The overall aim of this book is to ask what the reforms of poverty alleviation programmes and policy tell us about state reform. This can be divided into two elements. Firstly, to evaluate critically the impact of the institutional reforms mandated under the Structural Adjustment agenda on the governance of poverty alleviation programmes. Secondly, to analyse the structural, attitudinal and behavioural dimensions of the progress towards the reform of the African state in the process of poverty alleviation. A key issue that is emerging in the political development of African states is the increasing role of the World Bank and donor organisations, as well as a greater contribution of NGOs in the formulation and implementation of policy. It is hypothesised that policy is forming as a part of a triangular relationship between state institutions, donor agencies and NGOs. Poverty Alleviation Policy in Uganda Since 1986 concerns the way that active state intervention in the alleviation of poverty is decreasing, while on the institutional level, a transformation is occurring that is taking provision away from the state sector and reducing the role of public transfers to the poor. This work highlights a fundamental contradiction in the poverty alleviation agenda; namely that it has been pursued to address short-term problems, while the strategy and institutional environment are designed to yield results only in the long term.

Each year hundreds of children around the world are born to lesbian mothers who conceived through alternative insemination. This unique form of family-making creates families with no legal or psychological father, and challenges some of our most basic assumptions about what it means to be a family. How and why do lesbians use insemination to build their families? How best could it be protected by law? Is it a feminist issue? Is insemination the ultimate in lesbian liberation or a sell-out to nuclear family norms? How are race, class, and human engineering involved? Drawing on legal findings and personal interviews, as well as medical and psychoanalytic research, sociologist Amy Agigian looks at the impact and potential of this form of reproduction.Baby Steps is the first in-depth discussion of the issues and questions raised by lesbian insemination, and the book has been designed to serve the interests of general readers and health care providers as well as teachers and students in women's studies, gay and lesbian studies, sociology, legal studies, and bioethics.

When Evelyn Waugh wrote The Loved One (1948) as a satire of the elaborate preparations and memorialization of the dead taking place in his time, he had no way of knowing how extraordinarily creative and technical human funerary practices would become. Jacqueline S. Thursby explores how modern American funerals and their accompanying rituals seem meant to benefit the living rather than the dead. Funeral Festivals in America suggests that there is an irony in the festivities surrounding death and that the American response to death often develops into an event celebrating the ties between family members and friends. Thursby cites rituals for loved ones separated at the time of death, the frivolities surrounding death, funeral foods and feasts, post-funeral rites and ongoing commemorations, and many other facets of the American way of dealing with death.

How were early stone tools made, and what can they tell us about the development of human cognition? This question lies at the basis of archaeological research on human origins and evolution, and the present volume fulfils a growing need among advanced students and researchers working in this field. The individual chapters by a range of leading international scholars approach stone knapping from a multidisciplinary perspective that embraces psychology, physiology, behavioural biology and primatology as well as archaeology. The skills and behaviour of humans and their primate relatives are key parts of the enquiry. The result is a better understanding of early human engagement with the material world and the complex actions required for the creation of stone tools. The book contains many illustrations and is extensively referenced, and provides a landmark contribution in this field.

Perspectives on Irish Nationalism examines the cultural, political, religious, economic, linguistic, folklore, and historical dimensions of the phenomenon of Irish nationalism. Its essayists are among the most distinguished Irish studies scholars. Their essays include a comprehensive analysis of the tapestry of Irish nationalism and focused studies that often challenge myths, pieties, and the scholarly consensus. Thomas E. Hachey is Professor of Irish, Irish-American, and British history and Chair of the department at Marquette University. He wrote Britain and Irish Separatism: From the Fenians to the Free State 1807-1922 (1977), coauthored and edited The Problem of Partition: Peril to World Peace (1972); coedited Voices of Revolution: Rebels and Rhetoric (1972), and edited Anglo-Vatican Relations, 1919-1937: Confidential Annual Reports of the British Ministers to the Holy See and Confidential Dispatches: Analyses of American by the British Ambassador, 1939-45 (1974). Lawrence J. McCaffrey is Professor of Irish and Irish-American History at Loyola University of Chicago. He has published a number of articles and books, including Daniel O'Connell and the Repeal Year (1966), The Irish Question, 1800-1922 (1968), The Irish Diaspora in America (1976) and coauthored The Irish in Chicago (1987). "

We Fish is the tale of a father and son's shared dialogue in poetry and in prose, memoir and reflection, as they delight in their time spent fishing while considering the universal challenge of raising good children. Their story and their lesson have the power to teach today's young African American men about friendship, family, and trust; and the potential to save a generation from the dangers of the modern world and from themselves.

