American Studies Commons^™

The Noose That Builds The Nation: Mexican Lynching In The Southwest, Annette M. Rodríguez

American Studies ETDs

In North from Mexico: the Spanish Speaking People of the United States, Carey McWilliams asserts that "more Mexicans were lynched in the southwest between 1865 and 1920 than blacks in other parts of the south." The hundreds of unrestrained murders of Mexicans throughout the southwest have gone largely unrecognized in U.S. and Chicano/a histories. Previous work on lynching has focused on the murders of African Americans in the South. Those works that have discussed violence against Mexicans in the southwest in this period conflate lynching murders with generalized stories on "frontier violence" and "vigilantism." In addition, no work has …

"Mis Derechos, Mi Matriz": An Evaluation Of The Women's Organization "Casa Materna", Ocotal, Nicaragua, Maruja Alice Clensay

American Studies ETDs

This analysis examines the women's organization Casa Materna- a national women's pre-natal health and reproductive education program in Nicaragua. While there are nearly twenty branches of Casa Materna throughout the country, this thesis concentrates on the pilot project in Ocotal - a municipality located in the northern department of Nueva Segovia. Founded in 1987, "El Centro Educativo para la Mujer Casa Materna" offers a variety of services such as medical, counseling, and habitation, to women who are considered high risk pregnancies from rural areas.

in December 2006 and January 2007, I conducted an evaluation of Casa Materna's organizational structure, outreach …

Folklore And Alternative Masculinities In A Rave Scene, Anthony P. Avery

American Studies ETDs

The rave is a late twentieth-century local and global ritualized entertainment that attracts mainly middle-class white youth and young adults to ecstatic trance dance and electronic music. Throughout the 1990s, raves were known as places of drug use, racial/class mixing, and sexual experimentation. With a DJ booth and a dance floor--sometimes in an abandoned warehouse, beach, or boat--the rave event fosters community and creativity. I argue that there is a transformation from ideal masculinity to alternative masculinities by bodily awareness through ecstatic trance dance facilitated by the ritual aspects of raving--the rave experience.

"None Of Us Are Supposed To Be Here": Ethnicity, Nationality, And The Production Of Cherokee Histories, Julia Marie Coates

American Studies ETDs

This work weaves three ideas. First, it initiates an investigation into ethnic and national identities among Cherokees in diaspora by offering a cursory analysis of over sixty interviews I recently conducted with Cherokees in California, Texas, and New Mexico. Second, it challenges two paradigms that permeate most histories of the Cherokees as they have been written: (1) the theme of racially-based intratribal conflict and (2) the theme of cultural loss resulting from assimilation. I challenge these paradigms by applying contemporary theory about racial, ethnic, and national identity construction. Third, the dissertation offers an alternate historical overview that is also based …

On The Side Of Angels: Lesbian Activism In Los Angeles, 1970-1990, Yolanda G. Retter

American Studies ETDs

During the 1970s and 1980s, Los Angeles was one urban location where the struggle for lesbian rights and lesbian community was publicly and energetically pursued by a movement of diverse individuals and groups. This generation of politicized lesbians was formed by the confluence of various socio-historical currents and informed by experiences in other social movements. For almost ten years, lesbian activists across the United States engaged in unprecedented institution-building and political activism. The backbone of this underfunded movement was made up of a host of dedicated volunteers. This community history used the methods of oral histories and an analysis of …

Female Millworkers And The Mechanization Of Textile Production: The Boston Manufacturing Company Of Waltham, Massachusetts, 1813 To 1822, Lois Bayer Gonzales

American Studies ETDs

When the Boston Manufacturing Company of Waltham, Massachusetts developed mechanized cotton textile production between 1850 and 1821, female millworkers had the opportunity to gain mechanical expertise and utilize it to overcome low wages and subordination. Since management systematically used the two mills to test new machine designs, female operatives played an important role in evaluating and improving industrial technology.

This study follows the development of machinery and women's careers as revealed in the company's surviving payroll ledgers. To identify the social characteristics of the work force, the majority of the 616 millworkers employed between 1817 to 1822 were traced to …

Remembering Santa Fe Indian School, 1890-1990, Sally Hyer

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation is an ethnohistorical study of Santa Fe Indian School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a boarding school for children from southwestern tribes in grades seven through twelve. SFIS was founded by the federal government in 1890 as a highly regimented, hierarchical institution designed to assimilate Indian students through education and isolation from their families. In 1976 control of Albuquerque Indian School shifted to the All Indian Pueblo Council, an ancient inter-pueblo coalition. The AIS program was transferred to Santa Fe in 1981. Under tribal control, first by AIPC and now by a Board of Education, SFIS has been …

Trading Post Tales: Biography Of An Indian Trader On The Navajo Reservation, Nancy Peake

American Studies ETDs

Walter M. Kennedy is a living anachronism who spent half a century--from the pre-World War II era into the 1980s--practicing an almost mythical career on isolated trading posts on the Navajo Reservation. Kennedy, an Anglo, and his Native American clientele interacted and conducted business in much the same way as their historical predecessors, with little regard for contemporary socio-cultural and economic circumstances prevailing in the “outside world.” His personal memoirs--over five hundred pages of penciled notes--vividly recreate those experiences. The transcription and editing of those notes, enhanced by an extensive oral history project, comprise one element of this dissertation.

