This thesis treats a wide variety of sociological issues within the context of urban Latin America. The selected and utilized urbanization-migration materials converge around a common denominator, popularly known as poverty. The chapters are designed to provide renewed examinations and interpretations of discussions relating to poor urbanites. Opening passages reveal several widely shared empirical generalizations about urbanization. Throughout the thesis, it is essential to keep in mind that urban populations in Latin America are increasing rapidly, that the poor component to urban populations is extremely large and continues to expand, and that the tenement slums, shack slums and progressive squatter settlements are swelling. Because it contributes heavily to the growth of urban populations in general and urban poverty segments in particular, the process of internal migration holds an important position for topical analyses in this study. Crucial points to grasp are the not-so-rural origins of migrants, the typical step-wise pattern of city-ward movement, the reliance on a mixture of former and newly acquired experiences and interactions for suitable urban existence, the variable motives for migration, and the heterogeneous residence patterns of recent and established migrants. Theoretical and conceptual examinations portray and contrast two sides of a debate over poverty perspectives. A look at the "psycho-cultural" perspective, as clearly applied in Oscar Lewis' "culture of poverty" model, reveals the need to critically question value-laden claims such as poverty-culture inferiority and distinctiveness, psychosocial breakdown, personal unworthiness and resistance to change which are supposedly preventing the elimination of poverty. The "situational-structural" perspective represents an attempt to understand many poor urbanites' attitudes, actions and reactions in terms of adaptive responses to constraining situations imposed on them by total social and economic structures. The effective elimination of poverty relies on an extensive modification of structural flaws and an immediate introduction of socio-economic improvements to the deserving poor. Empirical re-analyses of posited "culture of poverty" traits and of recent and established migrant political destabi1ization cast serious doubts on the validity, exclusiveness and explanatory potential of such notorious poverty images. "Situational-structural" considerations of existing data furnish more realistic explanations of specific urban poverty conditions, as well as social, economic and political attitudes and behaviours displayed by poor urbanites. Lastly, a careful investigation of various kinds of public housing schemes which intend to cater to lower-income families discloses an elaborate assortment of unnecessary problems being levied on both poor urbanites and urban society as a whole. When considered objectively, there are remarkably valuable lessons to be learned from the practical and sensible housing approaches being favoured and employed by so many Latin American urban squatters. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

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The present study theorises and empirically investigates the transformations of the Bolivian state between 1985 and 2005, from a historical materialist perspective. It argues that state transformations have formed part of the latest phase of capital globalisation, and hypothesises that these transformations are captured effectively by concepts of ‘internationalisation’, ‘polyarchy’ and ‘depoliticisation’. Relying on substantive dialectical logic and qualitative methods (documentary analysis and interviewing), the thesis investigates reflexively whether, how and why processes of internationalisation and liberalisation of the Bolivian state, concurrent to the depoliticisation of economic management, have been taking place in the period under focus. I argue that the internationalisation of the Bolivian state was not superimposed upon an ‘endogenous’ process of political and economic liberalisation by external forces; rather, by consolidating a transnationalised elite fraction in Bolivia and the depoliticisation of economic management, the internationalisation of the state sustained polyarchy after the hyperinflationary crisis of 1985. The engagement of Multilateral Development Institutions (MDIs) and transnational private banks by a nucleus of competitive and ‘denationalised’ Bolivian elites in 1985, and in turn their unconditional integration into an expanding transnational historic bloc of elite social forces drove the internationalisation of the Bolivian state. Internationalisation, in turn, consolidated the structural power of the transnational bloc in Bolivia by concurrently locking-in the depoliticisation of central government agencies and polyarchy. Polyarchy was an attempt to legitimise elite domination and the restructuring of society and state through a procedural conception of democracy. Following the more ‘open’ tradition of historical materialist thinking, the research conceptualises the state as a contradictory organisation of subjection, a social relation embedded in broader production relations, which both reflects and constitutes a particular configuration of forces within the social space bound by its institutions. The state is a terrain of intra-elite and class struggle. Aforementioned processes of state transformation have thus been shaped by the confrontation between a transnational elite bloc, domestically-oriented elites and labour forces, in ‘civil society’ but also within the institutions of the Bolivian state itself. The radical program of social and state restructuring engineered by the staffs of MDIs in collaboration with a transnational fraction of Bolivian businessmen and technocrats from 1985 to 2005 was systematically undermined by social resistance. Equally, efforts to depoliticise state agencies – to functionally relate them to capital reproduction – contained their antithesis in recurrent attempts by domestic forces to capture and instrumentalise them.

