Academic literature on the topic 'Australia Social life and customs 20th century History'

The article devoted to the problem of Muslim immigration in France in the 20th century. The focus is on the causes of Muslim immigration, its cycles, specificity and consequences for modern French society. Based on a comparison of various statistical data, it stated that Muslim immigration is an integral part of three large waves of immigration flows that took place from the end of the 19th to the end of the 20th centuries. The article notes the correlation of the number of Muslim immigrants in France with the global numbers of immigrant arrivals to the country. However, if in the first two waves their number depended on the economic needs of the French economy (Muslims came to earn money), then during the third wave other factors came into play — the creation of stable communities, family reunification, going on stage second and third generations of immigrants, social problems of their arrangement and adaptation to French legal norms and customs. The article notes the specificity of the geographical concentration of the Muslim population, which takes place either near large industrial centers and cities (which makes it easier to find work and social protection), or in places of proximity to their native countries (southern France). Special attention paid to the problem of the evolution of state policy in the admission and integration of immigrants, when various methods tired from assimilation, the adoption of quotas to the policy of flexible regulation of immigration and expulsion of illegal immigrants from the country. The article analyzes the position of the Muslim community in France, the role of Muslim associations in its life, the impact on the socio-cultural life of the French. It can stated that Islam has become the second religion in France, which determines its position — a stable presence in socio-economic life (employment, the spread of the social protection system to immigrants), political (the right to vote, the possibility of creating associations, manifestations), religious (the possibility of worship), cultural (the formation of a specific immigrant subculture).

Based on the sources of the Russian State Archive of Modern History, the article describes the establishment and operation of customs in the socio-economic life of the second half of the 20th century, which influence the everyday life, attitude and worldview of the production (industrial) part of Russian societas. The question is raised about the consolidation of new features in consciousness, individualistic tendencies as the basis of the worldview. Attention is focused on the fact that the dissonance in the levels of social differentiation, material wealth and social status formed the basis of the mental separation of the production elite, representatives of management and the working class. The author draws attention to the fact that the phenomena of nepotism, clannishness, favours and thuggery that penetrate into everyday life and the labour sphere of life were especially negatively perceived by the workers. The negative reactions of the workers were reinforced by the realities of life – the deficit, the housing issue as a problem of social arrangement, the outdated wage system. It is noted that the public niches in which customs and traditions were firmly rooted, were to a greater extent connected with topical and acute social processes, including the institutions of power, property and trade. The researcher comes to the conclusion that by the 1980s, due to the passage of the stages of further ideological, social and economic differentiation, the separation of the individual from the working collective, the isolation of the elite and a certain isolation of its ordinary members in the production environment, bourgeois aspirations and ideals of hoarding were growing stronger.

Oral memory is one amongst the most valuable sources of human knowledge, even more so nowadays when the COVID-19 pandemic has taken so many of our elders out. The personal narratives of our towns’ dwellers during the past century let us know not only their way of life, customs, and traditions, but also the morphology of the city, its layout and urban evolution, its architecture –both for family homes and monuments–, and most significant of all, the way of using said spaces. The researchers behind this paper, in partnership with Grup Salpassa and the Council of El Campello, have chosen a methodology based on the oral history to expand the knowledge of the mid-20th century village by means of a series of interviews with some octogenarian locals –shaped as thematic “micro-histories”, published on social media, and orthophotos, which are subject to urban analysis with the location of streets, public buildings, facilities, and commercial areas. All this is accompanied by moving and previously unpublished images of everyday life and festivities, which set up a stronger emotional bond and stronger terrain roots for current societies.

During the last decades of the 20th century, Western philosophy saw a renewed interest in religion, often referred to as ‘the return of religion’. At about the same time, a growing number of anthropologists and historians began to draw attention to the cultural and ideological bias of the category of religion, revealing its roots in a particular phase of early modern European history. This article gives an overview of these significant theoretical developments and explores both the tensions and similarities between the different scholarly traditions. Drawing on both discourses, it argues that we need to rethink the way we use religion as a category for organizing social and political life. If religion can no longer be taken as a purely descriptive category but rather should be seen as part of specific discursive practices, then we need to critically ponder the implications of the ways in which we map certain customs, behaviours and motifs as ‘religious’ and others as ‘secular’.