Over the last 100 years, most European countries have experienced great, and in many cases similar changes. A general term for the phenomenon is 'modernisation', and in this anthology the authors present several different aspects of modernisation and the modernisation revolution. Among other issues, the articles are based on the importance of industrialisation, education and economic development for the success of modernisation. Spain, Sweden and Denmark have been used as starting points to illustrate differences in the modernisation process between northern and southern Europe.

"Holy Rollers" -- with this epithet most people dismiss members of the Pentecostal sect as wild religious fanatics. In this new study, folklorist Elaine Lawless draws on fieldwork among Pentecostal congregations in the limestone region of southern Indiana to offer a sympathetic view of the Pentecostals as a special group distinguished by their own folk traditions and religious expression.From her findings she describes the members' codes of dress and behavior, their attitudes toward themselves and others, their special use of words, and their distinctive religious practices. Focusing on the activity of a particular church, she then analyzes the structure of the service and shows how its elements -- singing, praying, testifying, preaching, and speaking in tongues -- exhibit, not a formless display of fervor, but rather an ordered and traditional sequence that creates a unique religious expression.Important to the study is the attention given the role of women. Although the Pentecostal interpretation of Biblical teachings accords men dominance, women occasionally preach in the church and during the testifying part of the service they are often able to exercise control and religious authority. Many of the women have relatives in the dangerous work of the limestone quarries, and for these women the personal experience and close relationship fostered by the Pentecostal church, Lawless finds, offers welcome emotional support.This readable study affords a new understanding of one Pentecostal sect and an appreciation of the role of women in fundamentalist religious practices.

This anthology is based on a symposium which had as its key issue a critical discussion of different theories of modernisation from the perspective of people's activities in local manorial societies. Modernisation can be studied in terms of changing values, norms and social relationships. From a theoretical point of view the book makes use of the possibility to change main macro-conceptions of the modernisation process, using dichotomies such as feudal/capitalist and individual/collective, and it also tries to integrate tradition and continuity perspective.

America stocks its shelves with mass-produced goods but fills its imagination with handmade folk objects. In Pennsylvania, the "back to the city" housing movement causes a conflict of cultures. In Indiana, an old tradition of butchering turtles for church picnics evokes both pride and loathing among residents. In New York, folk-art exhibits raise choruses of adoration and protest. These are a few of the examples Simon Bronner uses to illustrate the ways Americans physically and mentally grasp things. Bronner moves beyond the usual discussions of form and variety in America's folk material culture to explain historical influences on, and the social consequences of, channeling folk culture into a mass society.

When young James Coomer was offered a job as deckhand on the tugboat Pat Murphy at a dollar an hour, he took his first smell of diesel fuel and knew he was hooked. Life on the Ohio puts the reader in the pilot's seat as Coomer wrestles with runaway barges, navigates through ice and fog, pacifies angry crew members, and contends with the loneliness of working a thirty-day stretch. A modern counterpart to Twain's account of life as a steamboat pilot, Life on the Ohio depicts the working river as it is today with its immense towboats, gigantic locks and dams, and millions of tons of cargo. Coomer captures the movement of the boats and the colorful language of river people. Coomer admits that he stuck at his job not for money but for love of the river and his work. "Over the years I had experiences I wouldn't trade for a barge full of gold," he says, "and that's what this book is all about."

Seeing America explores the camera work of five women who directed their visions toward influencing social policy and cultural theory. Taken together, they visually articulated the essential ideas occupying the American consciousness in the years between the world wars.Melissa McEuen examines the work of Doris Ulmann, who made portraits of celebrated artists in urban areas and lesser-known craftspeople in rural places; Dorothea Lange, who magnified human dignity in the midst of poverty and unemployment; Marion Post Wolcott, a steadfast believer in collective strength as the antidote to social ills and the best defense against future challenges; Margaret Bourke-White, who applied avant-garde advertising techniques in her exploration of the human condition; and Berenice Abbott, a devoted observer of the continuous motion and chaotic energy that characterized the modern cityscape. Combining feminist biography with analysis of visual texts, McEuen considers the various prisms though which each woman saw and revealed America. Their documentary photographs were the result of personal visions that had been formed by experiences and emotions as well as by careful calculations and technological processes. These photographers captured the astounding variety of occupations, values, and leisure activities that shaped the nation, and their photographs illuminate the intricate workings of American culture in the 1920s and 1930s.

