Faced with the profound social and ecological threats posed by extractivist projects such as large hydroelectric dams, wind farms, and mining operations, many indigenous communities and their allies in Mexico have articulated new forms of contentious politics into a broad territorial defense movement. This project explores the strategies of contention practiced by an anti-mining movement based in the Municipality of San José del Progreso in the southern state of Oaxaca. As a deeply-divided community that has suffered increased violence and conflict directly related to a Canadian-owned gold and silver mine operating in its vicinity, it presents a valuable case study in how strong social movements can still develop under conditions of disunity. This study combines ethnographic and archival research methods to uncover the deep historical roots of community division, and to develop a close analysis of the contentious strategies employed by the anti-mining movement. The historical record and local narratives show the central role that hacienda colonialism played in creating a salient geography of ethnic discrimination and division in the municipality whose effects can still be seen today. In response to the ongoing processes of colonization and dispossession in San José del Progreso, a legacy of contention has defined and defended both campesino (peasant farmer) and indigenous claims to local territory. More than a series of instrumental strategies designed to expel the hacienda and later mine project, this politics of contention operates as a form of social memory to produce a hybrid form of indigenous/campesino identity linked to healthy land stewardship, an interconnectedness between the earth and human subjects, and a shared history of struggle. As a result, the anti-mining movement in San José del Progreso has shown success in converting its troubled past and checkered present into the foundations of a healthy social and ecological commons, independent of its failure to fully-unite the municipality or close down the mine project in the short-run. / text

This thesis is a critical reflection of the author’s time as a Principal of an Indigenous state school from 2003-2004. The purpose is to reassess the impact of her principalship in terms of the staff, students and Community change that affected learning outcomes at the school and to reanalyse to what actions and to whom positive changes could be attributed. This thesis reflects and identifies, in light of the literature, strategies which were effective in enhancing student learning outcomes. The focus of this thesis was the Doongal State School*, its students, staff and facilities. The author will attempt to draw out theoretical frameworks in terms of: (1) what changed educationally in Doongal State School, (2) what seemed to be important in the Principal’s role, (3) the processes that took place, and (4) the effect of being non- Indigenous and a female. Overall, the author undertook this critical reflection in order to understand and embrace educational practices that will (a) lessen the gap between the academic outcomes achieved by Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, and (b) enhance life choices for Indigenous children. The findings indicate that principal leadership is critical for success in Indigenous schools and is the centrepiece of the models developed to explain improvement at Doongal State School. School factors, Principal Leadership factors, Change factors and factors relating to being a non-Indigenous female principal, which, when implemented, will lead to improved educational outcomes for Indigenous students, have evolved as a result of this thesis. Principal Leadership factors were found to be the enablers for the effective implementation of the key components for success.

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No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação Cássia Praeiro [UFSCar 2016].pdf: 4416995 bytes, checksum: 3ba6c3ce024a9681a2e595e159c638b3 (MD5) Carta Comprovante.pdf: 230527 bytes, checksum: 15802e265ab2a0106325b1098c802554 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-15 / Não recebi financiamento / Since the colonization of Brazil, its indigenous peoples have been facing countless conflicts related to the protection of their territories. In the pursuit of better living conditions, several indigenous communities have been thinking of tourism as a local development alternative based on criteria established by their own ethnic groups. The aim of this research was to identify the possible impacts and consequences for ethnodevelopment which were caused by the ethnic tourism developed and applied to Tabaçú Reko Ypy village, which is located between the municipalities of Itanhaém-Peruíbe on the southern coast of São Paulo, from 2013 to 2015. The community develops and performs this activity as a supporting tool for generating alternative income with the purpose of improving their living conditions and recovering their territory and traditions. Due to the fact that it is a recently formed village, no specific literature about its people has been found. All the documents and information about their politics, social behavior and culture have been obtained through semi-structured interviews, participation in field experiences and documents provided by the indigenous people themselves. The theoretical framework for this research was obtained through the existing literature on anthropology and tourism and its interfaces. This community organizes some field experiences related to tourism in partnership with agencies and also autonomously which were monitored and registered for this research for two consecutive years. Through this study, it was possible to identify several consequences arising from ethnic tourism and to reflect on possible future impacts that can be dealt with. In conclusion, this research showed that, through the actions taken by the Ñandeva people over the two-year period from 2013 to 2015, the possibility of making use of new tools and guidelines will be useful for them to achieve autonomous ethnodevelopment with the perspective of an inclusive model of tourism capable of generating income, respecting local culture and promoting environmental balance. / Desde a colonização do Brasil, os povos indígenas enfrentam inúmeros conflitos relacionados à proteção de seus territórios. Na busca por melhores condições de vida, diversas comunidades indígenas têm pensado na atividade turística como uma alternativa de desenvolvimento local, empreendida a partir de critérios estabelecidos pelos próprios grupos étnicos. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi diagnosticar sobre os possíveis impactos e consequências ao etnodesenvolvimento causados pelo turismo étnico desenvolvido e aplicado na aldeia Tabaçú Reko Ypy, localizada entre os municípios de Itanhaém-Peruíbe, litoral sul do estado de São Paulo, ao longo dos anos de 2013 a 2015. Esta comunidade desenvolve e pratica esta atividade como uma ferramenta de apoio à geração de renda alternativa na busca de melhores condições de vida em prol da recuperação do seu território e também visa o resgate das suas tradições. Por se tratar de uma aldeia recentemente formada, nenhuma literatura específica sobre este povo foi encontrada. Os registros e informações sobre a sua política, comportamento social e cultural foram obtidos através de entrevistas semiestruturadas, participação em vivências e de registros realizados pelos próprios indígenas. Os referenciais teóricos para esta pesquisa foram obtidos através da literatura existente sobre antropologia e turismo e suas interfaces. Esta comunidade realiza, em parceria com agências e também de forma autônoma, algumas vivências e experiências relacionadas ao turismo, que foram acompanhadas e registradas para esta pesquisa durante dois anos consecutivos. Através deste estudo pôde-se notar consequências diversas advindas do turismo étnico e refletir sobre possíveis futuros impactos os quais poderão ser trabalhados. Conclui-se com esta pesquisa que, através das ações exercidas pelo povo Ñandeva ao longo destes anos, a possibilidade em se fazer uso de novas ferramentas e diretrizes servirão de apoio para o alcance de um etnodesenvolvimento autônomo sob o olhar de um modelo de turismo inclusivo capaz de gerar renda, que respeite a cultura local e que também busque promover o equilíbrio ambiental.

Reverse Osmosis (RO) filtration is capable of producing high quality drinking water with an ultra-low nutrient level. Therefore, a very low bacterial growth potential (BGP). BGP is a key bioassay to evaluate microbial quality and the biological stability of drinking water. Current methods to assess BGP in drinking water need to be adapted to the wide variety of water types due to results could highly vary from each, providing unreliable insights to the biological stability of the assessed water. This study evaluates the application of an FCM-based BGP assay for RO produced chlorinated drinking water. The approach combines (i) the standardization of a quenching agent concentration, (ii) the impact of sample pre-treatment such as filtration and pasteurization on the BGP of RO produced chlorinated water, (iii) the effect of different inoculums (an indigenous community and a mixture with bottled water) on the bacterial growth and their longevity after being stored, (iv) the use of BGP to assess the performance of carbon filters in removing chlorine and (v) the use of BGP to assess the effect of the addition of magnesium on bacterial growth. The results showed that high concentrations of sodium metabisulphite (> 7.5 mg/L) decrease the pH levels of the water,thus, inhibiting bacterial growth. Filtration had a significant effect on BGP values (2.62 x10^5 intact cells/mL) in comparison to pasteurization (9.02 x 10^4 intact cells/mL), when compared to the control. Using a mixture of water types as inoculum might provide a better insight to bacterial growth potential in water due to a higher consumption of nutrients. BGP demonstrated to be a sensitive tool to test the performance of carbonfilters applied to remove chlorine and its applicability to evaluate the biological stability of RO produced chlorinated drinking water. The concentrations of magnesium chloride tested in this study did not have a significant effect on cell numbers.

