio practice I researched the myth behind Tangaroa and questioned why he has been displaced from Rarotongan traditional theology and reintroduced today as a marketing brand and souvenir icon. The base research for this project considered issues of traditional theology, the impact of Christianity on the ancient gods and Tangaroa’s place in traditional and contemporary context. This project is comprised of 80% studio practice and supported by an exegesis with a value of 20%.

This thesis explores the complexity of identities and the everyday negotiations, as well as struggles that shape the lives of British Chinese pupils in England. It focuses on the links between heritage language education, ‘cultures’ and ethnicity. It analyses the ways in which values related to identities, bi/multilingualism and British Chinese pupils’ positions in multicultural British society, are accommodated, negotiated or resisted. In particular, this research looks at British Chinese pupils with limited Chinese language skills, most of whom are from the ‘second/third generation’ within the British Chinese ‘community’. A qualitative approach is employed to understand the experiences of these pupils by exploring their accounts of experiences in mainstream schooling and in (not) learning Chinese, and their perceptions of their positioning as British Chinese in relational, contextual and socially constructed terms. Identity will be understood as a fluid process involving multiple identifications in line with a poststructuralist view, but also as an active process negotiated by social actors under structural forces. Thus, this conception of identity will move away from essentialist accounts of fixed Chinese/British identities and conceive of the individual as having an active and reflexive role in identity construction. The concepts of ‘hybridity’ (Bhabha, 1994) and ‘Orientalism’ (Said, 1978) are used to highlight how the British Chinese pupils are both able to negotiate flexibly their identities but also are confined by certain essentialised, dominant discourses. This thesis argues that there is an emergent British Chinese identity in which young people recognise their flexible and complex, hybridised British Chinese identities, including the possibility of being both British and Chinese. The research contributes to on-going debates on British Chinese young people. The thesis highlights how the new visibility of the British Chinese population brings both risks and opportunities when creating new spaces to allow for the complex and flexible nature of their diverse and shifting identities.

As flood risk rises in the U.S., technology and insights rise too, but even with these advances we still see the consequences of flood risk. Together, the rational actor paradigm (“RAP”), psychometrics, and cultural theory help to explain risk perceptions and behaviors of 20 respondents. Results from the mixed-methods approach found the RAP insufficient, less accurate than a coin toss (48%), when explaining respondent behaviors. Rather, risk perceptions and behaviors of the RAP explain the behaviors of lower risk portrayal groups (66%) and higher income groups (80%), with higher risk portrayals being relying on respondents’ trust in flood experts (45%) and cultural worldviews (55%). Cultural identities explain 65% of respondents’ behaviors across levels of risk portrayal (500-, 100-, and 25-year floodplain), and risk portrayal types (cumulative and AAL). In a world with increased risk, technology, and knowledge, researchers need understand the explanatory power of the RAP, psychometrics, and cultural theory. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

ABSTRACT CULTURAL IDENTITY, VOICE, AND AGENCY IN POST-SECONDARY GRAPHIC DESIGN EDUCATION: A COLLECTIVE CASE STUDY by Larry M. Stultz This study investigates areas of conflict between students’ cultural identities and the educational environment established and maintained by their faculty and school. It analyzes the usefulness and value of personal creative expression in the classroom and how treatment of cultural identity and performance influences student persistence and success. Four theoretical frameworks ground this study and comprise the majority of the relevant literature. The inquiry is framed by theories in curriculum, performance, cultural difference, and symbolic interaction. Three purposely selected students participated in individual case studies, and the data from interviews, classroom observation, and examples of student work were subjected to both unique and collective case analysis. Three identifiable areas inform the collective interpretation: socialization, self-view, and agency, with the latter seeming most dynamic. Very significant are the students’ disparate socialization goals: assimilation, acculturation, and syncretism or compromised coexistence. The problem of self-view, or naming, is also useful. The identity and voice exhibited by these three students create ways in which they are viewed and treated by their peers and their faculty. Most importantly, the students’ experiences and cultural capital are shown to have agency, and agency is a signifier in looking into student success. This study reveals that while it is up to the students to utilize experiential agency, it is up to educators and institutions to consider the role of identity, voice, and agency in developing and maintaining an educative environment.

This research focuses on the transition of Bahraini students to a Western medical university which has been ‘transplanted’, with its values and context of practice, to the culture of Bahrain. A socio-cultural model of Communities of Practice was adopted as a theoretical framework in this research for it linked in well with the personal context of this study which suggested that students’ transition could be related to the practices in Bahraini schools associated with science and English education, as well as general school pedagogy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore how different participants perceive the role of school practices, as well as science and English education in transition. In order to explore these different understandings, a case study methodology was adopted and insights into the practices of students’ school and university community were gained through the use of focus group and individual interviews, as well as a descriptive questionnaire. The data from the qualitative investigation was analysed deductively under the three themes of science background knowledge, the English language and school pedagogy, while the questionnaire data was subject to univariate analysis based on mean responses. The key findings indicated high levels of confidence in students’ science base and approaches to study, which enabled the students to take a number of strategic actions in order to move through the educational outcomes of the university programme. In terms of the English language, a compromised foreign language (L2) proficiency caused by inadequate school practices was perceived not to play an important role in the transition process, which suggested a diminished role of L2 in transitions in the context of language change. As far as school pedagogy is concerned, whilst all participants at the secondary level agreed that general memorisation-based pedagogy in secondary schools could play a negative role in the transition, the participants at the university revealed that rote-based approaches to study formed in school could also be strategically used at university. Hence, the findings from this research have specific implications for the model of Communities of Practice and suggest future work within this theory regarding the role of students’ individual agency. These findings also suggest a new understanding of transitions in the context of language and culture change.

Interethnic relationships are increasingly common in society, yet interethnic couples also have a higher divorce rate compared to intraethnic couples. Given these facts, it is important that researchers identify factors that contribute to couples commitment in interethnic relationships, but to date, such research is rare. This thesis investigated the factors that contribute to the commitment of Chinese interethnic relationships. In order to do that, a qualitative study and a quantitative study were conducted. Johnson s commitment framework was found suitable in the qualitative study. Thus a cultural model that incorporated Johnson s personal commitment and a new construct couple cultural identity was established for the quantitative study to find whether love, satisfaction (i.e. dyadic adjustment) and couple cultural identity (i.e. acculturation to the partner and similarity of couple s individualism/collectivism) would predict personal commitment and whether each variable would account for unique variance in personal commitment of the participants. The quantitative study found significant relationships between love and personal commitment, satisfaction and personal commitment of Chinese interethnic couples. Also, couple cultural identity was important for women s personal commitment. These findings suggest that partners in interethnic relationships may define personal commitment in different ways with men emphasising love and satisfaction, and women emphasising love and acculturation to their partner.