My doctoral research is an examination of the pioneering nature of Martha Warren Beckwith’s writings on Jamaican folk religion. Beckwith, an American anthropologist and folklorist, visited Jamaica four times between 1919 and 1924. During her visits she recorded aspects of African-Jamaican folk life ranging from stories, songs and proverbs to rites of passage, children’s games and plant lore, as well as various forms of folk religion. She is regarded as pioneering in choosing Jamaica for her fieldwork at a time when the Caribbean was overlooked by many American and British anthropologists. In this thesis, I argue that in her methodology and treatment of her subject matter she was also ahead of her time. Beckwith is still often cited in modern writings on African-Jamaican religions with little or nothing in the way of background or context. Using close textual analysis, I examine both the nature of Beckwith’s research and exactly how ground-breaking it was when compared to those commenting on African-Jamaican spiritual beliefs in the same era. Although a variety of people wrote about African-Jamaican folk religions, my focus is on the way these faiths were covered by anthropologists and folklore collectors as a distinct group. This was also a period when both anthropology and folklore studies had moved away from being the preserve of amateurs and were developing as academic disciplines. An analysis of the works of late post-emancipation researchers such as Beckwith gives an insight not only into how African-Jamaican folk religions were practised and perceived at that time but also how changes in folklore and anthropology theory and practice impacted on such perceptions.

This thesis examines how rival national interests and relations between European states, principally France and Britain, affected ethnic relationships on the island of Grenada, West Indies throughout the period of 1763-1800. The arguments postulated are: 1. Imperial ideologies reinforced assumed superiority and right to rule that relegated all other groups to inferior status. 2. An ethnic model rather than a racial model is the best way to study Grenada plantation society. 3. The stigmatised in society fractured into ethnic groups, forming dynamic relationships, not fixed structures, that were flexible to fit their needs, value,s and beliefs. 4. The need to dominate or participate in that society coerced inter-ethnic alliances across boundaries (considered anathema), creating reprisals from the ruling group. 5. British government policies and officers‘ lack of leadership created a vacuum for constitutional conflict and inter-ethnic internal feuding and contributed to Fédon‘s revolt. Chapter One is an introduction to outline the pre-history of the area of study to explain differences between groups. It will outline the topography of the island, explain the system of government, and describe the composition of the initial resident population. Chapter Two establishes the concepts ‗ethnicity‘ and ‗race‘ and its importance. The European ethnic groups and their relationships are examined using this model. The concept of ‗whiteness‘ is addressed and its external and internal effects. An argument postulated is white hegemony existed as a fractious union where coerced whites perceived to be complicit with Catholics, were targeted and socially ostracised. Another important focus is the roles of governors and their relationships and alliances with the planter class within society. The term Creole and their standing vis-á-vis with European whites provides another layer within society in conjunction with the critical delineation of social class across white groups in society. Chapter Three defines the concept of Coloured and the range of perceived physical characteristics and legal differences, i.e., the concepts free and un-free. As the largest social grouping the role of Africans is pivotal, viz. their place in society and relationships with other groups. African differences are assessed, particularly the Grenada Maroons and their position and interaction within society and with another ethnic group, the Caribs. Chapter Four examines the status of governors and employs a case study of the last decade of Ninian Home: an examination of his character, lifestyle, his attempts to became governor, political lobbying, relationship with his family, his administration and how it contributed to the Fédon Rebellion. Chapter Five summarises the thesis and explains how the postulated arguments are met.

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