This project examines Hieroglyphic Stairway 2 (HS. 2) at Yaxchilan, a Classic Maya city in Southern Mexico. Uncovered in 1975 as part of the clearing and consolidation of Structure 33, HS. 2 is made up of thirteen carved blocks which form the riser to the last step in the ascent to this building. The blocks depict thirteen different individuals (four female and nine male) in a series of elaborate ballgame rituals that demonstrated the legitimacy and power of Bird Jaguar IV, the ruler over Yaxchilan from 752-768 A.D. In this study, the previous work conducted around this monument is examined, and argue that it has been insufficient to draw the conclusions commonly presented about it. A translation of the hieroglyphic inscriptions from all blocks is provided, where previously only translations from the central three blocks (VI, VII, VIII) have been made available. This study also provides an analysis of the imagery on the blocks to better understand the ideology of Late Classic Yaxchilan (530-830 A.D.). This work relies on the hieroglyphic and archaeological data available from the site to demonstrate the geographical and temporal variation in lowland Maya political organisation, and to provide a model for Late Classic Yaxchilan. Overall, the author argues that the Late Classic political organisation of Yaxchilan underwent a period of centralisation followed by decentralisation and collapse. The contribution of this study to the literature is the conclusion that the representation of so many individuals on HS. 2 reveals that political power was being conferred upon the elite through ‘empowering,’ which led to a delocalisation of authority. This may also have led to dissatisfaction among the general population of the ideology of kingship, which may have caused the community to reject uncharismatic rulers.

This thesis explores issues surrounding Barbadian cultural identity in the post-colonial period. Emphasis is placed on the role of history in constructing cultural identity. Beginning with the debate involving the Lord Nelson statue which stands in the capital of Barbados, the question of negotiating post-colonial space is closely examined in the three case studies that form the body of the research. These are based on evidence gathered from both archival and secondary sources, as well as personal interviews. The case studies review the following: the history of the usage of the 'Little England' motto and its renewed use in the post-colonial period; the historical development of the community group known as the Landship, whose trademark is to wear naval livery and dance their naval manoeuvres during their parades; the history of the Harvest Home/Crop Over festival of the slavery and post-slavery periods, as well as the history of the modern street festival that it has become. The thesis argues that elements of the colonial discourse gain new life in the post-colonial period because of the struggle between the colonial narrative of History and the emerging new histories. It proposes that in this Barbados example, the performance culture has provided new grounds for advancing the process of decolonisation.

This thesis is composed of five chapters. The first chapter addresses general aspects regarding the piercing of the corporate veil. The rationale for this chapter is to give a brief overview of piercing the corporate veil and address basic aspects that will be covered in this thesis; for example, piercing the corporate veil in corporate groups and piercing the corporate veil in the context of privately owned companies. Additionally, reasons for not covering points such as piercing the corporate veil in the context of public companies will be mentioned. The second chapter is dedicated to studying the piercing of the corporate veil in England and the U.S .. These jurisdictions are the parents of the modern corporate personality and general aspects about piercing . the corporate veil derive from these countries. Thus, Chapter Two can be regarded as a continuation of Chapter One. My purpose is to present the Anglo-American piercing of the corporate veil for it to be contrasted in Chapter Three. Chapter Two starts by addressing the piercing of the corporate veil in England and the reasons for the current position of English courts over this matter. The second part of this chapter is dedicated to the U.S. and its approaches developed in order to deal with corporate personality in that jurisdiction. This chapter concludes by stating the reasons why these jurisdictions have different positions regarding this subject. The third chapter will cover the piercing of the corporate veil in Spain and Latin America. This chapter starts by addressing general aspects of the corporate personality in Spain and Latin America as well as civil law concepts and principles used by these jurisdictions when dealing with corporate personality issues. The second section of this chapter is dedicated to Spain and corporate personality issues in that jurisdiction. Following, is the third section which starts by making a brief comment about the reasons for choosing the jurisdictions subject of study before continuing by addressing Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Brazil individually. This chapter ends by making a comparison between the methods used by Spain and the discussed Latin American jurisdictions. The fourth chapter is dedicated to the main case study, Panama. In this chapter, basic aspects of the Panamanian corporate entity in addition to the way in which Panamanian authorities have dealt with corporate veil issues to date are addressed. Finally, the principle of san a critica will be explained in the fifth chapter. The origins and rationale for the existence of sana critica and the reason to consider it suitable for supplementing an approach to deal with corporate veil issues. In addition, each of the rules on which sana critica is founded will be explained as well as the influence these rules have had over judges thinking and judgments. This chapter ends with a suggestion for the development of an approach to deal with corporate veil issues in Panama.

