Love and hate among the people without things : the social and economic relations of the Enxet people of Paraguay

This thesis examines the social and economic relations of the Enxet indigenous people of the Paraguayan Chaco region who place a high value on egalitarianism, generosity and personal autonomy. However, during the twentieth century their land has been colonized by cattle ranchers and they have been obliged to enter the market economy. While anthropologists have proposed a range of theories to explain indigenous social and economic relations, the main concern of this thesis is to examine how the Enxet themselves explain their social behaviour. The Enxet make salient use of "emotion words" when discussing their social and economic practices. For instance, a fundamental dichotomy in Enxet thought is between "love" and "hate" and much of their discourse centres on these two concepts. The Enxet seek to create "good/beautiful" people who know how to act appropriately. In certain contexts they should practise "love" while in other contexts "hate" is acceptable. Enxet social organization should not be understood as a structure but as a process, as something that is being continually created. I will consider different aspects of this process through an examination of kinship, co-residence, marital relations, "brideservice" and inter-community contact, and I will describe how economic transactions are key elements in the generation of "loving" social relations. However, self-centred practices create many challenges to a harmonious community life and I will consider how the Enxet strive to overcome them. Of particular interest will be demand sharing which responds, in part, to a strongly-held egalitarian ethic but can also provoke disharmony and discomfort in community life. I will also discuss commodity relations within Enxet communities and challenge the common assumption that money is necessarily destructive of indigenous social relations. I will conclude that the overriding goal of the Enxet is the attainment of tranquillity in both their personal and social lives. For the Enxet, economic relations are not about gaining material wealth but about living well with other people. They recognize that personal affective comfort is dependent on engendering tranquillity in other people. Therefore, the "emotion words" they use to explain their social behaviour should not be regarded as merely referring to "feelings" but as encompassing an aesthetics of social behaviour

A case-study amongst the Enxet of the Paraguayan Chaco

An explanatory model of religious change in small-scale subsistence societies is developed, in which it is argued that the relative balance of domination between neighbouring societies is a crucial factor in the development of stimuli for religious change. Societies which retain control over their productive resources exhibit relative satisfaction with their well-being and change is usually restricted to diffusion. However, in a colonial situation the well-being of the dominated people is threatened and they enter a crisis. This is characterized by a realization that their ritual practices no longer adequately control the superempirical universe, and by a reduction in their sense of self-worth and prestige. A common response is religious transformation and the resultant conversion movements can be conceived of as active constructions of more satisfying cultures in which attempts are made to re-impose control over the mystical universe and to regain prestige and self- worth. The mechanism used is intercultural sociality: the dominated people look to the colonizers for the secret of their perceived success but the difficulties of intercultural communication result in frequent misinterpretation. The model is used to explain religious change amongst the Enxet Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco. Prior to colonialism, change amongst the Enxet was limited to diffusion. However, post-1885 their land was invaded by the white man, plunging them into a crisis. Two independent conversion movements are examined and successfully explained by reference to the theoretical model. However, a third movement, conversion to Anglicanism, illustrates the influence of culturally-specific factors on the character of a movement. The Enxet, as immediate return hunter- gatherers, viewed the Anglican church as a "foraging resource" and the adoption of Anglicanism by a minority of Enxet was little more than a technique of gaining access to the economic benefits available

Magmatism and Extension in the Foreland and Near-Trench Region of Collisional and Convergent Tectonic Systems