Drinks and customs related to their consumption play a special role in the social history (essentially, that of the human community). However, research of the customs of alcohol consumption in Lithuania (along with the history of daily life in general and the culture of the nobility’s daily life in particular) is rather sporadic so far. The article presents a research work in cultural anthropology on the alcohol consumption as means (or prerequisite) of achieving more important aims of religious, social, economic or other kind. Because of the big scope of research and low level of prior investigation, the subject of this article is limited to a single aspect – namely, the custom of drinking from the same glass; to the culture of only one social layer of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) – the nobility; and to a distinct period – the 17th–18th centuries. The aim of analysis is revealing sources of this custom, its development and meaning in the social community of the given period.According to the research, the GDL presented a sphere of interaction between the local pre-Christian Lithuanian culture, which had been developing for an incredibly long period – even until the end of the 15th century, and the Western European cultural tradition. The Western European culture, formed in the course of joining together elements of the antique heritage, the Christian worldview and the inculturized “Northern barbarism”, acquired in the 14th–16th century Lithuania one of its essential constituents – namely, the culture of the “Northern barbarism” still alive and functioning. On the other hand, the nobility of the GDL, raised in pre-Christian Lithuanian culture, had no trouble recognizing elements of its local heritage in the Western Christian culture. The local custom of drinking from the same glass characteristic to the higher social layers supposedly stemmed from the drinking horns. Along with Christianity and spread of the wine culture, the local pre-Christian custom of drinking from the same glass should have been abandoned by the nobility, surviving instead solely in the lower social classes. The western custom of drinking from the same glass spread in Lithuania along with Christianity and the wine consumption. However, its influence on the nobility was rather limited. In the 15th–16th centuries, when this custom was still rather widespread in Europe, the Lithuanian nobility was just beginning its acquaintance with the wine culture, while in the 17th–18th centuries, when the wine culture grew popular in Lithuania, the western-like custom of drinking from the same glass had already waned in other European countries. Therefore, the western custom of drinking from the same glass was rather a marginal phenomenon among the Lithuanian nobility, affected by the cultural exchange with the Polish nobility (which grew especially intense following the union of Lublin) and the ideology of Sarmatianism. The custom of drinking from the same glass disappeared in the culture of the Lithuanian nobility at the turn of the 18th–19th century due to the ideas of Enlightenment and the altered notions of healthy lifestyle and hygiene. However, drinking from the same glass, as a distant echo of the ancient customs representing social community was quite popular in the peasant culture as late as the end of the 20th – beginning of the 21st centuries.

The article concerns the fate of Felicjan Karp’s family, one of the richest landowners of Samogitia (Lithuania) in the first two decades of the 20th century. After his father, he inherited approximately 40,163 hectares. The history of this family perfectly illustrates the changes that this social class has undergone in the past century. The end of their existence was the end of the landowner’s existence. The twilight of the Samogitian Karps took place quite quickly, for only a quarter of a century from July 28, 1914, the date of the outbreak of World War I to the Soviet invasion of the Republic of Lithuania on June 15, 1940. Over the course of these years - on a large scale two-fold - military operations, changes in the political and economic system, including agricultural reform initiated in the reborn Lithuanian state in 1922 and deportations to Siberia in 1940 brutally closed the last stable chapter in the life of Rekijów’s owners, definitively exterminating them after more than 348 years from the land of their ancestors. Relations between the Karp family and the Rekijów estate should be dated at least from September 21, 1592. In addition to the description of the family, it is also necessary to emphasize their significant economic and political importance in the inhabited region. These last two aspects gained momentum especially from the first years of the 19th century and were reflected until 1922. At that time, representatives of the Karp family jointly owned approximately 70,050 ha and provided the country with two provincial marshals (Vilnius, Kaunas) and two county marshals (Upita, Ponevezys). The author also presents their fate during World War II in the Siberian Gulag, during the amnesty under the Sikorski–Majski Agreement of July 30, 1941, joining the formed Polish Army in the USSR (August 14, 1941), the soldier’s journey through Kermine in Uzbekistan, Krasnovodsk, Caspian Sea, Khanaqin in Iraq, Palestine to the military camp near Tel-Aviv and then Egypt and the entire Italian campaign, that is the battles of Monte Cassino, Loreto and Ancona. After the war, leaving Italy to England (1946), followed by a short stay in Argentina and finally settling in Perth, Australia.

