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Politics And Philosophy In The Writings Of Robert Penn Warren., Billy Berryhill

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Robert Penn Warren is generally regarded as one of America's preeminent men of letters in the twentieth century. In his poetry and novels-as well as his historical essays, literary and social criticism, biographies, and other non-fiction---Warren often addressed political themes. This study of the role of political ideas in Warren's writings begins with his concept of the "philosophical novelist" who consciously incorporates ideas into fiction. An examination of Warren's own essays about his novel All the King's Men provides a useful illustration of the concept and introduces the reader to two key themes that pervade all of his writings: first, …

Tradition, Rhetoric, And Propriety In Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz., Lilian Albertina Contreras-Silva

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The writings of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz serve as her personal proclamation for the right of a woman to write and lead an intellectual life. The study begins by reviewing the Baroque world and its artistic trends. This is done in chapter one so that Sor Juana's artistic production can be better situated in the world at large. In chapter two, the study proceeds to review the professional nature of Sor Juana's writing. By observing the diverse nature of the nun's work, as well as the compensation for much of it, the nature of Sor Juana's motivation for …

Coming Home: Homecomings And Return Migration In African -American Folklore And Literature Since 1970., Stephanie Gail Hall

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation explores homecoming narratives and the representation of return migration in African-American folklore and in African-American literature written since 1970. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, sociological, historical, religious and literary criticism are incorporated to examine African-American church and communal homecomings, personal memoir, and novels as extensions of the Great Migration narrative, leading to a reconfiguration of the South as "home." This study includes an analysis of the structural features of the homecoming narrative, including the "moment of return," the migrant's connection to the Southern landscape, the significance of feast, and rituals of homecoming ceremonies. Subsequent chapters explore the decision to …

Alcohol Abuse And Violent Crime: A Contemporary Examination And Comparison Of Adult Male And Female Violent And Nonviolent Criminal Offenders., Don Randall Haley

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The focus of this study was to investigate the relationship between violent criminal activity and alcohol abuse, and to further extend the knowledge about these phenomenon which currently appear in the literature. The association between these two variables has been asserted for many years, but few definitive correlations have been established using representative data. This study sought to determine if a statistical relationship exists between alcohol abuse rates of inmates serving time in Louisiana and their convictions for violent crimes. The research design used to investigate the relationship between alcohol abuse and violent criminal behavior was non-experimental and correlational. Interviews …

Cultural Adjustment Of Foreign Students In An Institution Of Higher Education., Bridget Oscar Udoh

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Foreign students frequently encounter problems in adjusting to their new social environment when studying at institutions of higher education. The purpose of this study was to describe the level of social difficulty experienced by foreign students from different regions of the world while studying in the United States. The target population for this study consisted of 748 undergraduate foreign students enrolled at Louisiana. State University (LSU) in the spring of 2000. The accessible population was all students enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESL). The sample consisted of the 178 undergraduate students enrolled in English 1004 and 1005 (ESL) …

The Power Of Ethnicity: The Preservation Of Scots -Irish Culture In The Eighteenth-Century American Backcountry., Kevin Lee Yeager

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The character of the Scots-Irish has been shrouded in myth almost from the moment the first Ulster immigrants disembarked at Philadelphia in the 1710s. Contemporaries condemned the Scots-Irish as lazy, illiterate, uncouth, and violent. Later hagiographers, however, praised them as ruggedly individualistic, liberty-loving people who brought civilization to the American wilderness. Recent historians have done little to advance this debate. While re-stating these simplistic stereotypes, modern scholars have failed to ground their arguments in extensive analyses of primary sources. While numerous monographs studying other ethnic and cultural groups in colonial America have appeared over the last thirty years, none as …

Rights Of Passage: A Cross -Cultural Study Of Maroon Novels By Black Women., Randi Gray Kristensen

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the use and implications of the trope of marronage, the African-American practice of self-emancipation to forge alternative New World communities, in selected novels by Black women writers of North America and the Anglophone and Francophone Caribbean. It draws on theories of liminality to posit a theory of liberatory practice that deconstructs hegemonic narratives, both personal and historical. Postmodern approaches are deferred in favor of locating these texts and their concerns as deriving from the epistemological consequences of modernity. Cross-cultural Black women's texts were chosen to illuminate the recognition of shared subjugations across national and linguistic borders, as …

Ice -Core Pollen Studies From The Dunde And Guliya Ice Caps, Qinghai -Tibetan Plateau, China., Zuju Yao