Engineers are exploring a new paradigm in wastewater treatment; focus is shifting to the recovery and reuse of energy, water, and nutrients. Ecological sanitation (EcoSan) technologies, which allow for this recovery and reuse, are an environmentally sound option for the future of sanitation. While the technology to achieve this goal of recovery and reuse exists, a limiting factor is user attitudes and perceptions. Social sciences, especially anthropology, can and should inform engineering projects to ensure socio-cultural sustainability. Since 2003, rural indigenous Ngäbe communities in Panama have been implementing ecological sanitation projects, mainly double vault urine diverting (DVUD) latrines known as composting latrines. With the help of governmental agencies and the Peace Corps, over 200 of these latrines have been built across the province of Bocas del Toro and the ñÖ Kribu region of the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé. To this point, little monitoring and evaluation has taken place in these communities. Interviews and observations in 23 communities throughout this coastal region revealed that 70.6% of composting latrines constructed (n = 201) were completed and 71.8 % of the completed composting latrines (n = 142) are still in use. Based on observations, 65% of the latrines in use were determined to be used properly, which translates to the proper use of 45.8% of the completed latrines. To promote composting latrine adoption, social marketing and pilot latrine projects can be employed, and to improve the percentage of properly used composting latrines, education campaigns can be deployed as follow up. Utilizing suggestions made in recent literature as guidelines for the proper application of compost, analysis showed that new training messages have not reached the communities with older composting latrines. Informal interviews in 18 communities identified compost production, the lack of mosquitoes and flies, and the lack of odor as the most frequently mentioned advantages. With respect to the disadvantages, the inability to use water for anal cleansing was the most frequently mentioned disadvantage. In three communities, informal interviews and 124 surveys were used to characterize the perceptions of Ngäbes regarding feces and their use of composted human excrement as a soil amendment in agriculture. In general, the responses reflected perceptions that show no strong barrier to the operation and maintenance of composting latrines. Utilizing the Fisher's exact test and Kruskal-Wallis test, the community, sanitation classification, gender, primary occupation, and age all showed some level of association with the perceptions expressed in the survey responses. Filo Verde was more likely to respond with perceptions accepting of composting latrine use, while San San Puente was more likely to respond with "don't know" or with perceptions objecting to composting latrine use. At times, up to 37.9% of the respondents responded with negative perceptions; thus, evaluations of perceptions prior to the implementation stage are still beneficial. One discrepancy existed between the overall majority and the composting latrine user majority; 56.5% of the 124 respondents perceived the handling of human excrement as a great health risk, whereas 59.1% of the 22 composting latrine users did not. As expected, the composting latrine users responses represent the positive perceptions of feces and their reuse, but pit latrine owners were most likely to respond with perceptions contrary to those indicative of proper composting latrine behavior. Overall, males were more likely to agree with the perceptions related to composting latrine use. Regarding primary occupations, farmers consistently replied with more favorable perceptions of feces and their use as a soil amendment, while banana company workers showed more dissidence. Additionally, older participants gave responses reflecting favorable perceptions of composting latrines more than younger participants. Finally, education and household size do not have any statistically significant associations with the perceptions reflected in the survey responses.