Monica Appleby and Helen Lewis reveal the largely untold story of women who stood up to the Church and joined Appalachians in their struggle for social justice. Their poignant story of how faith, compassion, and persistence overcame obstacles to progress in Appalachia is a fascinating example of how a collaborative and creative learning community fosters strong voices. Mountain Sisters is a prophetic first-person account of the history of American Catholicism, the war on poverty, and the influence of the turbulent 1960s on the cultural and religious communities of Appalachia. Founded in 1941, The Glenmary Sisters embraced a calling to serve rural Appalachian communities where few Catholics resided. The sisters, many of them seeking alternatives to the choices available to most women during this time, zealously pursued their duties but soon became frustrated with the rules and restrictions of the Church. Outmoded doctrine -- even styles of dress -- made it difficult for them to interact with the very people they hoped to help. In 1967, after many unsuccessful attempts to persuade the Church to ease its requirements, some seventy Sisters left the security of convent life. Over forty of these women formed a secular service group, FOCIS (Federation of Communities in Service). Mountain Sisters is their story.

Despite their centuries-old history and traditions, witchcraft and magic are still very much a part of modern Anglo-American culture. In Lucifer Ascending, Bill Ellis looks at modern practices that are universally defined as "occult," from commonplace habits such as carrying a rabbit's foot for good luck or using a Ouija board, to more esoteric traditions, such as the use of spell books. In particular, Ellis shows how the occult has been a common element in youth culture for hundreds of years. Using materials from little known publications and archives, Lucifer Ascending details the true social function of individuals' dabbling with the occult. In his survey of what Ellis terms "vernacular occultism," the author is poised on a middle ground between a skeptical point of view that defines belief in witchcraft and Satan as irrational and an interpretation of witchcraft as an underground religion opposing Christianity. Lucifer Ascending examines the occult not as an alternative to religion but rather as a means for ordinary people to participate directly in the mythic realm.

From the time of its emergence in the United States in 1852, the Young Men's Christian Association excluded blacks from membership in white branches but encouraged them to form their own associations and to join the Christian brotherhood on "separate but equal" terms. Nina Mjagkij's book, the first comprehensive study of African Americans in the YMCA, is a compelling account of hope and success in the face of adversity.African American men, faced with emasculation through lynchings, disenfranchisement, race riots, and Jim Crow laws, hoped that separate YMCAs would provide the opportunity to exercise their manhood and joined in large numbers, particularly members of the educated elite. Although separate black YMCAs were the product of discrimination and segregation, to African Americans they symbolized the power of racial solidarity, representing a "light in the darkness" of racism. By the early twentieth century there existed a network of black-controlled associations that increasingly challenged the YMCA to end segregation. But not until World War II did the organization, in response to growing protest, pass a resolution urging white associations to end Jim Crowism.Using previously untapped sources, Nina Mjagkij traces the YMCA's changing racial policies and practices and examines the evolution of African American associations and their leadership from slavery to desegregation. Here is a vivid and moving portrayal of African Americans struggling to build black-controlled institutions in their search for cultural self-determination.Light in the Darkness uncovers an important aspect of the struggle for racial advancement and makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the African American experience.

"Weaving together information from official sources and personal interviews, Barbara Tomblin gives the first full-length account of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in the Second World War. She describes how over 60,000 army nurses, all volunteers, cared for sick and wounded American soldiers in every theater of the war, serving in the jungles of the Southwest Pacific, the frozen reaches of Alaska and Iceland, the mud of Italy and northern Europe, or the heat and dust of the Middle East. Many of the women in the Army Nurse Corps served in dangerous hospitals near the front lines -- 201 nurses were killed by accident or enemy action, and another 1,600 won decorations for meritorious service. These nurses address the extreme difficulties of dealing with combat and its effects in World War II, and their stories are all the more valuable to women's and military historians because they tell of the war from a very different viewpoint than that of male officers. Although they were unable to achieve full equality for American women in the military during World War II, army nurses did secure equal pay allowances and full military rank, and they proved beyond a doubt their ability and willingness to serve and maintain excellent standards of nursing care under difficult and often dangerous conditions.