Foreland magmatism occurs in the lower plate during arc–continent or continent–continent collision, although it is uncommon. Ancient examples are recognized by a stratigraphic section into which mafic lavas and/or shallow sills are emplaced at a level at the top of a passive margin cover sequence, or within the overlying deeper water deposits that include mudrocks and flysch-type turbidites. Extensional structures associated with the emplacement of the volcanic rocks may develop slightly prior to or contemporaneous with the arrival of the approaching thrust front. We have selected twelve examples of magmatism in collisional forelands, modern and ancient, and have compared the tectonic associations of the magmatism with the magmatic geochemistry.   Foreland magmatic settings fall into two strikingly distinct geochemical groups: a more enriched alkaline group (Rhine-type) and a more heterogeneous tholeiitic group (Maine-type) that may show traces of prior subduction processes. In the examples where the contemporaneous extensional structures are known, faults and basins develop parallel to the thrust front for the tholeiitic group and have oblique orientations, in several cases at a high angle to the thrust front, for the alkaline group. The geochemical results are quite sufficiently distinct to permit discrimination of these two foreland magmatic rock suites from each other in ancient examples where the foreland setting is clear from geological evidence. However, magmatic products of the same range of compositions can be generated in other tectonic environments (rifts, back-arc basins), so the geochemical characteristics alone are insufficient to identify a foreland basin setting.    The alkaline Rhine-type group formed primarily in response to localized upwelling convective activity from the sub-asthenospheric mantle beneath the lower plate during collision while the tholeiitic Maine-type group formed primarily in response to melting of subcontinental asthenospheric mantle during extension of the lower plate by slab pull, and resulting lithospheric detachment. It is possible that there has been a long-term secular decrease in the occurrence of the Maine-type foreland magmatism since the early Proterozoic.RÉSUMÉBien que peu fréquent, il arrive qu’un magmatisme d’avantpays se produise dans la plaque inférieure durant une collision arc-continent ou continent-continent. Des exemples anciens ont été décrits dans une coupe stratigraphique renfermant des laves mafiques et/ou des filons-couches au haut d’une séquence de couverture de marge passive, ou au sein de dépôts de plus grandes profondeurs comme des boues ou des turbidites de type flysch. Des structures d’étirement associées à la mise en place des roches volcaniques peuvent se développer un peu avant ou en même temps que l’arrivée du front de chevauchement. Nous avons choisi douze exemples de magmatisme au sein d’avant-pays de collision, modernes et anciens, et nous avons comparé les associations tectoniques du magmatisme avec la géochimie magmatique.    Les configurations magmatiques d’avant-pays se divisent en deux groupes géochimiques très différents : un groupe alcalin plus enrichi (type-Rhin), et un groupe tholéiitique plus hétérogène (type-Maine) et qui peut montrer des traces de précédentes activités de subduction. Dans les exemples où les structures d’étirement contemporaines sont connues, les failles et les bassins se développent parallèlement au front de chevauchement pour le groupe tholéiitique, alors que leurs orientations sont obliques, voire à angles aigus au front de chevauchement pour le groupe alcalin. Les résultats géochimiques sont suffisamment distincts pour permettre de distinguer ces deux suites de roches magmatiques dans les exemples anciens où la configuration d’avant-pays est évidente de par sa géologie. Cependant, des produits magmatiques de même type compositionnel peuvent advenir dans d’autres environnements tectoniques (fosses, bassins d’arrière-arc), et donc, la caractérisation géochimique seule ne permet pas de distinguer une configuration de bassin d’avant-pays.    Le groupe alcalin de type-Rhin s’est principalement formé en réponse à une activité d’éruption de convection issue du manteau sous-asthénosphérique sous la plaque inférieure durant la collision, alors que le groupe tholéiitique de type-Maine s’est formé principalement en réaction à la fusion du manteau sous-continental asthénosphérique durant l’extension de la plaque inférieure par étirement de la plaque, et le détachement lithosphérique qui en découle. Depuis le Protérozoïque, est possible qu’il y ait eu une décroissance progressive à long terme des événements magmatiques de type-Maine

Ramon Fernandez and the search for the father

Ramon Fernandez, un des plus eminents critiques francais de l’ entre-deux-guerres, revient a l’actualite apres une eclipse de trente-cinq ans. Et en meme temps revient le souvenir d’une carriere commencee avec eclat sous le signe de l’humanisme de la personnalite et terminee prematurement par la mort au moment ou s’effondrait autour de Fernandez le nouvel ordre europeen dont il etait devenu un des principaux porte-paroles. Comment expliquer la trajectoire qui le mena du socialisme au fascisme, de l’extreme-gauche en 1934 a la Collaboration en 1940? Pourquoi le decalage, sensible a ses contemporains, entre la promesse de l’oeuvre et l'apparent echec de l'homme? D'aucuns en ont cherche la clef dans le conflit d'heritages spirituels ou dans le sentiment de declassement social d'un homme ne d'une mere franc;aise d'origine bourgeoise et d'un aristocrate mexicain. Et qui pour comble de difficulte se sentait different de sa generation pour ne pas avoir fait la guerre de 1914-1918. Nous croyons que les racines du drame sont ailleurs, dans le bouleversement subi par un enfant accidentellement prive de son pere a l’age de onze ans, traumatisme qui rencontrant dans le psychisme les traces du fantasme parricidaire, devint le mobile profond de sa vocation. Dans la premiere partie de notre these, nous ex ami nons les faits de la jeunesse de Fernandez et les traits de sa personnalite a la lumiere des concepts psychanalytiques. Dans la deuxieme partie, nous montrons comment les themes, I 'organisation et le langage de sa pensee prennent leur sens dans des idees inconscientes se referant a la mort du pere, problematique que Fernandez essaya d'explorer imaginativement dans ses romans, auxquels nous consacrons la section suivante. Nous montrons enfin comment ses ouvrages critiques successifs reposent sur une identification de caractere paternel avec l'auteur qui evolue selon des modalites psychiques

Modifications Necessary for Commercial Arbitration Law to Protect Statutory Rights Against Discrimination in Employment: A Discussion and Proposals for Change

Published in cooperation with the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolutio