Behind the Scene : the enactments of human sexuality in Tehuantepec, Mexico

This work deals with human sexuality in Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, based on the practices performed by the actors in their everyday lives. Here sexuality is not conceived of as a spontaneous or autonomous phenomenon, nor as something that is pre-existing or established, but as the result of complex practices that go beyond the human and the sexual, which are assembled by a set of actors; that is to say, by networks. The argument is based on the construction of case studies which account for the production of complexities in human sexuality in Tehuantepec. This community was selected because of the notoriety of its women, That belong to the Zapotec ethnic group, often considered to be dominant in the Isthmus. The purpose of the research was to look beyond the superficial appearance of the Isthmus and its people and to explore in depth the critical moments, achievements and concerns of those who contribute to the enactment of a distinct region and its society. No claim is made, then, to deprive generalizations of their veracity. Instead of focusing on particularities the work concentrates on specificities, or rather, the possible connections that are produced in the interactions between humans and the various elements by which they are surrounded. The study considers five themes commonly associated with human sexuality: beauty, gendered spatiality, sexual life, motherhood and intimate violence in Tehuantepec had been chosen as axis which articulate the practices and discourses of local actors. Through them, it is argued that sexuality does not form part of something abstract but something that is produced by the interactions that take place on daily life. Methodologically and conceptually, feminism (above all in its post-structuralism guise), the Actor Oriented Approach, and Actor Network Theory all supported this task. On certain occasions, these schools of thought allowed the identification of deterministic statements and on others the recognition of the binary oppositions or dualisms upon which many of the general perspectives, stereotypes and common positions related to the Isthmus are erected. However, it was Actor Network Theory which led me to non-conventional forms of approaching and understanding the complexity of the human and the social’. The introduction, or chapter one, presents the historical, economic and cultural processes, which often characterize the region. It becomes clear just how easy it is to fall prey to stereotyped images, as well as the importance of being able to see behind the foreground in order to observe the details, or the specific nature of these traditional landscapes. The second chapter provides the theoretical and methodological reflection which supports the recognition of the importance of the diverse, the voice of the actors and their connectivity with their surroundings. The chapter arrives at the assembly of associations and the production of complexities in which concepts such as networks, bodies and enactments become keys to the recognition of the assemblages related to human sexuality. The third chapter introduces the notion of ‘enacting beauty’ in order to suggest that the different Isthmus beauties are produced through a series of dynamic, heterogeneous, multiple and hybrid associations. It also proposes the consideration of Isthmus beauty as something that is malleable and transformable. The fourth chapter covers the polemical association of spatiality and gender. Here if a link between spatiality and gender is recognized, it is nonetheless considered unstable, impure and fluid, in correspondence with the dynamics that the actors themselves succeed in assembling in their daily lives. Hence, it is suggested that both categories repeatedly crosscut, interweave and overlap; something which is captured by the term ‘entangled boundaries’. The fifth chapter focuses on some of the possible connections between the Isthmus customs and the practices of the local actors with respect to sexual life. ‘Sexual bodies’ captures these multiple and dynamic connections where the biological, ethnic, cultural and social are neither omnipresent nor exclusive when human sexual life is enacted and re-enacted in Tehuantepec. The sixth chapter questions the tendency to associate motherhood with the woman, alongside another series of diverse determinisms. The cases explored illustrate how motherhood is a battlefield, in the sense that the actors must remain in constant action, often facing struggles in order to assemble, provide continuity or disconnect from maternal networks. It also touches on additional connections in which motherhood forms part of wider and complex networks. The seventh chapter considers another of the practices associated with human sexuality that actors confront in their everyday life in Tehuantepec: intimate violence. Here the notion of ‘counteracting intimate violence’ argues for a broader conception of this topic as a complex network. It also highlights actors’ actions in order to make clear that they are not passive victims but dynamic actors who enact other networks which counteract chains of intimate violence. The eighth chapter, or conclusion, covers the trajectory followed throughout the course of this research in order to make the production of complexities associated with human sexuality visible. It recognizes the necessary shift in reference points in order to move away from a focus on commonplaces. It also identifies human sexuality as a set of practices which can, in turn, be related to different themes and links, or, in other words, as the result of associations. <br/