The Civil-Religious hierarchy, or fiesta complex, which is found in indigenous communities in Mesoamerica and the Andean countries, has been central to anthropological studies in the area lavish expenditure of the religious cargo holders, the mayordomos, on fiesta celebrations, which has attracted most theories, as, ethnocentrically and materialistically, it is held to be both irrational and because, as the administrative complex of the villages, it is the pivot of village life. However, it is the lavish expenditure of the religious cargo holders, the mayordomos, on fiesta celebrations, which has attracted most theories, as, ethnocentrically and materialistically, it is held to be both irrational and uneconomic. However both views, I would argue, ignore the religious motivation of those who serve the saints. It is not uncommon for theorists to make backward projections into the colonial era in an attempt to account for the fiesta system as it exists now, and one model that has had some influence is the extractive one of Marvin Harris, which contends that, its ritual system having been proved to be almost wholly 16th century in origin, the complex was imposed by the Church in the early colonial era in order to draw off resources from the Indians - a role which has been sustained ever since. This neo - Marxist contention is both supremely materialistic and simplistic. However, it is the fact that this and other historical projections seemed to lack rigorous research and analysis, which led me to undertake a diachronic study of the colonial forerunners of the mayordomías, the cofradías, and the reason for their erection. I also wished to ascertain how far the civil-religious hierarchies of the colonial era resembled the ideal model of the modern complex; that is, a series of ranked civil and religious cargos held by all at the lowest level, and then undertaken alternatively, with heavy expenditure in time and economic resources, by those with sufficient economic means. Further to this, I wished to explore the transformation from colonial cofradía to modern mayordomía. Thus, the thesis divides into three parts, and, although anthropological in concept, is based principally upon historical research, and so is an ethno-historical study. The area chosen for this research was the Valles Centrales de Oaxaca, in the State and See of Oaxaca, which was a Dominican province from 1529 and whose doctrinas were not fully secularised until the 1760s. Unfortunately, the Dominican archive as such no longer exists, having been largely destroyed, although a part has been widely dispersed. In view of this, I have had recourse to the Dominican histories of the colonial era, which are based both upon their archives and the personal experiences of the authors, as well as the 16th century chronicles of the Franciscans - a rich source for descriptions of the earliest cofradías, their processions, and the reasons for their erection. These I have used in marshalling my arguments vis-á-vis the introduction of the cofradías, whilst detailed analysis of the role of the later cofradías and cargo holders has been based upon specific parochial archives in the Valleys. I shall introduce this thesis with a description of mayordomía in the Valleys today. I shall then discuss the civil, religious and social structures of the valley before and at the time of the Spanish Conquest in an attempt to isolate those aspects of fiesta celebrations, which are preCortesian in origin. This I shall base largely upon archaeological evidence. I shall then demonstrate that cofradía was a tool for attracting and maintaining religious converts by its several functions of ensuring a sumptuous cult, proselytising the faithful, and giving them succour. I shall isolate certain cofradías, which had the specific function of proselytisation, which I shall designate "cofradías proselitistas", and consider the austere and exemplary lives of those who introduced them. However, I shall also show that the Conquest and its aftermath was the occasion of much trauma for the indigenous peoples, in a way which was not always, perhaps, fully appreciated even by those who had their best interests at heart. Next I shall discuss the economic dilemma of the 16th century Church, which, lacking substantial tithes, could not increase the small ratio of priests to converts, nor properly train sufficient secular priests to secularise the parishes. I shall consider the post-Tridentine attempts to do this, and also to ensure that the seculars had reasonable stipends so that the scandal of their dependence upon their parishioners for sustenance, and their neglect of their duties for commercial concerns could be avoided. I shall also demonstrate that this economic crisis placed an economic burden upon the Indians, which Church legislation endeavoured to lessen, and that, whilst the existence of the cofradías increased the income of the priests through payments for Masses, and church furnishings, the Church enacted laws which limited excessive expenditure on these, as well as others preventing the erection of cofradías with illthought out statutes, and the exploitation of the people by unscrupulous priests. Thus, I am arguing that the Church was aware of the failings of those most in contact with the Indians, and, at least, endeavoured to mitigate them. Although much of this material is specific to Oaxaca, it is, of necessity, set in the wider context of the Church in New Spain. The second part of the thesis, based principally upon archival material from the Archivo General del Estado de Oaxaca, the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City, and the Archivos Parroquiales de Zaachila, in the Valley of Zimatlán, and Etla, in the Valle of Etla, is concerned with the hierarchies at village level. In this I shall discuss the traumatic background against which the 17th and 18th inhabitants of the Valleys lived, particularly as a result of the pro-secularisation policies of the Church and suggest that the conflict between the Bishops of Oaxaca and the Dominicans was a major cause of the Zapotecs retaining much of their prehispanic religious costumbres (traditions) and beliefs. I shall then consider the roles of the various officers in both the civil and religious hierarchies in the Indian towns, and demonstrate that only members of the nobility were eligible for such cargos. I shall suggest the possibility that the cargo of mayordomo of a cofradía was sufficiently prestigious for some men merely to serve this. I shall also demonstrate, from the Zaachilan material, that there was apparently no hierarchy of saints to serve, and that the ideal model of an achievement ladder of alternatively served prestigious civil and religious cargos did not exist in the colonial era. Further to this, I shall consider other variables which negate the ideal model: specifically the existence of female "mayordomos" throughout the colonial period and the early post-Independence decades; mayordomos who served the same saint for two, and even as many as six or more consecutive years; and the intervention of the priest in cofradía affairs. An analysis of the Libros de Cofradía will show how the mayordomos managed or mismanaged the Bienes de Cofradía, whilst the Libros de Cordillera of the 18th century Bishops of Oaxaca will show how they attempted to influence and change every sphere of Zapotec life. The Libros de Cofradía are the official record of the mayordomos' stewardship of the cofradías, but the Libros de Cordillera of the 18th century and 19th Bishops of Oaxaca give some idea of the celebration of fiesta, and the strictures upon it.