The Mission in Madurai 1606-1656 was a unique episode in the history of Christianity in India. During these times changing religion to Christianity meant abandoning one’s culture. Roberto de Nobili, an Italian Jesuit and founder of the mission was the fi rst European to learn Sanskrit, study the scriptures of the Vedas and convert Brahmins. He allowed them to keep their social customs, which was seen as controversial by the church hierarchy. He followed these social rules himself, living the life of an Indian ascetic and thus gaining respect among higher castes. His way of separating Hinduism from Indian culture was, and still is, contentious but it was done for practical purposes. The controversies forced him to defend his arguments on many occasions. In his writings he described Indian traditions and explained his method of missionary work. There were not many followers of de Nobili’s method, who would be able to understand the need of accommodation, undertake studies of Hinduism and be prepared to embrace an ascetic lifestyle. It was not until the 20th century that interreligious dialogue emerged as a concept and some Catholic clergymen found inspiration in Hindu spirituality. The goal of this thesis is to show just how pioneering was the accommodation method used by de Nobili and how his infl uence can still be felt on attempts at interreligious dialogue in the modern era.

The demand for equality of recognition or respect is the dominant passion of modernity. The 20th century experienced a giant leap in technological inventiveness and ruthless use of technological power. In the 21st century, human welfare and environmental wellbeing demand fundamental political appraisal. We have the means, if we choose, to eradicate poverty and to responsibly protect the global environment. However, economic, political and cultural systems act to differentially allocate the benefits and risks for growth between socioeconomic groups. For example, it is a matter of pride that the neonatal mortality rate in affluent societies has dropped substantially since the late 1970s. However, the level of infant mortality (three times the national average) and low birthweight (13%) among the Indigenous Australian population is the highest in the country. With hindsight we now know that is the inevitable legacy of Australia’s colonial history. Chronic physical and psychological stress is recognized as an important etiological factor in many lifestyle diseases of the cardiovascular, immune and reproductive systems. Diseases of adaptation are further advanced by non-adaptive lifestyle choices, depression, alcoholism and other drug dependencies. This review describes the principles of bioscience ethics and targets equity issues as they affect human reproduction across generations with particular reference to the Indigenous population of Australia. The review also considers ways we may advance global and cultural maturity from the Indigenous Australian perspective and proposes an ecologically based model of preventative care. If we are to embrace fundamental social change and protect future children without threatening parents’ basic freedoms, then new beliefs and priorities – based on a compassionate understanding of biological systems – must evolve from the general public. Belief in human rights arising from a sense of human dignity is a collective outcome originating from individual commitment. The golden rule; that is, Nature’s principle of reciprocity, is fundamental in bridging the gap between knowledge and effective action.