Globally, the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes is rising. The most affected populations are those that have undergone recent and rapid transition towards a Western lifestyle, characterised by energy-dense diets and physical inactivity.¶ Two major hypotheses have attempted to explain the variation in diabetes prevalence, both between and within populations, beyond the contributions made by adult lifestyle. The thrifty genotype hypothesis proposes that some populations are genetically well adapted to surviving in a subsistence environment, and are predisposed to develop diabetes when the dietary environment changes to one that is fat and carbohydrate rich. The programming hypothesis focuses on the developmental environment, particularly on prenatal and early postnatal conditions: nutritional deprivation in utero and early postnatal life, measured by low birthweight and disrupted child growth, is proposed to alter metabolism permanently so that risk of diabetes is increased with subsequent exposure to an energy-dense diet. Both hypotheses emphasise discord between adaptation (genetic or developmental) and current environment, and both now put forward insulin resistance as a likely mechanism for predisposition.¶ Diabetes contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality among Australia’s Indigenous population. Indigenous babies are more likely to be low birthweight, and typical patterns of child growth include periods of faltering and rapid catch-up. Although there have been numerous studies in other populations, the programming hypothesis has not previously been tested in an Australian Indigenous community. The framework of the programming hypothesis is thus expanded to consider exposure of whole populations to adverse prenatal and postnatal environments, and the influence this may have on diabetes prevalence.¶ The present study took place in Cherbourg, a large Aboriginal community in southeast Queensland with a high prevalence of diabetes. Study participants were adults with diagnosed diabetes and a random sample of adults who had never been diagnosed with diabetes. Data were collected on five current risk factors for diabetes (general and central obesity, blood pressure, age and family history), in addition to fasting blood glucose levels. A lifestyle survey was also conducted. Participants’ medical records detailing weight growth from birth to five years were analysed with regard to adult diabetes risk to determine whether childhood weight and rate of weight gain were associated with subsequent diabetes. Adult lifestyle factors were xiialso explored to determine whether variation in nutrition and physical activity was related to level of diabetes risk.¶ Approximately 20% of adults in Cherbourg have diagnosed diabetes. Prevalence may be as high as 38.5% in females and 42% in males if those who are high-risk (abnormal fasting glucose and three additional factors) are included. Among those over 40 years, total prevalence is estimated to be 51% for females and 59% for males.¶ Patterns of early childhood growth may contribute to risk of diabetes among adults. In particular, relatively rapid weight growth to five years is associated with both general and central obesity among adult women. This lends some qualified support to the programming hypothesis as catch-up growth has previously been incorporated into the model; however, although the most consistent association was found among those who gained weight more rapidly, it was also found that risk is increased among children who are heavier at any age.¶ No consistent associations were found between intrauterine growth retardation (as determined by lower than median birthweight and higher than median weight growth velocity to one and three months) and diabetes risk among women or men. A larger study sample with greater statistical power may have yielded less ambiguous results.¶ Among adults, levels of physical activity may be more important than nutritional intake in moderating diabetes risk, although features of diet, such as high intake of simple carbohydrates, may contribute to risk in the community overall, especially in the context of physical inactivity. A genetic component is not ruled out. Two additional areas which require further investigation include stress and high rates of infection, both of which are highly relevant to the study community, and may contribute to the insulin resistance syndrome.¶ Some accepted thresholds indicating increased diabetes risk may not be appropriate in this population. Given the relationship between waist circumference and other diabetes risk factors and the propensity for central fat deposition among women even with low body mass index (BMI), it is recommended that the threshold where BMI is considered a risk be lowered by 5kg/m2 for women, while no such recommendation is made for men.¶ There are a number of social barriers to better community health, including attitudes to exercise and obesity, patterns of alcohol and tobacco use and consumption of fresh foods. Some of these barriers are exacerbated by gender roles and expectations.¶