This study proposes a definition of Anglo-Argentine literature, a literary corpus that has not been explicitly defined, and provides a reading list of Anglo-Argentine works on the basis of that definition. The research is based on the presupposition that Anglo-Argentine texts can be used to contribute to an intercultural approach to language and literature teaching in the Argentine higher education context. Such texts can encourage reflection on how writing on Argentina in English has contributed to constructing Argentina's multiple identities. Therefore, compiling the titles that make up the corpus of Anglo-Argentine writing, making it available and analysing it critically is the contribution that this thesis aims to make. To make the findings available to the Argentine ELT (English Language Teaching) community, a webpage accompanies the thesis: http://claudiaferradas.net. The site provides access to the reading list with links to digital publications, intercultural materials on Anglo-Argentine texts and critical articles derived from the thesis. The compilation of texts does not aim to be exhaustive; it is a critical presentation of the titles identified in terms of the intercultural objectives stated above. As a result, not all titles are discussed in the same degree of detail and some are simply mentioned on the reading list. Two works are selected as 'focus texts' for in-depth analysis and all the works identified are grouped into 'series' with common denominators, which may be thematic or connected to the context of production. As regards the analytical focus, the thesis traces the construction of the other in early texts and how this representation is reinforced or modified in later works. The other is understood both as the unfamiliar landscape and the native inhabitants: both original inhabitants ('Indians' in the literature) and Gauchos. Urban white creoles are also part of the discussion when the narrator's gaze focuses on them. The theoretical framework for this analysis is based upon post-colonial theory and the notion of transculturation. Finally, the thesis extends the concept of Anglo-Argentine literature to works produced in English by Argentine writers whose mother tongue is not English and who do not have English-speaking ancestors. This leads to a reconsideration of the definition initially proposed to approach Anglo- Argentine literature as a fluid third place, a subversion of the binary implied by the adjective 'Anglo-Argentine' that embraces travelling identities in constant process of construction in contact with otherness.

