This thesis undertakes a multidisciplinary study of the construction of nation and identity in the context of the Caribbean and its diaspora in Britain. Taking Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Britain as the countries for comparative analysis two primary research questions are addressed: How can Caribbean nation and identity be re-conceptualised to represent its complex, heterogeneous societies? How have Caribbean identities resisted, metamorphosed and been re-constituted in the diasporic context of Britain? While current scholarship on nation and identity is interrogated, the principle guiding the methodology has been to engage with the specificities of the region's history and culture with a view to arriving at new interpretations that reflect the contemporary Caribbean situation. It is argued that Caribbean auto-biographical practice, prevalent in much of its artistic production, provides a conceptual tool for interpreting the Caribbean nation. As a site of resistance to received knowledges, Caribbean autolbiography has facilitated inter alia the re-inscription of histories and the imagining of nation spaces. Since as a genre it IS inherently democratic, multiple imaginings of nation emerge and coalesce from the wider range of voices accommodated by auto-biographical practice. The prismatic creolisation model is proposed as a re-visioning of Caribbean identity. This model modifies and augments Kamau Brathwaite's creolisation thesis with relevant scholarship from Stuart Hall and the artistic philosophy of the painter Dunstan St Orner, Prismism. Prismatic creolisation suggests a polycentric, more inclusive perspective from which Caribbean identity, culture and language might be interpreted. These theoretical tools - auto-biographical practice and prismatic creolisation - are applied to the examination of how Caribbean identity and culture are translated and re-constructed in the diaspora situation. The Windrush generation, it is argued, began negotiating Britishness by auto-biographing Caribbean transitional identities into the national imagination. Succeeding generations have been renegotiating these terms by creating new cultural forms and ways ofbeing that resist and inflect Britishness.

The research undertaken for this largely qualitative dissertation draws on newspaper articles, oral histories, historical documentation, open-ended interviews, and to a lesser extent, questionnaires, in the effort to ultimately confirm the extent to which the benefitting forces of globalization have fractured any existing traditional-historical cultural body of knowledge and expression among the Caymanian people. Indeed, by 2009 some Caymanians had long been verbally denouncing the social and cultural ills of globalization – inclusive of multiculturalism – on their so-called traditional, unassuming way of life, some of them clamoring for an extensive purge of the many foreign nationals in “their” Cayman Islands. Yet, other Caymanians have become somewhat invested in the idea of multicultural “oneness” ostensibly for the sake of peaceful coexistence, harmony and prosperity as these work towards the promotion of a global, borderless cultural awareness. This dissertation relies on theoretical frames centred both on the discrete natures of, and the dualistic struggle between, these two opposing ideological-cultural forces. That this struggle is taking place in the present age, I anticipate the ways in which more modern understandings, which are potentially open to liberating subjectivities, must clash with “historical”, xenophobic and nationalistic viewpoints, viewpoints which have constantly proven contradictory given their adherents’ complacent acceptance of, and participation in, a localised economic prosperity substantively dependent on foreign input. Thus in aggregate terms, this dissertation pinpoints the various effects of an evolving scheme of values and counter-values on an ideologically torn Caymanianness whose contradictory traditional half is especially fighting for its “cultural purity” in an era where its ‘reinvented’ logic is being more and more regarded as anachronistic and somewhat irrational.

The thesis expands the field of scholarly enquiry on the Cuban intervention in Angola beyond the frame of geopolitics into the area of cultural politics. It considers the relation between Africa as a cultural and political `territory' in the Cuban imaginary and the epic internationalist mission known as Operation Carlota. By focusing on representations and manifestations of 'Africanness' in discursive practices ranging from culture and the arts to domestic and foreign policy, the enquiry illustrates how the notion of Cuba as Latin-African evolved in relation to changes in revolutionary ideology during the period known as the quinquenio gris, and with regard to the swell of liberation movements throughout the African Diaspora. My approach proceeds from Victor Turner's theory of liminality, which discusses how ritual behaviour and symbolism - rites de passage - may be used as concepts for an understanding of social structure and processes With this view in mind, I construct a theoretical framework that conjoins the notion of ritual in Cuba's Africa derived religious practices with the more general idea of war, or in this case internationalism, as a social ritual. In this way, I demonstrate that the Angolan Experience was essential to the transformation of Cuban collective identity from Latin American to Caribbean by the 1980s. This shift, I claim, was sponsored, on the international level, by the symbolism of the military mission as an epic re-enactment of the West African Diaspora/Caribbean myth of return, and, on the national level, by slave iconology. The methodological technique used combines a critical hermeneutic reading of cultural productions with postcolonial styles of social and cultural analysis.