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This research provides the first systematic and high-resolution ice-core pollen records from two ice caps in the northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. To facilitate the climatic interpretation of the pollen data from the ice cores, a 30-year pollen record from the Dunde ice core is used to establish the quantitative relationship between pollen and modern climatic parameters. A 2000-year pollen record from the Dunde ice core reveals decadal and century time scale climatic changes. Three dry periods (i.e. A.D. 280--640, 1200--1370, and 1926--1986) and three wet periods are identifiable at Dunde. These results are compatible with other proxy data such as historical …

A Spatial Inquiry Of Infant Low Birthweight And Cancer Mortality In East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana., Esra Ozdenerol

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Infant low birthweight rate in East Baton Rouge Parish is higher compared to the nation. Cancer is one of the most serious health problems in Louisiana. A few studies have indicated a relationship between the two health outcomes and their environment, but conclusions from these studies have not always been consistent. The spatial and temporal scales of the data and the methods used in these studies contribute to the inconsistent and uncertain results. The spatial patterns of infant low birthweight and cancer mortality in East Baton Rouge Parish from 1993 to 1996 and their relationships with environmental factors at three …

Stories From The Camino Real: Cultural Transmission Among Hispanic Communities In Northwest Louisiana And Northwest Texas, Dominica Ramírez

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Cancer Mortality And *Environment In Louisiana: A Geographical Inquiry., Mihye Bark

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Cancer is one of the most serious health problems in the U.S. Louisiana mortality rates for all sites of cancer have exceeded national rates since 1950. Even though concern about the issues of environmental cancer is growing, conclusive results have not been reported. Previous studies differed in data source, data quality, time of observation, and statistical procedure, making comparison of results problematic. The spatial patterns of the most common cancer sites in Louisiana (from 1953 to 1993) and their relationships with environmental factors were investigated, using GIS software and statistical software. To provide a clear understanding of how the spatial …

Agricultural Trade Liberalization And Uneven Development: The Case Of South Korea., Heesun Chung

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was concluded in 1993, was the principal global forum to discuss agricultural trade in an extensive way. In this last venue of the GATT, South Korean negotiators had to agree to open the nation's agricultural markets so as to assure manufacturing export access to international markets amidst heightening Pressure from surplus agricultural producers A broad range of economic studies have estimated that as an aftermath of the Uruguay Round, a majority of South Korean farmers, who are comparatively disadvantaged due to small-scale, labor-intensive farming, might be displaced. …

"Awakenings" On Relational Ways Of Knowing: An Ecological Perspective On Curriculum., Elaine Kent Riley

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The human species and all nonhuman forms on the planet, have co-evolved over a 14 billion-year process, yet many people operate as if planetary life existed to support and sustain human well-being alone. Separation, dualism, and power-over ways of knowing fuel a human-centered attitude which exalts our own species above the rest of the natural world. How humans will live with the earth in the next millennium (Hogan, 1996) is one of the most fundamental questions arising at the onset of the year 2000. The planet cannot sustain continued degradation of ecological systems stemming from depletion of natural resources and …

Slain In The Spirit: A Vodun Aesthetic In Selected Works Of Simone Schwarz -Bart, Zora Neale Hurston, And Paule Marshall., Maria Thecla Smith

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study, focusing on select novels by women writers of the African diaspora, discovers a surprising commonality among works with obvious geographical, cultural and linguistic differences---an affirmation of the philosophical essence of the Vodun religion as an antidote to Western spiritual and cultural moribundity. Each of the novels---Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Simone Schwarz-Bart's Pluie et Vent sur Telumee Miracle, and Paule Marshall's Praisesong for the Widow---alludes to the Vodun pantheon, ancestor veneration and/or rituals in order to valorize the holistic Vodun worldview that recognizes the interconnectedness of all living things and the fluidity of boundaries between …

What Goes On In Cross -Language Encounters: The Tactics And Strategies Of Interactional Grammar., Stuart Lee Stewart

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This investigation involves analysis of cross-language encounters (CLEs), spoken discourse between native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) of Spanish involved in two types of interactions: simulated service encounters and free conversation. I use a multi-tiered framework comprised of: (1) Schiffrin's (1994) functionalist approach, (2) a model of interactional grammar adapted from Ochs, Schegloff and Thompson (1996), and (3) one of the principal assumptions from conversation analysis, which focuses on the organization of interaction, while maintaining that participants' behavior provides evidence for the units, patterns and rules that are a part of all spoken interaction. Tactics and strategies examined include …

School Life On The Mississippi: An Inquiry Into The Impact Of The Louisiana Reform Movement Related To Standards In World History Instruction In Three Secondary School Settings., Michael Joseph Schramm