The turn of the 20th–21st centuries is characterized by highly intensive processes of national self-identification. An important role in this process is played by fantasy as a popular genre of popular literature. The study of Kazakh fantasy is of academic interest due to its popularity with readers, the dynamic transformation of the genre structure. The article demonstrates a wide genre spectrum of Kazakh fantasy books and their authors. In the novel Resurrecting Legends Timur Yermashev turns to the heroic page in the history of the Kazakhs – the Orbulak battle of the 17th century. Ilyaz Nurgaliyev consistently works with national myths and folklore images of the Turkic peoples. Azamat Baigaliev and Kira Nurullina write about aliens. Sabyr Kairkhanov in the format of urban fantasy (the novel Synchro) raises the question of the ambiguous role of the Semipalatinsk test site in the life of the Kazakhs. An example of the combination of children’s and adventure fantasy is the novel by Zira Naurzbayeva and Lily Kalaus In Search of the Golden Bowl: The Adventures of Batu and His Friends. Particularly popular are fantasy texts with plots based on the facts of national history, those resurrecting the heroes of Kazakhstani mythology, national traditions and customs. The themes and poetics of Kazakh fantasy are in line with the processes developing in modern prose, the nature of the transformation of the genre correlates with the changing readership. Fantasy readers are mainly representatives of a certain social and age group, those attracted by the topical issues raised – the growth of national self-consciousness – combined with an exciting adventurous plot. The entertaining genre of popular literature has taken on an important ideological function – to promote and shape the national identity of the Kazakhs in a situation of geopolitical changes.

The article aims at revealing the vitality of the oral cultural pattern as illustrated by the songs spread by perhaps the most literate community – students. The analysis of Lithuanian student songs focuses on two compositions that have been favored by students for quite a long time, travelling between European universities orally (at least in part) and sometimes even radically changing their shape.One of these songs is entitled Krambambuli (that is also the name of a strong liquor). It appeared in Lithuania in relation to the establishment of the student corporations following the German example. Yet among the Lithuanian students during the interwar period not the translated German song grew popular, but its local Lithuanian version. The Lithuanian Krambambuli inherited certain traits not only from its German predecessor, but also from the folkloric variants of the Russian translation, including some peculiarities of both the lyrics and melody, and certain additional features. By way of oral learning, dissemination, and variation this song was popular until the beginning of the 1960s. After Lithuania regained its independence and corporations renewed their activities at the universities, the song Krambambuli started sounding again, but today it cannot be regarded as a popular song. Members of the corporations learn it purposefully, as traditional heritage, which should be preserved and respected. Today Krambambuli seems to have turned into a presentable, “show” composition; it is difficult to say if it is ever going to find its way back into folklore proper again, enriching the treasury of the spontaneously developing folk creativity.Another song, the history of which we also use here as an illustration, is given a provisory title “Let Us Raise and Clang Our Glasses!” according to the prevailing lines of its refrain. Its melody, adapted from an Italian student song of the beginning of the 20th century, travelled to Lithuania via Russia, followed by the lyrics, which in Lithuania, however, was transformed into a patchy medley of unrelated humorous couplets. In Lithuania, this song exists and is learned almost exclusively orally, while its fragments “behave” in the virtual space not unlike the paremias: they are used to season the speech, to illustrate, to accentuate the peculiarity of the situation, or even as punchlines in certain funny situations.The first thing that draws attention when we attempt generalizing the history of the both long-lived student songs in question is the fact that they are male songs; incidentally, this tendency can be observed in the corpus of the student songs even today, although the student community has long ago ceased to be a masculine one. Masculinity, frivolity, beer, youth, love, gaiety – these are the main themes that have perhaps determined the long-lived popularity of the songs in question. However, the analyzed songs are interrelated not only in terms of their themes; they keep balancing on the borderline between cultural layers. Having emerged from the professional compositions, they are likely to be performed onstage, nicely arranged and perfectly intoned by professionally trained choirs. Yet another time the same song can completely adhere to the requirements of the popular scene, readily adapting to the popular taste by flexibly altering its shape and finally sounding in accordance to the requirements of almost the lowest social strata. Nevertheless, the most intriguing is the possibility of discerning the basic principles of folklore in the history of these songs; these principles are essentially similar to those developed by the oral culture in the ancient communities. Songs keep surviving for lengthy periods; they are repeated and in demand, since their texts seem lucid to the majority of the community members. They reflect the prevailing vision of the surrounding world, although their melodies change while crossing different countries and regions: they are adapted or even recreated, because they keep hitting the local filters that censor the song’s expression; these comprise certain pools of the musical forms, intonations and complex figures. The power of these filters may perhaps account for dissemination of certain forms of the musical expression in some areas and their total absence or strong changes in the others. If we add criteria of variation, collectivity, loss of authorship or its assumed irrelevance, and emphasize the importance that these songs acquire in relation to customs and rituals, we can perhaps complete the list of the main principles of folklore that are observed in these hybrid compositions – student songs.The traces of folklore found in the student songs do not mean, however, that these compositions can be considered folklore. Still, the student songs are shaped, sound and leave the living tradition precisely following the laws of the oral cultural pattern, thus “behave” in correspondence to its norms. So, even if today we are surrounded not only by the written, but also by the media culture, the modern community, if it is indeed a living and a self-renewing one, cannot completely discard the patterns of oral culture as well. The songs are an inherent part of such pattern, accompanying various rituals and customs or simply helping to create a happier kind of the daily life and making it meaningful.

