Del teatre líric a la cançó popular : construcció social a partir de la música en València (1900-1959)

El text que es mostra a continuació resumeix el treball realitzat en la primera fase de recerca del projecte titulat provisionalment "Del teatre líric a la cançó popular: construcció social a partir de la música en València (1900-1959)". Aquest treball ha tingut una durada de set mesos entre febrer i agost de 2009. El projecte pretén dibuixar les línies que uneixen teatre líric i cançó popular fent especial èmfasi en els mecanismes de creació d'identitat de gènere, que va envoltar tot aquest procés. Per aquests motius, la recerca está construïda sobre dos eixos: entrevistes amb les fonts orals i buidatge dels principals fons bibliogrífics per a l'estudi de les fonts primàries i secundàries del primer període analitzat (1931-1959), focalitzat en els pobles que envolten la ciutat de València. Les conclusions apunten cap a una clara vinculació entre teatre líric i cançó popular, així com la utilització dels esdeveniments musicals amb finalitats conformadores de rols socials per part de les institucions sociopolítiques. Les diferències entre fonts primàries i fonts orals assenyalen una naturalització de la desigualtat de gènere a través de la música que han arribat fins als nostres dies, per la qual cosa és necessari l'estudi i anàlisi de la memòria musical.

Límites teóricos de sujeto epistolar y sujeto poético románticos, en la literatura escrita por mujeres

El proyecto, desarrollado bajo los auspicios del grupo Cos i Textualitat, aborda las relaciones entre las categorías de sujeto poético y sujeto epistolar, en la literatura romántica escrita por mujeres, que abarca corpus textuales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX. Haciendo uso de las herramientas del comparatismo, de la teoría de la literatura y de los estudios de género y sexualidad, el proyecto en una primera instancia se detuvo a estudiar la obra de aquellas escritoras (en el ámbito de la literatura norteamericana, española e hispanomericana) que desarrollaron e impulsaron el subgénero de la cartapoema, y cómo dicho subgénero les permitía velar su espacio íntimo, enmascarar su identidad literaria y social, al tiempo que obtenían legitimación social en esta estrategia de escritura. De este modo, el proyecto insiste en las estrategias de lectura de este tipo de textos, marginados por la crítica literaria, y de un tratamiento clasificatorio ciertamente ambiguo, y al mismo tiempo contaminado por la lectura autobiográfica de los textos. Cabe destacar que el punto de partida de este proceso de investigación fue la obra de la escritora norteamericana Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), pero se extendió con posterioridad desde autoras del romanticismo hispanoamericano, incluso hasta llegar a autoras españolas que escapan al movimiento romántico, bien entrado ya el siglo XX.

Genetic identity of the critically endangered Wimmer's shrew Crocidura wimmeri

Coastal primary rainforests have suffered damage in Côte d'Ivoire as a result of a lack of protection and urban pressures. Consequently, the highly endemic and critically endangered Wimmer's shrew, Crocidura wimmeri, known only from its type locality, Adiopodoumé, near Abidjan, was considered to have been extinct since 1976. Shrew species assignment is often problematic because of strong phenotypic similarities among many species. The phylogenetic position of C. wimmeri within the African Crocidura species should thus be clarified. In light of its recent rediscovery in the nearby small Banco National Park (34 km2), we investigated the genetic identity of seven specimens of C. wimmeri, based on 1020 bp of the mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b gene compared to other species sampled in the same region and published sequences from GenBank. Crocidura wimmeri formed a well-defined clade, the closest-related species being Crocidura sp., with a distance of 9.3%, a yet unknown species from Taï and Ziama forests. These results thus confirmed the validity of this species. This genetic characterization not only contributes to our knowledge of the evolution of West African shrews, but also may help in the discovery of additional populations of this critically endangered species.

How to avoid gender bias in classroom interaction? A cooperative learning experience

This project aims to analyse the kind of questions the teacher asks students in order to encourage them to participate in her classes. Consequently, the researcher has read relevant literature and has analysed a short excerpt of a video recorded during her first practicum. She has also analysed a number of activities carried out during her second practicum in order to find out if she had improved her questioning skills in the classroom

Gender gap index in Spain by regions

Every year, the World Economic Forum publishes the World Gender Gap Report mainly based on the results of the Global Gender Gap Index (GGGI) computed by country. This index is made out of four subindexes to capture the magnitude of the gender gap in 4 areas: educational attainment, economic participation and opportunity, political empowerment, and health and survival; its methodology was reformed in 2006. In this paper we adapt the GGGI to construct a Regional Gender Gap Index (RGGI) and we compute it by regions (Comunidades Autónomas) in Spain with 2006 data. The RGGI could be applied to other regions. Results of the RGGI show that not only are there gender gap differences between Spanish regions in Spain, but that there are at the political empowerment and economic participation and opportunity categories that those differences are strongest. Geographic distribution of the gender gap shows that the deepest gaps are, in general, located in the northern regions (Euskadi, with a high score, and Murcia and Extremadura, with low scores, being exceptions); this is mainly due to the poor participation in politics of women in those regions.