The Liar as a Comic Figure in Plays by Ruiz de Alarcon, Corneille and Moliere

This study on the liar as a comic figure centers on protagonists in five seventeenth-century comic plays: La verdad sospechosa (Ruiz de Alarcon), Melite, Le Menteur (Corneille), Tartuffe and Dom Juan (Moliere). It applies a model combining the concepts of ironic comedy (Frye), the world as stage, metatheater, and theories of laughter. Through this model, supplemented by a comparative-literature approach and additional research, the study attempts to demonstrate that in the plays examined an alazon (impostor) is always punished for his contempt for an ideal of truth that is conceived mainly in secular terms, as well as that in the plays examined here gullibility is ridiculed and the alazon is represented as being expelled from a society in which his condemned behavior is actually widespread. In any case, the avenging agents are laughter and eirons thus emphasizing the liar\u27s comic character. La verdad sospechosa conforms most closely to Frye\u27s definition of a classic ironic comedy, combining the Plautine motifs of mistaken identity and lying. The ending is comic because Don Garcia\u27s expulsion as a pharmakos (scapegoat) is not carried out--he keeps his promise to marry Lucrecia, even though she is not whom Don Garcia thought she was. Le Menteur, an adaptation of La verdad sospechosa, deviates from this pattern. In the end, Dorante\u27s only punishment for lying seems to consist of laughter and reprimands, but in La Suite du Menteur his broken promise to marry Lucrece has cost him nearly everything. Still, the principal dupes suffer as much or more than the liars in the Corneille plays, implying that lies may be entertaining, but taking them seriously has potentially dire consequences. Moliere applies this lesson to Tartuffe, where the conspiracy to unmask hypocrisy is more successful against the dupe Orgon than Tartuffe. Fear makes the disillusioned Sganarelle play the dupe in Dom Juan, and he suffers a comic downfall. The uncomic punishments of Tartuffe (prison) and Dom Juan (Hell) confirm that they are realistically painted braggarts, who take their place as comic, undignified figures alongside Don Garcia, Eraste, and Dorante. The classic model of ironic comedy is broadened and bent but not broken

Between aid dependence, neighbourhood solidarity and the EU-Jordan Compact: livelihood analysis of Syrian refugees in Greater Amman

Jordan, with a population of about ten million, hosts 1.3 million Syrians of whom 670,000 are UNHCR-registered refugees, as well as nearly 85,000 registered refugees from other countries and is thus one of the countries with the highest proportion of refugees in the world. Most of them (83 per cent) are staying outside camps and many have rented flats mainly in the Jordanian capital Amman and its surroundings. The particular conditions for refugees from Syria staying in a receiving area among people with a history of protracted displacement are in the focus of this Working Paper. How do refugees from Syria secure their livelihood in the neighbourhoods of Palestinians who share the experience of a volatile legal status and limited economic rights? Does the EU-Jordan Compact improve Syrians' livelihoods? These questions are addressed by an analytical livelihood approach that includes social relationships as a significant conducive or constraining factor for refugees' agency (ability to act) in making use of local livelihood options. The findings generated in field research between November 2016 and July 2017 reveal dynamics within the Palestinian receiving community that have shifted from empathy and solidarity to more ambiguous interaction up to the exploitation and seclusion of refugees. The Paper shows how self-organised assistance groups of Jordanians with Palestinian origin take care of refugees from Syria in dire need for help, no matter what legal status they have. They support some refugees in regaining their agency and thus contribute to securing their livelihood. The central argument of this Paper is that the agenda of international aid and development agencies of enhancing resilience and promoting self-reliance of refugees does not strengthen refugees’ agency. Instead of considering the refugees' own priorities and intentions about their livelihood, it pre-designs basic needs to different refugee groups and attempts to integrate them into a presumed market economy that in fact is distorted for political purposes (mainly shielding Jordanians from foreign competitors). This is most pronounced in the EU-Jordan Compact, established to provide Syrians with preferential access to (low-skilled) employment in return for alleviated access of Jordanian companies to the European market. The study discloses how the Compact contradicts the idea of resilience of the refugees. In the conclusion, the Paper questions the collusion of the international community with the Jordanian government in using the presence of the refugees for external interests - promoting liberal market expansion through the EU - Jordan Compact in return for continuous aid

