Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Indians of south america – cultural assimilation'

The radical transformations attendant upon the imposition of colonial rule on the Siksikaitsitapi or Blackfoot of northern Alberta and southern Montana are examined in this dissertation in order to emphasise the threads of continuity within a tapestry of cultural change c.1870-1920. The dissertation traces cultural persistence through the analysis of texts of history and literature that constructed Blackfoot subjectivity in the half-century following the end of traditional lifeways and settlement on three reserves in Canada and one reservation in the United States of America. This interdisciplinary thesis has been undertaken jointly in the School of History and Philosophy, and the School of English, Media and Performance Studies. It combines the tools of historical research and literary criticism to analyse the discourses and counter-discourses that served to construct Blackfoot subjectivity in colonial texts. It engages with the ways in which the Blackfoot navigated colonisation and resisted forced acculturation while adopting strategies of accommodation to ensure social reproduction and even physical survival in this period. To this end, it presents four case studies, each focusing on a discrete process of Blackfoot cultural transformation: a) the resistance to acculturation and cultural revitalisation as it relates to the practice of Ookaan (Sun Dance); b) the power shifts ushered in by European contact and the intersection between power and Blackfoot dress practices; c) the participation of Blackfoot "organic intellectuals" in the construction of Blackfoot history through the transformation of oral stories into text via the ethnographic encounter; and d) the continuing links between Blackfoot history and literature, and contemporary fictional representations of Blackfoot subjectivity by First Nations authors. This thesis acknowledges that Blackfoot history and literature have been constructed through a complex matrix of textual representations from their earliest contacts with Europeans. This dissertation is a study of the intersection between textual representations of the Blackfoot, and resistance, persistence and cultural revitalisation 1870-1920. It seeks to contribute to debates on the capacity of the colonised Other to exercise agency. It engages with views articulated by organic intellectuals, and Blackfoot and other First Nations scholars, in order to foster a dialogue between Blackfoot and non-Blackfoot scholarship.

The technology of the dominant society, the omnipresence of a cash economy, and a history of the brutal treatment of culturally distinct peoples are among the assimilative pressures faced by native peoples within the United States. Some indigenous cultures have managed to resist the forces of assimilation in ways that are both adaptive and culturally sustaining. The Pueblos of the Southwestern United States have managed to preserve their culture through the creation of cultural boundaries that are both adaptive and culturally sustaining. The processes which serve to strengthen and renew the symbols which represent these boundaries are those of "revitalization" and "resynchronization," both of which arise from Pueblo religious practices and from the Pueblos' strong sense of family.
Department of Anthropology

ABSTRACT Charles W. Chesnutt captures the essence of the Post Civil War period and gives examples of the assimilation process for African Americans into dominant white culture. In doing so, he shows the resistance of the dominant culture as well as the resilience of the African American culture. It is his belief that through literature he could encourage moral reform and eliminate racial discrimination. As an African American author who could pass for white, he is able to share his own experiences and to develop black characters who are ambitious and intelligent. As a result, he leaves behind a legacy of great works that are both informative and entertaining.

The purpose of this thesis is to study the relationship between educational attitudes and certain background features of Native Americans, in particular, where they were raised and what type of school they attended. The sample used consisted of 120 completed mail out-mail back surveys that were used primarily as a Needs Assessment for the Portland Indian Health clinic. The sample was randomly selected from the Portland Indian Health Clinic client/patient mailing list. The findings of this thesis indicate that the attitudes of Native Americans toward education in general are positive. The findings also indicate that older Native Americans who experienced being sent to a B.I.A. boarding school off the reservation have the least positive attitudes towards Indian Education programs. Implications and recommendation for further research are discussed.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, white middle and upper class women active in reform became involved in the movement for American Indian reform. Focusing on the so-called "Indian problem," groups such as the Women's National Indian Association (WNIA) were formed to address the injustices against, and sufferings of, American Indian people at the hands of the U.S. military due to the increasing pressures and demands of western migration. This study addresses the role white women played in the movement for Indian reform through their involvement either as part of the WNIA membership or as missionaries, teachers or field matrons. The thesis is concerned, above all, with the ways in which their involvement reflects larger historical trends that enveloped white middle class women during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The work of reform groups like the WNIA helped transform missionary and field positions into jobs which were identified as specially suited for women. While missionary work was, before the 1870s, part of the male or public sphere, through the feminization of American religion, Victorian tenets of domesticity and moral superiority, and changing economic and commercial opportunities, the way was opened for women to serve as missionaries without the "protection" of a husband. The WNIA provides an impressive example of the scope and influence of women's reform organizations during the Progressive era. However, the goals and beliefs of WNIA leadership provide a contrast to the goals and beliefs of women working in the field. This contrast illuminates women's intentions in their quest for Indian assimilation and their role in that pursuit. The thesis is based upon the individual experience of women who worked as missionaries, teachers and field matrons. Four case studies explored in chapter III provide a window into the redefinition of "true womanhood" that took place at the turn-of-the century through the ways in which the subjects of this thesis arrive at a new self consciousness about their role in Indian reform.