Deepwater continental margins constitute one of the ultimate exploration frontiers where giant oilfields have been discovered. These comprise reservoirs units affected by multi‐scale compartmentalisation resultant from stratigraphic, structural and/or diagenetic processes that compromise the lateral and/or vertical connectivity of permeable strata. A 3D seismic dataset from the deepwater Espírito Santo Basin (SE Brazil) was analysed to assess and quantify the architectural elements that influence the compartmentalisation of reservoir units. Mass‐Transport Deposits (MTDs) have growing importance on reservoir studies as they highly impact the compartmentalisation of contemporaneous reservoir‐prone turbidite strata. More significant compartmentalisation occurs in areas with higher MTD proportion, which are associated to wider dimensional ranges of laterally limited turbidites. However, salt diapirs constitute important barriers for MTD erosion, thus aiding the preservation of reservoir‐prone turbidites. The internal compositional heterogeneities and cohese strata on remnant and rafted blocks identified within the studied MTDs constitute important fluid flow or accumulation compartments, particularly when linked to underlying permeable faults. Submarine channels in Palaeocene and Neogene Units comprise important reservoir‐prone strata, thus it is crucial to understand their spatial distribution. Large channels are focused along the axis of salt‐withdrawal basins, whereas in sub‐units with numerous smaller channels these are laterally scattered across the basin. A new quantitative method used in this study shows that channel confluences and topographic confinement control significantly the density and spatial distribution patterns of submarine channels. A novel classification for submarine channel confluences is proposed, based on channel morphology and distribution of sediment facies within the tributaries. The key aim of this thesis was to undertake a seismic‐scale qualitative and quantitative analysis of the compartmentalisation of reservoir units on the Brazilian margin using methodologies that can be applied to other continental margins worldwide. As such, the results of this study can provide significant contributions for hydrocarbon exploration.

This study investigates the Native Baptists and the dynamics between their Biblical hermeneutic and the 1865 Native Baptist War. This work outlines, for the first time, the origin, structure and development of the Native Baptists. This study also discerns the main themes of the Native Baptists as equality and justice and their Biblical hermeneutic as a hermeneutic of liberation. The main thesis is that the Native Baptists' interpretation of Scriptures and Scripture -related sources influenced the nature and scope of the 1865 Native Baptist War. To achieve the goals of this study, this writer relied heavily on archival and contemporary documents. One of the major features of this study is that, for the first time, it provides an in-depth analysis of a major original source, which the first Native Baptists wrote about themselves. Another unique feature is the meticulous analysis of Paul Bogle's marked hymns, letter and speech and George William Gordon' s speeches in the House of Assembly. In order to examine and outline the origin, structure and development of the Native Baptists, this writer was informed by the social history of religion approach. And to reflect on their themes and Biblical hermeneutic this writer attributed the use of the Reader -Response approach to the Native Baptists. Using these approaches, this writer discovered, contrary to the dominant position in scholarly writings on Native Baptists, that the Native Baptists were orthodox, well organized, engaged in marches for justice and desired the liberation of the oppressed and the oppressors. This work gives a more accurate picture of who the Native Baptists were and how their interpretation of the Bible and sacred literature contributed to the way things happened in the 1865 Native Baptist War. A further study of the Native Baptists needs to determine if there is a co-relationship between the demise of the Native Baptists' institutional structures and the seeming retreat of present-day Baptists from political activism.

Chapter One asks whether Christianity and religion have been re-defined in the Jamaican context. The definitions of spirituality and mysticism, particularly as defined by Lartey are given and reasons for using these definitions. Chapter Two examines history and the Caribbean religious experience. It analyses theory and reflects on the Caribbean difference. The role that literary forefathers and foremothers have played in defining the writers about whom my research is concerned is examined in Chapter Three, as are some of their selected works. Chapter Four reflects on the work of Lorna Goodison, asks how she has defined God whether within a Christian or African framework. In contrast Olive Senior appears to view Christianity as oppressive and this is examined in Chapter Five. Chapter Six looks at the ways in which Erna Brodber re-connects the spirit. Chapter Seven regards the spiritually joyful God of Jean 'Binta' Breeze. Conclusions are then drawn as to whether writers have adapted a God to the Jamaican context, whether they have re-connected to the spirit and if it is true that Jamaica is a spiritual nation.

This thesis addresses the production and reproduction of narratives about people born as a result of war-related sexual violence in Colombia. I focus on the social processes through which these individuals have become part of the realities of the armed conflict that are apprehended by the Colombian government, human rights organisations and transitional justice agencies, the media, and the communities. My project draws on ethnographic content analysis of media, legal documents, and ethnographic research conducted between December 2015 and June 2016 in a rural Afro-descendent community in Colombia that was occupied by paramilitaries for approximately five years. Paramilitaries systematically used sexual violence against women and girls and, because of those abuses, children were born and later single out by members of the community as paraquitos, “little paramilitaries”. I conclude that people born as a result of war-related sexual violence have not emerged as subjects within the realities of the armed conflict that are apprehended by the discourse of transitional justice and human rights. Although information about them has circulated, it has done so within the framework for understanding wartime sexual violence. As a collective subject, they have gained a place in the imaginary of human rights organisations through naming practices that assume they are defined by the violence that conceived them. At the local level these children’s identities are dynamic and their experiences are connected to the experiences of their mothers within their cultural and moral system. For the community, these people do not belong to the collective narratives of the violence of the past. Their absence needs to be understood in relation to gendered notions of identity and reproduction that have denied women’s experiences of the armed conflict, while imposing motherhood. Although the life of people born of war starts as war-affected children, as they grow older their identities and opportunities are under constant negotiation that embody different forms of gender, economic, and social violence and resistance that challenge static notions of victimhood.

