A thesis which contributes a new perspective to the ongoing discussion on the human contacts made between North and Meso-America before Columbus. This is done specifically by looking at maize as an...Show moreA thesis which contributes a new perspective to the ongoing discussion on the human contacts made between North and Meso-America before Columbus. This is done specifically by looking at maize as an exotic good used for ritual and as a medium for narrative. It highlights the religious aspects of exchange and the travel of ideas and narratives with material in a time before writing was widespread. Because of the latter fact, the research is done through a multi-disciplinary approach, utilizing botany, archaeology and ethnology.Show less
The War on Drugs emphasised the weak socioeconomic status of the African American population. The punitive laws and media rhetoric influenced all facets of their daily lives. In thesis, I focussed...Show moreThe War on Drugs emphasised the weak socioeconomic status of the African American population. The punitive laws and media rhetoric influenced all facets of their daily lives. In thesis, I focussed on the power and prestige and income and wealth factor of socioeconomic status. These variables helped position the relevance of the inequalities in American society. The historical and contemporary experiences have influenced the intergenerational disenfranchisement. The War on Drugs rhetoric of tough on crime affected the poverty, social exclusion, unemployment and stereotyping of the African American peoples.Show less
There is an abundance of quantitative research on the policy and sociological results of the 1996 welfare reforms, but less is known on the ideological background that inspired these reforms. This...Show moreThere is an abundance of quantitative research on the policy and sociological results of the 1996 welfare reforms, but less is known on the ideological background that inspired these reforms. This thesis researches to what extent neoliberal ideology influenced changes to social welfare programs (AFDC) in the United States between 1992 and 1996. It is suggested that the change from AFDC to TANF happened in 1996 due to a combination of a sharp increase in welfare rolls and increasing poverty levels occurring consecutively, changing ideological motivations toward social welfare, and welfare experiments conducted under H.W. Bush proving successful. In 1992, Clinton promised to replace welfare with a comprehensive suite of programs to facilitate leaving welfare, but passed welfare reform in 1996 without generous provisions due to a belief in the independent functioning of the core provisions of the TANF law. TANF was different, because it introduced; flexibility in policy making, by devolving authority to states through block grants, negative incentives to leave welfare, through time limits on lifetime benefits and work requirements and increased accountability, by making states responsible for maintaining work participation rates. It is suggested that most major TANF provisions were consistent with a belief in market-efficiency, market-morality and monetarism and could therefore be linked to neoliberal ideology both by their execution and by the discourse surrounding their implementation.Show less
For this bachelor thesis, I have done research on the subject of the role of Hollywood in US soft power in relation to the fight against Islamic extremist terrorism. The research question I have...Show moreFor this bachelor thesis, I have done research on the subject of the role of Hollywood in US soft power in relation to the fight against Islamic extremist terrorism. The research question I have posed is: ‘Has Hollywood been a tool for North American soft power by contributing to the creation of a Western imagined community against Islamic extremist terrorism since 9/11? If so, how?’. In order to answer this question, I have done qualitative research using a scene from the movie American Sniper and a scene from the movie Lone Survivor which served as case studies. To provide a guiding tool, for each scene I have posed the questions ‘How is the ‘westerner’ portrayed?’, ‘How is the ‘Arab portrayed?’, and ‘Does the scene accord to the biographic book?’. In order to provide answers to these questions, I have used the handbook ‘Film Narratology’ by Peter Verstraten to examine the implicit content of the scenes, the scripts of the movies to support analysis of the explicit content of the scenes, and the biographic books on which the movies were based to check whether the scenes accord to these books. Subsequently, used the concepts of culture and cultural hegemony, soft power, and orientalism to ascribe meaning to the outcomes of the analyses. As a result from these analyses and the application of the concepts, I have found that in both scenes the ‘westerner’ is portrayed as heroic and righteous, while the ‘Arab’ is mostly portrayed as savage, hostile and rogue which is showing that both movies have an Orientalist character. Also, resulting from these analyses I can state that the scenes culturally manipulate and influence the viewers perceptions of the ‘Arab’ and the ‘westerner’, which means that it is contributing to US’ story which is projected to the rest of the world to ‘sell itself’ with the goal to attract other people and states to be on the same page with the US. With these results I have provided with an answer to the research question, which reads that Hollywood has been a tool for US soft power by contributing to the creation of a Western community against Islamic extremist terrorism, albeit unwittingly. This is done by employing Hollywood’s prominent and influential status which makes it possible to manipulate the movies’ watchers into developing a perception of Islamic terrorists as rogue and savage as opposed to heroic and righteous US soldiers. Still, what could be considered as shortcomings of this research are its sensitiveness to time, place and interpretation, and the small amount of analyzed scenes. In order to resolve this in a more extensive research, I firstly recommend to do a comparison with results of analyses on movies within another time frame or from another country. Secondly, I recommend to use diverse means of interpretation. Lastly, I recommend to analyze more scenes or even entire movies to be able to make a more solid argument.Show less
In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka brought a legal end to racial segregation in public education. The commonwealth of Virginia however did not agree with this decision and through the...Show moreIn 1954, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka brought a legal end to racial segregation in public education. The commonwealth of Virginia however did not agree with this decision and through the means of their "Massive Resistance", consisting of laws that made it impossible for black students to attend white schools, Virginia showed their opposition to Brown v. Board. Through extensive literature review, it becomes clear that Virginia opposed to Brown because of their reluctance in terms of federal government interference and racism towards the African-American students.Show less
This thesis looks at the effects of two Protestant Missionaries in 17th Century New England and their effects on the indigenous population and how the indigenous population reacted to them.