The past is the prologue. We must understand where we have been before we can understand where we are going. To understand the Blackfoot Nation and how we have come to where we are today, this thesis examines our history through Indian eyes from time immemorial to the present, using traditional narratives, writings of early European explorers and personal experience. The oral tradition of the First Nations people was a multi-media means of communication. Similarly, this thesis uses the media of the written word and a series of paintings to convey the story of the Blackfoot people. This thesis provides background and support, from the artist’s perspective, for the paintings that tell the story of the Blackfoot people and the events that contributed to the downfall of the once-powerful Nation. With the knowledge of where we have been, we can learn how to move forward.
x, 153 leaves : col. ill. ; 29 cm

The theoretical challenge of conceptualising South African Indianess is suffused with a plethora of variables that suggest complexity. While being misleadingly homogenous, Indian identity encompasses a multitude of expressions. This thesis seeks to reconceptualise notions of South African Indianess through personal narrative. The research context is contemporary South Africa with a specific focus on Johannesburg’s East Rand Reef. Inspired by the dearth of literature on contemporary Indianess this study addresses the gap in the present discourse. Following the autoethnographic work of Motzafi-Haller (1997) and Narayan (1993) the thesis presents a layered narrative by juxtaposing the experiences of research participants with my own. Using multi-sited autoethnographic data the thesis explores the question of what it means to be Indian in relation to South Africa’s Apartheid past. By drawing on concepts in popular diaspora theory and critiquing their application, the thesis illustrates the inadequacies inherent in the definitions of diaspora and suggests a broader understanding of its application. Through exploring layers of Indianess the thesis illustrates the inherent complexity in reconceptualising South African Indianess. The study suggests that as a result of changing global and local flows, South African Indians are reconceptualising what it means to be South African Indian.

Orientador: Pedro Paulo Abreu Funari
Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciencias Humanas
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Resumo: A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo principal a realização de investigações arqueológicas na região de Araraquara/SP e sua utilização em trabalhos de educação patrimonial. As pesquisas em discussão centram atenção na execução de projetos arqueológicos de levantamento e escavação com posterior análise de laboratório de materiais de sítios cerâmicos da região proposta para estudos. Foram escolhidas as bacias do médio Mogi-Guaçu (bacia do rio Pardo) e médio Jacaré-Guaçu (bacia do rio Tietê). O panorama arqueológico resultante das pesquisas de campo é comparado aos dados já existentes em trabalhos arqueológicos acadêmicos e de Arqueologia de Contrato conduzidos na região delimitada pelos rios Piracicaba, Tietê, Pardo e Paraná, historicamente conhecida como ¿campos de Araraquara¿. As fontes etno-históricas e etnográficas também foram analisadas e confrontadas com os resultados arqueológicos, com o intuito de ponderar sobre suas influências na construção da imagem do indígena no Estado de São Paulo, sua história e contribuição para a formação da identidade nacional. Por fim, a tese centrou atenção em temas de teoria arqueológica que busquem compreender alguns conceitos antropológicos utilizados pelos arqueólogos brasileiros no que toca aos sítios cerâmicos e a visão de monolitismo resultante da utilização a-crítica desses conceitos
Abstract: The present research has as its main goal to do archaeological investigations in the region of Araraquara/SP and to use such investigations in works of heritage education. The research centered its attention in the accomplishment of archaeological works of survey and excavation, with the posterior laboratory analysis of ceramic sites materials from the proposed region of study. For the fieldwork, we selected the areas of the Middle Mogi-Guaçu basin (in the Rio Pardo basin) and the Middle Jacaré-Guaçu basin (in the Tietê River basin). We compared the resulting archaeological scenario gathered from the field research to the data already available from academic archaeological works and from Contract Archaeology accomplished in the region delimited by the rivers Piracicaba, Tietê, Pardo and Paraná, historically known as the ¿Araraquara fields¿. We also analyzed and confronted the ethno-historical and ethnographical sources with the archaeological findings, with the aim of reflecting about its influences in the construction of the image of the native in the State of São Paulo, as well as in his history and his contribution to the formation of the national identity. Finally, the work has centered attention in themes of archaeological theory that seeks to understand some anthropological concepts used by Brazilian archaeologists in relation to the ceramic sites and also to review the monolithic vision resulting from the a-critical usage of such concepts
Doutorado
Historia Cultural
Doutor em História