Serio-Comic Journal of a Cruize, 1847-1848: annotated edition with introduction and commentary on sea journals

When he began his journal seaman Hugh Calhoun had high hopes for the outward-bound voyage ahead of him. Ship-of-the-Line Ohio was back from the Siege of Veracruz, being prepared for her next mission, and the War was at its height. The cruize, as he called it, did not turn out as eventful as he expected it to be and yet he was nevertheless able to produce a book which bountifully embodies a short but fruitful chapter of maritime literary history. Serio-Comic Journal of a Cruize, On Board of the U. S. Ship Ohio, Commencing from New York June 23d 1847, with its full name, is a shipboard diary kept by an ordinary seaman during the Mexican-American War. The 148-page manuscript volume, located at the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, is a product of the maturity phase of American sea writing as Calhoun, self-consciously a Jack Tar and an American, was representing a trained, well-read and well-influenced generation of sailor-authors who lived and recorded the final years of America under sail. The past three decades have seen a progressive conceptual expansion of the themes involving the ways in which literate sailors viewed the world they lived in. Scholars of early American literature, maritime history and culture have explored the meanings and information provided in the textual products of seamen. Upon comparison with similar material found at the archives of maritime museums and historical societies, and discussions with leading maritime historians, Serio-Comic Journal proved to be a meaningful source text which, through scholarly treatment, can benefit research in multiple disciplines due to the significance of its production date and the diversity of the topics and literary forms found in it. This edition aims to provide related fields of study with a historically contextualized shipboard document in the light of these latest findings. The transcription of the complete text is presented with glossarial, historiographical and geographical notes, whereas the introductory chapters discuss several key subjects to form a framework for the better evaluation of not only the source text of the edition but the sea journal genre as a whole

The politics of property in a European periphery : the ownership of books, berries, and patents in the Grand Duchy of Finland 1850-1910

Defence date: 7 November 2016Examining Board: Professor Youssef Cassis, EUI (Supervisor); Professor Pauli Kettunen, University of Helsinki (External Supervisor); Professor Luca Molà, EUI; Professor Lionel Bently, University of CambridgeIn the late nineteenth century, the Grand Duchy of Finland benefited from its backward position in the peripheral corner of Europe; its export markets expanded, career opportunities were sought abroad, and foreign ideas and technology were translated and appropriated. At the same time, the identity of the young nation state as a part of the Russian Empire was being put together by its educated elite, whose national projects would react to foreign developments and amalgamate with the expertise acquired abroad. This included the reconciliation of private, collective and state interests over natural resources and intangible ideas. This thesis explores and adds to the scattered knowledge of four areas of intangible and material ownership in the country: inventions and literary works, trees and wild berries (allemansrätt, public access to nature). The thesis aims to understand how ownership, in general, became defined and how these specific property rights were produced as part of the peripheral dynamics in the Grand Duchy. The study analyses the political processes around the key legislative reforms in which the existing structures of ownership became challenged and reshaped. The thesis argues that the peripheral perception related to the economic and intellectual context was central to conceptualising "property". It allowed comparative reflection and learning from abroad, but the spatio-temporal relation served also to frame and guide the property reforms according to the interests of the political factions, for instance, by emphasising the particular or universal aspects of the reform. In general, a pragmatic, liberal line of thinking which favoured domestic interests permeated the reforms. The rhetoric of the sanctity of private property was commonly used, but in a way that incorporated the interests of the public; differences in the concept of property pertained especially to the role of the public and the way in which the common interest was seen to manifest itself

