Matching Items (3)
Filtering by
- All Subjects: Latin American History
- All Subjects: Caribou hunting
- Creators: Astor-Aguilera, Miguel
Description
Antonio López de Santa Anna (1794-1876) is considered as one of the biggest villains of Mexican history. This frequent president in the first decades of Independence of México is the main character portrayed in the novels analyzed in this dissertation: Su alteza serenísima (1895-1896) by Ireneo Paz, Santa Anna, el dictador resplandeciente (1936) by Rafael F. Muñoz, El seductor de la patria (1999) by Enrique Serna, and México mutilado (2006) by Francisco Martín Moreno. Many Mexican novelists have tackled iconic personalities from Mexican history. However, based upon the historical context that occurred within their lifetime, each author takes a different approach to the story and characters they portray. In the novel Su alteza serenísima, Santa Anna is presented with identical characteristics as in the official history. That was written for other liberals, like Paz, the author. In El dictador resplandeciente an image almost romantic of the leader is presented through the valorization of his role in history. The narrator shows the contradictions of Santa Anna, who was a hero and villain. Santa Anna is presented from different perspectives in El seductor de la patria. The narrator uses Santa Anna's voice projecting a consciousness of the future's judgment of history upon his actions and the voices of "the others" that live around him. In México mutilado Santa Anna is presented from the same perspective as the official history, although other traitors are added to distribute the fault among various important figures. This dissertation works through the analysis of the discursive mechanisms used in these novels, of the configuration of the message that they wish to convey to the reader, of the level of re-writing official history, of the perspective from which each author is reviewing the history, of the recount of what historical aspects and voices were chosen for inclusion in each novel, and through the evaluation of how the authors recover the figure of Santa Anna. This study follows an eclectic model of cultural commentary, taking up critical concepts from Latin American literary scholars such as Perkowska, Pons, Jitrik, Aínsa, among others.
ContributorsSigüenza Ponce, Olga (Author) / Volek, Emil (Thesis advisor) / Acereda, Alberto (Committee member) / Hernández-Gutierrez, Manuel J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This research focuses upon the intersection of social complexity and leadership among commoners in complex societies as expressed through mortuary ritual. I study how ideology, materialized through treatment of the deceased body, was a potential source of power among commoners in ancient Maya society and how this materialization changed through time. Mortuary data are drawn from mid-level settlements of the Belize River Valley, located in western Belize within the eastern Maya lowlands. The primary research question addresses whether mid-level leaders in the Belize River Valley targeted certain human bodies for ancestral veneration through tomb re-entry and ritual interaction with skeletal remains. The ritual-political strategy of mid-level leaders is measured using archaeothanatology, an analysis of grave taphonomy based on forensic data, to reconstruct cultural beliefs about death based on treatment of deceased bodies, radiogenic strontium isotope analysis to reconstruct residential history, and analysis of dental metrics to assess biological kinship. While preservation of osseous material was poor, results indicate that the frequency of disarticulated and secondary burials was higher in eastern structures than in other locales, although eastern structures were not the only loci of these types of deposits. Overall, it does not seem like secondary burials were regularly and purposefully created for use as ritual objects or display. Radiogenic strontium isotope data enrich this analysis by showing that eastern structures were not a burial locale exclusive to individuals who spent their childhood in the Belize Valley. Data from upper-level eastern structures also suggests that within that part of society local birth did not guarantee interment in a local manner; perhaps the social network created during one's life shaped treatment in death more than residential origin. Biological distance analyses were inconclusive due to missing data. Comparison of mortuary practices to nearby regions shows distinct mortuary patterning across space and time. This is consistent with reconstructions of ancient Maya sociopolitical organization as regionally diverse and moderately integrated.
ContributorsNovotny, Anna (Author) / Buikstra, Jane E. (Thesis advisor) / Carr, Christopher (Committee member) / Robin, Cynthia (Committee member) / Astor-Aguilera, Miguel (Committee member) / Tiesler, Vera (Committee member) / Knudson, Kelly J. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Tłįchǫ, an indigenous Dene nation of subarctic Canada, maintain subsistence lifestyles based on what they consider traditional foods. Caribou are the primary Tłįchǫ food animal and their reliance on caribou culminates in a complex relationship of give and take. Tłįchǫ demonstrate reciprocity for the caribou to give their flesh to hunters. Caribou populations in Canada’s Northwest Territories have rapidly declined and the government of Canada’s Northwest Territories implemented hunting restrictions in 2010 to protect caribou herds from extinction. Some Tłįchǫ, however, maintain that caribou are in hiding, not decline, and that caribou have chosen to remain inaccessible to humans due to human disrespect toward them. Many Tłįchǫ have responded to hunting restrictions and the lack of caribou by calling for respectful hunting practices to demonstrate to caribou that they are needed and thus resulting in the animal continuing to give itself.
I examine Tłįchǫ responses to contemporary caribou scarcity through three stages of Dene foodways: getting food, sharing food, and returning food and caribou remains back to the land. Analysis of Dene foodways stages reveals complex social relationships between hunters, animals, and other beings in the environment such as ancestors and the land that aids their exchange. Food is integral to many studies of indigenous religions and environmental relations yet the effects of dependence on the environment for food on social dynamics that include human and other beings have not been adequately addressed. Foodways as a component to theories of indigenous environmental relationships explain Tłįchǫ attitudes toward caribou. I draw from my ethnographic research, wherein I lived with Tłįchǫ families, studied the Tłįchǫ language, and participated in Tłįchǫ foodways such as hunting, fishing, and sharing food, to explicate Tłįchǫ foodways in relation to their worldviews and relationships with beings in the environment. I demonstrate how foodways, as an analytical category, offers a glimpse into Dene perceptions of non-human entities as something with which humans relate, while I simultaneously demonstrate the limits of environmental relations. My attention to foodways reveals the necessity of sustenance as a primary motivation for indigenous relationships to other beings, culminating in complex social dynamics.
I examine Tłįchǫ responses to contemporary caribou scarcity through three stages of Dene foodways: getting food, sharing food, and returning food and caribou remains back to the land. Analysis of Dene foodways stages reveals complex social relationships between hunters, animals, and other beings in the environment such as ancestors and the land that aids their exchange. Food is integral to many studies of indigenous religions and environmental relations yet the effects of dependence on the environment for food on social dynamics that include human and other beings have not been adequately addressed. Foodways as a component to theories of indigenous environmental relationships explain Tłįchǫ attitudes toward caribou. I draw from my ethnographic research, wherein I lived with Tłįchǫ families, studied the Tłįchǫ language, and participated in Tłįchǫ foodways such as hunting, fishing, and sharing food, to explicate Tłįchǫ foodways in relation to their worldviews and relationships with beings in the environment. I demonstrate how foodways, as an analytical category, offers a glimpse into Dene perceptions of non-human entities as something with which humans relate, while I simultaneously demonstrate the limits of environmental relations. My attention to foodways reveals the necessity of sustenance as a primary motivation for indigenous relationships to other beings, culminating in complex social dynamics.
ContributorsWalsh, David Saliba (Author) / Astor-Aguilera, Miguel (Thesis advisor) / Gray, Susan (Committee member) / Swanson, Todd (Committee member) / Henn, Alexander (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015