En Medellín, Colombia, existen una serie indígenas migrados desde sus comunidades que han construido un cabildo pluriétnico, el cabildo urbano Chibcariwak, y que reivindican que se puede ser indígena viviendo en la ciudad. Por otro lado, tanto la organización indígena de la región, la Organización Indígena de Antioquia – OIA –, como el Estado colombiano cuestionan la “autenticidad” identitaria de estos indígenas que viven en contexto urbano por el hecho de que no cumplen con una serie de características – que vivan en contacto con la Naturaleza, que practiquen rituales propios, etc. –. En este trabajo se cuestiona el discurso indigenista que obliga a estas personas a comportarse de una manera determinada si quieren “conservar” la identidad, determinando cuál es el locus enuntiationis desde el que se construye, y también la lógica que hay detrás de este discurso, que lo que hace, al fin y al cabo, es reproducir a nivel epistémico las relaciones de dominio y explotación propias de la colonialidad. En definitiva, este trabajo busca determinar si el movimiento indígena actual que hay en esta región de Colombia representa una alteridad, o bien actúa como un agente más del sistema-mundo moderno/colonial.
In Medellin, Colombia, there are indigenous migrated from thier communities who have built a multi-ethnic cabildo, the urban cabildo Chibcariwak, and they claim that can be indigenous living in the city. On the other hand, both the indigenous organization of the region, the Indigenous Organization of Antioquia – OIA – such as the Colombian State identity question the "authenticity" of these indigenous people living in urban context by the fact that do not comply with a series of features – living in contact with Nature, to practice own rituals, etc. –. In this paper, the indigenous discourse that forces these people to behave in a certain way if they want to "preserve" the identity is questioned, determining what is the locus enuntiationis from which it is built, and also the logic behind this discourse is questioned, that what, in the final analysis, is to reproduce in a epistemic level the domain and exploitation relations of coloniality. In short, this study seeks to determine whether the current indigenous movement is in this region of Colombia represents an alternative, or acts as an agent more of the modern/colonial world- system.

碩士
中國文化大學
中山學術研究所
92
Preface The author had been to Paraguay and Brazil for 20 years, during this periods, also had been visiting many countries of Central America, and found that the Chinese and the Indian have similar aspects more or less in totem worship, custom, religion, calendar system, hieroglyph, and language, even though, as for skin complexion, racial type are also like, let me as if came across old friends in the other country, owing to this reason, encourage and motivate me to study for seeking the roots. Nevertheless, the archaeology of connection between American Indian and Asian Chinese are un-developing, and being short of documents, records about archaeology of the Indian etc., there are no professorial archaeologists to study the issue of the Incas immigration, in addition, it is very difficult for the archaeologists to control all aspects of Indian language, and basic knowledge, hence, to study the archaeology of the American Indian and Asian Chinese are very difficult. Afterwards, when I came back to Taiwan, for the sake of searching for knowledge, I passed the graduate school examination, and being a graduate student, in writing the thesis to confer whether it is connection or not about blood, living, language, religion, custom between Indian and Chinese. By serious attitude for academic research, collected and analyzed a large number of data, it is proved the result that the same origin between India and Chinese. The American Indian ancestor those who came from Asia continent, and they belong to Mongolian, that is so called yellow men, it is the finding and contribution about this thesis.