A …

Through Thick And Thin: Evolutionary Transitions Of Las Vegas Grandes And Its Pobladores, Anselmo F. Arellano

American Studies ETDs

Near the end of the Spanish Colonial Period in New Mexico, Hispano and mestizo citizens from the Santa Fe and San Miguel del Bado area cast their eyes on some longed-for fertile grazing lands called las vegas grandes en el Rio de las Gallinas. Due to constant prevailing forays by Indians during this epoch, initial settlement efforts failed, but in 1835 a new thrust from San Miguel del Bado led to the permanent settlement of one of the last community land grants conceded in New Mexico during the Mexican Period.

This dissertation concerns itself with the history and culture of …

Sounds Of The Frontier: Music In Buffalo Bill's Wild West, Michael Lee Masterson

American Studies ETDs

This study describes, analyzes, and interprets music accompanying the varied acts m Buffalo Bill's Wild West show at the end of the nineteenth century. Wild West performances included reenactments of frontier battles, ethnic demonstrations, shooting acts, and the Rough Riders of the World. Specific music analyzed includes instrumental music from the main arena played by the Cowboy Band, Native-American music performed as part of the exhibition's "Phases of Indian Life," and popular music of the day including parlor songs and "coon songs" enacted by the Concert Company performers. This study connects musical elements to social meanings and cultural values, discovering …

The Early Life Of Ann Nolan Clark: A Contextual Biography, Jeanne Carolyn Whitehouse

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation traces the development of award winning children's author, Ann Nolan Clark, from her birth in Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory, through her early years of teaching and writing up to a period of re-dedication and commitment to her work, following the death of her son in World War II. The form of narrative biography was chosen for this work because Clark often used a variety of narrative techniques in the writing of historical profiles and biography.

Beaux Gestes: The Indian And The European In Pre-Colonial North America, Philip Drover Burnham

American Studies ETDs

Early contact between Amerindian and European cultures in pre-colonial North America (1492-1620) has never before been submitted to systematic analysis on the basis of a close reading of primary source material. Beaux Gestes examines the early literature on cultural exchange in the context of emerging European expansion, and how the image of the American Indian was used to rationalize the colonization of the northern half of the New World.

The methodology of Beaux Gestes is thematic--various aspects of early exploration are examined before submitting a few narratives of an archetypal character to closer scrutiny. The texts are read with an …

We Come As Friends: Violent Social Conflict In New Mexico, 1810-1910, Tobias Duran

American Studies ETDs

The focus of this work is on four major forms of violent social conflict: popular protest, racial and ethnic hostilities, vigilante activity, and political assassinations. The quest to define the social and historical context in which these events took place guided the inquiry. An explanation of the nineteenth century social setting would partially account for the transformations occurring during that time: the uprooting of a society, transitions in social institutions, and the imposition of a different rule of law, as ideology and as instrument of control. Consequently these developments generated social conflict.

Samuel B. Watrous: New Mexico Pioneer, Alexia M. Kosmider

American Studies ETDs

Samuel Watrous journeyed to tNew Mexico in 1835 and moved to the mining camp of Dolores, situated in the San Pedro Mountains south of Santa Fe. He lived there for a period of 10 years. He married, Tomacita Crespin and raised a large family. Samuel supported his family by selling goods and trading deerskins to the minors of Dolores.

