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The number of intercultural marriages has grown significantly in the past few decades, as have the numbers of intercultural couples presenting for marital and family therapy. Current literature on intercultural relationships states that they are at a high risk for failure, with higher divorce rates and lower marital satisfaction reported than for same culture marriages. Few actual research studies have been conducted to prove or disprove these theories, and no studies have looked at how successful couples have dealt with the stressors stated in the literature such that they remain married and report high marital satisfaction. This study was an exploratory study on the stress and coping techniques successful couples have utilized in their relationships, based on the ABCX model of stress and coping. Six couples were interviewed on what stressors they have faced, what resources they have accessed and built to combat those stressors, and what their perceptions of their challenges have been. Several themes emerged. Couples revealed common stressors from family and society disapproval, language barriers, logistics, cultural barriers and traditions, and children. Coping resources included humor, learning about the other's culture, support, communication, personal preparation, working towards common goals, and religion. These couples were found to have attitudes of commitment to their marriage and each other, and a belief that they were not that different from their partner. Clinical implications include support for the idea of strength-based intervention for intercultural couples. This study will provide a beginning framework for others interested in doing more research on intercultural relationships, and designing models for work with this population. / Master of Science

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.

Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre a Comunidade Cafuza, cujo objetivo é compreender a organização do grupo em torno de um projeto de produção coletiva de erva-mate, elaborado pelos Cafuzos em conjunto com várias pessoas que lhes prestam assessoria.Os Cafuzos estão assentados há seis anos no município de José Boiteux, em Santa Catarina. Totalizam 180 pessoas e constituem um grupo familiar extenso cuja origem é o casamento de um negro e uma índia no final do século passado. Viveram e sobreviveram à Guerra do Contestado, no início deste século, após a qual migraram do Planalto Catarinense para o Vale do Itajaí, onde, mais uma vez, foram expulsos da terra. Para compreender os impasses que surgiram na condução do projeto coletivo se busca a história do segmento populacional do qual este grupo faz parte, o campesinato aqui denominado brasileiro, e suas relações com outros segmentos e classes sociais. Também se considerou a relação interétnica conflitiva que têm com os colonos da região e a forma como se constrói a identidade étnica do grupo. Todo este conjunto é, então, confrontado com as diretrizes do projeto coletivo e consegue perceber-se como os Cafuzos as reinterpretaram adaptando-as aos valores e às contradições que elaboraram ao longo de sua história. / This study about the Cafuzo Community aims a comprehension of the project of organization of the group to produce collectively "erva-mate" (Ilex paraguaiensis). The Cafuzo Community, settled by the government in the years of 1992 on a land in the city of José Boiteux, state of Santa Catarina. They are na extense family group originated with the union of na african-descendant man and an indigenous woman at the end of the 1800’s. They lived and survived to the War of Contestado, migrating, thereafter, to the Highlands of Santa Catarina. To comprehend the conflicts and tensions aroused by the collectivization of the work, we considered the cultural characteristics of the wider segment they take part called brazilian peasantry in the south region of Brazil. I show the tension between the Cafuzo tradition, which is peasant, and the new organizational guidelines, as well as the tension between this group and the involving society. The theory used for interpretation was the one about the tension between two ideal society types: communitary and societary.

This dissertation argues that interethnic romance narratives reflect and express central religious, political, racial, and gendered identities and agendas of Jewish American literature and culture in the early twentieth century. Chapter One shows that fin-de-siècle Reform Jewish women authors employed interethnic romance narratives to express a belief in America as exceptional as a place of religious and gender egalitarianism. Chapter Two turns to journalist and fiction writer Abraham Cahan, who wrote interethnic romance narratives to weigh the balance between idealism and pragmatism, socialist universalist values and the principles of Jewish nationalism in determining the character of Jewishness in America. Chapter Three demonstrates that Jewish American women’s popular fictions of interethnic romance in the 1920s employed interethnic romance plots to show women’s independence and mobility in light of early feminism and to express the limitations of feminist discourse when it ran counter to their ethnic identities. Chapter Four describes how narratives of interethnic romance written by Yiddish writers I. I. Shvarts, Joseph Opatoshu, Isaac Raboy, and David Ignatov employ tropes of interethnic romance together with geographical border crossings into non-immigrant or non-Jewish spaces, co-locating physical dislocation and disorientation and intimate interpersonal desire and unease. Together, these studies demonstrate the significance of interethnic romance in the American Jewish collective imaginary in this period and reveal the flexibility and longevity of this central theme in American Jewish discourse.