This thesis makes the legal argument that certain histories of aboriginal child removals in Canada and Australia, that is, the residential school experience in Canada, and the program of child institutionalization in Australia, meet the definition of 'genocide' in Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. My primary focus is on that Convention's requirement that an act be committed with an "intent to destroy a group". My first concern in formulating legal argument around the Convention's intent requirement is to offer a theory of the legal subject implicit in legal liberalism. Legal liberalism privileges the individual, and individual responsibility, in order to underscore its founding premises of freedom and equality. The intentionality of the subject in this framework is a function of the individual, and not the wider cultural and historical conditions in which the subject exists. Using a historical socio-legal approach, I attempt to develop a framework of legal subjectivity and legal intent which reveals rather than suppresses the cultural forces at work in the production of an intent to genocide. Having reacquainted the subject with the universe beyond the individual, I move on with the first limb of my legal argument around intent in the Genocide Convention to address the systemic means through which child removal policy was developed and enforced. In this, I confront two difficulties: firstly, the difficulty of locating in any single person an intent to commit, and hence responsibility for, genocide; and secondly, the corresponding difficulty of finding that a system intended an action in the legal sense. I respond to both of these difficulties by arguing for a notion of legal subjectivity which comprehends organisations, and correspondingly a notion of intent which is responsive (both on an individual and an organisational level) to systematically instituted crimes such as genocide. The second limb of my argument around intent confronts the defence of benevolent intent. In this defence, enforcers of child removals rely on a genuine belief in the benevolence of the 'civilising' project they were engaged in, so that there can be no intent to destroy a group. I reveal the cultural processes at work to produce the profound disjunction between aboriginal and settler subjectivities, especially as those subjectivities crystallize around the removal of aboriginal children. I locate this disjunction in the twin imperatives of colonial culture, those of oppression and legitimation. I argue that colonial culture exacts a justification for oppression, and that aboriginal people have been "othered" (in gendered, raced, and classed terms) to provide it. Intent to destroy a group, then, will be located via an enquiry which confronts the interests of colonial culture and aligns them firstly with the oppression of aboriginal people, and secondly with the discourses which developed to render that oppression in benevolent terms. The interpretation of the Genocide Convention is thus guided by the demands of context: and in context is revealed an intent to genocide by child removal.

Despite the recent proliferation of work around the subject of residential schools, few analyses have deconstructed the concept of "civilizing the Indian" which animated the schools' agendas. This thesis examines the discourse of "civilization" as it was expressed and enacted in two missions in late nineteenth-century British Columbia. Archival primary sources and published secondary sources are drawn on to provide an understanding of what "civilization" meant to Euro-Canadians, specifically missionaries, and how it was to be "taught" to the indigenous peoples they encountered. Colonial images and photographs, in particular, reveal how missionaries constructed a vivid and compelling contrast between "civilization" and "savagery." An intersectional framework is employed to highlight the ways in which ideas about "race," class, gender and sexuality were essential elements of the "civilizing" project. The goal of the thesis is to show how "civilizing the Indian" was premised not only on a specifically hierarchical construction of Whites versus Natives, but also intersecting binaries of men versus women, normal productive heterosexuality versus deviant degenerate sexuality, bourgeois domesticity versus lower class depravity, and others. Ultimately, it is argued, the discourse of "civilization" regulated both the "colonized" and the "colonizers" as it secured the hierarchical foundations of empire and nation.

Defence date: 13 November 2006
The PDF is an revised version from 2008.
Examining board: Prof. Laurence Fontaine, EHESS Paris/EUI Florence ; Prof. Dr. Heinz-Gerhard Haupt, Universität Bielefeld/EUI Florence ; Prof. Tamar Herzog, Stanford University ; Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Reinhard, Universität Freiburg
This thesis deals with métissage in New France and Canada from 1508 to 1886 - i.e. the process of cultural, social and political encounter between Indians and French and respective conversion and marriage policies, their mixed unions and derived mixed-blood offspring, the Métis and Halfbreeds. In 1508, first Indians were taken captive and brought to France; in 1886, the Act of Savages legally distinguished between “Indians” and “Metis” in Canada. Within this timeframe, colonial processes and policies of métissage, among which mixed marriages were the culmination point, are analysed. The theoretical framework of the history of concepts is employed in order to show how concepts on “race” changed and varied in the longue durée of four centuries, and how they were constructed and used in different contexts. It is held that the history of concepts is the perfect tool to analyse métissage as a concept that evolved over time, was discursively constructed and historically practiced. Métissage is treated as a Franco-Canadian rather than an Anglo-Canadian phenomenon. The fact that it was the French who pursued an officially backed policy of mixed marriages refers to Samuel de Champlain’s exclamation towards the Huron tribe in 1633: “Nos garçons se marieront à vos filles, et nous ne ferons qu´un peuple.“ Yet, rather than leading to a French nation overseas through mixed marriages, the unexpected result were Metis individuals and Metis communities that expressed nationalist demands. The premises, main questions and theoretical assumptions are posed in order to trace the development of métissage, the conflicts it engendered, and the ambivalences and contradictions inherent within it. An interpretation of métissage is offered in which métissage is considered as a policy to extend supremacy to distant corners of the world, to incorporate native peoples into this design and to, thus, cement colonial power relations. It is held that métissage is a concept imbued with racist thinking, which found its realisation in colonial policies in order to assimilate Indian populations to French culture. The concept of métissage has appeared in numerous discourses throughout history to describe cultural encounter and race mixture. While being ambivalent in meaning - itself a typical quality of a concept - it points to the colonial encounter of people of so-called different cultural “worth” and societal standing.