By the end of the year 1848 or 1849, Watrous had saved enough money to buy a portion of the John Scolley grant and build his home at the picturesque setting where the Sepello and Mora Rivers flow together, some twenty …

The Transformation Of Albuquerque, 1945-1972, Robert Turner Wood

American Studies ETDs

From Chapter 1:

Although we usually measure time in uniform units, some months and years seem much longer and more packed with significance than other spans of approximately the same duration. Sometimes years and even centuries can roll by with the normal incidence of new fashions, changes of government, economic booms and busts, wars and other detail of the sort that enlivens most of our history books, yet nothing really substantial seems to have taken place. To most appearances and in most respects, the people at the end of the period acted largely like their predecessors several generations earlier. But …

Romantic Deviance And The Messianic Impulse In American Masculinity: Case Studies Of Moby-Dick, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, And Sometimes A Great Notion, William Carl Baurecht

American Studies ETDs

Masculinity is largely a product of myth that collides with reality in the modern world, evoking tensions, dilemmas, and contradictions, while prescribing idealized virtues. Manhood is defined by custom, mores, taboo, and the collective social illusion called the American Dream, a dream founded upon democratic idealism. This dissertation examines male national character. Renditions of manhood in three novels are discussed to explain the contemporary male ethos. Masculinity is engendered within the culture in either-or terms. However, in various ways, the protagonists of this investigation have been found to express a potential for a polymorphous masculinity, one which adheres to the …

Conscious Agents Of Time And Self: The Lives And Styles Of African-American Women As Seen Through Their Autobiographical Writings, Regina Lynn Blackburn

American Studies ETDs

This study of black women's lives-and self-conceptions in America is based on their own words. Autobiography proves to be a readily available source for examining the growth and development of black females. Analysis of their autobiographical accounts is thematic in this disser­tation. Chapter I, Introduction, is an overview of the literary criticism on autobiography. The values in autobiography, generally, and black female autobiography, specifically, are discussed. Chapter II, "Emerging Slave Women's Personalities and Concerns," presents the varied personality types among female slaves and ex-slaves, thus disputing the single slave personality theory, and the stereotypes emerging from the theory. The themes …

The Tradicion: Its Origins, Evolution And Importance In Hispano-American Literature, David C. Davenport

American Studies ETDs

A study is made of the initiation and development of the tradicion as a subgenre of the short story in Spanish America. The life of Ricardo Palma, its principal innovator, is reviewed to identify the influences and personal experiences which contributed to making his writing distinctive.

Literary history is examined to determine the literary antecedents of the tradicion, and its relationship to the cuadro de costumbres is explained, following which the tradicion itself is analyzed to differentiate it from other forms of short story and determine its essential characteristics of form, style and content of fiction and historical fact.

A …

Theatre As Cultural Indicator: Broadway Between World Wars, Krystan Veronica Douglas

American Studies ETDs

Any art form may be used as a cultural indicator because art is a product of the artist's perceptions of the society in which he or she creates. The drama of the commercial theatre is especially useful as a measure of a society's values, spirit, and temperament for it, more than any other art form, is dependent upon public acceptance for its existence. This study is designed to demonstrate the manner in which theatre may be used as a good indicator of its audience by examining the successful productions of several Broadway seasons. The examination of these plays centers upon …

Delphi Survey Of Organizational Futurists On Issues And Trends Affecting Organizational Appearance In 2000, Suzann M. Owings

American Studies ETDs

Studying the future is a relatively recent academic phenomenon. Recognized as a distinct scholarly activity in the late 1960's, futures research has gained increasing popularity during the last 10 years. Concerned with information collection and policy formulation, the futures field describes alternative futures, provides an early warning system for signs of change, identifies possible and probable consequences to various choices and developments, determines the degree of knowledge or uncertainty existing about futures possibilities, and develops various policy options (Hahn and Little, 1976). Using the futures research methodology, increasingly futures researchers are joining specialists in other fields to study the futures …

The Self In Context: A History Of American Autobiography, Ruth Ann Banes

American Studies ETDs

This is a history of American autobiography based upon self-conceptions as they reflect social-historical contexts. Focusing on autobiographies written during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the author uncovers three seIf-conceptions: the exemplary self, the imperial self, and the historical self. An investigation of each demonstrates that changing self-conceptions alter the autobiographical form.

The author locates the exemplary self within the autobiographies of John Woolman, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. Based upon a universe of unquestioned verities, this se If-conception emphasizes universe I principles while diminishing individual importance. A textual analysis of eight ante-bellum slave narratives and the autobiographies …

Synthesis In Hemingway: From Deep Pessimism Toward Hope In Selected Hemingway Short Stories, John D. Hussey

American Studies ETDs

Hemingway’s early short stories, In Our Time, Men Without Women, his early novel, The Sun Also Rises, and his later novel, The Old Man and the Sea, all fit into a recurrent American literary and philosophic canon, the confrontation with Nothingness. First, this paper explains what is meant by the experience or confrontation with Nothingness. Second, the paper attempts to draw comparisons between Hemingway’s experiences with Nothingness and that experience as it shows in five other American writers, specifically Hawthorne, Melville, Twain, Salinger, and Wolfe. Third, this paper attempts to make clear the casual relationship in Hemingway’s work between various …