This study investigated romantic relationship attitudes and experiences as factors of interethnic romantic relationships among Native American (NA) emerging adults. The study included 114 participants ages 18 to 25 years from about 70 NA indigenous groups across North America. Factors were organized into the moral, societal, and psychological domains of the social-cognitive domain theory. Factors identified by this study included four significant predictors of past interethnic dating and three significant predictors of future likelihood of NA dating among emerging adults with differences between NA relationships with Whites or with other minorities. Past dating experiences associated with strong White identity, past multicultural interaction, diversity climate in childhood community, and past parental support of interethnic dating relationships. Future likelihood of engagement in interethnic romantic relationships for NA emerging adults associated with past interethnic dating and other multicultural interactions. Past multicultural interactions was the only predictor that emerged in NA romantic relationships with both Whites and other minorities.

<p>This is an essay about the political development of Iraq after the overthrow of the Baath regime by the coalition forces in 2003. Almost seven years later, the political scene is still characterised by chaos, even though the country entered a new phase with the adoption of democratic thinking and a new openness to the world. The unstable political situation is a product of inter-ethnic conflict and the interference by neighbouring countries. Iraq is up against two formidable tasks – building democracy and building a nation. The essay sets out to explore the prospects of this dual mission.</p><p>The essay breaks down into three distinct, theoretically motivated parts or sections. The first part is inspired by O’Donnell & Schmitter’s transition theory and revolves around Iraq’s transition from dictatorship to democracy. The second part sets out to evaluate the development of democracy in Iraq after Saddam Hussein in the light of the seven institutional criteria of <em>polyarchies</em> as identified by Robert Dahl. The third part evaluates Iraq in terms of Arendt Lijphart’s groundbreaking theory about consensus as a pre-condition for democracy in highly divided societies.</p><p>The investigation confirms the general picture of the political situation in Iraq as unstable but with one notable exception – the Kurdish region. The constitution testifies to the ambition to turn Iraq into a polyarchy with strong elements of consensual democracy, but the spirit of the constitution is frequently violated by government institutions and individual politicians. The consensual features have in fact served as safety valve for the ethnic and religious minorities of Iraq; but it is an open question whether they will survive the onslaught by Prime Minister Al-Maliki, a recent convert to the Westminster model. The unclear relationship between Islam and democracy also looms large in the background in a country like Iraq and must somehow be resolved by the governing elite.</p>

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003 / Pacific Islands Studies

Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 2, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-167).

This thesis is based on fieldwork undertaken in a multi-ethnic indigenous organisation, the Native Federation of Madre de Dios and tributaries (FENAMAD), in the Amazonian region of Madre de Dios in Peru. I explore the question “what is a good leader?” and offer a contribution to the literature on indigenous movements by focusing on the significant role that indigenous communities play in the development of leaders. Alterity is at the heart of the Federation as the leaders, who are elected to represent the communities, have to deal with various “others” on a daily basis, both indigenous and non-indigenous. The main focus is on how alterity is managed and made productive by the leaders. By analysing the instrumental use of the term hermano (brother) in indigenous politics I try to understand the way in which the “outside” is constantly defined and redefined in an attempt to produce a stable “inside” space in which indigenous politics can take place. I look at how the native communities affiliated to the organisation actively work towards establishing leaders who fulfil certain roles and expectations, which may at times be different to those promoted by the state. My ethnography shows that communities expect good leaders to be consecuente (consistent, trustworthy). I look at the process of “becoming a leader” and how the experience of these new leaders is understood as both performative and authentic, as an expression and outward display of their values and identity. By problematising authenticity, I explore how leaders not only tap into indigenous discourses, as performance of an identity for Western audiences, but use strategic markers (such as indigenous dress) and discourse to establish themselves as legitimate representatives in their own communities, as the base from which they draw power. Llegando bien a la comunidad (doing right by your community) is seen to be a motivating factor in a leader’s actions and choices, and this highlights the importance given by leaders to being seen in a good light by their home communities. In analysing the importance of presencia en las comunidades (presence in the communities), I show how this helps to embed leaders in community life, both during their time as leaders and afterwards. I also relate the leadership role to its function in “producing people”, as empowered and able to act. The role of the Federation in the production of knowledge is explored to uncover the links between power and knowledge, whereby knowledge becomes significant for constituting power in leaders and communities. An analysis of the language used during important events such as the triannual congress offers insight into how both leaders and communities are producing each other. It is through language that leaders work to produce a trustworthy, reliable social body, necessary for the continuance of the Federation and for furthering its aims of indigenous autonomy and self-determination.