This thesis investigates the degree to which our everyday conceptions of 'place' have changed in contemporary society, especially in relation to the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs). The empirical evidence is a case study of 20 low-income families who live in Santiago, Chile. These families had just moved to a new social housing estate from the shantytowns and/or situations of extreme overcrowding. The first section of the thesis examines how their conceptions of 'place' have changed as a result of the move. On the one hand, it is difficult for them to perceive the housing estate as a 'place' with the same characteristics as their former home environments (close social networks, common history, etc.) due to a difficult and still incomplete adaptation. On the other hand, their social exclusion, especially demonstrated in terms of their limited spatial mobility, means that their everyday life still unfolds in a limited and relatively static number of places. In these circumstances they develop a minimal concept of place based not on an emotional attachment to a space, but rather on particular practices located in certain time and space. This concept of place is labelled here as 'localities of practices'. The second part of the thesis examines how these 'localities of practices' are becoming increasingly 'mediated,' or the increasing degree to which the use of ICTs permeates the conceptions of place of the members of these families through an analysis of practices related to the use of three particular technologies. The first study shows how the home is a project that has to be constructed in a constant competitive interplay with the place created by television use. The second analyses how the noise produced by hi-fi technologies at very high volumes is used to redefine the spaces of the housing estate against the background of their quite limited material surroundings. The third shows how the use of mobile phones, and the 'media space' created by them, reconstitutes and gives a new meaning to the limitations that these families face when moving through the urban environment of Santiago. As a result of these continual processes of mediation the thesis concludes that along with the physical environment of the housing estate, the spatial environments created by the use of media technologies are key to the construction of 'place' to such a degree that is almost impossible to consider one without the other. They, together, are their "machines for living in"; the setting in which their everyday lives unfold.

This thesis presents an history of extreme climate events in Antigua, a former British colony in the Lesser Antilles, spanning the years 1770-1890. It employs a range of documentary sources from that period, including government, plantation, missionary and scholarly papers. Two major empirical elements are addressed: (1) reconstruction of the timing and magnitude of precipitation variability and tropical cyclone activity and (2) investigation of the implications of climatic hazards—principally droughts and hurricanes—for Antiguan society. On the basis of these analyses, temporal and social patterns of human vulnerability to hydrological extremes and storms are explored. Established methodologies for analysing documentary climate evidence are used to reconstruct two major chronologies covering the study period, one of relative annual precipitation variations and one of tropical cyclones. The former, which is the first of its kind in the Caribbean, captures nine major phases of drought and six of precipitation excess and corresponds well with two series of instrumental data from the 1870s and 1880s. The latter records 42 tropical cyclones—including ten currently not listed in published storm datasets—with several peaks in event frequencies matching those in other reconstructions of North Atlantic cyclones. Connections between findings and known oceanic-atmospheric drivers of regional climate variability are considered. Assessment of the societal consequences of extreme events centres upon three case studies of climate-related disaster in the periods 1775-1783, 1834-1838 and 1860-1880. Each corresponds with historical developments of regional importance—respectively, the American War of Independence, the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and major deceleration of the colonial sugar economy. The ways in which precipitation extremes and tropical cyclones affected human livelihoods in these distinctive socio-economic contexts, as well as how different groups reacted to them, are examined in detail. Evidence from the full study period is also used to highlight longer-term trends of impact and response, as well as the possible linkages between extreme weather, disease outbreaks and social unrest. Diverse structural factors shaping Antiguans’ vulnerability are explored, ranging from local topography to economic dependence on plantation agriculture. Three broad thematic divisions of the study period are then proposed: (1) the late 1700s through early 1800s, when recurrent international warfare heightened vulnerability by disrupting maritime commerce; (2) the mid-1810s through 1840s, when relative geopolitical stability and economic success reduced vulnerability; and (3) the mid to late 1800s, when vulnerability was again amplified, this time by the rise of laissez-faire imperial policy in the midst of burgeoning competition in the global sugar market. Within the Antiguan populace, the distribution of socio-economic losses resulting from climatic stresses is shown to mirror patterns of material inequality inherent in the race- and class-based colonial hierarchy. Though failing to radically alter these relationships of power and vulnerability, slave emancipation is argued to have altered their finer dynamics in important ways.