Redefining Women, Hollis Louise Elkins

American Studies ETDs

Redefining Women is a study of the position of women in patriarchal culture: their oppression as women in the traditional women's role in patriarchy, the implications of that oppression, women's realization that they are oppressed, and the process of women rejecting the traditional definition and redefining themselves for themselves. Chapter I is an overview of the oppression of women from the beginning of patriarchy to European culture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The chapter discusses the secular and spiritual persecution of women under patriarchy, with a focus on women in Western culture. Chapter II is a detailed critique of …

A Systems Analysis Of Albuquerque's Rescue Service, Leslie Paul Page Iii

American Studies ETDs

This research involves a systems analysis of Albuquerque's Rescue Ser­vices System. The Rescue Services System transforms the input 11medical emergency11 into an 11emergency met11, the output. To understand this emergency medical services system, four algorithmic procedures are applied. First, the system is defined in terms of how it ought to func­tion, termed its normative state. The system definition is based on defining (1) the four subsystems comprising the Rescue Services System, (2) the basic input and output of each, (3) the primary subsystem ele­ments which interact to produce the desired output, and (4) the subsys­tem interactions which transform the input …

Obsolescence And The American Knowledge Worker: The Contest Of Employer-Sponsored Continuing Education Programs, John A. Cantwell

American Studies ETDs

The U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare projects that 1,353,000 higher-education degrees will be awarded in 1977, versus 635,000 in 1964--a 113 per cent increase in only thirteen years. Many of these individuals will become what Peter Drucker, the management theorist, calls "knowledge workers." They will pursue work which involves the creation and marketing of knowledge and ideas rather than the production of goods or delivery of services. The "tools" of the knowledge worker, then, are concepts and skills; unfortunately, in a highly technologi­cal society, these concepts and skills change so rapidly they often become obsolete during the work …

The Influence Of The Position Of Women In The Society On The Development Of Nursing As A Profession In America, Marion Rachael Dickens

American Studies ETDs

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the cultural context in which nursing developed in America. It is the thesis of the dissertation that while there have been many influences on the development of nursing, nursing education, and nursing practice, the predominant influence on all facets of nursing has been that it has been a feminine occupation, and women have had a subordinate status in a society led and controlled by men. The first chapter examines the origins of nursing in America, stressing how, when more men were occupied away from the everyday activities of the society, women became …

Climbing The Racial Mountain: The Folk Element In The Works Of Three Black Writers, Gordon Query Freeman

American Studies ETDs

Folklore is an integral part of Black literature, and writers Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison have used the Negro folk tradition in particularly significant ways. All three have written about the importance of the folk tradition in literature, and they share many views. This study examines their individual works within the context of an accepted definition of "folk" and "folklore" and compares their various approaches to the folk tradition. The definition of "folk" and "folklore" and the methodology for tracing the folk element have been revised in the past decade. As a result, there now exists a more …

The American Dream And The Unwanted Child, Wallace A. V. Hedges

American Studies ETDs

By the time a nation celebrates a 200^th birthday it is expected that will have a long list of accomplishments. It can also be expected to have some deficits; it may not as yet have accomplished all of its goals. This study has viewed one facet of the American Dream – the myth of America as a welcoming place for the unwanted of the world. The myth is that here there will be no unwanted people. This study explores this part of the American Dream by examining the plight of unwanted children. This study has grown out of this …

Piltown Ii: Leslie White's Theory Of Cultural Evolution, Diana Amsden

American Studies ETDs

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: The acceptance and popularity of White's theory, which helped reinstate cultural evolution as an anthropological subdiscipline and break the ground for the rapidly growing field of Marxist anthropology, indicate the current intellectual and scientific status of anthropology. A typical response to White's theory is fascination--coupled with an inexplicable intellectual indignation. This dissertation explains why.

PROCEDURE: The author analyzes White's two books on cultural evolution, The Science of Culture (cl949) and The Evolution of Culture (cl959), chapter by chapter. The purpose of each is determined and the arguments White gives in its support listed and analyzed. The author …

El Machismo En Mexico Y Tres Novelas De Mariano Azuela, Enrique M. Santamaría

American Studies ETDs

This dissertation surveys what several social thinkers have said about machismo and the manner in which the concept figures in Mariano Azuela's fiction. The word is a modern term, non-existent in Castillian dictionaries, which derives from the word macho. It is applied to certain individuals to describe characteristics of destructive and narcissistic behavior usually accompanied by an exaggerated and false show of force, boldness and masculinity. Despite the great concern for machismo, generated in the XX century in studies by scholars and essayists such as Ramos, Paz, Aramoni, Oscar Lewis, Bejar Navarro, Segura Millán, Reyes Nevares, Bermúdez, Carrión and others, …