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Visualizing a Post-Apocalypse: Notes on New Ayoreo Cinema
Get PDFThis essay describes one recent Ayoreo film and its production in order to reflect on the wider significance of lowland South American Indigenous cinema and analyses of it today. Informed by the authors’ roles in the collaborative editing of the film Ujirei, the article details how one Ayoreo filmmaker cinematically visualizes a unique aesthetic response to the aftermath of pandemic upheavals and world-ending violence – a response that pointedly exceeds any prescriptive or structuralist approach to lowland Indigenous cinema. In order to better grasp the subjective, conceptual and political implications of this project, the essay aims to craft an analytic genre capable of approximating a cinematic aesthetics that envisions rupture and regeneration as mutually constitutive modes of survival in the face of dehumanizing colonial violence. It foregrounds the editing process as one ethnographic site for illuminating the decolonizing praxis of lowland Indigenous filmmaking. In doing so, the essay crafts a larger argument about the ways certain Indigenous cinematic forms, as process and product, may usefully orient the poetics and politics of anthropological attunements to the defining crises of the contemporary
Dialect and Nationalism in China, 1860-1960
No full textTaking aim at the conventional narrative that standard, national languages transform \u27peasants\u27 into citizens, Gina Anne Tam centers the history of the Chinese nation and national identity on fangyan - languages like Shanghainese, Cantonese, and dozens of others that are categorically different from the Chinese national language, Mandarin. She traces how, on the one hand, linguists, policy-makers, bureaucrats and workaday educators framed fangyan as non-standard \u27variants\u27 of the Chinese language, subsidiary in symbolic importance to standard Mandarin. She simultaneously highlights, on the other hand, the folksong collectors, playwrights, hip-hop artists and popular protesters who argued that fangyan were more authentic and representative of China\u27s national culture and its history. From the late Qing through the height of the Maoist period, these intertwined visions of the Chinese nation - one spoken in one voice, one spoken in many - interacted and shaped one another, and in the process, shaped the basis for national identity itself.https://digitalcommons.trinity.edu/mono/1143/thumbnail.jp
The Reception of Homer Since 1900
No full textThis section examines the reception of Homeric poetry since 1900 in scholarship and the arts
Making Kin with Kudzu
Get PDFThis creative writing honors thesis is a memoir that echoes the dynamic conversation and kindred relationship that develops between me and kudzu. This piece delves into the empowering perplexity that erupts in my mind and body when I see kudzu rampant in a forest. The title “Making Kin with Kudzu” refers to ecofeminist Donna Haraway’s urge to “make kin in lines of inventive connection as a practice of learning to live and die well with each other in a thick present” as well as acknowledge that “all earthlings are kin in the deepest sense” because “all critters share a common ‘flesh’ laterally, semiotically, and genealogically” (1, 103). I creatively engage with kudzu by creating worldings. This term ‘worldings’ refers to biosemiotics, which looks at the biological realm through a lens of signs and codes that underscore the communication that all living beings engage with, emphasizing language as “world-making”—a practice that brings forth a construction of reality in conjunction to realities of other living and nonliving entities (Gagliano et. al, xix). Philosopher Vinciane Despret describes this “worlding practice” as a way of attending to “what beings evoke from and with each other that was truly not there before” (Haraway 7). This memoir is the unraveling of what was not there before through my kindred relationship to kudzu
Light Pollution in San Antonio, TX: An Environmental Justice Issue
No full textLight pollution is an environmental hazard that has multiple negative cultural, economic, and environmental impacts. Additionally, light pollution disrupts human circadian rhythms, which are in turn associated with increased rates of sleep disorders, obesity, and cancer. However, the environmental justice movement often overlooks the issue of light pollution, even though light pollution is higher in urban low-income areas. There is a lack of studies examining how light pollution varies between communities on a regional, state, or municipal scale. To assess the distribution of light pollution and its effects across San Antonio, we measured light pollution on 90 residential streets belonging to three distinct income brackets. We also recorded the streetlight bulb type. The mid-income neighborhoods had the greatest median and maximum light pollution levels, while high-income neighborhoods had the lowest median illuminance. These results indicate that mid-income neighborhoods are subject to the greatest amount of light pollution by area and intensity. Additionally, we found that light pollution has weak positive trends with obesity, sleep loss, and crime, but it is not predictive of these phenomena. Based on our findings, we conclude that light pollution differentially affects San Antonians based upon income class, and the city should consider light pollution to be an environmental injustice. Using our findings and various case studies as a guide, we suggest updates to San Antonio’s existing urban lighting policies, such as adding a yearly cap on the growth rate of new light fixtures, ensuring full shielding for light fixtures, and adopting a part-night lighting system
Le Traumatisme et L\u27Enjeu Narratif Dans le Roman \u3cem\u3eMeursault, Contre-Enquête\u3c/em\u3e de Kamel Daoud
Get PDFAlbert Camus’ novel L’Étranger (1942) is a renowned and widely-studied work of the French canon. It tells the story of a murder that Meursault, its main character and narrator, commits one day on a beach of Algiers. His victim is an Algerian man whose identity we never learn; after the murder, he vanishes from the story without a trace (or even a name). Kamel Daoud’s Meursault, contre-enquête (2013) presents the other side of the story of this murder. In the novel, Haroun, the brother of Meursault’s victim, testifies against Meursault and reveals how the murder of his brother Moussa devastated and traumatized his family. In this study, I propose to analyze the family’s traumatic experience. Of particular interest in my analysis is the manifestly colonial nature of their trauma. I conclude by discussing the narrative strategies whereby Daoud explores the complexity of his protagonist and provokes reflexion on the moral ambiguities of the individual in the colonial situation.