From 1492, when the first European invaders set foot on the island known today as Hispaniola, until 1965, the year of the April Revolution, the multi-faceted repercussions of invasion have been a prevalent theme within the Dominican Republic’s literature. This thesis examines how the country has amalgamated a roller-coaster past to reflect this in its writing. It starts by evaluating the Spanish invaders’ extermination of the Tainos, its generational influence and the continued impact of Trujillo’s legacy, highlighting the issue of gender within the Resistance movement. It presents a rigorous analysis of writers’ opinions, as transmitters of peoples’ views – from the pirate attack by Francis Drake, to the use of theatre by Independence fighters as a weapon of propaganda against the Haitian invasion; the resilience of peasant-culture represented in the guerrilla movement against the first U.S. invasion of the 20th century; to the exposition of novels to depict a dictator as an ‘invader from within’ and the use of poetry to face the bullets of the U.S. invasion of 1965. By analysing the literary images, expressions, statements and social commitment of the writers throughout their work, this study shows how the various invasions which occurred in the Dominican Republic have been rooted in Dominican discourse. It emphasises that these very struggles against invasion are at the core of its vibrant literature, providing its silent themes and serving to illuminate both the nation as a whole and the individuals within it.

The EU as an ideational actor has a significant impact on non-European countries. This thesis examines the growth of European ideas circulating throughout the field of Latin American Higher Education (HE), as part of the Bologna Process, which has manifested itself in a set of procedures, methods and tools that have contributed to the transformation of Chilean and Mexican HE. This phenomenon requires a rigorous analysis of European ideational factors present within Normative Power Europe (NPE), not only through a cluster of ideas, norms, principles and values but also through analysing language. The thesis examines such claims, focusing on Chile and Mexico, and argues that the impact of European influences upon received countries is mediated by domestic circumstances. The thesis makes a contribution to both existing understanding of the European Union’s influence over Latin America and Latin American HE, and also seeks to advance upon existing debates around the notion of Normative Power Europe in particular, by illustrating how the NPE literature would benefit from a deeper consideration of the use of language and considering translation processes of receiver countries.

‘They say very clearly that I am mad, but they are the ones that do mad things’. So wrote Franciscan Friar Manuel Sevane in 1796, in one of many letters to the Viceroy of New Spain. Sevane’s letters catalogue his protest against the treatment he received at the hands of his fellow friars at the Apostolic College of Pachuca in New Spain and contest their plans to return him to Spain. Sevane’s case is an example of the rich archival material that demonstrates how the term madness was used in Bourbon Mexico (1713-1808). His words exemplify how people used madness to mark out individuals, behaviours, and ideas they thought immoral. For the friars living with Sevane, his violence, peculiar noises, and disrespect for religious practices were evidence of his madness. Sevane himself used the same rhetoric to criticise the friars for shunning him, writing reports on him, and ultimately trying to remove him from their community. Historians have yet to fully examine the complex cultural significance of the term and its role in daily life in Bourbon Mexico. This thesis provides a new interpretation of madness. It takes as its starting point Michel Foucault’s concept of ‘technologies of the self’ in order to build upon the growing history of selfhood in Mexico. By exploring the role of madness in constructing selfhood, I explain how elites used the term’s interconnections with sin to delineate the boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. The first chapter maps out an innovative historiographical framework for examining madness, introducing a range of categories of historical analysis that have not yet been used in this context. Chapter Two foregrounds a major claim of the thesis, that elite thinkers considered human sin to put all individuals at risk of falling into madness. It explores the relationship between the concepts of sin and madness that underpinned elite uses of madness as a rhetorical tool in a selection of sermons, political tracts, philosophical texts, and poems. Chapter Three analyses underexplored medical texts and shows that madness was understood to be humoral throughout the period. It also argues that madness did not become a secular concept in the eighteenth century; rather, medical texts conceived of madness as a tool for moral regulation. The fourth chapter examines the ways people used their bodies and how others used their sensory perceptions to label individuals as mad. Drawing on histories of the senses and emotions, the chapter analyses exceptionally detailed cases of clerical madness from missionary and Inquisition records. Chapter Five examines how the categories of gender and calidad, a socio-racial term denoting quality or status, interacted with the concept of madness in Inquisition cases. I conclude that an analysis of madness enables us to deepen our understanding of what it was to be human in Bourbon Mexico.