Cookbooks were ubiquitous texts found in almost every Australian home. They played an influential role that extended far beyond their original intended use in the kitchen. They codified culinary and domestic practices thereby also codifying wider cultural practices and were linked to transformations occurring in society at large. This thesis illuminates the many ways in which cookbooks reflected and influenced developments in Australian culture and society from the early colonial period until 1939. Whilst concentrating on culinary texts, this thesis does not primarily focus on food; instead it explores the many different ways that cookbooks can be read to further understand Australian culture in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Through cookbooks we can chart the attitudes and responses to many of the changes that were occurring in Australian life and society. During a period of dramatic social change cookbooks were a constant and reassuring presence in the home. It was within the home that the foundations of Australian culture were laid. Cookbooks provide a unique perspective on issues such as gender, class, race, education, technology, and most importantly they hold a mirror up to Australia and show us what we thought of ourselves.

Australia is a suburban nation. Today, with increasing concern regarding the sustainability of cities, an appreciation of the complexities of Australian suburbia is critical to the debate about urban futures. As a built environment and a cultural phenomenon, the Australian suburbs have inspired considerable scholarly literature. Yet to date, such scholarly work has largely overlooked the changing environmental values and visions of those shaping and residing within suburban landscapes, and the practices through which such values and visions are materialised in the processes of suburban development. Focusing on the post-war suburban landscapes of Canberra and Perth, this thesis centralises the environmental, political and economic forces that have shaped human action to construct suburban spaces, paying particular attention to the extent to which individual understandings and visions of 'environment' have determined the shape and nature of suburban development. Specifically, it examines how those operating within Australia’s suburbs, including planners, developers, builders, landscape designers and residents have imagined the 'environment', and how such imaginaries have shifted in response to varying spatial, temporal and ideological contexts. Tracing the shifting nature of environmental concern throughout the mid-to-late twentieth century, it argues that despite the somewhat unsustainable nature of Australia's suburban landscapes, the planning and development of such landscapes has long been influenced by and has responded to differing understandings of 'environment', which themselves are the product of changing social, political and economic concerns. In doing so, this thesis challenges a number of perceptions concerning Australian suburbs, environmental awareness and sustainability. In particular, it contests the assumption that environmental concern for Australia's suburban development emerged with the urban consolidation debates of the 1980s and 1990s, and analyses a range of environmental sensibilities not often acknowledged in current histories of Australian environmentalism. By examining, for example, how the deterministic and economic concerns of differing planning bodies, along with the aesthetic and ecological concerns of various planners, are intertwined with the housing and domestic lifestyle preferences of suburban homeowners, this history brings to the fore the often conflicting environmental ideas and practices that arise in the course of suburban development, and provides a more nuanced history of the diversity of environmental sensibilities. In sum, this thesis enhances our understandings of the changing nature of environmental concern and illuminates the complex, still largely misunderstood, environmental ideas and practices that arise in the processes of suburban development.