Le roman L’Étranger d’Albert Camus (1942) est une œuvre célèbre du canon français qui est connue et étudiée partout dans le monde. Il raconte l’histoire d’un meurtre que Meursault (son personnage principal et narrateur) commet un jour sur une plage d’Alger. Sa victime est un homme algérien dont l’identité reste un mystère; il disparaît entièrement après le meurtre sans laisser la moindre trace (ni même un nom). Le roman Meursault, contre-enquête de Kamel Daoud (2013) présente l’autre version des faits de ce meurtre. Haroun, le frère de la victime, témoigne contre Meursault et révèle jusqu’à quel point le meurtre de son frère Moussa a bouleversé et traumatisé sa famille. Dans cette étude, je propose d’analyser le vécu traumatique de la famille. Je m’attarderai sur la nature évidemment coloniale de son traumatisme. Je conclurai mes analyses par une discussion des stratégies narratives que Daoud emploie afin d’explorer la complexité de son protagoniste et de provoquer des réflexions aux ambiguïtés morales de l’individu sous le colonialisme
The Influence of Social-Grouping on Territorial Defense Behavior in the Black-Crested Titmouse (\u3cem\u3eBaeolophus atricristatus\u3c/em\u3e)
Get PDFAbstract: Status signals have evolved for individuals to avoid energetic and physical costs of resource defense. These signals reflect an individual’s competitive ability and therefore influence competitors’ decisions on how to invest in a fight. We hypothesized that the response of receivers to status signals will depend on the social context. During territorial defense, group members may provide support to a territory owner by participating in defense. We investigated whether the presence of juveniles—who group together with territorial males—alters the territorial male’s attack decisions and level of aggression in the black-crested titmouse (Baeolophus atricristatus). Crest-length in this species functions as status signal. We simultaneously presented two taxidermic male models in a territory: one with an unmanipulated crest and one with a modified shortened crest. Models were presented to males that had resident juveniles cohabiting on their territory, and to males without juveniles. During intrusions, juveniles actively defended against the simulated intruders by approaching and sometimes attacking. The presence of juveniles affected how territorial males responded to the status signals of the intruders: when juveniles were present, males were more likely to first attack the model with the unmanipulated crest (i.e., longer, and more threatening), compared to males residing without juveniles. This suggests that juvenile support alters the risk-taking decision of the territorial male. To our knowledge, this is the first indication that behavioral responses to a status signal depends on the presence of supportive group members. Significance statement: Status signals can indicate relative quality of animals and can therefore be used to evaluate a competitor when deciding whether or not to fight over resources. The black-crested titmouse has been shown to use its crest length as a status signal during fights over food. In our study, we assessed if this status signal is also used in territorial defense, by conducting an experiment where we presented two taxidermic male models with different crest sizes to a territorial male. We also investigated whether juvenile presence influenced which model was attacked. In trials where juveniles were present, territorial males attacked the longer crested model significantly more often than in trials where territorial males were alone. This suggests that the presence of juveniles, which help the male defend the territory, allows the male to attack the more aggressive-appearing intruder
Combining Benzyl Alcohol Oxidation Saturation Kinetics and Hammett Studies as Mechanistic Tools for Examining Supported Metal Catalysts
No full textUnderstanding and quantifying how the active sites in supported metal catalysts can be modified are critical for rationally designing catalysts. This problem is particularly complex for reactions that occur at the metal-support interface (MSI) because of the multiple chemistries associated with the metal and the support. In this study, we used the oxidation of substituted benzyl alcohol over Au/TiO2 and Au/Al2O3 to probe MSI chemistry. Substituents impacted substrate binding, deprotonation, and the rate-limiting transfer of a hydride from benzyl alcohol to Au, as shown by a combination of Michaelis-Menten (M-M) saturation kinetics and kinetic isotope effects. Hammett studies performed with a single substrate versus those done with two substrates together in competition experiments showed significant differences, which were attributable to stronger competitive adsorption on the support by more electron-rich alcohols. The M-M analysis showed that alcohol substitution impacts substrate binding and deprotonation equilibria, which in turn affect the number of active alkoxides adsorbed at the MSI. Hammett slopes should therefore be measured under saturating conditions using one substrate at a time. The Hammett slopes measured for heterogeneous systems in this manner agree well with the KIE-Hammett slope relationship determined in homogeneous systems, which provide information on the early or late nature of the transition state. Our results show that the combination of Michaelis-Menten and Hammett techniques for benzyl alcohol oxidation provides mechanistic information associated with the MSI chemistry of supported Au catalysts as well as information on active site electronics