Holy harlots : authority, gender, and the body in medieval English hagiography

This doctoral dissertation aims at describing the representation of holy harlots (Mary Magdalene, Mary of Egypt, Pelagia, Thai's, Afra of Augsburg) in medieval English hagiography. These saints are unique representatives that combine both extremes of the feminine in the medieval imaginaire: she is both, as a saint, the Virgin Mary, the pure and virtuous woman, and, in her past as a prostitute, Eve, the evil female tempter who led all mankind to destruction. The initial question of this thesis is how did hagiographers negotiate the representation of a formerly sinful, sexually active, long- living woman as an authoritative saint? This thesis aims at finding elements of answer to this question, investigating the intersections between gender and authority in the saints' lives of repentant prostitutes in all the vernaculars of medieval England: Old English, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English. It posits that the portrayal of holy harlots' authority and gender is dependent upon social, religious and literary shifts during the medieval period. My contention is that the harlot's gender portrayal changes over the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, due notably to the rise of affective piety and the important influence of the romance genre over hagiography. In Anglo-Saxon England, the harlot's gender changes with the saint's conversion: a woman beforehand, her gender is portrayed after her repentance as ambiguous in order for her to become a saint. Her authority derives from her own sanctity in this case. From the twelfth century onward, however, the harlot, now often turned into a beautiful and landed romance lady, is more and more represented as a woman throughout her life, and becomes after her conversion a Bride of Christ. In this way, the dangerously free woman who roamed the streets and prostituted her body becomes less threatening after her conversion, being (re-)inscribed within the male dominated institution of marriage. She now draws her authoritative stance from her gendered intimacy with Christ: although she submits to Christ as his bride, she also gains greater authority than before by way of her privileged relationship with the Savior.

Gender-role alternation in the simultaneously hermaphroditic freshwater snail Physa acuta: not with the same partner

In simultaneous hermaphrodites, gender conflicts that arise from two potential mates sharing the same gender preference may be solved through conditional reciprocity (or gamete trading). Conditional reciprocity had initially been considered widespread, but recent studies suggest that its real occurrence may have been overestimated, possibly because most mating observations have been performed on isolated pairs of individuals. Some resulting patterns (e. g., non-random alternation of sexual roles) were indeed compatible with conditional reciprocity but could also have stemmed from the two partners independently executing their own mating strategy and being experimentally enforced to do so with the same partner. Non-random alternation of gender roles was recently documented in the simultaneously hermaphroditic freshwater snail Physa acuta. To distinguish between conditional and unconditional gender alternations, we observed copulations of individually marked snails reared at three contrasted densities. We showed that density affected the overall frequency of copulations during the first 2 days of the experiment with high-density boxes showing more copulations than low density boxes, but it did not affect gender alternation patterns. A change in gender role was observed more often than expected by chance over two successive copulations by the same individual, confirming previous studies. However, gender switches did not preferentially occur with the same partner. We conclude that gender alternation is not due to conditional reciprocity in P. acuta. It may rather stem from each individual having a preference for gender alternation. We finally discuss the mechanisms and the potential extent of this unconditional reciprocity.

The separate and combined effects of MHC genotype, parasite clone, and host gender on the course of malaria in mice.

BACKGROUND: The link between host MHC (major histocompatibility complex) genotype and malaria is largely based on correlative data with little or no experimental control of potential confounding factors. We used an experimental mouse model to test for main effects of MHC-haplotypes, MHC heterozygosity, and MHC x parasite clone interactions. We experimentally infected MHC-congenic mice (F2 segregants, homo- and heterozygotes, males and females) with one of two clones of Plasmodium chabaudi and recorded disease progression. RESULTS: We found that MHC haplotype and parasite clone each have a significant influence on the course of the disease, but there was no significant host genotype by parasite genotype interaction. We found no evidence for overdominance nor any other sort of heterozygote advantage or disadvantage. CONCLUSION: When tested under experimental conditions, variation in the MHC can significantly influence the course of malaria. However, MHC heterozygote advantage through overdominance or dominance of resistance cannot be assumed in the case of single-strain infections. Future studies might focus on the interaction between MHC heterozygosity and multiple-clone infections.

Comunidad y ciudadanía activa: fenomenología de una ocupación ética en un contexto de inmigración

La teoria i la praxi de la investigació qualitativa actual és hereva de la tradició fenomenològica. L’objectiu de la investigació està relacionat amb la comprensió profunda de les dimensions de l’educació i el treball, així com la seva significació per a les dones i els homes amb històries de vida marcades per la immigració. També, el treball de la investigació actual analitza la construcció de una identitat individual i col•lectiva de les dones i els homes amb una història d’immigració i reflexiona com desenvolupen el seu compromís a través d’una ocupació ètica. Es fa èmfasi en els elements transversals de la cultura i les construccions de gènere dins del domini de treball i educació. El mètode biogràfic narratiu es va utilitzar per estudiar les qüestions plantejades per la investigació. El procés de triangulació de les veus de les dones, els homes i de l’organització participant es va duu a terme per assegurar la validesa dels resultats i es van interpretar els indicadors de la recerca des del marc teòric proposat. A mode de conclusió, el treball es refereix a la formació permanent i considera que la violació del dret a l’educació és un factor que limita les oportunitats d’experimentar aquest tipus d’ocupació i, té efectes en la integritat personal i col·lectiva. Esperem que aquesta investigació pugui contribuir a la política d’immigració de les diferents organitzacions.