In the belief that the disappointing rate of growth of Argentina since the 1930s was the consequence of excessive government meddling in the economy, in the mid-1970s the military government took the decision to attempt a radical change in the development strategy: the model of industrialisation based on import substitution was replaced by one based on the conviction that faster economic growth would result if market forces were given free rein, with the State taking a back seat. The de-regulation of the repressed financial system and the opening up of the economy to the world capital markets following the neo-classical principles in vogue at that time was the cornerstone of the new model of accumulation. It was believed that this would lead to higher rates of savings and investment coupled with a more efficient allocation of resources. This study uses the new information economics approach to explain why this experiment culminated in a dramatic financial collapse and generated a severe economic downturn with long-term consequences for the country.

This thesis studies the secular schools sustained by two rural municipalities of majority Indian population in the Sierra Norte de Puebla in the periods before and after the 1910 Revolution (1875-1930). In order to assess the role of schools in the community and their contribution to nation-state building, it examines changes in the tax system that affected educational provision, the mutual interaction between schools, politics and inter-ethnic relations at the local level, and the methods used and problems faced when teaching Indian children to read and write in Spanish. The approach of social history is followed to address these questions, seeking to strike a balance between the necessary recognition of the agency of subordinate groups and the complexities of power relations that kept them dominated. Taking a local perspective and using a variety of sources including previously untapped municipal archives, this study both complements and challenges the history of education and nation-state building in modem Mexico. This thesis shows how, before 1910, municipal schools were successfully sustained by locally-controlled taxes and how post-revolutionary policies, contrary to the prevalent view in Mexican historiography, did not necessarily have positive consequences for education. In this case they had a negative impact by abolishing the tax system that had sustained schools, without providing an effective alternative. In organising themselves to fund schools, communities proved to be stronger than the post-revolutionary state. Seeking to contribute to an incipient but growing history of Indian education, this study analyses classroom practice, showing how speakers of Indian languages were at a disadvantage in school. After the revolution, there was a growing awareness of the specific needs of Indian children, but the methods adopted did not necessarily result in more effective learning of Spanish. In fact, the thesis argues that throughout the period of study schools contributed to non- Indian domination by reproducing and reinforcing Indians' linguistic disadvantage.

This thesis discusses the historical development of Pentecostalism in Northeastern Brazil in the twentieth century. In particular, it stresses the contributions of women in the establishment of the movement in Belém in 1911, its subsequent founding in Recife, and its continuing rapid expansion into the Northeastern backlands over the past eighty years. The current state of the Northeastern church and the role of women within the institution is discussed in light of both social and cultural factors interacting with this 'new religion'. The study commences by establishing the historical and cutural background of Recife and the Northeast, with a view to understanding the social context of the lives of the working class. An historical examination of the early attempts to establish Protestant religion in the Northeast follows, in chapter two. Chapter three details the entry of Pentecostalism into the Brazilian Northeast. This historical survey provides the context for the subsequent chapters of the thesis. Chapter four focuses specifically on the history of the Recifense church. Chapter five examines the unique historical contributions by which women have helped to mould the modern Brazilian Pentecostal church. It is argued that the dynamic female presence in the movement was central to its success in establishing a credible religious alternative to Catholicism and other Protestant denominations. Chapter six is a discussion on the life of working-class women within the Pentecostal community, detailing those factors relating to conversion and approved lifestyle within the church. Chapter seven seeks to demonstrate how Pentecostalism has elevated the social position of working-class women through education. A discussion on the adaptation of popular literature as a mechanism for socializing women toward specific moralistic norms is included. Finally this study contrasts the tenets of Pentecostalism with Northeastern working-class culture, in an attempt to analyse the means by which Pentecostalism is a catalyst both for individual and societal change. In the absence of a comprehensive work on the history of Pentecostal women in Brazil, the method adopted here was to conduct a micro-study using participant-observation techniques at the grass-roots level, as each Pentecostal congregation is autonomous. Thus, although Pentecostals share certain basic beliefs, each congregation has its own distinctive approach to the problems of its local constituency. It is argued that the great strength of Pentecostalism lies precisely in this autonomy and the flexibility which this allows. The thesis aims to bring together both oral and written sources in order to reflect the varying perspectives of each individual and thus to represent a 'living' history.