The attitudes of selected memoir authors are surveyed with regard to their commentary on London Society ranging from the late Nineteenth century to the Nineteen Thirties. The experience of these Society participants is divided between aspects of continuity and change before and after the First World War. During this time-frame, London Society, as the community of a ruling class culture, may be seen to have undergone the transition from having been an aristocratic entity dominated by the political and social prestige of the landed classes, to that of an expanded body, more reflective of democratic evolution and innovation. The memoir testimony treated in this inquiry affords a means of reflecting not only Society's passage of experience but also more pointedly, its evaluation, shedding light on the values and vulnerability of a hitherto assured, discreet and otherwise adaptive class character at a time of accelerated change and challenge.

This thesis examines the professional musical stage of Montreal in the decade following the First World War. Throughout the 1920s, almost all of the city's musical theatre attractions were foreign in origin, and were staged by American, French, and British roadshow companies, arriving mainly from New York City. Analysis of Montreal's musical theatre entertainment and satellite relationship with Broadway highlights the growing cultural influence of the United States upon Quebec society in the interwar period. As a northern outpost of Broadway, Montreal was directly affected by the profound transformation of the entertainment industry of the United States. After peaking in the second half of the decade, the musical stage of Montreal was gradually supplanted by the decline of the roadshow system, the advent of the sound film, the onset of the Great Depression, and the resurgence of local stock theatre companies.
The northern extension of Broadway into Montreal heightened divisions within Montreal society between a growing middle class of businessmen, managers, and other professionals who embraced modernity and cultural change, and more conservative forces who favoured the traditional Quebec based on religious and nationalist values. While the musical attractions sent northwards from Broadway were a popular divertissement for a large proportion of Montrealers from all social classes and linguistic backgrounds, they were abhorred by the province's clerical and nationalist elites and their supporters who regarded them as a threat to the survival of traditional French Canadian values and culture.

This dissertation explores the cultural practice of smoking and its connection to social relations from the beginning of cigarette mass production in Montreal in 1888 to the First World War. It uncovers the norms of smoking etiquette and taste, their roots in gender, class and race relations and their use in reproducing these power relationships. It argues that these prescriptions reflected and served to legitimize beliefs about inclusion, exclusion and hierarchy that were at the core of nineteenth century liberalism. Liberal ideals of self-control and rationality structured the ritual of smoking: from the purchase of tobacco; to who was to smoke; to how one was supposed to smoke; to where one smoked. These prescriptions served to normalize the exclusion of women from the definition of the liberal individual and to justify the subordination of the poor and cultural minorities. Furthermore, even while these prescriptions were at their height, an emergent group of beliefs began to recast notions of respectable smoking around new ideals of speed and ungendered universality. This challenge was not only part of the transition from bourgeois to mass consumption, it was the roots of a transformation of the liberal order in the years previous to the First World War.

This Thesis examines the socio-political perceptions of Grahamstown, a small South African City, during the period 1946 to 1960. The ‘White English’ population of Grahamstown is the specific focus, as it formed the dominant social group during the period and consequently provided the majority of information for this work. During this period the majority of Grahamstowns ‘White English’ population thought of their City as holding many attractive features and experiences despite the slum-conditions and poverty that were rife in the Locations. During the British Royal Familie’s tour of the Union of South Africa in 1947, Grahamstown was one of the Cities visited. The loyalty that Grahamstown’s ‘White English’ citizens felt towards the Royal Family and the United Kingdom is explored in connection with the regard that ‘White English’ Grahamstown held for the 1820 Settlers. To highlight the Grahamstown City Council’s activities during this period five events are analysed: The Grahamstown Financial Crisis, The Grahamstown Housing Crisis, The Beer Hall Debate, The establishment of a Tuberculosis Hospital and the granting of Full University Status to Rhodes University College. It is shown, with regard to the politics of the period, that ‘White English’ Grahamstown, unequivocally supported the United Party and were vocally anti-Nationalist. The implementation of Apartheid policies within Grahamstown is explored, with specific focus placed upon the Group Areas Act. Finally the anti-republican sentiment espoused by ‘White English’ Grahamstown is reviewed.