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of standards on the instruction of world history in three secondary school settings. Contact with the Department of Education of the State of Louisiana found that the implementation of standards had only begun in 1997. After a grace period for implementation, the inaugural testing of the accountability system for these standards occurred in the spring of 2000. Therefore, this study became an exploratory investigation into the use of standards as they impact world history instruction. The first research question was designed to assist the researcher in exploring the influence that …

A Domesticated Landscape: Native American Plant Cultivation On The Northwest Coast Of North America., Douglas Eugene Deur

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

By all accounts, the peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America did not cultivate plants at the time of European contact. This dissertation provides an interdisciplinary assessment of evidence to the contrary, and presents a critique of the literature from which this orthodoxy has been derived. As a primary line of evidence, this thesis describes estuarine gardens found on this coast during the contact period. Northwest Coast peoples created gardens of Pacific silverweed (Potentilla anserina ssp. pacifica), springbank clover (Trifolium wormskjoldii) and other plants with edible, starchy roots within estuarine plots. Ethnographic sources suggest that these gardens were maintained …

Terrebonne Farms, Louisiana: An Anthropogeographic Study Of A New Deal Resettlement., Lisa Kay Adam

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation examines Terrebonne Farms, a 1940's community in south Louisiana established by the federal government during the New Deal period. Planned by the Resettlement Administration and overseen by the Farm Security Administration, the community was one of approximately one hundred experimental towns or resettlements located around the nation. Although these resettlements varied widely in their organization, appearance, and history, few writers have chosen to focus on individual communities. This study combines recollections of original residents and local accounts of Terrebonne Farms with its government records and photographs to create a detailed and contextual description of a single resettlement. In …

Narrative Structure And Characters In The Nanzi Stories Of Curacao: A Discourse Analysis., Joke Maaten Mondada

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation develops a new approach to the analysis of narratives by combining the analysis of narrative structure and character analysis. Through the in-depth analysis of two stories of a collection of 32 Nanzi stories (from Curacao), which are spider/trickster stories in Papiamentu, I develop a method to analyze the structure of the Nanzi stories. My method is based on the determination of narrative division into (1) episodes, organized as macro-propositions under a macro-structure (Van Dijk 1982; 1992); (2) different sections (six), based on narrative and free clauses (Labov 1972); and, (3) major events (Barthes 1975; Chatman 1978). By applying …

Lithic Utilization Strategies At The Hoover Site, 16ta5, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, Josetta A. Leboeuf

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Lithic artifacts are frequently abundant at many prehistoric sites in the Lower Mississippi Valley and adjacent areas of the Northern Gulf Coast despite limited resources. These assemblages are beginning to receive the attention required to make meaningful interpretation which in turn can be used as comparable data sets. An understanding of the behavior associated with the full range of the reduction process was sought during the study of the lithic materials from the Hoover site (16TA5) near Ponchatoula. Louisiana. This was achieved through observations on raw material procurement. reduction sequences. tool use. maintenance and discard. and how these tools relate …

African-American Garden Culture: A Study Of Tradition And Translation, Sally Akers Joachim

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Many studies have been done on cultural gardening practices and their resulting forms: a Japanese meditation garden or the Italian use of water elements are two examples. This research revolved around the assumption that African-Americans have distinct ways of expressing their ethnic history, values, and traditions in their built environments. Studies have been conducted in rural areas with African-American subject gardeners; this study investigates the urban and suburban yards and gardens of African-Americans in San Antonio, Texas to leam how cultural heritage affects the design or arrangement of personal space in the city, and to identify physical elements that could …

A View From The Pacific: Archaeological Analysis Of Materials From Nicaragua's Sixteenth Century Spanish Town Of Leon Viejo, Kira Blaisdell-Sloan

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

In 1524 the town of Leon Viejo was founded by Hernandez de Cordova on the Northwestern shore of Lake Managua in Nicaragua. Eighty-six years later it was abandoned, as earthquakes and volcanic activity made the site undesirable. At the present time, Leon Viejo represents the only Pacific coast Spanish occupied sixteenth century colonial townsite for which archaeological data is available. In this thesis I present a historically informed analysis of archaeological materials recovered from eight separate structures located towards the center of this site.

Utilizing The Annales Historical Approach, World Systems Theory, community and household level analysis, I weave together …

Archaeological Investigation Of Unit Two At The Sharp Site (16lv13), Livingston Parish, Louisiana, Laura Cathleen Tanley

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is an examination of southeastern Louisiana archaeology focusing on Unit Two at the Sharp site (16LV13) on the Lower Amite River. The artifact analysis, and more specifically the pottery analysis, demonstrated a significant early occupation at the site. The analyzed pottery represents cultural components at the Sharp site which span from the Tchula through Coles Creek periods.

