The discourse surrounding sex work in Amsterdam has evolved, reflecting shifting approaches by municipal authorities and stakeholders. Currently, a proposal for an "erotic center" seeks to relocate...Show moreThe discourse surrounding sex work in Amsterdam has evolved, reflecting shifting approaches by municipal authorities and stakeholders. Currently, a proposal for an "erotic center" seeks to relocate sex work from the Wallen district to address issues of over-tourism and congestion. However, this proposition has ignited controversy, as sex workers voice concerns about safety, social networks, and potential workspace loss. Researchers and activists advocate for recognizing sex work as tangible heritage to preserve its history and narratives. Despite initiatives of activists and advocates to document and safeguard the sector's history through the website www.sekswerkerfgoed.nl and the Prostitution Information Center, academic exploration of sex workers' experiences and sex work heritage in the Netherlands remains limited. Narratives from sex workers of color, migrant sex workers, and marginalized voices are often overlooked. Media portrayals often perpetuate stigmatization and negative stereotypes about sex work. The life stories of Nicolina Sant and Aaïcha Bergamin, two sex workers from the 20th century, offer valuable insights into Dutch sex work. Their narratives encompass diverse perspectives, encompassing ethnic backgrounds, cultural nuances, gender, and sexuality. Incorporating these stories enriches historical research on sex work, fostering a deeper comprehension of the industry and its intersections with urban life. Using the concept of urban citizenship, which emphasizes self-identity and recognition, challenges conventional notions tied to nationhood. Sex workers' claims to citizenship impact urban planning and city politics, influencing the socio-spatial fabric of the city, and reorienting research on sex workers to focus on agency rather than victimhood. Analyzing the stories of Aaïcha and Nicolina through this lens reflects on the idea of sex work as heritage while supplying an intersectional perspective to sex work history in the Netherlands.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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Discussions concerning syntactic aspects of code-switching (CS) phenomena are currently ongoing. This thesis looks at two such phenomena, nominal ellipsis (NPE) and linear adjacency, and shows how...Show moreDiscussions concerning syntactic aspects of code-switching (CS) phenomena are currently ongoing. This thesis looks at two such phenomena, nominal ellipsis (NPE) and linear adjacency, and shows how empirical investigation of CS contexts helps inform linguistic theory. This was accomplished by presenting 23 Belgian Dutch/French (BD/FR) bilinguals with a two-alternative forced choice judgment task and comparing their choices through t-tests to check for significance. Experiment 1 examines whether the choice of grammatical gender on adnominal ellipsis remnants reveals a morphosyntactic link between a FR elided noun with a BD antecedent. The results show that no such link can be observed for NPE in this language pair; this is contra González-Vilbazo and Ramos (2015), Merchant (2015) and Nee (2012), who have found evidence of a such a link between elided elements and antecedent in code-switched clausal and VP-ellipsis, as well as general evidence against structural theories of ellipsis (e.g., Merchant, 2001; 2004). Experiment 2 explores the Matrix Language Framework (MLF) (Myers-Scotton, 1993; 1995), a popular model that predicts that the determiner language will match the matrix language (ML) in code-switched DPs. However, effects of linear adjacency between the determiner and the inflection on the main verb (which determines the ML) have not yet been considered within the MLF. The DP was given as a post-verbal complement (adjacent), and as a post-verbal adjunct and a pre-verbal complement (non-adjacent). The results show that linear adjacency has no effect on determiner language. Moreover, the results also do not fit into the MLF. This thesis is the first empirical study to examine NPE theory in a code-switched environment, as well as the first to investigate linear adjacency effects on code-switched DPs. This work also provides insight into CS patterns in the BD/FR language pair, a relatively understudied bilingual population that frequently employs CS but is not a close-knit community. Taken together, these findings show that gathering empirical CS data from distinct bilingual populations is crucial, adding new and contrary insights and aiding the construction of linguistic theory.Show less
My thesis investigates the problem of contrasting image-making of politicians in the 1970s and 1980s in the Netherlands. It studies the image-making of politicians, which saw the changing of norms...Show moreMy thesis investigates the problem of contrasting image-making of politicians in the 1970s and 1980s in the Netherlands. It studies the image-making of politicians, which saw the changing of norms in the political arena, professionalisation of journalism and wider social-cultural changes. Strikingly, during this period of emancipation of women and more women entering politics, the writing about female politicians stays partly stereotypical, whilst their self-presentation also follows stereotypical narratives in specific instances.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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2023-01-31T00:00:00Z
All Tukanoan languages have gender markers and classifiers, and both can be reconstructed to the proto-language to some degree. In this thesis, I provide a reconstruction of the development of the...Show moreAll Tukanoan languages have gender markers and classifiers, and both can be reconstructed to the proto-language to some degree. In this thesis, I provide a reconstruction of the development of the classifier system in the Tukanoan family, where I argue that it developed out of the older gender system morpho-syntactically, but that many of the synchronically found classifiers can morphologically be analysed as grammaticalized nouns. My arguments for this, as elaborated in this thesis, are as follows: i) all Tukanoan languages have similar gender markers which can probably be reconstructed for Proto-Tukanoan (Chacon 2021; in prep.); ii) the gender markers seem to have undergone grammaticalization at an early stage in the family; iii) many classifiers in the family are language-internal developments or can only be reconstructed for a sub-branch; iv) a few classifiers are widely found in the family and can be reconstructed for the proto-language, but these seem to be developments of either Proto-Tukanoan gender markers or originally complex forms. I analyse these complex forms as consisting of a gender marker in combination with some other marker. I furthermore provide an analysis of the development of the Proto-Tukanoan gender system, based on Chacon (2021; in prep), where I suggest that some of its morphological material may indicate borrowings from an Arawakan source. Lastly, by contributing to the reconstruction of the Proto-Tukanoan classifier system, this thesis may contribute to a reconstruction of classifiers in the wider area, as classifiers are a pervasive feature in non-Tukanoan languages as well, where the relatively gender-like morpho-syntactic characteristics of classifiers have been the subject of much discussion (e.g. Payne 1987; Aikhenvald 2000a, 10; Grinevald 2000, 81-82, 87).Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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Although most ancient Indo-European languages share the same grammatical three-gender system of masculine, feminine and neuter gender, the lack of a feminine gender in the archaic Anatolian branch...Show moreAlthough most ancient Indo-European languages share the same grammatical three-gender system of masculine, feminine and neuter gender, the lack of a feminine gender in the archaic Anatolian branch suggests that development of this gender is a relatively recent development in "Core PIE". This thesis investigates how such a development may have come about. I analyse the attested functions of the suffixes often connected to the rise of the feminine gender: *-eh2, *-ih2 and *-sor. Moreover, I consider the emergence of the PIE feminine from a typological perspective and compare it to gender developments in other language families. On the basis of morphological and typological considerations, I suggest that not the traditional feminine suffix *-eh2, but rather the "secondary" suffix *-ih2 played a crucial role in the emergence of the PIE feminine gender.Show less
Research master thesis | Archaeology (research) (MA/MSc)
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The Corded Ware culture (c. 2900-2450 BCE; CWC) was a prehistoric phenomenon encountered throughout Europe, characterized by standardized material culture and burial practices. Recent studies...Show moreThe Corded Ware culture (c. 2900-2450 BCE; CWC) was a prehistoric phenomenon encountered throughout Europe, characterized by standardized material culture and burial practices. Recent studies incorporating new scientific methods such as ancient DNA and stable isotopes suggest that this phenomenon was the result of mass migrations from the Pontic Caspian steppe, thus confirming traditional hypotheses regarding the origin and fast spread of this archaeological culture. Moreover, the grand narrative of this period includes a notion of a strict binary gender symbolism and even of a ‘male-dominant’, patriarchal society. Such an interpretation of CW gender is however largely rooted in andro- and ethnocentric, Western assumptions, in which biological sex is equated with gender, and weapons (i.e. the CW ‘battle-axe’) are associated with masculinity. This thesis aims to investigate to which extent the CWC indeed had a notion of binary gender, and to better understand how CW gender was expressed through material culture and its selective deposition in different contexts. A practical methodology with a comparative and multi-contextual approach is developed in order to study CW gender. Two case studies have been selected: the Danish administrative region of Southern Jutland, known for its very typical Single Grave practices, and the state of Bavaria in Germany, which is expected to be a focal point in the mobility of people and the exchange of raw materials. The emphasis is placed on the co-occurrences between different object categories and their ‘embodiment’, and different depositional contexts: the funerary context as well as depositions (i.e. buried objects without a body) and single finds. Strikingly, CW gender appears to have been constructed through an interplay of supra-regional and local burial styles and artefacts. The binary dichotomy seen in the funerary context is more likely the result of normative ideas regarding a supra-regional CW identity and – more idiosyncratic – local identities, although gender clearly played a role in these norms. The prehistoric reality of CW gender may thus have been more locally variable than the grand narrative would suggest.Show less
Research master thesis | Archaeology (research) (MA/MSc)
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The focal point of this thesis is the relationship between women and jewellery in the Roman Empire. This relationship is surrounded by positive and negative values, e.g. the responses of ancient...Show moreThe focal point of this thesis is the relationship between women and jewellery in the Roman Empire. This relationship is surrounded by positive and negative values, e.g. the responses of ancient authors range from more positive comments to extreme criticism. The central research question was: What social norms, relations and values does jewellery signify regarding women in the Roman Empire? The central aim is to differentiate and investigate the social norms, relations and values that were associated with the relationship between women and jewellery. In order to do this, jewellery finds and sculptural representations of jewellery from Rome (defined as core) and Palmyra (defined as periphery) in the first two centuries AD were studied. These two categories of evidence were analysed separately per region and then compared. Comparative investigation of the material in both regions increases understanding of the signifying function of jewellery with regard to the prevailing social norms. In visual culture other values, social norms and relations come forward than in the jewellery finds. Four central aspects regarding the finds and representations were focused on: types of jewellery, context, social position of the owner/portrayed, and the expression of gender. These aspects followed from the framework that was developed to study the relationship between women and jewellery, which included the concepts gender, sculptural representations and core-periphery. The research problem this study intended to solve was that archaeological evidence has been rather neglected in the study of women and jewellery. The systematic quantitative and qualitative analyses of the jewellery finds and sculptural representations of jewellery from Rome and Palmyra, attempted here for the first time on exemplary sample sets, as well as the comparison between them, have brought new insights to this field of study.Show less
Research master thesis | History: Societies and Institutions (research) (MA)
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In this thesis I have attempted to determine to what degree the colonial discourse(the publicly expressed world view and moral codes of the ruling colonial elites)in the Netherlands-Indies...Show moreIn this thesis I have attempted to determine to what degree the colonial discourse(the publicly expressed world view and moral codes of the ruling colonial elites)in the Netherlands-Indies conflicted with the phenomenon of colonial hybridity. I have distilled the colonial discourse from the writings of multiple researchers and confronted this with everyday reality. I have gained my data about everyday in the Netherlands-Indies from the biographical interviews contained in the SMGI collection at the KITLV institute and from a pair of Indies writers. What I have found during my research was that everyday reality was far more hybrid and that people would associate and mix with other ethnic groups far more than the colonial discourse as spread by the colonial elites would suggest. The thesis itself is in Dutch.Show less