This dissertation seeks to investigate the nature and extent of community participation in health education decision making for Torres Strait Islander girls at one Queensland high school. As such, the study is concerned with identifying stakeholders in health education for girls, describing the ways in which stakeholders participate in health education decision-making, and identifying the factors that promote or inhibit community participation in health education decision-making. The question presupposes several standpoints: firstly, that Indigenous communities want to participate in education decision-making and, secondly, that community participation would be desirable in producing good outcomes for Indigenous students. Thus, the literature review is concerned with critiquing discourses of community participation in Indigenous education, the effects on educational outcomes of Indigenous students when community participation is enabled, and reviewing previous research on educational decision-making in health education in Australia. Given the necessity for emancipatory research methodology in Indigenous research contexts, a critical ethnographic case study approach was chosen to investigate the research questions at a high school in the Torres Strait; building a critical case record from field notes, interview data, and documents. Using Carspecken's (1996) stages of data analysis, primary records were reconstructed and dialogically negotiated with participants, to describe system relations. Such an approach allows for power and control relations between researchers and research participants to be explicated, giving voice to usually marginalised groups, such as Indigenous students. This approach was also congruent with specific Torres Strait Islander research protocols, informed by Ailan Kastom, which were necessary to sensitively and successfully undertake the research. Data analysis was informed by a framework of Indigenous community participation theory, derived from Soliman (1995), Heslop (1998 ), Ministerial Advisory Council for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education (1999) and Stewart (1999), together with curriculum theory, from Bernstein (1976; 1990; 2000). This approach constituted a unique adaptation of Bernstein's pedagogic discourse theory to a Torres Strait Islander educational setting. The findings indicated that there was strong desire by community members, including students, to participate in health education decision-making at Bluewater High. However, the ability of different stakeholder groups to participate in health education varied, with teachers exercising the most power, and students the least. An in-depth, contextual analysis, in which pedagogic decision-making occurred, enabled a number of immediate and long-term recommendations to be developed. It is envisaged that these recommendations will enable greater community participation in health education decision-making for girls at Bluewater High, and more generally in other Indigenous educational settings.

This work deals with the issues of cultural identity of ethnic groups in the modern Mexican society, explores its characteristics and essence and searches for possibilities of its maintenance. The central question is, which way indigenous groups can develop their culture freely in the modern Mexican society, and so keep their own peculiarity and identity. The main instrument is a case study of Nahua communities occupying the territory of the Northeastern mountain range of the Mexican state of Puebla, which is in the sphere of influence of the organization called Unión de Cooperativas Tosepan Titataniske, seeking to improve the standard of living and strengthen the cultural identity of the villagers in the region. An ethno-historical study of the Nahua communities living in the particular region, completed with an analysis of the contemporary inhabitants' cultural identity based on a field research, shows that indigenous cultures can keep their identity in spite of significant external interference into their traditional way of life in the course of centuries and that the continuity of their identity is not dependent on maintaining concrete, time conditioned cultural manifestations. On the contrary, important factors for keeping cultural identity are the functional continuity of a given group and...

Cette recherche vise à offrir un portrait de la pratique de l’aménagement urbain d’une communauté autochtone, Wendake, selon un cadre d’analyse tenant compte du contexte colonial dans lequel elle a évolué et évolue toujours. L’imposition de la juridiction de la Couronne fédérale sur les terres indiennes et les politiques subséquentes de la Loi sur les Indiens font partie d’un cadre politique colonialiste de peuplement qui est toujours bien en place, tel que démontré par le pouvoir limité de gestion sur la planification urbaine de leurs communautés qu’exercent les conseils de bande en vertu de la Loi sur les Indiens, ainsi que par les règles du ministère des Affaires autochtones et du Développement du Nord du Canada, qui posent de sévères contraintes à toute volonté de développement ou d’amélioration. / This research describes specific urban planning practices in the aboriginal community of Wendake, while acknowledging the colonial context in which they were created and are still exercised. It argues that the imposition of Crown jurisdiction on Indian land and the subsequent Indian Act policies are part of a settler colonialist framework that is still largely at play, as demonstrated by the limited management power that band councils do have over their communities’ urban planning according to the Indian Act, and by the rules set out by the Canadian Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, which pose severe constraints on any development or improvement measures.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, 2004. / Title from electronic document (viewed 15/6/10) Presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Western Sydney, 2004. Includes bibliography.