Deciding where to belong: gender differences in educational trajectories and migration in a rural Spanish town

From an anthropological perspective, formal post-secondary schooling is not an abstractentity with an intrinsic value that everyone finds desirable, but rather one alternative among many that young people evaluate from their different positions in the social field. The problem discussed in this paper is the diverging life trajectories that young men and women in a concrete rural context, at the end of the 20th century, shape for themselves at the ages of 14-16, a moment of decision created by national legislation regarding mandatory education (LGE, 1970, General Education Law, and LOGSE, 1990, General Organic Law of the Education System). Despite a strong cultural norm of equal inheritance divided among all children, male and female, and despite the equal educational opportunities provided by the Spanish State, different meanings of possession and use-rights over land and the resulting culturally accepted gendered division of work converge to orient men and women differently towards post-secondary schooling. Observation of the age, gender, and civil status structure of the population led to the preliminary query: Why do men and women, in this town, behave differently with respect to migration and marriage? The main hypothesis was that women’s longer school trajectories and resulting migration and men’s anchoring in the town and their higher rates of celibacy were not drastic changes in values, in the positional-relational sense of Bourdieu (1988, 2002), but the current outcome of previously existing dissimilar relations to property that produce dissimilar mobility. Through their schooling and work choices, young men and women, at very early ages, locate themselves in, or decide to belong to, different contexts that later reveal very different possibilities of finding marriage partners. This paper is based on an ethnographic study of a small rural town (302 inhabitants in 1950; 193 in 2000) near Leon. Although this paper deals with the situation in the final decades of the 20th century, we must also consider the first half of the century, where some elements that shape this situation have their roots. Fieldwork was carried out between 1988 and 2001, in periods of differing length and intensity. The social subjects discussed here are the domestic unit and its component members. They were studied in conjunction, analyzing the life-trajectory decisions of specific persons in the framework of the domestic unit and the relations among people and property which comprise it. The tried-and-true methods of ethnographic research –participant observation, interviews, and life-histories, etc.- were employed. Archival research was also important for producing demographic data. Demographic analysis, the analysis of the composition and transformation of domestic units, and the creation of life trajectories were among the principal techniques used. The theoretical analysis was oriented by Bourdieu’s (2002) framework of the social field, habitus, and difference.

Educational pathways of minority youth in Norway: intersections of gender, ethnicity and social class

Educational aspirations during lower secondary school and choice of upper secondary education are important for young people’s future trajectories into higher education and labour market positions. In line with ideas about reflexive, autonomous individuals (Giddens, 1991), choice of education is often represented as a young person’ individual decision, and educational guidance as aimed at discovering what ‘fits’ an individual’s personality, interests and abilities. Educational aspirations and choices are also social patterns that are reproduced. Some population categories represent exceptions from expected patterns of social reproduction of educational level and professions. In several countries, one such category is young people from families with migration experiences (Lauglo, 2000; Modood, 2004). In Norway, students have a legal right to non-compulsory upper secondary schooling and 96 percent of the students continue from lower to upper secondary school. In spite of positive developments regarding minority youths’ completion of upper secondary and higher education in later years, studies still persistently show lower educational attainment among minority youth, particularly among boys (Fekjaer, 2006). However, in lower secondary school, minor ity youth tend to have markedly higher educational aspirations and stronger learning motivation than their majority peers, as well as greater effort in school and strong adherence to school values (Lauglo, 2000) despite lower educational attainment or lower socio-economic backgrounds. In addition, gender differences in educational aspirations seem to be smaller among minority youth. The principal objective of the study in progress that will be presented in this paper, is to describe how processes relating to gendered, ethnic and class-based identities influence young people’s educational choices. The study is undertaken as a PhD project in social anthropology. The methodological approach is ethnographic longitudinal fieldwork in two multicultural lower secondary schools in Oslo. The study is part of a larger project that also include quantitative analyses of longitudinal data covering 9th graders in Oslo 2006 through four data collections during lower and upper secondary school.

Validation of the French version of the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC): Influence of gender and age on personality traits from 8 to 12 years

The study was designed to investigate the psychometric properties of the French version and the cross-language replicability of the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC). The HiPIC is an instrument aimed at assessing the five dimensions of the Five-Factor Model for Children. Subjects were 552 children aged between 8 and 12 years, rated by one or both parents. At the domain level, reliability ranged from .83 to .93 and at the facet level, reliability ranged from .69 to .89. Differences between genders were congruent with those found in the Dutch sample. Girls scored higher on Benevolence and Conscientiousness. Age was negatively correlated with Extraversion and Imagination. For girls, we also observed a decrease of Emotional Stability. A series of exploratory factor analyses confirmed the overall five-factor structure for girls and boys. Targeted factor analyses and congruence coefficients revealed high cross-language replicability at the domain and at the facet levels. The results showed that the French version of the HiPIC is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing personality with children and has a particularly high cross-language replicability.