Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Ayahuasca’S Religious Diaspora In The Wake Of The Doctrine Of Discovery, Roger K. Green

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

‘Ayahuasca’ is a plant mixture with a variety of recipes and localized names native to South America. Often, the woody ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) is combined with chacruna leaf (Psychotria viridis) in a tea, inducing psychedelic effects among its users. While social usage varies among Indigenous Peoples of South America, during the twentieth century new religious movements in Brazil began employing the mixture as religious sacrament. Additionally, various centers for ayahuasca “healing” have emerged both inside and outside of the Amazon Rainforest, frequently with the aim of helping people addicted to other substances. As interest grew, …

Christian Progress And American Myth: A Deep Cultural Analysis Of Spatiality And Exceptionalism In Struggles Over American Indian Lands, Bradley J. Klein

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although typically characterized in politico-economic, social, and environmental terms, land struggles involving American Indian communities can be more accurately and valuably characterized as deep culture conflicts over the problem of space. As scholars like Vine Deloria Jr. and Tink Tinker contend, a significant distinction can be noted between the traditional American Indian and White Western approaches to this problem regarding how human communities should relate to particular spatial locations. In short, while Indian peoples tend to situate their identities relative to clearly defined places or lands, individuals of European descent are inclined to subordinate spatial relations to temporal concerns. Considering …

A Clash Of Worldviews: The Impact Of Modern Western Notion Of Progress On Indigenous Naga Culture, Tezenlo Thong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term "progress" is a modern Western notion that life is always improving and advancing toward an ideal state. It is a vital modern concept which underlies geographic explorations and scientific and technological inventions as well as the desire to harness nature in order to increase human beings' ease and comfort. With the advent of Western colonization and to the great detriment of the colonized, the notion of progress began to perniciously and pervasively permeate across cultures.

During the classical colonial period, Western anthropologists, sociologists and others had hypothesized, or at least ardently bought into the notion, that human beings, …

The Colonial Legacy And Human Rights In Mexico: Indigenous Rights And The Zapatista Movement, Alexander Karklins

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The current status of human rights in Latin America has been profoundly affected by the legacy of colonial institutions. Since the time of conquest, through colonialism, and after independence, the growth of the Latin American state has been challenged by the alternative discourse of indigenous rights. In Mexico, the dominance of mestizaje (or the quest for a single Mexican ethnic identity) in the formation of its modern state apparatus has left indigenous cultures out of the realm of political participation and exposed to human rights violations. With the Zapatista uprising of 1994-1996, the contradictions inherent in Mexico’s constitution were brought …

Explaining Rwanda’S 1994 Genocide, Paul Magnarellav

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001. 364 pp.

and

John A. Berry and Carol Pott Berry (eds.), Genocide in Rwanda: A Collective Memory. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1999. 201 pp.