Fertility decline in Sremska Mitrovica and Šabac

Предмет истраживања докторске дисертације  је oпадање фертилитета у  насељима Сремска Митровица и Шабац, односно историјско-демографска  компаративна  анализа опадања фертилитета и услова деловања сродних  варијабли (пре свега нупцијалитета) од 1900. до 2011. године. Циљ докторске дисертације је да се прикажу, анализирају и упореде варијабле и  сви   релевантни чиниоци  кретања и особина  фертилитета у  Сремској Митровици и Шапцу  у посматраном периоду.  Задатак дисертације  да паралелно прикаже различите демографске трендове ових насеља, да утврди историјску  условљеност  разлика,статистичку међузависност параметара фертилитета, нупцијалитета и диворцијалитета, али и остави довољно простора за претпостављање будућих трендова на основу временског обухвата више од једног века.  Методологија истраживања је базирана на релевантним мерама за обраду и анализу  фертилитета и нупцијалитета, као на додатним статистичким методима. Резултати су показали да су се транзиција фертилитета и нупцијалитета различито одвијале и у другачијим интензитетима у овим насељима, па је тако и веза између свих варијабли имала различит интензитет. Утвђено је да су различити историјски, односно културни и геополитички оквири, имали утицај на прихватање норми у свим сферама живота, па тако и у сфери репродуктивних и брачних норми.    Традиционалнија и отворенија средина, етничка и верска хомогеност, развој у оквирима друштва и државе високог фертилитета, наспрам модерније, западно оријентисане средине, са композитном етничком и верском структуром, уз нискофертилитетни и затворенији оквир репродукције и брачности, услови су који су дали печат демографском развоју ова два насеља. Predmet istraživanja doktorske disertacije  je opadanje fertiliteta u  naseljima Sremska Mitrovica i Šabac, odnosno istorijsko-demografska  komparativna  analiza opadanja fertiliteta i uslova delovanja srodnih  varijabli (pre svega nupcijaliteta) od 1900. do 2011. godine. Cilj doktorske disertacije je da se prikažu, analiziraju i uporede varijable i  svi   relevantni činioci  kretanja i osobina  fertiliteta u  Sremskoj Mitrovici i Šapcu  u posmatranom periodu.  Zadatak disertacije  da paralelno prikaže različite demografske trendove ovih naselja, da utvrdi istorijsku  uslovljenost  razlika,statističku međuzavisnost parametara fertiliteta, nupcijaliteta i divorcijaliteta, ali i ostavi dovoljno prostora za pretpostavljanje budućih trendova na osnovu vremenskog obuhvata više od jednog veka.  Metodologija istraživanja je bazirana na relevantnim merama za obradu i analizu  fertiliteta i nupcijaliteta, kao na dodatnim statističkim metodima. Rezultati su pokazali da su se tranzicija fertiliteta i nupcijaliteta različito odvijale i u drugačijim intenzitetima u ovim naseljima, pa je tako i veza između svih varijabli imala različit intenzitet. Utvđeno je da su različiti istorijski, odnosno kulturni i geopolitički okviri, imali uticaj na prihvatanje normi u svim sferama života, pa tako i u sferi reproduktivnih i bračnih normi.    Tradicionalnija i otvorenija sredina, etnička i verska homogenost, razvoj u okvirima društva i države visokog fertiliteta, naspram modernije, zapadno orijentisane sredine, sa kompozitnom etničkom i verskom strukturom, uz niskofertilitetni i zatvoreniji okvir reprodukcije i bračnosti, uslovi su koji su dali pečat demografskom razvoju ova dva naselja. Topic of doctoral thesis is fertility decline in settlements such as Sremska Mitrovica  and Šabac, or rather historical-demography comparative analysis of fertility decline and conditions in which affine variables (primarily nupciality) operate in period of 1900 to 2011. Main aim is to show, analyze and compare variables, as well as all relevant factors of fertility trend in observed period for Sremska Mitrovica and  Šabac.  Given task is to show in parallel way different demographic trends for mentioned settlements and to determine historical differences conditionality, statistical correlation of fertility parameters, nupciality and divoriciality, but leave enough space for next assumptions in future trends for given period of one century. Research methodology is based on relevant measures for fertility and nupciality processing and analysis, as well as on additional statistical methods. Results have shown that fertility and nupciality transition occurred with different intensity in mentioned settlement, and because of that link betwen variables had different intensity. It has been found that different historical, or rather cultural and geo -political circumstances   influenced acceptance of norms in all life spheres, like reproductive and matrimony sphere of life. More traditional and open-minded surrounding, ethnic and religious homogeneity, development in countries and societies with high fertility, versus more modern surrounding oriented towards west, with composite ethnic and religious structure, with low fertility and more closed framework for reproduction and matrimony, circumstances which gave demographic stamp on development of mentioned two settlements