Based on eighteen months fieldwork with Bedouin of the Negev, this thesis explores the varied presence of images as photographs and digital copies for local historicity in order to achieve a greater understanding of representational politics in southern Israel. It emphasizes pictures' ability to transmute, circulate, and acquire value in various social settings in contrast to popular academic treatments, which primarily focus on photographs' iconography and visual history in the Middle East. To do so, the thesis details the biographies of a series of 'significant images' (c. 1906-2010) circulating in this society. It describes their photographic and digital graphic contents as floating referents with the capacity to be coded and recoded by people but also their presence as historical evidence that acquire value in different contexts. The thesis builds on the concept of visual economy as opposed to visual culture in order to landscape images' meanings, material and digital transformations, and their influence for the making of Bedouin history over the last century amid Orientalist, national, and local imaginings. It argues that Bedouin in the Negev possess diverse representational repertoires and utilise a variety of techniques to pursue historical capital. In particular, local representations of the past are selective and instrumental but increasingly reliant on archival mediums such as photographs. Although it may be obvious, anthropologists of the Middle East have yet to adequately account for these occurrences among peripheral peoples and not merely urbanites in the region. Research found that Bedouin spokespersons treat photographs and digital images as evidentiary documentation during self-presentations of historical knowledge in the Negev. As they travel between visual economies, however, images become malleable proof for local history projects alternating between the tribal past, Islamic heritage, and ethnohistory. In conclusion, the thesis develops two theoretical themes in anthropology and visual culture studies of the Middle East: the material and visual efficacy of images for local historicity, and complicating self-representations among Bedouin in the Negev.

The thesis examines the relationship between Martha Stewart's rendition of domesticity and a broader cultural trend of the late 1990s U.S. domestic retreatism. It argues that the mode of construction and representation of the "domestic dream" in Stewart's programs cannot be examined outside of such concepts as class and ethnicity, whose understanding depends on the cultural, social, and political context of a given era, a context, in which they become transparent as aspects of the Western (white, patriarchal) status quo. Performing a deconstructive reading of these categories as employed by Stewart in the process of creation of her media persona, the thesis examines what the negative as well as positive reactions to "Martha Stewart" convey about the condition of American society of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

To understand the complexity of life in a city one needs to consider a spectrum of experience. Belfast has a history of conflict and division, particularly in relation to the Troubles, reflected in comprehensive academic studies of how this has affected, and continues to affect, the citizens. But this is a particular mode of representation, a vision of life echoed in fictional literature. People's quotidian lives can and do transcend the grand narratives of the Troubles that have come to dominate these discourses. Anthropology has traditionally accorded less epistemological weight to fleeting and superficial encounters with strangers, but this mode of sociality is a central feature of life in the city. The modern stranger navigates these relationships with relative ease. Communicating with others through narrative – personal stories about our lives – is fundamental to what it is to be human, putting storytelling at the heart of anthropological study. Engagements with strangers may be brief encounters or build into acquaintanceship, but these superficial relationships are not trivial. How we interact with strangers – our public presentation of the self to others through the personal stories we share – can give glimpses into the private lives of individuals. Listening to stories of quotidian life in Belfast demonstrates a range of people's existential dilemmas and joys that challenges Troubled representations of life in the city. The complexity, size and anonymity of the city means the anthropologist needs different ways of reaching people; this thesis is as much about exploring certain anthropological methodologies as it is about people and a place. Through methods of walking, performance, human-animal interactions, my body as a research subject, and using fictional literature as ethnographic data, I interrogate the close relationship between method, data and analysis, and of knowledge-production and knowledge-dissemination. I present quotidian narratives of Belfast's citizens that are Not-the-Troubles.