Within Unit Two there was an obvious subsistence change evident. The upper strata of the midden contained a great deal of Rangia clam shell, while the earlier cultural occupations below it did not. This change in exploitation of local food sources …

Hellenism And The Independent Theatre Movement In America., Eric Wiley

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation considers influences of the Greek tradition on the rise of the independent theatres in America during the first quarter of the twentieth century. These influences are of two major kinds, those present in the earlier European independent theatre movement, dating back to 1877, with the creation of the Theâtre Libre in Paris, and those found in the American cultural tradition in general. The American branch of the independent theatre movement harbored from its inception a confluence of both these Hellenist strains, as seen in the work of figures such as Maurice Browne, leader of the Chicago Little Theatre, …

Sequential Loss Of Two Neighboring Exons Of The Tropoelastin Gene During Primate Evolution, Zoltán Szabó, Simona A. Levi-Minzi, Angela M. Christiano, Carole Struminger, Mark Stoneking, Mark A. Batzer, Charles D. Boyd

Faculty Publications

Previous evidence has demonstrated the absence of exons 34 and 35 within the 3′ end of the human tropoelastin (ELN) gene. These exons encode conserved polypeptide domains within tropoelastin and are found in the ELN gene in vertebrate species ranging from chickens to rats to cows. We have analyzed the ELN gene in a variety of primate species to determine whether the absence of exons 34 and 35 in humans either is due to allelic variation within the human population or is a general characteristic of the Primates order. An analysis of the 3′ end of the ELN gene in …

Maximum-Likelihood Generalized Heritability Estimate For Blood Pressure In Nigerian Families, Charles N. Rotimi, Richard S. Cooper, Guichan Cao, Olufemi Ogunbiyi, Modupe Ladipo, Eme Owoaje, Ryk Ward

Faculty Publications

Elevated blood pressure (BP) is more common in relatives of hypertensives than in relatives of normotensives, indicating familial resemblance of the BP phenotypes. Most published studies have been conducted in westernized societies. To assess the ability to generalize these estimates, we examined familial patterns of BP in a population-based sample of 510 nuclear families, including 1552 individuals (320 fathers, 370 mothers, 475 sons, and 387 daughters) from Ibadan, Nigeria. The prevalence of obesity in this community is low (body mass index: fathers 21.6; mothers, 23.6; sons, 19.2; and daughters=21.0 kg/m2). The BP phenotype used in all analyses was created from …

Avoidance-Avoidance Conflict, Situational Formality, And Personality As Causes Of Interpersonal Equivocation., Richard Steven Bello

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This study explores the causes of a widespread and important communication phenomenon, interpersonal equivocation. Literature is reviewed which shows clearly that a sufficient cause of interpersonal equivocation is situational avoidance-avoidance conflict, but also which suggests the possibility of additional situational (formality of social setting) and trait (self-monitoring) precursors of equivocation. Using a questionnaire technique, participants were asked to imagine themselves in three different interpersonal situations, which were manipulated to vary the level of situational formality. In addition, in each situation, they were asked to respond to a question from their hypothetical conversational partner. These questions were designed to manipulate the …

Ernest Renan And The Question Of Race., Jane Victoria Dagon

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Racism in France can be traced back to the 1560's when the nobles claimed to be of a separate race in order to obtain special rights and privileges. Soon after in the seventeenth century, scientists started to classify humans according to physical features. With the increase in travel, the slave trade, the fear of the unknown and the fear of contamination, these factors along with physiognomy and phrenology encouraged "biological racism." During the second half of the nineteenth century, Ernest Renan (1823--1892) denounces biological racism and the existence of the so-called "pure races." He is also the first dramatist to …

Land -Cover Change Detection For The Tropics Using Remote Sensing And Geographic Information Systems., Jane M. Read

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Changing land-cover in the tropics is a central issue in global change research. This dissertation used Landsat-TM data to examine processes of land-use and land-cover changes for a lowland tropical site in Sarapiqui, Costa Rica. Performances of selected image-processing methods to detect and identify land-cover changes were evaluated. A land-cover time-series from 1960 to 1996 for the site was generated using maps derived from aerial photographs and Landsat-TM classifications. Changes in land-cover from 1986 to 1996 were evaluated using standard landscape indices, and interpreted in terms of their historical context. Dominant changes in the site during this decade included the …

Review Of Sacred Ecology: Traditional Ecological Knowledge And Resource Management, By Fikret Berkes, Andrew Sluyter

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.